GUILTY CA - Leila Fowler, 8, murdered, 12yo charged, Valley Springs, 27 Apr 2013 - #2

[deoneta]

I've only been checking couple of times a day to see if there is any news so forgive me if this has been addressed already. Has anyone talked about why Leila and the older boy didn't go to the baseball game? I was wondering if maybe Leila was under the weather. I just wonder who else would have known that the children were at home that day.

 

[Zuckerschnecke]

You're kidding. I was serving my parents breakfast coffee in bed at eight years of age. That was my chore before leaving for the bus stop. Child labor laws were ignored by my parents.

No, not kidding. And clearly the laws were not followed by my parents either but then again, we walked to school alone at 8 and 5 years old. Those were the days, I sure feel old. I think the worst that happened while babysitting was my brother always pretending that he saw a ghost or something and making me scared to death. And OMG, if my parents found out we watched HBO, we were in for it. Man, no wonder why I'm so gullible now.

 

[Zuckerschnecke]

Zuckerschnecke, the only questions you asked that I think I remember reading about are two of them; here is what MSM info I've got:

1) Investigators have looked into other "calls for service or emergency calls" from the Fowler house:

"The FBI has reviewed many aspects of the case and offered its resources, including sophisticated equipment for evidence collection, Hewitt said. Investigators are still searching Leila’s home for evidence.
Hewitt said investigators are also looking into whether there have been other calls for service or emergency calls from the Fowler residence."
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local-News/Suspects-ruled-out-in-slaying


2) MSM has reported that LE has said there were no "signs that the homicide happened" during the commission of a robbery or burglary. That I take to mean, no items stolen, and/or no signs of forced entry. Of course, in this neighborhood it's been said that people commonly left their doors unlocked. (But, JMO, I'd think if the Fowlers had something in the house that they knew was valuable, they'd have taken care to lock the house, anyway. But there was no sign of 'break in.')

www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local-News/Hundreds-mourn

www.modbee.com/2013/04/29/2692480/police-guard-calif-school-during.html

I think what someone pointed out a few pages back was that there was a suspicious vehicle called in. I had pointed out about the roadway being with no shoulder etc. and so the idea of a getaway car seemed not so likely, IMO. But then someone said actually a call was placed about a vehicle. I'll have to go look for who wrote it. It was around page 19 or 20.

 

[SCHMAE]

So big announcement turned in to NO announcement? I thought the cancellation was due to baby's funeral but maybe it was due to 'oops we have new info that cancels that old info' so they're not going to give out any info. Did I get that right ?

 

[Dee10]

I keep thinking about so much focus there is around the house/immediate area & in the video link below at the beginning it shows the FBI going through what appears to me, everything in the garage perhaps box by box. It seems to me they haven't found the murder weapon but believe it was hid nearby. I can't see if it was a stranger they would assume it wasn't taken with the purp. especially if the boy did see or chase the person leaving. I think something is more at play here concentrating on the house then a stranger being involved. JMO based on what LE is doing.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=244285

 

[PoirotryInMotion]

So big announcement turned in to NO announcement? I thought the cancellation was due to baby's funeral but maybe it was due to 'oops we have new info that cancels that old info' so they're not going to give out any info. Did I get that right ?

Can't remember the wording, really, but I just got the impression that they thought a big announcement was imminent, as in, we've got a few more important results to come back, yet, and then some tying up of the evidence, and then we'll make an announcement at the next press conference.

I'm thinking the next announcement could well be the big one (possibly even an arrest), but they are still getting in the rest of the DNA/evidence results. Remember, they just hauled all that new evidence-related stuff out of the house 2 days ago. If DNA processing takes at least a week, it could be next week, even, before they wrap things up enough to call a press conference.

 

[PoirotryInMotion]

I think what someone pointed out a few pages back was that there was a suspicious vehicle called in. I had pointed out about the roadway being with no shoulder etc. and so the idea of a getaway car seemed not so likely, IMO. But then someone said actually a call was placed about a vehicle. I'll have to go look for who wrote it. It was around page 19 or 20.

I read that LE had handled and then discounted over 300 leads/tips earlier in this case. Mind-boggling...though it's great that people have been calling in so much--especially for such a tiny locale. Can't be sure, but it's possible that while the car was reported and of interest earlier, it, too, has now been ruled out as being relevant to the case.

