Searching for Sera

by Dallas E Tucker

  “How much weight do you move in a week?”

  Tyson thought for a few seconds and then said, “about a pound of crystal and maybe 500 pills of X.”

  “Let’s talk about your supplier. Who is it?”

  Tyson immediately crossed his arms and legs and leaned back in his chair. He shook his head and started repeatedly saying no.

  "Tell me who it is," I demanded.

  "I’m not saying shit about that," he replied.

  I studied Tyson and could see he was scared. I tried to figure it out in my mind. Was it a cartel hook up? Some street gangsters? Or was it some spoiled rich kid?

  I pressed Tyson harder and explained how this was going to work. I told him what he was going to be charged with and how I could help him if he helped me. Tyson became upset and was very uneasy. He got up out of his chair and paced around the room.

  "You don't get it, man. He will fucking kill me if he finds out I said anything to you. He's a fucking monster!"

  I noticed Tyson had tears in his eyes and I could tell there was something deeper. I stood up and yelled at him.

  "Sit your ass down!"

  Startled by my tone, Tyson quickly sat down. I let him squirm in his chair for a few seconds. I could tell something was going on in his head. He was trying to think of a story to tell me, but I could see he was coming up blank. I saw an opportunity to catch him off guard, so I took it.

  “Tell me what happened to Sera!” I yelled.

  "What?...I don't know," Tyson said, as he fumbled his words.

  "Bullshit, tell me what the fuck you did to her!" I yelled as I slammed my fist on the table.

  Tyson immediately started sobbing and shaking his head. I pressed on, scooting my chair even closer.

  “I’m going to put your ass in prison for the rest of your miserable fucking life! Tell me what you did to her you piece of shit!”

  Uncontrollably crying, trying to catch his breath, Tyson suddenly yelled back at me.

  “He made me fucking watch!”

  I could see it in his eyes. He was telling the truth. He was scared to death, but he knew what happened to Sera.

  “Who made you watch?” I quickly replied.

  "Oh, God! It's all my fault….. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Tyson exclaimed as he put his hands over his face, sobbing uncontrollably.

  “Give me a name!” I yelled, pushing on.

  Tyson was almost hyperventilating at this point. He struggled to catch his breath.

  “I need a name. Give me a fucking name,” I demanded.

  Tyson couldn't answer me. He was crying too hard, which was making him sick. I moved the trash can closer to him and he quickly used it. I got him a bottle of water and told him to calm down.

  Maybe I was being too hard on him. I decided to try a different tactic.

  I placed my hand on his shoulder. As he started to catch his breath, I began giving him words of encouragement. I patted his shoulder and told him it wasn’t his fault. Tyson initially argued with me, as he continued to blame himself. He managed to pull himself together enough to make a statement.

  "I watched him kill her," Tyson confessed, as his eyes begged for forgiveness.

  My heart was drumming, but I needed to keep calm. I patted Tyson on the back and told him I was here to help him. I buttered him up some more, hoping he would take the bait.

  “The weight of this secret is killing you. Look at what this is doing to you. You need to just let it out. Unburden yourself and tell me what happened. This is your chance to do the right thing finally. I know you cared for Sera, that’s obvious, I can see it. She didn’t deserve this. Her mom doesn’t deserve this. You are the only one who can help now."

  I could tell my words were getting through to him. He was listening intently, so I continued.

  "Give Sera’s mom some closure. Give everyone involved in this some closure. You don’t deserve to suffer from this guilt. Quit suffering Tyson. Do the right thing.”

  Tyson sat there still crying, looking for the words. I held my breath in anticipation, praying that he would find that decency to end this.

  “His name is Casper,” he said, in a quiet voice.

  Jackpot!

  My excitement was hard to hide, but I did my best.

  “Who is Casper?”

  “He’s is who I get my shit from.”

  “How did you meet Casper?”

  “My cousin introduced us. Casper is AB, and he is fucking crazy.”

  “Aryan Brotherhood?”

