“Here in Georgia he has kidnapped a very young girl and held her for a period of time,” MacNamara read from the police report. “The jury found him guilty of simple battery. He had ‘offensive contact with her.’ And we feel that based on his record and based on the evidence that you’ve heard in this case, that a sentence of twenty-two years would be appropriate and we ask you to so sentence.”
The surprised judge turned to Davidson. “Counselor, were you representing the defendant when he was found guilty in Gwinnett County?”
“Yes, I was, Your Honor.”
“Who is Caroline Leigh Bronti, please?” the judge demanded.
“Your Honor, if I could see that,” Davidson requested as he reached for the court document submitted by the prosecution. His eyes scanned the record. Davidson had represented Larry Lee in the case, but he never saw nor met the victim. Judge Tillman gave Larry Lee an opportunity to comment on the circumstances of that case, but he declined.
“Your Honor, we stipulated to the police report in that case,” Davidson said, “and didn’t… we didn’t do any real investigation in that case because this case was pending. In other words, it was not a finding of guilty, it was actually a plea.”
He argued that the two assault charges in the Amanda Sanders case should be merged, emphasizing the lack of long term bodily harm to the victim and the relatively short time she was held in Larry Lee’s captivity.
After consideration, Judge Curtis V. Tillman of the Superior Court of DeKalb County, Georgia, sentenced Larry Lee Smith to twenty years in prison, the sentences for the assault charges to be served concurrently. Larry Lee was returned to the DeKalb jail to await transfer to a state prison, a process that could take a couple of months. Eight years had passed since Larry Lee was sentenced to prison in Florida for the assault and rape of Katherine McWilliams. Now he was returning to prison, this time in Georgia, and it was for a much longer sentence.
Back in Knoxville, news of Larry Lee’s conviction and sentence was greeted with feelings of both relief and frustration. Investigator York and Agents DeVuono and Steed were still hoping to charge him with Michelle’s murder.
14. LIES & LENIENCY
Just after Larry Lee Smith had been sentenced to twenty years, but before he was transferred to a Georgia state prison, the FBI field office in Knoxville submitted a written request to the District Attorney’s Office in Stone Mountain asking for permission to interview Larry Lee in the DeKalb County jail.
Written by William E. Baugh Jr., Special Agent in Charge of Knoxville’s field office, the letter briefly touched on the gravity of the Michelle Anderson case and concluded: “It is still the belief of all investigators involved that Larry Lee Smith either solely or with the assistance of Chas Frost [Michelle’s boyfriend] was involved in her disappearance/murder. It is anticipated that agents Grey Steed and Joe DeVuono of the Knoxville Office, along with KPD Homicide Investigator York, will attempt to interview Larry Lee Smith in the future… Thank you again for your assistance in this matter and congratulations on your recent conviction of Smith.”
On a sunny, eighty-degree spring Friday, May 4, 1990, Steed, DeVuono and York were in an FBI sedan on their way to Decatur, Georgia, to interview the recently convicted inmate. They arrived at the DeKalb County jail at one o’clock in the afternoon. When Larry Lee was brought into the interview room, he immediately recognized Agent DeVuono. “I wish to see my attorney,” Larry Lee demanded. Steed took the lead, assuring him that he could terminate the interview at any point he desired.
Larry Lee agreed to stay long enough to listen to the purpose of their visit. Yet when the special agents produced an FBI form entitled “Interrogation; Advice of Rights,” which advised him of his rights and contained a “Waiver of Rights” to sign below that, Larry Lee threatened to leave the room if he was asked to sign it. He’d learned from that mistake in the Amanda Sanders matter. Larry Lee told them that he understood his rights, including the right to terminate the interview, but he wasn’t signing anything.
Steed informed Larry Lee that the FBI and the KPD had reason to believe Chas was also involved in Michelle’s disappearance. They wanted to explore what potential testimony Larry Lee could provide in this matter. Because the feds were interested in helping the KPD solve the crime, if Larry Lee cooperated, perhaps he could get federal time, or a sentence that ran concurrent with the Georgia time.
