Cold Case Files - REOPENED: Abandoned Houses

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Two little girls go missing in Akron under the exact same circumstances. When their bodies are discovered, the families and investigators are desperate to stop the killer before he strikes again.

This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence against children. Some of it is really hard to hear. In Akron, Ohio, two little girls went missing. The first disappeared in January of 1995. Then, almost exactly a year later, the second girl was taken. The response was almost identical in both cases. The family searched for hours, believing the girls might have taken a wrong turn or lost track of time at a friend's house. Eventually, though, they had to admit their worst fears and call the police to report the girls missing.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. I'm Brooke, and here's the illustrious Bill Curtis with a classic case, Abandoned Houses. When she made me that promise in the look in her eyes to tell me that she would be back before it got dark, I believed her. On a winter's night, 13-year-old Melissa Thomas promises her mother she'll be home before dark. Darkness falls, and there's no sign of Melissa. Family and friends hit the streets of West Akron. Just searching, looking, you know, asking questions, stopping people on the street, and, you know, doing whatever we could to try to find her.

After hours of searching, Sonia Merchant calls police. Actually, I took a report from her, but still the grandmother was who she was. The next day, Officer Bertina King gets the case and recognizes the name immediately. She stops first at the home of Melissa's sister, the last person to see Melissa. We're at 710 Westerly Road, Apartment F. This is where I took the missing persons report on Melissa Thomas. Went all through here, knocking on some doors, asking anybody I see, do you know who Melissa is?

But we're looking for her, telling people what she had on. And we put out like a bolo. We put out on all the channels what she looked like, who we're looking for. And I stopped at all the businesses up Worcester Avenue and let them know she was missing. For days, there is no sign of Melissa. I was trying to think that nothing bad was happening. I was hoping that maybe, you know, she was with somebody

and hoping that she would just come back. Me and my partner were working on the house, and I went to the second floor. On January 26th, John Redd is cleaning up an abandoned house on East Avenue. I was walking down that hallway, and I discovered a body. It was a dead 13-year-old girl. Redd runs next door for help. Moments later, Detective Washington Lacey is on the scene.

The first thing on my mind was, we're in trouble. That was the first thing, we're in trouble, because that type of thing just doesn't happen every day in Akron. She was bound both hands and feet. You could see just from looking at her, she had material in her mouth, and she had, like I said, it was obvious that she was pulling. She had pulled this material away from her bindings. A teenager trying to bite herself free.

It's an image that touches even the toughest of detectives. And there was a little tear coming out of her right eye, and that didn't help the situation either. The body is ID'd as Melissa Thomas. A short time later, a mother's phone rings. They identified the body, and I lost it. I lost it. I lost it. You see this type of stuff happen to everybody else.

You see it on TV. You see it everywhere else. And you never think that it would hit home. I can't believe this. I couldn't believe it. You know, why? Melissa Thomas was strangled to death. Seaman is also recovered from her body. Despite the forensic leads, no suspects are developed. We just didn't know.

Jess kept running into dead air. Melissa's case falls into the cold files, and a child killer remains at large on the streets of West Akron. I had to go to traffic court that night, and she was going to go with me. Pat Huffman has a 7 p.m. date in traffic court. Pat's 12-year-old stepdaughter, Rosie, plans to join her. Rosie promises to be home by 6. And she says, I'll be back. She says, I'm going to go to court with you.

She was all excited about going to traffic court. So it comes 6 o'clock and no Rosie. 6.15, still no Rosie. 6.30, no Rosie. Pat and Rosie's father, Jerry, searched the neighborhood for hours.

We had a big picture window in the apartment and he sat there looking out that window saying, Rosie's going to be up here any minute now. We're going big picture window in the apartment, and he sat there looking out that window saying, Rosie's going to be up here any minute now. We're going to see Rosie any minute, and he sat there looking out that window all night long, and still no Rosie. The family files a missing persons report, then considers the worst. I knew in my heart then that just something told me she wasn't coming home no more because it wasn't like Rosie to do that. And I told Jerry, I said, you know, I hope for the best, but I said, I have a bad feeling.

