A Case Is Derailed When a Medical Examiner Identifies a Murder as 'Undetermined' | Forensic Files

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is
one of the ones that will leave you furious because there should be a conclusion. Police think that they know
who did it. But because of a technicality, prosecutors won't prosecute. So, two families are left
wondering what to do when the people in charge throw their hands up and say there's nothing they can do because the
cracks in the system have left a predator out there walking free among us. This is the story of Kayla Williams and
Heather Higgins. There are plenty of things that parenting books just can't prepare you
for. I had literal classes as an adult, like to be a foster parent. Nothing actually
ever truly prepares you. 100%. And I guarantee you what's not in the book is how to talk to your
12-year-old after they discover human remains in the woods. Oh, that is exactly the scenario one father
found himself in on Mother's Day 2012 after his son came running home telling him that he and his two friends found
something in the woods by their house in Spokane, Washington. Now, what dad and later the police that he calls in find
in that wooded area just off of a narrow walking path in a small ditch is the upper part of a body peeking out from
between torn black trash bags. Soon, the area is swarming with officers. Investigators are there, crime scene
technicians, you name it. And one officer, as he is standing over the remains, spots another bundle of trash
bags half-hazardly hidden underneath a pile of sticks and branches about four to 5 ft away. And although he can't see
what's inside, it's the right size to be the other half of their victim. Now, there isn't any blood anywhere around,
which tells them that whatever happened to this poor person, it probably didn't happen here. This is just a dump site.
But there's more to collect than just the bags that the victim was found in. Investigators also find a bloody hand
towel, a blanket, a black camera strap with teeth marks on it, but according to police documents, those teeth marks look
to just be from animals. But the whole thing is it smells heavily of decomposition. So, while they
meticulously collect evidence from the forest floor, their victim is sent off piece by piece for an autopsy. And at
the examiner's office, the remains are carefully unwrapped layer by layer. They realize that the victim is young. It's a
female in her like early adulthood. She's white with long blonde hair and her body has been cut in half at the
waist. Now, starting with her upper body, they find a towel knotted around her neck, covering her lower face with
strands of black electrical tape, like entangled in it. And her clothing, a sweater, t-shirt, and chamisil, have
been cut vertically from the bottom up and shoved around her shoulders beneath her body. Her bra, which was also cut in
between the cups, is beneath her. Then found in the layers of plastic is her underwear. also cut. And her clothing is
discolored. Not from the blood, though. It looks like her clothing is discolored
from bleach. Like, that's what the stains look like. Oh, that's not good news. They're going
to be screwed getting any sort of evidence or samples off of her body then. I know. And it's not much better for her
lower body. So, her lower body, which was in that second bundle, is wrapped not just in plastic bags and the tape,
but also an orange sleeping bag with a plaid interior. Now, it is zipped closed with more of that black electrical tape
wrapped around it. And in between all the bags layers are more towels, a pair of boxer shorts, and some sort of black
strap material. And then they find a pair of men's size 36 jeans with a black synthetic belt. Now, whereas her top
half was still clothed, even though it was cut, her lower half is completely nude, save for the sock still on her
feet. It's not immediately apparent how long she's been out in the woods or even
when she died. I mean, it's been pretty cool in Spokane as winter turns to spring. So despite some decomp and some
animal activity, she is relatively well preserved. And it's because of that preservation that they're able to
quickly identify her via fingerprints as 20-year-old Kayla Williams. Kayla's not
completely unknown to police in Spokane. She'd been arrested before, although I can't really find out exactly what for.
