1. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
2. First, let me begin by thanking you for the last three weeks of your life that you have spent here in this courtroom with us. I do appreciate all of the hard work and the attention that you have paid to the evidence that has been adduced. I know it has been a difficult thing for you to do. We all noticed you have been paying very close attention to the evidence and the exhibits and the testimony that has been coming in, and we do appreciate your efforts on behalf of the resolution of this case.
3. Ladies and gentlemen, this case began with Mr. Schneider's opening statement. He told you what the State of Ohio was going to prove. I am going to take a few minutes now to remind you of the things that Mr. Schneider said and highlight the evidence that supports his opening statement and the state's case against the defendant, Jackie D. McCrady II.
4. Ladies and gentlemen, we begin this case on September 18, 1996, the last day that anyone other than the defendant saw Jenifer McCrady alive. That was the first day the defendant returned to work following a summer recovering from a stroke.
5. The defendant at his first day back to work attended riot training or civil disturbance training in Cambridge, Ohio. He told fellow officer Victor Knick while up there that: I think she is going to leave me, she said she and the boys would be better off -- me and the boys would be better off without her.
6. Now, compare that statement that you heard Officer Knick testify with the statement from one of the very last witnesses in the case, Tony Amos.
7. Tony Amos recalled being at the Peoples News paying his bills -- and that's an even that is corroborated by State's Exhibit #66, the canceled checks Mr. Amos used to pay those bills on that day, September 17. He had a conversation with the defendant's father. And at that time the * defendant's father told Mr. Amos -- again, who had been a member of defendant's wedding party, not someone that has an ax to grind against the defendant, but a member of his wedding party. The defendant's father told him, Mr. Amos, that the defendant thought his wife had a boyfriend and that she would leave him and the kids. The defendant's father told Amos that the defendant seemed happy about this. {{* Jack McCrady denied ever saying this to Tony Amos. Jackie denied saying it to Vic Knick or anyone else.}}
8. The evening before his wife's disappearance and subsequent murder, the defendant has predicted to at least two different persons, Vic Knick and his father, that his wife would be leaving him. {{Jenifer McCrady is the one who had been telling people she was going to leave Jackie. She even had a friend of hers type up several letters to Jackie and his mother, and the woman admitted in court that Jenifer told her she was planning on leaving Jackie.}}
9. Keep in mind, as we review, the number of times the defendant told other people that his relationship with his wife was great and they were having no troubles.
10. Ask yourself why did he make these statements before she came up missing. *He was laying the groundwork to cover her disappearance. {{ Sounds 'premeditated' to me, so why wasn't he charged with premeditated murder?}}
11. Also on the evening of September 18, 1996, Jenifer's mother spoke with her over the phone for about 20 minutes. They discussed among other things the fact that Mrs. Barrett could not watch the McCrady children the following evening *so that Jenifer could attend a counseling session with the defendant. {{ While keeping all this in mind, don't forget that Jackie McCrady was working from 12:00 noon until 8:00 p.m. He didn't have an appointment with the counselor - she did.}}
12. Mrs. Barrett testified that Jenifer told her that she had gotten C.W. to watch the children the following evening, that being Thursday evening.
13. C.W. came before you and testified that Jenifer had made arrangements with her on Tuesday, September 17, to watch the children for her on Thursday, the 19th.
14. Remember the testimony that came from these witnesses showed that the child care arrangements had been firmed up two days before the fateful day of Thursday, September 19, 1996.
15. Ladies and gentlemen, at 2:41 a.m. on Thursday, September 19, 1996 K.W., a neighbor of the defendant's, * testified that she was awakened by a gunshot. At that moment Jenifer McCrady's life ended. {{ This is not exactly what K.W. testified to. In actuality, she said that she had heard a loud noise early morning hours. -- However, she suspected the noise was a car backfiring as it went down the hill in front of their home, which is common, and she did not recall if it was while Jenifer was missing; before she disappeared, or just when.}}
16. On the morning of September 19 Jenifer McCrady was supposed to attend a conference at the Lafayette Hotel and have lunch at the Levee House in Marietta. Of course, she failed to attend either the conference or the lunch.
17. The defendant that day was to return to road duty as a Highway Patrolman. He was to meet with Trooper Holbert and travel with the TDIT team to Harrison County, Ohio.