And he says, what do you mean? I said, I don't think Rosie's coming back anymore. Well, right now we're standing beside property 154 South Maple, heading back to 156 South Maple, which is no longer here. On March 5, 1996, Michael Johnson cleans up his latest purchase, a duplex on South Maple Street. I had a trash bag with me, and I reached down and grabbed a handful of clothes. It was just trash everywhere.

That's when I turned around, and that's when I saw her leg. Well, I ran upstairs, called 911, and told them, I think I found a dead body. We were dispatched to 156 South Maple roughly a little after 5 o'clock. Akron police officer Mike Stover drives up minutes after the call. We're outside of 156 South Maple, which was the scene of the homicide. We get to the bottom of the stairs, and they said that underneath some clothing they had found her.

I looked over, and as you can see there, immediately there's a red line across the throat of the young lady. That was the first thing that jumped out at me. Stover tapes off the crime scene and calls homicide. Police suspect the victim may be Rosie Davenport. A knock on Pat Huffman's door confirms it. I knew it was the police. I opened the door and he showed me a badge and he says, did you report a little girl missing? I said, yeah. He said, could you tell me was she wearing a Garfield watch? And I said, yes. I knew then

that they had found her. He said, well, we just found her body. I mean, that was heartbreaking. Okay, I just transferred to the unit, the Crimes Against Persons unit, and this was my second day on the job. Jerry Kelly takes the lead on the case and works with a team of detectives. They attend the autopsy on what would have been Rosie Davenport's 13th birthday. The evidence from the sexual assault was that it was very brutal, very painful. Very strong memories from this one because the victim was so terrorized, was so innocent, was a victim with a capital V. You know, this girl should have been out roller skating the next day with her friends. She shouldn't have been lying in the basement, mutilated, strangled, raped, and murdered. We knew we were dealing with a monster.

So what we need to do is, you know, to get busy and do our homework and get out there, beat the streets, and find out who did it. We're on South Maple Street. Actually, one of our last spottings of Rosie on Saturday was in this area. Detectives find their first lead at the last place Rosie was seen, the home of Michelle Lindsay and her live-in boyfriend, Dundee Craig. She was visiting Michelle Lindsay, who has several daughters of Rosie's age, and it was sort of a gathering place for a lot of the kids there.

I didn't like her walking home because she was too little. At that time, Michelle Lindsay told us that Don D. Craig and his brother, Dwayne, was going to offer Rosie a ride because they didn't like her walking down the street after dark. It was too dark for her to walk home by herself. So that's the reason why I offered her a cab. Michelle said that Rosie declined the offer, said she'd be fine and left.

A few moments later, Michelle said that Dondi, her live-in boyfriend, left the house as well, and she hadn't seen him since. The next thing we did was, of course, talk to Dondi Craig. He denied any knowledge of knowing Rosie Davenport, said he never saw the girl, doesn't know of course, talk to Donnie Craig. He denied any knowledge of knowing Rosie Davenport, said he never saw the girl, doesn't know of her, never had any contact with her. Donnie said that, but Donnie seen her, Donnie met her.

She was in the same house with Donnie. He stayed with us, so I don't know why he want to sit and say he never met her, because he was in the same house. When Donnie Craig refuses a polygraph, police dig a little deeper and find suspicious activity in Craig's criminal history. There were very similar cases where it involved abandoned houses, it involved being tied up in sexual assaults. It's kind of like the old ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

You know, the red flags come up, you know, the pointers start pointing. Like I said, he goes right to the top of the list. Smith returns to Craig's apartment looking to prove his case. We wanted to have a sample of his blood for DNA testing. Initially he said he would do that, then he changed his mind. So now we were at the point where Dundee Craig was really looking as a strong suspect. Dundee Craig is arrested after refusing to provide his DNA. After a night in the lockup, he consents to a blood draw.

