And Then She Killed Him (16 page)
Finally he added, “Of course, you can never be one hundred percent sure about anybody.”
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Officer Kirkpatrick asked Alan how Miriam got money. Alan replied, “I give it to her when I want to. I always tell her if you need money, ask me. I’d even asked her if she wanted an allowance. She said no. ‘You always give me what I need.’”
Alan related that Miriam was not a spendthrift. “She does make a little money at the dance studio, but it’s minor. She pays the rent there. It’s a low-key thing. It kind of pays its way. Once in a while, she might make one hundred, two hundred dollars.”
The officer asked Alan if he thought it bothered Miriam to ask him for money, and he said it didn’t seem to bother her. Alan even said that at one point he had looked Miriam in the eye to see if she “felt too dependent or too captured.” He offered to give her a fixed income every month. She said she liked things the way they were. He had talked to her about cash flow and told her that sometimes they would have a good amount of money on hand, and at other times it was tied up in his business deals. The main part of that was money already tied up in real estate, and it would turn a good profit “down the road.”
Alan thought that Miriam understood all of this, and she had never asked him for an exorbitant amount of money on anything. He even told Kirkpatrick if he just gave her a twenty-dollar bill, she understood that he was short on cash at the moment. Alan said, “She’d stretch that money forever.”
Alan related that before they bought the property in Whitewater, he knew it was a kind of high-risk project with a big debt. Alan asked Miriam what she thought about it. Miriam said that she had been out there in Whitewater, and replied, “Let’s make it work if we can.” Alan added that in the long run it had been a smart investment, and they’d developed $250,000 to $300,00 equity on the property and house within two years.
Officer Kirkpatrick asked if Miriam had a debit card or credit card, and Alan said that she didn’t. Kirkpatrick wanted to know how Miriam managed to do any shopping. Alan responded that for those times he either let her use a credit card that he had or gave her cash.
“Anything she wants, I give to her.” Then Alan added,
“I’m more valuable alive to her than dead.”
“I’m more valuable alive to her than dead.”
The wick in the gas tank was obviously an important issue, and Officer Kirkpatrick wanted to know what had happened to it. Alan couldn’t remember for sure and he thought he’d either laid it on the parking-lot surface or handed it to Miriam.
Officer Kirkpatrick asked, “She didn’t take it away and then bring it back to you?”
Alan replied, “No, why would she do that?”
Officer Kirkpatrick responded, “Because that’s what she said happened.”
Alan was indeed surprised by that comment, saying, “Oh, she did?”
So Officer Kirkpatrick related that the bathroom in the office building had smelled of lighter fluid. Miriam had told Kirkpatrick that Alan had given her the wick to throw away, which she did by depositing it in the bathroom. And then Miriam added that Alan had come into the restroom later and wanted the wick back.
After hearing that, Alan said that he wasn’t sure if things had happened that way or not. His mind had been so focused on putting out the fire, perhaps he had done what Miriam said and couldn’t remember it now. “I don’t remember her taking it in there. I don’t remember going in and asking for it. But I very well may have,” Alan finally said.
Then Alan stated that Miriam had a very good memory and logic process. “I would have a tendency to think that Miriam was right about this, and I’m wrong. I don’t remember events moment by moment, but I do remember being focused on putting out the fire.”
Officer Kirkpatrick decided to use the ruse about the video surveillance camera across the street from the title company. Kirkpatrick said, “There is footage of Miriam starting the fire.”
Alan replied, “Oh, God! No, I don’t think that . . . That would be terrible! Why would she do that?”
Officer Kirkpatrick said that officers had watched the video, and Alan asked, “Is she on there?”
Kirkpatrick responded with a question: “What do you think?”
Alan replied, “No, but I could be wrong.”
Officer Kirkpatrick then asked what Miriam would gain by Alan’s death.
Alan replied, “I don’t know what she would gain if she did it. What she would get was a mess because I have three land developments in different levels of process. They’re worth nothing unless they’re carried through. My name is the only one on all of them.”
Officer Kirkpatrick asked him about the prenuptial agreement. Alan said, “She gets nothing that was created prior to the marriage. The only thing that was created after the marriage was the equity in the house in Whitewater.”
Perhaps suspicious now, Alan asked about the video surveillance tape, and Officer Kirkpatrick admitted that it had not actually been checked. (It may not have existed at all.) At that point, Alan realized exactly what Officer Kirkpatrick was doing. Alan declared, “You only did that to get my reaction! Well, that’s okay. I’m not sure if there is a videotape, but if it showed there was evidence of Miriam starting the fire, I’d be shocked. The first thing I would do is find out. I can’t imagine her being malicious. What I could imagine is her being very sick. But I don’t think she’s sick.”