And I know at one time she had been reported missing by her brother, which was like a little over a month ago. He
reported her missing on April 2nd, but they think that she might have actually been missing for a little while by that
point. You see, her family had gotten worried when she didn't meet her mom, Martine, for church a few weeks in a
row. Like, the two of them had this routine. Kayla didn't live at home, but she and her mom always made sure to
attend church twice a week with one another. Like, this was the thing that provided stability in what was otherwise
a pretty turbulent time for Kayla because she'd been struggling with substance use disorder. So, when they
finally realize she's gone to report her missing, there had been a little bit of
a police search for her, which didn't result in much of anything. And the TLDDR of all of it is basically that she
had been living with a few people in an apartment. Um, one of those people was including her like maybe current maybe
ex-boyfriend, this guy named Matt. And he was obviously one of the first people that they wanted to talk to. But one of
the guys that they were living with said that Matt had moved out of state right around the same time that Kayla went
missing. Now, you'll see that if you go out and read about this, but that turned
out actually not to be true. They ended up tracking Matt down at the apartment that they all shared just a few days
later. So Matt said that he hadn't seen Kayla since around the end of March, but
he made it clear that he wasn't interested in having her in his life anymore. He allegedly also struggled
with substance use disorder, and the last time that he'd seen her, he had been trying to avoid anything or anyone
triggering. And Kayla was still using at the time. So I guess he told her to leave the apartment. And that, he says,
is the last time he saw her. So because they didn't really get anywhere, the search for Kayla ultimately stalled. But
her family never stopped looking for her. So on May 13th, that same family is watching the news. Kayla's mom has it on
as her husband is getting ready for work. And when she sees a news segment about the body of a young woman being
found, she says she like knows instinctively that it's her daughter. And later that day, in another moment
that no parenting book can ever prepare you for, she opens the door to investigators there to give her the
worst news of her life. And they have so many questions like when, why, who. I mean, it's something Martine can't stop
thinking about as they're finishing her daughter's autopsy. She and investigators are hoping that the
results will answer at least some of the questions, but ultimately it doesn't. In
fact, it only results in more questions because despite police telling the public that Kayla had signs of
significant trauma, despite the fact that she was dismembered, despite noting cut-like defects on her hands and a stab
wound on her thigh, despite looking as though she had what looks like bleach poured on her, Dr. John Howard can't
determine exactly how she died. So he rules her cause and her manner of death as undetermined
which I get I get cause if you can't determine the cause of death but manner I know
okay my mind is reeling but does he at least determine if it's actually bleach on
her? So, as far as the bleach though, not early on according to the documents we have. I know testing does happen
later. Okay. But in that moment, I don't know how much they're even taking the bleach into
account, which is like a bananas thing to say. And basically, at first, I guess this
guy is like, well, she might have overdosed and maybe someone she was with might have disposed of her body,
which is still a crime, by the way. It is not a homicide though and also not even like something worth picking apart
in my mind because like hi you can test for drugs so like let's just do that. Let's stop guessing. So fast forward to
when the talk screen comes back. It shows that while she did have meth in her system there wasn't nearly enough to
have killed her. Yet for some reason this isn't enough to change anything for the me. Okay. No overdose but he still
doesn't know the cause. So he doesn't think he can rule on manner, which I have seen trip up so many cases. A lot
of times it becomes this like fingerpointing game where investigators will kind of wash their hands of it.
They're like, "Well, if there's no crime, like we can't investigate, right?" But at least this time around, no one in
charge of the investigation, like or at least on that side of things, has any doubt about what this is. According to
an episode of the show Still a Mystery, titled Depths of Depravity, to them this
is a homicide. Yeah. And thankfully at the autopsy, swabs were taken as well as fingernail
clippings. So they asked for those to be sent off for DNA testing along with all
those other items from the scene. And while they wait for results, the investigation keeps moving forward,
albeit slowly. They did some initial canvasing around where Kayla's body was found. I don't know what you were
picturing initially, but this wooded area isn't remote. We're talking about like a pretty residential area. So,
there were some initial hopes that maybe someone witnessed a person disposing of
two large trash bags, but unfortunately, whoever brought Kayla there got lucky. The only thing they took away from their
door knockocking was the knowledge that this is a pretty quiet spot with the occasional disturbance from teenagers
partying in the area. Although, for the last couple of months, the usual gaggle of teens haven't been coming around.
Some neighbors also mention this older man who they say they've seen before and he like makes some people in the area
uncomfortable, but spoiler alert, they end up finding the guy and end up ruling him out. So, they decide to focus on the
people they know who were connected to Kayla, starting with Matt. [Music] Two branches of the same tree,
two pieces of a soul. Where one sister goes, the other will be. For she is but half
of the whole. Matt mostly repeats what he said when Kayla first came up missing, that he
hadn't seen her since like late March, but he clarifies that it wasn't that uncommon for her to leave for days at a
time. So, not seeing her for a few weeks didn't raise too many red flags for him
at first. Even though, by the way, might be worth mentioning, I have her cell phone. That's what he tells police.
According to an article in the spokesman review, he tells the police that she had
left it at the apartment, likely because she had run out of minutes and then just
didn't take it with her. A search warrant allows investigators to take a look at her calls and text messages, and
they read that one of the last messages she sent was on March 18th to a friend and mentor. This friend says that she
last saw Kayla on March 18th as well, and she had been living on the streets after a fight with Matt. The friend told
police that Kayla hadn't been doing well, but she was going to try to patch things up with Matt.
And did she? Well, that's unclear cuz I don't know the exact date Matt last saw her. He
just says late March. And we tried to talk to him for this episode, but like all of our attempts to reach out to him
have been unsuccessful. And was her phone really like out of minutes or disconnected or whatever?
