Waiting for laboratory results, Sheriff Jordan reminded Laufenberg that on March 2, Wilde County distributed a flyer showing Joel Block as a missing person.
“There is a flyer of Joel Block hanging up on the bulletin board. It has a Post-it note that tells the Wolftown Police Department not to participate in his missing persons search. It is your handwriting in a blue pen on a yellow Post-it note, with your partial fingerprint on the sticky part of the Post-it note. There is your fingerprint partly on the flyer and partly on the Post-it note. The handwriting matches samples of your handwriting. It’s signed C. P. V. L.”
“I don’t remember writing the Post-it note on March 2,” Laufenberg said.
“When did you write it?”
“If I wrote it, I forgot specifically that I wrote it. If I did, it would have been during the wolf attacks. I was planning how to distribute resources,” Laufenberg said.
“The police department was asked for assistance in the search, and it was refused.”
“When?”
“March 3. Derrick Charles asked every day until March 9 for assistance, and it was refused every time. You wouldn’t speak to him on March 8 or 9.”
“We were busy. I told you on the phone.”
“You were pretty defensive. Wolftown normally provides a lot of assistance for missing persons. If you’re a tourist town, you need the tourists to feel protected. Is there a reason you didn’t want to find Joel Block?”
“No. I don’t even know him.”
“He works at the BP Station, and you own a car, and live in town, and there is one gas station inside the city limits.”
“I couldn’t pick Joel Block out of a line-up.”
“He wears a coonskin hat in winter. He made it out of roadkill.”
“Disgusting.”
Knowing that Laufenberg assumed the Vasquezes were Mexican, and that he disapproved of Central and South American people’s existences, Sheriff Jordan said, “By the way, Miranda Vasquez is a third-generation American of Puerto Rican descent, and Sergio Vasquez was born in the U.S. to Peruvian immigrant parents.”
“Who are they?” Laufenberg asked.
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
“Phelps says that on March 8, you called him and told him if there were other missing persons cases, he needed to put a Post-it note on the flyers. You told him to copy the note on Joel Block’s flyer.”
“I was planning how to distribute resources.”
“What were the resources for?”
“The flood and the wolf hunt. What do you expect?”
“Floods cause people to go missing, but you didn’t want to search for people?”
“People would be in their homes.”
“But they weren’t. There were members of the Wolf Guard outside, and there were reports that Tyler Wilson, Corey Brown, the Vasquezes, Joel Block, and Nancy Holst were missing. At least Nancy Holst was found safe on Sunday.”
“We didn’t have the resources to search for people in the woods. I wasn’t referring to flood victims.” Laufenberg voiced his opinions about Sheriff Jordan questioning him when the Department of Criminal Investigation had already investigated him.
“I’m not calling it official documentation. I’m not judging you about whether or not you should have written the note.” In his head, Sheriff Jordan added, aloud. “I just want to know whether or not you had knowledge of the Vasquezes’ existences before today.”
“I’ve never heard of them before today.”
“Did you know of a Hispanic or Latino couple attacked in the woods before today?”
“No.”
“Did you know that a couple was attacked in the woods before today?”
“No.”
“Did you know that a couple was attacked before today?”
“Were you the authority that first received a report about an attacked couple?”
“No.”
“Did you tell somebody to wait 24 hours before reporting the attacked couple?”
“No.”
Sheriff Jordan repeated the questions, replacing couple with man and then with woman. Dennis Laufenberg answered no.
“So why did Deputy Phelps say that on March 9, you told him there would be a flyer faxed in about a couple attacked and separated in the woods?”
“I didn’t.”
“You called his home from your home. Nobody had reported the Vasquezes missing at that point. Miranda Vasquez was found on March 10 and reported Sergio missing on March 10. How did you know a couple was attacked and missing before it was reported to the authorities?”
“I didn’t. If they were missing in the woods after a wild animal attack in this weather, I’d start an investigation immediately.”
“How do you know who or what attacked them?” Sheriff Jordan asked.
“We don’t have killers around here,” Laufenberg said. “The bears will be waking up soon, and we have coyotes, cougars, and wolves.”
