Los Angeles police are investigating whether a knife purportedly found on property once owned by O.J. Simpson is a piece of evidence or if the story of its discovery was “bogus from the get-go,” a police captain said today.
The knife would be subjected to testing for hair, DNA, serology and other forensic evidence, said LAPD Capt. Andy Neiman, who declined to describe the knife in detail.
“It is a knife; it is not a machete,” Neiman told reporters at a hastily arranged news conference in front of police headquarters.
Despite Simpson’s acquittal of double-murder, the LAPD still considers the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman an open case, Neiman said.
The case is not considered closed until there is a conviction, he said.
However, because of double-jeopardy prohibitions, “we could not charge Mr. Simpson with the homicides …,” Neiman said.
Forensic experts will try to determine if this “evidence is in fact evidence or its just a facsimile or a made up story …,” Neiman said. He added that “the whole story … (may) be bogus from the get-go.”
The knife reportedly was found in the late 1990s at the former Rockingham Avenue estate in Brentwood of Simpson, about the time the home there was demolished, Neiman said.
The finder of the knife, described as a construction worker, turned it over to either an off-duty or retired LAPD motorcycle officer, who was working as a security officer on “a movie job,” Neiman said.
The officer, whom he declined to identify, kept the knife until recently, when he turned it over to Los Angeles police, Neiman said.
“I was really surprised … it was quite a shock,” Neiman said.
Neiman declined to reveal many details of the discovery of the knife, repeatedly citing the fact that there is an open homicide investigation in progress.
Neiman said it was unclear if homicide detectives would go back to the property to investigate further because construction has taken place in the years since the demolition.
And Neiman said investigators want to know the identity of the person who allegedly found the knife. He urged that person — or anyone knowing the identity of that person — to call police.
