Leavitt’s crime: Through the eyes of the investigators

The United States Supreme Court denies an appeal by Richard Leavitt Monday afternoon meaning Idaho will execute a second person in under a year.

It was 28 years ago when a brutal murder rocked the town of Blackfoot.

For five months the public lived in fear, before Leavitt was arrested for the crime.

“It was a hot Saturday afternoon,” retired police officer and coroner Dennis Hall said.

28 years later that hot afternoon is still fresh in the mind of Hall.

“I found a lady,” he recalls. “I couldn’t tell her age, or anything at the time.”

That lady, Hall would learn, was Danette Elg. Naked, stabbed to death and stripped of her internal genitals. Elg was already starting to decompose on the heater of her waterbed.

“It was probably 100 degrees in the bedroom at the time. Humidity was extremely high, probably an inch of water on the floor, from the waterbed that had been punctured. It was extremely graphic crime scene.”

That graphic scene made headlines, reaching into every home in Blackfoot.

“All of a sudden, you find an upstanding citizen in her bed, murdered,” retired detective Stuart Robinson said. “There was an outcry to get him caught and get him in jail.”

Robinson, the lead detective, remembers the pressure to catch the murderer.

“I remember the chief of police, he was on us, he wanted this solved. This was the tiny, quiet little town of Blackfoot,” Robinson said.

“The calls we would get and just dealing with the public and assure them it was going to be okay and we would keep extra watches,” Hall said. “Just the fear that would go on in people’s eyes.”

As the public lived in fear, detectives were already building their case.

“Leavitt kind of threw himself into the investigation from the get-go,” prosecutor Tom Moss said. He remembers the strange behavior.

“He was very interested in her disappearance,” Moss said. “He went down to the police station.”

“Making phones calls, wanting to assist, had information,” Robinson remembers.

Leavitt even went with police to her house.

“He walked in the house with them and he stood at the foot of the bed,” Moss said. “I remember the officer telling me he looked at her body and studied it over and over.”

“He did not run from the scene?” anchor Karole Honas asked.

“Oh, no,” Moss said. “And that was an ugly scene.”

From there, Robinson said the evidence against Leavitt continued to pile up.

“The main evidence that convicted Mr. Leavitt, and there was a lot, a lot of detailed information,” Moss said. “His blood was found in the room with her blood.”

A year and a half later, December 19, 1985, Leavitt was sentenced to death.
He said “Merry Christmas” to his parents as he was taken away.

As for any doubt the man set to die for the crime is the right man…

“I have no doubt in my mind,” Hall said.

“Based on my knowledge of the case. If you’re asking me, should he have been convicted? Yes,” Moss said. “Under the law, was he deserving of death sentence? Yes, he was.”

Leavitt continued to maintain his innocence over the years. We’ve been told Leavitt is calm and spent his final day speaking with attorneys and visitors, but all had to be out by 9 p.m. Monday.

As for his final meal, he was able to choose any item from the IDOC menu. He chose baked chicken, french fries and milk.

Barring any last minute stays, Leavitt will be executed at 10 this morning.