There was more casual conversation and Sapp even reminisced about some of the places in the neighborhood. Sapp’s father’s house was in the picture and the site of the log cabin. Also, in the picture: Penn Street Hill, Schuler’s Bakery, and Strahler’s Warehouse.
Moody: Well, let me ask you something here. We got this fire here in the log cabin, okay? Things aren’t going real good at home. What else is going on down here? You doing anything else down here that we need to know about?
Sapp (shaking his head): No, just a bunch of “scrapping” that’s about it. (Scrapping is a slang term for collecting scrap metal and selling it to junkyards.)
Moody (pointing to places on the map): You’ve got all these woods. You’ve got some water back here. . . .
Sapp: Water back where?
Moody: Right back here. This is Schuler’s Bakery—this L-shaped building here. This is Strahler’s Foods—you know where that is.
Sapp (having trouble placing it): Strahler’s Foods . . . Strahler’s Foods . . .
Moody: Right here is a pond. And you know what’s significant about that pond back there?
Sapp (shaking his head and looking at Moody): Uh-uh, what?
Moody: In August of 1992—in this pond area—we found two young women that were dead.
Sapp: You’re talking about . . . Oh, what was his name? He was in the west wing [of the jail] with us.
Graeber: What was he in there for?
Sapp: Killing them little girls. I just can’t think of his name. John . . . John something . . . Is that what you’re talking about?
Moody: Talking about the two young women that we found back behind this place. Yes. You don’t remember when that happened?
Sapp: I don’t remember when it happened. I remember my dad telling us about it. Telling us [the police] had come over and messed around with J.R. and come out with some kind of composite and stuff like that, but I don’t know where it ever went from there, other than when I got arrested up here.
Moody: What do you know about these two young women?
Sapp: I don’t know nothing about them two young women.
Moody: You didn’t have any involvement with them at all? Did you know them?
Sapp: No. I don’t mess with little girls.
(That was exactly why the detectives referred to Phree Morrow and Martha Leach as “young women.” They knew he would balk at the insinuation that he had hurt children.)
Moody: Well, these were young women. I mean, they were made-up that day. They had makeup on. They didn’t look like little girls.
Sapp: I ain’t never seen them before—never even heard of them.
Moody: Do you know what their names were or anything like that?
Sapp: Not until we were in jail.
Moody: Who’s “we”? Who are you talking about?
(Sapp told them about being in jail with John Balser. They were right across the hall from each other and, according to Sapp, stayed up all night talking. Sapp claimed that this was how he knew John.)
Moody: You never knew him from scrapping or anything like that?
Sapp (shaking his head): I never seen John before, but he was all right. I kind of felt for him ’cause he’s kind of like my brother—he’s mentally handicapped.
Moody: What’d you think about what he told you?
Sapp: Some of it I don’t know whether to believe or not. Because my dad had said that he would think that John didn’t do it—at least by his self. He said that he just didn’t think he could do it, ’cause he said he knew John or knew of John. I guess my brother went to school with him.
Moody: Where’d he go to school at?
Sapp: Town and Country, I think it was. . . . I think that’s where my brother went. John went to Town and Country and I think he said he graduated from there, as a matter of fact.
Moody: Do you remember when Paul was going out to Town and Country?
Sapp (sadly): No, I don’t remember too much about Paul.
Moody (asking Sapp again about being in jail with John Balser): What’d he tell you about this? This case here?
Sapp (trying to remember a name): I swore I’d never forget that name—’ cause he was up there after John left. ’Cause John—that’s all he ever talked about—was bringing this Jamie character in. I remember [John’s] mom on TV, saying that she was there when it happened.
Moody: So did you know any of these people? Did you know his mom? Did you know John before?
(Sapp shook his head.)
Moody: You didn’t? Did you know Jamie Turner?
Sapp: That’s the name. . . . That’s the name. No, I never even knew Jamie Turner.
Moody: And you don’t know anything about these two young women? You didn’t have dealings with them . . . ever?
Sapp: No.
Moody: And you don’t know anything about how they were found or anything like that?
Sapp: Well, I’ve heard stuff about the way they was found, but one of the deputies up there at the police station said that wasn’t true.
Moody: What did you hear that happened?
Sapp: “They” was going around saying that sticks had been shoved up their . . . uh . . . female parts . . . and into their butts, and all that other stuff.
Moody: So what do you think happened to them—based on what you know?
Sapp: I don’t know. I couldn’t even begin to guess. I wouldn’t even want to—not at all.
Moody: You don’t know anything about these young women?
