Broken Doll. Burl Barer
Martin, before heading back outside to resume what was rapidly becoming a frantic search.
“Gail first called me at about eight-thirty in the morning,” said neighbor Shawn Angilley. “She asked me if Roxanne was over here. Twenty minutes later, Gail was knocking on the front door. She asked if I had seen Roxanne. I told her that I just now unbolted the door. Then I called her about a half hour later to make sure she found Roxy, but she hadn’t. By that time, Gail’s friend Kim Hammond showed up.”
Kim and Gail had known each other for thirteen years and were best friends. “Since we are very close, we talk to each other about everything,” said Kim to detectives. “Gail and I went to the movies last night. It started at five after ten and we were back at my place about midnight. She went right home. I didn’t hear from her again until eight-thirty this morning when she phoned me, and said that she couldn’t find her daughter Roxanne. I then came right over.”
“Kim and I went out looking and calling for Roxanne,” recalled Shawn Angilley. “I never stopped looking for her and handing out flyers until eight-thirty P.M.”
“Roxanne Doll was kidnapped out of her bed between the time Tim Iffrig fell asleep on the couch and when Gail Doll got home from the movies,” said Herndon. “But with everyone intoxicated or asleep at the time, it was initially difficult to put all the pieces together.
“It was more than an hour or so after Gail and Tim returned from the campsite,” Herndon recalled, “and Richard Clark still hadn’t shown up. I waited around the victim residence until approximately six P.M. because I wanted to speak to him and any other witnesses who had been involved with the family prior to the disappearance.
“After Clark failed to show, I contacted the station and asked to check computer records for any information on a Richard Clark. According to the father, Tim Iffrig, Richard Clark had just gotten out of jail recently. I was able to narrow down the list of Richard Clarks to three possibilities—in other words, three guys named Richard Clark showed up in our database. Based on prior information obtained from Tim Iffrig, I determined that this Richard Clark’s last known address was on Lombard Street.”
It was 6:00 P.M. when Detectives Kiser and Herndon left the victim’s residence and drove seven miles to Richard Clark’s last-known address on Lombard. “We took Tim Iffrig and his brother, William D’alexander, along with us, since we were going to drive back up to the campsite to check for any possible evidence or signs of the victim.”
Iffrig, highly upset, couldn’t recall the campsite’s exact location, but his brother, William D’alexander, said he could lead the detectives to it with no problem at all.
“First I contacted Carol Clark at her home on Lombard,” reported Herndon, “and asked if Richard Clark still lived there at that residence. According to her, Richard did stay there on occasion, but he had not been there on that day. Carol Clark stated that Richard might be at his father’s house in Marysville, Washington. I gave her my card and pager number and instructed her to have Richard call me as soon as possible.”
The entourage of Herndon, Kiser, Iffrig, and D’alexander headed for the campsite, stopping along the way at the George Clark residence in Marysville, Washington.
“If you’re looking for Richard, you just missed him,” said George Clark Sr. “He was here earlier, but I don’t know if we’ll be hearing from him anytime soon.” Herndon provided his pager number. “Please have Richard call me as soon as possible,” asked the detective, and George Clark promised to do so.
Herndon radioed the police station and asked for an all vehicles registered report. “I soon learned that Mr. Clark’s van was a 1978 Dodge with Washington State plates. I advised dispatch to put an attempt to locate on this vehicle, adding that I needed to speak to Mr. Clark and the occupants regarding Roxanne Doll’s disappearance.”
Thanks to D’alexander, the Red Bridge/Coal Creek campground site used by Iffrig, Clark, and party was easily found. “It could be best described,” recalled Herndon, “as an undeveloped, unauthorized campsite along the main highway. We checked the area with flashlights and could not locate any pertinent evidence, or Roxanne Doll. At that time, there were no other campers in the area, although Iffrig stated that another party of two had been camping near their campsite.”
The other party to which Iffrig referred was that of Bruce Hawkins. “I saw this Dodge Van—sort of tan or rust in color—pull into my camp. The driver was a white male with slightly curly, shoulder-length light-colored hair. He was wearing wire glasses,” said Hawkins, describing Richard Clark. “There was another guy who said he was the missing girl’s uncle,” he continued. “He had long hair in back, short on the sides, and a Fu Manchu mustache. The fellow, who might have been the girl’s father, since I saw the sheriff drive off with him, had long, dark hair. He was slim, but looked in shape. Then there was a woman, a large woman with a loud voice. She talked real loud. And then there was a Native American Indian, who, I believe, had some top teeth missing.
“Anyway,” explained Hawkins, “these folks showed up at my site and they pissed my dogs off, and started saying stuff like ‘Don’t mess with me or I’ll kick your ass.’ I grabbed my two very large dogs and I told them to leave. The uncle and I did have a brief scuffle. I did indulge in about half a fifth of Black Velvet at this time,” Hawkins acknowledged, “and that’s about all.”
The detectives returned Iffrig and D’alexander to Iffrig’s residence. “Tim was understandably an emotional wreck, as any father would be. He was terribly distraught over the disappearance of his little girl. Of course, everyone at his house was very emotional. Gail Doll, completely drained and exhausted, was out cold on the couch.”
On their way back to the police station, Detectives Kiser and Herndon learned that Richard Clark and his aunt Vicki Smith drove to the police station in Everett, where they spoke briefly with Lieutenant Peter Hegge.
“Before going to the police station, Richard drove Jimmy Miller and his girlfriend, Lisa, back to the house,” said Vicki. “I went in the house, but then I said to Richard that I wanted to go into town with him. All my stuff and Tim’s stuff was still in the van.”
“Vicki Smith was heavily intoxicated at that time,” recalled Lieutenant Hegge. “She smelled of alcohol; her eyes were watery; she had trouble walking, and also had the odor of wood smoke, which I attributed to the camping experience. Clark did not seem to be intoxicated.”
Hegge told Clark and Smith that detectives were at the Doll-Iffrig residence interviewing everyone who might have information relevant to the search for Doll. He asked Smith and Clark to go to the Doll-Iffrig house and talk to the detectives. Clark agreed to drive Smith and himself there.
Clark drove by the Doll-Iffrig house, but he didn’t stop. Vicki Smith personally didn’t want to go there. “I figured I would just be in the way,” she said. “When Richard saw all the cops there, he just kept driving.” Richard Mathew Clark never arrived at the Iffrig residence. After leaving the police station, Richard drove his alcoholically altered aunt Vicki to Carol’s house on Lombard. Vicki Smith and he stayed, she said, about four hours.
Vicki told detectives that Richard Clark later gave her a ride to Aaron’s Restaurant in Everett. “He just left me there in the cocktail lounge. I don’t know where he went or what he did after he left me at Aaron’s,” said Vicki. “I walked to my daughter’s house after the bar closed, and I didn’t see Richard again until Sunday.”
“I think the next time Gail Doll saw Richard Clark,” commented Detective Herndon, “was when he was on trial for murdering her child.”
Chapter 5
Vicki Smith’s recollections of April 1 are both somewhat accurate and moderately befogged. It is true that she and Richard stayed at Aunt Carol’s until late in the evening, but prior to attending Aaron’s, the slightly sloshed Smith/Clark duo’s destination was the Sports Center. It was there that Clark and his aunt Vicki encountered Richard’s longtime associate and occasional criminal cohort, Michael Jaaskela.
“Richard