.jpg)
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Tragedy in Petaluma: The Kidnapping of Polly Klaas Part XI
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What if a single traumatic event could change the course of your life forever? In this gripping episode, we take you into the harrowing experience of Kate McLean, who was thrust into the spotlight following her friend Polly Klaas's kidnapping. We uncover Kate's journey through intense anxieties, emotionally charged interactions with the FBI, and the overwhelming task of identifying a suspect. This chapter of our story paints a vivid picture of the immense emotional strain on young witnesses and the lasting scars left by such traumatic events.
Kate's poignant frustration culminates in her identifying Richard Allen Davis as the prime suspect during a photo lineup, sparking a media frenzy and escalating tensions in the Petaluma community. Through Kate's eyes, we see the complex interplay of personal trauma and public intrigue.
Finally, we chart the critical moments of the investigation that led to Richard Allen Davis's parole violations and subsequent confession. Delve into the meticulous techniques employed by investigators to extract his admission and the systemic flaws that came to light. The emotional toll on Polly's family and community is palpable, with the episode highlighting coordinated law enforcement efforts and the heartbreaking discovery of Polly's fate. Join us for an in-depth exploration of the pursuit of justice in one of the most tragic cases of our time.
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is Part 11 of Tragedy in Petaluma, the Kidnapping of Polly Class. Let's begin so now. It's Wednesday, december 1st 1993. And on that Wednesday morning Kate McLean's mother woke her up early for school. Mrs McLean had waited to share the news, to make sure her daughter got a good night's rest, and she told her that they needed to go to Ukiah for a lineup with the guy the FBI and police had finally named a prime suspect, a man they had enough evidence to believe was Paulie's abductor. And now they needed Kate and Jillian to try to pick this man out of a lineup.
Speaker 1Kate instantly felt the worry and pressure set in. What if the kidnapper wasn't one of the guys in the lineup? What if he was and she didn't recognize him? Kate worried that whatever she did could mess up the investigation. Ever since the night she had witnessed her friend abducted by an intruder, kate had felt terrified, anxious and insecure. She had trouble falling asleep and worried the kidnapper would come after her. Her family installed a burglar alarm to help alleviate her fears. Kate also worried obsessively that her actions had undermined Polly's safety.
Speaker 1It wasn't just the kidnapping that had inflicted emotional trauma, it was also the way she had been treated and doubted and intimidated by the FBI. Kate and Julian had endured a series of experiences that would one day serve as a case study of how not to handle child witnesses. They have been put through two polygraph tests, a videotaped reenactment staged and filmed at the crime scene, and at least four interviews that had increasingly come to feel more like interrogations. Investigators' initial skepticism had been amplified by the minor inconsistencies the godforsaken bandana, the sound of a door that could not have slammed shut. When polygrapher Ron Healy had prescated on these details. It felt like an attack on her integrity, like being called a liar. Then, when Jean Boylan's sketch featured no yellow bandana, it deflated her self-confidence and eroded her faith in her memory. Kate had started to doubt herself. The brutal interrogation 48 hours after the kidnapping left the deepest scars. The mishandling of the young witnesses was one of the biggest mistakes of the case. It inflicted trauma on top of trauma. The girls were not just witnesses to their best friend being victimized. They were victims themselves. The investigators would one day try to make up for it by honoring them with a special award for courage, but to the girls it would feel hollow. Being courageous is a choice and the girls have not been given that choice. Kate had always been exceptional in her verbal ability and her powers of observation, but this experience with the FBI obliterated her confidence. The damage would last a lifetime and could never be undone.
Speaker 1On the morning of the lineup, kate was already feeling stressed out by the time she got to school. To her dismay, news about the lineup had already made its way through the halls of Petaluma Junior High. Kate and Jillian found themselves assaulted with questions from peers and well-meaning but discomforting attention from teachers. After surviving a few stares in home-grown class and a second-period meeting to coordinate yearbook pages dedicated to Polly, kate was picked up at school by her mother. She was pretty wound up. She was sort of hyper, as she described herself feeling.
Speaker 1They went to an appointment with Kate's therapist who reassured and encouraged her. Trying to alleviate the pressure. The therapist explained to Kate that it was just one small part of a large investigation. The outcome wasn't resting on her shoulders wasn't resting on her shoulders. After therapy Kate felt a bit better and they met with Sergeant Vail Bellow and an FBI agent who would take them to the lineup. Sergeant Bellow and the FBI agent explained how the lineup process would go, how it works. They encouraged Kate not to pressure herself to identify an individual if she didn't feel certain she recognized the kidnapper in the lineup. They explained that even if she couldn't make a positive ID, they still had enough to get the guy who had taken Pauline.
Speaker 1They enter the jail and make their way down several dark hallways to the viewing room. Someone explained the two-way mirror and let Kate stand on the other side in the room where the men would line up. She could only see her reflection. Kate understood that she wouldn't be visible, but it was still creepy and she felt a little scared about what she was going to see. Lavi Pelton read her the lineup instructions and these are the instructions that were given to Kate. It says, quote Because a police officer is showing you a group of subjects. This should not influence your judgment in any way. The person who committed this crime may or may not be in the group of subjects you are viewing. You are in no way obligated to identify anyone. Study each subject carefully before making any comments. Consider that hairstyles change and persons can alter their identity by growing or shaving facial hair. End quote. And Kate was doubting everything. She said that she didn't know why they were doing this, because she knew that the subject wouldn't be there.
Speaker 1After she returned to the darkened viewing room, six men in orange prison uniforms walked into the brightly lit room on the other side of the glass and each of them held a number. Held a number. The men were instructed to turn to the left and then turn to the right, face forward, walk to the back of the room, turn, walk to the mirror. One by one, they were instructed to say certain phrases. Some of the phrases that they were instructed to say were don't scream or I'll slit your throats. Is anyone else in the house who lives here? You're supposed to be alone. Show me where the valuables are Lie down. Put your hands behind you. Count to a thousand.
Speaker 1So Kate leaned into the glass and she started studying the figures intensely. Investigators warned her to scoot back a bit so the men couldn't see her silhouette. She backed away. Her eyes were moving from one face to the next. No face stood out as instantly recognizable. To the next, no face stood out as instantly recognizable. Some of them had a mustache, but no one had a salt and pepper beard. Kate asked if the men could read the phrases again.
