Читать книгу Broken Doll - Burl Barer - Страница 13

Chapter 4

Outgoing and compassionate, Officer Lloyd Herndon’s intended career path led unintentionally to law enforcement. “I never liked cops,” Herndon said. “Ever since I was a kid, I didn’t like cops. I never thought I would be one. My education prepared me for a career in social work. When it was first suggested to me that I apply for a position with the Everett Police Department, my response was negative. That wasn’t what I had in mind as a way of helping those less fortunate than myself.

“Some people struggle all their lives,” he explained. “But I never did. I had it easy. My parents weren’t wealthy, but they owned a business in eastern Washington. When I got my driver’s license, my mom gave me a brand-new car. I went in the service when I was eighteen, and then stayed on unemployment as long as I could. That was my goal—I was gonna party as long as I could until I started college. I went to Edmonds Community College and was working part-time at an auto parts store in north Seattle. The boss was great,” Herndon said. “He said that college was very important and he would give me whatever hours I wanted.”

Herndon went to school on the GI Bill, and earned his degree in social work. “Right after I graduated, the city of Everett was hiring community service officers—a civilian position. I was hired, and there were five of us. After about fifteen months on the job, it was suggested to me that I become a cop. He kept going on and on about it, and finally I went to the mailbox one day and there was an application. The chief of police had been my sergeant at the time I’d been hired. He told me that if I passed the test, I’d be hired.”

Hired, he was. And for nine years, Lloyd Herndon worked patrol. “Then I went right inside, which today is unheard of,” he said. “There were four detectives, and within a year or two, the other three retired. So, all of a sudden, I was the senior detective. That’s when the Doll case was tossed at me.

“My own daughter, Megan, was the same age as Roxanne Doll,” recalled Herndon, “so the entire matter had a lot of emotional impact on me. Actually, it shouldn’t have been my case. It should have been handed over to the Crimes against Children Division. As soon as I realized that I went to Sergeant Stillman, but I was told to handle it. Some of the guys in Crimes against Children were a bit miffed about that I guess.”

From Herndon’s perspective as an experienced police officer, Richard Clark spun his malevolent web of perverted sexuality and intoxicated ill intent, albeit haphazardly, well before the night of March 31.

“You can get a more clear picture of events, and the relationships between these people,” related Herndon, “if you go back to before we got the missing child report on Saturday. When we did our initial investigation, of course, we retraced the steps of everyone involved going back to the previous day and even further.

“The first people we spoke to were the parents, Gail Doll and her husband, Tim Iffrig,” said Herndon. “At first, everyone was a suspect. Following the sequence of events, you get good insight into the lifestyles, relationships, and how Clark ingratiated himself—how he put himself in a position to commit this horrid crime.”

“Richard Clark gave gifts to my children and my mother,” recalled Roxanne’s father. “It was only a couple weeks earlier, on the eighteenth or nineteenth, that Richard Clark came over and mentioned that he had some stuffed animals in his van. He asked my permission to give them to the kids. I said that I didn’t mind, and he handed me three stuffed animals. I handed all three to Roxanne and she gave her brother and sister two to choose between themselves because she picked one out for herself first.”

“He gave me a stuffed raccoon,” recalled Roxanne’s grandmother, Neila D’alexander. “Prior to this, he had given all of the kids Power Ranger toys.”

Neila D’alexander lived with her son, Timothy Michael Iffrig, and his wife, Gail Doll, in a small house just off busy Highway 99 in Everett, Washington. Also in the modest residence were the Doll-Iffrig’s three youngest offspring: Nicholas, Kristena, and Roxanne.

Iffrig, industrious and hardworking, put in long hours at the Howatt Company in Everett making interior mats for Kenworth and Peterbuilt trucks. “I was running a dye press ninety-nine percent of the time,” said Iffrig. “Every now and then, I would have to go back in the glue room and make glue mats for Kenworth and Peterbuilt trucks.”

His workday started at 6:30 A.M. on March 31, 1995. “We were working lots of overtime because we fell behind due to a lack of materials. On that morning, I started an hour early and worked all day.”

At the workday’s end, Iffrig got a lift home from his production supervisor. “Work was just down the road from my house,” said Iffrig. “I got off work about four-ten, so I was home by four-fifteen or four-twenty. When I got home, it was just my mom and the kids and Gail, my wife.”

