Mortal Danger (40 page)

Daniel Tavares, twenty-five, poses for the mug shot camera in Massachusetts, after being arrested for a horrible crime.

Daniel Tavares, now in his forties, had many more tattoos in this mug shot taken in Pierce County, Washington, in November 2007. He'd sustained a black eye and facial cuts from a feisty victim, fighting for life.

Jennifer Lynne Tavares fell in “long-distance love” with a man she met through a convict website. Fascinated by his tattoos and macho image, she married him a few days after he came to Washington from Massachusetts. She would live to regret it.

Daniel Tavares in a police photo after his arrest. He left irrefutable physical evidence linking him to a cruel and mindless crime. Jennifer was there to help him cover up and lie for him.

Brian and Bev’s new house, which they worked two jobs to pay for. Both their vehicles were in the driveway, the panel was knocked out of their front door, but they didn't answer any of their three phones and neighbors were worried about them.

Daniel and Jennifer Tavares lived in this travel trailer with a lean-to and a “honey bucket” bathroom outside. Although they were a football field’s length from the Maucks’ home, they told Pierce County detectives that they had seen suspicious men at the victims’ home.

Bev Mauck almost made it out her front door, and she fought valiantly, leaving bruises and cuts on her killer. The killer left clear shoe prints in the blood, tying himself forever to the double murder.

Pierce County Officers saw bloodstained blankets covering the bodies of two victims just inside the front door, where a panel had been kicked out. In the upper right, the wall is speckled with back-spatter blood, but there is a tall blank spot, the “phantom image” of the shooter, showing where he (or she) stood.

Detectives and forensic investigators photographed a clear photo left by the killer’s shoe in the blood that marred the Maucks’ floor, even though they thought the guilty person would dump the shoes as soon as possible.

When a suspect in the Maucks’ murders walked into Pierce County Sheriff’s Headquarters, he stepped in a puddle and left distinct imprints in the concrete and tile walkway. A detective following behind recognized the pattern, and ordered photos before the water prints dried. They matched the prints left in blood at the Mauck homicide scene.

Pierce County Sheriff’s Office Detective Lieutenant Brent Bomkamp (

left
) and Detective Sergeant Ben Benson (
right
) rushed to the multiple murder scene in tiny Graham, Washington. Bomkamp later explained to Daniel Tavares that Benson and Detective Tom Catey were two of his best investigators, and they could always ferret out the truth. So there was no good reason for Tavares to lie.