Police Chief Merl Hamilton Says He Doesn't Want to Know What Happened to His Daughter

Sept. 23, 2010 — -- The police chief whose 23-year-old daughter, Valerie Hamilton, was found dead says that he's not sure he wants to know what happened to her the night she died.

"I don't know that I will ever know," Concord Police Department Chief Merl Hamilton told ABC News. "I don't know if it matters. My little girl is gone. She was a bright, intelligent person.

"I am smart enough as a father to know that when you're 23 years old, I don't know everything that she is doing," he told ABC News' "Nightline" in an exclusive interview.

Hamilton said that he doesn't believe his daughter would be dead if she hadn't met Michael Neal Harvey.

"I think if he wasn't with my daughter that night she would be alive," said Hamilton. "She somehow was with this person, and somehow bad things happened."

Harvey, 34, was arrested earlier this week for Hamilton's murder. He denied the charges, telling reporters outside of a New York courtroom Tuesday, "this is not a murder, there's no murder at all. She overdosed in her sleep."

Investigators believe that Hamilton, a swim teacher and burgeoning triathlete, left a downtown Charlotte, N.C., bar willingly with Harvey. Preliminary autopsy results said Hamilton's body was found stuffed in a storage container but exhibited no signs of physical trauma. Drug use, although what type is unclear, also was evident, according to a police report.

Asked whether he believes Harvey killed his daughter, Hamilton replied, "I think that he contributed to her death."