Double Life

For Homicide Detectives, the clock starts ticking the moment they are called. There chance of solving a murder is cut in half if they don't get a lead within the first 48 hours. This story is about one of those unsolved cases. It's about a man who had a double life and no one, not even those closest to him, knew why. It is truly a mystery in Miami.

Miami Florida, 8:00 AM. A couple walking their dog in the Buena Vista neighborhood spots a man lying in the road. After Dispatch asks him what his emergency is he replies "I found a body, it's all bloody". When asked the location he says "Northwest 40th behind an old church". When police arrive, they find the man dead. Rookie Detective Ricardo John has been with the Miami Homicide for just 10 months. He catches the case, his second. The church was all boarded up and Detective Frankie Sanchez and Detective John's partner has been with Miami Homicide for two years. He comments that if they are not leaving stolen cars there they are smoking crack there. Lt. John Buhrmaster, the Detectives supervisor, is also on the scene.

The team checks the victim for identification because all homicide investigations start with the people who knew the victim first and then move out from there. Thus, without an identification of the victim the case is virtually unsolvable. They don't find any identification. When they turn him over to look at his injuries, they find the victim has been stabbed multiple times. The team searches the crime scene for a piece of glass that could be the murder weapon. The search turns up nothing. Five hours in the team gets a break. A woman from the neighborhood comes forward and tells the Detectives that she saw the victim with two females. She says she saw the victim smoking some drugs with two white Puerto Rican girls. John takes the witness down to Homicide for questioning.

During the interrogation she tells the Detectives that at roughly one in the morning she saw two white females and one male. She said "Popi, Popi you all right and he replied yeah, yeah, go, go, go". So she left them there. She then tells the Detectives "This morning my sister she said Mama somebody died behind the church. And it was him". They ask her how she knows it was him and she replies that he was the only one back there with two females and they were doing drugs. They ask her who was that and she replies one of them's name is Lorraine and the other was Carman. The woman also tells them that the woman named Lorainne may also carry a piece of glass to use as a weapon. Detective Sanchez checks the computer for pictures of Carmen Galarzo and Lorainne Veliegh.

The two women have been in the area for a while and have each been arrested several times. He shows the pictures to the witness and she makes a positive identification. As patrol goes out to look for their suspects Carman and Lorainne, Detective John tries to identify the victim. CSI will run the fingerprints of the victim through the local database. Rupert Butcher, the latent fingerprint examiner, runs the prints. He gets a match to a man named Joseph Banks who is 39 years old. Now they need to find out who Joseph Banks is. Nine hours in and Detective John gets a break. Patrol officers arrive with one of their suspects, Carman. When asked why she is crying she replies because she is scared. When asked why she is scared she replies because she doesn't know what you guys want me for.

Detective John tells her that they want to speak to her about an incident that happened last night. She says she hasn't done anything. He then tells her not to say a word. He tells her they are investigating a homicide and her name came up during the course of the investigation. He then asks her why someone would tell him that they saw her with his victim smoking drugs last night. She replies that last night she was at a friends house and that she doesn't smoke out in the street. He tells her that lying to him is going to cause the roller coaster to get nice and bumpy. She says she wasn't and swears to it. She says whoever gave him that information was wrong because it wasn't me. She says but it could have been Lorainne. Detective heads out with patrol to Lorainne's last known address.

Isn't it nice to know that the cops have a file on everyone? They find Lorainne in an abandoned apartment. They ask her to come to the station to speak to them and she agrees (first mistake). Detective John perceives that she is a fighter and says that OK if you want to fight then they will fight. They ask her why she is so upset and she replies that she is here and why won't they tell her what is going on. Another team member, Sgt. Carlos De Los Santos, asks her where she was last night between midnight and 7:00 AM and she replies she was sleeping all day. They ask if she is sure she didn't go anywhere else and she replies no, she didn't go anywhere else. They show Lorainne of victim Joseph Banks and ask her if she knows him. She says nope.

