Just hours after Ray Coriell's 8-year-old daughter was found kidnapped and raped in an east Bakersfield dirt field, detectives say Coriell failed a lie detector test.
Newly released detective reports indicate Coriell showed a high probability of deception to questions asked about him having sex with his daughter. But they didn't arrest him then. Indeed, the investigation really began to unfold as Coriell was holed up inside his home the next day threatening suicide.
As he held the sheriff's SWAT team at bay, detectives received cellphone GPS records pinpointing Coriell's location near that field the morning his daughter was abducted. As deputies waited for him to surrender, detectives got the arrest warrant that accused him of kidnapping, rape and attempted murder.
Coriell was taken to sheriff's headquarters for questioning. Detectives say that is when Coriell broke down, revealing he was raped for 4-years when he was 9. He said he never got counseling. Coriell said the abuse caused him to have blackouts in which he forgot where he had been or what he had done.
He said he had such a blackout the morning his daughter went missing and didn't snap out of it until his wife called him on his cell phone to tell him to come home immediately and help with the search.
Questioned by detectives, he said he had a partial memory of sitting next to a sofa in a field, and hearing a child's voice -- but couldn't remember whose voice, or what he had done. Reports say the little girl said she awakened under a couch in a weedy field.
But Coriell said he just heard voices in his head and he had a bad feeling when he got home, bad memories and bad feelings.
In his interview detectives noted Coriell didn't admit to the sexual assault but he didn't deny it either. After being taken to Kern Medical Center by ambulance Coriell's daughter was interviewed at the Jess Diamond Center by a social worker.
The girl said someone got her out of the house, grabbed her by the neck and put her in a gray truck. She told the social worker she went to sleep several times but never revealed if she remembered being sexually and physically attacked. She remembered was waking up under the couch and screaming for help.
During his interview detectives asked Coriell: if his daughter were sitting right next to him what would he say? Coriel said he would apologize. I loved her, he told detectives. There is no way to explain how sorry I am, nobody deserves to go through that.
Detectives also asked Coriell about an incident days before his daughter went missing in which someone wrapped up a hair straighter in a towel and placed it next to the girl's bed. The towel caught fire but Coriell returned home just in time that morning to unplug the device and take it outside.