18. Now, this was an assignment that Lieutenant Bennington had testified the defendant was well aware of in advance. He testified the defendant had even tried to contact him to alter the schedule a little bit so that he could * attend the counseling on Thursday evening. {{ Like I said, Jackie was working that evening, and Jenifer was going to the counseling.}}
19. Before leaving for the post that day, the defendant made two calls to his wife's voice mailbox at RJF, her place of employment. In those messages he seems to ask his wife about the babysitting arrangements for that evening despite the fact * those arrangements had been firmed up two days before. {{ Firmed up by Jenifer, not Jackie. Maybe he wasn't fully aware of the arrangements -- and maybe after having a damned stroke, he simply forgot.}}
20. On one of those messages the defendant asks his wife about * getting together to have lunch that day. This statement is also unusual. {{ keep reading. He'll explain it himself!}}
21. The evidence showed that *Jenifer had plans to eat lunch with fellow conference attendees at the Levee House that day. {{Her lunch}}
22. Further, Trooper Holbert testified we never had lunch with our wives while we were on duty. He also testified that * it is common when the patrolmen are out they take their meal break in the middle of their shift, not at the beginning of the shift. {{Right! Jackie's 'lunch' break would have been 4 or 5 p.m. -- just about the time Jenifer was getting off work. What would have been so odd about Jackie asking Jenifer to join him at 'his' lunch time; which would have been her dinner time? This is especially true in light of the fact that she had an appointment later that evening.}}
23. Finally, the defendant gave his wife a pager number, his pager number, here's my pager,call me, despite the fact that he had had that number for approximately a year and a half. {{ Remember, he'd been off from work since July. He'd only been back to work one day when Jenifer disappeared. Perhaps she didn't remember the pager number. My husband has a track phone. I couldn't tell you what the number is. I have a cell phone, and I'd guarantee you he could not tell you my cell phone number. They are programmed into the phones and all we do is push a button to call. Maybe Jackie's pager number was programmed into Jenifer's car phone, which she did not have with her that day.}}
24. Ladies and gentlemen, these messages make no sense, and they were not meant for Jenifer McCrady, they were meant for you. These messages were part of the defendant's cover-up. He put those messages on her voice mailbox knowing she wasn't going to get them. He wanted then to be found by somebody else. And this is further part of the cover-up. He wanted it to look like his wife had run away.
25. Now, despite the fact that his shift was to start at noon on September 19, the defendant got to the post sometime around 1:00 in the afternoon.
26. What was the defendant's excuse for being late? Well, he had a couple different excuses.
27. He told Sergeant Garvey on Monday, September 23, in an interview that you actually heard here, that from 9:00 to noon he was cleaning up his patrol car and getting ready for work. Despite the fact that he had been off for months, he had to spend three hours cleaning up the patrol cruiser. {{ He wasn't even home at 9:00. He was taking the kids to preschool and daycare. At 9:07 a witness saw Jenifer's vehicle racing up Lee Street. The witness knew both Jenifer and Jackie, and testified that he believed it was Jenifer driving the vehicle because he could see her shoulder length hair. // The interview with Sgt. Garvey is posted on this web site, and a link to it will be provided at the bottom of this page.}}
28. However, at about 11:00 that morning, he called Trooper Holbert, and Trooper Holbert testified the defendant told him he would be running a little bit late because he and his boys had made a mess and he had to clean it up before Jenifer came home. * He never mentioned anything to Holbert at that time about his lunch plans with his wife. {{ No. 1, he had not gotten in touch with Jenifer to make those 'lunch plans,' and No. 2, why would he tell his partner that he planned on meeting his wife for lunch -- especially if it was to be at 'his' lunch time? }}
29. I ask you, how many of you would be late for work by an hour because you had to clean up a mess at home -- kids, potato chip mess, something like that? How many of you on your first day back to work after months off would be an hour late because you were cleaning up that sort of a mess?
30. Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant told a half truth. He was cleaning up. * He was cleaning up furiously, but it wasn't a mess the kid's had made, it was the evidence of the murder he had committed earlier that morning. {{ Now, watch the state turn right around and admit 'there was no evidence' because the bullet did not exit, and he had tied Jenifer up, so there was no 'sign of a struggle.' Watch them do it. I did. I listened very closely and took notes, and have read all the transcripts. Don't worry, you don't have to remember it. I'll point it out to you when we get to it.}}
31. Now, despite the fact that he was about an hour late getting to work, the defendant could not wait to get back to his residence.
32. Recall the phone conversation the defendant had with Patrolman King of the Belpre Police Department. You got to hear this too. The defendant asked, "should I go home and see if there is anything missing or what?" And King responds, well, if you want to, you can go ahead and do that. Based upon this conversation, the defendant told Lieutenant Dunn that the Belpre Police Department had told him he should go home and check and see if anything is missing. That's not what they said at all, and that's on tape.
33. He then sped home, flying past Trooper Holbert to discover his wife's wedding rings on the counter and a large number of her personal effects missing including her purse.
34. However, before he arrived home, he called Ms. Teters at the day care center telling her not to let Jenifer pick up the children, telling her that he was going home to see if her hair dryer and *Gucci bag were missing. He made this comment to Ms. Teters before he got home and supposedly discovered the wedding rings on the counter. At this point in time when he made that comment to Ms. Teters, all he knew was that she didn't show up for work, and yet he is telling her on the phone, I got to go home and see if her hair dryer and Gucci bag are missing.{{The woman's purse would have been 'missing' no matter what. Even if she had gone to work that morning, she would have had her purse with her -- so why would Jackie McCrady make such a statement to anyone? Doesn't make any sense.}}
35. The defendant's wife -- again, she had only been missing for an hour -- a few hours. He had been telling everybody and would continue to tell everybody the relationship between the two of them was fine, but he is making this comment about the hair dryer and the bag before the rings were discovered. How was he able to predict what was going to be missing from the home? Simple. * He is the one that took it out of there. He caused the bag and the hair dryer to be missing, and he knew they weren't going to be there when he made that call. {{Okay, so he took the hair dryer and her purse out of the house, along with her body - right? So, why did he bring the purse back to the house so the cops could find it some 12 days later? Duh...}}
36. A little later that day the defendant twice commented to Trooper Holbert as the two were driving *in the vicinity of Civitan Park that Jenifer probably parked her blazer down in the park somewhere or in that area. {{ They were not 'in the vicinity' of the park. Had they dropped off the boulevard and gone to that 'vicinity' they would have seen the blazer sitting right there in plain sight .... but, that's okay folks, wait awhile and the state will claim the blazer wasn't actually at the park when McCrady was supposedly telling his partner that it was!! Oh yeah, this story changes so damned many times it wasn't even funny.}} Was this just an innocent comment, a lucky guess? Well, the defendant wanted the officers to find the blazer. Why did he want them to find the blazer? Because that evidence he believed would support *his claim that she had run off with some other fellow. {{ That was Dave Garvey's suspicion -- or what he wanted to believe -- not what McCrady said at all. Read the interview between Garvey and McCrady, see for yourself.}} If they find the blazer, she's not in it, it has been abandoned, then he can continue to say, look, she ran off with somebody else. {{ Only in Washington County Ohio would they automatically think the woman had run off with another man, if her vehicle was found abandoned!! There are at least half a dozen cases posted on this web site where women's vehicles were found - the Amanda Tusing case is one of them -- and the women were missing from the vehicle, and nowhere else is the first suspicion that she ran off with someone else.}} If everybody believed she had ran off, what aren't they going to be looking for? *Her body. If you can get people to believe she has ran off, no one is going to be looking for a dead body. {{ There again, it was Dave Garvey who first mentioned a dead body -- possibly found in California, he said -- and besides that, no one was looking for a dead body. Had they been looking for a dead body, they surely would have suspected they had found Jenifer McCrady instead of Garvey and Chief Walker suspecting they had found the grave of a dead cow!} He had planted that seed that she had run off with Trooper Knick at riot training, and now he was cultivating it. And how nicely the discovery of the blazer fits in with his discovery of the wedding rings at the house.
