Published: April 22, 2009 12:06 am      

Husband held in ’81 killing

Suspect arrested in Florida

SOMERSET — New information from his nephew helped lead to the arrest of John David Dawson for murder, more than 27 years after his wife was found bludgeoned to death and burned in her car near Tire Hill.

The body of 30-year-old Kathleen Dawson was discovered early Nov. 10, 1981, along what is now Soap Hollow Road in Conemaugh Township, Somerset County.

A blood trail and other evidence at the scene showed she was killed outside the 1980 Plymouth Horizon and then placed in the car before it was torched late on Nov. 9 or early Nov 10.

New information linking Dawson, now 59, to the suspected murder weapon and fire came from Dawson’s nephew. Duane Schmidt.

The witness described details about a blackjack found at the crime scene that he said he saw at Dawson’s home. Schmidt also helped discredit Dawson’s explanation of burns on his face believed to be suffered during the crime.

Dawson was arrested Monday in Jacksonville, Fla., and charged with homicide and two counts of arson, Somerset County District Attorney Jerry Spangler said Tuesday at a press conference. Dawson remains in a Jacksonville jail, awaiting extradition.

“This arrest is the result of the state police’s patience, persistence and perseverance,” Spangler said in the Somerset state police station.

Police considered Dawson a suspect early in their investigation, state police Trooper John R. Matchik Jr. said.

During interviews with police and conversations with others, Dawson came up with several different stories about how his face got injured. The rash was from rubbing his face while crying, from nerves or from an accidental burn at home.

“Inconsistencies about the cause of burn marks on his face and eyewitness statements by Mr. Dawson, linking him to the crime,” were enough to issue an arrest warrant, Spangler said.

In the most prevalent story – dubbed the “kerosene excuse” by investigators – Dawson contended he was burned by flashback when using the fuel to light a coal furnace.

“But the dates and times of the event differed, depending on who (Dawson) was talking to,” according to the criminal complaint released Tuesday. Since that was the most repeated story, police were more convinced the marks were actually burns.

A major break came when Schmidt told police he checked Dawson’s furnace the morning of Nov. 10, hours after Kathleen’s death.

Schmidt found the furnace was cold and showed “absolutely no indication that an accident of the sort the defendant described had occurred,” the court paper says. Although Dawson later told Schmidt the furnace flashback happened the next morning at 6 a.m., Conemaugh Township’s police chief at the time remembered seeing the burns when he first interviewed Dawson three hours before that. During an insurance deposition in June 1982, Dawson testified the flashback burns happened on Nov. 8.

While he was checking the furnace, Schmidt said he heard Dawson talking with another person talking about the blackjack and a cap from a gasoline can that were found near the car.

“What the (expletive) are we going to do?” the other person said. “They found the gas cap and the blackjack.”

When the other person noticed Schmidt, the two started whispering, and Schmidt left, court papers said.

Fearing for his own safety, Schmidt “immediately began to disassociate himself from the defendant, despite the fact that the two were described as being ‘like brothers’ until the date of the crime,” the complaint said.

The arrest was welcome news to Kathleen’s father, Roy D. Smith, 83, of Coleman Avenue in Johnstown’s Moxham section. Smith has doggedly pushed the investigation for almost three decades, regularly communicating with district attorneys and investigators and writing to The Tribune-Democrat Readers’ Forum.

“I was angry before,” Smith said, “Now I’m more than angry. I’m happy it’s come to closure, but I don’t know what will happen now.”

Smith said he suspected John Dawson almost from the beginning.

“After the first couple days, I was dubious, but after that, I knew it,” the former Bethlehem Steel worker and World War II veteran said at the press conference.

“There were a lot of things.”

Police are not ready to discuss what prompted Schmidt or other witnesses to come forward after all these years, Matchik said.

Schmidt also helped link Dawson to the blackjack, which Spangler described as a leather club with a weight at one end.

The club had an oblong head where a piece of leather was missing. Schmidt included those details in the description of a blackjack he knew was used by Dawson’s brother-in-law, who was living with Dawson in 1977 at the time of his death.

