WEBVTT - Winona Ryder: Drowning, Designer Theft, and a Deadly Kidnapping 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.400 This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.960 Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:23.239 a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Winona Ryder 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.760 are insane. She nearly drowned when she was just twelve 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.760 years old. She once stole more than five thousand dollars 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.400 worth of designer clothes on a whim, even though she 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.559 was a super famous and successful actress at the time. Earlier, 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.199 she was raised by beat nicks off the grid in 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:47.440 northern California. Her godfather was LSD pioneer Timothy Leary, aka 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:53.320 the Most Dangerous Man in America. Winnowna's unique upbringing molded 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:58.680 her into an A list actress and into America's endearing weirdo. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.080 Her weirdness drew from the deep fears that she experienced 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.160 when assimilating from a sheltered early childhood to a more 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.840 typical nineteen eighties media overload when her family moved to California, 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:14.760 and when one of those fears came true in her 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:19.280 new California hometown, she found herself in an unlikely role 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.319 trying to draw attention to a horrific crime to help 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:28.039 solve a kidnapping case. Before and after her involvement in 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:34.360 that case, Winoda Ryder made great films and Winna Rider 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:39.480 made time with some great musicians as well, musicians who, well, 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.080 you know what I'm gonna say, musicians who made great music. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:45.920 Unlike that music I played for you at the top 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.720 of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:55.040 preset loop from my melotron called Johnny Forever MK one. 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.440 I played you that loop because I can't afford the 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.240 rights to dream Lover by my Mariah Carey. And why 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.080 would I play you that specific slice of five octave cheese? 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.280 Could I afford it? Because that was the number one 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:14.680 song in America on October first, nineteen ninety three, and 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.120 that was the day Polyclass was abducted from her home, 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:23.240 opening a kidnapping case that would rattle California and Winona 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:28.960 Ryder to her core. On this episode, near Drowning Designer 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:34.440 theft a deadly kidnapping in America's Ald Sweetheart, Winona Ryder, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:03:10.160 I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Winona Rider had 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.760 seconds to determine whether she was going to live or die. 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.400 The seconds ticked by slowly and the undertoe moved quickly, 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.040 a current with Winona's body around like a rag doll 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.600 that yanked her in circles, shook her like a snow gloab, 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:28.520 and the ocean closed in on her from every angle. 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.920 It dragged her farther into the deep five feet below 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.800 ten feet below. Win Ona wasn't sure, but she knew 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.200 she was fully submerged. Down, was up? Left? Was right? 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.119 She spun until she had no clue which direction would 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:47.400 lead her to safety. This was not a riptide. Winona 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.280 Rider could not calmly bob the surface of the water 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.840 and flag down help someone who could pull her back 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.160 up the shore. She was caught in the undertoe, and 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.800 the incoming waves bent Winona to their will, thrashed her 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.960 arms and legs. She was motivated entirely by desperation. She 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.960 struggled to wriggle free from the ocean's grasp, and the 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:10.760 more she jerked her body around, the harder it was 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.240 to focus. Keeping her mouth clamped shut, she held out 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.000 as long as she could. She clung to one thought, 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.600 don't breathe, don't breathe, and the sudden yank of the 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.840 undertoe pried open her lips anyways, a silent scream. A 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.640 stream of air bubbles from her mouth, more than she 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.120 ever knew she had in her Her air supply was 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.359 racing towards the surface, and there was only water now. 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.279 A surge of seawater gushed into her mouth. The salt 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.080 seared her windpipe as it forced its way into her lungs. 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:44.720 Winoda couldn't stop the flow. It burrowed into her chest, 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.080 deeper and deeper, until it felt like her lungs would pop. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.159 She choked as her body tried to cough, tried to puke, 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.400 tried to do anything that would stop her from sinking 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.920 to the ocean floor. Pruney and ragged, lungs ready to rupture, 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.480 Winona's limbs slipped away. She lost all feeling in her 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.040 arms and legs. She surrendered to the ocean. She surrendered 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.479 to the ability to feel much of anything at all. 