Feel the chill of a small town's worst nightmare as we recount the haunting evening of Polly Klaas' abduction. This story begins with unease and spirals into a community's relentless quest for justice. The latest installment of the Murder Book unravels through the eyes of Petaluma's youth—witnesses like Kamika Milstead and Talia Miller—who saw more than they realized on that fateful night. Their keen observations and the sketch derived from their accounts set the stage for a manhunt that pulsates with the urgency of a ticking clock.
As Polly's story tears through the heart of Petaluma, witness a community transformed by determination and solidarity. Establishing the Polly Klaas Search Center becomes a beacon of hope, with volunteers like Jenny Thompson channeling their anguish into action. The episode weaves through the narratives of those like Gardner, who usurped the media's focus, and Mark Klaas, Polly's father, whose words resonate with the pain and resolve of a parent in the face of horror. It's an episode that pays homage to the unyielding spirit of a town united by tragedy.
Join me, Kiara, as I delve into the dichotomy of media influence during such a critical time. This chapter of Polly's tale scrutinizes the regional disparity in news coverage and its essential role in fueling the investigation and sustaining volunteer efforts. The Murder Book casts a sobering light on the impact of publicity, the necessity of community involvement, and the poignant stories that remind us of the profound connections that bind us all when faced with the unthinkable.
Feel the chill of a small town's worst nightmare as we recount the haunting evening of Polly Klaas' abduction. This story begins with unease and spirals into a community's relentless quest for justice. The latest installment of the Murder Book unravels through the eyes of Petaluma's youth—witnesses like Kamika Milstead and Talia Miller—who saw more than they realized on that fateful night. Their keen observations and the sketch derived from their accounts set the stage for a manhunt that pulsates with the urgency of a ticking clock.
As Polly's story tears through the heart of Petaluma, witness a community transformed by determination and solidarity. Establishing the Polly Klaas Search Center becomes a beacon of hope, with volunteers like Jenny Thompson channeling their anguish into action. The episode weaves through the narratives of those like Gardner, who usurped the media's focus, and Mark Klaas, Polly's father, whose words resonate with the pain and resolve of a parent in the face of horror. It's an episode that pays homage to the unyielding spirit of a town united by tragedy.
Join me, Kiara, as I delve into the dichotomy of media influence during such a critical time. This chapter of Polly's tale scrutinizes the regional disparity in news coverage and its essential role in fueling the investigation and sustaining volunteer efforts. The Murder Book casts a sobering light on the impact of publicity, the necessity of community involvement, and the poignant stories that remind us of the profound connections that bind us all when faced with the unthinkable.
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, chiara, and this is part three of the Kidnapping and Search for Polly Class. Let's begin. So now it's Saturday morning, polly's neighbors emerge to a bus of activity. There's crime scene tape everywhere. Activity there's crime scene tape everywhere. And since midnight police officers have been canvassing the neighborhood during a knock and talk to interview residents.
Speaker 1:Police intercepted dot walkers, spoke to bystanders drawn to the commotion, and that's how they had found Kamika Milstead, a 15-year-old neighbor who lived on 4th Street, which is one block from Polly's house. On the opposite side of the street, around 10.30 pm, 10 minutes before the kidnapping, kamika had seen an unfamiliar man walking back and forth across Polly's street. She described him as white, with brown hair and a mustache, and she didn't recall a beard. Shortly before the encounter, kamika had noticed a vehicle that circled the block at least five times before parking on the street outside her home. She was not really concerned about the car, so Kamika had walked past it on her way to a nearby 7-Eleven, on her way to a nearby 7-Eleven. On her way back, she saw the car was unoccupied and that's when she saw the man walking back and forth across 4th Street, about a block from Polly's house and as she got closer she felt his eyes watching her. So Kamika remembered some details about the man. She said he had been dressed in all black but couldn't remember any more details. Kamika reported a gray or black Toyota Tercel and that was the information that had been dispatched out on the all points bulletin.
Speaker 1:At 12, 14 AM the next day the police spoke with Talia Miller, an 11 year old neighbor who lived two doors down from Polly. She didn't play with Polly but she had seen her riding bikes with Annie on the sidewalk. Polly and her have never really developed a friendship of any kind. Talia had gone to Petaluma Cinemas to watch the Good Son with a friend and after the movie her uncle picked him up After dropping her friend off at home. They drove down 4th Street and noticed a man standing at the corner of 4th and F Street, about a block from Polly's house. Talia recalled the man was dressed in dark clothes, carrying a duffel bag under his left arm. Talia was able to look at the man through the car window. He slid his right hand over his face as he was trying to hide it, but she glimpsed a dark beard with a patch of gray. She found him kind of scary looking and after her uncle parked she waited to get out of the car until the man had passed and then he disappeared into the shadows A block from Polly's house.