  “Yes, his real name is Charlie Crain, but everyone knows him as Casper.”

  “What did Casper do?”

  “He killed Sera.”

  Tyson hunched over, wrapping his arms around his stomach.

  “Tell me what happened.”

  Tyson took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds and then exhaled. A moaning sound came from his mouth. He looked at me, his eyes engulfed in fear.

  "Casper called me the other night and asked if I had his money. I owed him $2,000 for some crystal he fronted me. I told him I only had $500 and that I hadn't sold all of it yet. He was pissed and hung up on me. That night, Sera and I went to a club and Casper showed up. He beat the shit out of me for not having his money. He told me I had two days to get it, and if I was late, he was going to kill me."

  "Keep going," I said, as I anxiously waited for more.

  “The next day I was with Sera, and she noticed a truck sitting outside of my house. I went outside, and saw it was Casper. I told him I was working on getting his money. He pointed at Sera and said that she was distracting me from my work. He told me that maybe he would kill her instead. I gave him another $500, and he left. The next day Sera was kidnapped. I didn’t know for sure if it was Casper. I tried to call him several times, but he didn't answer. A couple of days later Casper showed up at my house. He broke in, put a gun to my head and told me we were going for a ride.”

  Tyson’s voice got louder. His posture got stiffer, as he continued to tell his story.

  “I got in the car, and Casper drove me out into the woods. I didn’t know where I was. All I could think about was that I didn’t want to die. After driving down a dirt road for a while, we arrived at a cabin. Casper got out, pointed the gun at me and told me to get out. I did what he said, and he took me inside the cabin. Once I got in the cabin, I saw Sera.”

  Tyson broke down hysterically crying again. He put his hands over his face, and his body heaved back and forth, as he sucked for air.

  “Calm down Tyson. Catch your breath,” I said.

  He sniffled and wiped his tears.

  "She was chained to a bed, in the corner of the room. She was naked and bloody. There were chains wrapped around her neck, wrists, and ankles. She started crying when she saw me. Casper made me sit in a chair, as he sat down next to Sera. He said Sera was going to be staying with him until he got all of his money. Casper showed me a picture of my mom. He said if I told anyone, she would be next. Then he made me watch as he beat and raped Sera."

  Tyson got sick again and threw up in the trash can. He sat there holding his stomach, moaning uncontrollably.

  I explained how important this was and that I needed him to keep going. After a couple of minutes, Tyson caught his breath and continued.

  "He drove me back to my house and told me I had two days to get him the rest of his money. Plus he demanded another $1,000 for his troubles. I sold what I could and did a few street rips from some of my competition. I finally had the money, so I called Casper. Casper gave me directions to the cabin and said I should hurry. I wanted to call the police and take them with me, but I was scared to death. I thought Casper was going to kill Sera and then my mom. Even if Casper was arrested, he would have someone else from his crew kill them."

  I sat and listened to Tyson, as my body filled with rage. Thoughts of the horror that Sera went through ran through my mind. I thought about how Tyson could have saved her. He could have called the police after seeing Sera at the ca
bin. Instead, he sold drugs and robbed his competition. He was the reason Sera was dead. I felt no sympathy for him and I wanted to hurt him.

  I took a deep breath and tried to stay focused. I reminded myself to stay calm and thought about catching Sera's killer.

  “What happened next?” I asked, in a sympathetic voice.

  "I went back to the cabin to give Casper his money. When I got there, Casper was outside on the porch waiting for me. I could hear Sera screaming inside, and I begged Casper to let her go. Casper took me inside and he sat at the table, counting his money. Then he pistol-whipped me and began kicking me in the stomach. He told me to never fuck with him again. He said he was going to make sure that I understood how serious he was. He continued to beat me, to the point I was almost unconscious. He went over to Sera and took the chains off of her. She was so weak and beaten so severely, she could hardly move. Casper grabbed her by the arm and threw her on the floor. I helped Sera to her feet, and we made it to the door. I was telling her to hurry, but she could hardly move. We stepped out onto the porch, and Casper followed. Casper hit me in the head and knocked me down. I turned around and saw that Casper had a chain wrapped around Sera's neck."

