Suspect's escape still haunts community today
Crime: Man was jailed awaiting trial in the deaths of his ex-wife and her boyfriend
Suspect's escape still haunts community today
By Ron Jackson
Published: August 10, 2008
LAWTON — A miniature wanted poster of David Lee Kemp hangs by a tack amid a cluster of certificates, badges and western art prints on Comanche County Sheriff Kenny Stradley's office walls. The image is easy to miss — unless you're the sheriff.
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Detective recalls scene
John Whittington served as the lead detective on the case for the Lawton Police Department 10 years ago.
Now retired, the case still haunts him because justice was never served. He prays Oklahomans never forget the brutality of the slayings, or the night he peered into Apartment No. 3.
Directly in Detective Whittington's line of view that night lay the body of Robert Miller in the one-room apartment's lone hallway. The 26-year-old X-ray technician lay face down, a puddle of blood having seeped from his torso.
Instantly, Whittington noted something rare — a "pristine crime scene,” yet untouched by relatives, neighbors, fellow detectives, crime scene investigators or even medics.
The scene appeared frozen in time, just as it had been left by the killer.
Whittington quickly deduced the door had been unlocked when the killer arrived. He saw no visible signs of a forced entry.
Three brass shell casings from a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol sat just inside the doorway to the right. Semiautomatic pistols always discharge their shells up and to the right.
"I doubt any words were spoken,” Whittington recalled as he retraced the scene in his mind. "As soon as the door opened, the firing began.”
Four bullet wounds pierced Miller's torso — each one lethal, Whittington would later learn from the medical examiner's report.
One of the bullets — the first — grazed the right hand of Miller, who must have instinctively raised his right hand in self-defense when he saw the killer standing in the doorway.
"Robert was a martial artist,” said Whittington, who now oversees Lawton Public Schools security. "But there's not much a martial artist is gonna do against a .45-caliber pistol.”
The killer then walked past Miller, turning left into the bedroom. Christina Kemp, Miller's 25-year-old girlfriend, emerged from the bathroom wrapped in only a towel.
For a fleeting moment she locked eyes on the killer.
Two more shots were fired. The first struck her just below the throat, spraying the wall with blood. The second shot hit her in the chest, and launched her body back into the bathroom. Christina pulled the shower curtain down as she dropped.
Whittington found one brass shell casing sitting inside the bathroom sink to the right, an indication the killer stood over the young woman to fire the last shot.
"Cold-blooded,” Whittington said. "And all business.”
Suspect charged, flees Lawton
Comanche County District Attorney Robert Schulte charged David Kemp with those deaths in the ensuing days. Kemp, meanwhile, took flight in his new black Dodge Ram truck. He resurfaced two weeks later in the tiny high country town of Bishop, Calif., where a highway patrolman ran a routine check on his abandoned truck.
The trooper discovered Kemp was wanted for murder in Oklahoma.
Police soon cornered the fleeing Kemp in town at an auto salvage yard where he held a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol to his temple and threatened to pull the trigger.
The standoff lasted 90 minutes before police subdued Kemp with a volley of non-lethal beanbags.
Ballistics tests later identified the pistol in Kemp's possession as the pistol used at the murder scene.
These days, Schulte guards the crime scene evidence and files, for a case he still plans to someday prosecute.
"There have been reports David Lee Kemp may be in Canada,” Schulte said. "Of course, that is a country that doesn't extradite if the death penalty is a possibility.”
Officially, authorities say Kemp was last seen in June 1999 at a gas station inside a black Firebird on the outskirts of Las Vegas.
Days earlier, a Las Vegas motel manager discovered Kemp in his room after he attempted suicide by slashing both wrists.
Medics later checked him into a mental hospital under the name John Doe.
No one knew his real identity until it was too late.
In September 1999, Kemp's story aired on national television's popular "America's Most Wanted.” Hundreds of leads flooded the station that night, including claims the fugitive had been spotted at a bar in Minnesota, fishing in Indiana, and roaming a Walmart in Maryland.
Stradley later heard from a woman who once worked with Kemp. The woman swore she bumped into him at a Las Vegas casino.
"He's out there somewhere,” Whittington said. "Personally, I think he's receiving help from his family. Someone's helping him. But I'm confident he'll eventually be caught.”
If Kemp is indeed still alive.
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