Once again Alan said that he understood why Officer Kirkpatrick had used that ruse about the videotape. He said that Kirkpatrick wanted to find out where his “head was at about Miriam.”
Alan added, “You know, anyone in the world could have done it. You could have done it, but I doubt it. I feel the same way about Miriam.”
After getting the car fire report, Investigator Hebenstreit received another package of items connected to the Buick car fire from the Delta PD. Among the items was a photo they referred to as the “wick.” Also in the package were photos of the scene, including some photos showing the filler cap of the gas tank, which was at the rear of the vehicle below the license plate.
Jim Hebenstreit went to the Delta Police Department headquarters and met with Sergeant Sean Wells. Hebenstreit viewed the wick, which he described as “a wooden skewer with a piece of fabric or rope attached at one end with what appeared to be glue.”
The next day, Hebenstreit took a photo of the wick to show Josh and Portia Vigil at the Helmick residence in Whitewater. Since Portia was the executor of Alan’s estate, she was there packing up items and cleaning the house. After looking at the photo, Josh said he had found a rope at the Helmick residence that looked similar to the one in the photo. It was a rope that appeared to have been glued to the “skewer” part of the wick.
Josh brought out a short, braided lead rope for use with horses, which was attached at one end to a brass snap. He told Hebenstreit he found the rope in the Helmicks’ horse trailer. Hebenstreit collected the rope and contacted Sergeant Wells.
Wells met with Hebenstreit two days later, and he brought along items connected to the car fire. One of the items was the wooden skewer and rope, which had been termed as the wick. The rope on the wick and the lead rope found by Josh in the Helmicks’ horse trailer appeared to be similar. Hebenstreit noted that to the human eye they had the same color and composition. It even appeared that the wick rope had been cut from the lead rope. Hebenstreit sent strands of rope from the wick rope and lead rope to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
All of this was just one more item in a chain of items and incidents that made Miriam Helmick’s actions very suspicious.
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While all of this was going on, it still remained a mystery as to where Miriam Helmick was, and what she was doing. And that remained a mystery until links started connecting her to her son, Chris.
Miriam’s son, Chris, had flown out of Grand Junction to Denver in early July 2008, and then to Jacksonville, Florida, on July 6. He was back in Florida only a few days when he received a call from his mother, Miriam. She told him that she was on her way to Jacksonville; Chris was totally surprised by this.
He recalled, “I wanted to make sure everything was clear with the police in Grand Junction. I mean, if you’re under investigation or whatever, sometimes it’s not feasible to leave the area. She indicated to me that law enforcement knew she was on her way out to Florida.
“I kind of advised her to stop and try and find something, maybe a job or a place to stay for a little while in Savannah, Georgia. Kind of settle everything down. She was born and raised in that area. And she got there, but I got a couple of phone calls from her while she was there, saying that she couldn’t find anything, so she was going to come on down to Florida.”
Miriam arrived in Jacksonville near the end of July 2008. Apparently, she had stopped off in Savannah first. None of this was known to MCSO investigators until they received a phone call from Portia Vigil.
On October 16, 2008, Portia Vigil contacted Jim Hebenstreit and told him that she had recently received an e-mail from Miriam, who was now living in Florida. This e-mail was in response to a letter that one of Alan’s attorneys, had sent Miriam. Portia forwarded the e-mail from Miriam to Hebenstreit. Within the text, Miriam had written about items she had sold since leaving Colorado.
Miriam indicated that she had sold ten used horse panels and a manure spreader for $1,000. Then Miriam listed four bills that she had paid before leaving Colorado. These included a barn and training bill of $2,700 to Sue Boulware and car insurance of $114.98 in May for all the Helmicks’ vehicles. The list also included an April and May electric bill of $156 and new battery and electric repair of $120.
Then Miriam wrote that she was going to try and bring back the Buick Roadmaster herself, but she wanted to be reimbursed for the trip. Miriam added that before she left Colorado, the vehicle had 121,998 miles on the odometer. Since then, she had been careful not to drive it too often.
Miriam concluded the e-mail without asking any questions about the investigation or the status of Alan’s estate. This obviously seemed strange to both Portia and Hebenstreit.
A few days later, Investigator Hebenstreit received an official document on Alan Helmick’s estate. The main residence in Whitewater was valued at $620,000, with a first mortgage balance of $411,488 and a second mortgage of $57,873. Based on those figures, there was $150,639 of equity in the property. As things stood, eventually Miriam was to receive that money.