Speaker 1As number one began talking, kate laid face down on the floor of the viewing room and put her hands behind her back. She stayed in this position as number two and number three spoke. When she heard the voice of number four, kate raised her head and looked at him. Then she put her nose back to the floor and listened to the rest. Kate ruled out two other subjects, a redhead and a white haired man who was a good big, shorter than the rest. But the others she wasn't sure. Kate identified four men as possibles but didn't single one out. Numbers 2, 3, 4 and 6 sort of sounded and looked like the guy she told investigators she was sorry that she couldn't be more specific.
Speaker 1After the lineup, as Kate waited in the backseat of the car, a photographer came to snap a photo of her face through the car's rear windshield her face, um, through the car's rear windshield, and then sergeant bellow uh. When she drove them home, they she gave her a. They stopped at a 7-eleven. He treated kate uh to a slurpee and as a reward, and she was just affected by this.
Speaker 1Over the course of six hours investigators presented the lineup to 10 different witnesses. Most of them were unable to make a positive identification when Jillian viewed the lineup, the subjects read the same remarks they recited for Kate. Jillian said she couldn't identify anyone, though the hair on number six looked familiar. But unfortunately number six was an FBI agent asked to stand in to complete a lineup of six white males of similar age and build. Sean Bush said number four looked very close to the man he saw walking up to Pauly's back door. He had the same wiry hair, lighter on top, darker on the bottom, same skin tone, neck size, weight and eyes, but he wasn't certain enough to call it a positive ID.
Speaker 1Kamika Milstead didn't recognize the man she had been seen walking on Pauly's block shortly before the abduction and she said I don't think any of them were the guy. She said that there were major differences. In her statement she wrote number four looks familiar, but I don't think he's the one. Talia Miller, who had noticed a scary looking guy with a bag while getting out of the car with her uncle, said she didn't see this man in the lineup. Thomas George, the middle school neighbor who spotted the suspect along with his friends, thought it could possibly be number two. He said that he's about the right height and weight, but he was not positive that it is him. He also walked like the guy he saw. He said. His friend Ben Morrison selected number four and number six and he said it's hard to tell because the person that I saw was standing far away and it was dark. Another friend, paul Kingsbury, selected number four, whose poster looked familiar, and the other friend, david Sabatari, said he didn't recognize any of them. The only witness who was able to make a positive ID was Daryl Stone, the neighbor who had been walking his dog on a nearby street when he saw the suspect and he said number four closely resembles a man I saw the afternoon of the incident Profile, very similar hair color, very close. I'm sure it's the person I saw that night.
Media Pressure and the Prime Suspect
Speaker 1At home in Petaluma Kate and her mother were watching the news when a photo of Richard Allen Davis flashed up on the screen. In this mock shot he had a full salt and pepper beard with a particular dark patch that really set it off. Kate flashed back instantly to the lineup Was this the number five guy or number four? And Kate's mother asked her did he look that evil? And Kate didn't answer. She just turned her face away On the news. Gene Boylan's sketch filled the TV screen and then, through some slight of video editing, the drawing melted into the photo of Richard Allen Davis. Maybe it was the power of suggestion seeing the sketch morph into the face, but Kate was almost positive. It was the face she had seen for a split second in Polly's room, but she was not quite certain enough to tell that to the police. She had learned to second guess herself and the thought of coming forward and telling investigators make her nervous. And you know, days later she would say I was worried that I wasn't right and then I would get in trouble or something, so I would mess up this case. The following night around midnight she started crying until she fell asleep. So this was hitting Kate hard.
Speaker 1Two days after the lineup, friday December 3rd, detective Andy Massanti went to Kate's house an hour or so before noon. Massanti was the giant Italian who had interviewed Jillian on the night of the kidnapping. He was the cop his colleagues called Mongo because of his size and monobrow, and the detective who still didn't know that he had been the one to locate the matching inked palm print. They sat down in the living room and Andy turned on the tape recorder. Kate's mother, alice, said she wanted to stay in the room this time she said I just got really sick of being out of it. You guys are doing a wonderful, fantastic job, but I just want to be here and Masanti agreed as long as Kate was allowed to speak for herself.
Speaker 1Masanti asked her to recount everything she remembered about Wednesday. When they reached the moment of viewing the lineup, he asked Kate what was going on in her head and she said I don't want to push it, I don't want to mess anything up. So he asked where that pressure was coming from Friends, the media, her parents, the police and the FBI. And that's when she let it all out. She said in quote In the first couple of weeks of the case I was pretty confident in myself, and then I flunked several polygraph tests and I still couldn't understand why.
Speaker 1Because I wasn't sure of myself enough to know what I had done wrong even, or whether or not I had exaggerated. I still don't know. It's just you don't have enough confidence after a while, you know, after flunking polygraph tests or being so unsure of yourself to the point where you can't even tell you were honest or dishonest. I have pretty much got the straightened out, but I still don't think I'll feel quite confident with this case, as I did in the first place, end quote.
Speaker 1To make matters worse, the media had found her phone number and she answered the phone and there was a reporter who was asking her information in a way that Kate felt was rather slimy. Several newspapers had printed erroneously that Kate and Jillian had viewed the lineup and made a positive identification. And she told that reporter on the phone no, no, no, no. Where did the papers get the information that we positively identified the man? And the reporter said oh so you're saying that you didn't positively identify him? And Kate said no, no, no, I'm not saying that, I'm not saying anything else. I'm saying where did you get the information? Because I don't think the police would release it. And that's when her mother grabbed the phone and you know she just went mad at the reporter. Kate Thomas said she had come to distrust the press and worried that they were going to undermine the investigation.
