This Neighbor Killed A Child And Then Helped With The Search
I’m going to run away. >> Here, let me help you. >> Forget this book. >> There we go. >> I’m going to run away. >> Hi. Have you seen Donna? Have you seen her this morning at all? Maybe playing outside. No, >> my sister, she was just a wreck. She was a mess. >> We thought she was choking. >> Really started sinking in more.
Oh my god, she is gone. She’s gone. We got on the internet and looked up Donna’s case. We need to bring Donna home. This is something we have to do. >> It wasn’t just about our family. It was about their family, too. We just hoped and prayed for 22 years that he will be caught >> talking 27 years. So there’s something down there.
have a light on. >> I was contacted by a confidential informant that had received some information that Donna Fowler’s body was in a well behind a [music] park in Weaverville. We were able to confirm who the owner of the property was. They gave us permission to go out there and search the site. >> Donna Fowler was a little girl in Weaverville who was 7 years old in 1980.
She was just [music] a real sweet little girl that everybody liked. And one day she just disappeared. >> Hi. Excuse me, sir. What’s going on? Is this about my cousin Donna or? >> Yes. I was living right [music] next to the horse pasture where they were digging. And I spoke to two of the detectives when they pulled up and I asked if they [music] were looking for Donna and they said yes.
My daughter Shannon, she calls me up. [music] So I went over there and we sat out in front of the house waiting. Just brought a whole lot of heartache back for me. It’s been a roller coaster ever since this happened [music] to Donna. A part of me wanted to find her and the other part wanted to hope she was still alive.
>> Well, the day that uh Donna Fowler went missing, she had some type of an issue, had lice or something, so she wasn’t allowed at school. >> Honey, you’re not going to be able to go to school today. >> But why? >> You have lice. I’m sorry, honey. The morning that Donna came up missing, she was upset [music] that she couldn’t go to school because Donna loved school.
>> Well, then if I can’t go to school, then then I’m going to run away. >> Here, let me help you. >> My dad, he always humored her. Packed a little bag for her with some snacks in it. >> Don’t forget this book. Don’t forget your teddy bear. >> Donna was, I’d say, his little princess. Donna was always doing that.
Always saying, “I’m going to run away from home.” And of course, you know, couple hours down the road, she’d be coming back in. I’m hungry. I want something to eat. >> This time is different. This time, Donna Fowler never comes home. >> Donna walked out of the house with her backpack on, and um that is the last time that my grandfather and her mother ever saw her again.
She never got to go to high school. She never got graduation. She never got to [music] get married. She never got to have her own children. She didn’t get to see her youngest brother be born. She’s been really hard in my family. >> Adding to the pain, Donna’s family has suffered for 27 years without knowing what happened to her.
>> I remember having such overwhelming sense of anxiety wondering when will we know? when is it going to be over? That there was hope. We were going to find out what happened to her. >> Instead, Donna’s case is an unsolved mystery, and her family continues to wonder, how can a child just vanish? >> Late in the evening of November 10th, 1980, I received a phone call at home from the sheriff’s office and that uh the message was that Donna Fowler had not come home.
Have you seen her this morning at all? Maybe playing outside? No. All right. Well, if you see her, give me a call right away, please. Donna’s mom had made some phone calls looking for her daughter, [music] inquiring if anybody had seen her. Just the fact that nobody knew where she was was extremely [music] frightening.
My grandfather and Donna’s mother thought that [music] she had gone to a friend’s house. Sweetie, we have to call the police now. >> It was about 700 p.m. when she called the sheriff’s department and [music] said she was missing. >> Prior to starting our search, we really had a very, very few things to go on.
So, we had to interview the mother and the other members of her family to find out what had happened. >> We have uniformed officers [music] patrolling the area. if she’s around, if she’s in the woods, who knows? Maybe she just lost track of time. She’s a good friend of my own daughters, so [music] we’re definitely going to find her.
We’re definitely going to find her. >> That’s when we learned what clothing she was wearing when they last saw her. And uh that was the only information we had to go on. We had no [music] footprints, no tire prints, no nothing. We had very little to go on as far as any physical evidence of [music] where she might be or what might have happened to her.
