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00:00it's Friday night in October of 1993 and in northern California three junior high
00:16school girls are having a slumber party Halloween is around the corner and the
00:23girls have been trying on different costumes in preparation for the upcoming
00:27holiday within seconds their lives will change
00:57it's every parent's worst nightmare what horror can compare to a child's kidnapping
01:14especially when she's taken from her own home in 1993 12-year-old Polly class was abducted from
01:21her room while her terrified friends looked on the crime took less than 10 minutes it shocked the
01:28nation and forever changed the way child abductions are handled I'm Jim Kallstrom former director of
01:35the FBI's New York office the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were battling against the
01:41odds we had witnesses and we had a community that banded together to find Polly but even with
01:47the FBI's top-flight capability abductions by strangers are among the hardest cases to solve
01:53only one-third of them have a happy ending
01:57October 1st Polly class and Jillian Pelham were waiting for another friend outside of
02:09Polly's house in Petaluma California
02:21it was around 8 30 when Kate McLean and her mother showed up the three girls were ready for fun it was
02:33Friday night there was ice cream in the fridge and they were going to stay up all night long
02:38this was going to be a party
02:42no one had any idea of the danger that lurked so close by
02:56the girls kept to Polly's bedroom but they couldn't suppress the noise as easily
03:13at about 9 45 Polly's mother Eve Nickel looked in on the girls and asked them to keep it down
03:24she was suffering a migraine headache and thought she'd turn in early
03:30Eve's bedroom was right across the hall from the girls and although she had chided them about the
03:40noise she was pretty sure it would only take a few minutes for the 12 year olds to get noisy again
03:45before going to bed Eve took her prescription pills to block out all distractions and get her fast to sleep
03:55the party continued on for almost an hour before the nightmare began
04:04it was around 10 30 when the intruder entered the room at first Kate and Jillian thought it was a joke
04:21then they saw the knife he told them if they screamed he'd slit their throats
04:28immediately he tied them up and started asking questions he wanted to know which girl lived there and who else was in the house
04:40Polly spoke up
04:43the girls were terrified and crying and he assured them that he wasn't going to hurt anyone that he was only there for money
04:52but when Polly told him where some cash was hidden in a jewelry box he made no attempt to find it
05:02he gagged the girls and took the cases off some pillows to use his hoods
05:08he made Polly get up and told the others to count to a thousand
05:18by the time they were done he said she'd be back
05:21then he took Polly class and disappeared into the night
05:30Petaluma police officers were called to the scene after the girls managed to free themselves and wake Polly's mother
05:42they responded in minutes
05:45investigators entered Polly's room and began to look around
05:51the bedroom was in disarray and told of the events that had happened just minutes before
05:57on the floor were binding materials cut strips of cloth
06:02the cords from the Nintendo game had been cut
06:07and a strap that was clipped from a purse lay on the floor
06:10pillowcases were strewn about
06:15what Petaluma police detective Mike Meese saw wasn't encouraging
06:30I remember standing at the doorway to Polly's room and looking at these few bags of evidence that we had been able to collect
06:36and thinking that that was just such a pitiful amount
06:40and I looked down at the rug and I talked to my partner Larry Pelton and said let's take the rug
06:45and he said why and I said I don't know why but let's just take the rug
06:49we just don't have enough evidence
06:50police were in desperate need of assistance
06:55fortunately help was on the way
06:58after being contacted by the class family the Federal Bureau of Investigation offered its expertise
07:04how about uh... have you all talked to the mother?
