by Robert Scott
Gerard briefly looked at the photos and denied ever having seen Elaine or Carol, but he did say that he thought he had seen one of the other women in Aberdeen. Scott then told Gerard that murders had occurred on the Weyco Haul Road, and he asked if he’d ever been on that road. Gerard replied that he knew where the road was, but claimed that he’d never been on it.
At that point Rick Scott picked up the photos of Elaine and Carol and handed them to David Gerard. He asked once again if Gerard had ever seen these two women. Gerard looked at one photo for several seconds, then at the other. There was no expression on his face. He handed the photos back to Scott and said that he’d never seen either woman. Lane shifted in his seat during this process, to get a better view of Gerard and his reactions. Lane said later, “I saw no reaction in his face. No change. Nothing that would betray his inner thoughts. Just a blank stare, with dead eyes. I knew that he would never confess, but at least we had him in a lie. Or several lies. I could put him on the Weyco Haul Road, and I could put him there with Carol Leighton, shortly before she was murdered because of his DNA.”
Not giving anything away, Rick Scott asked Gerard if he’d ever heard any rumors about who had killed these two women on the Weyco Haul Road. Scott knew that many suspects would come up with some name, just to take the scrutiny off themselves. But Gerard said that he hadn’t heard any rumors at all concerning the two women. He just sat there like a sphinx.
Lane said later, “In most interviews you’ll see the person have flashes of emotion—anger or shame or something. Not with Gerard. He never got angry, even when pressed. The only time he showed a flash of anger was when Rick Scott asked if he had anything to do with the death of his mother. David heatedly said, ‘I didn’t do it!’ And then he shut down again. He wasn’t reward driven. He wasn’t fear driven. At Clallam Bay prison a lot of prisoners are motivated by drugs or power or sex. Not David. He was a loner who kept to himself most of the time. It was like trying to talk to a brick wall.”
Scott asked Gerard if he’d give them some hair samples, because some hair had been found at the murder scenes. This wasn’t critical, since law enforcement already had Gerard’s DNA. But it could be useful as one more building block in a case. Surprisingly, Gerard agreed that it would be okay, and Lane put on latex gloves, grabbed a pair of tweezers and plucked out several hairs from Gerard’s head. Lane then asked Gerard to hold the tweezers and pluck out several of his own pubic hairs, which he did. All the hairs were placed into separate envelopes.
After this was over, Rick Scott asked Gerard if they could come and talk to him again if they had any more questions. With little enthusiasm Gerard said, “Sure,” and the interview was over. The detectives thanked Gerard and left.
Once they were in the parking lot, they discussed what had just occurred and how to proceed from there. They agreed that the next step was to get Gerard into the sheriff’s office, away from guards, ankle cuffs and waist chains. What they needed to do was get a court order. Lane had one big concern about this, however. He knew that Gerard liked where he was in prison—with his job and his single cell. He didn’t want to “piss” him off. Lane said, “He didn’t have much in prison, and actually he didn’t need much or want much. Losing those things were important to him, and they might make him unhappy and uncooperative. He would blame us for screwing up his little world. But our County Prosecutor wanted a confession. In most counties, what we had already was more than enough for charges to be filed. But Steward Menefee wanted more.”
In the end Lane Youmans was right. David Gerard was “pissed off” that his comfy little world at Clallam Bay had been upset. Gerard was sent to another prison, this time in Arizona, because of overcrowding in the Washington State prisons, and he lost his single cell and all the privileges he had accrued. If Gerard had been uncooperative in the past, he was doubly so now. There would be no confession coming out of David Gerard for the Carol Leighton, Elaine McCollum or any other cases. The detectives were going to have to paint Gerard into a corner where all the evidence pointed to him as the murderer on at least one of these cases. The last thing the detectives wanted was for Gerard to be out walking the streets in case his sentence on Frankie Cochran was ever reduced. And as time went by, Gerard was fighting hard to do just that. He may not have had a whole lot of education in the school system, but he was slowly learning the legal system and becoming a “jailhouse lawyer.”