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.160 Her peripheral vision darkened. Black curtains shrouded her sight. Her 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.600 view narrowed to a fine tunnel a thousand yards long, 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:21.160 and she stared down the corridor, empty, quiet, numb. She 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.520 didn't feel it what. A lifeguard hoisted her from the 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.400 water and laid her down on the sandy beach. Her 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.480 body was limp, her skin a ghastly shade of porcelain. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.679 She had no pulse. Twelve year old Winona Rider was dead. 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.120 The lifeguard started to perform CPR, even though she looked 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.520 like a lost cause, it was what he was trained 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.679 to do. He pushed down on her chest over and over. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.719 He tilted her head back, pinched her nose tight with 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.279 his fingers, put his mouth on her blue lips, and 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.040 tried to breathe life back into her. Suddenly she twitched 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.960 to life. She shot salt water into the sand by 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:04.120 the mouthful. Winona's friends watched from the sidelines, stupefied or 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.120 too stone to understand the severity of what had just happened, 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.760 what almost happened, and their glazed eyes watched the vomit 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.440 bring a blush of color back to Winona's cheeks, and 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.960 then a thought dangled in the back of their daised minds, 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:22.680 our parents are going to fucking kill us. This was 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.160 the mid nineteen eighties. There were no smartphones, there was 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.480 no internet. It was easy for preteens to go missing 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.719 for a few hours. In fact, it was expected. Legions 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.520 of suburban latch key kids went to school, came home 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:38.320 if they felt like it, fucked off down to the 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.159 river or into the woods, or even to the beach, 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.919 and just be home by dinner. And looking back at 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.359 the eighties from the twenty twenty two point of view, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:49.840 it might seem like disconnection was standard operating procedure, and 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.440 it kind of was. You might not even notice that 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.760 the kids were missing until the street lights came on. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.760 That's what Winona Ryder and her friends were counting on 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.080 when they cut class or that day. The group left 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.680 the drama of Junior High in their lockers and rolled 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.560 up to Dylan Beach instead, where they rolled the skinny 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.080 joint and sunned their stone cells on the shore. Young 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.720 Wenona declined the drugs. She embraced the ocean instead, right 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.480 until the undertow hugged her back so tightly that it 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:23.880 almost didn't let her go. Winona survived that day barely. 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.760 The cold clench of death lingered in her bones. Later 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.120 that evening, she felt it prying at her skin, pulling 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.920 her under. Fresh dose of fear followed her home to Petaluma, 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.920 trailed her like a shadow, climbed into bed with her 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:40.320 laid by her side, like an old friend, right next 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.040 to all her other old childhood fears. The tally in 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.480 her head was impressive. There was the Holocaust, for one, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.240 the horrors of Nazi Germany that claimed so many of 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.280 our ancestors. No one could convince Monona those ghosts weren't real. 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.880 There was also the ever present fear of nuclear annihilation, 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.320 but that was nothing that the ordinary for all kids 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.360 in the nineteen eighties. Then there were the neighbors. She 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.440 wanted to get inside their heads, know what they thought 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.600 when her parents hippie van pulled into the driveway every day. 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.920 What they thought of this new family. Some implants plucked 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:19.680 from a progressive commune in northern California. Well, commune wasn't 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.320 even the right word, but that's what everyone kept calling it. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.640 Commune sounded like a cult, and there was no cult 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.840 where Winona came from. That was a flat out misconception. 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.760 Other details were correct, though it was true that her 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.439 last home had no electricity, no phone, no TV. Winnoona's 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.720 hippie parents replaced technology with freethinking, traded the paranoia of 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:47.599 broadcast news with nature. It was idyllic, idyllic until you 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.719 tried to explain it to anyone else. Winona worried the 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:55.200 neighbors would misunderstand their family conspire against them. She wondered 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.400 if they would connect the dots that her godfather was 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.920 quote the most dangerous man in America on quote well, 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:05.439 according to Richard Nixon. Anyway, Wanova's parents appointed psychologists and 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.560 LSD advocate Timothy Leary as her godfather, the guru of 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.040 turning on, tuning in, and dropping out. He told Wanona 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.920 to question everything, so she did, just like she was 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.120 in bed right now, wide eyed, staring at the ceiling, 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:26.120 driving herself right up the wall, questioning. Sleep frequently escaped her. 