Los Angeles police investigating knife found on property owned by Simpson

Los Angeles police are investigating whether a knife purportedly found on the property once owned by retired American football player O.J. Simpson is a piece of evidence or if the story of its discovery was "bogus from the get-go," a police captain said Friday.

The knife would be subjected to testing for hair, DNA, serology and other forensic evidence, said Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Capt. Andy Neiman, who declined to describe the knife in detail.

"It is a knife; it is not a machete," Neiman said at a news conference in front of police headquarters.

Despite Simpson's acquittal of double-murder, the LAPD still considers the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman an open case, Neiman said.

The case is not considered closed until there is a conviction, he said.

Forensic experts will try to determine if this "evidence is in fact evidence or it's just a facsimile or a made up story," Neiman said.

The knife reportedly was found in the late 1990s at the former Rockingham Avenue estate in Brentwood of Simpson, about the time the home there was demolished, Neiman said.

The finder of the knife, described as a construction worker, turned it over to either an off-duty or retired LAPD motorcycle officer, who was working as a security officer on "a movie job," Neiman said.

The officer, whom he declined to identify, kept the knife until recently, when he turned it over to Los Angeles police, according to LAPD.

"I was really surprised ... it was quite a shock," Neiman said. He declined to reveal many details of the discovery of the knife, repeatedly citing the fact that there is an open homicide investigation in progress.

Neiman said it was unclear if homicide detectives would go back to the property to investigate further because construction has taken place in the years since the demolition. Endit