The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) confirmed late Friday that the knife discovered at O.J. Simpson’s former estate is not connected in anyway to the murder investigation of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. Police started investigating after a construction worker found the weapon while Simpson’s Rockingham estate was being demolished years ago. The worker reportedly turned it over to an off-duty police officer who kept it a secret until about two months ago. There was much hype in the media that this could be the long lost “murder weapon” that never surfaced during O.J. Simpson’s trial. As we’ve been saying, it’s not.
The “LAPD has determined [the] knife has no nexus to Simpson/Goldman murder investigation. The investigation remains open,” the LAPD statement reads.
Police searched for months for the murder weapon after the double homicide in 1994, but could never find it. There were a number of false alarms along the way, and this is yet another. During the investigation, police thought a 15-inch knife purchased by Simpson in downtown Los Angeles might be it, according to the Los Angeles Times. They even asked a coroner to compare the type of knife with the victims’ stab wounds, but forensic tests later revealed the knife had no scratches or bloodstains and was not associated with the double homicide. In 1994, according to the LA Times, a woman called police after discovering a kitchen knife smeared with blood stains less than a block from Simpson’s home. But, like the others, nothing ever panned out with that one either.
The timing of this most recent discovery is also interesting as it comes when the country is enthralled with the FX series The People v. O.J. Simpson. We are left right where we started more than 20 years ago: no murder weapon, and no conviction.