Every Town - Sleepover Nightmare: The Terrifying Story of Polly Klaas and How It Changed Law Enforcement Forever

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

The story of Polly Klass is one that reached far and wide because it violated something that every single one of us values…And that’s the safety, comfort and fun of our own homes. Ultimately her case changed the face of law enforcement all across the United States and for good reason, because the man who did all this, never should have been allowed to be let out of prison as he was a clear danger to any community he stepped foot in. So let’s head over to Petaluma California and learn about the rarest of kidnappings that had a terrible outcome….This is the story of Polly Klaas. 💥 Watch Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎃 Exclusive Content & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast - Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 💀 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 💥 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. When you're a kid, like 10 or 11 years old, one of the best things ever, were those nights when your parents gave you the okay, you got to have a sleepover with your friends. It didn't matter whether you went to their house or they came to yours as each home presented to you a different set of opportunities like a choose-your-own-adventure book.

And some parents were stricter than others. At one home, you could find a plethora of candy. snacks and stay up late. At another, he had to be very quiet because the dad had to be up very, very early. In some ways, these sleepovers are everyone's first glimpse into the way the world functions as a whole. It's made up of all different types of people, and this is the first intimate glimpse of that outside of your neighborhood and school. So for the two friends, were with Polly Clas the night she was kidnapped right out of her bedroom.

It was another shock that undoubtedly still affects them today. And for Polly, it was an experience that was far worse and tragic and her story captured the nation. Hey guys, it's Andrew and welcome to another episode of Everytown where today we're looking into the ultimate story

of home invasion and parents' worst nightmare come true. The story of Polly Class is one that reached far and why because it violated something that every single one of us values, and that's the safety, comfort, and fun of our own homes. Ultimately, our case changed the face of law enforcement all across the U.S. and for good reason, because the man who did all this never should have been allowed to be let out of prison as he was a clear danger to any community he stepped foot in. So, let's head over to Petaluma, California, and learn about the rarest of kidnappings that had a terrible outcome. This is the story of Polly Class. It was early fall in Petaluma, California, a beautiful town in Sonoma County, located about an hour north of San Fram. On Friday, October 1st of 1993, 12-year-old Pauly had two of her friends over to her mom's house for a sleepover.

It was a night of fun when I spent the earlier part of the evening just hanging out, making some popcorn and watching movies. As the night wore on, Polly's sister eventually went up to her room to go to bed. Not long after that, her mother Eve needed to pack it in for the night too. While the girls were still wide awake

because of the excitement of hanging out together, the three of them headed up to Polly's bedroom where they closed the door and continued talking about whatever it is that 12-year-old girls discuss. And so, all was right in the world at that moment. Everything was normal except that a very bad man was lurking around their town that night. It was around 10.30 p.m. in the lives of the class family and all those that knew them would forever be tragically changed. Richard Davis was a career criminal who was 39 years old back in 1993.

and he was born in San Francisco to two parents who were both abusive alcoholics. To give you just a glimpse of what Richard experienced, when he was just three years old, him and his brothers were playing with matches. In order to teach them a lesson, Richard's mother held each of the boys' hands to a burning hot stove so they could understand what it felt like to be burned and also ensure they never play with fire again. However, as they often do, these kinds of punishments have the opposite effect, and from then on, Richard's life was on a trajectory of all sorts of bad things. He grew up in that kind of environment, watching his parents fight violently until they divorced when he was 11. His early teens are when he really began to get in trouble. He was 12 when he was put on probation for burglary, which would happen again when he was 15.

At 17, he got caught stealing a motorcycle and the judge let him choose to go into the army rather than juvie and he was discharged after 13 months. As an interesting side note in 1973, he attended a party where an 18-year-old woman was later found dead from gunshot wound. While there were notes at the scene saying she had chosen to do this herself, He was widely believed by many who were there that night, that Davis had something to do with her demise, although that was never proven. Davis didn't serve any time for that, but he did go to jail for the kidnapping of a woman named Francis Mays

after he forced her into his car at knife point. He drove her to a secluded neighborhood with some bad intentions, but Mays was able to get a hold of the knife before getting herself out of the car and ran away towards the highway. In and out of jail, Davis went after that for various burglaries and selling stolen items. He would receive sentences like six months to 15 years, but he was always let out after short stint, while he'll go back and commit more crimes.

He would go on to reveal to a psychiatrist that stealing provided him some sort of comfort, like it was almost a compulsion that filled the void of whatever it was he was missing in his life. He couldn't control himself, was diagnosed with an antisocial and schizoid personality disorder, and so by all accounts this man was a danger to society. But Davis somehow always had a way of slipping through the cracks. In 1982, he was let out of jail again, and after that committed a string of robberies and assaults with a girlfriend who became his accomplice named Sue Edwards. At this point, he was becoming more violent in his ways. In an 84, the couple went over to Selina Varick's house in Redwood City, California.

