Going West: True Crime - Michaela Garecht // 453

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

In November of 1988, a nine-year-old girl was abducted in broad daylight from the parking lot of her local corner store. Despite there being witnesses who relayed the assailant’s appearance to police, years passed without any significant movement in the case. But once DNA technology became advanced enough to provide a match from a fingerprint left on the girl’s scooter, a suspect was arrested. Sadly, she was not his only victim. This is the disappearance of Michaela Garecht. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host, T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going west. Hello everybody. Hope you're doing well today. We have a devastating California case for you guys today that took place in the eighties, but we have been seeing a lot of answers in the last four years and this year as well, actually after far too many years without any closure.

Yeah. And the killer that we're going to talk about today actually has other victims in this story that we're going to talk about today. So victims in this story that we're gonna talk about today. So yeah, this guy is just an overall monster. Yeah, we're gonna be using that word a lot today. So appreciate you guys tuning in. Didn't have any case recommendations for this one today. This is one that we found on our own,

but yeah, without further ado, let's dive in. All right, guys, this is episode 453 of Going West so let's get into it. A breakthrough in the kidnapping and murder case of Michaela Garrett. Her disappearance has gone unsolved for more than 30 years, but tonight there is an arrest. He's already in jail awaiting trial in another murder case. 32 years after riding her scooter to the Rainbow Market to get candy with a friend, Hayward detectives say this man is the man who abducted and killed Michaela Garrett in 1988.

Investigators say they never closed this case despite more than three decades with no arrests. They are hopeful today's announcement provides some measure of peace for Michaela's family. At the time, it was a devastation for many, many, many people. And hard to believe something like that could even happen. And let alone in your own city. But it did a crime and mystery that became synonymous with

Hayward then and every year since. It would have been a lot easier to share you know 20 years ago. I'm just gonna say right now I'm still kind of numb over it. I just want to say Michaela if you're out there somewhere within the sound of my voice I just want you to know that we love you we miss you there's nothing that could possibly have happened over the last 20 years that could change that and we want you to come home. Mikaela Joy Garrett was born in Northern California on January 24, 1979 to parents Sharon and Rod.

She grew up in Hayward, which is a suburb of Oakland, California, located just about 30 minutes southeast. Sharon and Rod had tried for five long years to get pregnant and they were finally able to do so with the help of fertility pills. So Michaela was their little miracle. Sharon later wrote that her daughter was, quote, beautiful beyond measure, tender-hearted and compassionate.

She was a living light in this world. And her parents were happy to welcome three children after Michaela, making her a cheerful and bright little girl to watch over Libby, Robbie and Alex. Those are her siblings. She loved to draw, sing and play board games. And as young as she was, Sharon described her daughter as sensitive and profound.

I mean, shortly before her disappearance, Michaela penned a beautiful poem that read, quote, "'The people knock on doors of steel. The people knock, the people kneel. They think of things that aren't real. Outside those doors of steel, the people walk. The people know that outside those doors, the people know. The people think that you may say, the people think that outside those doors the people know the people think that you may say

The people think that they too may they lack the confidence you have They think it's real the dreams you have the dreams they feel she wrote that at just nine years old That's pretty incredible to write that at nine. Yeah, seriously. So on Saturday, November 19th 1988 Michaela who was a fourth grader at the time and just two months away from turning 10, was looking forward to Thanksgiving break. That morning, Mikayla and her best friend, the Garrett's neighbor Katrina Rodriguez, or Trina, we're going to call her Trina because everybody does, woke up early to rehearse their roles in the upcoming Christmas pageant.

