And Then She Killed Him (8 page)
Portia said that she could hear her father ask Miriam where his cell phone was, and he also asked if she had turned it off. Portia added that after that point she began to believe Miriam was hiding her father’s cell phone and turning it off whenever she could get away with it.
C
HAPTER 11
HAPTER 11
A M
ATTER
OF
P
OISON
ATTER
OF
P
OISON
Based on the information that Portia Vigil had given Investigator Norcross, MCSO investigator Chuck Warner called the Delta Elks Lodge about whether Alan Helmick had become intoxicated there on June 9, 2008. Warner talked to Chris Ranker, the Elks Lodge bartender, who had worked the bar that evening. Ranker said that she had known Alan Helmick for years, and she was sure he was not at the bar in the lodge on June 9. In fact, Ranker said she had not seen Alan or Miriam Helmick at the club for four or five months.
On June 12, Investigator Pete Burg interviewed Bob Isom at the Mesa County Sheriff ’s Office. Isom stated that he had known Alan Helmick for forty-five years and they had gone to school together. They had been friends for a long, long time, and even neighbors at one point. Bob also stated that he and Alan were members of the Elks and that they used to boat on Lake Powell together. Those trips, according to Bob, ended when Miriam came on the scene, except for one trip to Lake Powell. That had been on May 30, 2008, to June 1, 2008, when he, his wife, Peggy, Alan, and Miriam had been there.
Isom told Investigator Burg that Miriam had been hard to get to know, but on that particular trip to Lake Powell, she was more relaxed and talkative than usual. Bob added, “My wife, Peggy, even thought it was kind of funny how nice Miriam was being to all of them.” Bob did admit that he didn’t notice any problems between Alan and Miriam on that trip.
Bob related that the last time he saw Alan Helmick alive was on Monday, June 9, 2008, at around 1:30
P.M.
Isom had driven to the Helmick residence and invited Alan to play golf the next morning at nine-ten. Alan told Bob that he had a horse-riding lesson scheduled for his granddaughter, but he would see if he could move that to a different date. He promised to call Bob back about the golf game.
P.M.
Isom had driven to the Helmick residence and invited Alan to play golf the next morning at nine-ten. Alan told Bob that he had a horse-riding lesson scheduled for his granddaughter, but he would see if he could move that to a different date. He promised to call Bob back about the golf game.
Bob Isom told Investigator Burg that at that meeting, “Alan looked like his old self. He looked super.” After Isom left, Alan phoned him about four hours later and said that he could not make the golf game on the following day. Alan said he had to do the “grandbaby thing”—meaning he had to be there when his granddaughter took her riding lesson.
Isom did go to the golf course on the morning of June 10 and played a round of golf. When Bob returned home that evening, his wife, Peggy, immediately told him that Miriam had called earlier and said, “There was a robbery and Alan has gotten shot, and he’s dead.” Then Peggy told Bob that Miriam wanted him to go and be with Alan’s daughter, Portia, because Portia would be distraught.
Isom did go over to Portia’s house, and it was there that he first learned from Portia that Miriam had canceled the riding lesson. Isom told Investigator Burg, “This made no sense! Alan had canceled the golf game because of that riding lesson! He would have gone golfing, if not for that riding lesson.”
Investigator Hebenstreit went to see Dr. Robert Kurtzman, who had done the postmortem on Alan Helmick. Hebenstreit told Dr. Kurtzman that some of Alan Helmick’s family and friends were suspicious that Miriam might have been poisoning Alan before his murder. This was based on Alan’s long period of illness, where at times he could not even get out of bed.
Dr. Kurtzman told Hebenstreit that he had found no evidence of poisoning, but Alan did have serious heart disease. Kurtzman said this would have caused Alan intolerance to physical activity, fatigue, and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such as heartburn.
Hebenstreit said that several people mentioned that Alan had looked and acted better one week before his death. Hebenstreit wanted to know if that was consistent with heart disease. Dr. Kurtzman said yes, and all things considered, family and friends might have mistaken legitimate health issues for poisoning.
On June 12, 2008, Detective Beverly Jarrell interviewed Sue Boulware by phone. Boulware said that she had first been contacted by Miriam Helmick in February 2008 to train the Helmicks’ horses. Boulware’s duties as a trainer were dressage training and an evaluation of the equestrian sport property. Sue said she did not know much about the personal lives of Alan and Miriam, and she didn’t ask. In fact, she had never been to the Helmick residence in Whitewater. The training had taken place at a location in Loma.
Boulware related that on June 9, 2008, the day before Alan was murdered, both Alan and Miriam arrived at the training center in Loma to take one of the horses to Dr. Harris for medical treatment. Sue said that Alan and Miriam were in a hurry, but that was nothing unusual. The Helmicks got the horse into the trailer and then transported it to the vet. Boulware added that everything seemed normal between Alan and Miriam that day, and they returned a few hours later with the horse.
Boulware told Jarrell that she received a phone call at eight forty-three in the morning on June 10. Sue believed that Miriam was calling her on a cell phone while driving, because at one point near the end, Miriam said she was at a store. During the phone call, Miriam said that she would be canceling the noon appointment for the riding lesson for Alan’s granddaughter. Miriam added that they had not made it to Delta on the previous night to pick up the granddaughter as scheduled. This was news to Jarrell. Miriam had told Portia Vigil that it was Sue Boulware who had canceled the riding lesson, because the horse, Billy, was having problems.
Boulware related that at the end of the cell phone conversation on June 10, Miriam had offered to drive to Loma and pay her for the missed lesson. Sue told Miriam that it was too far to drive, and just to send her a check, instead.
