THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606280447
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 139 lines
It's been 14 years since Navy messenger Pamela Kimbrue screamed for help as her killer rolled her car down a sea ramp at the Norfolk Naval Base into the fog-shrouded Willoughby Bay.
During those years, investigators struggled with a handful of clues - a forest-green arctic ski mask, an unidentified fingerprint and forensic evidence taken from suspects and the murder scene. This week, technology provided the breakthrough they had long sought.
Using new fingerprint ID techniques and DNA evidence, naval investigators on Wednesday arrested Richard H. Whittle, one of Kimbrue's former Navy co-workers, in Burbank, Calif., and charged him in her 1982 murder.
When Whittle appeared before a federal magistrate in Los Angeles Thursday, he seemed ``bewildered and quiet,'' said George Newhouse of the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's office. Whittle was ordered held without bond pending a hearing Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Whittle's fellow workers at the Physician's Clinical Laboratory Inc., in Burbank were stunned Thursday when they realized why Whittle had left work abruptly Wednesday.
``He's a terrific guy, a great family man, a great person,'' said office manager Joe Gallagher, who said Whittle has worked as an administrative assistant for three years. ``His wife was tearful last night. She said he's the most wonderful husband and father you could ask for. Something doesn't make sense.''
Gallagher said Whittle has a young daughter he ``literally worships'' and had just closed on a house two weeks ago.
``I'm in utter disbelief,'' Gallagher said. ``This guy is Santa Claus. He's a wonderful man. It's just beyond comprehension. I can only hope they're wrong.''
Whittle, now 38, has apparently been a suspect for some time, perhaps as early as 1983. That's when he was caught burglarizing the office of the chief of staff at the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk and stealing investigative reports related to the murder, his arrest affidavit says.
But until recently, investigators were unable to put together a substantial enough case, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Everhart, who is prosecuting the case in Norfolk.
``New fingerprinting analysis - and certainly the fact that we now have DNA, which did not exist at the time - were important,'' Everhart said. ``The way that law enforcement officers approach a crime scene now is substantially different than (the way) they approached it 14 years ago. The way the evidence is viewed in 1996 is more sophisticated than in 1982.''
The arrest affidavit noted three key elements of the investigation:
New forensic analysis has matched a fingerprint taken from the car in 1982 to Whittle's.
Forensic analysis of 31 head hairs recovered from the ski mask were similar to Whittle's.
Re-interviews of friends and co-workers revealed inconsistencies in statements made by Whittle, including his initial statements that he did not know Kimbrue and later statements that he was the last to see her.
The case was solved because original investigators were exacting and thorough in their collecting of evidence, Everhart said.
``Every man who was on the base at that time had samples taken, and there weren't very many of them. . . . Fortunately, investigators were very thorough because the evidence was there. Boy, were they thorough,'' Everhart said.
``If a novel were written about this,'' Everhart said, ``people would say it was unrealistic, there are so many twists and turns.''
If convicted, Whittle could receive up to life in prison. There was no federal death penalty when the crime was committed.
Kimbrue, in her early 20s, was killed early on March 25 as she left the Breezy Point Communications Center in Building S-65 with messages and packages about 3:40 a.m.
A man heard a scream and told co-workers he thought someone may have accidentally driven off the seawall. Workers, who had fanned out with flashlights in the dense fog, found messages strewn throughout the parking lot. They realized something must have happened to Kimbrue.
Investigators at first treated the case as an abduction. It would be more than 24 hours before Navy divers would find Kimbrue's body in her car 120 feet beyond a seaplane ramp, about 100 yards from the communications center.
She had been beaten in the head and face and nearly strangled. Her hands were tied behind her back with clothesline. She had been sexually assaulted, a seat belt placed around her neck.
She had been dumped in the back seat of her car still alive. Her killer turned on the ignition, put the car in gear and sent it down the seaplane ramp into 10 feet of water. The cause of death was listed as drowning
``He knew the victim, her routine,'' an investigator said at the time.
Investigators interviewed 798 people, including the man who heard the scream that launched the search.
One piece of evidence was a ski mask found in the car. It was unusual because it had only one eye hole and was commonly used only in extremely cold weather. Another odd clue was a makeshift mitten made from T-shirts stapled together.
Investigators also found glass fragments from a broken soft drink bottle, hairs and fingerprints.
Whittle had been assigned to the Naval Safety Center Building as a message courier, delivering and retrieving classified messages. He was at the building on four occasions on the night of the murder - twice before Kimbrue picked up her messages and was slain and twice afterward, the affidavit says.
At the time, Whittle denied involvement in the murder and said he did not know Kimbrue and had never seen her. But later, he told friends and roommates that he knew her from work and told one witness he was the ``last person to see her alive.''
The fingerprint recovered from Kimbrue's car matches Whittle's left middle finger and was recovered from he driver's side window, the affidavit said. The fingerprint is consistent with him ``closing the door,'' according to the affidavit.
``The Forensic Laboratory concluded that no one other than Richard Whittle could have made this fingerprint,'' the affidavit said.
Whittle was ``administratively separated'' from the Navy in July 1993 for military violations unrelated to the murder, a U.S. Justice Department news release said.
Kimbrue's family members could not be reached for comment Thursday. But at the time, her father, Albert, was angered by the lack of an arrest, saying ``the cattle in someone's barn'' would receive more attention from the government than his daughter's death had.
Kimbrue had never been away from her Bay City, Mich., home before, her mother, Sandra, told reporters then. Her parents and friends were against her joining the Navy, she said.
Friends described her a shy friendly person who they said earned top ratings during her nearly two-year stint in the Navy.
She lived in Ocean View, where she shared an apartment with another woman.
``She was always scared about getting attacked off base, and here she gets killed on base,'' her mother said then.
Local investigators said they have stayed in periodic contact with the family.
``We never told them we were going to make an arrest,'' said Greg Golden, a member of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's ``cold-case squad,'' which broke the case. ``We didn't want to give them false hope. When we were sure, we called the family.
``Thrilled is not the right term. It's a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching thing. This lady was killed brutally 14 years ago. But there is a sense of accomplishment.''
``It's not a thing you can be happy about,'' Golden said in Norfolk. ``I have a hard time expressing it.
``But our `cold case' squad has a saying we go by - `To the living we owe respect, to the dead we owe the truth.' '' MEMO: Staff writers Mike Mather, Tony Wharton and Naomi Aoki contributed
to this story.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST by CNB