07:07yes
07:08shortly after midnight the FBI appeared at the house of Polly class
07:13typically the bureau handles kidnappings
07:18and with 800 a year to investigate
07:20they have plenty of experience
07:22because he was familiar with the community
07:27and experienced in kidnapping cases
07:29special agent Ed Fryer became the lead investigator
07:32but he knew something about this case was different
07:36it had all the earmarks of a stranger abduction case
07:40because statements from the two girls were consistent
07:43stranger abduction cases are the hardest cases to solve in my experience
07:49because again there's no connection between the perpetrator of the crime and your victim
07:54or the victim's family or somebody even associated to the victim
08:00it's a random act
08:03surprisingly a vast majority of kidnappings involve disgruntled family members
08:08and though Polly's parents were separated
08:10her father Mark class was immediately cleared of any responsibility
08:16abductions involving total strangers are exceedingly rare
08:20and leave little for investigators to go on
08:24in this case however there were witnesses
08:28a police sketch artist was called in from the San Rafael police department
08:36for two hours Jillian and Kate tried to recall the face of the man who had barged into the bedroom
08:42the girls were still terribly upset
08:44but they managed to give the artist a pretty good description
08:50authorities now had their first idea of what the stranger looked like
08:54after 4 a.m. the girls were taken to the police station
08:58and the FBI called in one of its special forces
09:02the evidence response team
09:06Tony Maxwell leads the crew
09:11in looking at cases across the United States we have found
09:15that when somebody is kidnapped especially a young child
09:19that they will generally be harmed within the first 24 hours
09:24and probably within the first couple of days could even be killed
09:28so time is of the essence
09:30in that kind of work the investigator needs to move quickly
09:34the evidence response team is designed to provide forensic resources at a major crime scene
09:42their sole responsibility is to collect evidence
09:46and they use the most sophisticated collecting equipment available to do it
09:52an electrostatic dust print machine
09:57collects tiny hairs and fibers off the floor
10:00when a positive charge is passed over a sheet of mylar
10:03any loose debris clings to the mylar
10:08and is sent to a lab for careful inspection
10:10although the police department had already dusted for fingerprints
10:19they had come up with nothing particularly promising
10:24but they didn't have access to the same equipment as the FBI
10:31the alternate light source was a new method that employed a unique fluorescent powder
10:35which when combined with a distinct ultraviolet light and amber colored goggles
10:39could illuminate many things that otherwise would remain hidden
10:48the team found four dozen fingerprints the police were unable to see using conventional equipment
10:53but even those were of no use
10:57they were attributed to family and friends
11:00after hours of meticulous searching something finally turned up
11:08a palm print that at the outset seemed like the first real piece of forensic evidence left behind at the scene
11:23that palm print was found on the bed on a crossbar of a of a bed where he apparently put his hand up for just a second to lean on it
11:37perhaps to support himself as he was grabbing something
11:40and with the alternate light source and the fluorescent fingerprint work that we did
11:45we were able to see it collect it and then gather that for the laboratory
11:50at that time the FBI's fingerprint database didn't contain palm prints only fingerprints
12:00but even a palm print won't catch a suspect it will only identify one once he's captured
12:06FBI special agent Mark Mershon explains
12:15people often think that when you have a fingerprint or a palm print that you quickly
12:21quickly establish the identity of a criminal the truth of the matter is in most instances
12:26you have to identify a suspect have fingerprints for that suspect in order to compare with a latent fingerprint
12:32the hunt for the suspect prompted authorities to cover poly's neighborhood inch by inch
12:39by dawn more than 100 agents and officers had begun a 24-hour search for poly and her abductor
12:47helicopters and bloodhounds have been called out and an all-points bulletin was issued by local authorities and the FBI
12:54systematically the authorities searched every house in the neighborhood
13:01agents went to poly school to talk with teachers and students in the hopes that somebody might have some useful information
13:09investigators canvassed the neighborhood in pairs asking if anyone had seen anything suspicious that night
13:15one by one they interviewed all of poly's neighbors several people recalled seeing a stranger around the neighborhood that fit the description given by the girls
13:34Thomas Georges and his friends were on their way to the video store at around 9 o'clock that night when he noticed a stranger standing in the shadows in front of poly's house
13:49Thomas knew everyone in his neighborhood but he had never seen this man before
13:56returning home a few minutes later the boys saw that the stranger was still there the description Thomas gave to the authorities matched the suspect they were looking for
14:17Sean Bush was playing video games with some friends who lived in a small rental cottage directly behind poly's house
14:28it was about 10 30 when Sean happened to glance out the window
14:36he was surprised to see a strange man on the back porch of poly's house
14:45he appeared to be going for the back door his description of the man also fit that of the suspect
14:59there were others who saw the suspicious man that night but unfortunately none of them alerted the authorities
15:06as Petaluma police chief Patrick Parks explains time was working against them
15:13in stranger abduction cases of small children there is no more critical factor than time
15:21time is absolutely of the essence and for that reason you have to get out as many resources you can
15:27you have to put out the word as far as white and white as you can you have to involve as many agencies you as you can
15:34get them focused get their efforts channeled and hopefully hopefully bring about a successful resolution
15:47while officers continued to comb the neighborhood
15:49FBI investigators began executing the standard operating procedure in cases like these
15:54after eliminating family and friends as suspects they focused on ex-cons who were registered as sexual offenders throughout Sonoma County
16:08gradually they branched out to surrounding counties carefully questioning and investigating each registrant
16:15but nothing turned up this is a hard case to believe that even happened there's three girls are they're in a slumber party
16:22they're playing games in their bedroom in their home in a typical community in a typical city
16:32and somebody can walk into your home the sanctity of the home the security of your home and take your daughter
16:45is if it wasn't impossible was inconceivable
16:53the following day the search for poly class had escalated into the largest manhunt in the nation
17:00a massive community volunteer network was formed to assist authorities
17:06while hundreds of citizens searched others passed out flyers trying to cover the entire city as quickly as possible
17:13back at the FBI's trace evidence lab in Washington D.C.
