Dave Brichoux

Case record: Dave Brichoux

Other details

Dave Brichoux was implicated in the murder of Jessie Koehler, the wife of Dr. Albert Koehler.

Background

Jessie Koehler was a prominent, respected member of the Baker community, known for charity work helping the needy. She was devoted to church work and community service, and everyone who knew her liked Jessie Koehler.

Dave Brichoux was the brother of Dr. Koehler’s first wife. Dr. Koehler told investigators that Brichoux had visited the Koehlers several times after being paroled from prison.

The offence

The battered, bloody body of Jessie Koehler was discovered by a neighbor near the backyard of the Koehler’s country home outside of Baker on the morning of Aug. 24, 1933.

A deputy coroner told Sheriff Henry McKenney that the elderly woman had been shot in the breast with a .32-caliber revolver; the wound was not fatal. The deputy coroner concluded the killer finished the job by slashing her head and body with one or more sharp objects.

The victim’s clothing had been disarranged, but the autopsy later revealed she was not sexually assaulted by her attacker.

Deputies discovered the victim’s purse laying on a table in the living room had been looted, but the house had not been ransacked.

Investigators found several blood-stained objects: a broken beer bottle near the body, broken bricks a short distance away, and an old ax in some bushes alongside the house.

Investigators also found tire marks outside the Koehler home near the body, leading investigators to believe the killer, or killers, entered and left the Koehler property by car or truck.

One of the vehicles was a taxicab that had come to the Koehler residence the night before to take Dr. Koehler into town. A neighbor said Dr. Koehler was just leaving in the taxi when Jessie Koehler arrived at the Koehler residence about 8:30 p.m. on the night of Aug. 23. The neighbor said she chatted with Jessie Koehler for about an hour before leaving for home.

Dr. Koehler was quickly cleared as a possible suspect. McKinney and Capt. Lee Noe of the Oregon State Police were described as chief investigators in the case.

Dr. Koehler said his wife had no enemies he could think of and he could not recall anyone ever threatening his wife. He said he saw $25 in his wife’s purse when he asked her for change to pay taxicab fare into town the night before.

Dr. Koehler was convinced robbery was the murder motive, but McKinney and Noe were not so sure.

McKinney suspected revenge as the motive, citing the cold-blooded shooting and mutilation.

Crime analysts could not lift any legible fingerprints from the bricks and ax because they were so badly smeared with blood. The broken beer bottle yielded a palm print.

Investigation

McKinney and Noe uncovered few helpful leads during their initial interview with Dr. Koehler.

The days and weeks that followed produced a smattering of leads on possible suspects, including drifters who had wandered into the area looking for work and suspicious transients looking for quick money and a place to bed down. None of the leads materialized.

Investigators found that tire marks near the body were from a standard brand of tires used by most popular cars of the day, with no distinguishing marks.

In desperation, McKinney and Noe turned back to Dr. Koehler for help, asking whether he could think of someone who might want to harm his wife.

Arrest / suspect identification

After considerable thought, Dr. Koehler gave the investigators a name from the past: Dave Brichoux.

Noe recognized the name Dave Brichoux. Noe had been Malheur County Sheriff in 1916 when he arrested Brichoux for killing a man during an argument. Brichoux was sentenced to life in prison, and Noe was not aware he had been paroled.

Dr. Koehler told the lawmen Brichoux had been working on a farm 10 miles outside of Baker and seldom came into town.

The investigators went to the farm but learned Brichoux had quit his job several days earlier and moved away. With Koehler’s help, they tracked Brichoux to Placerville, Idaho.

Trial

First-degree murder charges were filed against him.

Brichoux never went to trial.

Outcome / custody death

His body was discovered the following morning in his jail cell.

Jail officials suspect Brichoux sharpened the knife’s dull edge by running up and down against the stone wall of his jail cell.

Brichoux had committed suicide by severing a vein in his right wrist with one of the knives issued inmates during dinner the night before.

Evidence and statements

Brichoux immediately denied any involvement in the crime, or that he was even near the Koehler residence when Jessie Koehler was murdered.

Although his palm print matched the one found on the broken beer bottle, Brichoux claimed he had cut himself while picking up bottles around the Koehler country home for Jessie Koehler.

Further investigation revealed Brichoux had used the car of the farmer he worked for in Baker on the night Jessie Koehler was killed.

The key evidence was a letter written by Brichoux to a fellow prison inmate. The letter said his intention was “to get some money and buy a farm.” It continued:

"There's a person in Baker who owes me plenty. She's the wife of the man who used to be married to my sister. I figure I'm entitled to some part of the money my sister should have got -- and I'm going to collect it."

McKinney confronted Brichoux with the incriminating letter and presented his own theory on how the murder occurred: Brichoux tried to get the money from Jessie Koehler and she refused. An argument broke out. He threatened her with a gun, but she would not back down. He shot her, but she was still alive. He broke a beer bottle over her head, then gashed her with it. When she continued to straggle, he picked up the bricks and smashed her face, then went into the woodshed to get the ax to finish the job. Although Brichoux refused to talk, first-degree murder charges were filed against him.