Found Deceased MI - Venus Stewart, 32, Colon, 28 April 2010 - #10 *D. Stewart guilty*

[Marinemom]

Another thing.............

Why in the world would DS need to call RS, at the last minute, to get the phone number of a house he had been calling every day to speak to his children? Wouldn't he have already had this number, or at least taken it with him - if that was his plan all along?

 

[PickieChickie]

Although I struggle to think like a killer....

I am very reluctant to believe that DS hauled VS body all the way to Ohio. The presumption that DS watched the kids board the bus, then call VS on the phone (pretending to be the mailman), then snatch her and strangle her to death, wrap her in a tarp, load the dead body in his truck.....then presume he kept her in there for 2 hours while driving on a major highway??? I can't imagine!! I would sooner believe he wanted to get rid of that body MUCH sooner, and not risk getting caught with it. I can't imagine he hauled her body all the way to Ohio before burying her. I think he either just dumped her body or at least buried her CLOSE to the Colon area. As I've said before - it happened in the peak of field planting season - the HUGE fields near Colon would have been freshly plowed - VERY EASY DIGGING - so he could easily dig a shallow grave and stick her in it. Then within a week the farmers would plant that field, so she could be buried under a field of corn or beans, and not even have that field plowed up for at least a year. That may NOT be where she is, but it seems more likely to me than hauling her body all the way to Ohio somewhere and risk being stopped by the police AGAIN. Apparently he was stopped just a week before and had to call off the 'murder mission'....I can't imagine he would risk being caught on this one by carrying the body on a main highway where he could get stopped, or get in an accident with a dead body in tow.

JMO

I agree with you. It is Ricky Spencer's testimony that Doug Stewart called him at 9:00 AM to inform him he had to dig another hole because there were people near the grave that has made us believe he didn't bury her nearby.

Also, why did he buy the shovel in Ohio when he could have bought it in Michigan closer to where Venus was living. Clearly he needed it after he purchased it. Since he dug the hole before he put Venus in the truck, he was planning on burying her somewhere between where he purchased it and Venus's home.

One would think that the last thing a person with murder on their mind would want to be found with is a shovel. The fact he put off buying the tarp, shovel, hat and gloves until he reached Ohio seems to indicate he didn't want the items into his possession in case he got pulled over again.

If that were the reason for holding off on buying the items until he needed them, why would he purchase them in Ohio rather than wait until he was very close to Venus's parent's house?

​

 

[PickieChickie]

Another thing.............

Why in the world would DS need to call RS, at the last minute, to get the phone number of a house he had been calling every day to speak to his children? Wouldn't he have already had this number, or at least taken it with him - if that was his plan all along?

He probably had the number on speed dial and thought he had it memorized but in his heightened state of panic couldn't remember it or wanted to make sure he was right and didn't call the wrong number. (That would explain waiting until the last moment rather than having it written down for easy reference.)

 

[PickieChickie]

Ok so I keep finding Routes that are of different times, the one I found on bing maps shows 10 hrs and 59 mins with this route.An hour less then the last one I posted, I am sure DS researched these routes before he set off anyhow here is this link, I am just trying to determine which route he most likely took so as to narrow it down as to where Venus may be:

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=39.46886625140905~-80.85195869207382&lvl=6&sty=h&rtp=.41.959335_-85.32516_Colon%2C%20MI___e_~.36.980505_-76.429455_Newport%20News%2C%20VA___e_&mode=D&rtop=0~0~0~

That map makes it possible for Doug to have driven the ten minutes out to his parent's farm then ten minutes back plus whatever amount of time was involved in dealing with Venus's body and back home to Newport News by 7:00 AM.

Maybe that's exactly what Doug did and the call to Ricky Spencer at 9:00 AM about having to dig a new grave was a total lie and part of the grand scheme to make anyone believe Venus was buried at least a 1 1/2 hour drive from Michigan when in fact she is buried on the parent's farm.

Ricky Spencer testified that Doug said the only people he would tell about his role in Venus's murder was his family and lawyer.