Craig's DNA samples and the evidence are shipped to the DNA lab. But before testing begins, a problem arises. The problem that we had is the delay in finding Rosie. You know, we were talking 48 hours, maybe up to 72 hours by the time she had died and by the time she had been found. The sperm evidence had already started to break down or deteriorate. Lab analysts are unable to develop a DNA profile from the semen evidence. With no physical evidence tying Dondi Craig to the crime, police are unable to press charges. We did not have enough evidence to make charges against them.

We had our police instinct, but that won't win you a case in court. As the months pass, little develops on Rosie Davenport's case. Detectives reluctantly set aside the case. Forgetting it, however, is another matter. There's some cases that just won't ever leave. Well, to me, this was the case. I'll never forget Rosie. I'll never forget that autopsy. We've had a lot of cold cases in our city that's been around for a lot of years. The one that we wanted to solve real bad was this one. The rest of the case, after this. for something like this to happen in our little town. Focusing on the communities affected by life-shattering crimes. It made news throughout the entire region that these two people had been shot while they slept in such a safe community.

To give a new perspective on the devastation crimes can cause. It was shocking for something like this to happen in our little town. Featuring cases from quiet towns to bustling cities and interviewing the people closest to the case. My first thought was that it's an unusual location for us to have a homicide. Listen to the true crime podcast City Confidential and step beyond the yellow tape to learn just how far a crime can reach. There are certain cases in the history of Boston that I think sort of define the city. I think this is one of them. New episodes of the City Confidential podcast

are available every Thursday, available wherever you get your podcasts. The violent murders of Melissa Thomas and Rosie Davenport were impossible to forget. The sheer brutality of the crimes left its mark. So it was the kind of case that never faded away. It never got easier for the families. And the officers knew that somewhere a child murderer was free, out on the streets. Investigators even had a likely suspect.

But without a solid genetic sample, they couldn't arrest him. And without a single witness or any other physical evidence, officers were forced to shelve the investigation. The case file would stay on that shelf for another six years, until a cold case detective decided to take another crack at the crime scene evidence. The initial step was to come down here and locate the evidence with Rosie. Everything down this row is like murderer's row. Detective Jim Pisalich is working overtime in Akron's evidence locker. Grant Money is paying for DNA testing on unsolved cases. This is where these cases are won or lost. This is what we're looking for is how good a job did we do back then at collecting? Storage-wise, is it still good? Can we still use it? The first case he pulls is one of

only two unsolved child murders in Akron. Her name is Rosie Davenport. Six years earlier, the 12-year-old was found raped and strangled. There was something we were looking for for that semen, what was present and left behind by the person that both kidnapped her, raped and killed her. Upon a shelf, Vasilich finds Rosie's rape kit. Inside it, hopefully, a DNA profile. The swabs. The swabs that were obtained at the medical examiner's office in 1996. If you can get that DNA and get them to try to explain how that DNA got there, and in this case there's no good reason.

You've got a 12-year-old girl, how did your DNA get inside of her? There's no good reason. You've got a 12-year-old girl. How did your DNA get inside of her? There's no good reason. Pasailich sends the swabs to the DNA lab, along with samples from several identified suspects. Of special interest to Pasailich, an uncooperative suspect named Donald Craig. Dondi was the number one suspect from day one. There just wasn't enough to charge him with back at that time.

When we start the DNA extraction process, we'll take a tube and open it and cut a portion of the sample. In August of 2002, forensic scientist Linda Eveleth tests evidence from Rosie Davenport's rape kit and isolates two distinct DNA profiles. Two DNA profiles. It was consistent with Rosanna Davenport and Donald Craig. We're happy.