  Tyson stopped talking at this point and threw up into the garbage can again. He was visibly trembling and had snot pouring out of his nose. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, and he looked like shit.

  “What did Casper do next?”

  “He started to strangle her. I begged him to stop, but he just smiled at me. He told me he couldn’t have two witnesses. He was choking her so hard that he lifted her feet off the ground.”

  “Did you watch her die?”

  Tyson nodded his head, but didn’t say anything. His silence enraged me. I asked the question again, this time in a louder voice.

  "Did you watch her die!"

  Sobbing uncontrollably, Tyson said, "Yes."

  I was at my breaking point. I needed to take a break before I killed Tyson. I handcuffed him to the table and told him I would be back in a minute.

  I went into the hallway and walked around. I had so much anger built up in me, I felt like I was going to explode. I did a couple of breathing exercises, but they didn't help. All I wanted to do was to grab that pussy by the throat and choke the life out of him.

  My partners who were watching the interview from the other room came out into the hall. They gave me words of encouragement and told me to hang in there. They had already started gathering all of the available information on Casper.

  Deep down I knew we would get him. The thought of putting him in prison gave me the encouragement that I needed. I collected myself and went back in.

  I continued to question Tyson about Sera and Casper. Tyson told me about how Casper made him help get rid of Sera's body. Casper knew about a deep hole below some rapids, in an isolated area of the river. Casper and Tyson tied boat anchors around her legs. They carried Sera's body to that river bank and threw it in.

  On the drive back to the cabin, Casper told Tyson he would kill his mom if anyone ever found out. If Tyson tried to leave the area, Casper would find him and kill him.

  Tyson said he hadn’t slept in days. He was scared that Casper was going to kill him. Several times during the interview Tyson asked for forgiveness. Tyson pleaded for protection, saying that if he went to jail, Casper would have him killed. He begged me to protect his mom, adding that she had nothing to do with his lifestyle.

  After the interview, Tyson apologized for not calling the police. He told me he loved Sera and that he never meant for this to happen. I stared at him and didn’t say anything.

  I watched as he sat in his chair crying. A slow, sickening, sensation ran through my body. My rage was poking at my skin, waiting for me to release it. I pictured myself caving his face in, with a single punch. I looked away, as I snapped out of my delusion.

  Without saying a word, I walked out of the room and closed the door.

  CHAPTER 11

  Here I Come

  By the next morning, I had all available information on Charles Lee Crain, a.k.a. Casper. I learned that Casper was an enforcer for a local set of the AB known as the SCS, which stands for Sitka County Soldiers. He was on parole for a weapons violation, but had been in the wind for a couple of months. He was a suspect in a homicide from a couple of years back, but the DA dropped the charges, due to insufficient evidence against him. Since he was a convicted felon, I knew his DNA profile would be in CODIS.

  I called Rene and told her about Casper. I asked her to locate his DNA profile and compare it to the profile taken from the scrapings under Sera’s fingernails. Rene said she would have it compared immediately and call me back with the results.

  My excitement level was through the roof. When a case started coming together like this, there was nothing quite like it. I had called the DA and spoke to him directly. He agreed to come to my office and go over the case.

  I sent the surveillance team to the cabin, to do some reconnaissance. I knew it was going to be hard given the isolated location, but I had faith in the team and their abilities. I had already written a search warrant for the cabin, based on what Tyson told me. I had checked the county assessor's records and learned the house belonged to Casper. It used to be his grandparents, but it was turned over to him when his grandpa died.

  While waiting for the DA to show up, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Rene.

  “Tell me you have good news."

  “I think you will like it,” Rene said, in a smart-ass tone.

  I could tell she was excited.

  “The DNA profile is a match,” Rene said. “There is no way it came from anybody else. The results came back with a 1 in 3 quintillion chance that it's not from Casper.”

  “That’s beautiful. Can you fax me the report?”

