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Gone Call podcast may contain

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violent or graphics subject matter.

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Listener discretion is advised. At.

1:09

Approximately one fifteen Am on

1:12

Friday, September Twenty eight, Nineteen

1:14

Seventy three two men fled

1:16

the Ships food store located

1:19

in East Dallas, just outside

1:21

the Ships dairy Factory. Inside

1:24

fifty two year old William

1:26

Stewart Moon late bleeding on

1:29

the floor. Shot. Once

1:31

in the Temple with the twenty two

1:33

caliber firearm and a robbery. Moon.

1:36

Who'd been promoted to manager

1:39

the previous day died not

1:41

long after. Parkland Hospitals Critical

1:43

Care Unit. The

1:45

men who to after robbing the store

1:47

made out with a little. Moon.

1:50

Died ultimately for a cigar

1:52

box full of rolled coins

1:54

and is on loaded revolver.

1:57

The. following day herman ships the

2:00

president of the company, announced a

2:02

large reward leading to the arrest

2:04

and conviction of the men who'd

2:06

taken the life of the company's

2:09

loyal employee and friend. The

2:12

reward led to a lot of

2:14

heat being brought down on the

2:16

assailants, and a month later, 23-year-old

2:18

Howie Ray Robinson turned himself in

2:20

to Dallas Police. He

2:22

and another man, 26-year-old Ernest

2:25

Benjamin Smith, entered the store,

2:27

Robinson said, while 35-year-old George

2:30

Robinson remained outside in a

2:32

car with the motor running.

2:36

Howie Ray Robinson said he didn't know

2:38

Smith was planning on robbing the store,

2:40

and only found out that was the

2:42

plan when he returned to the front

2:44

of the establishment after grabbing some items

2:47

to purchase from the back. When

2:50

he approached the counter, Robinson

2:52

told police, Smith and Shep's

2:54

store manager William Moon both

2:56

had pistols drawn, pointing them

2:58

at one another in a

3:00

sort of standoff. Smith

3:03

saw Robinson approach, the man claimed,

3:06

and dropped below the counter. When

3:09

he did, William Moon adjusted his

3:11

aim at Robinson. Robinson

3:13

quickly drew his weapon and fired it

3:16

into the store manager's head, in

3:18

self-defense, he claimed. It

3:21

was a ridiculous story, or at least

3:24

the jury thought so. Robinson

3:26

was convicted of Moon's murder and given

3:28

the death penalty at his June 1974

3:31

trial. The

3:35

death of an employee shook

3:37

President Herman Shep's. The

3:39

crime led him to offering

3:41

similar rewards in other unsolved

3:43

Dallas City and Dallas County

3:45

homicides. In September

3:48

of 1979, Shep's extended

3:51

those rewards to Tarrant County,

3:53

specifically Fort Worth, as

3:55

that city was undergoing a series

3:58

of brutal and senseless murders. and

4:00

mysteries that were going unsolved.

4:04

The abductions and slangs of Becky Martin

4:06

in 1973 and

4:08

Carla Walker in 1974, the 1974 disappearances of Julie Mosley,

4:10

Renee Wilson, and Rachel Trillisa,

4:18

the 1977 murders of Linda

4:20

Mills and June Ward, and

4:22

the January 1978 killing of

4:25

Leisha McGee. These

4:28

are the crimes in which a reward

4:30

was offered soon after the program spread

4:32

to Fort Worth, but it was

4:34

another 1978 crime that originally prompted Herman Shepp's

4:39

decision to begin offering the reward

4:41

in Tarrant County cases, the

4:43

April 25th shooting murder

4:45

of Paula Puckett Davenport. After

4:57

she was found partially unclothed and

4:59

shot to death in a field

5:01

in Far East Fort Worth, detectives

5:04

began interviewing anyone and everyone with

5:06

a connection to 24-year-old Paula

5:09

Davenport, friends, family,

5:12

neighbors, acquaintances, co-workers, and

5:14

love interests. The

5:17

investigation intensified on April 29th, 1978, the

5:19

Saturday following the discovery of

5:24

her body. That day,

5:27

Fort Worth Police Chief A.J. Brown

5:29

assigned five seasoned detectives to the

5:31

case, George Hudson,

5:34

Emmet Cole, Claude Davis,

5:36

David Deese, and Randy

5:38

Eli. Things

5:40

seemed to have been off to a

5:42

productive start. Friends told

5:44

the police that the previous November

5:47

Paula had received a series of

5:49

threatening notes, one

5:51

that was taped to the window of her

5:53

car red, We're going to get you, Paula.

