Deadly Seduction (23 page)

The complaint also revealed that Jimmy Grund owed more than $173,000 in mortgage and loan repayments at the time of his death and that was costing the estate $42.88 a day in interest.

Susan’s civil case attorney, Stephen Blower, filed a change of venue with the court and a hearing was arranged for October 19. A special administrator was appointed to handle the estate while the complaint was being tried.

In contesting the will, Jimmy Grund’s two eldest children were claiming that Susan was not qualified to be an executor to the estate and was not entitled to be sole beneficiary of their father’s estate. State law did not allow a person to be an executor if there was a felony conviction.

The filing of the suit had the side effect of unofficially informing the entire community that Susan was officially suspected to be the killer of her husband. Now she had no hiding place, even though she was still at liberty.

And on October 12, prosecutor Wil Siders decided to pile even further pressure on Susan by giving an interview to the
Peru Daily Tribune.

Headlined,
SIDERS: SUSAN GRUND A SUSPECT
, the article began, “The wife of James H. Grund is a suspect in his slaying, Prosecutor Wil Siders confirmed Monday.…”

But the most significant part of the article referred to November 14, 1983, when Susan, then known as Susan Whited, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child beating. That meant she was automatically disqualified from being an executor on Jimmy’s will, according to state laws.

The
Tribune
even tracked down Oklahoma City Assistant D.A. Don Deason, who confirmed to the newspaper that a plea agreement was entered by Susan after her former husband, Tom Whited, had reconciled with her.

Siders decided to make the double bombshell announcement to the newspaper in the light of the civil complaint filed by David and Jama. It was clearly a carefully considered decision deliberately intended to make Susan feel even less secure. The knives were out for her. There was no point in pretending anymore—as far as Wil Siders and the entire Grund family were concerned, Susan murdered Jimmy and she was already a convicted child batterer.

*   *   *

On October 19, Bob Brinson and his team of investigators received evidence that Susan—who claimed to have lost a lot of jewelry in the so-called burglary that resulted in her husband’s death—was rarely seen wearing any expensive jewelry. This clearly implied she did not own the quantity of gems she had earlier claimed.

Jim Grund’s sister Jane and her husband Fred, Jim’s partner in the car dealership, insisted to investigators they had never seen Susan with expensive jewelry. Susan wore costume jewelry most of the time and Jane could only recall Jim Grund buying his wife one expensive gold ring.

On November 1, 1992, a very strange incident occurred. It was something that has never been satisfactorily explained.

Bob Brinson was contacted by David Grund who wanted him to know that he suspected someone had tried to break into his home on East Main Street that very day, while he was out. Brinson immediately went to the apartment to investigate. It appeared that David Grund was moving into another residence and thought someone had disturbed his gun cleaning kit. Nothing else was reported disturbed.

While Brinson was still at David’s apartment, his mother Jane arrived on the scene. She was very concerned about her son’s safety and she agreed to an interview with Bob Brinson, who had not spoken to her during the earlier part of his investigation.

The pieces to the jigsaw were getting bigger but there was no obvious solution in sight.

Fifteen

The first days of November gave warning that the chilling discomfort of winter would soon arrive in northern Indiana. The blustery winds that swept across Miami County took on a hard bite that sent dairy farmers in search of heavy jackets and wives to the closets for additional quilts for the bed. Outside chores were accomplished with a quicker step, the reward for their hurried completion being a return to the warmth indoors.

Men lingered longer over coffee in Peru’s main coffeeshops, and women quick-stepped from their cars into the grocery store or post office, no longer stopping to chat in the parking lot. To the casual observer, it appeared the people of Peru had fallen back into a normal routine. Below the surface, however, a pervasive feeling of despondency shrouded the town.

Over evening meals, residents talked about their suspicions concerning the main suspect in the killing of Jimmy Grund—his wife Susan. At work, people tried at first to discourage speculation about the murder, then it became clear that discussion of the tragedy was the prime subject on everyone’s mind.

The month had come with a great rush. On the international scene, the fighting in Croatia continued unabated and with the presidential election just days away, George Bush tried hard to paint his democratic challenger Bill Clinton as deceitful and deceptive. But most polled expressed disbelief over Bush’s explanation of his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Interesting stuff, but in Peru there was only one story, and it appeared to be going nowhere fast until—on November 2, 1992—an increasingly nervous Darlene Worden, Susan’s only sister in Peru, found herself lining up for her unemployment check at the Miami County courthouse in the center of town. Darlene had an extremely guilty conscience. As far as sisters went, Darlene and Susan had their problems, but she had always remained close to Susan. Darlene had been brought up by their mother Nellie to take care of her younger brothers and sisters and she felt a protective instinct when it came to Susan. She kept wondering what her father would have done if he had found himself in her situation.

Darlene had listened intently when Susan confessed to her about Jimmy’s killing. She knew that Susan had only told her everything because she trusted her and looked up to her for advice. But Darlene was deeply troubled by what Susan had admitted. It wasn’t right to murder anyone, let alone your own husband.

As Darlene walked out of the impressive grey stone courthouse building that morning she saw Indiana State Police Investigator Bob Brinson emerge from the sheriff’s office just across from the back entrance to the courthouse. Darlene decided to approach Brinson because she needed to find out exactly what he knew about Susan’s involvement.

Darlene might share the same deep, saucerlike brown eyes and and fresh honeydewed complexion as her sister, but there the similarities stop. Darlene is as shy as Susan is forward. And seeing Brinson—renowned locally as a solid, impartial law officer—made her feel very nervous because it reminded her of the whole dreadful situation.

She crossed the street and walked up to Brinson just as he was getting into his Ford Taurus. The investigator looked up the moment he saw Darlene and instinctively knew immediately that this could be the biggest breakthrough in the case. He got out of his car and they started talking. Then he offered Darlene a cup of coffee and a cookie in the privacy of the Miami County Sheriff’s Department just across the street.