Speaker 1:Police knocked and talked with 13-year-old Thomas George. Four of his buddies had come over after school to play basketball in his driveway and football at Wilkinson Park. His parents fixed him hamburgers for dinner and said they could rent a movie at Casa Vida. Around 8.30 pm Thomas was standing in his driveway waiting for his friends to come out of the house and that's when he noticed a man he had never seen in the neighborhood. The stranger was smoking a cigarette, carrying a bag in his left hand, walking towardauly's house. He recalled the man's dark clothes and particularly his boots because they fell on the pavement with a heavy sound. Thomas' friend came out of the house. They walked to Cosi Video and as they passed Pauly's house they noticed the man standing outside smoking. He was still there when they returned with the movie. Thomas dropped the basketball that they were throwing back and forth while they were walking and he rolled it toward the man. When he went to retrieve the ball it was only about 10 feet from the guy and Thomas was able to get a pretty look at him and he was wearing a dark, long-sleeved shirt. His hair was pepper gray and he had a beard.
Speaker 1:By morning, a composite sketch was already circulating and it showed a dark-haired man with heavily-lidded eyes, a full beard and a yellow bandana tied prominently across his forehead. Investigators grabbed a copy to show the young couple who rented the modern-law unit behind Pauly's house. 19-year-old Aaron Thomas was the full-time resident of 127 1⁄2 4th Street, a one-room cottage with a tiny kitchen. A one-room cottage with a tiny kitchen, and there was enough room for probably a recliner and a sofa bed. His 18-year-old girlfriend, rochelle, often spent the night, and the couple knew Polly only in passing.
Speaker 1:At the time of her adoption they had been spending a mellow Friday night watching movies at home with a friend, aaron, and Rochelle, who went by Shell, or Shelley, studied the composite sketch and it reminded them of an unfamiliar face they had seen in the neighborhood the day before Polly disappeared. On Thursday morning, while leaving their place, they noticed a white Ford Aerostar van parked near the intersection of F Street and 4th catty corner to Polly's house, and they saw the driver, a white male with brown hair and a full beard. Two hours later on the way home, aaron noticed the van was still parked on the corner, the driver still inside sitting, and he found that odd. He made a U-turn planning to ask the man why he had been there so long. As he swung the car around, the driver noticed him, started the van and sped off. Aaron wasn't able to get the license plate and he have not seen that man or the minivan since. The driver resembled the composite sketch sort of, but Aaron and Shelly were not sure it was the same guy. They have not seen his face all that well.
Speaker 1:The following night, when Polly was taken, the couple had not seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. They had been watching movies with the volume turned up. The neighbor's dog, a barker, had not made a sound. They didn't know anything was wrong until the cops flooded into the neighborhood. Aaron recalled that their visitor, who had been sitting by the open door, had noticed something unusual. After learning of the kidnapping, the friend told him he had seen a man entering Paulie's house. The witness's name was Sean Bush.
Speaker 1:On the night of the kidnapping, sean Bush, age 25, had arrived at 427 and a half 4th Street at around 7.57 pm, a time he would later recall, specifically because his friends gave him grief for being late. For the past three weeks they had fallen into a weekend routine. They would gather at Aaron and Shelly's on Friday night to hang out or catch a movie and then go out on Saturday night. This Friday Sean was running late and that derailed their plans to go to the movies, so they decided to stay in and rent videos instead. At around 8.15 pm about the same time Kate McLean's mother dropped her off at Polly's house. Sean and Aaron left to buy drinks and rent movies. Kate's mother, alex McLean, recalls seeing a man in dark clothing walking past Polly's house as she backed out of the driveway. Sean and Aaron didn't notice him on the way to Eastman Video. After picking up movies, they made a quick stop at a nearby liquor store to buy wine coolers and return around 9 pm. That's when Aaron noticed that the back door of Polly's service porch was wide open, though the door between the porch and the kitchen was closed. They settled in for the night as Sean fiddled with the VCR to get the sound in sync with the stereo, they started their first movie, children of the Corn 2, around 9.30 pm.
Speaker 1:Partway through the film, around 10 or 10.15, Sean got up to use the restroom. The porch light was on. As he left the cottage, climbed the steps onto Pauly's back deck and entered the service porch where the bathroom was off to the right. He saw nothing suspicious and after using the bathroom Sean returned and they continued watching the movie. When it was over they didn't bother to rewind the VHS tape before popping on the next movie, the Color Purple.
Speaker 1:The front door of the cottage was open and through it Sean had a view of Polly's back door. He lit a cigarette during the first part of the film, which he has seen before. So Sean glanced outside and saw a man walking through the backyard toward the back of Polly's house. The man appeared to notice Sean and immediately turned his face away. Sean wasn't sure if this guy was avoiding his gaze or just looking where he was going to the house he was about to enter. The light outside the cottage was bright so Sean was able to see the man clearly. He appeared to be wearing dark pants, a tight, short-sleeved knit shirt, no glasses. Sean guessed he was 5'11". His skin appeared tanned and his dark hair was long enough to flip up in the back. Sean didn't recall a beard as the man approached the back door of the house, he seemed to pause his head, dipping slightly, as if he were peering into Polly's kitchen through the window or the glass in the door. Sean saw the man extend his hand, perhaps to grab the doorknob, and then Sean turned back to the movie.
