Kevin Neal

No Smoking Gun

The evidence against Neal was mounting, but it was all circumstantial. There was no direct evidence linking him or anyone else to the crime — no "smoking gun," no bloody knife with the murderer's fingerprints, no eyewitnesses. Murder convictions had been achieved with nothing more than a circumstantial case, killers had even been put to death without direct evidence of their guilt. Still, although courts instruct jurors to give equal weight to direct and circumstantial evidence, the lack of a direct link can be troubling for some juries.

Building the state's case against Neal would take almost two years and involve nearly 5,000 pages of investigatory records and interviews with more than 170 persons. The case had long fallen off the front pages of the newspapers when Selvaggio announced in May 1999 that a Champaign County grand jury had indicted Kevin Neal on 11 criminal counts ranging from murder to kidnapping to gross abuse of a corpse in connection with the murders of his stepchildren. Selvaggio said he would seek the death penalty.

During his arraignment, Neal told his wife that he was innocent and that his accusers owed him an apology.

"You know damn good and well in your heart I didn't do this," Kevin Neal said before the brief hearing. "I'll prove it."

"I don't owe you nothing," Sue Neal replied.

To others, Sue Neal shared some of the blame.

"You shouldn't marry a rapist,'' said Rick Smith. "If you are a rapist, you shouldn't be allowed to get with someone that's got kids.''

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1. Messages from the Dead
2. 700 Years Later
3. The Children are Missing
4. Unhealthy Family Dynamic
5. Complex Relationships & Conflicts
6. Search for Children Called Off
7. Behind the Scenes
8. Neal's Criminal Past
9. Lies
10. Sexual Predator
11. Bodies in the Cemetery
12. A Ghastly Find
13. Physical Laws of Death
14. The Stages of Death
15. The Bureau of Criminal Identification
16. Working the Crime Scene
17. Manner of Death
18. Not Much to Work With
19. Cause of Death
20. More Forensic Clues
21. "We Are Not in a Rush"
22. No Smoking Gun
23. "Hurt Someone They Love"
24. Incriminating Statements
25. The Physical Evidence
26. Forensic Botany
27. Bug Collecting
28. Forensic Entomolgy
29. How Flies Tell Time
30. After the Blow Flies Flew Away
31. Enter the Cheese Skipper
32. Date of Death
33. The Secondary Screwworm in Court
34. Battle over Bug Evidence
35. Cheese Skippers for the Defense
36. Counterpoint
37. The Body Farmer
38. Dr. Bass for the Defense
39. "The Liver Bothers Me"
40. The Jury Decides
41. Bibliography