Read Bad Boy From Rosebud Online

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #General, #Law, #True Crime, #Murder, #test

Bad Boy From Rosebud (76 page)

 
Page 283
But Mike McNamara was able to develop a reliable, confidential source close enough to the family to get good information. According to that source, Addie continued to insist to family and friends that Kenneth was innocentand dead. The confidential source also indicated that McDuff liked to hang out in a heavily wooded area behind TSTI, and that if he had buried a body anywhere, it would be in that area in a shallow grave with debris covering it. (Only days after securing that information from the informant, the body of Valencia Kay Joshua was recovered in that area.)
6
For the next several years, Mike maintained his communication with the informant.
II
Conspicuously absent from the investigative scene was the Waco Police Department, especially when considering that the Cut is in the Waco city limits. According to their own police department reports, Barbara Carpenter, Regenia Moore's mother, contacted the Waco Police on October 21, 1991, less than one week after her daughter's disappearance. The officer did not write a report about the communication until more than seven months later, on April 28, 1992. Only the day before, the Regenia Moore case was assigned to Mike Nicoletti of the Special Crimes Unit. He and another officer worked the case, which became the "master" case for both the Moore and Brenda Thompson investigations.
7
Nicoletti masterfully secured information from the Cut's frequent occupants. He documented McDuff's brutalization of a number of prostitutes. One unnamed girl told how McDuff once grabbed her, put a knife to her throat, and walked her over to a mirror: "Look at yourself in the mirror. You're a no-good prostitute. You're trash. I should kill you!" According to the prostitute, a few minutes later his mood changed and he put away his knife. Another prostitute, who refused to have anal sex with McDuff in his motel room, told Nicoletti of how McDuff calmly offered to take her back to her home. She foolishly accepted, only to have him take her to a secluded spot near TSTI where he told her, "We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. Anyway, I'm going to get my nut. I'll do it slow and easy." After three hours of savage sex, he offered to be "her man" and promised not to let anybody else hurt her.
8
 
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Desperate to find her daughter, Barbara Carpenter let the word spread that there was a $15,000 reward for information leading to Regenia's recovery. Allegedly, McDuff responded by letting it be known that he had taken Regenia, but had left her with a Mexican who raped and killed her. McDuff offered to torture the Mexican into confessing to where he buried her. McDuff then would dig her up and deliver her to her mother for a reward.
9
Of course, nothing ever resulted from the scheme.
Mike Nicoletti was able to prove, once and for all, that Regenia Moore was not the woman seen kicking and screaming in McDuff's pickup truck on the infamous night of October 10, 1991, when McDuff drove past a WPD roadblock. Nicoletti served a subpoena on the Inn 7 to review their guest registration cards. He located a card, dated October 15, 1991, signed "Regenia Moore." (It also settled a minor dispute over whether her name was Regenia or Regina.) The signature matched several samples on file at WPD.
10
But mixed with compelling information that McDuff had, indeed, abducted and killed Regenia Moore and Brenda Thompson, were conflicting reports that Regenia often talked of going to Houston to become a topless dancer. Another source said that she might be in Madisonville, Texas. Even more confusing was the case of Brenda Thompson, who was characterized as "much more of a loner [who] did not get picked up as often."
Like almost all other investigators looking for McDuff, Nicoletti's search led him to the ubiquitous Chester. Chester admitted that he had lied to many other investigators about McDuff. He also admitted to being a heavy crack user and dealer. To Nicoletti and APD Sergeant John Jones, "Chester the Molester" described a chilling conversation he had with McDuff. On or near the date of her disappearance, as Regenia entered a convenience store to buy candy, McDuff reputedly told Chester that he was "going to use her up, and then . . . leave her on the road."
11
At the Austin Police Department Sonya Urubek came to the conclusion that Kenneth McDuff was "like a professor for those who would want to get away with a crime. He could teach others." She was also impressed with what ordinary people leave behind as evidence of their existence. She thought specifically of the strands of Colleen's hair she and Lori painfully removed from trash bags stuffed with Colleen's clothes, and the genetic code unique to Colleen that could be retrieved from her last PAP Smear. She was also very impressed with how professional Mike
 
