Under Stress from Homicide Probe, Foster City Police Learning to Lean on Each Other

Call it the grizzled cops’ version of a group hug.

Four weeks into the investigation of a 71-year-old Foster City man’s killing, normally stoic Foster City police are turning to each other to help take some of the edge off a tough case that's already exacted a toll on the personal lives of many in the department.

Foster City police have in their probe of Klaus Gachter’s killing, assigning five investigators to work the case fulltime, with resources from the sheriff’s department at the ready to aid in city's first homicide probe in nearly six years.

Gachter’s body was found in his home on the 600 block of Waterbury Lane on Dec. 16 according to a neighbor’s account.

The investigation has put some strain on the tiny department of just 36 sworn officers, police Capt. Jon Froomin acknowledged in an interview with Patch.

And it’s not just the investigators assigned to the case, many of whom are working nights, weekends, and even over the holidays. The Gachter case has affected just about everybody in the department on some level, with patrol officers now taking cases that typically go to detectives, and on and on.

“There’s some stress involved, but I think it’s more frustration because they all want to succeed,” Froomin said. “They all want to solve this case.”

But the case has also fostered camaraderie, uniting the department in a common purpose.

Cops who usually keep to themselves now find themselves offering each other encouragement, sharing their frustrations with an investigation that has yet to produce a viable suspect - along with ideas about how to solve the type of case police don’t typically see in a city where the police logs are mostly filled with complaints about barking dogs and skateboarding citations.

Foster City police meet twice daily to share evidentiary data and map out strategies.

A strategy session on Tuesday morning at one point turned into a therapy session, with cops openly venting about a case that’s already taxed their lives on personal and emotional levels, Froomin said.

“A lot of it is just getting it out,” Froomin said. “Just sharing it is therapeutic, like counseling.”

Froomin acknowledged the case has taken his department to a place cops don’t usually go.

“By our nature in law enforcement we tend to hold stuff in, but in this case I think our folks are talking about this a lot as we discuss the case, where it’s going and what needs to be done,” Froomin said. “That gets some of it out of our system.”

Police remain tight-lipped about the details in the case that they say would compromise their investigation.

Froomin said investigators have already interviewed more than 40 people in the case, and are looking at different aspects of the victim’s life that they hope will lead them to his killer or killers.

Asked if he believed police had already interviewed a person or persons responsible for Gachter’s death, Froomin said he wasn’t certain. He said the investigation is “bringing us to multiple places.”

Police have interviewed everyone they’ve sought for questioning, Froomin said.

“We’re clearly not at a level where we have a suspect,” he said. “As much as we want to determine who did this, we also want to eliminate people from consideration, so that’s part of the investigation too.”

Gachter’s killing is Foster City's first reported homicide since January of 2006, when according to published reports, Brandon Hepponstall, a 50-year-old wheelchair-bound man was stabbed to death by a 41-year-old Redwood City man he refused to sell drugs to.

Timothy Singler, Hepponstall’s killer, shot himself to death shortly afterwards.

The last reported homicide before that was in 1996.

Froomin said investigators have made some progress, noting investigators have developed information that’s led to further interviews, and produced numerous leads.

And while they don’t know for sure if any of the leads they’ve developed will take them anywhere, they remain determined to do whatever it takes and for however that is to solve a case that appears to have no imminent resolution.

“Is it leading us directly to a suspect, at this point no,” he said of the investigation. “Everyone in our department wants to solve this case, so in that sense it is a bit frustrating for us.”