On March 26, 1985, a construction worker finds a car with headlights on and car running but no one inside. The foreman calls police. Police smells burning and sees gasoline. Inside is a woman’s purse and shoes. He opens the trunk and the body of a dead woman is inside about 20 years old.
Lt. Joe Kenda arrives. The victim has pantyhose wrapped tightly around her neck and her face and neck are purple. It’s very personal. Whatever the victim said or did to this person made them enraged.
There are no signs of how the vehicle got there with no footprints outside. The inside of the car was burned with gasoline. On the gas pedal was a brick. The purse inside the car has a driver’s license for the victim, 28 year old Lourdes Riddle. Her husband Mark Riddle works at NORAD, a top secret facility inside Cheyenne Mountain. The car is registered to Mark.
While on the crime scene, Air Force investigators show up and try to claim the crime scene. They say they already have Mark Riddle in custody. This hurts the investigation because if Mark has invoked his right to counsel, Kenda can’t even question him.
Kenda goes to question Mark. Lourdes was from the Philippines, but they met in Florida. She loved to sing and dance. She enjoyed partying and being around people. They were married for nine years. Mark admits she was a serial cheater and had probably been sleeping with other men since the beginning of their marriage, but she wouldn’t stop. She’d promise to stop but then didn’t. He still loves her. Mark volunteers to take a polygraph. He passes.
Mark is released and lets police search his home. They find two packages of pantyhose in the bedroom. One pair is missing. So she probably carried a pair with her. She has a phone book with names of female friends from the Philippines. She also liked to go to nightclubs with Filipino men.
Police investigate all of the clubs where Lourdes went. Lourdes is very popular.
Joe Kenda Tip #1: When a customer is a regular at a club or bar, no one can reliably remember what night they were there because they are there so often.
A paper delivery woman comes to police. Early the morning Lourdes’ body was found, she was out delivering newspapers when a large black male ran into her vehicle then ran away. He was coming from the construction site. Police ask her friends if Lourdes would date an African American male. They say absolutely not. Only Filipino men.
Police learn from Lourdes’ mother that she was being threatened by someone and was very afraid. She also took trips to San Francisco and Las Vegas, alone. So they check her phone records.
Joe Kenda Tip #2: Bar people are pretty good at figuring out who is with who and what they’re doing there. So when you question them, there is always an element of truth to what they are saying. Listen, even if they are just rumors.
At the Enlisted Men’s Club at Fort Carson, the rumor is that Lourdes is blackmailing Filipino soldiers. She sleeps with them the blackmails them with photos telling them she will get them dishonorably discharged. In the Filipino culture, it’s a great honor to be part of the US military. If you get kicked out, your family will disown you. This is why her scam works. She also tells them she’s pregnant. Her latest victim is Nolasco Depadua. He’s 5’8″, Filipino. Nolly’s best friend, who he is always hanging out with, is a large black man named Brian Hawkins.
Kenda brings in Brian Hawkins for questioning. He knows Lourdes. He knows Nolly. He knows Nolly dances with Lourdes at the club. When they mention the newspaper delivery woman he ran into, he gets nervous. Kenda lies and tells him he has proof he was involved.
They give Brian Hawkins a polygraph and he fails. Brian starts crying. Nolly told him Lourdes was blackmailing him for money or she was going to tell his commander she was pregnant. He will be kicked out of the army and his family will disown him. Nolly refused to pay and they strangled Lourdes with her pantyhose. Nolly told him to take her out to the construction site in the trunk of the car, set it on fire, and dispose of the evidence and her. Meanwhile Nolly will be on guard duty with an ironclad alibi. Brian didn’t do any of those things, so the car didn’t successfully burn the evidence.
At 4:30 am, Kenda arrests Nolly. After they tell Nolly how badly Brian screwed up their plan, he confesses. Not only did Lourdes demand $1,000, she stole his dress uniform from his closet. She said if he didn’t pay her, she was going to burn it. So he agrees to meet her and pay her, but she shows without the uniform. Now he’s enraged. He takes out a pair of pantyhose and strangles her. He drives her back to his apartment and calls Brian then tells Brian the plan.
Brian Hawkins is not charged in exchange for his testimony.
Nolly Depadua is sentenced to 14 years, but serves only 7.
Bibliography
Homicide Hunter, Season 1 Episode 5: Secret Life, air date: Nov 21, 2011.
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