Oh, girl, I wish I had more details around her phone. I just don't have anything. Like nothing beyond the
information I just gave you has been reported and anyone we spoke to for this episode couldn't tell us if there was
anything else of interest on the phone if they looked if they did like a full forensic sweep. Like I got nothing.
Where we do find something of interest is in all those results that come back from the lab. Now not everything they
sent in for testing resulted in something usable. Like none of the swabs gave them anything that they could work
with at the time. The boxer shorts found at the scene however are a different story. They come back with a full DNA
profile that is a match to a 42year-old man named Robert Davis. What? And Robert
is a bad dude. He has a string of past convictions and allegations behind him, including a really violent sexual
assault from 2007. Apparently that April 2007, he had gone into the apartment of
a woman named Dawn. And she reported that he choked her into unconsciousness and sexually assaulted her. According to
Thomas Klaus's reporting for the spokesman review, she survived and a sexual assault kit proved his DNA was
all over her. But for some reason, he was never officially charged with anything.
How is that even possible? I don't know because some of the reporting on this is
like conflicting. Like I've seen some reports saying that Dawn didn't want to push forward and then I've seen others
where the investigators and the prosecutors just dropped the ball. Okay. But now they've got his full DNA
profile on these boxers in Kayla's case. Yeah. And not just the boxers. So here's
the other thing. They found two major DNA profiles under Kayla's nails, too. And a direct comparison proves that one
of those is this Robert guys. Okay, but then who's the other? Well, the other profile belongs to Matt,
which might not be all that surprising. I mean, remember she'd been talking about patching things up with him to her
friend. Like, we know they have a relationship or had and we still don't know when she died. So, if it was right
after she saw him, that might explain it. I mean, having Robert's DNA under her nails and his boxers and knowing his
history, like they're much more interested in him. Even more so when a bunch more from the scene gets tested
and it all keeps coming back as a match to him. The black electrical tape around
her neck, those jeans, that camera strap found near her body, it all has his DNA
on it. Now, I do need to mention that there is one other profile found on the fly of the boxers. That profile does get
matched to a guy named David, but as far as I can see, his DNA isn't anywhere else on her body or the other pieces of
evidence. And based on the police docs that we have access to and the interviews that our team conducted for
this case, it seems like he's never been considered a person of interest in Kayla's death.
He's just like a blip in the DNA evidence. Yeah, it is all about Robert Davis. So, on July 25th, this is more
than 2 months after Kayla's body was found, they track him down and speak with him. Robert explains that he does
know Kayla, but not very closely. He says that he only knows her through Matt. He would purchase drugs from Matt,
and the few times that he did so, Kayla was there, too. But that was it. He says
they never hung out. They never had sex. Although he does admit that he probably
wouldn't tell police if they had had sex. So cool. I mean, it's honest, but like whatever.
Here's where it gets weird. If investigators confronted him about his DNA being freaking everywhere,
it is not in the documentation I've seen. And so he's not arrested. What? Because, and this is where we get our
hiccup that comes back to bite us. And even though they have linked all this stuff in and around the bags with her
dismembered body to a very bad guy known for very bad stuff, it's not a homicide
death. Technically, there isn't a murder, right? Which makes no sense to me. Like,
we can put you with her before she died when you're saying you weren't like we got you.
Yeah. But apparently it's not enough for them. Though they aren't totally walking away
either. At one point, I guess they go talk with Robert's mother, Reel. He had like lived with her off and on, but
according to a timeline published by the Spokesman Review, she claims she doesn't
know anything either. So, like I think they're at least trying to dig and like build something. But they don't get
anywhere like at first. But it was worth going to talk to her cuz a few days later on August 1st, she contacts police
like out of the blue and she says, "Listen, I don't know anything about Kayla's murder. But a couple of years
ago, my son came home and he confessed to disposing of a different body. So maybe I should tell you about that."
Yeah. You think? She says that two years ago, which would have been in 2010, Robert
came home acting really anxious. And eventually, he told his mom that these two guys had killed a woman named
Heather Higgins and forced him to help dispose of her body. So, he put her body in a sleeping bag and dumped her down a
steep hill somewhere north of Spokane. And a sleeping bag feels like a really important detail here.
That's what Kayla's found in too, right? her lower half. Mhm. Now, Reel tells police that she didn't
come forward then because she frankly just didn't believe him at the time, like because of his substance abuse.
Like, she didn't trust a lot of what he said, and she kind of just chocked it up
to him being worked up over nothing. But the thing is, 39-year-old Heather Higgins really did go missing back in
2010, and she still hadn't been found by the time they're talking to this woman.
