Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 6, 1993 TAG: 9312060114
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PETALUMA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
Sometime during the night, people started lighting candles in front of the headquarters for the search for the missing 12-year-old. By morning more than three dozen flickered in a chill wind, surrounded by flowers and plants in front of Polly's picture.
"There are a lot of broken hearts here," said Gary Judd, one of the people who helped organize the widespread volunteer search effort for Polly.
A Polly Klaas Foundation had helped spread word of the girl's disappearance nationwide. Actress Winona Ryder, a native of Petaluma, offered a $200,000 reward.
Prime suspect Richard Allen Davis, 39, was held without bail in the Sonoma County Jail after being booked Sunday for investigation of kidnapping and murder. An arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday morning.
On Sunday, a team of FBI agents combed the area 30 miles north of town where Polly's body was found late Saturday. They looked for clues to how she was killed, who did it, and whether she was still alive when Davis was briefly confronted by deputies about an hour after her abduction.
Polly's body was removed from the scene Sunday afternoon and taken to the Sonoma County coroner's office for an autopsy, police said.
A palm print found in Polly's room that matched Davis' print apparently persuaded him to help authorities locate the body, FBI agent Rick Smith said. He would not provide any other details.
"That was a very significant clue that led us to investigate further," he said at the search site Sunday.
Davis, a convicted kidnapper, was arrested Tuesday for violating parole. He was serving a 30-day sentence for drunken driving before being booked Sunday.
Polly's Oct. 1 abduction from her bedroom, where she was having a slumber party with two friends, brought out a strong community reaction in and around Petaluma, a quiet farming community about 45 miles north of San Francisco.
"We're all asking the questions. Why did it happen? Why Polly?" said Gary French, head of the Polly Klaas Foundation, the group that turned the search for Polly into a sophisticated nationwide hunt.
"Polly has become more than a neighbor in Petaluma. She has become America's child," her father, Marc Klaas, said in a statement.
On Sunday, townspeople walked with sober expressions and churchgoers hugged and cried on street corners.
Dalton Sellinger rolled a cigarette with unsteady hands.
"We did everything that was possible to humanly do to find our little Polly," he said, his eyes bleary. "I want to know why they paroled this person . . . we have a right to know."
by CNB