17:24forensic expert Chris Allen was carefully surveying the items collected from poly's house
17:30I noticed that in untying the pieces of bindings of the thin nylon strips of bindings that were used to tie up poly's girlfriends
17:42that they had jagged edges to them and I was able to line them up perfectly
17:47so that I was able to determine that these all came from one piece of cloth originally
17:52and it was a piece of cloth like a ladies nightgown or a slip material
17:59other pieces of evidence found in poly's room were not so easy to classify
18:06tiny fibers collected with the electrostatic dust print machine proved to be a challenge to identify
18:11After painstaking examination and comparison Alan concluded that they had come from the interior carpet of an automobile
18:21Eliminating the cars that could be accounted for at poly's house Alan suspected that these carpet fibers were most likely from the kidnappers car
18:30One more item Alan found was a little more personal to the suspect
18:42I found in the vacuuming of the area rug that was in poly's bedroom that she was playing on with her girlfriends
18:48a dark brown forcibly removed head hair and I say forcibly removed because it had a three or four millimeter root sheet on it
18:58actually skin material that comes out of the scalp when the hair is forcefully pulled or yanked out
19:04If poly had pulled a hair out of the suspects head it was evident that she didn't go without a struggle
19:11But even a hair with DNA evidence couldn't bring investigators any closer to finding a suspect
19:16The palm print lifted from the bedpost was sent to Michael J. Smith, a fingerprint specialist with the FBI
19:28Examining the print under laser light, Smith determined that the print had enough ridge detail to photograph
19:35But the light emitted from the laser turned the print orange and Smith needed to capture a black print on a white background
19:48He instructed the photographer to reverse the color so that the finished print would appear the way it would on a fingerprint card
19:54Now the print was indelible and could be filed until a suspect was apprehended
20:01Investigators had unearthed some solid evidence, but it wasn't enough
20:07Time was running out and poly class was still out there somewhere
20:1748 hours after the abduction of poly class her father mark got a call
20:23Polly?
20:24It sounded like Polly
20:25It's okay honey
20:26She told her father that she was in a hotel room somewhere and that her abductor had stepped out for a moment
20:31Tell me where you are
20:33Polly! Polly!
20:34Then the line went dead
20:37It offered the first glimmer of hope
20:40But unfortunately since Mark's line wasn't set up for a trace
20:43Detective Fryer please
20:44All authorities could do was wait for another call
20:46Word of the abduction spread rapidly
20:55In two days fifty thousand flyers had been distributed
21:00Community volunteers quickly organized a search command center to work in tandem with the police and FBI
21:06It was an unprecedented grassroots effort
21:13A telephone bank was manned 24 hours a day to field calls and tips
21:21A copy of every lead that was phoned in was shared with the FBI and Petaluma police
21:27Before long the search center had screened sixty thousand calls
21:37Out of those authorities were compelled to follow up on over twelve thousand leads
21:42Processing that amount of data would have been virtually impossible without help from an FBI computer processor
21:48The FBI just happened to have the rapid start team
21:55It was a relatively new concept with the FBI where on a high
22:00An investigation with a high volume of information
22:03We would computerize that information
22:05And essentially triage the value of the investigative leads
22:10And make the assignments and track the progress
22:13Even with so many leads there was one in particular that investigators were anxious to follow up on
22:23When Mark Klass received the first call
22:26The FBI was powerless to do anything about it
22:39The second time she called they were ready
22:41They were ready
22:44Like the previous call it sounded like Polly
22:47How are you honey?