Speaker 1:It was roughly 10.30 pm. The man's stride was casual. He moved like he had been there before, like he knew where he was going, and Sean thought the man belonged there, so he didn't mention it to his friends. Sean used the restroom again after seeing the man enter the house, but he didn't see or hear anything unusual. He had been drinking, but not much, maybe half a wine cooler. He recalled that the neighbor's dog, who usually barked at him whenever he walked to the bathroom, had not barked at the man. And as the night temperature dropped they shut the cottage door. They turned on the heat. They also turned off the porch light. Five or ten minutes later the neighbor's dog began barking. A flashlight appeared in the window. When Aaron went to open the door and see what the matter was, a cop yelled at him to close the door and stay in the house. Roughly 45 minutes after police arrived at Polly's house, sean Bush figured out what was going on and he realized that the man he observed may not have belonged at the house. So he asked Aaron if other people ever used the back door and Aaron told him no, they normally don't use that entrance. Sean told his friends about the man and they agreed that Sean should inform the police. Sean put aside an officer and reported what he had seen. He provided a brief written statement and signed it before going home.
Speaker 1:On Saturday morning two FBI agents show up at the restaurant where Sean worked. They close the doors, pull off their jackets, reveal their guns. They told him they wanted to ask him some questions and they grilled him for nearly two hours. Sean repeated the details of what he had seen over and over five times. He found it very intimidating. The FBI agents did not appear to believe him and he wondered if he was a suspect. They kept telling me and this is him talking. He says, quote they keep telling me that I didn't make sense and that my description did not match the girl's description. So what I was talking about and who did I see, unquote A key detail he could not corroborate, of course, was the presence of the yellow bandana. Corroborate, of course, was the presence of the yellow bandana.
Speaker 1:So meanwhile, in the police department in Petaluma, the command center operated around the clock, a hive of activity. It felt chaotic but also had a systematic flow. Tables were pushed to the perimeter, the middle of the room, a terminal where bodies moved briskly in every direction shutting information. One table they called it the strategy table served as the hotspot for formulating leads. Another table was the place for dispatching leads, recording new information when cops and agents returned from an investigation. There was another table that was for processing information and tacking it up on boards.
Speaker 1:Clerical staff and dispatchers were answering phones, taking messages and writing notes. The tips determined to be viable leads were assigned to investigative teams that paired an FBI agent with a Petaluma officer. Reports were handwritten or typed, photocopied, then marked with a rubber stamp that indicated the recipient. Paperwork flow in every direction. Tips were coming in at the rate of more than 100 per day and the paper-based lead tracking system threatened to buckle under his load. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:One of the tips led two agents to Petaluma's Fair West Market and Bar. They were looking to interview witnesses about a man who fit the suspect description White male, mid-30s or mid-40s, six feet tall, around 235 pounds, dark hair to his shoulders, full beard. The bartender said this guy, a local, had come into the bar on Friday evening straight from the airport, returning home from a trip to New York. He was carrying three cloth gym bags and he asked the bartender to keep an eye on them. One of the bags contained a length of rope and the bartender asked what the rope was for and the bearded man replied that it was for some personal business he had to take care of that night. The next evening around 7.45 pm the man returned to the bar. His shoulder-length hair had been cut above his ears. Still long in the back, his beard was now a goatee. Around 8.25 pm a male patron told him he looked like the guy on the kidnapping poster and that's when the man left the bar.
Speaker 1:Several sources said the bearded man was known for illegal drug use, unwanted sexual advances toward women and bringing minors into the bar attempting to buy them drinks. A female witness said that he had made unwelcome passes at her and had followed her on several occasions. She heard him make lewd remarks about young girls. Another female acquaintance said the man had told her he could get a hold of a kid any time he wants one. He worked as a construction roofer, lived in a barn off Bodega Avenue but he drove, but he didn't own a vehicle and had a suspended license. A female colleague who worked with him at a construction site in Tomales said that they were building a few new houses and she thought that they ought to look there for Polly.
Speaker 1:Several Petaluma police officers drove out to Tomales Bay to search the construction site but didn't find Polly. A record search revealed a colorful criminal history vehicle theft, burglary, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with intent to murder. He has served time in prison and currently had an outstanding no bail warrant for his arrest. They arrested him at his home at 3.30 am and took him to Petaluma Police Department for an interview. He gave them an alibi for his whereabouts late Friday night, but the agents didn't trust him. At 4.30 am they concluded the interview and turned him over to the cops who booked him for an outstanding warrant and took him to Sonoma County Jail. As promising as this lead had appeared, it was a dead end because he wasn't the guy.
Speaker 1:On Saturday evening the phone rang at Mark Klass' home in Sausalito. This is a police stand, rosalito. This is Polly's dad, mark, and his girlfriend Violet had left that morning but had asked Violet's three sisters to stay at their place and answer the phone. Violet's brother-in-law, hank Marr, had answered a number of calls that day from family, friends and the media when the phone rang again around 10.15 pm and a young girl's voice asked and said is Mark there? And Hank said no, who's calling? And she said this is Polly. She sounded nervous and upset but was speaking clearly. So Mark said Polly, where are you? And she said San Francisco. No, daly City. He said where in Daly City? She said the Daly Inn. And she asked who is this? He said this is Hank. She asked again where is my dad? And he said he's in Petaluma with your mother. And she said tell my father, I'm fine, he has not heard me, he's coming back. And the line went dead. Hank, who was married to Violet's sister, had known Polly for five or six years now and he had no doubt that this was her voice.