They went back and forth between the two houses a few times, perfecting their hair and outfits. And then Michaela returned home asking her mom if she and Trina could make a quick trip to the neighborhood grocery store Rainbow Market, which was only a few blocks away. Trina's dad had given them money to pick up snacks and drinks, but Sharon hesitated

for a moment. Now, Michaela had been to Rainbow Market on her own with a few older kids in the neighborhood before, but never accompanied only by another nine-year-old. So naturally, her mom was a bit worried by this. And this is really one of the saddest parts of this story is that, I'm not a parent, but I feel like that kind of back and forth of is that, I'm not a parent, but I feel like that kind of back and forth of, oh, I'm sure it'll be fine. You know, it's just up of the street.

Sure, yeah. But then also thinking, oh, something could happen, but then realizing, I mean, what are the odds? Like, you'll be fine, go ahead. Right, Sharon's not, she's not trying to eliminate the fun, she's just being cautious. So initially, Sharon said no, but when Michaela begged, Sharon gave in, and at about 10am that day, the girls headed out on their scooters bound for Rainbow Market at 32575 Mission

Boulevard in Hayward, which is now a Mexico Super Grocery store. And to give you guys a bit of a visual, this is a standalone store with a large L-shaped parking lot around the store, and it's just across the street from a cemetery and sprawling mountains full of hiking trails and an expansive park. Now after watching the girls ride away, Sharon returned to the kitchen to wash the dishes from breakfast, just trusting that they would be back soon. But the next thing that she knew, Michaela was gone. And again, no one is expecting that this is actually going to happen to them, to their child.

So that's why she said yes, because she thought, I mean, come on, it's just up the street again. Yeah, and on top of that, Sharon remembers that her daughter hadn't even been gone for long enough for her to be worried. Like this was just like, you know, a few minutes later. But still in the kitchen, she heard commotion out on the street, and Michaela's dad Rod appeared in the doorway, saying, quote, somebody snatched Michaela up at the market. You call 911. I'm going up there.

So shakily, Sharon dialed 911. Police raced to her to ask her questions, and thus began what Sharon described as quote a lifetime of waiting. Well, Michaela's friend Trina had seen the whole abduction unfold, and here's how it went. Now, after going inside the market to pick up soda, candy, and beef jerky, the two 9-year-old girls returned outside and walked away from the market briefly towards their homes, forgetting that they had taken their scooters. When they realized, they

doubled back to where they had parked them outside the store. Well, Trina's was where she had left it, but Michaela's on the other hand had been moved and was resting near a sedan in the parking lot. So, a little confused by this, Michaela's on the other hand had been moved and was resting near a sedan in the parking lot. So, a little confused by this, Michaela walked over toward the car to pluck it from the ground and head on home. But before she knew what was happening, a man leapt from the front seat of that sedan and grabbed her by her waist from behind, throwing her into the front seat and then speeding away in a flash, despite the screams from both Michaela and Trina. And the fact that it was daylight. And obviously this happened in fall, so although it was a bit chilly outside, it was still

10-15 in the morning on a Saturday when people were there actually shopping inside. But unfortunately, nobody was able to stop her kidnapper. Yeah, and this market is right next to a main road, and that main road connects to a major highway just up the street. So this person would have been able to get out of the area very quickly. And you know what's really scary here real quickly,

just before we move on? The fact that this was so intentional, the fact that this was set up as a trap, like this perpetrator, this kidnapper knew to put Michaela's scooter right up next to the car because it would be easy access to pull her inside. So this was very, very much intentional and very scary to think about. Oh, absolutely. And actually somebody witnessed part of this happening. So let's go into that right now. So, Michaela's friend Trina acted swiftly, racing into the store to alert an adult. Right away, a store employee called 911 and then called Trina's parents.

And that's when Trina's dad ran across the street to alert Rod, who again is Michaela's dad, who had been working on one of their cars in the driveway. Both fathers then race to the scene, you know, of course, after telling Sharon where police had already arrived to investigate. So this is the thing, as we're going to discuss as well, everything seemed to be going going in the right direction at first. Police arrived so quickly. There's multiple people witnessing this.

