Kala Williams was 20 years old when her family stopped hearing from her. Weeks later, her body was discovered dismembered in the woods with the DNA of a possible suspect on her body and items from the crime scene. Yet, the DNA evidence hasn’t been enough to charge him in Kala’s case - or the disappearance of another Spokane woman two years prior. If you know something about the disappearance of Heather Higgins or the murder of Kala Williams, please contact the Spokane Police Department at 509-456-2233. To contact the Washington State Attorney General and ask for a review of Kala and Heather’s cases, click on this link. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-kala-williams-heather-higgins/Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllcCrime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: Who were Kala Williams and Heather Higgins?
And the story I have for you today is one of the ones that will leave you furious because there should be a conclusion. Police think that they know who did it. But because of a technicality, prosecutors won't prosecute. So two families are left wondering what to do when the people in charge throw their hands up and say there's nothing they can do.
And be sure to listen all the way to the end because the cracks in the system have left a predator out there walking free among us. This is the story of Kayla Williams and Heather Higgins. There are plenty of things that parenting books just can't prepare you for.
100%.
And I guarantee you what's not in the book is how to talk to your 12-year-old after they discover human remains in the woods. That is exactly the scenario one father found himself in on Mother's Day 2012 after his son came running home telling him that He and his two friends found something in the woods by their house in Spokane, Washington.
Chapter 2: How was Kala Williams' body discovered and identified?
Now, what dad and later the police that he calls in find in that wooded area, just off of a narrow walking path in a small ditch, is the upper part of a body peeking out from between torn black trash bags. Soon, the area is swarming with officers. Investigators are there, crime scene technicians, you name it.
And one officer, as he is standing over the remains, spots another bundle of trash bags haphazardly hidden underneath a pile of sticks and branches about four to five feet away. And although he can't see what's inside, it's the right size to be the other half of their victim.
Now, there isn't any blood anywhere around, which tells them that whatever happened to this poor person, it probably didn't happen here. This is just a dump site. But there's more to collect than just the bags that the victim was found in. Investigators also find a bloody hand towel, a blanket, a black camera strap with teeth marks on it.
But according to police documents, those teeth marks look to just be from animals. But the whole thing is that it smells heavily of decomposition. So while they meticulously collect evidence from the forest floor, their victim is sent off piece by piece for an autopsy. And at the examiner's office, the remains are carefully unwrapped layer by layer. They realize that the victim is young.
It's a female in her like early adulthood. She's white with long blonde hair and her body has been cut in half at the waist. Now, starting with her upper body, they find a towel knotted around her neck, covering her lower face with strands of black electrical tape like entangled in it.
And her clothing, a sweater, T-shirt and camisole have been cut vertically from the bottom up and shoved around her shoulders beneath her body. Her bra, which was also cut in between the cups, is beneath her. Then found in the layers of plastic is her underwear, also cut. And her clothing is discolored. Not from the blood, though. It looks like her clothing is discolored from bleach.
Like, that's what the stains look like.
Oh, that's not good news. They're going to be screwed getting any sort of evidence or samples off of her body then.
I know. And it's not much better for her lower body. So her lower body, which was in that second bundle, is wrapped not just in plastic bags and the tape, but also an orange sleeping bag with a plaid interior. Now, it is zipped closed with more of that black electrical tape wrapped around it.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did the autopsy and investigation face?
Although for the last couple of months, the usual gaggle of teens haven't been coming around. Some neighbors also mention this older man who they say they've seen before and he like makes some people in the area uncomfortable. But spoiler alert, they end up finding the guy and end up ruling him out. So they decide to focus on the people they know who were connected to Kayla. Starting with Matt.
Matt. Matt mostly repeats what he said when Kayla first came up missing, that he hadn't seen her since like late March. But he clarifies that it wasn't that uncommon for her to leave for days at a time. So not seeing her for a few weeks didn't raise too many red flags for him at first. Even though, by the way, it might be worth mentioning, I have her cell phone. That's what he tells police.
According to an article in the Spokesman Review, he tells the police that she had left it at the apartment, likely because she had run out of minutes and then just didn't take it with her. A search warrant allows investigators to take a look at her calls and text messages, and they read that one of the last messages she sent was on March 18th to a friend and mentor.
This friend says that she last saw Kayla on March 18th as well, and she had been living on the streets after a fight with Matt. The friend told police that Kayla hadn't been doing well, but she was going to try to patch things up with Matt.
And did she?