5:56

The young woman didn't think much of

5:58

these notes. friends said

6:00

and disregarded them as a cruel

6:03

and hateful prank. It's

6:05

unclear whether or not police were ever able

6:08

to get to the bottom of it, but

6:10

as far as Paula's parents knew, her brother

6:12

Eddie told us. It

6:14

came up after, you know, after she was

6:16

murdered. Some of her friends

6:19

were calling my parents and saying they knew about it, but

6:21

they didn't know they were from, she didn't know who they're

6:23

from. I think everyone suspected

6:25

that it was probably Ronnie, but you

6:28

know, none of the letters were ever found. My mom,

6:31

the police came in and asked my mom to

6:33

look through everything in her room and she

6:36

couldn't find anything like that. So

6:39

we don't know what she did with them, but they were

6:41

in her purse still, which was never found or

6:44

if she just threw them away or what, but we

6:46

never could find them. The

6:49

name Ronnie, as a reminder,

6:51

is referring to Ronald Russell

6:53

Davenport, Paula's physically and

6:55

emotionally abusive ex-husband by

6:57

this time. Another

7:00

important detail Eddie mentioned was the

7:02

fact that Paula's purse was never

7:04

found. Four

7:07

men who frequented the corporate

7:09

image bar, where Paula also

7:12

frequented, came up on detectives'

7:14

radar early on, but the

7:16

men willingly submitted to polygraph

7:18

examinations and were cooperative with

7:20

the investigation in general. All

7:23

were dead ends. On

7:26

Wednesday, May 3, 1978,

7:28

detectives thought they'd gotten a big break when a

7:30

.22 caliber pistol turned up

7:33

in the parking lot of a restaurant

7:35

across the street from the Brunswick bowler

7:37

land where Paula's car was found. Unfortunately

7:41

ballistics tests proved that it

7:43

couldn't be the firearm used

7:46

to slay Paula Davenport. Nothing

7:49

at all was panning out. Even

7:52

the plaster molds of tire tracks taken

7:54

at the scene where Paula's body was

7:56

discovered turned out to be a bunk

7:58

lead. They were made by

8:01

the truck of the man who had discovered her. Likely

8:04

the man unwittingly drove directly

8:07

over the tracks, left by

8:09

Paula's killer or killers. Eventually

8:12

there would be rewards totaling more

8:14

than fifteen thousand dollars, but

8:17

even the three thousand dollar reward

8:19

offered by Paula's parents alongside the

8:22

eight thousand dollar reward that the

8:24

slain woman's employer, Hydra Rigg, offered,

8:27

and the five thousand dollars

8:29

offered by Dallas-based Sheps Dairy

8:32

the following year, all failed

8:34

to produce any significant information.

8:38

Detective Claude Davis visited the Brunswick-Bolarland

8:40

parking lot where Paula's car was

8:43

found, the seats wet with the

8:45

young mother's blood. When

8:48

he did, just before eight p.m. one

8:50

night, around the time Paula would have

8:52

arrived and began to make her way

8:54

in, Davis took note of

8:56

how deserted and seemingly desolate the

8:59

lot was. Everyone

9:02

had already gone inside, he said, and

9:04

on a week night an abduction

9:06

might have occurred with no one

9:08

noticing. However, Davis

9:11

still found that hard to believe. He

9:14

thought somebody had seen something, and

9:17

police pleaded through the Fort Worth Star

9:19

Telegram and other local news outlets for

9:21

someone to come forward with what they

9:23

saw. Perhaps

9:25

they said someone could provide the description

9:28

of a vehicle at the very least.

9:31

Every cop has a case that keeps them up at

9:34

night. For Davis it

9:36

was Paula Davenport's. He

9:38

continually poured over his notes and what

9:40

little physical evidence he was able to

9:42

collect in hopes that something would pop

9:44

out at him, something he

9:46

could use to come down on a suspect. Something

9:50

he'd missed. The epiphany

9:52

never came. But

9:55

there was something. What

9:57

investigators didn't tell the press until...

9:59

later, was that they were

10:02

quite sure they knew exactly who

10:04

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10:06

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10:08

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after Paula Jean Davenport was slain on

11:57

May 2nd, 1978. Fort

12:00

Worth homicide detectives questioned a man

12:02

whose name they never publicly released,

12:05

and he quickly became a suspect.

12:08

The special team of detectives assigned

12:11

to Paula's case by Fort Worth

12:13

Police Chief A.J. Brown, the Dallas

12:15

Morning News reported, even

12:17

had the suspect, quote, warned

12:19

before a municipal judge, end

12:22

quote, a vague reference

12:24

of which the meaning isn't entirely

12:26

clear. That same

12:28

day, the suspect was given a

12:30

polygraph examination. According to

12:33

police, he didn't do well. The

12:36

suspect, who the cops commented had no criminal

12:38

record at the time, had applied to become

12:40

an officer at the Fort Worth Police Department

12:42

in 1971 when he was 18, but was

12:44

rejected. When Paula was slain in 1978, the

12:46

man was 25 years old, the

12:54

same age as the man she had

12:56

divorced sometime before, Ronald

12:59

Russell Davenport, the

13:01

man who she shared a child with

13:03

and who didn't have custody of him

13:05

at the time. This

13:08

suspect lived very close to the

13:10

Brunswick bowler land where Paula's car

13:12

was found. Ronald

13:14

also lived very close.

