At 2 a.m. October 3, 2002, a woman woke to a man standing near her bed holding a butcher knife and a rolling pin. He told her if she did what he wanted, she would not be hurt. He tied her up with a cord he had cut off of her can opener. The woman broke free and ran out of the back door of her home, but Mark Eskridge grabbed her and, after a struggle, dragged her back to her bedroom. He ripped up sheets to create a blindfold and a gag which he used to tie her up. Over the course of two hours, Eskridge sexually assaulted her and repeatedly threatened her with the butcher knife, saying he would “operate” on her. He threatened to kill her pre-school son, if she didn’t comply, who was in his bedroom down the hall. Before he left, Eskridge told the woman he had people watching her house who would kill her and her son if she called the police in the next half hour. Once Eskridge left her home, the woman crawled through the darkness to her phone and dialed 911. When they answered the call for help, Dorchester County Sheriff’s deputies had to cut the bindings from the woman, who was described as hysterical. A nurse described seeing “significant bruising and extremely swollen hands from the tight bindings which had been placed around the victim’s wrists.” She was examined at the Memorial Hospital at Easton. DNA evidence was recovered which would be matched to Mark Eskridge. Crime Scene Technician Kathy Webster found an almost full set of fingerprints on the broken glass from the front window which was used to gain entry, again matching Eskridge. While canvassing the neighborhood after the assault, sheriff’s deputies found a neighbor who had scared away someone they’d heard trying to open the door of their home. Fingerprints taken from the doorknob also were a positive match to Mark Eskridge. Despite the bound hysterical victim with bruising and the broken glass used to gain entry, Mark Eskridge defense attorney argued that Eskridge had consensual sex with the victim. Eskridge took the stand in his own defense and claimed he had met the victim at a party, and they used crack cocaine together. The victim had been drug tested and had no cocaine in her system. The fingerprints on the broken glass matched Eskridge. The DNA in the victim, matched Eskridge. So, after only an hour of deliberation, Mark Richard Eskridge, 43, was found guilty on 8 charges including a 1st degree sex offense, 1st degree assault, use of a deadly weapon with intent to injure, false imprisonment and burglary. Why was this conviction significant? Seven years earlier, on September 19, 1995, Kaye Robinson was living in a mobile home in Laurel, Delaware, with her 12 year old son. The boy’s father hadn’t been involved since he was 4 years old. Kaye worked as an insurance salesperson. She was in a steady relationship with Andrew Simmons, her fiancé. Sometime after midnight on September 19, 1995, the 30-year-old woke up to a persistent knock on her door. The stranger outside her door introduced himself as Jack Wilson and said his car broke down. This man wanted to come in to make a phone call, but Kaye was skeptical and offered to make the call herself. However, when she called the number, the man on the other end didn’t know anyone named Jack. At this point, Kaye asked him to leave and reported the incident to the police before going back to sleep. When the police arrived, the man was gone. But before the evening was over, the man returned and broke into her home. When Kaye heard the front door slamming, she got up and was ambushed by an intruder with a knife. Kaye did what he asked to survive and protect her 12-year-old son. After raping Kaye, the intruder tied her up. She was convinced he’d done this before by the speed in which he had her immobilized. The attacker stabbed her more than 25 times, then pulled her head back and slit her throat. Convinced that he wouldn’t stop until she was dead, Kaye held her breath in, hoping he would think he killed her. Assuming she was dead, he left. Kaye’s son rushed to her aid after the attacker left. Kaye turned on to her stomach, as she didn’t want her son to see her slit throat. He saw the multiple stab wounds in her back, and the killer had drawn a smiley face in blood on her back. Her son, Nick, ran to a neighbor’s home for help. Kaye was rushed to the hospital after the attack, and immediately was sent into emergency surgery. She made a miraculous physical recovery. She provided the authorities with a description of the attacker. The investigators also had DNA evidence they collected from the scene. The DNA lab had a backlog, so it would be weeks before the results returned. About two weeks after the attack, one of Kaye’s neighbors reported a man behaving suspiciously in the area. Doug DeSilva had lit a candle in her driveway. Doug had a print of the suspect sketch, (taken from the newspaper) on the dash which he said he was using to look for the suspect. Doug looked like the person in the sketch, so the police hauled him in. After the interview, Doug asked for an application to be a police officer. They gave him one. He doodled on it and drew a “smiley face” on the bottom of the application. Both Kaye and her son picked Doug out of a photo lineup as the intruder. Investigators were convinced they had their killer. Doug DeSilva was arrested and charged with murder. Three days before his court case was about to start, the FBI indicated the DNA evidence didn’t match him, leading to his release. Was a mistake made at the lab? After his release, Kaye thought about killing Doug DeSilva. He looked just like her attacker. He drew the “smiley face.” The police hadn’t released that a “smiley face” was drawn on her back. She drove to DeSilva’s home with a loaded gun. Kaye had planned on knocking on the door and saying, “Do you remember me?” and shooting him. But after thinking about her son, she drove back home. The case went cold. A decade later, in 2005, when a DNA search went through CODIS a match came up to Mark Eskridge, who was recently convicted of the Maryland rape described at the beginning of this blog. The Maryland rape was very similar. Further, they realized Mark Eskridge lived in Kaye’s neighborhood in Laurel, Delaware, at the time of her attack. Mark could see Kaye’s home from his window. When investigators look back, they realized they had become too focused on Doug DeSilva and failed to focus on other local suspects. In January 2006, Mark Eskridge plead guilty to Kaye’s rape and attempted murder. He was given a life sentence and an additional twenty years. Eskridge is incarcerated at North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland. This is an example of why we need to let the evidence lead to the suspect, rather than starting with a suspect and looking for evidence. Thanks for listening, Frank An exciting week of presentations on Black and Blue ahead:
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AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
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