Between the Lines -- Byron de Arakal

The puzzle seemed to be taking shape pretty quickly a fortnight ago.

We knew for sure that Gary Holdren, a 54-year-old medical device

salesman, lay critically injured and comatose in a Mission Hospital bed.

And Newport Beach police detectives were as certain as it gets -- sans

eyewitnesses -- that Holdren had been felled March 24 by a hail of

paint-ball pellets as he skated along a Back Bay bicycle path.

The evidence seemed to indicate as much. Police found paint bursts on

the path near where Holdren lay. Holdren’s right eye was swollen,

indicating he had been struck in the face with one of the projectiles.

And at least two witnesses reported seeing a trio of young males toting

paint-ball guns in and around the immediate area about the time Holdren

was allegedly ambushed. And so for the better part of 16 days, the

police and the community have been on the hunt for this band of young

assailants. They have yet to turn up, and curiously so.

Why? Because since the first day following the incident the picture of

what happened to Holdren has only grown murky. Two days after being

declared brain dead -- his body harvested for organs to save others --

the Orange County coroner reported that it found no evidence Holdren had

been struck with anything, let alone paint-ball pellets. His swollen eye,

it turns out, was caused by the internal injuries to his brain when he

fell.

The results, strangely, had Newport Beach police in a full-scale

backpedal Monday. “There was no evidence that Mr. Holdren was struck by a

paint ball or that he suffered any direct injury from a paint-ball

strike,” Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman told the Daily Pilot.

“We’re still actively investigating what led to his injuries.”

The news, said Bonita Young, Holdren’s girlfriend, left her “surprised

and confused.” Me too. And very skeptical. I mean, how can the fine

detectives of the Newport Beach Police Department be so certain about

what felled Holdren a day after the incident (indeed, certain enough to

disseminate the theory to the media), and yet so thoroughly and publicly

uncertain as to the cause two weeks later?

I suspect something else is up, and it has to do with the missing

three. If we parse what’s really going on here, I’m convinced the police

still believe -- as do I -- that Holdren’s fall was the direct result of

several paint balls exploding near him as he skated along the Back Bay

path. It’s either that scenario or the city’s gumshoes so thoroughly

botched this one from the get-go that they’ll come away from this case

looking more like dimwitted Encyclopedia Browns than Columbo.

Noodle on Shulman’s words again for a moment: “There was no evidence

that Mr. Holdren was struck by a paint ball or that he suffered any

direct injury from a paint-ball strike.” He did not rule out that Holdren

might well have toppled over in response to a burst of paint-ball fire

exploding around him.

Indeed, that the coroner found no evidence that paint-ball pellets

struck Holdren doesn’t mean he wasn’t fired upon. It could mean alleged

assailants intended to either hit Holdren but were bad shots, aim and

fire in Holdren’s general direction without striking or harming him, or

didn’t see him at all when they fired their weapons.

And simply because a witness, according to police, observed paint-ball

marks on the Back Bay path before the incident doesn’t mean the in-line

skater didn’t wander into a hail of paint pellets minutes later. It

simply means the witness observed old paint marks. Having not seen the

alleged assault, the witness couldn’t have seen any fresh paint-ball

bursts that might have contributed to Holdren’s crash.

Now I can’t imagine the city’s police didn’t think this stuff through

before deciding to moonwalk away -- and with some pace, I might add --

from their original conclusion that Holdren had gone down under a

fusillade of paint balls.

Which brings me back to the three missing pieces in the curious death

of Gary Holdren. The trio of “younger males” seen in the area with

paint-ball guns. If they are local, as the betting voices seem to think,

then they’re aware of the media fracas. They know the police want to chat

with them. And their parents -- who surely are aware their child owns one

of these weapons -- must know this too.

Which raises a very troubling and disquieting question: If paint-ball

guns weren’t involved in the death of Gary Holdren, then why haven’t

these three come forward? Why haven’t their parents -- who can’t be

missing the obvious stress and pressure these kids must be feeling --

volunteered to bring them in for questioning? To clear all of this up?

Or might it be these three have something to hide? Their parents

something to protect? My guess is the Newport Beach police know the

answers.

And we’re seeing a clever strategy in play.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a freelance writer and communications consultant.

He lives in Costa Mesa. His column appears Wednesdays. Readers can reach

him with news tips and comments via e-mail at o7 [email protected]

. Visit his Web site at o7 www.byronwriter.comf7 .