Front Cover
Welcome!
Introduction
The Case
Alaska v. McDonald
Case Update
Personal History
Mac's History
P I Reports
PI Report, 2000
PI Interviews, 2000
PI Inquiry, 2000
Other Info
Copyright Information
Acknowledgements
Related Links
Contact Information
View Mac's Guestbook
Read Mac's Story in
Justice Denied Magazine
Issue 26, Fall 2004
Email My Staff
Hosted By
|
| Free Mac |
|
PI Inquiry, 2000 |
Request of Inquiry by Private Investigator Rollie Port, 2000
Excerpts from a letter to Commissioner Glenn Godfrey, Juneau, AK, February 2001
The probability of McDonald having served 14 years in prison for a crime he did not commit is very real. I believe the questions raised by my investigation should be answered in a manner that puts the issue to rest once and for all. Even though there are appeals currently going in this case I believe an inquiry is called for now and it should not be pushed off to the side. Literally, a man's life is at stake.
I would like to see the following points addressed:
- Since the conviction of Donald McDonald for the murder of Laura Henderson the Alaska State Troopers have continued to receive reports of sightings of Ms. Henderson alive
- The Alaska State Troopers have investigated the recovery of unidentified human remains in the Kodiak area. One of the reports concerned a female being found in a shallow grave on an island adjacent to Kodiak.
- The television show "Inside Edition" reported on a video interview of Wayne Arndt. I spoke with Mr. Arndt and he states adamantly that he made a report to the Alaska State Troopers about pulling a female body in a bag as well as having seen a woman's tennis shoe, sock and blue jeans. This all matches what Laura Henderson was wearing the night of her disappearance.
- Anthony Wills, a former Kodiak Police Officer, has reported that Sergeant Palmer, currently retired, had told him that Laura Henderson was murdered, put into a crab pot and dumped at sea. This would be contrary to the evidence presented in court. Sergeant Palmer was an active participant in the investigation of Laura's disappearance. (This information has been requested from the Alaska State Troopers and the Kodiak Police Department, however, they refuse to provide the information.)
- It is physically improbable or maybe even impossible for a 180 lb object to be thrown off of the bluff and land any where close to the waterline of Monashka Bay. (Inside Edition experimented with this issue on video and the item thrown did not even reach the water line. In the experiment two people were throwing the object.) Officer Walton told me that he had film developed out of McDonald's camera and because the bluff area was in the pictures Sergeant Paris immediately claimed this to be the murder scene. No other evidence existed then or now to support this theory. (Is it even possible for a body to be thrown in to the bay at this location?)
- I personally spoke with Dennis McMurray, the employer of Jack Ibach. Unknown to the police there is a page in the log book on the date of March 28, 1986, missing. I discovered this when I asked to review the Kodiak King log book. The missing page is very hard to see but if you look closely the margin of the paper is still in the binding. McMurray's answer was that he must of made a mistake but in the other 250 pages of the log the only mistake occurred on this date. I do not know what was really written in the log but it is very possible that the information exonerated McDonald. (There should be an investigation into the missing page and what was contained on it.)
- The clothing found at Monashka Bay is certainly suspect. Lieutenant Tom Schwantes, now retired, is a 30 year veteran of the Marine Department of the Alaska State Troopers. I spoke with Lieutenant Schwantes who told me he did not believe that a 180 lb body could be thrown off of the bluff and land in Monashka Bay. Further, that the clothing being found in Monashka Bay from the VFW to Pillar Beach means the clothing would have gone into the water at a place called the Narrows Channel at the mouth of Monashka Bay. He bases this statement on being an expert in the area of tides and currents in the Kodiak area. He also finds suspect that Henderson's clothing came off of her body because of current or tide action. He has recovered numerous clothed bodies from the ocean. If Lieutenant Schwantes is correct then the states entire theory of Laura being thrown from a bluff is incorrect. Not only is it physically impossible to throw a 180 lb object into Monashka Bay it is ludicrous to believe that tidal action took the clothes off. Officer Walton of the Kodiak Police Department has recovered 20 to 30 bodies from the ocean. He believes that Laura Henderson's coat and blue jeans could have been planted. He bases this theory on the fact that the coat and blue jeans were not faded as if they had been in the salt water for an extended period of time. To further add credibility to the clothing being planted on the beach is the discovery of a clutch purse identified as Laura Henderson's. I spoke with Jack Ibach who told me the purse was a play purse used by his children. Laura had a current Alaska Driver's license so why would she be carrying a clutch purse with an expired Oregon Driver's license in it? Jack Ibach stated that in the year previous to Laura's disappearance he purchased a new velvet purse with a strap for her. He watched as Laura changed purses and then gave the old one to the kids. Officer Walton remembers taking numerous photographs of the clothing and other items located in Laura's apartment. I believe it would be prudent to match the items found by the police to the photos taken in the apartment. Again, I see no reason why Laura would have been carrying an expired Oregon Driver's license. (This also needs to be investigated.)
- It should also be noted that Lieutenant Tom Walters of the US Coast Guard, along with Lieutenant Richardson and Lieutenant Bartlett, searched for two hours in Monashka Bay on March 30, 1986, and found nothing along the beach or in the water. On April 21, 1986, Lieutenant Commander Mayey and Lieutenant Musarra searched the mouth of Monashka Bay between Termination Point and Miller Point. They found nothing. Yet on that same day a pink woman's shoe and a goose-down coat were found on the beach in Monashka Bay. What is interesting is that stuck to the inside of the left tennis shoe was a band aid. This band aid would have been worn under a sock on Laura's right foot according to a statement from her doctor who had removed warts from her right foot. How did the band aid get into the left tennis shoe? Some sort of transference may be an explanation but it is more likely, given the other circumstances of this case, that the band aid was put in there to prove that the shoe was Laura's. The only mistake made was that they put it in the wrong shoe. Alex Pederson provided a statement to the police that the tennis shoe looked almost new. This does not make sense when it was not found until April 21, 1986. How could a tennis shoe look new after being in the water over three weeks?
- The entire situation on the finding of the earring must be investigated. Keep in mind that the owner of the impound lot has testified while the van was in the impound lot it was not secured. Further, the only time he was denied his request to be present at a search of a vehicle in his lot was when the earring was found.
- James Kerwin was acquitted of this charge. He died after his trial but left behind a letter stating that he was with McDonald the night of Laura's disappearance and that McDonald did not kill Laura.
In this summary I have attempted to stay away from the conspiracy theories and only deal with the facts. From the beginning I think that small assumptions were made and that those assumptions snow balled. There was no turning back until these snow balls avalanched into a conviction of Donald McDonald.
Sincerely,
Rollie A. Port
Rollie Port Investigations, Inc.
Private Investigator
Click here for a Printer Friendly View
of the Combined PI Investigation Reports
|
|