All Episodes

April 11, 2024 39 mins

Richard Allen Davis is an ex-con out on parole after serving 8 years of a 16-year sentence for kidnapping. Paroled to a halfway house for convicts with alcohol and drug addiction, he gets an overnight pass and drives his ford pinto 60 miles up the California coast to Petaluma.  Davis goes to a park, smokes a joint and drinks beer, 2 blocks from the home of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, having a slumber party with two friends. Davis sneaks into the home, grabs a knife from the kitchen, and goes to the room where the girls are setting up sleeping bags. He threatens the girls with the knife, ties 2 of them up, gags them, and kidnaps Polly Klaas. It takes the girls 20 minutes to free themselves and they run to Polly's mother, Eve Nichols. who calls the police. The search for Polly Klaas begins. 

90-minutes after kidnapping Polly Klaas, Richard Allen Davis gets his pinto stuck in a ditch. The owner of the secluded property, Dana Jaffe, gets spooked and calls the police. Police talk to Davis, help get his car out of the ditch, and send him on his way. Two months after Polly's disappearance, Jaffe calls the police again after finding a sweatshirt, girls' clothing, and other items on her property. Jaffe says she thought it looked like a crime scene and tells officers about the stranger from 2 months earlier. The search for Polly Klaas has been international news for the last two months and Investigators quickly pull up their records from the incident and find the name, Richard Allen Davis, and ex-con with a long rap sheet who most recently served time in prison for kidnapping. 

 

Joining Nancy Grace Today:

  • Marc Klaas – Polly’s father 
  • Eddie Freyer – Lead FBI Agent in Polly Klaas Case
  • Sam Dordulian - Sexual Assault Attorney, Former Los Angeles County Sex Crimes Prosecutor, Founder of Dordulian Law group, www.dlawgroup.com, Twitter: @DordulianLaw  
  • Dr. Sara G West - Forensic Psychiatrist, Specializing in Sexually Deviant Behavior, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine forensicpsychiatryMD.com
  • John Woolfolk, Reporter, San Jose Mercury News  @JohnWoolfolk1 

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC
Death, Sex & Money

Death, Sex & Money

Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.