Edwards knew Selena through her sister and knew she had some money, so... Once there, they beat her up pretty good and threatened to kill her, her father and daughter, who were both there at the time, if she didn't give them $6,000. At first, she refused, and they pistol-wipped Selina in the head, causing a big gash that required five stitches eventually. But before she got those, they had her wash her hair before bringing her down to the local bank where she got them their money. Selina described Davis as evil with scary eyes and gloating expressions, a nod to his antisocial disorders. Shortly after the attack, Davis would be pulled over for a broken taillight, at which point he was arrested for the crime.

He then spent the next eight years in jail before being paroled once again in July of 1993, and that was just three months before he made his way to Petaluma and then into Polly's home. Back in Polly's bedroom, the three girls were just hanging out when an intoxicated Davis, for reasons unknown, had chosen the classhouse to break into. Given his history of robberies, likely it was a spur of the moment decision, and he was drunk enough, and just like the look of the house, so he decided to go in. A criminal like Davis doesn't fear law enforcement all that much, as they have been in his life since he can remember.

He commits crimes, goes to jail, gets out, does more bad things. That's just how it is. His main intent was probably stealing what he could find and the fact that Polly and her friends were in there was just happenstance. Petaluma was a safe place to live, so Davis crept in through an unlocked window. Once inside, he heard the three girls chatting and laughing, and he just couldn't resist going in to see what all the phone was about.

Before he did, though, he grabbed a large knife from the kitchen. Again, this is an indication that none of this was prepared. He crept quietly up to Polly's bedroom door, and then he opened it the horror of the three preteens. He told the girls to keep quiet, that if they obeyed, everything would be fine. He wasn't there to do any harm, he was just looking for some money, and with the girls utterly terrified, they did as they were told,

and then proceeded to tie up Polly and her friends with some white rope, and then he put pillowcases over two of the girls' heads before telling them that he'd bring Polly back after he was done stealing the valuables in the house. Davis instructed them to count to 1,000, which they started to do, And then, after several minutes, they stopped so they could listen. The house was quiet. No stirring, no footsteps walking around.

And Polly had been returned. Roughly 30 minutes after the encounter in Polly's bedroom, a call came into 911 from Polly's mother Eve. The girls had managed to get to her room to tell her what had happened, but it seemed so strange and unusual that Eve at first thought it was a prank. Her words to the operator on the other end reflected this when she stated, Uh, apparently a man just broke into her house and took my daughter. She was in complete disbelief. In all points, bulletin was then put out by police across the entirety of Sonoma County. They were to be on the lookout for a missing girl and the man who had taken her.

However, this broadcast went out over Channel 1 on all police radio. and Channel 1 was only used by the Sonoma County Sheriff's offices. And that meant that the APB reached every sheriff of every town in the county, but it was their job to disseminate that information down to their officers locally from there. Deputies on patrol were always turned to Channel 3 so they could communicate with one another. And this note is important because had that APB reached two officers just 90 minutes after it had been sent out, They could have had their man that very night And possibly found Polly before it was too late

At just around midnight in the rural area of Santa Rosa It is about 20 miles north of Polly's home a babysitter Who was leaving her employer's property noticed a vehicle Stuck in a ditch along their isolated and long driveway It looked to be stuck but it was a bit suspicious Because what was it doing there on a private driveway in the first place The babysitter got to a nearby gas station and called the property owner Dana Jaffe to tell her about it, which she also found strange and scary in the middle of the night.

Dana was a single mom who worked as a chef, so she had a babysitter in that night looking after her daughter while she was at work. Dana didn't want to deal with whatever this may be after a long night, so she just got in her car with her daughter to leave in case whoever. it was had bad intentions and was headed up to the house. And her instincts were correct because the person in the ditch was Davis, and he definitely had bad intentions that night. As Dana left, she actually drove by Davis and made eye contact with him, where she saw the same cold eyes as victim Selena had described all those years back. And Dana then reached the same gas station as her babysitter called 911 to have police go check on it. And two,

Two deputies arrived shortly after where they found the car in Davis, but this time it claimed to have swerved away from a deer before ending up on the driveway where he got stuck. Now remember, they didn't know about the APB out on Polly, so per protocol, they ran his license and plate number, but there were no warrants out from him since he had just gotten out of prison three months ago. So they had nothing on him. But they did, of course, see that Davis was a career criminal with a long rap sheet. So they were on the fence about his deer crossing the road story.

I'm sure they believed he may have intended to rob Dana's place at worst, but they never imagined he had abducted a 12-year-old girl just a couple hours earlier. They pushed for Dana to make a citizen's arrest so they could bring him in and dig deeper. Under California law, if someone is on your property and has caused damage, While it's only a misdemeanor, the cops could technically arrest him and then maybe find out what he was up to. But it would first require that Dana came down and be face-to-face with Davis, literally say the words, I arrest you in front of the deputies, so that they could do it. Ultimately, she didn't want to do that.

She didn't want to make a big deal about any of it and just wanted to go to bed. So with no other angles to work on, police call for a tow truck to get them out, While they waited, they made sure to at least peek inside his vehicle. It was messy, but there were no outward signs of anything being amiss other than an open container of beer. Davis said he had opened it after getting stuck, and because he wasn't driving, when the police arrived, they just took his word for it and had him dump it out before he got behind the wheel. The tow truck pulled Davis free, and he thanked the deputies for their help before he got in his car and followed him back to Highway 1,000. where he went on his merry way.

