Chapter 5

(March 29 McGrath, Alaska)

Mary returned to McGrath with the Alaska State Police Forensics Team of the Criminal Investigations Bureau or CIB. "I heard you and Donnelly are up for promotions," Capt. Clark, the team leader told her on the way in. "Congratulations on some fine work Corporal."

"Thank you, Sir!" Mary replied. "I just did what needed to be done at the time. That is why I am a State Trooper, Sir."

She and Mike joined the team in the field as they went to the cabin near Shageluk to execute the search warrant. The chartered Twin Otter landed at Shageluk, and they borrowed snowmobiles from the people in the village to go to the cabin. Once there, two officers gathered things outside the cabin like the frozen vomit, and the frozen semen stains from the outhouse seat, as well as the white contact paper for fingerprints just in case it was applied before cold weather set in.

Mary and Mike walked the riverbank looking for anything that may look out of place. That would mean things showing signs of human disturbance. Capt. Clark and another officer collected things from inside. Among these were Karen's panties, the Mickey Mouse boots, the cups and silverware, blankets, three pairs of girls' shoes and boots, and in separate zip lock baggies, four other pairs of girls' panties, with the name he gave each girl written with a magic marker on the bag along with the date.

Daylight was running short, and they headed back to Shageluk with the evidence, and then back to McGrath to drop Mike and Mary for the night. Capt. Clark and his team took the gathered evidence back to Anchorage, and would return the next day.

In the pathology lab at Providence Hospital, the semen sample from Karen Brock matched that of the stains taken from the outhouse as for blood type, Type O Negative, and hairs collected matched four of the five missing girls. They could charge Maurice Trammel with kidnapping and rape, but without bodies, there was no proof he murdered the other girls.

Trammel had been flown to Anchorage that morning after being treated for fractures of the left wrist and arm, concussion, frostbite, and symptoms similar to what Karen had. In spite of his Public Defender trying to block it, the judge did allow a blood sample to be submitted for a DNA match. Ohio could no longer prosecute him, but the DA in Atlanta, GA was keenly interested in comparing notes, and their own DNA on two unsolved child rape/murders from the previous year.

While the two police officers standing guard alternately made jokes about doing things to the prisoner to mess him up, they were duty bound to protect him for trial. When the DNA results were released to Georgia and Alaska, Georgia had a match on two rape/murders, while Alaska had proof of only rape/kidnapping thus far. Within days of his recovery and release from the hospital, two Georgia State Troopers arrived to extradite him to stand trial that was ready to proceed.

(March 30, Trammel's cabin on the Innoko River backwater)

The day after, Mary stayed behind and Mike went with the Forensic Team to Shageluk. They were checking another part of the iced over Innoko River, when Mike found a piece of cloth sticking through the ice in a place where it began to crack under his weight. He slid back safely using a rope he tied to a tree on the bank he approached from.

He called Capt. Clark to get a boat and an ice spud or chisel out there and a grappling hook. With the flat-bottomed 16-foot boat, they could get closer, and even though the ice broke exposing a wicked "eddy" or whirlpool that kept the ice from freezing to the foot or two it had in the slower parts. They could see what they were dealing with.

The Forensic Team Captain took several pictures of the area, removed a light pink piece of cloth that was over 18 inches long and had small ponies printed on it, then called his men back to regroup.

They were close to finding one of the victims Capt. Clark said, if the body hadn't washed out into the Yukon by now. Now they needed to call in some experts in recovering bodies from rivers, and a hydrologist, who understood the dynamics of currents and things that affect them. The area was added to the crime scene, and the troopers returned to McGrath and then Anchorage with yet more evidence.

None of the mountains of evidence so far indicated that Trammel had done anything but have sex with the girls at his cabin. Thus, when Georgia had him on a double murder/rape with matching DNA from 2001, they allowed him to be taken there to stand trial, until they recovered the bodies in Alaska. While Alaska would imprison him on existing evidence, Georgia would kill Maurice Trammel with theirs.

(Two days later in Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport)

Maurice Trammel arrived in Atlanta and was transferred to the Fulton County Jail where he would be processed to the Georgia State Prison the next morning with several other inmates requiring Maximum Security Units. Being small in size, he was an immediate target for some of the bullies.

In the holding cell awaiting transfer he "looked at another prisoner funny" and the guy lunged for him, and was about to smash him in the face when a large hand grabbed his assailant's fist, and squeezed it until you could hear the bones crack. Standing behind the assailant was a big man, well over six feet. Upon seeing his tormentor, Trammel's attacker retreated to the corner holding his crushed fist.

"You OK, Dude?" the big man asked.

"I think so," Maurice Trammel answered. "Thanks. I'm Maurice Trammel."

"Roland Swinney," he introduced himself. "My biker friends called me Swine. Stay by me and nobody will mess with you."

Both sex offenders were transferred to the State Prison the following morning and, both were assigned to the same cell.