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.680 Winoa didn't know the word insomnia. Yet, What if the 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.400 neighbors turned on us? She thought? What if they try 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.560 to lock us away? There was another question burning a 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:39.880 hole in Wanona's restless mind. Why did children keep disappearing 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:44.080 in California? That was the one fear that dwarfed all 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.000 the others, the one that tortured her every time she 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.160 indulged in the new luxury of watching television. Winona Rider's 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:55.080 worst fear was getting kidnapped. Gone were the days of 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.000 living in a secluded bubble cozy amongst the company of 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.760 her parents and their fellow freethinking friends. Now that Wenoda 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.400 lived in Petaluma, California, she heard everything. There was no 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.319 shelter from reality, not with a TV in the house 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.000 beckoning to her at all hours. Kidnappings colored the screen 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:14.960 on a regular basis. Some cases went in circles for 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:19.040 months until they reached a tragic dead end emphasis on dead. 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.320 Others never ended at all. Winona knew some of the victims' 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.120 names by heart. Tara Burke, three years old, held in 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.440 captivity for ten months by sexual predators. Stephen Stainer, seven 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.640 years old, trapped for seven years by a child molester. 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.120 He only escaped because the sick bastard who abducted him 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.920 wanted to lure in another boy, and the two kids 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:45.000 made a mad dash together. Then there was Kevin Collins, 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.199 ten years old. He was from the same neighborhood as Wenona, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.920 her older sister, even babysat at once. His buck to 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.679 smile was printed across billboards in National magazine covers a 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:59.400 literal milk curtain kid. He was still out there somewhere, 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:01.960 dead or alive. Nobody knew, No one might ever know. 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.679 The chill of fear burrowed deeper into winter on his bones. 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.360 She pulled the covers over her head. Her fingers trembled, 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.240 but no one could convince her she was overreacting, that 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:17.400 her fears were unrealistic or childish. She almost died today. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:22.000 Anything could happen to anyone without rhyme or reason, and 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:48.920 that might be the part that scared her the most. 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.520 His blood ran cold when he saw the red and 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.200 blue flicker against the trees. The colors were getting brighter 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.440 and deeper. He knew the cops would show up eventually. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:01.800 It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:06.800 of when. Deep breaths, he coached himself. He casually leaned 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.000 against the hood of his car as the cruiser pulled over. 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.680 He paced his breathing. He practiced his story in his head. 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.240 But Richard Davis still didn't feel prepared sightseeing. He was 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.120 just sightseeing, that's all. Pulled over to admire the great 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.520 outdoors on a warm evening. Then he realized that sedan 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.920 was stuck in a ditch. Wrestled with the damn car 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.880 for hours, even crawled underneath at one point. Benny here 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:33.600 Ever since, Yeah, that would work, Davis recited the story 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.440 word for word. When a pair of police officers approached him. 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.839 Their version of the story was slightly different. They had 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.160 received a call about a mysterious man camped out on 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.640 the side of the road on private property. It was 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.320 all over the police scanner that night, Channel three. To 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.320 be precise, Channel three covered all the Sonoma Valley San 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.320 Pablo Bay to Santa Rosa, but it did not extend 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:58.640 to Pedaluma, a city seventeen miles away. In Pedaluma, the 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:03.320 scanner had different. In Petaluma, a twelve year old girl 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.600 had been kidnapped by a stranger, the very same girl 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:12.280 Richard Davis just dumped in the woods. Little polyclass left 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.640 a window open on October first, nineteen ninety three. Or 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.440 maybe her mother left at a jar right before passing 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.400 out on a sleeping pill to escape a tedious migraine. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:25.280 Didn't matter, it was too late now. The window offered 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.959 an invitation, and Richard Davis accepted it. He made quick 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.160 clean work. He slithered right through the open window and 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.679 into the house. Picked up a knife in the kitchen, 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.880 He cut the chords from video game controllers, ripped up 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.800 some bed sheets too. He'd need binding materials for this 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.440 to go smoothly, and the strips of cloth did not 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.520 to be big children had itty bitty wrists and ankles. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.400 Davis barged into Polly's bedroom as the family clock chimed. 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.280 Ten thirty PM may as well be midnight to a 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.960 twelve year old, or so Davis thought. He wasn't expecting 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.600 to find Polly's slumber party just heating it up. Davis 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:03.760 saw a panic flood the eyes of every girl in 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.559 the room. He lingered in the doorway, the edge of 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.839 the knife glimmered against the glow of Polly's clamshell night light. 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:15.200 Davis kept his instructions simple. Scream and I'll slit your throats. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:21.000 They obeyed, shaking in silence. Davis then bound and gagged 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.680 each girl, tied them up with their own sheets and 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.360 video game cables, and then he bagged their heads with pillowcases. 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.040 From Polly's bed. He blinded all the girls except Polly. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.480 He had other plans for her. Davis bent down on 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.040 his knees, eye level with the trembling hoods. Count to 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.120 one thousand. He ordered, Polly will be back by then. 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:46.680 Polly would not be back. Polly was tied up in 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.880 the woods in Santa Rosa, California, and the local police 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.880 force had no idea all because they were tuned to 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.800 the wrong channel on the police scanner, Channel three. One 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.240 cop used a flashlight to look Davis up and down. 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.800 Leaves and twigs poked out of his shaggy haircut, beads 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.040 of sweat on his cheeks. His body language betrayed him. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.600 Davis just looked nervous, not car tutel. Nervous, like when 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.640 you're stranded at midnight with a flat the guilty kind 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.160 of nervous, one hand in the cookie jar. Nervous, but 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.720 looking nervous wasn't against the law. And the other cop 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.120 returned to the cruiser. He pulled up a report that 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.800 summarized Richard Davis's driving record. Technology failed the police's second 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.080 time that night, and the cursory report didn't include anything 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.480 about Davis's criminal history, which would have revealed that he 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.360 was a convicted felon. In fact, he was recently paroled 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.720 after an eight year prison sentence for kidnapping, but with 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.640 their limited nineteen ninety three technology, all of that went uncovered. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.600 The police found no dirt on Richard Davis. Beyond the 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.080 dirt that covered his hair and clothes, which he claimed 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.360 was a result of trying to freeze car from the ditch. 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.160 After a tow truck dragged Davis's car back to the road, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.600 the police escorted him to the highway. He killed time 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.080 in the fast lane for twenty minutes before he circled 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:09.160 back to retrieve his stolen treasure. Davis parked properly this time, 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.920 and he ducked back into the woods to find poll Class. 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.120 He dodged branches and knotted tree roots by the light 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.120 of the moon and found Polly where he left her 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.360 a few hours earlier. He slung her over his shoulder. 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.760 He untensed his muscles and released the nervous energy that 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.680 had been racking his body since the police arrived. But 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.320 Pedaluma's panic was only just beginning. There was a long 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.000 standing rule when it came to child kidnappings, the chances 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.120 of finding an abducted child alive or at all shrank 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:43.440 significantly after the first forty eight hours. The Pedaluma Police 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.840 Department had to act quickly, Polly's life could depend on it, 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.920 and the FBI joined the case. Overnight, bloodhounds, helicopters, detectives 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.320 rang up scores of ex cons. They interviewed sex offenders 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.920 in surrounding counties, alibis checked out. Every volunteer and investigator 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.400 came back empty handed except for one thing. The perpetrator 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:07.320 left behind, a PONWM print pressed into Polly's bed frame. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.720 The FBI's database didn't include POWM prints in nineteen ninety three. 