Opinion ID: 1444205
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The discovery of Thelma Davila's remains and resulting investigation

Text: On April 9, 1995, about two months after the discovery of Powell's body, a man walking with his dog in a secluded area near Verdi found a human skull and other skeletal remains and notified police. From August through October 1994, another Verdi resident had smelled a foul odor in the area where the remains were later found. In late September or early October 1994, he saw remnants of a sleeping bag in that area. Donald Means of the Washoe County Sheriff's Office performed forensic investigation of the remains. He noted a lot of animal activity and trash bags, bones, and bone fragments strewn several hundred yards. A matted hairpiece was found with rope in it; the rope was the same diameter as the rope found with Powell's body. Means had also investigated Powell's death, and finding two body dumps with trash bags and rope in such a short period of time was unusual in Means's experience. A dental bridge in the skull led to the identification of the remains as those of Thelma Davila. Dr. Frederick Laubscher performed a medical examination of the remains. (An autopsy was not possible because of the lack of tissue.) He examined the remains for evidence of the cause of death, but the skull was intact, and none of the other bones exhibited evidence of a gunshot or knife wound, crushing injury, or traumatic injury of any sort. Because the remains were so incomplete, Laubscher was unable to determine a cause of death. He could not rule out suffocation or most other possible causes of death. The police learned that Davila had disappeared in August 1994. At that time she was forty-two years old and shared a one-bedroom apartment in Sparks with her sister, Dora Valverde. She had worked her usual evening shift at the Hickory Pit restaurant in Circus Circus in Reno on Sunday, August 7, 1994. She failed to show for work the next day even though she had not missed a single day in more than six years of employment at the restaurant. She also failed to show up for a dental appointment that day. Valverde last saw her sister around 8:00 a.m. on Monday, August 8, 1994. When Valverde left for work, Davila was sleeping on the couch in the living room. When Valverde returned to the apartment that evening, the door was not locked, and a plant by the couch had been knocked onto the floor. She and one of Davila's friends later identified a blanket, a black lacy top, and a red hair tie found in Middleton's storage unit as Davila's. On Wednesday, August 10, 1994, Valverde reported her sister missing. Davila occasionally went with a friend to Cheers, a Latin dance club in downtown Reno. The two went to Cheers on the night of Saturday, August 6, 1994. The friend testified that Davila had a preference for black men. (Middleton is African-American.) Another friend testified that when he visited Davila and Valverde, they always looked out their window at him before opening the door. The former owner of Cheers saw Middleton one night using the pay phone at Cheers sometime in the latter part of 1994. Two employees of the Hickory Pit restaurant remembered seeing Haley in the restaurant. One saw her there two or three times in June and July of 1994, usually with a black man. The other saw her there just a day or two before Davila disappeared. A third employee saw Davila and Haley together in 1994 on three occasions: at the restaurant, at a grocery store, and at a medical complex. A Citifare bus driver knew Davila because she was a regular passenger on his route for many years. The driver saw Davila on the afternoon of Friday, August 5, 1994, at the Sparks bus station. Davila was quite dressed up and told him her friends were picking her up to go out to dinner. A white or beige pickup truck pulled up. In the truck were a woman with curly, reddish blond hair and a black man. The man stepped out, Davila jumped into the truck and sat in the middle, and the truck drove off. TCI cable had been installed in the sisters' apartment in June 1993 and serviced in July 1994, but Middleton performed neither service. Middleton did not work on Monday, August 8, 1994, the day Davila disappeared. Around 6:45 a.m. that same day, a neighbor of Davila and Valverde saw Middleton walk partway up the stairs leading to Davila's apartment and then come back down.