ONE OF THEIR OWN

them was Claire and God, at the time they looked old enough.”

He said the girls were visiting from out of town and staying at a Holiday Inn near downtown San Diego. He and Mike got together with them several times over the course of a week.

He thought maybe they’d gone to Balboa Park and Pacific Beach but he wasn’t sure. He believed he probably had sex with the one he thought was named Claire. Could she have been the one who wound up murdered later at Torrey Pines State Beach?

He couldn’t recall details about the girl, even after he was shown a photo of Hough again. “I just remember the word Claire and these two girls that we met,” he said.

The detectives were skeptical. Hough was staying with her grandparents in Del Mar Heights, not at a Holiday Inn in San Diego. She was 14 and didn’t have a driver’s license or access to acar She wasn’t riding around town with strangers.

“I don’t believe we’re talking about the same Claire,” Lambert said. He pressed Brown again on how he knew Tatro, maybe through strip clubs, prostitutes or photo sessions with nude female models. Brown said he didn’t know him

The retired criminalist also tried to clarify his comments from the day before about sexual dysfunction. He said when he lived in New Mexico in the late 1980s, he was intimate with a woman who told him she had become pregnant She wasn’t, but it spooked him so much that for years afterward, until he got married, he was afraid during sex to have an orgasm.

“I just didn’t want to have a baby,” Brown said. He sensed that the detectives doubted his story. He offered to take a lie-detector test. They drove him to a substation in the South Bay Polygraphs are controversial, their reliability so suspect that courts generally ban any mention of them during criminal trials. Scientists question whether the physiological changes measured by the machine blood flow sweat are due to deception or to stress and other factors.

Brown was worried about the test. He had told the detectives earlier that he suffered from generalized anxiety disorder a medical condition that left him flustered and inarticulate under pressure, and now he thought his nerves might betray him, make him look guilty.

“I am at a loss of words how my sperm got on a 14-year-old’s vaginal swabs,” he said “For the life of me, I have no idea.”

The polygraph results were mixed. According to the examiner Brown was truthful when he said he had never hurt or killed anyone. The results were inconclusive when he said he didn’t know Tatro.

When asked whether he had sex with Hough or knew anything about her death, Brown’s denials showed deception, the examiner said. After the polygraph, Brown seemed confused by the results.

“I don’t know anything about this Claire,” he said. “I don’t even know where I would have encountered her In my thoughts, I know Iwouldn’t have killed her.”

“OK,” Adams said, “did something just go horribly wrong or maybe get a little rough and get out of control?

“I’ve never done that with anybody,” Brown said.

The detectives pressed him again to explain the sperm DNA. “I don’t know how it got there,” he said “Obviously, I must have had sex with her I don’t know.”

Adams said, “OK, so we will at least agree that sex is the reason why it got there? Period. Sex is how that semen got there.”

Brown: “That’s the only way I can think of.”

But when Adams asked him for details on where and how he first encountered Hough, he was silent. He asked for his brotherin-law, the defense attorney Lambert said “Kevin, I’m going to be honest with you. This is not going to go away.”

“I know, Brown said.

The detectives tried to keep him talking, suggested again that maybe Brown wasn’t there when Hough was killed. A few minutes later Brown asked for more information about the teen. He said it might refresh his memory.

“I don’t have the slightest clue what you’re talking about on this stuff,” he said. “But yet you’re right. I didn’t do well on the polygraph.”

Adams tried a different tack.

“I may be out of line,” she said, “but I will say that I don’t believe for a second that you thought she was 14 I really don’t. I think she was probably a little bit more mature than most girls and probably acted a little more grown up than most girls. I don’t believe for asecond that you would have known her age, her true age.”

“Well,” Brown said, “I didn’t.”

Inthe days following his police interrogations, Brown grew anxious and scared. Twice he had trouble breathing and his wife took him to urgent care.

Off and on throughout much of his life, first in New Mexico and then in San Diego, Brown had sought the help of counselors and doctors They treated him for insomnia, anxiety and depression.

He traced the troubles to his childhood and being bullied in school. He told the doctors he was often uncomfortable in social groups and had difficulty asserting himself. He said those failures sometimes made him angry

In February 2014 a month after police first contacted him about the Hough murder, Brown began seeing a new psychiatrist. He mentioned “legal problems” that were causing stress, but didn’t specify what they were about.

Tensions ran high at home.

