Kevin Showalter Pt. Two

residential neighborhood. And then Kevin got out to change the tire, and it was a poorly lit area, but while Debra wasn't looking, a car just happened to pass by and hit him and then just sped away without even stopping. Kevin went died pretty quickly, but even though witnesses in the neighborhood were called seeing lights, no one actually got a good look at the getaway vehicle. Kevin's mother, Lucille show Walter, tried to open up her own independent investigation

because the police really wouldn't do much of anything. They pretty much told her that the case would never be solved. They wound up losing pieces of evidence, and Lucille pretty much found out a reason why when she learned that the town's former mayor named Harvey Maluv, who was one of the more prominent and wealthiest citizens in New London, became the prime suspect. And the biggest issue was that Malove.

He was originally very supportive and nice to Lucille, but he gave a story that seemed to contradict all the other witnesses at the scene because he claimed he had driven by himself and saw a man and a woman near another car who soon fled the scene. But this was contradicted by all the other witnesses, and they seemed to appear that Malub was just coming up with this story in case someone had saw him at the scene

because he was likely the hit and run driver. So they would have a long grand jury proceedings, and at the end the judge said that even though there was not enough evidence for a criminal prosecution, I do think that Harvey Mallub was likely driver of the hit run vehicle, but things got complicated about a year later after the statute of limitations expired, when a man named Paul Hanson came forward and claimed that he believed he was the one who had struck Kevin, saying that he was very

drunk when he was driving on Christmas Eve he thought he hit something but wasn't sure, but did not find out until the following morning that Kevin had been killed, and he feared that he was responsible. Had another preliminary hearing, but the judge thought that the evidence really didn't support the idea that Hanson did this, and the case fads from the spotlight. But then in two thousand and five, Hanson died by suicide and left behind a note where

he still took responsibility for the hit and run. And by this point Harvey Malive had passed away, So there's a lot of controversy over whether Maliv or Hanson or someone else could have been the hit and run driver, And because so much evidence had gone missing over the years, it's really hard to conclusively prove what happened after all these years, and that's why the case is still unsolved to this day. So this is definitely a very tragic

story for everyone involved. And I don't think I've ever seen a hit and run case Gardner as much notoriety as this one. It is dragged on for decades. But what's particularly sad is how preventable this whole situation could have been. When Judge dany He released his report about the grand jury investigation, he actually stated that Kevin placed himself in a dangerous situation by changing the tire in a crouch position on a dark street and switching off

the vehicle's parking lights. That's not to say that Dana Hay was victim blaming or anything, but he believed that the driver of the vehicle who hit Kevin genuinely did not see him and might not have even realized they

hit him when they drove off. Given the circumstances, dan He did not think the driver was criminally negligent, and provided that they were an intoxicated or recklessly speeding of the time, they probably never would have faced any charges or jail time if they had just turned themselves in

and confessed right after the accident took place. Of course, the driver might have eventually been found had the new London Police Department not done such terrible work, and Judge Dannyhees's report was very critical of their investigation and their dismissive attitude towards Lucille's showalter. I mean, this wasn't a case where a young person's death was officially ruled a suicide or an accident and their parent was screaming foul play because they had a hard time dealing with the grief.

It's pretty cut and dried that Kevin was fatally struck by a vehicle and the driver just took off, And regardless of whether or not there was intent, a hit and run is still crime and whoever was responsible should be forced to answer for it. You can't just tell the victim's mother, well, this is probably never going to be solved only a few weeks later and leave it

at that. Now, as critical as Judge Danny he was towards the New London PD, he did not actually believe they were orchestrating a deliberate cover up and thought their investigation was the result of incompetence rather than knallice. But given that the prime suspect, Harvey Malov, was a former mayor who gave some high ranking police officials or jobs, it's not hard to believe that there might have been a conspiracy to sweep things under the rug.

fake and manipulated and political in nature. And so I think her desire to say, you know, I'm not even saying that my son was murdered or that I want justice for a homicide. I want someone to tell me what happened and be held accountable for a hit and run. And if they were transparent, I guarantee you his mother would have said, they're just as much a victim as my son was. They took someone's life that night, not knowing.