Speaker 1And Masanti put out six photographs of the man who appeared in the lineup. She said he said the person who committed the kidnapping may or may not be in these pictures. Ok, you know, we way obligated to identify anybody. So Kate asked even if I just said I don't know, you wouldn't care. Masanti said right, if that's the truth and that's what you feel, that's what we want you to say. So she said, okay, cool. So she studied each of the photographs carefully and before you know he's and know he's in my, don't make any comments. Just study the. You know the photographs, because either that the photographs could be old or new, the hairstyles change, the persons who have changed their appearance by growing or, she said, by shaving facial hair. So he said I'm going to show you six. I want you to go ahead, take a look at them, and what I want you to concentrate on is that split second that you saw him that night, the night of the kidnapping, not so much on what you saw since then. So she started looking at the photographs and she was like no, don't know, don't know, don't know. So number one is definitely out as the detective. And she said yeah. He said okay, what about six? It's definitely out. She said yeah, number five is also up. So there was down to number two, number three or number four and she said I think number four probably the most. When I saw him in those pictures from the media, you could still see like brown highlights in his beard and she pointed to suspect number four. And now her voice was certain and she said this is Mr Davis. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1On the morning of Thursday December 2nd, the media and the world got its first live glimpse of the new prime suspect. At 11.30 am, richard Allen Davis was brought from the Mendocino Jail to the Mount Sanedrin Municipal Court to attend his arraignment on drunk driving and subsequent failure to appear in court. Drunk driving and subsequent failure to appear in court and, of course, the court reader. Once they saw him walking toward the courtroom, they jammed it with cameras and reporters. He was dressed in his jail-issue orange jumpsuit and a red T-shirt. Several days of whisker growth hinted at the salt-and-pepper beard that he had shaved into a mustache. With shackled wrists and ankles, he was escorted by the sheriff and three deputies to a seat in the small jewelry box where he calmly looked around. Davis pleaded guilty to the charge of drunken driving. Judge Henry Nelson sentenced him to 30 days in jail with a credit for three days served. Within minutes he was escorted back to his cell in the Mendocino jail. Back in Petaluma there was talk of forming a lynch mob to greet him if he was ever moved to the jail in Pauley's hometown.
Speaker 1The arraignment revealed that Davis had been in contact with law enforcement twice since Pauley's hometown. The arraignment revealed that Davis had been in contact with law enforcement twice since Pauley's disappearance. The first time, one hour and 28 minutes after Pauley's abduction, was the 38-minute encounter with two Sonoma County deputies as they responded to Dana Jaffe's call about a trespass on her property off Pethean Road. The second occasion was a very brief stay at the Mendocino County Jail after he was arrested for a DUI on October 19. It was 18 days after Paulie's abduction, the day after James Hurd was arrested for impersonating a kidnapper and attempting to extort a $10,000 reward.
Speaker 1Davis was driving up to Ukiah to visit his sister and brother-in-law when California Highway Patrol Officer Robert McIntosh noticed a white Pinto weaving at 75 miles per hour in a 55-mile-an-hour zone on Highway 101 near Ukiah. Richard Allen Davis was behind the wheel. He still had shoulder-length gray hair but he had shaved his salt-and-pepper beard into a mustache so he didn't look quite as much like Gene Boylan's heavily circulated sketch. Davis said he had been trying to catch up with a car ahead in which he had noticed a female driver. He wanted to see if she was hot. The CHP officer, took his license, called it in to dispatch for a records check. The dispatcher checked the computer and radio, back no outstanding warrants. The officer smelled alcohol on his breath so he conducted a field sobriety test. Asking Davis to follow his finger with his eyes, the officer noticed a lateral misstamina which is like an eye bounce, which is a sign of intoxication. He then asked Davis to recite the alphabet. Another simple field sobriety test David forgot the S and the V A. Subsequent breathalyzer test register a blood alcohol content of 0.12 above 0.08 is the legal limit. Officer McIntosh arrested Davis for a DUI and booked him into the Mendocino County Jail where he was searched and his car was impounded. He stayed in the drunk tank for just a few hours before sobering up and being released.
Speaker 1While an arrest for any crime is a violation of parole, while an arrest for any crime is a violation of parole, the warrant wasn't triggered until Davis' parole agent learned about it. That was another failure of the system. Four months earlier, on June 28, the day after Davis was released from California Men's Colony, he was assigned to his parole agent, thomas Burns. Burns' job was to check in with Davis twice a month, supervise where he lived and worked and keep track of any contact he had with police and how he handled himself in the community. For the first meeting, burns met Davis at a hotel where he was staying and helped him set up an interview at Turning Point, which is a halfway house. After the interview, davis was accepted for a residency of 90 to 120 days.
Speaker 1On July 7th Davis informed Burns that he had gotten a job at a sheet metal company that he had gotten a job at a sheet metal company. They touched base three times in August. All seemed to be going well, but on August 9, lorraine London, an employee at Davis, holding court. In the street he was bragging about shootouts and robberies and getting high for days. Bernd, knowing Davis' background and penchant for crime sprees, didn't seem to concern. London later testified that Burns told her if Mr Davis did something he would not do it here and he would do it all in one day. He would do it all in one day.
Speaker 1On September 23rd Burns gave Davis a three-day travel pass to leave his 50-mile boundary and visit his sister and brother-in-law. So Davis rode a Greyhound bus to Ukiah, drove back to the Pinto which he bought from his brother-in-law for $200, which was like 70% of his savings. Burns did not make sure that Davis returned from Ukiah on time after his three-day pass. So there was no contact between Davis and Burns until October 12th when Burns did a collateral check with London at Turning Point, and it was during that 90-day gap that Pauley Class disappeared. On November 2nd Davis received permission to visit the Schwarm's again in Ukiah, but he failed to return as planned on November 15th.
Speaker 1Though investigations had announced Davis as the prime suspect in the kidnapping, he had not yet been charged with anything other than the DUI. He was still awaiting a hearing for parole violation. But as the media dug into his criminal history and printed a litany of his priors, readers and viewers were shocked and angry. One of the things that people said was, for example this guy's been in prison more times than I have brushed my teeth. The police should have been more concerned and naturally Mark Klaas, police father, was outraged too, and Mark told the press we have had enough of this. We have had enough of this as a country. We need to make changes. It's time to protect our children. It has to happen, because if it doesn't happen we are dead as a society.
Final Confession and Recovery Location
Speaker 1Tom Howard and my ranking the two Sonoma deputies who had encountered Davis on Pithian Road Were called in by investigators and asked to write supplemental reports. Not knowing all of the details and legal limitations, the public and the media began to excoriate them. There were, you know, like. For example, a person said sightseeing on a Friday night in the middle of winter, that's a little suspicious. If he's the guy and they had him an hour later, it's really pathetic that our system cannot deal with that. So this is another person's thought. So everyone in Petaluma was basically reeling from the emotional concussion that they're receiving, and a more member of the Polyclass foundation, gary Judge, said, quote I would say that this is probably the most emotional up and down day, and one of the things that they learned past midnight on Wednesday morning was that investigators had identified the prime suspect. So Judge couldn't go back to sleep that night thinking about what was to come, bracing for the onslaught.
