Investigating Innocence

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Rodney Lincoln embraces his daughters after being freed in 2018.

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Former Indiana State trooper David Camm freed in 2013.

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Investigating Innocence is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) entity and promotes its mission through advocacy, public education. Contributions to Investigating Innocence are tax-deductible.

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Robert Rahn and Kim Anklin, New York City Private Investigators and Co-Regional Directors and members of Investigating Innocence, recently helped exonerate Jonathan Fleming who served 24 years in prison.

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Mission Statement

Investigating Innocence is a not-for-profit organization that provides investigative support to indigent inmates, lawyers and Innocence Projects throughout the United States who seek to prove post-conviction claims of actual innocence.

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Our Featured Case

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THE CASE OF TOM MCMILLEN

The Crime:

On June 24, 1989, at 10:06 p.m., 19-year-old Melisa Koontz left work at Cub Foods where she worked as a cashier on the Southwest edge of Springfield, Illinois. Her decomposed body was found a week later July 1, 1989, laying face-up in a cornfield approximately 1.5 miles away. She had been stabbed multiple times.

Multiple witnesses observed a suspicious young white male lurking in the employee parking lot around the time Melisa exited the store.

Less than an hour later, at 10:50 p.m., her vehicle, a black Ford Escort hatchback, was discovered abandoned on the Waverly Blacktop Road, a rural country road that led to her parent’s home in Waverly, IL, approximately 15.2 miles from Cub Foods.

There was circumstantial evidence of a sexual assault. The buttons of the victim’s shirt were torn off and the clasp of her bra was broken. Her skirt had been rolled up. DNA testing on the bra and shirt have identified a partial male DNA profile eliminating Tom McMillen and his co-defendants Gary Edgington and Donald Johnston as the source.

Tom McMillen was charged with capital murder on May 15, 1990, accused of the murder of 19-year-old Melissa Koontz. He was convicted in July 1991 and sentenced to life in prison. His conviction hinged on the testimony of Donald "Goose" Johnston, an alcoholic and intellectually disabled person who falsely confessed to the crime and later identified McMillen as the killer in a plea deal that resulted in Johnson serving less than 7 years in prison. McMillen was convicted by a jury based on the false testimony of Donald Johnston and was given a life sentence.

Our Latest Exoneration

Photo by: Crime Watch Daily

Missouri Governor Frees Rodney Lincoln based on Work of Investigating Innocence

Curt Lovelace: Exonerated March 10, 2017

Lovelace thanks Investigating Innocence for its support

David Camm - October 24, 2013 Verdict: NOT GUILTY!

David Camm, a decorated Indiana Police Officer, was wrongfully charged with the murders of his family, when forensic evidence proves that a career criminal actually committed the crime and has already been sentenced to 225 years for the murders.

On September 28, 2000, David Camm came home at approximately 9:26 p.m. and found his wife Kimberly, and his two children Bradley, 7, and Jill, 5, shot to death in the garage of their home in Georgetown, Indiana. His wife and two children were last seen leaving swim practice and heading home around 7:00 p.m.