This could have been anybody, save for one crucial detail. The car in the security footage looked remarkably like a Chevy Celebrity, a four-door sedan first introduced in 1981. It was the same type of vehicle driven by Robert Auker, Loris estranged husband.
Circumstantially, Robert Auker was an obvious suspect. But he was in no hurry to confess. Robert told police that he had been at a department store in another mall that day and denied having seen Lori. Later, he said his brother, Stephen, had confessed to the crimethough why Stephen would have want
The Auker situation was much different. Robert Auker was easily found but not easily charged. In order to secure the case, Sacavage first turned to the state police and the FBI for assistance in enhancing the two images. The FBI was able to make some slight improvements, but the pictures still weren
In February 1991, Robert Auker was arrested for the murder of Lori Auker. At his trial, which commenced in the spring of 1992, Tietjen explained that he had used de-blurring, contrast, filtering, magnification, and other techniques to help better define the Chevy Celebrity in the bank camera images.
the actual surveillance to new images of a Celebrity parked in roughly the same spot. An expert from General Motors also confirmed that the taillight assembly seen in the bank images was consistent with that of a Celebrity produced in 1983 or 1984. Robert Aukers family had owned a 1984 Celebrity.
No expert could conclude Aukers car was the one in the footage, but the frames were part of a tapestry of evidence against Robert Auker, who had also taken out a life insurance policy on Lori while they were separated and amended that policy days after Loris body was discovered to include spousal