37. A short time later the defendant again called the Belpre Police Department and told them to call off the missing person's report, Jenifer wasn't missing, she had just left him. What's this for? Stop looking. *Stop looking for a body, she has run off.{{No one was looking for a body.}}
38. Also, that afternoon the defendant specifically told Lieutenant Dunn that Jenifer had taken her purse and all of her credit cards. Please recall that that very same purse and credit cards were found later in the garage, the top of the garage are in the defendant's home in an area that Jenifer described as Jackie's area. {{Okay, we've now reversed ourselves right here. First they said he knew the purse was missing because he took it out of the house along with her dead body -- now, he didn't take it out of the house at all. He simply hid it in the overhead tiles of the ceiling in the garage -- as if no one would look there! *See number 35}}
39. During the early morning hours of September 20, Friday, the day after she came up missing, the Belpre Police Department located Jenifer's blazer parked at Civitan Park.
40. Testimony from the defendant's father indicated that that vehicle remained there at the park until sometime on Saturday, September 21, 1996. Therefore, the evidence before you shows the blazer was there *sometime on Thursday, the 19th, all day Friday, the 20th, and at least the morning of Saturday, the 21st.
41. Please recall when you consider the testimony of all the witnesses you heard on Monday morning -- those were the people who frequently go down to Civitan Park and do their early morning walk -- none of them could say more than that they saw the blazer there two mornings, maybe three, but probably two mornings.
42. Ladies and gentlemen, it was there two mornings. There is no doubt about it. It was there on the morning of the 20th, Friday, and the morning of the 21st, Saturday, before it was towed away by Jerry Radcliff of Jerry's Towing sometime on -- in the late morning, early afternoon of September 21st.
43. Every one of those witnesses the defense called who talked about seeing that blazer there simply corroborated what the state had already shown. Yes, the blazer was there for two mornings, and we have never disputed that. In fact, that's what the evidence shows.
44. Also note that on September 20, 1996, *the defendant spoke with C.W. about Jenifer's disappearance. He was still playing the she ran off with somebody game. {{ But notice it was Jackie McCrady who was out speaking to people, or calling them to ask about her. No one else was doing anything at this point -- and wouldn't for several more days.}} He told her {C.W.} he couldn't imagine where she would go, that they were a happy family. He told C.W. that he had turned down a promotion with the Highway Patrol to stay here in Marietta. That statement too was also refuted by evidence of the officers of the Highway Patrol.
45. On Saturday, September 21, as stated, the blazer was finally towed from Civitan Park giving all of those early morning joggers or walkers an opportunity to see it for the second consecutive morning.
46. Also on that date at around 4:00 in the afternoon, the defendant met with his friend Brian Schuck. This conversation is really interesting. Again, a member of the defendant's wedding party, a close friend of his. Talks to Brian, and he talks about my wife has come up missing. He told Brian about a mysterious caller from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and that *Jenifer had cleaned out the bank account. {{ This is not exactly what McCrady claims he told Schuck. He claims he told Schuck she had the check book, the ATM card and whatever cash had been at the house prior to her disappearance. Not exactly the same thing as cleaning out the bank account."}}
47. Now, Brian is a detective with the Washington County Sheriff's Office, and he told the defendant this is something we could work with, this information we can work with, let's talk about the call, we can find out where the call came from and we can maybe find out who made that call. That will give us a solid lead maybe as to who she might have run off with. Let's work on that phone record, let's get that phone number and find out who called her. The bank records -- cleaning out the bank account, that's a good thing too because if you go to the bank, they have got security cameras and we will be able to see her, we will be able to see her come in and clean out the account and, heck, maybe she will be with someone, and then we will know who she is with.
48. Ladies and gentlemen, after those comments and Brian suggested that way to follow up those leads, you never heard any more about it.
