Page 20 - Dave Hawk News Today

It is just a tradition. we were not toasting anybodys anything. >> why have you never been able to persuade conrad of your innocence? >> i dont know. he knows that i was at home the whole time, never left, didnt have any involvement in anything illegal. but hes perhaps angry and needs to fill in the blanks with something. >> maybe he is angry at his dad because his dad killed his mom. >> his dad didnt kill his mom. >> he thinks so though. >> he could be wrong. >> so who did kill debbie? dave has...

Violent abduction. >> i dont believe he would be capable of doing something like this. >> then they started poking around in the relationship between debbie and her ex-husband and there some curious things began to emerge. for example, in the months before debbie disappeared dave took debbie to court and she was fighting back. her 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 c...

The alignment of the stars in this case was just stacked against us. stacked against dave hawk. >> at least in the harsh court of public opinion it looked bad for dave hawk as his murder trial approached in hanford, california. dennis peterson and mark coleman were daves attorneys. >> this guy allegedly stealing from his kids, saying bad things about this sympathetic victim and all these things being widely played in the press. >> if there ever was a case for change of venue, this must be it, sa...

The kids discovered debbie was missing it was 2:20 a.m. by then. police called dave, woke him up. asked him to drive down to police headquarters for a talk. the phone call was curious, thought investigator madison because dave didnt ask why. >> ive received calls in the middle of the night. my first thought for me is family. whats going on, especially if it is the police department. he didnt. >> and when he arrived in the interview room. >> whats going on? >> dave didnt seem to have much of a re...

Somebody killed debbie. >> it was clear she was not alive based on the crime scene. >> investigators poked around debbies life history looking for clues. >> she was very talkative, friendly, likable. she was kind of the life of the the party. >> this is debbies sister, diane, who recalled how friends set her up on that blind date years ago. >> firecracker. >> he was the date, dave hawk. >> she was short and attractive and a lot of fun and pretty good sense of humor. youd say something and, man, ...

On her and she screamed very loudly and he struck her with something more than once. at that point, i assume he suffocated her. >> then, said the prosecutor, he must have dragged debbies body to the garage, put her in her own van, disposed of her somewhere and drove to fresno. how did he get back home? that accomplice, said the prosecutor, must have picked him up and driven him the 40 miles back to his farm. but really, there was no body, no dna, no forensic evidence to show dave had even been a...

Not yet, anyway. >> were going to wait until we find the body or give the body more time to come up. >> instead, a year after debbie vanished, dave was charged with em bezling, stealing more than $300,000 from his own childrens trust funds. he pleaded not guilty, was released on bail. >> dave, how does it feel to be out of jail? >> and waited for the other shoe to drop. now, imagine this, the police, not to mention most of the town, believed their father killed their mother leaving three childre...

>> his response was to ask for half custody. the percentages were 65 with debbie and 35 with dave. he wanted to make it an even 50-50. and that is when the battle moved to these, trust funds set up for the childrens futures the mon came from daves father but dave controlled the funds and debbie was sure dave was stealing from them to support his own lifestyle. why would she think that? well, this was actually the second set of trusts established for the children. several years before a judge cau...

>> for the last time, no. im getting tired of answering that question. no means no. but the fools at the hanford police department dont seem to understand that. they are on a witch hunt is what is going on. they are on a witch hunt. >> whatever they were on, they couldnt find the evidence to arrest him. dave remained a free man, something that made his own son, conrad, very nervous. >> my suspicion was growing stronger and stronger. >> conrad told the police about the night after his mother was ...

Exposed. enough? well, we shall see. >> theres a number of other explanations for what could have happened other than dave. dave was a convenient ex-husband. >> coming up -- one of his children is convinced hes not guilty, but can dave hawk convince a jury? >> i told them i wanted to testify. >> when "dateline" continues. ans through contact. no biting required. [ director ] cut! im not feeling the no biting required line. bah. [ growls ] somebody get this guy a muzzle. k9 advantix ii from bayer...