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What can we learn about this case from watching people fall?

The Long Beach Police knowingly ignored the many contradictions and inconsistencies in Huck’s murder alibi. For one thing, the detectives did not question Huck’s claim that Dana had fallen, hit her head, and died while doing yoga.

YouTube is loaded with videos of people falling and hitting their heads. A quick search locates dozens of videos of skateboarders taking terrible falls and hitting their heads hard on bare concrete. The videos are upsetting to watch, but they’re instructive. Compared to videos of people actually falling and reacting to a fall, Huck’s statement to the police (pdf) about Dana’s “fall” is obviously implausible.

Most detectives are habitually skeptical about the stories they hear in a homicide investigation, but the Long Beach Police Department swallowed Huck’s story whole. Why? It’s one of the lingering questions in Dana’s case.