Speaker 1:The news made its way quickly to the command center and Agent Freyer's stomach twisted when he heard about the call. He knew that he blew it because he had ordered a trap and trace on the mother's phone and but he had forgotten to tap the fathers. An agent mobilized and quickly discovered there was no daily inn in Daly City, just south of San Francisco. So after searching every other motel in Daly City, every day's inn from San Francisco to San Jose, they determined that the call was a prank. Meanwhile, mark Klass was staying at a motel in Petaluma waiting for news of his daughter's rescue. No news came At 3 am. Unable to sleep, he slipped on his shoes, left the room, walked across the street In the empty parking lot of a grocery store. He fell to his knees in the moonlight and screamed.
Speaker 1:So now it's Saturday morning in downtown Petaluma, over Petaluma, people awoke to police face on the morning news. Television crews, newspaper reporters were already on the story, tipped off by the police scannersanners they monitor to eavesdrop on radio traffic. A local businessman and grandfather was driving downtown when the news spilled out of the radio of his cherry blazer and a little voice inside said pay attention to this. Bill Rhodes owned PIP Printing, or PIP Printing. It was a local print shop in the heart of downtown on the corner of Kentucky Street and Western Avenue. From his car phone he dialed the Petaluma police and spoke with Sergeant Mike Kearns, and next he called his wife, sherry. His voice quavered as he told her about Polly.
Speaker 1:Bill Rose, who was a certified emergency medical technician, had worked as a paramedic and an ambulance driver in Wyoming and he had served as a state advisor in developing emergency response procedures. He was known to donate his time in printing services to all sorts of local causes, from printing little tickets to helping put on the annual Children's Home Society fashion show. On the car phone, bill and Sherry Rhodes devised a plan. They could print flyers at the print shop, get volunteers to wallpaper the town. They would organize a community search Immediately. They started recruiting friends.
Speaker 1:By the time Sherry met Bill at the print shop later that morning, the Xerox machines were already churning out copies of the flyer released by police and the FBI. It showed a black and white photo of Pauly next to a composite sketch of the suspect, who was described as a white male adult, 30 to 40 years, dark or gray hair, with a full beard, wearing dark clothing. Both the sketch and the written description indicated a yellow bandana around his head. Soon a small crowd began to amass at Pip, eager to help. Friends and neighbors grabbed armfuls of flyers to tape on storefront windows and stapled to telephone poles. Within hours every business in town had a copy. Many had three or four.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, in a nearby Sonoma town, a single mother came home from a work trip to find her 13-year-old daughter and babysitter staring aghast at the news on TV. Joanne Gardner was a producer and director who had been shooting a music video in LA for Rodney Crowe, a country music singer and songwriter. Her daughter, jessica, looked a lot like Pauly Class. Gardner showed that the reporters were interviewing anyone who would stop talking, walking sorry, and much of what they were saying was speculation or just plain nonsense. Someone needed to handle the press and stanch this flow of conjecture.
Speaker 1:Gardner loaded her daughter in the car, drove to Petaluma, where they enter the crowd at Pitt Print Shop, and she asked can you tell me who's running the show here? And someone waved over Bill Rhodes. And Gardner told him you got to get your arms around the press. This is a big story and they're letting idiots talk on the camera. Rhodes said he didn't know how to do that and she said I can help. She was introduced to Polly's mother, eve Nicole, who was distraught but optimistic and she would be grateful if Gardner could manage the press until then. And she said of course I'll handle it till we find her. So Gardner instructed volunteers to stop speculating on camera, schedule a proper press conference during which someone with media training could deliver information grounded, in fact, equipped with a BlackBerry phone and a portable computer his laptops were not yet widespread at that time she parked herself in a corner and wrote a press release which she printed on a dot matrix printer and faxed it to the associate press.
Speaker 1:Days later, sensing the need for backup, she would dial a friend, another media savvy woman she knew from the music industry, and she told her this hey, this girl, this little girl, has been kidnapped. I'm surrounded by people who can't make a sentence. I know you do marketing. I need help. So Gaynard Rogers was the manager for blues musician. Roy Rogers considered one of the finest slide guitarists of his generation, and they were married. They have a seven-year-old daughter who was also named Jessica. Rogers had been trained in music and film publicity, so she knew how to help a journalist get what they needed for a story. Roy was on the road touring. She was at home alone with Jessica, but something about the tone in her friend's voice made her drop everything and she told her I'll be there as soon as I can Across town.
Speaker 1:A newspaper man at a turning point in his life was hearing the news from his wife, who had learned about it at the farmer's market. Jay Silverberg, a tall, thin man with kind eyes and dark eyes and a touch of gray in his hair, looked up with a new kind of curiosity he was no longer in the news business. With a new kind of curiosity. He was no longer in the news business. Just three weeks earlier he had retired from his post as editor-in-chief of the Marin Independent Journal, which was a daily paper in Nevada with a circulation of 43,000. He had decided to start a new business, a small public relations firm that specialized in crisis management. The company was still an idea taking shape in his mind, but his skills were already sharp. Silverberg walked into Pitt Printing and asked I'm looking for the media person. So someone led him to John Gardner and he introduced himself as Jay Silverberg and asked you know how can I help? And Gardner shook his hand and smiled and handed him a stack of phone slips and she said sit down and take these. Silverberg flipped through the phone slips, recognizing the names of local reporters. This was his first time on the other side of the news, so he nodded and started dialing. That was Saturday night.
