According to Garland County's Lt. James "Corky" Martin there is nothing new to report on the county's investigation into the murder of Dawna J. Natzke. There have been no arrests.
There is abundant rumor, innuendo and out and out lies flying around in conversations throughout Hot Springs Village and Garland County. This blog has made it policy to present substantiated facts only. In one post I complained about the Village not using the e-blast system to inform Villagers when Natzke went missing. As it turns out the e-blast system is designed as a newsletter not as an emergency informational system. I was not educated on the system and made a wrong assumption. Earlier this week a new system went online in the Village to disburse emergency information. I'm glad the Village has this new system, we need it. I am sorry it came too late to help Dawna Natzke.
Much has been made about the Hot Springs Village Police Department not reaching out to media to alert the public to Natzke's status as a missing person. Natzke was reported missing December 23. I work for KVRE radio across the street from the police station. I learned Natzke was missing at a Christmas party that Friday night. The radio station was closed for a three day weekend.
Lt. Ricky Middleton of the Hot Springs Village Police Department tried to find me on Saturday, December 24. He had an old business card from when I was a reporter at a local newspaper. My home phone is in my husband's name. Our last name's are different. I was not easy to find. Chief Cornett has my current contact information in his Rolodex but he was out of town. I called Middleton on Monday morning and went into KVRE and started blasting information about Natzke's missing status every hour on the hour. Those are the facts.
Would it have been a good thing if Middleton had called on Friday when I was readily available. Yes. Would it have been a good thing if I had contacted the police on Saturday morning instead of waiting until Monday morning. You bet. Things could have been handled better all the way around. One thing is clear we were all concerned and working hard to find Natzke as soon as possible. We all stopped our holiday celebration to pursue finding Dawna Natzke.
Backseat drivers and weekend quarterbacks need to give it a rest. The Village police have worked diligently from the moment Dawna Natzke was reported missing. Within eight minutes of the missing report a BOLO was issued throughout the state. The moment I called in to the department I had a BOLO in my hand.
The only issue I see that might be construed as a cover up is no one being forthcoming about the party at POA general manager Scott Randall's home. As it turns out Randall's home is the last place Natzke's friends and family saw her alive. It was not a POA party. There were not multiple members of the police force in attendance at the party. There was a noise complaint about the party. More should have been made of the complaint. But, the party was at the home of the big boss. It shouldn't make a difference but let's be honest, it does.
There are many unanswered questions and I know I am not the only one digging for the truth. Be careful with what you say. Verify your facts.
We know the Hot Springs Village Police Department had a missing person. The missing person was found dead in Garland County. The Garland County Sheriff's Department is looking for a killer. The Hot Springs Village Police Department is fully cooperating with the Garland County's Sheriff's Department. Most media has moved on to other stories. I have not.
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"Would it have been a good thing if Middleton had called on Friday when I was readily available. Yes. Would it have been a good thing if I had contacted the police on Saturday morning instead of waiting until Monday morning. You bet. Things could have been handled better all the way around."
ReplyDeleteReally? You now make it sound like someone had lost their pet kitten rather than a daughter, a mother, a beloved member of the community. And most of us know you aren't really that callous or that naive. Yet now you appear to be trying to compensate, apologize, for .... what? Why you would feel obligated to make excuses or apologies for doing and reporting what is right, is beyond most of us out here who care about Dawna's case. I doubt any one out there who is / has been working on this case, deserves any apologies from you; if they received any criticism, they most likely well earned it. So let them earn their praise as well.
It is apparent you people are over medicated on top of being totally incompetent.
ReplyDeleteStay far, far away from the Village in Arkansas.
For those of you living in the community, you have my deepest sympathy.
Thank you, Diana, for being a voice of calm and reason in the midst of this. -- Lisa
ReplyDeleteYou should stop drinking whatever koolaid the Village has you drinking and try and write the facts. The village "police" have made a mockery of the word police. Fortunately a real law enforcement agency is now handling the case.
ReplyDeleteThis is not what you call “diligently working” to find someone!
ReplyDeleteThey refused offers of assistance from Garvin and Saline Counties.
They refused an offer by TES.
They refused an offer of assistance from the Forestry department.
They refused offers of assistance from their own citizens and POA volunteers.
They left the car out in the wilderness unsecured and allowed to be contaminated and evidence diminished if not destroyed.
They left their coworker in a pond for 10 days while coyotes chewed on her.
There are rumors they would not allow posters to be put up in the Village.
They did not organize any large-scale searches for Dawna.
They did not even formally participate in the search which actually found her.
Living here and hearing all that is being said is horrifying. I am smart enough to know that not everything you hear is true. There is plenty that has been proven to be true and that is enough to tell there is a massive amount of cover up and excuses coming from the POA and the police department. What matters here is catching Dawna's murderer, which may not happen because so many mistakes were made by the people who were supposed to keep her safe. Excuses will not bring her killer to justice. We just want to live in the Village and know that if this happens again these mistakes will not be repeated just to keep bad press off the Village. I want to know that my family is safe and my belief in our police dept has been shaken to it's core. We just want someone to be man enough to own up to their mistakes!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhile I would like to address all of the issues I have regarding all of this, please allow me to focus on something you mention & now proceed to whitewash. Our electronic notification system WASN'T SET UP FOR THIS KIND OF NOTIFICATION????? Are you kidding me?? Are you seriously telling me that this system, which by the POA's definition, can notify us of everything from a board meeting to road closures...is incapable of notifying us of a missing person??? REALLY????? It would seem a community like ours with both a high percentage of elderly residents AND a growing number of young families could certainly benefit from a system exactly like ours that would also have the very valuable benefit of issuing notifications just like the ones you say our system is incapable of providing????? I'm sorry but I'm just not buying that!!
ReplyDeleteI wrote this comment about the notification system. Upon rereading your article & hoping something would make sense, I noticed the small line about us NOW having a working emergency alert system?? Umm.....why have we heard nothing about this other than the line you posted?? Is that ALSO not the kind of info that the e-blast system was designed for? Things just get curiouser & curiouser.
DeleteGod bless you Diane. You are between a rock and a hard place. But you do not need to cower and succomb to intimidation. We love you for your integrity, courage and candor. You do not own this mess. Please do not discredit yourself with "mea culpa" when hoc est ex culpa aliorum.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate you and this too will pass.
Well said previous poster!! (Jan 13, 2012 09:53 PM)
ReplyDeleteI live in Ruston, LA. My wife is from Hot Springs, so this story caught my interest and I've been following all I could about it from the day I saw the original news flash on FoxNews.com. Everything that has been put out there by hinkymeter certainly points to the probability of corruptness within Hot Springs Village PD. If it walks like a Duck and talks like a Duck, report its whereabouts to the authorities.
ReplyDeleteI am in complete agreement with you. The writer of this blog,on this case is an absolute disgrace,as is the police dept. Thank the Lord the sheriff's dept has taken over the case.
DeleteIf I were related in any way to Dawna and the person who did this gets off Iwould certainly sue All those involved in the mess.