Witness Tampering

•Between the time that APD Eason was off the case in 1997, and before Chief Willick officially appointed Jerry Johnson in December of 2002, the “cold case” investigation remained solely focused on Paul Kovacich as the only explanation for Janet’s disappearance. 

• In early December of 2000,  Dan Boon (who was by then the Chief of Pismo Beach PD) presented the case to the annual CalDOJ “Cold Case” seminar. But, once again, he told them that he only wanted suggestions that would lead to a single suspect—not all possible solutions. 

•The list of “Suggestions” became a “To-Do” list. By the end of 2005, every one of the actions items on this confidential CalDOJ memo were executed—ultimately leading to no physical evidence, or new information from Kristi and John Kovacich. 

•The main part of the CalDOJ suggested plan was to create public “misinformation” about the facts of the case to get critical witnesses to create new false memories, or change their prior statements:

California Penal Code §182 Conspiracy:

  (a) If two or more persons conspire:

(1) To commit any crime.

(2) Falsely and maliciously to indict another for any crime, or to procure another to be charged or arrested for any crime.

Falsifying Evidence, and Bribing, Influencing, Intimidating or Threatening Witnesses

California Penal Code §133:   Every person who practices any fraud or deceit, or knowingly makes or exhibits any false statement, representation, token, or writing, to any witness or person about to be called as a witness upon any trial, proceeding, inquiry, or investigation whatever, authorized by law, with intent to affect the testimony of such witness, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

California Penal Code §137:  (b) Every person who attempts by...use of fraud to induce any person to give false testimony or withhold true testimony or to give false material information pertaining to a crime to a law enforcement official is guilty of a felony.

• The biggest problem with the misinformation plan was figuring out how to make the lies look true, and give them an air of credibility that would ensure that they were picked up and repeated in the local (Sacramento & Auburn) press. It was a fine line to walk because if Auburn PD officers were caught making false statements of fact to the press, all of their reports, interviews, and testimony could be impeached forever. In theory, no court or jury would ever trust the word of a known liar.

• Auburn PD needed someone who appeared to have inside knowledge of the case (credibility), but had not contributed any work of consequence to the investigation—no evidence reports, witness interviews, or critical actions. That way, if the lies were challenged, and the author of the information discredited, it wouldn’t ruin any past or future criminal cases. 

• To that end, Auburn PD violated their own policy, and opened the entire confidential Kovacich case file to a former State Park Ranger named Jordan Fisher-Smith. The plan was for him to include the targeted Kovacich “misinformation”  in a book he was already writing, detailing his career in law enforcement. 

• Back in 1997, Fisher-Smith had been brought into the Kovacich case by APD Eason to identify any possible park land that had not been searched for Janet’s remains, so he was believable as a source of “secret” case facts. 

• Fisher-Smith crafted the lies in his book with members of Auburn PD, but he refused to reveal the names of his “sources” during a later investigation, and the issue was dropped when Fisher-Smith told the Chief that he was consulting legal counsel:

•Nobody would ever say exactly who within Auburn PD was working with Fisher-Smith on the Kovacich chapter of his book. 

•Although Fisher-Smith still refused to identify the law enforcement sources he claimed had asked for “anonymity,” he did tell Chief Harris that Willick had given him full access to the entire file for three days, but then mysteriously rescinded permission. This is confirmed with a later news report where Willick is acknowledged for his “assistance with the author’s search for the records.” (Auburn Journal, March 2, 2005.) Willick also told The Union:  “Smith still owes him a copy of the book the author offered when he warned the police chief about the release of ‘Nature Noir ’ several months ago.” (The Union, March 3, 2005)

• Nobody would care about Fisher-Smith’s book, or the chapter he included on Janet’s disappearance if the facts that he claimed to have carefully “verified” directly from the case file weren’t total lies. Not mistakes, mischaracterizations, or just confusing—false statements of fact. 

• The details in Fisher-Smith’s book were either the opposite of the truth, or left out so much critical information from the case file as to be intentionally deceptive. It would have been impossible for Fisher-Smith to read the case file and get any of the details wrong, or pretend that they were unknown. The lies were deliberate and specifically engineered to spread false facts about Janet’s case into the press, and the minds of witnesses and potential jurors—exactly as outlined by the CalDOJ plan with Auburn PD. 

