Judge in Reno shot at courthouse

OK. I'm behind and trying to get caught up. Thanks for posting that. I did see Charla's brother's name, probably in that article, and did kind of try to put that together somehow to try to figure it out, but never did.

Oh, I also found out that her mom's name is really Linda - which is the name she had when she married Jan Sampsel in LV in Dec 1965. Charla was born in Aug 1966. Then Linda had become Soorya by the time she remarried in Sept 1979, when Charla was 13.

There was another article that said there were 500 at her funeral, so it may have been written a bit later. I'll see if I copied it and will post it, if so. It said very little, as the media wasn't allowed within 100 feet of the funeral home or the graveside service at the cemetery, which was reportedly an hour long.

Also, I found out that the other car in the garage was that Jeep Cherokee. The affidavit for the search warrant was posted as a pdf and this was the first I had seen in it in the RGJ. They change out whatever's posted in there and I know I had missed the pdf of the docs from the first divorce from Debra. Someone said there were three divorce/custody docs posted, total - Debra divorce; Charla divorce; Debra custody. I have only seen the Charla divorce ones.

And I thought the affidavit and search warrant returns had already been posted before today, but if they have, I didn't copy them. I remember the dagger case being found in the master bedroom, so I must have seen the return.

Anyway, I went through and made my own paraphrased notes from this affidavit of 6-14-06. It also answers a couple of our questions that weren't apparent from media articles.

~~~~
.Charla's vehicle was a silver Lexus SUV, NV 852-MUP

.A gold Jeep Cherokee, NV plates 937-LBD, was the other vehicle in Darren's garage, according to the search warrant affidavit [note: elsewhere, I read that it was his mother's car, but that is not confirmed]

.The reason some media kept calling Dan Osborne Darren's "roommate" was because he had been "invited to share Mr. Mack's residence" since the end of May, thru the first week of June - this is according to the search warrant affidavit recapping a police interview with Osborne when he first told them to go to 9900 Wilbur May, apt 1006, to check on a possible injured woman

.Osborne was upstairs in the apt when Darren's estranged wife came to drop off their dtr Erika around 9AM

.The 7-yo Erika [note: she's actually 8 yo] then joined Osborne upstairs [note: I don't think Osborne ever looked out the window or saw for sure who brought Erika, which is why he couldn't say for sure it was Charla - we've been wondering why he "didn't recognize" Charla - I don't think he ever saw for sure who was downstairs that Erika had come with]

.Then Darren excused himself from the two of them and said he was going downstairs to talk with Charla, who was in the garage

.Osborne said Darren was gone downstairs about 10 minutes or less, when Osoborne heard his own dog start barking frantically outside, where he had been left in "an open vehicle outside the apartment" [note: we could assume this was Osborne's car - and that he had driven over to Darren's, because he said he had lived there until the first week of June - and this was the 2nd week of June]

.Osborne then heard a shutting of a door leading from the downstairs enclosed garage into the residence area, and when he looked down the stairs, Darren walked past him and went into the master bedroom

.Darren's LEFT hand was wrapped in a large bath towel

.Osborne became concerned because the hand was concealed and Darren's behavior was odd [note: sounds like he felt Darren had something hidden in the hand - and that there wasn't any blood showing on the towel]

.Then Osborne looked down and saw that his dog had followed Darren up the stairs from the garage

.He then realized the dog was covered in blood [note: first time I heard this, I was picturing a little terrier type of dog, like a Jack Russell perhaps, but I have since read that the dog is a mastiff, which is pretty large]

.Osborne inspected the dog for injuries and found none

.When Osborne realized the blood came from transfer from some other source, he became concerned for his own and Erika's personal safety

.Osborne then left immediately and "secured a safe location for the juvenile" and then contacted the Reno PD to to request that someone respond to the Wilbur May apartment to check on the welfare of Charla Mack

.At that time, the Reno PD did respond, but were unable to make contact with anyone there

.Then Det Jenkins, the affiant of the affidavit, next drove to the apartment, based on the information provided by Osborne

.Jenkins saw "several small red stains" on the driveway outside of the garage door, which he believed to be dried blood on the concrete

.Based on that, he called Osborne, who gave the Detective the code number for the electric door opener leading into the residence "he had been sharing with Mr. Mark," believing that an injured or dead person might be inside

.Jenkins opened the garage door and found an adult female, apparently deceased, lying face down in a pool of blood near the front of the garage, in front of the two vehicles which were parked in there (the Lexus SUV and the gold Cherokee)

.He saw blood stains on the vehicles and on their tires

.Jenkins called for RPD backup and then swept the rest of the house to see if there were more victims or injured people - none were found

.Sgt Lessman of the SWAT team, who provided back up, noted what he thought were materials used to make incendiary or explosive devices, when he swept the master bedroom

.Therefore, Jenkins requested a search warrant for specific items (I'll transcribe that list later on)

.Among other things was a Budget Rent-A-Car lease agreement document, which they believed could be found because Osborne had told them that Darren was driving a new model silver Ford Explorer, which he rented from Budget and had been driving almost exclusively for the past week
------

Here two of the stories about the funeral, plus the announcement of Darren Mack now being on the front page of the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list! (Good!)

