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After being assigned to look into the death of 16 year-old Janie Ward, special prosecutor Tim Williamson and his team interviewed dozens of witnesses.
Many changed statements made to investigators nearly 20 years ago, but it wasn't enough to change the case.
Seven-On-Your-Side's Jason Pederson has been reviewing the just opened case file today. Here’s what he has found so far.
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The investigative file is thousands of pages so there is much more to look at, but so far we have reviewed interviews Williamson's team conducted with three dozen people.
The case file includes video shot by investigators back in 1989…interviews of people who were at the cabin party where Janie Ward died.
Most agree ward fell backwards off a short porch, but why has always been in question.
Most agree the 16 year-old was drinking but was not drunk. Although she fell, was gasping and lost control of her bodily functions it was many minutes before anyone offered assistance…and no one attempted CPR.
She was ultimately put in the back of a pickup truck…by herself…and driven into Marshall where she was pronounced dead. Williamson was assigned to sift through two decades of rumors in search of the truth.
One of his first interviews was with Sylvia Watkins, who told police in 1989 that '…somebody hit her (Janie) with a full beer bottle."
When questioned in 2006 Watkins told Williamson "I didn't make that statement."
Theories and suspects have long found a home in internet chat rooms.
The source of one was found and she admitted "…what I said was not the truth."
Another rumor had Janie being drowned in the pond of a neighboring landowner. When questioned, the source of that rumor told investigators "I ain't never heard of that."
Jamie Ward, a third cousin of Janie Ward, offered a new theory when interviewed in January of last year, saying "…she tripped and fell into that post."
But Steve Ward, Jamie's father and the man who owned the cabin where his son hosted the party where Janie died, told investigators “Jamie is covering up. That's my own son and I don't care."
But ultimately the special prosecutor couldn't find enough evidence to support any theory of how Janie died.
And even though he told one witness that he was going to present the case to a grand jury….Williamson ultimately decided against it.
THE FOLLOWING IS A BRIEF TIMELINE SUMMARY OF THIS CASE:
* Olivia Jane Ward died on September 9th 1989 after attending what was billed as a junior/senior class party at a rural cabin near Marshall. She was 16 years old.
* In 20-05, a special prosecutor was assigned to the case in an attempt to determine exactly how she died.
* In 20-07 Ward's body was exhumed for a second time in Marshall and brought to the state crime lab in little rock to determine a cause of death.
* This final autopsy, like the first, declared the manner of death undetermined. Another autopsy performed by a California expert brought in by the Ward family determined the manner of death to be homicide.
* In April of last year special prosecutor Tim Williamson determined there was no merit for a grand jury in the case, and insufficient evidence to support any criminal theory or charge.
* After a similar review of the case file Judge Charles Clawson this month agreed and ordered the case file closed, thus opening it for review.
THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTENDED REVIEW OF THE CASEFILE THAT WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE BROADCAST VERSION DUE TO THE TIME CONSTRAINTS OF TELEVISION. MORE WILL BE ADDED TO THIS REPORTER REVIEW IN THE DAYS TO COME AS MORE OF THIS LENGTHY CASEFILE IS READ.
Let’s start with a tidbit of information in the broadcast report that may have surprised many familiar with the case…that at one point special prosecutor Tim Williamson had planned to call for a grand jury. That fact was revealed during a very lengthy interview with Sylvia (Watkins) Craig. Williamson said to Craig "You know we are gonna...well, you may not know this. We are going to present this case to a grand jury in the middle of November. That's gonna start it. And that grand jury is in Searcy County because that is where - by law - it has to be." A minute later Williamson tells Craig that a grand jury's "...job is to investigate...to determine what the facts are. And then, when determining what those facts are, make a decision whether or not there is good reason to believe that a crime has been committed." The date of the interview is not recorded but Williamson interviewed Craig in August of 2006. She was one of the first people interviewed by Williamson because she was one of the only people to allege that Janie Ward was attacked...and claims to have witnessed the attack. Craig filed a report two months later that people were following her in her hometown of Harrison, at one point yelling "Stay out of Sarah's life you f#%king liar!"
