One of Killer's Errors: He Left Toilet Seat Up

Which led cops to his fingerprints on handle
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 3, 2014 2:29 PM CDT
One of Killer's Errors: He Left Toilet Seat Up
   (Shutterstock)

A Schenectady man confessed this week to the horrendous crime of murdering a retired nun in her own home, reports News10. And the Albany Times Union notes that police caught 38-year-old Michael Briggs thanks in part to a dumb move on his part at the crime scene: He used the toilet and left the seat up. It caught the attention of a detective who wondered why an 82-year-old woman who lived alone would have the seat in that position, and, sure enough, Briggs' fingerprints turned up on the toilet handle.

Police had other evidence, including surveillance video that showed him leaving his house with a snow shovel and heading toward the victim's house shortly before she was killed. But the prints (he left some elsewhere, too) put him inside the house, and defense lawyers opted to have him plead guilty. Briggs will get 30 years to life, and the DA doesn't expect he'll ever be a free man again. (More murder stories.)

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