CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Brenda Thurman and her husband, Dwayne. Brenda’s children have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, but Dwayne Thurman has not been charged with any crime.
“THE DEAD DON’T LIE,” CONTINUED... dumpster down hooker alley, you still deserve justice, in my opinion,” says Julie Beauchaine, Kala’s cousin, who adds that she helped care for her while she grew up in an unstable situation. To Beauchaine, the fact that Kala was cut in half and had defensive wounds means she must have been killed. “I mean, ‘undetermined’?” she asks. “He should have left it at suspicious death. ‘Undetermined’ just makes you want to vomit.” Howard’s rationale, the Spokesman-Review reported, was that he couldn’t rule out she’d died of an overdose and then someone had disposed of her body. But other evidence with her body led another forensic pathologist to determine that Kala may have been sexually assaulted and killed. Dr. Carl Wigren, a Seattle-based forensic pathologist who Spokane police hired to review the autopsy and provide a second opinion, says in a December 2013 report that several things make it likely that Kala’s death was a homicide: The fact that her body had been dumped, that it had been cut in two, that branches and debris had been
BODY OF KNOWLEDGE May 13, 2012 The body of Kala Williams, 20, is found cut in half and stuffed in black garbage bags near railroad tracks west of where Highway 195 meets I-90. She’d been missing for about two months. Despite the halving of her body, apparent defensive wounds, clothing cut open and doused in bleach, and a knotted towel around her neck, Howard ruled her death “undetermined.” According to the SpokesmanReview, Howard has refused to reconsider his ruling because a toxicology report also showed methamphetamine in her system, and he couldn’t rule out an overdose. Seattle forensic pathologist Dr. Carl Wigren, who was hired by Spokane police for a second opinion, says the
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put over the bags. She also had a towel knotted around her neck, stab wounds in places that could show she was defending herself, and her clothes, including her bra and underwear, were cut open, the report states. “Based on my review of the autopsy report, scene photographs, autopsy photographs, and visitation of the scene, the cause of death is consistent with homicidal violence and the manner is homicide,” Wigren wrote in his conclusion. “The death of a previously healthy young woman with subsequent Heather Higgins processing of her remains and disposal in a remote site is a homicide until proven otherwise.” DNA found on clothing and tape in the bags came back as a match for Robert G. Davis, according to a police report.
When police interviewed Davis in July 2012, he said he knew Kala a little through her boyfriend, and had never had sex with her, according to a police timeline. The same month, detectives interviewed Davis’ mom, Sherri Cook, but she said little at first. A few weeks later, she called detectives and went in to tell them about her son’s possible involvement with another woman’s case: Heather Higgins, who’d been missing since 2010. Cook told detectives that Davis had come to her home around the time Higgins was reported missing, saying he had “done something really bad,” and later explaining that although he hadn’t killed Higgins, he had helped put her body in a sleeping bag and dump it off a road on the way to a ski resort to the north, according to a police report. “When he told me about Heather, he was acting very strange and was on drugs, and I didn’t know if it was real or just something in his head,” Cook tells the Inlander. But after Kala Williams’ body was found, and detectives suspected there might be a link to Davis, Cook says it crossed her mind that maybe her son had done more than just dispose of a body, and that regardless of who was responsible, there could be a pattern emerging. In June 2014, Davis attacked a woman in Coeur d’Alene, choking her until she passed out and sexually assaulting her. He was found guilty of burglary and battery with intent to commit rape. He’s sentenced to serve another 12 years in a Boise prison, but could be eligible for parole as of June 2019, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. Cook says she wants to see her son charged, so his innocence or guilt can be determined by the courts. “If he’s not charged with homicide, he’ll never go to court and never have the chance to prove himself innocent, if he is innocent,” Cook says. “It just sort of hangs there for our family and the other families. We won’t know the facts, and we won’t know the truth unless it goes to court. It must go to court.” Davis has not been charged in relation to either Higgins’ disappearance or Williams’ death. He did not respond to a request for comment from the Inlander. Higgins’ body has not been found, and when Cook, prompted by detectives, tried to ask Davis during a jail visit about where her body might be, Cook says he denied ever saying anything about that, and shouted at her. “The facial expressions, the way he acted, his posture, etc., was not the son I once knew,” Cook says. “It was like a different person. It was scary.” That was the last time they spoke. Cook says while Davis is behind bars, the focus should remain on investigating cases overseen by the Spo-
The following are cases where family members question the death determinations made by Spokane County medical examiners Dr. Sally Aiken and Dr. John Howard.
facts point to homicide. May 22, 2015 Thomas Robert Dale Samples, 52, dies after crashing his motorcycle into an STA bus in northeast Spokane at the corner of Crestline and Euclid. Samples was wearing a helmet, yet Howard originally said the death was a suicide. He later changed that ruling to “undetermined” when police investigators presented him with more information. “[Dr. Howard] was very rude and disrespectful,” says Samples’ sister Gladys Shirey, who spoke with Howard regarding his original ruling. “And he told me how educated he was throughout our conversation.”
Jan. 18, 2016 Brenda Thurman is shot in the chest by her husband, Dwayne Thurman, who told police that he was cleaning her pistol when the firearm accidentally went off. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. It then took Spokane County Sheriff’s detectives nearly a year and a half to recommend that criminal charges be brought against Dwayne Thurman, who has been a reserve deputy for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. The detective was reportedly waiting for test results from the Washington State Patrol crime lab, to determine if the .380 Glock was functioning properly. The results indicate that it was, and the Sheriff’s Office is recommending manslaughter charges
for Thurman. The Spokane County prosecutor will decide whether to file formal charges. Meanwhile, Thurman remains a free man. Brenda Thurman’s children have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dwayne Thurman. Jan. 23, 2016 Cindy Lou Zeppenfeld Bergan’s body is found on the side of the road near Cataldo, Idaho, unclothed, wrapped in plastic and duct tape. Howard said the 46-year-old died of a heart attack brought on by alcoholism. Bergan’s family believes she was the victim of foul play, due to the several dozen cuts and bruises covering her body and the suspicious circumstances