Los Angeles Police Department say they have recovered a knife that was found on OJ Simpson's former estate where his ex-wife and her friend were murdered.
LAPD Capt Andrew Neiman said a construction worker discovered the blade years after the killings.
The builder handed it to an off-duty or retired police officer, but detectives only recently learned of its existence.
Capt Neiman said they were conducting body fluid, DNA and hair sample tests on the weapon.
But he said that whatever evidence is found, Simpson cannot be tried again for the murders under America's double jeopardy rules.
OJ Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death at the home on 12 June 1994.
The former professional football star and actor was acquitted a year later of two counts of murder in what media dubbed the trial of the century.
Police have never found the murder weapon.
According to TMZ.com, a builder discovered the folding buck knife buried at the perimeter of Simpson's estate in Los Angeles' affluent Brentwood area, possibly in around 1998 when the property was being demolished.
The worker gave the blade to a traffic officer, who kept it as a souvenir instead of taking the potential item of evidence to the precinct, according to the celebrity gossip website.
In 1997, Simpson was found liable for the deaths of his ex-wife and Goldman in a civil lawsuit.
He was ordered to pay the victims' families $33.5m (£23.5m) in damages.
The case has received renewed attention recently because of FX television series The People v. O.J. Simpson.
Simpson, 68, is currently serving a prison sentence in Nevada for the 2007 armed robbery and kidnap of a sports memorabilia dealer.
No comments:
Post a Comment