Dead And Buried (28 page)
Authors: Corey Mitchell
“Did you untie her feet at that point?”
“Yeah.”
“So her feet are not tied. OK. You had vaginal intercourse and sodomy. Did you go down on her, have her go down on you? Did you do anything else to her?”
“No.”
“Did you ejaculate?”
“Yeah.”
“Then what did you do?”
“Left her in the bed.”
“Did you tie her feet back up?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever take the pillowcase or the duct tape off?”
“Later.”
“So you left her in bed—then what did you do?”
“Went in the kitchen. Drank some Yukon Jack with some coffee.”
“Now there was nobody home at Muriel’s, right? Muriel was out of town?” Krebs nodded his head yes. “Did you know she was out of town?”
“Yeah.”
“She tell you she was leaving?”
“Yeah.”
“And Debbie doesn’t come home until when?”
“Late evening.”
“What’d you do after you drank the Yukon and coffee or the Jack Daniel’s and coffee?”
“Passed out.”
“Where’d you pass out at?”
“Couch.”
“And she’s on your bed? What time’d you wake up?”
“Maybe an hour or so later.”
“Then what’d you do?”
“Raped her again.”
“And did you take the ropes off?”
“Yeah.”
“Was she still wearing the T-shirt?”
“No, I cut the T-shirt off of her with a pair of scissors. The first time.”
“So when you raped her the first time, she’s totally nude except for the ropes and the pillowcase. And you used a pair of scissors? And when you went back in again after you took a nap and you raped her?” Krebs slowly nodded his head up and down. “You cut the ropes off her feet?”
“Actually, I untied them.”
“And did you have vaginal intercourse?” Again Krebs noddedyes. “Sodomy, no? Go down on her? She go down on you? You just had vaginal intercourse? Did you take the tape off her mouth?”
“Yeah.”
“When you took the tape off her mouth, what’d she say?”
Krebs looked up at Hobson and spoke in a quiet voice: “ ‘Why are you doing this?’ ”
“And what’d you say?”
“I didn’t.”
“Did you talk to her at all?”
“No.”
“What else did she say to you? Did she ask you to stop or plead for you to let her go?”
“Yeah.”
“Was she crying?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you remember what she said to you?”
“No.”
“That she was pleading with you to let her go?”
“Yeah, but not real vehemently.”
“After you had vaginal intercourse the second time, what did you do?”
“I had taken her out of the bed, still blindfolded.”
“By blindfolded, you mean the pillowcase?”
“With the pillowcase. Had her kneel by the coffee table. Took the, uh, pillowcase off her head. Put a bandana blindfold on her.”
“OK, she’s tied at the feet and the hands at this time (that) she’s kneeling at the coffee table?”
“Just her hands.”
“Her feet aren’t tied?”
“No.”
“Does she get up and try to run away?”
“No.”
“Does she see you when you take the pillowcase off?”
“No, I got her back to me.”
“So you take the pillowcase off and put a blindfold across her eyes?” Krebs nodded yes. “Is her mouth still free?”
“That’s when I freed her mouth.”
“Then what?”
“I told her, ‘Don’t try and look at me.’ ”
“Did she?”
“Later.”
“She did look at you?” Krebs again nodded his head forward.“So after you put the blindfold on her, what did you do?”
“That’s when I raped her the second time.”
“That was the second time. That was when she was bent over the coffee table?” Krebs once again nodded. “Did you sodomize her?”
“Not that time, no.”
“Just had vaginal intercourse from behind? So the first one occurred on the bed. The second one, while she was kneeling over the coffee table?” Krebs nodded. “Then what’d you do?”
“Put her back in the bedroom after I let her put a pair of sweats on.”
“Was it her own sweats?”
“Yeah.”
“So she had black sweats and a black sweatshirt that you brought with you?”
“Uh-huh.”
“So you dressed her. Is she still—”
“I pulled it over her head,” Krebs tossed in.
“OK, so it’s not going through her arms because her arms are tied, right?”
“Right, right.”
“Now she’s back on the bed. Is she tied up, hands and feet?”
“Just her hands.”
“Does she stay on the bed?” Krebs bowed his head in agreement. “Then what happens?”
“I go to sleep on the couch again. I hear a noise; I wake up. She’s coming out of the bedroom. Got her blindfold off.”
“She’s still tied behind her back, her hands?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What’s she saying?”
“She was saying nothing.”
“What do you do?”
“Strangle her.”
“How did you strangle her?” Hobson asked nonplussed.
“Piece of rope.”
“The same one you’d used to tie her feet?” Krebs nodded his head yes. “How did you strangle her?”
“From behind,” Krebs stated quietly.
“Did you put her on the ground or was she standing up?”
“On the ground.”
“Was she on her back, her stomach?”
“Stomach.”
“And then you put the rope around her neck?” Krebs noddedyes. “And you pulled it tight?” Again yes. “And what happened?”
“She died.” Simple as that.
“I’m sorry, Rex, I couldn’t hear you.”
“She died, Larry.”
“Then what’d you do?”
Krebs did not answer Hobson’s question immediately. After several seconds he responded, “Got really drunk. Put her on the floor of the bathroom so I wouldn’t have to look at what I’d done.”