Well, that's unclear because I don't know the exact date Matt last saw her. He just says late March. And we tried to talk to him for this episode, but all of our attempts to reach out to him have been unsuccessful.
And was her phone really like out of minutes or disconnected or whatever?
Oh, girl, I wish I had more details around her phone. I just don't have anything. Like nothing beyond the information I just gave you has been reported. And anyone we spoke to for this episode couldn't tell us if there was anything else of interest on the phone. If they looked, if they did like a full forensic sweep, like I got nothing.
Mm-hmm.
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Chapter 4: What evidence linked Robert Davis and Matt to Kala Williams?
They never had sex. Although he does admit that he probably wouldn't tell police if they had had sex.
Cool, cool, cool, cool.
I mean, it's honest, but, like, here's where it gets weird. If investigators confronted him about his DNA being freaking everywhere, it is not in the documentation I've seen. And so he's not arrested.
What?
Because, and this is where we get our hiccup that comes back to bite us, even though they have investigated. And even though they have linked all this stuff in and around the bags with her dismembered body to a very bad guy known for very bad stuff. It's not a homicide. Technically, there isn't a murder, right? Which makes no sense to me.
Like, we can put you with her before she died when you're saying you weren't. Like, we got you. Yeah. But apparently it's not enough for them. Though they aren't totally walking away either. At one point, I guess they go talk with Robert's mother, Raynell. He had, like, lived with her off and on.
But according to a timeline published by the Spokesman Review, she claims she doesn't know anything either. So, like, I think they're at least trying to dig and, like, build something. But they don't get anywhere, like, at first. But it was worth going to talk to her because a few days later, on August 1st, she contacts police like out of the blue.
And she says, listen, I don't know anything about Kayla's murder. But a couple of years ago, my son came home and he confessed to disposing of a different body. So maybe I should tell you about that. Yeah. You think? Yeah. She says that two years ago, which would have been in 2010, Robert came home acting really anxious.
And eventually he told his mom that these two guys had killed a woman named Heather Higgins and forced him to help dispose of her body. So he put her body in a sleeping bag and dumped her down a steep hill somewhere north of Spokane.
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Chapter 5: Why was Robert Davis not charged despite DNA evidence?
Jackie is like on her own to do her own thing. They learn this stuff about Robert Davis, but they don't tell her mom this or that they've like if their thinking has changed, they don't tell her. They just let her keep on believing that her daughter might still be out there. And it's not like they aren't in contact with her.
She told our team that she called investigators every single day because she was investigating on her own. So they could have told her, I mean, countless number of times that they didn't believe Heather was still out there. But for some unknown reason, they didn't. Now, by the time they got around to talk to Robert, it was months after Heather went missing.
And by then, he'd conveniently sold his minivan and had it straight up crushed.
Oh, so not just like sold it to someone.
There's no getting in that minivan.
Got it.
But the thing is, if they had done just a little more digging, they would have found that the rings that she was going to sell that day, those had in fact been pawned, except they weren't pawned by Heather. They were pawned by Robert. But that link wouldn't be connected for years. At the time, police didn't even check the pawn shops. They just let Heather fade.
Even when her student ID and a butcher knife were found submerged in a river three and a half blocks from where Robert was living at the time, they still did nothing. And they still, even then, didn't tell Jackie anything. And now there are two women, one still missing, one murdered, directly tied to Robert Davis. But there is no arrest.
And both Kayla and Heather's families are left to try and fit together the pieces. By now, according to Kayla's mom, Martine, they're at least aware of each other. But they never really connect. They're trying to navigate their grief and a system that feels like it's not on their side. That is until early 2013, when a new detective is assigned to Kayla's case.
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Chapter 6: What is the connection between Heather Higgins' disappearance and Robert Davis?
Am I the only one who thinks that's maybe like a good thing?
Yeah. I mean, if only if it were that straightforward, right? Like, so to me and you, yes, this is a good thing.
Because making mistakes or doing things in error, like, we should correct those things. Yeah.
I mean, if you're missing stab wounds, like, you would think Spokane County would want to, I don't know, take care of that. Yeah. But doing that unravels God knows how many convictions. Hmm. Which, again, they might be convictions that are actually like needed. No one's like like it's going to take a lot of work. I mean, no one's saying this is going to be easy to do.
But to Detective Burbridge, like it needs to be done. Yeah. And he thinks that all of this, like they're just more interested in protecting their people, securing their convictions, their image, whatever, than actually protecting the general public. Doing their job. So he decides to pay a doctor from Seattle to review the autopsy results.
