GUILTY CA - Danna Dever, 32, beaten to death, Fairfield, 14 June 1996

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The article says
Dever, 35, was reported missing to Fairfield police by her live-in boyfriend Lonnie James Kerley on August 5, 1996, Solano County Sheriff's Officer Paula Toynbee said. The decomposed body was found on July 8, 1996, Toynbee said.
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So she was dead more than a month before she was reported missing? The boyfriend said she left in the middle of June. No one except her boyfriend (and her young daughter probably) noticed she was missing for that long? I'd like to know more about her life. Did she have a job, other relatives, etc?
 
She does have a father aside from a live-in boyfriend and a now 20-year-old daughter. Not too many articles about her online
 
To me this shows to ignore half of what UID's descriptions say; there seem to be so many discrepancies. This one says dead 6-12 months when the date of disappearance to date of discovery was only about 3 weeks. Also the UID description said she had brown hair and Danna had blonde hair in the photo. It may have been dyed blonde but if that photo was current, it sure wasn't brown. Just reminds us all to look at everything; even matches that might not seem to fit quite right.

This family has at least gotten some resolution and that is the goal for all families of missing persons.
 
I really hate to put down law enforcement but it absolutely blows me away that it took 11 years for Solano County and Fairfield city (which is one of the more prominent cities in Solano Co) to get together and figure out that they had the same missing person/unidentified body. Yes, there were discrepancies in the descriptions but you'd think they would have connected the dots sooner. :(
 
lymom3 said:
To me this shows to ignore half of what UID's descriptions say; there seem to be so many discrepancies. This one says dead 6-12 months when the date of disappearance to date of discovery was only about 3 weeks. Also the UID description said she had brown hair and Danna had blonde hair in the photo. It may have been dyed blonde but if that photo was current, it sure wasn't brown. Just reminds us all to look at everything; even matches that might not seem to fit quite right.

This family has at least gotten some resolution and that is the goal for all families of missing persons.
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That's why I keep tabs on any missing person that has matching characteristics to my pet case. I guess in some cases now, discrepanices have to be bent to possibly solve a case for now or never.
 
the first links to doe aren't working..
the picture posted at porchlight - it does appear as if her hair is dyed blonde - one can see some dark roots - small, but there - but who knows how old that pic is? perhaps the time she went "missing" her hair colour was back to brown???
 
californiacarrie said:
I really hate to put down law enforcement but it absolutely blows me away that it took 11 years for Solano County and Fairfield city (which is one of the more prominent cities in Solano Co) to get together and figure out that they had the same missing person/unidentified body. Yes, there were discrepancies in the descriptions but you'd think they would have connected the dots sooner. :(
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This same question has been puzzling me. Are there so many missing people missing in Fairfield that they couldn't check all UID's in Solano County for 11 years? (NO!!!) I would hope for a LOT better from LE. :razz:
 
timetravel said:
the first links to doe aren't working..
the picture posted at porchlight - it does appear as if her hair is dyed blonde - one can see some dark roots - small, but there - but who knows how old that pic is? perhaps the time she went "missing" her hair colour was back to brown???
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Doe Net removed both pages yesterday when they posted about the UID and Dever in the Identified page. I posted both pages before Doe Net confirmed Jane Doe as identified

I know there's a site with Doe Net UID pages- of the ones that were ID'd
 
Yes it looks like her hair was dyed. Maybe there wasn't much (or any hair) with the body when they found it? Because even the style looks super different and you'd think that if there was that much difference from the picture to the time of dissapearance they'd have done a sketch rendering or photoshop-type adjustment. But then again, you'd also think they'd have connected the two cases a lot sooner too....
 