Some of the things that had come up about Brown in the police interrogations nude photo shoots, prostitutes, pornography —were news to his wife, Rebecca, who was there for part of the questioning “It didn’t please me,” she said, although she was certain those activities had ceased once they married. She and her 80-year-old mother, MarLynn Blakely, were also upset about the items police had seized during the search of the Browns’ home. Many were mementos belonging to MarLynn, who spent parts of her days leafing through photo albums, remembering. Now she couldn’t, and she let Kevin Brown know about it with her tears.

Amonth went by then another Brown lost weight. He couldn’t sleep. He wrote a note about his worst fears: that he would be arrested, kept in jail until trial, a year or longer He would be behind bars, unable to relax, sharing space with prisoners who would harm him when they found out he used to work for the police.

“Being away for this time and being by myself is the part that scares me,” he wrote.

The Browns hired a defense attorney, Gretchen von Helms. They told her they believed contamination was the reason for Brown’s DNA hit. She advised them to be patient as detectives finished their investigation. But waiting was hard Rebecca Brown called detective Lambert and asked him when they were going to get back the items taken by police. Soon, he told her In their minds once the possessions were returned, the nightmare would be over Police would know Kevin Brown had not been involved in the murder He wouldn’t be arrested. Lambert never told them that, but that’s what they believed. Kevin Brown started crossing days off on a calendar each one a step closer to being cleared. When the stuff came back, they would celebrate. They made plans for a romantic getaway at a hotel in Imperial Beach.

Except the stuff didn’t come back. Rebecca Brown called Lambert again. Soon he said. She called the next month. Soon. She asked him six or seven times.

Kevin Brown was keeping a journal, filling it with self-affirmations. On Aug. 26 2014 he wrote this list:

*Make each day special (like it was your last one)

*With each day, face your fears. You can’t hide from them

*It (elephant) will go away because you are not the person they are looking for. The truth will set you free

Kevin Brown, seen in an undated SDPD yearbook photo, worked in the crime lab for 20 years, rotating between assignments in firearms, narcotics, trace evidence and serology. He left in 2002, 10 years before his DNA linked him to the Hough case.

ABOVE: As the investigation continued, Kevin Brown grew increasingly anxious and wrote self-affirmations in a journal. He began seeing a new therapist for help with insomnia and depression, but shared few details about what he was going through.

TOP: San Diego police searched the Chula Vista home where Kevin Brown lived The yellow evidence tags show the locations of certain belongings seized as possible evidence. Police carted away 14 boxes, a suitcase and four trash bags filled with items.

Lambert knew within three months of the search that none of the items police seized from the Brown house had anything to do with Claire Hough’s murder

He dug through the boxes and bags himself. Nothing connecting Brown to Hough or to Ronald Tatro. Nothing showing Brown had any sexual interest in teenage girls or in sadomasochism. Nothing indicating he had been keeping track of media coverage over the years of the murder

There were other holes in the case the detective was trying to build. Lambert believed that because of the sperm DNA, Brown had assaulted Hough right around the time she was murdered. But tests found no other physical evidence tying him to her or to the place where it happened. No hairs, no fingerprints, no blood, no skin cells.

The only new discovery DNA extracted in May 2014 from apubic hair found on the victim’s bandana pointed to Tatro, not Brown.

Lambert came up empty trying to find ties between the two suspects, too.

He arranged for the Police Department to issue a “crime bulletin to local media outlets describing Tatro as a “subject of interest” in homicides that occurred in the early- to mid-1980s. It included a photo of him and a description of the blue-and-white van he drove. It didn’t mention that he was dead.

The bulletin, which generated ashort story in the Union-Tribune, asked anyone who knew Tatro “or his associates” to call the cold-case team No valid tips came in.

Lambert also sent a confidential bulletin with two photos of Brown on it to law enforcement agencies nationwide. It identified him as a former criminalist whose hobbies included nude photography The bulletin said Brown was being investigated in connection with the murder of a teenage girl who had been raped, beaten, stabbed and strangled. It asked the agencies to review their un-

One Of Their Own

solved homicide files“for any similar cases” and comparethe evidence withBrown’s DNA.

Again: nothing.

Lambertinterviewedpeople who knewBrown. He went to ChinaLakeand met with Navy physicist Kevin Sheldon, aformer roommate. He showedhim a pictureofTatro; Sheldon didn’t recognize him.

Sheldontold the detective howmeekand impressionable Brownwas —that youcould get him to do and say almost anything. But, Sheldon later recalled, that didn’t seemto be amessage Lambert wanted to hear.

He quoted the detectiveas saying that Brownwas playing “a cat and mousegame,” but that wouldn’t stoppolice from solving the case. To Sheldon,Lambert had already made up his mind. The detective wasn’t the only one.