“Tim was just getting home from work,” recalled Gail, “when I left with my friend Kim Hammond in her car to go walk laps at Cascade High School.”

Tim Iffrig’s after-work itinerary usually consisted of changing clothes and immediately picking up around the house or in the yard. “I’m constantly cleaning around the house. I come home; I go straight to picking up the yard or the house or whatever. So, I was either changing my clothes or cleaning, one of the two, when Richard Clark showed up with his younger half brother, twenty-seven-year-old Jimmy Miller.”

Gail Doll and Kim Hammond walked two or three laps around the Cascade High School track, then came back home. “It must have been between five and five-thirty when I got out of Kim’s car and saw that Richard Clark had arrived in his van. With him was Jimmy Miller. I walked over to the van and talked to Tim, Richard, and Jimmy about the upcoming camping trip,” Gail revealed.

“Richard Clark came by to confirm our plans,” said Iffrig. “While we were standing there talking, Richard suggested that the three of us—me, Jimmy, and him—go up the street to the Amber Light Tavern and shoot a game of pool. I know it was Richard’s idea because it wasn’t mine, and Jimmy was too drunk to think of it.”

Iffrig, the dutiful husband, asked his wife if he could be excused for a game of pool. “Gail told me that unless my mom would watch the kids, I couldn’t go. I asked my mom, but she said no. Then Richard went in and told my mom that he would give her a ride if she would watch the kids while we ran up there to shoot pool.”

Neila D’alexander agreed to watch the kids; Tim Iffrig, Clark, and the inebriated Jimmy clattered off in Clark’s van to the Amber Light Tavern. “It was a bit embarrassing ’cause Jimmy was falling-down slobbering drunk, and the tavern wouldn’t serve him,” remembered Iffrig. “Richard and I shot a quick game of pool and came right back home. The tavern was only about three minutes up the road, so we were not gone very long. When we got back, I ran in and told my mom that Richard was ready to go. She got in the van with Richard and Jimmy and they took off.”

“That was at about six-thirty P.M.,” confirmed Gail Doll. Tim Iffrig spent time relaxing with his wife and kids before he went next door to visit with neighbors Patrick Casey and his female housemate, Shawn Angilley.

“Actually,” recalled Shawn, “I didn’t know Tim came over then because I was in bed asleep. I’d been getting up for work every morning at four-thirty. At one point, I was awakened by somebody blasting his horn next door.”

While Angilley was still sleeping undisturbed, Tim Iffrig and Pat Casey shared light beers over equally light conversation—typical blue-collar Friday-night camaraderie. “After I drank a beer with Pat, I went back to my house,” said Iffrig. The two homes were only a few feet apart. “Every time I left their place, it was always straight back to my house to see whether my house is intact, tell my wife what I’m doing, and so on.

“When I got back from Pat Casey’s,” Iffrig explained, “Gail and the kids were all together watching Cinderella. I went to the back room to sit down, relax, and have a smoke.

“In a bit, after getting the kids off to bed, Gail came back and started talking to me about the upcoming camping trip and her own plans for the evening. She and her friend were going to the movies.”

“When the video was over, it was over around eight-thirty,” Gail Doll told detectives. “I told the kids to go to bed. Nick went to his room, and the girls went to their room around nine o’clock. I heard the little girls talking and giggling, and I told them to go to sleep.”

A loud horn honk in front of the Iffrig house awakened neighbor Shawn Angilley at approximately 9:00 P.M. “When it woke her up,” recalled Pat Casey, “she asked me what was going on, and I told her it was someone next door. I looked out the window and saw this yellow van at Tim’s, but I didn’t know who it belonged to at that time.”

“I’d seen that van before,” said Angilley. “For the previous two to three days, it was parked over in the field across from the house when I came home from work.”

“She was very mad,” recalled Casey. “We sat down together and watched some TV, and just then a knock came at the door. I said, ‘Come in,’ and it was Tim. He asked if it was okay for his friend to come in with him.”

Richard Clark’s yellow van arrived as Iffrig was walking next door. Tim wouldn’t take him to Casey’s without permission. “I said that it was okay,” recalled Casey, “and that’s when he introduced me to Richard Clark. We talked for about fifteen minutes and they left.”

