Klaas Investigator Named Assistant Chief at University
RENO — The lead investigator in the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma has been named assistant police chief for the University of Nevada at Reno.
Police Chief Ken Sjoen announced the hiring of Michael B. Meese, 44, to the new, $67,000-a-year post.
Meese was a Petaluma police detective when he was assigned to the Klaas case.
He later was hired as an investigator by the Sonoma County district attorney’s office to aid in the case’s prosecution.
Richard Allen Davis, 42, was convicted in 1996 in Klaas’ death.
Meese said Davis confessed to him two months after the slaying and showed where he had dumped the girl’s body. Davis admitted abducting her from a slumber party in her Petaluma home and strangling her.
Since Davis’ conviction, Meese has lectured about the case to law enforcement groups across the country.
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