The Murder of the Wanstrath Family

 

I am attempting to jump back into research and posting. That generally means that I am also jumping back into watching true crime television shows after a small break. This is a case that I had never heard of until I saw it on Paula Zahn's On The Case. I am working my way through the shows and although I have seen many of the episodes I am coming across a lot of very, very old cases that are catching my interest. This case took place in 1979, but it also helped solve a crime that occurred some four years prior, but then again, no one yet knew it was a crime.

One of the most interesting things about this case is it spotlights how much “pull” a medical examiner has. We all pretty much know that it is up to the medical examiner to determine cause of death, but more importantly the manner of death. It is the manner of death that determines whether a death is an accident, suicide or homicide. Apparently the medical examiner at the time in Harris County Texas, that included Houston was Dr. Joseph Jachimczyk. A homicide detective, Johnny Bonds, commented on the television show that it was this case that showed him just how powerful Jachimczyk was. Bonds would go up against Jachimczyk in this case and it cost him his position in the homicide department, at least for a while.

On July 6, 1979 a call was made reporting three bodies in the Houston home of John Wanstrath. John was a “highly respected oceanographer” with a tech company. His wife, Diana Duff-Smith was a stay at home mom to their adopted fourteen month old son, Kevin. The family was well liked and highly respected. On this morning a neighbor had gone over to the home and received no answer at the door. This seemed odd and she gained access to the inside of the home. As she made her way into the front room of the home she was shocked when she saw John and Diana. John was in a chair and Diana was on the floor. Both had suffered gunshot wounds to the head and there was blood everywhere. The neighbor rushed to Kevin's room and was even more horrified. Inside his crib, surrounded by stuffed animals lay the fourteen month old. He too had been shot in the head.

When detective Johnny Bonds and his partner were sent out on the call they were told it was likely a murder/suicide and so that is what they expected. Once inside they were only able to observe the bodies and other things in the home, but until the medical examiner arrived they could not move the bodies at all. Going on the theory that this was a murder/suicide they knew they should be finding a gun considering the victims had all been shot. They did not find one near Diana's body so they assumed there would be one near John and since they did not initially found one they believed that once his body was moved they would find the gun in the chair he had been sitting in. Eventually the bodies were moved and to their surprise no gun was found. This told the investigators that this was not a murder/suicide as had been suspected but they now knew they had a cold blooded killer on the loose. The scene had been horrific but the sight of Kevin Wanstrath in his crib had been especially disturbing.

Nothing in the house seemed to really be disturbed and there did not appear to be any signs of a forced entry into the home. Investigators believed that whoever had shot the family had either been someone they knew well, or at the very least were expecting. But, their investigation came to a screeching halt after the medical examiner released the autopsy findings.

My research stated that Dr. Jachimczyk had been asking the state to begin allowing psychological autopsies. It was not clear, although it was indicated, that he would be the one conducting them. At the very least he would be the doctor to sign off on the autopsies so he would be given the ultimate decision on things. It was said that this case was the first case to use a psychological autopsy in Harris County. That being said, the results were a disaster. Jachimczyk would rule that the murders had in fact been a murder/suicide with Diana being the perpetrator. He theorized that Diana had shot her husband and son and then killed herself. It was said that he came to this conclusion based on the fact that in 1975 Diana's mother, Gertrude Duff-Smith Zabolio, had committed suicide. First, it is true that there are cases in which multiple members of a family commit suicide, that does not necessarily mean that everyone does obviously. Secondly, he did not know this at the time but it would later be learned that Gertrude had in fact, NOT committed suicide, but I will get into that later. When confronted with the fact that no weapon had been found at the scene Jachimczyk would not budge in his decision.

Johnny Bonds was infuriated! Diana's friends were just as angered by this decision. They had described her as always having a bubbly personality and completely devoted to her husband and son. Johnny Bonds pushed back but when he did he was actually transferred out of homicide and to internal affairs. However, he did not go quietly or nicely. He vowed to continue to work on the case and was even able to copy the entire file before moving to internal affairs. He gave an interview to reporters stating basically he would not stop until he fixed this wrong. Little did he know that this statement to the media almost cost him his life.

