Hey all, sorry for my long absence... I've missed you all lots. Thank you so much for keeping this thread alive. Let me preface this post by saying I wish more than anything in the world for LE to catch Audrey's murderer... for her dignity and for those of us who loved her. This post is going to be long... I'm sorry in advance but there is so much to say. I have had lots of contact with LE over the last weeks and I'm hoping to address some of the (apparent) inconsistencies highlighted in this thread and answer as many of the outstanding questions as I can without overstepping the bounds requested of me by LE. I'll break this up into 3 sections: questions about the scene, questions about the circumstances and general questions.
First then, questions about the scene. I realize the discrepancy between my description of the scene and Det. Hrab's. To be completely honest with you guys... I was really shocked as I started to get a sense of how gruesome LE perceived this crime to be. When I raised the door I saw Audrey lying on the floor and my eyes were immediately drawn to her face. I looked at the scene for only a fraction of a second before darting away. I saw hardened blood on the floor and that, along with the contortion of her body was what prompted me to call 911 and tell them she was dead. While I was on the phone with 911 the woman insisted that I go back and feel for a pulse. Even though I begged her not to make me and told her I was certain Audrey was dead, she didn't relent and I walked back. I bent over her to feel for a pulse (this was my only contact with her) and immediately left the scene again. Any details outside of her face were strictly seen in my periphery and are (thankfully) unclear in my mind. It didn't appear to me that her face was blue and as best I can remember, I believe she was wearing her sneakers but did not have her purse. I don't know exactly what DNA evidence LE collected… I know only that whatever they collected was distinct from myself and DS. Audrey did tell me when she gave me the code that I was the only person in the world to have it other than herself and she insisted that I not write it down anywhere and only commit it to memory. She gave it to me - she said - in case I ever needed to come while she was out and get tools out of the garage to work. I always found that a bit odd since I never, ever visited when she wasn't home but I never thought enough of it to ask her about it. I can't say with any certainty whether Audrey gave out her code to anyone (e.g. LV) after giving it to me but I can say that the code was not required to close the door and most of the time when Audrey was inside, the garage door would be closed.
Regarding the many questions about Audrey's car and the size of the garage… the garage was tiny by virtue of the fact that it was packed right tight with Audrey's things. I had her (giant) Camaro, all her gardening tools, including a lawn roller, riding lawn mower, shovels, wheelbarrow, etc etc and also her bench, generator, green bin, recycling box and a host of other tools and things. This meant that it was quite tight in the garage. Audrey always kept the car locked but I'm uncertain where her keys were (except that I think they were inside with the purse). I don't know even if the car had an alarm or if Audrey kept it armed but I'm not aware if it went off at any time.
Secondly about the circumstances surrounding Dec 25-30. The last contact I received from Audrey was that email on Monday. I can't speak to whether her car was driven or if she called to let her Wednesday group know she wasn't coming. I spoke to Audrey on December 25 just to check in on her and see how she was feeling and also to reschedule my coming over to Thursday morning. I called her on Thursday morning to let her know I was running a bit late with no response. I know the Amazing Grace email has surprised some people. I found this to be less of a surprise than the fact that I didn't receive any emails from the 28th-30th. It was typical for me to receive 2-3 per day and it wasn't unusual for some to carry religious significance though Audrey herself wasn't religious. As for myself, I spent the 26th-28th with my wife and the 29th at work. As for the questions regarding the cake, it was a bunt cake called "Texas Stoellen" from Time Magazine's series of books from foods around the world. If I think about it, I will post the recipe. There is a bit of a story to this: despite her incredibly diverse interests, Audrey was incredibly hard to buy gifts for (I found, anyways). So as early as the beginning of November, she told me she didn't want me to purchase anything for her for Christmas, but only to make this cake for her (because, as she often lamented, she was too lazy to make it herself). With respect to the comments about Audrey being a foodie and the surprise that she would let someone make food for her, I think this can be answered by understanding Audrey's approach to cooking/baking. She was a firm believer in scientific method and repeatability. Her recipes had painstaking detail and permitted no creativity whatsoever. In fact, she despised recipes that left room for the cook's personality. This is why she didn't have any problem asking Alex and I to make the cake for her because had "tried me out" before - asking me to make a spaghetti sauce that she loved to death - and she found that I could reliably follow the recipes she gave me. This hopefully also addresses my bringing the cake despite the fact that she was sick. Because it was such a long-planned thing, it didn't even register with me that she wouldn't be able to eat it until she was better.
Finally, for the bunch of general questions:
- I hope that I wasn't the one to mislead regarding the estate value. I have no idea whatsoever about any assets Audrey had outside her car and home. If I ever gave a figure around 500k, it was only referring to these two specifically
- I guess I goofed by saying we didn't talk about science… it escaped me that horticulture is science. 90% of our time was spent discussing plants and current events and whatever book Audrey was reading at the time
- Regarding the "stolen" mailbox part… there is a bigger story here. The comment in the paper was somewhat out of context. Audrey bought the mailbox a few days before I installed it. In her typical fashion, she had the man at the store unpack the entire product and pull all the parts out and describe each individually. It seems that in repacking the mailbox, he had forgotten a piece. When we found the piece was missing, we drove back to the store. Now, we could have gone to the desk and asked and they would have replaced the piece without question but Audrey insisted that we steal it. So we walked over to where the mailboxes were on the shelf, found the exact piece we needed sitting on the shelf alongside the other mailboxes in their packaging (obviously placed there by the employee after he realized he had forgotten to repack it) and that's when Audrey grabbed it and stuffed it into her coat and had me help her sneak out of the store. I shared that with Jon as a funny anecdote.. thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify and I hope I didn't offend anyone with the story.
- Regarding the polygraph, as of the time of the writing of the Spec article, the analysis of the results was not complete
- I hope that in saying that I didn't need a theory regarding the murder I didn't sound calloused. It is true that I come here because I appreciate the effort that everyone contributed to unearth the truth. My comment was taken somewhat out of context; I do very much wish to know the truth, but at the same time, I have chosen to continue with life and focus on all the wonderful times I spent with Audrey rather than her unfortunate death
- Audrey certainly would smoke in her home but she would usually put the door up if she was going to smoke in the garage
- And last of all… the blanks regarding what LE has asked me. Well, first of all, let me say that the polygraph was a somewhat exposing and unpleasant experience and there were many things asked there that I could discuss at more length if anyone has interest. Specifically with regards to my interviews by LE, they asked the questions detailed above regarding whether I had direct involvement in Audrey's death or whether I was present at the time of her death or was withholding any information about it but outside of that most of the questions have revolved around whether I could identify anything that seemed out of place with the property or garage when I arrived on the 30th. Oh, and they have asked me to recount 4 or 5 separate times every detail I can remember about what I did and where I was from the 25th to the morning of the 30th.
Wow this was longer than I expected. I do hope it was helpful. Thank you again everyone for your continued efforts… you are all a huge blessing to me.
PK
