TheCars1986
07-16-2015, 11:01 PM
For those that are interested, there is a wealth of information about the murder of Rachel Timmerman and the trial and conviction of Marvin Gabrion in a book by Rachel's dad and uncle, titled "The Color of Night". It was released in 2011, and contained a ton of information not revealed in the UM segment (obviously for time restraints). If you're interested in reading the book, and I suggest you do because it was good, I wouldn't read further because I'm about to spoil some of the details.
-Rachel's father goes into some detail about how the production of the UM segments went. He says that they were very professional, and that the actress they hired to play Rachel (her pay to appear in the segment was, IIRC, roughly $1900 which kind of surprised me) would often remind him of Rachel when she smiled. He also said that certain scenes recreating the actual events were filmed at different locations due to the typical production reasons. He also said that on the first day of shooting his interview and other scenes (he was in the reenactments) a UM producer told him that they would pay for everything, including any damages that happened while filming. The producer then handed him $200 and said it was an added "just in case" type of thing that if UM missed something that he found later, he could use that. And during the filming of the scene of Rachel being picked up in a car (the last time she was seen alive by her dad) a black screen was placed in front of the driver so you couldn't be able to distinguish anything about him. I thought this was interesting because this was one of the few rare times I've read about a glimpse into the production of the actual filming of the segments. And despite what others have said, Rachel's dad said that he didn't get paid to appear in the segment (the $200 was for potential damages that happened that UM might not know about after they were long gone), and that certain scenes weren't always filmed at the right location.
-The segment depicts Marvin Gabrion ordering 2 men out of the car (Wayne Davis, and Marvin's young teenage nephew) before raping Rachel. In reality, they were all at another man's house playing cards and drinking. Wayne Davis was a former vet who was thought of as crazy by locals, but Rachel and her family were friends with him (the book described him as having a big heart and willing to help those in need). Rachel was on strict probation at the time for a minor drug offense, so she had walked over to the house after Wayne had invited her over to play. Once the game was over (largely in part due to Marvin Gabrion's increasing intoxication and escalation of violence towards Wayne Davis), Wayne and Rachel decided to leave and walk home. Gabrion insisted that they get in his car so he could give them a lift. They obliged and when Gabrion drove by Rachel's house, she became alarmed, but then figured they were just going out for a ride (since Wayne Davis and Gabrion's nephew were in the car with them). Out of nowhere, Gabrion ordered Davis and the nephew out of the car. Davis, who was drunk and disabled (and feeling cramped up in the back seat) got out not realizing what was happening, but the nephew kind of balked initially until Gabrion threatened him. That's when he drove away and raped Rachel. Gabrion later claimed that Rachel wanted to give him oral sex, and that she did, but then after being angered by his dog (who no one at the card game that night saw any sort of dog) after the dog bit her, she framed the rape :rolleyes: . And even though this next tidbit was not found in the book (I read it elsewhere), Wayne Davis did (believe it or not) confirm this initial part of the story (the oral sex remark), but he also corroborated Rachel's account of when she finally escaped Gabrion and returned to her house (where coincidentally Davis was at at the time) 100%. She ran into the house and began screaming for Davis and her sister to not let Gabrion inside, but he still barged in while Rachel locked herself in a bathroom and armed herself with a hammer. Davis witnessed wounds on Rachel, and Rachel screaming at Gabrion that she was going to report it to the police the next day.
-Due to Rachel's strict probation rules, she was on a "zero tolerance" policy. She was forbidden to drink, do drugs, or hang around the "drug crowd" of the area. Someone had called in a tip to her probation officer about her throwing parties (which wasn't true), and when the officer showed up at her house to investigate, they found 2 empty liquor bottles in the trash can, and ruled that as a violation of her probation, and arrested her and put her in jail for her full sentence of 5 months. Ironically, during her full 5 months in jail, Gabrion was showing up in court for the rape charge asking for delays, changing venues, etc. to delay the trial. And, the saddest part of all was that he had an outstanding warrant in New York for a failure to appear that slipped through the cracks during each appearance. Had the warrant been seen, Rachel and the others would still be alive today.
-While Rachel was in jail, Wayne Davis disappeared. He was last seen in the company of Gabrion. When police searched his house, they found it in perfect order except for some missing stereo equipment. Gabrion later attempted to sell defaced stereo equipment (trying to disguise the fact that it was Davis's) to a potential buyer, who refused. Wayne Davis was ultimately found dead in a lake after the broadcast of the UM segment.