Speaker 1The news of the prime suspect at last recharged her hope. Joanne Gardner and other volunteers remained very optimistic and she noticed the careful statements police were making to protect the investigation and inferred that they were working under the assumption that Polly was still alive. The bill wrote debacle had left the volunteers shaken, bewildered to think that a sex offender had been their leader, as Gardner put it, there was a collective sigh of relief that it was not someone they knew. When a TV station reported that human remains had been discovered, the hope and relief evaporated and plunged the volunteers into despair. When it turned out to be a rumor, their spirits rebounded, but the optimism was guarded. They had weathered many a rumor du jour over the past two months and it was emotionally exhausting. Eve had gone into seclusion. John Gardner was shielding her from the media.
Speaker 1Mark honored his promise to the FBI not to speak to the press about any details of the investigation, but he praised the efforts of both authorities and volunteers who pulled Anita out of a haystack. Mark had not slept since the day Davis was arrested and he wore his anguish visibly, his anguish visibly. He thought about the timeline, the 88 minute between Pauley's 10.40 pm abduction and the deputy's 12.08 am arrival at Pithian Road. He couldn't see how it was possible for Davis to have kidnapped her, driven 30 miles, taken her into the woods and killed her in an hour and 28 minutes. He suggested she had been taken and then handed over to others and he even said I don't know if she's with people or with angels. I don't know whether my daughter is alive or dead, we'll be right back. Taylor left the room to get the box of tissues.
Speaker 1Fbi profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole had recommended confrontation, but Mies read Davis's body language the back of his chair against the wall, shoulders square to the interviewer. He was showing signs, real or faint, of something resembling regret. So Mies decided to take a different approach and he said you want to go ahead and tell me what you were upset about? And David said almost everything. He said so, almost everything about everything. So this is bugging you eating at you. And he said yeah, and he started another cigarette. He said is she alive? Can we go get her? And this is where Mies went off the script for a bit.
Speaker 1Master interrogators almost always start with an open-ended questions what happened? What happened next? You know, let them tell the whole story, minimal interruptions, and then, when it's all on the record, they go back, make them tell it again, and this time with direct and clarifying questions, but based on Davis' phone call. Meese had walked into this interview expecting a confession. It was a gamble, but Meese loved the million-dollar question is she alive? And Davis' eyes were glued to the table and he shook his head slowly and said she's not alive.
Speaker 165 days into the search, 5 minutes and 44 seconds into the interview, they finally had the answer. The answer nobody wanted. They asked him. Miss asked him do you know where she is now? He said yeah, can you tell me? And David swiped his eyes. He said I'll show you, I'll show you. And Miss said it's important to let the family know. And he said yeah. So he said can you tell me about where she is? And he said alongside the freeway, just as you leave Cloverdale going south, going south back towards Santa Rosa. And he said off the side of the road, I'll show you, guys.
Speaker 1Taylor rose and silently left the room and he relayed the news to Eddie Freyer, setting other wheels into motion. Miss asked is she where somebody would walk up and find her? And he said yeah, surprised, nobody did it yet or smell anything. She ain't buried. And so me said if I was to go look for her, what would I look for? And David said again I'll show you. Better off that way, eddie Friar.
Speaker 1In the meantime he's back in the Petaluma Command Center where he got the call and his heart sank. There was no time to process the upwelling of emotions, so he channeled them into action. He was already overseeing investigations in several different locations A massive ground search at Pintian Road, a thorough search of the Schwarm's house, forensic excavations on the reservation and ERT processing of the pinto at the Petaluma PD. Now he needed to mobilize a body recovery team and protect another crime scene without alerting the media. He needed to stage his team near Cloverdale, far enough to keep any tailgating media trucks away, but close enough to swoop in. Once they knew the precise location, fryer quickly assembled 3,000 investigators, detectives, ert members, swat team members to guard the perimeter.
Speaker 1At Pinthian Road, 300 people were combing the woods around Dana Jaffe's house. Despite the dismal odds, they moved with an urgency founded upon the belief that Polly was still alive. The core leaders of the ERT were actively searching for evidence and supervising Special Agent Lillian Silius was standing by to make sure they had what they needed. David Alford was walking through the woods when he began to hear whispers. She's not here. The media were everywhere with directional mics, so they have to be very careful. Knowing this, sillian passed written notes to the ERT members. As casually as you can wrap up what you're doing Separately. Alfred Tony Maxwell, frank Doyle slipped away, trying not to draw attention to the departure, and the team convened at a winery in Geyserville called at that time Chateau Soberain, which now is Francis Ford Coppola Winery and they would stage in the parking lot and wait for Davis to lead them to the body In Mendocino.
Confession Tape and Investigation Techniques
Speaker 1Meese and Taylor pulled out a map and pressed Davis to pinpoint the location and he pointed to an exit south of Cloverdale, to a service road that parallel Highway 101. And Meese asked if I was to go look for her, what would I look for? Is she right next to the road or did she walk off the road? Is she right next to the road or did she walk off the road? And Davis rubbed his head, exhaled smoke, answered in a monotone and said she's a quarter mile off the road. He said Do you walk in? He said no, I drove in. She's off to the side of the road somewhere in some bushes.
Speaker 1And Miss asked is she wrapping anything, just laying there? He said yeah, does she have anything on? He said yeah, the clothes she was wearing. And they asked him. You know, miss asked what kind of clothes was she wearing? Do you remember? He said white skirt and red top. And he said feel better getting that off your chest. And David said no, I know I'm a piece of shit, you ain't going to show me now. And he stopped and he said okay, this is hard. I know, I understand and appreciate your being enough to own up to what happened. Validation and empathy are valuable tools. If someone feels heard and understood, they're going to be more inclined to open up. Mies wasn't known among colleagues as particularly empathetic, but he now deployed you know with a very similitude. And then he pivoted and went back on script, asking open-ended questions that invited the bigger story. Why don't we back up to October 1st? Why don't you tell me what happened that night? We'll be right back.
Speaker 1The blinking eye of the video camera in the top corner of the room recorded one hour and 48 minutes of an interview on which lives and futures would pivot. This tape would be referred to as the confession tape, even though legally speaking, it was an admission, not a confession. It was an admission, not a confession. A confession, the ultimate evidence of guilt in the eyes of the law, basically, is a statement in which a defendant acknowledges his guilt in every element of the crime. An admission is a statement made by the defendant that can be used against him in court. Both are powerful evidence to bring before a jury. This confession tape is not only rare but unusual.
