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Issue 26, Fall 2004
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Additional Case Information Gathered by Private Investigator Rollie Port, 2000 Excerpts from a letter to Commissioner Glenn Godfrey, Juneau, AK, February 2001 The following information was gathered during various interviews with Kodiak Police Department Officers and a Retired Alaska State Trooper over the course of this investigation. Findings from February 2, 2000 Interview with former KPD Officer Mark Gregory. He states Bill Rhodes did most of the evidence work on the Henderson homicide. He states he has always remained friends with Bill Rhodes and on one occasion Bill Rhodes told him of a fiasco that occurred in reference to the Henderson homicide. He states he was sent out to McDonald's van where he observed an earring on the floorboard. He then contacted Sgt. Paris and Paris got a search warrant and an earring was found that was later identified as Henderson's. This occurred two weeks before the trial of McDonald, Kerwin and Ibach. Rhodes reportedly shook his head and scoffed at the idea that a psychic in Chicago came up with this information and indicated to Gregory that the earring was probably planted. Gregory maintains that Rhodes never used the words planted or manufactured, however Rhodes left the Police Department and is now a probation officer. Findings from February 3, 2000 Interview with former KPD Officer Anthony "Tony" Wills He graduated from High School in 1980 at Bell Fourche, SD. In June of 1996 he came to work for the Kodiak Police Department and he left in April of 1997. Prior to this he had been a Military Policeman for ten years. He stated he had come to Alaska from the lower 48 seeking job opportunities in the law enforcement area and KPD is the first department he tested and was accepted by. He stated in 1996, after he was hired, he had a 90 day breaking in period and his field training officers were Officer Massie, Officer Dochater, Officer Mahoney, and Sgt. Mulroney. He stated Massie was a shift leader and that he, Wills, worked mainly in the graveyard shift. He stated on one occasion he and Trooper Chris Hill and Officer Bradbury were riding with Chief Palmer who was acquainting them with the City. They drove by the impound lot and inside the impound lot was Mac McDonald's white van. Chief Palmer told all three of them that the van had to do with the disappearance of Laura Henderson and that Henderson had been murdered, cut up, put into a crab pot and taken out to sea by a fishing vessel. (This is absolutely contrary to the Police investigation and should be followed up with interview of Chris Hill and Officer Bradbury to support the statement Palmer made to Wills.) Findings from February 3, 2000 Interview with AST Tom Schwantes, Retired Tom Schwantes is an expert in the area in and around Kodiak and has been in the Marine Enforcement position for the AST since the early 1970's. He is considered an expert in the tidal and currents of the island of Kodiak. He was present in Kodiak when the Henderson homicide occurred and he was in charge of the Trooper vessel the Vigilant stationed out of Kodiak. He stated that in 1986, Kodiak king crab was not being fished in the Monashka Bay area whatsoever or in the Kodiak area in general. He stated the crab pots that were being used at the time were for tanner crab and the pots had four to six inch netting on the pots. He states he feels 99.9% sure that if a body and clothes even taken off the body had been placed in a crab pot, that the clothing would have remained in that crab pot and not surfaced. He stated there is a lot of sand fleas in the Monashka Bay area. He stated it is possible that clothing that is put into the Narrows Channel at the mouth of Monashka Bay where Monashka Bay meets the Channel, that the clothing could be found from the VFW Hall along Pillar Beach and all the way through to Monashka Bay. He states if a body was thrown off a cliff, and if it could hit the water, which he does not think it would, that the ebb tide could take a body out into Monashka Bay, and then the flood tide, bring the body back into the beach. He states the clothing coming off the body in this situation is extremely doubtful. He states he has recovered numerous bodies from the ocean and those bodies have all been fully clothed. He stated the City Dock is the dock on the extreme south end of Shelikof Street. He stated the Kodiak King has always berthed at the same location in the small boat harbor. He states that the entrance to the small boat harbor off of Shelikof Street onto the dock where the Kodiak King is berthed, was in existence in 1985 as it is now in 2000. Findings from February 7, 2000 Interview with former KPD Officer William Walton. He stated he was a Police Officer at the Kodiak Police Department from 1983 to 1993. He stated at the time of Laura Henderson's disappearance he was in Detectives with Bill Rhodes and Cpl Paris was the supervisor. He stated the only person who ever knew the big picture of the investigation and what was being proven was Paris. He stated that other Officers would be assigned small portions of the Investigation to go out and do things, however it was Paris who formulated whatever meaning he wanted to on what was found. He stated Barry Paris was the person in charge of the evidence room during that time. He states he remembers being called out the night Laura disappeared and the night was notable in that he fell down in the parking lot because of extreme icy conditions and slipped underneath a vehicle and injured himself. He remembers very well that entire night the roads in and around Kodiak were in the same condition and he states to get out where Barry Paris says the body was thrown off the cliff, a person would not have been able to drive more than 5mph. He stated his job was to collect evidence and he remembers searching McDonald's van for approximately 10 to 12 hours and seizing 8 to 900 pieces of evidence in that case with the majority of that evidence coming from the van. He stated he remembers searching the entire van on March 29, 1986 with Rhodes and that would include the drivers compartment