Читать книгу Murder In The Heartland - M. William Phelps - Страница 38

One of the most important investigative strategies Ben Espey initiated right away was to involve as many law enforcement agencies as possible, mainly the Missouri Major Case Squad, the MSHP, and a team of crime-scene investigators from the St. Joseph PD.

For Espey, though, every decision he made early on was based solely on the well-being of the child. The murder could be solved in due course—he was certain of that. But the baby could still be alive. She had to come first, whether anyone agreed with him or not.

With frustration building over seeing his Amber Alert requests repeatedly turned down, as it got later in the evening, Espey realized he was fighting the clock, now more than ever. He decided to turn to an old friend, Missouri congressman Sam Graves, who was nearing the end of his second term in office and planning a run for a third.

Espey had known Graves for twelve years. He’d even campaigned with him on the Republican ticket a few times, walking the streets together, waving in parades, knocking on doors, handing out buttons and bumper stickers. Graves came from a family rooted in law enforcement; his brother, Todd, had been a U.S. attorney for a number of years. Moreover, Sam supported local law enforcement and was considered an advocate of the sheriff’s offices serving his constituency. A lifelong resident of Missouri’s sixth Congressional District, he was popular among the people of Missouri because, some said, he “is one of them,” having been a small businessman and a sixth-generation farmer himself. His congressional biography states that Graves, a father of three, “spent his life working to make Missouri a better place to live, work, and raise a family.” Besides all that, Bobbie Jo’s murder had hit home for Graves: he lived about thirty miles outside Skidmore. Bobbie Jo was like one of his own, Skidmore an adopted hometown.

If anyone could help, Espey knew, it was Sam Graves. Espey knew Graves was a caring human being with morals most public officials seldom displayed. Espey also knew Graves would understand how desperate the situation was. Here was a chance to save a baby. Graves knew how tight the community was and how getting the child back mattered not only to Zeb Stinnett, but to the township as a whole.

“We are fairly good friends,” said Espey. “He became my contact person—the only one I could think of when all else failed.”

As Espey struggled to come up with a way to convince the MSHP to issue the alert, he phoned Sam Graves at his home late that evening and asked him for help. Espey explained how he had been told repeatedly the case did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert because authorities did not know the child’s hair and eye color, or any other details. “I’m really aggravated, Sam. You have to pull some strings and get this thing done.”

Amber Alert guidelines were set in stone, however. What could a congressman do to supersede national policies and procedures? The state of Missouri was still in the process of designing its own Amber Alert standards, thus forcing state officials to fall back on what had been accepted nationally.

“I’m not sure I can get anything done, Ben. The law is the law, you know.”

“Fix the damn law,” Espey said. He was desperate. Hospital officials were telling him the child was likely alive but could be in danger of suffering problems down the road if she wasn’t found soon. Additionally, who knew what the child’s kidnapper was doing to her?

“Give me two hours and I’ll have it done,” Graves said next, without hesitation.

“He really helped me,” Espey recalled, “at a time when I needed it. Everyone helped, but Sam got things moving for us and got things done right away.”

“I’ve known [Ben Espey] for a while,” Graves said later in published reports, “and he was at the end of his rope.” In another statement, Graves added, “We’ve got a problem with our system. Nobody really thought of this contingency.”

Espey’s chief argument throughout the night was that a newborn baby “looks different than any other child. In three or four or five days, well, you’ve got a baby. But a newborn baby, if I say that a baby was born within a few hours, anybody can look at a child and tell it’s a newborn.”

He couldn’t understand why no one else, save for Sam Graves and the people inside his law enforcement circle, couldn’t see it the same way.