I mean, like I just hinted to a second ago, a woman named Rosa Conlin, she was a checker at the market, actually saw Michaela's kidnapper canvassing the market prior to her kidnapping and said that she thought he seemed creepy. This is something she said to herself. She watched him from the window and thought, there's something off about this guy and the situation

and how he was kind of just Lurking, you know, so she remembered quote. I thought he was looking to rob the store or something He went by very slowly and looked into the window. I think he was watching the girls Then she said that the man Specifically moved Michaela scooter after watching the girls arrive and enter the store. So it really does seem like he picked her out when she arrived and then hatched this quick plan to get her to come over to his car on her own, like you were saying, Heath. So initially, investigators didn't ask Trina for her description of the man because she was so understandably inconsolable. Instead, a patron of the market gave his memory of the man,

that he had a mustache and was driving a burgundy colored car. So luckily, multiple people saw this guy. But once Trina was able to speak with investigators, she also offered up some details. And her account was slightly contradictory to this other guy's. Trina said that the man was clean shaven with long, dirty blonde hair

and was believed to be in his late teens or early 20s. But the most distinct detail of the perpetrator was his skin. Trina remembered that he had severe acne scarring and pock marks on his face. He stood at about six feet tall and had a slender build. And regarding his car, that guy said he had a burgundy colored car. Others were able to determine that he drove a large American made car believed to date

back to the 1970s. Remember this is 1988. And other people described it as a butterscotch colored car that was in poor condition Yeah, so we're getting two very different accounts of what this car looked like yeah, and obviously Anybody who saw this guy before the abduction or saw his car even you know didn't know how important it would be so they Could be misremembering, but it's like is the car butterscotch is it burgundy is he clean shaven does he have a mustache there's a lot of different accounts going on here well they also basically said that there were severe dents in the vehicle as if it had been in multiple accidents and there also may have been cement stains

on the body of this vehicle yeah so these honestly these are pretty specific details they feel like it yeah exactly Which is why I'm saying they had a seemingly a lot on their side here. So Trina later said that Michaela was a fighter and would have quote made things difficult for her attacker after he sped away with her. As the key witness, Trina was tasked with helping lead investigators to her friend's abductor and after that day she was shown dozens of mugshots in hopes of pointing out the perpetrator, but investigators just couldn't track him down. Navigating the unthinkable, Sharon said quote, life just is not the same, and it won't be the same again until Michaela comes home.

Well Sharon and Rod recall an investigation of epic proportions and that their entire community showed up to help bring Michaela home. In the days following Michaela's vanishing, her dad Rod stated, quote, "'The support has really been fantastic. "'People have come from all over the place to help. "'I guess they're just fed up with it.

"'That's the only way I can explain it." But they didn't just help physically and emotionally. Crowdfunded donations compiled a $70,000 reward for information within just two weeks of Michaela's disappearance. Incredible. Yeah, massive. $50,000 of which came from one anonymous source. So the community and police collectively were working hard to find answers, with a representative for the Missing Children Project calling it the biggest manhunt in the area since Patty Hearst's infamous kidnapping in 1974, which was a massive case about the abduction of the 19-year-old granddaughter of a publishing magnate

who was rescued three months later. So fixating on their only piece of evidence, which was Michaela's scooter, they dusted it for fingerprints, because the perp obviously would have touched it to move it from its original spot to the spot by their car. And luckily, they uncovered multiple prints from the handlebars and the fork of the scooter, which is what connects the wheels and the handlebars. Now unfortunately at the time, this didn't lead them to a conclusive identity, but at least they had this for the future while they continued to work.