13:17

They questioned the suspect again on

13:20

May 11. The

13:22

man willingly allowed investigators access

13:24

to three guns he owned,

13:27

but ballistics tests showed that none of

13:29

them could have been the murder weapon.

13:32

The bullet they found in Paula's body

13:34

anyway was in bad shape. A

13:38

more comparable bullet was found in

13:40

Paula's car, one that had

13:42

presumably passed through the 24

13:44

year old's body and buried itself into

13:46

the dashboard. This detail

13:48

was not released until years after

13:51

the fact. Still

13:53

the suspect's firearms, at least the

13:55

firearms he let the cops inspect,

13:57

could not have fired the bullet.

14:00

it. Police obviously

14:02

had some kind of intelligence,

14:04

however, that suggested this man

14:06

owned, or at least

14:08

possessed at one time, another type

14:10

of gun that was missing from

14:12

his small collection. A

14:15

search of more than four hundred Tarrant

14:17

County gun dealers failed to produce a

14:19

record of a sale linking such a

14:21

gun to the suspect. When

14:23

they asked the man about a specific gun,

14:26

an RG .22 caliber pistol,

14:28

a detective commented, he got

14:30

to lying so bad they

14:32

just changed the subject. When

14:35

the man was given another polygraph

14:37

exam, detectives said he

14:40

failed miserably. He was

14:42

lying, they said, when he denied

14:44

owning a .22 caliber

14:46

Saturday night special, and

14:48

when he said he wasn't in the

14:50

parking lot of the Brunswick-Bullerland on the

14:52

night Paula was killed. When

14:55

asked if he'd shot Paula Davenport

14:57

to death and disposed of her

15:00

body, the questions given separately, he

15:02

showed deception on both points when

15:04

he answered, no. Detectives

15:07

were confident they were on to something,

15:09

but of course a so-called lie detector

15:11

test is not admissible in a court

15:14

of law, and they lacked

15:16

physical evidence of any kind to link

15:18

the suspect to Paula's murder. It's

15:21

also important to note the

15:23

fallibility of polygraphs, the reason

15:25

they're not allowed into court.

15:28

Data varies significantly depending on

15:31

whether the reporting agency or

15:33

individual is a proponent or

15:35

opponent of them. Realistically,

15:38

when determining actual deception,

15:41

the machine's accuracy sits at around

15:43

75 percent. That

15:46

statistic renders the results unusable,

15:48

especially when considering a person's

15:51

life is essentially on the

15:53

line when utilized in a

15:56

murder investigation. The machine, as

15:58

an investigative tool, however,

16:00

can be useful. The

16:03

two failed polygraphs given to the

16:05

suspect in Paula's murder, anyway, were

16:07

not the only thing leading investigators

16:10

to the conclusion that he was

16:12

responsible. When

16:15

Fort Worth homicide detectives spoke with

16:17

the suspect's parents, whom the man

16:19

lived with, they were shocked to

16:22

find that his father, too, was

16:24

suspicious of his son. On

16:27

April 26th, when it

16:29

was announced on the local

16:31

news that Paula Davenport's car

16:33

was discovered at the Brunswick

16:35

bowler land, the seats bloodied,

16:37

the suspect's parents searched the

16:39

25-year-old's room themselves, looking

16:41

for evidence he'd done something to the

16:44

young woman, but they found nothing. The

16:47

suspect was able to account for his whereabouts

16:49

the night of April 25th, and

16:52

early morning hours of the

16:54

26th, kind of, by providing

16:57

alibi witnesses. A

16:59

friend of the man told police that he

17:01

and the suspect attended a party that night,

17:03

and that account was backed up by the

17:05

man's mother in what seemed

17:07

like the most obvious of

17:10

fabricated alibis, Paula's brother, Eddie,

17:12

and sister-in-law, Sarah, told us.

17:17

The thing that I heard was that he called his

17:19

mother every hour on the hour, all night long, but

17:22

she corroborated. I

17:24

can't imagine a 20-something-year-old man calling their mother

17:26

every hour on the hour under any circumstances,

17:28

but it's kind

17:30

of interesting that it was only that night. It wasn't the

17:32

night before, and it wasn't the night after. It was

17:35

that night. While

17:40

he's at a party, yeah. Calling Mama.