Therefore, I have to assume the family was aware of the plans and perhaps helped fine tune all the details including where to bury Venus and what to tell Ricky Spencer.

Doug had to cover his bases with Ricky Spencer also, although he did a poor job of it. This could have involved feeding him false information when necessary.

The last thing Doug wanted was for Venus's body to be found, if he was successful in murdering her and burying her.

Calling Ricky Spencer 20 minutes after he killed Venus to say, "I've buried her" wouldn't have been very smart.

 

[BeanE]

Another thing.............

Why in the world would DS need to call RS, at the last minute, to get the phone number of a house he had been calling every day to speak to his children? Wouldn't he have already had this number, or at least taken it with him - if that was his plan all along?

People store frequently called numbers in their phones. If they don't have their phone handy, they can't remember the number.

Or it could be a ruse for another purpose, not yet apparent.

:cow:

ETA: I was reading backwards, and it looks like I responded to a duplicate post. lol

 

[mommame]

Another thing.............

Why in the world would DS need to call RS, at the last minute, to get the phone number of a house he had been calling every day to speak to his children? Wouldn't he have already had this number, or at least taken it with him - if that was his plan all along?

IIRC it was stated he called RS to get the number from his (DS) cell. He probably did not have it memorized but just punched the number on his phone....you know like speed dial...#1,#2, ect

 

[mommame]

That map makes it possible for Doug to have driven the ten minutes out to his parent's farm then ten minutes back plus whatever amount of time was involved in dealing with Venus's body and back home to Newport News by 7:00 AM.

Maybe that's exactly what Doug did and the call to Ricky Spencer at 9:00 AM about having to dig a new grave was a total lie and part of the grand scheme to make anyone believe Venus was buried at least a 1 1/2 hour drive from Michigan when in fact she is buried on the parent's farm.

Ricky Spencer testified that Doug said the only people he would tell about his role in Venus's murder was his family and lawyer.

Therefore, I have to assume the family was aware of the plans and perhaps helped fine tune all the details including where to bury Venus and what to tell Ricky Spencer.

Doug had to cover his bases with Ricky Spencer also, although he did a poor job of it. This could have involved feeding him false information when necessary.

The last thing Doug wanted was for Venus's body to be found, if he was successful in murdering her and burying her.

Calling Ricky Spencer 20 minutes after he killed Venus to say, "I've buried her" wouldn't have been very smart.

For whatever reason, I have thought all along that the parents farm should be gone over with a fine tooth comb. Then RS tells in court that DS had told his parents . So, they KNEW his plan and obviously went along with it....WHY wouldn't they tell him to bring her there ? Seems to me in thier attempts to cover for him, that would be the ideal plan AND perhaps a hole was already dug on the farm....waiting.

 

[Marinemom]

People store frequently called numbers in their phones. If they don't have their phone handy, they can't remember the number.

Or it could be a ruse for another purpose, not yet apparent.

:cow:

ETA: I was reading backwards, and it looks like I responded to a duplicate post. lol

Yep, sorry it was a duplicate. I deleted the second post. (my computer was acting up)

YES.............I can understand that. I hadn't thought of that. I do that myself. I have NO IDEA what my own daughters number is - it is conveniently on my cell with just her name and speed dial. Guess I wasn't thinking..

 

[MsFacetious]

I don't think he thought "hey if I call Ricky at 9am then they will know that she is 1 hour and 42 minutes away from Colon." I don't think it even occurred to him that they might use that to track down where she might be. I think he was MORE concerned about getting OUT of Michigan, period. If he had stopped in Michigan Venus' father could have found him before he got done for all he knew. If they noticed her missing right away they could have caught up to him. If he gets to Ohio and then get into Oak Openings or one of the other areas like that, they aren't going to find him there.

No calling Ricky Spencer to tell him he buried her wouldn't have been very smart. Telling him he was going to kill his wife at all wasn't very smart.

Neither was leaving the receipt for the murder kit.