19
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE, THERE’S FIRE
Since he was looking at every angle of David Gerard by now, Lane Youmans decided to reinvestigate the deaths of Patty Rodriguez, Matthew Rodriguez, Joshua Rodriguez and Patricia McDonnell in the house fire of 1995. Lane noted, “Detective Parfitt had examined the scene and shot several rolls of film. And I had attended the autopsies conducted by Dr. Daniel Selove at the Coleman Mortuary in Hoquiam. Dr. Selove said that a blast of superheated air could have ended the lives of Patricia McDonnell and the boys quickly, before any soot would collect in their throats or lungs. Patty Rodriguez, by comparison, had a lot of soot in her throat. Her carbon dioxide level was eighty-nine percent, easily a fatal dose. The problem was, she sustained a concussion on the right side of her skull.”
It was that concussion that Lane examined once more, very carefully, keeping in mind the hammer blows Gerard had inflicted to the side of Frankie Cochran’s head when he tried killing her with a hammer, and the possible blows to the head of Carol Leighton before she was killed with a knife. It was true that Detective Parfitt and Lane had gone back to the fire scene a few days after interviewing David Gerard in 1995, and had located a two-by-six piece of burned lumber that was about eighteen inches in length, lying near the spot where Patty Rodriguez had died. But with so many factors pointing to an accidental fire, the fracture on the side of Patty Rodriguez’s head did not seem that important at the time.
Lane commented in 2001, “We didn’t seize that piece of burned wood, and that has always haunted me. I relied upon Gary’s expertise, and went along with his assessment. There just did not seem to be signs of foul play at the time. Things seemed to point to an accidental fire.”
It was only in retrospect that Lane discovered there had been no photos taken of the deceased Patricia McDonnell or the boys in the interior of the house. And there were no close-up photos taken of the woodstove or stovepipe. In fact, no samples were taken of anything in the burned house. Even after Gerard’s strange behavior, upon being questioned about his whereabouts during the time of the fire, the official conclusion had been that all four victims had died because of an accidental fire.
When Lane told Detective Parfitt that he was going to reopen the investigation on the fire, Lane recounted, “He was open to it, but not really enthusiastic.” Nonetheless, Parfitt gave Lane everything he had on the case, including documents and photos. Lane started reading all the material connected to the fire, and made his own copies of files and photos. Because of the official cause of death listed as accidental, Lane knew he had many hurdles to overcome in this aspect about Gerard. If things were difficult in bringing David Gerard to trial for the murder of Elaine McCollum or Carol Leighton, they were doubly so for the victims of the fire. Lane knew that a good defense lawyer would cite Grays Harbor County’s own reports that the fire was accidental.
Lane Youmans began reinterviewing people who had known the victims and David Gerard. He was able to locate Steve Stoken, who had known David Gerard since high school. Stoken told Lane that he didn’t recall any trip with Gerard to the Tyee Lounge in Olympia, or eating with him at the Red Barn Restaurant on the night of the fire. And he certainly didn’t know anyone named “Mike,” who they had supposedly gone drinking with on the night in question. In fact, Stoken said he wouldn’t have gone out drinking without his wife, and he was 100 percent sure the story Gerard was using was not true.
Lane next located Brian McDonnell, Patty’s brother. Brian was a volunteer fireman, and when Lane told Brian about the story from Gerard about a stovepipe clogg
ed with soot, Brian laughed out loud. Brian said that when Patty’s ex-husband, Sergio Rodriguez, had installed the stovepipe, he had done so incorrectly. Brian went out to the house and discovered that the wood around the stovepipe in the attic was beginning to char. So with Brian’s aid, Sergio took that stovepipe out and installed a safer one, to Brian’s satisfaction.
Brian said of this new pipe that it was not filled with creosote, as Gerard had indicated, and Brian said that his mother, Patricia, was afraid of fires. Brian added that when she started the woodstove at night, she would open the damper up full. The stove would get so hot, the metal would glow red. Patricia did this to keep the stove free of creosote. Because of Brian’s occupation and knowledge about fire safety, Patricia was very cognizant of the dangers in a wood-burning stove.