Speaker 1Longstanding FBI policy prohibited agents from recording or videotaping interviews. The culture of Hoover's FBI held that an agent's word should be enough to stand up in court. For decades that was the case. This videotape exists because this was a joint investigation. It was standard practice for police officers to record interviews by audio or video, preferably both, as was the case here. Decades after the case, case agent Eddie Fryer asked their current district attorney for a copy of the tape to use in his interview and interrogation class at the Behavior Analysis Training Institute, or BITI. His request was denied. Sergeant Mike Meese, who led the interview, used techniques consistent with BITI's science-based what they call interview and interrogation methods. It has been used as a sort of case study to teach future investigators how to study body language, detect shifts in volume, tone and pitch and notice other deceptive markers that help distinguish truth from lies.
Speaker 1And so Mies kept talking to David andid said why don't we back up to october 1st? Why don't you tell me what happened that night? And this is how a good interview begins. It's an open-ended question. It's designed to elicit what miss call an open narrative. It also it's also a chance to observe a subject's unique truth-telling style. The posture, the eye contact, the phrasing, changes in vocal volume, pitch and tone establish a behavior baseline against which future statements and behavior are measured. Davis began with his shoulder open and facing Mies. He made intermittent eye contact, delivering detailed answers without much pause to think. In this manner he laid out his narrative of Paulie's kidnapping.
Speaker 1On Friday, october 1st. Davis said he got a weekend pass from Turning Point, his halfway house in San Mateo from Turning Point, his halfway house in San Mateo, because he was planning to visit his mother in Petaluma to see if she would help him out, and didn't plan to travel outside his 50-mile limit. He didn't think he needed a pass from his parole officer so he didn't ask for one. In the white Pinto he bought from his brother-in-law he drove to Petaluma where he parked somewhere downtown. His description of where he parked is rich in specific details, which all turn out to be true. There's an old store that was an auto that tore down, some little restaurant-like deal like a hamburger stand.
Speaker 1A bunch of the homeless people hang out right by the bus area and post office, and David said he tried to look up his mother's address in the phone book, presumably at a phone booth. When he couldn't find his mother's address, he went to the 7-Eleven. There was one a few blocks from Polly's house and he bought a quart of beer. He took it back to the park around the corner from where he had parked by some dairy freeze. There was a foster freeze across the street from Walnut Park. He drunk the quart of beer. He was going to go back to the 7-Eleven and get another one and he said I saw all these homeless people sitting out there. I went over there and one of the dudes asked me if I wanted to buy a joint. I told him I didn't and I kept on walking. Then I changed my mind and came back and me said okay.
Speaker 1So his objective in this phase of the interview was to keep the subject talking, to get the whole story on record with minimal interruption. So he said mm-hmm, and then he said okay, I bought a joint off. The dude went and got another quart of beer, sat in that park, smoked a joint. It wasn't all the way. Weed had some other stuff in it. I got pretty well toasted off it.
Speaker 1Things got kind of fussy after that, so he smoked a joint laced with something that clouded his judgment could minimize culpability and set the stage for future defense. Minimize culpability and set the stage for future defense. If you're too toasted to know what you're doing, how can you be held accountable? It was also inconsistent with what he told the Larrys. And then he said I remember sitting there and people walking all around. I got up and I don't know how I ended up at their house or whatever you know, but went in. And then the pauses are going to indicate this cognitive processing he's deciding what to say.
Speaker 1Up to this point the answers came quickly, some too quickly, without his, you know, pausing a beat to think. And so he said so what do you do? What do you remember about going in? He said I'm just going in through the window. I said which window did you go in? He said it was the front window. I think I'm not sure he will maintain throughout the interview that he had entered through the front window, repeating this statement several times. But the front bay windows did not open. The windows in the sunroom were painted shut and the investigators who arrived that night noticed cobwebs outside them. So it was undisturbed, those windows.
Speaker 1And then he said well, I went in and I remember hearing all the voices and everything. I guess I went in and told them to all lie down or whatever. I said where were they? He said they were in the bedroom. I guess there was three of them in there. I said okay, and then he said that's when I started telling them. Oh stuff, you have me right off that deal. So he was referring to the lineup when he and the others were asked to read statements that Kate and Jillian had recalled and Mies asked so what do you remember? Do you remember telling those things? And he said no, not really. I was pretty well toasted. The next thing I remember is driving down the road. I had her in the front seat and got turned off on some road and that's why I ended up where I was.
Speaker 1His description of events thus far was rich in specific details Homeless people in the park buying a quart of beer at 7-Eleven, the post office hamburger stand, turntown store, on the street where he parked his Pinto. But then, as soon as he began to describe the crime, the details became blurry. Suddenly there was a lot he couldn't remember. He skipped big parts of the narrative, everything between entering the house, driving down the highway with Polly. He couldn't remember major moments of the crime entering the house, leaving with Polly getting into the car. So Freer later pointed out these gaps as clear deceptive markers. A good interviewer had to notice these gaps and remember to bring them up later. So Mies asked him about Pithian Road. He said have you ever been there before? And he said no, that is that's how I got lost up there.
Speaker 1I didn't know what else I was going to do when I came to and then when I finally realized what I had done, she was still alive and everything, trying to figure out what the f I was going to do with that. At that point Just got off the joint, you know, and snagged this little girl. I don't know what all this was going on and the car got stuck. I had her get out of the car and go sit up on the embankment and I tried to get the car out. Couldn't get it out. The lady that came down that's referring to the babysitter Shannon Lynch said where was she when the lady came down that's referring to the babysitter, shannon Lynch. So where was she when the lady came down? She said she was sitting on the embankment and the lady left and the cops came. The veracity of this one statement would be debated for decades, because Davis claimed that Pauly was sitting alive and unbound on a nearby embankment.
Speaker 1During his entire 38-minute encounter with the two sheriff's deputies, the spot where the black sweatshirt, red tights, white bindings and condom were found was remarkably close to Jaffe's driveway, around 30 paces. Though full foliage might have blocked visibility, she would have been within earshot off the gate, on the road where the deputies park the patrol cars with headlights on and radios at full volume. So then he said, okay, the cops came. And what happened? He said the cops came, pulled me out, searched the car and everything, pulled me out, followed me out of town. I waited on the other side of town for about half an hour, turned around, I was lucky. I found well, well, guess it wasn't lucky for her. And so me said, so me said. And then he said I pulled, I pulled in, the ditch went up, got her, got her back in the car. Didn't know where to go at that point or what to do. So I started driving, almost out of gas, had to put into some gas station to get gas. She wanted to use the bathroom. So I went and got the key and let her go to the bathroom. That might sound like a small kind of kindness. It was also a checkable fact. Me and Taylor made a mental note to try to find that gas station. Then David said she got back in the car.