Sylvia (Watkins) Craig
Sarah refers to Sarah Patterson, now Sarah Pounders, who Craig alleged in a statement to police December 11th, 1989 "Steve Raines, who left for the military somewhere about a month ago, and three guys named Ron, Steve and Brad told me that a Patterson girl and a Horton girl along with a couple of other girls were mad at Janie because she was dating Horton's boyfriend. On the same night that she got killed, those girls took her to a creek bank, a couple of miles from the house where she fell off of the porch, and beat her up. The injury to her neck came when somebody hit her with a full beer bottle while they were on the creek. After that, some guy in a pickup truck took her back to the house to clean up."
Over the years Sylvia Watkins/Craig's credibility has been questioned. In August of 2007 retired state police investigator Robert Lee Hicks (the investigator Craig gave her statement to in 1989) told Williamson he knew Syliva through a homicide investigation he worked in 1982. She was a person of interest in that case. Her boyfriend was the primary suspect and after they broke up she told investigators she had assisted in moving the body of the victim. Authorities were never able to corroborate her story and the case remains unsolved. Hicks says the prosecutor refused to use any information provided by Sylvia Watkins because of credibility concerns.
In her initial interview with Williamson, Craig denied most of her 1989 statement to Hicks. But once it was learned that she had concerns over her presence at the party (she says she was there with a drug dealer on a marijuana delivery) and her fears of prosecution were put to rest she changed back to her original story. She explained to Williamson during that interview that she worked as a runner for a drug dealer and drove him to the cabin party. "We go down into a dirt road...pull up to a house. We were gonna get out but two girls come off...that are out on the porch. There were five of them. And he saw a little catfight, so we were watching it. Heard what was going on. It got pretty intense fighting and yelling. One turned to go back into the house, but she stops. She picks up what I thought was a little lead pipe...a little, you know...like a little bat...like a little...it looked lead to me, the color. Uh, Janie is going off...and she has, she has already turned and going and the other girl walked in and got back, come back out. Yells at her to stop, and she turns around and bam, bam, bam. When she went to hit her the second time I was getting out of the car to stop it, but he pulls me back in and tells me no. Then she hurt...hit her a third time. We backed up and left."
There are multiple problems with Sylvia Craig's account. First, it varies greatly from her 1989 statement to police. But an even greater problem is that every person interviewed who was at the party that evening was asked if they saw or heard of any altercations between any party goers. No one saw any fights between anyone.
Sylvia Craig's initial account to police, although now questioned, did seem to answer two of the main mysteries presented by physical evidence. First, Janie Ward's primary injury was a hyperextension and fracture of her neck caused by her head snapping backwards. Falling backwards of a porch would most likely send the head forwards, not backwards. However a blow to the face would jolt one's head backwards. And examinations of Ward's body and clothing revealed the presence of moisture and sand. The coroner found wet sand on Ward's scalp, body and feet. Her clothes and shoes were wet. There was sand under her bra and panty line. There were also twigs, dry leaves and beggar's lice present. The conditions at the cabin on September 9th, 1989 were dry. Ward fell off the porch onto rock and dry, dusty dirt. Her wet, sandy condition is one major mystery that doesn't fit the working theory of her death (a backward fall off a short porch) and it has always haunted the Ward family.
Larry Hensley/Charles Campbell/Bobby Woods
Several people interviewed were asked about this mystery. In June of 2008 Larry Hensley, who now owns the cabin and in 1989 owned land adjacent to the cabin, told Williamson's team that "I think they went to the creek (the Buffalo) that night...after that happened. They went...I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Heard they got her wet down there. I heard they went to the car wash and sprayed her with water up there. Heard 'bout everything you can think of."
Well Charles Campbell called the Arkansas State Police Tipline a year earlier wanting to tell an investigator that he believed Hensley killed Janie Ward. In a rambling interview days later with Investigator Meghan Janci, Campbell explained that he was told by a former employer (Bobby Woods) that Hensley killed Ward in a pond on his property because Ward was threatening to expose Hensley's marijuana operation. This of course led to a March 2008 interview with Woods. When asked about Campbell's claims Woods told Investigator Mike May that "I ain't never heard of that. I've never heard any stories like that. I just, I just, I knew they all went to the party and, and somebody said they had a fight or fell off the porch or something. I don't know. That's all I had knowed about it really."
