Dateline, Daren, and Dave Tonight

Tonight Dateline NBC will be updating the story of Dave Hawk, who I first wrote about in May of 2007. Daren Matteson, a lead homicide investigator on the case, found my post after watching the show and contacted me. He was surprised at my insight on the case since I knew nothing about it and only saw what Dateline profiled.

Daren and I have since gotten to know one another and I have followed this case with Daren as it developed. Last summer, Dave Hawk was convicted of murdering his wife, though his wife’s body was never found, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Daren wrote a comment for my website, if you haven’t seen it:

Several years ago, I met “Eyes for Lies” after she profiled one of my homicide cases. At that time, the case had not been to court so I was not able to give many details here.

That changed when David Hawk was found guilty of killing his ex-wife, Debbie Hawk, for financial gain. In California, that mandates a life without parole sentence. Dave is now a resident of the state corrections system.

I would again like to say what a direct hit “Eyes” had for the facts in this case. Her only source of information at that time was an interview she saw of Dave Hawk on Dateline NBC regarding Debbie’s disappearance. Debbie’s body has never been found.

I feel that someone with this natural gift is far better than anyone who has training.

I’ve been in Law Enforcement for almost 30 years and would love to have met “Eyes” when I was rookie. Her talent and ability to explain the minute details she spots in deceptive people would have allowed me to put more bad guys in jail.

If Eyes for Lies tells you someone is being deceptive, believe her!

Thanks again for all your help.

With great respect,
Daren Matteson
Hanford PD

I hope you’ll tune into Dateline tonight to see all the developments in this case since Dateline last profiled it. You will get to see Daren, too! You can read my original thoughts of Dave Hawk here.