For the next year and a half Bonds continued investigating the case and he had a few people willing to help him. A ballistic test was done on the bullets found and Bonds would say that surprisingly there was only one type of .22 caliber gun that could have shot these bullets. Generally they have a long list of types of guns that could have ejected a bullet. Even still, without a weapon, or even suspects the ballistic evidence was of little value.

As is often the case Bonds began looking at those close to the family and those who would have most benefited by their deaths. Some had expressed some suspicion towards John's brother but he was quickly cleared. Then Bonds started looking into Diana's brother, Markham Duff-Smith and what he found was quite interesting.

Markham had been adopted when he was two weeks old by Gertrude and Marvin Smith. At some point Gertrude had hyphenated her name with Marvin's middle name, Duff. Marvin died in 1955 when Diana was eleven and Markham was eight. Two years later she would remarry Dow Zabolio. It would later be said by Dow's son, Dow Jr., that “Markham was raised with the right standards, but not with a lot of love.” Dow Sr. would say that Gertrude and Markham would often argue over the fact that she would not “finance his lavish lifestyle.” In October of 1975 Gertrude had been found dead in her home. Her husband was out of town on a business trip at the time. It was said that two suicide notes were found at the scene. That being said I am uncertain of any information about these notes. I cannot say for certain that they were seriously looked at and handwriting compared; I cannot say that anything was ever questioned about them. Apparently they were taken at face value and it appears that either an incomplete autopsy was conducted or there was not one done at all and suicide was listed as her cause of death.

Bonds would learn that Markham not only benefited when his mother died in 1975 but he stood to gain a lot more with the death of his sister and her family. He looked into Markham's finances and learned while he had gotten about $90,000 upon his mother's death, he had gone through the money very fast. He also discovered that while Markham was working as an insurance agent, he was not as successful as he appeared. He gain commission on every policy that he sold but Bonds learned that Markham himself would sell a policy, he would often pay the first payment, obtain the commission and then the policy would lapse. He had sold such a policy to his brother-in-law, John Wanstrath, but this one was different.

About six months before the Wanstrath family was murdered Markham had sold John a life insurance policy for $250,000. It was said that John had been told that the policy had lapsed, just like all of Markham's other accounts. However, John's policy was said to be the only active account that Markham still had and that he himself had paid the premium every month. This meant upon the policy would pay out upon his death. In this case considering that he died along with his wife and son, the policy would be given to the estate to which Markham himself would benefit. Adding this to the fact that the Wanstrath's were already fairly well off this made their estate worth well over a million dollars. It was said that Markham himself expected to benefit up to $500,000 upon their deaths.

About a year after the family was murdered Markham separated and then divorced his wife. It was said that this occurred just prior to him being awarded over $400,000 from the deaths. Investigators went and talked to his now ex-wife and found that Markham's friend, Walt Waldhauser Jr. had also left his wife and the two men were sharing a place together and living it up on the money Markham received. Both of the ex-wives allowed investigators to come into their homes and look around. It appears that this had been so recent that neither woman had completely gone through things since their husbands had left.

Upon searching Waldhauser's former home Bonds found some old letters and saw the name Allen Janecka mentioned. Bonds looked into Janecka and was convinced he was likely on the right track. Janecka had a long criminal history and Bonds believed he was just the type of person who would have committed a crime that involved the murder of a young child.

Bonds discovered that Janecka sometimes lived in Georgia and he had a girlfriend there. In November of 1980 another investigator traveled to Georgia to talk to Janecka but instead the investigator found his girlfriend. In the midst of the conversation she told the investigator that Janecka had asked her to hold on to a gun that was used in some murders. She turned it over and it was the exact type of .22 caliber that was said to have been used in the crime. The investigator could not wait to call Bonds and tell him about the discovery, but he also wanted Bonds to know that Janecka was said to be in Houston, where Bonds was, at that time. As soon as the investigators got the gun from the murder, they had to get a hold of the medical examiner. Charges could not be brought against anyone as long as the manner of death was still considered to be murder/suicide. It is unclear exactly when this was changed, but it eventually was.