JMO, but the fact that they are so focused on the house, garage, and 2 ponds at the foot of the property, etc., makes me also think they've also ruled out someone from further away who might have been driving away in a getaway car. Maybe they're still tracking that clue, too, though. Can't know for sure.

 

[dinaslala]

I keep thinking about so much focus there is around the house/immediate area & in the video link below at the beginning it shows the FBI going through what appears to me, everything in the garage perhaps box by box. It seems to me they haven't found the murder weapon but believe it was hid nearby. I can't see if it was a stranger they would assume it wasn't taken with the purp. especially if the boy did see or chase the person leaving. I think something is more at play here concentrating on the house then a stranger being involved. JMO based on what LE is doing.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=244285

My uneducated/guess or opinion is: The people loading the truck are very close family friends moving the family out of the home.If any of those things were evidence, wouldnt it be bagged? or wrapped in some way?? look how empty the garage is..I feel like the home is still being secured so they can move in peace..I didnt notice uniforms on the video...:twocents:

 

[Dee10]

My uneducated/guess or opinion is: The people loading the truck are very close family friends moving the family out of the home.If any of those things were evidence, wouldnt it be bagged? or wrapped in some way?? look how empty the garage is..I feel like the home is still being secured so they can move in peace..I didnt notice uniforms on the video...:twocents:

Good to know, thank you!

 

[eileenhawkeye]

My uneducated/guess or opinion is: The people loading the truck are very close family friends moving the family out of the home.If any of those things were evidence, wouldnt it be bagged? or wrapped in some way?? look how empty the garage is..I feel like the home is still being secured so they can move in peace..I didnt notice uniforms on the video...:twocents:

The people in the video were all wearing the same shirt.

There are tents set up next to the home, and the media says the street is still blocked off. That tells me the house is still being processed as a crime scene. To allow the family to move out at this point, and to have movers trampling through the house, would be a huge police blunder.

 

[coastal]

Perhaps the TV was also used as a monitor for Internet access via a gaming system? Our wii has access to the wide open Internet. Another wee "box"'we have for Netflix and Hulu allows easy access to Facebook.

I hope for resolution in this case. As important as it is to me in PA, I can only imagine how important it is to Leila's Family and community.

OMG mom2four717, you're right! Was Leila on the internet? The WII? I don't know that much about what 8 yo girls do for fun these days, but I do know a 6yo who snatches up her dad's tablet every time he puts it down, and who loves to play on my laptop when she visits.

I know an 11 yo boy with a WII and a head(phones)set who can (and does) play the thing so intensely his house could burn down around him before he smelled any smoke. He chats (through the headset) with his friends the whole time, too, sometimes about the game but also, sometimes, about other things. He's not a very competitive guy, but I've heard him get downright aggressive playing "Call of Duty", and FIFA Soccer makes him jump around and hoot and holler like he's at a rock concert.

Could Leila have been targeted somehow through her (maybe) online activities? What an awful thought!

 

[PoirotryInMotion]

My uneducated/guess or opinion is: The people loading the truck are very close family friends moving the family out of the home.If any of those things were evidence, wouldnt it be bagged? or wrapped in some way?? look how empty the garage is..I feel like the home is still being secured so they can move in peace..I didnt notice uniforms on the video...:twocents:

JMO but I don't think that LE would allow them to remove items for moving purposes, yet, since the scene is still cordoned off and being processed. The videos show FBI agents (dressed in khaki pants/black shirts) removing the items and putting them into a uhaul-type vehicle. From the way the articles have described it, it seems LE/FBI were removing these items for evidence, not for moving purposes for the family. (BTW, someone asked about the TV--according to this article it's a large, flat-screen.)

Here's one article, though I have more that say the same thing--evidence bags, TV, and vacuum cleaner being put into the vehicle. Evidence bags would not be put into the same vehicle as a uhaul for aid in helping the family move.

While funeral services were underway for 8-year-old Leila, investigators remained busy near the home where she was killed 10 days ago.
Divers from the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department spent much of the day searching a pond just down the hill from Leila's Valley Springs home, presumably for evidence or even a murder weapon.
…
In the meantime, up the hill at the house where Leila was killed, about a dozen FBI agents continued to process the crime scene. They could be seen carrying evidence bags in and out of the home to a waiting moving van. At one point, they removed a vacuum cleaner and later, and later a large-flat-screen television set. Meantime, those who live in the small town are growing restless, given the lack of an arrest in a murder that has shocked everyone here.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=9093429

 

[wwc02]

But nothing was evidently taken; no walls demolished. Foiled (discovered) robbery means robber flees, not that he sticks around to stab a little 8 yr old 21 times, running off to leave the babysitter to describe his height, weight, clothing, etc.

