Free Mac - The Story of Donald Mac McDonald, Alaska v McDonald, Prosecution's Theory

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  Introduction

The Case
  Alaska v. McDonald
  Case Update

Personal History
  Mac's History

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  PI Report, 2000
  PI Interviews, 2000
  PI Inquiry, 2000

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Justice Denied Magazine
Issue 26, Fall 2004

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Alaska v. McDonald

Mac's Prosecution

The prosecution would have you believe that the abduction and murder of Ms Laura Lee Henderson was the result of the custody battle between Ms Henderson and her ex husband, Jack Anton Ibach. At the time of her disappearance, Ms Henderson and Mr. Ibach shared joint custody of their two young daughters. According to the prosecution, Ms Henderson was not happy with this arrangement.
Ms Henderson's Mother and Step-father, Kitty and "Gib" Monro, were making plans to move to Oregon. Ms Henderson hoped to accompany them but would not be able to move the girls out of Alaska unless she was granted full custody. At the time of Ms Henderson's disappearance, the girls' guardian-ad-litem recommended that full custody be awarded to Mr. Ibach. Ms Henderson's psychologist and most other evaluators believed that shared custody would be in the girls' best interests. Not satisfied with anything less than full custody, Ms Henderson had another evaluation scheduled for June. The prosecution would have you believe this was the motive behind Ms Henderson's murder.
The prosecution would have you believe that Mr. Ibach was so tired of being subjected to repeated and expensive court and evaluation hearings, that he so desperately wanted Ms Henderson to just drop this and leave things alone that he was willing to kill her to get this accomplished.
The prosecution claimed that Jack Ibach hired Don "Mac" McDonald to kill Ms Henderson (a woman McDonald knew, liked, even dated on occasion), without any exchange of money what so ever.
McDonald's specific presence in this theory seems to have grown as the result of some very confusing events that occurred on the day Ms Henderson disappeared.
Sometime during her morning work shift at Kodiak Women's Resource and Crisis Center, Ms Henderson received a phone call from a man who identified himself only as "Matt."
At approximately 2:00pm, "Mac" McDonald phoned Ms Henderson to ask if he could talk to her.
At 3:00pm, Don "Mac" McDonald entered KWRCC. At the time of his arrival, Ms Henderson was in the midst of a phone call. Immediately after hanging up the phone, Ms Henderson took McDonald to an upstairs conference room so they could speak privately.: McDonald asked Ms Henderson to be his date for a street dance taking place the next evening to benefit the Hope House. She declined this invitation, but asked him if he could find some cocaine for her and to meet her on Shelikof Street at 9:00pm, because she was already planning to be in the area for another meeting.
Immediately after McDonald left, Ms Henderson excitedly told her co worker, Suzanne Hinson, that "Matt" was in possession of an audio tape of two prominent businessmen in the midst of a drug deal with Jack Ibach, her ex husband. She had been told that she would recognize all of the voices on the tape.
She was ecstatically sure this was the evidence she had been longing for. This was the leverage she needed for the courts to grant full custody of her daughters to her. Even though she did not know this man, had never met this man, she planned to meet him near the King Crab Cannery on Shelikof Street at 9:00pm that evening. Ms Henderson repeatedly stressed the necessity of keeping this information quiet so word of this taped evidence would not get back to Jack.
When Cathy Wilson, another co-worker at KWRCC and Ms Henderson's best friend, arrived for work, Ms Hinson told Ms Wilson she needed to talk to Ms Henderson. Ms Henderson then excitedly told Wilson about her meeting near the B & B Bar. Ms Henderson excitedly exclaimed: "I'm going to get my kids!": There is no testimony specifically stating that Ms Henderson told anyone at KWRCC the man with the tape was the same man who had just visited her.
After work, Ms Henderson went by the office of her divorce attorney, Matthew D. Jamin, to share this exciting new development with him. When Mr. Jamin heard the details of this meeting he called Albert Huff Ruble, a private investigator, whose office was next door. Ruble arrived a short time later. After discussing this matter in great detail, Ruble agreed to be waiting near the King Crab Cannery where he would keep Ms Henderson under surveillance and be available to help should this meeting be some kind of a set up. They all agreed to meet back at Jamin's office around 9:30pm, to discuss what Ms Henderson learned during this meeting.: ** Note: In a court of law the only exception to 'hearsay' - the testimony by one person of what another person said - is excited utterance. The only way any of the comments made by Ms Henderson could be deemed admissible in court was if she had been excited when she said them.; This is why the conversation between Ms Henderson and Mr. McDonald regarding the possible acquisition of drugs was not admissible in court.; This is also why much of the nearly two-hour long conversation between Ms Henderson, Mr. Jamin and Mr. Ruble could not be heard in court.; Ms Henderson had not been excited during most of her conversations that day.
