Hattiesburg American from Hattiesburg, Mississippi • 10

1 0A Sunday, Jun. 2, 1991 Hattiesburg AMERICAN MYSTERY v4 ym 'K i '( I I March 1 6, 1976- Mary Ann Perez, 32-year -old mother of four, disappears from a New Orleans nightclub. March 23, 1976- Perez's purse is found floating near the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain. July 3, 1980- David Courtney Is convicted of first degree murder in the death of Tammy Taylor, a Wichita, woman. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole In 15 years.

July 18, 1980- Donna Courtney is convicted of aiding and abetting first degree murder in the death of Tammy Taylor. She received a life sentence that was dated back to April 16, 1980. Summer of 1980- Kansas City authorities contact New Orleans police about a possible link between Courtney and an abduction in New Orleans. New Orleans police request statements Courtney made in regards to the abduction. Fall Of 1982- Skeletal remains of a woman are found in New Orleans.

Family members and local authorities believe it to be Perez. Summer Of 1984- New Orleans homicide detective Bob Lambert Interviews confessed serial killer Henry Lee Lucas about the Perez disappearance. Lucas looks at photos of Perez and says she was not one of his victims. January 30, Lambert travels to Lansing Correctional Facility to interview Courtney about the Perez case. Courtney admits abducting and killing a woman he says could be Perez after looking at photos of her.

October 23, 1985- Baton Rouge, forensic anthropologists Douglas W. Owsley and Murray K. Marks conclude that the skeleton found in east New Orleans is definitely not Mary Ann Perez. August 31, 1990- Donna Courtney Is paroled. September, 1990-A woman telephones the home of Perez's husband Elwood In New Orleans and tells his daughter-in-law that Mary Ann is still alive and needs medical attention.

The woman never identifies herself. March, 1991-Perez's brother. Wayne Thomas, writes the NBC program "Unsolved Mysteries" about the possibility of getting Mary Ann's case on the show. March, 1991- "Unsolved Mysteries" agrees to re-enact the crime and air the case. April, 1 991- "Unsolved Mysteries" contacts the Lansing prison about having Courtney appear on the program.

The state prison board grants permission. May, 1 991- Courtney decides not to appear on the program and denies any involvement In the disappearance of Perez. June, 1991- Filming is scheduled to begin on the Perez disappearance. Donna Courtney we wound up right back where we started." Thomas, who makes his living building and remodeling homes, can drive home a point and a nail with equal ferocity. His dogged demands for more help from New Orleans of-ficials finally produced a Lambert-Courtney meeting in 1985.

Lambert, an 18-year veteran of the New Orleans force, including 12 in homicide, spent three days in Lansing and interviewied Courtney for approximately eight hours. "He was a little apprehensive at first about being taped but he final- FROM page 1 A missing person aspect into account." An anonymous phone message to the home of Mary Ann's former husband, Elwood Perez, in New Orleans had a tremendous impact on the show's producers. "About eight months ago Mary Ann's daughter-in-law took a call from a lady who asked to speak to Elwood," Thomas said. "She told the lady that Elwood wasn't there and the person on the other end said that Mary Ann was alive and needed medical attention. She didn't leave a name, phone number or anything else.

And nobody has ever heard from her again." The phone call took place before Thomas ever hawked his mystery to NBC officials. "I think the phone call definitely added more to the mystery," Patterson said. Thomas' conscience tells him that Mary Ann did not survive her apparent abduction. But his heart pleads with him to remain hopeful. "Until they come up with a body, I won't believe she's dead," he said.

"Deep down, I honestly believe she's still alive. Maybe she has amnesia or something. I don't know. I've had a gut feeling right from the start that she didn't die." Two other brothers and sisters do not share Wayne's optimism. "They really haven't helped me search for her over the years," he said.

"They thought I'd gone sick." One can only imagine the kind of psychological sickness that prompts serial killers to stalk, often torture, and ultimately murder innocent victims. David Courtney received a first-degree murder conviction and subsequent life sentence in July of 1980 for killing a woman named Tammy Taylor in Wichita, Kan. His wife and accomplice, Donna Courtney, received a lesser sentence for aiding and abetting in the crime and has since been paroled. The Courtneys have also been linked to the murders of at least three other people. The 46-year-old David Courtney, an inmate at the Lansing (Kan.) Correctional Facility, becomes eligible for parole in three years.

Upon his capture and subsequent imprisonment, Courtney offered David Courtney statements regarding other abductions and murders, including one that brought Thomas and New Orleans homicide Detective Bob Lambert into his life. "Our office was contacted by authorities in Kansas City in the summer of 1980 concerning David Courtney and a statement he made to them about abducting a woman in New Orleans several years earlier," Lambert said. "After receiving copies of his statement, the information matched what we had on the disappearance of Mary Ann Perez." However, for one bureaucratic reason after another, several years passed without Lambert receiving authorization to visit Courtney in Kansas. In the meantime, skeletal remains of a woman found in east New Orleans in 1982 matched Perez's description right down to the partial upper dental plate both wore. "I really thought we had it solved at that point," Lambert said.

