Fingerprints of the Victims

In homicide investigations it is normal protocol for the fingerprints and palm prints of victims to be obtained by the primary investigating agency. The ISP and Sergeant Sammy Sarkisian were therefore responsible for the task.

After each victim had been forensically examined Sarkisian obtained two fingerprints from each hand rather than the full set of complete prints. His apparent purpose was to comply with established procedure and simply obtain some prints. However, Sarkisian apparently wasn't thinking about any unknown fingerprints obtained from the crime scene that would later need to be excluded by comparison with known prints, including prints of the victims. If he had already determined that Dave Camm was responsible for the murders, however, Sarkisian wouldn't have to be concerned about any unknown prints.

There are indeed fingerprints from an unknown person or people which were found on the Bronco by Sergeant Niemeyer. Were they possibly those of Kim and/or the kids? That's doubtful because they were located high on the vehicle where Kim and the kids wouldn't have been reaching. Were they from an associate of the perpetrator? We may never know.

Sarkisian wasn't one to dwell on his huge mistake and dismissed his oversight as not significant. Sergeant Jeff Franklin however, said that the prints that Sarkisian had obtained were of "poor quality."

Sergeant Jon Singleton, the ISP Fingerprint Expert, went a major step further, stating of the post mortem prints of Kim, Brad, and Jill that they were "the worst post mortem prints I've ever seen." Singleton was a straight shooter who told it like it was. He was an associate of DNA Analyst Lynn Scamahorn and Firearms Expert Ed Wessell and all three were professionals.

(Note: In an ironic twist, the possible beneficiaries of the poor and non-existent victim fingerprints are the police and prosecution inasmuch as they can argue that the unknown prints on the Bronco are those of the victims and don't belong to any associate of the actual murderer, Charles Boney.)