Chapter 7
Detective Scott Gonzales walked into the bullpen two hours later. He had a box in his hands that looked incredibly beat up. The Desk Sergeant directed him to the Captain's office. Olivia could see the man coming and exited the room to meet him.
"Detective, thank you for coming up," Olivia shook his hand after he set the box down on the empty desk near the office.
"I'm glad to have some help," he smiled. She brought him over to the group who were talking with Doctor Huang at the electronic board.
"Everyone, this is Detective Gonzales, New Jersey State Police," Olivia told them. Introductions were quickly made and then they let the State Policeman take over.
"Makayla Powell and her mom, Diane, went missing in twenty seventeen while out shopping. We found Diane's car at Newark Liberty International Airport three days after they disappeared. The car was processed but someone had wiped off all the fingerprints in the usual places – the steering wheel, radio knobs, door locks, etc. Basically, this case was cold almost as soon as it came across the original detective's desk. We put out a tri-state alert and got nothing but useless tips.
"The original detective placed all his hope on Diane's boyfriend, Gary Bohiken. We could find no motive for why the two would disappear and not take anything with them. There has not been any activity on their credit cards or social security numbers," Gonzales explained. Rollins pegged him to be about forty-five years old, his early gray hair made him look a little older but his tanned skin and well ironed suit told her that he still cared about his appearance.
"Was there any camera footage at the store showing a kidnapping?" Bruno spoke up.
"There was, but it was so grainy and the two had had to park far enough out in the lot that it was practically useless," the New Jersey State Trooper frowned.
"Why would the original detective think the boyfriend did it? He'd have no reason to wipe the fingerprints off the car," Fin pointed out.
"The original theory was that Gary didn't do it alone. You see the local PD was over at the Powell house quite a bit after Gary moved in. Seems that Gary liked to drink and that usually led to the neighbors calling in noise complaints and the occasional – "I walked into a doorway" lies from Diane. However, Diane's life insurance listed Makayla as the beneficiary, not Gary. So, if he did kill Diane, he didn't need to kill Makayla, unless she saw him do it," Gonzales explained.
"They were thinking in a moment of panic that Gary called a buddy to dump the vehicle at the airport," Churlish said.
"Exactly so. Though moving two bodies by yourself is hard work. I haven't been able to clear Gary but I'm not sure that matters. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in twenty-nineteen and died of Covid in twenty-twenty. So, when you guys said you found Makayla, I was hoping there was more evidence to come with," the older detective told them.
"We have a mother/daughter who went missing like Diane and Makayla. They were shopping as well in twenty-nineteen. Darlene, the mother, was found under a house that was being demolished last year. There are no signs of Nicole, her daughter," Olivia filled him in.
"Gary would not have been well enough in twenty-nineteen to kidnap a second pair of women. Looks like I'm back to square one," the Trooper sighed.
"We need to see the commonalities between Diane and Makayla and Darlene and Nicole," Huang spoke up.
"Ok so we know they both were shopping when they disappeared," Bruno said.
"Both at Christmastime," Rollins noted.
"Perfect timing. You've got a bunch of bags in your hands, you're more worried about getting everything into the car than you are about your surroundings," Klass said.
"Exactly so, especially if you're keeping track of your child as well," Olivia said.
"But as an offender, what is the likelihood that I want both? I mean someone who likes children, would have no interest in the mother," Fin was wondering what the upside was to attempting to kidnap two people at once.
"The daughters are definitely not old enough to be confused with a teenager. Perhaps this is a "family" scenario," Huang posited.
"Like kidnap them to make a family?" Gonzales asked.
"Yes. This person could be taking on the risk of kidnapping two people at a time not explicitly for sex but for a missing sense of family. Then when someone does something to endanger the family, they need to be gotten rid of. I think it's telling that the mothers and daughters were not buried together," Huang said.
"So, we could be looking at Nicole being alive and Diane being forced to be her "mother"," Olivia said.
"Possibly. Look at the differences in the deaths. Darlene was obviously shot in the back of the head, executed. Makayla was not. Perhaps Darlene was too hard to control and finally, our kidnapper had had enough. Or she did something to try and get Nicole free," Huang knew there were still too many variables. They needed some more information.
"You don't think he's fussy about who keeps the family together, he just needs to warm bodies," Rollins wondered.
"Could be, but Melinda found bones that did not belong to Makayla in the attempt to hide her body. To me that means there would have been more than one body stashed somewhere. Our guy buried Darlene under a house. I wouldn't see the need to move Makayla if she'd been there with her," Huang said.
"I hate to be that guy but what if these two pairs aren't the first two," Klass pointed out.
"We need to search VICAP. I have a bad feeling about this," Fin shook his head.
To Be Continued…