At 8:15 on the morning of November 30, 2004, the Bexar County Magistrates’ Office issued a search warrant for the McFarland home, the Explorer and the Suburban. On the way to Arcadia Place, Wedding and Palmer stopped by the Texaco service center. Station owner Richard Clemmer was not at the station, but an employee showed the officers the board on the wall containing keys—the key to the Suburban hung there on a hook.
They arrived at 351 Arcadia Place at 9 A.M. Roaming around the exterior of the home and into the garage, they shot photographs and looked at anything with possible evidentiary value. At noon, forensic experts from the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory Service joined the investigators.
They started their work in the Suburban across the street, swabbing, taking tape lifts and cataloguing the contents of the vehicle—from a military-style shovel to a packet of receipts to empty Wyler’s Authentic Italian Ices wrappers.
In the middle of the search, Wedding and Palmer got a call from a patrolman at the Texaco service center. Richard Clemmer said that only one person ever test drove the Suburban. That person wrote a name, Mark Lynn, and a phone number in Clemmer’s message pad. The number was phony—they could only assume the name was, too.
Crime lab personnel turned next to the white Ford Windstar van. On the front passenger seat headrest, they swabbed a suspected bloodstain.
In the house, the forensics team swabbed at every suspicious stain they saw, starting with a spot on the threshold of the side door and moving through the hallway and up the stairs to the master bedroom and bath. Investigators gathered toothbrushes, clothing, tools and latex gloves. From Rick’s second-floor office, they confiscated a .380 semi-automatic handgun and a magazine—neither contained any ammunition. On a shelf near the door, Palmer found two wooden boxes filled with Sheffield knives and an assortment of multi-purpose tools.
At a quarter till 8 that evening, the work was done. Palmer left a message for Rick McFarland to that effect. On the table in the family room, he left a copy of the search warrant and an inventory list of the items seized.
The investigative team then proceeded to the impound lot for a thorough search of the Ford Explorer. They documented and bagged every item in Sue’s SUV and swabbed all suspected spots of blood. Palmer noted that although there were no floor mats in the car, dimples in the carpet indicated their recent presence there.
In St. Louis, Ann spent a major part of her day on the telephone. She talked to family and friends. She called every Gary Long in the phone book in an attempt to reach Sue’s supervisor over the weekend. Late Saturday evening, she finally connected with the right Gary Long.
She also made plans for her departure the next day. She wanted company on the trip, but she also wanted the most appropriate and useful person to come along. She decided on Kirsten—not only was she close to Sue, but, more important, she was close to the boys, and they would need someone they trusted.
Of all the calls Ann made that day, the most disturbing and depressing was the conversation she had with her brother, Pete Smith.
Pete was a retired homicide investigator. He told his sister, “This is bad. This is really bad. It’s not going to come out well.”