Given the fact that this was a ‘softball’ interview it seemed to me that Chief Varrone was very uneasy in that Q & A.
Did he lie? He probably did, not because he is a dishonest person, but because in such investigations there are always screw-ups no matter how good the detectives are. It goes with the territory. To deceive or deflect the truth, I don’t believe that was his intention.
He mentioned that the supervisors (Lt.Petrofsky) and others were the best the SCPD had to offer. From everything I heard of the LT is he was exactly that: A seasoned professional. Keep in mind that it was LT.P that replaced Lt.Fitzpatrick after LT F’s detectives embarrassed him by not responding to the Lucero murder scene. These ‘dedicated’ detectives refused to respond because then-PC Dormer took away a 2 HR OT perk to one detective a night to be assigned to take a call should a homicide come in after hours. No detective on that early morning was allegedly at home to pick up the phone. If Dormer only did one thing right in his reign as PC, that one was it.
Lt.Petrofksy was such a ‘good’ detective supervisor, according to Varrone that when Bellone took office and put James Burke in as The Chief of Department, Petrofsky retired and replaced by Fitzpatrick! The word was that this was a forgone conclusion: When Bellone took over and he made Burke the Chief, Petrofsky was going to retire. He was on borrowed time from the day he took over his assignment.
What also troubled me about Varrone’s interview was he seemed to take great pains to describe his role in that investigation as not much more than an administrator. He had to marshal resources etc., not oversee the most important murder investigation in Suffolk County’s history. It seemed to me that Varrone was trying to distance himself from the nuts and bolts of the case.
In my experience in the NYPD no Chief of Detectives I ever knew would be second seat to an investigation of this magnitude. And this guy said he was reporting his information to Dormer. Remember that by this time Dormer was a lame duck commissioner who was going to be replaced the second Bellone took office.
What also troubled me is when Varrone said he had other matters to deal with, e.g. the politics of the case. POLITICS? Sure in a case like this there is always an element of politics but none that should concern the Chief of Detectives. What exactly was Varrone talking about?
Then he praised the detectives for extending the search after the first of the GB4’s body was found. What else was they supposed to do? Were they to wait for another body, in this case 3, then 5 more and found by an outside party.
When Varrone opined that when the body of SG was found it didn’t appear to look as though she was murdered? He said that even though the M.E. could not find a cause of death and claims to this day they don’t know how she died. How could you possibly say otherwise when you really don’t know how she died? How can you say that after you find 10 other bodies and say they were homicide victims that were prostitutes found not far from the scene and say SG probably died of exposure?
Keep in mind the GB4 appeared to be killed and dumped with a plan. The killer(s) killed them on an off-site, packed them up and dumped them. In SG’s case it appears if she was killed she was killed after running away from her killer(s). They killed her without time to plan for her disposal and let the body stay where it was.
I knew your eyes would catch more than mine did. I never noticed that "politics" part and of course the significance of it.
Looking at a perspective from 2004-2010 there's really not much to blame on SCPD for the dump jobs. The truth is if they actually did what they say they did in Shannan Gilbert case and found her within a day or two and not discover the bodies on the beach, they could be deemed a quite well functioning PD. Of course if the perspective is expanded to cover the period before 2004, the picture changes quickly.
What they have trouble with is that they are trying to extract a success story from every aspect of the case, but the "success" of discovery of the first four bodies is in fact the result of their failure in Shannan's disappearance in the first place. If it wasn't for John Mallia to do the initial search in Oak Beach and then connecting that experience to his discovery on the side of Ocean Parkway there would be 11 bodies (at least) lying undiscovered.
Another detail is, Varrone says they responded Mrs. Brennan's call within 15 minutes or so and Shannan was on the phone with State Police for 21 minutes. If SCPD did their job by sending a police officer on the scene, where's the State Police?
Sometimes people/victims have only the power to dial 911 and they can't even speak, they still get emergency teams. I believe Shannan can't tell where she is because she simply doesn't know where she is, not because she's delusional, she's just mumbling the road signs she saw on the way.
Shannan's call is automatically directed to Suffolk County PSAP. The first mistake is the operator redirecting her to State Police. Remember, it's not Shannan preferring SC PSAP, it's the automated system, in other words the tower tells the operator that she is in their jurisdiction, and I'm pretty sure that the operator had a functioning locator on his/her desk as well.
What happens when Shannan is redirected to State Police? Another dial time, another phone pick up time, another introductory session... It all counts time. If she was facing a real danger, all these seconds would mean a lot. And remember her earring was found on Brewer's doorstep. It's not questioned how the earring fell off.
And 21 minutes of hustling and running and no State Police officer shows up at the scene. Is it perhaps they located Shannan and saw she was on Oak Beach?
Add to that; Varrone says they can hear Gus Coletti speaking to Shannan and calling the police. If Varrone can her Gus, that means the State Police could hear him too. Means, there's actually a situation that needs to be handled.
Finally, nobody including Varrone puts an official timeline of Shannan's last minutes, despite they have almost everything in hand, if they do it will be crystal clear that Pak's story is shaky. Nobody asks Peter Hackett how he got Mari Gilbert's phone number on May 1st?