And if he successfully took the item, there would be no reason to kill anyone.

Robbery as I know it, means that there is a victim present under threat.

There are people who kill for sport. For the ultimate rush. Killing is reason enough to kill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_Freak_Killers
Note where the "speed freak" events occurred; including San Andreas. Note the role of Leonard Padilla. Note that the FBI is still engaged in this investigation at a location less than 20 mi. from Rancho Calaveras. This may have greased the machinery for FBI assistance on Rippon Road.

Leonard Padilla was recently interiveiwed in Valley Springs in the same video with the motorist who picked up the bloody hitchhiker. I can't find that video link and would appreciate of someone could post it. I am almost certain it was a KRON report. Padilla implied he was there about LF, but then he also has things going on a few miles away in Linden. Before you know it, Padilla will drag Nancy Grace (not my favorite) to Valley Springs. We could just be getting started. I only hope that my wild speculation is correct and that the perpetrator(s) are in custody.

Do we know that walls were not hole punched? Do we know what, if anything, that the FBI found when they removed the bezel from the television? Do we know what was found when the box spring was dismantled? Frankly, we don't know much. There is nothing typical about this case that I can see. Even if you suspect the worse, that which we are, correctly, not allowed to discuss. That does not work either.

The explanation for daylight on a Saturday might be as simple as the only game in town. How often was this house empty? Or thought to be empty. Or, empty or not, did it even matter to the perpetrator(s)?

 

[tlcya]

I am not sure what kind of wolf dog hybrid the neighbor has but as someone who has researched them extensively and had a 50/50 Wolf Shepard hybrid for 13 years (RIP Dakota), this man has my hink meter up.

Not knowing the breed his wolf dog is crossed with or the purity of the wolf contribution makes it difficult to say this with certainty, but in general wolf dog mixes are not big barkers.

They are not known to be good watch or alert dogs as they are timid with people and do not bark their heads off when people go by. They will occasionally bark or "yip" as a warning but tend to howl, huff, and growl as their main vocalizations and much of their alert signals are silent (body language). Their vocalizations tend to be singular. A bark-growl, followed by very low growling to warn an intruder violating his territory, for instance.

Knowing as much as I do about wolf dogs, I tend to doubt this man's story in the following ways.

a) he is full of it and wanted face time.

b) he does not own wolf dogs but calls them that because he thinks its cool

c) something in his affect is just off

MOO

High content hybrids are not good watchdogs, due to the wolf's timid nature. Do not expect a high content hybrid to protect you or your property. High contents and pure wolves don't bark much (usually one warning bark, as opposed to the dog's repetitive bark), so they don't make good "alarms", either.

Howling - wolves and hybrids howl, whether out of loneliness, at sirens, or for their own wolf reasons. Take into consideration what type of neighborhood you live in and what your neighbors will put up with. Not everyone appreciates the eerily beautiful howl of the wolf, especially at 4:00 am.

http://www.inetdesign.com/wolfdunn/whate/whate1.html

The sound most people associate with a wolf or a wolfdog is the "wolf howl." No two wolfdogs howl exactly the same and their vocalizations are primarily a means of communication that can be separated into four categories: barking, whimpering, growling, and howling. Sounds created by the wolf dog may actually be a combination of sounds such as a bark-howl or growl-bark. Barking and growling are used as warnings. Whimpering may be used by a mother to indicate her willingness to nurse her young. It is also used to indicate "I give up" if they are in a submissive position and being dominated by another wolf dog. Howling is the one form of communication used by wolves and wolfdogs that is intended for long distance. A defensive howl is used to keep the pack together and strangers away. A social howl is used to locate one another, rally together and possibly just for fun.

http://www.wolfacrekennels.faithweb.com/rich_text_1.html

again, MOO, something is off with this newest neighbor with wolf dogs who didn't bark.

 

[PoirotryInMotion]

Just found this article, published April 30, three days after the murder:

(Newser) – Authorities are still looking for the man who murdered 8-year-old Leila Fowler in her California home Saturday afternoon, and the county sheriff says the stabbing appears to have been intentional—and not part of a botched robbery or other crime. The sheriff didn't elaborate, USA Today reports. <snipped by me>
Investigators are also interviewing registered sex offenders in the area, WPTV reports, though it's not clear yet if sexual assault was involved. <snipped by me>A former FBI profiler says it's unlikely the killing was random or committed by a stranger. "I would think it would be somebody who has some kind of connection with the home," he tells Fox 40. "You might think there is some sort of anger issue there."
http://www.newser.com/story/167114/stabbing-of-calif-girl-8-looks-intentional-sheriff.html

Yes, you might.

