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8 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, October 19,1994 Section Two L isa Flormoe's fiance, Brian Baker, listened in horror on the telephone telephone as Lisa was attacked and overpowered overpowered 100 miles away from Eugene, Oregon, where he originated originated the call. Attractive 22-year-old Lisa was visiting a girlfriend in Wilsonville when she received the welcome telephone telephone call. She and Brian had been living together for five years. Just recently they had decided to marry, but all that was to change within a few tragic moments around noon on Aug. 13,1991. Lisa, who was alone in the house, told Brian to hold the line for a moment while she answered the door. No doubt it was the same fellow fellow who had twice before that same day asked for directions. She answered the door. At the other end of the line, Brian heard the command, "Turn around and shut up. Put your hands on the wall." Then came Lisa's plaintive response, "Please don't hurt me." In Eugene, Brian felt helpless. Something terrible terrible was happening and there was very little he . could do about it. Finally, he made the only decision available to him. He hung up and dialled 911. Police approached the upper-mjd- dle-class home at 32125 S.W. Lake Dr. with a degree of caution. Once they determined that whoever had caused the disturbance was no longer longer in the residence, they entered. Inside they found the nude body of Lisa Flormoe in a bedroom. She had been viciously stabbed, but had not been sexually interfered with in any way. Detectives soon ascertained nothing nothing had been taken. Other than Lisa's body and the quantity of blood on the carpet, nothing in the home had been disturbed. The house had recently been rented by the parents parents of Lisa's friend. The family was not well-known to their neighbors and had not been at home at the time of the murder. Brian Baker sped to Wilsonville and told police he had heard Lisa being attacked while speaking with her on the phone. He could add little Max HAINES Crime Flashback Left dangling on the telephone, Brian was powerless to save Lisa more to assist the investigation. Lisa had been extremely happy at the prospect of their upcoming marriage. marriage. As far as he knew, she had no enemies. An autopsy indicated Lisa's murderer murderer had not inflicted a clean incisive incisive slash with a sharp knife, but had hacked at his victim with a dull instrument, quite possibly a pair of scissors. The murder weapon was nowhere to be found. It had obviously obviously been carried away by the killer. The entire neighborhood was canvassed, canvassed, but no one had seen anyone enter or léave the murder house around the time of the killing. Ten days passed. The investigation investigation wound down. All avenues of the inquiry had been exhausted. Then, on Aug. 24, a citizen, who preferred to remain anonymous, called police with the information that a boy she knew had cut his hand on the day Lisa was murdered. Detectives following up the tip located 16-year-old Todd Da villa, who lived only a couple of blocks from the murder scene. He told police he had been walking along a nearby golf course when a man chased him with a knife, cutting his hand. Detectives had a hard time believing believing Todd's story. It seemed strange that he would not have reported the incident to the authorities, given the fact that at the time Lisa's murder had made headlines throughout the area. When Todd was confronted with the detectives' suspicions, it didn't take long for him to lose his composure. composure. He broke down and told his interrogators he had called on Lisa twice earlier that morning, pretending pretending to inquire about directions before forcing his way into the house and attacking the hapless girl. Todd Davilla proved to be a most unusual murderer. The entire com-. munity was shocked at his arrest. Todd had no previous criminal record and was an outstanding scholar and athlete. He had achieved straight A's throughout high school and was on the school's track-and-field team, basketball squad and football team. He was also an outstanding Boy Scout. A search of the Davilla home uncovered uncovered a freshly cleaned multi-purpose multi-purpose Boy Scout knife, which experts felt may have been the murder weapon. The case of the clean-cut 16-year- old kid from a good home who seemingly seemingly had become a vicious killer overnight posed complex legal problems. problems. According to Oregon law, if tried as a juvenile and convicted, Todd would be released on his 21st birthday. If tried as an adult, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment. imprisonment. At a hearing to decide whether Todd would be tried as an adult or a juvenile, he admitted he had pulled a Boy Scout knife on Lisa and had forced her to undress. When he put the knife down for a moment in his attempt to rape the girl, she chose that moment to fight for her life. Lisa struggled with all her might, but was no match for the athletic Todd. She lost the struggle for the knife and at the same time lost the battle for her life. Later that day, Todd attended a county fair Friends said he behaved normally and seemed to be having a really good time. Before a decision could be made as to which court would try Todd, defence and prosecution attorneys struck a deal. Todd pleaded guilty to attempted rape and murder. During the course of a pre-sen- tencing investigation, it was revealed that two years before Lisa's murder, when he was 14, Todd had attempted to rape two teenage girls. They had been too embarrassed to report the incident earlier. In sentencing Todd, the presiding judge made it perfectly clear that he considered the confessed killer to be a predator of the most reprehensible kind -- a privileged boy with an all- American appearance, who had stalked his victim, made sure she was vulnerable to his attack and had shown no mercy. The judge also felt that if placed back in society, Todd would kill again. On March 6,1992, Todd Davilla was sentenced to life imprisonment, a sentence he is currently serving. Autographed copies of Max's new book, Multiple Murderers, are now available through Canada Wide Features. Orders on VISA, MasterCard or American Express may be placed by calling (416) 947- 2191, Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., or by mail at 333 King St. E., Toronto, Ont., M5A 3X5.