Brian also said that his mother was very good about the smoke detectors in the house. He knew that they were in good working order, because he had tested them only two weeks before the fatal fire, and the batteries had been in good shape then. Brian doubted Gerard’s claim that he had recently bought batteries for the smoke detectors. Gerard also had said he didn’t know if Patricia McDonnell had replaced the old ones. In fact, Brian was sure that all the old batteries would not have gone dead at the same time, and he was sure that he had bought batteries for his mother only weeks before the fire. If so, Gerard’s story that he had bought batteries for her for the smoke alarms must have been one more of his lies.
Brian told Lane that deep in his heart, and that of his sister, Michelle Traverso, they always felt that David Gerard had somehow been responsible for the deadly fire. Lane Youmans contacted Michelle and asked her about the story he had picked up from Frankie Cochran, in which David told Frankie that Patty Rodriguez’s uncle had been convicted for setting the fire. Michelle said that she, Brian and Patty didn’t have an uncle, but that they did have a brother who was convicted of murder, and was on death row in Oregon for a 1988 murder. She didn’t know how this might have fit into Gerard’s story to Frankie. It was obvious that this brother could not have set the fire, however. He was incarcerated at the time that it had occurred. Michelle thought it was quite possible that Gerard had used this false story to try and throw Frankie off, as far as the true nature of things concerning the fire.
Lane had Michelle identify a large gold ring that Patty had owned. Michelle said that it had belonged to their father and contained a brown stone. Lane told her the ring was not found on Patty’s finger when her body was discovered. Michelle insisted that Patty always wore that ring, and Lane wondered if Gerard had stolen the ring after hitting Patty in the head, before starting the fire. Gerard often seemed to keep one or two items from his victims. (At least those victims had some things missing when their bodies were discovered.)
There was also another twist to this story about rings. David Gerard had said he wanted to go to the burned-out house several days after the fire to look for an engagement ring that he’d given Patty. Michelle said that neither she nor Brian knew anything about this alleged engagement ring. Then Michelle added that after the funeral she had been in Hoquiam at the home of a woman named Pearl Payne. Pearl was a lifelong friend of Patricia McDonnell’s, and Michelle had known Pearl all her life. While they were there, David Gerard showed up at Pearl’s house and sat down in a chair in the living room. Then he just stared at the floor. He sat there for several hours and didn’t say a word. Michelle said she finally got him to talk. He spoke very little, and just before he left, he told the two women he was so depressed that he was going to kill himself. Of course, he did no such thing.
Lane noted later, “Michelle described the same catatonic state I saw when Detective Parfitt and I questioned Gerard in 1995, and when Undersheriff Rick Scott tried to grill him at the Stafford Creek facility. When dealing with something he was accused of doing, or might be accused of doing, he just shut down.”
After Michelle Traverso, Lane Youmans interviewed Margaret Jimenez, who was a good friend of Patty Rodriguez, and who had been with her on the last evening of her life. Jimenez had known Patty for four years, and their husbands were good friends. Margaret described Patty as being a very independent woman. She did not want to be tied down to being a housewife without any means of support—especially with a guy like David Gerard, who never held a steady, good-paying job.
Margaret said, “At first, Patty thought that David was okay. She said, ‘He’s a nice guy, but I can’t stand him. He helps my mom out, but he’s not for me.’”
Margaret told Lane, “Patty hated anyone who tried to control her. I didn’t believe David Gerard had a steady job, and I knew that Patty would never marry him because of that reason. David was very possessive, and Patty hated that kind of thing. When Patty used to bring the kids over to visit, David would never come along with her.”
Margaret added that Patty worked for a weather station up at Quinault. Quinault was a small town north of Aberdeen, on Highway 101, situated on the edge of Olympic National Park. Patty worked four days on, and three days off. Patty had trained for this job in Oregon. According to Margaret, Gerard had gone up to the weather station at Quinault after Patty’s death and got some of Patty’s things, which he never gave back to her siblings. (Just what items he might have collected is not known.)