where later the earring was found. He stated in reference to the glass being broken from the inside and that showing there was a struggle inside, he states the glass expert from the FBI more or less convinced him that was plausible however his feeling was that there was no sign of struggle inside the van at all. He stated in reference to the earring, he believes he was set up to find the earring. He states this because he was called on a Saturday to come into the Department and search the van for the earring. That meant he and Rhodes were called in on overtime on a Saturday to look in the van when Sgt. Andre and Sgt. Paris were both on duty working and could have easily checked the van out. He stated they were told to search the front portion of the van and they started in the drivers seat and immediately found the earring behind the gas pedal of the van. Paris then concluded the search of the van immediately after the earring was found. He stated that Paris did not accompany them to the van and he now believes that he and Rhodes were both used as patsies. He stated that he believes Paris made up his mind that Ibach, Kerwin and McDonald were guilty from day one and Paris went out to build his case from there. He stated he does not believe that Laura was thrown off the cliff as Barry Paris has found. He stated the way the cliff came into being a possible location is that he and Rhodes had film developed that was in McDonald's camera and as soon as those photos came back, Paris immediately took the photos and decided that the pictures showed that McDonald and Kerwin were "practicing throwing a body over the cliff" and therefore Paris immediately knew that's where Laura was thrown into the ocean. He states the problem was that you would have to throw the body straight out over 50 feet, that the body would actually land on the slope or land on the top of the rocks that were above high tide. He stated when he brought this information to Paris, he discounted it and was so arrogant that there was nothing else that could be said. He stated he was in the Navy and he has recovered 20 to 30 bodies from the ocean. This included a lot of clothing. He states when clothing is in the salt water for a limited period of time it becomes highly bleached out. He stated he believes that there is a very good possibility that the clothing was planted on Monashka Beach by someone. He bases this on the fact that when he observed specifically the coat and blue jeans, they did not appear to have been in the water very long and they were not bleached out enough for being in the water the amount of time that Laura had disappeared. He stated he became aware that Jim "Mac" McLaughlin was saying he had knowledge where Henderson's body was and that the body was actually in a landfill across from his house. He stated he discussed this with Paris and Paris immediately discounted it and nothing was ever done. He states he wrote this up in the Police report, however does not know if it found its way into the Police report as Paris was the person responsible for putting the report together. (This information was not found in the official report.) He stated he remembers talking to District Attorney Sue McLean about the McLaughlin theories, however McLean was being run over by Paris and she would say she would look into things but never did. Findings from July 19, 2000 Interview with former KPD Sergeant Barry Paris, currently with the Tacoma, WA, Police Department. Paris realizes that the evidence against McDonald was the slimmest of any evidence he has seen in a murder conviction, however he believes McDonald is guilty because Rubel said he was the last one with Henderson; McDonald ended up with a .357 handgun that Ibach had; Ibach, Kerwin, and McDonald were seen together at Kerwin's apartment behind the McDonald's Restaurant in Kodiak. He states that both James Kerwin and Donald McDonald were "street bums" who didn't have any money to their name and it is his belief that McDonald and Kerwin both were involved in the killing of Laura Henderson for a "promise of money" from Jack Ibach. He stated the only connection between Ibach and McDonald was a .357 magnum that Kerwin stole off the F.V. Nordby and later sold to Ibach. McDonald ended up giving it to Gladys Baldwin. He states he realizes that it is extremely slim, however, that's all they had to make the circumstantial case. He states he at one point thought that Jim McLaughlin was responsible for the death of Laura Henderson. That was based on numerous statements from persons stating that McLaughlin had in fact told them of killing Laura. He stated Michael Putnam was a Police Informant. Putnam had been arrested for something else and the Police made a deal with him to go back into McLaughlin's house to solicit information from McLaughlin. Putnam came back out and made a report that McLaughlin had made the statement that he was responsible for Laura's death. Paris felt this information was unbelievable. (Beyond stating he felt it was unbelievable, Paris could come up with no other reason why he felt this way). He stated Guy Carroll was another unbelievable person who stated McLaughlin was responsible for the killing of Laura Henderson. He states in his mind McLaughlin was a suspect but they had more evidence showing that McDonald was linked to Ibach than McLaughlin being linked to Ibach, therefore McDonald was charged. Along with that was the .357, the meeting between Ibach, Kerwin, and McDonald, and McDonald being the last person seeing Laura Henderson alive. He states he could not remember whether he took part in the search of Laura Henderson's apartment or if that was left to Walton and Rhodes. He stated he was aware that McLaughlin was very involved in the cocaine trade in Kodiak. He stated he knew Ibach was a user of cocaine and got his cocaine he believes from McLaughlin. He states he did not arbitrarily dismiss the possibility that McLaughlin could have somehow been involved with the homicide, however, he did not pick up any evidence that could be proven in court that McLaughlin was involved with Laura Henderson's death. (Paris went on to discredit Michael Putnam, although he used Putnam as an