Police Respond to the Scene

When Dave telephoned the Sellersburg Indiana State Police (ISP) Post, a number which was the conduit where he could count on dozens of friends and former colleagues for immediate help, he first spoke with the dispatcher who, despite Dave's yelling to speak with Post Command, later claimed at trial that she didn't know that there was an emergency. Listen to the call and decide for yourself if you think that David Camm was displaying a calm demeanor and was not pleading for help.

The dispatcher put Dave in touch with the Post Commander (not a rank, but rather a description) Andrew Lee, who immediately began calling for help throughout the district. Several Troopers responded to his plea for help and all immediately lit up their emergency lights and hit their sirens, speeding towards the Camm residence. Lee's dispatch was also monitored by other law enforcement officers including the Floyd County Sheriff's Department and their units also responded to the emergency.

Returning from an off-duty computer job in nearby Washington County that night were Sean Clemons and Roger Halbert, two of Dave's former Trooper buddies. Clemons' family and the Lockhart family had been friends for years and Dave had encouraged Sean to apply for the ISP in 1993.

Clemons and Halbert arrived at the scene just seconds after Trooper Josh Banet and only minutes after Dave's uncle, Sam Lockhart and his son Phillip had arrived. Sam had been on the phone with his brother Nelson, talking about their father, when Dave had burst into Amos' house and was screaming that his family had been killed. Sam immediately grabbed Phillip, who had just gotten home from playing basketball, and the two drove at speeds over 100 miles per hour to Dave's house. When they arrived and saw the carnage both were in shock.

By this time other units began arriving and as officers are prone to do at a crime scene, they got to the residence as quickly as they could and as close as they could. An aerial photograph taken the next day revealed the numerous tire tracks in the front lawn. Those tires and vehicles may have obliterated evidence, such as footprints in the grass or other unintentionally dropped or discarded items belonging to the perpetrator(s), but the police were responding to a call for help and the job of the first responder is to render aid if needed and also to attempt to apprehend any perpetrator.

The Troopers entered the garage and Halbert checked Kim and his initial assessment of her as being deceased was later confirmed. Trooper Josh Banet, who had arrived just seconds prior to Clemons and Halbert, checked Brad who was lying near his mother and he too was dead. It was only later that they checked on Jill in the Bronco and determined that she, too, was deceased.

Clemons, Halbert and Trooper Dave Miller entered the house through the breezeway door and began clearing the house in order to determine if there were other victims and if the perpetrator(s) were possibly present. The house, which was described by Clemons as neat and orderly, was found not to have anyone present.

Clemons, who was the first ranking detective on the scene, later claimed that he "immediately assumed the position as the lead officer." That assertion was disputed by Lieutenant James Biddle who later testified that he, as the Lieutenant in charge of Region Four, which oversaw Sellersburg, and the acting District Investigative Commander (DIC) Mickey Neal, made a joint decision to designate Clemons as the lead detective

How Clemons came to be the man in charge of the investigation isn't a big deal but it nonetheless helps to understand the ongoing chaos at the time.

In at attempt to control what was quickly becoming a very chaotic scene, Clemons designated Trooper David Barclay to set up a check point at the intersection of Lockhart Road and Alonzo Smith Road and to begin a crime scene log. The purpose of such a log is to identify those who gain entry to the crime scene and their entry and exit times. The primary purpose of having a checkpoint and log is to control entry to the crime scene and to identify those who have gained entry. It has nothing to do what goes on inside a crime scene.

Clemons designated Troopers Miller and Mary Hager to conduct an initial "canvas" of the neighborhood. That term was later called into question when legitimate inquiries were made as to what type of canvas was conducted, which neighbors were identified, who was interviewed and what types of information was missed or ignored. There were several gaping holes in the neighborhood "investigation" which was effectively terminated after Dave's arrest.

Sammy Sarkisian was the Sellersburg ISP Evidence Technician in September, 2000. He arrived on the scene within an hour of Dave's initial telephone call and immediately was briefed by Clemons. As a part of good police protocol, Sarkisian rightfully told Clemons that he needed to get a search warrant. Even if consent is provided by the homeowner it can later be withdrawn and its good police protocol to begin the identification and collection of evidence with a court approved warrant.

Sarkisian knew he needed help and called Sergeant Jeff Franklin, the tech from the Jasper ISP post, who coordinated efforts which resulted in other techs, including Sergeant James Niemeyer, arriving at the scene. Another tech from the New Albany Police Department arrived and volunteered his services as well.

Sarkisian later testified that when he arrived at the scene that Dave wasn't a suspect. That assertion was suspect, however, inasmuch as most police officers will tell you that a surviving family member is absolutely a suspect until eliminated as such. Sergeant Niemeyer went a step farther, however, when he testified that within minutes after arriving at the scene that he "speculated or assumed and knew who did the crime." He confirmed that he was talking about David Camm.

Processing the crime scene would eventually take eight days, or five days longer than it took for the arrest to occur. The technicians eventually collected literally hundreds of items of possible evidence within the first few hours. Over the next several years a total of literally thousands of items of possible evidentiary value were obtained.

The term possible evidentiary value is important because if the evidence is merely collected and stored and not examined, tested, evaluated or matched to databases, then there is no reason to even collect it in the first place. It's great that thousands of items were collected, but the real question is "what did you do with it after you collected it?"

A common complaint by police and prosecutors today is that juries demand "smoking gun" evidence before convicting an accused. Commonly called the "CSI effect" after the popular television show, juries want to know what evidence was at the scene and how that evidence impacts upon the accused.

Unfortunately, at the Camm residence there was an abundance of not only forensic evidence which should have been collected, carefully examined and tested but there was other "smoking gun" evidence which was initially ignored and then later dismissed as unimportant, irrelevant or simply as an "artifact" because there was no explanation as to how or why the evidence came to be at the crime scene. The police had an abundance of evidence but a theme began to develop: If you can't explain the evidence at the scene then simply dismiss it or else claim that the evidence had been "manipulated."

It's very difficult to deal, in an antiseptic manner, with a crime so heinous, but it's also very important to maintain objectivity about the facts and not rush to a conclusion or let speculation become fact.