Читать книгу Dead And Buried: A True Story Of Serial Rape And Murder - Corey Mitchell - Страница 9

TWO

At 8:30 A.M., Friday the 13th, Cal Poly student Theresa Audino crossed the Jennifer Street Bridge to retrieve her car, which she parked downtown. She and her boyfriend had spent the previous evening at the farmers’ market, where she purchased her weekly supply of vegetables. She decidedto walk home and left her car downtown. She crossed the Jennifer Street Bridge at 11:30 P.M. on Thursday night. She did not notice anything unusual.

This morning, however, she definitely saw something that scared her.

A pool of blood, at least a foot across, lay conspicuously near the staircase at the top of the bridge. The blood still seemed thick and fresh. It was still wet.

Audino noticed several drops of blood, about the size of her thumb, on the stairs. She decided to see how far they stretched. As she slowly descended the fifty-eight steps, she noted that the blood drops went all the way to the bottom stair. She followed the blood to the right of the stairs, onto the sidewalk, and then left to the train station parking lot. Suddenly,the drops disappeared. They stopped right at a tree planter located next to the first parking spot.

Audino contacted the police. They informed her that they had already heard about the blood.

San Luis Obispo police officer Christopher Staley, who worked the day shift from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., reported to the Jennifer Street Bridge. He noticed the large pool of blood on the top of the stairs. He proceeded to obtain a blood swab in case it might be helpful in the future. Later that morning, he did something inexplicable. He asked the city cleaning crew to wash the blood off the bridge.

They did.

“Have you heard from Rachel today?” asked Kirk Williams, an assistant manager of the SLO Brewing Company,where Rachel worked as a hostess. He was speaking to one of Rachel’s three roommates, Nichole Tylenda.

It was 6:00 P.M.

“She was supposed to come in to work this afternoon,” Williams continued.

“I actually haven’t heard from her all day. Apparently, she didn’t show up for her class and she didn’t come home today. It’s not like her to not call,” Tylenda said worriedly.

Rachel usually let someone know what she was up to. The attractive Cal Poly nutrition major made sure her circle of friends knew what she was doing almost every day. These includedAndrea, her other roommates, her coworkers, and her family. SLO Brewing coworker and occasional date Adam Olson told Williams, “It’s unlike her to disappear like this. There’s no way for her to vanish without telling anybody where she was going.”

Nevertheless, no one could find Rachel Newhouse.

By Saturday, November 14, a full-scale search was on. Rachel’s friends created hundreds of missing-person posters, with Rachel’s pertinent information listed, and posted them all over downtown. The San Luis Obispo policewere also on the trail of the missing college student. They were led by Captain Bart Topham, who secured a search-and-rescue team made up of anywhere from twenty-fiveto sixty searchers. Several tracking dogs assisted and a California Highway Patrol helicopter tracked the team’s progress from the sky.

Captain Topham had all the people on the search-and-rescue team follow Rachel’s potential route home from Tortilla Flats to the Jennifer Street neighborhood. They also searched several creeks in the area that lined the peaceful neighborhoods.

San Luis Obispo was up in arms over the prospect of a missing college girl.

Rachel Newhouse was the prototypical California college girl. She was an attractive, full-figured, 5’6”, 120-pound blonde who was athletic, academically blessed, hardworking, and honest to boot. Her grandmother Patricia Newhouse describedher as a “conscientious, hardworking girl” with “lots of friends.” Her grandmother also stressed that her kin was not really a “party person—she’s more into taking care of business and getting things done.”

Rachel was getting things done at Cal Polytechnic Institute.She was a junior-year nutrition major, with a strong B average. She was used to getting things done. Just as she did at Irvine High School in Orange County, where she maintained a straight-A average and also excelled at sports, including soccer and cross-country track. She was a studentbody officer and member of the California Scholarship Federation. She was also very popular and good at making friends and keeping them.

One friend that Rachel kept was Andrea West. They were both freshmen at Irvine High School, where they met in 1992. They became fast friends and maintained their close bond over the years. Andrea described Rachel as “the perfect friend. She’s always there when she’s needed. She’s a happy and cheery person. She cares.”

Rachel Newhouse also cared about doing the right thing. Her aunt Patricia Turner described Rachel as a bit too hard on herself. Andrea furthered the idea of Rachel as a hardworking,conscientious person. She informed the police that in addition to her studies, Rachel also baby-sat and worked at SLO Brewing.

Rachel Newhouse kept busy and stayed out of trouble.

By Monday, November 16, 1998, Andrea West had not heard from her friend. Neither had her boss Kirk Williams. Nor had Captain Topham. No one in town knew where she was located. Word began to spread around the Cal Poly campusabout her disappearance. By Wednesday, the mood of the town and the campus shifted in a dark direction. Samina Khan, Rachel’s lab mate, headed for the Women’s Center on campus. Her mission: to buy pepper spray. She was afraid and looking for a way to defend herself.

“I was thinking about getting some last year, but I didn’t feel unsafe,” she said forlornly as she clutched her new purchase.

Parents of several Cal Poly students began to contact Captain Topham. They also had one thing on their minds: protecting their children.

Why was there so much panic in a seemingly routine missingcollege student case? After all, it was no big deal for a young college student to take off a few days from school and not call friends. Extended trips to Tijuana or Las Vegas were not out of the ordinary. Why were the parents and, indeed, many of the students concerned?

It was not the first time a female Cal Poly student had gone missing in recent years.