Hensley too was asked about the claim that he may have been involved in Ward's death. "No that's not true. It's not true. There is no truth to that."
Some interviewed told police that when Ward fell the drink she was holding may have spilled onto herself. Others claimed she was doused with beer or a cup of water in an attempt to wake her up since many believed she had just passed out. But Janie Ward was wet from head to toe. Here are the observations of two of the first EMT's on the scene: "The entire body, including hair, was covered with coarse sand, dried leaves and small twigs were found in hair and at the blouse neck and Levi waist. The underpants were also seen. The female had on white-on-white tennis shoes with thin colored stripes on them. The shoes were also wet. Also found was coarse sand on the abdomen under the bra (Velma Beason)." "Dark t-shirt was damp, jeans were damp and wet buttons. Tennis shoes were wet and dirty. Hair was damp and sand and dirt in hair. No obvious bleeding. Face had swollen appearance with bluish color to whole face (Cheryl Pruitt).
When investigators interviewed Jamie Ward in January of 2008 they heard a theory about how Janie may have gotten wet that they had not heard before. "I say if there was water in the back of that pickup truck and she got wet I'd say it was probably from a cooler, maybe rolled over or something like that." The biggest problem with this theory is that no cooler was observed by anyone back in 1989.
Jamie Ward
Jamie Ward was the 17 year-old who organized and hosted the party on September 9th, 1989. Ward collected money for the alcohol at school and offered up his father's cabin, where he was living alone at the time, as the location. Ward is a distant cousin of Janie Ward (he said he was a second cousin immediately after Janie Ward's death, a third cousin when he was re-interviewed in 1993). He has told police many things over the years, and his story has changed as well. For example, here is an excerpt from his 1989 interview with Investigator Bill Beach: "Did you go with Gary (Gary Don Snow) and (name removed) to the liquor store in Big Flat?" "I didn't go." "Would there be some reason that they said that you would?" "No, I didn't go." "Do you have any idea why that they say that you were there?" "No." "You understand that if you did you're not in trouble?" "Yes." "You understand that if you did and you're not being truthful with me now that it could cause you problems?" "Uh-huh." "And you're telling me that you didn't go." "I didn't go to Big Flat."
Jamie Ward was re-interviewed in 1993 and asked about this same thing. "Did you go with Gary Snow to Big Flat?" "Yeah."
Ward was asked again in 2008 by Williamson's team: Inv. Janci - "You and Gary Don had gone to Big Flat to purchase the keg and the bottle of Jim Clear or whatever it was that you purchased, right?" "I don't know if I went with Gary. I was...I was telling...I was talking with Christy last night, I don't know if I made that trip with anybody."
One thing Jamie Ward has been consistent about over the years is the fact that he doesn't believe there was any foul play involved in Janie Ward's death. In 1993 he offered this theory of how she died to investigators: "All I know is...everything...I don't think...I don't think there was any foul play involved. I don't think." Inv. Beach: "What makes you believe that? What do you base that on?" "I think she was just drunk and fell off that porch and it did that to her. But then again whenever we, I picked her up and put her on the porch, I noticed that her eye was swollen and it was starting to turn blue. Like she had a black eye or something. I noticed that." Ward expounded on his theory when interviewed by investigators near his home in Lead Hill in 2008: "I really don't think she fell off the porch backwards. I've always thought there is a 4X4 post right there beside where she was laying and I always believe this until the day I am dead that she tripped and fell into that post and with her weight (Janie weighed 205 pounds) she hit that post...she tried to grab it but it was a small post and she hit that post with her face and that is where that blue black eye was coming from and she hyper-extended her back and she rolled around onto the ground."
The main problem with Jamie Ward's account is that none of the eye-witnesses who claim to have seen Janie fall backwards off the porch reported that the fall was preceded by a trip and a collision with the pole.