“At the time Tim introduced me to Richard,” Shawn Angilley said, “I asked him if he was the one with the yellow van. When he said that he was, I told him, ‘You’re lucky you didn’t get your horn shoved up your ass.’ He apologized for waking me up.”

It was only a few minutes later that Gail Doll drove over to Kim Hammond’s. “I left the house, locking it,” confirmed Gail, “and went next door to tell my husband that I was leaving for the movies and gave him the keys. After I left, I stopped at the am/pm to get gas, and then went to my friend Kim Hammond’s house. Kim, her mother, Sandra Collins, and I went to the Act Three theaters in Sandy’s car. The movie started at ten-oh-five P.M. We watched Muriel’s Wedding.”

When Gail left for the film, Tim lingered with Casey and Clark for only a few minutes before both he and Clark went. “He said he was leaving because he didn’t want the kids alone in the house,” Casey recalled, “and he wanted to make himself something to eat. Richard Clark said that he was hungry too and that he was going to go out and get himself something.”

“Richard Clark and I were together the whole time he was there at Casey’s,” Iffrig said. “I went home to check on the kids—Richard went with me—then we walked back next door for a minute. I told Pat that I should stay home with the kids, plus I wanted to have something to eat. Richard said that he was leaving to get something to eat too.”

The two men walked outside together. “He turned off toward his van,” Iffrig said, “and I kept walking toward my house. I saw Richard Clark get into his van and pull it forward, but I didn’t actually see him leave because I went into the house.”

Tim Iffrig easily admitted that he was slightly intoxicated that evening. “I was feeling quite a buzz going,” he said. “I remember I was having problems opening and unlocking my door. I’d had a few drinks, so I wasn’t feeling any pain. Now I am not sure, but I think I did check on the kids when I first came home to get something to eat, but I did it just like Gail did. All we ever do is crack the door open, flick the light on real quick, and flick it off. And on that top bunk, it was real easy to think that you are seeing two people if they got a group of blankets or pillows or anything up there.”

Tim put some Cajun-style steak in a frying pan, put the burner on low, and sat down on the couch. Tim fell asleep; the steak burned. Detective Herndon’s report stated that Gail Doll’s husband “passed out on the couch.”

“No, I didn’t pass out,” insisted Iffrig. “I dozed off. I was tired. We are looking at nine-thirty or ten at night after working hard since six-thirty A.M. The intoxication may have helped me fall asleep, but I wasn’t passed-out drunk.”

After the movie, Gail returned to Kim Hammond’s, got into her own vehicle, and arrived home at 12:05 A.M. “The Cajun-style steak was blackened all right—to charcoal. The house was hazy with smoke; Tim was asleep on the couch,” Gail recounted to Detective Herndon. “I immediately went into my kitchen and took the pan off the stove. Next, I went to my son’s room, turned on the light, and saw he was asleep.”

What Gail Doll next said would prove a source of confusion, accusations, and intense legal argumentation. “I went into the girls’ room, turned on the light, and saw Roxanne and Kristena asleep in the top bunk. I shut off the light, then slapped the bottom of Tim’s foot to wake him up and scolded him for leaving a pan on the stove.”

“When Gail entered the residence,” reported Detective Herndon, “she checked on the children by opening the door and looking into the room. She stood in the hallway, peeked in, but did not tuck them in or make direct contact with them. After checking on the children, Gail Doll awoke her husband and had a discussion about the burned steak and other problems in their lives, including a lawsuit that was pending against Tim Iffrig. This lawsuit was apparently generated from an insurance company who was suing Iffrig for a vehicle accident which occurred some time ago.”

“We sat there on the couch talking and stuff,” confirmed Gail Doll, “until about one A.M. when we saw Richard Clark drive up.”

“I figure it was at one o’clock,” agreed Tim Iffrig. “I don’t wear a watch. Anytime I do, I wind up breaking it, so I never know what time it is. But I know that Gail usually gets home about midnight when she goes to the movies.”

Gail stayed up and talked to both of them until two o’-clock. “I told them that I was going to bed,” said Gail. “I put in a movie to help me fall asleep, and I woke up at seven-thirty to Tim telling me good-bye.