And we began knocking on doors and Weaverville being the small town that it is, the word got around pretty fast. >> Have you seen this little girl recently? >> And owing to the darkness, it was rather limited what we could do that night. We did crawl in some buildings. We searched up and down in the creek around her house for blackberry bushes, but we didn’t find a trace of her that night.
When my sister told me that uh my niece was missing, it was like I just immediately started crying. >> Cheryl rushes over to the house her dad and sister Darcy share. >> When I got to my father’s place, it was a shock. I mean, it was just like this really is happening. It was crazy. >> Cheryl’s daughter Shannon is only 10 years old.
My mom, she’d explained to me that Donna was missing. >> Cousin, she’s missing. >> And I remember just being so scared and terrified, you know, what happened to her. When I went in the house to see my aunt, Donna’s [music] mom, I remember looking at her and she had been crying. >> She looked so scared.
[music] And I remember wishing I could do something to help her, to find her daughter, but I couldn’t. I felt very helpless [music] and very confused. My sister, she was just a wreck. She was a mess. My dad was a mess, too. He felt responsible. Felt guilty cuz he’s the one who packed her little bag when she said, “I’m going to run away.” We thought she was joking.
>> It really started sinking in more. Oh my god, she is gone. She’s gone. 27 years later, the possibility of finding Donna buried in a well gives the family and investigators hope for much needed closure. Uh the dig out at the well site took about 4 to 5 hours. We didn’t find any human remains. Uh the only thing we found were some bones that were suspected to be animal bones.
Well, it’s frustrating. I kind of get your hopes up that you have a case that’s this old that, you know, maybe you’ll get to the bottom of it. Then to go out there and find nothing, it it’s it’s disappointing. >> I was feeling Yeah. that it was never going to be solved, that they were never going to find her, that nobody would know anything about her.
>> There isn’t a day go by that I don’t think of Donna. There’s no words to describe how much I miss Donna. Don was like a daughter to me. >> I always thought of her as more mine than my sisters cuz I think I had her more than my sister did. >> She would always come up to the house and just go out in the backyard and play.
>> I think there was 3 to four years apart between me and Donna. And I felt like Donna was my little sister. She liked to [music] run. She had these like little rosy cheeks. She had a really cute little voice. Okay. >> The way she would say please, she would get you every time. She was an amazing little girl.
>> From the start, detectives chase each new [music] lead, never willing to give up on the case. >> I understand, sir. We’re not accusing anyone right now. We’re just asking questions. >> She be starting here. She should be starting out there. She’s not here. And to this day, almost three decades later, they have reason to believe Donna didn’t make it very far.
Weaverville. It’s a small Northern California community enclosed by wilderness with plenty of places for a 7-year-old runaway to get lost or injured. [music] The area that Donna went missing, um, it’s mainly a downtown residential area, but it’s surrounded by national forest. Heavily timbered, thick underbrush, steep terrain, and there is the slim possibility of [music] animal attacks, bears, mountain lions, you know, they are in this area.
We used to have all these different thoughts that run through our mind about what would Donna do, where would she go. [music] It was very important that we find her and we find her alive and find her safe. Find out if she’s been up there recently or not. [music] >> We were able to utilize our local volunteer forces of the fire department.
We used our sheriff’s office search and rescue team and we were also able to use the highway patrols helicopter to fly back and forth very low, very slow for many hours. We had a church dog team flown in from out of the area. They followed a little bit of scent from where she lived down toward the creek, which led us to believe, oh man, you know, she might have fallen in that creek.
And the creek was high from rain water and storm runoff. And uh it would be swift enough that it could wash a small child like her away. The search for Donna brought together so many people in Weaverville from so [music] many different walks of life from mill workers to a doctor in town who spent quite a bit of time with us in case maybe she was found and had some life-threatening injury.
He wanted to be there people in [music] town that they wanted to help. They said, “Well, you know, if it was my child, I would certainly want to see this outpouring of help and assistance.” The last time I saw Donna, she came over to our house after school. >> Hey, Donna. Your folks know you’re here? >> Um, I don’t think so.
