Murder of Polly Klaas

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Polly Hannah Klaas (January 3, 1981 - October-November 1993) was an American murder victim whose case gained national attention. At the age of 12, she was kidnapped at knifepoint from her mother's home during a slumber party in Petaluma, California on October 1, 1993. She was later raped and strangled. Richard Allen Davis was convicted of her murder in 1996 and sentenced to death.

The Polly Hannah Klaas Performing Arts Center was created in her honor in Petaluma.

1 Background
2 Winona Ryder
3 Marc Klaas
4 Joe Klaas
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

Klaas had invited two of her friends over for a sleepover. Around 10:30 p.m., she opened her bedroom door to fetch sleeping bags, when she saw a man with a knife. He tied the girls up, told Klaas' friends to count to one thousand, and then kidnapped her. Over the next two months, about 4,000 people helped search for her. TV shows such as 20/20 and America's Most Wanted covered the kidnapping.

At the time, Davis was already a wanted man: the California Highway Patrol had issued an all points bulletin for a violation of the terms of his parole for a previous crime: any police officer encountering him was required to arrest him on that charge. (Unfortunately, the bulletin was broadcast on the CHP channel, which only CHP radios were equipped to receive - CHP practice was changed after the case, so such bulletins are now broadcast on all police channels.)

In the course of the search, police officers encountered Davis in a nearby rural area, where his Ford Pinto was stuck in the mud. Ignorant of the APB for Davis, the local police let him go, presumably without calling his driver's license number in to their dispatcher, which would have raised a red flag on the computer, resulting in his arrest. It is believed that he promptly drove to a lonely spot, killed Polly, and buried her in a shallow grave.

On November 30, police arrested Davis during a routine patrol and the arresting officer recognized his face from police sketches. He was arrested for parole violation and isolated. As his palm print had been found in Klaas' bedroom his connection to the kidnapping was easily confirmed and he was charged with the crime. Four days later, he led police to Polly's body, near Cloverdale. Davis said that he strangled her from behind with a piece of cloth. Although there was no way to check exactly how she died, as the body had decayed for two months, the statement was consistent with the evidence.

[edit] Winona Ryder

Actress Winona Ryder, who had been reared in Petaluma, offered a $200,000 reward for Polly's safe return during the search. After Polly's death, Ryder starred in a film version of Little Women and dedicated it to Klaas' memory, the Louisa May Alcott novel having been Polly's favorite book^[1].

In December 2002, during Ryder's sentencing for shoplifting, her defense attorney mentioned Ryder's efforts during the search. The prosecution attorney countered that "What's offensive to me is to trot out the body of a dead child." Ryder was visibly upset by this and the attorney was admonished by the judge. Mark Klaas later defended Ryder's character and expressed outrage at the prosecutor's comments.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Marc Klaas

In the wake of the murder, Polly's father, Marc Klaas, became a child advocate and established the KlaasKids Foundation. He has made himself available to parents of kidnapped children, and has appeared frequently on Larry King Live, CNN Headline News, and Nancy Grace.

[edit] Joe Klaas

Joe Klaas, grandfather of Polly Klaas, author of several "self help" books, including "Twelve Steps to Happiness" made an unusual statement a few weeks after Polly's abduction, that "she [Polly] was the right age. She could be easily sold. There is no question in my mind that she was going to be sold." Quoted from the crimelibrary.com, see external links below.

In 2004, he supported California Proposition 66 to "fix the flaw in the law" of the Three strikes law^{[citation needed]}. His son Marc opposed the law.