The Alibi: Disturbing The Peace

On Sept. 28, 2000, Kim Camm and her two children were victims of a triple murder in New Albany, Ind. They were found shot to death at home in their garage.

Kim and her 5-year-old daughter, Jill, were shot in the head. Her son, Brad, 7, was shot in the chest. The murders were reported by Kim's husband, David Camm, a former Indiana state trooper.

"In some ways, it still seems like a nightmare that just didn't happen," says Janice Renn, Kim's mother.

Three days later, the community mourned for the Camm family. But just hours after the memorial service, police arrested their prime suspect, David Camm, for murdering his wife and two children.

Camm, who claims his innocence, has a very good alibi. Eleven witnesses say they were with him at the time of the murder.

It's simple police work to suspect the survivor when family members are murdered. But this case quickly became very complicated. David Camm is from a very large, prominent family in the county, and he has what seems like an airtight alibi.

On top of that, there's no obvious motive for these murders. So proving what happened behind these garage doors, beyond a reasonable doubt, is going to be very tough. Correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports on this murder that was broadcast last May.

Camm, who came from a close and influential local family, was seen as a mentor who never showed a violent side.

"He wanted to reach out. He looked for a way to help, he stepped up to the plate," says sister, Julie Camm.

Kim and David Camm were married in 1989. Kim raised the children while working full time as an accountant. Camm, a state trooper, was liked and respected by his colleagues, including fellow trooper Shelly Romero.

"He was very trusting, very loyal, extremely honest. He could be trusted with anything, just one of the most upstanding people you would ever fathom in your life," says Romero.

But three years into the marriage, Camm began having an affair with a woman he'd met at the gym while Kim was pregnant with their second child.
"It was sheer stupidity on my part," says Camm. "I allowed myself to get caught in something that never should have happened. And you know, I take full responsibility for that."

Camm moved out, but a few months later, they reconciled and things seemed to be back to normal. And, at least financially, life was getting better for the Camms. David quit the state police to work for his uncle's construction business, was making more money and had more time for his family.

"I had never been happier," he says. "I should have left five years ago."

But investigators later discovered that he had been involved in several other affairs over the years. In fact, prosecutors have rounded up a dozen women who either had affairs with or were propositioned by him.

"He was very flirty," says Andrea Craig. "He was always trying to rub my feet underneath the radio console. He would ask me several times if I wanted to get together, hook up."

"It was a given he was going to hit on you," adds former colleague, Romero. "He was going to propose an innocent kind of liason or something like that."

But did those affairs somehow constitute a motive? "That's utterly ridiculous," says Camm.

"We don't have to prove motive," says prosecutor Stan Faith. "All we have to do is prove that he did it. We don't have to say why he did it. We'll never know the reason why he did it exactly because the three people that could tell us are dead."

"He never said I'm perfect," says David's brother, Donnie. "I don't think any of us are. We all have faults and we make mistakes."

The family is convinced that police rushed to judgment.

"The prosecution can't decide what his motive is. They've been bouncing around on different motives and they can't find one to stick," adds Donnie.

"Now they have gone to — well, he killed his wife and his kids so he can pursue extramarital affairs. My question would be if he was so successful at doing that, why does he have to kill his family?"

On the day of the murder, Kim and the kids were on the move until 7 p.m., when Kim and Jill picked up Brad from swim class and headed home.

Around the same time, Camm was off to a weekly pickup basketball game with friends and relatives.

Those who attended the game that night say that Camm couldn't be guilty of murder because he was with them, playing basketball until he headed home around 9:15 p.m.

If those men are right, then it's awfully hard to believe that David Camm is guilty of murder. Kim, Brad and Jill got home about 7:30 that night. Camm says he was at the gym playing basketball until 9:15 p.m., and he has 11 eyewitnesses to back him up.

After the game, Camm says he pulled into the driveway around 9:22 p.m. and saw his wife lying in a pool of blood. Minutes later, Camm made a frantic call to the state police.

One of the first officers on the scene was detective Sean Clemons, one of Camm's closest friends. "I always considered Dave a friend. I thought I knew Dave. I thought he was a good person."

But Det. Sam Sarkisson became suspicious after Camm told him he tried to revive his son, Brad, before realizing that his entire family was already dead.

"Usually, if you have someone come upon a crime scene, and they talk about rendering aid, or being involved in the crime scene, then there's footprints," says Sarkisson. "I didn't see footprints."

But it wasn't just the lack of bloody footprints that drew suspicion to David Camm. Detectives immediately noticed the entire scene was just too neat.

"We don't think it occurred the way he said it did," says Sarkisson.

Police believed that Camm got home, killed his family, cleaned up the crime scene, and called them - all within seven minutes.

His family was outraged. "I can probably see a husband or wife killing their partner in the heat-of-passion type thing. But not your kids! You cannot kill your own kids. David could not kill his kids," says Camm's uncle, Sam Lockhart.

As for the motive, police believe they got their answer at the laboratory. An autopsy on David's daughter, Jill, found evidence of sexual abuse. Faith believes she was molested by her father, which may have set off a violent confrontation the night of the murder. "I think that's a likely scenario."

But if Jill was molested, it's hard to say who did it.

The medical examiner says Jill was likely molested "within hours" of her death. But by all accounts, Camm had not seen Jill since 7 a.m. that morning, nearly 13 hours before the murders.

David Camm says unequivocally that he did not molest his daughter. "I don't know anything about her being molested. I don't know anything about that."

His family backs him up.

"Now we're saying he left the ball game, went home, sexually abused his daughter, then murdered his family and somehow got them, the kids, conveniently buckled back in his car? That's crazy," says David's sister, Julie Camm.