~~~~
Media kept away from Charla Mack's funeral

RENO, Nev. News reporters were kept about 100 yards away from the mortuary during today's funeral service for Charla Mack.

Mountain View Mortuary President Wayne Reynolds said family members wanted no media coverage of their final moments with Charla during what he described as the "Celebration of Charla's Life."

Reynolds posted security workers in the parking lot with walkie talkies, who chased reporters and television cameramen off a series of neighboring properties he said the mortuary owned.

Media also was banned from the neighboring cemetery where Charla Mack was buried after a service that lasted more than an hour.

Reynolds issued a written statement that said:

"This tragic event has deeply traumatized two wonderful families who while experiencing their own grief, are working feverishly to provide the love, nurture, caring and assistance in the grief process of three beautiful children."

He said "this `Celebration of Life' needs to protect them from any further trauma of having their private emotions aired on the evening news."
-----
Mack on FBI's Most Wanted; mothers mourn at wife's Reno funeral

RENO, Nev. The F-B-I added Darren Mack to its list of "Most Wanted" fugitives today as family members paid their last respects at a funeral service for the estranged wife he's accused of killing.

The mothers of both Charla Mack and Darren Mack were among an estimated 500 people who attended the private service today in west Reno.

The 45-year-old Mack is the wealthy former co-owner of a Reno pawn shop. He hasn't been seen since the June 12th stabbing death of Charla and sniper shooting of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller. He's a suspect in both cases.

Weller, who was wounded in the chest but is recovering, was handling the couple's pending divorce.

The F-B-I is giving Mack top billing on it's Web site for the "Most Wanted" list. He's described as a five-foot-11, 190-pound, dark-haired man who is a bodybuilder and hunter with "access to all types of weapons."

F-B-I Director Robert S- Mueller said Mack should be considered "armed and dangerous."

Reno lawyer Scott Freeman says he has been retained by Darren Mack's family to represent Mack "when and if he is found." Freeman says he is cooperating with investigators but has not heard from Mack or anyone who knew him since he disappeared.

Charla Mack's mother, Soorya Townley, and Charla's brother, Christopher Broughton, accompanied Darren and Charla's eight-year-old daughter, Erica, to today's funeral.