Steve Ward
Someone else who presented a new theory to investigators when he was interviewed in January of 2008 was Jamie Ward's father Steve. It was Steve Ward who owned the cabin where this party took place. Steve Ward had moved to Harrison and was allowing his son Jamie to live at this rural location so that he could continue on and graduate from Marshall High School. According to Steve, all the trouble started when one of the party-goers heard the partyline phone in the cabin vibrate. That teenager, Bryan Jennings, picked up the phone and overheard a conversation implying that the police were on the way to breakup the party. This is what Steve told investigators he believes happened next (Steve Ward was not at the party): "So Jennings just baled up and he took off through the living room, through the kitchen, out the door and ran into her and hit her...and it shoved her off that first step down, when he was running through and uh, hit her in the back and then when she fell off that first step down well then it was like the momentum was a going that way and then when she was falling she missed this first step...and it's just like you know when you're falling you're going real fast and she hit that...that post that was there, when she hit that post then it whip-lashed her neck. "
This obviously led to another interview...with Bryan Jennings in February of 2008. But before looking at what Jennings told investigators, there is much more from Steve Ward. Ward told investigators that once it became clear that Janie Ward was badly injured, Jennings was ordered to "...get the hell out of here." On the way up the winding dirt road from the cabin and heading towards the highway Jennings, accompanied by Sherri (Busbee) Austin, lost control of his Mercury Cougar and hit a tree. Steve Ward believes it is because Jennings was panicking. Jennings says it may have been due to loose gravel. In any case, others helped get Jennings unstuck and he later would up on the courthouse square with everybody else and, according to several witnesses, became hysterical when he learned of Janie Ward's death. Again, Jennings was asked about this by investigators and his explanation will be shared below.
If Bryan Jennings accidently knocked Janie Ward off a porch and these injuries led to her death, why the need for a cover-up? This is where Steve Ward slips into conspiracy mode with the investigators. Ward told investigators that Bryan Jennings was the son of a prominent doctor in town. But more than that his father was a Mason. Ward says the Masons used to control Searcy County, with plenty of important men in town belonging to the secretive society, including the judge who headed up the local chapter. Ward believes the Masons rallied around the Jennings family to protect one of their own and that soon Bryan Jennings had moved away and was off investigators' radar. And he believes his son Jamie helped with the conspiracy. "Jamie is covering up. That's my own son and I don't care." Inv. May: "I understand. Was it just that you think that he's just close to...still close to Jennings after all these years?" "Oh yeah. Oh yeah they ran around together. They fished together. Hunted." Inv. May: "Do they still have contact at all you think?" "Yeah. Uh-huh. And see Sarah and Jamie's wife and all that bunch is just like brothers and sisters. They all just like a little clan."
Bryan Jennings
If Jamie Ward and Bryan Jennings remain close friends, they do not remain close by. Jennings now lives in Colorado. Investigators visited with him by phone in February of 2008. Jennings' memory has faded in the 18 years since this party took place. He answered questions with "I don't remember, I can't remember, I don't know, I have no idea" or other variations of the same thing more than 30 times. Jennings struggled even to recall things that most people would remember, like if your high school buddy was living in a cabin without adult supervision. "I don't even know whose house it was or at least I don't, I don't right now." Inv. Janci: "Okay, it was a cabin that Jamie Ward was living in and he had been living in it since the start of the school year. That's whose cabin it was uh, on Zach Road." "Jamie Ward was a good friend of mine, so...I don't remember, I don't remember if I necessarily went out there a lot but I wouldn't be surprised if I had been."
Investigators soon asked Jennings about what Steve Ward had told them. Inv. Janci: "There was another statement made that when you ran out of the house, that you ran out through the front door, you know, off to the porch when the police were coming, and that you kind of pushed through a crowd of people and that maybe when that happened accidentally, not intentionally but accidentally, you may have pushed Olivia onto the ground. Do you remember running out of the house through a crowd of people and kind of pushing your way out to try to leave because the police were coming?" "No. I don't."