>> Come on, sweetie. Let’s take you home. >> I remember that because she [music] had a good time that day. It was cold outside. The kids played outside and they rolled in the leaves and uh just had a good old time. It was uh sad to think that was the last time I was ever going to see her. Throughout the years, myself and my partners would sit and just brainstorm, figure, okay, what could have happened? Could she have accidentally fallen down a bank and got herself hung up in the blackberries or in a barbwire fence? She
could have fallen and broken a limb. We didn’t leave too many stones [music] unturned in this town, believe me. During the search for Donna, police receive only one reliable sighting of her. >> One of the ladies at the museum [music] did see Donna hanging around the museum that day on the steps probably about 2:30 in the afternoon.
>> Going to the museum was a daily thing for her and that’s where we could usually find her. >> But not this time. >> As the hours [music] went by, I really thought that something horrible had happened to her. I made a promise that I would find her. I searched for Donna in the park where we played all the time.
I remember just looking behind buildings. All that I could think of is somebody had picked her up and did something to her. >> After that, the sightings get more bizarre. >> They were getting tips coming in like crazy. Someone said they saw her in riding on a motorcycle. Uh, a butcher in Reading said he saw her in the Safeway store and that she spoke to him.
Somebody called and said they saw her in a brown vehicle sitting [music] in front of the old Trinity Market. >> A week goes by, even longer, still no sign of Donna. >> As the days drew on and we had to sort of wind down the search for Donna, it was a heartbreaker. I mean, we could have gone on for days, but it was fruitless.
My mother would be talking to someone in her family on the phone and I can [music] remember just bits and pieces of they took her, someone stole her. >> She is such a loving kid. She’d go with anybody. She wouldn’t even think twice about it. And that’s what I thought in my gut I feel is what happened is she just uh somebody kidnapped her.
>> It it left a lot of concern in the neighborhood and then the community is, hey, we got a bad guy here in our town someplace. It’s holding a little girl hostage. The town was uh kind of on edge. I know. I kind of tightened up on my children’s activities. You didn’t see too many children on the street because we had no idea what we had.
>> A concerned man approaches police with an unsettling story about a neighbor, Wayne Smith. >> One gentleman said that he had observed Mr. Smith, who was in his 30s, and Donna, who was seven, in the attic of a barn doing something that he didn’t think they should be doing, but he couldn’t say what. >> Detectives got nothing on me.
What do you want? You my house? What do you want? >> Let’s ask a couple questions. >> You have anything. >> He explained to us that he was trying to fix his TV antenna and uh that Donna was up there helping him. His main thrust was that we are accusing him of something he didn’t do because he’s an ex-con because he knows the fowlers.
He had every excuse in the world why he thought we shouldn’t be looking at him. >> This is crazy. You know, I’ve I’ve done nothing. I got nothing more to say to you guys. >> Okay, come. >> Meanwhile, investigators continue talking with the followers [music] in case they can recall something. Anything? >> Any idea of any [music] place where she would go? people she would know to go to.
>> When a child disappears or is reported missing, one of the most important [music] things to do is to contact the people who last saw the child. When we went to the Fowler residence to interview some of the family members, Wayne Harvey Smith was there. >> Wayne Smith was a friend of ours. I worked with his wife at the hospital.
My dad would let him use his car to go do grocery shopping, go to the dump, and he was friends with my dad, was over there a lot. >> When’s the last time you saw Donna? >> So, I’m sorry. >> He was known to law enforcement and he was an ex-con. He’d been to the joint and back a couple of times. >> Smith’s record is for assault.
Once again, when investigators ask him a few questions, he refuses to cooperate. His words were, “You’re barking up the wrong tree.” [music] >> I need to ask everybody the question of what he’s >> accusing me of. Stay outside. >> All right. This is not all right. >> His demeanor [music] raised a lot of red flags.
The family did not want me to talk to him. The family thought I we were focusing on him as a suspect and were picking on him when uh the thought never really entered our mind. >> Look, come into my house and he started accusing my friends. >> I understand, sir. We’re not accusing anyone right now. We’re just asking questions. is part of being a detective.
>> He’s a friend of all. >> We were asked to leave the house. >> We could not talk to this man because he was in their house and and they were protecting him. >> My sister, she had no reason not to trust Wayne Smith, you know, cuz he just had uh two little kids himself, you know, a little boy and a little girl.