Sapp: No. I don’t even know them. I ain’t never met them. I couldn’t tell you what they look like—or anything. I mean, I’m already in prison. I know I’m there for a long time. I mean, you know, hell, I already confessed to a murder in Florida. I mean, you can’t get worse than that. I do a lot of things. I may have a lot of problems, but the one thing I’m not gonna do is run around and hurt little kids. I’ll be damned.
Moody: Well, the thing about it is—like I said—these two looked like young women. They had makeup on and everything else. They were healthy, young women and the older of the two was a little bit “quick” with her mouth. You know, they grew up close by, so . . .
William Sapp did not budge from his story that he had never known and had never seen Phree Morrow and Martha Leach.
18
You’ve got to be patient. . . . You’ve got to be really patient. . . .
—Captain Steve Moody
Lieutenant Moody got up from his chair and went to the cabinet again and Sapp turned to watch. This time he took out a stack of papers and brought them over to the table. Sapp leaned forward in his chair to see what he had.
Moody: I don’t know whether you remember this. This is a property receipt, okay? This is when they took your blood, back on September 27, 1996. They took saliva from your mouth. Do you remember sticking that piece of paper in your mouth? Got it all wet? They took some pubic hair. The guy that came in—Mr. Shepard.
(Throughout all this, Sapp nodded and agreed and was unperturbed.)
Moody: So then he sends the blood to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, DC. They have a laboratory there and this is the letter talking about sending your blood—William K. Sapp. This is the letter that goes with the samples of your blood and your—I’ll say “spit,” ’cause that’s what it is—and the hair samples. That gets sent to the FBI lab and they do DNA testing on blood. And your blood is what we would call a “known sample” because it comes from you. We know it comes from you—they drew the blood. Here’s the receipt. There’s the report from Mr. Quill in Washington, DC, who is the DNA laboratory technician—the specialist who analyzes the blood. We compare samples of semen that were taken from these two young women because they were assaulted. They both had semen in them. So we have that and that was sent to the FBI a long time ago—they had that. So they can take that semen and they can do what they call a DNA profile, which is unique to anybody, okay? Semen that comes out of me or blood that comes out of me is unique to me. Al’s is
the same. Yours is the same. We’re all unique in that way. So what happens is, he sends a report to the FBI and they go through a process of extracting the DNA from the known sample of blood; in this case, your known sample, okay? And they compare it to the semen that they knew came out of those girls. Now, what do you think that told them?
Sapp: Nothing.
Moody: Your specimen number was K-75—“dried blood sample from Sapp.” This is the report that Mr. Quill sent back to us. It says, “Based on the results of the genetic and the DNA profile from specimens Q-1 and Q-2”—now, that’s the semen from both those young women. Q-1 is from one of the young women. Q-2 is from the other young woman. And they’re from the same man. Those specimens of semen taken from those girls match K-75—Sapp.
Sapp (seemingly shocked): Huh? Huh-uh!! Oh, hell no! I think not.
(Sapp leaned back in his chair and was no longer calm and relaxed.)
Moody: Bill, this is a report from the FBI.
Graeber: It’s from the FBI lab, Bill.
Sapp (firmly): Well, I’m sorry, but it ain’t me. I’m gonna tell you that right now!
Moody: Let me show you something here.
(Sapp leaned forward and followed along closely as Lieutenant Moody explained the report.)
Moody: Do you understand how this is? They take your blood, they analyze it, and it comes out with your chemical makeup. Your DNA—which you get part from your mom and part from your dad—that makes us all unique. The blood and the semen that they recovered from this crime scene match the “known” person.
Sapp (interrupting): How the hell can they match me when I ain’t never been there?
Moody: Well, there were seventy-five people checked and out of those seventy-five people, the blood from your arm matches the semen found in those young women.
Sapp: Huh-uh.
Moody: Bill, how do you get by your semen being in these girls?
Sapp (increasingly agitated): I don’t know! Man, there ain’t no fucking way; I done nothing to no kids! Oh, hell no!
Graeber (emphasizing each word): They didn’t look like kids. Believe me, they did not look like kids.
Moody: Bill, the blood that came out of your arm and went to the FBI lab matches the semen in those two young women.
(Sapp got up out of his chair, walked over to the corner of the tiny room, and ran his hands through his hair.)
Sapp: Aw, man . . . you gotta be kidding me!
Moody: Come on over here and sit down.
Graeber: Sit down!
Moody: Now you need to straighten this out with us right now.
Sapp (extremely agitated): There ain’t nothing to straighten out. How can I straighten something out I don’t know nothing about? I’m telling you—I don’t know nothing about that! Man!
