*A 22-year veteran researcher of the Heather Teague case has volunteered to share his findings with the community. This is the third segment of this extensive research.
Tim Walthall was the only one who called 911 to report the the abduction of Heather Danyelle Teague on 8/26/95. He and his family could have suffered retaliation for reporting this abduction at gunpoint. He was watching through his 25X telescope from his home in Newburgh, IN., a half mile away across the Ohio River. According to the 911 recording, he saw “a kind of heavy-set guy wearing blue-jean cut-off pants and tennis shoes.” He couldn’t tell if he “had a full beard or if he just had real shaggy hair or something over his face. He had dark brown hair and a shiny gun. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. He sneaked up behind her and grabbed her by the head of the hair and raised her head up. And it looked like he showed her the gun. And she jumped up and grabbed her towel and threw it in front of her. And he walked with his hands straight out in front of her and he had her by her hair in front of him. And he walked her straight to the trees.”
But there’s one big red flag that puts everything in doubt: why did he wait four days to help KSP do a composite sketch of the abductor? If Mr. Walthall wanted to remain anonymous, he wouldn’t have taken a boat across to speak with investigators like he did. That showed he wanted to help. But his delay tells us something critically important about the investigation. We think he didn’t help with the sketch because he couldn’t. He didn’t get a good enough look to describe his features for a sketch. It’s the only explanation that makes sense. So then how did he manage to help a sketch artist complete a composite sketch on the fifth day? And why does it look like Marty Dill’s driver’s license photo?
After eating lunch, Mr. Walthall was looking through a telescope from his home, a half mile away across the Ohio River, when he looked with shock and disbelief as a man ran over to girl on a lounge chair. He leaned down and lifted her head up by her hair, and seemed to show her a shiny gun. Then he turned and marched her into the trees. The abductor’s face probably wasn’t even facing Walthall but for a brief moment. He’s lucky he didn’t bump the telescope and miss it all. So no one could blame him for not getting a good look at the abductor. The question is why did he wait so long?
In an interview Tim Walthall gave with Channel 14 on the ninth year Mr. Walthall is quoted as saying he came in on Monday to help KSP complete the sketch of the abductor he saw take Heather Teague on Saturday — two days earlier. In that interview, he also disputes accusations that his composite sketch was drawn from the picture, rather than from the actual sighting. He insists they didn’t know who the suspect was when he gave the description.
FBI-FOIA records #35, 37 however, contradict his account. They show that the witness (Walthall) did the sketch on Wednesday, 8/30/95 — not Monday. The sketch is even dated 8/30/95. And KSP records show Detective Brian Babbs u/811 made contact with (Marty’s wife, Tracy) at their residence on 8/29/95 —the day before the sketch was actually done. And she confirmed that Marty drove a red and white Ford Bronco. So KSP knew Marty Dill was a suspect on Tuesday the day before Mr. Walthall did the sketch on Wednesday.
When Det. Babbs verified on Tuesday, that Marty Dill drove a red and white Bronco, undoubtedly KSP would have asked Mr. Walthall to come in, just to take a look at a photo of Marty Dill to see if it could possibly spark his memory. Mr. Walthall probably thought KSP had a good lead, with Dill’s Bronco videotaped at the scene. They would have shown him his driver’s license photo, with his brown, bushy hair and beard. They probably told him that he just got out of Webster County Jail, and that he’d been arrested in Evansville in February.
Mr. Walthall would have been under a lot of pressure to get some kind of sketch done of a man with brown, bushy hair and a beard. KSP really needed some progress because it was the fifth day.
So that’s how we imagine Mr. Walthall was persuaded to just go along with drawing a sketch using Marty Dill’s photo. What could it hurt? That’s how we believe witness Tim Walthall drew a sketch of a man he didn’t see, using a photo that he didn’t look like.
“Didn’t look like?” That’s right. Marty Dill looked nothing like the sketch, and he was four inches shorter and 45 pounds lighter than the description. Marty Dill used to have brown, bushy hair and a full beard, but he had shaved it all off while serving time in Webster County Jail, a couple of months before the abduction. His mugshot records even listed his hair color as “bald.” There were no mugshot photos listed when we screen-captured them off the Webster Co. Jail website, but friends and acquaintances have signed statements to the fact that his hair and beard were closely shaved at the time Heather was abducted. His family says his hair and beard were still closely shaved on his birthday, four days before the abduction.
KSP has claimed throughout several Open Records Appeals that they do not have the mugshot photos (or even the mugshot records without the photos) in their files. These would be the last known, official photos and records of their only suspect in an abduction. What possible reason would KSP have to not collect them for their files? Webster Co. Jail left Marty Dill’s three mugshot records, which listed his hair as “bald,” up on their website for many years. When we finally did screen-capture them off the website several years later the photos were missing. Did KSP not want the public to know their suspect was bald, and didn’t look anything like their sketches? (see mugshot records below)
What about the video, screen-capture photo dated 7/15/95 showing Marty Dill with no hair or beard? This was taken in the parking lot at Holiday World where friends and family had taken him for vacation after his release from Webster County Jail. (see vacation photo below)
So for 26 years, everybody who saw Marty Dill the summer of 1995, after he got out of Webster Co. Jail in June, knew he had shaved off all his hair and beard — and kept it shaved off — and that he didn’t look anything like the one who abducted Heather Teague. But everybody else thought the case was closed. Why throw rocks at trains?
