One Measly Shell Casing
Hansen’s forthright denial of shooting Sherry Morrow up on the Knik River was the turning point in this game of cat and mouse. And in that moment, the focus suddenly shifted. Sgt. Glenn Flothe now took the lead. He’d been on the case continuously since September of ’83, when he was first assigned to assist what was then a flagging investigation. By now, Glenn Flothe knew the facts of Robert Hansen inside out. He was bringing the hammer down.
Man With A Hammer
Flothe had now assumed — in his even-handed, understated way — a confrontational footing. It was all about a single shell casing, from a .223 rifle, found in the gravel bed that made Sherry Morrow’s grave. Flothe now had the hammer.
“How do you explain,” Flothe asked, “the shell casing from your weapon at the gravesite? We have a team of Investigators at your residence right now with a search warrant and we’re just determined to ask why, we are asking why, something went terribly wrong.
H: You guys are telling me that I shot this person?
F: That’s correct.
H: Well, you’re wrong, I didn’t shoot anybody, I would not hurt anybody, that’s true.
F: Well, how do you explain the circumstances then, you’ve explained some of these circumstances, how do you explain these circumstances? It’s my understanding that you’ve been hunting out in that area before, Eklutna River for years.
Oh, yeah, I’ve been going over to Eklutna River for years… I probably have shell casings all, halfway across Alaska.
Robert Hansen, October 27, 1983
The Hammer Strikes Again
Flothe’s voice stayed low, calm and unwavering. Every answer or half answer Robert Hansen gave, Flothe followed with a detailed disquisition.
Well, then how is it that we find a shell casing out in the Eklutna area from one of your weapons? Do you know what the F.B.I. Laboratory does, I’m sure that’s been explained to you, how they make comparisons, how they make matches. For every shell casing [at] the Knik River found on her gravesite from your weapon, from my understanding we know for a fact that you’ve been out there hunting before. Now is there a correlation between a shell casing being there and you hunting, or the correlation between the mere fact that you did not do this.
Sgt. Glenn Flothe, October 27, 1983
Hansen stayed steadfast in his denials. With, of course, some caveats. He knew enough not to lie about certain things. When Flothe asked him to explain the .223 shell casing — the hammer coming down again — Hansen admitted he had such a weapon. “I have a two,” he stammered, “two ah twenty three.”
FLOTHE: Where’s that one at?
HANSEN: Home someplace.
Oh, yeah, the troopers were thinking. We’re looking for that rifle right now as we speak. Hansen had to know that too. Even with that presumed foreknowledge, Hansen didn’t waver. This ruse had, after all, worked before. Had worked every time. Deny, deny, deny.
No Rest
But the hammer kept striking, a muffled tone that gave the man in the hot seat no rest. Flothe asked about Hansen’s airplane. Yes, the accused said, I had my airplane out there this summer. That alone was a major revelation, whether Hansen knew it or not. Troopers had looked at every man accused of roughing up prostitutes, every man who’d been corralled for violent behavior with the street girls of Anchorage. Among the eighteen or so offenders, only one of them owned an airplane.
But like a dog on a bone, Flothe quickly returned to the evidence:
Looking back on that interview, Glenn Flothe is his usual insightful self. This is what he told me when I interviewed him on May 11, 1985, only months after Robert Hansen confessed to the whole damn thing.
Sgt. Glenn Flothe on Hansen Interview
“I think the interview Darrell and I did when we arrested him prior to making his confession – his arrogance was there, but it was more along the lines of “you’ve got the wrong guy. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” sort of – he was telling us the same story he told everybody else…
“Except this time he’s got a little problem because he doesn’t even want — you see before he could say, ‘Well, yeah, I was with that prostitute –- but that fuckin’ shit, she wanted more money and I threw her ass outta the camper.’ Now what is she doing? She’s putting some heat on me –- that’s bullshit –- she got what she deserved — and the cops would buy that.
“But how he’s got a problem because we got a dead prostitute out there that’s been shot and he can’t simply say, ‘yeah, I was with her that night and the last time I saw her I dropped her off and 4th and B’ – ‘cause he’s smart enough to realize that now he can’t say that -– ‘cause now you’re talking murder, you’re talking heavy duty stuff.
“You dropped her off at 4th and B? Bullshit. You killed her.”
So he’s not gonna associate himself at all with any of the dead ones, not at all. He’s smart enough to realize that.”
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