Also attending were Darren Mack's only brother, 43-year-old Landon Mack, and his mother, Joan Mack.
~~~~~

>>>Someplace else, I have also seen a clarification about Joan Mack's interest in the Palace Jewelry and Loan business. She bought from Darren 1% of the worth of the business last year when he declared bankruptcy, so that she would have controlling interest, or 51% of the business, and he would have a remaining 49%.

I wasn't happy knowing that, with her having custody of Erika. (Note that the dtr's name is spelled "Erika" on their company website family photo, even tho everyone else seems to be spelling it "Erica.") To me, that means Joan conspired with Darren to hide assets and keep them from being used for Erika's welfare at the home she shared with her mom Charla. Poor little thing - Joan may be the "best" solution, but it just seems the lesser of evils - distance or love - to me.

Thanks for all the inforation! There's a lot of new details to take in.

I wonder if that gold Jeep Cherokee in Darren's garage was his or his mother's?

I wondered about Dan Osborne. One of the earlier articles, I think the first one that identified the murder victim at Darren's residence, stated that when the police went back to the condo they used the access code given to them by Mr. Osborne. At that point I felt he had been a roommate or at the very least a frequent guest, in order to know the access code.

The affidavit gives a bit more in the way of a timeframe for the murder. If Charla was on time (9:00am was the time in the custody order for the exchange of Erika), and Darren was gone down stairs about 10 minutes, we can presume that at least a few more minutes went by from the time Osborne heard his dog barking, Darren coming up the stairs with his arm wrapped in a towel, the dog coming upstairs with blood on it, Osborne examining the dog for injuries, and then realizing that something had happened, and leaving the condo. So the murder probably took place sometime between 9:00am and 9:20am.

One thing I'm wondering about is where the silver Ford Explorer was at this point? Did Osborne see it parked outside the condo somewhere? Or was it parked in the garage with the gold Jeep Cherokee?

Finding the bomb-making materials is really concerning! It sounds like Darren may have considered a bomb at one point.

This afternoon Catherine Crier had a special 15 minute report on the Darren Mack case. She discussed the bomb-making materials and said that initially bomb sniffing dogs had alerted on Judge Weller's car. She said the police were testing swipes taken from Judge Weller's car to see if it matched the substances found at Darren Macks.

I note that in the two articles about the funeral, it's not stated if the older two children attended the funeral? Also, it wasn't mentioned if Charla's father attended?

It's a tough situation for Erika. I think she'd be better of with her maternal grandmother, and out of the media glare in Reno.

With the Macks hiring an attorney to represent Darren if and when he's apprehended, that's when things could get very difficult between the grandparents. The Macks will be defensive of Darren, while Charla's parents will view him as the murderer of their daughter.

I got the impression it was already somewhat contentious, unless the Mack family attorney was overruled on this, from the secret custody hearing last Friday:

" ... After the hearing, Freeman said Charla's brother had approached him in the courtroom, took his hand as though to shake it, brought his face close to Freeman's and said: "How does it feel to defend a murderer?"

Freeman said he was surprised by the incident, and advised that all future contact between the families should be through their lawyers. ..."

Now I see that it said, "Freeman advised ...," so it doesn't mean it was something the judge had ruled on - it was just his opinion and he's a defense attorney, for all intents and purposes.

I wonder if Freeman has made such a motion since then - it's probably all sealed because of Erika's age and no one can access it. I've seen others make mention of it on forums as "fact" - that only the attorneys for each family can have contact - but I don't know that it *is* a fact.

And Mr. Sampsel seems always to be left out of everything.

Ha ha, here's where I read that the Cherokee was Darren's mother's - right here on FR:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1647993/posts?page=285#285

" ... It appears that they've found two of the getaway vehicles--his mother's Cherokee and a Hummer. They're looking for a Silver Ford Explorer. ..."

FReeper randog was keeping us updated with what he heard locally on the radio in the first couple of days. Funny I saw that because I never have gone back to read the first couple hundred posts when I wasn't following it as closely.

There's an interesting new message posted on Darren Mack's MySpace page, reminding him about "Landmark Education." Evidently this person worked with Darren in an educational program. Here's the link:

http://www.myspace.com/17033252

I saw that! Makes you wonder if the Landmark Forum will tout Darren Mack as one of their success stories, lol. I'm not going to get into *that group* and what I would like to say about them, having had friends swept up in it over the years. They sue everybody and their dog.

There was also a new RGJ article this morning, but it was a rehash of virtually everything already published - except for one item I hadn't seen before.

Within this segment is a description of how all the ammo was found and most important, the name of the explosive they found, "Tannerite," so now we know that.

~~~~~
" ... When police searched Mack's home after the shooting, they found ammunition "strewn about a floor in one of the bedrooms," a computer and material about Weller, an empty rifle case and "more than 5 pounds and less than 20 pounds" of explosive material, Donnelly said.

The material was an ammonium nitrate binary explosive sometimes sold under the name "Tannerite," he said. It's considered "a high explosive," he said.

The material is often used in long-range target practice and explodes when the target is hit. But if combined in large enough amounts, it "has the potential" to be used as a bomb "that has the potential to cause some damage," he said.

"We haven't found anything yet to show that he planned to manufacture an explosive," Donnelly said. "But we can't rule that out."

"Everything's a concern because he acted out in a violent, irrational manner," Donnelly said. "We can't assume anything. I don't know what's driving the man."

Just after the shooting, two police dogs trained to detect explosives "alerted" to spots on Weller's car in a basement parking lot beneath the courthouse, Donnelly said. Police have swabbed the car and are examining the material to determine whether the substance the dogs found was the same as that in Mack's townhouse on Wilbur May Parkway.