“I asked Tim why he was leaving so soon,” Gail recalled, “and he told me that Richard had to go get his check and do some more errands for the trip.” Gail asked Tim to make breakfast for the children. “He told me that only Nick was up. I suggested that he put cereal in bowls for the kids, and Nick could pour milk for the girls when they got up.” When a significant cereal shortage was noticed, Gail said she would make breakfast for all the kids at about 8:30 A.M.

“Tim left, and I got a call from his mother asking me to tell Tim where she was. I told her that he had already left, hung up with her, and got another call from my friend Tammy about a yard sale I was supposed to have this weekend, but I told her that it was called off on account of rain.”

The cataloging of seemingly inconsequential details may, at first glance, seem irrelevant to kidnap, rape, and murder. It was upon the accurate recounting of such mundane matters, however, that hinged the eventual capturing and conviction of the person responsible for Roxanne’s disappearance.

“The telephone conversation lasted till about eight o’clock,” said Gail, “I watched a few minutes of cartoons. That’s when Nick said, ‘Roxy isn’t here.’ I got up, asked him what he was talking about, and started looking for her. I called the neighbors’ house to see if she was there, and I called Roxanne’s little friend Amanda’s house and talked with her mother. I called Sarah Austin, another classmate of Roxy’s at Fairmont Elementary School. Parents of both kids told me that their kids hadn’t seen or spoken with Roxanne today. Then I called my mother, who said to look outside, to search the yard, the trailer, and the camper, which I did.”

Gail also called Kim Hammond, her brother-in-law, William D’alexander, her sisters, Patricia Doll and Katherine Martin, before heading back outside to resume what was rapidly becoming a frantic search.

“Gail first called me at about eight-thirty in the morning,” said neighbor Shawn Angilley. “She asked me if Roxanne was over here. Twenty minutes later, Gail was knocking on the front door. She asked if I had seen Roxanne. I told her that I just now unbolted the door. Then I called her about a half hour later to make sure she found Roxy, but she hadn’t. By that time, Gail’s friend Kim Hammond showed up.”

Kim and Gail had known each other for thirteen years and were best friends. “Since we are very close, we talk to each other about everything,” said Kim to detectives. “Gail and I went to the movies last night. It started at five after ten and we were back at my place about midnight. She went right home. I didn’t hear from her again until eight-thirty this morning when she phoned me, and said that she couldn’t find her daughter Roxanne. I then came right over.”

“Kim and I went out looking and calling for Roxanne,” recalled Shawn Angilley. “I never stopped looking for her and handing out flyers until eight-thirty P.M.”

“Roxanne Doll was kidnapped out of her bed between the time Tim Iffrig fell asleep on the couch and when Gail Doll got home from the movies,” said Herndon. “But with everyone intoxicated or asleep at the time, it was initially difficult to put all the pieces together.

“It was more than an hour or so after Gail and Tim returned from the campsite,” Herndon recalled, “and Richard Clark still hadn’t shown up. I waited around the victim residence until approximately six P.M. because I wanted to speak to him and any other witnesses who had been involved with the family prior to the disappearance.

“After Clark failed to show, I contacted the station and asked to check computer records for any information on a Richard Clark. According to the father, Tim Iffrig, Richard Clark had just gotten out of jail recently. I was able to narrow down the list of Richard Clarks to three possibilities—in other words, three guys named Richard Clark showed up in our database. Based on prior information obtained from Tim Iffrig, I determined that this Richard Clark’s last known address was on Lombard Street.”

It was 6:00 P.M. when Detectives Kiser and Herndon left the victim’s residence and drove seven miles to Richard Clark’s last-known address on Lombard. “We took Tim Iffrig and his brother, William D’alexander, along with us, since we were going to drive back up to the campsite to check for any possible evidence or signs of the victim.”

Iffrig, highly upset, couldn’t recall the campsite’s exact location, but his brother, William D’alexander, said he could lead the detectives to it with no problem at all.

“First I contacted Carol Clark at her home on Lombard,” reported Herndon, “and asked if Richard Clark still lived there at that residence. According to her, Richard did stay there on occasion, but he had not been there on that day. Carol Clark stated that Richard might be at his father’s house in Marysville, Washington. I gave her my card and pager number and instructed her to have Richard call me as soon as possible.”