Inthe fall of 1992,10years afterhehad movedtoSan Diegoand eight years after ClaireHough wasmurdered, Kevin Brownplaced apersonals ad in the Union-Tribune, “men seeking women.” It said he wasinterested in aslender,non-smoker for a possible relationship.

Rebecca Blakely sawthe ad, called the phone number and left amessage. On Dec.4,1992, they hadtheir firstdate, at the Harbor Houserestaurant in Seaport Village. It went well. They did aVenn diagram to chart theircommonalities: dancing, cats, music. It turned out that eachhad the same car-radio stationsprogrammed as presets. “I thought he wasreally sweet,” Blakely recalled later.“He was quieterand thoughtful. He seemed very respectful. He was not loud. He wasnot demanding He wasnot pushy.He wasnot arrogant. ThingsIdid not want to getinvolved in.”

By the thirddate, to watchthe Christmas boat parade,she knew she wanted to marryhim. She asked if he wouldkiss her.He did. The wedding wasabout eight months later,inLakeTahoe.It washer thirdmarriage, hissecond. Neither had children. Her family wasnot thrilled with the relationship. Some of them foundBrown reclusiveand odd “Look what the cat draggedin,” one relativewhispered to another the firsttime they sawhim. “Igot aweirdvibe,” said another Theirsuspicionsbubbled up again when they learned he was beinginvestigatedinthe Hough case. Rebecca Brown’ssister called and asked flat-out whether he had sexwith the girl He said “yes,”according to her account. Shesaid she called Lambert and relayed the conversation. Brownthought his commentwas taken out ofcontext. The phone conversation with the sister-inlawcame shortly after the police interrogations.

Detectives had led himtobelieve he’dhad sexwith Hough because that wasthe only explanationfor his sperm winding up on the vaginal swabs.

He didn’t believe that for long. He startedthinking moreabout his time in the lab and talking to some of the criminalists he used to work withback in the 1980s, including James Stam, aformer boss.

Stam believedcontamination wasthe likely explanationfor what happened. He remembered howdifferent thingswereinthe lab back then, in the days before DNA analysis. Howcriminalistsall worked at large tables in the same cavernous room, not always wearing masksorgloves. Howevidence swabs were leftinthe open air to dry. And howthey brought their own semen intothe lab, kept it on small pieces of cloth to use in testing. The cloths were stored in desk drawers or the refrigerator availablefor anyone to use.

“Weweren’tbeing awilly-nilly, crummylab,” Stam said. “It’s just the waythingswere.”

Stam wasinterviewedbyLambertand told him he didn’t think Brownwas guilty. The detective beggedto differ,pointingout incriminating statements Brown had made during the interrogations. That information didn’t impress Stam. He rememberedthe problems Brownhad as acriminalist testifying in court, howhecould be pushed around by defense attorneysand talk himselfinto trouble

“Until youcan eliminatecontamination,”Stam remembered telling the detective, “you can’tgo anywherefurtherwith this.”

To Lambert,ithad already been eliminated. His boss told him that when he first gotthe case. So he sawnoneedtogointodetail with Stam about the lab practices in 1984 He didn’t ask any of the other criminalists he interviewed, either. That lefthim surprised by what came next.

OnSept. 26,2014, Lambertand his partner,Lori Adams,interviewed Steve Blakely,one of Rebecca Brown’sbrothers. He told the detectives he could imagine Browncommitting the murder “because thereissomething off about him.” His wife, Nancy, wassoconcernedabout the allegations she barred Kevin Brownfromtheir house and took hispictureoff a wall. Steve Blakely also told detectives about comments made by the Browns several months earlier.The couple sharedtheir belief that Kevin hadbeenimplicated in the Hough case through contamination, and that it occurred because he had hissperm in the lab.

“I thought therewas no way that (sperminthe lab) could happen,” Steve Blakely told the detectives. Lamberthad the same reaction. “Like,eww,why would you do that?” he rememberedthinking. Ineverheardthat beforein almost30years of lawenforcement.”It wasn’t something the Browns had evershared with him, either Afterthe meeting with the Blakelys, Lambertcalled the policelab and asked David Cornacchia, who had done the DNA work in the Hough case, whether criminalists kept their own semen in the lab.

David Cornacchia, acriminalist seen hereinSeptember 2000 in the SDPD crime lab, conducted the DNA testing that linked Kevin Brown to the ClaireHough case. Detectives turned to him afterlearningto their surprise that criminalists kept their own semen standards in the lab.

