Answering the call: Investigator got early start in crime-fighting career

BENTON, Mo. -- As a young man of 21, Scott City native Branden Caid started his career in law enforcement as a jailer and dispatcher with the Scott County Sheriff's Office. He switched gears about a year later and joined the Mississippi County department as a road deputy. Before returning to Scott County, Caid worked as a public housing officer with the Charleston Department of Public Safety. It was a phone call from Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter, who served as sergeant in Charleston, Mo., while Caid was employed as a public housing officer, that gave Caid the opportunity to become an investigator and join a team that had just reopened a murder investigation.

Q: What brought you back to Scott County?

A: I worked with [Rick Walter] before, until he won this election, and then when he came to work in Scott County and decided to open the [Angela] Mischelle Lawless murder investigation, he called me. He asked if I would be interested in coming over and working as an investigator for that particular case.

Q: Was it a hard decision for you to make to join the Scott County Sheriff's Department again?

A: It actually was fairly difficult because there was no pay increase and I had to move. I had to move my family and I'd lived in the same home for about 10 years. It's a costly venture for no more money.

When he called me and filled me in on what was going on I thought it was a very important decision to make because, one, we didn't know whether or not Josh Kezer was a guilty person, and two, we had a murder that could be unsolved or there could be other people who were guilty of that murder who hadn't been brought to justice. I thought this is the opportunity I have to do something important -- more important than my normal duties. It presented an opportunity to do something that I didn't ever think I'd get again, so I made the move and accepted the job.

Q: What keeps you here? What do you love about being an investigator?

A: I believe what keeps me here is I get the opportunity that in my previous 12 years of law enforcement I didn't get to do. I work a lot of investigations involving DNA, which is the ultimate new crime-solving technique. If you're a basic patrolman you're not getting the opportunity to investigate these kind of crimes. In a sense I've traded in my gun for an ink pen and a keyboard these days, because I do my best work and catch more bad guys using these tools. It's a different mindset. You have to use your mind a little more to sit here and be handed a bunch of facts and try to piece it all back together. I think that's the challenge that I like. It keeps me on my toes, it keeps me current with the new law enforcement trends, and I don't think I would have gotten that if I wouldn't have come into this investigative division.

Q: What sort of training did you have to get into this new position?

A: At the time of my hire, I didn't have any. A lot of it was in reference to this murder investigation when I had to consult with crime laboratories all over the country and now the world. We went to Holland. I talked to them about the possibilities of what could be done with this DNA, so I learned a lot from that. There was no training that I was awarded before I started. I came in with the best common sense that I could and all the technical stuff I had to learn along the way or I had consulted with other investigators. We still go to training now; we have DNA training class coming up later on this summer. We're constantly trying to better ourselves and keep up with what's going on.

Q: What makes you a good investigator?

A: I wouldn't say I'm any better than any other investigator. The only things that I try to do is I try to think about a case from a defense standpoint. Before I even get started, if I can find any doubt at all or if there's anything that doesn't make sense, then I redo it until I can safely say that I can't find any problems, any holes in the case. I like to be very thorough. I don't like to assume an arrest. I don't do a one-sided investigation. If I make an arrest in a case, I want to be able to go home and sleep at night knowing the right person is in jail for what they deserve.

Q: Would you say the Lawless murder investigation is the most interesting case you've been a part of in your career as an investigator or are there others?

A: There's a lot of high points. If you do your job you're going to be able to go home at night and know that you protected somebody. I had a lot of those, but this was the case that [probably won[']t be topped]. It is still ongoing but it's been a long journey from start to finish; nobody thought we would be able to prove innocence without a trial on Josh Kezer -- that's a milestone right there. I've been involved in other murder cases but this one is definitely the most confusing. There's a lot of twists and turns in this case. I would say [it[']s] the hardest case I've ever had to work on.

Q: You're a young guy and in the early years of your career. What are some goals you've set for yourself?

A: I guess I'm looking at something in more of a management position as I get older. I've held some supervisor positions in my law enforcement career. I think that I learned a lot when I was on the patrol and now I'm learning a lot as an investigator. I would like to move up in a management position somewhere where I can take what I have learned and maybe pass that information on to newer officers who don't have that type of training. I like to be part of these investigations, but I could see in the next 10 years passing the torch to somebody else to do more of the field work and maybe for me to try to supervise their work.

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