-When Rachel finally got out of jail, she began receiving phone calls from John Weeks (other man in the UM segment whom police were looking for) asking her out on a date. Two days before the trial of Gabrion for the rape, she agreed. Weeks had specifically asked her to bring her baby Shannon along. Weeks was an acquaintance of Gabrion's, and Gabrion used him as a handyman. After Rachel's body was discovered, witnesses began coming forward talking about seeing Rachel with two men (Gabrion and Weeks) in a pickup truck with a trailer and a jon boat. No one reported seeing baby Shannon after Rachel left to get in the car with Weeks.
-After Rachel was murdered, several campers in the area in which she was dumped, saw Weeks and Gabrion together. This pretty much proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Weeks helped murder Rachel. My biggest question is: why? Weeks literally gained nothing from the murder. The book's mentioning of Weeks is scarce (and they use a pseudonym for him), and it's left as another baffling mystery. Weeks had a girlfriend, and was seen around up to 18 days after Rachel's murder. And although this isn't covered in the book, I did find it on one of Gabrion's appeals, Weeks told his girlfriend that he was going on a "dope run" with Gabrion to Texas and then was never seen again. When the girlfriend saw Gabrion and asked about Weeks, he told her he left him in Arizona with some friends.
-Rachel's dad, Tim Timmerman, actually did a lot of investigating on his own. He searched Gabrion's abandoned house and found concrete blocks sprayed with paint (which later matched the same one found weighing Rachel down), and also searched another part of the lake and found more blocks there. He also went and questioned relatives of John Weeks at a junkyard, who had told him it wasn't unusual for Weeks to simply disappear for weeks at a time. And after Gabrion was incarcerated for Rachel's murder, he began to write letters to Tim and his family discussing setting up a "find missing children" based program, with the hopes of finding Rachel's baby, Shannon. Tim initially taunted him in the messages ("you know what they do to baby killers in prison"), but eventually relented and told Gabrion that he would help him (in terms of sparing his life at his trial, because the prosecution was seeking the death penalty) as long as he told him where Shannon was. Gabrion never once did, and the letters are absolutely bizarre to say the least.
-In an odd twist, Gabrion murdered Rachel on federal land, which meant that they could seek the death penalty at his trial. Michigan abolished the death penalty in the 1840's, but since the lake he murdered Rachel on was federal property, that overruled the states laws. And despite how you feel about the death penalty, this book will make you glad that it happened on federal property.
-At Gabrion's trial, he repeatedly interrupted the proceedings, and at one point attacked one of his own lawyers and began pummeling him. He also demanded he take the stand where the prosecutor began to virtually destroy him right in front of the jury. And, as weird as this may sound, despite the evidence they had (the eyewitnesses who saw Gabrion with Rachel and Weeks, keys found in Gabrion's residence that matched the locks that bound Rachel), I think the defense had a semi-decent case for Gabrion, had he not testified. Apparently, there was no DNA match on the tape used on Rachel (Gabrion duct taped her eyes and mouth) that matched Gabrion, and there was a hair found on Rachel that didn't match Gabrion either. And several of the eyewitnesses who testified about seeing Gabrion or hearing him confess had mental problems, and also told conflicting reports to law enforcement. One family didn't come forward with information until after Gabrion was arrested and his mug shot was plastered on the news. While I still think the most likely outcome would have been a guilty verdict, I wonder if the trial would have turned out differently (hung jury, perhaps) had Gabrion not testified. Because the book makes it clear that his defense put on a very strong case, working with what they had.
If I think of anymore, I'll post them in this thread. But after reading the book, you'll still be left with a lot of unsolved questions. For example:
-Where was baby Shannon during Rachel's murder? More than likely (and I don't want to sound crass by saying this), she's dead. Gabrion had told inmates he was serving time with that he killed her because he "didn't know what to do with her". No witnesses who saw Rachel with Weeks and Gabrion in the truck ever reported hearing or seeing Shannon. I wonder if after Weeks drove Rachel and Shannon to wherever the prearranged meeting place was with Gabrion (unbeknownst to Rachel), that Gabrion used Shannon as some sort of "bait" to get Rachel to cooperate and go with him. I wonder if someone that either Gabrion or Weeks knew watched the baby for awhile until Gabrion eventually got her back before killing her. Which is literally the worst part in the book to stomach. Of all of the options he had (abandoning the baby, putting her on a random door step, dropping her off at a public place, etc.) he deliberately chose to murder Shannon. Simply disgusting.