It's tragic for both families. But here she's almost been played by everybody.

personally said she was not like that at all. And this show pretty much pulled a law in order and then exploited a real life tragedy and pretty much re traumatized her all over again because by that point, I think the statute of limitations that expires, So Lucille had pretty much reached the conclusion that no one was ever going to go to jail or faced justice for my son's death. And now I'm seeing a fictional TV show paint me in a bad light.

probable driver of the hit and run vehicle. This mostly stems from the fact that Donahe used the word probable conclusive, as Malv and his supporters argued that if the investigation could not conclusively prove that Malove was a driver and he wasn't going to be prosecuted for the crime, then they should not have released his name to the public. If Malv was innocent, then this caused a lot of unwarranted damage to his reputation, and he did bring up

a valid point. A grand jury investigation is not the same thing as a trial, so he did not get the opportunity to present a case for his innocence, which would have occurred if he had actually been charged with the crime. It's kind of a catch twenty two and that he spared the ordeal of a criminal trial. But unless he can find evidence pointing to another perpetrator, there really isn't anything that he can do to clear his name.

And when you take into account that another man, Paul Hansen, would later confess to the crime, then this is clearly not a cut and dried case, A second grand jury investigation concluded that other than his own confession, there was no compelling evidence to suggest that Paul Hanson was responsible for the hit and run, and while there wasn't any hard evidence to link Harvey malv to the scene, he pretty much implicated himself by sharing his story about being there,

which was contradicted by seven eyewitnesses. But since the New London PD lost or badly mishandled most of the evidence, it probably would have been impossible to conclusively link anyone to the accident scene, and the.

the one who hit your son and killed him. But also when you look at the way they handled the evidence, it's as if they didn't care that it was a hit and run, that it was just some car accident, right, and that they didn't need to be looking for anyone else. How do you lose evidence when in something that isn't really open and shut. There's someone who hit a kid and took his life. You need to be exploring who that was because it shows somebody who doesn't have a

conscience to say, hey, I hit this kid. I need to tell somebody, I need to get him help. They drove off so likely they were intoxicated. In my opinion, they didn't want to get in trouble and that's why they sped away. I just feel so bad for his mother. She was never going to get quote closure, She's never going to get justice because one closure I don't think exists really unless you can bring their loved one back.

But the justice part man. Everywhere she turns, it seems like they're making it worse instead of supporting her and making any kind of peace in her life.

in print is in for killing my son. But at least the fact that Harvey Malof has been named publicly is providing a bit of accountability and it's an acknowledgment of who did something wrong here, but I'm sure it must have been an ordeal for her when we have this other guy, Paul Hanson, coming forward and he's confessing to the crime, so it leaves so much ambiguity about

who the real perpetrator was. And to know that because the statute of limitation has expired, no one is going to be charged with this crime and you may just never know without conclusive evidence who really did this.

Like you think that this woman fighting for her son, that the people in law enforcement would see this and they would have just empathy and compassion for her and they would want to be fighting for her. But it just doesn't seem like we're seeing this. We're seeing people who are losing evidence, and Lucille just seems to be more of a pain to them than a mother who's grieving and has experienced this enormous loss.

of being able to have compassion. I think you see that from time to time with different cases we talk about.

go on. It's certainly possible that, even if he was innocent, Hanson could have been driving drunk on Christmas Eve in nineteen seventy three and legitimately had no memory of anything that happened that night, and when he heard about a fatal hit and run and notice damage to his car the following morning, he may have feared the worst even

though he did not remember anything. Of course, it's awfully convenient that Hanson wouldn't come forward until after the statute of limitations it expired, and if that's where his story had ended, then I have little doubt that he was not the driver. But the fact that Hanson would still take responsibility for the incident in a suicide note over thirty years later makes it impossible for me to discount

him completely. Since I know nothing about what Hanson's personal life was like in two thousand and five, I have no idea if the hit and run played any role in his decision to complete suicide, or if he decided to take his own life for completely different reasons. He might have just mentioned the hit and run in his note for attention, or perhaps he was still racked with

guilt about the whole thing three decades later. One thing I am certain about is that if Hanson was the driver, then I don't think the New London PD would have orchestrated a cover up to protect him, since it doesn't sound like he was a person with connections, and he probably wouldn't have popped up on the radar as a

suspect if he didn't confess. So if there really was a cover up, I'm sure the police would be more inclined to orchestrate one for a wealthy, prominent citizen like Harvey malliv So.

