They did not cordon off the house, as police are supposed to do at the scene of any violent crime.
Detectives did not rush to East Godfrey Avenue to question Alge's neighbors or parishioners who had been pouring out of a church service down the block that May evening and saw the assailant fleeing.
They did not search the house for evidence or dust for fingerprints. Nor did they do so the next day, even after learning that Alge's condition was deteriorating.
Why did police respond this way to such a vicious crime?
In part, because a detective supervisor made a judgment, based on a brief phone conversation with a patrolman at the scene, that there was little or no evidence to be collected.
And in part, because a station house supervisor classified the incident that night as a purse snatching, not as a violent crime.
As they pleaded for a more energetic response, Alge's relatives and an off-duty police officer who lived next door - and who was outraged by the department's seeming indifference to the crime - kept hearing the refrain: It's a purse snatch.
Not until four days after the assault did detectives enter the house and collect evidence.
They never did speak to Melanie Alge. The day after the attack, surgeons opened a hole in her windpipe so she could breathe. She never spoke again. Two weeks later, she died.
The Medical Examiner's Office listed the cause of death as a blood clot ``due to the blunt trauma of the neck.''
The manner of death: ``homicide.''
To Michael Verrecchio, a member of the Friends of Tacony Creek Town Watch, the handling of the case was incomprehensible.
Police routinely ``secure scenes that are less violent with less disturbance than this one,'' he said. ``How can you sit there and look at a lady bleeding from her mouth and not think it was serious? That's crazy. And to put on the police report purse snatch. . . . It doesn't make any sense.''
