MICHELLE: And that are not far apart at all.
PAUL HOLES: No. No. Ventura and Laguna Niguel are the two outliers. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Holes is referring to the Dana Point case here; some people mistakenly consider Dana Point part of Laguna Niguel.]
PAUL HOLES: Davis/Modesto, to me, is significant.
MICHELLE: Modesto was just once or twice?
PAUL HOLES: Twice.
MICHELLE: Okay.
PAUL HOLES: So, when I did my initial geographic assessment, I broke the EAR into phases. The first phase being up in Sacramento. Second phase being Modesto/Davis. Third phase being East Bay, and then the fourth phase being down in Southern California. When you get to this phase two—I lump Stockton into Sacramento because the EAR goes back to Sacramento after Stockton, but then once he hits in Modesto, he doesn’t go back to Sacramento until after he comes down into the East Bay. And he’s toggling back and forth between Modesto and Davis. It’s a hundred ten driving miles between those two cities. And between the second Modesto attack and the second Davis attack, it’s just twenty-two hours’ difference. Why is he toggling back and forth? I think it’s work-related. He’s not doing this to throw law enforcement off. I think there’s a work-related reason why he’s being sent to Modesto and having to go to Davis, and going back and forth.
MICHELLE: There’s only a twenty-two-hour difference?
PAUL HOLES: Twenty-two-hour difference.
MICHELLE: Wow. I didn’t know it was so close in time.
PAUL HOLES: And it just so happens, in those two cases, and only those two cases . . . In the Modesto case, you have the cab driver that picks up the strange man from the airport, who he drops off and is last seen headed toward new construction under way that’s just south of where the victims are attacked. And in the Davis case, that’s where the footprints lead back from the victim’s house to the UC-Davis airport. Shoe prints. That’s what I’m going to show you. So, is it possible that you’ve got the EAR flying into Modesto for that one attack, and then flying up to UC-Davis for the second attack?
MICHELLE: For work?
PAUL HOLES: For work. And, what does that say about who he is?
MICHELLE: Yeah.
PAUL HOLES: Well, your common joe ain’t flying an airplane.
MICHELLE: No.
PAUL HOLES: Your common joe ain’t producing a diagram that is, “How should I lay out this land?”
MICHELLE: Right.
PAUL HOLES: It takes somebody with resources. Because when you read the case file on the EAR, you don’t think this is somebody of wealth, right?
MICHELLE: Right.
PAUL HOLES: I don’t get that. This seems contradictory to that. But that’s what the EAR was about. Everything about him was misdirection.
MICHELLE: So, you’re leaning toward thinking he had more resources?
PAUL HOLES: I think he has . . . well, I think if this turns out EAR was doing this not for just a school project, but he’s actually looking at developing land and working for a developer, he’s at least minimally hooked in to the company at a level where he’s got a lot of say in that company.
PAUL HOLES: So, this is Village Homes in Davis. Village Homes is a very famous development. What I’m showing you is, coincidentally, an aerial photo of Village Homes as it was in between the first and second Davis attacks. So, literally, they just happened to take this picture eight days before attack number thirty-six. This is what it looked like. And look at all of this new construction that’s going on just north of the attack. I’ll take you out and show you the whole airport thing.
PAUL HOLES: The Stockton victim I’ve been talking to, she worked for a major developer in the Central Valley. The victim did a lot of work for him. She ended up leaving his company when she got pregnant. I was showing this diagram [the “homework” evidence map] to a friend of mine who works in development. He told me, “This was done by a professional. . . . He’s drafting these symbols.” Now, this is an opinion that’s coming from a forensic expert in the construction business. So I put a lot of credence in that opinion.
MICHELLE: I think you’re right. I don’t believe this is a fantasy.
PAUL HOLES: I don’t think so. You know, you have a landscape architect from UC-Davis going, “There’s unique features in here that are only seen in Village Homes.”
MICHELLE: Oh really?
PAUL HOLES: Yes. And you’ll see this when we go out there. Village Homes is a very unusual development. So, you have the EAR going and attacking there. Could it be possible that the EAR is going to Village Homes and when he sees some of those features, he incorporates those in this diagram, for whatever he’s working on?
MICHELLE: Right. As something he would submit, along the lines of “Hey, we should do this,” or something like that?
PAUL HOLES: Yeah.
Holes arrives at the apartment complex where the first Davis attack took place.
This attack, number thirty-four, occurred at approximately three fifty a.m. on June 7, 1978—two days after the EAR’s first attack in Modesto. The victim was a twenty-one-year-old UC-Davis student who lived in a multistory apartment building, which Larry Pool would later deem a “structural anomaly”—as this was the only time the EAR was known to have targeted such a dwelling.
He entered the second-story apartment through the patio sliding glass door. He was particularly violent with this victim, punching her several times in the face after she initially resisted. While raping her, he forcefully shoved her face into the floor, leaving her with a broken nose and a concussion.
Certain factors suggest that this attack may have been more impulsive than most of the others: he was wearing a nylon stocking instead of a ski mask; the only known weapons were a nail file and a screwdriver; and the assailant appeared to be wearing his T-shirt inside out. The crime was undoubtedly an EAR attack, however, based on verbiage and the signature element of the rapist placing his penis in the victim’s bound hands and forcing her to masturbate him.
PAUL HOLES: Alright, so the first Davis one was the college girl that was attending UC-Davis. A textile major.
MICHELLE: This is the one where they thought they saw him peeling out of the parking lot?
PAUL HOLES: Yep. It was a black Camaro, or something like that. But I’m not sure that was him.
PAUL HOLES: So, this has changed. I actually lived here once myself.
MICHELLE: Oh, wow. Is this technically campus housing?
PAUL HOLES: These are off-campus dorms. I think they were different back in the seventies. This has even changed since I was here.
Holes stops and lets the car idle.
PAUL HOLES: This is all college kids. Russell Boulevard, you see all the college kids biking. So, if he’s up in Davis for any reason, I think this would be a case where he’s seeing somebody that he follows back.
MICHELLE: Oh, okay.
PAUL HOLES: He sees a girl that, for whatever reason, catches his eye, and then he figures out where she lives. I don’t think he’s prowling or burglarizing. This is atypical from his . . .
MICHELLE: Usual thing.
PAUL HOLES: Yeah.
They move on to the second location, which was the scene of attack number thirty-six. The second of three Davis strikes, it occurred around three a.m. on June 24, 1978—one day after EAR rape number thirty-five, in Modesto.
The victim was a thirty-two-year-old housewife whose husband was in bed with her. Both were bound. Also present was the couple’s ten-year-old son, whom the attacker locked in the bathroom. He rummaged through the house before returning to the female, moving her to the living room, and raping her. Prior to leaving the house, he stole seventeen rolls of pennies.
PAUL HOLES: We’re now entering Village Homes.
MICHELLE: Okay.
PAUL HOLES: All the streets are named after Lord of the Rings.
MICHELLE: Oh. Really?
PAUL HOLES: Yep. The developer, Michael Corbett, was heavily involved in Lord of the Rings.
MICHELLE: Heavily involved meaning . . .
PAUL HOLES: Well, big fan.