There were many discrepancies, contradictions and inconsistencies with Tanya Savege's trial testimony and police report. Discrepancies that cast serious doubt that Hank Houghton was the perpetrator of this crime or whether a crime was even committed. Here are discrepancies with Tanya Savege's testimony:
1). Tanya testified as Hank was taking her home that when they got to her house she asked Hank to take her to her Aunt's house because there was no car in the driveway meaning her parents were not home. Yet Tanya's parents did NOT own a car so their alleged car would never have been in the driveway.
2). Tanya testified Hank's knife touched her throat at least twice during the night of the crime; yet there were NO marks on her throat.
3). Tanya testified she had thrown a beer bottle at Hank and saw a cut on the right side of his face measuring two inches in length; yet there were no marks or cuts on Hank’s face when the police located him three days later and took mug shots of him. The police testified they saw no cuts or scratches on Hank's face..
4). Tanya testified when Hank had the knife at her throat and was pulling her back to the car she reached down and picked up a stick and swung it at him hitting him in the hand, yet no marks showed up on Hank’s hands when he was arrested.
5). Tanya testified that Hank peed on a quilt outside of the car and then they had sex on it. Why would Hank ever want to have sex on a quilt he had just peed on?
6). Tanya testified she threw a beer bottle at Hank that hurt him and cut his face. She than ran back to the car taking five minutes to put on her bathing suit before trying to escape. Why did Tanya take five critical minutes to put on her bathing suit instead of grabbing it and running as fast as she could to flee and escape from Hank?
7). Tanya testified the drive-in movie theater was closed the night of the crime and that's the reason no one heard her yelling and screaming for help; yet in later testimony Police Officer Pacitti said the movie theater was open that night which was later verified by theater management, and Lead Det. Alan Whitehead.
8). Tanya testified that during the evening while Hank was raping her that they drank beer and smoked cigarettes. Doesn't this appear to be unusual behavior during a crime of kidnapping and rape?
9). Tina testified she didn’t really get a good look at the knife during the alleged crime, yet when she went back with the West Springfield police the morning of July 19th and they found a knife she said that was the knife Hank had threatened her with. On Wednesday, July 21 Tanya described the knife as being a hunting knife and that's what Detective Whitehead described in his police report and Search Warrant for Hank's car. Yet the knife presented at trial was a switchblade knife.
10). Tanya testified that Hank made her drink two sixteen ounce cans of Budweiser beer, yet when blood tests were done on Tanya a few hours later the test came back negative for alcohol in her blood.
11). Tanya testified on multiple occasions and was certain that the beer Hank had in his car were sixteen ounce Budweiser cans, yet when the police went to the alleged crime scene all they discovered were twelve ounce Budweiser beer bottles.
12). Tanya testified that sometime during the night Hank fell asleep and was snoring. She stated she heard the knife drop outside of the car and fell to the ground and that she crawled up over Hank to see something shinny on the ground, all this without waking Hank up. Later she testified she was able to escape from Hank's grip and climb into the backseat of the car where she stayed for thirty minutes. With Hank asleep and snoring, the knife outside the car in pitch blackness, and Tanya in the backseat of the car alone for thirty minutes why didn't she attempt to escape?
13). Det. Whitehead testified that the direction the car was pointing it would have been impossible for the knife to have fallen out of Hank’s left hand from the driver’s side as Tina had claimed; instead Hank would have to have been sitting on the passenger side and the knife would have fallen out of his right hand. Yet Tanya testified Hank was sitting behind the steering wheel when he dropped the knife out of the car window. Either Tanya forgot where Hank was sitting when he dropped the knife or she forgot which direction the car was pointing.
14). Tanya testified Hank took her to a McDonald’s drive-through window for breakfast food after having just kidnapped and raped her? Why would Hank risk taking Tanya to McDonald's for breakfast where both would have looked filthy dirty and Tanya might have screamed for help and/or tried to escape?
15). Tanya testified Hank left her alone in his car to go into a corner convenience store to purchase cigarettes. Why would Hank, after supposedly having just kidnapped and raped Tanya leave her alone in his car where she could easily run away and escape? AND why would Tanya run from the convenience store when there was two police cars in front of Hank's car and two police officers in the store?
16). Attorney Jeffrey Weisser stated that when Tanya showed up at his house describing her ordeal that she was filthy dirty and had on shorts and a top. Yet Michelle Bushey later said when Hank picked them up to go to the beach on the morning of July 18th that Tanya had on a one piece bathing suit and was caring a towel. If Tanya spent all night being raped by Hank and then escaped and ran into Weisser on the sidewalk in front of his house where did she get the shorts and top she had on when she ran into Weisser?
17). Why would Attorney Weisser, a criminal defense lawyer and former student of Hank's defense lawyer in law school allow Tanya to wash away vital evidence when he took her inside his house and let her clean herself up?
18). Tanya stated to the Grand Jury that Hank raped her fifteen times; yet at trial she testified it was several times to the point that the judge, the prosecutor, the Clerk of Court, and Hank's lawyer gave up counting at seventeen times. Yet in Detective Whitehead's police report dated July 21, 1982 he said she was raped two times.
19). Tanya testified she was kidnapped and raped yet when a rape test was done on her a few hours later it came back negative; negative that Hank had raped her and negative that a rape had even been committed.
