Sunshine 1950
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- Aug 18, 2009
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First, take into account that in the prior year, the elder Blair was arrested for the molestation of 2 ten year old girls, but Hughes provided him with an alibi so charges were dropped. That does not mean he didn't molest the two 10 yr. old girls, just that LE couldn't prove it because he had a ready alibi.
When asked about his whereabouts on the night of the murders, the elder Blair says the Hughes came over around 5:00PM to see if he and his wife wanted to go fishing. It was decided that's what they'd do so they left Blair's house around sundown that evening, drove out to Hardesty's Ranch near Lakewood or in Precinct 4, and fished until 9:00PM. No mention of the Hughes having dinner with them that evening at all.
Now that doesn't make a whole lot of sense because if they left at sundown that's only 30 minutes before dark. Did they even have time just to make the drive out there and back, let alone drop a line in the water? Yet, Mr. Blair notes that they paid Mr. Hardesty $1.00 to cross his land to go to the river.
The foursome then returns to Blair's house where they chat until 10:00PM when the Hughes leave, and the Blairs go to bed. Blair notes "we did not go anywhere." Why does he find it necessary to add that to the end of his statement when he'd already said he and his wife went to bed after the Hugheses left?
I'm not sure how LE caught the elder Blair in his lie, either by checking with the Hughes or Mr. Hardesty, but catch him they did, so Blair provides a new statement because his memory isn't too keen, and he forgot that account of events was what happened on Thursday the 10th. of August, 1961, not the following night of the 11th.
So he says that Friday in question, he worked on his boy's car from 11:00AM to 4:00PM, then HE went over to the Hughes house to ask them if they wanted to go fishing, and it was decided that's what they'd do. I'm not sure how his wife got to the Hughes house or if the two Hugheses and Blair went back to Blair's house to pick her up, but once again they go fishing at sundown, pay Mr. Hardesty $1 to cross his land, and they fish until 9:00PM. I still don't see where they have enough time to make the trip out and back, let alone drop a line in the water. That bunch must be the fastest fishers in the west.
Now on the further adventures of the elder Blair, one of the guys from work , Mr. Melton who has never ever gone fishing or hunting with Blair before that day just happens to pop over Sunday morning at 8:00AM, Aug. 13th. 1961 to ask if the elder Blair wants to go fishing.
I'm curious how it takes the elder Blair an hour and a half to get ready to go fishing when he had just been out fishing, 2 days before, and the day before that. He must scatter his fishing gear all over, and have to go look for it again. Ya know it took him 3 1/2 hours to get ready to fish on Thursday and took the Hughes 3 1/2 hours on Friday of that week to get ready. Seems like they spend one heck of alot more time getting ready than they do of actual fishing.
So here's the scoop. Melton and Blair left Blair's house about 9:30AM, and went north on Artesia Highway. "We turned off before coming to Sitting Bull Falls Road, and went back to a ranch. Bill said it was the Cox Ranch. Cox wasn't home. We went on by his house on down where there were some water holes, and fished and shot turtles until 12 noon." Keep in mind, Blair is 43 yrs. old. Now I can see where that might entertain a couple of 12 yr. old boys for two hours, but 40 something year old men?
And why did he have to say we turned off before coming to Sitting Bull Falls Road? Why wouldn't he have just said we turned onto such and such road? It seems an unnatural progression to me.
"We then went to the fillings station at Sitting Bull Falls Road, and I drank a 7 Up." Now, I'm sure everyone will see the importance of what the elder Blair drank in conjunction with the discovery of the bodies of two young teens. Ok, I'm being facetious. And didn't someone post saying that filling station wasn't even open on Sundays? I believe someone did, so that makes it very interesting how Blair got that 7Up if the station was closed.
"Bill then said he wanted to show me where there was alot of rabbits. We had just one gun, a 22 LR, single shot which was mine." Why the necessity of saying "just one gun"? Does he know something about the murders that we don't know?
"We turned on this road and Bill shot 3 rabbits. Blair never says Bill got out of the car to shoot the rabbits, so was Bill driving and juggling Blair's 22? Or was it Blair that was really doing the shooting as they drove along the road? That would make more sense, but....
"I thought I saw something red on my right and I told Bill to stop. I thought it looked like someone lying down. He backed up and pulled off the road and went out there and I saw the body."
Now here's where things get real interesting. They are still on the cut-off road going north from Sitting Bull Falls Road, and have not yet even entered the pasture to their right when Blair sees a body out in the pasture. Melton has to back the car up to pull off the road and drive out into the pasture.
Now which was it? Did Blair see the body from the road or did he see it after they went out there, meaning out into the pasture? Blair seems to want to have it both ways. That Blair says what he says in the order he says it in gives credence to a statement made by a citizen overhearing a conversation between Melton and a shift foreman at work as reported to detective Estrada when the case was reopened in 2003.
From that statement: "According to this citizen, Mr. Melton had commented that on the day the girls were found was the first time he and Willie Blair ( the other man that found the bodies) had ever been hunting for anything. He stated that Melton had indicated that as they were driving down the road that he remembered that Blair from a good distance from where the girls were had started telling him to look over and that when he did he could not see what Blair was talking about. He stated (citizen) that Melton stated that it wasn't until they were almost up to the bodies that he saw one of the bodies and returned to town to call the police. He (citizen) stated that Mr. Melton had made mention that he felt like Blair knew the bodies were there before they had even gone to the site. "
Blair: "I just saw the one with the red shorts--we did not come to a stop. Bill said there was another body there--but I didn't see it." I believe the elder Blair to be lying to distance himself in the only way that presents itself to him, and that's by saying he only saw the one body which as so happens would've been the fully clothed body of Mattie wearing red shorts. I don't believe for a moment that a man that had been accused of molestation in the prior year could go to a crime scene and would not have seen the naked body of Patty Pritz lying just 50 feet away from that of Mattie Restine's body.
Blair: "We returned to the filling station to phone --but they didn't have a phone. We came on to Carlsbad and stopped at the North Y and called the Carlsbad Police Dept. 4 Officers came by and picked us up and we took them to the scene. We were in Bill's care I believe a 1956 Ford and he drove all the time."
Again, why does Blair find it necessary to say Melton drove the whole time?
I think it was Mr. Blair who called Bill Melton to come fishing with him on the morning of August 13, 196, and not the other way around. I believe Mr. Melton was chosen because he had not been a prior associate of Blair's until that day--ya know, guilt by association or lack of it?
Could it have been that Blair wanted his son out of town because the elder Blair suspected he might not be able to talk himself out of the predicament he was in, and didn't want his son to know about it until he could figure out a way to explain it to his son by way of yet another lie in the event that Blair might be arrested for the crime?
Does anyone know who those two 10 year old girls were that may have been molested by WDB? I guarantee if they were molested, they'd remember it well.
Due to the statements of the accounts of his whereabouts on the night of the murders and in being on the scene at the location of the bodies in discovering them, the lies, the mistatements, things that don't quite add up, I find no better suspect than the elder Blair who wears a size 7 1/2 shoe or boot, the same size footprint left at the scene. I would even go further as to say the murders may have been committed in his son's car, and that's why the son and the car were ushered out of state and into Texas.
Was he just callous enough to have tried to lay the blame on his dead son years later by telling his grandchildren their daddy did a bad thing?
I think you're correct on this theory...that is what I have thought for over 8 yrs. now. But how do I get the sheriff's dept. to listen to me. I will try and find out who the two girls were. Don't know if I can but when I get home from the tests I'm taking...I will start there....again thanks for the time and information you have given me....