• According to Fisher-Smith, his publisher had agreed to include the obviously defamatory false facts about the Kovacich family, and criminal investigation as long as Fisher-Smith “hid” their identities. It hardly mattered—within days of publication Fisher-Smith told the press that “Les & Karen Dellasandro” were really the Kovacichs. 

• Almost every detail in Fisher-Smith’s Kovacich chapter was a lie, or crafted to decieve the reader:

Thirteen years after his wife disappeared, Les Dellasandro went to court to have her declared legally dead so he could sell their home. 

That statement contains two factual lies:

1. Per court order, the Kovacich home at 244 Forest Court was sold on July 8, 1986—three years and ten months after Janet Kovacich went missing on September 8, 1982.

Fisher-Smith further stated that Paul Kovacich allowed the house to deteriorate during those “thirteen” years, even describing a damaged and sagging garage door. Fisher-Smith portrayed Paul as a slumlord, when in fact the home was in pristine condition when he sold it. Paul was not responsible for any lack of maintenance and repairs in the decade after his ownership ended. Janet’s half of the proceeds from the sale were held in an escrow account pending her return. Legally, Janet Kovacich remained a missing person until 1995.

2. On December 14, 1994, Jean and Leo Gregoire filed a petition in Placer County Superior Court #S-PR-9917403 to have Janet Kovacich declared legally dead. Paul, Kristi, and John Kovacich opposed that action (the children were over 18 yrs) because they believed that Janet was alive.

After Karen’s disappearance the police recovered the veterinarian’s medical report. It confirmed that the cause of the dog’s death-broken bones and internal bleeding-was consistent with a severe beating. But of course such injuries might be found in an animal that had been hit by a car, too. 

That is a factual lie—it is the opposite of the truth. 

Veterinarian Hershenhouse treated K-9 officer Fuzz at the time of his death, and determined that the likely cause was the ingestion of poison. That is what the medical records show, and what Hershenhouse told PCSO Milam when she was interviewed on September 25, 1982. Since the dog was in the family’s fenced back yard when he got sick, Hershenhouse made a home visit to search for the source of the toxin—with the bill paid by the Kovacichs. Hershenhouse’s examination of Fuzz specifically excluded blunt force injury, including the type of damage and bleeding associated with being struck by a “car.”

Additionally, when Fisher-Smith’s book was originally published in 2005, Fuzz had been buried for almost 23 years. Shortly after that, the dog’s remains were exhumed, and examined by the FBI’s expert forensic anthropologist, Steven Symes. He found that the dog did not have broken bones, evidence of soft tissue injuries, or any signs consistent with “beating” prior to his death.

Symes also was asked to examine a rib bone found in the bag with Fuzz’s remains, and Symes determined that Fuzz had ingested a cooked pork rib bone before his death which he had been unable to pass. Not only was the rib bone the cause of Fuzz’s death, but since the family did not provide it to him, it proves that there was a stranger in the Kovacich backyard within 72 hours of Fuzz’s death. 

Her wallet, cash, and credit cards were at the house. 

This is a factual lie. 

Janet Kovacich’s purse, wallet, and credit cards were missing, and have never been found.

A description of the missing purse, wallet, and cards are contained in the original missing person reports. 

None of the family’s three cars and trucks were processed for trace evidence.

That is a factual lie. 

On September 14, 1982, all three of the Kovacich vehicles (Datsun pickup, Ford Bronco, and Datsun 240 Z) were completely searched for trace evidence by CalDOJ criminalists Louis Maucieri and Marty Collins. Those searches were photographed by Norm Evans. Trace evidence was collected, and then analyzed at the CalDOJ lab by criminalist Louis Maucieri.

He couldn’t provide sales receipts or any of the things he purchased to substantiate his Kmart alibi, and a check of the store’s security cameras proved inconclusive. 

That contains a factual lie, and a grossly misleading statement.