Then they tell her they just want her to understand something. They tell her that her name was brought up by a witness that said she was with the victim last night and that they didn't didn't just pick her name out of the air. She says she never tangled with him and she doesn't even know who that cat is. De Los Santos asks Lorainne if she carries a piece of glass to use as a weapon. She says nope, guaranteed. Detective John inspects her hands for signs of cuts she may have received if she is the murderer. He finds no injuries. Lorainne agrees to give Detectives a DNA sample, which is a ploy as they have nothing to compare it against but she doesn't know that. It appears that the witness was mistaken.

But can you imagine what would have happened if either suspect had falsely confessed under pressure and they had a witness who was willing to testify, mistakenly, that the two girls were with the victim. This is exactly how people get locked up innocently simply by talking to police. Everyone has the right to remain silent and ask for a lawyer. USE IT!! Anyway the Detectives are striking out everywhere. They now believe that neither of the girls had anything to do with it. Detective Armando Aguilar says they have wasted hours but now they can focus on the real suspect. Something strange is occurring however. They have been unable to locate the victim's family. The team turns back to their victim Joseph Banks hoping to find out who might have wanted him dead.

They are looking into the computer to find out who he was and who he was hanging around with. They learn that Joseph Banks has a misdemeanor past. Detective John checks Joseph Banks records to see if he can locate his family. The records say that he has no next of kin which puts them back at square one. They then try to track his social security number and make a shocking discovery. There is a hit on the social security number but it belongs to a man who has been dead for years. The victim had been using a false name. The most important thing to the Detectives now is to determine why he was using the alias. The next morning Detective John's sends the victim's fingerprints off to the FBI. The FBI traces the victim's fingerprints to a new name, Keith Green. So now they have to start from scratch again.

They look up Keith Green in the database and find that he is from Jamaica and also find an address of a woman who may have known the victim. They head out there and she IDs the victim from a photo as the victim's ex wife. She has not seen him in years. A Jamaican Immigrant, Keith Green had been in the United States for 15 years. He lived with his girlfriend and his two year old son. The Detectives ask her why he used an alias. She tells them that she knew he had a fake name but he never explained why. The Detective's head to the new girlfriend, Marcia's house, to talk to her in hopes she can solve the riddle of the alias. When she is asked if she knows why they are there she says she saw the missing person report and asks if he is dead. She says she has been telling herself that he was dead because it is impossible for him not to call.

She says she called his sister and told her to brace herself for the worst because this is not him. They ask her when the last time she spoke to him and she replies it was about six O'clock and he told her he was leaving the park to come home and she hadn't seen him since. She also tells them he borrowed her car and that he has her cell phone and says she just called the cell phone. When asked if anyone answered she says a guy answered and told her that she was asking too many questions. She also says as far as she knows he is not into drugs or any other illegal activity. On the phone Detective Sanchez gives Detective John the cell phone number. Detective John calls the cell phone number. He gets an answer and Detective John introduces himself and asks him if he will come in and speak to the Detectives. Unbelievably, the man agrees.

With six hours left in the first 48, the man with the victim's cell phone, whose name is Eugene, arrives at Homicide. Detective John notices that the man has a cut on his left hand. When Detectives ask the man how he got the cell phone he was using the man replies two or three days ago when went to a diner and he found the phone on top of the table in the diner so he told 'em He had ten dollars to whoever the phone was. He then said no one claimed the phone so he took it. The Detectives then tell Eugene that they are investigating a murder and then tell him that they could all save a lot of time tonight by him telling the the truth of how he got the phone and ask him just to tell him the truth. He then says he got the phone from a homeless Crack addict who said "This is my phone." and I'm like "I'll give you ten dollars for it."

He then says he doesn't know who the crack addict is but that he did buy the phone from him. The Detectives tell him "at first you said nobody claimed the phone and now your saying somebody claimed the phone and he explains " I asked if anybody owned the phone and he said it was his phone and he sold it to him for ten dollars but the man doesn't look like the kind of person who would have a phone. Eugene then says "I'll tell ya, trust me and believe me". Detective then asks Eugene about the cut on his hand and Eugene says he broke a window and cut himself. The Detectives tell him that now is the time for you to tell them what really happened out there with that guy. He wants him to think about it while he steps out of the room for a little while. Eugene says "Y'all ain't gotta step out and I don't want y'all to step out" and "I don't got nothing to think about I don't got that bloodline in me to try to kill somebody, dog".