Another friend remembers seeing the blackjack at Dawson’s home, even though Dawson later told police, “I don’t even know for sure what a blackjack looks like ... that’s honest.”

Schmidt was at the crime scene early Nov. 10 and was struck by the stench from the fire, the court document said.

“Duane (Schmidt) recently contacted state police to relate he experienced that same odor later in the morning at (another person’s home) when the defendant came into the residence,” the complaint said.

Dawson’s motive came down to money and infidelity, police said.

The couple had an $18,000 judgment against them from 1978 and owed a friend $2,300.

Dawson had been laid off for several months at the time of his wife’s death. He collected almost $26,000 from an insurance policy he updated the day before her death to ensure it would pay “in the event she was hurt or killed in an automobile accident,” police said.

In addition, Dawson admitted he was having an affair with Rose Saylor, now deceased, for several weeks before his wife’s death.

He told a family member Saylor was staying at his home within days of his wife’s death.

Saylor and Dawson then moved to Florida within three months of Kathleen’s death.

When told of Dawson’s arrest, Smith said his first reaction was: “Happy.”

He is especially grateful he was still around to see the closure.

“I can’t believe it,” Smith said. “I am not a healthy man.”

Patience is not Smith’s strong suit, he admits. Although he lauded the current group of investigators, the grieving father still believes the investigation took too long.

“From the beginning, it was botched,” he fumed. “I thought there was a cover-up. I was going to go down there (to Florida) and do something myself.”

Thoughts of his daughter’s last moments still haunt Smith.

“It’s hard for me,” Smith said, dropping his eyes to the table, his grizzled face shadowed by the brim of his cowboy hat.

“It is not (just) the idea of her getting murdered,” he said. “It’s how scared she was.”

His daughter was terrified of driving at night and would not have stopped on her own, Smith said. Police believe Dawson helped lure his wife to the lonely rural road by asking her to stop on her way home from work at Windber Hospital and pick up items from a friend.

The Tribune-Democrat has learned Dawson was out on bail on aggravated assault charges in Florida when he was arrested Monday for his wife’s murder.

Charges stem from a Feb. 22 incident in the City of Jacksonville. He posted $23,000 bond through American Bankers Insurance Co. No other details were available late Tuesday.





A time line on the death and subsequent investigation into the death of Kathy Dawson, 30, of Boswell, a Windber Hospital nurse’s aide:



Nov. 10, 1981: Dawson’s body is found burned beyond recognition in the shell of her car on Cable Hill Road in Conemaugh Township, Somerset County. Police trace the license plate. Her husband, John Dawson, tells police she hadn’t returned home after working the 3 to 11 p.m. shift. Coroner Wilber Miller says she had put up “one hell of a fight.’’ John Dawson says he received burn marks on his face when he threw gasoline on a coal stove.



Nov. 13, 1981: Miller says Dawson was dead when her body was locked inside the car and it was set afire: No carbon monoxide was in her lungs. Her death was caused by two blunt blows to the head.



Dec. 1, 1981: The initial flurry of tips in the case slows down. A Conemaugh Township criminal investigator says he could see no useful purpose in the public discussion of possibilities being considered.



June 4, 1982: A coroner’s inquest is held and seven hours of testimony are taken. But the six-member jury does not find sufficient evidence to move against anyone in Dawson’s death. Jurors simply recommend that the probe continue.



July 31, 1982: After a meeting between the district attorney and township supervisors, the state police officially are asked to take over the investigation.



Aug. 18, 1982: State police take over the case.



Feb, 16, 1983: John Dawson seeks financial benefits under the Crime Victims Compensation Act.



Nov. 13, 1994: The Tribune-Democrat features an interview with Dawson’s father, Roy D. Smith, then 64, who continues to seek answers in the homicide.



Sept. 19, 2003: Conemaugh Township police reopen their investigation. Then-township police Detective Robert Fatula said he was making the move after reading a recent Tribune-Democrat story on Smith’s frustration with authorities. He also said investigators want to follow up on “information that may be of interest.’’



April 21, 2009: Authorities announce John Dawson’s arrest a day earlier in Florida.