“Then what’d you do?”
“Went out and dug a grave for her in the yard.”
“Where in your yard, Rex?”
“Just the other side of the fence toward the right-hand side if you’re looking at the creek.”
Hobson began to draw a diagram of where Rex claimed Aundria Crawford’s body was located.
“She’d be over here,” Krebs proclaimed as he pointed to the diagram.
“I guess the fence goes like this?” Hobson asked Krebs as he referred to the schematic. “Your woodpile is down here.” Krebs drew on the diagram. “The embankment, that’s the wire fence?”
“That’s the wire fence,” Krebs answered. “Creek’s down here. Should be right there.”
“How deep are these graves, Rex? How far down do you think you dug?”
“Three-and-a-half, four feet.”
“Did you bury the ropes and things with her?”
“Yes.”
“OK, when you buried her, she didn’t have anything on top?”
“She’s got a black sweatshirt on.”
“And then at some point you went into 84 Lumber, is that right?” Krebs nodded yes. “You never fell in the woodpile? Hurt your ribs. Is that true?”
“I screwed up my ribs going through the window.”
“So this was the morning you were supposed to meet Roslynn at the doctor’s office?” Krebs shook his head up and down again. “But you couldn’t meet her—”
“I completely forgot about it.”
“What time do you think it was when you buried her?”
“Early afternoon.”
“Does Roslynn know anything about this one?”
“Nobody knows anything about them.”
“Just you and I.”
“Just you and me.”
Hobson stopped for a moment. He took a deep breath and then continued: “Rex, we’ve talked about Aundria and Rachel... .”
“There aren’t any more, Larry,” Krebs responded without hesitation.
“That’s it?”
“Just those two.”
“No others?”
“No.”
“Nothing happened before Rachel?”
“No.”
“Did you do any prowling or anything before Rachel?”
“No.”
“No? So for thirteen months you didn’t do anything? After you got released?”
“Not a thing.”
“What do you think brought this on again with Rachel? The first time.”
“I don’t know, Larry. I wish I did.”
“When you went out that night with Rachel, when you found Rachel and the night you decided to take Aundria, had you thought about it ahead of time?”
“Rachel, no.”
“But when you drove to Aundria’s, you knew; you knew you were going to take her?”
“That’s right.”
“Rachel, that was just somebody that was walking along and you saw her, huh?” Krebs nodded his head yes.
Krebs’s head remained down as he placed his right hand to his forehead. Hobson was almost done.
“We probably won’t have any trouble finding Aundria here, but I need to have you take me out there and show me, so we don’t spend a lot of time just digging up dirt. Is that OK?”
Krebs did not answer for fifteen seconds. Finally “Yeah.” Then, after shifting in his seat with his head still bowed down, he commented that “everybody’s gonna know like wildfire.”
Hobson stood up, took out his pack of cigarettes, thumped one out, and offered it to Krebs, who gladly accepted.
“Question,” Krebs said to Hobson.
“Yeah?”
“It won’t make any difference, anyway?”
“Go ahead and ask.”
“If you go out there today and dig them up ...”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m not gonna have a chance to tell Roz or Greg or anybodyelse. Because everybody’s gonna know.”
“Maybe I can arrange for you to sit down and talk to Roz this afternoon.”
“Roz has got to have somebody here for her. What’s today?”
“Today’s Thursday.”
“Is there any way you can put it off until Saturday, Larry?”
“Let me go talk to my boss. See what he says.”
Hobson stood up and left the interrogation room. Krebs sat in his chair with his head down. He began to pick at his fingers.He then rubbed his eye, crossed his legs, but never lifted his head up.
He placed the cigarette in his jail-issue-shirt breast pocket.
That was the end of the April 22, 1999, videotaped confession.There was, however, a problem with one of the jurors. Juror five, a female juror, began to cry during the confession when Krebs spoke of strangling Aundria Crawford. Judge LaBarbera addressed the matter with the attorneys. He noted that the juror filled out the initial questionnaire and mentionedthat she cried easily. He brought the juror before the court, out of the presence of the other jurors, and questioned her ability to continue in a fair and unprejudiced manner against the defendant. The juror complained of tightness in her chest but stated that she felt better. She also stated that she got emotional over some of the things Krebs confessed to and that she found them “disturbing.” She then apologized for her behavior and assured the court that she could carry out her duty without bias. The judge informed both parties that no infractionhad taken place and asked the prosecution to show the next piece of evidence.
Detective Hobson resumed his familiar position on the witnessstand. By this time the entire gallery’s attention was focused directly on the veteran detective. They wanted to be sure not to miss a single word he uttered. Deputy District Attorney John Trice next steered the detective to the “drive-throughtape.” After Rex Krebs confessed to the murders of Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford, Hobson asked him to go for a ride out to Davis Canyon. He wanted Krebs to show him where the girls’ bodies were located.
“We put Rex Krebs in my car,” Hobson recalled. “I rode in the back with Rex. Bill Hanley, one of the investigators that works for me, drove. We were followed by two officers from the San Luis Obispo Police Department, Keith Storton and Russ Griffith, who videotaped the process of going out to the canyon.”
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