Cold Case Murder Charge Dismissed Against Woman Accused Of Killing Her Daughter

**dmax** · December 21st, 2008, 04:07 AM

Defendent Donna Prentice talks with her attorney during court proceedings last month.

Another 3 year old murdered but, never found.

SANTA ANA - A Wisconsin woman broke down in tears in a Santa Ana courtroom Monday when a judge ruled she will not stand trial for a third time on a charge that she murdered her daughter nearly 40 years ago.

Donna Pulsifer Prentice, 62, dabbed at her eyes with tissue when she realized she was going home after more than four years in custody since she was accused of participating in the murder of three-year-old Michelle Pulsifer in July 1969.

The chubby-faced tyke disappeared from the Huntington Beach home Prentice shared with her then boyfriend sometime around the 4th of July weekend in 1969 and has not been seen since.

Superior Court Judge Richard M. King dismissed the murder charge Monday because of insufficient evidence one week after a second jury in the case voted 11-1 for acquittal. Prentice's first trial ended in June 2007 with a jury deadlocked at 10-2 for guilty.

King said the case against Prentice "was investigated and prosecuted both professionally and aggressively. The result of the jury voting 11 for acquittal is a function of the failure of the evidence and nothing else."

He said after even after viewing the evidence "in the light most favorable to the prosecution," a third jury would not vote to convict Prentice of murder.

The judge, however, did not let Prentice off without criticism.

"The most persuasive and undisputed evidence presented … of the defendant's guilt is her post-crime lies of what happened to Michelle," King said.

His ruling also means that Prentice cannot be charged with involuntary manslaughter because the statute of limitations on that crime has expired.

Nobel Prentice, the defendant's husband, looked stunned in the courtroom gallery after King read his decision.

"I love you … I'll see you later," he told Donna Prentice before she was escorted back to the Orange County Jail to be processed out later on Monday.

"I am just so elated," Noble Prentice said. "It hasn't completely sunk in yet."

On the other side of the courtroom, Cathi Pulsifer, the second wife of Richard Pulsifer – little Michelle's father – wept and hugged Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin.

She said she was most disappointed that now they will never know exactly what happened to Michelle, whose body was never found.

"We wanted her (Donna Prentice) to spend the next 40 years in prison," Cathi Pulsifer said. "At least they were able to keep her locked up for four years, three months and 20 days."

Donna Prentice and James Michael Kent, her former boyfriend, were arrested and charged with Michelle's murder in August 2004. Kent died in custody before he could come to trial. Prentice was held on $1 million bail.

Yellin said he too was disappointed with King's decision to dismiss the murder charge, adding that he felt he could get a murder conviction if the case went to a third jury.

But, he said, "We came a long way from finding out about a little girl who had fallen off the face of the earth. We were able to get some answers about what happened to her, and we tried to hold some people responsible. I am OK with that."

Yellin argued during both trials that Prentice either killed her daughter on her own or helped Kent kill the child for an unknown reason. Prentice, he said, had a responsibility to protect her daughter.

The quest to find out what happened to Michelle was renewed in 2001 when a wealthy former in-law of Richard Pulsifer hired private investigator Paul Chamberlain to locate the missing girl.

Chamberlain, a former FBI agent, found no evidence the little girl ever existed after July 1969 before turning over his findings to Orange County District Attorney's investigator Ed Berakovich, a veteran homicide detective.

In September 2003, Donna Prentice told the detective in an interview that Kent gave Michelle to his mother to care for when they relocated to Illinois. But authorities quickly learned that Kent's mother was an alcoholic who was suffering from a cancer that would cause her death in the early 1970s.

Kent later told Berakovich in an interview that Donna Pulsifer called him upstairs to the rental home they shared in Huntington Beach one day in early July 1969 and showed him the lifeless body of her little girl. Kent admitted that he buried the little girl in Williams Canyon.

Defense attorney Ken Norelli insisted that Prentice was "a good, loving, nurturing mother" who "loved every single child who came into her life." He insisted that Kent was the person solely responsible for killing Michelle.

Kent was "a psychopath" and "a monster" who was abusive to women and children and who deceived and manipulated Prentice for years during their stormy relationship, Norelli said.

In his motion to dismiss the murder charges filed Monday, Norelli argued that an acquittal would be likely if the case was tried a third time.

After King ordered his client released, Norelli said "justice has been served. …She's going home with her husband."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/p...ge?slideshow=1

**penelopejo** · December 21st, 2008, 10:34 AM

NOOOO!!! I remember reading this one and it being on 20/20(I think). The baby died. The little brother remembers the last night seeing his sister. How she ran into the room and said hide me, i had an accident. Then his mother(Donna) went in and got her. He does not know what happened to her afterwards, just that she was supposedly with her daddy and then they moved half way across the country. She was still receiving the child support checks. Her ex was upset that he didn't tell her that they moved.

So, he took them to court and got the child support stopped on both kids because she wasn't keeping the end of her bargain. She got upset and said that they've been sending the money to he MIL because she had her.....it's a really long story, here's the link.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/..._michelle.html

She should've been convicted. It's sad that she knows how this little girl died. Even her other ex stated it was her before he died. I just wish we could put this little girl to rest. But we won't because her mother didn't care.

**RaVen Blackehart** · January 8th, 2009, 07:54 PM

*Michelle Kelly Pulsifer*

*Missing Since*: July 1969 from Huntington Beach, California # *Classification*: Endangered Missing # *Date of Birth*: March 17, 1966 # *Age*: 3 years old # *Height and Weight*: 3'2 - 3'5, 40 - 45 pounds # *Distinguishing Characteristics*: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue or brown eyes.