After a few hours, the two prisoners began to discuss why they were there. Swinney claimed he was being tried for a murder he said was the result of an accident. He maintained he never meant to kill the girl, she just died during "rough sex". Of course he left out the part where he "put her out of her misery."

Trammel tried to avoid answering anything. He tried to say it was statutory rape that was consensual. Swinney asked him if he was into young girls, and he didn't answer. Trammel told him it couldn't have been him because he was living in Alaska and they brought him down to stand trial for offenses committed by someone in Georgia. It clicked in his big slow mind that this guy was a child molester.

"Trammel," he said to his cellmate, "you ever wonder how it feels to a little girl to have a grown man force them to have sex with him?"

"They seem to like it," he told Swine.

"I'll tell you what Trammel," Swine said. "I ain't into doing gay stuff normally, but I'm going to show you how it must feel to a little tiny girl, for a grown man to do this to her. Now if you yell, tell, or scream I will tell the guards you confessed to me, and I will let them put you in with that dude whose hand I broke. If it's anything I hate, it's a damned child molester!"

Trammel thought "Oh no, not already." Then Swine pulled out his enormous organ and said, "Not a whimper out of you now." Trammel peed all over himself and then fainted!

(Don't you love it when the bad guy "gets it in the end"?)

In Fairbanks, Capt. McHenry stood in the interrogation room as they questioned first one then the other suspects in the trooper murders. They both told the same story as if it were a movie on TV. The only problem was the truth was nowhere to be found.

The lawyer for the caretaker confronted the officers with, "Why aren't you questioning the man they say took them prisoner?"

"Because he was the pilot who contracted to fly SAR (Search and Rescue) for the supposed missing hunter that your client's accomplice assumed the identity of." The officer said. "It was his plane you wrecked by setting the logs across the landing strip."

"We also have the knife with trooper Burns' blood on it and your client's fingerprints, and not the pilot's," he continued. "The rifle has both your client's and the accomplice's prints on the grip and trigger. Then the ejected casing inside the lodge, and ballistics match on the bullet that killed trooper Collier pretty well seals it. At minimum, we're looking at life. Most likely your client is looking at Death Row for the murder of two police officers."

"My client has never been in trouble before," the lawyer said, "It was self defense."

"Your client slit an unconscious man's throat in self defense?" The officer asked. "The jury will love that. We also have it on a good source that a reliable witness overheard a conversation with your client and some others that implicates him in a murder conspiracy plot at the Creekwood Lodge of the owner in a supposed plane crash. That rifle used to kill one of the troopers was reported stolen from the lodge he was a caretaker at. There will be conspiracy to obstruct justice, falsification of evidence, evidence tampering, and giving false information to an investigating officer in an attempt to mislead them."

The caretaker whispered to the lawyer. Then the lawyer nodded, and said, "That crash was ruled accidental by your own investigating officers."

"Who were not called in until after the crash scene was doctored," the officer interrupted.

"The crash was accidental and there is nothing to these allegations," the lawyer spoke.

"Then why would a witness report being threatened from four independent sources?" The trooper asked.

"Evidently he didn't get the message," the caretaker said over the objections of the lawyers. "Hey, I am going to die anyway. You kill me, they kill me, either way I die."

"Who are they?" the officer asked.

"Forget it," he said, "That's all I am saying. Go ahead and fry me or whatever you do."

The lawyer said, "I think my client said all he is going to say. Gentlemen, this conversation is over."

"That ended quickly," Capt. McHenry thought. "A long cast on a fishing expedition and it seemed to spook bigger fish."

He called Sgt. Johansen in and told him, "See what you can get me on that lawyer and his relationship to Creekwood Lodge. Just about any other lawyer with a client facing the death penalty would tell their client to offer information as a plea for a life sentence or less. I am going to see who knows how to find that witness."

The officers that went to investigate the wreckage of the Cub west of Aniak were at a loss to explain the sheared wing. Obviously something must have been blowing through the air and collided with the wing. Possibly it was a piece of roofing tin, which had since blown away or been covered by snow. Inside they found a hair clip worn by the first victim. Also under the seat was another pair of young girl's panties. Was there a 6^th victim that wasn't reported? Perhaps it was a souvenir or trophy he kept from another time.

In McGrath Mary was taking note of some of the things she might need before they went on to the next assignment. She had developed a taste for salmon, and told Mike they needed to catch their own next summer. She was getting to be a pretty fair cook, and Mike enjoyed her cooking quite well. So well in fact that he never asked, he just always cleaned up after her. That and the ten pounds he gained made him look a lot healthier.

Most of what they did in McGrath was keep the peace by their presence, monitor suspected shipments of liquor to villages where it was banned, and investigate and issue citations for violations of local and state laws, generally misdemeanors. The occasional fight in some of McGrath's legal bars and a stabbing the week before were almost the norm. It was like an old frontier town in the Old West. In reality, it was a frontier town.