  “Its already on the way.”

  I was elated and had butterflies in my stomach. I immediately thought about Marsha. I couldn't wait to tell her that I knew who killed Sera. I was going to get this piece of shit, and he was going to pay. I couldn’t wait to put the cuffs on him and get Sera the justice she deserved.

  When the DA arrived, we went over the case in detail. I answered all of his questions and waited for his opinion. When it was all said and done, the DA was happy with the case and agreed to issue an arrest warrant for Casper. The warrant contained nine felony counts, including first-degree murder.

  We completed the paperwork at my office and I followed the DA back to the courthouse. Once we were there, the DA wrote up the complaint, and an arrest warrant was issued for Casper.

  I quickly hurried back to my office, where the team was waiting. I had enlisted the help of numerous detectives and officers. I wanted Casper bad, and I wasn’t going to take any chances. Casper and the other SCS members were violent, so I was going in heavy.

  The surveillance team updated me on their status. There wasn't any sign of anyone at the cabin, but there were a few vehicles parked outside. I knew hitting that cabin without confirming if Casper was there was risky. But it was a risk I had to take.

  After finishing the briefing, we loaded up and headed to the woods.

  On the drive to the cabin, spirits were high. We blasted some songs by AC/DC to set the mood. The team joked around, but at the same time, we all knew the mission was dangerous.

  Air ops were up and ready to assist us. I had arranged for them to hold their position until I gave them the green light. We were almost to the staging area, my adrenaline creeping in.

  In my mind, I replayed the investigation up to this point. I thought about where the case started and where it was currently at. I would've never guessed that it was going to lead me here. I was thrilled that we had identified Casper as the killer. With Tyson's statement and Casper's DNA on Sera's body, I knew he was going away for the rest of his life.

  I thought about Marsha and how I hoped she would be pleased with the case. I thought about my family and how much I missed them. I thought about the
things we were going to do, once this case was over. I knew Allie and I were going to go hunting. I knew I was going to be able to watch a few of my daughter’s soccer games. I smiled, as I thought about all of these things.

  When we hit the staging area, everyone stopped screwing around. It was showtime, and we switched gears to strictly business. We exited the vehicle and got ready. Because of the location of the cabin, the rest of the trip would be made on foot.

  We quickly lined up in formation and made our approach. We silently slipped through the trees and bushes. After a short hike, the cabin was in sight. We held our positions for a moment and did some last minute reconnaissance. There wasn’t any movement, and everything was quiet. My fingers were crossed, hoping Casper was in there.

  We made our final approach to the rear of the cabin.

  Over my earpiece, I heard the team leader cadence his countdown.

  The sound of the halligan crashing through a window, echoed off the surrounding forest. There was silence for a split second and then, BOOM! The flashbang rang out. The door exploded as the ram hit it. With our hearts pounding, we made entry.

  Once inside, I saw the bed in the corner of the room, just like Tyson had described. The chains were still anchored to the wall, laying across the mattress. The sheets were saturated with blood, and I saw female clothes wadded up in the corner.

  The room was disgusting, and the only furniture in it was the bed, a couch, and a coffee table. There were several pornographic magazines and a couple of ashtrays, scattered on top of the table. The couch was old and stained, and the room smelled like rotten food.

  We made our way into the kitchen and it smelled God awful. The counters were covered with car parts and empty beer cans. The garbage can was overflowing, and there were several other bags stacked behind it. The kitchen table consisted of a wooden wire spool and old lawn chairs. On top of the table were more pornographic magazines, and burnt tin foil.

  We made it to the hallway, and I noticed there were only two doors left. We opened the first door and entered the room. The room had a mattress, a dresser, and a TV. The floor was covered in dirty clothes; metal machined parts; numerous tools, and old coffee cans full of rocks. Hanging on the walls were several large medieval style knives and swords. More beer cans and a couple of meth pipes covered the nightstand. On the dresser was a large assortment of pornographic DVDs, several of them displaying S&M on the cover.