For those of you not familiar with this sad and gruesome story, a little more than a week ago Fargo dentist Philip Gattuso was found dead in his condominium. His home had been ransacked, his Porsche was missing, and according to court documents, he was killed by repeated blows to the head with a hammer. Only a few days later police had the suspected murderer in custody. How they were able to catch the alleged killer involves the help of the victim’s Porsche, video surveillance tape and reads like a scene from a prime time police thriller.
According to police, Michael Nakvinda was paid $3,000 by the victim’s father-in-law (Gene Kirkpatrick) to murder Gattuso. Authorities said Kirkpatrick wanted his son-in-law dead because he didn’t like the way he was raising Kirkpatrick’s grandchild.
Nakvinda, a handyman by trade, drove his pick-up truck and trailer to a lot near Gattuso’s home, parked and walked the short distance to the scene of the crime. After bludgeoning Gattuso repeatedly with a hammer, Nakvinda packed up a number of expensive electronics from the home, placed them into the victim’s ’99 Porsche Boxster and drove back to his waiting truck and trailer.
The arrest warrant goes on to document the investigative techniques and information used by police to bring charges against Nakvinda and link him with the crime. Police were able to string together information from eye-witnesses, video surveillance and U-haul receipts that positively showed Gattuso’s Boxster being towed away from the crime scene by Nakvinda.
I’ll let you read the police report and arrest warrant for yourself, but apparently, the silver 1999 Porsche Boxster in question was one of only two registered in the county and was the subject of a massive multi-state search until being found this Monday. Inside the Porsche were some of the missing items from Gattuso’s home and presumably other physical evidence linking Nakvinda to the crime.
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[Source: News9.com ABC.com KSBI Thunder TV]