mostly nonfiction and bakersfield news | November 18th, 2008
Oildale Murder: Abduction Of Chantha Meas
It was Oct. 14, the day after the body of Chantha Meas was discovered by an oil worker. Jeffery Chitwood was supposed to be on his second day of the job at Ken Smalls Construction. He phoned in and didn’t give his new boss an excuse. He simply said, “Something came up.”
Meas was found at 6:44 a.m. on Oct. 13. She was shot twice in the face and head. An earring and a sock were missing. So were her cell phone and keys. She still wore her gas station work clothes. A post-mortem report said her anus had an unknown liquid inside and a small tear. Whether Jeffery Chitwood, the man accused in her shooting death was guilty of killing and possibly raping her, one thing is certain—he stalker her.
The day before Meas died, Chitwood was seen six times between 4 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. at the Shell Gas Station on Airport Drive and Norris Road where Meas worked. She can be seen in a surveillance video walking from her home to the front door of the Shell gas station at 4:11 a.m. that morning.
At 4:37 a.m., Chitwood walked up to the front window and knocked on the locked door. He points to his watch—the same watch that would be found with blood stains while he was wearing it—and leaves a few minutes later. By 5:05 a.m. his red Pontiac Solstice is parked nearby at the gas pumps. At 5:07 a.m., Chitwood is seen buying coffee in the gas station. He leaves at 5:09 a.m. He returns in his red Solstice at 5:20 a.m. He enters the store, purchases another coffee, and leaves at 5:28 a.m. He shows up three more times by 8:15 a.m. The Probable Cause report says Chitwood’s harassment of Meas at that time “became so overt and aggressive that customers were telling Jeff to leave her alone.”
It’s terrifying to think Chitwood kept calling Meas that very October day too. Officials said they don’t know how he got her phone number or how much he’d been calling her. He also admitted to knowing where she lived. He said she told him.
The Shell gas station sits at the corner end of a group of businesses—a little strip mall across the street from Meadows Field Airport. Behind the station sits an alley. Its many entryways and exit points that connect to backyards, business doorways and homes make it seem like a catacomb. It’s the kind of place where someone could easily disappear if dragged into its darkness. A fence opens, a doorway opens, a quick duck behind a fence. Someone thrown into a car. Even the gas station’s car wash exits into the alley. The entire block of alley is concealed from cross traffic. Anyone walking can hide along its path, especially at night.
It’s a terrible place to think a 4-year-old girl slept close to, alone, after her mother was abducted in the alley and killed.
Across the alley are houses and apartments, some two-storied. Toward the western end there’s a mom and pop burger joint. Across the street from that lies a house with a yard where there’s a lot of junk. Sunday afternoon an old woman sat out on a bench talking as if the alleyway across the street didn’t harbor dark bodings. Yet everywhere there seemed to be a touch of it.
The alley where Meas was abducted has white and brown fences on one side opposite barred business doorways. Along that stretch is the Meas’ garage and fence area where officials said her abductor hid for more than ten minutes before dragging her away. In surveillance video taken from the morning she was abducted, a person wearing dark colored clothing walked west in front of Meas’ garage door at 2:58 a.m. At 3:05 a.m. a shadow could be seen on the garage door. At 3:12 a.m. the video showed one person carrying another eastbound through the alley.
Days later the alley leaves signs of its own denizens. A discarded corner store cooler cup is tucked into a tree stump and rocks. A chain link fence wraps part of a wood fence. A leather strap sits in the middle of the alley near a discarded coffee cup holder. Muck-covered trash bins with their awful stench show that the true darkness of the alley can’t be coated with white-washed fences.
On Sunday, voices could be heard from over fences. Past a broken fence behind an apartment, whispers on the other side.
Chitwood only lived a few blocks away. His home the same doomed number 2012 that lurks on the Mayan calendar. There’s a foreboding one feels after reading the Sheriff’s Department report. It has a cryptic ending of its own. “So all the evidence points towards me,” Chitwood says in the report. Detective Olmos shakes his head “Yes” and Chitwood doesn’t make any further statements during questioning.
It’s been only two weeks since Meas was dragged unheard through the alley. But the alley is only a small portion of a bigger story of stalking and evasion.
Meas walked only 150-200 feet to work. She showed up each day at 3 or 4 a.m. to open the business. Her garage door faces south, unattached from the residence to the east. A camera monitored it. Cameras or not, it would be easy for her to be spotted by anyone when she walked to and from work.