17:44

Even considering Mama's claims, there was

17:46

a small window of time that

17:48

he could not account for at

17:50

all the night Paula was slain,

17:53

around a half an hour. Detectives

17:56

felt that this was enough time to

17:58

have perpetrated the slaying of Paula

18:00

Davenport, driven her body to the

18:02

spot where it was found, and

18:04

then back to the party he'd

18:06

supposedly never left. In

18:08

fact, they had no doubt, police said,

18:11

that he had time, particularly

18:13

since they believed the crime

18:15

was premeditated. Evidence

18:17

collected but not expounded upon showed

18:20

that the suspect, police said, had

18:22

been carefully planning Paula's killing for

18:24

more than a week. They

18:27

believed that he mostly undressed the young

18:29

woman and tore the blouse that she

18:31

still wore when her body was found

18:34

in order to make the murder look

18:36

like a sexually motivated crime. With

18:39

the rash of rape-motivated crimes in

18:41

the immediate area in the prior

18:43

few years, the suspect might have

18:46

easily recalled knowledge simply from reading

18:48

the newspaper on how to make

18:50

the scene appear as such. But

18:54

for a while he cooperated with police.

18:58

This suspect gave investigators permission

19:00

to examine his vehicle, but

19:02

crime lab technicians were unable

19:04

to detect blood anywhere in

19:06

the car. The

19:08

man had plenty of time between Paula's

19:10

murder and the point in which his

19:12

vehicle was tested, perhaps, to

19:15

thoroughly wash evidence away. But

19:17

there might have been another scenario

19:19

that was just as plausible. A close

19:23

friend of the suspect also worked at

19:25

a used car lot, so detectives certainly

19:27

entertained the theory that the man didn't

19:30

even use his own vehicle in the

19:32

perpetration of the murder. Perhaps

19:35

it had even been cleaned and sold

19:37

in the interim. This

19:40

friend, police said, also had

19:42

a shaky alibi for the

19:44

night in question, and they'd

19:46

been theorizing two people were

19:48

involved. Because

19:51

Fort Worth Homicide detectives believed

19:53

that the suspect suffered from

19:55

mental disorders, they thought it

19:57

was possible he'd blocked. Paula

19:59

Depp. Imports murderer from his

20:01

mind. This. Was

20:03

clearly a time before law enforcement

20:06

was as familiar with psychology as

20:08

they are or should be. The

20:10

Today. Or. Science and general

20:12

for that matter as can be seen

20:14

in their next effort. The.

20:17

Man agreed to accompany investigators

20:19

to Dallas to be injected

20:22

with sodium pentothal on so

20:24

called truth serum and questioned

20:26

again under that drugs influence.

20:29

But. Just before of us to

20:31

take place, the suspect retained counsel

20:34

and of course his attorney was

20:36

having none of that. The.

20:38

Use of sodium pentothal on to

20:41

be fair, was simply an act

20:43

of desperation. As

20:45

any lawyer likely would, they

20:47

shut down communication between the

20:49

police and their client. Any

20:52

further contact that wasn't an

20:54

arrest the suspects attorney told

20:57

police would be considered harassment.

21:00

The Police. Basic. All the

21:02

detectors in that every worker case of yahoos

21:05

that we the wonder just never good girl

21:07

of evidence to are elected. Or.

21:09

Even charges. But.

21:12

What police did have and

21:15

know along with a situation

21:17

Etti remembers well was damning.

21:20

Police. Knew they had the guy who

21:23

killed Paul A. Davenport. And. One

21:25

of the reasons that led them

21:27

to believe this so strongly was that

21:29

he had motive something no one

21:31

else around. the twenty four year old

21:33

mother seemed to have. See

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conditions. 18 plus. Like

23:45

police, they never named him, and

23:48

were vague about details that would

23:50

out the man's identity, But

23:52

they provided a far better glimpse

23:54

into why he was considered such

23:56

a strong suspect by the cops.

24:00

How. I was romantically involved with

24:02

the suspect for a long time.

24:04

Ever told a reporter for the

24:06

Fort Worth Star Telegram. Ever

24:08

it's an adult. Didn't like him from

24:10

the get go. Parental. Intuition.

24:13

perhaps that would ultimately

24:15

and unfortunately be proven

24:18

right. Signs.

24:20

That the man was abusive had

24:22

presented themselves early on. At.

24:24

The beginning of their courtship The suspect

24:27

with deeply key cars that he thought

24:29

had parked to close to his when

24:31

he and Paula were out on dates.

24:35

He was always hi Everett said and

24:37

spoke to him and his wife with

24:39

this respect. They. Were describing

24:42

Ronald. Ronald

24:44

was emotionally and verbally abusive

24:46

to everyone he knew or

24:48

more accurately, to everyone he

24:50

knew wouldn't or couldn't kick

24:52

his ass. Not. Long

24:54

after he and Paula began dating,

24:57

Ronald began taking Paulas money and

24:59

embarrassing her in front of friends

25:01

by be little laying and eventually

25:03

of course even physically abusing her.

25:07

Abusers, however, are almost

25:09

always master manipulators. Paula.

25:13

as many abused folks do,

25:15

sometimes placed the blame on

25:17

herself even when Ronald began

25:19

beating her which we discussed

25:21

in some links last episode.

25:25

The things that we do about was

25:27

probably a small percentage of things that

25:29

I could happen because she wanted muggers

25:31

delight rather you so of a cheap

25:33

covered a lot of that stuff up.

