Open Records Request
Part I
When a loved one is murdered, families have very little resources to turn to. Our lives have been turned upside down and very few families know what to do. It’s difficult to deal with the murder of a loved one, but more so if you do not believe EVERYTHING that could be done is being done by the person assigned to solve your loved ones murder.
In the society which we live in today, we want and expect transparency in every aspect of our government. This does not apply to a murder and more so with an unsolved murder. Families will continuously call the detective in charge of solving their loved ones' case only to be ignored and to never receive a call back. Why? Are they that overworked that a phone call or email would consume that much of their time? Or do they not care? We believe the latter is what most families believe. We’ve always tried to give the benefit of the doubt, we never wanted to accuse anyone of not doing their job.
We knew early in our daughter's case that very little was done to solve her case. After being told by Ortiz, “It could take months or years to get any results back from the crime lab”. We found that hard to believe! Years to get a result back from the crime lab? Really?
We knew when we called the TXDPS Crime Lab in Waco in November of 2011 and learned that nothing had been sent in to be analyzed in our daughter's case from the Killeen Police Department we knew something was terribly wrong. We were told that a Texas Ranger dropped off a DVD to be enhanced. (A fact that Ortiz would vehemently deny). We found out who that TX Ranger was and spoke to him. He claimed he was eating at a restaurant and was approached by a person who handed him a DVD and said it had something to do with the murder of Candance Boley. We do not know what that DVD contained, or who the the person who gave him the DVD, as Ortiz has denied its existence.
We will discuss that further in our Open Records Request part II.
We have a friend who was a detective in Virginia, he asked if he could call Ortiz and talk to him. He spoke with Ortiz, and what he told us later is what we believed early in the investigation. As our friend talked with us, he began with, “I am so sorry you have to deal with a person like that. I don’t believe he has any intention of solving your daughter’s case, I don’t think he cares”.
As painful as that was to hear, it was the validation we needed.
Early in the investigation we did not think an open records request from KPD was an option, we thought since her case was considered open and active no information would be released to us.
At year 10 we submitted our request. We asked for everything, expecting nothing, and received very little information on the 31 pages that we did receive. Most names had been redacted, but some were not.
The Open Records report
We found the first page to be a little unsettling, this we believe is what set the domino effect for the calamity of errors, the debacle and the gaslighting which continues today 10 years later.
The responding officer we will call Paul Blart would be the one who set the tone for the disastrous chain of events.
Item 1 Location: The location is listed as 30* Patton, this address is not even in
the neighborhood where Candance lived. Two other locations were also listed on the Incident Report, none of which were the house Candance lived at and was murdered in. KPD tried to explain that this is where the
911 call originated from, the “neighbor” who made the 911 call. This "neighbor" lived a 13 minute walk away from where the murder occurred. The two people who found Candance walked 13 mins even though one lived directly behind the house that Candance lived in. (more about that in a later blog)
Item 2 Reporting date: 07/12/2011 04:00
This date is not correct, he responded to the 911 call at 07/11/2011 11:46
Item 3 Why would Blart, with only 2 years experience with KPD be the one who INCORRECTLY documented how he thought Candance was murdered and
the dates he thought she was murdered?
Item 4 Why would Blart INCORRECTLY document there was a gun involved?
Item 5 Why would Blart be the one who interviewed the 2 people who found
Candance and the person who lived at the Patton address? There is no
other documentation that anyone other than Blart was handling this investigation.
Item 6 8 KPD officers were listed as Police Involved Blart was listed twice, Ortiz is not listed at all.
Item 7 21 interview documents were sent to us, Ortiz interviewed 13 people,
Blart interviewed 3, 5 interviews were from random KPD officers.
Item 8 If the 2 people who found Candance did not enter the house and only saw
her from an open door, as they claim why would the incident report say they responded to a victim who was shot?
While there is so much we are denied to view, what we see in this request is proof there was no attempt to solve our daughters murder. We know only 11 items small enough to fit into a Walmart grocery bag were removed from the house, those items were documented and the invoice provided to the homeowner. 3 days after the murder the homeowner was allowed entry to the home, he called KPD on multiple occasions to collect additional items he thought might be evidence. NO other invoice was ever provided from KPD to the homeowner to document the items taken from the murder house. We know that very few items were sent to the crime lab, some items have recently been sent to the crime lab including the rape kit the Medical Examiner’s Office completed on 07/13/2011. Why wasn’t that sent in? Nobody seems to have an answer for that question.
We know how vital an investigation is within first 48 hours after a murder is committed this could make the difference between a closed case and a cold case. Candance was found murdered on Monday July 11, 2011. Ortiz did not work on Mondays. Who did the initial investigation? And collected evidence? Was it Blart?
For the families who are interested in pursuing an Open Records Request with KPD we have included instructions on how to do the request. We have also included a couple pages of our open records request. Sorry we can’t give you Paul Blart’s real name, he is now a detective at KPD. We are praying he knows how to investigate a homicide now.
HOW TO REQUEST OPEN RECORDS FROM KPD ONLINE
(Easiest to use a desktop computer)
Click on Open Records Requests
On the left side of page go to: Submit a Request
At this point you will be required to create an account
Go to: Type of Information Requested
Click on the arrow down and select Police
Go to: Public Record Desired
Enter the name of victim, date of incident and case # (If known)
Enter all information you would like to obtain.
SAMPLE
Original KPD Incident Sheet, handwritten loose papers from the first officer and or detective on the scene
Witness/Suspect Interviews
Any and all narratives for the Incident
List of all officers involved
Items collected as evidence
You will be given several options on how you would like to receive your documents, if you select by mail there may be a fee associated. We chose to have the documents emailed which we received within 5 business days. If you choose to have the documents emailed, you may want to print a copy to keep for your records, we are not sure how long you will be able to access the documents online.
*** If you are requesting information on an unsolved murder, most information will be redacted, meaning there will be no names or information pertaining to the murder. You will be notified by the Bell County Attorney’s office what information cannot be sent to you.
If you have not received any information after 10 business days, you can file a complaint with the Attorney General. www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/open-government/open-records-complaint
**PLEASE NOTE KPD OPEN RECORDS IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED DUE TO STAFFING **
We will post when the office reopens for business.
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