THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508300512
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Detectives are focusing on a second suspect for the Aug. 8 rape and strangulation murder of 17-year-old Amber Zajac, court records show.
The second suspect, a 17-year-old male, admitted to Detective Alan Ball that he was with Amber the night she died and walked her into the Oceana-area trailer park where she was last seen, according to a search-warrant affidavit filed this week. The suspect told Ball he got Amber's phone number and then went home.
Amber was found dead near a well-worn path through a sprawling patch of woods that separates her Redwing neighborhood from the Derby Run Trailer Park.
She was returning home from a friend's house after midnight and apparently used the wooded short-cut that neighborhood teens said is well traveled. Her father and a companion went searching for Amber when she didn't return home and found her body.
The first suspect - Kenneth N. Pallett, a Derby Run resident - is in jail without bail charged with killing the Ocean Lakes High School student. The second suspect has not been charged. The Virginian-Pilot is withholding his name because he is a juvenile.
Police first concentrated on Pallett because an officer assigned to watch the crime-scene perimeter noticed fresh scratches on Pallett's right arm. In an interview, detectives found Pallett knew crime-scene details that only someone involved in the slaying would know, records show.
After rambling through several stories police dismissed as lies, Pallett finally said he served as a ``lookout'' while a black male raped Amber in the woods, according to an affidavit. The second suspect is black. Pallett is white.
But detectives have said and court records show that Pallett - who one investigator called a ``pathological liar'' - has a history of being untruthful to police.
In 1994, Pallett repeatedly lied to police investigating the burglary and arson of a Little League concession stand, according to court records. After telling investigators several conflicting stories, Pallett admitted to burglarizing the stand, but not to burning it. He blamed the arson on someone else. He was convicted of burglary and arson.
The second suspect in Amber's slaying also lied during an interview, Ball said. The suspect became flustered when asked for hair and body-fluid samples and abruptly ended the interview with Ball, the affidavit says.
Detectives used a search warrant this week to get the samples.
No one has been charged with raping Amber. Ball said he has asked a state crime lab to compare body-fluid and hair samples from his two suspects with evidence recovered at the crime scene.
That comparison may allow police to eliminate, or target, certain suspects, Ball said.
Charges in the case may be upgraded to capital murder, which carries the death penalty, police said.
Ball said test results may not be available for several weeks. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Kenneth N. Pallett is in jail and charged with killing Amber Zajac.
KEYWORDS: MURDER RAPE SEX CRIME ARREST by CNB