An Angry David Camm

After the telephone call on September 29th from the Medical Examiner's office to Clemons, the investigators at the crime scene, now aware that Jill had injuries to her genitalia, began to ignore Dave. Not a stupid person, he knew that something was radically wrong when no one would speak with him or if they did, it was in a very dispassionate or cold manner. What really hurt was when former partners with whom he had shared common danger wouldn't speak with him and, according to Dave, "they just walk past me like I'm not there."

Additionally, on Saturday, September 30th he needed to tend to the practical matter of choosing burial clothing for his loved ones. Any such clothing, of course, was in the house and he was prevented from entering the house, although he was under the impression that the garage and not the house was the extent of the crime scene.

Also, after going through the onerous task of picking out caskets and beginning the planning process to bury his loved ones, he was then asked to submit to providing a sexual assault suspect kit. He wasn't pleased that the police had asked him to submit to such a humiliating task, but he agreed to it and arranged to meet Detectives Clemons and Gibson at the Floyd County Hospital later that day.

Dave and other members of his family also were at the crime scene, at times waiting outside the evidence tape in the front yard of his residence in order to try and determine what, if anything, the police had discovered. It was there that his uncle, Sam Lockhart, asked one of the Troopers to help him secure clothing and photographs for Kim, Brad and Jill but was stonewalled.

Dave overheard that conversation and while it is understandable why Dave was barred from entering the house, it didn't make it any better for him. Additionally, he was tired from a profound lack of sleep and rest and had also been taking prescription medication.

Lieutenant James Biddle listened to Dave as he pleaded with him to allow him into the house in order to pick out his family's burial clothing. Biddle then told Dave that he knew "how you feel." Dave became very angry and told Biddle that he had no "fucking idea how I feel" and then jumped up and bumped Biddle in the chest with his own chest.

Sam and a Trooper quickly separated the two and Dave then walked away, kicking trash that had been thrown in his yard, yelling to Biddle and the others to get the trash out of his front yard.

Yard Trash

After that confrontation, Biddle agreed to make the arrangements to provide the clothing from the house in order to allow Kim, Brad and Jill to be buried in their own clothes.

Dave telephoned Biddle the next day and told him that although he wasn't apologizing, he was still sorry. Dave opened up to Biddle in that conversation and expressed the fact that he was hurt that the State Police, or his "family" as he referred to them, was treating him like a suspect and further that a former Trooper friend, a very close friend, was ignoring him.

During that conversation Biddle told Dave that the ISP was "doing everything we can, we're exhausting every lead." Biddle, the management person in charge of directing the investigation, who assured Dave of the exhaustive (and the "most extensive") investigation that he had seen, didn't tell Dave that:

  1. they had never made any attempt to identify the owner of the "BACKBONE" sweatshirt (Biddle also claimed that the writing on the sweatshirt was difficult to read)
  2. they hadn't conducted any forensic or DNA tests
  3. they hadn't yet checked any telephone records
  4. their neighborhood investigation wasn't complete or thorough
  5. not all of the basketball players had been interviewed and most of those that were contacted hadn't been interviewed in person
  6. they didn't interview the three other persons who were attending a substance abuse meeting at the church Family Life Center and who had to pass by the basketball players
  7. they were unaware of any alarm in the church and the time that it was set
  8. he was unaware of anything at all about the alleged blood spatter "expert" and crime scene re-constructionist who was, in fact, a person who had never even taken an elementary 40 hour blood stain course and who had never before even investigated a homicide
  9. they hadn't completed a timeline of Dave's whereabouts on the day or evening of the murders in order to try and either validate or refute his story; indeed, people who could provide insights about his demeanor, a critical part of the police claiming Dave was guilty, weren't even interviewed
  10. the ISP thought the crime scene was a manipulation and that there was no sexual assault on his wife
  11. the ISP didn't check any sex registry or parole or probation lists in order to determine if a convicted felon may have fallen into a suspect category
  12. they had effectively eliminated all other potential suspects or motives and were zeroing in on him as the sole perpetrator

Incredibly enough, however, during cross-examination in Dave's second trial, Lieutenant Biddle claimed that he was showing "preferential" treatment to Dave. And what was that preferential treatment?

  1. Dave got to ride to the ISP post without an escort for his initial interview
  2. The ISP didn't conduct a surveillance of his house

Biddle actually made those comments under oath. He also claimed that it was "odd" that Dave was watching the investigation proceed at his house. "Odd?" Is it "odd" that a man is in the company and comfort of his family and on his grandfather's property, across the street from his own house, where his wife and children were slaughtered, and was trying to comprehend what had happened to his family and his life?

Biddle was also savvy enough to determine, as he later testified, that Dave's crying on the phone with him was "imitation" crying. He also acknowledged in the second trial that he had lied to Dave when speaking with him on the phone. It was permissible for him to lie to Dave, Biddle recalled, to keep Dave on the phone and talking.

One thing that Biddle didn't hesitate supporting was his staunch belief that the investigation he oversaw of the murders of Kim, Brad and Jill Camm was "thorough" even five years later. That investigation was thorough, he claimed, even though Charles Boney's DNA, palm print, previous violent crimes, fascination with shoes and feet and his criminal signature, involving attacks on women which targeted their shoes, were ignored for over four years.