“And since the 1900s, coyotes, bears, and cougars haven’t killed anybody or caused life-threatening bodily harm anybody in Wilde County. So you knew that there were wolves around here, and that the wolves weren’t afraid of people and were attacking them. You knew two people had been attacked in the woods. Wayne McDowell says that the wolves did go into the woods. Isn’t that enough reason to start an investigation immediately?”
“I didn’t know about the people who had been attacked.”
“With the wolf attacks, why didn’t you begin assisting the search for Joel Block?”
“Realistically, it’s a body recovery after a week.”
Not in his case, and not always with unprepared people, Sheriff Jordan thought. He asked, “How do you know, when you and other members of the police department never enquired about his case?”
“Because of the floods. The missing persons have nothing to do with the wolf attack.”
“How do you know?”
“Because all the wolf attacks occurred inside the city limits.”
Sheriff Jordan said, “Phelps said you told him to wait for somebody to send you the fax, and then he would write the Post-it note. We found a message pad page in Vincent’s home. It has an indentation from someone writing on a sheet above it. The sheet above it was torn out. The page has Vasquez’s name on it. It’s misspelled, but it’s phonetically the same name. Why does the note have the Vasquez’s name on it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it came from an upper page, or he wrote it after seeing the flyer.”
“The name was on the page found in the dump and as an indent at Phelp’s house.”
“I don’t know why. Maybe he had an anonymous tip.”
“Phelps didn’t want to talk about the phone call,” Sheriff Jordan said. “He denied any knowledge of the Vasquezes, and he says he didn’t even remember hanging up the flyer and the Post-it note.”
“Then he is telling the truth, and our stories corroborate.”
“Then he said he was so busy, or maybe he forgot.” Despite having a long phone conversation with me about them, Sheriff Jordan added to himself. “Did you forget?”
“No. I gave you plenty of reasons why I wouldn’t look for the Vasquezes and Joel Block.”
“People who know you forget things all of a sudden, and we have evidence that Phelps has covered for you before,” Sheriff Jordan said.
“Maybe Corey and Tyler had something to do with Joel and the Vasquezes, and they planted evidence,” Laufenberg said.
Sheriff Jordan strategically mentioned Corey Brown, since her name tended to make Laufenberg less cooperative. “Corey Brown says you said, on March 6, that there were two Hispanic people near the camp. On March 7, Corey Brown says you said, I’m quoting, ‘the Spics aren’t a problem anymore”
Dennis Laufenberg already seemed angry, but Sheriff Jordan heard him use various slurs and attributed his mood to Corey Brown betraying Laufenberg.
“I’m not quoting now. You killed or attempted to kill Miranda and Sergio Vasquez so they wouldn’t find your campsite. Corey Brown doesn’t know what exactly you meant, but I’m going to find out.”
Dennis argued for some time and ranted about Corey. “Why would I go from just calling people like them ‘Spics’ to killing them?” he asked.
“Officer Henry says that you called him at home on March 8. You asked if a woman had damaged calf muscles and no supplies in cold, rainy weather, how long would she survive in the woods?” Sheriff Jordan said.
“I didn’t call him on March 8, but I asked him earlier in March about Jo—people’s chances for survival.”
“So you did investigate missing persons cases?”
“No. I was asking a general question because people go missing during floods.”
“Why would a flood specifically injure a leg and not other body parts?”
“It was an example.”
“Why did you say, ‘She,’ not ‘he’?”
“Women are weaker.”
“This is what Miranda Vasquez’s leg looked like when she reached the hospital.” Sheriff Jordan showed him a color photograph.
Laufenberg glanced at the photograph and pushed it away. “I don’t recognize her leg.”
“And she did almost die because of the problems Officer Henry predicted. When he asked, ‘Is the artery bleeding?’ you said, ‘No.’” Sheriff Jordan pointed to Miranda’s leg. “That’s her artery, by the way. Why would you be that specific about a general question?”
“I was trying to understand the hypothetical scenario. Anyway, he was guessing. What does he know about hypothermia? He was in Vietnam treating battle wounds.”