This was, of course, a decision that would go on to haunt this investigation in the class family. And they had the man right then and there, just hours after he had taken Pauley. Was she alive somewhere? We don't know. But due to a lack of communication with the precinct, Davis was able to slip through the cracks once again. The news of Polly being kidnapped while just simply having a sleepover struck a row. real cord across the nation and news spread fast about it. The world had just been introduced to the internet around six months prior, and Polly's missing persons poster was the first ever to circulate online. Over the next two months, millions of flyers would reach every corner of the globe.

Polly herself would be featured on the cover of People magazine, and popular shows like 2020 and America's Most Wanted did segments about developments as they came. Vale Bello, who was a detective sergeant for the Petaluma PD told 2020 in his interview. It was like a boogeyman came in and stole her out of that house. Actress Winona Ryder who was raised in Petaluma, offered up a $200,000 reward for the safe return of the young girl. Thousands of people would go on to join in search efforts. More than 60,000 tips came in, leading to more than 12,000 leads, and so you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in America who wasn't aware at the time that Polly was missing.

And perhaps, if you're old enough, then you may even remember hearing about her story yourself. Ultimately, all that coverage helped in the investigation. When Dana Jaffe was out back on her property just two months after Davis had been stuck in her driveway that October 1st night, She saw something out there, and then, just like that, it all clicked. It was November 27th, and she had recently had some trees removed from her property out back, so she was strolling around to check out the work. And it was then that she noticed something red lying in the mud. Upon a closer look, it was a dirty pair of red leggings.

And next to that, a child's black sweatshirt, as well as some white ligatures that have been cut. Because all the news happening surrounding the case, the light bulb went off and she realized this might have something to do with missing pollen. She thought back to the night that she locked eyes with Davis along her driveway, realizing he may have been up to something much more sinister than anyone ever thought. Police taped off the scene, and in addition to the clothes, they kind of used condom and wrapper nearby. One of the detectives on the scene, as soon as he saw the ligatures lying on the leaves, knew it was the same he had seen used on Polly's friends. The clothes were then identified as belonging to Polly by her family. And their worst fears were now slowly coming true right in front of their eyes. Back in Polly's bedroom on the bedpost, authorities had managed to pull a single palm print that must have been from the perpetrator because it didn't fit with any other friend or family member.

But they didn't match it to anyone because they didn't have a suspect up until now. They were hoping that during one of the many times Davis had been arrested that even though it wasn't common, at least one department had his palm print on records. They began reaching out to several departments as fast as possible. And luckily, they got a hit. Davis was arrested then just two days later and brought in for questioning where he was confronted with the matching palm print. When asked if he had taken Polly, he nodded.

The follow-up question was, is she alive, and Davis shook his head no. Although he never gave all the details of what exactly transpired that night, he agreed to take them to where he had left the girl. Davis led Belize to the girl's remains, which were hidden under a piece of plywood and a shallow grave of wooded area off of Highway 101. She'd been strangled to death, and this marked the heartbreaking end of the nationwide search that had captivated the country. Looking back on the night in question, when Davis's car was stuck in that ditch, the authorities believe that once he got stuck in the mud, he hid Polly's dead body and some thick brush nearby.

The deputies at the scene recalled that he was sweating profusely, even though that evening was fairly cool, and that he had twigs and debris on himself in his hair and clothes. After he was escorted by police back to that highway, at some point after that, he must have gone back to retrieve the body before dumping it. And Polly's tragic death galvanized the community and led to significant changes in law enforcement and criminal sentencing across the country. The three strikes in your outlaw adopted in California in 1994 was a direct response. to the outcry over Polly's murder, aiming to prevent repeat offenders like Davis from slipping

through the cracks of the justice system when clearly they pose a serious threat to society. However, over time, the law's broader impacts, particularly on communities of color, prompted a re-evaluation and calls for reform. And possibly even more important than that, after the issues with getting the APB out to deputies who could have used that information in this case, the California Highway Patrol changed their system entirely. Now, any all-points bulletin is blasted across every single police channel to ensure that all officers get that information as soon as possible.

And in the courtroom, Davis's trial was fairly swift and straightforward, given his criminal record, the evidence against him, and his confession. Davis at his hearing never stopped tormenting. in the class family. He told the court that Polly's last words were, Don't do me like my dad, implying that her father Mark had mistreated her, which was completely unfounded.

And Davis would give the middle fingers to cameras in the courtroom, a sensational display from a dangerous and callous man. Because of all this, he would go on to be sentenced to death for his crime. And currently, at the age of 69, He's still awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison. Polly's legacy now lives on through various foundations established in her name. The Polly Class Foundation and the Class Kids Foundation continue to raise awareness about child abductions and advocate for stronger sentencing for violent criminals,

reflecting the ongoing struggle to balance justice and reform. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Go check out this episode in video form over on our YouTube channel. That link is down in the description below. It's called Scary Mysteries. Thanks for tuning in today. And remember to come back next week for another episode

filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. But you never know. Maybe your town will be next.