Page 11 - Dave Hawk News Today

Kim was debbies attorney. >> the issues she was dealing with were custody and support. >> dave asked the court for a reduction in $553 a month child support payment. why? because he claimed he only earned $6,000 a year. his salary came from his dad, who paid him $500 a month to work on his almond farm. his only income, apparently, but debbies attorney found that hard to believe. >> he lived in what i understood to be a nice home, drove a late model suburban. that is hard to do on $6,000 a year. ...

Including a stun gun which, it turned out, he bought a month before debbie disappeared. he told detectives it was for home protection for his daughters and girlfriend, mary. >> he never discussed it with mary and he had never discussed wit the children at all. they did not know it existed. >> they couldnt find anything to connect the stun gun to the crime but it was odd. they also took his computers, of course. and since dave did volunteer work at a local church they seized the church computer, ...

Debbie worked in pharmaceutical sales. perhaps a drug addict had gone after the samples she kept in the van. all of the pharmaceuticals in her van were missing. somebody took them. >> that was a ludicrous idea, countered the prosecution. debbie carried very few samples. anyway, if drug theft was behind it why didnt the thief take any jewelry or electronics? no, it all seemed to come down to dave. his character, his behavior and his own words, like a conversation with a friend police recorded whe...

Spend the money as he saw fit. any way that would benefit the children. >> the money is to be used for the health, education, support and maintenance of the children. and thats exactly what it was used for and i acted legally in that respect. >> and then since they didnt have any evidence against him, said dave, prosecutors made a case based on misinterpreting things he said. like the time he said to a friend, if i was a bad guy, i would throw somebody off a bridge. >> my point was they havent l...

But was that the end of this story? not in the least. his defense attorney appealed the case as high as he could, even trying the supreme court, which declined review. then in march 2016, ten years after debbie hawk disappeared, a farm hadnt found her remains in a field in the neighboring town where dave grew up. debbies father bud tree had a dying wish that she be found before she passed away. he left this earth just a week after that discovery. and the children who held opposing views about th...

Bought his girlfriend, mary, a $27,000 lexus, took her on a vacation to hawaii, and used $60,000 to pay off divorce costs and the $1,500 he owed to his kids from the first set of trusts. here believed detectives was the heart of the motive for murder. debbie, if she hadnt disappeared was about to expose all that in court. >> you steal $300,000 and you are about to be exposed by it -- >> by a woman you despise? >> exactly. >> certainly another piece of the puzzle. >> there is another strange piec...

But prosecutor larry crouch heard disquieting reports from his investigators. >> they started surveilling our office, the police offices, eventually starts driving by an investigators home. it was getting pretty concerning out there. >> time to move. on may 29, 2008, dave hawk was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and a special circumstance murder for financial gain. he pleaded not guilty. when the trial finally began more than a year later dave faced murder and the earlier embezzlem...

>> i think theyre just very upset about what happened and their relationship was not as close to my dad. they were not home or not awake when i was awake. and they were not around him the next day like i was around him. >> chelsa says dave was acting perfectly normal the day after whatever happened happened. no odd behavior, nothing whatever to suggest he had been up all night committing aer the crime. >> the things that convinced me about his innocence arent there to convince them. i think they...

It was a frustrating summer back in 2006 here in the farmlands of californias central valley. the purple ribbon search teams came up empty though they looked everywhere for weeks. police named dave hawk a person of interest. he seemed to have an alibi. all three kids were with him in his house the night debbie vanished. and besides there wasnt a shred of physical evidence to tie dave to the scene of an apparently violent abduction. his own daughter who spent the day after the abduction with dave...

Well, we shall see. >> theres a number of other explanations for what could have happened other than dave. dave was a convenient ex-husband. >> one of his children was convinced he was not guilty. but could dave hawk convince a jury? coming up -- >> i told them i wanted to testify. >> when the disappearance of debbie hawk continues. sappearanf debbie hawk continues. -and...thats your basic three-point turn.