A Schenectady, NY, man confessed this week to murdering a retired nun in her own home.
The Albany Times Union notes that police caught 38-year-old Michael Briggs thanks in part to his having used the toilet and leaving 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. [
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BJS]
