now it was may, 2008, nearly two years after debbie s disappearance. her body still hadn t been found and there was no new evidence tying dave to her murder. but prosecutor larry crouch heard disquieting reports from his investigators. they started surveilling our office, the police offices, eventually starts driving by an investigator s home. it was getting pretty concerning out there. time to move. on may 29, 2008, dave hawk was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and a special circumstance murder for financial gain. he pleaded not guilty. when the trial finally began more than a year later dave faced murder and the earlier embezzlement charges together. prosecutor larry crouch offered the jury this theory, that dave snuck out of his house in the middle of the night without waking his sleeping children, maybe even used a ladder to get
the house. but they did not. no debbie hawk, not anywhere. there were some drag marks, some kind of smear marks leading out to the garage where they stopped. and debbie s van was gone, too. my initial reaction was, oh, my god. what has happened. who could have done this? sure. the girls ran to a neighbor s house. conrad called 911. we went in my mom s room, the bathroom and there s blood on the carpet. after the initial shock i start to be reasonable and think, let s not overreact here. clearly she cut her hand with a knife or something and she was bleeding and she raced out to the car to go to the emergency room. this is all just a big misunderstanding. but it wasn t. there were plenty of misunderstandings to come and dwhaes questions that stubbornly refused to be answered like,
she was just to me, she was perfect. she was the perfect daughter. and i dearly love her and miss her. there s a lot of lives that have been shattered because of her demise. demise, yes. no getting around it now. in july of 2006 the case was reclassified from missing person to homicide. a formality, really. they knew from the moment they arrived at the house, said d.a. investigator aaron lebleu, somebody killed debbie. we kept up hopes obviously for the family s sake, but it was clear that she was not alive based on the crime scene. investigators poked around debbie s life history looking for clues. she was very talkative, friendly, likable. she was kind of the life of the the party. this is debbie s sister, diane, who recalled how friends
has it arrived even now? someone seemed to hold a grudge against debbie hawk, but who and why? coming up things like she needs a taste of her own medicine. she s going to get her s. she s going to get coming to her. when dateline continues. protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years.
in a way. yeah. kind of a tough role for a kid to play? it was easier to be the mediator than have them yelling at each other on the phone. living apart, said conrad. my mom was happier than ever. i think all of our lives improved. debbie did well enough she was able to buy her own home. she could finally start living her life the way she wanted to. except there were issues. once after they separated during the squabbles of divorce, she claimed he tried to choke her. she said he just looked like a crazed animal and i thought he was going to kill me. and not too long after that she had said to me, you know, if anything ever happens to me you know where to look. dave said that choking thing just never happened. that he was never violent with her. i ve never choked anybody. things settled down