Ashley Flowers

And that is when he sees them in a trash bin between desks.

Like someone threw these prints away.

And because of this, some of them were completely ruined.

And even more concerning, some of them were still missing.

The prints that were taken from the left door window were never recovered.

And the magnitude of this cannot be understated because Detective Lancaster said that he was present when these prints were lifted.

He knows they existed and he states in his memorandum to Major Robert A. Gregory,

that those prints were good prints and possibly the most important prints of the bunch.

Of course, there were no photos taken of the prints, no negatives.

And so all they had left was one slightly smeared print from the left door window instead of the actual really good ones that they know they collected.

And Detective Lancaster ends his letter to the major saying they need to contact Sergeant Miller and find out what he did with the prints...

Or contact the FBI and see if maybe they have them.

And what is nuts here is that there is nothing in the file about anyone ever questioning Miller about the prints, about where the prints are or why he may have thrown them in the trash.

Instead, he continued working the case and handling evidence even after those prints got thrown away.

That wouldn't be the only time in this case that evidence was destroyed.

No one knows exactly when this next thing happened because no one caught it like Lancaster did the Prince.

Or if they did, a memorandum about what happened didn't survive in the file.

But in 1988, investigators decided to take another look at Alberta's case.

They still weren't looking at the possibility that Alberta was targeted because of her civil rights work.

They weren't trying to figure out if she was being followed or who was tapping her phone.