He had not yet graduated or been offered a job in San Diego. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Biological evidence was collected and analyzed. Barbara Nantais, far right, with her sisters Sue, Lorraine and mother Judy. It didnt take long before Kevin Brown began to insist his DNA on Claire Houghs body had to be the result of cross-contamination in the old criminalists row lab, and there were people who supported his contention, but by then he had done incredible damage to his own credibility by making reckless statements without an attorney, and the authorities turned up the pressure and continued to investigate him over the course of 2014. He talked of Claire coming to him in visions, how she had a smiling face and radiant eyes, the kind of thing Claires father, Sam, found disturbing. On the rural plains, it might be a bonfire pit in a shelter belt of trees. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. In a big city, it might be the dark confines of a seldom-used alley, a park only dimly lit after dark, or a friends basement, provided parents dont poke their heads in too often. Claire Hough, 14, was the victim of a brutal murder on Friday, Aug. 24, 1984. Anyone with information is urged to contact San Diego County Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477. a felon named Ronald Tatro. A lifeguard tower on beautiful Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego. CBS 48 Hours, June 9, 2018 Blood in the Sand, People Magazine Investigates: Who Killed Claire Hough? Barbaras murderer remained unidentified. In the 1980s, they were not testing and amplifying DNA like we do today. They say Claire was all about love which is evident in the will she left behind telling her family and friends how much she cared about them. The polygraph result on the question came back as inconclusive. He was 62 years old. Which means, the day Ronald Tatro went into the Holston River was August 24th, 2011, 27 years to the day after Claire Houghs murder. He just. (K.C. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. He spent days in a coma and when he awoke, he had no memory of the attack. But the DNA delivers a surprise. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. One of them was familiar to the police. In three decades, hundreds of police and other investigators combed the beach, pored through files and conducted interviews for possible leads, Rorrison said. He offered to take a polygraph test, and the same day, Detectives Lambert and Adams took him to a police station and hooked him up. That was certainly the case for Kevin Brown. Despite the similarities in the Claire Hough and Barbara Nantais murders, their families did not know about each other. Well I didnt, Brown said. He spoke to the Houghs for half an hour, claimed to have been a night pilot and said he could see in the dark, but at no time during the half hour did he mention he had found Claires body. In his defense, attorneys for by-then retired Detective Michael Lambert said he was not given all the information he needed, that he relied on what he was told by DNA experts, and that he was not aware criminalists stored their own semen in the lab until after he had filed his affidavits. Ill talk to you again in two weeks. Try again later. What followed was months of legal tussle and Kevin trying to prove himself innocent and getting more and more entangled. Failed to delete memorial. There, as the waves crashed along the shore, they regarded the beauty of multiple bonfires stretching into the distance on the beach. Claire spent a lot of time on the beach at Torrey Pines. Claire's parents, Penny and Sam Hough, say their daughter had an innate sense of justice and she was known as the class mediator. arise, shame them, that your servant may rejoice. He turned into a zombie, she said. Unbeknownst to Kevin Brown, who assumed they had dropped by to get his take on an old case, they were actually there to try to connect him to Ronald Tatro and gather any other incriminating statements they could before serving a search warrant for his property. Failed to report flower. With Clyde Tatro already dead, San Diego Police, with due diligence, had to investigate the origin of the remaining DNA profile recovered from Claire Houghs body. Still another reported that Brown had watched a pornographic movie with a mutual co-worker at work, although that co-worker later claimed it never happened. Claire was always fond of the beautiful beaches that marked the Eastern Seaboard. