One bad witness, one psychic

She gave a story to investigators.

She gave a story to prosecutors.

She gave a story to a grand jury.

Each one seemed different. Each one changed.

Kimberly Ducharme’s perceived string of lies led Hernando County Sheriff’s detectives to the far clutches of New England, where authorities there conducted an eight-hour manhunt in July 1998, according to news reports.

Ducharme’s ex-husband, Walter, eventually was detained and questioned. Then he got a round-trip flight with a police escort.

There were snags. There were questions. There were doubts.

Walter Ducharme’s alleged involvement in the slaying of 12-year-old Jennifer Odom finally went before a Hernando grand jury – four months after the manhunt.

It took a couple days, but jurors decided not to indict the 34-year-old Maine woodsman, who was thought to have lived in Pasco County at the time of the Feb. 19, 1993 abduction and homicide.

“(Kimberly Ducharme) gave a series of statements that ultimately led her to testify before the grand jury,” said Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway, who was one of three prosecutors who worked the case. “She gave a series of statements about her knowledge about Walter Ducharme’s involvement and her knowledge kept improving with each statement.

“She claimed to know more and more every time she talked,” Ridgway continued. “It kept changing over time.”

Walter Ducharme was the first and only suspect ever known to have been arrested in the Odom slaying. The state never got close to a conviction.

All traces of the Ducharme name haven’t been erased in connection with the 19-year-old homicide case. Kimberly Ducharme’s photo is still visible in at least one area of the major case section at the sheriff’s office.

Investigators downplayed it. Mostly everyone who has worked the case no longer considers her to be relevant to the investigation, they said.

Odom was abducted around 3 p.m. at her bus stop at the corner of Jessamine and Jim Denny roads in the St. Joseph area of East Pasco.

Children on the bus told authorities they saw an older model blue pickup heading in Odom’s direction as they were pulling away.

It is not known whether Walter Ducharme ever owned or drove a vehicle matching that description.

Ridgway, who works in Ocala, said he couldn’t disclose too many details about the Ducharme investigation. The file remains in Brooksville, but it is not part of the public record.

The veteran prosecutor remembered very little about the case when he was first contacted by a reporter earlier this month. He drove to Hernando County the following week to review the file and refresh his recollection.

Kimberly Ducharme herself had confessed to the Odom slaying at least three times and each time she recanted, according to news reports.

When she told authorities her ex-husband was responsible, they listened. Eventually, her accusation lacked merit and she withdrew it, prosecutors said.

She was convicted in 1993 of child abuse. Investigators said she is out of prison and has since changed her name.

“When it was all over and done with, I was satisfied Walter Ducharme didn’t have anything to do with it,” Ridgway said. “It was a wild goose chase.”

The State Attorney’s Office hasn’t been kept in the loop with as much regularity in recent years as it pertains to the Odom investigation.

Ridgway wouldn’t discuss the case beyond the old Ducharme lead because it belongs to the sheriff’s office.

He said for every 100 leads detectives get, his office hears one.

* * * * *

Google searches of the Odom case brings up pages of old newspaper stories and forums related to unsolved murders.

Among the hits are links to videos on YouTube, which contain a 1994 episode of “Unsolved Mysteries,” a documentary series that ran on several networks.

Psychic detective Nancy Myer was profiled in the 15-minute episode, the second half of which was devoted to the Odom case.

She still remembers some details about her visit.

“Let me put it this way, the detectives I worked with were wonderful,” Myer said. “There was a senior officer who had made a prior agreement with ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ and he wasn’t going to hold to the agreement.”

The senior officer, who she thinks was a lieutenant at the time but doesn’t recall his name or whether he worked for the Hernando or Pasco Sheriff’s Office, refused to let her see the crime photos. That decision, she said, was made moments before the cameras started rolling.

She was allowed to touch the photos, but they had to remain face down.

Myer is used to that kind of resistance. Some investigators are open to having her participate. Others think her methods are hokey.

The lieutenant she met wasn’t the rudest or angriest she ever met. One police officer actually pulled a gun on her, she said.

But his behavior was bad enough that she remembered him.

“Be that as it may, this was a tragic, tragic case,” Myer said of the Odom homicide.

She pointed out there was a carnival held in Pasco during the time of the murder. She thought two men who lived the transient lifestyle were probably the kind of suspects the authorities were looking for.

Based on the feelings she was getting while touching the photos, talking to detectives and visiting Odom’s bus stop, Myer was convinced there was a pair of suspects.

“I said then these guys would kill again,” she said. “They probably have. It would be easy for them to do it again and not get caught.”

Myer said she remembers Odom’s face and the flowers on her grave. She remembers the images she conjured when she visited the horse path off Powell Road where the girl’s body was discovered.

She got the feeling the pickup truck had been at the bus stop several times. She suspected the culprits were “casing that area for a while,” she said.

One month after Myer visited Spring Lake, one of the detectives called her and told her they had found Odom’s book bag and clarinet case. It was found 18 miles northwest near Weeki Wachee.

Myer knew they were looking for them.

“That was not an easy area to search because the undergrowth was so (thick),” she said. “I told them they were going to have to search and it wasn’t going to be easy to find.”

After the episode aired, more than 50 tips were called in, according to news reports.

Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis didn’t answer questions related to Myer’s involvement 18 years ago.

“At some point, I thought, they’re going to get caught in another state for doing the same thing,” Myer said. “One of them will talk. I have always felt that eventually they would catch these guys.”

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