Speaker 1:Rhodes attended a local fundraiser that drummed up $60,000 for Petaluma kids with cancer. In front of the full house he called for help, asking for volunteers to pass out flyers and join the search. On Sunday morning, mayor Patty Hilligoss and City Councilwoman Carol Barless were among the scores of Petalumans who answered the call. A queue formed along Kentucky Street where a volunteer dispatched 140 search teams to different parts of town. In groups of three or four they walked through alleys along the Petaluma River, scoring the woods and the fields, parting bushes, splashing through creeks and looking for anything suspicious. Some searches were horses, mountain bikes, into the Oak Creek Hills and Oak Studded Valleys. Petaluma PT set guidelines. They said don't touch anything that might be evidence and if you see the subject, don't make contact. Call the police immediately if you happen to find anything. Many of the groups included children and teenagers and even some of Poli classmates were part of the search. Meanwhile, in the print shop, rhodes divided a map of Petaluma into 17 different areas and assigned groups to plaster each one with flyers. They even have kids on bicycles coming there asking to help.
Speaker 1:Rhodes told the Petaluma Angus Courier quote we just gave them a handful of flyers, told them to put them up in the area where they didn't see any end quote Big Buttons, the mail-order children's clothing company where Eve worked, donated $5,000 in reward money and challenged other local businesses to do the same. Colleagues delivered home-cooked meals to Eve and Annie. One co-worker carried her five-and-a-half-month-old daughter as she and her husband walked through Leachow Creek hoping to find Polly. Like Eve, they remained fiercely hopeful. By some counts, 1,000 friends and neighbors came out to help. Ruth Vanderbeet of the San Jose-based Vanished Children's Alliance told the Oakland Tribune that it was one of the biggest shows of support she's ever seen.
Speaker 1:By Sunday afternoon they had printed and posted 100,000 flyers throughout the Bay Area. Sports fans took them to Candlestick Park, slipped them on the windshield wipers at the San Francisco 49ers game. Stacks were passed to truckers and Grand Hound bus drivers. Who brought in their circulation. Who brought in their circulation?
Speaker 1:As Sunday wound down, 150 people held a vigil by the lake at Luchesi Park. It was an impromptu community gathering to show support for Polly and her family. Another 100 people gathered in prayer at the Petaluma Community Center. Candlelight vigils and prayer circles had begun popping up across the region, the emotion rippling outward Tundra painted homemade signs. We love you, polly. And people of all ages pinned on purple ribbons Polly's favorite color as friends and neighbors and absolute strangers rallied around them. Polly's family oscillated between grief and gratitude. The love and support were overwhelming. So were the fear and uncertainty. Not even 48 hours had passed since Kate McLean had found herself bound and gagged on Polly's bedroom floor. Yet here she was among the searchers, coming in the fields between Highway 101 and the Petaluma River.
Speaker 1:At some point on Saturday, a pager went off in Washington DC alerting the staff of America's Most Wanted to the news of Polly's abduction. The primetime TV show featured reenactments of heinous crimes, imploring its national audience to help catch the criminals by phoning in tips on a toll-free hotline. Its host was John Walsh, the father of a kidnapped and murdered child and the founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the NCMEC, the nation's largest clearinghouse for missing kids. America's Most Wanted had caught an average of one criminal per show since its debut in 1988. Missing Child Coordinator, a young woman named Michelle Hurd, everywhere with her little Skype pager which alerted her as soon as an abduction was reported by local authorities or the NCMEC. Her first order of business, regardless of the hour, was to send a public service announcement to all Fox affiliates, and next she had to get herself and a film crew to the scene of adoption. They landed to Petaluma the very next day, tragically, michelle Horde would one day become the grieving mother of a murdered child. In 2017, her then-husband killed her seven-year-old daughter.
Speaker 1:Gabrielle Hoard, a former producer for Good Morning America, shared her story of tragedy and resilience in a memoir called the Other Side of Yet Finding Light in the Mist of Darkness. So this woman at this time she was only 23 years old, not yet a mother, but something about Polly Would linger with her Forever. And it was personal. What other reporters were kept at bay by John Gardner's protective PR skills? Horde sat on Polly's couch with Eve, who asked for advice on how to survive the crushing demands of the media. It was a role the other journalists didn't usually have or get to play, so she took that role very seriously. That role very seriously Because they were a show that had John Walsh as their host and really their North Star. They walked with people expecting not just a reporter but a counselor in a connection with the national children missing and exploited children. So she recalled decades later that there were all these other roles and expectations and access to law enforcement and the family that 48 hours and 60 minutes and other folks on the lawn were not getting.