And they worked hard, because Michaela's disappearance led to one of the most considerable investigations ever mounted by the Hayward Police Department. I mean, in its first year, the case received over 5,000 tips. Remote and uninhabited areas of Alameda County were scoured from above via airplane and helicopter. Michaela's photo and missing poster were plastered on milk cartons and billboards nationally, and thousands of flyers and posters papered the community. But sadly, none of the astounding efforts of the police, the Garretts, and their community

led them to Michaela. Sharon recalls waiting by the door for weeks, expecting her daughter to turn up. But as momentum slowed and leads dried up, she was faced with the realization that she may be waiting for answers for a very long time. Well, tips continue to trickle in for years. In fact, more than 15,000 tips. But none of them revealed what had happened to Michaela still, which is honestly mind-blowing

and I don't mean to harp on this so much but there were multiple witnesses. They knew what the guy looked like. They had a good composite sketch which we will post on our socials. They had fingerprints and they were working so freaking hard and they're still not able and they had 15,000 tips. Like this is mind-blowing to me. And even her parents were doing their own searching, with Sharon remembering fielding possible sightings from all corners of the world, including Iran.

Many people sent photos from escort sites believing Michaela may have been trafficked, but none of these led to finding her. And Michaela was also the first child ever to be featured on America's Most Wanted. Her case was also included in episodes of Unsolved Mysteries, Dateline, Maury, and Larry King Live, so not only did they have all the things on their side that I just mentioned, but they were also getting serious media exposure. So as you can imagine, just feeling like everything was on their side or should have been on their side, Sharon, Rod, and their other children really struggled under the weight of the grief and the burden of the unknown

So a year after Michaela's abduction Sharon and Rod divorced and also struggling to move on from the trauma Was Trina Rodriguez who was racked with guilt at being the one who? Inexplicably made it out that morning alive while her best friend was still missing. Even though obviously there was clearly nothing that she could have done and it all happened so fast. Yeah, it was not her fault. But of course naturally she does kind of have that that survivor's guilt. Right.

Which is just horrible. But Trina remembered after the search was underway that morning, all she wanted to do was go to Michaela's house and comfort her mom, Sharon, and that she was worried that Sharon would be angry at her. But instead, Sharon and Trina really leaned on each other for comfort and even began taking sunrise walks and runs together in the mornings. Ultimately, the shock and trauma of the incident was so severe that Trina's family moved her out of California and over to the Midwest to get away from where it had happened.

Because remember, they still don't know who committed this crime if the man is still in the area, if he's looking out for Trina or another young girl. Is this predator still lurking around the corner? Yeah, seriously. So Trina said, quote, those things don't escape you. But eventually she and her family did make it back to the West Coast.

She began babysitting for Sharon's other children and Sharon watched Trina graduate high school with the class that Michaela should have been in. Though police were stumped, multiple other cases and perpetrators drew similarities and were considered for their possible involvement. So let's talk about some of the cases. On June 3rd, 1988, just five months before Michaela's abduction, another little girl from the area disappeared in a high-profile kidnapping.

Seven-year-old Amber Schwartz-G jump roping in her front yard when she was kidnapped by a passerby in a vehicle. This occurred in Pinole, California, which is only about 30 miles or 48 kilometers northwest of Hayward on the San Pablo Bay. However, her disappearance was eventually solved when in 2007, a monster named Curtis Dean Anderson admitted to kidnapping and murdering Amber, just one month before his death in prison. So this was essentially a deathbed confession. And then two years later, the FBI and the Pinole Police Department jointly announced that they were satisfied that they had their killer.

Curtis was also convicted of the abduction and murder of 7-year-old Ziana Fairchild, and had apparently bragged about claiming as many as 11 victims. But in 2012, Michaela's murder was thought to be linked to friends and co-conspirators Wesley Sherman-Teen and Lauren Herzog, better known as the Speed Freak Killers, who we actually have had a couple recommendations for to cover, but basically their crime spanned 14 years and claimed at least 4 victims, though it's possible that they had a dozen or more. They were arrested in 1999 and in 2012, Lauren took his own life. Well after he did, Wesley Sherman Teane finally felt confident to write a letter that said

