A southeastern Virginia community is stunned by a crime no one can believe. A pregnant woman murdered, her baby lost. Across the state, another town feels a similar shock—a brutal, random slaying in a most unexpected setting. Two crimes no one could predict, with no eyewitnesses, few clues, and killers on the run. To solve the crimes, investigators must find the fatal twist.
In this program, some of the names have been changed. In Chesapeake, Virginia, on July 6th, 2000, Raquel Foley came to the home of her neighbors, Martin and Melissa O’Connell. One of Melissa’s co-workers had called Raquel and asked her to check on Melissa, who hadn’t come in to work that morning and wasn’t answering her phone.
“Still on the line, the coworker asked Raquel to check a back door.”
It was unlocked. Melissa’s car was in the garage.
“Okay. Melissa? Melissa?”
In the kitchen, it looked like a dinner was prepared but not eaten.
“Still here? No?”
“Okay. Melissa?”
Melissa was known for being on time every day and was eight months into a difficult pregnancy.
“All right. No, it’s locked.”
The bedroom door was locked. Something was wrong. On the advice of the coworker, Raquel dialed 911 and reported her concerns to Chesapeake police.
“Show up.”
Chesapeake officers and EMTs responded immediately.
“Keep an eye on…”
Melissa had developed gestational diabetes during her pregnancy. If she had passed out in the bedroom, she could go into a diabetic coma, endangering herself and the baby. They had to get to her. Unlike the rest of the house, the bedroom was in disarray. Then they discovered a body, face down in the bathtub. The expectant mother was dead. It was too late to save the baby. Melissa had bruises on her body, and there was some blood on the tub. Officers radioed in the suspicious death. About that time, Melissa’s husband, Martin O’Connell, pulled up to the house. He said Melissa’s coworker had called, saying something about an ambulance.
“You can’t go inside life right now.”
An officer asked Martin to wait outside until detectives arrived to speak with him. Homicide Detective Tom Downing was on duty that morning.
“To be the victim’s husband, I heard the call coming out on the patrol channel that the investigators were requesting the forensics people to respond, as well as the detectives. I’m in route, I’m in the area.”
With Downing was his partner, Detective Mike Toothman. It is standard procedure for homicide detectives to respond to any suspicious death.
“Hey, Lieutenant. What we got?”
An officer briefed them on what they knew so far: a dead body, signs of possible ransacking in the bedroom, an unlocked back door, and the woman’s husband just informed of the death.
“Martin O’Connell was sitting up against the front of the house, adjacent to the garage door, with his head down. He seemed to be very distraught, and I asked him if he wouldn’t mind coming into the vehicle so Detective Toothman and myself can interview him.”
Martin told the detectives he had been trying to get in touch with Melissa that morning. He hadn’t seen her since the night before.
“This, he had indicated he had no idea what had happened to his wife.”
During the interview, we were able to clearly observe a number of abrasions as well as a bandaged finger. When we questioned him about that, he said that he and his wife had had a fight the previous night.
“Is that all you have for…?”
Martin said that the night before, he and Melissa began arguing.
“No, what you meant…”
At one point, he tried to quiet her by putting his hand up to her mouth.
“What are you, crazy? You know what? Get out!”
She was so angry she bit him on the finger, hard. Still finding her…
“Second, she said she kicked him out of the house, so he went driving around nearby Virginia Beach.”
“She bit me.”
He told Detective Toothman he tried to get back in touch with Melissa. He had called back to the house on his cell phone and left numerous messages on his digital voice recorder. During that time, he was saying things about being lost in Virginia Beach.
“Melissa, pick up the phone. I’m sorry we fought.”
According to Martin, after several hours, he came back home, hoping he and Melissa could work things out. But in the garage, he found some of his clothes with a note from Melissa telling him not to come back.
“That night, he switched cars and left.”
“Uh, I’m not really sure.”
Martin told the detectives that he checked into a local hotel.
“I had asked him at this point about the abrasions on his arms and elbows and the hands.”
Martin explained that after checking into the hotel, he went to a local bar and had a few drinks.
“Okay. And I see that you’ve got some fresh…”
He said outside the bar, he tripped and fell, cutting his arms. The detectives asked if they could document the injuries. Martin agreed, saying he would do anything to help. The detectives next talked with Raquel Foley, the neighbor who first entered the house, and Cheryl Ramdell, Melissa’s coworker, to get more information about Melissa.
“What we learned about Melissa O’Connell during this investigation was that she was just a nice person. She did everything right. She was a loving, devoted wife. She couldn’t wait to be a loving, devoted mother. Everybody that knew her liked her, loved her, and it was just a tragedy that she was taken so early.”
The women believed Melissa and Martin had a strong relationship.
“Very good.”