[Music] By this point, the news that parts of Kayla's body had been placed in a sleeping bag wasn't known to the public
either. And investigators don't think it's a coincidence. Yeah. And that's not the only similarity
between Heather and Kayla either. The investigation into Heather's disappearance was just as lackluster as
the police search for Kayla had been, if not more so. Just like Kayla's mom had realized something was wrong, it was
Heather's mom, Jackie, who first sounded the alarm. Heather was also going through some turbulence in life when she
vanished. She'd recently been hospitalized and returned home to find that the money that she was going to use
to get a new apartment had been stolen. So, she had been working on getting a loan when she just vanished like into
thin air. And when her mom realized that she hadn't heard from Heather in a few days, she went over to find her cats
alone in the apartment. So on September 27th, 2010, Jackie reported her daughter
missing. But the response made her feel like police just didn't care. According to her mom, they looked at her recent
hospitalization for bipolar disorder and a previous DWI that she'd gotten and basically said that Heather could just
leave if she wanted to. And in a public statement about her disappearance, one detective said that she was an
alcoholic, which just by the way wasn't even true, at least according to her mom. And this is like this little stuff
that bothers me. Instead of using her nice college ID photo, which was recent because she was currently in school for
journalism, the photo that police decided to use for her missing person's flyer was a mug shot from a prior
arrest, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about how the police
viewed her like as the person that they were looking for. Exactly. I mean, it all made Jackie feel
like police were saying that her daughter wasn't worth finding. Yeah. So, she started looking for
Heather herself. And Jackie spent years doing what police should have, even putting her and her loved ones in
dangerous situations to try and track her daughter down. A daughter that she believed was still alive. But almost
from the beginning, according to her mom, police didn't actually share that belief. In fact, they were confident
early on that she'd been killed, possibly by Robert Davis, whose name came up early on. The thing is, they
didn't share any of that with Jackie. They kind of allowed her to go on believing that Heather might just come
home. Like, they let her believe this for years. Wait, how early on are we talking here?
Like, within a like a few months, possibly even the first few weeks. So, you see, they learned that the day she
went missing, the loan that Heather had been trying to get fell through. So, she
decided to go into town and pawn some res. Now, she couldn't drive at that moment, so she went across the street to
her neighbor Dawn's apartment to see if she knew of anyone who could give her a ride. Now, if the name Dawn feels
familiar, that's because the Dawn that lived across from Heather was the same Dawn that said she had been assaulted by
Robert Davis back in 2007. Oh my god. I know. And I don't know why, but Dawn gave Heather Robert Davis's
phone number. And the last anybody saw of Heather, she was getting into Robert's minivan. Now, I don't know why
Dawn still had Robert's number after what he did to her or why she felt okay giving it like that contact info to
someone else, but Dawn has since passed away, so we couldn't ask her. And no one
our team talked to could explain it. It sounds like the nature of their relationship was complicated. Obviously,
like that's probably a massive understatement. But regardless, when Robert was eventually interviewed by
police, he admitted to giving Heather a ride that day, but he claimed that she got angry with him, so he left her on
the side of the road in town. The end. So, okay, I'm I'm kind of getting a little twisted on this. In this time
when they find this stuff out about Robert being with Heather, are they still holding the position with her mom
that she just walked off on her own? Yeah, this is what's so weird. Um, so this is early on,
but they don't give Jackie any updates about this. So, so like I think they probably told her early on that they
thought she was a runaway. Jackie is like on her own to do her own thing. They learn this stuff about
Robert Davis, but they don't tell her mom this or or that they've like if their thinking has changed, they don't
tell her. They just let her keep on believing that her daughter might still be out there. And it's not like they
aren't in contact with her. She told our team that she called investigators every
single day because she was investigating on her own. So, they could have told her, I mean, countless number of times
that they didn't believe Heather was still out there. But for some unknown reason, they didn't. Now, by the time
they got around to talk to Robert, it was months after Heather went missing. And by then, he'd conveniently sold his
minivan and had it straight up crushed. Oh, so not just like sold it to someone.
