12-06-2001
Monroe in Huntington Beach, CA
Laura Douglass
With a bottle of Tequila from her own bar.
Over Ken Kincaid and Raychel's affair. Rage, Jealousy, Revenge.
Laura finally admits she lied to the police and tells us that she went to see the victim during the time of the murder. Now she is pointing the finger at Sharon Wolfe to cover her own tracks for two reasons. One, in case Sharon has a story to add on Laura’s whereabouts of the murder. Second, To take the heat off herself. I have been reading the questions and answers and this is what I can tell from all the stories. First off Raychel enters the scene immediately being taken under Laura’s wing, therefore Laura has know the victim the longest and knew Raychel before the drugs, before the lights, before the men flocking over her. They share a bond with the arts. Laura completely falls into Raychel's web. Raychel eventually tries to abandon Laura for the most part and so Laura introduces her to Ken, Laura doesn’t find out everything she needs to know from him and so she hires Sharon to keep in touch of what is going on in Raychel’s life. Sharon and Raychel don’t hit it off too well and so Laura is left finding yet another to help out with her mission, so Raychel meets Geoff. Thanks to Laura (do you see a pattern here)? On the night of the murder Sergei visits Raychel. Sometime between 10pm or just before he leaves the house. Sharon and Geoff are at Safehaven sharing the news with Laura of the events that had taken place. Laura is dealing with her own demons over finding out that Raychel and Ken were sleeping together to keep the secret from Geoff of the recording sessions. Overall Laura only wants Raychel's friendship too remain strong and so she decides to slip out of work and visit Raychel, knowing how Kyle has been trying to get Raychel off drugs and alcohol she slips a bottle to take with her on her trip to visit with Raychel and knowing the events that took place if Kyle is there he probably wouldn’t turn down the offering. Some 10 minutes after Laura has been missing Sharon wanders around to see where Laura has ran off too. Laura already gone Sharon decides to see where Laura has ran off to. Laura makes it to Raychel’s within 10 to 15 minutes. This would make it around 10:30 or later guessing her and Sergei just missed each other.
She claims she left around 11:20 hearing a thud and leaving quickly. Had this been true she would of heard more than a thud due to the violent struggle going on inside the apartment because there is a hallway leading towards Kyle’s Apt door and if neighbors can hear a struggle I am sure she would of heard this as she reached the hallway entrance.
Even if her statement is true the time of death is around 11 to 11:45 -a hour to an hour and one half before the body was found by Kyle. The fight occurred after Laura admitted she knew of Ken and Raychel’s affair and asked Raychel to end all ties with him because she had feelings for him and Raychel could have any man she wanted. Laura ends the event with the fatal graphic poetic beginning “The Bleeding Jewel” stabbing someone to death an overall number of times is ideal in a gothic type of way, and what better too use than the one instrument that was present to Raychel the first night she entered Safehaven, a tequila bottle? Owning a bar wouldn’t qualify you to purchase the item...btw.
Sometime during Laura moving the body down the hall out of plain view she was interrupted by something. Perhaps Sharon thought to see if Laura went to Raychel's. She left when no one answered the door (after all she did notice Kyle’s black sports car gone). Laura claims to of returned to the bar. Sharon also returned to retrieve Geoff, but Sharon stated that Laura was out of sight for a great deal of the night. Sharon then went to Kyle’s to check on Raychel after dropping Geoff off, finding the police there and beating up the only man at the crime scene with a past history of violence.
Sharon calls Geoff who calls Ken only to receive a voice reciting the “you’re coming right” lines. Quickly realizing it wasn’t Laura he was asking, he learned of the news of Raychel’s death and quickly called Laura to explain why he wouldn’t be home when she was ready to come over. Laura exclaimed that she had things to do before closing up the bar and this remained her alibi.
She knew the victim.
Knew the people surrounding the victim’s life and reactions they would have because of the victim’s past relationship with herself included.
