Justice for Julia

Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

Tammy Keenan: Didn't say “I'm coming home tomorrow,” just said, “Get my room ready. I'm comin' home.”

Better late than never. Tammy Keenan and her husband Kevin were relieved their daughter Julia had finally snapped to and was leaving her jerk of a husband.

Dennis Murphy: Are you scared of this guy?

Tammy Keenan: Scared enough I went and got a permit to carry a gun.

Julia Keenan had met Tim Dawson on the internet four years before. She was a shift-working, teenage single mother by then and he--the 25-year old father of two young girls -had successfully tugged at her emotions, firing off e-mails about how much he wanted a true relationship.

Tammy Keenan: You know --"I just want a family.  I want to meet somebody who wants kids, and who wants you know, just to focus on a family life, and settle down." She was you know, very susceptible to those kind of suggestions. She was just-- just very naive. And she was somebody ...

Kevin Keenan: A young girl with a young child.

Dennis Murphy: How long is it after they've met on the Internet, and they come over to meet you that she actually moves in with him?

Tammy Keenan: Two weeks.

Dennis Murphy: Two weeks time?

Tammy Keenan: Two weeks.

Tim Dawson rigged phone systems for a living in the Grand Rapids, Mich. area. He was in the middle of a nasty divorce from his first wife. The two--Tim and Julia --still barely more than strangers--moved into a little house together at 141 Maple Street in the town of Sparta and trouble seemed to follow them in the door.

Tammy Keenan: It was a constant drama. Every time one drama would get over, it was another. And that was one of the things, we said, you know, "We just want you to move home for awhile."

Her parents started seeing Julia less and less. And dear childhood friends like Stacey Raisanen found themselves shut out from her life. She called the house once and Tim answered.

Stacey Raisanen: He asked who I was.  And I said, "A friend from, you know, since we were kids." And he just basically said that I wasn't allowed to call there anymore or speak with her. I didn't know what to make of it.

Julia settled into a solitary routine. Pulling a brutal midnight to eight shift at a plastics manufacturing plant, so she'd have some daylight hours to look after her boy, Kevin, and sometimes, his two girls.

A little less than a year into their living-together arrangement, Tim asked her to marry.

Julia shopped for a wedding dress at the bridal salon where she'd worked as a part-time shop assistant in high-school and was still fondly remembered.

Dwin Dykema: "Oh, she was wonderful, very dependable and devoted."

But as her one-time boss, shop owner Dwin Dyekma, showed Julia racks of wedding gowns, she was startled by what she saw.

Dwin Dykema: I noticed that she had a bruise on her neck. And she had another one on her arm. And I said, “Julia, what is this?” She just says, “Well, we just had a fight and things got outta hand.”

Dwin tried but was unable to talk Julia out of the marriage. She decided she wasn't going to sell her a wedding dress.

In October 2001--a year after first chatting up on the internet--Julia and Tim married at the courthouse. A little less than two years later, baby Alex came along. But Happily-Ever-After never did arrive for the Dawsons. The two continued their stormy ways.

Dennis Murphy: Look, did the two of you ever get-- get with Julia, sit her down, say, "Look, honey, we got to talk about this guy"?

Tammy Keenan: Many times. There were calls of crying, "Please come and get me."

Kevin Keenan: And when you get there, he's there.  "Don't ever talk to your family.  You're not allowed to discuss any problems in our house."

Julia let her co-workers on the overnight know that she was living a marriage out of a bad country-western song. She told them how controlling he was, abusive, a hitter.

Video   Dawson interrogation: Uncut and raw See full-length video of Kent County, Mich. detectives Randy Kieft and Russ Larson interrogating Tim Dawson. Dateline NBC

Her mom and dad, meanwhile, were getting to see their newest grandchild hardly at all. Tim made it known they weren't welcome at their daughter's house.

Kevin Keenan: If I call her cell phone, she says, "You know, he'll know I was talkin' to you.  And-- and it'll be on the bill.  And so I can't do that."

By the spring of 2004, life inside the little house on Maple Street had become so strained that Julia upped and consulted a divorce lawyer. Her parents couldn't have been happier if she'd told them she'd hit the lottery. She was finally going to put Dawson in the rear view mirror.

Kevin Keenan: She called me up and said she finally did it.  "I did it, Dad.  I went and seen a lawyer.  I'm gettin' divorced." I said OK, that's fine, I'm sorry that's happening. And next thing you know, I get a phone call from her.  "Guess where I am, Dad? Tim took me to Las Vegas.  We're okay now."

But the good Vegas vibes didn't last and once again Julia was getting ready to bolt.

So with Christmas 2004 approaching, Tammy Keenan was happy to get that phone call from Julia asking them to get her room ready. She was coming home. She was extricating herself and Alex from that husband her family regarded as a useless brute.

But two days later the phone rang again. It was late Saturday night, the eleventh of December 2004. The hardly ever heard from son-in-law on the line.

Kevin Keenan: We were in bed already.

Video   Zeroing in on a person of interest Detectives Randy Kieft, Russ Larson, and Mark Fletcher discuss Tim Dawson, the crime scene, and Julia's death. Dateline NBC

Tammy Keenan: We just thought something' was wrong.  He didn't even sound upset or anything.  He just, you know, "Hey, this is Tim.  Is Julia there?"  "No."  "Have you seen her?"  "No."  "Okay, goodbye."  Didn't say she was missin'. Didn't say - 

Dennis Murphy: Nothing in his voice, in particular?

Tammy Keenan: Can't find her.  No.  Not sounding upset, anything

Kevin Keenan: Right then and there, I knew I'd never see Julia again.

Dennis Murphy: Just by hearing his voice?  The fact that he called you?

Tammy Keenan: We knew something was wrong.

Julia Dawson was missing, and she didn't have the children with her.

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