22:48And she could only talk for a short time before she had to hang up
22:51Where are you?
22:53But it was long enough for authorities to make a trace
22:56Polly, go!
22:57Go!
23:09The FBI had traced the call to a house thirty miles away
23:13There hadn't been enough time to collect an army of agents
23:17The job would have to be handled by a few
23:19Stay there! Stay there! Don't move!
23:36Don't move!
23:38FBI! FBI!
23:40But something wasn't right
23:42This was just a normal family home
23:45There was no sign of Polly or her abductor
23:49Don't move!
23:51What's going on?
23:53A terrible realization dawned on the agents
23:57When they sat down with one of the girls in the house
24:00She confessed to making the calls
24:01She admitted that friends from school had dared her to call and impersonate Polly
24:08The entire incident had been a cruel joke
24:18This was the only indication we had after a week's time
24:22That Polly just might be alive still
24:25And we all were poised and hopeful that this would yield a solution
24:29And her safe recovery
24:31Of course it didn't
24:33In mid-October, Kate and Jillian were brought in to give another description of the man who tied them up
24:39A highly acclaimed forensic artist was flown in to make a second sketch
24:44The artist was known for relaxing witnesses enough to coax an accurate description from them
24:56The girls were less stressed than they had been that night
25:01And were able to give her more to work with
25:04The second sketch was much more precise
25:08This sketch looked like a person
25:10New flyers were distributed immediately
25:18There was no time to waste
25:21But if you look back at true stranger abductions
25:25We have this rule of thirds
25:27The children were abducted
25:29Typically one third are recovered alive
25:32One third are recovered dead
25:34And one third is simply never heard from ever again
25:37That's what we faced in this particular investigation
25:40And that I think was one of our motivations to keep the sustained effort up
25:49After a reward had been offered for Polly's return
25:52Authorities received a call demanding a $10,000 ransom
25:59They traced the call to a Petaluma apartment building
26:02This time a SWAT team showed up in force
26:04They were not going to take any chances
26:15Alright, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down
26:17Come on, come on, come on
26:18Once again, authorities and the family had been fooled.
26:23Don't move. Do not move.
26:2720-year-old James Heard was arrested for attempted extortion and posing as a kidnapper.
26:34It was a crushing blow for everyone.
26:37It became very frustrating.
26:39It was certainly distracting towards the main thrust of the investigation,
26:44but you had to deal with it.
26:45There was no way around it. You could not ignore those things.
26:48And it certainly chewed up a lot of time and resource.
26:53The family had been especially discouraged.
26:56A letter Polly's parents wrote to the kidnapper was published in the October 17th San Francisco Examiner.
27:03Whoever you are, wherever you are, please return Polly to her family.
27:08She belongs here.
27:10We miss Polly so much.
27:11We miss the twinkle in her eye and her sweet humor.
27:14We long to see her beautiful smile and hear her musical voice.
27:18They also addressed Polly.
27:22Our darling, if you can read this, please know that your mommy and daddy love you so much,
27:27and we will continue to search for you until we can hold you safely in our loving arms again.
27:31I don't think I ever lost hope.
27:35I had numerous contacts with Mark Klaas, with Eve, with members of the family,
27:44and that was a question posed to me many times.
27:48And my response was, no, we have not lost hope.
27:55We will not lose hope.
27:57Across the country, people wanted to see Polly brought home.
28:03Banners sprang up.
28:04And Americans began a candlelight vigil.
28:11Thousands donned ribbons of lavender, Polly's favorite color, to show their support of the search.
28:16We conducted searches during the day, during the night.
28:22We had a 24-hour operation going.
28:24We conducted searches sunny days, on foggy days, rainy days, rainy nights.
28:30Whenever the information came in, we reacted to that,
28:33because in a case like this, physical evidence is crucial.
28:36The search never stopped.