And how does Jennings explain his actions that evening? "She was, uh, dead. That was just creepy. I was already, the best thing I can, I can attribute to why I, you know, was so upset about it was one, I was really worried and upset earlier that I had wrecked my car and I was going to get into a lot of trouble. And once I got into town and went to the bank parking lot, you know, and someone was hurt, you know, that's what it is but when we got to the parking lot and someone's dead, that was just insane. I mean, someone just died at a party I was at." Inv. May: "So you feel like you may have gotten in a situation that you just couldn't, you know..." "At some point, I mean, I wasn't worr, me being, you know, accused of involvement or anything that didn't cross my mind at all. I wasn't upset about that..." Inv. May: "It was just the situation?" "Just the whole situation..." Jennings added a few minutes later "...why was I so upset and hysterical, I don't know. And then later I'm thinking God I was so upset, hysterical, I mean I looked so guilty, you know. Later when people are trying to, looking around you know because you know and that's the whole thing, the whole thing is like me being involved like physically because these investigative reporters were telling me all kinds of rumors and I was like I couldn't believe some of the ones I was hearing and I was just like, oh God, you know, because I thought for sure you know I mean obviously I wrecked my car so I thought people would think maybe she was with me when I wrecked my car which wasn't the case, but then later these investigative reporters were saying all this stuff like you know I'm holding her down while Sarah (Patterson) beat her to death and I'm just like, I just felt terrible."
This reporter contacted Jennings at his Colorado home on June 27th, 2005 and visited with him for about 20 minutes. His comments included "I don't see how she could die by falling off that porch. She may have been suffering from a previous injury." Jennings went on to say that he had been educated in science and that he is wilderness trained and that it is possible to have a vertebrae break and still function for awhile. Jennings was asked about rumors he has heard over the years. "I don't see Sarah beating someone to death." Jennings stated that Jamie Ward was his best friend and that Sarah Patterson was also a friend. "She was a cheerleader and I was a football player and football players wanted to sleep with the cheerleaders. But in small towns the cheerleaders usually go out with older guys." Jennings says such was the case with Sarah. The first rumor he mentioned though involved "older men" who were at the party with Janie. Jennings couldn't recall any names, but he had a picture in his mind of "...a guy with long curly blond hair and buck teeth who drove a black pickup." Jennings was asked if he had any recollection of anyone during the course of the day going down to the Buffalo River to swim or spin donuts in their trucks or anything else. "I seem to remember people had been down by the river." Jennings also mentioned that he and most other people had always known Janie as Olivia and that she had only just prior to her death asked people to begin calling her Janie because she never really liked the name Olivia. Jennings also said excessive speed was a contributing factor to his accident.
Billy Don Harris
Two days before we contacted Billy Harris. Harris is one of the few people who told investigators that he actually saw Janie Ward fall off the porch. This is part of our conversation: "Did she fall backwards off the porch?" "Yes. I wasn't alarmed. I just thought she passed out. At parties people do that all the time." "Have you followed the case over the years" "I've heard rumors and theories. I've got my own theory." Harris was asked to share his theory. "I know she fell off the porch, but I don't think the fall killed her. I think she was suffering from a previous injury. I think something happened to her either hours before or maybe a couple of days before that just caught up with her and caused her to fall." Harris was asked him if he had any information to support his theory. "Janie had been at the cabin earlier in the day. I seem to recall that she had gone down to the river to swim. I also remember hearing that the guy who drove down there was spinning donuts and Janie was thrown out of the back of the truck and was injured that way and maybe she thought she was OK but was really injured more seriously than she thought. Kids take their trucks down to the Buffalo River, about two miles from the cabin, all the time to do that."
The biggest problem with Harris' statement to KATV is that he did not share any of this information with investigators. Harris did tell Inv. Janci when interviewed in Dover in August of 2007 that "...if a person gave a sworn testimony stating Olivia was struck in the face with an object causing her to fall and die, would that be an accurate account? Billy responded that person would be a liar." Harris also told Jancy that he was intoxicated and drinking whiskey at the party and that he "...saw Olivia drinking a large amount of PGA (pure grain alcohol) punch." This is in contrast with most other witness accounts who told investigators Ward was not drinking much. Her blood alchohol content levels taken during her autopsy revealed that Ward, indeed, had not consumed much alcohol prior to her death (.05%).