49. Nobody else ever heard any comment about cleaning out the bank account.
50. And when Brian suggested let's work on that phone number, nothing more was ever done. Nothing more was ever done.
51. The defendant also told Brian and they discussed they wanted to go to the house and get some items out, *specifically some guns and other personal effects because he was afraid Jenifer might come back and *do something to the house which would deny him access to that property. {{ Would not have been the first time she pulled this stunt. She had done it twice before, so the man probably figured she would do it again. }} Brian said, hey, no problem, give me a call tomorrow, we'll move that stuff out, you can put it in my house, we'll put it in safekeeping. The defendant never called back, and all of those items were in the defendant's house when the sheriff's office conducted their search. *Why were they never moved? Because the defendant knew there was no danger of Jenifer ever coming back. {{ McCrady decided to take some days off from work, therefore he was not out of the house for the extended periods of time that he would have been had he continued to work. As far as the guns are concerned, -- it was Brian Schuck who took the .357 magnum from the McCrady house during the very first search of the property; placed it into the trunk of his patrol car, and took it home with him!! He had that gun in his possession; out of the chain of evidence for some four hours before [then] Sheriff Robert Schlicher learned that the gun was 'missing' from the evidence pool, and sent Detective John Coppernoll to Brian Schuck's home at approx. 4 a.m. to retrieve the gun! }}
52. I am going to move forward now to September 23, 1996. That's the date the defendant got with Sergeant Garvey and gave lengthy statements about the events of the 19th. You heard that statement played {{ And it can all be read right here on this web site at the Garvey/McCrady Interview page which is listed at the end of this page}} I am only going to highlight one comment from that statement.
53. The defendant spoke to Officer Garvey about how he thought it was odd that Jenifer's parents attended an Ohio State football game Saturday, the 21st, *after their daughter came up missing.{{ Jenifer was missing two week ends. The Barrett's went out of town both week-ends to football games.}} He told Dave -- this is a quote. You can hear it on the tape. "If it was one of my children, I would be going door to door, I would be tearing this city apart looking for her."
54. *What evidence did you see that the defendant did anything to help find his wife when she came up missing? {{ He contacted all her friends, either in person or by phone; he went to Civitan Park, along with Jenifer's twin brother and passed her picture around to everyone, asking if they had seen her; he contacted her co-workers.}}
55. Testimony from Mr. W., the next door neighbor, indicates that just the day before on Sunday, the 22nd, he saw the defendant out in his yard. *He was happy, waved at him. {{ Because he spoke to his neighbor, he was 'happy?'. Wonder where Mr. Rings got his degree in psychiatry?}} He didn't even make an effort to go to his neighbor and say, hey, my wife is gone, did you see anything? He is going to take the Barrett family to task for not tearing the city apart, yet he can't even ask his neighbor *where she may have been. {{ That's an odd statement! If one of my neighbor's disappeared and his/her spouse came over and started asking me where she/he was, I'd be damned offended, not to mentioned terrified in this area! But, besides that, if I disappeared, there is no doubt in my mind that every neighbor I have -- for miles around -- would come to my home to offer whatever help they could offer to my husband and family. They would not expect my husband to come directly to them and ask for help. Of course, I don't live in the high-caflutin town of Belpre. Maybe we country folk are a little different. Regardless, Jenifer had been missing for four days by the time Mr. W. saw Jackie out in the yard. It had been on the news several times by then. Maybe Jackie McCrady thought if the man was interested, or cared, he'd come over and speak to him .... but he didn't. And by the way, this is the husband of the woman who heard the noise one night, but couldn't say for sure what it was, or even when it was .... but it didn't wake her husband up, whatever it was. }}
56. Now, you have heard testimony from the Watson's that sometime around *7:00 a.m. on Friday, September 27, 1996, they saw a Highway Patrol cruiser in the area of Township Road 298 and the oil access road where Jenifer's body was eventually found. Although they can't say exactly who they saw that morning, the patrol's log is going to give you a very good indication of who they saw there that morning. {{ Yeah, they saw something alright. One said it was a white car and the other said it was gray! City cruisers were white in 1996, state cruisers were charcoal gray, but remember the time anyway, so you can see how it changes.}}
57. The patrol's log indicates that just before *8:00 the defendant signed on, and at that point in time he was told he had to call the babysitter.
58. The record then indicates that it took him 19 minutes to acknowledge and to make that phone call.
59. Now, evidence from other troopers indicates what they usually do is they go out to their car sitting in the driveway and sign on and they take off and on their way they go to work.
