Dead Center. Frank J. Daniels
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Copyright © 2003 by Frank J. Daniels
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, including electronic, mechanical or any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to:
New Horizon Press
P.O. Box 669
Far Hills, NJ 07931
Frank J. Daniels
Dead Center: The Shocking True Story of a Murder on Snipe Mountain
Cover Design: Robert Aulicino
Interior Design: Susan M. Sanderson
Library of Congress Control Number: 2003105756
ISBN-13 (eBook): 978-0-88282-521-2
New Horizon Press
2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 / 5 4 3 2 1
Author’s Note
This book is based on the experiences and work of Frank J. Daniels and reflects his perceptions of the past, present and future. The personalities, events, actions and conversations portrayed within the story have been taken from his memories, extensive court documents, interviews, testimony, research, letters, personal papers, press accounts and the memories of some participants.
In an effort to safeguard the privacy of certain people, some individuals’ names and identifying characteristics have been altered. Events involving the characters happened as described. Only minor details have been changed.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 Hunting Season
Chapter 2 Death Scene
Chapter 3 In Search of Evidence
Chapter 4 An Accident, A Suicide or Murder?
Chapter 5 Simple Questions, Few Answers
Chapter 6 Blood Red River
Chapter 7 Family Ties
Chapter 8 More Questions for Janice
Chapter 9 Finding Pieces of the Puzzle
Chapter 10 What Is True? What Is False?
Chapter 11 A Woman’s Perspective
Chapter 12 Murder We Said
Chapter 13 Sleuthing
Chapter 14 Grave Suspicions
Chapter 15 Other Players
Chapter 16 Friends or Foes?
Chapter 17 Detecting Lies
Chapter 18 Big Powwow
Chapter 19 Strange Serendipity
Chapter 20 Searching for the Murder Weapon
Chapter 21 Calling in the FBI
Chapter 22 Under Arrest
Chapter 23 Other Men in Janice’s Life
Chapter 24 Another Dark Surprise
Chapter 25 The Trial Begins
Chapter 26 The Prosecution Strikes
Chapter 27 For the Defense
Chapter 28 The Prosecution Rests
Chapter 29 In Retaliation, In Defense
Chapter 30 The Verdict
Afterword
This is a true story. I came upon this tale of greed, lust and violent death through my duties as District Attorney for Colorado’s Twenty-first Judicial District in western Colorado. I was called upon to head the investigation. The death happened quickly, taking perhaps fifteen seconds. The investigation spanned better than four years and resulted in eleven thousand pages of investigative reports. Though the story has remained in my memory, for the purposes of this tale, I painstakingly went through all the evidence again, including the reports, page by page, line by line, repeatedly, to distill and repair, so that as I reconstructed the story, only relevant evidence would be included. As with any major investigation, there were many avenues pursued that led nowhere. I have endeavored to keep intact the essence of the investigation, of which I was a part, while bringing out what was meaningful to the course of the prosecution I pursued or influenced the case as it unfolded. Some of the time periods have been condensed and information on investigative leads which may have come out at different points have been connected to make the narrative flow more smoothly. Some, but not all, of the grammar in reports, interviews and conversations were spruced up a bit. In addition, I have reconstructed the dialogue from the memory of participants, court testimony and police reports.
I wrote the book for two reasons: first and foremost, this was the most engrossing and intriguing case in which I ever have been involved; second, this is an excellent example of how an investigation progresses from the prosecution perspective, complete with a complex and interesting set of forensic evidence analyses and results. My intent was to put together a book that makes an enthralling read as well as an educational study of a murder unraveled (or at least as unraveled as we could get it).
Looming red sandstone cliffs to the southwest are bathed in early morning light which, reflected from the bottom edges of high clouds to the east, imparts a warm pinkish glow. I begin my journey to Shreveport, Louisiana, a respite to which I have been looking forward for a very long time. I am intrigued, as always, by the geologic marvel evidenced in the cliffs at the northern edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau, composed at the base of black Precambrian gneiss and schist underlying bright red Triassic mudstones and clays that support sheer cliffs of Jurassic Wingate sandstone. Twelve thousand million years of rock are missing between the Precambrian and Triassic strata, evidently due to ancient erosion. This valley, the Grand Valley of Western Colorado, is a geologic wonder. When I first moved to this region, the cliffs were just cliffs and the rocks just rocks, but the longer I’ve lived here the more these awesome formations of nature became a part of my spirit. I moved here from Boulder, having just graduated law school at the University of Colorado, to take a job as Deputy District Attorney. That was eighteen years ago. For the past eight years, I have held the position of elected District Attorney.
My interest in geology sprung from my interest in petrified wood. When I first started working as a deputy DA, a part-time investigator named Vince Jones, who had been a special agent in the FBI for thirty years, worked in the office. Many times Vince talked about collecting petrified wood. I became intrigued.
I began to collect some pieces of the wood and when I attended my first gem and mineral show, I quickly learned that these shows were a great place to find top-quality specimens of petrified wood. Dealers from all over the world bring gems, minerals and fossils to sell and display, especially at the huge winter shows in Tucson and Quartzsite, Arizona. There, one will find dealers from all the inhabited continents. Previously unknown material shows up every year. Quartzsite would be nothing more than a hot bump on Interstate 10 in the middle of nowhere without the show, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. It is in the middle of a rocky desert wasteland and comprises