Jeannie (Cannada) Mathis
Another person at the party whose story has changed over the years is Jeannie (Cannada) Mathis. Mathis was interviewed by investigators in December of 2007. They wanted to clear one thing up...was she at the party or wasn't she? When initially interviewed, Mathis insisted she never attended the party despite others saying she rode with them there, she left the party with them or they saw her at the party. She came clean with Williamson's investigators. "I was just...I was sixteen and I was not supposed to be at the party. I was not supposed to be at any party and you know, my dad had told me you better not...you know, he knew it...I guess he knew it was going on, I don't know, and you better not be at that party...Oh I won't. I won't. And so you know, when this happened...were you there? No. No. I wasn't there. I was just saving myself from trouble like all sixteen year-olds do."
Sarah (Patterson) Pounders, Judge Jerry Patterson
Jeannie (Cannada) Mathis went to the party with Sarah Patterson, who also lied to investigators during her initial interview the night of Janie Ward’s death. On September 21st, Patterson told Investigator Beach that “Me, Katrina (Lawrence Davis) and Brandi (Passmore Housley) went down there at 7:15 pm. We were only there five or ten minutes.” On December 11th Beach interviewed Patterson again. “I went to the party with Chris Loggins, Tony Horton and Jeannie Cannada.” And how long was she at the party? “At the most, 25 minutes.” Horton and Loggins had told Beach the truth, necessitating a follow-up interview. Cannada was not re-interviewed by Beach. And Beach failed to question Patterson about her time discrepancy. In his investigator’s notes Beach noted that Patterson lied in her initial interview “…because she knew she would be in trouble with her parents for being with the older boys.”
Patterson also told Beach that her best friend Tiffany Horton was not at the party. “She was babysitting her two year-old sister at home.” Ron Rose and others claim to have seen Tiffany Horton at the party. On December 12th Horton did tell Beach she was babysitting and not at the party but she was never formally interviewed...even though her name continuously came up during interviews (Williamson’s team didn’t interview Tiffany Horton, now Tiffany James, either).
Other questionable statements given to police during Patterson’s first two interviews: she believed it was dark when Janie Ward fell while most everyone else agreed it was still light out. Patterson told police Janie appeared intoxicated while most others reported she seemed just fine. Patterson also claimed that Janie said “Hi snob” to her after Patterson failed to hear or respond to Ward’s initial hello.
On August 17th, 2007 investigators Janci and May took a statement from Sarah (Patterson) Pounders at her home in Fayetteville. The investigators notes indicate that “Sarah denies having any role in the death of Olivia Ward. She was a 15 year-old girl at a party with a twenty-one year old boy. They were there for approximately 30 minutes.”
Sarah’s father, Judge Jerry Patterson, was interviewed by investigators Janci and May on March 6th, 2008. Judge Patterson began his interview with a statement that reads in part “My belief is that, uh, there are those individuals in this county who are either ignorant, or very, very envious of my status. And because my daughter was present at this particular party, uh, they have as, they have created reasons to assess and point to her as being a principal as far as the death of this girl is concerned, and that as a result of that of course it follows that being her father I have covered up facts and information concerning that, untimely death of, of Ms. Ward.”
Patterson told investigators that while he is as Mason, as is Dr. Jennings, he knows of no Masonic cover-up. Patterson blames the Arkansas Democrat Gazette for his daughter’s damaged reputation. He says an article alleging that she told classmates that “my daddy will get me out of this” or words to that affect made for good reading but wasn’t true. However Rachel Shelton is one person who claims to have heard Patterson say this. Judge Patterson also blamed the efforts of newspaper columnist Mike Masterson and Janie’s father, Ron Ward, telling investigators “…he ain’t worth a shit. Ron Ward is a complete asshole. He is a liar, he’s a thief.”
Patterson was also asked if he knows Larry Hensley. “Oh, I’ve known Larry forever. Stupid guy.” Inv. Janci: “One of the accusations is that Larry Hensley, um, had an operation in 1989 growing marijuana…” “Hmm. I wouldn’t doubt it.” Inv. Janci: “Larry Hensley came and got her, drowned her in his pond…called you, called you and that you helped with the cover up…” Patterson found such a tale to be ludicrous and denied having any knowledge of Larry Hensley being connected to Janie Ward’s death and certainly denied participating in a cover-up.
