Breakthrough Expected In Crowe Murder Case

SAN DIEGO -- An investigation to determine who killed a 12-year-old North County girl in 1998 will soon be in the hands of the state Attorney General's Office.

Sheriff's officials announced Thursday that they will forward the findings of their investigation into the killing of Stephanie Crowe (pictured, left) to state officials.

The transfer will be the "next step" in the ongoing probe into the stabbing death of the Escondido seventh-grader in her bedroom nearly 3 1/2 years ago, sheriff's homicide Lt. Jerry Lewis said.

Officials declined to discuss suspects or any other aspects of the case, citing a gag order by a magistrate overseeing pending civil litigation surrounding the high-profile slaying.

The action sending the case to state officials indicates that local prosecutors and sheriff's detectives are at odds over who killed Stephanie, according to the attorney who defended one of three boys originally accused of the crime.

"The case would not have gone to the attorney general's office if the sheriff's detectives and the district attorney had not come to a disagreement of who the killer was," said defense attorney Mary Ellen Attridge before the gag order was issued.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer has assigned a senior trial lawyer to "conduct the review" of the evidence, according to his office.

Presentation and forwarding of all findings in the investigation, including reports and documents, will take six to eight weeks, Lewis said.

Local prosecutors initially contended in court that Stephanie's older brother, Michael, (pictured, right), killed her with the help of two school friends.

The victim's parents insisted the slaying was carried out by a drifter named Richard Tuite who had been wandering around their neighborhood in the hours before the girl was knifed to death. Police questioned the 29-year-old transient and initially dismissed him as a suspect.

The girl's body was found sprawled in the doorway of her bedroom by her grandmother early on the morning of Jan. 21, 1998.

In the weeks following the slaying, police detectives arrested Stephanie's then-14-year-old brother and two of his friends and fellow high school students, both 15.

Michael Crowe wound up confessing during extended interrogations, saying that he had killed his sister out of intense sibling rivalry, prosecutors reported. Another one of the boys also eventually broke down and said he was involved.

But as the three friends prepared to undergo separate trials in adult court, a judge threw out most of the incriminating statements, citing police misconduct during the prolonged questioning.

Then, as one of the boy's trial was about to begin in early 1999, defense attorneys revealed that a test of a sweat shirt Tuite (pictured, left) had been wearing around the time of the slaying bore traces of Stephanie's blood.

Prosecutors soon dropped the charges against the boys, and authorities began investigating the killing anew.

Family members of the ex-defendants have sued the county and Escondido police for damages, an action officials cite in refusing to discuss the case.

U.S. District Judge John Rhoades, who is overseeing the civil litigation, has issued a gag order on all parties involved in it, according to Lewis and the Attorney General's Office.

In the months since Stephanie died, Tuite, who maintains his innocence in the Crowe killing, has been in and out of jail on unrelated charges and court-order violations. He recently was detained again for allegedly violating conditions of a supervised release.