Читать книгу Dead And Buried: A True Story Of Serial Rape And Murder - Corey Mitchell - Страница 12

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The police were doing everything in their power to alleviatethe town’s fears. Others chipped in to help search for Rachel Newhouse as well. Rachel’s family offered $10,000 for information leading to the recovery of their daughter. Fellow Orange County resident and Anaheim Angelscenterfielder Jim Edmonds and his agent, Dwight Manley, each kicked in $25,000 for the search for Rachel. Edmonds, a father of two girls, felt Rachel’s story hit close to home.

“I know what it’s like to be out there and be on your own and have to rely on people you don’t know,” Edmonds stated to the Orange County News. “This is a situation where everybodyneeds to get out there and help the cause and try to bring her home.”

Manley added his reason for helping: “We all need to realizethat Rachel Newhouse could be our child, niece, friend, and hope this effort will help the police in Rachel’s safe recovery.”

Part of that recovery effort by police was to search the Cold Canyon Landfill, south of San Luis Obispo, on Friday,November 20. Captain Topham described the check of the nearby Edna Valley garbage dump as a routine measurein a missing-person case and not the result of any specific lead. He informed the media that no clues had been located concerning Rachel’s case.

The media had also received numerous bogus contacts. Dave Colby, news director for local NBC affiliate KSBY-TV, claimed to have received twenty-five to thirty phone calls a day about various dead bodies in the neighborhood.

“Every time one of us goes to lunch,” Colby related, “we’ve heard conversations that a body has been found.”

The rumor mill, needless to say, became a source of irritationfor Captain Topham.

“If people really want to help, quit gossiping,” he angrily snapped.

Meanwhile, the FBI began to set up equipment—their main purpose in the case was to devise a computer tracking system to organize all of the various interviews and searches that had already been conducted and “to manage the huge volume of information that has been developed.”

Some members of the media attempted to arrange a meetingbetween the Newhouses and the Smarts. Tabloid television program Hard Copy wanted to get the families togetherfor a special program, but the Newhouses did not want to take part. They kept to themselves and wanted no part of the press attention. Peter Morreale stressed, “The Smarts’ grief is a private matter, and so is ours.” He also claimed it was impossible for the Newhouses to talk to anyone because they could not even speak among themselves without crying.

The Newhouse family believed there was nothing left for them to do in San Luis Obispo. They headed back to Irvine on Thursday. Morreale again emphasized that the family was pleased with the police’s handling of the case; however, some believe there was some underlying frustration on the part of the family. That lay with Police Chief Jim Gardiner, who again stressed the importance of eliminating underage drinkingamong coeds. Gardiner stated that he did not blame Rachel Newhouse or Kristin Smart for their disappearances, but he believed alcohol might have played a part. He spoke of how alcohol can impair an individual’s decision making, can numb a person’s brain, and toss common sense out of one’s mental window.

“I’ve seen too many situations where alcohol destroys lives,” Gardiner stated. He also believed that neither Rachel nor Kristin would be missing if they were sober.

Other people wanted to help. Heritage Oaks Bank set up a Rachel Newhouse Help Fund. A young girl even broke open her piggy bank and brought $6 in coins to the bank to do her part. One fraternity charged money for parking at football games and donated the proceeds to the fund. Another fraternitythrew an alcohol-free barbecue bash, which attracted over two hundred students and raised $1,200 before local policeshut it down at 9:00 P.M. Also, a former police reserve officer, Frank Dufault, and his Internet partner Randy Falcke donated the monthly proceeds from their Smart Date Web site to the Rachel Newhouse search fund. Dufault and former pilot Jerry Noble created the Smart Date Web site in 1996 after the disappearance of Kristin Smart. Their concept, which won the London-based Crime Social Innovations award, provided a service wherein females could register their personal information and give detailed descriptions as to whom they were dating and where they would be going with their date. Noble, who used to file preflight plans before every takeoff, described the site as a way for a woman to file a “predate plan.” The service cost its users $12 a month and the entrepreneurs offered to donate their entire profits for the month of December.

Despite the efforts of the police, volunteers, and concerned citizens, there still was no sign of Rachel Newhouse. The policewere further disappointed when the initial test results of the blood found on the Jennifer Street Bridge came back inconclusive.They would have to wait another three weeks before the DNA test results came back.

Rachel’s friends at Cal Poly were frustrated as well. Severalof her friends from Irvine who attended Cal Poly or Cuesta College, the local junior college, gathered at a house on Luneta Drive in Rachel’s neighborhood for Thanksgiving. Rachel used to park her car at this house every day when she stopped by to talk with her friends. She was not with them on this day of remembrance. Instead, her friends reminisced about Rachel while they ate a potluck turkey lunch. Most of the time they cried.

Other Cal Poly students who did not know Rachel personallyfelt her presence in their own homes when they returned for Thanksgiving. School officials from Cal Poly sent home a letter to every student’s parents about her disappearance. The school believed they had a right to know what was happeningat their child’s campus. Juan Gonzalez, vice president of student affairs, hoped the letter, combined with the now more than $60,000 reward, would stimulate discussion betweenthe students and their parents.

One former student who did not receive one of those letterswas Paul Flores. The prime suspect in the Kristin Smart case was once again a target in many people’s eyes. The San Luis Obispo Police Department released an official statement,however, that Flores was not a suspect in the Rachel Newhouse disappearance: “We wish to announce that Paul Flores, who has been the subject of much attention during the investigation into the disappearance of Kristin Smart, has been eliminated in the disappearance of Rachel Newhouse.”

No one gave an official explanation as to why the police ruled Flores out. Sheriff’s Department sergeant Sean Donahuesternly stated, as far as Flores’s involvement in the Smart case, “Nobody is ruled out. We haven’t ruled him out yet.”

On Sunday, November 29, the investigators received a disturbingcall from Ventura County. Apparently, a group of avid bird-watchers had been traipsing about in an area known as Hungry Valley, when they made a gruesome discovery.

A young woman’s dead body.