So I'm guessing you can't share that info with us then? Or have you shared it on here?
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No, I would be happy to share it with you.
I'll try to be brief as much as is possible.
From the time I saw the "48 Hours" program I was hooked. I had to know and it puzzled me how the police didn't have any leads as said by the detective. Hard to believe that in a city of a quarter million people and the news dominating everything else and an entire police force working the case it seemed hard to believe there were no leads.
In any event, some time into the case I was visiting with a good friend, now deceased, who said that a certain person seemed to fit the profile of someone to be looked at. I had never heard of this person. But I knew his location and contacted a long time associate in another county, a lady. I asked her if she had ever heard of this person. Her response was that the mention of his name made he hair on her neck stand up. He had recently gotten into some kind of legal trouble and she asked me if I would like a copy of his mug shot. I said sure. Send it on.
The next day, I received at my home, two copies of the mug shot. Believing this might be important, I went down to the SPD station and presented it to the police chief and the detective. They had no real comment of note but may have thanked me and then I left.
Fast forward about two months sometime in mid October and I'm taking my wife to work as I did for about 20 years. I'm sitting at the traffic light of Jefferson Avenue and St. Louis Street and I see an identical van but blue. I asked my wife to write down the tag number as I was going to pass it along. I proceeded to drop her off at her place of employment and drove around the DT section on the way to my parking lot. A police cruiser just happened to come by and I reported my sighting. He seemed very interested and drove off to locate the van.
I worked in the State Office building next to the old Heer's department building where at one time Sherrill Levitt worked.
I didn't think too much more about it and went to my office and was sitting down when a very capable and trusted employee came into my office and asked me "did you see him?" I didn't know what to make of this and she explained it was the man in the mug shot. I had kept one of the copies, showed it to her and stuck it in my desk drawer.
She said he was walking down Bonneville Avenue toward Water Street. I would hasten to point out that I did not personally see him.
After she told me this, I called to my contact in the other county and told her of this and she asked me if I had the tag number. I gave it to her. She came back in about two minutes with the owner and address of the van.
Now I'm thinking the officer I talked to who took my report might be interested in this information so I called the police station and asked to be "patched in" to the officer whose name I had. Instead of getting him, another officer, seen in the 48 hour program went into a closed office and climbed down my throat and said he would have me fired as I was "interfering" in the case investigation. I explained that I merely wanted to pass information along. He was totally uninterested and threatened to have my job not once but three times.
I've never received a satisfactory answer from any other LE officer why I would have my job threatened. Because I viewed it as more than that I went to the local Missouri Highway Patrol Office on Kearney street and talked to the officer on duty. Retold my story and it puzzled him as well. He had no explanation. Wanted to know if I wanted him to contact the officer in question. I said that wasn't necessary but was merely trying to find out why no interest would be given to what I had observed that morning. On my way out I inquired if they were also working the case and the MSHP officer said that the SPD had everything under control and didn't need their help.
This continued to trouble me. I contacted the DEA office in Memphis, Tennessee on my way back from a prior plan to go to Nashville to view some auto racing. I was going to contact Internal Affairs before leaving but they weren't in when I called and time was of the essence so we left for Nashville. But the whole episode bothered me. It still troubles me.
I found all of this very disquieting. I do to this very day. There have been more than a few people who have suggested there was police involvement. I don't know anything first hand but why tendered information would be declined and met with threats is beyond my understanding.