Speaker 1I asked the lady at the gas station how to get back to San Francisco, whatever. She told me to follow the road this way to Frisco. Follow it this way, I'll take you up north. It will take you up north. And then it went all the way up north and I got up around Cloverdale I guess, and Miss again said uh-huh. Then he said a few times up along the way a couple of sheriff's cars pulled up alongside me, I guess, to check the car out. She was sleeping and they bussed on by and you know they were thinking sleeping. That seemed highly unlikely. And then he said I got up there and sat there trying to figure out what the F to do, what to do.
The Interview
Speaker 1And she kept what Miss wanted to hear how Polly was behaving after PVN, where the condom and condom wrapper were found by the inside-out black sweatshirt, evidence of a sexual assault. David said she kept asking me when she was going to be able to go home and I told her in a while and let me figure out where I was, what's going on Said she had to go to the bathroom, so let her out. She went to the bathroom. I was out of the car and he paused and Mies urged him on. He said like what? Because he didn't want to give him time to think of a story. And he said that's when I strangled her when she was coming back back to the car to get in. He said strangle her. He said yeah. So Mies now transitioned from opening the question to direct questions.
Speaker 1The first phase of the interview focused on what had happened. Now he aimed to clarify now how I would say when it happened and the time and emerge emerged along with key details Like one thing to consider is that if you look where San Francisco and Cloverdale is located in a map, or they are located in a map, san Francisco will be south, cloverdale is north. So what he's saying doesn't make sense, just to make that point there. So to to keep that in in your mind, if you're not from california, which I'm not, I have to look it up in a map. Now miss asked what you used to strangle her the.
Speaker 1The subtext here is what was the murder weapon? And he said a piece of cloth. He said where's the cloth? In other words, where could they find the murder weapon? And he said still around her neck. He said so where did you get the cloth? He said I don't know. I got it somewhere. I don't know where I found it. Some kind of yellow material. I don't know. I got it somewhere. I don't know where I found it, some kind of yellow material. I don't know where it came from, I don't remember. He said what you do? And he said what do you do next? And he said drug her over by the berry bushes, like drug her up in there. Laid her down. His choice of words, laid her down framed the action as almost gentle.
Speaker 1By the end of the interview his voice choice would change. Said did you cover her up? He said yeah, what do you cover her up with? He said a piece of plywood from underneath the shed where the car was parked. There was a shed there. He said there was a shed there. The car was parked. There was a shed there. He said there was a shed there whose car was parked. He said mine, and I drove back to where I was staying in San Mateo. That was something they could verify by checking the turning point logbook, which is a timestamp record of residents' comings and goings. So he said I didn't know what I left. I didn't know if I left fingerprints or whatever you know.
Speaker 1And then that morning when I got back I know the details started flashing. He said the details he was now unable to remember. So he said I thought somebody's going to. You know, one guy at the program said why don't you go get your yellow bandana and put it on Again, the yellow bandana? That didn't appear to exist. And then he said this other guy made a statement Do you get her out from the trunk? And I told him yeah, and made some stupid comment. Mostly I was just sitting there waiting, figuring somebody's gonna show up and take me on. But nobody did Not. After the sketch with the yellow bandana, not even after the second sketch, his spitting image drawn by Gene Boylan Eight million flyers have been distributed as far away as China.
Speaker 1America's Most Wanted had shown the sketches in several episodes. Thousands of calls and tips came in from people who thought they had seen that face, but none of them had led to Davis and he said a few people make comments. And he said so that was it. Huh, nobody up. He said no, nobody. And I shaved. It was a month later when I shaved and my parole officer never said nothing. The whole time I was going to see him they never said a word to you. I said, nope, did that surprise you? He said yeah, it was eating at me. I used to look at dudes like that in the joint and here I had done not something like that, you know. So this is an interesting thing.
Speaker 1It's an abrupt pivot from outside perceptions to David's interior self-perception and his guilt for doing something like that. He had already done time for kidnapping, so his allusion to something like that implies something more severe. The way he used to look at dudes like that in the joint alluded to the pegging order in prison where child molesters are judged, harassed, beaten or killed by fellow inmates, and he said you been back to her body since then? He said no. I said no, okay, never. He said drove by. I said did you drive by? He said yeah, I had to go on the freeway. And he said going back and forth, back and forth on Highway 101 between Turning Point and San Mateo and his sister's house in Ukiah, a strategic choice for a body disposal site. If an ERT team were there they would be easy to spot and he could keep an eye on the crime scene without having to go there and lead a potential surveillance team directly to the body.
Speaker 1So Mies went on using the interrogation tactic of themes. Themes offer moral justifications for the crime, external pressures, circumstances or blaming someone else. Themes frame the crime in a way that offers some psychological relief to a guilty person and encourages them to unburden themselves by admitting or confessing at least some part of their role in the crime. And B said I know this is a difficult time and I heard you say that yourself. I don't have to try to make you feel better. You are a piece of shit. Whether you are or not, it's up for somebody else to judge. So here mispredicted a neutral stance, I'm not here to judge you. And he acknowledged also davis's trouble pass. And and he said you know, I know you have done some hard times before. In other words, the theme here. You had some hard times.
Speaker 1And then he went on and said it's obvious, the thing that distresses you the most is what happened to her, as you put it, what I did to her. I didn't know what to do. I needed some time to think, am I right? So when he's echoing his words, he's validating his feelings, and this is another effective tactic. Delivered in a sympathetic way, validation resembles empathy, but it's slightly different. You don't have to agree with someone to validate their emotions. Anyone who feels heard and validated is more likely to open up. Some investigators who learned this in this interview and interrogation class say that it also helps their marriages. So Meese went on and said am I right? Is that the thing that distresses you the most? And Davis nodded and agreed and said I fully realized.
Speaker 1When I had her in the car didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do that opened the door to ask about what happened on the Pinthians hillside. So he said what happened? What happened to her that make you go Shit? What am I going to do? What do you do to her? Was she tied up? He said no, I had untied her when she was sitting up on the hill. When we got up there, she was untied. She was untied when I was getting pulled out of that ditch. I said was she awake? And he said I don't know she might went to sleep, I don't know. I remember when I finally came back and found the place she told me she thought I had left her there for the night. So, aside from the illogic, how could a frightened abducted girl possibly fall asleep alone in the darkened woods? The repetition of I don't know? That's another deceptive marker.