The idea that these suited special agents of the FBI were visiting him in the Georgia jail, seeking his testimony and making him an offer, must have intrigued Larry Lee, because he stayed in the interview for four hours. He considered their offer and agreed to the following: If his role and/or knowledge of Michelle’s murder constituted a federal crime, any sentence given would not exceed twenty years, would run concurrent with his current sentence and would be served in a federal prison with the recommendation that he receive some type of psychiatric counseling; if his role and/or knowledge of Michelle’s murder did not constitute a federal crime, but his evidence and/or testimony was helpful in obtaining prosecution for the party or parties involved, the federal government would make the Georgia Parole Board aware of his assistance.
If the FBI and the KPD could do that for him, Larry Lee informed them, then he claimed he “would produce irrefutable evidence of the time, date, place and method of Michelle Anderson’s death.” In addition, his evidence would implicate other parties involved in the matter. Although Larry Lee never offered any names, he claimed that up to three other individuals were involved, and that Michelle’s death was part of a “satanic” ritual, although he, himself, had limited involvement.
When pressed by the agents as to whether Chas was involved in Michelle’s death, Larry Lee responded: “Chas’s problem is the same as my problem in that Chas knows the details of how her death came about and who was involved.” While Larry Lee avoided offering any specifics about his alleged evidence, he made numerous statements about what an excellent photographer he was and that he knew how to use a telephoto lens. He implied that photographs existed at his mother’s house. Photographs that could be of assistance in the Michelle Anderson case.
At the end of the afternoon-long meeting, Steed, DeVuono and York knew that Larry Lee wasn’t being honest about his involvement. But as long as the possibility remained that more than one person was involved in or had knowledge of Michelle’s death, they reasoned that Larry Lee might still be a source of useful information. They played along for now.
On May 14, 1990, nine days after visiting the DeKalb County jail, Agent Steed signed off on an official letter to Larry Lee:
Dear Larry,
I have recently had the opportunity to sit down with both the state and federal prosecutors to discuss with them the Michelle Anderson investigation. As I indicated repeatedly to you, it is difficult to obtain matters that you seek without a more specific proffer [indication of evidence] of your potential testimony…
Larry, I truly believe you have information that would help bring this matter to an end and would assist Michelle’s mother in putting this matter behind her. If your role is as limited as you claim, it is my belief that it is in your best interest to work with us in resolving this matter. I look forward to hearing from you.
Agent Steed never received a reply.
Larry Lee probably suspected that the FBI and KPD were grasping at straws. If they had physical evidence, they would have charged him already. What he didn’t know, was that the FBI had implemented a strategy to persuade either Larry Lee or Chas to implicate the other in exchange for some kind of leniency or advantage. Steed, DeVuono and York always shared the belief that Larry Lee was responsible for the disappearance and death of Michelle Anderson. But they also believed it highly possible that Chas had some complicity in the crime, or at least in events leading up to the crime (no one really knew what had happened upstairs in Larry Lee’s bedroom that night). They had been in talks with Chas’s attorney about an immunity deal just before they learned of Larry Lee’s trial
.
After visiting Larry Lee in prison, the agents opened another dialogue with Chas’s attorney. They still offered immunity for his client if he would admit guilt and testify against Larry Lee. But now they could put more pressure on him. They made sure Chas was aware that Larry Lee had made statements indicating that Chas had complete knowledge of Michelle’s murder. Although reportedly shaken by this information, Chas continued to deny any further knowledge or involvement. He did cooperate by providing samples of his hair, fingerprints and blood.
Next, the team put together an elaborate cat-and-mouse strategy that involved Larry Lee’s estranged wife, Sara, and Chas meeting at Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport. Each of them was sent in wearing a wire with the belief that they were there to entrap the other. To raise the stakes, the agents informed their informants that the airport was chosen because the metal detectors would assure that the other person was unarmed. Sara was instructed to bluff Chas with alleged information from Larry Lee, revealing that he intended to implicate Chas if Larry Lee was ever confronted with Michelle’s disappearance. She told Chas that Larry Lee was cooperating with authorities in exchange for leniency.
