Naman Shrestha
When Michelle Mockbee, the head of payroll at Thermo Fisher Scientific, turned up dead in her workplace in late May 2012, the entire community was shocked to its core, with her colleagues and loved ones devastated. In NBC’s ‘Dateline: Return to the Early Shift,’ the case and the investigation that ensued are explored in a detailed manner. The authorities followed a trail of evidence that led them straight to the killer, David Dooley, who was a janitor at the company. Despite his claims of innocence, he was punished for his crimes based on the evidence against him.
David Dooley Was One of the Witnesses Who Discovered Michelle Mockbee’s Remains
Michelle Mockbee used to work at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Florence, Kentucky, where she crossed paths with the Dooleys, David and Janet Dooley, who were also employed at the company. Being outside contractors, both of them were hired to do custodial work and served as janitors. As per reports, they had been cheating on their time cards and stealing from the company. The investigators believed that in the early hours of May 29, 2012, David was trying to break into her office when she caught him red-handed. Upon confronting him about it, he killed her on the second-floor mezzanine level of the warehouse in Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Around 6:30, he was seen leaving the property in his truck before returning half an hour later, during which he reportedly got rid of the evidence. That’s when he and a company supervisor found the Fort Mitchell mother of two dead. As part of the investigation, the detectives focused on all the employees who were present at the warehouse at the time of her murder, including David. When asked why he had left the workplace for thirty minutes, he claimed that he returned to his apartment to check on his wife, whom he couldn’t get in touch with at the time. She, in turn, told the authorities that her husband came home to change his pants, something he totally denied.
As the investigators dug deeper, they learned about the Dooleys’ habit of stealing from the company. Although the detectives searched the couple’s property in hopes of recovering more evidence, they could neither find any bloody clothing nor the murder weapon. Nevertheless, since there was enough circumstantial evidence against him, on September 27, 2012, David was arrested and charged with the murder of Michelle Mockbee. It turned out that his rap sheet also included convictions for burglary, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, and theft by deception.
David Dooley Was Tried and Convicted Twice For the Murder of Michelle Mockbee
After his arrest, David Dooley maintained his innocence and took his chances at court in 2014. During the trial, the defense argued that the unknown DNA found on Michelle’s body did not match the defendant. The killer also took the stand and denied his guilt. He stated, “I’ve been railroaded. It’s totally unfair how I’ve been treated. I wasn’t afforded the time to defend myself properly, I feel cheated out of that as well. All I know is I did not kill Michelle Mockbee. I stand by that. I will continue to fight.” However, the prosecution presented insurmountable evidence against him, which managed to convince the jury of his guilt. Thus, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. A few years later, in 2017, he was granted a retrial as it was ruled that some critical evidence was withheld from David’s defence attorneys.
In the midst of it all, in August 2018, he was also indicted on child pornography offenses that dated back to incidents in the early 2000s. He was accused of possessing or viewing content portraying a sexual performance by a minor and using a minor under 16 in a sex performance. On February 20, 2019, the retrial of David Dooley commenced. This time around, the defense tried to shift the blame to a couple of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Michelle’s husband, Dan Mockbee, and another employee of Thermo Fisher Scientific named Joe Siegert. They focused on how Dan had received or was supposed to receive more than $1 million from a large insurance policy and how he made large cash withdrawals soon after the death of his wife.
David Dooley is Currently Incarcerated at a Kentucky Prison Facility
Once the jury heard both sides of the coin, they deliberated for less than seven hours before reaching the final verdict. On March 13, 2019, David Wayne Dooley was once again convicted of murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the death of Michelle Mockbee. The following month, during his sentencing hearing, the defense attorney asked for the minimum sentence, while the convict’s stepdaughter, Amanda Cuthbert, also requested leniency from the judge, stating, “I never thought that he did this. My family has just been torn apart by this, and kids have suffered on both sides for both families, and I understand, but (Dooley) has two daughters of his own.”
Meanwhile, the prosecution pushed for the maximum sentence. Finally, on April 11, David Dooley was sentenced to 43 years in prison. Since he had already served several years behind bars, he was scheduled to be eligible for parole in 13 years after the sentencing. The following year, on October 26, 2020, he pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawful transaction with a minor in the second degree. He was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for each charge on November 24, to be served concurrently with his murder sentence. A few months later, in February 2021, his appeal to get his murder conviction overturned was denied by the court. As of today, he is serving his sentence at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty, Kentucky, with his parole eligibility date scheduled for September 2032.
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