Was a great father. And he was always nice to Donna, to everybody’s kids. He loved kids. I think it’s because he’s got a rap sheet. And just because of that wrap sheet, you’re crawling all over us. >> We don’t care about the [music] rap sheet right now. >> Oh, it looks like to me about your daughter. >> Because of Wayne Harvey Smith’s attitude, his actions, uh, [music] he became a person of interest rather early on in an investigation of Donna’s disappearance.
Eventually, Smith agrees to take a polygraph test and the uh polygraph examiner began to check him out and [music] found out that he was under the influence of alcohol and some other illicit drug. So, he was not fit for polygraph [music] examination. >> Just throws a red flag out there when this happens.
The detectives didn’t have anything to hold Wayne Smith other than their suspicions. >> You got to get him straight. >> We couldn’t call him a suspect [music] and we certainly couldn’t have arrested him because we didn’t have the evidence to to do so. >> Investigators have no evidence that any crime has even occurred. All they know is Donna Fowler is still missing.
>> [music] >> For 27 years, Donna Fowler’s disappearance has gone unsolved, but never forgotten. >> As a reminder of the importance of solving the Fowler case, I kept a copy of the Donna Fowler report file on the right hand side of my desk. >> Investigators can’t rule out foul play, but they have no proof and only flimsy theories to single out a longshot suspect.
Wayne Smith, he did have a criminal history and in a lot of cases of homicide, you know, people are often killed by someone that they know. >> Just asking questions. >> He’s a friend of the family. >> I understand. >> You got no right coming in my house and you got to leave Wayne alone. >> Donna’s family refuses to believe that Wayne’s involved or that Donna could be dead.
>> We have to start here. >> You shouldn’t be starting here. You should be starting out there. She’s not here. We were still hoping that something would break and we’d find her alive. >> In the following weeks, Detective Chuck Sandborn keeps an open mind and his eye on Wayne Smith. He didn’t move too much in town without somebody knowing where he was, what he was doing, and who he was with.
And we made sure of that. We really had nothing to go on as far as any criminal charge against Mr. Smith. >> In 1981, when Wayne Smith moves out of town, investigators are powerless to stop him. Unable to prove a crime has even been committed. It starts looking like Donna’s disappearance will never be solved. [music] of my tenure in the sheriff’s office.
This is probably the biggest case that I had worked. >> Nothing compared to this because [music] of the emotions and this poor little girl out there lost. We had no idea what happened to her and we all knew her and loved her. As the years passed, we knew, you know, [music] we’re not going to find her. Every time we talk about it or whatever, it was just like it just happened.
It was gut-wrenching. And as far as my dad and my sister Darcy, hope was that she would be returned to us one day soon. They never gave up on that, that she [music] was still alive out there somewhere. For my grandfather, not one day went by he didn’t think about her. I believe he thought about her all the time.
[music] And I know that he always thought about her smile, her laugh, when she cried, [music] when she was angry, you know, he just went into [music] a downward spiral after that. I mean, he just stopped taking care of himself. I believe my grandfather died believing it [music] was his fault. In 1983, 3 years after Donna Fowler vanishes, her case goes cold.
That same year, 600 miles away in the Roland Heights section of Los Angeles, 18-year-old Stacy Belchure disappears. [music] Stacy loved children. She coached a small girls soccer team, and she was very good with her brothers and sisters, the smaller ones. She always wanted to have children, [screaming] but if she couldn’t be a a mother, she was going to be a rock star.
That’s the way she was. [music] Stacy Belchure was living at a motel which was located at the corner of the 60 freeway and Ngalas Avenue. and it she was living there temporarily with her [music] boyfriend. They became hungry. So, she decided to take it upon herself to leave the motel room and take her vehicle and go to a local fast food establishment to get some food.
When she doesn’t return, her boyfriend realizes something’s wrong and calls her father >> to get something to eat. I mean, it’s been it’s been over 2 hours. She hasn’t been back. >> Her father called me early Saturday morning and asked [music] me if I had seen Stacy or heard from Stacy. I said, “What’s going on?” And he told me she was supposed to apply for a [music] job at his gas station and she never showed up.