Judge Patterson shared with investigators his theory of the case…that Janie Ward ate some fruit that had been soaked in isopropyl and that her body had a reaction to it. Patterson doesn’t believe her neck was broken, but if it was or if she was injured he believes a more likely explanation is that she was knocked around or fell out of the back of the pickup rather than beat up by his daughter or anybody else.
So why has Sarah Patterson been linked to Janie Ward’s mysterious death for nearly two decades? It may not be fair. It may not be accurate. But it is not out-of-the-blue.
First of all, the consent to search warrant presented to cabin owner Steve Ward listed the reason for the search as “…a criminal investigation of the crime of possible homicide.” Right from the start investigators seemed to smell a rat and seemed to be looking for somebody.
In addition to lying to those investigators, many took issue with Patterson’s demeanor the night of Janie Ward’s death. We visited with Sherry (Ragland) Parks on June 23rd, 2005. She was not at the party that evening but left her job at Harp’s grocery store and went up to the bank parking lot that evening and saw Janie in the back of the pickup. According to Parks: “At one point Sheriff Griggs yelled ‘I want to know who the hell was at that party!’ The first person to speak up was Sarah Patterson, who jumped off a tailgate, clapped her hands and said ‘I was!’” Parks says she remembers it because it was such an “out-of-place, I don’t give a shit attitude.” The December article in the Democrat Gazette hinted at a similar perception.
Judge Patterson, Sarah’s father, initially refused a request for a warrant to go back and search the property again. And when witnesses were brought back out to the cabin to explain what they saw and do videotaped re-enactments and interviews, Sarah Patterson was not asked to go despite being one of the few people who claimed to have witnessed Janie Ward fall from the porch. And interviews with Sarah were very cordial compared to the interviews of others, despite her admitted untruthfulness. These things fueled speculation that Judge Patterson was influencing the investigative process.
The theory of a fight was supported by Patterson’s own conduct. She had been involved in a fight with a classmate earlier that year. Jamie Dawn Busbee and some friends told police they witnessed Sarah and an older man (Tim Rudder) fighting. Soon, according to the statement, “Sarah ran down to the gravel bar and jumped on top of Jamie Dawn while she was still seated on the rocks.” Witnesses broke up the fight but according to the statement, “Sarah said – in a loud voice to Jamie – that it was not over.” The time of the fight was 2:00 am. The investigator’s notes say that “Jamie Busbee states Sarah Patterson charged her and attacked her striking her on the face and head with fists, pulling her hair and biting her on right forearm. Busbee subject showed this officer bruises on face and forehead swelling and what appeared to be teeth mark on right forearm.” Busbee and her family tried to file charges but could not. This incident, along with a fight that occurred when Patterson was in college, supported theories that she was capable of violence and supported theories that her father was able to protect her.
Then in October of 1989 there was a break-in at Pruitt ambulance service. The only reports stolen were #29 and #30…the reports dealing with Olivia Jane Ward. And the original x-ray of Janie’s neck injury disappeared at the crime lab. More fodder for conspiracy theories.
And Sylvia Watkins wasn’t the only person to offer investigators a statement incriminating Sarah Patterson over the years.
Leann Longshore told police on December 11th that she “…heard that Janie got into a fight at the party with either Sarah Patterson or Tiffany Horton. Jeannie Cannada was also supposed to have started in on Janie too. I know for a fact at school Tiffany Horton and Olivia Ward do not get along.” Ron Ward, Janie’s father, has told investigators that Janie was having trouble with two girls at school…Sarah Patterson and Tiffany Horton.
We contacted Longshore (now Leann Smiley) on June 23rd 2005. Regarding Ward’s death, she says “I know it didn’t happen the way people said it did. I can’t prove anything. It’s just common sense and my gut feeling. My statement to police is accurate.” Longshore was not interviewed by Williamson’s team.
