Carlton Smith - Shadows of Evil: Long-haul Trucker Wayne Adam Ford and His Grisly Trail of Rape, Dismemberment, and Murder

A T APPROXIMATELY 6:30 P.M. THE FOLLOWING EVENING, Wayne Adam Ford, accompanied by his brother Rod, entered the lobby of the Humboldt County Sheriffs Department in Eureka, California. After spending much of the day with his older brother, Ford had decided to turn himself in, an act that his brother had encouraged all day. He identified himself by his middle nameAdamas he had apparently been calling himself for some time.

Exactly what happened next wasnt made clear later, at least in the voluminous court documents that the life and times of Wayne Adam Ford would eventually spawn. For some reason, the Humboldt sheriffs deputies put their hands in Fords jacket pockets, probably to search him. It was at that point that a deputy retrieved a small sealed plastic bag. Inside the bag was a piece of yellowish human flesh....

St. Martins True Crime Library Titles
by Carlton Smith

Reckless

Death of a Doctor

Shadows of Evil

Hunting Evil

Bitter Medicine

Murder at Yosemite

Death in Texas

Dying for Daddy

Death of a Little Princess

Seeds of Evil

Vanished

CARLTON SMITH

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

FOR LIEUTENANT DAN NOLAN

KING COUNTY POLICE

1941-1996

THANKS FOR YOUR WISDOM AND YOUR FRIENDSHIP

SHADOWS OF EVIL

Copyright 2001 by Carlton Smith.

Cover photograph courtesy of the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

ISBN: 0-312-97887-1
EAN: 9780312-97887-7

Printed in the United States of America

St. Martins Paperbacks edition / June 2001

St. Martins Paperbacks are published by St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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The author wishes to thank the many people who helped make this book possible. In Eureka, California, the efforts of Kevin Robinson, of the Humboldt County Office of Conflict Counsel, and Rhonda Parker of the Humboldt Times-Standard newspaper, were instrumental in helping the author to assemble the facts necessary to understand the first critical days of the Ford investigation, as was Marco Ibarra at the Ocean Grove Lodge in Trinidad. Also helpful was Arcata resident Dan Ames, who provided valuable perspective on his former neighbor, Wayne Adam Ford. Humboldt County Sheriffs Detective Juan Freeman, while limited in what he could say by a court order, was nevertheless helpful in describing the environment in which some of the events described in this narrative transpired.

In Sonoma County, thanks are due to Deputy County Counsel Byron K., Toma, who intervened to obtain the release of important information from the Sonoma County Sheriffs Department, and to then Lieutenant, now Captain, Mike Brown of that department. Thanks are also due to Art Holquin of Santa Maria, California, who not only rescued a victim of violence one night in 1998, but also later found the time and courtesy to share his recollection of the events.

In the Central Valley of California, employees of the San Joaquin County Coroners Office and the Kern County Coroners Office were especially helpful and supportive, as were Sgt. John Huber of the San Joaquin Sheriffs Department, and Glenn Johnson of the Kern County Sheriffs Department.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Tirso Dominguez was of great assistance in tracking down records related to the last, sad days of Tina Renee Gibbs. Special thanks are also owed to several others in Las Vegas, who, for various reasons, have asked that their names not be used, but who greatly assisted in helping to reconstruct Tinas life and times before her death.

In San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, the support of Riverside Press-Enterprise Publisher Marcia McQuern in the lengthy battle over court documents was greatly appreciated, as were the efforts of Press-Enterprise reporter Tim Grenda in helping me keep track of the various court proceedings involving Wayne Adam Ford.

Thanks are also due to Melonee Vartanian of the San Bernardino County Superior Court administrators office, who played a vital and difficult role in tracking down important legal documents pertaining to the victims, even as others insisted that the documents did not exist.

In Orange County, the firemen of Orange County Fire Department Station 29, on Culver Road in Irvine, California, provided invaluable assistance in tracking down at least some of the details of the traffic accident that was to play such an important role in Wayne Adam Fords life. I also wish to thank the employees of what was formerly the B & M Towing Company of San Clemente, California, who provided their own perspectives on their former co-worker.

The author owes a great debt of gratitude to Wayne Adam Fords first wife, identified in this book by the pseudonym Leigh, who shared her recollections of life with the young Wayne Ford, and of the events that had at least some sort of significance in what was to come later; without Leighs freely shared memories, much about her former husbands mentality would forever remain a mystery.

I would also like to thank Deputy Public Defender Joseph Canty of the San Bernardino County Public Defenders Office, who, while adhering scrupulously to ethical guidelines, was nevertheless helpful in enabling me to understand a number of the procedural issues in the Ford case, as well as his counterpart, Deputy District Attorney David Whitney, for the same. State Department of Justice investigative profiler Sharon Pagaling Hagan was also helpful in describing some of the parameters of her work. Los Angeles Times reporter James Rainey was kind enough to share some of the circumstances surrounding his interview with Ford in October of 1999.

In addition, I wish to thank the Honorable Michael A. Smith of the Superior Court, County of San Bernardino, Department 19, who patiently put up with my seemingly innumerable motions and often whiny correspondence, and never laughed at my seat-of-the-pants efforts to gain public access to documents he had long previously believed to be outside the public domain; and who nevertheless ruled conscientiously and fairly throughout the long battle over the Ford files. Without Judge Smiths essential fairness, this book would not have been possible.

Special thanks are likewise due to court reporter Terry Wolfe, who under difficult circumstances provided timely and accurate transcripts of the proceedings against Wayne Adam Ford. Her good humor and friendship throughout the summer of 2000, as the struggle over the Ford files unfolded, is greatly appreciated.

Finally, but not least, I would like to express special gratitude to Evi Roberson, clerk of Department 19, for her invaluable, indeed irreplaceable assistance; always patient, and ever friendly, Evi Roberson is one of the unsung heroes of the justice system; on her unflagging efforts to keep things organized and moving, and on the efforts of others like her, the progress of justice truly rests.