Speaker 1So at this point the pace and tone of the interview changed. The sympathetic tone and opening the questions gave way to direct questions. Here came the shift from interview to interrogation Time. To press him on the hard details have you done anything to her? I didn't do nothing to her. Davis answered this so faintly that it was hard to hear. So watching the tape later, freya could see a micro expression.
Speaker 1There was a small shift in the facial composure Combined with the change in volume. This struck him as a clear deception and he said did you try to have sex with her? He said uh-uh. An innocent person would deny this with conviction. Miss asked again do you ever try to have sex with her? And he shoot his head Again.
Speaker 1The weak denial was a red flag. Weak denial was a red flag. And Mies pressed him and said are you sure about that. He said I don't think so. No, I don't think so. You don't think so. An innocent person would know. He said I don't think so. Are you a little bit hazy about that? He said positive. Well, as much as I can remember, I don't think that I did so. When a question like that is repeated, an innocent person's denials should only grow stronger, more adamant. Here the denials grew weaker and more uncertain. So Mies asked him okay, why did you take her then? And he said I don't know, man, I don't know, I don't know, you know, I don't know why I took her. The repetitions of I don't know were now numbering in the dozens.
Speaker 1Mies was walking a fine line. He needed to probe for information now in case Davis climbed up later. He had to ask the questions David most wanted to avoid, but he also needed to avoid angering the subject, who could change his mind at any moment about leading them to the body. Seeing Davis' agitation, after pressing him on the question of sex, he changed directions to diffuse the tension and he said she was sitting on the hill where the cops were there. He said yeah, where you left. When you left, when you came down, when did you take her up to the hill.
Speaker 1He said when I got stuck on the ditch. He said okay, before the lady came down from the top of the hill. He said what lady was this? He said the one in the red truck or something like that, the one that said she was going to go get somebody to help me out of the ditch. That's when two sheriffs guys show up, said okay, let's so, let's back up.
Speaker 1You took her out of the car. At that point he said said yeah. He said was she tied up? Nah? He said nah, nah, she wasn't tied. At that point he said okay, so you remember tying her up. He said not really, I don't remember all that count to a thousand and shit like that, so you don't remember any of that. He said uh-uh, why would I ask you know? You said I asked him for valuables. Why would I ask? You said I asked him for valuables. Why would I ask? I don't remember. He said are there any houses up there on that hill? He said don't know. I remember driving up the road, seeing a dirt road turning up. That kept on going until I passed that gate, realized I was on private property. He said what makes you realize that? He said when I I passed the gate I tried to turn around and got stuck. I tried to head about an hour there and got stuck. So where's paulette at this time? Where is she? He said oh, she was in the car when I got stuck front seat, back seat. He said front seat.
Covering Up the Crime Confession
Speaker 1Most of these direct questions were answered without delay. He was probably telling the truth. And then he said okay, was she tied up? Then, when you first got stuck, he said no, I had untied her before that. He said when did you untie her? He said driving down the road, I guess. He said how did you tie her? He said just hands behind the back. He said what did you tie her with? He said I don't know, I don't know, I don't remember what I use. He said do you tie her feet? He said I don't think I tie her feet. And Davis, now he lit another cigarette. The body language is still open, eye contact strong.
Speaker 1So Miss kept asking questions. He said did she say anything to you at any time? He said yeah. He said what? Did she say anything to you at any time? He said yeah. So what did she say to you? She wanted to go home.
Speaker 1The pace of the questions picked up. Miss was watching the clock, wanting to get to the body before dark. No-transcript. It was the one thing Davis continued to deny, although weakly. You know he was a little weak answering those questions. But that could make a profound difference in a potential sentence.
Speaker 1First-degree murder usually meant life in prison without parole. Paired with a special circumstance such as sexual assault, it could open the door to the death penalty. So Miss asked why did you turn off Highway 101 when you get to Cloverdale? David said I have no idea. Pull over to think and figure out what the F to do you know and what I have done so far. He said what have you done so far? He said I got this girl in the car. What the F you know, you know.
Speaker 1He said have you done anything to her? He said on my skin, I didn't do nothing to her and he glanced down briefly when he said that and took another drag on his cigarette. He said do you slap her or hurt her or anything? He said no. Did you touch her in any place? He said none, that I remember. Did you touch her in any place? He said no, that I remember. He said, shaking his head. His voice rose in tone and inflection, which is a departure from his regular monotone. He said I don't think I did anything to her. You guys soon find that out. That noncommittal response was not a direct answer but it was telling and possibly useful in court. So me said that's probably true. But I'm asking you because you come this far clean and you are the one that called me and wanted to talk Right, and David said yeah. He said I would like to just get everything out and get it in the open. He said I would like to just get everything out and get it in the open. I'm trying. He said I'm trying. As much as I can remember, you know what was going on. What I basically remember at that point was that I F up. He said mm-hmm. He said F up big time. Yep, I F up.
Speaker 1And after PC with Polly in the car, davis admitted that he thought for a long time about what to do next. So we're talking about a sign of premeditation here. And then he said I sat there for about an hour. I guess I wonder what the F I was going to do. Shit, I have gotten myself into. What the F was I going to do?
Speaker 1The only thing I could think of was try to cover my tracks, I guess. So I said okay, so why do you want to cover your tracks? And he said because I knew I have F up. And he pressed his right thumb to his temple and there was still a cigarette poised between his fingers. I said okay, so what do you think covering your tracks meant? And he said I couldn't send her back home, I'll be right back in the joint. He said oh, okay. He said she has to go to the bathroom. I told her yeah, she got out. She went onward to the bathroom. I said where did she go? He said I don't know, somewhere right around where the car was parked. Okay, I said okay. Then she came back and I figured well, I got to. And he paused to light the cigarette and he started already a second pack of candles.
Speaker 1At this point he said got to what? He said got to do something. I said okay, so what you figure out doing? He said covering my tracks, trying to about. The only thing I had to do was get rid of her. So and me said okay, say, because I don't know what I have really done in the house, you know, say, what did you think you have done in the house that make you think you have to get rid of her. He said well, I had her in the car and I have to figure out what, what I was going to do.