There were many discrepancies in the re telling of Ms Henderson's excited utterances regarding the meeting with the man with the tape of a drug deal.
All who heard of this meeting agree that she did not know, had never met, this man. Some say she called him "Matt," others said "this guy" or "this fellow." Wilson stated that this tape contained the voices of two prominent Kodiak businessmen and that the man who made the tape would soon be returning to Las Vegas. Wilson also told police the only way Ms Henderson could identify this man was that he drove a white van. Hinson stated that the businessmen and the man who made the tape were all from San Francisco. During trial, Ruble repeatedly gave testimony that Ms Henderson met with "Matt McDonald" at KWRCC, until District Attorney, Sue McLean, reminded him that he did not learn the last name "McDonald" until much later that evening. However, by the time they gave their statements to the Kodiak Police Department, they all seemed to conclude that "Matt" with the tape, and "Mac" who came in to visit Ms Henderson at work, were the same person, and he drove a white van.: It was confirmed in court by friends of both Ms Henderson's and Mr. McDonald's that Ms Henderson [Laura Ibach] met Don "Mac" McDonald in the fall of 1984. Over time, they had become friends and eventually dated a few times.; Hadn't Ms Henderson told everyone that she had never met the man in possession of the taped drug deal? Even if they were not aware that Henderson knew McDonald previously, hadn't he just been to visit Ms Henderson at work? Wouldn't it then be logical to conclude that she would be able to identify McDonald, no matter what he drove, when she went to meet him at 9:00pm?
With this in mind, it seems possible that in the midst of a full afternoon's excited utterances regarding the up coming meeting at 9:00pm, Ms Henderson merged two completely separate events:
1) Her meeting with "Matt," a man she didn't know, who had an audio tape of Jack Ibach making a drug deal with two prominent businessmen; and
2) that she would also be seeing "Mac," a man she knew, even dated, who drove a white van and who she hoped would be getting her some cocaine.
After the meeting in Jamin's office, Ruble called Acting KPD Chief Tom Culbertson to advise him of Ms Henderson's meeting at 9:00pm. Culbertson informed Ruble that this was a civilian matter and the police could not get involved at that time.: Why was there not some sort of Police presence on Shelikof Street that evening if any possibility of an illegal drug deal was mentioned?
All of Ruble's attention for the rest of the afternoon appear to be focused on finding as much information as he possibly could on Ms Henderson's 3:00pm visitor at Kodiak Women's Resource and Crisis Center.
He called a friend who works at KWRCC.
He discovered that this visitor was connected to the Hope House, a 30-day drug and alcohol treatment/rehabilitation facility located just across the street from KWRCC, and that he drove a white van.
Ruble asked his friend to call him if the van returned to the Hope House.
He then spent most of the remaining afternoon driving around Kodiak, searching for white vans.
At 9:00pm, Al Ruble was parked near the King Crab Cannery as agreed. While there he saw McDonald's white van drive by. A short time later Ms Henderson drove by without stopping. Ruble started his vehicle and followed her.
He spotted her car parked behind a white van on the street in front of the Anchor Bar. He drove by and noticed Ms Henderson "laughing and smiling" in the front passenger-side seat of the van. All appeared normal at that time, so Ruble drove further up the street, parked his vehicle, and then returned to the area on foot. He decided to walk around a building so he would not be noticed by the person driving the van.
According to his recollection, this was just after 9:10pm.
When he emerged from behind the building, the van was gone. Ms Henderson's car was still parked on the street, empty. Ms Henderson was no where in sight. Ruble then made a quick search of the area but did not enter the most obvious place for her to have gone, the bar. He did, however, immediately call the police to report Ms Henderson's disappearance. He gave them a description of McDonald's van, including its license plate number, though he could not positively identify the driver, nor did he notice anyone else in the van.: McDonald and his friend, James Kerwin, who had spent most of the day working on cars together, both admit that Ms Henderson had been in the van around 9:00pm that evening. After she got out, McDonald started the van, allowed it to warm up for five to ten minutes before driving out to the Harbor to look at a double ender boat Kerwin wanted to buy. They then drove around town again before heading back to McDonald's residence.; According to the log in sheet from the Reentry Dorm Apartments, McDonald signed in at 10:00pm, less than an hour after Ms Henderson was seen in his van. McDonald and another resident, James Clyde watched a movie on television before McDonald headed to his room. Kerwin was allowed to sleep in the back of McDonald's van.
Ruble left Shelikof Street in plenty of time to get to the prearranged meeting at Jamin's office scheduled for 9:30pm.