Moody: You need to talk to us about this.
Sapp: I—don’t—know.
Moody: You had sex with them.
Sapp: How in the hell could I have sex with them when I wasn’t even with them?
Moody: Your semen is in them. You were with them.
Sapp: I did not kill no kids!
Moody: I’m talking about having sex with two young women. You’re semen is in those two. We need to discuss how it happened.
Sapp (spreading his arms wide and shrugging): I don’t know ’cause I wasn’t there.
Moody: You were there long enough to have sex with them.
Sapp (incredulous): You think if I would have done this, that I would have been so willing to give all that stuff? You gotta be crazy!
Moody: Bill, it happened. We have the scientific evidence to prove it.
Sapp: Man, do you think I’m gonna stand around and watch somebody kill little kids? I don’t think so.
Moody: I’m talking about having sex with two young women—
Sapp (interrupting): Sex with two young women. Yeah—too young. That’s the key—too young!
Moody (picking up the report): And here’s the evidence that shows that you did it.
Sapp: Which means now I’m tied in to a fucking massive murder case and I didn’t . . . Whew, no, I didn’t, no! I ain’t killed nobody like that. No, no, no, no!
Moody: But what I’m telling you is—we’re talking about sex. We’re talking about you having sex with them. And you need to straighten it out with us. Just like you straightened it out about Helen.
Sapp: How can I straighten something out when I tell you I was never there?
Moody: You’re not telling the truth. Your semen was located in those two young women—it’s yours—only unique to Bill Sapp. You. Now we have to talk about this and get it straight.
Sapp: There ain’t nothing to get straight. You might as well just go on ahead and give me the electric chair.
Moody: No. There’s no one talking about that except you.
Sapp (leaning forward, beseeching): Don’t you think I want to get everything off my mind?
Moody: I would hope you would.
Sapp: I did not witness nobody or participate in anybody being beaten—especially children.
Moody: Okay. Tell me about the sex.
Sapp (whispering): I don’t know nothing about the sex.
Moody: Well, yes, you do. Because you left your signature there—your signature was your semen.
(Sapp removed his glasses and wiped his hand over his face.)
Moody: That is completely . . . I mean, there’s no getting around it.
(Sapp finished wiping tears from his face and put his glasses back on. There was a long silence as Sapp sat with his arms across his chest and stared off into that unknown place.)
Moody: Talk to us about this. What happened?
With occasional prompting from the very attentive detectives, Sapp told his first version of what happened that day:
“They come out of Schuler’s Bakery, laughing and giggling. And I don’t look like I am right now. I was stout, I guess, hair a little longer, different glasses. I just whistled at them and they whistled back.
“We talked. We joked. We laughed. We started bullshittin’ around and I told them a few things—how pretty they was . . . and I don’t know—you’d have to ask some other little girls, I guess. I don’t know how to say this—excited, I guess, that somebody older was paying attention to them.
“We started talking and bullshittin’ around and I offered one of them some money. I don’t know, maybe they was bullshittin’ or something.”
He claimed the three of them walked to a secluded area, hidden by pallets and trees, several blocks from the bakery behind Cramer’s Mill on York Street.
“We was just messing around. I gave them the money. I know I shouldn’t have.”
He said that when they left that area, they walked up York Street to Harrison Street. According to Sapp, they were at the corner of Harrison Street and Linden Avenue when he and the girls went in opposite directions.
Moody: How much did you give them?
Sapp (hanging his head): I gave them ten apiece.
Moody: Tell me how it went. How’d the sex go?
Sapp (whispering): But then they say they found them dead.
Moody: Just take me step-by-step through it, Bill.
Sapp: This ain’t easy.
With much prodding from Lieutenant Moody, Sapp went into graphic detail about what he had done with Martha: “The only thing she said was that it hurt a little bit. And then after that, that Phree was a virgin. And that’s when stuff got a little edgy.”
According to Sapp, there was a disagreement between the two girls about whether or not Phree was a virgin. He said that Phree was a little nervous and embarrassed, but finally they “just did it.” (The autopsy reports showed that, despite Sapp’s rhetoric, both Phree and Martha were virgins prior to August 22, 1992.)
Sapp: I told them if they ever needed something to just let me know.
(Sapp repeated his story that they had walked to the corner of Linden and Harrison and then parted company. He added that he thought the girls had
said something about a “party.” He claimed he didn’t know where they went from there.)
Moody: And the whole time you were with them, you never went to the bakery? With one of them?
Hometown Killer Page 19