Part 3
Detectives McDonald and Sanchez arrive at the home of one Douglas Miller. Because of Doug's young age and seemingly good health for now it would be a murder investigation. McDonald was a seasoned veteran but Sanchez was new to homicide so McDonald saw a training opportunity for Sanchez. He would let her lead the investigation. "It could end up being a drug overdose but let's go ahead and follow through for good practice." McDonald advised Sanchez so she would take an objective approach to her new case. She went over the crime scene doing all of the tedious tasks she had learned in her forensic science training. She would need to learn from the old detectives hands on experience and rely on modern science. After looking for physical evidence the task of taking apart Doug's life to see if anyone may want to harm him. It was mostly what you would expect except for one piece of mail a credit card advertisement was addressed to James Townsend. McDonald had gone outside to talk to the uniform officers that had cleared the rooms just in case. They were having coffee talking about other scenes that had a similar feel and their personal lives. Sanchez came across a rental agreement with the same name as the mail. She went over everything else, took pictures, and filled out the preliminary reports. The contact information for James was found on the fridge along with other family and friend's numbers. The phone went directly to voice mail when they tried to reach James. They would check by the house later and ask the neighbors if they had seen anything. There may have been a black SUV but nobody had seen anyone go in or out of the house that they had interviewed. After collecting evidence they headed back by the station to investigate leads. Most of the friends and family were easily contacted and seemed to be cooperative except the roommate. Doug didn't appear to be a drug addict but with the popularity of pills and opiates an overdose was possible. She asked the relatives about any health conditions but according to them Doug was healthy. None of the friends knew of any addictions and there were no drugs or related items at the scene. One bottle of a six pack of micro brew beer in the recycling bin but that was it. Doug had seem to be employed. According to one of Doug's friends who had met the roommate James worked for a tech company. It took a while to narrow it down but she had found it. After some security procedures they were allowed into the lab where James worked. His coworker Stacy explained that she had not seen him in a few days. "He may have had an argument with a supervisor but I was not around to hear it. Stacy explained that the company was mostly research and development for new technology mostly software to run modern cars, machinery, and some robots. They were also trying out new computing technologies. She explained that the employees had a contract so she was not able to get specific. They would not likely be able to take any computing devices without a warrant because of the nature of the job. They actually were not allowed to bring personal computing devices passed a certain point including cell phones just in case so it seemed doubtful that information would lead anywhere. They interviewed all of the other employees but Stacy had talked to him the most because of the proximity of their work areas other than that he kept to himself. Stacy noted that he was smart bit could be difficult at times when he was trying to solve problems with an idea in his head. They told her the nature of their investigation and Stacy had implied that James was not likely to murder anyone. Hopefully it was just a coincidence he was unable to be found.