Dally Searcher Testifies About Body in Ravine

It was nearly dusk when Steven Maheux scrambled down the steep ravine, holding a rope too short for his descent into the scrubby, brush-lined canyon.

When the rope ended, he let go and landed in a dark, damp spot littered with bones and a woman’s tattered clothing--the clothes worn by slain homemaker Sherri Dally on the day she was kidnapped and murdered.

“When I landed in the ravine,” Maheux told a jury Wednesday, “I immediately noticed what appeared to me as a spinal cord.”

Then he saw a bone from an arm. And later a pelvis, with only one leg attached. Looking around the bottom of the gully, Maheux said, he also found a scalp of long blond hair.

As the volunteer searcher spoke, accused murderer Michael Dally listened intently with his hands folded neatly in his lap. He showed no outward emotion as the witness identified photographs of Sherri Dally’s skeletal remains.

Dally, who is accused of plotting to kill his wife with longtime lover Diana Haun, only looked away once as prosecutor Michael Frawley questioned Maheux about the gruesome discovery of June 1, 1996.

Maheux was a member of the volunteer search party that combed the hills between Ventura and Ojai on that day in hopes of finding Sherri Dally’s body. She was last seen getting into a teal-colored car with a woman on May 6, 1996, at a Target parking lot in Ventura.

Maheux and another witness testified that the search party spent the entire day looking in the Ojai area before venturing up Canada Larga Road, north of Ventura.

It was there, about two miles from California 33, that the search party stopped to check out a ravine dropping off the side of the road. Drawn by a foul odor, one man hiked into the gully to investigate the smell, Maheux said. He found a decaying dog in a trash bag--the cause of the stench.

But he also found something else, Maheux told the jury. “The first thing he said was, ‘There are bones everywhere,’ ” Maheux testified. It was at that point, Maheux explained, that he used a rope to join the man in the ravine.

Maheux found a pair of black shorts, a sandal and a bra that were later identified as Sherri Dally’s. Searchers called police immediately after the discovery and authorities identified the bones as Dally’s.

The medical examiner, who is scheduled to testify today, determined that Sherri Dally had been stabbed and beaten to death. He testified at Haun’s trial that Dally’s bones were scattered by animals.

Haun was convicted last fall of first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors say Haun inflicted the fatal blows but believe Michael Dally put her up to it.

Dally, who has denied any role in his wife’s slaying, is facing the same charges and a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder and at least one of two allegations: that the murder was done for financial gain and that it occurred while the attacker was lying in wait.

In earlier testimony Wednesday, prosecutors called a series of witness to address the financial gain aspect of the case.

Darrell Anderson, a supervisor at the grocery store where Michael Dally and Haun worked and also the defendant’s financial planner, testified about two individual retirement accounts Dally opened in March 1994.

It was in April 1996--a month before his wife was reported missing--that Dally inquired about who the beneficiary was on Sherri Dally’s account, Anderson testified.

“He just asked, ‘Well, if something happens to her, who gets the money?’ ” Anderson said.

In other testimony, a bank employee told the jury that around the same time, Sherri Dally took a $2,000 cash advance from her credit card.

Investigator Art Jimenez, who worked on the Haun defense team, testified that he took a trash bag full of unpaid bills from the Dally home in June 1996.

That bag of bills, some which dated back to December 1995, was shown to the jury Wednesday. An investigative assistant for the district attorney’s office testified about her efforts to catalog the bills on a spreadsheet.

Among the other witnesses to testify Wednesday was Kristin Best, a close friend of Sherri Dally’s who helped organize several searches including the one on June 1. Best said her friend had expressed concern about the family’s financial situation in the months before she was abducted.

Best also testified that Michael Dally did not join in any of the searches for his wife and did not seem upset by her disappearance.

Testimony is scheduled to resume today.