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The caption to the photo reads, "19 year-old 'Deadhead' Dan Reynolds sunned himself yesterday next to the one of the two buses used by the devotees of the group."  When I began writing this blog, I had a copy of a story with a caption to a photo, but I didn't have the photo itself.  This led me to form a very different image when I first read the caption. I'd pictured a young man, sitting in a chair, 'laying out and catching some rays.'  Relaxed.  But, the caption's misleading.  The young man's not sunning himself; he's sitting in the sun, on the hood of car, wearing a dark t-shirt and shorts, and it appears that a wind's lifting his hair off his shoulders.  There's a guitar sitting next to him.  Reading his facial expression, I'd say he looks stunned—like he's still in shock.  And it's understandable why he might be...

Of course, this is the photo of Dan Adams that accompanied a story about the murders that the San Francisco Chronicle published August 19.  Adams had given the reporter, Rick DelVecchio, an alias.  What did Adams tell DelVecchio?  He told him that he'd known Greg, that their families had attended the same church in Wilton, CT, and that Greg was about 19.  At the time that DelVecchio spoke to Adams, Greg's family hadn't been notified of the murder but his body had been identified.  (Who identified the body?  The Berkeley Marina Murders tells us that Robin Van Heest helped to identify Mary's body, but how did the authorities identify Greg's body?)

There's bit in DelVecchio's reporting that's probably connected to Dan Adams.  DelVecchio spoke to two unnamed male residents of Rainbow Village who told him that, "The victims had been part of a small beer-drinking gathering that began Thursday night near the entrance to the village."  And "[T]he party involved five [my emphasis] people--the victims, two other visitors and a resident, who was not identified."  Now, court documents, Patricia Gioia's book, and DelVecchio's reporting all agree that there was a gathering Thursday night.  But there’s some disagreement as to the number of people that the gathering included.  The court documents and Gioia's book tell us that Jim Prew testified that it included six other people:  Chris Campbell, Paul Harter, Greg, Mary, and Thomas. (People v. Thomas, p. 3;  The Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 111)  Interestingly, Gioia's book also tells us that upon further questioning during the preliminary hearing, Prew told Chaffee that the party included eight people:  Prew, Chris Campbell, Paul Harter, Greg, Mary, Dan, Robbie, and Thomas. (The Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 111-112)  We know that the 'Robbie' refers to Robin Van Heest because he told the police that Mary, "had been with him at a party outside a van on Thursday night and left with a young man named Greg." (The Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 27)  So that leaves us with the question as to the exact identify of 'Dan.'

I've assumed that the 'Dan' to whom Prew referred was Dan Adams.  He and Greg knew each other from back home in CT.  Like Mary, Greg, and Robbie (I have reason to believe that Robbie grew up in New Jersey) he’d  traveled across the country to follow the Dead. If it’s confirmed that Dan Adam’s was among those gathered at Prew's van, this means that he would probably have been able to verify that Bo was in the Village that night had he testified during the trial in '86.  He'd also have been able to testify to what he saw and heard prior to the murders and what he heard Bo say following the murders.  This would have corroborated Vivian Cercy's testimony.  

All of this raises questions about the police investigation and Chaffee's defense of Thomas.  The police talked to Robbie Van Heest, and I'm tempted to say that they probably didn't talk to Dan, but I don't know that for sure.  It's likely that the initial police investigation reports will show that the police did know that 'a Dan' was among those gathered at Prew's van Thursday night, but that they didn't talk to Dan.  This is an assumption based on the fact that during the preliminary hearing in October/November '85, Chaffee clearly knew that eight people were among those drinking beer and smoking pot in that gathering.  Thomas may have informed him of this and/or he may have learned this from the police reports.  Chaffee knew from police reports that Robbie had information relevant to the case, and it would have been rational for him to try to find out if 'Dan' also had relevant information. 

So, could Chaffee have found Dan Adams before he went to trial in May '86?  I believe that with the resources available to him, he and his team could have found Dan with not much effort.  He had the police reports, and he had Van Heest's name.  He had Prew's testimony.  So he could have asked Van Heest about Dan.  The San Francisco Chronicle published a story in which a photo of a 'Dan' appeared and the readers were told that this Dan knew Greg in CT.  Chaffee's team could have found Dan Adams prior to going to trial, and this would have given them an opportunity to corroborate Vivian Cercy's testimony and make their alternative suspect theory more plausible.