Like, there's no getting in that minivan. Got it. But the thing is, if they had done just a little more digging, they
would have found that the rings that she was going to sell that day, those had in
fact been pawned. Except they weren't pawned by Heather. They were pawned by Robert. But that link wouldn't be
connected for years. At the time, police didn't even check the pawn shops. They just let Heather fade. Even when her
student ID and a butcher knife were found submerged in a river three and a half blocks from where Robert was living
at the time, they still did nothing. And they still, even then, didn't tell Jackie anything. And now there are two
women, one still missing, one murder directly tied to Robert Davis. But there is no arrest. And both Kayla and
Heather's families are left to try and fit together the pieces. By now, according to Kayla's mom, Martin,
they're at least aware of each other, but they never really connect. They're trying to navigate their grief and a
system that feels like it's not on their side. That is until early 2013 when a new detective is assigned to Kayla's
case. His name is Mark Burbridge. And as he's reviewing her autopsy, he can't believe what he sees. The autopsy report
is sparse. And as Detective Burbridge is comparing the report to the photos that
he is seeing of Kayla's body, he can't make sense of it because the original report doesn't contain any mention of
the dozens of sharp force wounds that he is seeing. or by the way the shoe prints
on her chest and leg or the defensive wounds or the bruising around her wrist like she had been restrained. So he's
confused to say the least and frustrated. So according to police docs, he tries to
go to Dr. Howard like wanting clarification. I mean probably really an explanation,
but it takes months before Dr. Howard will even speak with him. And when they're finally face to face, Dr. Howard
is super defensive. He even says that Detective Burbridge is being rude and goes so far as to ban him from the
medical examiner's office. What? Yeah. Which is not the reaction Burbridge was expecting, but he's not
going to give up. Something isn't right here. So, he meets with the Spokane County prosecutor, this guy named Jack
Driscoll. But Jack isn't much help either. He basically says that he's not going to go against what Dr. Howard
ruled because if he goes on to say that Dr. Howard drooling on Kayla's case was wrong, like that's going to call into
question all of his other rulings and like open up this can of worms. Am I the only one who thinks that's
maybe like a good thing? Yeah. I mean, if if only if it were that straightforward, right? Like so to me
and you, yes, this is a good thing because making mistakes or doing things in error like we should correct those
things. Yeah. I mean, if you're missing stab wounds, like you would think Spokane
County would want to, I don't know, take care of that. Yeah. But doing that unravels god knows how
many convictions, which again, they might be convictions that are actually like needed. I mean, no one's saying
this is going to be easy to do, but to Detective Burbridge, like it needs to be done.
Yeah. And he thinks that all of this like they're just more interested in protecting their people, securing their
convictions, their image, whatever, than actually protecting the general public,
doing their job. So, he decides to pay a doctor from Seattle to review the autopsy results.
And in the meantime, on July 8th of 2013, he conducts a follow-up interview with Robert Davis. At this point, Robert
has moved to Cordelane, Idaho. And he says pretty much the exact same thing. He never had sex with Kayla. He didn't
kill her. And he did not dispose of her body. He's still saying this even when he's finally confronted with all of the
DNA. Still denies killing her. Still denies disposing of her body. Even denies being at the crime scene. Like,
this dude doesn't give an inch. So, they let him go. Now, on December 31st, 2013,
the autopsy results from Seattle comeback, and this one could not be more different. We actually got our hands on
both Dr. Howard's original autopsy and the new report, which was done by a guy named Dr. Carl Wigran. And Brit,
comparing these two reports, it's like they're not even talking about the same body. On her upper body alone, Dr. Wigan
notes four abrasions, including what looks like a shoe print on her chest and parallel marks consistent with bindings.
There are 18 sharp force wounds, 16 of which are concentrated on her hands and lower arms as if she was trying to like
defend herself. And there are 50 contusions also consistent with defensive wounds, including a black eye.
And on her lower half, he notes six abrasions, including a shoe print on her left thigh, nine sharp force wounds, and
48 contusions consistent with defensive wounds, which is like wild to me that we're still saying
undetermined undetermined manner of death. It It like defies logic to me. And like listen, Dr. Howard's report
talked about like some defects like on her hands and fingers. He points out some like cut like defects on her left
hand and thumb like four of those. And then obviously he like notes like her the wound where she's cut in half. And
he makes a note of a stab wound on her thigh which which appears in both reports.
But there's like shoe prints on her thigh, shoe prints on her chest. Dude, he had nothing about her having a
black eye. He had nothing about her, like the injuries on her lower arms or her legs. And what sticks out to me is
like the sheer enormity of the wounds in this second autopsy compared to the first. Like again, it feels like you're
looking at reports for two different victims. Yeah. And this second doctor, he also
notes that he sees no documentation showing like internal exams to like fully rule out sexual assault. Oh, and
by the way, they did eventually do like some testing um to see if the stuff that
the staining was actually bleach, but ultimately that came back inconclusive. Like it doesn't really fall into these
reports, but it's worth noting. And the second doctor, he couldn't he he like the first, he couldn't determine a
specific cause of death, but based on everything he's seeing, the second doctor, this Dr. Wigrren says there's no
way this isn't a murder. Right. So armed with this new report, Detective Burbridge goes to the deputy
prosecutor who in turn brings the findings to Dr. Howard, the first Emmy. But Dr. Howard refuses to change the
ruling. And his reasoning is that he can't rule out an overdose as her cause of death. Hold up. He's legit still
holding on to that. Like he did the talk screen. There wasn't a lethal amount of
drugs in her system. It actually can't be an overdose. I know. And like literally this makes no
sense to anyone in the police department. Like for for Detective Burbridge, this should be an openandsh
case. Yeah. And in 2014, his supervisor agrees and he gives him permission to write up
charging documents for Robert Davis for murder. Which quick question, did they ever go looking for Heather's body after
Robert's mom talked to them? Um, so, okay, so there were a few searches done by her family. Um, and like like the
area that Robert alluded to, I guess is super difficult to search. Like it's all
these really steep cliffs. So, there were some searches done. Again, like most by her family, nothing was ever
found. So even even now, but still even without Heather's body or a confession, the escalation of Robert's
alleged crimes feels super clear to Detective Burbridge. So like even if they can't get Heather, like they know
what they're dealing with in Kayla's case. Like let's at least get him for that.
