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Mexico to Nashville. At any rate, Perry and his father were seen driving around Nashville in Arthur’s Ford Escort station wagon during that time frame. Arthur had purportedly come to help Perry take care of the children, until Perry and his in-laws could decide what to do about reporting Janet’s disappearance to the police. Perry still insisted that he had recommended that the police should be informed, all the while claiming that the Levines did not wish to take that route just yet.
    Meanwhile, Perry had been telling everyone that Janet had planned to return home so that she would not miss her son’s sixth birthday party on August 27. What Perry may have overlooked before the RSVPs for the birthday party started coming back was the fact that Janet had planned Sammy’s birthday party for Sunday, August 25, not for Tuesday, August 27, as Perry had been telling everyone. If Janet had planned to come back from her “vacation” in time for Sammy’s birthday party, she should have told Perry that she would be back in ten days, not twelve.
    Nonetheless, Janet had planned Sammy’s birthday party for August 25, and Perry and the Levines were forced to deal with it. It was scheduled to be held at Fannie Mae Dees Park, located on Blakemore Avenue, and referred to by Vanderbilt area residents as the so-called “Dragon Park,” because of a sea serpent built there twenty years ago by Pedro Silva. The Sea Serpent is a structure that the children can climb on, and it depicts hundreds of various designs, such as birds, faces, aliens, flowers, and so forth, each made out of chipped tiles that were painted by area artists. Dolly Parton’s image can be found on one of the dragon’s tiles, as can local civic leader Fannie Mae Dees, the park’s namesake. Janet apparently chose that park because it was clean and suitable for children, and because it was not far from their Forest Hills home.
    Due to the fact that many of Sammy’s friends, as well as their parents, had been invited, and the fact that so many had responded that they would attend, Perry and Janet’s parents knew that it would be difficult to call it off on such short notice. Instead, they agreed to tell everyone that Janet had remained in California visiting her brother, Mark, due to an ear infection that could cause her problems on the flight home. It was better, they said, if Janet waited until the infection had completely cleared up before attempting the flight back to Nashville. The invented story to explain away Janet’s absence apparently was believed by everyone in attendance that day, and the party went off without a hitch.
    Finally, on Thursday, August 29, exactly two weeks to the day from when Janet disappeared, Perry and Janet’s parents went to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and reported that Janet Levine March was missing. Perry told the police officer who took the report basically the same account of the events of August 15 that he had been telling everyone else. He also provided details of Janet’s gray four-door 1996 Volvo 850, with Tennessee license plates numbered 844-CBD, which, he said, Janet had driven away on the night she left their home for her supposed twelve-day vacation.
    David Miller, Metro’s veteran homicide/missing person detective, caught the assignment. Miller investigated 1,244 missing-person cases in all of Davidson County in 1996, and he solved all of them, except for that of Janet March. He didn’t know it at the time, of course, but he would be only one of several investigators who would work the Janet March case. Detective Tim Mason, of homicide, and forensic specialist Sergeant Johnny Hunter would assist him at the outset.
    Among the first things that Miller did as he began his investigation of Janet March’s disappearance was to obtain her bank and credit card information. He needed it to determine whether Janet had withdrawn cash, written checks, or had made any charge card purchases during the two