When Ruble arrived, he informed Jamin that he'd lost Ms Henderson. Jamin then joined Ruble in an attempt to locate her. They began calling Ms Henderson's friends and family to see if anyone had heard from her. Hours later, when she still could not be located, Gilbert "Gib" Monro, Tom Healy, Cathy Wilson, and Suzanne Hinson joined the search. For all of their searching, there is no testimony to indicate that anyone entered any of the buildings, including the local bars, near Ms Henderson's last known location.
It was determined that the white van belonged to McDonald. The van was actually registered to McDonald's brother, David J. McDonald. During his search of Kodiak, Monro spotted McDonald's van parked outside of the Reentry Dorm Apartments, on Rezanoff Street, and informed the KPD. Around midnight, KPD Andre made a preliminary search of the exterior of McDonald's white van. It was empty, with no sign of damage or evidence it had been involved in any crime.: Mac has always wondered why it took so long to locate him after Ms Henderson disappeared that evening. Everyone at the Hope House and KWRCC knew he lived at the Reentry Dorm Apartments, and where that was located.; The one hour between 9:00 and 10:00pm was the only time he wasn't at a specific place, but was downtown Kodiak in his white van.; Why then did it take until nearly midnight for Mr. Monro to find his van?
After a nearly all night search for Ms Henderson, Kodiak Police Corporal John W. Palmer, though at home and off duty at the time, was called and asked to assist. Palmer arrived in full uniform, and after being briefed, Palmer, Jamin and Ruble headed to McDonald's residence, the Reentry Dorm Apartments.
Ms Wilson and Ms Hinson followed in Hinson's car.
They arrived on McDonald's doorstep at approximately 4:30am. McDonald had to be awakened by the house manager, Ms Gladys Baldwin, who remained nearby while Palmer questioned McDonald.
According to Palmer, McDonald was nervous and shaking, and denied knowing Laura Henderson. When Palmer informed McDonald she'd been seen in his van earlier, McDonald admitted knowing Laura Ibach and meeting with her, but insisted she got out of the van exactly where she'd gotten into it.
Palmer then claimed to have informed McDonald that he was seen driving off with Ms Henderson still in the van. Palmer also claimed that in response to this, McDonald admitted he'd driven Ms Henderson around the block.: Gladys Baldwin, seated nearby, heard most of the conversation between Palmer and McDonald but did not hear McDonald ever say he had taken Ms Henderson anywhere.; Ruble, standing outside, originally stated that he was standing roughly 40 feet away and could not hear the conversation between Palmer and McDonald. He later changed his statement, placing himself close enough overhear and corroborate Palmer's version of McDonald's responses.
As he left, Palmer informed McDonald: "If she doesn't show up, I'll be back and you'll be looking and kidnapping and murder one."
On his way back to his police car, Palmer looked into McDonald's van and noticed what appeared to be someone inside. After obtaining permission for entry Palmer opened the van and found James Kerwin, sleeping. Kerwin had an arrest warrant issued out of Anchorage on an unrelated offense and was taken into custody by KPD Ernie Rambec.
Wilson and Hinson were asked to keep an eye on the van until Rambec returned with Bruce St. Pierre, the owner of the impound lot used by the KPD, to tow McDonald's van into a secure area of the lot.: (What reason did KPD have to tow McDonald's van into custody at this point?)
Sometime between 5:30 and 8:30am, Palmer contacted Acting Chief Culbertson and Assistant District Attorney Sue McLean to inform them of a suspected kidnapping. Palmer and McLean issued a formal complaint against McDonald and Kerwin for kidnapping. Palmer and Ruble then presented themselves before Magistrate Nelson and obtained a warrant for the arrest of Donald C. "Mac" McDonald.
At 8:30am, McDonald left the Reentry Dorm Apartments for the Hope House to begin preparations for the day's events and the evening's dance. He was stopped and arrested at 9:00am by KPD Ernie Rambec.: On the morning of his arrest, McDonald was up early taking care of his assigned dorm duties. As he cleaned, he took all his dirty clothes to the wash/laundry room located in the next building of the apartment complex. While moving between buildings, he noticed a police officer stationed outside watching his every move.; At the time of his arrest, McDonald was wearing the work clothes he had just finished washing. He also carried a knife on his belt; none of which he'd had on him the night before.; The clothes he had been wearing when he met with Ms Henderson were hanging in his bedroom and were never examined by the police.; There is no record suggesting the police ever entered McDonald's room to search for evidence of kidnapping.
At the time of his arrest, the only connection between McDonald and Ms Henderson's disappearance was the sighting by Ruble of Ms Henderson seated in McDonald's white van "laughing and smiling" 12 hours earlier.
Yet somehow, Al Ruble convinced KPD Acting Chief Culbertson, Assistant DA Sue McLean, KPD officers John Palmer and Barry Paris, and many of Ms Henderson's friends and family members that she had been kidnapped and murdered... by McDonald.