loved ones, and he mentions it. What's really troubling is that I believe he had to be incredibly intoxicated that night and driving he hits something, wakes up the next morning and sees that a kid has been killed, and he says, oh, my god.

did it even if he did not. There's also a potential that he knew exactly what he did, and because he had been drinking and driving, he waited till after that, statured to limitations and didn't want to be held accountable for it, and then came forward to try to get help. But to me, it's very possible that he also just convinced himself he was guilty.

That could have only confounded the guilt, thinking that this poor woman went to a grave without receiving justice or knowing what happened. So that could be why he decided to make that final confession in his suicide note, even though the incident was over thirty years old at that point.

tangible things. They were like visceral memories and remembering smell and sights and sounds, and so to think that he could have been completely blackout drunk like we talked about in episode one, and then just convinced himself that like, yeah, I was driving around that area, I'm the one that did it. I think that is altogether possible. Like Ash just said, there's a possibility that he may have actually done this, but I think that the former is more

likely than the latter. One of the most dramatic developments in this story was a testimony from Catherine Krause and her claims that Walter Spring Junior and Walter Spring Third held her against her will in a Florida motel room after she told the police they'd done repairs on a vehicle which struck Kevin show Walter. I do admit that to being a bit skeptical about this, though the Springs

do sound like they may be shady people. I know that one investigator testified that he believed Kraus and Walter Junior, who were both married to other people, had actually gone down to Florida together to carry on a secret affair, though I don't know if this was ever corroborated. It sounds like Walter Junior had a habit of making himself out to be a big shot who once belonged to the mafia, and the allegations of him threatening to rub out anyone who talked about his repair work on the

hit and run vehicle may have been greatly exaggerated. I know that when Harvey Malov's Linking Continental was examined by the state police, they found traces of damage to the right fender in the approximate location where the hit and run vehicle might have struck Kevin. So if Malove was responsible, then this would seem to negate the story of the Springs doing secret.

Harvey Mallov was a driver for his part. Even though Malov's Redevelopment Corporation had loaned three thousand to the Springs prior to the accident, He testified that he had never met them before, as he did not personally oversee every loan his corporation made.

would be evidence of that. The one thing which really seems to implicate Malub is his story about passing through the accident seen that night. It was contradicted by everyone else who was there, and without that story, I don't think Judge Danny would have had much grounds to name Mallub has probable hit and run driver. But I'm still trying to wrap my head around why Malib would have even shared that story in the first place if he

was guilty. My best guess is that he was paranoid that one of the witnesses might have seen his vehicle driving down Pequad Avenue, so he had to concoct a cover story to explain what he was doing there at that time. However, since none of the witnesses got a good enough look at the hit and run vehicle to provide a description, Maluv's fabricated cover story was unnecessary and

wound up backfiring on him instead. The weird part is that Malib also shared a story about seeing a dark green car park to the scene, as this was easily

refuted by everyone else who was there. This might have stemmed from the fact that there were dark green paint particles found on Kevin's clothing, and the initial FBI lab report stated that it match the type of paint often found on a nineteen sixty eight Chrysler, a car which Malib would not have owned at that time, so this might have been Malub's subtle way of pointing the investigation towards an alternate vehicle, though the state police would later

conclude that the green paint particles were likely a red herring and did not originate from the car which hit Kevin.

You might be wondering why Malub would have decided to share such a blatantly false story with Lucille Showalter, but if he was the driver, he might have felt guilty over what happened and the fact that Lucille was being treated so badly by the police, So Maliv decided to play the role of the support of friend and toss Lucille a bone by telling her about this spictitious green car in order to give her something to chase after.

