TWENTY-FOUR

 

As soon as Michael’s body arrived at the medical examiner’s office in Lubbock, Dr. Sridhar Natarajan began the autopsy. He performed an exterior examination, first running a complete set of x-rays to search for any evidence of a retained foreign body—like a bullet. Finding none, he moved on to meticulously detailing the outward appearance, enumerating the evidence of decompositional change and the effects of weeks of submersion in water, including the bleaching, wrinkling and sloughing of skin.

He described the items found attached to the body and the ligatures still connected to it. The location of each of the forty-one stab wounds was noted. Then he proceeded through each biological system, remarking on its condition. He preserved samples from the body, preparing some for toxico-logical tests. It would be more than a month before he got back those test results, and more than three before he issued his final report.

 

Sergeant Jones and Lieutenant Frank Carter of the San Angelo Police Department waited just inside the door of the clinic early Tuesday morning, March 8, 2005. They watched Marshall as he made a series of telephone calls. Texas Ranger Palmer joined them there a few minutes after 7.

When Judy and Lloyd arrived nearly an hour later, Palmer told them, “We will be seeking a search warrant for the clinic. Officers will remain here to ensure that no evidence is disturbed.”

“I need to get the babies’ things,” Judy said.

Palmer allowed her and Marshall to gather clothing, toys and any other items needed for the children, but asked them not to disturb anything else. Judy pulled a push pin from a calendar in the apartment and removed three rings. “Marshall, please remind your mother not to remove any articles that she does not need for the immediate care of the children,” Palmer said.

Marshall whispered to her immediately. Judy placed a woman’s two-ring wedding set and a man’s gold wedding band on the desk in the crowded apartment.

When Detective McGuire arrived at the clinic, Palmer returned to the Texas Rangers’ office to write up the details of the investigation in an affidavit to request authorization for a search warrant for 4240 Sherwood Way and for the 2001 Chevrolet Camaro.

 

After leaving the clinic, Judy took Tristan to the Children’s Academy child-care center, where Jenny Pittman regarded him as a well-adjusted child. She began to doubt that assessment when Judy and Tristan arrived in tears. When Judy left, her grandson stopped crying, but he later demonstrated the beginnings of compulsive hand-washing. When it was time to line up to wash hands before a snack, Tristan was so over-eager, he cut in front of the other students.

 

At 3:40 that afternoon, Judge Tom Gossett signed a warrant to search the clinic. Palmer returned to Advanced Animal Care with the document in hand at 4 P.M. They knew Wendi had disposed of Mike’s body; now they needed to find the evidence that confirmed that she was responsible for his death.

Palmer briefed an officer and a detective from the San Angelo Police Department at 4 P.M. He watched crime-scene technicians as they videotaped and photographed the area around the clinic. He noted a section of white rope hanging on a fence behind the building. It appeared to be consistent with one of the ropes found attached to Mike’s body. He made sure it was digitally recorded.

At 5:35, with a uniformed patrol officer posted by the front door of the clinic, the search of the outside area began. Behind the barn were two vehicles, neither one appearing to be in working order. Inside one of them, Palmer spotted a pile of auto parts. In the other, military clothing and gear sat on the seats.

On the ground between the two vehicles, Palmer spotted a tire tool and confiscated it as possible evidence. A crime-scene technician did the same with a cotton apron found a short distance away.

Inside the barn, they took custody of two brake drums, a sleeping bag, bolt cutters, wire and a pair of pliers. The length of white rope was removed from the fence and bagged as evidence.

Detective McGuire inserted a key in the front door of the clinic and the team entered. The crime-scene techs went first, videotaping and photographing every inch of the interior. They recovered a lot of paperwork including documents from on top of the counter, invoice pads and an appointment book.

In the surgery area, Palmer noted several containers of medication, including a bottle of Beuthanasia-D Special. He recovered two pairs of scissors, six controlled substance logs and a set of bolt cutters. Palmer moved into the pre-operating room where he confiscated a few more pairs of scissors as well as two rolls of monofilament line and a wood-handled knife he found in a drawer.

He bent down and crawled under the sink, where he disconnected and removed the PVC trap from the water line. When he got off the floor, he headed into the examination room, seizing pliers and bandage scissors.

In the residential area, they approached an area with a desk and several shelves. Inside a briefcase found there, they confiscated a plastic knife holster, a sexual history list in Wendi’s handwriting and a number of notes about Jason Burdine, a number of used pregnancy tests and a sexual device shaped like a male organ. They took custody of the three rings left on the desk earlier that day by Judy Davidson.

On one shelf there was a lockbox. Detective McGuire opened it and said, “The last time I was in here, a pistol and a blue-handled boning knife were in this box. They’re not here now.” Those two items were not found anywhere in the building. From the shelves, they confiscated bank statements, photographs, videotapes and a folding knife.

The techs swabbed several suspicious-looking stains and sprayed luminol in the dog kennel area, but found no evidence of blood. They took possession of a stack of patient file folders resting in a laundry basket.

While they searched, Judge Gossett signed two new warrants—one authorizing an investigation of the contents of the computer observed at the clinic, the other for the search of the Chevrolet Camaro belonging to Wendi Davidson. Before leaving the clinic, Palmer took custody of the Compaq laptop computer with its power cord and mouse, an iomega Zip drive and disk and a high speed port hub.

Within fifteen minutes after leaving the premises, Palmer, McGuire and Jones were following a tow truck as it transported Wendi’s car from the Texas DPS office to a sally port at the Tom Green County Jail. Inside the car, officers took possession of a blue spiral notebook, containing conversion tables for medications, and a pair of pliers. A forensic tech processed the exterior for latent prints and vacuumed the trunk to collect any trace evidence. He also removed a stained section of carpet from that area.

While the car underwent its examination, Sergeant Jones and Detective McGuire traveled out to the Davidsons’ place and spoke to Lloyd, who admitted seeing the blue-handled knife and the pistol at Wendi’s apartment. He believed that Marshall had the pistol, and possibly the knife as well. This news alarmed McGuire and Jones. Marshall was not playing a role in the investigation of his sister, but he was a law enforcement officer and, as such, had certain responsibilities that went beyond family loyalty. If he had these items and was concealing them from the detectives, it was a serious obstruction—one that could cost him his job.