A few photos from Kayla Allen’s reinterment up in Michigan. She was laid to rest under a new headstone with her legal name. Click the pictures for larger versions. The last photo is of Kayla’s aunt, Heather Baker,  and mother, Nicole Allen. Hope4KidZ has set up this Web page to honor Kayla. They sent me [...]

An excellent column by Mike McHugh appeared in today’s edition of The Daily News. Read it in its entirety here. Excerpt: The person responsible for young Kayla’s death, Carolyn Futrell, was charged with her murder and tried in a court of law. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years in [...]

The body of Kayla Allen was removed from the Futrell family cemetery today. This comes at the end of a long five-year “nightmare,” Kayla’s mother said today at in the graveyard. This story has been going on for years and I think it has caused pain to everyone involved. To see the video of Kayla [...]

Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee tells the jury that the cap to the water bottle full of insecticide was tightly closed when Pat Garvey, a crime scene investigator with the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department, found it in Kayla’s bed the day she died, Aug. 24, 2003. The Dasani water bottle was between a bloody [...]

News trucks. Surreal: Futrell trial and The Price is Right. Chelsea (from WITN), Phillip (from WNCT) and Heather (from WCTI).  Parul Joshi (from WNCT) interviewing Carolyn Futrell on her way out of jail after receiving a time-served sentence in the death of Kayla Allen.  Jerry Allegood (with the N&O) talks to District Attorney Dewey Hudson outside the Onslow [...]

  ADA Mike Maultsby talks to the jury about there being only 10 documented cases in the U.S. of ingestion of Atroban and only one death – Kayla Allen. Carolyn Futrell’s co-Defender Richard Miller reminded the jury to make their decision based ”not on evidence presented in the newspaper, not anywhere else, but from the witness [...]

At the beginning of the Futrell trial last week, Tre with bluelineradio told me he was going to get a crime scene photo of the Dasani water bottle in Kayla’s bed. I said good luck on that. But he schooled me because I looked on their site and sure enough, their it is. The photo shows the [...]

My buddy Tre from BluelineRadio is in Jacksonville covering the Futrell trial. I will be saying something later about how the Internet has changed news coverage and law enforcement investigations. This guy is a good example of it. Blueline tackles stuff other media doesn’t have the cohones to. I also think the expert witness they had on [...]

  Strategy: Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee and ADA Mike Maultsby plan their next legal maneuver while the jury (off to the right) look over photos of the crime scene during day three of the murder trial of Carolyn Futrell. In the background, Onslow County Superior Court Judge John W. Smith sitting at the [...]

The defense has raised a bunch of questions about why the poison in this water bottle found in Kayla’s bed the day she died was not better preserved by law enforcement. It goes without saying that the chain of custody for evidence in murder cases is extremely important. The defense attorneys would have a good [...]

Pat Garvey, a crime scene investigator with the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department, waits to testify during Carolyn Futrell’s trial Tuesday.

Carolyn Futrell and her one of her lawyers. I admit I am surprised a jury was picked for the the Futrell trial in one day. I thought it would last at least three. The trial kicks off in earnest at 9:30. I have been doing a little nosing around of my own and spoke to a [...]

Dewey Hudson, district attorney for the Fourth Prosecutorial District, which includes Onslow County, talks to Kayla Allen’s mother, Nicole Allen, and other members of the family after jury selection is complete Monday.

Kayla Allen was wearing a yellow shirt with flowers, underwear and white sandals when EMS arrived at the scene of her death Aug. 24, 2003. I found this tiny piece of information while going through the two-inch-thick file Roselee Papandrea, the previous crime reporter at the newspaper, left for me on the case. It is [...]