Don W. Weber - Silent Witness: The Karla Brown Murder Case

Don W. Weber
and
Charles Bosworth, Jr.

Copyright 2016 by Don W. Weber and Charles Bosworth, Jr.
Cover Design by Vixer Ching. Photography Valentina75 | Dreamstime.com
All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the authors.
Published by Crime Rant Books

This is a factual account of a brutal murder and the long investigation that followed, accurately and painstakingly recounted using the official transcripts, records, and documents, and the carefully reported memories of the people who knew the case inside and out. All of the events are true; a few names have been changed to spare anyone embarrassment. Pseudonyms used are David Hart, Dwayne Conway, Patty Conway, Jack Meyers, Tony Garza, Lee Barns, Annie Tweed, Carolyn Thompson, Susan Andrews, Meg Haller, and Bobby Knoll.

The authors wish to thank everyone who shared their time and memories so freely in detailed interviews.

We owe special recognition and gratitude to Special Agent John Douglas of the FBI, whose amazing abilities were so critical to the case and to the writing of this book.

The authors also wish to express their continuing gratitude to the agents of the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Illinois State Policeespecially Captain Randy Rushing, Captain Larry Trent, and Lieutenant Wayne Watson, and Crime Scene Technician Alva W. Busch. Special thanks go to Major Tom OConnor of the Maryland Heights, Missouri, Police Department; Sergeant Eldon McEuen (Ret.), Commander Ralph Skinner, Detective Rick White, Chief Chuck Nunn, and former crime scene analyst Bill Redfern of the Wood River Police Department; Chief Don Greer of the Crestwood, Missouri, Police Department; and citizen-hero Spencer Bond.

Dr. Mary Case of the St. Louis County Medical Examiners Office again has earned our thanks for her expertise.

Our editor, Michaela Hamilton, and her staff at Penguin USA once again have given us invaluable guidance and excellent advice on making our work the best it can be. We also wish to thank them for the constant encouragement needed to get through to the end.

And, finally, the authors acknowledge their indebtedness and appreciation to the relatives of Karla Brown for their courage and assistanceand gracein the preparation of this book: Jo Ellen Brown, Donna and Terry Judson, and Connie and Ralph Dykstra.

The young prosecutor could feel a deathly chill in the air as he walked through the house. It had been a week since the vicious crime there, and the heat of those acts was gone now. Left behind, amid the brutally interrupted clutter of what had been a happy timea special and loving timewere only the thoughts of the horror that visited this small home and claimed the life of the beautiful young woman who had lived there so briefly.

In the five years that Don W. Weber had been in the Madison County states attorneys office in southern Illinois, he had learned that a visit to the crime scene was mandatory for anyone who really wanted to understand what had happened there. It was especially important for the prosecutor who would have to understand so well that he could convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

But there was another reason to visit the scene. Weber had discovered that some investigators could detectthrough what he believed was a sixth sensewhether the heat from the spirit of the crime remained behind. It was difficult to describe to others that sensation, that electricity that moved along your skin; only someone with the passion for delving into such frightening mysteries would understand. But for those who could feel it, it provided a special spark that powered their efforts to find out who had committed the terrible deeds.

There was no such heat there that day in 1978 for Don Weber. As he walked through the little rooms and then ventured into the basement, he felt only a shudder; that was not a good omen. To Don Weber, it meant almost literally that the trail of this killer was as cold as the bite in the air. And in this place, Weber thought, that shiver felt like the devils cold breath.

The prosecutors instincts would prove to be right; this would be a tough case, indeed. But he already was drawn irresistibly to it, and would not be able to rest until it was solved. That was a vow others involved in the case would make, too. But it was one that would seem for years to have been made in vain.

The police already were laboring with a slow, plodding search that would take them up blind alleys and down dead ends. Could the monster who violated. this former cheerleader in broad daylight elude the best efforts of Don Weber and some of the craftiest detectives Illinois had to offer?

As the investigation lurched on, Weber would find himself going to any length, applying new investigative techniques and forensic technologies he hadnt even known existed. He would probe deeply into the minds of experts from coast to coast, and learn about the criminal psyche in dark and frightening ways he never dreamed. Fate would deliver Weber and the police to Special Agent John Douglas of the FBI, well before his reputation and amazing abilities became the stuff of new legends and celebrity. He was in the earliest stages of developing a tactic called psychological profiling that would become an extraordinary method of analyzing violent crime and violent criminals. Armed with only the most basic facts about the crime and the victim, John Douglas would rattle off a detailed description of the killer, a verbal composite so revealing that the cops shuddered. Douglas even understood the rage that led to the apocalypse in that basement that morning. And, even more chilling, he gave the cops a bold plan he believed would draw the killer irresistibly into the open.

Such extreme measures carried risks, of course, especially for the prosecutor who would have to put them into action at the peril of his own reputation and political career. And, even if they worked, Don Weber still would have to face a jury with a startling array of evidence and witnesses to try to prove an unimaginable story of criminal behavior and depravity.

For reasons even the young prosecutor didnt fully understand, he had vowed he would not rest until the pretty girl in the grave could rest in peace. If he had to drag crime fighting in Madison County into the twentieth century, or even propel it into the twenty-first, so be it.

More Questions Than Answers

Tuesday June 20, 1978

The little house was unremarkable by most standardsone story and covered by plain, white siding. The two huge trees in front almost dwarfed the small structure, providing ample shade for the yard on the quiet street in Wood River, Illinois. The lot was narrow and the neighboring houses seemed so closeespecially the tiny place on the right, just across the sidewalk that led to the backyard.

But the house at 979 Acton Avenue was a dream home for David Hart and Karla Browna symbol of Davids promise that, finally, they would get married. Davids reluctance to take that final step, despite living with Karla in an apartment in nearby East Alton, had caused much of the friction during the five years of their on-again, off-again relationship. She was sure he loved her, but he had been unwilling or unable to give up the nights out with the boys and, Karla suspected, the use of his little black book. But now, he promised, they would get married after they settled into the new place they were buying.

David and Karla made a great couple, everyone agreed. At twenty-two, Karla Lou Brown was a blond beauty with a knock out figure, heavily endowed on top for a girl only four feet ten and maybe 100 pounds. She never failed to tum mens heads, and the former cheerleader loved being the center of attention. She had enjoyed more than her share of boyfriends, after all, and often seemed a little too flirty. Other girls sometimes had problems dealing with that, especially because of the way men reacted to Karla. But her friends realized that the sexy, freeandeasy image Karla cultivated was not the real Karla they knew.