The year was 1994 and the month was May. A beautiful, vivacious, and smiley young girl by the name of Kali Ann Poulton wanted to play outside with her big wheel. She begged her mom to allow her outside to play while she stuffed envelopes to make extra money to help pay her bills. So, Judy Gifford-Tosh, Kali's mom, allowed her four-year-old daughter to play out front of their apartment as she worked.
Once Judy finished, she walked outside to put the envelopes in the back of her car, and she noticed that Kali was gone. She yelled over and over for Kali and there was no response.
Frantically, Tosh went into the house to call 911. Soon, neighbors, firemen, and police were at her apartment helping Tosh to find Kali. Tosh knew something was wrong.
While the search was going on for Kali, a neighbor by the name of Mark Christie seemed to be overly concerned about the sudden disappearance of Kali.
Christie was a man who seemed to have no emotions, curious and didn't have a strong relationship with his wife or people in general. He was a 24-year-old male from Hilton, NY, which was a small suburb of Rochester, NY.
Christie had seen Kali outside on her big wheel and had invited her to come over to his apartment. There, he let Kali in, and she went upstairs to play with his son's toys. When Christie went upstairs to check on Kali, he overheard Tosh yelling for her daughter.
Christie panicked and allegedly strangled her.
His son was upstairs and witnessed the whole murder of Kali.
After she was confirmed dead, Christie carried her body downstairs and put her body on the dining room table. He then put her body in a basket and finally transported her to the trunk of his car. Christie decided to put her body in a coolant tank at Nortel where he had worked as a security guard. He tied a piece of equipment to her body, so she wouldn't float up.
During the next two years, a private investigator by the name of Patrick Crough had kept in touch with Christie. He knew something was off with him. He had asked Christie to either have a cup of coffee with him or dinner at Roncones. Christie had chosen dinner, and that's where it all started.
While at dinner, Crough used the interrogation tactic of trying to keep moral guilt to the person of interest. In addition, he also told Christie to get right with God. Both tactics worked because Christie wanted sympathy from Crough. By the end of dinner, Christie had confessed to Kali's murder on August 9th, 1996.
Monroe County Sheriff's Capt. Phil Knight said, "Why has it taken two years to conclude the case? The best way I can describe it is, people do not confess when we want them to, people confess when they want to."
Kali's body was so decomposed when they finally drained the coolant tank that it was hard to identify her. Her mother was in shock when she found out the truth about what had happened to her daughter. This high-profile case really shook the Rochester area. No one will ever forget this beautiful girl's sweet smiles and dimples that were endless.
"We never believed that our daughter was not alive," Ms. Gifford said. "We can't even give words to describe our pain. She wasn't tortured, we know. We know she died the same day she disappeared. As much comfort I guess as you could get, I'd have to say we have that."
May you rest in peace Kali Ann Poulton.
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