Linda and Jeff Dolloff on ABC 20/20 - Renee Ellory

Part One of ABC’s 20/20 on the Linda & Jeff Dolloff Story

I just watched Friday night’s 20/20 story about Linda and Jeff Dolloff. Linda tells the story of how she was shot in her hallway and never saw the person who did this her. She didn’t even hear the person who did it. Oddly, her husband was attacked with a baseball bat and he suffered severe injuries. Linda believes it was an intruder. Jeff doesn’t remember anything.

The crime happened April 11, 2009, and Linda Dolloff was convicted this May on charges she tried to kill her husband, aggravated assault and filing a false report. Her attorney, last week, has now filed for a new trial. It’s a fascinating case.

In my opinion, Linda Dolloff’s behavioral and circumstantial evidence were overwhelming.

Here are my thoughts as I watched the show:

Linda Dolloff says, “I heard from nondescript noises, nothing that seemed alarming to me. I walked down the hall, heard a loud bang, um…experienced some pain, fell, I saw movement and that’s all. When I opened my eyes, there was a gun in front of me on the floor. I reached for the gun made contact with it, it fired, it scared me, I dropped it. Certainly my husband would be here (shoulder shrug), I called out to him. “
How often do you walk down a dark hallway at night with your eyes closed? Anyone?
Linda’s statement has elements out of order. She says, “I saw moment and that’s all. When I opened my eyes….” How can you see movement with your eyes closed? When people remember things like this, they typically remember things how they occurred.
When Linda recalls the shooting ordeal, she has no emotions. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think she was talking about walking to the mailbox or something inane. It’s very notable.
What intruder/killer shoots a victim and drops the gun in front of his victim–especially if he doesn’t know if he killed them?
I find Linda’s lack of details very notable here. We don’t get any memory recall about what she was thinking or feeling, she only gives us action-oriented details. She never talks about fear or anything, not even after she was shot. That’s very notable to me.
After Linda says she called out to her husband, Jim Avila says, “What were you calling him, Linda?” She replies, “I absolutely don’t remember. I had to get to the phone. I had to get help.” She doesn’t remember any details that here? You would think after she realized she was shot, she would have had a lot of emotions and feelings running through her and she would share some of that, but she doesn’t remember much, and shows no emotions. It flags me.
Isn’t it fascinating if she was shot, she doesn’t wonder where this shooter went, if he/she is waiting there still to ambush her again? It’s strangely missing! She has no normal fears whatsoever. These are huge, blaring red flags!
Jim Avila says, “An unseen attacker in the night. Her husband bleeding in his bed unable to speak.”
If it was dark, or she had her eyes closed, how come she didn’t wonder if her husband shot her by mistake? How did she not know it wasn’t her husband who shot her? Also if you fire a gun at night, doesn’t it produce light in the form of a flash? Didn’t she see the explosion from the gun? Even if her eyes were closed, she should still see the bright flash in the dark.
When I listen to the segments of Linda’s 911 call played during the show, and watch Linda speak, I do not hear or see any expressions of fear that support what she is saying. On the 911 call, she sounds like she is whining, which is very notable to me.
Listen to her call out Jeff’s name. Why isn’t she worried the intruder/killer isn’t going to come back for her?
If Linda believed an intruder was in the house who was trying to kill her, why wouldn’t she be covert in calling 911? Do you notice she doesn’t keep her voice low? She seems to have no fear he might come back and get her. She says in what sounds like a loud voice, “Somebody in the house. Somebody’s in my house.” If you feared for your life, which she should have, would you do this?
In the 911 call the operator says, “Did you see anything at all?” She cries out in a whine, “It’s dark. It’s dark. It’s dark. I just saw movement.” I have to ask then how did she see the gun laying there, but not the guy who shot her running away? Once she realized she was shot, wouldn’t she then tune in to noises? It could save her life, if she was truly in trouble, don’t you think?
Why didn’t she hear the shooter drop the gun? Does she want us to believe he just gently placed it there?
When the operators says, “Are you hurt?” She says, “I heard a bang. I’m bleeding.”
Didn’t she figure out she was shot? She said that to 20/20. Why doesn’t she say that in the 911 call?
It’s interesting the police dog never found any scent outside to support an intruder.
What killer goes into a house on a holiday weekend with five cars in the driveway?
When Jeff calls Linda after he recovers a bit, I find it strange how she says, “Can I come see you?” Hasn’t she been visiting him? Would you have to ask your spouse if you could come see him? It’s insane.
When Jeff asks what happened, Linda says, “I was shot. I don’t know what happened to you specifically.” This seems to suggest Linda didn’t care to find out what happened to Jeff. If you were a victim, wouldn’t you want to know all the details so you could try to figure it out. Were the police keeping information from her or did she not care enough to find out?
When Jeff says to Linda, “Why would (A) they beat me with a baseball bat, and shoot you with my gun?” She replies with anger, “I have no friggin’ idea.” Why would she be angry at him for asking that question, if she was totally innocent? Wouldn’t she want to know to?
Jim Avila asks Linda “Are you incapable of a violent act?” Watch how Linda responds. Her head goes all over from no to yes to no. It’s highly notable. I suspect her conscious and unconscious were battling there in the communication.
I believe Jeff when he tells us there is enough of a light source where Linda says she was shot and she says she couldn’t see. He said there was an outside light. I believe him.
What murderer is going to go into a house with no weapons and dig for a bat in the garage and find Jeff’s gun in his bedroom and use different weapons on each person? It’s a complete joke.
When police tell Linda Jeff thinks she may have had something to do with the attacks, she doesn’t act surprised at all. She doesn’t get mad. She stays calm, cool and collected. It doesn’t fit to me at all. If she is innocent, she should be outraged, mad, concerned, frustrated—anything but a calm, collected response! Why isn’t she saying, “You’ve got the wrong person. I am innocent”?
Linda says about the time she was first confronted by people thinking she did it, “I guess I didn’t want to accept the fact that somebody could think I was capable of doing such an act.” Isn’t interesting she never says anything about her innocence? That they have the wrong person? When you know you are involved, you don’t think like that, do you?
Linda says she wasn’t bitter at all about the way things were ending between her and Jeff. Yet she completely contradicts herself as she tells us, she had a dinner with him that night, they took a bath, and had sex.
At one point in the conversation with Avila, she says, “The door was not completely shut” when talking about their status–which I think most people would take to interpret, she still hoped to win him back. She can’t have it both ways.

I do believe Linda was jealous that Jeff told her he was going to bring another woman home the following week to survey his life and she if she wanted to share it with him. Linda was mad she was asked to move out. Linda, in my opinion, wasn’t going to have any part of it.
When the forensics were done with the gun and residue, Jim Avala talks about the “bright muzzle flash” when the gun is fired and how come Linda has no memory of this?

I listened to the 911 call, too, and I hear nothing that supports honesty.

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