>> It was a shock to me cuz I had just seen her a couple days ago. >> Your sister is missing. [music] I need you to be careful about going outside. >> At first, it was confusing, but I understood what was going on. She was gone and her boyfriend couldn’t find her. It was It was hard. Our little brother, a little 11-year-old.
You know, I missed her. I’m getting concerned because I was almost the last person to actually talk to her and no one at this point knows what’s going on. It’s all up in the air. But nothing could really go wrong because it’s your sister. You don’t think of that stuff. As the hours pass, the situation grows more serious.
>> Saturday afternoon, I contacted some friends of mine that were in the sheriff’s department and explained that we could not find Stacy. So, they made a couple calls to all the hospitals in the area and all the jails and then told me that they could not find her. I felt like something was wrong.
She would not just take off and not let anybody know. And they kept asking, you know, well, is there some place else she would go? Was she mad? Was she upset? And I said, no. Everybody said that everything was okay. And I said something is wrong. And they said, “Okay, we’ll keep looking.” Stacy’s father, brother, and boyfriend scour the neighborhood.
>> They searched for her for approximately 3 days. >> Her car was ultimately found by her boyfriend. >> Her boyfriend called and said, “We found the car.” And there’s a foot. I see a foot in the back seat. Roland Heights is an ethnically diverse neighborhood tucked into the southeast corner of Los Angeles. Here, 18-year-old Stacy Belchure leaves her boyfriend to get some dinner and never returns.
Her boyfriend called and said, “We found the car and there’s a foot. I see a foot in the back seat.” I told him not to touch the car. Get away from the car and call the police. I’m on my way. >> Stacy was found in the backseat of her car. She was in a supine position, which means she was face up.
Uh only her feet were visible and she was covered by two blankets. When the uh first responders removed the blanket, there was a significant amount of blood and they notice obvious gunshot wounds. >> Investigators discover seven bullet wounds in the face and chest. There is also evidence of rape. >> The original investigators uh that investigated this case noticed some a certain amount of mud on the car and on her clothing.
And it was surmised at that time that she had been uh slain somewhere else. and then placed back in the car. >> Ma’am, ma’am, you can’t come in here. >> That’s your daughter’s car? >> Yes, that’s my daughter’s car. >> By the time Mary arrives at the crime scene, the coroner has already taken the body and Stacy’s car is about to be towed away.
>> You have a picture of your daughter? >> I’m not sure if I was how I felt because number one, nobody said it was her. There was still the glimmer of hope, you know, because I didn’t know if it was her or not. It was her car, but that didn’t mean it was her. >> He went over and talked to somebody else and showed him the picture and then came back and told me that it it was Stacy and I just kind of lost it.
You kind of like walk in a fog. You’re not sure what day it is, what time it is, but you go through the motions because you have other people to take care of. So, you just have to go on even though you don’t want to. You want to crawl in a hole. I had my suspicions on who might have killed Stacy.
Stacy’s boyfriend was the last one to see her. Stacy’s boyfriend was the one who found her. It were just, you know, really weird that all that happened. The boyfriend [music] agreed to submit to a polygraph examination which he passed and uh other aspects of uh his activities cleared him of any suspicion. The case pretty much stalled at that point.
Uh a lot of efforts went into it but no other suspects were identified. Like the disappearance of 7-year-old Donna Fowler 3 years earlier, Stacy Belchur joins a growing list of unsolved cases in the state of California. >> It was very frustrating growing up not knowing who killed Stacy. And it was tough cuz we always wanted answers. We wanted them off the streets so you didn’t hurt another family.
So it was tough. Two years later, a second young woman, Jana Suen, is savagely killed in the same Roland Heights community. >> In August of 1985, uh, a homicide occurred in the county of Los Angeles at a doughnut shop. >> What are you doing here? The investigators found from interviews they did with family members and her friends and people who worked at the doughnut shop that someone came in and stabbed her to death and there was a [music] trail of blood that was left indicating that the person involved in committing the murder had
cut himself during the uh crime. female victim in this case was uh stabbed approximately seven times both [music] front and back. Investigators in this case were able to determine that there was an individual who had been stalking her, who had been coming in, who had been giving her flowers, who had been asking her out, and that she had been rejecting his advances.
