Experts: Body parts find could hurt case

The case against a Brockton woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend more than 30 times, leaving him to bleed to death in a closet and then severing parts of two of his limbs could be jeopardized by investigators’ failure to find the body parts in the same apartment where his family stumbled upon them days later, experts said.

“A poor investigation always affects a case,” said David Sorrenti, the attorney for Kathryn Podgurski, who was arraigned Monday on a murder charge in connection with Joseph Shaw’s death. “The prosecutor’s representation was that police did a thorough investigation, yet they were unable to find either limb in a studio apartment?”

On Monday, Shaw’s family found a backpack containing parts of a leg and of an arm, at the Green Street apartment, his niece, Jacinda Shaw, told the Herald.

“This would seem to be a real whopper,” said Mitch Librett, who was a New Rochelle, N.Y., police officer for 23 years and is now a Bridgewater State University professor specializing in law enforcement organizational cultures. “I wouldn’t be happy if I was a supervisor in charge of the scene.”

Although state police detectives assigned to Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office were in charge of the crime scene, a state police spokesman told the Herald Tuesday there was no review underway.

A spokeswoman for Cruz refused to address the issue entirely, saying merely: “We are proceeding with the case against Kathryn Podgurski, and the homicide investigation is ongoing.”

Peter Elikann, a Bostonbased criminal defense attorney, predicted “a good defense counsel would leave no stone unturned.”

“If you find a body with missing limbs, usually the priority would be to find them,” he said. “It is really inexplicable.”