25:36

The as far as.brigade every little thing

25:38

omens. Am a writer this right about.

25:41

It was only the beggar stuff that actually

25:43

brought to their to do what you needed

25:45

their help of a that's when she would

25:47

actually get overwhelmed by get get out of

25:49

situations. Paul. his parents

25:51

pleaded with her daughter to leave

25:53

ronald though careful in the article

25:55

not to name him to stop

25:58

her relationship with him a mean

26:00

immediately, but she wouldn't. She

26:03

loved him, she told Ethel and Everett.

26:06

But a few years after they

26:08

started dating, followed by marriage, Paula

26:10

finally had had enough and left

26:12

him, breaking off their

26:15

relationship entirely and refusing to

26:17

see the man. Ronald

26:20

began doing things like keying her

26:22

car and beating it with a

26:24

baseball bat. One evening when Paula

26:26

was at the corporate image bar,

26:28

Ronald saw her there, dragged her

26:31

out of the establishment by her

26:33

hair, and beat her in the

26:35

parking lot. It was

26:37

his bar, he told her. She was

26:39

not welcome there. Another

26:42

time Everett and Ethel said

26:44

the suspect became jealous when

26:46

he heard Paula was dating

26:48

other men. He sought her out,

26:50

beat her, and told her that if

26:52

he couldn't have her no one else

26:54

would either. Unlike

26:57

Fort Worth detectives, Everett scoffed at

26:59

the idea that the suspect suffered

27:01

from poor mental health and likened

27:04

him to little more than a

27:06

spoiled brat. Paula's

27:08

brother Eddie saw it both ways. I

27:11

think he had mental issues. I

27:14

mean, I honestly believe he has

27:16

mental issues or had, I haven't seen him so

27:18

long now, I couldn't tell you anything about him

27:21

now, but I think he had

27:23

mental issues about then plus he was a normally child.

27:25

He was spoiled brat, basically

27:27

what he was. He

27:30

could do no wrong in his mother's eyes

27:32

and she defended anything and everything he did,

27:34

regardless of how bad it was. Whether

27:37

mentally unwell, simply a narcissistic

27:39

brat, or a combination of

27:42

both, the man's abuse of

27:44

Paula was monstrous. The

27:47

Fort Worth police were never able

27:49

to obtain the evidence against this

27:51

suspect that they needed for the

27:53

district attorney to secure an indictment.

27:57

Investigators believed, however, that there was

27:59

someone else. who had the last

28:01

piece of information they needed to secure

28:03

a conviction. The

28:07

prime suspect in the August 25, 1978 murder

28:09

of Paula Puckett Davenport had help planning and

28:14

executing the act, police theorized,

28:17

based on evidence and interviews.

28:20

It was a close friend of the man. The

28:23

cops hadn't conceived this theory of

28:25

an accomplice out of thin air,

28:27

nor simply based it on the

28:29

fact that another bowler, a mutual

28:31

friend of hers and her abusive

28:33

ex-husbands, called and begged Paula to

28:35

show up that night. It's

28:38

important to remember that Paula wasn't going

28:40

to go bowling because she wasn't feeling

28:42

well, and it was only

28:44

after this call that she finally

28:47

and reluctantly decided to go. There

28:50

was other evidence, too, that

28:52

suggested a second person was

28:54

involved. There

28:57

had indeed been a witness to Paula's

28:59

murder. Police kept that

29:01

fact close to the chest until

29:03

ten years later, when they told

29:06

Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Jim Jones

29:08

about the witness. In

29:11

the first days of May,

29:13

1978, an Eastside woman was

29:15

speaking with an off-duty Fort

29:17

Worth police officer. She

29:19

began talking about details of the shooting

29:21

death of Paula Davenport. When

29:24

the officer told homicide detective Claude

29:26

Davis what the woman said, he

29:29

was floored. She

29:31

had knowledge of the crime that had

29:33

not been publicized. On

29:36

May 5, Detective Davis interviewed the woman,

29:38

who told him she had heard the

29:40

story at a local beauty parlor while

29:43

getting her hair done. She

29:45

could not reveal to Davis who had

29:48

told her because she promised she would

29:50

not identify her to anyone, the woman

29:52

said. As frustrating

29:54

as it likely was for

29:56

the lawmen, Detective Davis believed

29:58

the woman. but felt she

30:01

wasn't telling him everything. The

30:03

information was accurate, though, and held up

30:06

to what little evidence they had and

30:09

facts they knew. On June

30:12

8, the woman who'd come forward was

30:14

called to testify before a grand jury.

30:17

Turns out the woman she'd heard the

30:20

information from at the beauty parlor had

30:22

heard it from a close friend of

30:24

hers who was a regular bowler at

30:26

Brunswick, Boerland. The

30:28

information, unfortunately, had gone through

30:30

several hands. The

30:33

bowler, according to this story, had gone

30:35

in to play a few rounds and

30:37

left her twelve-year-old daughter in the car.

