Season of Madness

by Robert Scott

  For his first court appearance, Darrell Rich was taken from the jail in Burney to the small municipal court in Anderson, where Judge Werner Ahrbeck presided. In the courthouse Shasta County DA Robert Baker filed against Darrell Keith Rich three counts of murder and the charge of rape of Brenda Simmons, too. The Redding Police Department, Anderson Police Department (APD) and Shasta County Sheriff’s Office were still in meetings with the district attorney about possible further charges against Darrell.

  Judge Ahrbeck formally appointed public defender Russell Swartz as Darrell’s attorney. After the short arraignment hearing, Darrell was taken back to the jail in Burney for his protection. It was still believed that the jail in Redding was just too dangerous for everyone involved.

  Investigators were still trying to determine if Darrell was responsible for Annette Selix’s murder. They assumed at this point that Selix had been thrown from the bridge by her attacker after being sexually molested. All indications were becoming stronger that Darrell had raped and murdered the girl.

  When he was back at the jail, Darrell told Lieutenant Eoff that it had been embarrassing having so many people staring at him. As in many times in the past, once he was in a controlled environment, Darrell was very mild-mannered and cooperative. It was almost hard to believe that he had been the Hilltop Rapist, who had caused so much havoc in the area all summer long.

  Chapter 15

  “It Seemed Like a Really Bad Dream”

  After Darrell Keith Rich’s arrest, Shannon Rodriguez went to view a lineup of men to try and pick out the man who had kidnapped and raped her. Each man had to say the lines “You have nice tits” and “Keep your head down.” When Darrell Rich said those lines, Shannon exclaimed, “Oh, my God! It’s him!”

  It was around this same time that Darrell Rich asked Lieutenant Eoff, “What do you know about Russell Swartz?”

  Eoff replied, “He seems to be acting in your best interest.”

  The next day a Mormon missionary came by the small jail and asked if he could speak with Darrell. Lieutenant Phil Eoff said it was okay if Darrell wanted to speak to him. Apparently, this occurred, but no record was kept of what they said.

  When the missionary was gone, Darrell asked Lieutenant Eoff if he was going to be sent to Vacaville, where prisoners often spoke with psychiatrists. Eoff answered that this would probably happen.

  Then Darrell told Eoff, “It’s good to have visitors—especially guys from the LDS (Latter-day Saints).” A short time after this, Darrell complained of pain in his chest and lower back. Eoff replied, “If it continues, you’ll be taken to a doctor.”

  The pain apparently didn’t get worse, and Darrell asked when Lieutenant Eoff thought he would have another court appearance. Eoff said that he supposed it would be in a couple of days.

  Already Darrell was beginning to trust and like Eoff. He knew the officer would not let him be lynched or killed before a trial. Darrell said to the lieutenant, “When I was small, I had problems with my parents. So members of the church were the ones who really took care of me. I spent a lot of time in my room.”

  Darrell added, “I don’t know how I could have done what I did. It’s like I’m the good guy in jail, but the bad guy who did those things.”

  To this observation Eoff replied, “You’ve got a counsel. I can’t discuss any of the things you committed.”

  Lieutenant Eoff learned the next day that Darrell wanted to speak with him again. Eoff noted that Darrell tried to make two phone calls, but he was unsuccessful in reaching anyone. It was because of this, Darrell wanted to talk to Eoff.

  When Eoff and Darrell sat down to talk, Darrell said of his court hearing, “That was one of the most embarrassing times of my life, with all those people looking at me. I just wanted to go to court, plead guilty and get it all over with. Why are you guys still on the case?”

  Lieutenant Eoff explained, “Just because a person has been arrested for an offense, and charged with a crime, doesn’t mean that the investigators don’t continue tracking down any leads on information that might still be out there.”

  Darrell replied, “Well, I’m concerned I’ll be charged with something I didn’t do. What I did, I’ll admit to, but I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do.”