At no time did any officer, deputy, detective, investigator, or agent call or visit K-Mart, despite that alibi information being given to Sgt. Butts on the morning of September 9, 1982, APD Boon on the 12th, and Boon and PCSO Smith on the 15th. No shoppers or employees were contacted, and no public plea for possible witnesses was ever issued. No video was asked for, pulled, viewed, or otherwise at issue in the case. 

At no time did Paul Kovacich claim that he made any purchase at K-Mart. Fisher-Smith gives the false impression that Paul was caught in a lie, and was unable to produce the goods or receipt for items he claimed to have purchased. None of that happened. Paul told investigators that he was looking for motor oil on sale, and did not buy it at full price. The ad he said he saw in the morning paper was on page 5, but for Raley’s, not Payless.

For whatever reason, photographs were not made of the home’s interior, or if they were, the photos have been lost. 

That is a factual lie. 

The entire interior and exterior of 244 Forest Court was photographed by CalDOJ photographers Norm Evans and his supervisor, Tom Corcoran, on September 14, 1982.  They were last known to be in the custody of Jerry Johnson—along with the Cisco cabin and Forest Court driveway photos that Johnson prepared for discovery and trial with his own initials. Johnson’s testimony at Grand Jury proves that he viewed the 1982 CalDOJ interior/exterior house photos, so the only mystery is why he didn’t turn them over to the DA and defense.

Karen’s mother was so demonstrably bitter toward him that Les eventually got a restraining order prohibiting her and Karen’s father from having any contact with their grandchildren. 

That is a factual lie.

On March 14, 1983, Jean and Leo Gregoire filed suit in Placer County Superior Court #64980 to obtain court ordered visitation with Kristi and John Kovacich. They had also filed an unsubstantiated complaint with Auburn PD alleging child and animal abuse in the Kovacich home. 

Placer County Child Welfare investigated the abuse claims, and determined that they were unfounded. That investigation report was provided to Auburn PD Boon from Child Welfare Dependency Officer Dan Conners on December 17, 1982. 

Additionally, the court ordered a full investigation into the best interests of the children, and all parties involved were interviewed multiple times by child psychologist Geraldine Fair, MD, who found that contact with the Gregoires would be harmful, and not beneficial to the children due to the Gregoires’ baseless accusations and behavior. Dr. Fair recommended that the court deny them visitation.

There was no restraining order sought or obtained by Paul Kovacich. None of the above actions were initiated by him—he simply cooperated with the investigations and interviews as requested by Child Services and the court. All of this was extensively covered by the local press. 

Les’s wife’s nose had been broken a long time ago, either before or just after she met him, and she had a scar on her arm. Karen told people she’d gotten these injuries in an accident, which may well have been true.

These statements are intentionally misleading, highly inflammatory, and show actual malice/bad faith on the part of Jordan Fisher-Smith.

Janet Kovacich’s nose was broken in a car accident with her mother, Jean Gregoire, at 8:00 am on October 2, 1972, when Janet was eighteen years old. The medical records were provided to Auburn PD by her surgeon, and are in the police file Fisher-Smith claims to have read.

Janet was treated at Roseville District Hospital for a compound comminuted fracture of her nose with severe nasal lacerations. Dr. Burke performed scar revision (plastic surgery) on Janet’s nose on May 22, 1973 at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento.

The scar on Janet’s arm was from a car accident at 12:30 pm, on July 15, 1981, at the intersection of State Road 49 and Live Oak Lane, Auburn, California. Janet was driving her two children in the family’s 1977 Datsun 810 station wagon when they were hit by a 1979 International truck being driven for Carpenter-Offutt Paper Company. The facts are fully documented in Kovacich vs. Carpenter-Offutt (Placer Superior Court #62596).

Janet, Kristi, and John Kovacich were injured, and treated at the hospital emergency room. Janet also received physiotherapy for her injured arm and shoulder from Dr. Tweet at Auburn Medical Center. On March 18, 1982 and August 30, 1982, Dr. Burke performed scar revision surgery on five areas of Janet’s right shoulder and arm. This information was also in the case file Fisher-Smith personally viewed.

Nothing about these facts was ever unclear, or in doubt. 

They examined Karen’s mother’s phone bills to rule out the possibility that Karen had fled with her parents’ complicity. 

That is a factual lie.