30:41

Just before eight p.m., the twelve-year-old

30:43

girl saw a silver Honda Civic

30:45

pull into the parking lot and

30:47

watched as two men approached the

30:50

vehicle. The woman in

30:52

the Civic rose from the seat of the car

30:54

and began arguing with one of the men. This

30:58

man pulled out a pistol, pushed

31:00

it against the left side of

31:02

the woman's chest as he shoved

31:04

her against the car. A

31:06

shot rang out. The

31:08

woman fell into the car, back into

31:11

the driver's seat, and the man with

31:13

the gun ran to the passenger side

31:15

of the vehicle, opened the door, and

31:17

another gunshot rang out. The

31:20

two men then carried the woman to

31:22

their car and placed her inside. They

31:25

returned to the Honda Civic and ripped

31:28

out the stereo. This

31:30

detail made the story particularly believable

31:32

since the police hadn't released the

31:35

fact the Paula's car stereo was

31:37

missing at that point. It

31:40

was the killer's attempt to make

31:42

the scene appear as a robbery,

31:45

police believed, which he'd later further

31:47

confuse when he staged Paula's body

31:49

to look as though she'd also

31:51

been raped. The

31:53

men returned to their vehicle after grabbing

31:55

the radio and drove away. police

32:00

finally discovered the identity of the

32:02

twelve-year-old girl who'd witnessed all of

32:04

this. Her parents refused to let

32:07

them question her. They

32:09

wouldn't let police involve her in any

32:11

way, in fact. The

32:14

only witness to the murder of

32:16

Paula Jean Puckett Davenport, the

32:18

only individual who could provide

32:20

resolution to the case, besides

32:22

the killer himself, was never

32:25

heard from again. At

32:27

least that was the case in 1988 when police revealed the

32:29

information, hoping

32:33

that the girl, who'd have been

32:35

a twenty-two-year-old woman at that point,

32:37

would come forward and help detectives

32:40

sort out her story. According

32:42

to Sarah Puckett, Eddie Puckett's wife, as

32:45

of a few years ago, the woman

32:47

has yet to come forward. In

32:50

my knowledge, four years ago, when I talked

32:52

to the female detective there, she had not.

32:55

It's unclear if the woman's name has

32:58

been lost or if detectives over the

33:00

years are simply having trouble finding her.

33:03

It would seem absurd if they're

33:05

simply waiting for someone whose identity

33:07

they know to come to them

33:09

to help solve a murder case.

33:13

Either way, she was hardly the only piece

33:15

of the puzzle. Eddie

33:17

told us about an experience

33:20

he had with his sister's

33:22

ex-husband, Ronald Russell Davenport, just

33:24

after her murder. The story

33:26

is telling. Okay,

33:40

round two. Name something that's

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not boring. A laundry?

33:45

A book club? The computer is

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falling care, huh? Ah,

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sorry. We were looking for Chumba

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a casino. Case

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we haven't met on Dino Colombo. I

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34:14

what we do every day. Navigating the

34:17

law can be tough but were tougher.

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a truck. Call Colombo Law. In

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case we haven't met on the know

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is what we do every day. I've

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seen truck action as devastate family but

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we didn't help hurt by a truck

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Falco on the law. Something.

34:41

That happened shortly after the

34:43

murder of Paula Pocket Davenport

34:45

drew further suspicion on her

34:47

abusive ex husband, Ronald. The

34:50

not that they found our body. Or.

34:53

The. I. Guess was the next day

34:55

or sleep after they found her body. The.

34:57

Place to marry my dad out from the location

34:59

where they found it. Because we as to.

35:02

And I was in a field of

35:04

jaunty was so yeah did you had

35:06

gone? You get turned off by twenty?

35:08

Don't get out Jody Waterways. And

35:11

then he just turned into like a

35:13

little dirt trail that went into the

35:15

Badger. Like it get going straight

35:17

to the know was another or path that one of

35:19

a large to tire tracks place with what it was

35:21

in the graph. As. Another will

35:23

take off to the left and then you went up

35:25

always and then another one took off to the right

35:28

in there that her body was kind of found in

35:30

that area. And. Roddy.

35:32

Later that afternoon he came over

35:34

and was asked me questions about

35:36

been over the years. He said.

