Читать книгу Dead And Buried: A True Story Of Serial Rape And Murder - Corey Mitchell - Страница 11

FOUR

With Kristin Smart’s disappearance fresh in their minds, the police wasted no time in attempting to find Rachel Newhouse.Indeed, it seemed as if the entire 43,000-person community of San Luis Obispo was on alert.

Members of the community welcomed Rachel’s family, includingher father, Phillip, her mother, Montel, her brother Travis, twenty-two, her sister, Ashley, nineteen, and her uncle Peter Morreale, a defense attorney from Riverside, California.Morreale acted as spokesperson and expressed the family’s gratitude to the warm people of San Luis Obispo who took them in, fed them, and attempted to comfort the Newhouse clan as the investigation was under way. Morreale informed the press, “Phil and Montel are very appreciative. They don’t feel like strangers up there.”

It was an easy time to feel uncomfortable as the search for Rachel continued. On Wednesday, November 18, another shock occurred in the community. A local resident, Richard Wall, was shot and killed less than one mile away from Cal Poly. The seemingly safe bastion of San Luis Obispo seemed to be under arrest.

Fear and panic soon began to take over.

Cal Poly senior Malia McKee expressed that “no way will I walk home at night.” McKee vividly recalled Kristin Smart’s disappearance and how “it really scared us, but it wore off.”

Architecture major Julie Bebeikin talked about her late nights on campus. She said that some nights she would not leave until 2:00 A.M. and that “I feel like I’m in a complete ghost town.” She even carried an X-ACTO knife for protection.

Sharon Perkins, coordinator of the Cal Poly “Take Back the Night” program, an annual campus gathering to foster awarenessabout violence against women, spoke of Rachel’s disappearance as a wake-up call. She matter-of-factly informedthe local press, “I think a lot of people have the opinion that Cal Poly is really safe.” In her mind women must be on their guard at all times and that “this is a reality check that in San Luis Obispo it can happen here.”

By Thursday Captain Topham could tell that a crime had occurred in his sleepy little burg. He began to feel the pressureof the Newhouse case. The previous day, he called off the cadaver-dog search teams. Furthermore, review of several local businesses’ surveillance videotapes showed no sign of Rachel and hundreds of interviews led nowhere.

Captain Topham knew that each day they did not locate Rachel Newhouse, the more difficult it would be to find her. He also began to hint that this was probably a case of violent crime, mainly due to the blood found on the bridge. There was no match made yet between the blood drops found on the Jennifer Street Bridge and Rachel Newhouse. Captain Topham, however, could not deny the inevitable conclusion: the blood probably was hers.

Despite his initial reluctance to turn the reins over, Captain Topham decided to appeal to a higher authority. He contacted the Sacramento office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and requested assistance. He believed the FBI was better equipped and had a stronger workforce to locate Rachel Newhouse.He made the call. He could only hope that it would help to find the missing twenty-year-old from Irvine.

The Newhouse family also got involved in the search for their daughter. They printed up thousands of flyers at the downtown Kinko’s and distributed them throughout the town and the surrounding county. They also posted flyers in the San Joaquin Valley and in Southern California, in hopes of spreading the word.

Morreale stated that the Newhouse clan was extremely pleased with the efforts of Captain Topham and the sheriff’s department in the search for their daughter. He was perturbed, however, by a statement made by San Luis Obispo police chief Jim Gardiner about Rachel’s drinking. The Newhouses believed that Gardiner insinuated that Rachel got what she deserved. She was only a minor who was partying and drinkingwhen she should not have been. Morreale was quick to stress that Rachel did not have a drinking problem of any kind.

Even Captain Topham talked about common sense among the town’s residents when they ventured out at night. He insistedthat the residents of San Luis Obispo had no reason to be afraid. Topham calmly reassured his constituents when he said, “We have no indication this incident fits a pattern.” He was quick to add that Rachel Newhouse’s disappearance should not “change our perception that this is a pretty safe community.”