Dalton’s phone linked to Nora’s tablet. Records showed sixty-three checks of her location since July, including eleven on that morning Ruth was struck.
Phone data put him on US 231 that morning. The black pickup belonged to coworker Bo, who said Dalton borrowed it the previous night to supposedly move a mattress.
Investigators matched white bumper paint to Ruth’s vehicle. Dalton also booked a Pensacola motel for a week starting on collision day.
“The ocean,” Shelton said.
Nora described the pool and slide before we learned of that booking. I thought about the purple crayon she had held while she tried to explain why she did not want to go.
Sheila finally admitted Dalton was absent part of that morning. He’d left at 7:45, and she had lied in her statement at his request.
She also confessed to leaving Nora alone with him the previous Saturday. She’d gone outside to speak to her sister on the phone.
