Suspect: Douglas Everett Loveday

I was browsing the Knoxville sheriff's news archives to see what they had published about Johnia's case and found this news release* about the arrest of Douglas Everett Loveday on June 30th, 2005.

A man who was found Wednesday morning near Virtue Road covered in blood has been charged in a separate incident. Twenty-nine year old Douglas Everett Loveday of 912 Campbell Station Road was charged with aggravated burglary and theft. Each charge carries a $20,000 bond. Loveday is accused of breaking into a house on Viking Drive in Knoxville while a female inside slept. He stole a number of items from the house including the woman’s purse and a camera Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. She was not injured during the burglary.

Early Wednesday morning, Loveday was found at the Willow Creek Golf Club covered in blood and confused about his whereabouts. His car was found on Virtue Road with blood in it. Loveday was not injured and the blood is not his.

That last sentence is chilling.

Googling for more information about I found updates at VolunteerTV and WATE-TV. When I read about Loveday I almost picked up the phone and called the sheriff's hotline. He had broken into the house of a sleeping woman. He had killed another woman with a knife. He lived 5.9 miles from Johnia's apartment. His picture matched the composite sketch. It had to be him!

Then I cooled down and realized that this was too easy. Loveday's story had been on the sheriff's Web site for five months. Someone would have figured it out by now. Kelly was supposed to call that night anyway, so I waited to talk to him. After we finished with the Web stuff I said, "By the way, did the sheriff's office ever mention Douglas Loveday?" Kelly said, "Sure, you remember. He's the guy I told you about they found wandering around the golf course. It wasn't him."

One Lesson Learned

There's a mental trap that's easy to fall into when thinking about a crime. I fell into it myself in Johnia's case. One theory about Johnia's murder is that someone was randomly trying doors to see if they were open. I told Kelly early on, "There's no way someone would go to the top of the stairs and strand themselves like that. It's too dangerous." Then when Kelly was on the radio last week a caller did something similar, saying it didn't make any sense for the killer to kill Johnia but leave the roommate as a witness.

Douglas Loveday called 911 to tell them he had been smoking crack and woke up covered in blood. Not all crimes are committed by criminal geniuses. Some people are stupid, insane, or on drugs. Glenn Owen's profile says that Johnia's killer is of a type known as a disorganized killer, who kills in a blitz attack and doesn't make much effort to cover up evidence. Forget all of the Hannibal Lector stuff. The attack on Johnia wasn't a brainy operation. Don't overthink this.

* URLs in the media section of the sheriff's Web site aren't persistent, so that URL may not work in the future.