Speaker 1A person in my position so me sat in silence trying to let it ride and he said she was getting ready to get back in the car. And that's when I said that's when you what he said, that's when I strangled her with a piece of cloth. Where did you get the piece of cloth? He said I don't, I don't know I had it. He said did you have it on you? Did you have it in your pocket? Did it come from the car? Did you take it from her? And he said I had it in the car because I had to open the door for her to get out. She had to open the door because the latch don't work on the outside. I said where was she when you strangled her? He said getting ready to get back in the car. I said were you standing there? Were you sitting? He said no, I was standing behind her. She didn't know what hit her. He said she you standing there? Were you sitting? He said no, I was standing behind her. She didn't know what hit her. He said she didn't suffer. He said no, I figure, figure what he said.
Speaker 1I had fake a suicide attempt one time to escape out of county jail. I made a noose and stepped off the shitter. I knew how quick it was that I went out. It was the quickest thing I know. Couldn't see beating her with anything. He said how'd you strangle her? He said he crossed. And he crossed his fists and pulled them apart like that hand over hand.
Speaker 1I said okay, when I let loose, I tied that piece of cloth on her, tied it in a knot. He said why did you tie it in a knot? He said because I didn't know how long it would really take. I never done anything like that before, so you didn't know how long it would take. He said no, so you wanted to make sure it worked. This is a good question because it's to emphasize intent and he said yeah.
Speaker 1Then I got another piece of cord tied around her neck, cinched the knot up, tightened it up just to make sure. What kind of cord was that? He said a little piece of white cord that was laying there. And then he said so after you. After that. What do you do then? After you put the second cord on, he said I started wondering where I was going to put her and I look around. So there's this. Bushes. That's when I drug her over there.
Speaker 1So early in the interview he he had said that he laid her there. He said try to toss her in the bushes, as far as I could go. Then I went and got a piece of plywood and put it over her and Mises like mm-hmm. And then he said got some more chunks of wood, try to make it look like a garbage area or whatever. Said okay. Then he said then I got in the car and drove to San Mateo. So miss at said you're willing to take us down there and show us where you were? Why don't you hang tight, just half a second, I'll be right back. So Agent Taylor, who had been listening, quietly asked Davis if he needed more coffee. And David said a bullet in my brain is what I need.
Speaker 1As Miss left the room, david slumped in his chair, head down, shoulders hunched, a posture of defeat, genuine remorse, an act it was hard to tell. Taylor listened and didn't respond. Silence is uncomfortable, so people keep talking to feel it. And he said don't know how I've up like that man. I used to look at dudes who did shit like that and think it was you know. And here I found myself doing and I kept telling myself every day that it wasn't I that did it Me myself.
Speaker 1You know, in court this statement could be used as an admission. He doesn't confess to the crime not exactly but a jury could be asked to interpret that statement as a logical inference of guilt. And so Taylor asked him why do you think she didn't run away where she was up there on that hill? David said I don't know, I thought she was going gonna come walking down when the sheriffs were there.
Speaker 1When Miss returned to the room, the tone of the interview changed again. It was time to press him again and now lock down further details. He said Rick, you know, I would like to try to get everything you have to say here and just get it out in the open. I think after this we'll probably take a write down and let you show us where she is, and I appreciate that gesture because I think that's important to the family. He said yeah, I know.
Speaker 1David's body language changed. He rotated away, turning a shoulder to Mies and slumping on the table. His eyes were glued to the coffee cup, clutched in both fidgeting hands, and Mies said you know, I asked you before if you did anything to her and you said we'll know soon enough. David shook his head and began to deny it and me said hang on a second for me, okay, hang on please. Okay. And he touched him lightly on the arm. The light touch was a skill, a nonverbal cue that can stop an emerging lie. And me said you have come this far and you're right. We will probably know soon enough. But if something did happen, maybe it would be better if just you and I talked about that. You can tell me this is another theme. You're better off if you tell the truth now. He might have developed it further into. There are always two sides of the story. If you get your side of the story out now, it will be better for you in the long run.
Speaker 1And his pitch started rising again and he said I don't remember doing anything to her on my skin. I don't remember. And me said I know you were a little worried about being labeled with a and me stopped himself from using the term child molester. Labeled with that if you went back to the joint. You know I appreciate the fact that you wanted to talk to us and wanted to get it out in the open. So I would like to get it all out in the open and be done with it and let you go on. You know what with what's going on? And david said not much is gonna be going on. My life's over and done with now. So well, not necessarily. I mean he said shit because he knew the stakes. He said I and said I don't know that you will necessarily ever see the outside. And he said I will never see the outside again. Even if I just got a life sentence, they would never let me out again. I said well, you're probably right about that. You're probably right about that. So Taylor jumped in with a new theme and he said but you sure got a chance to do something big right now. And David straightened his spine and opened his shoulders again and he said I wanted to do it a while back. You know when they show her picture and everything. But then I thought I'm going back to the joint and he said but at least you came forward. It takes a man to do the right thing. They had landed on the right theme now taylor and me.
Revealing the Victim's Identity
Speaker 1Davis abruptly changed his tune, acknowledging that intoxication wasn't an excuse for culpability. He said I used to hear dudes that did shit and said they were drunk or doped up and I used to always tell myself man, it doesn't matter, you're still liable for your actions, no matter what. And there I go, do the same stupid shit like that. This was a huge admission in a major change from earlier in the interview when Davis repeatedly emphasized that he was too toasted from the lace joint to be accountable for his actions. He said you're doing the best thing. Now this is Taylor talking. I deal a lot with the families and they always ask questions what happened? They want to know what happened to their daughter. So they make plans to drive to Cloverdale in an unmarked car so they wouldn't be as visible to the media. David said he didn't want to face the cameras and offered to lie down in the seat. Taylor assured him there were no camera crews outside. They were all at Pythium covering the search.
Speaker 1Miss went over some of the details again and the answers remained more or less consistent. David said that he had worked alone. He said just me, myself and I and maintained that Polly had been alive, sitting up on the hillside during the encounter with the sheriffs and miss presses it. You absolutely sure of that? And David said yeah, I went and parked back up there, walked back up there and she was asleep, or whatever. What makes you think she was asleep? How was she laying there? How was she laying there? Laying on the hills, laying, laying on the hillside? Curl up. How did she wake up? He said I don't remember. When you came back down off the hill. Are you absolutely sure she's alive? He said yeah.
Speaker 1The interview concluded at 5.02 pm. Only once in the nearly two-hour conversation did Davis ever refer to his victim by her name. He said that when he returned to Pythian Road he had called out to her in the dark. He claimed she had responded and said she thought he was going to leave her there. And Miss asked what was her name and Davis said she had told me then that her name was Polly. Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.