At no time did any officer or deputy involved in the case review the phone records of calls made/received at the Gregoire home, or at San Juan High School were Jean worked. At that time there was no record made or kept of local calls, so only long distance calls would have been available if the records had been reviewed. 

The day before her disappearance she went to Forest Lake Christian to have a look around. An acquaintance later told police she had run into Karen in the schoolyard and had talked with her briefly. She remembered Karen saying that the pain from her recent surgery was considerably worse than she had imagined it would be and that she was very worried about her marriage. The next morning at around eight, Karen phoned Forest Lake Christian and made an appointment to enroll her children later that day. She never showed up.

That contains several factual lies.

Janet Kovacich did not go to Forest Lake Christian School “the day before her disappearance.” Nobody has ever claimed to have seen, or talked to Janet in the “schoolyard” at Forest Lake Christian School the day before she disappeared, or any other day, because Janet was not there. No such witness exists. 

The day before Janet Kovacich disappeared from her home on Forest Court (Tuesday, September 7, 1982), she attended orientation with her children at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Auburn, and then went with her mother and children to her doctor’s appointment in Sacramento, and shopping in Roseville. Those facts are verified by numerous witnesses including Janet’s mother and her surgeon, and included in police reports in the Auburn PD case file, which Fisher-Smith accessed and read. 

Janet Kovacich did not call Forest Lake Christian School at 8:00 am on the day she disappeared. At 9:00 am and 10:00 am on Wednesday, September 8, 1982, Janet called Forest Lake Christian School and spoke to the administrator, Marion Entz.

When detectives went to Les’s father’s place looking for signs of Karen, they found a smallish mound of fresh earth on his property. Les’s father told them that it was Fuzz’s grave, and that it contained a blood-soaked quilt the animal had been wrapped in when it was brought there. For whatever reason, the police did not dig it up. 

That is a combination of factual lies, and statements so misleading as to be false.

On September 14, 1982, Deputy Landry and Detective Odin obtained voluntary permission to search the properties owned by Paul Kovacich, Sr. including the cabin at Cisco Grove, and residence at Lake of the Pines. Upon request, Kovacich Sr. directed the officers to Fuzz’s grave, and told them that the veterinarian had destroyed Fuzz’s blanket. The officers dug up Fuzz’s remains which were in a plastic bag about 20 inches below the surface. They checked to make sure Fuzz was in the bag, and that there was no sign of Janet’s body in the grave. Kovacich Sr. reburied the dog’s remains, and said a prayer over him. Nothing of evidentiary value was found at either Kovacich Sr. property searched.

• Fuzz’s grave was not “found” by the officers while searching the property for Janet—they specifically asked for the location, and were directed by Kovacich Sr.;

• The “blood soaked” blanket never existed, and Fuzz’s blanket (which did not have blood on it) was destroyed by the veterinarian at her location because she feared it was contaminated with rat poison or Parvo; and

• Detective Odin had been specifically ordered by Auburn PD Chief Willick to exhume Fuzz’s grave, check for injuries on the dog and any sign of Janet. It is unclear who did the actual digging (Landry, Odin, and/or Kovacich Sr.) to exhume Fuzz, but Kovacich Sr. stated that he was left alone to rebury Fuzz.

During the call Russell collected a few basic facts for a missing persons report, but toward the end of their conversation, he said, Dellasandro asked him not to file the report yet, saying he wanted to look for his wife himself for a couple of days first. In a gesture of professional courtesy, Russell agreed.

“Russell” was actually Auburn PD Sgt. Stephen Butts.  He met with Paul Kovacich in-person at 10:00 am on the morning of Thursday, September 9, 1982, after being dispatched to Mr. Kovacich’s workplace. Because Mr. Kovacich expressed the belief that Janet was with her mother, Butts had him call Mrs. Gregoire at her office in his presence. Not only had Mr. Gregoire been informed of Janet’s absence via phone at 5:00 and 8:00 pm on the eventing of the 8th, now Mrs. Gregoire had also been told. The fact that neither of the Gregoires seemed concerned, or demanded action of Auburn PD, convinced both Paul Kovacich and Sgt. Butts that Janet had left voluntarily with her mother.  