Oddly, even after such traumatic events on June 10, Miriam phoned Sue Boulware the very night of Alan’s murder to tell her that the check would be late. The reason for the late check, Miriam said, was that there had been a robbery at the house and Alan had been killed. Then Miriam told Sue that they never locked their doors. Miriam even went out of her way to tell Boulware that all the assets that Alan had were in a trust fund, and she didn’t know how her finances were going to be for a while. Sue was stunned that Miriam was phoning her after such a devastating event.
Boulware told Investigator Jarrell that the Helmicks were nice people and she never had any trouble with them. Then she added that Alan was intelligent, business smart, and financially oriented; he was reasonable to get along with. It was Alan who had been more involved with the business side of the horse training center. Miriam had been more involved on a day-to-day basis, but Boulware thought that both had been enthusiastic about it.
That same day, Bev Jarrell also met with Stephanie Soule and her husband, Brian, at the MCSO headquarters. Stephanie told Jarrell that she had been approached by the Helmicks in March 2007 regarding horse-riding lessons. Miriam had been the first to take the riding lessons on one of the Soules’ horses. As the lessons continued, Miriam had talked about having her own business venture in horse training. She wanted to use land that Alan owned for riding lessons, horse training, and also the selling of horses.
The original scheme was to divide some of the Whitewater property and make it into a “horse subdivision.” All of these initial plans had come from Miriam, but Stephanie added that all of the horse-riding lessons were being paid for by Alan Helmick.
When the plan went into reality, it was Stephanie Soule’s job to set up the facility, to arrange schedules, equipment, and diet for the horses. The trainer said she was there about five days a week, but there were occasions that the Helmicks would cancel because of Alan’s other business operations.
Stephanie then said that Miriam lied to Alan regarding the financial issues of the equestrian-training center. And she became concerned when Miriam asked her to put down more time than she had done on the actual training. Miriam told her, “That’s to prepare Alan for the future.” The trainer told Miriam that she was not comfortable with falsifying records.
Stephanie related that initially Alan had been very nice with her. But over time, he seemed more irritated and questioned her about discrepancies. And Miriam made an odd comment to her: “I don’t maintain any type of financial records because of something that happened to me during my first marriage. Alan has been trying to help me out of this financial problem.” Just what that problem was, the trainer didn’t know.
Stephanie said that Miriam would often make excuses for not training or riding when Stephanie was under contract for payment. And even though Stephanie was going by the contract, Alan started becoming angry with her for writing down on her training log times that he knew Miriam had not ridden or trained horses. It got so bad that there were times that she had to go to Miriam in order to get paid for services she had rendered.
Both Stephanie and her husband, Brian Soule, said that things only got worse in relation to the Helmicks. Brian described Alan questioning his wife’s training time; and when Miriam tried to intervene, “he would shut her down.” Brian added, “Alan became irrational at the end of 2007. He cursed Stephanie around Christmas, 2007, and said that this was his business and she could not tell him what to do!”
December 30, 2007, was the last time Stephanie Soule contacted the Helmicks in person at their Whitewater home.
On June 13, Investigator Lissah Norcross interviewed another of Alan’s daughters, thirty-two-year-old Wendy. Just like Portia, Wendy said that it had been very hard to get in touch with her father over the past several months. Wendy declared that Miriam had been keeping Alan’s phone and not turning it on. This wasn’t a secret, however, since even her father had stated that Miriam was keeping his phone for him. To Wendy, it seemed more like Miriam was keeping the phone
from
him.
from
him.
Wendy had lived with Miriam and her father at the Whitewater residence from May 2006 until June 2007. While she lived with Miriam and Alan, everything seemed to be fine between her father and his new girlfriend. However, Miriam did over time “start confiscating” her father’s cell phone and turning it off. Wendy didn’t say anything at the time because she was trying not to be “a burden to my father and Miriam,” as she put it.
Between the time Wendy moved out of the Whitewater residence, and until she moved to Denver in March 2008, she only saw her father twice. She did phone the residence on occasion, but she only spoke with her father in very few instances. Wendy added that she would ask her father why he didn’t phone her back, as she had left a message. Alan often replied that he hadn’t received any message.
As to Miriam’s statement that she had tried phoning Alan several times on the morning he was killed, Wendy said that made no sense. Wendy claimed, “Miriam always had my father’s phone and kept it turned off.” Alan had even told Wendy that Miriam kept his cell phone in her purse.
Then Wendy wondered why Miriam had gone out so early on June 10. Wendy told Investigator Norcross, “Miriam is not a morning person. While I lived there, I never saw Miriam get up first and go out by herself somewhere. My father was a morning person, but Miriam wouldn’t get up until ten
A.M.
and start moving around.”
A.M.
and start moving around.”
When Wendy had lived with her father and Miriam, she fed the horses in the morning or her father did. Miriam never fed the horses in the morning at all. Not once while living there, had she seen her father and Miriam leave the house before ten o’clock in the morning.
In a later interview with Wendy, Investigator Norcross brought up the aspect of a will that her father had made. Wendy said that in 2007, while her father and Miriam were living together before being married, her father had shown Wendy a handwritten document. Her father had not let her read the document, but he had only said that it concerned his children. Alan did say that the children didn’t have to worry if he died, because Miriam was not to get any of the assets that Alan had amassed previous to her arrival. That was the bulk of the property and money involved. Alan did say that Miriam would receive assets from the period after they were married, which basically concerned the new house and property in Whitewater. Wendy didn’t know where this document was, but she believed it was probably in a filing cabinet, where he kept all his important papers.
On June 13 as well, Lissah Norcross interviewed Alan Helmick’s youngest daughter, Kristy Helmick-Burd, who was thirty. Kristy lived in Seattle, but she had returned to Colorado because of her father’s death. In fact, Kristy stated that she and her husband had planned to visit her father in the current week, and then they suddenly found out that he had been murdered. This, of course, had required that they go to Colorado even earlier than planned.
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