20-year-old bullet used in investigation

When the police searched Michael Strong's gun cabinet the night he was killed the closest thing they found to a murder weapon was an empty holster. Among a rather large gun collection, Strong had owned a .44-caliber Ruger Blackhawk revolver. It was a high-caliber weapon for a handgun, a somewhat rare collectible.

But the night Strong was killed, the gun was gone.

Later, a medical examiner retrieved the bullet from Strong's body. Tests showed the the bullet was a .44-caliber.

During their investigation, police narrowed in on a suspect, Lisa Barlow, Strong's live-in girlfriend. After finding numerous discrepancies in her testimony, police suspected that Barlow used the Ruger to kill Strong then hid the weapon.

To support that theory, police went digging. Into a tree. And into the past. Michael Strong's nephew, Jackie Strong, said he remembered that gun. In fact, he said he remembered quite vividly the first time he shot it. It was about 20 years ago. He aimed it at a tree.

"It was the first time my uncle let me shoot his big gun -- I never forgot it," said Jackie Strong at Barlow's hearing.

Jackie Strong took police to the tree where he shot the gun. Detectives used a metal detector to find the bullet.

Tests comparing the bullet found inside Strong's body and the bullet found inside the tree support the police's theory, but the evidence is far from conclusive.

"Ruger was one of five manufacturers that could have made the gun that fired the bullets," testified Missouri State Highway Patrol crime lab analyst Jason Crafton at a Sept. 28 preliminary hearing for Barlow, the defendant.

To narrow the field of manufacturers, Crafton said, he made determinations on the size of the bullets, as well as the width, number and directions of the twists on the markings created when they were fired.

Crafton then entered the specifications into a computer database compiled by the FBI. It generated a list of the potential firearms manufacturers.

"To be 100 percent, you'd need the gun or additional known bullets," Crafton said.

Firearms identification, the science used to pinpoint the list of possible gun makers, is a tool widely used in homicide investigations, said FBI Special Agent Brian Ritter.

Most firearms investigations begin with an expended cartridge, such as from a drive-by, a known cartridge, and a suspect firearm, said state crime lab criminalist supervisor Todd Garrison.

In the Strong homicide case, they had an empty holster with ammunition, the autopsy bullet and a missing .44-caliber Ruger Blackhawk revolver registered to the victim.

"We needed a known bullet from the missing firearm," testified Cape Girardeau lieutenant Tracy Lemonds, who worked on the case.

That's where the bullet Jackie Strong had fired 20 years earlier came into play.

The bullets are analyzed under what is known as a comparison microscope. Lab technicians try to determine characteristics specific to a certain manufacturer to determine its "class." They also try to identify individual traits of the bullet by using the process of elimination, discarding all of the types of guns that don't fit the profile, for both class, or characteristics specific to a certain manufacturer, and individual traits, those that aren't shared exclusively by every type of gun put out by that manufacturer.

Every firearm contains a rifling pattern, or series of raised and recessed marks, akin to stripes on a candy cane, along the barrel of a firearm, Garrison said.

These markings are what grip the bullet as it spins rapidly, and gives the projectile its stability, like spiraling a football, Garrison said.

The rifling marks also imprint the bullet with an impression that may contain unique microscopic striations or scratches, resembling a bar code, that help distinguish what type of firearm could have shot the bullet, according to a Web site created by Kentucky State Police crime lab analyst Scott Doyle.

While rifling impressions can be analyzed to narrow the field of potential gunmakers, it is not an exact science.

Firearms identification serves as simply a reference standard to create a list of potential firearms in cases like Strong's where no firearm was found, said Garrison.

"Not every firearm manufacturer in the whole wide world is there, so the list is never all inclusive," Garrison said.

Prosecuting attorney Stephen Gray asked Crafton during his testimony whether the list was comprehensive in the U.S., "unless there's some guy in China cranking out .44's we don't know about," and Crafton agreed it included every manufacturer of firearms known to those in the forensics industry.

In 2005, nine different manufacturers were making 44-caliber revolvers in the U.S., according to a report generated by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The report said 44,406 .44-caliber revolvers were made that year.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245

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What kind of guns could have shot the bullet that killed Michael Strong?

1. Hawes

2. Herters

3. J.P. Sauer

4. Hi Hunter

5. Ruger

SOURCE: Steve Gray,

Bollinger County

prosecuting attorney

What did the probable-cause statement say about the weapon?

The projectile (found in the autopsy) has a blue grease band around it and has been compared to other cartridges removed from the leather holster where the gun was kept.

Investigators fired live .44-caliber rounds from a similar handgun into a bulletproof vest and sandbags inside Michael Strong's residence at approximately the same time of evening. Investigators were able to hear the shots from the neighbors' residence. (A neighbor has testified he heard a gunshot an hour before a 911 call was received.)

Two family members of Michael Strong told investigators that Michael Strong had told them only a month or so before that he had let Lisa Barlow shoot his .44 Magnum at cans in the backyard and that she was a good shot.