60. If the defendant had been doing that on that day and he received that message at a few minutes before *9:00, he could have acknowledged it, made the phone call and been back on his way to the post in a matter of 2 minutes, but it took him 19 minutes from the time he signed on and got that message until the time he made the phone call. *How do you explain the 19 minute time differential? And this is in the patrol log. This isn't just speculation, somebody guessing on the time. The reason it took him 19 minutes is because he was out there at the oil access road near Township Road 298 *where the Watson's saw him, and it took him about that long to *get back in the cruiser, *drive back home and go in and make the call. It was the defendant that the Watson's saw that morning. Even though they can't identify him, the log indicates it was him out there. {{ There's so much bs in this paragraph that I don't even know where to start: The time. Did the man log on a few minutes before 8 am, or was it 9 am? Don't know. Rings claims both at the same time. Okay, let's give the benefit of the doubt to Mr. Rings and say it was a few minutes before 8:00 am. The Watson's supposedly saw a police cruiser coming down from the oil access road around 7:00 am. That's a 'time differential of one hour!' That means whoever they saw had already been up in the area, had already *gotten back into their car and was leaving when they saw him. According to Dave Garvey's testimony [see page 3 of that testimony] it takes 10 to 12 minutes to drive through town at 35 miles per hour, to get from the oil access road to the McCrady house .... so this doesn't add up to 19 minutes. And 'according to Garvey' if you take the four lane and do the speed limit of 55 miles per hour, it takes 6 to 8 minutes to go from the access road to the McCrady house. Now, let's deal with the 'time differential' as Mr. Rings likes to call it. [If] the Watson's saw this man leaving that road around 7 am -- heck, let's give them a big benefit and say it was 7:30 in the morning, and let's assume McCrady took the 'in town' route, [which he would not have done if he knew he needed to get home quickly and make that call.] it would still only have taken the man 10 to 12 minutes -- heck, let's give them some more benefit and say it took the man 15 minutes to get home. That still puts him into his house by 7:45 am. ...... and this my friends is well 'before' the man logged on to the radio and got the message that he needed to call. Mr. Rings' time line is warped. It does not compute! Besides that, he claims it 'took him 19 minutes to "get back in the cruiser" and drive back home. The Watson's did NOT see the man 'on foot.' Whoever they saw was already 'in the cruiser' and leaving the road when they saw him.
61. Now, *at about this time the press has gotten a hold of a story about a Highway Patrolman's wife coming up missing. {{ The press 'got a hold' of the story and released it to the public on September 21st, 1996 at 11 pm. I know, I'd returned to my home to watch the news and see if I could figure out the message that another Belpre man had boldly proclaimed earlier that evening.}} [See The Real Dummy for shocking details] Many people read the story, and one of them was Mary Dye.
62. Now, Mary Dye [claims] she had a dream and she had contact with her psychic friend in 'Pittsburgh.'
63. Ladies and gentlemen, the State of Ohio did not call Mary Dye as a witness to tell about what she found out when she was sleeping. We called her to tell you about what she saw when she was wide awake.
64. What she saw was early on the afternoon of September 28, 1996 -- and this testimony is very significant. She said that on that afternoon she was following this lead from her friend. Whether you believe that or not doesn't matter. The fact is for whatever reason she was out there in the area of Township Road 298 during the early afternoon hours of September 28. {{Better check out Mary Dye's testimony and time line -- not to mention the 'time differential,' that Rings likes to discuss! See pages 1 and 2 of The Dream Seeker for time line.}} She was in the area of Township Road 298 wide awake, not in a dream, and she saw a patrol cruiser coming down off the oil access road hill. *She testified that she rolled down her window, and looking through her rearview vision mirror, she saw the defendant's face in the patrol car. She identified him, pointed him out, said that's the man who was driving that cruiser. {{ See Access Road Photo Pages.}}
65. Ladies and gentlemen, should you believe the testimony of Mary Dye? *Well, let me tell you something. All you had to believe was her word that yes, he is the one I saw. {{ So much for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! Just pick out whatever you want to believe and let it go at that! What a disgrace.}} That's a close call whether you are going to believe that or not, but, again, *those patrol logs indicate that she was right. {{ No, I'm afraid they didn't indicate that at all. Jackie McCrady was some 15 minutes away from the Little Hocking area, in Barlow at the time that Mary Dye would have been in Little Hocking, and that's what the log, the time line, and his partner said.}}