They also said Melissa was very security-conscious, almost paranoid, and always kept the house locked tight.
“No, physical.”
“Okay. All right, thank you.”
Investigators hoped the crime scene would provide some answers. Before processing the scene, senior forensics technician Nick Pasilo videotaped everything.
“The master bedroom was in a complete, total state of disarray. Everything was trashed; the drawers were dumped out. The rest of the house looked absolutely immaculate except for this one room. It looked more like a ransacking than signs of a struggle. There was lack of blood in the area. We didn’t notice blood anywhere, and at that point, we really didn’t know what we had.”
From the toilet, the technicians recovered a partially smoked cigarette. Around the tub, they found several broken candlesticks and a pair of shorts.
“Write that down for me.”
Also near the tub were the first signs of blood. For forensics technician Grover Davis, the water was discolored in the bathtub and there was a little bit of staining around the bathtub area in the floor area. They collected samples for later study at the crime lab. It looked good. To the investigators, it looked like a murder. Now, they had to find out who would have wanted Melissa O’Connell and her unborn child dead.
Police in Chesapeake, Virginia were investigating the death of Melissa O’Connell, eight months pregnant with her first child. Evidence gathered in the bathroom where the body was found indicated murder.
“We were thinking that there was a good possibility that she may have been placed in the bathtub after she was killed.”
The investigators continued checking the rest of the house; everything seemed normal. They confiscated the answering machine in case it held any clues.
“I surveyed the entire perimeter of the house from the outside and the inside, checking all points of entry.”
“Fingerprints were positively identified as fingerprints of Danny King.”
“That’s it. That’s it. That’s a match. That’s it.”
It was time to interview King.
“King denied having anything to do with the murder. He didn’t find my fingerprint there.”
There would be no confession.
“Well, I’m just…”
To prove what happened, investigators turned to forensic evidence. So maybe they’re wrong. Michael Grim checked the shoe prints photographed at the scene against the recovered shoes.
“The examiner reported a strong association between the high heels and the smaller crime scene prints, and a positive match between the boots and the larger prints.”
Next, he checked the reproductions and inked impressions of the suspect’s feet against the wear on the inside of the shoes.
“He reported similar findings.”
Horst could not be eliminated as the primary wearer of the heels, and Danny King was an exact match with the boots.
“It is our opinion that these characteristics are unique to that shoe.”
The lab findings were exactly what Commonwealth’s attorney Randy Leech needed for trial.
“It would have been a very difficult case to prosecute without the forensic evidence.”
In June 1991, the prosecutor used the forensic evidence to prove to a jury what happened to Carolyn Rogers.
“She can’t meet us at like 10:00 in the morning. Okay, cool. Don’t use your name.”
Danny King had his girlfriend call some realtors, allegedly to look at a house.
“See if she can meet as early as time.”
Carolyn Rogers had the misfortune to take the call.
“Look at one of your houses on Jefferson Street.”
“Yes, the morning would be best.”
“Okay, thank you very much, bye.”
“Cool, so meet us. Let’s go.”
Pure and simple, the motive behind the crime was robbery.
“Okay, come on in, uh…”
Danny King had been in the penitentiary for a number of years and had been out for 10 days. He had no income, and the crime was committed to get Carolyn Rogers’ jewelry, her checkbook, any cash she might have had, so they would have money to go out of state on a honeymoon trip.
“Very expensive… well-made cabinets, brand new windows. Right now, it’s… I know either if it’s not finished, but you could have actually, you can make this into two or three bedrooms or three, family room for children.”
When they got to the basement, King’s girlfriend decided to go outside for a cigarette.
“I’m going to go have a cigarette.”
Leaving Danny King alone with Carolyn.
“My name is Danny King.”
He was a dangerous man. He didn’t care who he had to hurt to get what he wanted.
“The overhead power…”
He killed her and robbed her.
“Come on. Come on.”
They parked the victim’s car at a local mall, where Danny wiped it down to get rid of any fingerprints.
“Just get in the van. Take off your shoes. Leave them.”
He made his girlfriend leave her shoes. He thought he had erased any trace of their passage, any connection between them and the murder. But the Roanoke investigators and lab examiners found all the evidence they needed. Shoe prints, even a shirt button.
“An indictment against…”
“We were able to show the jury that not only had he stabbed her and not only did she die a horrible death there, but that she had been stomped in the head with his boot. That went a long way toward convicting Danny King, and the ultimate punishment being imposed.”
The jury found Danny King guilty of forgery, robbery, and murder and recommended the death penalty. He was executed on July 23rd, 1998. His accomplice was convicted of accessory after the fact and received 5 years. She has since been released.
Many homicide victims place themselves in dangerous situations. When the purely innocent are taken, police and forensic examiners work especially hard to find answers in the fatal twist.
