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Hair, Blood Test Data Given At Collins Trial

Hair, Blood Test Data Given At Collins Trial image
Parent Issue
Day
31
Month
July
Year
1970
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Hair, Blood Test Data Given At Collins Trial

By William B. TremI
(News Police Reporter)

A Michigan Department of Health official testified this morning in the John Norman Collins murder trial that he examined samples of hair from slain coed Karen Sue Beineman and also typed blood taken from her body during an autopsy period.

Curtis Fluker, of the Crime Detection Unit of the Department of Health, said the hair and blood samples and a piece of Miss Beineman’s underclothing were delivered to his laboratory by State Police on July 29, 1969.

Collins is accused of slaying Miss Beineman last summer in the basement of the Ypsilanti home of his uncle, state Police Sgt. David A. Leik, while Leik and his family were away on vacation.

Prosecution witnesses are expected to testify that hair in Miss Beineman’s clothing came from the Leik basement and that a sample of blood found there was from her body.

Fluker said there were about 300 to 400 strands of hair in a bottle delivered to him, and that the tests he made on the blood showed it to be type A.

According to Fluker, the piece of Miss Beineman’s underclothing which he received was heavily stained and had hairs on it. He said the hair ranged in color from blond to dark brown and was no longer than one inch. The hair had been cut by a scissors or clippers, he said.

Assistant Prosecutor Booker T. Williams offered as evidence the hair and blood samples and Circuit Court Judge John W. Conlin ordered them admitted.

Under cross-examination by chief defense counsel Joseph W. Louisell, Fluker testified that he made no attempt to classify the blood sample into subdivisions.

In reply to a Louisell question, Fluker said that it was his understanding that about 40 per cent of the people in this country have type A blood.

“The toxicologist’s report indicated that .03 per cent ethyl grain alcohol was found in the sample of blood examined by him,” Louisell told Fluker.

“What’s that mean to you?”

“It doesn’t mean much to me. I don’t know if it was specifically identified as ethyl alcohol, and I don’t know if it was a product of decomposition,” Fluker said.

“Doesn’t it clearly indicate that the deceased ingested alcohol shortly before her death?” Louisell asked.

“I don’t know,” Fluker said.

Louisell’s questioning of Fluker about what the defense attorney called “a small concentration of alkaloid-type drugs” found in Miss Beineman’s blood was interrupted by the morning recess.

Louisell was expected to continue pursuing the drug question with Fluker later today.

Several times yesterday, Louisell questioned witnesses for the prosecution on the alkaloid and alcohol content which toxicologists said they found in Miss Beineman’s blood sample.

Prosecutor William F. Delhey has said that alkaloid traces are left from ingestion of coffee, which contains caffeine, as well as the absorption of drugs.

Delhey also has said that traces of alcohol can result from decomposition of food which has been ingested.

(Earlier story and picture on Page 13.)