All subsequent questioning and evidence was interpreted to fit this theory. No alternate explanation was ever even considered or explored.
Kodiak residents, eager to help solve the crime, reported every sighting of any white van on the day Ms Henderson disappeared. These van sightings are what built the theory behind how McDonald and Kerwin allegedly disposed of Ms Henderson's body.
Many of the vans sighted, and all those used to build this theory, did not match the description of McDonald's 1966 Dodge cargo van that had a damaged drive line and shook at speeds over 35mph, but the discrepancies were not pointed out to the jury in court.: Ms Colleen Jones told police a newer white van emerged from a parking lot near McDonald's residence at approximately 9:30pm, swerving all over the road. She drove behind it for three minutes but did not notice a passenger.; Mr. Dan Merrigan reported seeing a white van near Monashka Bay between 9:45 and 10:00 pm. He did not get a good look at it, but noticed normal, round head lights.; According to independent investigators, it takes longer than an hour to drive the speed limit from the Anchor Bar on Shelikof Street, out to the location on Monashka Bay where McDonald and Kerwin allegedly tossed Ms Henderson's body, and then return to the Hope House/Reentry Dorm Apartments.; McDonald signed in at home at 10:00pm. Other residents place him back at 9:50pm.; McDonald could not have been in two places at once.
The prosecution would have you believe...
After sitting and laughing with Ms Henderson, McDonald and Kerwin subdued and at some point killed her. They drove out near the end of Monashka Bay Road, at record speeds on a cold and icy night, to an area near a cabin they had visited a few weeks earlier, where they tossed Ms Henderson's body off the cliff and into the Pacific Ocean.
Feeding The Fire
On April 4, 1986, Kitty Monro was asked to describe what clothing Ms Henderson had been wearing when she left the house the evening of March 28, 1986.
Ms Monro described the items as follows:: Mint green short sleeved shirt with geometric diamond, shimmery effect; a silver heart buckled belt, approx 1"; blue jeans; pink and dirty white Velcro-strapped tennis shoes; a long (below the knee) mauve coat; and "... I didn't recognize the earrings because they just found out. They're white with a floral paint, a painting of a flower on them... She had um, piercing so I'm sure it was posts."; Ms Monro also volunteered the fact that Ms Henderson had warts removed from her foot and wore band-aids in her shoes.; (What a memory to recall so much detail after days of traumatic stress!)
In the weeks and months that followed, numerous items of clothing belonging to Ms Henderson began washing up on the shoreline of Monashka Bay, below the cabin site.
These items included: Ms Henderson's wallet with an expired Oregon driver's license inside, pink tennis shoes, a full-length mauve down coat, a belt and designer jeans. All items of clothing looked fairly new, not as if they had been tossed around in the surf for weeks or months.: No experts were called to question the condition of the clothing, how jeans could have come off a bloated water soaked body, or why Ms Henderson was carrying around an expired Oregon driver's license in a wallet her daughters used for play.; When the left shoe was found, it was described as pink and grey and newer looking. It had a band aid inside of it.; (Independent investigators questioned Ms Henderson's doctor in 1990 and learned she had warts removed from her right foot, not her left.)
In October 1986, nine days before trial, KPD officers Paris and Andre searched McDonald's van again. This was a month after Andre had called a psychic from Illinois who indicated there was still evidence in the van.
According to Paris, they searched the van until they were satisfied there was nothing to be found. Paris exited the van and waited for Andre to finish searching. While waiting, Paris shone a flashlight into the driver's side door and saw a flash. He discovered an earring hanging from a speaker wire near the gas pedal.
After a search warrant was obtained, Paris removed it from the van and took it into evidence. The earring was a match for those Ms Monro described on April 4, 1986.: This search began without a search warrant. It also took place months after McDonald's van had been removed from the secure area of St. Pierre's impound lot.
Click here to read the information gathered by Private Investigator Rollie Port regarding the finding of the earring
During the trials, when McDonald asked his attorney why she didn't clarify many of these points, her response was that the members of the jury were smart enough to see that, or to catch that for themselves.
The Result
Even though numerous statements and testimonies contradicted the allegations presented by the prosecution, Donald C. McDonald was found guilty of kidnapping on December 5, 1986, and of first degree murder on August 21, 1987.
James Kerwin was acquitted of both charges on December 5, 1986.
Jack Ibach was found guilty of First Degree Murder on August 21, 1987
McDonald and Ibach were each sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison.
The only reasonable explanation, Mr. McDonald's court appointed attorneys did not build a strong enough case to defend his innocence.