that he believed that Lauren had been responsible for the abduction and murder of Michaela Garrett. And although Lauren did match the description of Michaela's abductor and the composite, ultimately he was not found to be involved. Of course, the police had investigated this and had even uncovered the pair's known disposal site, finding various bone fragments there. And this site was located 70 miles or 114 kilometers from Hayward, but the bones were found not to belong to Michaela, so police basically put that theory to rest. Well, another kind of interesting possibility at the time that I wanted to mention that police were looking into

were the people holding J.C. Dugard captive. And we covered her case in episode 49 of Going West, which was ages ago. But basically, I know a lot of you guys know her story. A little recap, she was found in 2009 and was held by Philip and Nancy Guerrero and Philip was actually questioned after his arrest because he was holding J.C. in Myers, California which is about three hours from Hayward. So this didn't go anywhere either but police were looking at so many different angles here. Now from the beginning of the investigation, Sharon really led with empathy. Remember, Sharon is Michaela's mom. Like she even found pity for her daughter's kidnapper saying, quote, this man who took my daughter was once a little boy who was not cared for.

In order to make our world safe for our children, we have to take care of our children so they don't grow up to be predators. Honestly, Slay. I mean, I think it would take a lot as a parent to be able to say something like this to their child's abductor. I'm glad she did, but also, he's a piece of shit and we should just call it what it is. Of course, but she is being so graceful here is being so, you know, graceful here. And I think what she's saying is absolutely true. And it's, it's crazy how true this is.

Because she has no idea at this point when she said this, that the man who did abduct Michaela was abused as a child and that he was not cared for as a child. So she is so on the nose here. Now, despite the nightmare that she had been through, she did her best to move forward with her life and even remarried and had another baby whom she named Jonna. She also became a stepmother to a little girl named Ariel and her three children could now grow up with two more sisters, though of course nobody could take Michaela's place. But her siblings and her parents definitely felt her absence, and Sharon saw Michaela in each of

her children. Looking at baby Janna, she recalled, quote, there was Michaela smiling back. Sharon admits that she became far more protective over her young children in the aftermath of Michaela's disappearance. Naturally, we see this a lot. She said, quote, Let me put it this way. I don't give them much freedom. She also forbade her kids from playing hide and seek outside for fear that another would fall prey to an unknown monster on the streets. But then, finally, in December of 2020,

after 32 painstaking years without answers, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office announced that they had made an arrest for the abduction and murder of nine-year-old Michaela Garrett. Surprisingly, the perpetrator was already in prison, serving time since shortly after Michaela disappeared. And Michaela was not his only murder victim. I'm out. On December 21st, 2020, so 32 years and 32 days after Makayla vanished, 59-year-old David Emery Mish was charged with her abduction and murder, making him 27 years old at the time of her abduction, and remember, Trina and witnesses believed him to be in his late

teens or possibly his twenties. Michaela's dad Rod, who was living about two hours away in Amador County, California at the time, returned to Hayward for the announcement of David's arrest. Hoping for answers and even retribution, Rod said at the time, quote, I'm just glad that he got caught, you know? That's all I can say. Now they got somebody. It's going to start the process all over again.

But he added that he was hopeful for more answers in his daughter's case, saying, quote, I'm kind of relieved that they caught somebody over it. So now I don't gotta they've got a suspect that they can grill and hopefully he'll cough up wherever the body is. Michaela's mom, Sharon, declined to attend his preliminary hearing, saying, quote, he has nothing to say that I want to hear. And then she added, quote, I don't want to see him. I don't want to meet him.

I don't want to see him. I don't want to meet him. I don't want to talk to him He doesn't really seem like a human being to me Trina who was reluctant to speak about the most traumatic thing that had ever happened to her Acknowledged the resemblance between David and the man that she saw in that parking lot that day So how did they catch this piece of shit? Well after spending years as a cold case, Michaela's abduction was revisited in 2020 when a fingerprint expert matched one of the prints left on the handle of the scooter to convicted murderer David Mish.