66. Remember what the testimony from Dunn and Holbert was, that on that day and in that time, *early afternoon, there were only two officers on duty in the western half of the county, the defendant and Trooper Holbert, and we know what Trooper Holbert was doing all that afternoon. He was called back to the post to get a certified letter, and then he was sent out to investigate an accident scene. Review that log. There is no specific finding or activity for the defendant during that entire afternoon. If there is only two in the western half of the county and Holbert gets sent back to the post and then on to a crash, that leaves one, the defendant. He was the only officer on duty and working at that time. When he came off that hill, Mary Dye -- who cares about her psychic dream or her friend in Pittsburgh, whatever they told her -- she was there and she saw him coming down off that access road, not just by the testimony of her and her in-court identification but by the records of the patrol. He is the only person it could have been. {{Mary Dye testified that she left Williamstown, West Virginia at 2:00 pm, and drove to Belpre, drove around Belpre for awhile, and headed out of town toward Little Hocking. By the time she would have reached Little Hocking, Jackie McCrady would have been well on his way to the Barlow area where he met up with his partner at a road side rest area. This can all be read in Mary Dye's testimony which is presented in its entirety on this web site in the series titled The Dream Seeker. I have shown maps; listed distances and travel times, and there is no way this woman could have seen Jackie McCrady on that access road when she claims she saw him there. Virtually impossible, as is her positive identification! Check it all out.... see for yourself. The Dream Seeker-2 and Access Road Photos }}
67. Now, what was the defendant doing up there on the *27th and 28th of September when the Watson's saw him and then when Mary Dye saw him? Well, 'most likely' he was checking the condition of the grave. Please recall on Saturday it was a rainy day. You heard that testimony from a number of people including Mary Dye and Trooper Holbert, and that has been supported by the defense witness concerning rainfall. It was wet and it was rainy. The defendant buried his wife in a shallow grave. He was going up there to check to make sure that her body was still covered up. {{ Okay, so it rained on the 28th. It wasn't a torrential downpour; there was no flooding! It would take a rise in the river to wash a body out that was buried three feet deep. But let's look closer at Mr. Rings' theory .... it wasn't raining on the 27th, so what was the man doing there then? And [if] he was there on the 27th, why turn around and go back the 28th? Does everyone act like Mary Dye in this area? She made two or three trips to the exact same spot seeking her dream -- didn't find any of it at any time, yet, she continued to go back there? Personally, I've always wondered about that. ... but, back to Mr. Rings and his theory. [If] Jackie McCrady had gone up in there to check on his wife's grave, as accused, he could not possibly have taken that cruiser any further than the top of the hill. Now this means one thing -- the man had to park that cruiser and get out of it, and walk through the mud, muck and weeds for approximately 1,000 feet in order to reach the grave site. All of this is shown on my Access Road Photo pages. Now, can anyone explain why McCrady was not soaked to the skin; why his vehicle and uniform were not muddy and/or grass covered; why his boots were not a mess? And, even according to the state's time line, the man absolutely would not have had time to clean himself up or to go change clothes, or anything. He wouldn't even have had the needed time to park the car and walk to the grave, and then walk back to the car. It gets more interesting later on, and I'll bring this back up at that point and time. Just hang in there and the state will 'prove' this theory just does not work. Perhaps Kiger and Sipe failed to show everyone the fallacy of their ways ..... but you can rest assured I won't fail! }}
68. Ladies and gentlemen, *if he could have kept that grave site secret until the leaves fell, he would have been home free. {{This would have been impossible since there was a well tender that used that road regularly. He just happened to be on vacation at the time that Jenifer disappeared and was buried there.}} Once those leaves would have come down and covered that grave up and snow followed and next spring the grass grows up, nobody would have ever found the body of Jenifer McCrady. {{ Actually, the leaves were already falling in mid September in this area.}}
69. He was concerned. The grave was shallow. There had been moisture and water fall. He was checking to make sure it hadn't washed out. {{ Still doesn't explain what he was doing there the day before it rained. The rain would have brought even more leaves down on top of the grave.}}
70. * On Tuesday, October 1, the officers following up on Mary Dye's information went to that oil access road and discovered the grave and the fact that Jenifer McCrady had been buried there. {{This is not correct at all. Dave Garvey and Chief of Police Ira Walker went to that area on September 30th. They took shovels with them; and they dug around in the gravesite enough to determine that something/someone was buried there! See Dave Garvey's own testimony. They went back to Belpre and said not one word to anyone about the discovery of Jenifer McCrady's grave until late the next day.}}
71. They found her buried in her * sleeping attire without any shoes or eye wear, just exactly as you would expect to see her when she was shot at 2:41 in the morning on Thursday. {{It was the third 'local' case in 18 months where the woman wore eye glasses but did not have them on; was dressed for bed, but wasn't in her bed; was barefoot, and had been murdered. 3 cases in 18 months folks, all within a 20 minute radius of Belpre. One was single, one was married and one was divorced. At least 2 were Catholics.}}
72. * Now, the officers then began to plan on how they were going to deal with the defendant. {{ No investigation; no interrogation; not even a questioning ..... just automatically and instantly knew Jackie McCrady was the killer and set about 'planning/conspiring' on how to 'handle him.' }} They decided to get him back to the post and disarm him and then ask him some questions about his wife's disappearance.