Michelle was last seen sometime during July 1969 in her hometown of Huntington Beach, California. She resided with her mother, Donna J. Pulsifer (often referred to in media accounts by her later married name, Donna Prentice); her mother's boyfriend, James Michael Kent (often referred to as Michael Kent); her older brother, Richard Pulsifer Jr., and Kent's young son by a previous relationship. Photographs of Donna and Kent are posted below this case summary. Richard Jr. was six years old at the time of his sister's disappearance.

He remembers that Michelle tried to hide in his room sometime in the middle of the night, around July 4, and seemed frightened. Donna went in and took her away and he never saw her again. Richard Jr. says he was often abused physically by Kent and that Kent hit Donna as well. He also recalls that the day after he last saw Michelle, he went into the family's garage and saw a large cardboard box covered with blankets. The box had not been there the last time he was in the garage. Donna found Richard Jr. in the garage and told him to get out of there and stay out. She told him the box contained a motorcycle seat. A few days after Michelle vanished, Donna, Kent, and the two boys packed all their belongings and moved to Illinois.

Donna and Kent told the children that there was not enough room in the car for Michelle, so they were leaving her behind. She did take her own pet cats and dogs with them, however. Richard Jr. later said he had been forbidden to ever mention Michelle's name while he was growing up, and his mother and stepfather ignored him whenever he asked what had happened to her. Kent reportedly told his own biological son that he would only discuss Michelle's fate when he was on his deathbed.

Michelle and Richard Jr.'s father, Richard Pulsifer Sr., was divorced from Donna. A photograph of him is posted below this case summary. He visited his children every other weekend but was not notified when they moved. He called the police and attempted to file missing persons reports, but since Donna had full legal custody of Michelle and her brother, no action was taken to find the children. Custody laws at the time often granted a mother complete rights to her children, to the exclusion of the father. Richard Sr. eventually found out that Donna and Kent were living with Richard Jr. in Illinois and that Michelle was not with them. Donna and Richard Jr. returned to California about a year later, without Michelle. When Richard Sr. spoke to his son, Richard Jr. told him he did not know where his sister was and had not seen her since before moving to Illinois. Richard Sr. tried again to file a missing child report for his daughter, but was refused help because Donna had custody and claimed to know Michelle's whereabouts.

A few days later, Donna took Richard Jr. and left again, and Richard Sr. did not hear from them for years. In 1980, eleven years after Michelle's disappearance, Richard Sr. was served with an order to pay child support, but only for their son. The child support papers gave Donna's address in Wisconsin. She had married Kent after moving to Illinois, but later divorced him and had moved to Wisconsin in 1979, leaving Kent behind in Illinois. She continued to live there for the next 25 years. Richard Sr. called her when he realized where she was, and she refused to tell him where Michelle was.

A judge ordered that Richard Sr.'s child support payments be withheld until Donna disclosed Michelle's whereabouts, but Donna never revealed Michelle's location. Richard Jr. moved to California to be with his father after turning 18. He said he did not know where his sister was. Because Donna never filed a missing person's report for Michelle and the police refused to accept Richard Sr.'s report, her disappearance was not investigated by authorities for over thirty years. Michelle's paternal aunt hired a private detective in 2001 to find Michelle. The investigator interviewed Donna, who said she had given Michelle over to the care of Kent's mother but had not tried to find her or get her back after Kent's mother died of breast cancer in 1972.

Donna stated that she did not contact Michelle again because Kent had become abusive and she was afraid of him. The private detective passed on his casefile to police after he was unable to find any record of Michelle following July 4, 1969, and law enforcement began their own investigation at that time. In August 2004, Donna and Kent were arrested and charged with murdering Michelle. Police investigated Michelle's disappearance but could not find a single public record of her after 1969; they concluded that her mother and Kent had murdered her and then moved away quickly so no one would notice her disappearance.

Kent and Donna told people in Illinois that they had left the child with relatives in California, but family and friends in California did not have her and had no idea she was missing. People who knew Kent's mother say she never lived with Michelle, and since in 1969 she was an alcoholic and was already ill with the cancer that would later kill her, it seems unlikely that she would have agreed to care for the child. Kent cooperated with authorities and confessed to burying Michelle's body in a shallow grave in a remote gorge. Kent claimed that he and Donna found Michelle lying dead in her bedroom with no signs of injury and he helped Donna dispose of the remains.

He stated that they never discussed the child's death afterwards but he assumed Donna had killed her, as Michelle had died while in Donna's care. Both suspects pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. Kent agreed to waive his right against self-incrimination and give testimony against Donna before her trial, as he was suffering from diabetes, internal bleeding, and severe liver and kidney problems, and was dying. In the weeks before his death in February 2005, he fell into a coma, so authorities never got his testimony. At her 2007 trial, Donna admitted Michelle was deceased, but denied responsibility for her death. She stated Kent had killed the child and she helped cover up Michelle's death for the next three decades because she was afraid of Kent. He had an extensive criminal record, a substance abuse problem, a violent temper, and a history of violence towards women and children. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared.

Donna was retried in 2008, but the jury was again unable to reach a verdict. After the second trial, the judge dismissed the charges, saying there wasn't enough evidence to try her a third time and the case should be closed. Michelle's remains have not been found. The canyon she was allegedly buried in has regular floods and unless her body was buried deeply, it may have been washed away by the water or eaten by animals. Foul play is strongly suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/..._michelle.html

Dateline story about this case:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23592454/

**Shellie435** · January 9th, 2009, 03:50 AM

I thought this was familiar...
dmax did this (related) story on 12/21 titled:Cold Case Murder Charge dismissed Against Woman Accused Of Killing Her Daughter
Would this be considered a dupe?
just a thought maybe they could be combined?