TOP: Awallet photoofRebecca and Kevin Brown during aretirement party in 2002 at their Chula Vista home. Afterhe leftthe department, detectives sometimes contacted him with questions about cases he had worked.

It’s true, Cornacchia said. True in 1984, and true now.

Lambert’s stunned reaction caught the criminalist off-guard “It is funny,” Cornacchia said later,“because at that moment I realizedIhavebeendoing this for so long, Ididn’t realizethat it (semen in the lab) is kind of weird.” Stunned or not, the revelation didn’t alter Lambert’sinvestigation. He said Cornacchia told him that lab managers were awareof the practicewhen they concluded that contamination wasunlikely in the Hough case.

“He’sonthe science side of things, and Ihavetotrust in the fact that when he makes an identificationinthe lab, that they observedwhateverprotocols are pertinent to them,”Lambert would later say. “Wedon’t challengethemontheir work and how they do it.”

Cornacchia, however, wasn’t in the lab in 1984 and didn’t know howitoperated. He said he told Lambertthat. As all this wasgoing on, Brown’sstruggles continued. His weight loss wasnearing 25 pounds on an already thin frame. He stopped gardening and doing other things he enjoyed. He had trouble concentrating and spent hourssitting in chairs staring. His hands sometimes shook.

To read part one of this three-partseries scan the code above or go to sandiegounion tribune.com/coldcase,whereyou also can read the final installment should you not want to wait until next Sunday.

Rebecca Browntried to pull him out of it. In lateSeptember they scheduled adatenight. She came homefromworkand found him in bed,lethargic.

Therewas abullet on the floor and what she thoughtmightbea suicide note.

It thanked her for the 20 years they’d beenmarried.“They’ve been wonderful,” he wrote.

“You’vebeenwonderful.”

He denied that he wasthinking aboutkilling himself, but his brother-in-law, John Blakely,was concerned enough to takethree guns that were in the house and lock them away Adefense attorney, Blakely had beengiving Browninformal adviceduring the investigation, but he wasn’t representing him.

In fact, he told Lambert he thoughtBrown might be guilty: “Tome, he fits the profile of somebody who might be involved in something likethis.”Healso told the detectiveabout the apparent suicide noteand the guns. Ashorttime later,Lambert went to the school where Rebecca Brownworked. He said he wanted to makesureshe wasOK and not in any danger from her husband.

She told the detectivethat the only person Kevin Brownwas likely to harm washimself.

October 2014.Lamberthad beeninvestigatingClaire Hough’s murder for almost two years. He was getting close to presentingthe case to the District Attorney’s Office for adecisionabout whether to charge Kevin Brown.

Out of the blue, Browncalled and made another appointment to speakwiththe detective. He wanted to knowwhen police would be returning the items they had taken nine months earlier during the search

This, according to what Rebecca Brownremembered her husband telling her,was Lambert’sreply: Youknowyou killed her.Iknowyou killedher.And you’re not getting your stuff back until youconfess.

“He wascrestfallen,” Rebecca Brownsaid.

Lambertdenied he would ever tell asuspect that —“Iwouldbe worried that they would flee”— but the result wasthe same: The stuff didn’t come back.

In mid-October,Rebecca Browngot aphone call from her sister,Pat Stengel, who lives in Missouri. She said she had just talked with Lambert, who told her his investigation waswrapping up. “And then,”Stengel said, “it’s bye-byeKevin.”Rebecca Brown shared that with her husband.

That weekend, Rebecca Brownwas directing aplay at the high school whereshe worked Herhusbandwould usually come alongand video-record the performances. But she had told schoolofficials about the ongoing murder investigation, and they banned him from campus john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com

He suggested going in disguise. She said no. He wasdownbeat the whole weekend, so out of it she took away the pills he was taking for anxiety and insomnia. He calledLambertand canceled the appointment they had for another interview.

The next day,Oct. 20,Rebecca Browncamehomefromworkand her husband wasn’t there. He’d leftabout 10 a.m. to runsome errands.

One of themwas to Home Depot, to buy arope.

One wastoacabin the family owns near Julian, to geta white plastic chairfromthe frontporch Rebecca Brownreportedhim missing. The nextday,rangers in Cuyamaca Rancho StatePark spottedhis black Ford Ranger parkedoff Highway79. They walked down adirttrail. Kevin Brownwas hanging from atree, dead.

The final part of this series publishes next Sunday.

Editor’s note: Thisstory was compiledfromthousandsof pages of police reports, court filings, sworn depositions and trial transcripts. Unlessotherwisenoted,the quotes used are from thoserecords.