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Menu. Rebecca Brown said as the year progressed, Kevin got worse he wouldnt get out of bed. Others point out mutilation of the breasts is nauseatingly common in sexual assaults, not necessarily the hallmark of a single attacker. Somebody killed her first. ", The Nantais family remembers Barbara as beautiful, popular, smart, stubborn and someone who had a "mind of her own.". Here are 22 essential L.A. spots for every tourist, Column: We cant afford another writers strike. It could have been the fear that a serial killer with a standard modus operandi was stalking San Diegos beach community maybe the San Diego Police were still self-conscious that they hadnt solved Barbara Nantais murder six years earlier, a killing that happened in a similar fashion and just a short distance away there were critics who said they had bungled the investigation whatever the reason, investigators went to work with diligence. His letters to them were odd, rambling notes. Her case remains open. The San Diego Police Department never found their killers and they don't know if the cases are linked, but they hope to crack the cold cases by running new tests on evidence gathered at the crime scenes. Now a Suspect Has Been Arrested, 2 Women Were Found Slain, Sexually Assaulted Within Months of Each Other in 1983: How DNA Led to Arrest, Man Who 'Targeted Young Women' Convicted of Decades-Old Murders with Help of Investigative Genetic Genealogy. On Aug. 12, 1978, 15-year-old Barbara Nantais, pictured, and her boyfriend, Jim Alt, decided to go camping and surfing at the beach. Although Claire Hough was from Rhode Island, she had spent a lot of time on Torrey Pines Beach. He was locked up in 1975 and paroled in 1982. When interviewed later, Wheeler said I was in the habit of shining my flashlight over the beach to see if cans or anything else was in range of the light. Then, he spotted Claires body. He had served the department for two decades in various roles, from narcotics to serology, before hanging up his boots in 2002. Kevin Brown had been married for over 20 years to Rebecca Brown when police came knocking. By the time the DNA testing was done, there was no physical evidence left to test. Support. San Diego police said that at the time of Brown's death, preparations were being made to arrest him for allegedly taking part in the killing of 14-year-old Claire Hough. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. Interrogating Ronald was also out of the question since he died on August 24, 2011, 27 years after Claires body was found. I believe he immediately attacked and strangled her., He was crouched over her shoulders and I just dont have a clear picture of what he was doing but would think it was when he mutilated her., Ronald Clyde Tatro was the kind of heavy youd see in a moviesquare jaw, weathered, leathery skin, with slicked-back hair. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. Claires parents visited the crime scene and Wheeler approached them on the beach and introduced himself, claiming to be psychic. They asked him if he had sex with or killed Claire Hough and he said, No.. Sign up for PEOPLEs free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Rebecca says Lambert smeared the reputation of Kevin, a former forensic criminologist in the department and Lamberts former colleague. There was a problem getting your location. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. I want to take a moment here to explain, most published accounts claim two DNA profiles were recovered from Claires body, but one source claims three DNA profiles were found, with the third frequently-unreported profile being that of her boyfriend in Rhode Island. Soon after, Kim flew home to Rhode Island while Claire remained behind with her grandparents. The authorities knew these facts, but included the murder of Barbara Nantais in their request for search warrants anyway. They were out of town and had left their children in the care of an adult family friend. A two-thousand dollar reward was offered. And in San Diego, that place is the beach. In one letter, Wheeler claimed to witness the murder in a psychic vision. The entire case became very famous and successful, and it took the police nearly three decades to solve the entire possibility of the . Verify and try again. He was briefly investigated, but ruled out as a suspect because his injuries had been so severe and life threatening. The teen was found dead. Part III: They are not going to get away with this. A widows quest delivers a dramatic courtroom twist. Additional Music used via Extended License. Heres how to claim your share, Scooter operators say strict rules, rampant theft threaten business in San Diego, Striking Medieval Times workers struck by car on picket line, 17 arrested in connection with 11 gang-related Sikh shootings in Northern California. They asked him if he knew Ronald Tatro and he said, No.. some would say. Please enter your email and password to sign in. I dont believe for a second that you thought she was 14. Rebecca Blakely saw the ad, called the phone number and left a message . Despite the investigation, there was no break in the case. Her murder went unsolved for decades. In 2012, police detective Michael Lambert joined the cold-case homicide unit and ordered DNA tests on Hough's body, which couldn't be conducted 28 years earlier. In early August 1984, 14-year-old Claire Hough and her best friend Kim Jamer left their homes in Rhode Island for a two-week vacation in San Diego, California. Claire Houghs grandparents were unclear why she had walked to the beach that night. In this episode, we feature three women who shared their leadership stories & advice at ELC Annual . According to police reports, Ronald had prior convictions