Lucky coincidences help investigation into officer's death

[Sam Hane]

Lucky coincidences help investigation into officer's death
Arizona Republic
Nov. 1, 2005 12:00 AM

Detective Jack Ballentine and I don't speak of ghosts, even at this time of year. Police officers and newspaper writers deal in facts, not in fantasy. Ballentine would not claim in a court of law, nor I in a published article, that the spirit of the late Phoenix police Officer David Uribe remains on the job. Instead, we speak of coincidences.

I first heard from Ballentine in May after I reported the facts of an unusual case of lost and found. A car was stolen. Inside it were the cremated remains of a widow's husband. The box containing the ashes was of great comfort to the woman, who told me, "I'd like him to come back to me."

The day the article was printed the box was dropped off anonymously at a makeshift memorial that had been set up near the spot on Cactus Road where Uribe had been killed a few weeks earlier.

I mentioned in the article that the Italian immigrants among whom I was raised would have said that the ghost of Uribe, a husband and father, a man greatly admired for his skills and dedication, assisted in the return of the man's ashes.

Ballentine, who was leading the investigation into Uribe's death, saw the story and told me about what he called some other "unusual circumstances."

For instance, Uribe was shot during a traffic stop. The suspects later abandoned their vehicle, disassembled the weapon and tossed the pieces into yards, bushes and gutters as they fled.

"Our officers found each and every piece of that weapon in total darkness," Ballentine said. "It was great work. Hard work. But many people thought that something, or someone, had to be guiding them."

Also, the suspects tried to set the car on fire by shooting a bullet into the gas tank. Only the bullet didn't penetrate the tank but wound up instead in the spare tire, where it became evidence. Likewise, investigators discovered a receipt from a Denny's restaurant inside the car. That led to a video surveillance tape, which led to the arrest of two suspects.

"Many, many officers worked on the case, and that is why it was solved," Ballentine said. "But we rarely get that lucky with evidence. There certainly have been some strange incidences that can't help but lead some people to think that maybe David is still on the job."

One such incident occurred when officers staged a reconstruction of the Uribe homicide as a follow-up to their investigation, Ballentine said. They used two patrol cars, one to represent Uribe's car and one for the suspects'. The officers who delivered the cars unknowingly brought the vehicle that Uribe drove the day that he was killed. At day's end an officer got into Uribe's car, which was parked where he fell, and turned on the ignition. The battery was dead.

In another bit of serendipity, another fluke, Ballentine said that not long ago the sister of Uribe's widow, Kerry, moved out of state. She and her husband registered their car to get a new license plate. When it arrived, the numbers on it matched Uribe's Phoenix Police Department serial number.

"It's all just coincidence, right?" Ballentine said. And I agreed.

The investigation of Uribe's death moved forward because of the hard work done by Ballentine, his partner, Detective Alex Femenia, and the many others who investigated the case. Those are the facts.

It is also true, however, that the spirit of a good man like David Uribe lives on in those who are left behind. To that extent, it is accurate to say that if Detective Ballentine is the heart of the Uribe investigation, then Uribe himself is the soul.



Reach Montini at (602) 444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

[California Lawdawg]

Coincidence or not. That was some excellent police work.



Lawdawg