Speaker 1:Horde had visited many communities to respond to an abduction, sometimes came out in full force to help search. Others seemed to be more concerned about how the crime made their community look to the rest of the world. Horde and her crew filmed police segment on Sunday on a quiet dock by the Petaluma River where they interviewed Mark and Eve, kate and Jillian. The episode would be edited quickly and ready to air on Tuesday. After returning from the taping, kate was interviewed again by the FBI. She and Jillian had been interviewed over and over so many times by so many people. They might be young but they were smart enough to realize. Many of the people thought they were lying, but Kate had requested this interview.
Speaker 1:During the America's Most Wanted taping. A new theory had occurred to her. Maybe the kidnapper was hired to take Polly her. Maybe the kidnapper was hired to take Polly. When asked why she suspected this, she said it was because the kidnapper had been gentle and because of what he had told them. He said he didn't want to hurt them, he only wanted money.
Speaker 1:Kate lamented the number of people who had learned that she was a witness. Her brother had told the soccer team that she was still mad at him about it. She was also surprised at Petaluma's outpouring of concern and all the attention. Kate said that she had not heard from Polly. If Polly were to contact anyone she thought it would be her, her best friend, and it shot instead.
Speaker 1:And this was so stressful because at this point it was still believed that the kidnapper had entered the house through a window. Where did Kate believe he entered? And Kate said that he had to come in through the window because it was the only thing that was open. So they asked her did she think Polly was safe? And she answered yes, she didn't think that the stranger intended to hurt her. He was just doing it for the money. So another question Did she think the man had anyone helping him? And she said no, I think he went solo. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:At a press conference on Monday, october 4th Eve, nicole stepped before a crowd of reporters and TV cameras. Articulate but visibly trembling, she says this child is the light of our lives. If we could get her back safely, it's just the best possible thing that could happen. I sense she's okay. Her friends have been feeling her energy. We are optimistic, feeling her energy, we are optimistic.
Speaker 1:The cops and feds were less so and FBI spokesman Rick Smith said we have no motives, no demands, no ransoms, no suspects. One third of the Petaluma police force had been assigned to the case, along with 35 FBI agents. They had received more than a thousand tips and had investigated more than 150 leads. None had unearthed a suspect. The odds were grim. Mark Mershon, the FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, or ASAC, had worked a number of kidnapping cases and thought about the rule of thirds that applies specifically to stranger abductions. One-third of the victims are recovered alive, one-third are found dead and one-third simply disappear. Agent Tom Lafreniere had also worked a number of kidnappings and was hoping for a ransom call. Had also worked a number of kidnappings and was hoping for a ransom call. Most victims who were found alive were located during the first 72 hours.
Speaker 1:Petaluma Sergeant Mike Kearns told the press that the window was rapidly shrinking. Some clues were emerging. There were no signs of forced entry. Some investigators surmised the kidnapper had entered through a window or unlocked door. Kate and Jillian were fairly sure the front door had been locked, but a window had been opened. Sean Bush had seen a man walk into the back door. The girls maintained that the back door was locked, but Polly's mother wasn't so sure. She wondered if Polly had left it unlocked. When she put the vacuum cleaner back on the service porch A bloodhound was sent from Contra Costa, but the dog lost Polly's scent outside her home.
Speaker 1:That suggested the kidnapper fled in a car. Locals have noticed an unfamiliar vehicle cruising through the neighborhood on Friday. It was a gray Honda Civic or Accord with primer paint on the driver's door and left front fender. The car had not been located yet, but a couple of weeks back in Cotati, a town about five miles away, a man was reported for approaching young girls while wearing makeup and a blonde wig. He had been driving a gray car. They had so many leads, but they spidered out instead of converting on a common path.
Speaker 1:There were several theories circulating based on the circumstances of the crime. The first was that Polly had been targeted. The kidnapper may have seen her before. This theory was supported by tips that claimed that a man resembling the police sketch had been seen in Wickersham Park, catty-cornered to Polly's house in the days before the abduction. Another theory proposed a crime of opportunity by a burglar who encountered the girls in the act of breaking in and spontaneously decided to kidnap Polly in and spontaneously decided to kidnap Polly. A third scenario involved a professional hired to steal a little girl, maybe Polly in particular. Did someone hire him to take her? Did he steal her for himself? It's all speculation. Eve seemed to believe that. The second theory, that a burglar, finding nothing better to steal, took Polly. He had asked where the value was before spiriting her off.
Speaker 1:Mark disagreed because he said, on the other hand, he felt that he came into this house looking intentionally for the little girl who lives in this house and he made a strong point of making sure who he was or who she was. I should say it doesn't make any sense to me. So everyone was puzzled by the kidnappers question. Which one of you lives here? Why would he ask that the girls have been playing with makeup? Maybe that's why he didn't recognize her. He said there were too many people there. Had he been casing the house? So Mark Klaas said my gut feeling is that this kidnapping was not random.
Speaker 1:She knows that this is not a wonderful world for small children. I have always tried to teach her how to handle herself with strangers and keep a cool head. If there is a way out of this, she'll find it because she's a bright girl. Eve's face was taught with worry, but her voice projected hope and she would say Polly, we feel your light and energy. We know you are okay and if you are the man who has Polly, please just take really good care of her and give us a call. She's very special to us. Polly's little sister, annie, also had something to say to reporters At the press conference.
