Nine years missing and the prime suspect of Heather's case has never been charged.
These are the last words anyone, especially a parent, wants to hear when their daughter has been missing for almost nine years. It's incredibly unnerving how limited we are when researching the information about the disappearance of Heather Higgins, a beautiful Spokane woman who went missing on September 20, 2010. Heather was 39 years old and going to college for journalism, wishing to pursue a career where she could help people.
On September 20th, Heather got a ride from a friend of a friend, Robert G. Davis, to go and run some errands, leaving her apartment and her beloved cats; and that was the last time anyone had ever seen or heard from her.
Heather was moving into a new apartment and while she was being hospitalized for unrelated causes, someone burglarized her old apartment and stole money she had been saving up. When Heather needed to go out and run errands, a neighbor suggested Heather get a ride from Robert, since Heather had been on probation for driving under the influence and was unable to drive.
Robert picked her up in a blue minivan that had fake wood paneling around the sides. Heather was carrying her purse and some sort of backpack or duffel when she got in his car.
Robert Davis claims that he dropped Heather off after they had been out, but mentioned that he hadn’t seen her go inside her apartment.
Robert’s mother told Jackie Forney, Heather's mother, that she thought her son was involved in Heather's disappearance. Heather's mother knew that she would never intentionally leave her cats behind and that something terrible must have happened.
Detectives do have leads, but the case is still unsolved- and Heather is still missing.
According to his mother, Robert Davis stated that he didn’t kill her, but the people that did kill her made him dump her body. The location was described as a steep valley near a ski resort in Spokane, Washington, but no specific location was identified.
Heather's mother has been persistent to never give up. Not then, not now. With no specific location of where Heather's body could have possibly been, the Spokane Police Department told Jackie that she could “go and look herself."
Go and look herself? What a disappointing, disrespectful thing to say to a mother who has most likely lost her daughter, forever. Watch the video here.
The Spokane Police states that the investigation is ongoing, but Jackie believes that it will go nowhere and that until more witnesses come forward and do what’s right, she won’t know what happened to Heather or where exactly her body is.
“It’s not like we don’t know something. We know plenty. Nothing’s happening.” – Jackie, Heather's mom.
A year later in 2011, a large knife and Heather’s i.d. were found in the Spokane river not far from Robert's house.
Robert is a convicted felon with sex crimes. In 2014, he broke into a trailer in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and sexually assaulted a woman, chocking her unconscious. She escaped.
In 2015, he was convicted of burglary and attempted rape, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
But in an update on December 6, 2018, Robert Davis lost his bid for parole from the Parole Board in Boise, Idaho, for his viscous crime against the innocent woman in Coeur d'Alene. You can read the article here.
It's also interesting to note that Robert is the prime suspect in Kala Williams’ murder, a 20-year-old whose body was found in 2012, cut in half with one part wrapped in a sleeping bag and both in garbage bags, covered with branches. Kala had a towel around her neck, tied in a knot, and had cuts that seemed to be defensive wounds.
When investigators examined Kala’s body, not in good condition and very badly decomposed, they found DNA that matched Robert's, yet the investigators cited “undetermined” for cause of death, never charging him for the crime.
Although having never met, all three mothers, Heather's mother, Kala's mother, and Robert's mother, have bonded over their pain. They all agree that the Spokane police should have, and could have done more, sooner, in order to solve the crimes and claimed that Spokane County Medical Examiner Dr. John Howard had hurt their pursuits for justice in the two cases.
Robert Davis has never been charged for either Heather or Kala's disappearance and murder, but is still a prime suspect in both cases.
I think that it's always difficult to judge those doing an investigation because typically a profuse amount of time and effort go into a case; however, while doing my research, there wasn't an overwhelming amount of information accessible. It's always important to remember that investigators need to prove a case. Sometimes information can be so blatantly in front of our faces, but without any hard evidence or proof of the matter, it's unable to be used to progress the case into resolution and closure.
