Sometimes in this line of work I feel like I'm part of a considerably less comedic "Hot Fuzz" remake. If you're unfamiliar with the film, it follows two police officers investigating a slew of suspicious deaths in a fictional English hamlet. All of the deaths have been ruled accidental, and though there's evidence to suggest something more sinister is at work, the bungling and vacant-eyed police department is more than willing to shrug it off with a good-natured, "Accidents happen all the time!"

With many of the cases I research, I find myself frustrated at the profound obliviousness too often demonstrated by investigating officers. It's difficult to pinpoint whether this epidemic of shoddy police work is borne of corruption or simple laziness and incompetence. Truthfully, I don't know which is worse. What I do know is that I read about a startling number of cases where violent deaths are quickly dismissed as suicides or attributed to accidents, with extremely minimal police investigation. Sometimes the evidence suggesting foul play is so blatantly obvious, I can't begin to understand how an officer of the law could explain why it was overlooked. Molly Young, Kevin McGinley, Daniel Underwood, my own dear friend Kim Stewart--all of these stories leave me with the same crushing feeling of disbelief and disdain. Why are police so willing to believe that so many happy, healthy, capable young people are offing themselves left and right?

Such is the case with the violent death of Russell Cage, a twenty-year-old man from Bloomfield, New Mexico. His case is an alleged suicide with one of the most magically impossible bullet trajectories I've ever seen. Russell was not suicidal. He was healthy, active, and by all accounts close to his family. He had immediate plans for his future, and had expressed a desire to join the Air Force. All toxicology screens came back clean, and in the days leading up to his death he seemed perfectly normal and in a healthy state-of-mind. Russell was in a serious relationship with a woman named Sylvia Anaya, and he even wanted to marry her. His only reason for hesitation was Sylvia's family, who had ties to the East Side Brown Pride Gang. Her older brother was particularly active in the gang, and several people came forward after Russell's death to admit that Russell had knowledge about the gang's involvement in violent crime. Three weeks before his death, Russell had been in an altercation with a Brown Pride member who publicly threatened to kill him. The Bloomfield Police Department refuses to give any credence to this, perhaps because the Brown Pride gang has strong ties with both the BPD and the San Juan Sheriff's Department. One thing is certain, and that is the fact that the investigation into Russell's death was mishandled from the beginning.

On the day of his death, Russell had been squabbling on and off with Sylvia over the phone. Around 2 a.m. on January 28th, 2003, Russell made his way to Sylvia's home to apologize to her. According to Sylvia, she gratefully accepted his apology and they had a pleasant talk in her bedroom. She invited him to stay the night, which he declined and instead decided to head home. Immediately after leaving, Sylvia says Russell began to knock on her window. She first told police that when she pulled back the curtain, she saw Russell holding a gun to his head-- and proceeded to shoot himself without a word. Later she changed her story and said that Russell told her, "you think I'm kidding" before pulling the trigger. The gun misfired, and Russell attempted to fire the gun again, this time successfully. It should have been immediately clear that something was off about Sylvia's story when the only bullet collected into evidence was found on the carpet inside her bedroom. Together, Sylvia and the BPD deduced that the reason for this was that the bullet, after entering the right side of Russell's head and exiting the left, somehow made an 86-degree turn, traveled through the wall, struck Sylvia's headboard, and came to rest on her carpet. Magic. This "official" version of events is troubling for several reasons, the first being that Russell was 5'10. The autopsy revealed that the trajectory of the bullet was slightly upward, yet the hole in Sylvia's wall is only about four feet from the ground. Also troubling was the fact that around 3am that morning, Russell's mother Rhonda received an anonymous phone call from an unidentified male, informing her that her son had just committed suicide. This call took place half an hour before 911 was called. The police themselves never notified Rhonda of her son's death. In fact, the Cage family never heard from police at all and were never questioned during their brief investigation. Why was this the case? Who called Rhonda Cage and so curtly and callously informed her of Russell's passing? Why was that fact not treated with suspicion and thoroughly investigated?

The lead investigator on the case was one Detective David Whitaker, who wasn't interested in answering any of the above. In fact, he was all-together unprofessional and uncooperative--going so far as to definitively close the case as a suicide before reviewing the autopsy report. After Rhonda viewed her son's body, she knew something was very wrong. The path of the bullet was not right-to-left, as the report had said. It was obvious even to her that the larger and more jagged wound on the right side of his head was clearly an exit wound, with the left side being the entry point. This was problematic since Russell was right-handed. When she brought up her concerns to Detective Whitaker, she was rudely dismissed. Whitaker than proceeded to break protocol and call Sylvia Anaya to inform her of the Cages' skepticism. Sylvia immediately called Russell's sister and berated her, demanding to know why they didn't accept the suicide story she gave the police. At this point, the Cages decided a second opinion would be necessary.

The family consulted with an expert forensic pathologist, who confirmed that Rhonda had been correct in her opinion that the bullet had been fired from Russell's non-dominant side. It was also confirmed that "in order for the projectile to transverse the path indicated by police, it would have taken a turn of approximately 86 degrees. Such a movement by any projection from a firearm has never been recorded, and it is unlikely it happened in this case." The implication of this evidence is clear: Russell didn't shoot himself outside of Sylvia's home. He was shot inside of it, and not by his own hand.

The failures regarding the BPD's investigation into Russell's death continued to mount. The original reports say that the gun at the scene was checked into evidence, with the serial number recorded as #1010376. The next day, an officer wanted to run the gun through the National Crime Information Center database and found that the gun in evidence had an entirely different serial number--#TZD6586. No photos were taken of the gun when it was admitted into evidence, and no ballistic tests were done. GSR testing was done on Russell only, which came back positive on both of his hands and arms. Evidence at the crime scene suggested that Russell had been dragged through the home and outside where he was positioned under Sylvia's window. The blood pattern from his wound did not match the pooling of blood in the grass, suggesting he had not been shot there. The gun itself was found underneath his legs, out of reach of his dominant hand. In the days immediately following Russell's death, people came forward to report that Sylvia's younger brother, who had been inside the home at the time of death, had told them that Russell was shot inside. During that same time period, Sylvia's bedroom was entirely repainted and the carpets were professionally cleaned. The BPD didn't treat this as unusual or suspicious behavior and instead stood by Detective Whitaker's hasty decision regarding the case. To them, it was a suicide, and that was that. To me, however, it is obvious that nothing in this case is as clear-cut as the BPD made it out to be.

The Cage family, like so many other brokenhearted families across the country, is still searching for justice. It is uncertain at this time whether or not they will ever get it. Many families deplete every resource they have in a quest for truth, only to come up empty for all their efforts. I wish sincerely that I could do more for these families. The least I can do is share their stories, in hopes that someday, somewhere, someone of importance will see it and feel compelled to help. I say it all the time, and I mean it every single time: Corruption in the justice system affects us all. If this can happen to an innocent young man full of hope for the future, it can happen to anyone. No one--regardless of age, race, or gender--is safe while such corruption is so rampant.

If you have any questions or comments, or if you have information regarding the Russell Cage case, please contact me at theblackswanbooks@outlook.com.