StarWitness Info

We always love hearing that our products are helping put criminals behind bars. That's why we were thrilled when we found that one of our customers recently used StarWitness Freeze Frame to help solve a crime. Detective J.C. Blankenship of Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office sent us the following email about the case:

"In August and September of 2008 our region had a series of attempted and completed sexual assaults on hotel workers. Two of these incidents occurred in our county. In August a cleaning lady was sexually assaulted while she was cleaning a room. In September another cleaning lady at a different hotel was approached and the suspect attempted to assault her but she screamed and he fled. In the first Incident Detective Robin Kocher collected DNA evidence that later linked the suspect to the crime. In the second incident in September all we had was poor video footage and a witness account of the incident. Using the Star Witness Freeze Frame I was able to enhance images of the vehicle and suspect.
The images showed the suspect wearing his black skull cap and showed the Tattoo on his arm.

After the second incident we received a DNA hit. We set up surveillance on the suspect’s residence and took him into custody on the first incident. Photos were taken of his vehicle, tattoo, and skull cap. Both victims identified him in photo line ups. The images captured using the Star Witness Freeze Frame were used as evidence during a jury trial. On 4-14-09 a Jury found Derrick R. Gosnell guilty and sentenced him to 86 years in prison. He also faces charges in neighboring jurisdiction for a similar incident. The DNA evidence and the video enhancement sealed this case shut. "


Thanks again.


Detective J.C. Blankenship CFCE, CCE, CCFT Certified Forensic Computer Examiner Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office

Detective Blankenship also directed us to this article containing more details about the case and sent us some of the images that helped to break the case.