Obsession

The police believed that Oliver O’Quinn, a loner with an unrequited crush, went to her house and somehow managed to inject her with a toxic cocktail of drugs stolen from the hospital where he worked.

The circumstantial evidence was overwhelming. It was not enough to warrant an arrest, but it was enough for Det. Douglas to want a face-to-face meeting.

Det. Mike Douglas: I put a full court press trying to find this guy. 

Hoda Kotb: How many times did you call?

Det. Mike Douglas: Five or six times.

Hoda Kotb: So-- police detective called him five or six times and he never responded?

Det. Mike Douglas: That's right.

Hoda Kotb: Red flags must've been flapping?

Det. Mike Douglas: Yeah.  Yeah.  I have a problem with that.

Next he tried the hospital.

Det. Mike Douglas: I went in there and spoke to the charge nurse.  And she goes, "I just let him go yesterday."

Hoda Kotb: Let him go? 

Det. Mike Douglas: Yeah.

Hoda Kotb: Fired him?

Det. Mike Douglas: Fired him.

Worried that the trail would get cold, Detective Douglas checked another hospital where Oliver freelanced.

Det. Mike Douglas: And lo and behold, there's his car in the parking lot.  So I go in the emergency room.  And I walk up to him.  And I said, "Hello, Oliver. I'm Detective Douglas.  Aren't you even curious why a detective is calling you five or six times saying, 'Look, I want to talk to you right away.'  Aren't you even curious?" And he looked at me and goes, "Oh, yeah.  Why?"  I said, "I want to talk to you about the death of Michelle Herndon."  And he just looked at me and said, "Yeah, I read about that." I said "Well, you come see me tomorrow."  He goes, "Oh, okay."

In his gut, the police veteran was now sure that Oliver was involved with Michelle’s death, but without any concrete evidence to take to the district attorney, he couldn't arrest him.

He wasn't surprised when the following day came and went with no Oliver.

Desperate for leads, Detective Douglas went to Oliver’s hometown in Tennessee to speak to his father.  But his prime target had already come and gone.

Det. Mike Douglas: I asked him about his son's attitude when he came home.  What was his affect?  Was he happy?  Was he sad?  Was he eager to leave?  Did he want to come back to Florida?  And dad says, "No, he just struck me as being a little depressed." And I said, "Really?  Why would he be depressed?"  And he says, "Well, he told me a girlfriend of his had died of a drug overdose in Gainesville."  And I had him repeat that. I couldn't believe what I had heard.

Hoda Kotb: So nothing had been out in the media about the pinprick?

Det. Mike Douglas: Nobody knew.

Hoda Kotb: Nobody knew anything?

Det. Mike Douglas: The toxicology had not returned. 

Hoda Kotb: So right then—

Det. Mike Douglas: Bang.

Hoda Kotb: Bang?

Det. Mike Douglas: Yeah.

Det. Mike Douglas: I called the FBI.  And said, "Look, I got a problem. I got a guy who may have left the country." And they flagged his passport.  And I found out that he landed in the Republic of Ireland on Nov. 29.

Oliver O’Quinn, the leading suspect in Michelle Herndon’s murder had slipped away beyond the reach of Gainesville police and into a country that had repeatedly refused to extradite fugitives back to the United States in protest of the death penalty.

They wouldn't send him back, but Irish police were more than willing to provide surveillance of the suspect.

Detective Douglas learned that as soon as he hit the ground, Oliver started planning for a new life: renting a room in a hostel in Dublin... getting a local cell phone... and applying for jobs with the Irish nursing board.

Det. Mike Douglas: He just thought he was the center of the universe.  And smarter than everybody else.  And he was going to pull off a perfect crime.  And get away with it. 

[Correction: The transcript wrongly described the following exchange as an interview with Det. Mike Douglas. These words were in fact spoken by Belinda Herndon.]

Hoda Kotb: You must have been out of your mind. How out of your mind were you?

Belinda Herndon: I was.  I bought a ticket.  I have a ticket in our safety deposit box.  Cost us $3,100.

Hoda Kotb: You bought a ticket to Ireland?

Belinda Herndon: Yes, one way.  There was no need for me to come back.  And, that's-- I went through a very bad period, yeah, yeah.

But then, Belinda and Detective Douglas hatched a plan.  They released details of the case to the Irish media hoping the glare of the spotlight would force Oliver to move again--perhaps into a country more willing to send him back home.

Finally in June 2006, after every flicker of hope had been extinguished, there was a break from the other side of the world.          

Det. Mike Douglas: He pops up at the American embassy in Mauritania.

Hoda Kotb: In Mauritania?

Det. Mike Douglas: Yes.  To receive a money order—

Hoda Kotb: Now how did that-- how did that flag you? 

Det. Mike Douglas: Because he had to-- he identified himself with his passport to the personnel there.  They saw that his passport was flagged.  But they didn't know for what.  They notified the marshal service. And so they stalled him.  They said, "Can you come back later for it?" That spooked him.  And he fled across the border into the neighboring country of Senegal. 

Oliver O’Quinn didn't get far.  Authorities in Senegal captured him and had no problem sending him back to the United States.

Hoda Kotb: So, he left Ireland, ran to Africa.

Det. Mike Douglas: Which is so ironic because that's where Michelle wanted to go.  I actually-- when they called and told me they caught him in Africa, I actually got sick on my stomach. And, then after I let it soak in, I actually started laughing.  And, I thought, what a fool, Michelle was all over Africa.  You know, he had to have known that.  He had to have known that.  She wanted to join the Peace Corps.  She wanted to work with AIDS victims.  I mean, he—

Hoda Kotb: That was her place.

Det. Mike Douglas: Yeah-- that was stupid.

Hoda Kotb: So, he ran to her place.

Det. Mike Douglas: He did, he did. And, he was caught pretty shortly after he ran to her place.  Within a week.

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