(Also found at: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/... usatoday-NewsTopStories (News - Top Stories) )

 

[PoirotryInMotion]

tycla, I'm sorry...but I think I've botched things up by calling it a wolf-dog on here. The neighbor himself called it a wolf on the video, and I've been referring to it as a wolf-dog simply because others had called it a dog, and I didn't want to confuse the issue by people thinking this might be a different neighbor if I called his "dog" a wolf (which he called it).

But...I think I've confused things even more. hoh: Sorry!!

 

[tlcya]

If they are wolves, that makes it even less likely that they typically bark anytime someone goes down the road. Not impossible, just highly unlikely.

Wolves do bark, just not in the same way dogs do or as often or for the same reasons.

If his animals are full wolves I believe him even less.

ETA you didn't cause me confusion PIM, I watched his video interview and thought he called them wolf-dogs. He may have started to say wolves and then changed it to dogs midthought.

ETAA just rewatched the video he calls it a German Wolf which is also known as the Eurasian Wolf (subspecies of the gray wolf). Which I take to mean he claims he has a full blooded Eurasian (or gray) wolf.

 

[Elley Mae]

I wonder if they took the TV to see if it has a camera/recording device in it that someone was monitoring the home with.

 

[Helenstreet]

I am not sure what kind of wolf dog hybrid the neighbor has but as someone who has researched them extensively and had a 50/50 Wolf Shepard hybrid for 13 years (RIP Dakota), this man has my hink meter up.

Not knowing the breed his wolf dog is crossed with or the purity of the wolf contribution makes it difficult to say this with certainty, but in general wolf dog mixes are not big barkers.

They are not known to be good watch or alert dogs as they are timid with people and do not bark their heads off when people go by. They will occasionally bark or "yip" as a warning but tend to howl, huff, and growl as their main vocalizations and much of their alert signals are silent (body language). Their vocalizations tend to be singular. A bark-growl, followed by very low growling to warn an intruder violating his territory, for instance.

Knowing as much as I do about wolf dogs, I tend to doubt this man's story in the following ways.

a) he is full of it and wanted face time.

b) he does not own wolf dogs but calls them that because he thinks its cool

c) something in his affect is just off

MOO

High content hybrids are not good watchdogs, due to the wolf's timid nature. Do not expect a high content hybrid to protect you or your property. High contents and pure wolves don't bark much (usually one warning bark, as opposed to the dog's repetitive bark), so they don't make good "alarms", either.

Howling - wolves and hybrids howl, whether out of loneliness, at sirens, or for their own wolf reasons. Take into consideration what type of neighborhood you live in and what your neighbors will put up with. Not everyone appreciates the eerily beautiful howl of the wolf, especially at 4:00 am.

http://www.inetdesign.com/wolfdunn/whate/whate1.html

The sound most people associate with a wolf or a wolfdog is the "wolf howl." No two wolfdogs howl exactly the same and their vocalizations are primarily a means of communication that can be separated into four categories: barking, whimpering, growling, and howling. Sounds created by the wolf dog may actually be a combination of sounds such as a bark-howl or growl-bark. Barking and growling are used as warnings. Whimpering may be used by a mother to indicate her willingness to nurse her young. It is also used to indicate "I give up" if they are in a submissive position and being dominated by another wolf dog. Howling is the one form of communication used by wolves and wolfdogs that is intended for long distance. A defensive howl is used to keep the pack together and strangers away. A social howl is used to locate one another, rally together and possibly just for fun.

http://www.wolfacrekennels.faithweb.com/rich_text_1.html

again, MOO, something is off with this newest neighbor with wolf dogs who didn't bark.

I have to respectfully disagree here. Having been associated with two different owners of 50/50 wolf/husky hybrids, and having owned one myself--all three "wolf/dogs" were very territorial, great watch dogs, and they certainly barked quite loudly if ANYONE was in the vicinity of their respective property. While I do understand that one's experience may be different, I don't see any reason to suggest that the neighbor is "off" in regards to his account of how his particular "wolf dog" reacts to strangers.

 

[tlcya]

I respect your opinion but hold fast to my own.