dope, and drinking.
Inside her bedroom, despite Danny Hembree’s verbal resistance, Nicole broke out all of her jewelry.
“We can search your room—you don’t have a problem with that, Miss Catterton, right?” one of the investigators asked.
“No, no . . . ,” Nicole said. “Of course not.”
At first, this comment made investigators wonder about Stella and the information she had given them. With Nicole being so willing, if she knew she had a dead girl’s necklace in her possession, would she be so eager to roll out the red carpet for a look at her personal belongings?
Hensley soon found his way into Nicole’s room and got busy, asking Nicole, “Can I go into the closet?”
“Yeah, sure,” Nicole said. “Some of that stuff is Danny’s, though. It’s not all mine.”
Detective Hensley went to work.
Nicole helped him.
“Can you explain for me, if you can, what’s yours and what’s Danny’s?” Hensley asked.
Hensley looked on as Nicole felt around inside the closet. On the opposite side of the room, investigators were busy bagging and tagging other items, including several cigarette butts from an ashtray.
“DNA, right?” said one investigator to the other, out of Nicole’s earshot.
“Yeah . . . Hembree’s in CODIS.”
CODIS (or the Combined DNA Index System) is a national FBI database set up for ongoing investigations (and cold cases), giving investigators a direct link to repeat offenders. It’s a computer software program operating under local, state, and national databases, indexing the DNA profiles of convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons information. If a cop develops evidence from a crime—DNA, hair, trace, blood, etc.—out in the field, the first thing he or she would do is pop it into CODIS to see if a connection to an offender or an open, cold-case crime within the database pops up.
As Nicole went through the items in her closet, Hensley spotted something of interest. He bent down.
“That’s not mine!” Nicole said. She stood by Hensley, who was staring at a piece of cut electrical cord. That was something you don’t find every day in a person’s closet.
“Whose cord is this?” Hensley asked.
“That’s Danny’s,” Nicole said.
CHAPTER 26
S ommer Heffner and her boyfriend waited at Danny Hembree’s friend’s trailer well into the night of October 17, 2009. Danny and Heather had gone off to his mother’s house in search of more cash so he could buy more rock. Danny said something about $200 or $300 in cash his mother had stashed inside the house.
Near eight o’clock at night, Danny and Heather returned.
“It seemed like forever,” Sommer remembered.
Danny produced a large jug of pennies, explaining it was all he had left to his name. They hadn’t located any cash back at his momma’s house.
Someone suggested they find one of those turn-change-into-cash machines at a local supermarket and pour all of the pennies into it so they could come away with some party money. There was no drug dealer on the planet who wanted twenty pounds of pennies.
By eleven at night, they had exchanged the change for cash at a supermarket and Danny purchased more crack cocaine. It was time to party once again.
That abandoned trailer wasn’t going to do at this late hour, however. So Danny took everyone over to his mother’s house. If they were quiet, they could party downstairs in the basement. It was warm. It didn’t smell as bad as the abandoned trailer, and there was also the potential they could help him find that $200 to $300 he knew was in the house somewhere. But damn it all, he warned everyone, you had better be on your best behavior in Momma’s house.
As they partied in the basement of his mother’s house, on October 17, the idea was for Danny and Sommer’s boyfriend to swap Sommer and Heather. However, it didn’t work out so well. “Because, you know, crack cocaine makes it to where men can’t perform right,” Sommer
Inside her bedroom, despite Danny Hembree’s verbal resistance, Nicole broke out all of her jewelry.
“We can search your room—you don’t have a problem with that, Miss Catterton, right?” one of the investigators asked.
“No, no . . . ,” Nicole said. “Of course not.”
At first, this comment made investigators wonder about Stella and the information she had given them. With Nicole being so willing, if she knew she had a dead girl’s necklace in her possession, would she be so eager to roll out the red carpet for a look at her personal belongings?
Hensley soon found his way into Nicole’s room and got busy, asking Nicole, “Can I go into the closet?”
“Yeah, sure,” Nicole said. “Some of that stuff is Danny’s, though. It’s not all mine.”
Detective Hensley went to work.
Nicole helped him.
“Can you explain for me, if you can, what’s yours and what’s Danny’s?” Hensley asked.
Hensley looked on as Nicole felt around inside the closet. On the opposite side of the room, investigators were busy bagging and tagging other items, including several cigarette butts from an ashtray.
“DNA, right?” said one investigator to the other, out of Nicole’s earshot.
“Yeah . . . Hembree’s in CODIS.”
CODIS (or the Combined DNA Index System) is a national FBI database set up for ongoing investigations (and cold cases), giving investigators a direct link to repeat offenders. It’s a computer software program operating under local, state, and national databases, indexing the DNA profiles of convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons information. If a cop develops evidence from a crime—DNA, hair, trace, blood, etc.—out in the field, the first thing he or she would do is pop it into CODIS to see if a connection to an offender or an open, cold-case crime within the database pops up.
As Nicole went through the items in her closet, Hensley spotted something of interest. He bent down.
“That’s not mine!” Nicole said. She stood by Hensley, who was staring at a piece of cut electrical cord. That was something you don’t find every day in a person’s closet.
“Whose cord is this?” Hensley asked.
“That’s Danny’s,” Nicole said.
CHAPTER 26
S ommer Heffner and her boyfriend waited at Danny Hembree’s friend’s trailer well into the night of October 17, 2009. Danny and Heather had gone off to his mother’s house in search of more cash so he could buy more rock. Danny said something about $200 or $300 in cash his mother had stashed inside the house.
Near eight o’clock at night, Danny and Heather returned.
“It seemed like forever,” Sommer remembered.
Danny produced a large jug of pennies, explaining it was all he had left to his name. They hadn’t located any cash back at his momma’s house.
Someone suggested they find one of those turn-change-into-cash machines at a local supermarket and pour all of the pennies into it so they could come away with some party money. There was no drug dealer on the planet who wanted twenty pounds of pennies.
By eleven at night, they had exchanged the change for cash at a supermarket and Danny purchased more crack cocaine. It was time to party once again.
That abandoned trailer wasn’t going to do at this late hour, however. So Danny took everyone over to his mother’s house. If they were quiet, they could party downstairs in the basement. It was warm. It didn’t smell as bad as the abandoned trailer, and there was also the potential they could help him find that $200 to $300 he knew was in the house somewhere. But damn it all, he warned everyone, you had better be on your best behavior in Momma’s house.
As they partied in the basement of his mother’s house, on October 17, the idea was for Danny and Sommer’s boyfriend to swap Sommer and Heather. However, it didn’t work out so well. “Because, you know, crack cocaine makes it to where men can’t perform right,” Sommer
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