-Is it possible that John Weeks is still alive? I'm 99.9% sure that he's dead and that Gabrion killed him. But up until that point, Gabrion only murdered people who were witnesses in the rape trial (except for a transient named Robert Allen, whom he murdered to gain access to his identity and social security checks). So why would Gabrion kill Weeks, who was equally as culpable (based off of the known evidence) in Rachel's murder? Since Robert Allen has never been located, and since Wayne Davis wasn't found until after the trial of Rachel's murder, he had a better chance at a lighter sentence (or even less likely an acquittal) if he pinned the murder on Weeks. It was Weeks who requested the date with Rachel, and Weeks who asked that she bring Shannon along (even though this was more than likely at the request of Gabrion). The only reason I can't say with 100% certainty that Weeks is dead is that before Rachel was murdered, Gabrion made her write several letters absolving him of the rape and to make it appear like she ran off with a man and got eloped. One of the letters was mailed to Tim Timmerman, and was postmarked in Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite the fact that the stamp used on the letters (a distinctive UFO/Sci-Fi hologram stamp) matched the same ones found in Gabrion's residence, there was never any real evidence that Gabrion went to Arkansas. His movement was mostly from Michigan to Virginia to New York (upper east coast). Which makes me wonder if Weeks' story of a "dope run" to Texas was his way to flee (possibly to Mexico), and that maybe he was the one who mailed the letter from Arkansas. He not only had a reason to disappear, but his family and his girlfriend never reported him missing due to his penchant for disappearing for extended periods of time. More than likely however, the fact that he's never resurfaced means he's probably dead.
-Gabrion exchanged letters with a prison pen pal (who was a daughter of a law enforcement officer, unbeknownst to Gabrion) and he drew a detailed map of the lake and surrounding area where Rachel was found. On the map he made a notation that said, "3 bodies - 1 found" and had three x marks. The 1 found was an obvious reference to Rachel, but the other 2 were unknown at the time. And since Wayne Davis was found in a different lake, that would rule him out. Which would leave John Weeks, Robert Allen, and baby Shannon. I tend to think that since Robert Allen was murdered 2 full years prior to Rachel's murder (and in a different location in Michigan) that he most likely isn't one of the bodies referenced on the map. Which would mean that the other two in the lake are John Weeks and baby Shannon.
All in all, I highly recommend the book, and although it still leaves some lingering (nitpicky as I'd call them) questions, it does go into a lot of background on the case that UM left out.
-Rachel's father goes into some detail about how the production of the UM segments went. He says that they were very professional, and that the actress they hired to play Rachel (her pay to appear in the segment was, IIRC, roughly $1900 which kind of surprised me) would often remind him of Rachel when she smiled. He also said that certain scenes recreating the actual events were filmed at different locations due to the typical production reasons. He also said that on the first day of shooting his interview and other scenes (he was in the reenactments) a UM producer told him that they would pay for everything, including any damages that happened while filming. The producer then handed him $200 and said it was an added "just in case" type of thing that if UM missed something that he found later, he could use that. And during the filming of the scene of Rachel being picked up in a car (the last time she was seen alive by her dad) a black screen was placed in front of the driver so you couldn't be able to distinguish anything about him. I thought this was interesting because this was one of the few rare times I've read about a glimpse into the production of the actual filming of the segments. And despite what others have said, Rachel's dad said that he didn't get paid to appear in the segment (the $200 was for potential damages that happened that UM might not know about after they were long gone), and that certain scenes weren't always filmed at the right location.
-The segment depicts Marvin Gabrion ordering 2 men out of the car (Wayne Davis, and Marvin's young teenage nephew) before raping Rachel. In reality, they were all at another man's house playing cards and drinking. Wayne Davis was a former vet who was thought of as crazy by locals, but Rachel and her family were friends with him (the book described him as having a big heart and willing to help those in need). Rachel was on strict probation at the time for a minor drug offense, so she had walked over to the house after Wayne had invited her over to play. Once the game was over (largely in part due to Marvin Gabrion's increasing intoxication and escalation of violence towards Wayne Davis), Wayne and Rachel decided to leave and walk home. Gabrion insisted that they get in his car so he could give them a lift. They obliged and when Gabrion drove by Rachel's house, she became alarmed, but then figured they were just going out for a ride (since Wayne Davis and Gabrion's nephew were in the car with them). Out of nowhere, Gabrion ordered Davis and the nephew out of the car. Davis, who was drunk and disabled (and feeling cramped up in the back seat) got out not realizing what was happening, but the nephew kind of balked initially until Gabrion threatened him. That's when he drove away and raped Rachel. Gabrion later claimed that Rachel wanted to give him oral sex, and that she did, but then after being angered by his dog (who no one at the card game that night saw any sort of dog) after the dog bit her, she framed the rape :rolleyes: . And even though this next tidbit was not found in the book (I read it elsewhere), Wayne Davis did (believe it or not) confirm this initial part of the story (the oral sex remark), but he also corroborated Rachel's account of when she finally escaped Gabrion and returned to her house (where coincidentally Davis was at at the time) 100%. She ran into the house and began screaming for Davis and her sister to not let Gabrion inside, but he still barged in while Rachel locked herself in a bathroom and armed herself with a hammer. Davis witnessed wounds on Rachel, and Rachel screaming at Gabrion that she was going to report it to the police the next day.
