Early in the morning of November 3, 1984, a neighbor passing through an alley on his way to work discovered the nude body of 63-year-old Ione Cychosz in a vacant lot behind her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She had been raped, stabbed and beaten to death. Her clothing was scattered around the lot.
Cychosz had last been seen shortly after midnight, only a few hours before the murder, when a friend had dropped her off and watched her walk to the rear of her building.
During an autopsy, a rape kit was collected. Eight bitemarks, inflicted prior to death, were also identified on Cychosz’s body. The time of death was estimated to have been between midnight and 2 a.m.
After examining the body, Dr. Lowell T. Johnson, a practicing dentist and a clinical professor of pathology at Marquette University School of Dentistry, worked with a police sketch artist and determined that the bitemarks on the body must have come from someone missing an upper front tooth.
On November 15, 1984, Johnson met with Milwaukee police detectives James Gauger and Thomas Jackelen and suggested they focus on people with a missing upper front tooth.
The detectives questioned multiple people, including two men arrested for violent sexual assaults shortly after Cychosz was murdered. Both of these men had missing teeth consistent with Dr. Johnson’s sketch. Neither were charged.
The detectives also visited 21-year-old Robert Lee Stinson, whose backyard was connected to the vacant lot where Cychosz’s body was discovered. Stinson told the police that on November 2, he returned home from a party around 11 p.m., went to bed, and heard nothing until he was awakened around 9 a.m. the next morning by the police in his backyard.
During the interview, the detectives told a joke. When Stinson laughed, the officers noticed both a missing front tooth and a crooked tooth.
In December, Johnson did a forensic workup on Stinson. As part of the workup, a special camera was used to photograph the biting and facial surfaces of the teeth. A set of rubber impressions were then taken so a model of Stinson’s teeth could be prepared. Johnson concluded that Stinson was the source of the bitemarks on Cychosz’s body.
On January 22, 1985, Stinson was arrested and charged with murder. When arrested, Stinson gave a different account of the night of the crime. He told the police that after he arrived home from a party at 11 p.m. on November 2, he went to bed. He then added that he was awakened at 1 a.m. when a friend, Darin Lloyd, came to his house and asked if he would accompany him to a local store. Stinson agreed and the two left Stinson’s house and walked through the backyard. Stinson told the police that as he and Lloyd walked through the yard, he heard footsteps and wrestling sounds coming from the direction of the alley. Stinson said he did not see anyone in the area and he paid no attention to the noise. After returning from the store, he said he went to bed.
In December 1985, Stinson went to trial in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. The prosecution’s primary evidence was the bitemark testimony.
Prior to the testimony, Stinson’s defense attorney requested a hearing on the admissibility of the bitemark evidence. At the end of the hearing, the prosecution requested that the court deny Stinson’s motion to exclude the evidence. The prosecution argued that because there were sufficient standards and guidelines in the field of forensic odontology, it was a field in which an expert opinion would be helpful to the jury.
Judge Janine Geske agreed, ruling: “I will deny the motion of the defense to exclude the evidence.... I’m going to find that there is sufficient evidence at this motion to find that there are adequate standards and controls in the area of forensic odontology, specifically for the identification of an individual through bitemark evidence and that that area of science is an accepted area of [science], a recognized area of science....”
Johnson testified that the bitemarks “had to have been made by teeth identical” to Stinson’s teeth, and asserted that there was “no margin for error” in his conclusion.
Dr. Raymond Rawson, the chairman of the bitemark standards committee of the American Board of Forensic Odontologists, also testified for the prosecution. Rawson said that the evidence in the case was “high quality” and “overwhelming.”
Lloyd testified for the prosecution that he called Stinson’s home around 3 a.m. on November 3, 1984, and asked Stinson to accompany him to the store. According to Lloyd, Stinson came over to his house and they walked to the store from there. Lloyd testified that he did not go to Stinson’s house and that they did not walk through any alleys or backyards.
Stinson’s defense attorney had hired an expert before the trial, but the expert was not called to testify. The defense said Johnson had presented the results of his analysis at an odontological conference before the trial, and therefore the defense expert felt his analysis had already been tainted by Johnson’s conclusions.
On December 12, 1985, after a three-day trial, Stinson was convicted of first-degree murder on the strength of the forensic testimony. He received a sentence of life in prison.
On appeal, Stinson argued that the bitemark testimony was not credible and claimed that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel. At trial, Stinson had attempted to replace his appointed counsel arguing that the attorney had only been on the case for two weeks and had not had time to prepare an adequate defense. Stinson also claimed to have a personality conflict with his attorney. In October 1986, the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin upheld his conviction.
The Wisconsin Innocence Project accepted Stinson’s case in 2005, and sought DNA testing of saliva and blood stains on Cychosz’s sweater. Stinson was excluded.
Working with Christopher Plourd, a California forensic science expert and attorney, the Wisconsin Innocence Project then re-examined the bitemark evidence and determined that Stinson did not match the indentations. In particular, where Johnson and Rawson had found an indentation, Stinson did not have a tooth in that position to have made that indentation. A panel of four nationally recognized experts independently reviewed the findings and unanimously reached the same conclusion.
A motion to vacate Stinson’s conviction was granted on January 30, 2009. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office did not oppose the motion.
Circuit Judge Patricia McMahon vacated Stinson’s conviction, granted him a new trial, and Stinson was freed. On July 27, 2009, the prosecution dismissed the case.
Stinson subsequently was awarded $25,000 in compensation from the state of Wisconsin, the maximum allowed under the Wisconsin compensation law. The state legislature approved a special bill that awarded him an additional $90,000 in 2014.
Stinson also filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit that was dismissed in 2015. The lawsuit was reinstated in 2017 by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The city of Milwaukee settled the case in July 2019 for $7.5 million.
On April 23, 2012, Moses Price Jr., 51, was charged with second-degree murder for the murder of Cychosz after he was linked to the killing by DNA found on the victim's clothing. Price, who was serving a 35-year sentence for a 1991 murder of a Milwaukee man, also gave a statement to authorities that he followed the victim after she got off a bus, then had a “blackout” and when he came out of it, he was on top of the woman and had a knife in his hand. Price pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 07-27-2026