involving raping a woman at knifepoint in Arkansas in 1974 and endeavoring to abduct a teen in La Mesa in 1985 using a stun gun. She was sexually assaulted and strangled, and her neck was slashed and her face battered. Somebody killed her first. How could there be so many similarities between Barbaras murder and Claires? Colleagues reported he would crumble under the pressure of aggressive questioning and stumble in his responses. Barbara Nantais and Claire Hough were two teens who were found dead on the sand at Torrey Pines State Beach, near San Diego, California. They used to walk there daily with towels, bathe in the sun, and listen to the portable radio they brought with them. Lawyers for Rebecca Brown and Kevin Brown contend the San Diego Police Department's case is built on rumors and misinterpretations. The case against law enforcement exposed a number of unflattering things and painted a picture of investigators with tunnel vision. They were doing things like blood-typing and other analysis which would be considered primitive by todays standards, and the methods employed were comparatively undeveloped as well. The Mammoth Book of True Crime: True Stories of Bad Behavior, The Mammoth Book of Murder: True Stories of Violent Death, The GE Mound Case: The Archaeological Disaster and Criminal Persecution of Artifact Collector Art Gerber (2013). After the test, Detective Lambert left the room and Detective Lori Adams took a sympathetic tone with Kevin Brown. Browns job involved testing blood samples, photographing crime scenes, and occasionally, testifying in court cases, which was not his forte. Now she have actually lived in Rhode Island with her family, but in the summer of nineteen. According to the police affidavits and search warrants, Kevin Brown had also made several incriminating statements during the investigation. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. In November of 2018, a panel of Judges at the Ninth Circuit court heard the appeal. Claire Hough was just 14 years old when she was found dead on the beach after being strangled to death and having one of her breasts severed. Evidence swabs were sometimes dried in the open air. He's an. Youre ready to grab your keys and cuffs and go lock somebody up. Our mission is to democratize healthcare through technology. By 2012, forensic technology had become a necessary tool in criminal investigations, and criminologists extracted DNA from the blood stains on Claires jeans and underwear and created a genetic profile. Her father, Samuel Hough, reminisced how she often stood for people being bullied and was finding her way in life. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. A local man, Rocky Forguson, would arrange shoots with local modelsswimsuit models and sometime exotic dancersand the sessions were purportedly for the mutual benefit of the photographers and models. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Leave a sympathy message to the family on . She loved poetry and music and was an ardent fan of rock bands like Van Halen and Kiss. All links, videos and images are provided by 3rd parties. Just because you are for one, does not mean you are against the other. The donor of the DNA profile was known to San Diego Police, but they kept his identity private initially while they did the groundwork, old fashioned detective stuff. Claire Hough was a 14-year-old girl in the situation when she was killed in 1984. Her left breast was severed, and the perpetrator crammed sand down her throat. His quirks had even earned him a nickname, Kinky Kevin, among his former co-workers. Join Facebook to connect with Claire Hough and others you may know. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. According to a cover story in the San Diego Reader, in the affidavit for the first warrant to search the Browns home, and in the second for the lake cabin, investigators said one of the things they were seeking was information about the murder of Barbara Nantais in 1978, a murder which they had publicly speculated might have been perpetrated by the same person as Claire Houghs. Thomas Fuller wrote Even doubtful accusations leave a stain behind them.. ). He was killed in a boating accident in 2011 [..] He was a criminologist, a since-retired forensic investigator named Kevin Brown who had worked for the San Diego Police Department from 1982 until 2002. She didnt believe him at first, but later went to the authorities with what hed said. However, the Tennessee Wildlife and Resources Agency took photos of the boat when it was found, and it didnt look like Tatro had fallen overboard. On the night of August 24, 1984, she was on one of her similar night adventures, visiting the local Circle K to buy cigarettes, as testified by the store clerk later on. Start Date . It didnt prove to be very useful to prosecutors in that case, partly because the technology was in its infancy. SAN DIEGO The widow of a former San Diego police crime lab employee questioned in a cold case murder on Tuesday said she feels vindicated. Erin Hough's office is located at 593 Eddy St, Providence, RI. 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