I'm a native of Fairfield. FFPD just started a Cold Case Unit. I invited FFPD to post their cases on a site that I am an administrator of so they could get more exposure since Fairfield is such a small town. I told them that if the families of the victims were willing to have the victim posted, I personally would add them to the site. They were supposed to contact me after their Thursday meeting to tell me what the Chief said. That was 3 months ago. Still waiting for a call.
 
hi-as you can see by my user name-i'm new here, this in fact is my first posting. i found this board while doing a google search under danna's name to see if there were any news updates (other than the local papers i read on-line). since those that have already posted have some questions i'll attempt to answer a few-ya see, while i was'nt close to her, danna and i grew up a couple of blocks away from each other and attended k-12th grade together. i've been following this since it was first reported as a missing persons case.

hair color-her natural color was more brunette, with some red hues. the blond in the photo is not anywhere near her natural color.

delay in disappearance vs. report of missing persons-her boyfriend (lonnie-he attended 7th-12 grade with us) only reported her missing after family members who were concerned by her lack of contact pushed him to do so. i don't know that she was close to her family anymore-but she did have 2 or 3 older sisters. lonnie's statement to the police back then was that she had taken off on him before for periods of time but had always returned-this was his explanation for why the delay between the last date seen and the date of report. the family concurred that she had left him before, but were adamant she never would have left her daughter.

delay in id'ing her remains-the official position is that because lonnie stated he last saw her that june (but did'nt report until almost 2 months later) with noone able to contradict that and the body they had (which was found prior to the missing person's report) was deemed to have been deceased at least 6-12 months it did'nt make sense that it was danna.

lonnie was served a warrant for a dna sample (there was dna not danna's found on the remains) which was taken, his current female companion (not sure if wife or girlfriend) was interviewed by police and during the course of her interview advised them that she wanted to leave the home but was fearful-they assisted her in leaving the home to a safe place to stay.

while i'm certain it is a relief for the family to have located her remains-i feel sure it only strengthens their beliefs back to day one that she was murdered. supposedly the domestic violence charge he was convicted of at the time of her supposed disappearance was the only one he had been charged of despite years of violence.

i will continue to follow the situation, police have reported that new information led them to the circumstances which resulted in the i.d.-i strongly suspect that information may have come from someone close to the situation who finaly spoke up.
 
hey newbie thanks for the heads up....it certainly sounds like Lonnie knows a lot more than he is saying.....
 
It's a great thing that there is at last the beginning of a resolution to this mssing person/unidentified body case. There is, I think, a lot to learn for those of us who consider these cold cases.

First--unless there is convincing evidence of when a person was last seen (by credible witnesses whose testimony can be corroborated in some way), the timeline should always be a question, not a starting point. Had the police in this investigation asked, "Have any unidentified female bodies turned up in the last year?", my guess is that there would have been no 11 year wait. And the case might have been solved immediately.

Although cable news and the tabloid media often overdo some "missing" cases, it is interesting to note that the live-in boyfriend's story would probably earn more scrutiny now that adults who are missing are not assumed to have left voluntarily. And certainly, "leaving" your boyfriend is not the same as relocating somewhere without EVER telling family and friends (or your minor child) where you are.
 
http://www.thereporter.com/ci_19562238

Posted: 12/16/2011 10:06:21 AM PST


A Solano County Superior Court judge this morning ordered the transcript of grand jury testimony that led to an indictment in a 1996 Fairfield cold case homicide unsealed.
The ruling comes a day after the judge rejected a motion by suspect Lonnie James Kearley's attorneys to have the indictment dismissed.
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From 2013:

http://www.thereporter.com/20130131...to-life-sentence-in-1996-death-of-danna-dever

It took 17 years, but the stepmother a Fairfield woman who was brutally beaten and found dead in a rural Solano County ditch in 1996 finally saw justice handed down to the killer.

Those were the words that Susan Dever spoke to Solano County Superior Court Judge Allan P. Carter on Wednesday, just before Carter sentenced Lonnie J. Kerley to 15 years to life in state prison for the death of his live-in girlfriend, Danna L. Dever...

The cycle of violence escalated in January 1996, when Dever finally mustered the courage to call the police on Kerley for beating her... However, by the time of Kerley's June 19, 1996, court date, Dever was missing... Yet he had not told anyone she was missing at the time and went ahead and pleaded to a misdemeanor battery charge. Abrams argued before the jury that Kerley pled so that authorities wouldn't go looking for her.
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