The victim’s co-workers tell investigators they think her stalker’s name is Wayne. Figuring a crime this ghastly is probably not a first offense and hoping the stalker might live nearby, investigators check local post office boxes rented by people named Wayne against prison records. One name appears on both lists.
Wayne Harvey Smith, the only suspect in the Donna Fowler case detectives 600 miles away in Weaverville ever had. >> About 5 years after Donna’s disappearance, I received a telephone call one Sunday afternoon from an LA County Sheriff’s deputy inquiring about Wayne Harvey Smith, if I knew him. And I said, “Yes, by [music] golly, I do.
” And he said that at that time he was looking at Wayne in a homicide case of a young lady in Los Angeles. I said, “This [music] man is a as a suspect in the disappearance of a 7-year-old girl in Weaverville 5 years ago.” >> That’s enough reason for LA detectives to bring Smith in for questioning. [music] >> They noticed that he had a fresh injury to one of his hands that it was bandaged.
He basically uh denied being involved in the homicide and denied knowing the victim based on inconsistent statements that Wayne Smith gave to investigators at the time [music] and the fact that he had fresh injuries and his blood type was the same as blood that was found at the scene. He was arrested for the murder. >> Stand up. Stand up. Stand up.
Turn our face over there. Push [music] your hands back. >> Mr. Smith was ultimately tried and convicted on murder charges in Pomona Superior Court and subsequently sentenced by a judge to life without possibility of parole in prison. >> Back in Weaverville, the murder conviction hardens the resolve of detectives to nail Smith for Donna Fowler’s disappearance and possible murder.
went through. >> Anytime a suspect’s convicted of a similar crime, it kind of um helps to confirm some of the suspicions that you had about that individual at the time. The police might have been able to stop Smith sooner if only someone had listened to Donna’s 9-year-old cousin, Shannon Pittz. >> I remember telling somebody But when I was a child, I lied a lot and nobody really believed me because I made up tons of stories.
>> You like stuffed animals? What’s your favorite stuffed animal? >> I don’t have any. >> You don’t have any stuffed animals? >> Wayne Smith was very um sneaky. He would um [music] touch me, take pictures of me. He would have me touch him. >> He would take me down in his basement and molest me. [music] [music] >> There was one day that I brought Donna down in the basement with me, hoping that he would stop.
>> I like black cats. >> But he didn’t. I knew it was wrong, but I figured since he was an adult, it can’t be that bad. >> And it made me feel funny and it it made me feel ashamed of myself at such a young age. I kind of blocked a lot of that. >> I was pretty young. I personally always thought that Wayne Smith had something to do with Donna’s disappearance.
Now, strongly believing Donna is dead for the sake of justice and closure, the police focus on locating her body. >> All the cases I worked when I was in the sheriff’s office, the [music] disappearance of Donna Fowler was the the number one of my hit parade to solve before I retired. With Wayne Smith behind bars for life in LA County, finding evidence to tie him to Donna’s disappearance seems impossible.
Over two decades pass without any movement in her case or in the murder of Stacy Belchure. Then California starts reviewing cold, seemingly unsolvable cases. And suddenly [music] Stacy Belchure’s cold case gets cracked. >> Due to advances in technology, it was possible to take a second look at the evidence that had been collected from her at the time of her murder in 1983.
And as a result of that, they were able to obtain a DNA profile that was subsequently entered into the statewide database, and a suspect was determined. That suspect is Wayne Harvey Smith. >> Wayne Harvey Smith was living in close proximity to where victim Stacy Belchure and her boyfriend were living at the time of her [music] murder.
It’s probable that Stacy Belchure left the motel room and and went to a local fast food restaurant. >> She was subsequently kidnapped and held at gunpoint. Based on my investigation, Wayne Harvey Smith was charged with the murder of Stacy Belchure. >> Within 5 years of moving to Los Angeles, Wayne Smith brutally kills both Stacy Belchure and Jana Suen.