28:41The Navy and search and rescue experts joined the thousands of volunteers who were constantly looking.
28:50Police and volunteer task forces worked tirelessly.
28:55But it would be nearly two months before anything broke.
29:06November 28, 1993.
29:10It was two months after Polly Class was kidnapped that authorities got their first real lead.
29:18In Sonoma County, a sheriff's deputy was called out to the house of Dana Jaffe.
29:23It sat at the end of a long, winding drive off Pythian Road.
29:27Dana had been out inspecting her property when she noticed something unusual
29:37and thought it might be of use to investigators.
29:44She led the deputy through a densely wooded area to a clearing
29:47just a few yards from the long, winding drive to her house.
29:50Scattered in the woods were a few items that seemed somewhat suspicious.
30:04There was a large piece of silk cloth that had been fashioned into what appeared to be a hood.
30:10A couple of strips of packing tape were on the ground.
30:12A pair of young girls' tights had been tied into a knot,
30:22and human hair was entangled in the knot.
30:27Other debris surrounded the area.
30:34Then Dana recalled the night she'd caught a trespasser on her property
30:37not far from where they stood.
30:40It was nearly two months before.
30:42It all started when Dana's babysitter, Shannon Lynch,
30:48had left Dana's house and was making her way back down the long driveway.
30:52A man was walking down the middle of the private drive.
30:56His stranded pinto was off to the side.
30:59He said that he was stuck and insisted that she get out of her car and help.
31:06He also wanted to know what was up the drive.
31:09But Shannon immediately sensed something wasn't right.
31:12She'd later describe him as looking like a wild man.
31:21She drove on, leaving him there, determined to get to her phone.
31:29Shannon found a payphone about two miles down the road and hurried to call her friend.
31:34She was anxious to get a hold of Dana and warn her of the scary man trespassing on her land.
31:44Dana didn't waste any time.
31:46She grabbed her daughter and a baseball bat and took off down the hill.
31:50She saw the car, like Shannon had said, but the strange man was nowhere in sight.
32:00She continued down into town and called the police.
32:03A few minutes after midnight, two Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies showed up.
32:15Dana explained that she didn't really want the intruder arrested for trespassing.
32:19She just wanted him off her property.
32:21The deputies found the trespasser, a little agitated.
32:26There was alcohol on his breath and he was sweating profusely.
32:29There were bits of leaves and brush in his hair as if he'd been rolling around on the ground.
32:37He told him that he'd been out sightseeing when he realized that he was on private property.
32:42When he tried to turn around, he got his car stuck on the side of the drive.
32:48He blurted out that he'd been under the car trying to free it, but the deputies didn't believe it.
32:52The way his car was trapped, there wasn't enough room for a person to get underneath.
33:01The deputies administered some roadside sobriety tests, but he passed them all.
33:10Looking in his car, they found some cans of beer in a plastic bag and a small duffel bag in the back seat.
33:15When they asked him if he'd been drinking, he actually opened a beer and began to drink it.
33:28They immediately made him pour it out and then told him they wanted to pat him down.
33:33He became extremely upset.
33:35To make him comply, the deputies told him they would be within their rights to run him in on trespassing.
33:45After he'd heard this, he calmed down considerably.
33:50They searched him carefully and continued questioning him, but could find nothing incriminating.
33:56He was just odd.
33:58The deputies remained suspicious, but when they ran his license, it checked out.
34:02His driving record was clean, and he had passed the sobriety tests.
34:08They had held him for about 45 minutes already, and they had no legal means to detain him any further.
34:17There was nothing left to do but pull his car out and send him on his way.
34:21That had been two months ago, the same night that Polly Class had been abducted.
34:36A hood, bindings, a young girl's pair of tights.
34:39It was too much of a coincidence.
34:43Putting it all together, the deputy quickly put a call in to the Petaluma Police Department.
34:47Within an hour, Detective Mike Meese and Agent Ed Fryer arrived to check it out.
34:56I'll never forget the scene.
34:57It was late at night then.
35:00By this time, Mike Meese and I are standing up on the hillside there on Pythia and on the road.
35:05It was beginning to get a little misty and foggy, and the rain started to come down.
35:12And we looked at each other, and we knew.
