Affidavits, Declarations and Statements


September 4, 1984

United States District Court
Eastern District of North Carolina

Affidavit of L. Dean Paarmann (FBI) re: Chaplain (Captain) Kenneth Edwards

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : CASE No. 75-26-CR-3
v. :
JEFFREY R. MACDONALD : Civil No. 84-41 CIV-3
GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL


I, L. Dean Paarmann, being duly sworn do depose and say that:

(1) I am a retired Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(2) On February 18, 1970, I interviewed Chaplain (Captain) Kenneth P. Edwards, 540 Castle Drive, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; a copy of my FD-302 accurately reflecting that interview is as follows:

(3) Captain Kenneth P. Edwards, 540 Castle Drive, advised that he and his wife are neighbors of Captain MacDonald.

(4) Captain Edwards advised that he and his wife Rosalie reside in the same building. He said that is assigned as an Assistant Chaplain in the Second Brigade at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

(5) Captain Edwards advised that he moved into 540 Castle Drive in the end of September of 1969, at which time the MacDonalds already resided at 544 Castle Drive.

(6) Captain Edwards said that he and he and his wife and the MacDonalds went out socially two or three times, and that he considered them to be rather close personal friends.

(7) Chaplain Edwards described the MacDonald family as an ideal family, with no friction. He said he believed that the MacDonald home life could be described as "beautiful." And that both Jeffrey MacDonald and Colette had been childhood sweethearts who had married at an early age. He said that there was no indication that the MacDonald's were anything but extremely fond of their children, and that both the MacDonald's maintained a very tender child relationship.

(8) Chaplain Edwards advised that he retired early on the night of February 16, 1970. He recalls that he awoke at approximately 2:00 am on February 17, 1970, at which time he went to the bathroom. While he was in the bathroom, he recalled hearing a siren, which he presumed to be a Military Police vehicle on an adjacent main road. Also at this time, he recalled hearing what he described as a thump.

(9) This thump was described by Chaplain Edwards as something similar to chair or table being overturned. He said that he believed the noise came from the Kalin residence directly next door to him and located between his and MacDonald's apartments.

(10) Chaplain Edwards said that he returned to his bedroom and was awakened at approximately 4:00 am by noise outside on the street. He looked outside and saw several Military Police vehicles and assumed that the Kalin family next door had been involved in a family dispute.

(11) He dressed quickly, left by the front door, with the intention of visiting the Kalins and determined that the trouble had not been at the Kalins' but at the MacDonalds'.

(12) He introduced himself to a Military Policeman standing at the MacDonald front door, entered the living room of the MacDonald apartment and saw an overturned coffee table. He looked from the living room down a hallway and recalled seeing Captain MacDonald standing in the hallway, bare from the waist up, and talking with two Military Policemen. He recalls then that Captain MacDonald collapsed in the arms of the Military Policemen.

(13) Chaplain Edwards said that he then returned to his residence.


Further, your affiant sayeth not.

/L. Dean Paarmann/
L. Dean Paarmann Special Agent, FBI


Subscribed and sworn to before me this    4    day of September 1984.

/s/
Notary Public
My commission Expires May 25, 1985