Butts immediately took the missing person report from Mr. Kovacich. Butts informed both Mrs. Gregoire, and Mr. Kovacich that Auburn PD policy prevented him from filing the report until 72 hours after the adult was last seen unless either of them could show him that there were obvious signs of a crime, or that Janet was seriously contemplating suicide. It is undisputed that Mr. Kovacich again called Auburn PD exactly 72 hours after he last saw Janet, and again insisted that they start an investigation into her whereabouts. 

Jean Gregoire was scheduled to have lunch with Janet on September 9th, and take her to her post-operative appointment on the 10th, yet she did not contact anyone about Janet, or ask for police assistance until the night of the 11th.

Butts’ handwritten report makes no mention of Mr. Kovacich asking him “not to file the report” or “saying he wanted to look for himself for a couple of days first.” There is no evidence, of any kind, that Butts “agreed” to any such request, or that he showed any “professional courtesy” to Mr. Kovacich. Those statements are factual lies specifically denied by Butts to the DA, and on the witness stand at trial. In fact, if Butts had been showing “professional courtesy” towards Mr. Kovacich, he would have ignored his department’s 72 hour wait policy, and immediately acted on the missing person report. 

Auburn PD Chief Nick Willick stated the same 72 hour policy to the newspaper. The delay in the start of the investigation had nothing to do with Paul Kovacich, or anything he did or did not ask of Auburn PD.

And she’d begun inquiring about the legal nuts and bolts of a separation and how to get a restraining order against her husband.

That is a factual lie.

Investigators checked that rumor by contacting Jean Gregoire, several possible local dissolution attorneys, the court clerk, and all of the women’s shelters that ran assistance programs in Sacramento and Placer Counties. There is no evidence that Janet ever took any action on a future separation or divorce. Janet also told two of her close friends that Paul had not given her any “reason” to leave him, and that she had no current plans to do so. 

Theirs was what real estate agents call a starter home, an arrangement of shed-roofed lean-tos with an attached garage, sheathed in re-grooved plywood stained gray with white trim.

Fisher-Smith’s description of the home as owned by the Kovacich’s is a factual lie.

The siding, trim, and roofing described by Fisher-Smith were changed in the late 1990s. The home as owned by the Kovacich’s had premium cedar siding, and a cedar shake roof.

Forest Court was, and is, a middle-class suburban neighborhood of well-constructed family homes with large fenced yards, on an attractive cul-de-sac. #244 is 1,968 sq feet, 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, with an attached 2 car garage, currently valued at over $600,000. It is not a “lean-to.”

•It would be easy to characterize Fisher-Smith’s lies as carelessness, or simply changing facts in a non-fiction book to make it more “exciting,” but he was acting with state authority, knowledge, and explicit consent. 

•After Fisher-Smith published the “misinformation” portion of the CalDOJ strategy, Auburn PD moved quickly to execute the rest of the plan. 

• In case there was any doubt about a direct connection between the events, Fisher-Smith cleared it up by bragging about it days later to the Sacramento Bee:

While the local press were busy covering the book, and Chief Willick labelled the timing of the book to be a coincidence, the department got busy with their part of the written plan: 

• Auburn PD jackhammered up the driveway and garage at the home of Paul Kovacich’s parents, and dug up their yard with heavy equipment. They re-examined the Forest Court house, and impounded the 1982 Bronco. 

• They placed wiretaps on the family’s phone lines, put GPS trackers on their vehicles, and used a warrant to forcibly take DNA swabs and hair samples from Kristi and John Kovacich without their consent.

• After all of that time, expense, and torture of Janet’s family, Auburn PD obtained no new evidence—except finally proving that Fuzz actually died after being fed a pork rib bone by a stranger, with or without poison. They also conclusively disproved Jean Gregoire’s accusation that the dog had been beaten or kicked to death after giving his remains to two forensic anthropologists, and a veterinarian pathologist, who all concluded that Fuzz had no broken bones, or evidence of soft tissue injury at the time of his death. 

• That left only one part of the CalDOJ plan unfinished:  Auburn PD needed to re-interview the original case witnesses after making sure they either read Fisher-Smith’s book, or the newspaper stories that repeated the misinformation.