  It was then that Darrell started telling Lieutenant Eoff about his bad dreams. Darrell said, “I woke up in the middle of the night and had a nightmare and felt that there was a girl standing next to my bed. It scared me so much I got up and turned on the lights in the house and slept on the couch. I should have stopped what I did a long time ago. It was no great detective work that caught me. I was going to turn myself in, anyway.”

  The following morning, at around nine o’clock, Darrell wanted to speak with Lieutenant Eoff again, but Eoff told him to speak with his attorney, Russell Swartz, instead. Darrell did so, for only five minutes, by phone. When he was done, he still wanted to speak with Lieutenant Eoff.

  Eoff then told Darrell, “Think about it first. If you still want to talk to me, we’ll do it at a later time. I’ll listen to anything you have to say.”

  Darrell went back to his jail cell, and Lieutenant Eoff continued with other duties away from the substation. Then at about four in the afternoon, Eoff was called to return to the Burney Substation because Darrell wanted to speak with him.

  Before this conversation Lieutenant Eoff told a deputy in the jail to turn on a tape recorder. Whatever Darrell wanted to say might be very important. Eoff went to Darrell’s cell and told him, “If you’re going to talk to me, I won’t ask you any questions. But I will listen to anything you have to say.” Then Eoff added, “Can I bring a tape recorder into your cell?”

  Darrell gave his okay to this, and the lieutenant brought the tape recorder in and sat down. Eoff later noted: “During the tape recording, the inflection of Darrell Rich’s voice changed dramatically, as did his emotional state.” Just what he said was dynamite and would later come out in court proceedings. In fact, these court proceedings would be a hotbed of controversy for both the defense and prosecution for a long time to come.

  Against all the wishes of his counsel, Darrell told Lieutenant Eoff, “You know what happened to Annette Selix. Earlier in the evening I was supposed to take a girl to a movie. We went to Redding and got into an argument. And at nine-thirty I took off and went back home. I was mad and depressed and just started driving around. And I just saw her. I saw her walking and I pulled over by the Cottonwood Inn and asked her if she wanted a ride home.

  “She said, ‘Yeah.’ At that time I didn’t know what I’d do. She got into the car and we got to driving, and she goes, ‘That’s where I live.’ I didn’t stop. I just kept going. We got to my house and were up there awhile, and then something hit me. Something happened. I just lost control of what I was doing. I wanted to stop, and I just felt like I couldn’t. And a lot of different things happened up there.

  “After that stuff happened, we got back into the car and I went driving. I just kept driving and we wound up at Shasta Lake. I just don’t remember, but I guess I threw her off a bridge. I don’t know. I don’t really remember anything about it. Then I turned around and went back home. The next day it seemed like a really bad dream. I looked around the house to see if anything was there I hadn’t seen before. I went for a drive up there to Shasta Lake, and saw all the detectives’ cars and stuff parked there, and I knew now that I did it.”

  What happened next was crucial. Without any advice from counsel, Darrell said, “I made a list for the ones I’ve done. I haven’t done any that aren’t on the list. Do you want to see the list?”

  Lieutenant Eoff said yes.

  At that point Darrell showed him the list, which contained the names of Annette Edwards, Pam Moore, Linda Slavik and Annette Selix, with a small cross by each name. Others on the list were his rape victims who had not been murdered, so there were no crosses by their names.

  Darrell said, “Everybody I did is on that list. If you’d like to have a cop
y, I can make you a copy, or you can copy it on a copy machine if you have one.”

  Lieutenant Eoff said that they did have one. He asked Darrell if he wanted to sign the list he had just made. Darrell said no.

  After it was over, Darrell told Lieutenant Eoff, “I feel better now. They think I killed a girl in Washington and another one somewhere else. But I didn’t. I have now admitted to everything.” (He had just admitted to several rapes, and four of these rapes that ended in murders.)

  Lieutenant Eoff once again said on the tape recorder that he had not solicited this information by questioning. Darrell Rich had freely spoken on his own accord.