Page 285
Goins, one of the three witnesses to what went on at the car wash on December 29, 1991, approached his responsibilities and instructions. After being told not to get too familiar with the Colleen Reed Case, he made specific efforts not to do so. It was not that hard. He lived in Houston and was a very busy young man anyway.
12
On March 24, the true crime show
Unsolved Mysteries
came to Austin to tape a reenactment of the abduction of Colleen Reed. Mike Goins and Stephen Marks played themselves on the episode, which aired on April 24. During the taping, Sonya, Mike, Stephen and Kari met at Kari's house on Powell Street and this is when Mike made the tentative identification of McDuff from Sonya's photo lineup.
13
On the day
Unsolved Mysteries
aired, Dan Zahara of APD drove to Houston to show Mike Goins another photo lineup. In a Kettle Restaurant Mike looked carefully at each of the pictures. This one had Hank Worley's picture in it. Mike could not make any identification.
14
The
Unsolved Mysteries
telecast was disappointing in that only twenty-one leads came in as a result. There were fourteen officers at telephones ready to take calls.
15
Far more productive was the telecast of
America's Most Wanted,
which aired on May 1. The show generated over fifty tips that came to a phone bank manned by the U.S. Marshal's Service. The show featured Lori and showed pictures of Colleen Reed and Kenneth McDuff. Not surprisingly, most of the tips came from Texas, although the most valuable of them all did not, and was not phoned in to the marshals.
III
On May 3, 1992, Kansas City Police Sergeant J. D. Johnson received a call from an employee of the Longview Disposal Systems. The caller was an acquaintance of Johnson who had watched
America's Most Wanted
two nights earlier. His friend said he believed he saw a co-worker featured on the show. He identified the colleague as Richard Dale Fowler. That night, Johnson viewed a video tape of the program. The next day, he contacted the refuse company and obtained Fowler's birth date and social security number. At the police department, he did a computer search and found that a Richard Dale Fowler had been arrested for soliciting prostitution on April 10 and that fingerprints had been taken. With Fowler's finger-
 
Page 286
prints in hand, Johnson called the McLennan County Sheriff's Office and spoke to Richard Stroup. The McLennan County Sheriff's Office did not have McDuff's fingerprints on file because he had never been arrested by them. Stroup then called Bell County and spoke to Investigator Mike Elmore, who faxed McDuff's fingerprints to Johnson several times. After enlarging the faxes, Alice Dearing, a KCPD fingerprint specialist, was able to make a positive identificationRichard Dale Fowler was really Kenneth Allen McDuff.
16
Once McDuff had been positively identified, Johnson contacted his source and determined that on Monday, May 4, McDuff would be on garbage truck number 103, and that the truck would be at Eighty-fifth Street and Hickman Mills Drive between 1:00 and 2:00
P.M.
At 1:00
P.M.
, seven Kansas City Policemen set up an inspection station at Eighty-fifth and Prospect designed to inspect heavy weight vehicles. They even used a specially marked car readily recognized as a weights and measures vehicle. The garbage truck rolled up at 1:32
P.M.
and slowed down when an officer flagged it. As the truck came to a stop, the lawmen moved into position. McDuff, seated near the passenger side door, was readily recognized. As he started to exit the truck, two armed officers immediately pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him. (The other two bewildered trashmen hurriedly exited the driver's side door. The men told the officers that McDuff had asked them how to get a gun.)
17
Like a crocodile with his mouth tied shut, McDuff was totally passive. Of course, as J. D. Johnson stated, "There were two officers there with shotguns; there was no opportunity for him to be argumentative." KCPD Officer Robert Harlow loaded McDuff into a van specially fitted with a compartment to transport prisoners. Harlow took McDuff in for bookingalone. At the jail, he took him to the eighth floor and placed him in a holding cell. Harlow asked him what his name was and he replied "Richard Fowler." Harlow replied that it was no use to lie because fingerprint cards were going to be used to make a true identity. He then handed McDuff a piece of paper taken from his property and pointed to the name "Kenneth McDuff." At that point, McDuff admitted his true identity.
18
"Let me first say, thank God that the manhunt for Kenneth Allen McDuff is over," said Mike Carnevale, as he began a press conference in which he outlined the capture.
 