She had easy access to the murder weapon, a cover up for the weapon if ever found “it slipped and cut my hand”. She even has easy access to clarifying why the bottle is in her belongings “I own a bar”.
She has motive over the findings of an affair with her boyfriend at the time and her overall relationship to the victim.
She lied to the police and in light of the story she could have told Ken she had been to see Raychel that night and this is why Ken would have told Sergei to lie to the police about his being their prior to the murder as well.
Overall she is trying to pass a story of Sharon Wolfe being the killer simply because she left the bar (soon after Laura did I remind you) but in actuality there is no way Sharon could have made it to Raychel’s house before Laura if Laura knew she was going to see Raychel and Sharon was simply trying to follow Laura. This would imply that Sharon left before Laura did and made it into the apartment and completed a 15 to 30 minute struggle with Raychel before Laura arrived. I ask you, how is this possible if she left “soon after” Laura did?
It isn’t... but Laura wants you to think it is.
There is a timeline too work out here... it is that Safehaven is 10 to 15 minutes from the bar.
Figure the time frame it takes for the violent struggle, the time frames of everyone going to and from Kyle’s apartment and tell me what better way to get away with murder than to hire yet another private investigator to insinuate you would do anything to catch a dear, true, friend's murderer. It’s obvious he isn’t going to suspect the one person paying him the money to solve the case right off hand. This will take effect when curiosity gets the better of him.
I agree that Laura’s recent admission is a good reason for suspicion about her true actions. Why did she really wait this long to tell the truth? Personally, I don’t buy the whole trapping of Sharon Wolfe thing. If she really wanted to trap her, she would’ve told the police about it from the start. Still, I don’t have a good theory about it yet.
Which leads me to your theory. While at first glance the theory looks very sound, there are a number of unconfirmed holes in your theory. Maybe I’ve missed some of them, but I don’t believe so. If I have, please let me know and I will post it as a rebuttal.
1 – As far as we know, Laura did not hire Sharon Wolfe (she may have but you have not proven that – regardless, it is a minor point in your theory).
2 – Raychel and Ken Kincaid were sleeping together? How did I miss this? Please cite your source. Since you stated it is a motive, I would think it very important to know exactly where this is stated. Also, on a side note, you implicated Ken Kincaid as an accomplice at the end of your theory, but you did not mention him in the beginning of your theory. If he told Sergei to lie in order to cover up Laura’s involvement, it implies that he knew what really happened. Or am I reading too much into your theory?
3 – To my knowledge, Kyle never tried to get Raychel off alcohol. I thought it was only drugs.
4 – You state that Laura was at the apartment around 10:30. This does not match her statement which indicated she did not arrive there until almost a full hour later. Without a contradictory statement, there is no reason to believe that she is lying (although she would have every reason to do so if she did arrive at 10:30).
5 – You believe that Laura moved Raychel’s body down the hall to get it out of plain sight. It was already out of plain sight. Raychel’s body was in the apartment. You are mistaking the hallway in the apartment for a hallway outside of the apartment. To correct this from happening in the future, I will include a layout of the apartment complex in my next update.
Finally, I have to say that I am angered that you consider me a tainted source. I fought very hard to ensure that my investigation, and my participation on this site, would be entirely open. Yet you assert that I wouldn’t suspect a person just because they are paying me. Newsflash: This is what I do for a living. This is a matter of professionalism. If I do not solve a case because I didn’t consider all of the possibilities, then I would be the person who looked like a fool, and I do not intend to look like a fool. I am suspicious of Laura’s intentions, especially because of her recent admission, but I am not going to assume something just because I have a hunch. I am a professional.
Overall, your theory may be close, but you do not have anything to contradict many points which are critical to your theory. If there is nothing to contradict a suspect’s statement, why should we believe that he/she is lying? Remember, we are still innocent until proven guilty. Although in this case, innocence may be a relative term considering the backgrounds of many of the suspects.
Monroe's response is available in the 12-28-2001 accusation.
