debbie worked in pharmaceutical sales. perhaps a drug addict had gone after the samples she kept in the van. all of the pharmaceuticals in her van were missing. somebody took them. that was a ludicrous idea, countered the prosecution. debbie carried very few samples. anyway, if drug theft was behind it why didn t the thief take any jewelry or electronics? no, it all seemed to come down to dave. his character, his behavior and his own words, like a conversation with a friend police recorded when dave speculated what might have happened to debbie. the defense played it in court as an unguarded indication dave had no idea what happened. e had no idea what happened. he basically offered i don t think she s ever going to be found. did it work? listen to prosecutor larry crouch.
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 out of the window, and got someone to give him a ride to debbie s house and entered her bedroom. i think he tried the stun gun on her and she screamed very
you took a trip to hawaii with your girlfriend. you paid off your divorce attorneys fees and money you took from the first set of trusts by taking $60,000 out of the kids second trust fund. the money was used for the children. which child drove the lexus? all three children were driven in the lexus. which child went to hawaii on vacation? perhaps that money was my own money. prosecutor never bothered to figure out what dollar went where, did they? you made it hard because you were mixing up the trust fund money and your money all the time. frankly, that is what scam artists do. i m not a scam artist. why didn t you go get a job? i had a job. i m talking about a job that pays enough to support a family which is what a dad does. you are reading from a script the prosecutor has given you apparently because none of these things are true.
after the samples she kept in the van. all of the pharmaceuticals in her van were missing. somebody took them. that was a ludicrous idea, countered the prosecution. debbie carried very few samples. anyway, if drug theft was behind it why didn t the thief take any jewelry or electronics. no. it seemed to come down to dave. his character, his behavior and his own words and a conversation with a friend police recorded when dave speculated what might have happened to debbie. the defense played it in court. as an unguarded indication that dave had no idea what happened. hey. he basically offered i don t think she is ever going to be found. did it work? listen to prosecutor larry crouch. oh, no. why are they putting it in? i thought it was harmful.
low temperatures. back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. i m craig melvin. even though investigators looking into the homicide of debbie hawk had no physical evidence tying her husband dave to the crime, they did uncover some information about possible financial wrongdoing on his part. police considered it strong enough to warrant an arrest, but could they get the prosecutor to agree? here with more of our story is keith morrison. i kept pushing and pushing and we kept sitting back. the prosecutor at the time, larry crouch, told his investigators he would not charge dave hawk with the murder of his ex-wife debbie, even after it was obvious this popular single mother had been murdered. even after months of searching around hanford, california, turned up no sign of her