Dateline: Mystery on Lockhart Road - How did David Camm get wrongfully convicted? Details revisited

The Dateline episode about David Camm’s wrongful conviction is Mystery on Lockhart Road. It first aired on January 30, 2014. The show digs deep into the case, looking at the murders of Camm’s wife and kids, the mistakes that led to his conviction, and what happened when he was finally cleared.

David Camm spent 13 long years in prison for murders he didn’t commit. He was an Indiana State Trooper, then one night in Georgetown, Indiana, his wife, Kimberly, and their two kids were found dead in their home on Lockhart Road.

The police zeroed in on Camm early. They leaned on shaky blood spatter evidence and rumors about his personal life. Meanwhile, there was another suspect. His DNA sat in evidence, ignored for years. Still, the prosecutors pressed on, and it took three trials before the truth finally lined up with the verdict.

It wasn’t until 2013, after years of courtroom battles and new evidence tying Charles Boney, the actual killer, to the crime, that Camm walked free. His story shines a light on everything that can go wrong in the justice system: bad forensics, investigators locking onto the wrong person, prosecutors doubling down instead of admitting a mistake.

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Dateline: How David Camm got wrongfully convicted?

David Camm’s wrongful conviction wasn’t just a fluke. It happened because investigators locked onto him early, clung to shaky forensic evidence, and prosecutors pushed hard for a conviction even though they didn’t have much to go on.

According to Dateline, on September 28, 2000, Camm came home from a basketball game and found his wife, Kimberly, and their kids, Bradley and Jill, shot dead in their garage.

Camm was quoted as saying by CBS News:

“I started to pull my truck in, I get up to the threshold and that's when I saw the first stream of blood. I get down in her face and yell 'Kim, Kim!' And her eyes - I could tell she was gone.”

Instead of calling 911, he phoned his old police department, which made the cops immediately suspicious. They zeroed in on Camm, ignoring the fact that several people at the church gym said he had been with them the whole time.

Camm's uncle, Sam Lockhart, was also quoted by CBS News as saying:

“David was at the gym at the time his family was killed. He was at the Georgetown Community Church playing basketball.”

At the first trial in 2002, prosecutors went after Camm with bloodstain pattern analysis and stories about his extramarital affairs. Blood drops on his shirt, left there when he tried to help his dying son, were twisted into “proof” that he had been right next to the victims when they were shot. They also dragged his infidelity into the case, claiming it showed motive. Later, higher courts tossed that as unfair.

Things got even uglier. As per Dateline, Prosecutors accused Camm of molesting his daughter, Jill, and claimed he killed his family to cover it up. Forensic experts pointed to an injury on Jill as evidence, but the medical examiner never actually tied it to Camm. Still, just hinting at it swayed the jury.

Even with all those doubts: his airtight alibi from people at the gym, no physical evidence connecting him to the murders, the jury convicted him, and he got 195 years. That first conviction didn’t last. In 2004, a court threw it out because prosecutors had leaned too much on his affairs.

Meanwhile, there was a sweatshirt at the crime scene with someone else’s DNA. Nobody cared about it until after the first trial. Turns out, it matched Charles Boney, a violent felon with a long rap sheet and a strange foot fetish, Dateline reported. He had even left his handprint on the family’s Ford Bronco. Boney got convicted and sentenced to 225 years.

Still, prosecutors dragged Camm through a second trial, this time weaving a story that he and Boney had plotted together, even though Boney kept changing his story.

Camm got convicted again, sentenced to life without parole. The Indiana Supreme Court tossed that one, too, in 2009, saying all the talk about molestation and other so-called evidence was just unfair.

Finally, by the third trial in 2013, the gaping holes in the forensic evidence came out. Experts tore apart the bloodstain analysis, saying it was junk science. More DNA testing showed Boney’s DNA on the victims’ clothes, making his claims of being just a bystander look ridiculous.

Boney tried to save himself, blaming Camm and spinning new stories, but the jury saw through it. After years of prison and three trials, David Camm finally walked free, completely acquitted.

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Dateline: Investigative issues and forensic fiasco

The Camm case gets talked about a lot, mostly because of how badly the investigation and trial played out. Right from the start, police zeroed in on Camm.

They ignored anything that didn’t fit their theory, caught up in confirmation bias. The bloodstain pattern analysis was supposed to be the big forensic evidence against Camm, but experts tore it apart later, Dateline showed. It wasn’t solid science, and the prosecution twisted it to fit their story.

Blood stain expert, Bart Epstein, was further quoted by CBS News, saying:

“Gunshot will produce hundreds of stains coming back. I've never seen, I believe the other experts for both the prosecution and the defense have indicated that they've never seen just seven small or eight small stains from a gunshot. I've never seen that.”

One of the biggest mistakes was letting years go by without testing the DNA on that sweatshirt. If they had checked sooner, they would have found Charles Boney’s DNA and maybe looked at him instead. But when they finally did find the match, instead of clearing Camm, the authorities tried to claim the two men worked together, even though there was no real proof.

Things got even messier in court, as shown on Dateline. Prosecutors brought up stuff like Camm’s affairs and rumors about molestation that had nothing to do with the murders. It just distracted the jury and muddied the case, pushing real forensic evidence into the background.

In 2018, Camm told WDRB News:

“The bottom line is, those trials were not fair. They heard evidence that they should not have heard, and that’s why the higher courts overturned those convictions.”

Meanwhile, Boney had a long rap sheet, including violent crimes, and some obsession with women’s shoes. DNA and physical evidence linked him straight to the scene: his handprint on the family’s car, his DNA on the victims’ clothes, and the sweatshirt. Still, Boney kept insisting Camm was the ringleader and that he just went along out of fear. But, as we saw on Dateline, legal experts poked all kinds of holes in Boney’s story, calling it inconsistent and self-serving.

After everything, once a jury finally cleared Camm, he turned around and sued the county and the state for locking him up all those years, as per the Dateline report. He ended up winning millions in settlements. The county burned through a fortune on the trials before they even paid those settlements out.

Camm was quoted as saying by WLKY:

“We have limited time on this Earth. As difficult as it was at times, I chose to push through it. I made the decision that I was going to make the best of the remainder of my years here on this Earth.”