-Due to Rachel's strict probation rules, she was on a "zero tolerance" policy. She was forbidden to drink, do drugs, or hang around the "drug crowd" of the area. Someone had called in a tip to her probation officer about her throwing parties (which wasn't true), and when the officer showed up at her house to investigate, they found 2 empty liquor bottles in the trash can, and ruled that as a violation of her probation, and arrested her and put her in jail for her full sentence of 5 months. Ironically, during her full 5 months in jail, Gabrion was showing up in court for the rape charge asking for delays, changing venues, etc. to delay the trial. And, the saddest part of all was that he had an outstanding warrant in New York for a failure to appear that slipped through the cracks during each appearance. Had the warrant been seen, Rachel and the others would still be alive today.
-While Rachel was in jail, Wayne Davis disappeared. He was last seen in the company of Gabrion. When police searched his house, they found it in perfect order except for some missing stereo equipment. Gabrion later attempted to sell defaced stereo equipment (trying to disguise the fact that it was Davis's) to a potential buyer, who refused. Wayne Davis was ultimately found dead in a lake after the broadcast of the UM segment.
-When Rachel finally got out of jail, she began receiving phone calls from John Weeks (other man in the UM segment whom police were looking for) asking her out on a date. Two days before the trial of Gabrion for the rape, she agreed. Weeks had specifically asked her to bring her baby Shannon along. Weeks was an acquaintance of Gabrion's, and Gabrion used him as a handyman. After Rachel's body was discovered, witnesses began coming forward talking about seeing Rachel with two men (Gabrion and Weeks) in a pickup truck with a trailer and a jon boat. No one reported seeing baby Shannon after Rachel left to get in the car with Weeks.
-After Rachel was murdered, several campers in the area in which she was dumped, saw Weeks and Gabrion together. This pretty much proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Weeks helped murder Rachel. My biggest question is: why? Weeks literally gained nothing from the murder. The book's mentioning of Weeks is scarce (and they use a pseudonym for him), and it's left as another baffling mystery. Weeks had a girlfriend, and was seen around up to 18 days after Rachel's murder. And although this isn't covered in the book, I did find it on one of Gabrion's appeals, Weeks told his girlfriend that he was going on a "dope run" with Gabrion to Texas and then was never seen again. When the girlfriend saw Gabrion and asked about Weeks, he told her he left him in Arizona with some friends.
-Rachel's dad, Tim Timmerman, actually did a lot of investigating on his own. He searched Gabrion's abandoned house and found concrete blocks sprayed with paint (which later matched the same one found weighing Rachel down), and also searched another part of the lake and found more blocks there. He also went and questioned relatives of John Weeks at a junkyard, who had told him it wasn't unusual for Weeks to simply disappear for weeks at a time. And after Gabrion was incarcerated for Rachel's murder, he began to write letters to Tim and his family discussing setting up a "find missing children" based program, with the hopes of finding Rachel's baby, Shannon. Tim initially taunted him in the messages ("you know what they do to baby killers in prison"), but eventually relented and told Gabrion that he would help him (in terms of sparing his life at his trial, because the prosecution was seeking the death penalty) as long as he told him where Shannon was. Gabrion never once did, and the letters are absolutely bizarre to say the least.
-In an odd twist, Gabrion murdered Rachel on federal land, which meant that they could seek the death penalty at his trial. Michigan abolished the death penalty in the 1840's, but since the lake he murdered Rachel on was federal property, that overruled the states laws. And despite how you feel about the death penalty, this book will make you glad that it happened on federal property.