In the doughnut shop murder, Smith’s blood gives him away. Decades later, DNA from that blood is entered into California’s statewide database. Stacy’s case was unsolved until Detective Davis tells me that they found the man [music] that murdered my daughter. I was shocked and it was just amazing that after 22 years we had some closure.
Prosecutors seek the death penalty against Wayne Smith for Stacy Belchure’s savage murder more than a quarter century after her death. To save his own life, Smith is ready to confess to his biggest secret of all. 22 years into a life sentence for murder, Wayne Harvey Smith is charged with a second.
And if convicted, he is staring California’s death chamber squarely in the face. >> He took something from us, and it was a very precious person that he took from us. We wanted him to get everything he deserved. If that meant death, so be it. >> Then Stacy Belchure’s family learns that Smith is a suspect in the [music] unsolved disappearance of 7-year-old Donna Fowler.
We got on the internet and found out that Donna’s remains were never found. [music] I could imagine what Donna’s mother was going through because I knew what I went through not knowing. I kept telling my family, “We need to bring Donna home. So, I asked the DA, could we please take the death penalty away from him if he will give up Donna’s remains?” And so now it wasn’t about our family, it was about their family, too.
And so we wanted to have that family have justice. [music] >> The LA County DA grants a plea deal for Wayne Smith, then contacts the Weaverville Sheriff’s Department in the Donna Fowler case. >> Part of the plea deal was that Wayne Smith would give us the information on what happened that day with Donna Fowler.
By accepting the plea deal, Smith would then be sent back to prison for life without the possibility of parole versus facing the death penalty. So we went out to Donna Fowler’s mother’s residence to see if it would be something that the family would be willing to accept. >> Life without the possibility of parole instead of facing the death penalty.
The scenario was explained to Donna’s mother because she had to kind of give her permission to not prosecute Wayne in Trinity County and she did. >> He’s going to pay for it. >> One way or another, he’s paying for it now. So that satisfied her and it was a sad sad ending to a sad case. Tell us what happened. Wayne Smith accepts the plea deal.
Trinity County detectives interview Smith in LA about Donna Fowler. She came down to the basement. >> Wayne Smith told us that Donna Fowler had come over to his house that day. >> Cannot deal with this right now. I want you to go home. >> And he said that he was already upset. >> You need to go home >> over the way that his life was going and the problems that he was having in general. We need to go home.
>> Let’s go home. Right now, >> they said they had asked Donna to leave several times and she didn’t. And at one point, uh, he became angry and grabbed her. >> Stop. You’re ahead of me. >> [music] >> We had suspected that there was the possibility of some type of [music] sexual assault and he denied um doing anything to Donna.
>> Hey, Dick. Thank you, man. Thank you so much for letting me >> placed the body in some trash bags and then borrowed uh Donna’s grandfather’s car [music] and uh drove Donna to the dump and placed the body at the dump. >> [music] >> The county dump at that time was just a big pit in the ground that got burned every couple of days and it’s all covered in a big big landfill now.
[music] But that’s where she is, [music] not knowing the exact spot that we would start digging out there. And the fact that it’s 40 plus feet of dirt that that site’s now under makes it virtually impossible to go out there and locate her remains. Donna’s family and the Weaverville community will never be able to give Donna [music] a proper burial.
>> Donna Fowler’s case was closed 29 years after she was reported missing. [music] >> I’m just glad that we found out what happened to her. It just makes the circle complete. >> It’s just so sad what happened to her. The way that she died, the way that [music] he killed her and then buried her in the dump.
She’s been really hard on my family. I just don’t understand how somebody could take an [music] innocent child and murder them, put her in a trash bag, and dump her at the local dump. And not one [music] day goes by that I don’t think about her. It is very very heartbreaking to a child, [music] especially a child, a small child.
To be brutally murdered like [music] that is just unthinkable. She’s lost out on everything. To [music] grow up and be a young woman, he took that all away from her. Stacy never got the chance to really grow. She was only 18. She never really got to fulfill her life. She never got her church wedding. She never got her children. So yeah, a lot of things were taken away.
He’s paying his dues. That’s all we cared about. We got him and we got him for her. Payback’s hell and he’s getting his. You’ll never see daylight.