Page 287
It was the 208
th
success story out of 469 re-enactments on
America's Most Wanted
. As soon as KCPD had McDuff, Parnell called Tim Steglich, who went to see Hank immediately. He asked Hank if he had anything to add to any of his previous statements. He said nothing of consequence.
19
The press scoured Kansas City for people who knew "Richard Fowler." Barbara Harman, his landlady, seemed stunned by the publicity. "I had no idea. I watched
America's Most Wanted
Friday, and it never sunk in. Thank God it did with someone else." The branch manager for the temporary employment services company that got McDuff the trash collector's job remembered him as a quiet worker. "As far as an impression, he didn't make much [of one]. He didn't strike me as odd, he didn't strike me as overly aggressive. In fact, he was in my office last week with a complaint about the job. About the conditions, the people he was working with, those things."
20
In Texas there were many lawmen anxious to go to Kansas City to get McDuff. Dan Stoltz secured a U.S. Marshal's Service plane and asked Parnell to put together a team to make the trip. The men, including Bobby Hogeland of the U.S. Marshals, Joe Wylie of the Texas Rangers, and Jeff Brzozowski of the ATF, arrived at the Hyatt Regency, an elegant hotel next to the Hallmark Headquarters in Kansas City. The posse Parnell assembled included men who left home so fast that many of them forgot to bring basic necessities. Mad Dog Don Owens looked at the hotel's shiny marble floors and up at the huge open spaces and said, "Ooo." Then he looked at Parnell and said, "I got three bucks on me, Parnell. Can you spot me a couple of bucks?"
McDuff had been taken to the Blue Springs Correctional Facility in Kansas City, used to house federal prisoners. When the posse arrived, the desk worker looked back and forth at the cowboy hats and boots and said, "You boys from Texas?" (Years later Parnell remembered that he saw no one wearing boots in Kansas City. He thought that odd for a place that had so many stockyards.) J. W. remembers how the staff was taken by surprise at the number of officers arriving for one prisoner: "There were more of us than was there in that police department." The guards at the facility had to be told that they had a very dangerous serial killer and that extra security was needed, as well as a suicide watch. The men had to decide who should question McDuff. They decided that the master interrogator, Chuck Meyer, and J. W., as the sole representative from the
 
Page 288
Austin Police Department, should be there for the entire session. A third place could be rotated among some of the other officers.
21
"We knew we had only one shot at him," Chuck remembered. At 2:01
A.M.
McDuff was awakened and brought to an interrogation room. The first trio to speak to him consisted of Chuck, J. W., and Texas Ranger Joe Wylie. J. W. read him his rights from a "blue card" and asked him to sign it. McDuff refused to sign it and so J. W. signed his own name and noted the names of the two other officers present.
At first, McDuff stated that he would answer any questions the men had for him. He did ask why he was being detained, and Chuck answered truthfully that he was wanted for distribution of narcotics and firearms possession. While he was so agreeable, Chuck got him to agree to sign a consent to search form for a search of his apartment. McDuff signed it and said there was nothing there but beer cans, trash and a lot of dirty clothes. This was a first meeting with McDuff for J. W. and Chuck, who both found it disgusting to have to be nice to him. J. W. remembered how filthy McDuff was. (He was still wearing the clothes he wore to collect trash.) They got him so comfortable that he joked about how one of his friends said he saw him on television on a show called "Mysterious Mysteries."
Shortly into the interview, Wylie left the room and Parnell entered. For more than two hours McDuff pontificated on his pride in being a "true" convict, a product of the old system. He was a survivor, he said, and knew more about getting by than present-day inmates. He did not belong to any particular gang, but hung around with several other inmates. In prison, McDuff developed an ability to make his own "brew" right in front of the guardswithout them ever noticing. Chuck managed to get the conversation back to how McDuff got to Kansas City. McDuff stated that he really did not want to talk about it. When Chuck asked why not, McDuff answered that "there was no reason to bring anyone else into it." J. W. knew from that response that someone had to have helped this vicious killer escape from Texas.
McDuff did say that it was very hard to get a job without a picture ID, and that he would leave a business rather than explain why he did not have one. He bought the Social Security card, he explained, for $25. He had also purchased a driver's license, but the picture looked nothing like him and would likely cause more problems than what it was worth, so he threw it away.

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