35:39

Would you mind taking me out there to where

35:41

they founder of said the outdoor? Our elderly. And

35:44

businesses before we really suspected him of the

35:46

they. Were. Run out there

35:48

he was got a withdraw the course and

35:51

as he was. Just. Talk and and

35:53

tommy are you near the place like she grew

35:55

up in that area and he did all at

35:57

area. who is as i

35:59

just so crazy that she was found out here in

36:02

this area. And he

36:04

was just talking kind of sidetracked, just not

36:06

thinking. And he drove almost straight to

36:09

it without asking me a question

36:11

as to give him directions. Until

36:14

he'd already turned into the pasture and had

36:16

already made the first right turn. And then

36:18

after he got there, he stopped. And he

36:20

could tell it's kind of like a light

36:22

bulb came on in his mind and he

36:24

went, oh, where

36:26

do I go from here? And it

36:29

didn't even, because I was kind of distraught too. It

36:31

didn't even dawn on me at the time because

36:33

we were both just talking. And it really

36:35

didn't even dawn on me until that time that he supposedly didn't

36:37

even know where he was going. Yeah, he drove straight to it

36:40

nearly. And that

36:42

ever since that time, in

36:44

my head, I know that he was at least involved in

36:46

it. There's no doubt in my mind.

36:50

According to Eddie, Sarah, and a

36:52

source in law enforcement, a member

36:54

of Ronald's family was once a

36:56

Tarrant County judge. They

36:59

and Paula's friends wonder if

37:01

that is a contributing factor

37:03

to the case's status as

37:05

unsolved and cold. And

37:07

because some evidence has been lost,

37:10

a family member in the criminal

37:12

justice system is something hard to

37:14

ignore. This is

37:16

something else that's interesting too. Back

37:19

when it happened, there was no DNA type

37:21

testing or anything like that. So we started

37:23

thinking about it as we start seeing these

37:25

cases that had DNA being solved. And

37:28

so Sarah had called up there and talked

37:30

to them and they have lost

37:32

all of her clothing that

37:34

was collected at the time that she

37:37

was found. So none of

37:39

that stuff is in evidence anymore. And

37:41

no one knows why. Her jewelry is

37:43

still there. Her jewelry is still there, but the

37:46

clothing specifically that would have been able to potentially

37:48

have DNA is missing. It's

37:51

interesting to me that that's no

37:53

longer there and they all have an explanation for why

37:56

it's not there. There's

37:58

a strict chain of custody whenever. an

38:01

item is moved, it has to be signed out,

38:03

it has to be someone has to be responsible

38:05

for that and then it has to

38:07

be signed back in and if it if it changes

38:09

hands somewhere in between that chain of

38:11

custody has to be maintained otherwise the evidence

38:13

is no longer valid and how

38:15

they can just no longer have it baffles

38:18

me. Something

38:20

Ethel used to tell Paula

38:22

now seems almost foreboding. Ethel

38:25

used to tell Paula all the time, you've

38:28

got to get away from Ronnie, he's going to killing you and

38:30

she said mom that's that's trouble his mother

38:32

couldn't get him out of. Yeah

38:35

I remember that. Yeah. Over

38:39

the years because the crime against

38:41

Paula was at a bowling alley

38:43

her murder theorized by some to

38:45

have been rape motivated her body

38:48

dumped in a rural area and

38:50

the weapon used on her was

38:52

a 22 caliber pistol. Some

38:54

have theorized that whoever killed Carla

38:56

Walker in 1974 could

38:59

have been responsible for killing Paula

39:01

as well. The

39:03

similarities or rather coincidences

39:05

are striking no doubt

39:08

a possible abduction from a bowling alley

39:10

and the same caliber pistol used in

39:13

both crimes although Carla

39:15

was strangled and not shot. However

39:18

the circumstantial evidence collected against

39:21

Fort Worth Police Department's strongest

39:23

and by all indications only

39:26

suspect in Paula Davenport's shooting

39:28

death appears to be only

39:30

a few missing pieces shy

39:33

of explaining exactly what happened.

39:35

It seems unlikely

39:38

that Carla Walker's recently

39:40

identified killer Glen Samuel

39:42

McCurley could have been

39:44

responsible for Paula Davenport's

39:46

slaying. Just

39:48

a couple months before Paula Davenport was

39:51

killed in late January 1978 her mother

39:55

Ethel remembers showing her the Fort

39:57

Worth Star telegram. It

39:59

was a story about the murder of Leisha

40:01

Ann McGee, who was brutally stabbed to

40:03

death and placed in the trunk of

40:05

her own car. The

40:07

white 1968 Chevy Impala,

40:09

Leisha's prized possession, had been left

40:12

on the side of the highway,

40:14

the inside covered in her blood.

40:18

Upon reading the story, Paula Davenport turned

40:20

to her mother and remarked that it

40:22

must be the saddest thing in the

40:24

world for Leisha's mother to live with.

40:27

Paula's mother, Ethel, agreed, without

40:30

so much as an inkling

40:32

of a clue, that three

40:34

months later, she, her husband

40:36

Everett, and teenage son Eddie,

40:38

would be left with the

40:40

empty loneliness and perpetual grief

40:42

caused by losing Paula. Eddie's

40:45

wife, Sarah, told us that Ethel

40:47

spoke about Paula at every opportunity,

40:50

and to anyone who would listen.

