Dead Center. Frank J. Daniels
and ask if this was the one I saw her put in the vehicle. I tell them it is. He unzips the case and removes a synthetic-stocked, stainless bolt-action rifle. I cannot I.D. the gun as I never saw it clearly until then. They tell the lady they are going to take the gun in for testing and write her a receipt. At this point she begins to faint. One of the officers is an EMT. He produces a medical kit and checks her. The officer decides she is going into shock. A helicopter is called for and she is airlifted out. It is about dark when the helicopter clears. The deputies ask if the woman’s vehicles will be okay there as they will be back the next day to investigate further. I tell them I am not going to mess with them and will keep an eye out.
Ryan makes it into camp after being checked on the ridge by a deputy. He had to wait for the helicopter to take off before he could come down the slope. I tell him what happened and ask why he hadn’t come down for lunch. He says he walked a ways and just wanted to stay out. We go ahead and go to town anyway. I need to get away for a while. We drive to Grand Junction and eat at a fast food restaurant. It is about midnight when we got back to camp. We go to bed after caring for the deer meat.
Monday, October 16, 1995: I stay in camp while Ryan goes hunting. Deputies return around noon and use Search & Rescue team to check the area.
As soon as Branchwater’s report was brought to me, I read it with rising interest, paying special attention to Branchwater’s description of Janice’s reactions at the death scene. Something in my gut told me there was more to this grieving widow’s story than she told.
= chapter 4 =
An Accident, A Suicide or Murder?
Since it was uncertain whether Bruce Dodson’s death could be a homicide, the Sheriff’s Department assigned two crime scene technicians to respond to the scene to assist with the investigation on the day of Dodson’s death. It had been a bit unclear who was in charge of the whole situation with the presence of so many officers.
One of those who became involved was Captain Warren Smith, a tall, dark, handsome, smooth-talking, western-dressing, well-meaning man in his mid-forties who had been the sheriff down in La Plata County a few years back before losing an election by getting crosswise with the NRA crowd. During the last election in Mesa County, Investigator Armand found himself supporting the losing side of an internal battle that had half of the department backing the eventual loser and the other half backing the eventual winner. By the time of the Dodson case, most of those who had supported the loser were gone from the department, voluntarily or otherwise. Armand was still there. Hired as a captain, Warren Smith had been brought into the department to restore order. Technically, Captain Smith now was the incident commander on the Uncompahgre, but the lack of a clear chain of command created some problems.
The two crime scene technicians were Carl Todd and Victor Poste. Carl is a forty-something, pleasant-looking, average-sized man with a peaceful demeanor, close cropped brown hair and above average intelligence. He is the kind of person who can do just about anything that needs to be done, from building a house to applying CPR to save someone’s life. Victor is about the same age but taller and also had his blond hair cut military-style. He usually carries a worried look on his face. Carl and Victor arrived at the hunting camp around 4:15 P.M. When they arrived, Deputy Patrick briefed them.
As the investigators proceeded with the case, they sent me reports as to what they found. Todd’s descriptions of what he observed that day added to my concern. He wrote:
The camp is located about 200 yards off Brushy Ridge Trail, about 4 1/4 miles from Divide Road. When we arrived we were met by Deputy Patrick who was there taking the report and doing interviews. I could see that there were two tents to the rear of the vehicles, off in the oak brush. The tents belonged to a Marshall, Texas man and his hunting partner. About 160 feet to the north of these tents were two vehicles. One vehicle was a VW camper van and just to the rear of that was a red and white Ford Bronco. These vehicles belonged to the shooting victim and his wife. I could see that there was a pair of blue denim bib overalls hanging from the passenger side mirror of the van. The bottom twelve inches of the pant legs were muddy. There was a pair of woman’s hiking shoes on the ground next to the pants. They were covered with mud. The sliding side door of the van was open and the pop-up roof was up. There was a green Coleman-type camp stove stowed in a recessed area above the cab of the van, held down with bungee cords. The Ford Bronco was about ten feet behind the van and the tailgate was lowered. There were various items in both vehicles that would normally be found on a hunting/camping trip.
Investigator Armand showed Deputy Poste and me the crime scene, located about 175 yards to the north of the van in a small clearing near a barbed wire fence. There, lying on the ground about 20 feet to the south of the fence, was the body of a man. There were several wires with plastic flags in the ground noting the location of various pieces of evidence. One of the wooden fence posts was flagged and I could see that it had a hole through it that appeared to have been made by a bullet. The south side of the post was blown out, indicating that the bullet was coming from the opposite side of the post from where the body was found. There were several Division of Wildlife officers and Forest Service officers on the scene. Investigator Armand had everyone go on the other side of the fence where we formed a search line and walked through the area where the shot was thought to have come from. We were searching for a cartridge casing that may have been ejected in the area by the shooter. We searched for several minutes, but we didn’t find anything.
After finishing with the collection of the evidence that was flagged, we assisted the deputy coroner with the recovery of the body and helped to load it into his vehicle for transport. We then went back to the camp area. Investigator Armand and Deputy Patrick were talking to the victim’s wife and Brent Branchwater, the hunter from the adjacent camp. Investigator Armand was examining the rifle in the back of the Bronco and he put that rifle in a case for collection as evidence. The victim’s wife, Janice, had been sitting in Mr. Branchwater’s camp during our time there. She became very distraught and we felt she was going into shock. I noticed that she didn’t start shaking real bad and acting shocky until Investigator Armand got in the back of the Bronco and started looking at the rifle. Until then she was pretty calm. Captain Smith felt that Janice was going into shock and he asked that I start up my unit and place her in it with the heater going. As we started to switch vehicles, Janice passed out. Captain Smith had Air Life respond to transport her to Saint Mary’s Hospital for medical treatment. I drove up to the landing zone and we transferred Janice to the helicopter. After the helicopter left, Deputy Poste and I went to several campsites along Brushy Ridge Trail. We contacted the hunters in those camps and asked for information and checked identifications. We covered about six or seven hunting camps. We drove back to Grand Junction and made plans to return the next day.
On October 16, 1995 at about 10:20 A.M., we returned to the shooting scene with representatives of the Mesa County Search and Rescue Team, Palisade Police Chief Rory Clark, Division of Wildlife and Forest Service officers, and several Sheriff’s Department officers. Chief Clark had come with a metal detector to aid in locating any spent rifle cartridges or other metallic evidence. The Search and Rescue Team members were there to conduct a ground search for footprints, spent cartridges, and any other evidence that might be found in the area. I started to search the vehicles for ammunition that would go with the weapons found in the vehicle and at the shooting scene. I started with the VW Van. When I got to the rear of the van, I found a tan paper bag with a Gibson’s Discount Store logo on it. This bag was on the passenger side of the rear storage area. I looked in the bag and found two boxes of Federal brand rifle ammunition. One of the boxes was a box of twenty 7 mm magnum, 165 grain boat tail, soft-point ammo that contained 15 live rounds. The other was a box of twenty-four .243-caliber 100 grain, Hi-Shock soft-point ammo that contained 20 live and one spent cartridges. I collected these boxes of ammo as evidence. I also collected the muddy boots and the overalls from the van.
While I was searching the vehicles, Chief Clark found a shell casing in the area that the shot was thought to have come from. I put on gloves and picked up the casing noting that it was a .308-caliber rifle cartridge casing. I placed it into a