Describing the development as quote, old-fashioned police work, the Alameda County District Attorney's office remarked that the science of fingerprint comparison has vastly improved since Michaela was abducted, and that the match was made through comprehensive advancements in software, technology, and science. Now, when 59-year-old David was arrested, he was already serving a sentence for the brutal 1989 murder of 36 year old Margaret Ball in Hayward California and facing charges for the 1986 murders of two other women, 18 year old Michelle Xavier and 20 year old Jennifer Dewey in Fremont California. So as Daphne

mentioned, uh, Michaela's case was not a one-off for this guy. Yeah. And he was killing women and girls of various ages. And now we know too, that two years before Michaela was abducted, he murdered two women. And then a year after Michaela, he murdered another. So let's dive into those stories. I just want to say real quick that it's, it's pretty strange because usually in cases like this, uh, we see a perpetrator kind of stick to one type of person that they want to abduct or murder.

Like if they're abducting young girls then that's kind of what they stick with. But David's really all over the place which is so, which is why I think he's so dangerous is because he is an opportunist predator. Like he doesn't care the age. Yeah, I mean a nine year old one year and then the next year a 36 year old. Yeah, it really does seem like he's an opportunist for sure. Well, we're also gonna talk about some other things

that he did in his life that kind of go hand in hand with what we're saying here. So true. So really quick, let's dive into what happened to Margaret and Michelle and Jennifer. So Margaret Ball was born and raised in Oakland, California, and at the time of her murder, 36-year-old Margaret was sharing a residence with her boyfriend, Michael,

and their children. On December 7, 1989, just over a year after Michaela's abduction, Margaret's body was found in her home by her 11-year-old stepdaughter. She had been brutally beaten, stabbed with a 12.5-inch knife, and strangled. Her lifeless body left crumpled in her apartment as her assailant fled in her car. And by her assailant, I of course mean David, drove off in her silver 1981 Mazda after taking her life, bringing with him $85 of her food stamps.

And found inside the car alongside the food stamps was methamphetamine. David had been released from prison on November 17, 1989, so less than a month earlier, after serving seven months of a 16-month sentence for burglary. So to do that math, this meant that he had been booked into prison for robbery mere months after committing Michaela's abduction and murder, for which he was not apprehended for yet, obviously. And then immediately upon his release, he chose to kill again, to kill Margaret Ball.

And remember, he was not yet caught for the two murders of 1986, which I will go into here in a second. So mercifully, he was arrested just days after Margaret's ruthless murder in December of 1989, and has luckily remained in prison ever since. David was arrested at 6am the next morning, leaving the farmhouse motel after police spotted him driving Margaret's car.

Idiot. Idiot. Police acknowledge that the two were casual acquaintances and it's believed that Margaret would occasionally hire David as a handyman. In 1990, 29-year-old David Mish was convicted of her murder and sentenced to 18 years to life in prison, and his father even testified against him at his trial. Thankfully, David was unable to finagle being released before he was connected to another senseless murderer, because eventually, like I'm talking almost two decades later, police uncovered the 1986 murders that he was responsible for.

On the evening of February 1st, 1986, 18-year-old Michelle Xavier and 20-year-old Jennifer Dewey, who were best friends both working in sales at the time, attended a birthday dinner in Fremont, California, which is a 30-minute drive southeast of Hayward. Around 10 p.m. that night, Jennifer and Michelle met up with their boyfriends during a brief stop at this 7-Eleven convenience store in Fremont before saying goodbye to them and driving off together. And just two and a half hours later, a motorcyclist spotted their naked, bloodied bodies discarded on the side of Mill Creek Road in Fremont.

Both young women had been shot and stabbed, and their purses were missing from the scene. But Michelle's white 1984 Pontiac Sunbird convertible was found parked behind a nearby gas station. Now after being linked to the women through DNA found underneath Jennifer's fingernails, David attempted to hang himself in his cell, but he was unsuccessful and was instead charged with their murders in 2018.