Meanwhile, concerning events that occurred in Florida, a man named Charles Kirkpatrick began searching on Internet dating sites for a woman who shared his tastes. Kirkpatrick was a wealthy man who owned a Fred Astaire ballroom dance studio and an Arthur Murray one as well. He also owned a human resources management company in Albany, Georgia.
Kirkpatrick began his Internet dating search on Seeking Arrangement.com and later on MillionaireMatch.com. That was because Charles fell into the multimillionaire category. He liked the MillionaireMatch.com site because they had an identity-verification feature. For his own profile, Charles stated that he lived in an expensive Florida high-rise building and made over $500,000 per year. Kirkpatrick’s apartment in the high-rise was very spacious and overlooked a pool and Jacuzzi. Not only that, he had several expensive automobiles, including a BMW, a Mercedes, and a 1985 neo-classic Zimmer Golden Spirit, which he said looked like a 1930s Rolls-Royce.
A woman calling herself “Sharon Helmick” did contact Charles Kirkpatrick and he became interested in her. Her initial message to him stated: Saw your profile and loved it. I can dance any dance and I’m pretty good at it, too. I just haven’t learned the West Coast Swing. Your profile requirements described me completely. She sent along a photo of herself on horseback, and described herself as a pretty lady with an impish smile.
Charles sent some more information about himself, including that he lived in Orlando, Florida. To this, Sharon sent a return e-mail: Honesty is the best policy. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. I’d love to come to Orlando. I will call you soon. Then she added that all the photos she posted were of her riding horses, but she would take another photo in the coming week. And she also stated, I can’t wait to be a kitten and a tiger all in one day.
The woman calling herself “Sharon” said that she liked the finer things in life, and that she could participate in them with “elegance” and “finesse.”
Apparently, Charles had made some comment about going from a “ballroom to a barroom.” Sharon thought that was a clever remark. She said that she was very “sensual and sexual,” and there were many things that they could explore.
After this exchange of e-mails, Charles and Sharon had a telephone conversation. He suggested that they meet in person within the next few days. Kirkpatrick didn’t have to wait long; Sharon showed up in Orlando that same day. They went to a T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant and stayed there until two in the morning. During that time, Sharon told him about her previous husband.
Charles recalled, “She told me that he had been dead about six to twelve months. Something like that. I commented that it was pretty soon to be out with someone, and was she okay with that?
“She said it was okay. She told me that he had died with some type of brain disease or something, and that he had been sick for three to four years prior to that. She said it wasn’t like a sudden thing. She didn’t show any emotion about her former husband. At the restaurant, she was excited and very up and positive. She even brought her dance shoes with her in case we could find a place to go dancing.”
Kirkpatrick recalled that they had dinner and drinks and had hit it off. And then they went back to his place; and as he put it later, they had “intimate relationships.”
Sharon stayed for the weekend. On Monday, Charles had to work. One thing that began to turn him off to her was that she said that she didn’t have any close ties to Jacksonville, where she was now living. She wanted to move in with him right away. Charles relayed, “It was the manner in which she said it. It was repeated several times.”
Kirkpatrick was suspicious about this urgency. He lied to her and said that he was going out of town to see his kids and grandkids in Georgia. Even though they exchanged e-mails again, he never saw her in person after that.
One of the few people back in Colorado who was contacted by Miriam during this time period was Jeri Yarbrough. Sometime in September 2008, Jeri received a phone call from Miriam, who was now residing in Florida. As part of a settlement for buying back the horses, Jeri said that she wanted part of the proceeds to go to Sue Boulware, to whom Miriam still owed money. After that was accomplished, Miriam would get the balance. Miriam told Jeri to go ahead and do that.
Jeri remarked about this transaction, “I paid the debt off to Sue Boulware, who actually had the horses at that time. I paid Sue two thousand five hundred and sixty dollars. Later I paid Miriam two thousand. And I asked Miriam how she was, and she said that she hadn’t been good. She had been in an institution because she tried to commit suicide.” (Law enforcement checked later on and could not find any evidence that this was true.)
“She called me again and said that she was trying to find a job in Florida. It was during this phone call that she said [of the alleged suicide attempt], ‘I didn’t try to shoot myself.’ I couldn’t understand how she really tried to kill herself. It was getting more crazy, as far as the stuff she said. The whole case was going bizarre. I wanted to handle the horse stuff, and strictly deal with that and keep all the other stuff to a minimum. When I asked where to send the money, she said to her son’s account. She indicated that she was living with him in Florida.”
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