On November 23, 1980 Janecka was arrested on charges not related to the murders of the Wanstrath's. It was said that he was at that point charged “for another homicide” and arson related to a fire at some point at the Waldhauser home. Unless the other homicide mentioned was related to Gertrude Zabolio I cannot say. It seems to have taken a few days but he started talking and on November 29^th signed a written confession.

Janecka began telling his story. According to Janecka, Walt Waldhauser had approached him about murdering the Wanstrath family. He admitted that his was the second time that he had been in contact with Waldhauser in relation to a murder in this family. In 1975 Waldhauser had first contacted a man named Paul McDonald to murder Gertrude Zabolio. McDonald then contacted Janecka and he admitted that he had committed that crime. He confessed that he had strangled Gertrude with a pair of panty hose. McDonald had taken Zabolio's drivers license as proof of death. Janecka only knew “of” Markham Duff-Smith, but he had never met him face to face. Everything, both with Gertrude and later with the Wanstrath family had either gone through Paul McDonald or Walt Waldhauser. Janecka stated that he was promised $30,000 for the murders of the family. It was unclear whether he had ever been given money for either of the murders. I speculate that he was likely at least paid for Gertrude. I cannot see him agreeing to committing more murders if he had not been paid for the first one, but I cannot say this is true for sure.

According to Janecka's confession he and Waldhauser had rented a car and then put a stolen license plate on the vehicle and drove to the Wanstrath home. The two men knocked on the door and were allowed in because John and Diana believed they were architects. There was no information as to how this came about or why the couple planned to want to meet with architects but they did let them in. The two men had set up a plan in which once Waldhauser pulled out some pepper spray, it would be a sign that it was time to commit the murders. At some point Waldhauser did pull out the mace and sprayed Diana, to which Janecka shot the couple. He then went into the bedroom where little Kevin lay and shot him too.

Janecka also told investigators that after Bonds had been demoted, moved to internal affairs, and spoke to the media about his quest to find the killers of the family, that Waldhauser reached out to him again saying that Bonds needed to be “taken out.” This is the first time Bonds had heard this. According to Janecka he refused to do that saying first that no one had expected any of the murders to be classified as suicides and secondly, that they had been extremely lucky so far in the two cases and there was no way they could get away with murdering a police officer.

On December 11, 1980 Allen Janecka was indicted in the capital murder of Kevin Wanstrath. It appears that this was the only one that he was charged with because it was the most serious. It became a capital murder, which made him eligible for the death penalty, because the the murder had been committed so that someone could profit financially.

It seems as if he must have recanted his confession because he took his case to trial in April of 1981. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death. Despite apparently now denying his role in the murders in 1984 he again confessed during an interview “for a film” while on death row. In 1987 his conviction and sentence was affirmed but in 1990 his conviction was overturned on a technicality. While I did not find the exact issue, it was said that there was “an error on the indictment” which caused the conviction to be overturned. In September of 1992 he was re-indicted and the following year he went to trial again where he was once again found guilty and sent back to death row. This time the conviction would stand and on July 24, 2003 Allen Wayne Janecka was executed by the state of Texas.

As far as Markham Duff-Smith goes investigators had a bit of a problem. As I noted before he never had direct contact with Janecka. Prosecutors needed to prove that he had been the mastermind behind all the murders. For this they needed Walt Waldhauser and they needed to make a deal with the devil. I will go more into things with Waldhauser in a bit but for now let us just say that they offered a sweet plea deal to him so they could connect the dots. I am trying to talk about each perpetrator separately to lessen some of the confusion in this case. While I pointed out above that Janecka was charged, convicted and eventually executed for the murder of Kevin Wanstrath, I also pointed out that was the only murder he was charged with. When it came to Markham Duff-Smith, despite being indicted for all of the murders, he was only ever tried for the murder of his mother, Gertrude.