Neither was buying the murder kit just before the murder. at a store with a ton of cameras, on a direct route from your house to the abduction site. Why not just find an old tarp and shovel and gloves? You are telling me they don't have that on a farm? I have all of that, plus rope and duct tape. I don't live on a farm, just have 3 horses.

He did a lot of things that weren't smart. I don't think he thought things through nearly as much as he thinks he did.

 

[LLLindsayy]

I agree with you. It is Ricky Spencer's testimony that Doug Stewart called him at 9:00 AM to inform him he had to dig another hole because there were people near the grave that has made us believe he didn't bury her nearby.

Also, why did he buy the shovel in Ohio when he could have bought it in Michigan closer to where Venus was living. Clearly he needed it after he purchased it. Since he dug the hole before he put Venus in the truck, he was planning on burying her somewhere between where he purchased it and Venus's home.

One would think that the last thing a person with murder on their mind would want to be found with is a shovel. The fact he put off buying the tarp, shovel, hat and gloves until he reached Ohio seems to indicate he didn't want the items into his possession in case he got pulled over again.

If that were the reason for holding off on buying the items until he needed them, why would he purchase them in Ohio rather than wait until he was very close to Venus's parent's house?

​

I have no definite answer, of course, but a suggestion.

Perhaps he figured that if he were to be found having been at WalMart in Ohio, he could come up with an excuse a lot easier than he could having been at a WalMart in the same town VS disappeared in.

 

[mommame]

I don't think he thought "hey if I call Ricky at 9am then they will know that she is 1 hour and 42 minutes away from Colon." I don't think it even occurred to him that they might use that to track down where she might be. I think he was MORE concerned about getting OUT of Michigan, period. If he had stopped in Michigan Venus' father could have found him before he got done for all he knew. If they noticed her missing right away they could have caught up to him. If he gets to Ohio and then get into Oak Openings or one of the other areas like that, they aren't going to find him there.

No calling Ricky Spencer to tell him he buried her wouldn't have been very smart. Telling him he was going to kill his wife at all wasn't very smart.

Neither was leaving the receipt for the murder kit.

Neither was buying the murder kit just before the murder. at a store with a ton of cameras, on a direct route from your house to the abduction site. Why not just find an old tarp and shovel and gloves? You are telling me they don't have that on a farm? I have all of that, plus rope and duct tape. I don't live on a farm, just have 3 horses.

He did a lot of things that weren't smart. I don't think he thought things through nearly as much as he thinks he did.

I don't think VS's father worried him at all......remember the org. plan was to kill who ever was in the house with VS.according to RS at the hearing last week....iirc

 

[MsFacetious]

I don't think VS's father worried him at all......remember the org. plan was to kill who ever was in the house with VS.according to RS at the hearing last week....iirc

My point being that if Venus' father could have caught up to him, then Michigan State Police with lights and sirens definitely could have caught up to him.

 

[mommame]

I have no definite answer, of course, but a suggestion.

Perhaps he figured that if he were to be found having been at WalMart in Ohio, he could come up with an excuse a lot easier than he could having been at a WalMart in the same town VS disappeared in.

I don't think he ever thought any one would ever know he was at Walmart in Ohio...........darn! If only he had remembered to throw that pesky receipt away......

 

[panthera]

I don't think he ever thought any one would ever know he was at Walmart in Ohio...........darn! If only he had remembered to throw that pesky receipt away......

I don't think he expected to be connected to the WalMart purchases either, and that being the reason for stopping in Ohio instead of Michigan, except he did forget to get rid of the receipt and everything started to unravel from there. MOO

 

[LLLindsayy]

Maybe he didn't go to a WalMart closer to Colon, because it was possible he would have seen someone he knew there? Isn't he from the same general area? I imagine it would be a lot less likely in Ohio. If he saw someone he knew, they'd obviously be a witness to him being in Michigan at the time of Venus's disappearance.