But here's what's wild. still with everything they have and no matter how clear it feels to the
detectives, to the people in the police department, you, me, our listeners, prosecutors refuse to press charges,
what else do they want? What else could they possibly need? Ashley, like the word frustrating, like doesn't
even cover it. Like, it doesn't cover it for how I feel. Certainly not for how Detective Burbridge is left feeling.
Like, he is straight up angry. Kayla's family is angry. And that anger only intensifies when on June 21st, 2014,
another woman comes forward saying that she has been attacked by Robert. On the evening of the 21st, a woman we'll be
calling Sasha was alone in her trailer in Celane, Idaho, when Robert entered unexpectedly. Now, she knew who he was.
He had been hanging out with a friend of hers, but him showing up unannounced without her friend was strange. Sasha
said Robert proceeded to attack her, choking her until she passed out several times. And each time she woke up, Robert
was sexually assaulting her. And in her gut, she knew that Robert was going to kill her if no one stopped him. Now,
thankfully, true hero of the story, her dog was there with her. And this dog began attacking Robert, which is what
Sasha believes made him stop. And when she woke up again, according to the court docs, he was running out the door.
Now, thankfully, she didn't suffer any serious physical injuries, and she was easily able to identify Robert as her
attacker. So, he gets arrested and originally charged with first-degree attempted murder and burglary, though he
pled down to burglary and battery with attempt to commit rape. And he ended up getting a sentence of 15 years with the
option of parole much sooner. Now, it's not much time, but while he's in prison, Detective Burbridge has a
little more breathing room to like get this right. And he gets an early win when the deputy
prosecutor tells Detective Burbridge that they're finally going to consider getting another opinion about Kayla's
autopsy. Wait, why can't they use Dr. Wigrin's? Because they say because Dr. Wigan
wasn't an official me. like he runs a private practice called Wigran Forensic. So he like can do autopsies
and he had like he served as the associate medical examiner for Snomish County for like a couple of years. It's
not like he's just like making up his certification. But they want someone with like the
actual legit title medical examiner to give their official stamped opinion. Yeah. Bingo. Which sounds fine. Great.
Whatever. Until 3 days later. That's when the deputy prosecutor says, "You know what?
Actually, never mind. That's not happening." Oh, and don't even bother asking why because the deputy prosecutor
doesn't give a reason. Cool. Yeah. So, in a lastditch effort to try and get something, investigators try to
interview Robert Davis again. However, he asks for a lawyer and refuses to talk. And that ends up being Detective
Burbridge's last attempt to get answers because in 2015 he's taken off the case and moved from major crimes to the
special investigations unit which primarily manages drug investigations. Why he's removed unclear. There is
speculation and rumor mostly stemming from his unyielding pressure on the prosecutor's office. But as with any
change of like leadership in a case, momentum gets lost when he gets moved. Knowledge gets lost. Kayla and Heather's
cases have both had numerous lead investigators assigned to them over the years. Each having varying levels of
success getting new information. And by this point, Jackie, who's Heather's mom,
does know that police believe her daughter was killed. Again, I don't know when it happens or how it happens. By by
this point, she knows. And even though charging documents are again brought to the prosecutor's office for Kayla's
homicide on February 9th, 2017, those charges again do not get approved. And the reason is that the prosecutor's
office sites is a need for more evidence. But all the shadiness, all the dodging of charges, all the protection
of the Emmy's office, that gets challenged in April of 2017 because that's when the Washington Department of
Health launches an investigation into the medical examiner's office. You see, they'd received complaints from numerous
families who claim that Dr. Howard and his co-eme, Dr. Sally Aken have a history of incorrect rulings when it
comes to cause and manner of death. You see, according to more of Thomas Klaus's
reporting, Kayla's case is one of several that are brought up in the complaint. Others include Brenda
Thurman, who was shot by her husband in what was initially ruled an accident. And then there's Dr. John Marshall, who
was found in the Spokane River with what looks like bruising from being beaten. His death originally ruled an accident,
too. Sarah Schmidt was also found in the Spokane River with bruising on her ankles that looked a lot like liature
marks. Her death is ruled a suicide. And then there's Cindy Lou Zeppenfeld Bergen, whose body was found wrapped in
plastic on the side of the road in Idaho after she filed for a protection order to escape domestic violence. Spokane
Emmy did the autopsy and ruled her cause of death as a heart attack and therefore
ruled her manner of death as natural. Just to be clear, she was found wrapped in plastic.