The arrest is coming. It's not a matter of if it is, it's only when. Dundee Craig is easy to find. He's in prison on an unrelated charge. Before approaching him, cold case detectives work up a little background on their suspect. We start looking back through police reports and we find a case in 1991 where he was arrested for raping a 17-year-old girl. The 17-year-old is LaVale Calhoun. Her case file reads like a blueprint for the attack on Rosie Davenport. The only apparent difference, this victim lived to tell her story.

That's a face I'll never forget. In 1991, Dondi Craig visits LaVale Calhoun's house with some friends. LaVale agrees to drive with him for fast food. He wanted to make a stop. He said he was house-sitting for somebody, and he wanted to make a stop and check on the house. So we get through the front door, and he was like, wait right here. I said, why is it dark?

And as I turned to grab the doorknob, he threw a sheet over me. I mean, I was just screaming. I started screaming. And he was like, shut up. Be quiet or I'm going to kill you. He picked me up, carried me up the steps. He threw me down on this bed. He got up on my back and pinned me down, tied both of my hands to the bed, bet not move.

I couldn't scream no more. I had tape on my mouth. After he tied my hands to the bed, he took my clothes off, and he raped me there. It seemed like hours. It really did. I really thought I was going to die. I really did. I really did. LaVale is eventually untied and allowed to dress. Donald Craig then drives his victim home, but not before making one more stop. He went through the drive-thru before he took me home.

And then he dropped me off. I jumped out of that car so fast, and I ran out and I told my mother what happened. Craig is charged with rape and goes to jail, only to be released a short time later. I thought he was in jail. I went to court twice, testified, and I thought he was in jail. The ball got dropped at the grand jury level.

Somebody dropped the ball for LaValle Calhoun. The detective who was assigned the case was on vacation, so they never heard from the detective in this case. It should have been picked up by the next grand jury. I mean, that's what it comes down to. It fell through the cracks. LaVale Calhoun might have fallen through the cracks. She will, however, get her day in court,

on the witness stand in Rosie Davenport's murder trial. Before detectives take the case to court, they take it to prison, where Dondi Craig is finishing up a seven-year stretch for arson. I know that he had no idea that we were looking into this case. Here's my question to you, Dondi. Is there any reason your DNA should be inside of it? We're at the Belmont Corrections Institute, Belmont, Ohio. In January of 2003, Don D. Craig is in prison when he gets an unexpected visit from detectives. Make a mistake. You try to befriend him when you first go in there. I mean, the easy question to start with, you know, do you even know who Rosie is?

Remember the incident that we're talking about? Rosie Dabney? Yeah, quite a bit. After 45 minutes of easy back and forth, detectives begin to tighten up on their suspect. There was a certain point in time where you have to hit him with the science and says, we know you did it. And then that's when it really escalated. Okay, point blank questions,

because you know we have to ask them. Did you kill Rosie? No, I didn't. Did you rape Rosie? No. Did you have sex with Rosie? No. After the expected denials,

detectives confront Dundee with some science. Here's my question to you, Dundee. Is there any reason your DNA should be inside of it? If my DNA was in there, they would have found that out. It's the whole reason we're here now. Yeah. Your DNA is inside of Rose. How can they be able to do that?

Because I ain't got no knowledge of the group. Dundee. Again, he still denies everything. He knows now why we're down there. He knows we have DNA. We're coming down there for a reason. He still denies it. Straight up, your DNA was inside Rosie.

Okay, that's the case. Let's go to court with him. Okay. And that's what we did. We went to court with me. Okay. And that's what we did. We went to court with him. This was the courtroom that Rosie Davenport's case was tried in. In June of 2004, Dondi Craig goes on trial for kidnapping, rape, and aggravated murder. Dondi Craig was the last person to see her and his face was the last face that rosie davenport saw dna evidence coupled with lavelle calhoun's testimony makes for a compelling case we the jury in this case find the defendant donald

lavelle craig guilty of the offense he was found guilty in all charges the uh kidnapping the rape and the murder of rosie davenport it still goes through my mind all the time why why a baby because that's all rosie was he didn't even give her a chance for life. He's the devil. He's the devil. They ought to bring back the electric chair just for him. July 22, 2004. Dondi Craig is sentenced to death by lethal injection. Rosie Davenport's homicide is officially closed.