-At Gabrion's trial, he repeatedly interrupted the proceedings, and at one point attacked one of his own lawyers and began pummeling him. He also demanded he take the stand where the prosecutor began to virtually destroy him right in front of the jury. And, as weird as this may sound, despite the evidence they had (the eyewitnesses who saw Gabrion with Rachel and Weeks, keys found in Gabrion's residence that matched the locks that bound Rachel), I think the defense had a semi-decent case for Gabrion, had he not testified. Apparently, there was no DNA match on the tape used on Rachel (Gabrion duct taped her eyes and mouth) that matched Gabrion, and there was a hair found on Rachel that didn't match Gabrion either. And several of the eyewitnesses who testified about seeing Gabrion or hearing him confess had mental problems, and also told conflicting reports to law enforcement. One family didn't come forward with information until after Gabrion was arrested and his mug shot was plastered on the news. While I still think the most likely outcome would have been a guilty verdict, I wonder if the trial would have turned out differently (hung jury, perhaps) had Gabrion not testified. Because the book makes it clear that his defense put on a very strong case, working with what they had.
If I think of anymore, I'll post them in this thread. But after reading the book, you'll still be left with a lot of unsolved questions. For example:
-Where was baby Shannon during Rachel's murder? More than likely (and I don't want to sound crass by saying this), she's dead. Gabrion had told inmates he was serving time with that he killed her because he "didn't know what to do with her". No witnesses who saw Rachel with Weeks and Gabrion in the truck ever reported hearing or seeing Shannon. I wonder if after Weeks drove Rachel and Shannon to wherever the prearranged meeting place was with Gabrion (unbeknownst to Rachel), that Gabrion used Shannon as some sort of "bait" to get Rachel to cooperate and go with him. I wonder if someone that either Gabrion or Weeks knew watched the baby for awhile until Gabrion eventually got her back before killing her. Which is literally the worst part in the book to stomach. Of all of the options he had (abandoning the baby, putting her on a random door step, dropping her off at a public place, etc.) he deliberately chose to murder Shannon. Simply disgusting.
-Is it possible that John Weeks is still alive? I'm 99.9% sure that he's dead and that Gabrion killed him. But up until that point, Gabrion only murdered people who were witnesses in the rape trial (except for a transient named Robert Allen, whom he murdered to gain access to his identity and social security checks). So why would Gabrion kill Weeks, who was equally as culpable (based off of the known evidence) in Rachel's murder? Since Robert Allen has never been located, and since Wayne Davis wasn't found until after the trial of Rachel's murder, he had a better chance at a lighter sentence (or even less likely an acquittal) if he pinned the murder on Weeks. It was Weeks who requested the date with Rachel, and Weeks who asked that she bring Shannon along (even though this was more than likely at the request of Gabrion). The only reason I can't say with 100% certainty that Weeks is dead is that before Rachel was murdered, Gabrion made her write several letters absolving him of the rape and to make it appear like she ran off with a man and got eloped. One of the letters was mailed to Tim Timmerman, and was postmarked in Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite the fact that the stamp used on the letters (a distinctive UFO/Sci-Fi hologram stamp) matched the same ones found in Gabrion's residence, there was never any real evidence that Gabrion went to Arkansas. His movement was mostly from Michigan to Virginia to New York (upper east coast). Which makes me wonder if Weeks' story of a "dope run" to Texas was his way to flee (possibly to Mexico), and that maybe he was the one who mailed the letter from Arkansas. He not only had a reason to disappear, but his family and his girlfriend never reported him missing due to his penchant for disappearing for extended periods of time. More than likely however, the fact that he's never resurfaced means he's probably dead.
-Gabrion exchanged letters with a prison pen pal (who was a daughter of a law enforcement officer, unbeknownst to Gabrion) and he drew a detailed map of the lake and surrounding area where Rachel was found. On the map he made a notation that said, "3 bodies - 1 found" and had three x marks. The 1 found was an obvious reference to Rachel, but the other 2 were unknown at the time. And since Wayne Davis was found in a different lake, that would rule him out. Which would leave John Weeks, Robert Allen, and baby Shannon. I tend to think that since Robert Allen was murdered 2 full years prior to Rachel's murder (and in a different location in Michigan) that he most likely isn't one of the bodies referenced on the map. Which would mean that the other two in the lake are John Weeks and baby Shannon.
All in all, I highly recommend the book, and although it still leaves some lingering (nitpicky as I'd call them) questions, it does go into a lot of background on the case that UM left out.