On the evening before she died, Margaret said, Patty had taken her kids to Godfather’s Pizza in Aberdeen, and then she and Patty joined Nora Huffman, another friend, for some drinks at Muddy Waters in south Aberdeen.
Margaret added that Patty was “trying to get her life back together, when Gerard came along. Within a short amount of time, David wanted them to get married.” He even would say later that he and Patty had been engaged, but Margaret stressed that she and Patty were good friends, and Patty would have mentioned something like that if it was true. The last thing Patty wanted was to be married to a guy like Gerard.
At Muddy Waters that evening Patty expressly told the others that she did not want to marry David Gerard. She even said, “I just got rid of one bum, and don’t want to marry another one.” Patty spoke of how Gerard had no steady job, and it didn’t look like he ever would. He wanted her kids to call him “Uncle David,” which she didn’t much like, and he had already moved some of his clothing into the house that she and the boys shared with her mom.
While Patty, Margaret and Nora were at Muddy Waters, Gerard came in and sat down at their table. At least that is what happened according to Jimenez. (Nora’s story would differ in some details.) According to Margaret, David and Patty began to argue, and they soon took their argument outside. Apparently, Margaret either went outside, or was close enough to hear what was being said. She told Lane that she heard Patty tell Gerard that they were through and that he had to take his stuff out of her mom’s house. David, according to Jimenez, was very upset about this. He especially didn’t like being told off by a woman in front of others. David left, and Patty drove over to Margaret’s house, with Margaret as a passenger. Patty was clearly upset and said very little on the drive. Patty let Margaret off, and that was the last time Margaret saw her alive.
Margaret added that Patty’s mom, Patricia McDonnell, was very concerned about a fire in the house, and she always kept her fire alarms up to code. In fact, Margaret said Patty had told her not long before the fatal fire that they had just bought some new batteries for the smoke alarms. These appeared to be a different set of batteries than the ones Gerard had spoken of. In this scenario Patty had bought the batteries, and not Gerard, as he had indicated.
And Margaret wondered why the dogs in the house would not have barked and awakened the people inside about a fire. Margaret told Lane, “Patty had a large black-and-white husky, and Mrs. McDonnell had a little dog. Both dogs would bark whenever anybody would approach the house. They wouldn’t bark if Gerard came around because they knew him.”
Margaret added that she was pretty sure that David Gerard had gone out to Patricia McDonnell’s house sometime on the afternoon before the house fire. He suppo
sedly had gone out there to pick up some fencing material.
Margaret also related that in 1999, when she read in the newspaper about David Gerard assaulting Frankie Cochran, she began to wonder if he had killed Patty and the rest of the people inside the McDonnell home, then set the fire. Margaret began to question why Patty’s mom could get out of a chair and move twenty feet toward the door, but Patty never made it out of her bed. Margaret began to believe that David had killed Patty in her bed, then caught Patricia McDonnell near the door and murdered her. In Margaret’s mind he had probably killed the dogs first, and then the boys as they slept on the floor.
Lane Youmans contacted Nora Huffman, who had known the Gerard family for many years. In fact, this was the same Nora Huffman who had heard stories about David raping a three-year-old girl in the projects when he was only thirteen. Speaking about some of David’s girlfriends before Patty Rodriguez, Nora recounted one as being Donna Torres. Huffman said that when Torres broke up with David, he had stalked her and smashed the windows of her vehicle.
Another girlfriend of Gerard’s after that, according to Nora, had been a young woman named Tracy. Huffman said that Tracy had been five months pregnant when David got mad at her one day. They were driving along to a farm in Oakville, and David got so mad at her, he pushed her out of the car while it was still moving, and she lost the baby.
Right from the start, Huffman said, she’d told Patty Rodriguez that David Gerard was “bad news.” According to Huffman, just before Christmas, 1994, Patty found out that she was pregnant by Gerard and decided to have an abortion at a location in Olympia. Huffman said that Gerard later found out about the abortion, and this is what led up to the confrontation at Muddy Waters. Huffman was the only person to come up with this pregnancy story, however.