Her file's packed away. The investigation into Craig, however, continues. I think back in the back of our minds, we thought we'd be talking to Dondi again. I brought him here to a room similar to this one, and he and I, we talked for about an hour. In 2004, Detective Gary Shady interviews a jailhouse informant who says a fellow inmate might be good for an unsolved murder from 1995.

He specifically told me that the young girl was killed in the west side of Akron, that she had been raped, that she was tied up, and that she had been strangled manually. Shady asks around about the case and is quickly handed the file of Melissa Thomas, a 13-year-old raped and murdered in 1995. So I started putting pieces together and said, well, someone is giving him some information that's pretty reliable. The tipster refuses to give up the name of the suspect.

Instead, he leaves the detective work to Shady. Once I ran him into Summit County Jail, pulled up his housing, I realized Donald Craig was also in his unit. Shady heads straight to the desk of the man who put Craig away for another child murder. I came to you because you were working on Roseanne and I'm like, hey man, this sounds like the same person. You're right, they're exactly the same. You just change the names of the of the victims. You change Rosie and Melissa, you can interchange them. They're exactly the same. In December of 2005, semen evidence recovered during Melissa Thomas's

autopsy is compared with Dondi Craig's DNA. The result? A perfect match. I was jumping out of my chair. I really was. With that, Dondi Craig is charged. Eight months later, he goes to trial. In the summer of 2006, Donald Craig is found guilty of a second crime against a child, the rape and murder of Melissa Thomas. On August 16th, Craig returns to court for sentencing. All right, let the record show the sentencing of Donald L. Craig. Craig's sentencing begins with statements from the victim's family.

To you, Donald Craig, I just want you to know that you caused us a lot of sleepless nights. You caused me a lot of painful days. And I miss my baby that you took from me. And you sit there and you don't make amends and you don't act like you did anything to anybody. But I just want you to know that God bless you. And may he bless your soul. But I am so glad that you can't hurt anybody else's child. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, Reverend. Mr. Thank you, Reverend. Mr. Craig, please stand. Hereby sentence you to be taken to the Ohio Department of Corrections and be put to death for that murder. No emotion crosses Dondi Craig's face as he receives his second death sentence. Behind him, however, Melissa Thomas' family is overjoyed. Outside the courtroom, a grateful mother offers open arms to the detectives who worked the case.

We didn't forget about them. We never forget about anybody. We don't forget. We don't forget. You're welcome. You're welcome. There's one last stop for Sonia Merchant and her family, a visit to Melissa's memorial on East Avenue, across the street from where Melissa's body was found.

It's a place to remember and to pray. Father, I ask that you grab my baby and that you hug her and you kiss her and you tell her that we love her and she will always forever be in our hearts, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I know that Melissa can rest in peace. She will never be forgotten. Never. She will always be here.

But we can go on with our lives now. I have to give the families a lot of credit in this case. I don't know that I could ask for blessings on behalf of a person who viciously murdered someone I loved. It seemed like they found peace rather than vengeance in Craig's death sentence. That's because it meant he wouldn't be able to murder another innocent child. And to that end, the sentence stuck. Donald Craig was never executed by lethal injection, but he also never saw freedom again. Craig died in 2012 after spending seven months in a prison hospital for an undisclosed illness. He was 52 years old.

Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn and Steve Delamater. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. We're distributed by Podcast One. is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn and Steve Delamater. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. We're distributed by Podcast One. Cold Case Files Classic was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by the one and only Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at aetv.com or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the A&E Real Crime blog at aetv.com slash real crime. It's summertime, and with Pluto TV's Summer of Cinema, the streaming is easy. Stream hundreds of free movies on all your favorite devices all summer long. Chill out poolside with Mission Impossible and

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