And it's crazy because David was interviewed for their murders back in the day, like shortly after they occurred while he was in prison for something else. And he like made up this whole story that he was at the gas station when Michelle and Jennifer were being abducted and that he fought with the kidnappers. He said it was two men and he fought with them. And so, oh, well, my DNA must have been under her fingernails because she scratched me in the fight while I was protecting them.

Yeah, right. Oh my God. It's just, it's just so stupid. It's just such a stupid story. Yeah. He also claimed that he was a quote, protector of all the girls and prostitutes in the area. Like this is such a phony story, but after police let him go, you know, go back to prison,

he was interviewed again and recanted this entire story and refused to say anything. Then saying, oh, I wasn't there, I had nothing to do with this. So it wasn't until September of 2017 that he was interviewed again while in prison for Margaret Ball's murder, and they were able to make the connection

three years before connecting him to Michaela. Well, yeah, and of course this dumbass is gonna make up a story as to why, you know, like his DNA would be underneath Jennifer's fingernails, right? He's the hero, he's the hero, not the killer. I didn't do that. Yeah, there's no way. So if you do find my DNA, it's because I'm the protector.

Like, shut up, dude. Well, with the announcement of Michaela's killer in 2020, Sharon said that she was navigating the acceptance of her beloved daughter's fate, and the fact that she may not know exactly what happened to her, knowing that David could very well just not confess or give any details to the family. daughter's fate, and the fact that she may not know exactly what happened to her, knowing that David could very well just not confess or give any details to the family. Whether or not David has more victims waiting to be connected to him is still up for debate, but based on the horrific crimes that he's committed, we can kind of imagine that there

may very well be more victims, because also, David's been committing crimes since he was a minor. I mean, at just 16 years old, David broke into the home of a neighbor and raped their housekeeper at Knife Point. Horrific. I mean, yeah, he's a 16 year old boy doing this. He was arrested for this, but because of his young age, he was paroled the following year when he was just 17. In 1979, when he was 18, he was again arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon,

false imprisonment, remember that, and assault to commit rape. But he was free again by 1981, so two years later. I just think it's convenient that they threw in that false imprisonment because he was abducting people so Then a year after his release he beat a woman at knife point in 1982 and was charged with indecent exposure in 1985 By 1986 he had claimed the lives of his first known murder victims Michelle and Jennifer. David was arrested just days after Michaela's abduction,

but for the burglary charges that held him in prison until he murdered Margaret Ball. And shortly after David's arrest for Michaela's abduction and murder, Sharon penned a letter for David to be published in response to his arrest, and it read, quote, Sharon penned a letter for David to be published in response to his arrest, and it read, quote, First, I would like to address all the people who have accompanied me on this long, long journey. I know that as you hear this news, your hearts are breaking along with mine. In the last year, I had to come to a place of accepting that Michaela was probably no longer alive.

But somehow that acceptance was far more wrapped up in the idea of Michaela sitting on fluffy pink clouds, walking streets of gold, dancing on grassy hills, and soaring among the stars. What I did not envision was my daughter as a dead child. It was only when I heard this news that this vision of reality appeared, and I honestly have not figured out what to do with it. A chill set in that had nothing to do with the snow outside my home in southwest Iowa. I feel as though I'm still looking for Michaela, but now I don't know where. I honestly feel lost in the dark.