"Dogs are trained to key on a wide variety of substances," Donnelly said. "If someone handled that material and touched the car, they would catch it." ..."
~~~~~

>>>Also, I did find the earlier affidavit I had seen but hadn't saved - it was for the arrest warrant (duh!) and that is where Dan Osborne was quoted as saying he had never met Charla before and just assumed that was who she was when she brought Erika to the condo.

Seems like there was one more something noteworthy, but right now it escapes me what it was. Will post more if I think of it. I would post the link to the pdf of that affidavit, but it's copied to a weird site from a TV station site - there may be a better place to view it.

Hope the judge is ok.

From the title, I thought maybe a judge had taken a pot shot at a court house.

I forgot to mention that on Catherine Crier's program yesterday, she briefly interviewed by telephone a spokesman for Judge Weller.

The spokesman said that Judge Weller is doing well in an undisclosed location.

He went on to say that in the weeks leading up to the events on June 12th, Judge Weller and his family were awoken several times to their dogs barking and were concerned about the possibility of a prowler on their property.

The spokesman also mentioned the incident with the newspaper ad, in which a rare Harley-Davidson motorcycle was to auctioned off on a Saturday morning at 7:00am, with the address given as Judge Weller's home address. In the ad, the person selling the motorcycle was listed as "Rosy", who is Judge Weller's wife. Of course, the judge didn't even own a motorcycle and he and his family were awoken on that Saturday with many people showing up for the auction.

This is now seen as harassment by people who were angry with Judge Weller, and possibly Darren Mack was part of that harassment.

Oh, I thought it had been established that Darren had told the other "mad dads" that he had done that to Weller - so, that isn't a "definite," then, huh?

I think it would be reasonable to assume he was either in on it or instigated it or placed the ad himself. I couldn't believe he had talked his friend Osborne into calling media outlets and asking them to let him go on shows or be interviewed for articles bashing Weller. Darren sure had some kind of "hold" over his friend.

I didn't see anything outrageous at all in the court proceedings, as far as anything going against Darren. He had maybe 3 months he would have to pay what he thought was too much alimony - he is just a bully and wants things "my way or the highway."

Did you read that awful post at Huff's blog about calling Palace Jewelry? I won't repeat it, because I think the poster is either mistaken or making it up (he/she claimed that the eBay - webmaster for Palace answered the phone and proceeded to dis Charla big time, on and on - to a total stranger, mind you, on the day of Charla's funeral! And assuming it was her dad, that makes it the worst!)

I'm going to do some checking into Osborne, as I can't figure him out. Also, have started putting together all those deed transactions with which property they covered - Darren never seemed to sell anything, but bought a new house or property every other year.

Oh, I also saw a pic of the gold Jeep Cherokee in front of the mom's house in the assessor's photo for her property, pic taken in 2003.

Heh, yesterday in the google news search for Darren Mack articles, there were 20-30 of the same AP story in various MSM newspapers throughout the US and every single one of them had the headline "Manhunt for Judge Slayer".

I'm pretty sure the spokesman said it "could have" been Darren, as opposed to it definitely was Darren. It could be that they know it was him but have to be careful what they say at this point. I would assume that Darren was somehow involved. I think the dogs barking in the middle of the night at Judge Weller's home is pretty scary, especially considering the bomb-making material found at Darren's condo.

I too don't see anything outragous with the court orders. They seem very reasonable considering the income level. But, it appears that in the case of Darren Mack, he wanted it all - full custody, no payments to an ex-spouse and all assets awarded to him.

Is the gold Jeep Cherokee a very yellow gold as opposed to that pale beige gold? Jeep Cherokee has a very yellow gold that is somewhat unusual and not seen too often (they also have the pale one). If it's the yellow gold color, I can see why he wouldn't use that as his escape vehicle. It would be too easy to spot.

I think Dan Osborne is a real mystery. Unless there's more details to his story that hasn't been released, a lot of it doesn't make a sense. The one thing that I noted right away is that it was initially reported that when he saw the blood on his dog, and could find no injuries to the dog, he thought it might be Charla's blood. I wondered why he came to that conclusion? He had just seen Darren come up the stairs with his arm in a towel, so the logical assumption would be that Darren had hurt himself in the garage.

