Major case squad has enviable record

The titles read like cheap paperback mysteries: "The Case of the Spent Shell Casings" and "The Case of the Final Deep Sleep." But the stories aren't fiction, and the author knows his subjects well.

It's the "History of the Major Case Squad," written by Morley Swingle, Cape Girardeau County's prosecuting attorney.

Swingle has recorded information about the Cape Girardeau County Major Case Squad's 1983 formation -- after five unsolved homicides left investigators baffled and frustrated.

Today, the group includes the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Cape Girardeau and Jackson police departments, the Cape Girardeau and Bollinger county sheriffs' departments and the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety.

Of 29 cases since its formation, the major case squad has solved 26 and found one other to be outside its jurisdiction.

Swingle credits the teamwork among agencies. When 20 or 30 investigators are available, they can follow every lead thoroughly, not just the most obvious ones.

He also said the members stay sharp because they know they must be ready at a moment's notice, and special attention is given to training.

The history makes for fascinating reading and can be found on the Internet at www.showme.net/CapeCounty/pa/index.htm.

Look under the link labeled "site map."

The stories are familiar to readers of the Southeast Missourian, which reported extensively on each of the cases.

Particularly fascinating and detail-packed is "The Case of the Dangers of Drug Dealing" about Gary Lee Roll's deadly encounter with the Scheper family in Cape Girardeau. In August 1992, he killed a mother and two sons to get 12 sandwich-sized plastic bags of marijuana and $214.

Roll was executed for the crime in August 2000.

More recently, there was the tragic case of Joshua Wolf, convicted of first-degree murder in the May 2000 death of his grandmother, Carol Lindley, in Jackson. It is "The Case of the Ungrateful Grandson."

But the stories aren't just a record of the area's crime history. They are cautionary tales that remind us how fragile life can be.

And they build confidence that Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties are being served by some of the finest investigators and prosecutors in the country.