He then tells the Detectives "That's not even nowhere near the life that I ever thought about living". Detective Frankie Sanchez calls to confirm Eugene's story. His girlfriend confirms what he said about the phone. And as far as the cut on his hand his Mom says that he did in fact break a window in the back of his house. Eugene doesn't know who he got the phone from and from what he says there are a lot of crack heads up there so the Detective's are pretty much at a loss at this point. They let Eugene go and realize that the phone has moved through so many hands that it may be impossible to trace. After the first 48 Miami Detectives are no closer to solving the case than they were at the beginning nor or they any closer in finding out why Keith Green was using an alias. The Detective's then remember that the victim's girlfriend's car is still missing so they issue a Be On The Lookout (BOLO) for the car.

Then Detective John gets a huge break. Patrol officer's spotted the victim's girlfriend's car and took the driver into custody. The man, Chris, was found driving the victim's girlfriend's car four blocks from the crime scene. Chris says he wants to know what's going on. The Detective's ask him when he got the car. He replies "Was the car that I was driving stolen or something?". They tell Chris that they are investigating a homicide. Chris says "F__k Man" and "I'm not trying to go to jail man". He then says "I ain't going to go to jail for nobody". He then says "I got that car from a dude that smokes crack." He says that the mans name is Pablo. The team looks for information on Pablo. They find the information and Chris takes the team to try to find Pablo. Detective Sanchez calls in patrol for backup.

Chris point out Pablo's truck the Detective John drives Chris home. Detective Sanchez stakes out Pablo's truck. Pablo gets in the truck and drives away and they immediately pull him over, take him into custody, and take him downtown for questioning. Detective asks Pablo about the victim's girlfriend's car. He says "That ain't my car, are you feeling me?" He tells him he is doing a homicide investigation and that he catches killers. He also tells him that the owner of this car is now dead and your sitting here in the homicide office. Pablo say "Me? Murder?" He says "alright listen I heard that he and a friend heard that a teenager was trying to unload the car and we saw an opportunity to make some money so we decided to steal it. They told the kid that they knew the car was hot and threatened to call the police if the kid didn't give them the car and the kid agreed.

He then says "That's what my stupid ass did" and "always thinking of a dollar, The illegal way". They ask him when this occurred and Pablo says "Yesterday, early yesterday". They ask him to describe the kid for them and Pablo says "The kid is Haitian" and "he's like tall and slim". They then ask him where they went to pick up the car at and Pablo tells him where he found the car. The Detectives also learn that the car has gone through at least four people as that is part of the economy in that part of town. Hence there seems to be little chance of tracking the car. They decide to cut Pablo loose and Shancez and patrol head to the neighborhood where Pablo says he found the car to look for the teenager. Patrol searches through the night but turns up nothing. The next night the team gets a break. Following up on an anonymous tip Detective Shancez finds a man named Gregory who was with the victim the night he was killed.

Gregory has a past for second degree murder. When Detective Shancez called him up Gregory says "I was waiting for you guys to call me". Detective asks Gregory why he didn't call them, why did you wait for us to call you? A few hours later Gregory arrives a few hours later for questioning. Detectives turn to veteran Detective Emiliano Tamayo and give him the background on their suspect. Detective John tells Gregory they are conducting an investigation into the murder of Keith Green. They also tell him that he pretty much was the last person to see him alive. Gregory tells him "We actually met up Sunday evening" and that "He was driving and that he was real high". According to Gregory, Keith Green went by the nickname Blue. He tells the Detectives "About 2:30 AM I said 'You can drop me off right here". He says he got out and he continued driving south. He says that was the last time he saw Blue.

The Detectives ask him when he found out that Blue was murdered and Gregory says "Wednesday". They the ask him why did he not pick up the phone and say "Hey I have some information that might help solve his murder". Gregory replies "Because it's like this Detective John, I knew that eventually y'all would come to me and as soon as you contacted me I was willing to talk to you". Not satisfied with his answers they ask Detective Tamayo to try to get a confession as they believe they have found the killer. They tell him to turn up the heat and leave no trick untried. Detective John tells Detective Tamayo that he is either the offender or has some good information. Detective Tamayo thinks he is purposely putting himself out of the picture at the most critical point in time and Tamayo feels the man should be treated like a suspect. So Detective Tamayo asks Gregory to tell him from the very beginning how he met Keith Green.

