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Three-quarters of the fingerprints found at the crime scene belonged to Michael Blagg

Investigators didn't have a way to identify the fingerprints of Jennifer or Abby Blagg.
Credit: KUSA file photo
The Blagg home in Mesa County near Grand Junction.

JEFFERSON COUNTY - Crime scene investigators found 72 usable fingerprints inside of the Blagg’s two-story home in a quiet subdivision just outside of Grand Junction.

More than three-quarters of those were identified as belonging to Michael Blagg, who is standing trial a second time for the murder of his wife Jennifer Blagg.

The preponderance of Michael Blagg’s fingerprints at the crime scene is something that former Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic fingerprint analyst Darren Jewkes said struck him as odd. It wasn’t the fact they were at the crime scene in the first place — after all, Michael Blagg lived at the house for nearly two years.

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It’s the fact that there should have been numerous other unidentified fingerprints, fingerprints that likely could have belonged to Jennifer Blagg and the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Abby. After the two were reporting missing on Nov. 13, 2001, investigators were never able to find a usable set of fingerprints for the mother and daughter.

This was despite attempts to salvage Jennifer Blagg’s decomposing hands after she was pulled from the Mesa County landfill, as well as the 34-year-old’s DMV records. Investigators also tried to ascertain a fingerprint from Abby using a mark she left in what prosecutors described as a “little book” … also to no avail.

Jewkes said this meant fingerprints in the house that weren’t specifically identified as Michael Blagg were “unidentified” since there was no data about Abby or Jennifer, whereas the then-38-year-old had given investigators prints for all 10 of his fingers.

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Credit: Courtesy Mesa County Sheriff's Office
A recent mugshot of Michael Blagg.

“Based upon my experience … I would expect there to be more fingerprints unidentified to Michael Blagg,” Jewkes said.

Jewkes says since Jennifer Blagg also lived in the house, he would have expected far more prints to have been unidentified and belonging to her in both the house and family minivan.

By Oct. 30, 2002, investigators say there were 17 so-called “unidentified” prints in the Blagg home. After Jewkes left the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for another position, Wayne Bryant took over forensic fingerprint analysis.

Now long retired, he testified in a Jefferson County courtroom for much of the day on Wednesday.

He says in fall 2002, there were still eight unidentified fingerprints in the house and 17 unknown palm prints. But, after Michael Blagg was arrested on June 6, 2004, investigators received a set of his palm prints — a piece of evidence they didn’t have during this initial analysis.

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Credit: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Colorado has 65 missing & exploited children. Anyone with information should call 911 or 1-800-843-5678

Soon, Bryant was able to match previously unidentified palm prints found on the front door of the home to Michael Blagg’s, as well as palm prints on the doors of the family’s minivan and the back hatch.

This is significant to prosecutors because they allege during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2001, Michael Blagg shot his wife in the head while she was sleeping, wrapped her body in a tent, carried her out to the red Ford minivan and then threw her in the dumpster at his office.

Michael Blagg’s public defenders disagree, claiming the entire investigation has been tainted by what they say is a false belief that “it’s always the husband.” Instead, they say a child predator killed Jennifer and kidnapped Abby, and that Mesa County authorities never found the real perpetrator because they never entertained the possibility of alternate suspects.

While cross-examining Bryant, Public Defender Scott Troxell asked him to confirm that it wasn’t unusual for someone’s finger and hand prints to be on their own car.

Bryant agreed.

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And that’s why the CBI tried to narrow down who the unidentified fingerprints belonged to. There were several palm prints that were small — smaller than an adult’s.

“I wouldn’t be able to say an age, but I could identify a size for a small child,” Bryant said.

This means Bryant was able to identify of the 13 remaining unaccounted for palm prints as belonging to a child, and that child could possibly be Abby Blagg. Some of those prints were on the front door. Others were also on the door to the minivan.

In the end, six fingerprints found in the Blagg home and seven palm prints are unidentified to this day, more than 17 years after the original 911 call, and almost 14 years since a Mesa County jury found Michael Blagg guilty of killing his wife.

That conviction was later overturned after a juror was caught lying on her questionnaire about being the victim of domestic violence.

Now, the case against Michael Blagg is being heard in a courtroom in Jefferson County, where the trial was moved due to its notoriety on the Western Slope.

And many of the witnesses who testified in the first trial are back on the witness stand, including Bryant and Jewkes, who the jury heard from on Wednesday.

Fingerprints weren’t the only topic of discussion. Troxell grilled Bryant about his analysis of the bullet found in Jennifer Blagg’s head, and his assertion that the gun it was fired from could be a 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol that was on Michael Blagg’s insurance list.

Troxell pointed out how the bullet could have also been fired from different types of guns — or one of the multiple different models of 9mm semiautomatic Smith and Wesson pistols.

Even if that is the case, Troxell pointed out how there are thousands upon thousands of Smith and Wesson 9mms in circulation.

The prosecution called Norm Kivett, who used to operate the Mesa County landfill, at the end of the day on Wednesday. He explained how trash is placed in the landfill and how records are kept about who is dropping off at the landfill and when.

The defense asserted Tuesday that a math error regarding the density of trash in the landfill could lend credence to the possibility that waste from Michael Blagg’s office wasn’t dropped off the same day as Jennifer Blagg’s body. Kivett’s testimony dealt with how trash was distributed in the landfill, and how a day’s trash wasn’t necessarily placed on top of waste from the day before.

During cross-examination, Troxell showed the apparent slope of the landfill and tried to prove how trash could often be placed on top of one another in an effort to fill in that slope.

Michael Blagg has been silent over the course of more than three weeks of testimony. His hair has gone grey after more than a decade in prison, and each day, he wears a grey or blue suit.

Testimony will continue on Thursday morning. 9NEWS is in the courtroom and will post updates on 9NEWS.com during breaks.

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