 

[blackdog]

I don't think he thought "hey if I call Ricky at 9am then they will know that she is 1 hour and 42 minutes away from Colon." I don't think it even occurred to him that they might use that to track down where she might be. I think he was MORE concerned about getting OUT of Michigan, period. If he had stopped in Michigan Venus' father could have found him before he got done for all he knew. If they noticed her missing right away they could have caught up to him. If he gets to Ohio and then get into Oak Openings or one of the other areas like that, they aren't going to find him there.

No calling Ricky Spencer to tell him he buried her wouldn't have been very smart. Telling him he was going to kill his wife at all wasn't very smart.

Neither was leaving the receipt for the murder kit.

Neither was buying the murder kit just before the murder. at a store with a ton of cameras, on a direct route from your house to the abduction site. Why not just find an old tarp and shovel and gloves? You are telling me they don't have that on a farm? I have all of that, plus rope and duct tape. I don't live on a farm, just have 3 horses.

He did a lot of things that weren't smart. I don't think he thought things through nearly as much as he thinks he did.

I agree, she's probably in one of those parks. Even if someone was around the first spot, he could have just drove another 300 yards. Buying the murder kit the day before seems logical if your double checking your planed rout on the way to Venus. It would be very in-convent finding out our planed rout of escape was a road closed, due to construction.

 

[blackdog]

I may be mistaken, but at the hearing I wrote 10:00 as the time RS called DS. I think that was when he listened in on RS call into work sick for him.
Also, was the receipt confirmed to have come from Toledo?

 

[Natal]

I too clearly remember what Pickie said. It was all over the news, and we discussed it here. Here's just one of the articles.

Police have two reasons they believe there is an impersonator: investigators can place Doug at a Walmart in Ohio the night before Venus disappeared, and there is a witness who can place Doug in Michigan the day she was abducted.

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/sw_mich/Is-there-a-Doug-Stewart-impersonator

I thought I recalled Risko as not saying how they could place him in Michigan. Too lazy to dig up the videos of the interviews though.

Doesn't matter. Ricky coming forward and providing the rest of the details from Doug has no doubt led LE to tons more evidence.

They didn't say anything about having him on video though, they just said they could place him there which might be simply finding the reciept in the truck. The speculation about videos was WS posters saying that there are lots of cameras at Walmarts. That may well be, but we don't know what, if anything, is on them. You regularly see security camera footage on shows like NG and frankly the quality of them leaves LOTS to be desired.

In that article they say the Michigan evidence is an eye witness. But, unless the witness actually knew DS, their testimony would be unreliable, especially considering that it was obtained weeks after the event. My recollection was that Risko declined to say what the evidence was though, so that article is apparently speculating.

 

[Natal]

Ricky Spencer testified that Doug said the only people he would tell about his role in Venus's murder was his family and lawyer.

Therefore, I have to assume the family was aware of the plans and perhaps helped fine tune all the details including where to bury Venus and what to tell Ricky Spencer.

That doesn't mean he did tell them or was going to tell them. It likely meant those were the only people he would talk to if he was caught or implicated.

His lawyer is an officer of the court, if his client confided his plans to kill someone you can bet the lawyer would have done something about it.

 

[mommame]

They didn't say anything about having him on video though, they just said they could place him there which might be simply finding the reciept in the truck. The speculation about videos was WS posters saying that there are lots of cameras at Walmarts. That may well be, but we don't know what, if anything, is on them. You regularly see security camera footage on shows like NG and frankly the quality of them leaves LOTS to be desired.

In that article they say the Michigan evidence is an eye witness. But, unless the witness actually knew DS, their testimony would be unreliable, especially considering that it was obtained weeks after the event. My recollection was that Risko declined to say what the evidence was though, so that article is apparently speculating.

And you also see video tape that is very clear.....Casey Anthony in Target comes to mind...........I seriously doubt that MSP is lax in this investigation. It seems some think they are real bimbos and don't know how to do a good investigation.............I personally think they have done a great job thus far and will continue to follow thru and seek justice for VS!