Mortal Danger

house. And twelve years later, Gayle’s remains were found in the backyard of their former home.
    Three years later, corrections officers at Walpole Prison found a kite that Danny Tavares sent to an official regarding his inmate account. It was written on June 18, 2003, and it was one of his threatening letters:
    Mrs. B.
    I know you purposely made an issue out [of ] that punk $100. It never made it into my account. I’m getting sick of everybody trying to jack me over. Charlie said you told him you already sent it to me and to check with the treasurer’s office. I shouldn’t have to! I’m the last person you will ever jack over ’cause when I get out, I will do shit to you and your daughters that you can’t imagine! And trust me when I tell you that I have experience with women…just ask Nancy or Debbie or Mary or Sandy or Chris or a few others. Oh, we can’t forget about my favorite…Gayle. Oh ya, if you can bring them back to life, then ask them. I want my money!
    He had blatantly listed the first names of some of the Highway Killer’s victims, and of Gayle Botelho. Was he lying or was he bragging? Ben Benson saw how vicious Tavares could be when he believed someone was holding money back from him. Tavares had first signed the kite but then scribbled over his name.
     
    With the tragedy in Graham, Washington, Daniel Tavares suddenly became bad news for a number of politicians, and Massachusetts voters wondered why a roving monster like Tavares had been released from prison at all.
    Paul Walsh, who had just been unseated after sixteen years as district attorney, insisted there was not just cause to charge Tavares with Gayle Botelho’s murder: “The mere knowledge that this guy knew where she was buried can lead you to all sorts of conjecture, but at the end of the day, you need some evidence.”
    Perhaps. Any prosecutor hopes for hard physical evidence. It is unwise for a prosecutor to go ahead with a case where there are no fingerprints, no blood or fluid DNA transfers, no suspicious hairs and fibers, no bullets or casings or a gun to compare them to, no tool marks, no car tire imprints, or other evidence to show to a jury. Most prosecutors who face election every four years try to keep their conviction percentages well over 90 percent and prefer not to risk not guilty verdicts. And if a homicide defendant is acquitted, double jeopardy will attach, and he cannot be tried again for that crime.
    A number of convictions have been won, however, where there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence and where crimes were committed in a similar pattern.
    Despite all the “good time” he lost, Daniel Tavares became eligible for parole in the summer of 2007, after serving over sixteen years in Walpole. However, he had two charges pending—one for spitting on a corrections officer, and the second for smashing another guard with a heavycast that had been applied after Tavares had wrist surgery. Bail on those attacks was $50,000 apiece, and he faced ten more years in prison if he was convicted.
    Tavares had sent letters threatening the lives of Governor Mitt Romney and Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly. His father in Florida considered him “pure evil,” although he had tried to get his son off drugs when he was a teenager. The elder Daniel Tavares was even more terrified when he allegedly received a phone call from Jennifer Lynn, his future daughter-in-law, telling him that Daniel would soon be on his way to break his legs and kill him. Daniel’s father was sleeping with a gun under his pillow.
    In the summer of 2007, Mitt Romney was no longer the governor of Massachusetts; he was among the top candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. One of the appointments Romney had made during his governorship was that of Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman. Critics said he had named Tuttman for purely political reasons—to appeal to female voters. She was among a quartet of women appointed to the judiciary in April 2006. Until then, out of forty-two judicial appointments made by Governor Romney, only thirteen had been female.
    Tuttman had a good reputation as a former assistant district attorney and as a strong advocate for victims’ rights. She had been awarded many honors as head of the Essex County District Attorney’s Family Crime and Sexual Assault Unit. Many sources called her a “brilliant lawyer.”
    On the advice of others, Mitt Romney gave Kathe Tuttman a judgeship. He would live to