I also wonder why Dan Osborne seems to go along with whatever Darren says? Did he ask why he was needed to take the little girl to her grandmother's? It would seem logical to ask why Darren couldn't take Erika to his mother's? And why did he agree to meet Darren for coffee if he was frightened about what he thought may have happened at the condo? There's a lot that doesn't make sense.

I'm not familiar with "Huffs" blog. Do you have a link?

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060622/NEWS10/606220361/1016/NEWS

Charla Mack's friend says she warned him, others
MARTHA BELLISLE
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 6/22/2006

A Reno man who was dating Charla Mack before she was stabbed to death last week is keeping his blinds drawn and his doors locked, while Darren Mack, charged in her murder and a suspect in the shooting of a family court judge, remains a fugitive.

"I'm always looking over my shoulder," Mark Phillips, a Reno auto broker, said Wednesday.

Charla had warned him and her other friends that Darren Mack might be a threat, Phillips said, but no one suspected it would go this far.

"She was concerned about her own safety," said Phillips, adding that he met Charla last year at a bodybuilding competition and they began dating after running into each other at a local gym. "She said in passing that she feared he would hurt her someday.

"I guess she knew something we didn't."

Charla Mack, 39, was found stabbed to death in Darren Mack's garage on June 12, hours after Judge Chuck Weller of Washoe District Family Court was shot in the chest as he stood near a window in his office.

Weller was treated at a hospital and is recovering in a secure location and is working on court matters, his spokesman, Jim Denton, said Wednesday.

Friends and family gathered Tuesday for a private memorial service for Charla Mack, attended by her mother, Soorya Townley, and her brother, Christopher Broughton, as well as Darren's mother, Joan Mack, and his younger brother, Landon.

Phillips said the service and the reception that followed were positive.

"People shared the memories that stood out in the years that we knew her," he said.

And it was supportive, especially for Charla and Darren's 8-year-old daughter.

"I spent time with her yesterday," Phillips said of the girl. "Everyone was making sure that she was surrounded by family."

A judge ordered on Friday that Darren's mother, Joan, will have temporary physical custody of the child, while Charla's family will have liberal visitation.

Reno police spokesman Steve Frady said the search continues for Mack, missing since June 12. The FBI has added Mack to its "Most Wanted" list, while other federal agencies, including the U.S. Marshal Service, help with the search.

Police have received no word on the 2006 silver Ford Explorer that Mack had rented and was believed to be driving, Frady said. And no sightings of the 45-year-old millionaire businessman have been reported.

Let's see - first, the Jeep Cherokee is that pale kind of champagne gold. I had a friend with one that color and in a parking lot at night, it looked silver and sometimes even white (from a distance).

I can't link to the photo, because you have to sign in to get several layers deep on the govt website and it's inside a java applet, so doesn't have its own URL. Oh, maybe I can find the original jpg and it might have an independent link. I'll see.

As to Osborne, did you get a chance to read the arrest warrant affidavit? Oh, I found it - here's the link I couldn't find yesterday - remember before you click that it's a pdf and needs to open in Adobe Reader:

http://www.news10.net/news/MACK.pdf

I think that was also where Osborne told the cop that Darren had called him the night before to come over. What I don't know, and haven't been able to find out so far, is where Osborne actually lives.

Since he only stayed at Darren's "off and on" for just a week, I'm not so sure he lives in Reno permanently. If he grew up there, maybe his folks still live there and he stayed with them some of the time.

He owns a business, a "career consulting company" in California, which I haven't found the name of yet, and a people-checker shows previous residences for him in a couple of towns in Orange County ("The OC"), CA, as well as Sedona, AZ. (Which is on fire right now!)

The latter suggests a New Age-y type person. It could be that in the 11 years Darren and Charla were married, DJO had always lived in CA and only Darren had ever visited with him. If he wasn't a swinger, DMack probably had no interest in getting together as a couple. I can't tell if he is or was married or not - there's a name associated with him, but it's a unisex name and could be a sibling or something. Not sure about that.

The "on and off" staying at Darren's *sounded* like a guy going through a separation or divorce, but who knows. I thought maybe he was a Landmark person, but that wouldn't be right, since Darren and Charla were heavily involved in that together and if DJO had been, he would've met Charla before. And we still don't really know if that was true -- that he didn't know who she was -- or not.

