Dennis RomeroUPDATE at 3:10 p.m., Friday, April 1, 2016: The Los Angeles Police Department today said the knife was not used in the murders. See more at the bottom.
It's a sensational story.
A knife reportedly found at O.J. Simpson's former Brentwood home was allegedly kept by a Los Angeles Police Department officer for years, until he recently reached out to a fellow cop to get the departmental record number on the Nicole Brown Simpson murder case so he could have it engraved on a frame for the weapon.
The LAPD today said it was testing the knife for any possible links to the 1994 stabbing murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The case is still open and unsolved.
O.J. Simpson was charged with the murders, but an L.A. jury acquitted him in 1995. Even if links to the former NFL and USC football star were found, the law dictates that he couldn't be tried again.
We reached out to Gil Garcetti, the district attorney at the time of O.J. Simpson's prosecution, but he declined to speak.
The knife was found by a construction worker at the site of Simpson's former home on Rockingham Drive, possibly during the house's demolition many years ago, and handed to a cop who happened to be nearby working security for a movie set, the story, first reported by TMZ, goes.
The officer, recently retired, reached out to a friend in the department about obtaining the departmental record number. That friend revealed to superiors the existence of the knife, according to reports.
The movie cop's find, now in the possession of investigators, was reportedly a buck knife.
Much of the story smells of b.s., however. Here's why:
-As NBC News' Andrew Blankstein reported today, such a knife is inconsistent with the murder weapon, which made a cut 5.5 inches deep into Nicole Brown Simpson's neck, according to the coroner's report.
Sources told NBC News, “The knife found is a relatively inexpensive, smaller-bladed utility knife typically carried and used by construction workers, gardeners, landscapers or other laborers…,” according to Blankstein's report.
-The timing is suspicious. We're right in the middle of a much-hyped FX television drama about the case, The People v. O.J. Simspon. You couldn't ask for better press than to leak the existence of the possible murder weapon to TMZ.
-Even cops seem doubtful about the story.
“I don’t know … if this whole story is possibly bogus from the get-go,” LAPD spokesman Andrew Neiman told reporters today. It's either evidence, he said, “or it's just a facsimile or a made-up story.”
Indeed.
Still, the officer who kept the knife could be in trouble. Detectives want to track down and talk to the construction worker who reportedly found the weapon.
The drama is riveting.
UPDATE at 3:10 p.m., Friday, April 1, 2016: The LAPD today said forensic testing has led it to conclude that the knife was not used in the murders.
Simpson's former home; Credit: Ted Soqui/L.A. Weekly
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.