informant and felt he was credible on some issues but in reference to what Putnam told him concerning McLaughlin's involvement with Laura's death he discounted.) Paris stated it was just the evidence as he saw it pointed to McDonald and not McLaughlin. Paris concedes that McDonald was convicted on the slimmest of evidence and probably without the earring being found the chances of conviction of McDonald was probably nil. He states he has struggled with the earring being found in the van. His memory of how that earring was found is as follows. He remembers immediately prior to the first trial, Mike Andre came to him and stated he had looked in a Police Catalog and saw an article concerning the psychic. That Andre took it upon himself with no urging from Paris to call the psychic. The first thing Paris says he ever knew about the psychic was that Andre told him about the article and then told him that he had already called the psychic and the psychic had told him to look within three feet of the drivers seat of the van for an earring. (At this point this Investigator asked specifically if the psychic had said to look for an earring and Paris stated it is his recollection that the psychic had told Andre that the earring would be found within three feet of the drivers seat.) He states he was cajoled by Andre into going out and looking one more time in the vehicle. He states when he went out to St. Pierre's aluminum shed the van still had the evidence tape all over it. He used a key which the Police had kept all along for the van, and he noted the van was locked and the windows were rolled up when he contacted the van. (The impound lot owner, Bruce St. Pierre, stated that the impound yard was open to the public. The window of the van was rolled down and the evidence tape had fallen to the ground.) He states he remembers the only thing left in the van was the seat and he believes a G.I. ammo box. He states he crawled in and out of the van and Mike Andre was in the van as well. He states he had searched the van until he was satisfied nothing was found and then he stepped out of the van by the drivers side door and was waiting for Andre to get done. He states he was shining the light of his flashlight into the drivers door and he saw a flash of something and he himself found the earring. He states the earring was on top of a speaker wire and when he saw the earring it raised the hair on the back of his neck because in his mind, "how am I ever going to get anyone to believe that we had just found this earring." He stated after he observed the earring, he then went and got a search warrant for the vehicle and went back, seized the earring, and took it to the evidence room. At this point Paris was confronted with the statement of Will Walton that it was he and Rhodes that actually found that earring after they had been called in off duty and ordered by Paris to search the front of the van. Paris stated that Walton was incorrect in his statement to that affect because Walton and Rhodes did not find that earring, that he was the person that found that earring. (This is contrary to his court and grand jury testimony.) He stated he wished Walton and Rhodes would have found the earring because it was him, Paris, who ended up having to explain how the earring was found to Chief Justice Burke. He states he remembers Chief Justice Burke basically telling him that he did not believe the story about the earring and did not believe the story about the psychic. He discounts the notion of a conspiracy in this matter because whoever planted the earring would have had to have known that they would find a person who could positively identify the earring as being Laura's, not just simply taking a pair of earrings out of Laura's jewelry box. Someone would have had to have known that one of Laura's friends and/or her Mother would be able to positively identify the earring. However, he also notes that he could see why many people believed the earring was in fact planted. (In the KPD statement of Kitty and Gib Munro, April 4, 1986, Laura's Mother, Kitty says: "They were, 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." The earring was not found in the van until October 18, 1986.) He states he has a very clear memory of himself seizing the earring after he and Andre had conducted the search of the van and knows that Rhodes and Walton are not the ones who found the earring. He states he did not know Al Ruble that well, and concedes that Ruble would have a motive for not telling the truth concerning when he saw Laura and who he saw her with, however, he believes Ruble told the truth. He states Ruble basically had to leave Kodiak because of this case. The fact that he lost Laura that night was the biggest issue why he had to leave Kodiak. Further, his credibility in the community was lost. Still Paris believed Ruble told the truth about what he had observed that night. He states he could not comment on whether or not the clothing found in the bay would have been sufficiently bleached given the time they were in the water. He doesn't know what the clothes would look like if they had been in the water one week compared to two months. He states he does not believe the Police planted any of the clothing in Monashka Bay and states the way all of the clothing was found was chronicled in the Police report. He states this homicide investigation was the very first one that the Police Department ever did and although they did not use State Troopers to do the investigation, they did travel to Anchorage to meet with Mike Grimes and have Mike Grimes help them in their investigations. He cannot remember specifically what Grimes told them about the case. He states he was sure some mistakes were made in the investigation because it was KPD's first major homicide investigation, but that he also strongly disbelieves there was any conspiracy in the Police Force or between the Police Force and specific citizens, i.e. Matt Jamin and Ruble, to frame Donald McDonald. Rollie A. Port Rollie Port Investigations, Inc. Private Investigator Click here for a Printer Friendly View of the Combined PI Investigation Reports
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