limbo. now may, 2008. two years after debbie s disappearance. her body hadn t been found. no new evidence tieing dave to her murder. prosecutor larry crouch heard disquiting reports from his investigators. they start surveilling our office. police offices. eventually starts driving by investigators 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 circumstances. 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 smunuck out of his hoe in the middle of the night without waking sleeping children.
willing to admit early on. even at that age, i could definitely see, the water was about to boil over. the wizards were nine, eight and four when the divorce was finalize instead 2000. the young children liearned how to navigate the choppy waters known all too well by children of divorce. couldn t talk to each other, really. i tried to step in and help resolve that. you were kind of the mediator in a way. you know. tough role for a kid to play, isn t it. it was easier to be the mediator than to have them yelling at each other on the phone. and living apart, said conrad. my mom was happier than ever. i think all of our lives improved. debbie did well enough as a pharmaceutical representative. 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 over divorce, she
maybe used a ladder to get out of the window. got someone to give him a ride to debbie s house. tried the stun gun on her and she screamed very loudly and he struck her with something. more than once. at that point i assume he suffocated her. then said the prosecutor. he must have dragged the body to the garage, put her into her own van. disposed of her somewhere and drove the van to fresno. left it in a high crime zone. how did he get back home? the accomplice must have picked him up and driven him the 40 miles back to his farm. really, there was no body. there was no dna. no forensic evidence to show dave had even been at the murder scene. everybody in town seemed to have a theory. apparently the prosecutor did too, but was that proof? so the state tried to build a bridge from dave s alleged financial crimes to the murder. painting him as evil man who decided to eliminate his ex-wife
that summer of 2006 without seeing those purple ribbons. vivid reminder of debbie hawk. mother of three who vanished from her home. leaving only traces of blood. before long in her absence, board memb debbie was famous as if everyone in town knew the woman. she would walk in the room and it just brightened. all for her family and children. she s will her parents. angie and bud. hard worker. to me, she was perfect. she was perfect daughter. and i dearly love her and miss her. there was a lot of lives that have been shattered because of her demise. sdpi 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
aide arriv arrived at the house, somebody killed debbie. we kept up hopes obviously for the family s sake. 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. always was kind of the life of the party. this is debbie s sister diane. who recalled how friends set her up on that blind date years ago. firecracker. he was the date. dave hawk. she was short. and attractive. and a lot of fun. and pretty good sense of humor. you know, you say something and, man, she would pop back with something you didn t quite expect. they were married within a year.