And he has been the EMT-Police in a northern state since 1976, regardless of when the term EMT-police was first used, Sheriff Jordan thought.
“He’s probably getting senile,” Dennis Laufenberg said.
“Why didn’t you ask him about other hypothetical scenarios?” Sheriff Jordan asked.
“I couldn’t think of others.”
“He suggested some, but you hung up.”
“I was busy.”
Sheriff Jordan thought Dennis Laufenberg had returned to the Vasquez’s camp, but discovered Miranda Vasquez had left the tree. With limited time, Laufenberg debated whether or not to hunt her and kill her or allow nature to kill her. He probably changed his mind during his original plan.
Sheriff Jordan said, “We know Miranda survived, but Sergio’s body was gone. She says she heard him die. He was screaming and stopped screaming. She says a wolf attacked them, but the wolf didn’t eat Sergio. The wolf left before eating him. Killing and leaving meat is unusual for a carnivore. Miranda says his body was in the campsite when she left, but by the time we got there, it was gone.”
“It’s always the spouse,” Laufenberg said. “Maybe if it was a wolf attack, she was one of the people who trained a wolf.”
“And she ordered the wolf to bite her leg so badly she could not walk out of the woods?”
“It turned on her.”
“Miranda Vasquez says that Sergio tried to save her.”
“To draw attention away from her.”
“What attention and why?”
“She was trying to draw attention from the fact that she killed him by making him look like a good husband.”
“You said you didn’t know anything about the Vasquezes. Why do you say it’s a fact that she killed him?”
They continued for some time. After Laufenberg denied forcing Corey and Tyler to bury Joel Block, Sheriff Jordan asked where Dennis Laufenberg hid Sergio Vasquez’s body. He denied burying him. Sheriff Jordan asked about leaving Sergio near an animal den.
“All right. How else would you dispose of a body?” Sheriff Jordan asked.
“I wouldn’t hide a body,” Dennis Laufenberg said.
“Then what instructions would you give somebody if you wanted the person to hide a body?”
“I wouldn’t give instructions to bury a body.”
“What would you do if you were in a situation where you had to dispose of a body?”
“I wouldn’t be in one.”
“What would you do if you were around a dead body?”
“I’d fulfill my duties as a police officer. I did while investigating the murders.”
“Would you use your position as a member of law enforcement to hide a body?”
“No.”
“Would you use your position as a member of law enforcement to conceal the fact that somebody died?”
“No.”
“Would you use your position as a member of law enforcement to conceal a crime?”
“No.”
“You have with crimes other than homicide, and I have circumstantial evidence that you used your position as a member of law enforcement to conceal three homicides.”
Dennis Laufenberg objected, and his volume and number of profanities increased, and Sheriff Jordan listened patiently, without reacting.
“You are a suspect in the homicides,” Sheriff Jordan said, in his same, calm, firm tone, and provoked Laufenberg. Sheriff Jordan waited between sentences, sometimes repeating them until he thought Laufenberg heard him. “I’d like to think it’s just an investigation conducted by law enforcement officers inexperienced with homicide. We live in a low-crime area. Sergio Vasquez and Joel Block were probably attacked by a wolf in the woods, and Ricky Hanson and Stephen Horn were probably attacked by a wolf in their houses, and we know that Suzanne Giese, Zachary Foster, Barbara Lubens, and John Sutton were attacked by wolves.”
“I’m not a wolf,” Dennis Laufenberg said.
“You can turn into a wolf,” Sheriff Jordan said, and Dennis Laufenberg one-sidedly escalated the discussion. Between and over him, Sheriff Jordan said, “I’m not talking about the monster form I saw in the hospital. You look like an actual wolf. You bit Officer Foster so many times and with enough variations in force that his body is being compared to the other victims. And murderers have been convicted on less evidence than we have.”
“You won’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” Laufenberg said.
“Does that mean you committed the homicides?”
Dennis Laufenberg denied it and berated the stupidity of the idea that a human could turn into a wolf.
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