Revelations in Klaas Kidnaping Spark Outrage

For two months they have waited, united through grueling days and tortured nights by the dimming hope that 12-year-old Polly Klaas would come home safe. On Thursday, the weary people of Petaluma found the emerging reality almost too awful to bear.

Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies had detained the suspected kidnaper even as an all-points bulletin was broadcast 90 minutes after Polly was carried off into the night. But the deputies were unaware of the nearby crime, and they did not know that it was a paroled kidnaper whom they questioned for 40 minutes after he claimed to be a midnight sightseer.

Instead of hauling Richard Allen Davis off to jail, the deputies helped free his white Ford Pinto from a ditch and sent him on his way. Authorities did not return to the site until last weekend--when they reportedly found hair and other evidence linked to Polly.

As the massive hunt for Polly narrowed Thursday to the wooded field in Oakmont, her parents remained in seclusion but emotions elsewhere in Petaluma seesawed from outrage to disbelief.

Those emotions heightened late Thursday when two Bay Area newspapers reported that two girls who were with Polly at the time of her abduction have identified Davis as her kidnaper.

Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa cited unidentified sources.

Wrenched by reports from law enforcement sources that strands of Polly’s hair and blood were found with Davis’ sweat shirt in the field, the town wrestled with questions that may torment residents forever.

Why, they wondered, was word of Polly’s kidnaping not immediately radioed to the deputies, who encountered Davis 27 miles from the house where she was abducted? And why was there no search the next day, when the kidnaping became big news, of the rural area where his car got stuck on a private, dead-end road--or the next day . . . or the next?

“If he is the kidnaper, then it’s really disgusting, because she’s probably dead by now,” Petaluma mother Edy Greenblatt said as she carried groceries from a supermarket Thursday. “I was outraged because a child’s life was at stake. If he is the guy and they had him an hour later, it’s really pathetic our system can’t deal with that.”

Paul Herrfeldt, general manager of a lumber company in Petaluma, said Davis’ conduct when questioned by the deputies was peculiar and should have raised a red flag.

“Sightseeing on a Friday night in the middle of winter?” Herrfeldt said. “That’s a little suspicious.”

Herrfeldt also wondered why deputies had not discovered Davis’ long criminal record: “This guy’s been in prison more times than I’ve brushed my teeth. The police should have been more concerned.”

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Chagrined by such criticism, law enforcement officials vigorously defended their conduct, convening news conferences and explaining the odd pattern of events by issuing detailed chronologies of the fateful night.

According to their account, the two deputies who questioned Davis after a resident reported him trespassing on her land were unaware of the bulletin about Polly because it was not broadcast in their part of Sonoma County.

Although the deputies were suspicious because Davis said he had been sightseeing and blurted out that he had just changed into a clean shirt, a computer check showed that he had no outstanding warrants, Assistant Sonoma County Sheriff Dale Moore said. Moreover, a “complete search” of his car turned up nothing unusual, Moore said.

When news of the kidnaping reached the deputies the next day, they studied an artist’s sketch of the bearded suspect carefully but saw no resemblance to Davis, Moore said.

“Obviously, you don’t sightsee at midnight,” he said. But, “I don’t think this criticism has any foundation. We’re not going to second-guess our staff out in the field. They did an excellent job.”

Davis, 39, was arrested Tuesday in an FBI raid on a home where he was staying on the Coyote Valley Indian Reservation near Ukiah, about 75 miles north of Petaluma. On Thursday, he appeared in court to plead guilty to an unrelated drunk-driving charge, for which he was sentenced to 30 days in Mendocino County Jail. No charges have been filed in connection with the kidnaping.

Meanwhile, several dozen police officers and FBI agents scoured the wooded hills near where Davis was first detained and questioned. Their hunt into the night Thursday was aided by trained dogs and aircraft with electronic sensors. “They’re looking for the worst,” said a law enforcement source close to the investigation.

Elsewhere, FBI specialists from Washington examined Davis’ car, reportedly the same Pinto. A Pinto had was seen near the Klaas home when Polly was taken.

Polly was kidnaped at knifepoint Oct. 1 during a slumber party with two girls. As her mother and sister slept in another room, a bearded stranger who closely resembles Davis broke into the house, tied and gagged the girls and asked which girl lived at the house and where the valuables were kept. He left with Polly without stealing anything.

Her abduction dramatically expanded the techniques used in the search for missing children, involving thousands of volunteers, nationwide computer bulletin boards and an MTV rock video.

Throughout the two months since the kidnaping, feelings of hope have dominated the mood on the streets of this town north of San Francisco. On Thursday, such emotions were eclipsed by anger--toward perceived blunders by law enforcement and a justice system that had released a twice-convicted kidnaper on parole.

Marc Klaas, Polly’s father, exploded in emotion in a television interview Wednesday night, saying that kidnapers like Davis should not be on the streets.

“We’ve had enough of this as a country,” a distraught Klaas said. “It’s time to make changes. It’s time to protect our children. It has to happen, because if it doesn’t happen we’re dead as a society.”

Times staff writer Jeff Brazil in Orange County and Times researcher Norma Kaufman in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Chain of Events

Here is the sequence of events released Thursday by authorities investigating the kidnaping of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

OCT. 1

* 11:03 p.m.: Petaluma Police Dept. receives 911 call reporting the abduction from her home.

* 11:42 p.m.: Oakmont property owner calls Sonoma sheriff reporting suspicious person on her land, about 27 miles from Polly’s home.

OCT. 2

* 12:08 a.m.: Sheriff’s deputies arrive at Oakmont property and find Richard Allen Davis. He is questioned for 40 minutes.

* 12:14 a.m.: Petaluma police issue all-points bulletin about Polly’s kidnaping.

* 12:30 a.m.: A composite drawing of the suspect is completed and circulated.

* 12:46 a.m.: Deputies escort Davis and his vehicle from the Oakmont property and release him.

OCT. 19

* Davis is arrested in Mendocino County on suspicion of drunk driving and spends several hours in jail. His car is impounded and later released.

NOV. 28

* Property owner who originally called sheriff finds possible evidence and calls authorities. FBI says its crime lab links the evidence to Polly.

NOV. 30

* Davis is arrested and held for parole violation in FBI raid on Coyote Valley Indian Reservation near Ukiah.

--Compiled by Norma Kaufman