Sergeant Michael Lynn Crowe, 41, was killed while on duty with a multi-agency narcotics task force in Yuma, Arizona in the summer of 1995. A United States Marine Corps veteran, Crowe had served 15 years with the Arizona Department of Public Safety and previously with the Mesa Police Department. He was assigned to the Southwest Border Alliance, a task force based near Yuma International Airport.

On the night of July 4 or in the early hours of July 5, Crowe and Lieutenant Daniel Elkins went to the task force headquarters to investigate missing evidence from the property room, reported to include drugs and firearms. Unarmed, they entered and interrupted a burglary in progress and were both fatally shot by a fellow task force member, Yuma County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jack Ray Hudson. A third officer escaped and summoned help. Crowe left behind a wife and two daughters.

What details about the case or the task force’s evidence handling might help explain how this internal theft occurred?