“When I got back from Pat Casey’s,” Iffrig explained, “Gail and the kids were all together watching Cinderella. I went to the back room to sit down, relax, and have a smoke.
“In a bit, after getting the kids off to bed, Gail came back and started talking to me about the upcoming camping trip and her own plans for the evening. She and her friend were going to the movies.”
“When the video was over, it was over around eight-thirty,” Gail Doll told detectives. “I told the kids to go to bed. Nick went to his room, and the girls went to their room around nine o’clock. I heard the little girls talking and giggling, and I told them to go to sleep.”
A loud horn honk in front of the Iffrig house awakened neighbor Shawn Angilley at approximately 9:00 P.M. “When it woke her up,” recalled Pat Casey, “she asked me what was going on, and I told her it was someone next door. I looked out the window and saw this yellow van at Tim’s, but I didn’t know who it belonged to at that time.”
“I’d seen that van before,” said Angilley. “For the previous two to three days, it was parked over in the field across from the house when I came home from work.”
“She was very mad,” recalled Casey. “We sat down together and watched some TV, and just then a knock came at the door. I said, ‘Come in,’ and it was Tim. He asked if it was okay for his friend to come in with him.”
Richard Clark’s yellow van arrived as Iffrig was walking next door. Tim wouldn’t take him to Casey’s without permission. “I said that it was okay,” recalled Casey, “and that’s when he introduced me to Richard Clark. We talked for about fifteen minutes and they left.”
“At the time Tim introduced me to Richard,” Shawn Angilley said, “I asked him if he was the one with the yellow van. When he said that he was, I told him, ‘You’re lucky you didn’t get your horn shoved up your ass.’ He apologized for waking me up.”
It was only a few minutes later that Gail Doll drove over to Kim Hammond’s. “I left the house, locking it,” confirmed Gail, “and went next door to tell my husband that I was leaving for the movies and gave him the keys. After I left, I stopped at the am/pm to get gas, and then went to my friend Kim Hammond’s house. Kim, her mother, Sandra Collins, and I went to the Act Three theaters in Sandy’s car. The movie started at ten-oh-five P.M. We watched Muriel’s Wedding.”
When Gail left for the film, Tim lingered with Casey and Clark for only a few minutes before both he and Clark went. “He said he was leaving because he didn’t want the kids alone in the house,” Casey recalled, “and he wanted to make himself something to eat. Richard Clark said that he was hungry too and that he was going to go out and get himself something.”
“Richard Clark and I were together the whole time he was there at Casey’s,” Iffrig said. “I went home to check on the kids—Richard went with me—then we walked back next door for a minute. I told Pat that I should stay home with the kids, plus I wanted to have something to eat. Richard said that he was leaving to get something to eat too.”
The two men walked outside together. “He turned off toward his van,” Iffrig said, “and I kept walking toward my house. I saw Richard Clark get into his van and pull it forward, but I didn’t actually see him leave because I went into the house.”
Tim Iffrig easily admitted that he was slightly intoxicated that evening. “I was feeling quite a buzz going,” he said. “I remember I was having problems opening and unlocking my door. I’d had a few drinks, so I wasn’t feeling any pain. Now I am not sure, but I think I did check on the kids when I first came home to get something to eat, but I did it just like Gail did. All we ever do is crack the door open, flick the light on real quick, and flick it off. And on that top bunk, it was real easy to think that you are seeing two people if they got a group of blankets or pillows or anything up there.”
Tim put some Cajun-style steak in a frying pan, put the burner on low, and sat down on the couch. Tim fell asleep; the steak burned. Detective Herndon’s report stated that Gail Doll’s husband “passed out on the couch.”
“No, I didn’t pass out,” insisted Iffrig. “I dozed off. I was tired. We are looking at nine-thirty or ten at night after working hard since six-thirty A.M. The intoxication may have helped me fall asleep, but I wasn’t passed-out drunk.”
After the movie, Gail returned to Kim Hammond’s, got into her own vehicle, and arrived home at 12:05 A.M. “The Cajun-style steak was blackened all right—to charcoal. The house was hazy with smoke; Tim was asleep on the couch,” Gail recounted to Detective Herndon. “I immediately went into my kitchen and took the pan off the stove. Next, I went to my son’s room, turned on the light, and saw he was asleep.”
What Gail Doll next said would prove a source of confusion, accusations, and intense legal argumentation. “I went into the girls’ room, turned on the light, and saw Roxanne and Kristena asleep in the top bunk. I shut off the light, then slapped the bottom of Tim’s foot to wake him up and scolded him for leaving a pan on the stove.”
“When Gail entered the residence,” reported Detective Herndon, “she checked on the children by opening the door and looking into the room. She stood in the hallway, peeked in, but did not tuck them in or make direct contact with them. After checking on the children, Gail Doll awoke her husband and had a discussion about the burned steak and other problems in their lives, including a lawsuit that was pending against Tim Iffrig. This lawsuit was apparently generated from an insurance company who was suing Iffrig for a vehicle accident which occurred some time ago.”
“We sat there on the couch talking and stuff,” confirmed Gail Doll, “until about one A.M. when we saw Richard Clark drive up.”
“I figure it was at one o’clock,” agreed Tim Iffrig. “I don’t wear a watch. Anytime I do, I wind up breaking it, so I never know what time it is. But I know that Gail usually gets home about midnight when she goes to the movies.”
Gail stayed up and talked to both of them until two o’-clock. “I told them that I was going to bed,” said Gail. “I put in a movie to help me fall asleep, and I woke up at seven-thirty to Tim telling me good-bye.
“I asked Tim why he was leaving so soon,” Gail recalled, “and he told me that Richard had to go get his check and do some more errands for the trip.” Gail asked Tim to make breakfast for the children. “He told me that only Nick was up. I suggested that he put cereal in bowls for the kids, and Nick could pour milk for the girls when they got up.” When a significant cereal shortage was noticed, Gail said she would make breakfast for all the kids at about 8:30 A.M.
“Tim left, and I got a call from his mother asking me to tell Tim where she was. I told her that he had already left, hung up with her, and got another call from my friend Tammy about a yard sale I was supposed to have this weekend, but I told her that it was called off on account of rain.”
The cataloging of seemingly inconsequential details may, at first glance, seem irrelevant to kidnap, rape, and murder. It was upon the accurate recounting of such mundane matters, however, that hinged the eventual capturing and conviction of the person responsible for Roxanne’s disappearance.
“The telephone conversation lasted till about eight o’clock,” said Gail, “I watched a few minutes of cartoons. That’s when Nick said, ‘Roxy isn’t here.’ I got up, asked him what he was talking about, and started looking for her. I called the neighbors’ house to see if she was there, and I called Roxanne’s little friend Amanda’s house and talked with her mother. I called Sarah Austin, another classmate of Roxy’s at Fairmont Elementary School. Parents of both kids told me that their kids hadn’t seen or spoken with Roxanne today. Then I called my mother, who said to