Crime scene of double murder may have been botched

XAVIER ZARAGOZA/The Daily Dispatch

BISBEE - Each crime scene tells it's own story.

The plot, the characters and its theme are slowly unearthed and revealed through investigation and evidence.

But if one witness at the Zachary Eggers murder trial is right, the story may not be fully told from evidence gathered at the Eggers property, where Eggers' parents were killed and dragged to their shallow graves on Dec. 8, 2003.

According to death scene investigator Michael Downing, the crime scene was managed in such a substandard way that it's nearly impossible to tell who really killed the Eggers, despite a full confession from Eggers.

Nevertheless, Zachary Eggers, 18, is being charged with the first-degree murder of his parents, Bradley and Delyn. Using slugs and a 12-gauge pump action shotgun, he allegedly shot his mother Delyn on the steps of their mobile home about 20 miles north of Douglas. Shortly after, when his father arrived home for lunch, Eggers shot his father twice in the chest.

On Tuesday Downing testified in Superior Court that there was no command post at the Eggers' crime scene, which would have provided an overview of how best to approach the scene.

And because there was no command post, too many people came and trampled across the scene and perhaps contaminated the area. The detectives should have taken a single path, one following the other during their investigation.

At minimum, two people could have conducted the initial investigation; Downing said he counted about seven or eight.

The detectives and investigators did not wear shoe covers, which could have destroyed transitory and trace evidence. Downing defined transitory evidence as a piece of paper; he defined trace evidence as hair or blood.

Not wearing shoe covers could have unnecessarily added more shoe prints to the scene. At one point the crime scene investigation was stopped so that the county attorney could have a walk-through of the area, he said.

When the investigators began to uncover the bodies, they did not use dirt sifters around and away from the dig site. The sifters would have picked up objects that could be of evidentiary use later in the investigation.

In some cases the investigators did not use gloves during the dig nor did they place paper bags on the hands of the recovered bodies, Downing told the court.

"You only get one chance in an investigation," he said. "If you don't do it right, there won't be a second chance."

As a result of the substandard investigation, there is no way of telling who killed the Eggers, he said.

Even the way the Eggers' confession was handled was substandard. Downing said that only one person should have known about the confession. By keeping all others clueless, the investigators would be more inclined to look for evidence without prejudice.

Downing said the Cochise County Sheriff's Department had the resources to follow protocol, but they didn't follow it.

Deputy legal defender asked Det. Robert Gerencser of the Cochise County Department if he had worn shoe covers or gloves during the investigation.

Gerencser said he didn't. He also said he didn't have Eggers take a urine test to see if he was under the influence.

Gerencser was the lead investigator at the Eggers' crime scene.