Several times there have been vague references to Darren's "current girl friend" -- other than the Mexico trip at bankruptcy time -- and yet, nothing definitive has been said and she sure hasn't come forward, like Mark Phillips has for Charla. Makes me think whoever she is, if she exists, probably lives in CA and may have a silver Ford Explorer in her closed-up garage right now.

I still haven't been able to verify the documents I found in CA that might shed some light on that subject. There is no way to figure out from them what this specific Darren Mack's middle name or initial is. It's just listed that way, no R or Roy or anything at all.

Oh, Steve Huff's Dark Side blog is here:

http://huffcrimeblog.com/?p=627

The post in question is at the very bottom of the page - just hit "end" and then scroll up a little bit until you're past the blank blog comment form. It's just above that - "Roxanne."

Dear Rte66:

I was the one who posted about the phone call and it's absolutely true. My call(*67) was placed last Saturday night, 6/17, at 8:29 pm. I guess I was expecting an answering system, I'm not sure. I'm quite the inquisitive type. When someone answered, I was stunned and hung up. The second call was placed minutes later at 8:33pm after I composed myself. I started with an apology for hanging up. I don't know who answered the phone (didn't think he would have told me anyway and I didn't want him to hang up right away), but it was a man with a very soft spoken voice. After asking a few questions, I was in absolute shock with what he was saying to me, although I had been in a 2 yr relationship with a nutcase in the past who absolutely had everyone is his world fooled of his true nature. This is why the case is so close to my heart. The guy I was with had a family who would stand up for him at all costs although they had to have known about abuse from previous relationships. It was alway, crazy ex this and that. It's why I went on to tell the person on the phone about abusers in general and how their true colors are only shown to the unlucky ones who live with them. I also told him that I am well aware of smear campaigns because now I am another crazy ex. It's a pattern with abusers.

No matter what I said, the person was set on going back to "Darren is a wonderful person, the best person I have ever met and Charla was just horrible. Everything will come out in the end of what he was going through." He also said that "She would nag him day in and day out, she was absolutely horrible." I asked him if she was the horrible one and now she is dead and a judge was shot, who is the horrible one? He then commented on how he doesn't condone what Darren has done, but he understands it.

I pray it was not Jan who I spoke to. Perhaps DM's brother? I don't have my call timer set, but the call was approximately 5 minutes long and he initiated the end of the conversation. I'm surprised no one has responded to my post of Huff's blog but glad to see it is being noticed.

I emailed Nancy Grace but I'm sure they get thousands of emails and this isn't anything "clue" related.

Hope this clears any questions about the phone call.

OBTW, 8:29pm EST.

Thanks for the link!

Big news today with the sighting of Darren Mack in Mexico!!! I missed the news conference. I have my own website, news & current events, and this morning was doing maintainence. So I was late checking out the Reno-Gazette site. I imagine Nancy Grace, Catherine Crier, and Greta will have updates today.

I'm surprised they found him in Mexico! Although they don't hae an exact location, they know his general whereabouts and his alias - can't believe he was using "John Smith"! He evidently agreed to surrender, but didn't show up at the surrender time and place. I bet they'll apprehend him in the next couple of days.

In regards to Daniel Osborne......I did find a little bit on him. According to some of the search sites I checked, he's 44years old, born July 1961. He's lived in Indiana in addition to Nevada. It appears he's married to Wanda L. Osborne, who's 48 years old. I have an address and telephone number in Reno (don't think I should publish it on a public board). Actually, there two addresses, and one may be very recent.

Yes, I saw the news as soon as I woke up this afternoon (I sleep days, long story). Wow, wow. Darren's old-time friends with the DA and he's had over a dozen phone calls and more emails with him since Monday!

Maybe we guessed right, as far as Mack following the coverage of his crimes and manhunt. That speaks volumes, for sure. What an egomaniac. And he was lolling around the swimming pool at a resort near Cabo San Lucas. What, did he meet up with Olivia Newton-John's boyfriend there? It took Patrick McDermott a year before he was spotted there - I guess Darren got his cues from that one.

Heh, he *was* spotted there and in PV, plus La Paz and Mazatlan, but right away, not a year later! Sounds like he has been taking the ferry from the Baja to the mainland. Perhaps he has a car. How else would he have gotten to PV? There are bandito checkpoints along the coastal highways in some of the districts, maybe Sinaloa. The federales wear bandoleros of ammo, tons of it, and it's hard to tell if they are police or bandits.