"Everything was falling right into place." Three more years passed before forensic anthropologists in Baton Rouge definitively concluded that the skeleton could not be Perez. "It was a big letdown," Thomas said. "I don't mean that to sound ugly or anything. But the family really wants an answer one way or another. At that time, we felt like we were finally going to be able to have a funeral and bury her.

But Mary Ann Perez As the question-and-answer session progressed, Courtney cooly and calmly described the grisly events concerning he and his wife's visit to New Orleans. "He said this woman was having trouble starting her car in the parking lot of this lounge on Chef Highway," Lambert said. "He said she was also very drunk and probably couldn't have driven the car. So, he offered her a ride to a service station but said they had to go pick up his wife first. "He said they picked up his wife and at some point she (Donna) was driving the van.

He got into the back with the woman and strangled her with a coat hanger. "He said they threw her purse out on some bridge over Lake Pont-chartrain and drove across the state line into Mississippi. He said he didn't remember the name of the highway they were on or what direction they were going." One week after her disappearance a small boy found Perez's purse floating near the Pontchar-train shoreline in the North Shore Beach area. "He said they stopped for gas one time and drove a few miles farther before stopping on a little side road near a field," Lambert said. "He said they threw the body out there and took off." Thomas has devoted the last six years of his life to canvassing every possible inch of territory between Hattiesburg and New Orleans.

"I've been out there with shovels and rakes, looking in ditches and fields, all up and down (Interstate) 59," Thomas said. "That's the highway we believe they took when they left New Orleans. Our best guess is that they dumped her somewhere around Picayune but nothing has ever turned up there or anywhere else." Lambert speculates that animals could have scattered the victim's bones, thus preventing a discovery. "I am kind of surprised that some landowner or hunter hasn't stumbled across something after all these years," he said. Without a body, no one can definitively say Perez met her doom on that late-winter night.

"Maybe they thought she was dead and she woke up after they dumped her," Thomas said. "There's always that chance." Lambert considers the possibility extremely remote. "My experience WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT Four nights al Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort From Bob Lambert ly consented to it," Lambert said. "My general rule in doing these types of interviews is that I won't supply any information regarding a case. I want them to feed me the information." What he got from Courtney was a veritable feast of facts regarding the Perez disappearance.

"I showed him some photos of Mary Ann and he said it looked like the woman he abducted," Lambert said. "Then I showed him another one of her with her car and he said it looked familiar, too." Terry TbomHW, Httiburg Amtrtcin been will forever haunt Thomas. been up all night on many occasions wondering how things might have turned out if she hadn't come out of the lounge alone," he said. "Maybe they both would have been grabbed. That's something we'll never- know." Courtney, who was granted per- mission to appear on the television show by the Kansas prison rejected the program's request now denies any involvement with, the Perez disappearance.

Whether or not newspaper coverage and exposure television close the book on this mystery, Thomas wants women who travel alone at night to understand the risks they face. "That's one of the main reasons wanted this publicized," he said. "Women need to be more aware of where they park and make sure they watch what's happening around them. "You just don't know who might be stalking you." Editor's note: Thomas re- -quests that anyone with information regarding his sister's disap-" pearance contact him at (601) 584- 4614 or detective Lambert at (504 826-4534. Unlimited Super Pass Plus with unlimited admission to all Walt Disney World Parks and allractionsAir Fare $729 as a homicide investigator tells me that she's dead," he said.

"I think David Courtney and his wife definitely abducted Mary Ann Perez, killed her and dumped her body somewhere." But the mysterious midnight phone call to Elwood Perez' home brought a brighter glow to the family's glimmer of hope. "We've thought that it might have been Donna Courtney or Mary Ann herself," Thomas said. "But I think the phone call has been the key to getting more attention focused on the case and getting 'Unsolved Mysteries' involved." "It's either one hell of a joke or somebody with some Insight as to Mary Ann's whereabouts," Lambert said. Elwood Perez, who has since remarried, declined interviews about the disappearance. According to Thomas, Perez did not object to his former wife frequenting the New Orleans nightspot.

"She loved to hear country and western music and they always had a live band at that lounge," Thomas said. "She went that night with a friend but the other woman wound up leaving with someone else." The proverbial what might have Rental Car All rales are p.p.d. and subject to availability Call Gay, Carole, and Katie at ASSOCIATED TRAVEL 905 HARDY 544-5171 Naver Before So Low! yers Washer WRW1S05M DEB1555M Electric D2L153IM Gm Large Capacity, fCydc, Tetaperatttrca, Water level, PoreeUla Eaanel Tab, Self-CWtof FlherRlBf.WUte. Large Capacity Drytaf Sekctloaa, I CyeW, PereeUa Eaaaeel Draae, Large Lmdiji Part, ReaaonUe Up. FiwiIJat Filter, HUu.

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