The entourage of Herndon, Kiser, Iffrig, and D’alexander headed for the campsite, stopping along the way at the George Clark residence in Marysville, Washington.

“If you’re looking for Richard, you just missed him,” said George Clark Sr. “He was here earlier, but I don’t know if we’ll be hearing from him anytime soon.” Herndon provided his pager number. “Please have Richard call me as soon as possible,” asked the detective, and George Clark promised to do so.

Herndon radioed the police station and asked for an all vehicles registered report. “I soon learned that Mr. Clark’s van was a 1978 Dodge with Washington State plates. I advised dispatch to put an attempt to locate on this vehicle, adding that I needed to speak to Mr. Clark and the occupants regarding Roxanne Doll’s disappearance.”

Thanks to D’alexander, the Red Bridge/Coal Creek campground site used by Iffrig, Clark, and party was easily found. “It could be best described,” recalled Herndon, “as an undeveloped, unauthorized campsite along the main highway. We checked the area with flashlights and could not locate any pertinent evidence, or Roxanne Doll. At that time, there were no other campers in the area, although Iffrig stated that another party of two had been camping near their campsite.”

The other party to which Iffrig referred was that of Bruce Hawkins. “I saw this Dodge Van—sort of tan or rust in color—pull into my camp. The driver was a white male with slightly curly, shoulder-length light-colored hair. He was wearing wire glasses,” said Hawkins, describing Richard Clark. “There was another guy who said he was the missing girl’s uncle,” he continued. “He had long hair in back, short on the sides, and a Fu Manchu mustache. The fellow, who might have been the girl’s father, since I saw the sheriff drive off with him, had long, dark hair. He was slim, but looked in shape. Then there was a woman, a large woman with a loud voice. She talked real loud. And then there was a Native American Indian, who, I believe, had some top teeth missing.

“Anyway,” explained Hawkins, “these folks showed up at my site and they pissed my dogs off, and started saying stuff like ‘Don’t mess with me or I’ll kick your ass.’ I grabbed my two very large dogs and I told them to leave. The uncle and I did have a brief scuffle. I did indulge in about half a fifth of Black Velvet at this time,” Hawkins acknowledged, “and that’s about all.”

The detectives returned Iffrig and D’alexander to Iffrig’s residence. “Tim was understandably an emotional wreck, as any father would be. He was terribly distraught over the disappearance of his little girl. Of course, everyone at his house was very emotional. Gail Doll, completely drained and exhausted, was out cold on the couch.”

On their way back to the police station, Detectives Kiser and Herndon learned that Richard Clark and his aunt Vicki Smith drove to the police station in Everett, where they spoke briefly with Lieutenant Peter Hegge.

“Before going to the police station, Richard drove Jimmy Miller and his girlfriend, Lisa, back to the house,” said Vicki. “I went in the house, but then I said to Richard that I wanted to go into town with him. All my stuff and Tim’s stuff was still in the van.”

“Vicki Smith was heavily intoxicated at that time,” recalled Lieutenant Hegge. “She smelled of alcohol; her eyes were watery; she had trouble walking, and also had the odor of wood smoke, which I attributed to the camping experience. Clark did not seem to be intoxicated.”

Hegge told Clark and Smith that detectives were at the Doll-Iffrig residence interviewing everyone who might have information relevant to the search for Doll. He asked Smith and Clark to go to the Doll-Iffrig house and talk to the detectives. Clark agreed to drive Smith and himself there.

Clark drove by the Doll-Iffrig house, but he didn’t stop. Vicki Smith personally didn’t want to go there. “I figured I would just be in the way,” she said. “When Richard saw all the cops there, he just kept driving.” Richard Mathew Clark never arrived at the Iffrig residence. After leaving the police station, Richard drove his alcoholically altered aunt Vicki to Carol’s house on Lombard. Vicki Smith and he stayed, she said, about four hours.

Vicki told detectives that Richard Clark later gave her a ride to Aaron’s Restaurant in Everett. “He just left me there in the cocktail lounge. I don’t know where he went or what he did after he left me at Aaron’s,” said Vicki. “I walked to my daughter’s house after the bar closed, and I didn’t see Richard again until Sunday.”

“I think the next time Gail Doll saw Richard Clark,” commented Detective Herndon, “was when he was on trial for murdering her child.”