In the post an alternative theory, I provided a scenario of how the triple homicides of Calvin and Pam Phillips and Ed Dansereau most likely played out based on the evidence. In this post, I will describe the prosecution theory.
According to the prosecution, On November 18, 2015, Kit Martin went across the street and murdered Calvin Phillips sometime between 7:23 am to 9:11 am. That timeframe represents when Kit was home alone before leaving for work.
Prosecutors suggested that Calvin’s facial trauma may have resulted from being struck in the face with the but of a gun. They could not say where this altercation took place. They did not provide any evidence of Calvin’s DNA on any of Kit’s guns. They did not offer an explanation as to why Calvin was wearing a rain jacket with the hood cinched around his head. And they did not explain where the two missing bullet bases might be. According to Barbara Whaley, Kit decided to take an unofficial dog tag with him to the crime scene. He put it on a string because he was afraid that a chain might transfer heat. She doesn’t explain how the dog tag came off his neck and onto a bookshelf next to Calvin’s wallet and phone.
Next, the prosecution claims that when Kit came home from work, carrying roses for Laura, he went back to the Phillips’ house because it hadn’t burned down as he had expected, as if starting a small fire under the body of Calvin Phillips in a dirt cellar would somehow result in the entire house burning down. The prosecution does not explain why Kit didn’t make a second attempt to burn the house down. According to the prosecution he managed to torch a car with two bodies in it.
When Pam comes home unexpectedly, Kit shoots her with a 22-caliber gun. The prosecutors offered no explanation why he didn’t use the same 45-caliber gun he used to shoot Calvin. When Ed sees or hears something that alarms him, he rushes across the driveway, and he, too, is shot. According to the prosecution, both Pam and Ed are shot with military precision because each had gunshots to the head. They don’t say how Ed, who left blood in two different locations, managed to move sixty yards after being shot between the eyes.
Now Kit needs to destroy evidence by burning the bodies of Pam and Ed. He no longer cares about destroying evidence by attempting to burn Calvin’s body a second time or by setting the house on fire, which is why he supposedly returned to the crime scene.
In all three murders, Kit sneaks out through the jammed front door to avoid being seen by his security cameras. Then, despite a bad back, he loads Pam and Ed into Pam’s car.
At 1:10 am, Kit’s watch alarm goes off. He gets up, dresses, goes across the street, and drives Pam’s car to Homic’s farm, getting there around 1:30 am. The car gets stuck in the mud, so Kit decides to burn the vehicle where it sits. He brought a container of kerosene with him to get the job done. Prosecutors didn’t explain why Kit didn’t use the kerosene to burn the house down.
At around 1:50 am, Kit walks back to the crime scene, arriving there around 2:45 am. He then gets into Ed’s car and drives to Joan’s house, where he throws Pam’s phone into Joan’s front yard. The prosecution never established that Kit even knew where Joan was living at the time.
Next, Kit drives back to Pembroke and parks Ed’s car in the old elementary school parking lot. The theory is that he may have left the car in the parking lot with the hopes of some thief seeing Ed’s wallet and car keys.
From the school parking lot, Kit walks home and slips into bed undetected by anyone in the house, including Laura, sometime between 4:00 am to 6:00 am.
I’ll let you decide on the plausibility of the prosecution’s theory. There is, however, another detail that cannot be explained by any convoluted prosecution fantasy. Pam’s phone pinged off a cell tower later that evening, further east than where it had been all day, which was in Elkton, Kentucky where Joan lived. How does a phone that’s lying in someone’s front yard move, especially when it isn’t discovered until weeks later?