I, however, understand that there were many highly disappointed in the Spokane Police Department, as I would have been/am from what I know about their work, or lack there of, on this case. Their suggestion for Jackie to "go out and look for her daughter herself" is a statement that could say a lot about the department itself at that time. Their disregard for a grieving mother, regardless of whether Heather had been murdered or just considered 'missing,' is an irresponsible, reckless statement that could, and should have been avoided.
I also think it was sincerely brave of Robert's mother to not only come forward to say that her son was somehow involved, but that she also feels pain for Heather, her mother, and Kala and her family. It's not easy for a parent, regardless of what their child has done, to firmly understand and believe that their child has done something horrible and to come out with that publicly on their offense.
I have questions, though not being entirely familiar with the laws of Washington, that my research has brought me to ask.
Robert Davis was knowingly, at the time, the last person to be with Heather. Why wasn't he taken into custody and asked questions about her disappearance? As far as my research goes, I haven't found any solid evidence that he was ever taken into custody and questioned about Heather's case. When he stated that he didn't murder Heather, but that the people who did told him to dispose of her body, why wasn't he charged after not giving up their identities?
Federal law prohibits concealing information about specific crimes. Under 18 United States Code, Section 4, you may be obligated to report a crime if you are directly asked during a criminal investigation whenever:
You have knowledge of the commission of a felony;
The felony actually occurred; and
The felony is a federal offense
Was the neighbor who suggested Heather get a ride from Robert ever interviewed or investigated? Robert had been accused of burglary since, and Heather's old apartment was burglarized while she was in the hospital and moving into her new apartment. Her neighbors may have known where her old apartment was and gave the tip to Robert.
Heather was running errands that night, which leads me to believe that she had her cell phone on her. Were any cellphone towers checked for pings from her phone? Heather's body was never found and even though it is very obvious to me from my research that Robert had involvement, can we trust him to be telling the truth on "where he put her body?" Why would he offer up that information and possibly get caught with DNA? I know the area is large, but I can't help but to not fully trust his tip. If her ID and a knife were found in the river, had the river been thoroughly checked in that area for Heather's body or any other evidence? Maybe knowing her location via cellphone tower could have helped confirm the direction to the location that Robert said her body was in, or a different location if he was in fact lying.
Were any security cameras, whether on storefronts or homes, near Heather's apartment or Robert's house checked for the described vehicle to locate the direction they were going in or any suspicious driving habits that night?
Please share your thoughts on this case and do some of your own research, as always! My heart goes out to Jackie, Heather's mother, and Heather, a beautiful woman who was a gift to the world.
Facebook page dedicated to Heather Higgins.
Article published in July 2018.
If you know anything about Heather's disappearance, even the smallest piece of information, please call Crime Check in Spokane, Washington at 509-456-2233
Sources
18 U.S. Code § 4 - Misprision of felony. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4
CDA Police: Attempted murder suspect arrested. https://www.khq.com/news/cda-police-attempted-murder-suspect-arrested/article_b6ef0fb7-1c21-5283-b0c8-e48a8c91587d.html
Convict linked to two unsolved Spokane cases has parole denied in Idaho. http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/dec/14/convict-linked-to-two-unsolved-spokane-killings-ha/?fbclid=IwAR0-r7hV5kT_QwAdvEHM1Jz0J3EL0cXd8Q6w0A5m8OF6dq4KwLmCIBlEPDs
Heather Lynn Higgins – The Charley Project. http://charleyproject.org/case/heather-lynn-higgins
Spokane mother frustrated nearly 8 years after daughter's disappearance. https://www.khq.com/news/spokane-mother-frustrated-nearly-years-after-daughter-s-disappearance/article_dccef9bd-e22d-557a-a52e-7812508a9ca6.html
Washington family seeks answer in six-year-old murder case of Kala Williams. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/cold-case-spotlight/washington-family-seeks-answer-six-year-old-murder-case-kala-n875586