Maybe he thought this was the best thing he could do for Lucille, aside from confessing to the crime and turning himself in. Of course, Maliv's ulterior motive was to lead the trail away from him, and he probably never envisioned that Lucille would eventually get far enough for a grand jury investigation to be launched.

heard what his alibi was. It's never been shared to the public, but I'm guessing that it came across as suspicious where they were thinking, if you were driving from such and such a place to go home, there would be no reason for you to go on this particular street through this particular neighborhood.

not belong to the vehicle which struck him. There's also the box containing the headlight glass fragment, which was turned over to the state police for the grand jury investigation. It contained at least one fragment which did not originate from the hit and run and was likely deliberately removed

from the headlight socket of a totally different vehicle. It seems the glass fragment was planted in the box by someone who hoped that no one would notice the difference, but an engineer from General Electric did, and I will concede that this might have been done by the new London PD to cover up the fact that they lost some of the original headlight glass recovered from the accident scene, rather than because they were attempting to protect someone. But

it still looks pretty bad regardless. Prior to the grand jury proceedings, it also looks like there were several deliberate attempts to prevent Harvey Mallow from being investigated. For instance, Lucille frequently tried to garner the attention of County administrative Judge Angelo Santaniello, who later went on to become a

Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. After ignoring her on multiple occasions, Judge Santiniello finally promised Lucille that he would hold a coroner's inquest, but they never actually issued a finding.

the exact same thing. He's basically pacifying her and not following through with any kind of genuine attempt to help her.

force have planted evidence in order to frame her. And this is kind of bringing me flashbacks to this talking about planting this fake headlight glass because in Karen Reid's place of and allegations that they planted like tailight pieces to frame her as well. So I know that case wasn't around when I originally covered this on the Trail with Cold, but just talking about it now is now giving me flashbacks to the Karen Reid case.

evidence in like red solo cups. But then you're working against these horrible weather conditions, and they were trying to make do in that situation, and it was not ideal and there was a lot of errors made, but I think it was just rife for a situation where you could point to conspiracy, and Karen Reid was just the right kind of defendant to have a lot of people jump behind her on that bandwagon.

that by accident. It takes work to get rid of that much material. So this indicates to me that someone took steps to make the transcripts disappear, possibly because there was something incriminating in there which they did not want to be released publicly. In addition, there was also the risk that Lucille could have used these transcripts as evidence to win a civil suit. Overall, this is what makes me think that Paul Hansen wasn't the actual driver of

the hit run vehicle. His name was never mentioned during the grand jury proceedings, and no one even knew who he was until a year after the investigation concluded, so there would be no need to get rid of the transcripts or destroy evidence in order to protect him. But the big question is was there something in those transcripts to incriminate Harvey Malluf or someone else entirely.

that you're responsible for getting rid of. I almost feel like someone had to specifically be assigned, like, hey, you need to go in the evidence room and you need to get old evidence or evidence is not relevant anymore and destroy it because it had to be purposeful. You don't just quote lose that.

a long process. You have to get a lot of authorization, so no one is going to take three thousand pages of a transcript of a grand jury proceeding and then just shred them all by accident like someone has to make a calculated move to make that happen.

against him, but it's enough to arouse suspicion. From all I've read about Malove, he seemed to be very well liked and respected citizen, and I can give him the benefit of the doubt that he honestly did not see Kevin when he struck him allegedly, and he may have been completely unaware that he hit anyone when he left a scene. As long as Melov wasn't intoxicated or driving recklessly at the time, then this is probably one of those unavoidable tragic accidents in which no one is completely

at fault. If Maluv had just come clean right at the outset, he probably wouldn't have faced criminal charges and saved everyone a lot of pain, and from what I've read about Lucille's show, Walter, I think she probably would have forgiven him the metal of likely felt like he had a reputation to maintain and could not connect his name to an incident which caused the death of another person.

then she started to get stone walled and dismissed. I think it caused an upset at the system, not at what happened to her son. That was simply tragic and disheartening that no one could answer her question. So my heart breaks because she just wanted someone to say, I know what happened, and now you can lay your son to rest without those questions going off in your head, and she never got that.