And in the meantime, on July 8th of 2013, he conducts a follow-up interview with Robert Davis. At this point, Robert has moved to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. And he says pretty much the exact same thing. He never had sex with Kayla, he didn't kill her, and he did not dispose of her body. He's still saying this even when he's finally confronted with all of the DNA.
Still denies killing her, still denies disposing of her body. even denies being at the crime scene. Like, this dude doesn't give an inch. So they let him go. Now, on December 31st, 2013, the autopsy results from Seattle come back, and this one could not be more different.
We actually got our hands on both Dr. Howard's original autopsy and the new report, which was done by a guy named Dr. Carl Wigren. And Britt, comparing these two reports, it's like they're not even talking about the same body. On her upper body alone, Dr. Wigren notes four abrasions, including what looks like a shoe print on her chest and parallel marks consistent with bindings.
There are 18 sharp force wounds, 16. 16 of which are concentrated on her hands and lower arms as if she was trying to like defend herself. And there are 50 contusions also consistent with defensive wounds, including a black eye.
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Chapter 7: How did police and family respond to Heather Higgins' disappearance?
And this second doctor, he couldn't, he like the first, he couldn't determine a specific cause of death. But based on everything he's seeing, this second doctor, this Dr. Wigren says there's no way this isn't a murder.
Right.
So armed with this new report, Detective Burbridge goes to the deputy prosecutor who in turn brings the findings to Dr. Howard, the first M.E., But Dr. Hauer refuses to change the ruling. And his reasoning is that he can't rule out an overdose as her cause of death.
Hold up. He's legit still holding on to that? Yes. He did the tox screen. There wasn't a lethal amount of drugs in her system. Yes. It actually can't be an overdose?
I know. And like literally this makes no sense to anyone in the police department. Like for Detective Burbridge, this should be an open and shut case. Yeah. And in 2014, his supervisor agrees and he gives him permission to write up charging documents for Robert Davis for murder.
Which, quick question, did they ever go looking for Heather's body after Robert's mom talked to them?
OK, so there were a few searches done by her family. And like the area that Robert alluded to, I guess, is super difficult to search. Like it's all these really steep cliffs. So there were some searches done again, like most by her family. Nothing was ever found. So even even now.
But still, even without Heather's body or confession, the escalation of Robert's alleged crimes feels super clear to Detective Burbridge. So, like, even if they can't get Heather, like, they know what they're dealing with in Kayla's case. Like, let's at least get him for that. But here's what's wild.
Still, with everything they have, and no matter how clear it feels to the detectives, to the people in the police department, you, me, our listeners, prosecutors refuse to press charges.
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Chapter 8: What inconsistencies and failures occurred in the investigations?
Because they say because Dr. Wigren wasn't an official ME, like he runs a private practice called Wigren Forensic.
So he like can do autopsies.
And he had. Like he served as the associate medical examiner for Snohomish County for like a couple of years. It's not like he's just like making up his certification.
But they want someone with like the actual legit title medical examiner to give their official stamped opinion. Yeah.
Bingo. which sounds fine, great, whatever, until three days later. That's when the deputy prosecutor says, you know what, actually, never mind, that's not happening. Oh, and don't even bother asking why, because the deputy prosecutor doesn't give a reason. Cool. Yeah. So in a last-ditch effort to try and get something, investigators try to interview Robert Davis again.
However, he asks for a lawyer and refuses to talk. And that ends up being Detective Burbridge's last attempt to get answers. Because in 2015, he's taken off the case and moved from major crimes to the Special Investigations Unit, which primarily manages drug investigations. Why he's removed? Unclear.
There's speculation and rumor, mostly stemming from his unyielding pressure on the prosecutor's office. But as with any change of, like, leadership in a case, momentum gets lost when he gets moved. Knowledge gets lost. Kayla and Heather's cases have both had numerous lead investigators assigned to them over the years, each having varying levels of success getting new information.
And by this point, Jackie, who's Heather's mom, does know that police believe her daughter was killed. Again, I don't know when it happens or how it happens, but by this point, she knows. And even though charging documents are again brought to the prosecutor's office for Kayla's homicide on February 9th, 2017, those charges, again, do not get approved.
And the reason is that the prosecutor's office cites is a need for more evidence. But all the shadiness, all the dodging of charges, all the protection of the ME's office, that gets challenged in April of 2017. Because that's when the Washington Department of Health launches an investigation into the medical examiner's office.
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