35:17We knew in our hearts that we had basically uncovered a very critical crime scene,
35:23that this was going to lead us to the resolution of this case.
35:27After the evidence was collected, investigators immediately began searching the Pythian Road
35:35site for any signs of Polly.
35:41We spent days searching the mountain with over 300 volunteers.
35:47I believe we had 25 to 30 search dogs, and we conducted extensive ground searches for Polly.
35:56Believing that she was still alive, which was the premise that we were working on.
36:04As the search commenced, everything began to snowball.
36:08Authorities checked with the Sonoma County Police to get the full report of the incident
36:12that happened on Dana Jaffe's property.
36:15The man deputies had questioned was Richard Allen Davis.
36:20Accessing his criminal record revealed he had recently been paroled from an eight-year sentence for kidnapping.
36:26What we learned about Davis initially was, in 1976, he had been arrested for robbery and kidnapping
36:33and assault with intent to commit rape.
36:37We learned in 1978 he had been arrested for another kidnapping,
36:41as well as a couple of counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
36:45In 1984, he'd been arrested for a kidnapping case,
36:50assault with a deadly weapon, including the use of a firearm and armed robbery.
36:54You start reading these reports and realize, you know, hey, this guy's a bad actor.
36:58This is an individual certainly more than capable of being involved in a crime like this.
37:06The arrest photo and file matched the girl's description.
37:10His mother lived in Petaluma, giving him reason to have been there.
37:13The pieces were falling into place.
37:22The items discovered near Pythian Road were immediately flown to forensic specialist Chris Allen in Washington.
37:29Of the most interest was a strip of cloth that was found in the woods.
37:33Alan was quickly able to confirm what detectives had suspected.
37:41Essentially, what we're trying to do is establish whether or not the cut edges would line up or match.
37:47The middle strips represent the fabric that was found at Polly's bedroom,
37:51which were used to bind Polly's girlfriends.
37:53Subsequently, on the second submission, we received the cloth that was found at the Pythian Road site.
37:59These all fit together like a puzzle, with the edges and the pieces of fabric matching up end-to-end.
38:06The strips meant more than likely Polly Class had been out at Dana Jaffe's after her abduction.
38:16Without a doubt, Richard Allen Davis had been there, too.
38:22Though it wasn't enough to arrest Davis for kidnapping,
38:25detectives felt if they could just get him in custody,
38:28they could quickly gather the evidence they needed to tie him to Polly's disappearance.
38:33Everything else fell away.
38:36And we focused on what we had with Mr. Davis, what happened out there at Pythian Road,
38:41and what we were going to do next.
38:48When investigators discovered Davis had an outstanding warrant for breaking parole and DUI,
38:54they decided to bring him in.
38:57But he wasn't at home when they arrived.
38:59Then a deputy sheriff, who was securing a perimeter around the area, stopped a van.
39:10At the wheel was Richard Allen Davis.
39:13When the deputy realized who he had, he calmly called it in to the investigators back at the house.
39:26Authorities reported to the scene, and Detective Meese approached the van and asked Davis to step out.
39:47He informed him that he was under arrest for violation of his parole.
39:56I'm Detective Meese.
39:58I'm arresting you for violation of parole.
39:59One thing I think it's important to understand how Richard Allen Davis was taken into custody,
40:03because it was such a low-key event, and because Mike Meese went ahead and handcuffed him,
40:08he did it in a very professional way, and he started a rapport going with Richard Allen Davis
40:13that later was very useful in bringing resolution to the case.
40:18It had been two months since Kate and Jillian had seen the man who took poly class,
40:25but they had no trouble picking him out of a lineup.
40:29Number one, step forward, please.
40:37Even without the beard, his was a face they could never forget.
40:41Number one, step back, please.
40:43Though he'd been arrested for parole violation, Davis was questioned about the kidnapping.
40:49He vehemently denied any involvement,
40:52but authorities let Davis know that if he wanted to talk, the door was open.
41:00So I took Davis into the hallway, and I told him, I said,
41:03Hey, look, what you need to know is we've got all the physical evidence it takes to make this case,
41:07and all you're looking at is a kidnapping right now,
41:09so if you want to talk about it, you've got to let me know.
41:13And he made a noncommittal response.