Speaker 1:She announced in a tiny voice that she had seen the man in the drawing at the store. She was talking about Starnes Market where Polly and Jillian had gone to buy ice cream on the evening of the abduction. The owner of Starnes Market later said he believed that Annie was referring to a homeless man who frequented Working Shed Park. Referring to a homeless man who frequented Working Shed Park, the man looked a bit like the composite sketch. The shop owner conceded, but he said the man was an alcoholic and he didn't believe him to be capable of such a crime. As Pauly's family spoke to the press, some reporters recognized a white-haired big spectacle man in the room. It was David Collins, the father of Kevin Collins, one of the most prominent kidnapping victims in the Bay Area. Kevin Collins was a fourth grader who had been missing for nine years and he was last seen on February 10, 1984. And he was never found.
Speaker 1:When Kevin vanished in 1984, newsweek reported that 1.8 million children a year were going missing, but didn't cite the source of the statistic, further adding to the general confusion and panic about how common adoptions actually were. There was no uniform set of criteria for defining who counted as a missing child, and sociologists such as Joe Best at the University of Delaware had written extensively on the statistical inconsistencies of what came to be known as the missing child movement. The number of true stranger adoptions are particularly poorly quantified, with estimates ranging from 6,000 to 50,000 cases. Only a few cases are solved and even few stranger abducted children are recovered alive, and this was reported by Newsweek in 1984. And nine years later, the kidnapping data was sharper, a bit more hopeful. Of the cases reported to NCMEC in 1993, there were 73 non-family abductions in which a child was missing for more than 24 hours and 15 non-family abductions in which the child was recovered more than 50 miles from the location of their abduction. As with many parents of kidnapped children who are killed or never found.
Speaker 1:Kevin's parents, david and Anne DC Collins, coped with their loss by helping others. In 1984, they created the Kevin Collins Foundation to support the families of other missing kids. David Collins drove to Petaluma as soon as he heard the news about Paulie. Empathetic and realistic, he had a calm and guiding presence that Mark Klaas seemed to lean on. And Collins said look, right now he's an information overload and he's scared. Right now he's an information overload and he's scared. He's trying to process everything. He needs to get some rest, he needs to slow down and let this sink in. And Mark would say I'm trying to stay as close to Dave as I can. I think he's the only one here who knows how I feel.
Speaker 1:By Monday, pip printing was too small to contain the 100 volunteers answering calls, stuffing envelopes, accepting donations ranging from food to fax machines. With help from the Kevin Collins Foundation and San Jose-based Banished Children's Alliance, the search center was moved to a larger headquarters in an abandoned storefront at 136 Kentucky Street that would years later become Copperfields Books. The volunteer effort had a name the Poly Class Search Center. It was operating increasingly like a non-profit organization. The media gravitated to the volunteers. In the absence of useful leads or a viable suspect, the volunteers offered a powerful human interest story, a portrait of community galvanized by a crisis. The volunteers showed hope manifesting in action.
Speaker 1:Joan Gardner. As a music video director, she was a skilled and nuanced storyteller. She knew how to use the details and imagery to conjure emotion. She understood the symbiotic relationship between the volunteers, the media and the investigation. Gardner wanted readers and viewers across the country to see Polly not as a statistic but as a child who reminded everyone of a daughter, a niece, a grandchild or a cousin. She wanted everyone to look at Polly's face and think that could be my kid face and think that could be my kid. She became a press release machine, generating a fresh angle every day. She would walk through the volunteer center and think what can we give them?
Speaker 1:Today, one of the volunteers answering the phones was Jenny Thompson, a 22-year-old college student living in Rohnert Park about 10 miles north of Petaluma, and when she saw the police face on the news she knew that she needed to join the volunteers and help. Liston and I went to her shift. Jenny answered the phone and a caller asked for Kevin Collins. She held the receiver aside and addressed the hustling room and she said someone is asking for Kevin Collins. Is there a Kevin Collins here? So the room fell instantly silent. David Collins, kevin's father, just happened to be at the volunteer center and Jenny felt the heat of a hundred stares as she handed him the phone. The prank call was creepy and it frightened her. She asked to be taken off the phones to stuff envelopes. Instead, she mailed a batch of flyers to her sister, who put them up all over Fresno.
Speaker 1:Jenny Thompson was one of thousands of volunteers compelled by Polly's story. Many of them would be forever changed by the experience. Many of them would be forever changed by the experience. But perhaps no other volunteer will see their future pivot as profoundly Because this young lady would go on to join the FBI, find missing children, change laws. Three decades from this moment, jenny Thompson would reflect on the course of her life and say it was all because of Pauline. We'll be right back. That was October 5th, this is Tuesday October 5th, and this Tuesday evening, just before 9pm, two dozen volunteers put down the phones and flyers and gathered around a small TV and it started. Good evening from Washington. I'm John Walsh. This is America's Most Wanted.
Speaker 1:America's Most Wanted was the centerpiece of John Walsh's crusade to avenge the kidnapping and murder of his son. As a means of moving forward from this devastating loss, walsh channeled his anger and grief into actions to help missing kids. He lobbied for the 1982 Missing Children Act, which created a nationwide computerized database of missing children and authorized the FBI to get involved immediately in a child adoption. He and Reve created the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which strengthened the collaboration between government and law enforcement agencies. Established by Congress in 1984 and funded by the Department of Justice, today it remains the biggest national clearinghouse for information on missing children and resources to help bring them home.