It was the store owner’s daughter, Lisa Chao, who first told detectives about Chitwood’s obsession with Meas. Chao told detectives about flowers and a vase given to Meas before the summer of 2008. She said Meas was not dating Chitwood and had not asked anyone for flowers. During the summer, more flowers arrived. Meas pointed him out to Chao when he came in the store. Chao said he would come in, make a purchase and stare. Sometimes, Chao said, Chitwood would stand next to the checkout counter, and in a quiet, weird manner, stare while Meas ignored him. Lisa Chao’s mother and other store workers also identified Chitwood as the “Jeff” who frequented the store.
The night of the murder at about 7:30 p.m. detectives went to speak with Barbara Chitwood—the mother of Jeffery Chitwood. They wouldn’t tell her why they wanted to speak with her son, Jeffery. Nevertheless, she said she would tell him they were looking for him.
Detectives then went and conducted surveillance of Chitwood’s residence. He never showed up. And he didn’t show up to work the next day at Ken Smalls Construction. That was when Chitwood called into work and said, “Something came up.”
Detectives still couldn’t find Chitwood. They tried to get a GPS of his cell phone, but Chitwood turned it off. It was on a brief time and they tracked him to an airport terminal at Meadows Field but he evaded them. That same day at his home detectives saw a blue-green Chrysler pull up with two females inside. They said one was possibly Chitwood’s daughter, J’Brean. She started gathering newspapers from the lawn. They said as soon as they approached, the driver sped away, heading southbound on Airport Drive. They followed but the driver changed lanes, accelerated, and got away amid traffic congestion. They went back to the house and the other female was gone.
While authorities looked for him, Chitwood took the time to meet up with his friend Glenn Osborne in a Wal-Mart parking lot. It was Tuesday Oct. 14. They met just to have a conversation. There, according to Osborne, Chitwood not only said, “I did it,” but also said, “I shot her.” Osborne said he asked if Chitwood was referring to the “Oriental girl.”
“Yeah,” Osborne claims Chitwood said. He then claims Chitwood admitted to snapping mentally and said he didn’t know why he did it. A detective said Osborne said he asked Chitwood how he could go to work at Ken Smalls Construction at 5 a.m. right after killing someone. Osborne said he also asked, “Don’t you feel bad?”
“I do now,” Osborne claims Chitwood said.
Osborne said he asked, “Did she beg for…her life? Did she say anything?”
“Didn’t say a word, not…one…word,” Osborne claims Chitwood said.
“Are you going to tell on me?” Osborne said Chitwood then asked.
Osborne said they went their separate ways but the next day heard from Chitwood by phone. Osborne claims Chitwood said he got rid of the 9mm handgun.
While officials continued to search for the missing Chitwood, they also wanted to know why a man who could be innocent would not want to try to clear his name of any wrongdoing. They would soon find out as Chitwood was finally tracked down in a white truck at his home.
On Oct. 15 at 5:30 a.m. Chitwood was seen leaving his house and getting into a white Chevrolet pick-up truck. He headed east on China Grade Loop. That’s a road that he, or anyone wanting to dump a body, can take, get on Round Mountain Road, and drive until it turns into South Granite Road. And while he may have driven that route two days prior to dump Meas’ body or to kill her, on this day he said he was just headed to get a cup of coffee.
Chitwood was pulled over. Officials asked him to go in for questioning and he did. He followed along. After he got out, detectives inspected the outside of his truck and said the area near the front right headlamp had what appeared to be blood spatters.
During questioning that day and in questioning done after he was arrested, Chitwood offered up questionable, evasive answers. On the night of the murder, Chitwood said he was at his friend Glenn Osborne’s home, and at his mother’s house the night after that. He claimed he didn’t see or hear detectives at his mother’s house the night before. But he did say he knew detectives were looking for him. He said he freaked out and avoided detectives after his mother told him about a double homicide and robbery. Detectives went so far as to ask Chitwood if he recently committed a double homicide and robbery. He said no. So they asked why he would be freaked out if he didn’t do anything wrong. He gave the same answer.
Chitwood said he learned Meas died after his mother told him about it. Detectives said he didn’t seem emotional and didn’t ask how she died. They told Chitwood they had surveillance of a person walking in front of Meas’ garage early on the morning of her death. “Oh, was she abducted?” he asked.