41:16Didn't want to talk, and I remember patting my pockets looking for a business card.
41:21Didn't have a business card with me, and I said,
41:23You know, I'm going to leave my name and number with those guys,
41:26meaning the correctional deputies, and if you ever want to talk about it,
41:29you know, give me a call.
41:30Back at the FBI latent fingerprint lab,
41:36Mike Smith was comparing the palm print found in Polly's bedroom
41:39with one that had been taken from Davis since his arrest.
41:45This was a crucial piece of evidence.
41:48Matching the two prints would undoubtedly link Davis to the abduction.
41:51After careful examination, the results were called in to Agent Fryer.
42:00I just got a call from FBI laboratory.
42:04They matched Davis' palm print to a palm print taken off of Polly's bedroom,
42:11or her bed post.
42:12It was, again, one of those moments where there were butterflies in my stomach.
42:21I, again, realized that this was really very powerful evidence.
42:25So I hung up the phone, and, again, there was a lot of noise and commotion in the command post.
42:29I stood up, and I asked everybody,
42:31Can I have your attention, please?
42:32Can I have quiet for a moment?
42:33I said,
42:36We just got confirmation from our laboratory
42:39that we've matched this palm print taken from the bedroom to Davis.
42:43We can place them in the bedroom.
42:45And it was just a huge cheer from everybody.
42:48Papers were flying.
42:50It was just great news to everybody.
42:52This is it.
42:53It's concrete.
42:54He was in her bedroom.
42:55We can prove it.
42:57We had him nailed down.
43:03Though news of the matching print had gone public,
43:08Davis was being held in isolation and had not heard anything about it.
43:13Then one day, a friend of his showed up for a visit.
43:18He urged Davis to talk to authorities and tell them where Polly was.
43:23But Davis continued to deny responsibility.
43:29Then his friend gave him the news the rest of the nation had already heard.
43:33It came as a complete surprise.
43:37Davis realized it was going to be impossible
43:39to explain how his palm print got in Polly's bedroom.
43:45There was only one thing he could do.
43:49In Davis' mind,
43:51he's now got to do something.
43:54And that is try to make whatever deal he can make with the authorities
43:59because we know that he was in Polly's bedroom.
44:05We can put him there.
44:07While on his way to the massive search for Polly near Pythian Road,
44:11Detective Meese was paged to call the jail.
44:13This was the moment everyone had been waiting for.
44:18And Meese was anxious about what he might find out.
44:23After this wait, you know, Davis comes on the phone
44:25and I recognize the voice.
44:28So I know it's him.
44:29And I said,
44:30he says to me,
44:31he says,
44:31hey, I screwed up.
44:32I screwed up big time.
44:37Detective Meese and Special Agent Larry Taylor
44:39met with Davis in the interrogation room
44:41where Davis related the details of the night of October 1st.
44:45Though he was living in something like a halfway house,
44:52he had applied for an overnight pass
44:54to go visit his mother in Petaluma.
44:57Unable to find her house,
44:59he had a few beers
45:00and walked the streets of Polly's neighborhood.
45:04At one point,
45:05he was stopped by a man
45:06who wanted to sell him some marijuana.
45:08He decided to go ahead and buy the joint.
45:12In Davis' own words,
45:14he got really buzzed.
45:15And went to the store for more beer.
45:18He soon found himself
45:19wandering the neighborhood aimlessly.
45:23He wasn't sure where he was
45:24or what he was doing.
45:28But Davis had come to the neighborhood prepared.
45:33He'd brought a bag
45:34packed with bindings and tape.
45:37Forensic experts were able to determine
45:39that he had cut the strips
45:40with a pair of scissors,
45:42a fact which implies intent.
45:45Then Davis said he randomly picked a house on the street
45:51and crawled into an open window.
45:56He remembered hearing TV voices
45:58and said he may have picked up a knife from the kitchen.
46:02He said he didn't remember anything after that.
46:04He claimed the next thing he knew
46:08he was driving in his car
46:10and was surprised to find a young girl
46:11sitting next to him.
46:15She was complaining that her hands were tingling.
46:18According to Davis,
46:19he adjusted the straps for her
46:20and drove around wondering what he had done
46:22and what he should do next.
46:23Then he drove off the side of the road
46:31and got the car stuck.
