Dead of Night: The True Story of Oregon's Most Shocking Killer by Don Lasseter

Author:Don Lasseter
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: Crime Rant Classics
Published: 2015-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Seven of the eight task force members, plus an evidence property officer, assembled early Saturday morning to search the scorched house in Hillsboro. If the officers thought they were going to find it empty because of the damage, they were wrong. Ron Price still technically lived there and had occupied the rooms that survived fire damage until his arrest on March 17 for arson.

The team posed outside the house for a photograph taken by Chief DDA Bob Hermann, who also made an early appearance. He had a vested interest in the outcome, since he would handle the prosecution of Barone if enough evidence could be found to charge him with murder. Hermann’s colleague, DDA Roger Hanlon, who also expected to be deeply involved, dropped by for a short time.

For the photo, Larry McKinney, grinning through his red beard, sat outdoors in a rocking chair. The others, all wearing casual clothing and holding paper cups of coffee, lined up to face the camera. Tom Robinson laughed. He was the only one who’d dressed in a dark coverall jumpsuit in preparation for the dirty job of pawing through charred rooms and filthy piles of scorched clothing and furniture.

Scott Ryan drew the lucky duty of videotaping the project.

They waded in. The kitchen and laundry room had sustained the most fire damage, so there was little to be uncovered in either location, although Roger Mussier did pull a scorched plaid jacket out of the kitchen rubble and toss it into a collection box. McKinney rummaged through the detached garage and located a black leather jacket, apparently the one Cesar often wore. A cache of assorted women’s undergarments, out of place in a bachelor house, caught Ryan’s attention so he put the video camcorder down long enough to collect them. Confiscated knives and ammunition were placed in another container while a third box soon filled with a mishmash of clothing. The searchers found shoes in every room, some unmatched, some obviously for women, a few sports shoes, and some boots. One of the officers bagged a couple of military-style berets. They also turned up a small hodgepodge of drug paraphernalia, some yearbooks, a Ranger magazine, a pawn ticket for a rifle, silk bed sheets, and a few Mary Kay makeup items. Robinson located a letter from Leonard Darcell to Cesar Barone, establishing the first concrete link between the two men.

The team labored for seven grimy hours collecting 130 varied items of possible evidence. Roger Mussier listed each one on a Washington County Department of Public Safety Property-Evidence Report as the officers bagged and boxed them for easy future identification.

Tom Robinson had a knowing grin on his face when he carried a container outside and set it at the feet of Michael O’Connell. Inside the box, on top of a pile of assorted shoes, rested a pair of well-worn, white, size eight and one half Reebok ERS running shoes!

After spending a fine spring day sweating, digging, sorting, and lifting, Robinson had planned to finally catch a little rest on Sunday.

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