You got it. Got it. Now, of course, the county commissioner makes a statement saying that the county
stands behind its Emmys even before the investigation gets underway, which is like a little wild to me. Like, let's
let the process like do its thing. But the thing about this investigation is that even if it reveals that there was
something wrong with the rulings, apparently there's no way to get them changed because it's up to the medical
examiners to change the rulings, which at least for Kayla's case, we know they've refused to do. Wait, how does
that make any sense? It doesn't. Like the power is still sitting with the ME's office to make the change. And even if
somehow they could have changed the rulings, we know they wouldn't have because by the end of the investigation
in 2017, the Department of Health ultimately finds that doctors Howard and Aken quote met the standard of care,
which if you ask me is a prettying low standard. And it is a slap in the face on top of every other gut punch that
these families have experienced. But Kayla's family's fight and Heather's family's fight, it isn't over yet.
Because come 2019, Robert Davis is up for parole and they're ready to do everything in their power to make sure
he stays in prison. Kayla's mom and one of her brothers go to the hearing. Jackie, Heather's mom, can't go because
she's sick. But she told us that she is so glad both her family and Kayla's family were ready to fight his release.
Because according to Jackie, the parole board in Idaho wasn't even aware of Kayla or Heather's cases until their
families made them aware. Now, how they didn't know this is beyond me. I don't know if it's cuz he wasn't convicted of
it, but once the board finds out, the board asked Robert about Kayla, like in his review.
And according to Martin, Robert got mad when they asked. She told our team that his face like got
bright red. veins were like popping out of his neck. He swore up and down that he didn't know who she was,
which by the way is a brand new story because he admitted to knowing her back in 2012,
right? Ultimately, he gets denied parole, which is a huge win. And Jackie told us that a
woman on the parole board promises her and Kayla's family that they will be notified next time he's up for parole,
which they're all for, right? Like, they're going to fight this. They want to keep him in prison for as long as
possible to keep him off the streets and to give investigators more time to build
their cases and hopefully they can get him once and for all. Well, if they're working the cases, that is, right?
Because the families don't know. By this point, the investigations into both cases have changed hands so many times,
it's difficult for them to keep track of who's in charge and what they're doing.
Still though, this was one of the first wins they've had in a long time. And then another one comes in 2021 when both
Dr. Howard and Dr. Akin retire. So, a new medical examiner, Dr. Vina Singh, is appointed and she begins revisiting
several of the previous Emmys rulings, including Kayla's. [Music] In possibly the biggest victory her
family has gotten, Dr. thing changes Kayla's manner of death from undetermined to homicide. Finally,
and Kayla's isn't the only case that's amended either. According to Haley Gunther's reporting for KQH, Dr. Singh
has changed the ruling on four of Dr. Howard's cases, which by the way, like huge shout out to Haley. She was a huge
help in setting us up for success on this story. Like, she made a lot of connections for us. Anyway, it's
difficult to describe the feeling of relief that washes over the family when they hear this news. Like, it is the
first step in a long journey ahead of them, but it is the step that they've been fighting for like for years. And
maybe now finally things will start falling into place. Except it's never that easy, is it? Because when charging
documents are again brought forward to the prosecutor's office in 2022, they get denied. And in mid 2024, the
family's worst fears come true. Robert Davis is let out on parole. By the way, they got no warning about that. No
chance to stand before the parole board and fight to keep him off the streets. Right. Since 2024, their cases have
again been reassigned as the most recent investigator retired, and both families
continue to try and fight for justice. Although the fight is getting harder the longer it goes on. Heather's mom,
Jackie, described living with the pain and the unknowns as a life sentence. Like instead of the person responsible
for her daughter's disappearance serving time, she feels like she is. And Kayla's
family worries that they'll never get to see the day when justice is served for everyone who might be involved with
Kayla's murder. Kayla's mom, Martine, believes Robert, was one of the ones responsible. But she can't help but
wonder if someone closer to Kayla may have known what happened and maybe won't come forward for some reason. Like, it's
a question that has haunted her for years. Well, and Robert's mom's story like mentions two other guys. Like, is
it possible that he's like working with other people or other people know more about this?