clean even years after the fact. Because we mentioned that Harvey mallib died of cancer in nineteen eighty nine, and I'd like to think that if he was a big enough man, he would have finally made a deathbed confession and called Lucille over and apologized for what he did to Kevin and taken full responsibility, but even on death's door,

he never did that. However, maybe we're one hundred percent wrong on this and Malib is completely innocent and the real driver is another suspect we don't even know about. Whoever it was. I think it had to be someone prominent enough that the authorities were willing to sandbag an investigation and destroy evidence in order to protect them. Maybe probable was too strong a word for Judge Dany Heat to use when he named Harvey Malib as the driver, but he does seem more likely than anyone to have

been the perpetrator. Now, since Lucille show Walter and the two prime suspects, Harvey Malob and Paul Hansen, have passed away, it's unlikely we'll ever learn the full truth about what happened. Even if we, it's not like the perpetrator could be charged, since the statute of limitations has long expired. However, Kevin had two brothers, and as far as I know, they're both still alive. Kevin's younger brother, Craig, actually published an editorial about the case in the Day newspaper on Christmas

Eve of two thousand and eight. It was a classy piece of writing in which he expressed his condolences to the families of Hariy Mallev and Paul Hansen for all the suffering they had to endure. But it's also clear the show Walter family has gone through a lot of pain these fast five decades and would be nice if they could receive closure and finally put this matter to rest. So if you happen to have any information about the hit and run death of Kevin Showalter, please contact the

appropriate authorities. Jules Ashley any final thoughts on this case.

and driving accidents. It's not the victim only, it's the victim and their family. It's also the person who hits the victim and their family, and you know, I just, man, I feel so much respect for his brothers, saying, look, there are no winners here. My mom passed away without knowing my brother's deceased and didn't get to live his life. Multiple people have been named as suspects or come forward taking credit for the crime, and it's all tragic, you know.

And I think that's the kind of ultimate conclusion here, is that it's just sad. You had a kid with so much potential who just went out for fun on Christmas Eve and he loses his life by trying to change a tire. Sad and a mother who said, please just pay attention to the fact that I lost the most important thing in my life and people didn't breaks

my heart. This is one of the sadder, kind of emotionally heavy cases, just for how disregarded the survivors were in the case and how still the brother remains a class act, saying I feel empathy for everyone involved.

couldn't see him and I hit him. But due to other factors, maybe he was intoxicated, maybe he wasn't. Given that he was a prominent political figure having his name tied to a tragedy in which Kevin died, it would have been difficult. It just seems so convoluted and conspiratorial, all of these different actions that were taken, evidence that was lost, and even the whole coroner's inquest to find

out that that judge was best friends with Malove. And it's just like everybody is a little bit too cozy here, and the victims are truly people like Lucille's Showalter, who was just treated I feel like in such a disrespectful manner where they're either pacifying her, placating her, or passing her off or portraying her in a really unflattering light like she was portrayed on that TV show, and my heart truly breaks for Lucille because all she ever wanted

was justice and answers for what happened to Kevin.

and he was really nice about it. He was very happy that I covered the case, and I think he's one of those family members who feels that even if we don't get a conclusive resolution after all these years, it's nice that people still remember Kevin and want to share his story, and also the story about his mother and what a great activist she was trying to find

answers for her son. Because she could have just given up and accepted right at the outset that the case will never be solved, she'll never find out who did this, but she spent years fighting tireslessly, gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, and as a result, it actually got presented in front of a grand jury, and we talked about how this ultimately cost more money than had ever been seen at that time for a hit and run case, for a hit and run investigation, And like we talked about, when

you look at the evidence, it does seem probable that Harvey Mallib is the most likely suspect. We don't have enough evidence against him to prosecute him or take him to court, but the fact that he made those incriminating statements placing himself at the accident scene, which is contradicted by all the other witnesses there, seems to indicate that he may have been trying to clear his conscience or send Lucille in the wrong direction to cover for himself.

But he pretty much stuck his own foot in his mouth. If he hadn't done that, I don't know if anyone ever would have linked him to this crime. I definitely think he's a more likely candidate to Paul Hanson. And like I said, the statute of limitations nearly ran out. Eventually ran out, so he never would have been charged anyway. But it would have just have been nice to see

some accountability. That's all Lucille and her family won. It's someone to like finally say I was the one who hit your son I'm sorry that I ran away, but this is what happened, and she didn't even get that, and it does seem likely there was a cover up and a lot of people concealed the truth and this tragic accident wound up escalating into an unsolved cold case which still doesn't have a conclusive resolution. And after fifty years.

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