WRAL-OnLine Helps Capture a Criminal

WRAL-OnLine proves how invaluable the Internet can be, and just what potential it has. On June 3, 1997, Francisco Carrasco-Gutierrez, a transient, was shot as he slept beneath the Boylan Avenue Bridge at a transient camp along the railroad tracks west of downtown Raleigh, NC. The shooting had gone unsolved despite a reenactment police videotaped a year after the crime. All Police had to go on was the taped 911 call that alerted them to the death. But police suspected all along that the anonymous caller was also the perpetrator of the crime. So, they asked local media to circulate the phone call and the video reenactment, hoping someone would recognize the voice or some details and help solve the crime.

On August 1, someone surfing WRAL-OnLine happened to listen to the 911 call and recognized the voice. Through this identification (a year after the crime), the Police were able to arrest a suspect and link that person not only to the murder, but to the 1996 shooting spree that killed two N.C. State University ponies as well.