Leslie Watts was interviewed in March of 2008 by Investigator Janci. Janie Ward spent the night before she died at Watt’s home. Watts did not go to the party but offered her theory of what happened that night: “I’ve always believed that story about her getting hit with a baseball bat down at the river. I was told by, I think it as Chris Brown…but he told me a few days after Janie died that they were down at the river…he wasn’t there…he heard this in the boys locker room…ah, but Sarah Patterson, Alicia Holt, Melanie Reeves, ahm…Derrick…Derrick Wilson and (not audible) were all down there with Sarah and Janie ended up down there. …he said it was pretty shitty of what they did to poor Janie. That’s what I’ve always believed because Chris has no reason to lie to me about that.”
There is no record of anyone named Chris Brown ever being interviewed by any investigator, past or present. There is also no record of Chris Redding ever being interviewed even though his name came up in several interviews and Ron Ward told Investigator Beach he heard a story in which “Chris Redding hauled her up there from the river and went in and got Gary Don Snow.” Inv. Janci was interested enough in Redding to ask Kimberly (Woody) Oliver in December of 2007 if she knew “…what relevance Chris Redding would be to anything in this case?” Oliver answered no, but Janci followed up with “Do you feel like Chris Redding is somebody that we need to be talking to in relation to this?” Oliver’s answer was inaudible. In any case, Williamson’s team never interviewed Redding. In fact, if you were at the party or rumored to be at the party and not interviewed during the initial investigation you probably weren’t interviewed during the re-investigation either.
Back in June of 1991 Michelle Treadwell approached investigator George Sutterfield at a funeral and said she needed to talk with him. Later Treadwell told the officer that “Althea Sue O’Haver (a special education teacher at Marshall high school) told me sometime before school was out that she was in the hallway of MHS when she overheard Sarah Patterson and another person talking. Patterson was laughing and stated to the other person she had thrown Olivia Ward out of a moving pick-up truck and that would teach her to argue with her over a boy. They were supposed to be in Bryan Jennings pick-up truck.”
Like with Watkins, there are problems with this statement. First of all, we learned earlier that Bryan Jennings drove a Mercury Cougar in 1989, not a pick-up. But more importantly, Investigator Beach interviewed O’Haver a month later and asked her about Treadwell’s story. “I never told her anything like that. I never heard Sarah Patterson say anything like that.”
Then in August of 1992, a jailed motorist offered investigators another Patterson-related story. James Wilson (aka Timothy Coombs) told police that “On February 27th, 1992 Debbie Garmoc was involved in a one-vehicle accident near Marshall. She has been in a coma since the accident. She allegedly had information that Mike Williams from Kansas City and his ex-wife (Trish Mummy) saw Sarah Patterson beat the Ward girl with a club board or something.”
In recent years websites with names like “Justice for Janie” have kept Patterson in their crosshairs. In December 2004 a post by “sblue_92” got internet watchers particularly fired up. It is commonly referred to as “Perhaps” and read “perhaps someone wanted to pay Janie back (get revenge). perhaps someone wanted to have her ass kicked and perhaps someone employed a little help. perhaps this went a little too far. perhaps they had her surrounded and tossed her back and forth – everyone had their turn hitting Janie and punching her. perhaps someone “clothes lined” her (hyperextension). perhaps it went too far – they didn’t mean to really hurt her and then they did. perhaps after the damage was done, they were all too scared to tell the truth. perhaps they were afraid of what would happen to them as revenge. i would hate to think of Janie begging for them to stop – people she thought were her friends – and even when she begged, they didn’t stop…PERHAPS this happened.”
It was immediately suspected by visitors to the site that “sblue_92” was Sarah Patterson.
However according to Investigator Janci’s summary of her 2007 interview of Patterson, “Sarah denies posting those messages, and states she has never participated in a chat room.” Her father, Judge Patterson, told investigators he was a regular chat room participant. In any case, no matter who posted the comment, it did nothing to douse suspicions that Janie Ward’s death was far from an accident.
(Note: the casefile is thousands of pages long and this reporter will continue to make updates to this personal review/summary/narrative as time for review permits. Keep checking back and email jpederson@katv.com with any comments, criticisms, suggestions or encouragement. Thanks for taking an interest in this case.)
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