Just after the Johnsa party passed the muffler shop, at about 9:30 PM, Dr. Robert Brusie, DVM was driving north on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard from his offices to his home. As he passed the muffler shop, he too observed the police vehicle in the driveway. The vehicle had its front lights and dome light on. Dr. Brusie thought he noticed that the driver had a white shirt on. At the time, he thought it might even have been a white tee shirt, but traveling at 45 MPH and in the rain, he had only the briefest glimpse of that driver.

Dr. Brusie identified Michael Chapel as one of two photographs from the police photo lineup just after the murder. He testified to that at Chapel’s trial. When he was reminded that only a few days before the murder Chapel had answered a “horse-down” call the doctor had made and he then showed Chapel where to place a bullet in the horse, Dr. Brusie commented: “Oh my God, I had forgotten that”.

Cynthia Lee Marsella depicted in the illustration as the same automobile as Dr. Brusie’s, lived on West Price Road. She was on her way to Kroger’s Market located just by the Northside police and fire stations oat the intersection of Highway 20 and Buford Highway. West Price is the same street as North Price but is that segment of Price west of its intersection with Peachtree Industrial Boulevard south of Gwinnco Muffler. She then would have been traveling north as she passed the shop’s driveway. As she passed, she stated that she saw the monitoring police car in the driveway facing PIB. She stated that as she returned from Kroger’s Market, going southbound on PIB she saw the same police car in the driveway as she had seen on her way north. She stated that the police car had a “blue” stripe and the time was between 9:30 and 10:00 PM, and that she returned 45 minutes later.

Ms. Marsella’s statement was taken on April 26, 1993, two days after Chapel’s arrest, and the officer who guided and recorded the statement was Sergeant Steve Cline, the officer under Lt. John Latty in charge of Chapel’s investigation. The pair obviously chatted before recording the statement, and that is probably where the “blue” stripe came from. On a dark and stormy night with the heavy rain we know from other driver’s was falling during that time period, and from a distance, it would seem unlikely that anyone could determine whether a police car had a stripe and the color of the stripe would certainly be more difficult to determine.

We also know from other driver’s that the police vehicle had departed the driveway sometime between 9:30 and 9:45 PM after which the victim’s car was seen alone in the driveway by at least three other drivers before a police vehicle returned to the driveway at about 9:57 PM. If her return was 45 minutes later, we know that only the victim’s automobile was still in that driveway. Ms. Marsella’s statement does not make sense when trying to fit her into this time period. However, and remember that daylight saving time had only recently been established, If Ms. Marsella’s time frame was an hour earlier, her statement would make complete sense. We know from Tony McWaters that the monitoring police vehicle was in the driveway as early as 8:45 PM and could have been there earlier, and we know from several other driver witnesses that the police vehicle remained in the driveway between 8:45 and 9:30 PM, notably the Schmanski party between 9:02 and 9:17 PM, the Mary Ann Johnsa Party at about 8:25 PM and Dr. Brusie at 9:30 PM.

Remember too that Sergeant Cline is the same officer that would be given a special assignment during a meeting on the morning of April 29, 1993 after the four firefighters had given statements that Mike Chapel was with them at the Fire 14 during the period from 8:30 to 10:00 PM on the night of the murder. We know about the meeting and the “special off-line” assignment given Cline from Investigator Burnette’s surprisingly thorough notes. He is also the officer that ordered the luminol presumptive blood testing of only the front seat of Chapel’s unit where a small spot of the victim’s blood was found in a highly unlikely spot that very night.