“Dead Men Easy to Convict”: Atty. Defends Lab Tech

Kevin Brown, a suspect in 14-year-old Claire Hough's murder, was found dead at Cuymaca State Park on Tuesday

The attorney for a former crime lab technician accused in in the brutal murder of a teenage girl says her client was innocent.

Earlier this week, Kevin Brown was named a suspect in the brutal murder of 14-year-old Claire Hough in 1984. Detectives said they were preparing to make an arrest when Brown, 62, was found dead of an apparent suicide at Cuymaca State Park Oct. 21. He apparently hanged himself with no note left behind.

Noted San Diego attorney Gretchen Von Helm said despite what police say, they were not about to arrest her client and had she been given the chance, she has no doubt Kevin Brown would have been proven innocent at trial.

“Dead men are easy to convict. They are easy to blame,” Von Helm said.

With a DNA match and the suicide of suspect Kevin Brown, at least in the court of public opinion, the case of Claire Hough is closed.

However, Von Helm said the police’s only evidence, her clients DNA, was detected on swabs taken from the victim's clothes and skin.

Brown was a criminologist working in the police lab that processed that evidence. Von Helm said the risk of cross contamination was high.

“Even if he didn't handle the case, it’s possible because they are all set up next to each other. There was an open table. They open air-dried the swabs,” she said.

Von Helms said Brown passed an independent polygraph test given by a retired San Diego Police Department polygrapher.

“That's very powerful evidence that someone has spoken the truth when someone says I didn't do it,” she said.

Claire Hough was beaten and strangled to death in the summer of 1984 on Torrey Pines Beach. Her body was mutilated. The attacker cut off one breast.

“I am able to separate the case and what she was when she was still with us,” Hough’s father Samuel said.

Brown's alleged involvement makes little sense to Samuel because police also named a second suspect, Ronald Tatro. Tatro was once convicted of trying to abduct another young girl.

The suspects are eight years apart in age. Police said they have established no other connection between the two men

“It just seems very unlikely that the two of them are such diverse characters that they would have been together,” Samuel said.

Von Helm said the suspect’s suicide should not be interpreted as guilt. She said Brown suffered anxiety and deep depression.

“The pressure and stress brought to bear by this investigation contributed to his demise absolutely,” Von Helm said.

Von Helm said Wallace Wheeler, who reported discovering Hough's body, was also a suspect early on in the investigation.

Wheeler also killed himself by jumping off the 13th floor balcony of his residence four years after Hough's murder.
 

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