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.600 This was unmapped territory, but it was literally all they had, 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:20.119 and the clock kept ticking. The case spread like a 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:25.440 California wildfire. Banners decorated the haunted town. Write down Petaluma Boulevard, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.520 Let Polly go. The signs cried scribbled and sloppy handwriting 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.200 of school children. Polly's image covered public buildings. Her face 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.720 cried out from flyers scattered across parks, library, shopping malls. 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.840 Her story never left The News and Information hotline was 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.800 a regular fixture on TV screens, and viewers were implored 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.159 to call. Over the course of the case. That hotline 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:51.560 received more than twelve thousand calls. That's twelve thousand leads, 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:56.520 all dead ends. The hotline rang again late in the night, 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.600 about ten days after Polly disappeared. A volunteer picked up 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.879 the receiver soft sobs echoed on the other end of 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.720 the line. The caller was moved to tears. She claimed 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.720 she once lived only two neighborhoods away from Polly's house, 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.520 and that they even went to the same junior high school. 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.600 She just saw the news as she was calling from 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.879 the lobby of a Los Angeles hotel, and the volunteer 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:24.480 asked for her name, Winona. She didn't have to say 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.439 her last name. The volunteer could tell who it was 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:32.360 from her voice alone. The sulky, unaffected teen and Beetleshue, 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.520 the love interest of Johnny Depp and Edward sciss her Hands, 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.640 and in real life, for that matter, the girl who 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.119 literally killed her classmate on screen as part of a 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.360 cool series of fixed suicides in the dark comedy Heathers. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.520 But this call wasn't an act. Win Ona Writer's sorrows 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:54.280 spoke volumes, her tears practically trickled through the phone. Winoa 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.119 couldn't believe such a tragedy had struck Petaluma. Polly's parents 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.800 couldn't believe someone as notable as Winona a rider wanted 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.119 to pitch in, and there was perhaps no greater force 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.080 that could pull Polly back to them. Paullie was a 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.840 one own a super fan. One of her greatest wishes 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.760 was to meet her in person. Then again, most tweens, teens, 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.680 and fully grown adults felt the same. In nineteen ninety three, 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:23.000 Winona Rider was the nineties. She was cool as shit. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.400 Her head's toe black ensembles were of gothlight legend. Her 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.119 eyes brooded with attitude. Her smile could slice your heart open. 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.040 She was on par with the other brilliant movie beauties 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.159 of the day, sure, Julia Roberts, Zuma Thurman, Nicole Kidman. 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:42.920 But Winona was different. She was weird, wicked, wonderful, all 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.239 wrapped into one peculiar package. She was named after her 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.600 town in Minnesota, For fuck's sake, no one was quite 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:53.719 like her. Winona's assistance with the poly class Case wavered 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.800 between low key and high profile. She could answer the 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.080 information hotline and join in person searches just the same 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:04.040 as any ordinary volunteer, Yet her celebrity status meant everyone 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:09.080 listened when she spoke. Tabloids, fans, film critics. Winona witnessed 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.200 the world's unquenchable thirst for a look into her private life. 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.960 Then she yielded it to her advantage. If Wanona accepted interviews, 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:21.800 she automatically drew more national attention to Polly's disappearance. Certain 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.920 news outlets had no interest in reports about Polly without 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.920 their precious q And as for Winona. First, Winona forced 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.840 America to pay attention to the case. Then she put 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.479 a price on it. Winona Writer offered two hundred thousand 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.560 dollars to any person who could safely return Polly to 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:44.919 her parents. Weeks dragged on months, Paully's parents published a 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.520 letter to the kidnapper in the San Francisco Chronicle, imploring 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.199 the stranger to bring their girl home. They left a 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.400 note for Polly too, our darling, if you can read this, 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:56.960 please know that your mommy and daddy love you so 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.560 much and we will continue to search for you until 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.800 we can hold you safely in her loving arms again. 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:07.159 Every time Winona returned home from volunteering, she peeled the 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.400 optimistic smile from her face. She would lay in bed 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.000 and let the insomnia knock around all the bad thoughts 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:16.040 in her brain again. The hope never left Winona, but 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.719 it waned her childhood fear of kidnapping. Not at it. 