Speaker 1:Walsh's advocacy, work and notoriety led to his selection as the host of America's Most Wanted, a half-hour television show that invited the public to help investigators hunt perpetrators of violent crimes. Every Tuesday, wash reached an audience of 15 million viewers and generated 3,000 to 4,000 phone calls per show from people offering tips. America's Most Wanted empowered its audience members to do something about it. America's Most Wanted offered two things Watch knew to be critical speed and reach. The more time elapsed, the farther a kidnapper could flee with the victim. So the film crew acted quickly, arriving in Petaluma two days after Pauly's kidnapping, one day after being notified, the reach of Prime Time TV ensured that, no matter how far the kidnapper ran, millions of eyes would be watching On the show.
Speaker 1:Kate and Jillian, identified only by their first names, spoke publicly for the first time since Polly's abduction. Kate wore a pink T-shirt and hugged a white t-shirt to her chest Banks swept to one side of her forehead. Jillian wore a white turtleneck under a dark navy sweater. Dark brown hair cropped in a chin-length bob, and they were standing basically side by side on a sailboat docked in the Petaluma River, and these two 12-year-olds carried themselves with a poise that seemed incongruous with their age. Jillian's voice was softer and younger, but her delivery was calm and articulate. Kate's voice had an adamant edge that seemed to date anyone to question her veracity. Taking turns, they told the story of what happened.
Speaker 1:Investigators were hopeful too. Petaluma detective Andy Massati had flown to Washington DC to be a resource for the phone banks. If a caller claimed to be the kidnapper or offered a questionable tip, he had intimate knowledge of the case and would vet the caller's authenticity. Some worry that all the publicity could endanger a missing child. America's Most Wanted recharged the investigation at a moment when tips had started to dwindle from 100 to 50 a day After the show. Investigators began receiving 250 to 350 a day. The majority of the callers mentioned watching the show.
Speaker 1:Larry Massad, a tech reporter for the Los Angeles Times, was driving south on Highway 101 through the heart of Silicon Valley when the news of Pauli's abduction came across the radio of his Volvo. He was headed to San Jose to meet with Netcom, a five-year-old company that provided a dial-up access to the World Wide Web. But when he heard about the volunteer effort he felt a strong impulse to bail on his meeting and join the search. He was a seasoned journalist, maybe even a little jaded, but Pauline made him think of his own 11-year-old daughter. In the middle of writing a book called Cruising Online Laving Magic's Guide to the New Digital Highways, he was an early adopter of that new technology that he covered. He owned the latest modem, which gave him access to the information superhighway. As a journalist, he had professional relationships with America Online, compusurf and Prodigy. These were the three internet service providers that published his indicated column.
Speaker 1:He knew how to post on all the electronic bulletin boards. Sure, he could drive a couple of hours north and join the volunteers passing out paper flyers, but he possessed the skills and equipment to distribute them online all the way to China. He picked up his cell phone and called the volunteer center in Petaluma. Whoever answered the phone was unfamiliar with the term email, so he was handed off to a volunteer named Gary Judd, an unemployed computer salesman who was tapping his own personal network to get computers donated to the search center. Gary Judd also happened to own a scanner. He scanned a photo of Polly Klass and the composite sketch and emailed them to Larry Majid. It probably took an hour to transmit over pre-broadband connections, but both files arrived intact.
Speaker 1:Larry Majid created a digital poster that could be distributed online. This was well before social media and user-generated content, so he had to convince his contacts at NOL and Prodigy and CompuServe to post the flyer. They did in a prominent location and Majid said that quote Once it gets into the bulletin boards, it's like a good virus it proliferates, end quote. While America's Most Wanted told Polly's story to a national audience of 15 million Americans, the internet make it global, available to another 15 million people. And what's unprecedented, according to Majid, is that this technology isn't just in the hands of police agencies, but average citizens. It was, as far as he knew, the first time a missing person flyer had been transmitted digitally. As he predicted, it proliferated until 8 million Polyclass flyers had been transmitted, printed and posted around the world.
Speaker 1:Larry Majid couldn't predict how polyclass would change the course of his life. At Comdex, a computer industry trade show in Las Vegas, he would be guest chef at a chili cook-off, and that's how he would meet Ernie Allen, who was the head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Majid would become the NCMEC resident expert on internet safety. Working together, majid and Allen would find new ways of using technology to help missing children and prevent their abduction. They would write a booklet called Child Safety on the Information Highway. Majid would go on to found SafeKidscom, connectsafelyorg, two websites dedicated to educating kids and adults about online safety. He would one day work with John Walsh the day after America's Most Wanted.
Speaker 1:Pauli's story dominated the entire front page of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and the Petaluma Angers Courier, but major metro dailies still treated it as a regional story. The San Francisco Chronicle, san Francisco Examiner, los Angeles Times covered the story, but not on the front page. Publicity not only generated more leads, but also kept the volunteers engaged and energized. Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.