  The day following the taped conversation, Darrell asked if Lieutenant Eoff would mail some letters for him. One letter was to Darlene. Darrell told Eoff that they had broken up. Then he added, “One night I grabbed her during an argument and I became furious. I surprised myself. It was over such a small incident. She was scared. She had found an earring and asked about where I’d gotten it. I told her, ‘I killed that girl!’ She became very upset. But then I said, ‘I’m only kidding. I wouldn’t do something like that.’ ”

  Whether this was an earring from Annette Edwards, whom he had actually killed, Darrell did not say. Or it may have been from a different victim who had lost an earring in his car. And at that point there was nothing in police records—at least public ones—that spoke about Annette’s body having one missing earring. Darrell would continue to make so many contradictory statements that it was hard to know just which ones were true.

  That same day Captain Jim Carter let it be known that his office would be bringing formal charges to the district attorney’s office that Darrell Rich was the abductor and killer of eleven-year-old Annette Selix. On top of that, Redding police were about to file formal charges for the rapes of Brenda Simmons, Melanie Franklin and Janet Olson. And by now, even Anderson police were about to file charges for the kidnapping and rape of Shannon Rodriguez.

  Shasta County DA Robert Baker said, “With charges filed against Darrell Rich for the Selix murder, there is a good likelihood there will be a change of venue.” The reason, of course, was because of the outrage in the county about this particular kidnapping, rape and murder. It was bad enough in the cases of Annette Edwards, Pam Moore and Linda Slavik. But throwing eleven-year-old Annette Selix off a bridge had gone beyond the pale.

  When asked about this change of venue, Russell Swartz told a reporter that he was certainly keeping it in mind.

  On August 31, Detectives Ben Lambert and Randy Brewer transported Darrell to his arraignment in Redding. While on the way there, Brewer asked Lambert what they had learned from Darlene.

  Lambert replied, “It appears she figured out what was going on.”

  Then Lambert asked Darrell about this, and Darrell said, “Yeah, I guess that’s true, because I told her I killed that little girl?” This was an odd comment. Darlene was gone from the area by the time of the murder of Annette Selix. So it remained a mystery whom he was talking about, although he may have meant Annette Edwards, even though she was not a “little girl.”

  Lambert suddenly realized that this had been posed as a question. He said, “I can’t discuss this. I won’t question you.”

  Darrell replied, “The only murders and rapes I committed are on that list.”

  At the court hearing Darrell Rich was formally charged with four counts of murder, one of which included the murder of Annette Selix. A special allegation of committing lewd acts with someone under the age of fourteen was added to the murder count concerning Selix. That made it a mandatory death penalty case in California.

  Along with these four counts of murder were fourteen counts of assorted sex crimes. These included oral copulation with the use of force, two of rape by use of threats, two of attempted perversion, two of kidnapping, sodomy, assault with a deadly weapon and great bodily injury.

  To all of these charges, Darrell pleaded not guilty. Anderson Court judge Werner Ahrbeck set a preliminary hearing date so that it would fall into the mandatory ten-day period as stated by law. Ahrbeck said, “In a case of this severity, I don’t want any chink in the armor.”

  And Judge Ahrbeck made one more important statement. He was recusing himself from future court matters because he personally knew the Rich family. In fact, at an earlier time in his life as an attorney, Ahrbeck had represented them.

  Another event happened right around that time as well. Two men were arrested for breaking into Darrell Rich’s house and stealing $2,000 worth of stereo equipment and other items. They had most likely learned through the newspapers that Darrell Rich was in jail and could not protect his property. The suspects were pulled over and their vehicle was found to contain several items that belonged to Darrell. Incredibly, some of these items still had fingerprint powder on them. The two burglars soon found themselves in county jail; just as Darrell was in county jail at a different location in the county.

  Chapter 16

  An Unexpected Exhumation

  On September 4, Darrell was very upset and told Lieutenant Eoff, “I feel like I’m going crazy here with no one to talk to!” He also wanted to move around more than just being in his cell.

  In response to this request, Eoff handcuffed Darrell between himself and Sergeant Harrington and they all went to the exercise yard. Once they were there, they walked around the area for about a half hour. Later that day Lieutenant Eoff gave Darrell a transistor radio. Darrell was very grateful for these things. Darrell welcomed any kind of procedure that broke the routine monotony at the small jail.