46:32Once he realized he was stuck for good,
46:53he says he got Polly out of the car
46:55and carried her up a steep embankment
46:57about 30 yards away.
46:58He planned to leave her in the darkness
47:05until he could figure out a way to free the car.
47:08The rest of Davis' story
47:26about what happened at Pythian Road
47:28matched the witnesses' accounts.
47:32At the time of the incident,
47:34the bulletin about Polly's abduction
47:35was just going out over police radios.
47:38But the deputies were tuned
47:41to a different frequency
47:42and would not have heard it
47:43even if they had been in their cars.
47:46They ran his license,
47:48but the equipment they had at that time
47:49was only able to give a cursory printout
47:51of Davis' driving record.
47:53It couldn't generate his criminal record.
47:57They found nothing they could hold him on.
47:59Davis recalled how the deputies pulled his car out
48:06and escorted him to the main highway.
48:08But he claims that he waited for 15 or 30 minutes
48:12and returned to the site to find Polly.
48:14Then he just drove around.
48:22At some point,
48:23he realized he had to get rid of her.
48:29At long last,
48:30authorities had found out
48:31what they'd been desperate to know.
48:34Polly Class was dead
48:35and Richard Allen Davis
48:37was the man responsible.
48:44Davis agreed to take them to the site
48:45in a deserted area of Cloverdale
48:47where he had left the body.
48:50It was night,
48:51but inspectors felt the need
48:53to confirm Davis' story
48:54couldn't wait until daybreak.
48:56He led them to a field
49:01near an abandoned lumber mill.
49:07Out in the field,
49:08under some boards,
49:09investigators found the body
49:10of Polly Class.
49:18It was an odd feeling.
49:23You're in the presence of
49:25somebody like Davis
49:26and just a few yards away
49:28is what's left of a very beautiful,
49:31innocent 12-year-old.
49:33The Polly Class case was special
49:35because people cared.
49:37Because the whole community
49:39stepped forward and said,
49:41this is the last child
49:42you're going to take.
49:44And that this is our child
49:45and that we are going to go out
49:48and look for her
49:48until we find her.
49:53The case wouldn't come to truth.
49:55Polly was already dead
49:56at the time deputies
49:58helped him with his death.
49:59The case wouldn't come to truth.
50:00But after 10 weeks
50:01in the courtroom,
50:02a jury found Davis guilty
50:03on 10 counts,
50:05including kidnapping,
50:06robbery, burglary,
50:08murder,
50:09and attempting
50:09to commit a lewd act
50:11on a child.
50:13The latter charge
50:14Davis continued to deny
50:15during the entire trial.
50:18Investigators strongly believe
50:19that despite Davis' testimony,
50:22Polly was already dead
50:23at the time deputies
50:24helped him with his car.
50:26He was sentenced to death
50:27and continues to sit
50:29on death row
50:30at San Quentin Prison.
50:37Polly Class left behind
50:38a legacy to save other lives.
50:40The way missing persons cases
50:43are handled
50:43has changed forever
50:44since the investigation.
50:47Law enforcement databases
50:49are linked
50:50to different agencies
50:51providing vital information
50:52to multiple jurisdictions.
50:55Missing persons bulletins
50:57are now sent out
50:58over all police channels.
51:00At routine pullovers
51:01and traffic stops,
51:03officers can access
51:04not only driving histories,
51:05but criminal records as well.
51:07implementation of the
51:10three-strikes-you're-out
51:11legislation
51:11was a direct result
51:12of the case,
51:13as was the push
51:16to expedite the appeals process
51:17in murder cases.
51:22And a foundation
51:24established in Polly's name
51:25aids the search
51:26for missing children.
51:27Involvement of the FBI
51:35was critical
51:37to bringing resolution
51:39to this case.
51:40Had they not come in
51:41and gotten involved
51:42early on,
51:43it's doubtful
51:44we would ever have
51:45had resolution
51:45or certainly
51:46that it would have been
51:47as quickly as it was,
51:48even though it seemed
51:49like a long time.
51:51The unique partnership
51:52that was formed
51:53between local police
51:54and the FBI
51:55set a precedent
51:56that continues
51:57to this day.
52:26is thank you.
52:40You're welcome.
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