Inside Edition's Investigation
In 1990 the national television program Inside Edition aired the first of three programs it broadcast about McDonald's case. To test the prosecution's theory that Don 'Mac' McDonald and Jim Kerwin tossed Ms Laura Henderson off a cliff into Monashka Bay on the Pacific Ocean, Inside Edition sent a film crew to the location on Kodiak Island where the prosecution claimed this occurred.
     They duplicated the prosecution's claim that Ms Henderson was tossed off the cliff in a burlap bag by filling a bag with 120# of soil (This favored the prosecution because Ms Henderson actually weighed 165#, so Inside Edition's bag could be thrown further from the face of the cliff than a bag containing Laura). When Inside Edition tossed the bag off the cliff, it didn't come close to reaching the ocean's high tide line. In other words, a body tossed from that cliff would have rested on the rocks above and away from the ocean until it was discovered by someone. This demonstration was broadcast at least twice on national television.
     Further undermining the prosecution's theory was the determination that could the ebb tides in Monashka Bay take a body out into the open ocean, the flood tides would bring the body back onto the beach. The tidal action in the cliff area of Monashka Bay is that strong. Thus the prosecution's theory of Ms Henderson's disappearance was impossible.

Mac Was Not, and Is Not A Criminal
McDonald did not have a police record prior to his arrest on March 29, 1986. He was 38 years old. The prosecution's theory was predicated on the idea that McDonald suddenly turned into the calculating hired killer of a woman he socialized with on a number of occasions at Kodiak bars. Yet the prosecution presented no evidence that either McDonald or Jim Kerwin received any payment of any kind from Jack Ibach, or that McDonald knew Ibach prior to his arrest.
     In addition, McDonald's conduct since being imprisoned is consistent with his law-abiding life prior to being arrested. McDonald worked for the Alaska Correctional Industries at the Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, Alaska, from 1994 to 2004. The factory made wood furniture and McDonald did all the Auto-Cad drafting and price quotations for the factory. McDonald taught himself to use a computer and the Auto-Cad software program while in prison. At that time, he was also voted President of a prison club organization that runs the prison commissary store.
     Alaska has now eliminated the Correctional Industries Program, so McDonald took a job in the prison Computer Lab as teacher and lab attendant. He worked there for two years when he was offered the job working in the prison Kitchen doing computer work on Employees, Inventory, Menus, and recipes.

In addition to his daily job responsibilities, two years ago the Spring Creek Administration asked McDonald to live in the Youth Mod, where younger inmates attend High School within the prison walls. McDonald immediately accepted and acts as a Mentor, a teacher of sorts, and when necessary, a protector.
     Just within this last year a 16 year old boy picked up a gun in his Dads home and it went off, killing the boys best friend. Unfamiliar with the legal system, this boy and his family accepted the plea deal as agreed to by the prosecution and the boy's court appointed defense attorney. The plea deal offered: Manslaughter, which carries a mandatory 10-year sentence.
     This young man and his parents had to sign special papers so he could be placed in Spring Creek, a Maximum Security Prison, where he could attend High School. Out of all the inmates he could have been placed to live with, the prison recommended that this boy be placed with McDonald. Living with McDonald has given this young man safety, as McDonald is well known and respected on the compound. This young man is now 17, but does not even look 15, and would have been a walking victim in such a prison without protection. It seems that even the Administration of Spring Creek Prison know they can count on McDonald.
     McDonald continues to work in the Spring Creek Kitchen. In fact, he has never gone any length of time not working or holding a job. McDonald is not an inmate just "doing his time." He says, "I'm here and I have to survive... but this is not going to change who I am. Simple as that!"

In Conclusion
To this day Laura Lee Henderson's body has never been recovered. No DNA evidence, no definitive crime scene suggesting where Ms Henderson was murdered has ever been found. The existing physical evidence is inconclusive. The theory presented by the prosecution as "facts" seems not only implausible, but at times impossible.

No one outside of Kodiak, Alaska who has looked into Mr. McDonald's case since his incarceration has reached the same conclusion that the KPD, lead by Private Investigator Albert H. Ruble reached during the evening of March 28, and morning of March 29, 1986.

In fact, everyone who has taken the time to look into this case has uncovered additional evidence that goes against the prosecution's theory, and nothing that goes towards it.

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