The plan failed. Chas continued to deny any further knowledge. Maybe he was clever—no doubt he was afraid—and maybe he just didn’t know more than he’d already told, at least about the death of Michelle. But the Knoxville officers wanted resolution to their case and continued to seek his cooperation through his lawyer, who bought into the benefit of his client cooperating with the authorities in exchange for immunity. He encouraged Chas to comply.
For a while the team moved forward with the plan to hypnotize Chas. They contacted a psychiatrist in Nashville who was skilled in the technique. Chas had agreed to go through with it, although his attorney raised the question of the admissibility of a confession given under hypnosis. The answer to that question was initially dodged, and then the plan fell through altogether. The issue of payment of the five-hundred-dollar fee was the final insurmountable barrier. That responsibility would have fallen to the KPD, or perhaps the TBI, and neither wanted to pay it.
In June 1990, Chas’s attorney composed a letter to Agent DeVuono. In it, he referenced talking to Chas “one more time” about the offer of immunity. The attorney indicated that he had discussed with his client the threat of Larry Lee’s possible cooperation, implicating Chas as having been “present and having knowledge of Michelle’s death.” But Chas continued to maintain that what he had told the authorities was all he knew.
“Chas remained unmoved and unpersuaded,” the attorney wrote, “and I have reached the opinion that Chas is consciously telling us the truth. I have been wrong before, though, and I certainly do not claim any magical powers. I did make my best effort to persuade Chas to cooperate and to provide additional information. He insists, however, that he has already done that. If you wish to talk further, do not hesitate to call me.”
Matters with Chas never progressed past this point. And Larry Lee never offered any evidence that implicated Chas, or leads related to his tale of witnessing Michelle’s murder in a “satanic” ritual.
Upon Larry Lee’s transfer from the DeKalb County jail, he became an inmate of Hays State Prison, Georgia Department of Corrections. As a matter of setting up the new prisoner’s file, the parole office in DeKalb County sent a letter to the FBI field office in Knoxville requesting criminal background information on the new inmate. DeVuono responded with a complete history of Larry Lee’s known crimes.
Steed, DeVuono and York had made every effort to pick up the cold trail of evidence and solve Michelle’s murder; it just wasn’t going to be. In March 1991, Special Agent Joseph P. DeVuono completed a final report on the FBI investigation into the disappearance and murder of Michelle Anderson, and the FBI closed its case.
In the offices of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Knoxville Police Department, the case would remain open, but inactive. In time, forgotten to all but a few. Investigative records and stored evidence would be passed over, misplaced, and eventually lost.
BOOK TWO
Part One
Picking Up a Cold Trail
1. NO REASON TO RUN AWAY
When Michelle Anderson first went missing in January 1987, social worker Sasha Reynolds and her family lived in the same North Knoxville neighborhood as Michelle’s family. Sasha had never met the olive-skinned fifteen-year-old, although her son Seth knew her from school and had once confided to his mother that he thought she was pretty. Michelle was in his gym class.
Then sometime after that talk, maybe weeks or months—Sasha couldn’t remember anymore—he had walked up the hill from Fulton High School, across the wide porch of their craftsman bungalow, and given her the disturbing news. “Remember the girl in my class that I told you about, Michelle Anderson? She’s missing.”
Seth had his mother’s full attention as he probed the opened refrigerator for a suitable snack. Sasha had given up meat; what he wouldn’t give for a thick burger right now. “She didn’t come home last weekend,” he continued. “The kids said some weird guy gave her and some others a ride home. Michelle was the last one to be dropped off, but she never got there.”