  Two days later, Lieutenant Eoff took Darrell to Redding for a scheduled polygraph test. On the way there, Darrell told Eoff, “I’m looking forward to it. I hope it will show everything that I’ve done and told you about.”

  Eoff took Darrell down route 299 by Market Street and Sulphur Hill. As they passed the area where Annette Edwards had been murdered, Darrell spoke up and said, “It always bothered me to come down Sulphur Creek Hill—after you know what happened.”

  Lieutenant Eoff looked at Darrell in the rearview mirror. Later, Eoff noted, “He was obviously emotionally affected by passing that area.”

  During the next day Darrell wanted some different reading material in the jail. He asked if he’d received a letter from Darlene. He was told by the lieutenant that none had arrived. Once again, Darrell became very emotional and started crying. Then Darrell said, “I was just thinking, and I couldn’t help thinking about what is going to happen to me. I just wish I could hurry up and get it over with.”

  Lieutenant Eoff talked with Darrell for about ten minutes to calm him down. Darrell was grateful once more to Eoff for treating him kindly. Darrell said, “When I get out of prison, I want to be a youth counselor.” Incredibly, with all the charges he faced, Darrell remained optimistic that he would be out of prison someday.

  A short time later, Darrell did get a letter from Darlene, and it cheered him up considerably.

  Detective Brewer kept looking into other cases in the area that might be linked to Darrell Rich. One was an assault on a girl in Anderson where there were no previous suspects. Another was a girl who had been grabbed in Anderson near a store. Neither case could definitely be linked to Darrell.

  Detectives also started talking to Darrell’s supervisor at Superior Molding to see about his work record. The supervisor said that Darrell had been hired in September 1975, and was a good worker. All through 1976, he had a good attendance record. It started to get worse in 1977 and was even poorer in 1978. He took off two days in February 1978, and two days off in March of that year. It was noted things were much worse in August. He left early on August 8, and was supposedly sick on August 9, 10, and 11, and between August 14 and 18, and August 21 and 22. The supervisor said that Darrell “flew off the handle that month, with little provocation.”

  On September 6, Darrell was driven once again to Redding to take a polygraph test. It was occurring because another girl, Georgina Ruel, had been found
underneath a bridge at Whiskeytown Lake in 1977. Authorities wanted to see if Darrell might have been involved in that incident. On the way there, Darrell said to Ben Lambert, “I threw a girl off the bridge, but not that girl.”

  Darrell did take the polygraph test and he seemed to be telling the truth when he said he had not murdered Georgina Ruel. Once back in Burney, Darrell told Lieutenant Eoff, “I feel much better now. What I admitted [on the list] is all that I’ve done.”

  By now, detectives were speaking with many people who knew Darrell Rich, including girlfriend Darlene. She told them that she had been working at a Regal Gas station in Anderson on July 4. About 3:30 P.M., she and Darrell made plans to go see the fireworks at Anderson Park that night.

  Darrell was supposed to pick her up when she got off work. Then around six at night, Darrell called her and asked if she still wanted to go. Darlene told the detective, “The way he asked it, it didn’t seem like he really wanted to go. So I said, ‘No, I’m kinda tired.’ He then told me he was going to help a friend work on a pickup.”

  Charles Rogers also knew Darrell Rich. He told investigators that on July 4 he was working at a Texaco on Lake Boulevard, at around six in the evening. Darrell came by and borrowed a wrench and then gave it back later. Lake Boulevard was not far from where Annette Edwards was murdered.

  Around 9:00 P.M., Darrell traded cars with Darlene at the Regal. He left his Chevrolet with her and took Darlene’s mother’s brown Hornet. Darlene now told investigators that he got home about eleven-thirty at night and one of his fingers was hurt. She said the skin looked “cut off.” Darrell even said to her, “Look at my finger.” Then he added that he’d hurt it while watching fireworks at Anderson Park with a friend named Steve.