Gregory says "I was walking down, it was 50th Street and 8th Avenue", Detective Tamayo interrupts and asks what day was that to which Gregory responds "Sunday". He further claims that he was walking down the street when the victim pulls up in his car. Detective Tamayo asks Gregory where he went after that. Gregory responds "We went and got some dope from the wash house". He further says that they bought some crack and went to his house. He says "That's where I let him smoke his dope" and "I don't smoke crack". He says "I'm just sitting up there watching him smoke damn crack and cigarettes, Then he pulled out two five-dollar bills, saying that he wants something else". Detective Tamayo asks what did he want and Gregory says "He wanted some rock cocaine and he asked me if I had any money and he said I can only give you five dollars. So I went and got three rocks for him. That's when we rolled off and he was smoking as he was driving and that's when he was real f__ked up and his eyes looked like glass".

Gregory then says "So I convinced him to let me drive him around". According to Gregory he drove the victim along the beach to help him sober up. He says "I said 'I'm gonna jump out here 'cause I'm gonna go get me a beer and that was the last time I saw Blue." Detective Tamayo isn't buying any of it and tries for a confession by saying that it seems to him that if your my friend and your so f__ked up that you can't drive that you would be the type of person to leave your friend in that situation. Gregory responds with "I wouldn't say that this guy was a good friend I just know the guy for probably two or three weeks". Detective Tamayo says "Oh, so he's not a good friend". Detective Tamayo then says "I can't see you caring so much (voice getting louder) for this man to drive his car for him and only known him for a month. You go and you get him and take him to the house (voice getting louder still) so that he doesn't get caught when you see that he's f__ked up you drive for him so he's got time to sober up".

Detective Tamayo says "You do all these things for him you only know him for a month". Gregory responds with "I tried to help him". Detective Tamayo says "C'mon Man, normally the way people sit the way your sitting and when they answering the way your answering they got something to hide". Gregory responds with "See That's where your experience is not correct, Sir". Detective then says "Oh yes it is and the more I talk to you, the more I feel it. Gregory responds with "Let's get something straight right now I come down here to talk voluntarily so I don't have anything to hide, Sir".

Detective Tamayo then says (screaming now) "When you found out that this man was killed you didn't pick up the phone and in Cuba we have a saying that he who holds the leg of the cow to be slaughtered is just as guilty as the person who cuts off his neck. You my friend are the person who is holding the leg. I don't care if the person who killed Keith Green (holding a picture of Keith Green) is holding the knife, once he says your there, your done, you feel me, your done". After the interrogation Detective Tamayo feels they have the right guy or at least someone who knows more than he is telling but since Gregory said nothing incriminating they must let him go. The interview certainly didn't go the way Detective John thought it was going to go. No offender not even a witness to anything. He is very disappointed, very disappointed. Detective John gets a DNA sample from Gregory and then lets him go.

With no leads Detective John heads out to visit Keith Green's sister in hopes that she can at least shed some light on the alias or maybe point him in a direction that he hasn't gone yet. He tells Keith Green's sister, Nadine Green, that they are very sorry for her loss. She tells Detective John that she doesn't understand why this happened and she doesn't know of anybody who wanted Keith dead. He had no problems with anyone and that he was a good guy and when he wasn't working he stayed home with his son. She says he would call her Mom everyday and that he took very good care of his Mother and he was her life. She then begins to cry. Detective John tells her that he will do everything in his power to bring her some answers and some closure. He tells her that her Brother had name of Joseph Banks and that backed them up from the get go. She has no idea why he used an alias.

Detective John says there has got to be a reason why Keith Green became Joseph Banks but regardless who he was he didn't deserve to be murdered and everything will eventually come to the light. He says there is no perfect murder (well maybe there are a few Detective John, remember the Zodiac and what about all the unsolved cases across the country?) and even if it takes weeks, months, or years, he will get it solved. Perhaps he is being a little unrealistic. With the murder rate in Miami and new cases coming in nearly everyday, that may just be a little optimistic. In any event the mystery of the alias as well as the identification of the killer remains just that... A Mystery.