73. While all this was going on, the defendant was with his partner, Jeff Holbert, at Wendy's having lunch.
74. At the very moment when the officers were exhuming his wife's body, the defendant tells Jeff Holbert, his partner, "I bet they think I buried her." {{McCrady denied ever saying this to Holbert or anyone else. For someone that was so concerned about 'keeping her grave a secret' he sure visited it often enough and he certainly said many things that an intelligent person would not have said ..... provided one believes he actually said all the things he was supposed to have said, that is.}}
75. Back at the patrol post Chris Forshey breaks the news of the discovery of Jenifer's body to the defendant. *Chris described his reaction.... * shallow cry with no tears. * No great emotional collapse or trauma. In fact, he was able to continue on a * very brief conversation with Captain Forshey telling him about the clothes that Jenifer would normally wear to bed and, oh, by the way, he described the way she was found exactly. {{ This is not correct. McCrady was very traumatized. His commanding officer, Robert Dunn had sneaked up behind him, grabbed him in a choke hold, pulled his chair over backward with McCrady still in it, threw him to the floor, kicked him and called him a dirty son-of-a-bitch. When McCrady tried to ask what was happening he was kicked again and told to "shut the fuck up." All the while there was a fully armed SWAT team surrounding the building with orders to shoot to kill if he tried to get out of the building. After he was 'disarmed' he was stripped of his uniform, stripped down to his underwear, and forced to sit on his hands in a back room until Forshey could be notified it was safe to call the SWAT team off and come in and question McCrady. And by the way, the man was not charged with anything; was not under arrest; not read his rights and had no attorney present, or even offered. Eventually McCrady's father was called to come and get him because he was in no condition to drive. When Jack got there he found Jackie in a terrible state of mind and very upset. So much so that he could not walk out of the post on his own. His father was trying to help him out but was having difficulty supporting him, and Officer Johnson stepped forward and assisted McCrady senior. He was the only officer who offered assistance. Notice also that even Rings admits McCrady was able to carry on "a very brief conversation," with Forshey. }}
76. And in responding to Captain Forshey's question about -- do you enjoy outdoor activities; hunting, fishing, camping, and his response, we don't have any sleeping bags, we had to borrow sleeping bags, I am thinking of buying sleeping bags in the future. That is the one item we can't tie exactly to the home that was found with her body, and that's the one item he mentioned three times to Captain Forshey. {{There again, this is not exactly how it was told in the court room. Forshey did ask McCrady if he enjoyed outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, camping, etc. and McCrady responded yes, he and Jenifer enjoyed outdoor activities, but had only been camping a time or two with friends because they didn't have much camping gear. In fact, when they'd gone camping with a fellow trooper and his wife, they had to borrow sleeping bags from their friends because they didn't have any of their own. He said they had talked about buying sleeping bags a time or two but had never gotten around to it yet. That's slightly different than the way Mr. Rings is presenting it. And, by the way, that trooper did testify that he had in fact loaned Jackie and Jenifer sleeping bags when they went camping with his wife and him because they didn't have any sleeping bags of their own.}}
77. Now, Mr. Schneider is going to go more into depth about that particular evidence, that item, as well as a number of items of specific evidence that link the defendant with this crime. I am going to mention just a few of them right now.
Closing Arguments Continued, Page Two
Garvey-McCrady Interview
The Real Dummy
Access Road Photos