I don't know. I don't know like if there are other people involved. Again, Kayla's mom seems to think so. I think
the way that like police view at least what I picked up is like they think that he did something to Heather. I don't
think they like think he was just there when a body was disposed of. That doesn't mean that no one else was
involved, but they just think he's far more culpable than just being like a bystander. Now, there have been no more
official searches to find Heather's body. Like I said, it's difficult terrain where he said she was. So, it's
going to be difficult to search. And like that's part of the reason Jackie and her family would be out there doing
more, but they they literally can't. And without concrete answers, she's left in
limbo or that prison as she says. Both moms are answers and justice feel so close but still out of reach and they
have to live with the knowledge that their daughters were killed. But the system that is supposed to get them
justice has just refused to do so. But that grief and frustration is not how either mom wants to remember their
girls. Jackie called Heather the defender of the defenseless. She had a heart of pure gold, going out
of her way to help those experiencing homelessness. Like I said earlier, she was in school for journalism. She wanted
to tell people's stories. And I can't help but wonder where that career would have taken her. And Martine wants Kayla
to be remembered as the vivacious, strong willed young woman with an infectious laugh who dreamed of a career
where she could just help people. When she went missing, Kayla was working on getting her GED with dreams of going to
nursing school. And there was so much she wanted to give of herself, but she never got the chance to. One thing is
clear. Something needs to change. In the family's opinion, it's the prosecutor today. That prosecutor is a
man named Larry Haskell. Now, we tried to get in touch with his office, but since it's an open case, they said they
wouldn't comment. Just about everyone we spoke to for this episode feels that the
prosecutor's office won't take this case because it would mean admitting that the
original autopsy report from Dr. Howard was incorrect, which could call into question hundreds of other rulings.
It would likely cost the city millions, but in my opinion, that's a small price to pay. How many more cases are there
like Kayla's where the ruling was wrong? How many dangerous people are still out
causing harm? And on the flip side, there could be innocent people sitting in prison. Like the problem goes both
ways. Totally. This case is solvable. I said it at the beginning. And enough time has passed
that maybe people who didn't feel like they could come forward in 2010 or 2012 might feel safe to do so today. So,
we're going to have contact information for the Spokane PD in our show notes if anyone out there knows something about
the disappearance of Heather Higgins or the murder of Kayla Williams. And here is my warning to everyone. Robert Davis
is still out there. He is living in Iowa while he's on parole with an ankle monitor. According to Kayla's family, an
ankle monitor that they say they had to ask for, by the way. They live in fear that he will strike again. And they pray
that the right person will do the right thing to get him off the streets. But in
the meantime, crime junkies, this is where you come in. Kayla and Heather's families have been fighting for over a
decade for justice. They've lost trust in the people that are supposed to fight for them. So, if you want to join in on
that fight, my recommendation is to contact the Washington State Attorney General and ask for a review of Kayla
and Heather's cases. Nick Brown and his office oversees all of the prosecutors in the state of Washington. And if there
is one person who can get things moving in the right direction, it would be him.
We'll have a link to that contact form below. You can find all the source material for this episode on our
website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram, crimejunkiepodcast.
We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. [Music]

Today we examine the tragic case of Kala Williams, a 20-year-old found brutally murdered in Spokane, Washington, on Mother’s Day 2012, and the related disappearance of Heather Higgins in 2010. We explore the dogged investigation led by Detective Mark Burbridge, the DNA evidence pointing to suspect Robert G. Davis, and the statements from Davis’s mother, Sherri “Raynell” Cook. With insights into the challenges faced by the Spokane Police Department and the families’ ongoing quest for justice, this video honors the memories of Kala and Heather while shedding light on the unresolved questions surrounding their cases.

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Brief Summary

Kayla Williams and Heather Higgins' cases reveal systemic failures in the justice system and the ongoing fight for justice by their families.

Key points

The Discovery of Kayla Williams. A father discovers human remains in Spokane, leading to a shocking investigation.
The Autopsy Results. Kayla's autopsy reveals significant trauma but leaves many questions unanswered.
DNA Evidence Points to Robert Davis. Investigators find DNA evidence linking a known criminal to Kayla's case.
Confession from Robert's Mother. Robert's mother reveals a chilling confession about a past crime involving another victim.
Jackie's Desperation. Jackie feels abandoned by the police, believing her daughter is still alive while they do not.
Robert Davis's Alibi. Robert claims he left Heather on the side of the road, but evidence suggests otherwise.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I know at one time she had been reported missing by her brother.

4:55WatchMay 15, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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