Dave Hawk Found Guilty of Murder

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From the Fresnobee.com:

HANFORD — A Kings County Superior Court jury found Dave Hawk guilty of killing his ex-wife, who disappeared three years ago from her north Hanford home and whose body has never been found. Today was the third day of deliberation.

[…]

Statements from jury members
Jury foreman Kenny Knutson, 33, of Lemoore, said that during testimony about Debbie Hawk’s screams the night she disappeared, Hawk’s reaction “was almost remembering, yeah, that’s exactly how it happened. That’s when I first started to think he was connected to it. He either did it or had it done.” Read more here…

I original wrote about Dave Hawk on May 10, 2007 and I did not trust him at all. I am happy to see that justice was served today! If they could only find Debbie Hawk’s body now to give the family peace.

Close-up of a gavel and its sound block

Thanks, Val, for the update!

Theresa Parker, Sam Parker and Ben Chaffin

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Sam Parker is on trial this week for the murder of his wife, Theresa Parker, whose body has never been found. A fellow police officer and friend to Sam at the time, Harbin “Ben” Chaffin, was later arrested for four felonies related to this case, one of which was tampering with evidence and another was making false statements to investigators.

Ben has been given immunity, if he testifies against Sam. You can see some footage of the testimony here.

Read moreBen testified this week that Sam called him on March 22, 2007, and confessed to the murder of Theresa. Ben said:

He [Sam] said, uh…something like he’d really done it this time or he was really going to do it this time. [Voice in court: You are not sure which of them?] No, ma’am. [Voice in court: What else did he say?] He said he that had a place that was hard to find her or that they never would find her. And that he’d shot Theresa through the head.

You then hear a voice question Ben, “You didn’t tell them about this so-called murder confession you heard simply because you forgot about it?” Ben replied, “I forgot about it.” According to reports, Ben didn’t remember this during three interviews with the GBI, until he was offered immunity.

Yet strangely, other news reports are saying that Ben said that he “blubbered like a baby”after Sam called him. If news reports are correct that Ben said he “blubbered like a baby” after the call, it is a complete contradiction to the fact that he supposedly “forgot” about the confession later. If something is traumatic to you, enough to cause you to try like a baby, you do not forget about it later. Period.

Ben’s account of the phone conversation on the night of March 22, 2007, raises many red flags for me. First, do you notice how Ben recounts the conversation in third person and doesn’t give us any first person accounts?

Second, when a person doesn’t hear something correctly, as Ben suggests he didn’t, especially when someone is talking about something as monumental as a murder, most people would ask for clarification, if they didn’t hear things, but obviously Ben didn’t. I find this very odd. I have to wonder was he already privy to something going down? Is that why he didn’t ask for clarification? Or is this exact conversation that Ben is telling us completely false? I don’t know.

We could suppose that Ben was afraid of Sam, if he did in fact help his friend in someway do something illegal, or if Sam threatened him, and hence that is why he didn’t dare question Sam. But then we would have expected Ben to make logical sense out of Sam’s first and second statement, if he did decide to share this confession with people–if he truly believed Sam made a confession to him. It would make sense that he would rationalize that he didn’t hear Sam say “he was really going to do it this time” because he would know that he definitely heard Sam say, “I shot Theresa through the head.”

Or I would have expected Ben to say, I wasn’t sure what Sam said at first. It was muffled etc., but Ben does not do any of this. It’s highly unusual.

When people are deceptive, however, they often make a strong statement and then get scared, and their nerves cause them to hedge or soften their statement. It’s what fear does to people when they are in a high stake lie. Is that what Ben does here?

We know for sure that these two spoke in the middle of the night. That seems well documented. Do you think it is plausible that Sam just called and woke up his friend simply to brag about his conquest that night, or do you think there was something more to it? I suspect it is the later, but that is only speculation. I will say that I personally don’t think Ben is leveling with us about what was actually said. Why that is, I can only speculate. Add to that that Ben is facing four felony charges related to this case and a picture starts to emerge that doesn’t look good for Ben.

I do not believe Sam Parker’s story either. You can read my original post on him here.

The mystery deepens…

My Thoughts: Darlie Routier

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I’ve seen Darlie Routier years ago on 48 Hours or Dateline, and while I always had an opinion, I wanted to see video of her again before I made my opinion public. Seeing this video of Darlie confirms my original beliefs: I do not trust Darlie Routier.

Her emotions are chilling and cold. When Darlie talks to the reporters eight days after her two boys were murdered, she talks without an ounce of sadness in her. She is truly happy from the inside out, which defies logic for her situation, if a stranger killed her children. More than that, you would think Darlie would have been scared to go on TV, if an unknown stranger/killer lurked out there, but she obviously had no fear of that, either.

In the video, Darlie says, “If you knew Devon and Damen……you would know that they are up in heaven…and their up there having the biggest birthday party… that we could ever imagine, and they wouldn’t want us being down and being sad, even though our hearts are breaking.”