Maybe he got stopped on the way to PV and had a shootout with them! We won't hear about it, if so. Mexicans won't care. I wonder if he *does* have his weaponry with him, and if so, how he smuggled it in with him. That would have been a lot to just "carry." By now, if he didn't have a car, he could've taken the ferry from La Paz to Los Mochis and then the train ride through Copper Canyon with all the American tourists, to Chihuahua City. He might "blend".

How silly of me, thinking he'd actually try to to come back to the US from there. It's Interstate highway into El Paso, or another road straight to NM - even to AZ, where the family has business connections.

I'm having thunder but no rain, so might have to get off of here quickly, or maybe not. Dry thunder is usually electrical, tho - and have had it zap my phone and my modem before.

Uh, let's see. Yeah, tonight's cable shows should be interesting. Surely we'll hear from someone somewhere who has been in or *is* still in Cabo or PV and might know if this is making any news down there.

I agree, though, that it's probably just a matter of days now, before he's caught or "surrenders," if he has been this forthcoming already. I cannot believe (well, yes, I can) that he only said to tell his mother and brother he was OK, but did not say a word about any of his three children. It's his MO - and he thought before that he would get custody of any of them? Yeah, right.

I'm also very surprised that the DA hasn't had a tap on his phone or at least a reverse ID to see where Mack is calling from. That seems *elementary.* Maybe he does and isn't revealing that!

Oh, that Daniel Osborne isn't the right one. Isn't that the "Danny" one in Reno? He is James middle name, but this one we want is Jacob. I had already ruled that one out. Not the right one.

Come on, Darren, turn yourself in and actually show up!

Hi - thanks for posting. You understand that this is the Internet and we *question* everything! Glad you responded.

Sorry you've had the bad experiences in the past - many of us can relate to that. It does sound like the man you spoke with could be a Mack family member - but his brother is not involved in the business, as he has his own pawnshop, totally separate.

Could it have been his son, 18 yo? Did he sound that young? I don't think a boy that age would be bad-mouthing his stepmom who was just murdered, is still in the morgue, and hasn't had a funeral service yet at that point, but perhaps that's exactly who would, a teenager not yet mature enough to keep it to himself right now, in the midst of his own chaos.

It just seems to me that Jan Sampsel would be the only possible person who would've said he is the webmaster, because he is, and who might've answered the phone. Sorry I misread the day the call was made - I thought it was Tuesday, the day of the funeral.

I would *assume* that a father would love his daughter enough not to disparage her memory to others, especially at that point in time - but there may be some very bad blood there which we are not privy to. He does seem to be left out of everything in mentions about Charla, so it's entirely possible.

However, it's hard for me to imagine a "despised" daughter or father coming to work for the husband of the woman in question. I got the impression - and this is *just* my impression, or *hunch* - perhaps he had fallen on some hard times and had taken this job because of Darren's kindness - and may be why his loyalty lies there. Maybe the bad blood that I am just imaginging with Charla didn't happen until her father moved there. I think he lived in MT before this, but don't know when they moved to Reno.

His wife has a business there, one of those commercial kitchen places where you can go in and cook your own pre-packaged meals for your family and freeze them for a weeks' worth of dinners. "Dream Dinners" is the name of it - and she is the co-owner with some other women. It seems to be brand new this year.

I don't know for sure that they are still married, as they shared the same address until 2002, when Jan had a different one. From what I can ascertain, they have two adult children of their own (or may have been hers from another marriage, but adopted when young by Jan) - both live in SoCal. I haven't looked past all that, not enough time - but I will if the manhunt continues.

Here is what the website for the eBay store said, copied verbatim:

" ... Who's This Guy?
Oh, yes. If you email us, most likely this old guy will be on the other end of your missive. Now chained to a computer on the second floor, this photo was taken of him in a former, tranquil life filled with whistful memories.
(Actually, I landed this beauty with the help of my son in August, 2003 on the Upper Sacramento River. I've been looking for this one for 40 years!!!)

My name is Jan Sampsel, and by now you probably guessed that I manage the eBay program for Darren. If you have any questions or concerns, please email or call me at 775-219-8887. I am always glad to help. ..."

Hope we can figure it all out!