Donald McDonald
Kodiak Island, Alaska
Date of Alleged Crime: March 28, 1986
After 28-year-old Laura Henderson Ibach disappeared,
Donald “Mac” McDonald and James Kerwin were charged with her kidnapping and
later with her murder. Laura was last seen with McDonald and Kerwin in
McDonald's van on the night of her disappearance. According to the two
she had only been with them for a short period and they gave a plausible
explanation as to why.
Laura's husband, Jack Anton Ibach, was later arrested and charged with the
same offenses. It was alleged that Jack employed McDonald and Kerwin to commit the actual murder. Jack and Laura shared custody of their daughters, an arrangement Jack
approved of. Laura was seeking full custody of the daughters, so she could
take them to Oregon. Two of Laura's coworkers stated that she talked about
picking up a “tape” on the day of her disappearance to use against her ex-husband
in the custody dispute.
McDonald was friendly with Laura, but only knew Jack on sight. Kerwin was a
close acquaintance of McDonald. No direct evidence existed that Jack had
paid money to McDonald or Kerwin or conspired with them in any way.
Clothes similar to those worn by Laura had been found along a two-mile
stretch of Monashka Bay on the Pacific Ocean. None of the clothes were
positively identified as hers and it is possible that none belonged to her.
The prosecution theorized that McDonald and Kerwin tossed Laura's body off a
particular cliff into the bay. The ocean currents then carried Laura away.
It was not explained how the clothes, if Laura's, could have come off her
discarded body.
A purse was found on the beach, containing Laura's old identification. Laura
had been wearing “pinkish” tennis shoes prior to her disappearance. She had
recent wart surgery on her foot and was wearing Band-Aids until her wounds
healed. After this information became known, a pink shoe was found on the
beach with a Band-Aid inside. If these items belonged to Laura, the evidence
did not explain how her sock disappeared. Even more mysterious was the fact
that the found shoe was a left one, but medical records showed that Laura
had surgery on her right foot. One might suspect that evidence was being
planted.
Police impounded McDonald's van and searched it twice, but found no
incriminating evidence. Months later, Kodiak Police Corporal Andre
reportedly called a Chicago area psychic to ask for help in the case. He
said the psychic told him to “look for something in the van.” Nine days
before trial, police checked McDonald's van, then unsecured, and reported
finding an earring in plain sight near the gas pedal. The “found” earring
was porcelain with a purple flower painted on it, consistent with the
earrings Laura had been described as wearing. The prosecution theorized that
Laura's earring had been violently knocked off her during a struggle in the
van. It then had gone down the front window defroster slot and had remained
in the heater/defroster system during the first two searches. Subsequent
towing had jarred the earring enough to fall through to the floor.
Laura weighed about 150 lbs. prior to her disappearance. McDonald's lawyer
arranged for a reenactment of the prosecution theory that McDonald and
Kerwin tossed Laura's body off a cliff into the bay. He had two men about
the size of McDonald and Kerwin attempt to toss a 150 lb. sack from the
location into the bay. The high tide line was 50 feet straight out and the
two men could not throw the sack anywhere close to it. The defendants' trial
judge would not allow the results of the reenactment to be presented at
trial. Inside Edition, a national TV show, later performed a similar
reenactment, with identical results.
At trial, Kerwin was acquitted of all charges. McDonald was found guilty of
kidnapping Laura, but the jury hung on his murder charge as well as the
charges against Laura's husband, Jack. At retrial, McDonald was tried for
and convicted of the murder charge and Jack was convicted of both charges.
________________________________
References:
www.freemacproject.net,
http://freemac.us,
Justice: Denied
Posted in:
Victims of the State,
Alaska Cases, "No Body"
Murder Cases
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