What is fascinating about her speech here is that you can clearly see she is thinking as she speaks. She isn’t talking from her heart, likely I suspect, because she feels no emotions. Then when she talks about their “hearts breaking”, Darlie tries to act sad, but clearly it comes across as an act, not genuine emotion. It’s interesting that when people fake sadness, they often do it when they talk of sadness, as Darlie does her. It’s like the words remind them that they are supposed to react in certain ways. People who feel genuine sadness do not do this. The grief is written all over their face throughout their conversations. It typically does not come and go like it appears to with Darlie. Darlie does it again below at the end of her next statement, too.

Darlie continues, “I didn’t feel anything because I was in shock. But I wasn’t thinking about me. All I could think about was trying to save the babies, and Darren and I tried to save the babies…but it was too late, my babies were gone, but we tried. We tried and we have to live with that forever.”

I find it fascinating how on the worst night of Darlie’s life, she says she didn’t feel anything, because she was in shock. What is her excuse for not feeling anything eight days later in this interview?

Ironically, her mugshot shows that she is feeling a lot of emotion when she is arrested. Did she finally wake up that no one was buying her story? Is she feeling sorry for herself all of the sudden? Why the sudden expression of emotion when Darlie’s neck is on the line?

I also find it interesting how she says, “But I wasn’t thinking about me.” Who would think of this unless they do think of themselves first all of the time? This was very intriguing to me.

I personally think the jury got this case correct.

My Thoughts: Ted Bundy

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The first thing anyone who watches this video needs to take into account is that there are no high stakes for Bundy here, so there is no pressure on him to be honest or to tell the truth. With that, if he were lying, the clues to deception would be dramatically reduced, if not completely undetectable. This is key to keep in mind.

However, when I watch the video, I see a man who is down to earth. I see a man who is sharing his thoughts about his crimes. What he says makes logical sense. Some of you questioned if his words were sincere, because you presumed it was an apology. This is not meant to be an apology.

Read moreOther people questioned if Bundy was just repeating what Dobson wanted to hear, but I don’t think that is the case either. He seems to believe what he is saying, if you want my opinion.

Bundy could have blamed his parents or his upbringing, but he doesn’t. He simply states that he feels pornography played a role in his abnormal behavior, but he admits in the end, his demons even went farther then pornography. I get the sense that just thinking about his crimes still gets Bundy turned on and the positive emotions Bundy expresses when talking about this confuses people into thinking he is lying.

Bundy talks about how he sees himself as a normal person, and identifies that other people didn’t point him out to be a pervert. Bundy grins slightly when he talks about this. I think he enjoys that he could “out smart” people so well. He hid his demons well, and he knew it. We knew it, too, in hindsight. I think this snaky grin has made people question Bundy and disbelieve him as well.

I believe Bundy is honest when he says he lived a normal life, but “this one very small, but potent and destructive segment that I kept very secret, very close to myself…” This is how Bundy sees himself. We may not agree, but that doesn’t make his statement untrue.

I believe Bundy is honest when he says, “It happened in stages. It happened gradually.” I do think that serial killers like Bundy have an addiction, and crave more and more… so this is absolutely logical and plausible, and nothing that makes sense to even doubt.

When Bundy talks about the people he knows in prison who were into violent crime like he was, he says, “Everyone of them was deeply involved in pornography, without question.” He says it with conviction and I believe he feels this way. I see no reason to doubt him whatsoever. I bet it is highly likely there are statistics that violent offenders are often drawn to pornography, though I am not sure if there is a correlation. That’s another topic.

Bundy talks about how people with this violent pornography addiction are not monsters, and he is right. These people are our brothers, sons, uncles and husbands. They live transparently among us. We often don’t know about these people’s demons until it is too late. He is being honest here. These are not people who are bums on the street, who are whacked out and strange living in institutions. They often blend in among us with chilling ease.

Once someone is labeled a liar, it is hard for us to ever believe them again, isn’t it?

Stanley Sisters’ Father Dies

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A reader left a comment on my blog today that was very intriguing. “Draddahip” informed me that the father of the Stanley sisters, two teenagers who were found dead mysteriously in September 2007 just days apart, died in April of this year. Dale was only 52-years old.

That means in less than two years, the entire family died except the mother, Lonny Stanley and her granddaughter. Seems a little strange, doesn’t it?

Crosses at cemetery

Read moreThe police originally arrested the eldest daughter’s boyfriend, James McFarland, in October 2007, but earlier this year dropped all charges against him. I was relieved as the arrest made no logical sense whatsoever.

Lonny Stanley in her 911 calls to the police when her daughter died in 2007 gave me concern. Now I am more curious than ever to know if Dale suffered from any serious long term illnesses (like cancer?) or if something just “popped up” over the last year or so.

I searched online to find Dale’s obituary and I found this in the Centerville, Indiana paper, the Pal-Item. It’s a pay-per-view obituary:

Father of Stanley sisters dies after illness Sun Apr 5, 2009

Born Dec. 2, 1956, in Richmond to Donald and Ruth Stanley, he had worked at Dick Hill and Son Heating and Air Conditioning. Survivors include his wife, Lonny J. Stanley; two brothers and a sister….

The sisters’ death in 2007 was a baffling mystery, but nothing compared to what a mystery it has become today. I hope someone in Indiana gives this case a good look over to ensure no one else keels over dead without due cause. I am quite concerned and would like to know more…

Click on the labels below to read all of my thoughts related to this case. Don’t forget to scroll down to read the first post. Post are in reverse order.