Over the next few weeks flyers with Michelle’s picture appeared at the local grocery store and in other neighborhood and outlying venues. It bothered Sasha to see them. Michelle’s photograph depicted a smiling teen with dark, wavy hair feathered back. Her large, lively eyes focused slightly upward in the direction of the photographer. A soft light washed across her face and down the front of her wide-striped blouse, bouncing off the luster in her hair. Michelle wore a small gold pendant that rested perfectly in the hollow of her neck, exposed between the open lapels of a stand-up collar. In her ears were gold loops the diameter of pennies.
What happened to her? Sasha found it hard to put the case out of her mind. Neighborhood kids were buzzing with rumors that the guy who’d given Michelle a ride home had done something to her, even though the investigating officer reported that she probably ran away. “Where, exactly, does Michelle’s family live?” Sasha finally asked Seth one day, and then she looked up the phone number.
She didn’t know Michelle’s mother, Anita. And she didn’t want to cause her more stress, but Sasha had a question to ask. She entered the numbers on the touch-tone keypad of the canary-yellow wall phone and made the call. As the phone rang, she unconsciously wound her fingers through the looping cord, and tried to imagine the pain that Anita must be going through.
“Hello?” Anita’s voice was soft on the other end.
“Hello,” Sasha began. “This call may seem a little strange, but I wanted to ask about your daughter. My name is Sasha Reynolds and I live in the neighborhood. I’ve seen the flyers with your daughter’s picture. My son and daughter go to Fulton. My son has a class with Michelle.” Sasha was feeling nervous as she went on to describe the rumors she’d heard from the neighborhood kids. Then she asked Anita outright: “Do you think your daughter ran away?”
“No,” Anita replied quickly in a still-soft voice. “Michelle had no reason to run away.”
Anita explained that she didn’t like that the police detective assigned to the investigation, Jerry McNair, was handling it as a runaway case; she’d told him as much.
Sasha Reynolds knew Detective Jerry McNair. They’d shared a couple of cases when she was investigating child abuse and neglect for the Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS). She put in a call to her former colleague.
“Hi, Jerry. Sasha Reynolds here.”
“Yeah. You doin’ okay?” he responded in his low-key way. He was nearing the end of his career at KPD, moving closer to his state retirement age, something he talked about a lot.
“I’m good. Listen. I want to ask you about a case I hear you have, the girl that’s missing in North Knoxville. Michelle Anderson.”
“Yeah.”
Sasha told him what the neighborhood kids were saying about the guy who’d supposedly given Michelle a
ride home. There was a beat of quiet. Then McNair confirmed that he’d heard those stories.
“Michelle’s family and friends don’t think she ran away,” Sasha continued. “And Michelle never got to the boyfriend’s house.”
“He says he dropped her off. What am I supposed to do?”
Sasha’s abdomen clinched when she heard those familiar words. With Detective McNair, the investigation often started and stopped with that statement. In her experience with him, his easygoing, docile demeanor translated to a general lack of initiative. If a case didn’t split itself wide open before him, he shrugged his shoulders. What am I supposed to do?
Sasha had shared her first case with McNair a few years earlier, a referral from the University of Tennessee Hospital concerning a two-year-old girl admitted with internal trauma and bleeding. The toddler had allegedly passed out while riding her Big Wheel on the sidewalk outside her parents’ public-housing apartment. Her condition was critical; it was unknown whether she would pull through.
When Sasha interviewed the girl’s parents, they made a good first impression. Money was clearly in short supply for this biracial couple residing in the city’s newest public-housing complex, but they were very different than the people Sasha usually worked with from this area. Both were exceedingly soft-spoken and mild-mannered. Their house was orderly and the three attractive children—a ringlet-headed daughter of three, a second daughter aged two (the one in the hospital) and an infant son—were always nicely dressed and well groomed. The family attended church on Sundays and each parent reported that the other was good with the kids. It was just a mystery how this two-year-old ended up in the ICU from a Big Wheel accident. Only it couldn’t be. “Someone injured that child—period, dot,” a friend of Sasha’s told her.
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