40:53

She kept meticulous notes about

40:55

her and Everett's investigation into

40:58

Paula's case. Ethel

41:00

told Sarah many times about a

41:02

conversation with another ex-wife of Ronald

41:05

Russell Davenport. You

41:07

know, another story that Eddie's mom used

41:09

to talk to me about this all the time, but

41:11

one of the stories that she would tell me was

41:13

that Ronnie, he got married after Paula, and

41:16

after they separated or divorced, she

41:18

called Ethel and told Ethel that

41:21

just so you know, Ronnie has

41:23

nightmares almost every night, and it's

41:25

always about Paula. Several

41:28

years after the cold-blooded murder of her

41:31

daughter at the hands of a coward,

41:33

Ethel commented that she stopped living

41:35

the day Paula died. Though

41:38

she believed the Fort Worth police were

41:41

doing all they could to catch her

41:43

daughter's killer, Ethel said it wouldn't bring

41:45

her back. Paula's

41:47

killer, evading justice, her father

41:49

Everett said, had made things

41:52

difficult for him, and if

41:54

it weren't for his faith grounding

41:56

him, he added, he'd get his

41:58

gun and himself. kill the

42:00

person he knows in his heart

42:03

is responsible. Losing

42:05

a child to such a heinous

42:07

and senseless act of violence is

42:10

unfathomably painful, but Ethel and Everett,

42:12

who adopted Paula when she was

42:14

a baby, had a particularly hard

42:16

time moving forward after her murder.

42:20

Their sadness and loss of joy

42:22

in life was clear and even

42:24

pervasive throughout their interviews with media.

42:28

Looking for their visitation rights

42:30

to Paula's boy, Shane, in

42:33

the following several years only

42:35

exacerbated their feelings of loss.

42:38

Shane was their connection to Paula

42:40

and after her murder, Ronald Russell

42:42

Davenport got custody, eventually moved out

42:45

of state and continually made it

42:47

difficult for the grandparents to see

42:49

him. Everett

42:52

and Ethel Pocket were married for sixty years

42:54

when he died in 1999. Ethel

42:58

passed away in 2016. Paula's

43:02

room was still completely intact

43:05

until the day that Eddie's

43:08

mom had to move to assisted living and that

43:10

was in 2013. She

43:16

still had her bedroom suit that Paula had hand

43:18

painted herself. She still had

43:21

her jewelry boxes and, gosh,

43:23

I mean, just housewares, dishes, pottery.

43:30

Eddie Puckett and his sister were close. He

43:33

looked up to her and she spoiled

43:35

and protected him. Paula's

43:38

violent loss has affected Eddie to

43:41

this day, of course. Not

43:44

only did he lose his sister,

43:46

but in some ways he also

43:48

lost pieces of his parents. The

43:51

family was never the same after

43:53

Paula's murder and the uncertainty, the

43:55

lack of justice for her, only

43:58

made things worse. These

44:00

factors are what led Eddie into

44:02

a career in law enforcement. That

44:06

was kind of the catalyst for me

44:08

going into law enforcement. I

44:10

always figured if, if I could help

44:12

prevent that from happening to one family, it'd

44:15

be all worth it. So that was

44:17

kind of my outlook on going into law enforcement. You

44:20

know, because losing your sister or anybody in

44:22

your family off that, it's very, it's catastrophic,

44:24

especially when you're younger. And of course

44:27

my parents, you know, it ruined their lives for the

44:30

vast majority of the rest of their years. I think they

44:33

never got over it. And

44:36

so that's pretty catastrophic on the whole family.

44:41

If you have any information about

44:43

the murder of Paula Jean Puckett Davenport,

44:45

please contact the Fort Worth police

44:47

cold case unit at 817-392-4307. We'd

44:55

like to extend a special thanks

44:57

to Sarah and Eddie Puckett for

44:59

their contributions to this episode. Thanks

45:02

also to Buster O'Keefe for his

45:04

help. If

45:07

you like Gone Cold's mission

45:09

to renew the public's interest

45:11

in cold cases, you can

45:13

support the show at patreon.com/Gone

45:15

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45:17

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45:20

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45:22

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45:24

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45:27

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45:29

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45:32

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45:34

appreciate it more than words can express.

45:37

You can find Gone

45:39

Cold online at gonecold.com

45:42

or on nearly all the social

45:44

media platforms by searching at Gone

45:46

Cold podcast. You

45:48

can also find a link in bio

45:50

in the episode's description. Thanks

45:53

for listening. Y'all. In

45:56

case we haven't met, I'm Dino Colombo. I

45:58

represent people hurt by. a truck. It's

46:00

what we do every day. Navigating

46:03

the law can be tough, but we're

46:05

tougher. Let us handle the fight.

46:07

Hurt by a truck, call Colombo Law. In

46:12

case we haven't met, I'm Dino Colombo.

46:14

I represent people hurt by a truck.

46:16

It's what we do every day. I've

46:19

seen truck accidents devastate families, but

46:21

we can help. Hurt by a

46:23

truck, call Colombo Law.