Over the years I often wondered whether I really wanted to know the truth of what happened to Michaela. I wondered if I would be able to take it. When I received news of the kidnapper having been identified, I asked the hard questions of Detective Purnell of what method this man used to kill his victims and received answers and they were not easy. When I had doubted whether I would want to know, it always came back to if Michaela could experience it, I could hear it. Because it's not about me. It's never been about me, about my feelings. It is and has always been about Michaela. What I've been through is nothing. What I feel is not important. It's only about Michaela. Sharon was informed that her daughter was most likely stabbed

after being abducted, but to offer her some semblance of comfort in the unthinkable, it's believed that Michaela was killed quickly and almost immediately after she was abducted. But again, why he decided to kidnap a child when his other victims were adults is still unknown, but it seems

that his viciousness just knows no bounds. Sharon continued to praise the decades of police attention to her daughter's cold case saying quote, In this I see the better angles of the investigative process where beyond cases these are human beings. I remember visiting the Hayward Police Department a while into the investigation and seeing the rows of filing cabinets filled with information on Michaela's case. Every drawer was marked, not with a case number,

but with a photograph of a little girl, my little girl. So thank you, all of you, for your love, a love that has endured decades for Mikayla. I ask that you please don't forget her now. She is no longer a case, but she is what she always has been, and that is a bright and shining light. And in her absence from this earth, it is up to us to find a way to carry her light forward. her light forward. During David's preliminary trial in January of this year 2024, Trina faced him again for the first time since that nightmarish day in 1988. She said of David's eyes, quote, the intensity of the eyes and the shape of them. They struck me as memorable to that day. They remind me of the kidnapper's eyes."

David's trial for the murders of Jennifer and Michelle began this year in Dublin, California, where David is being held in the Santa Rita jail. After receiving a sentence for the murders of Michelle and Jennifer, which actually has yet to happen. He will face trial for Michaela's murder. So we'll keep you guys updated on that. But David's attorney, Ernie Castillo, is already attempting to pave the groundwork for obfuscation in Michaela's abduction, poking holes in the credibility of the fingerprints found on the girl's scooters. Well, David has blamed his father's alcoholism and abuse for his depraved behavior.

Again, going back to his abuse as a child, he even said that the rape he committed when he was 16 was due to his parents' abuse. So he's always been using this as an excuse. Obviously, abuse is never okay, but it does not give you the right to turn around and hurt a bunch of other people over and over again and go in and out of prison for your continued misbehavior. So as for Sharon, she took to writing as a therapeutic exercise to process her grief and started a blog called Seekers Road, chronicling her navigation of the worst thing that ever happened to her, as well as celebrating her daughter's short life. She also maintained a Facebook page that she called Michaela's Light, dedicated to the

disappearance of Michaela and bringing awareness to other cases of missing women and children. Now, as she had said in that letter that Heath read, Sharon did eventually relocate to rural Iowa and successfully fought off breast cancer, but sadly it returned and in 2022, she succumbed to her illness. So, you know, we're so happy that she was able to at least know that there was closure in her daughter's case, but the fact that she still passed away without concrete answers before the trial

is just devastating because she fought so hard for so many years. But Michaela's sister Libby has taken to writing about the grief, just as her mom did, and said, quote, It is comforting to think that my mom and Michaela are reunited again in the great hereafter. Michaela's body remains missing to this day. In a blog post written before she died, Sharon wrote, quote, My primary purpose is to honor

Michaela, to keep her alive in this world by keeping her alive in people's memories, to shine her light for her while she can't, and to reaffirm to her and the world my love for her. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Remember we're going to post that composite sketch of David and the other photos from this case on our socials. You can find us on Instagram at going west podcast. And also you can find us on Facebook.

Yeah, and there is still no trial date set for Michaela, but we will definitely keep you guys updated. Hopefully a bunch of other information comes out when that trial happens and he might even confess. I mean, who knows? So we'll keep you guys updated and do another episode on this sometime, maybe next year, if that is a thing. All right, guys.

Well, thank you guys for being here today. Thank you for listening to Going West. Thank you for sharing with your friends. I always feel like I forget to mention. Thank you for sharing our show. Thank you for listening. And we appreciate all of you guys Yeah, we love you guys and we'll see you again on Friday Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world. Don't be a stranger I'm just a little bit of a wimp. Thanks for watching!