Detectives asked how he knew that. “I asked Chitwood how he knew she was abducted because I never mentioned she had been abducted…I told Chitwood I never mentioned to him she was abducted or taken from her residence,” the detective wrote in his report.
The detective said Chitwood appeared nervous.
When asked why he didn’t work the day before, Chitwood said he was going to come into Sheriff’s Headquarters and talk to detectives. When asked why he didn’t come in the day before on Oct. 14, he said, “I was getting around to it.” He said he was going to get a cup of coffee from a Mobile gas station before he was pulled over and then was going to go in for voluntary questioning. Yet he hadn’t even called in to work to let them know he wasn’t coming in.
Chitwood admitted that he bought Meas gifts. He said he liked her as a friend and bought her gifts to cheer her up. He said Meas was very flirtatious and that he wanted to date her but that he never asked her out. He also admitted he knew where she lived. He said she told him a year ago.
Detectives confronted him with surveillance video showing a man who resembled his height, weight and build, and who in the video was wearing a similar dark-colored hooded sweatshirt. The video shows Meas’ kicking her legs, struggling to get away as the abductor wraps his arms around her. Chitwood admitted he was wearing a dark-colored hooded sweater the morning of the abduction and killing of Meas. He said he had worn it every day since.
Chitwood denied calling Meas on the phone. He admitted he liked her. Even his mother said he wanted to date Meas. He told officials that he didn’t know she was married. Hard to believe that one if he stalked her so much. Meas’ husband obviously knew about Chitwood. He gave officials access to the vases sitting in his backyard that were sent to Meas. The generic florist cards from “Jeff” were still in them.
Toward the end of Chitwood’s voluntary questioning, detectives said they believed they had evidence linking him to the murder of Meas. They said it was his chance to come forward and clear his name. But the report reads: “Chitwood responded by saying that he did not kill Meas, and that if we were going to accuse him of killing Meas, he probably wanted to get an attorney.”
The detective who wrote the report responded that Kern County Sheriff’s Department evidence would incriminate Chitwood. “I reminded Chitwood of the fact that he has avoided contact with detectives, has not returned home since the day of the homicide of Meas, persons evading us from his house, not returning to work since the homicide, his infatuation with Meas, and the fact that he believed detectives were looking for him in a homicide, has led me to believe he was involved in her death,” the detective wrote.
On Oct. 15, detectives searched Chitwood’s home and found the most incriminating evidence to date. Located in his bedroom on the carpet near a black dresser drawer was a yellow metal earring with a pearl-like stone. An identical earring was found on Meas’ left ear lobe during a post-mortem examination at the Coroner’s Office. Her right ear had a piercing and was missing an earring. Detectives said photographic evidence revealed an identical match.
During questioning, a detective told Chitwood they found the backing piece for Meas’ right earring, but the right earring was missing. When the detective said the right earring was missing, Chitwood made a strange reply. “Oh it didn’t have one,” he said. He soon added, “I think I’m going to talk to a lawyer on that. I’m answering questions that are going to get me in trouble. I can say that right now.”
Rope, duct tape, handcuffs and a used condom were found in Chitwood’s bedroom along with 9mm ammunition and a gun case for a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun. Other items found included an illegal AR-15 assault rifle, shotgun, .22 caliber rifle, a .22 caliber revolver, handcuffs and towels for DNA evidence. During an earlier interview Chitwood said he only owned a rifle and a shotgun in regards to the weapons.
The brand and caliber of the shell casings at the crime scene were the same brand and caliber of the 9mm ammunition located in Chitwood’s bedroom. A bullet fragment found in Meas’ head could be a match for the 9mm ammunition found in Chitwood’s bedroom. Results haven’t been released. In the meantime, Chitwood said he had a 9mm glock but that he got rid of it a long time ago. When pressed, he said, “It’s been a long time ago, I can’t remember.” When asked if it had been more than two years, he said it had “been a while.”
Chitwood was arrested on Oct. 16 at his mother’s home. He had small cuts on his hands, more than $4,400 in cash and wore a watch that had drops of blood on it. During questioning he also said he didn’t have an alibi. He was arraigned on Oct. 20 and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 18, 2009.
Source: Kern County Sheriff’s Department Reports: Oct 16-18, 2008
4 Responses for “Oildale Murder: Abduction Of Chantha Meas”
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So scary
I agree. It’s a terrifying alleyway…
Everything on there is a lie!! You all are stupid for reading this…
i hope that mo fo get his when he’s doing hard time