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.280 Winona almost died when she was twelve years old too, 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.000 and this could have been her. Anything can happen to anybody. 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:29.359 You could become a mega movie star, or a sink 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:31.359 like a stone to a watery grave at the bottom 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.359 of the ocean, or vanish from your bedroom, never to 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.359 be seen again. Winona rolled over and turned her back 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.000 on the fear, but it waded behind her and alongside 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:47.000 her in bed, just like it had ten years ago. 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:59.560 We'll be right back after this. We're were were. The 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.960 police did find Polyclass, but they didn't find her alive. 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.879 A cool breeze whipped across an abandoned mill yard and 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:13.320 overlooked iyesore in Cloverdale, California, right off Highway one oh one, 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:18.640 thirty miles from Petaluma. Richard Davis trudged through the empty field, 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:22.920 dry grass crunched under his boots. The police followed close 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.680 behind him. He was taking them directly to Polly. This time, 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:31.800 Davis wasn't hiding anymore. He couldn't. The secrets he stashed 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.600 in the woods were out in the open now. Davis 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.000 was sloppier than he realized on that night two months ago. 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:39.920 The police made a panic on the night of the 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:43.200 kidnapping and his heart pounded, the sound drowned out his 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:48.879 careful calculations, his attention to detail slipped away. Kidnapping tools 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.080 slipped out of his grasp, and left a trail of 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:55.240 evidence in the forest. A piece of silk fashioned into 0:22:55.240 --> 0:23:00.560 a hood, strips of packing tape perfect for binding of girls, 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:03.680 Tights tied into a knot, complete with a tangle of 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:07.719 human hair. A resident of Santa Rosa uncovered the clues 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:10.040 when laggers cleared a portion of the woods on her 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:13.640 property in December of nineteen ninety three. She was familiar 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.919 with the class case by now most of California was 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.560 after hearing about Paully's disappearance for weeks on end, and 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.320 now it was her turn to dial the information hotline. 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:28.679 But there was something else. The jarring discovery in the 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:32.240 woods jogged the woman's memory. There was a man stranded 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.760 on her property not too long ago, sweaty, panic stricken, 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.439 roughly two months prior, read around the same time Polly 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:42.719 went missing. When the police came to retrieve the items 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:46.120 from the woods, she reminded them about the trespasser. They 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:49.600 summoned the Santa Rosa Police records for good measure. On 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:52.480 October first, police called the tow truck for a man 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.520 named Richard Davis, and they knew that much to be true. 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:58.639 But back at the station, there was more information about 0:23:58.640 --> 0:24:00.560 this man than just a flimsy p doubt of his 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:05.720 driving record. Davis was an ex con. His criminal record 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.159 never seem to end. Burglary, assault with the deadly weapon, 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:15.240 assault with intent to rate auto theft, kidnapping, kidnapping. Richard 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:19.639 Davis did eight years in prison for kidnapping. He was 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:22.520 paroled in June of nineteen ninety three after serving only 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.159 half of a sixteen year sentence. Three months before Polly 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:30.200 went missing. On October first, police had their prime suspect 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:33.600 in the kidnapping of Polyclass right there, standing in front 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:36.720 of them, and then they escorted him to his escape rope. 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:41.639 Investigators poured over his criminal record. Police even wrangled Davis 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:45.240 a second time later in October, arrested for drunk driving. 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:48.960 Davis then violated his parole by failing to appear in court. 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:53.199 A warrant was out for his arrest. Bingo police had 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:56.359 their inn they weren't letting Richard Davis slip away. A 0:24:56.400 --> 0:24:59.359 third time, they found him cruising around town in a 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:01.960 van not far from where he was staying on the 0:25:01.960 --> 0:25:06.320 Coyote Valley Indian Reservation, about seventy five miles north of Petaluma. 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:10.160 Police booked him on violation of his probation, cuffed him, 0:25:10.280 --> 0:25:12.359 tossed him in the clink, and then they took his 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:15.359 pomp print. It was an exact match for the print 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:19.840 found on Polly's bed frame. Investigators shared a knowing glance. 0:25:20.280 --> 0:25:24.040 The search for Polly's kidnapper was over. Davis knew it 0:25:24.080 --> 0:25:27.080 was over, too. He cracked after a few days. I 0:25:27.119 --> 0:25:31.960 screwed up big time, he told the police. And now 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:35.600 Davis was retracing his steps, with the police by his side. 0:25:36.080 --> 0:25:39.200 He paused at a collection of weathered lumber mushrooms spread 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:41.639