Paul McDonald testified that he had been approached by Walt Waldhauser and the he had had personal contact with McDonald about the murder of Gertrude. The initial plan was that both Gertrude, and her husband Dow, were to be murdered but Dow happened to be out of town when it happened. Investigators had been able to prove that in one of the drawers they had seen a pair of panty hose that had a knot in them and it was determined that this had been a “practice” pair. It is unclear what happened to the ones that were used on Gertrude. It is also unclear why exactly the medical examiner had not been able to discover that Gertrude was strangled. My only conclusion to this is that the alleged suicide notes were taken at face value and between the investigation either an autopsy was not performed or at the very least a shoddy one had been conducted. McDonald had contacted Janecka and the two of them had entered Gertrude's home while Janecka did the actual murder. There was an indication that Duff-Smith was upset that Dow had not been present and murdered and that he had commented that he would not pay the perpetrators until he was dead too. His defense argued that their client had been set up for the murders by Walt Waldhauser, who had been granted immunity in the death of Gertrude. Duff-Smith denied any role in either murder but it is apparent that the jury did not believe this and he was convicted.

Upon his conviction in 1981 Markham Duff-Smith, who was thirty-four years old at the time told his attorney and the court that he preferred the death penalty to life in prison. The jury complied and on June 29, 1993, at the age of forty-six, the state of Texas executed him. Despite the fact that for more than a decade Markham continued to deny any involvement in the murders of his family upon his execution he stated “I am responsible for the '75 and '79 cases.”

At this point I want to point out that there seemed to be no indication that Paul McDonald was ever charged, or at least convicted for his role in murder of Gertrude. I could find nothing more on him and found indications that others have attempted to also find information but came up empty. I believe the reason for the lack of information on him revolves around the fact that there is no indication that he was involved in the murders of the Wanstrath family and that, especially the murder of little Kevin, was considered to be the most gruesome and callus part of the cases. In fact, upon Janecka's execution articles were titled with the fact that he had killed “a toddler.”

This then finally brings us back to Walt Waldhauser. While Markham Duff-Smith was the man who had wanted all the murders committed, it was Waldhauser who had made them happen. Since Janecka could not have identified Duff-Smith and vise versa investigators felt they could not connect it all together without giving Waldhauser some sort of deal. Of course this deal included him testifying against the others. For his part Waldhauser was given immunity in the murder of Gertrude. He took a deal of thirty years for the murders of the Wanstrath family in 1981. In the end he only ended up serving about nine years. The fact that he had gotten so little time had already bothered investigators, including Bonds, but his release after so few years was even worse. Waldhauser had also at some point confirmed that he had a conversation with Janecka about killing Bonds but in his version it had been Duff-Smith's idea, not his own.

Upon his release from prison Waldhauser legally had his name changed to Michael Lee Davis, moved to the Dallas area and was said to almost immediately began running financial scams against the elderly. He was caught almost a decade later and sentenced to sixty years for charges including money laundering. But, because it was a “non-violent crime” he was eligible for parole after serving a mere seven years. Johnny Bonds refused to settle for that. Davis' (aka Waldhauser) first parole hearing was in 2006. If you go to the Texas Department of Corrections website you will find him under the name of Michael Lee Davis, but the name change did not prevent his previous crimes from being known. They are listed under his previous charges. Bonds has made it his goal to keep him in prison to serve his entire sentence. Davis/Waldhauser was last denied parole in May of 2016. He is next up for a hearing in May of 2021 (just one month from this writing).

In the end four people, including a toddler, were murdered basically for nothing. Sure, Markham Duff-Smith received close to a half a million dollars from the crimes and he went through a lot of it fairly quickly I doubt in the end he thought it was worth it considering a) he did not have it very long after the second crime and b) he paid for that money, first with his freedom and then later his life. I am not surprised he told his attorney he would rather be put to death than to live life in prison. His entire motive in it all was to live a “lavish” life and prison is a long way from that.