Darlene was shaking with nervousness. She didn’t care about implicating herself. She was just very concerned about making sure her mother was not held responsible in any way. Darlene had made up her mind; her-mother’s liberty was more important than Susan’s. That was the driving force behind her decision that morning.

*   *   *

Just a few hours later, Brinson had concluded that Darlene Worden’s evidence was so vital to the case that he should hold an emergency meeting with Miami County Prosecutor Wil Siders. At that gathering in the attorney’s courthouse offices, it was decided an attempt would be made to get Darlene and Susan together and record any conversation or admission by Susan Grund.

This time, the wiring
had
to work. The Grund case investigators fully realized that this was probably going to be their final chance to nail Susan for the murder of her husband.

Darlene was reluctant at first. The investigators insisted it was a life or death situation because they were convinced that Susan intended to harm her sister because she knew about Susan’s involvement. Darlene was not so sure and wondered if these dramatic conclusions were just a ruse to ensure she went ahead with a sting operation on her sister.

But Wil Siders was most insistent and in the end, Darlene simply shrugged her shoulders and reluctantly agreed to help bring Susan to justice.

Stage one of the operation meant that Darlene had to immediately call up Susan and say she was going to bring some social security checks over to Vincennes for her, plus her mail from the house on Summit Drive.

When a very nervous Darlene made the call later that day, Susan was very suspicious.

“Why are you coming?” she asked her sister.

“I need to talk to you,” replied Darlene.

After a bit more coaxing, Susan agreed and Darlene said she would see her in “a few hours.”

Darlene was then wired up carefully by Gary Nichols so that he would be able to record the sound of a pin dropping from the moment his transmitter was turned on.

The five-hour drive to Vincennes was agonizing for Darlene. She could not make up her mind if she was doing the right thing. She hoped and prayed that Susan would not suspect anything. But Darlene felt edgy and she knew her sister well enough to realize that if she was even vaguely suspicious then she would never utter a word in relation to the case. Darlene also felt very torn because this was a blatant setup and her sister might well end up in jail as a result of her actions. Whatever she may or may not have done, it was not particularly pleasant to contemplate causing the imprisonment of your own sister.

*   *   *

Darlene was practically shaking by the time she got to the house in Vincennes. She felt more guilty than if she had committed the murder herself.

Sgt. Pat O’Connor, Trooper Gary Boyles, Sheriff Jack Rich, and Wil Siders, plus Bob Brinson, had followed her to Vincennes, hoping and praying that this might be the break they needed so desperately. All the investigators were extremely concerned about Darlene’s highly emotional state, although they had no choice but to continue with the operation. This was their biggest chance so far to get enough evidence to arrest Susan Grund.

As she arrived at the house in her car, Darlene seriously contemplated abandoning the entire scheme. She would throw the transmitter down the toilet the moment she got inside the house, she decided.

At the door to greet her was her mother Nellie and nephew Jacob. They seemed so pleased to see her that it simply accentuated the pain and anguish Darlene was suffering. But something drove her on. Whether it was her own strongly held belief in right and wrong, or simply a fear that she might be implicated in helping her sister if she did not bring her to justice, no one will ever know.

But within a few minutes of arriving, Darlene and Susan were walking outside and talking. However, it wasn’t going to be easy. Susan initially refused even to refer back to that trip to the house to take out the gun a few weeks earlier. She seemed incredibly wary of Darlene. It was as if she had instantly worked out that her sister was wired.

Darlene became so tense it was obvious to Susan that something was seriously wrong and after a few minutes, she stopped and scribbled out a note to her sister asking her if she was wired.

In her appalling state of nervousness, Darlene was confused by the note at first, then she just ignored it. Susan, afraid to say anything in case it was heard by investigators, just continued walking.

All the time, the investigators’ orders were ringing in Darlene’s mind, so she still did as instructed and continued to try and pull the conversation round to whether her sister had killed Jim Grund.

“I know you can’t remember what happened that evening, but you confessed to me you killed Jim,” muttered a very nervous Darlene to her sister. It was pretty clumsy stuff.

“My God, Darlene, I never said anything like that to you at all. I don’t understand why you are saying that.”

Darlene was even more thrown by her sister’s response, but she pressed on desperately, repeating the same thing over and over. In their listening post across the fields, the investigators were grimacing with embarrassment. This was looking like a complete disaster.

Eventually, Darlene and Susan returned to the house. Susan was furious, but she had kept her calm because she did not want anything incriminating to be recorded. Shortly afterwards, Darlene departed, having failed to get even remotely enough evidence.

The investigators sitting in their vehicles half a mile away were bitterly disappointed. It seemed as if Susan had once again managed to slip from their grasp. For a housewife with no previous criminal activities other than that child battery case in Oklahoma, she was proving a very slippery customer.

The operation had been a disaster. Bob Brinson really began to wonder if perhaps they had all underestimated the intelligence of Susan Grund.

A few minutes later, Darlene met up with investigators and was told that they were going to go ahead and arrest Susan on the basis of what Darlene had told them in her statement about how the two sisters went back to the house to take the gun and the teddy bears. Darlene pleaded with them not to arrest Susan until the next morning for the sake of the children and her mother, Nellie. She thought an early morning raid would be very traumatic for the rest of the family.

But within the hour, Wil Siders and Bob Brinson met with Knox County Prosecutor Dale Webster at his office, near Vincennes. The unit signed a search warrant affidavit and the search warrant was signed and ordered by Knox County Superior Court Judge Edward Theobold. The unit returned to the Susan Grund residence located at 406 Locust Street and served the search warrant at 4:40
A.M.
next morning.

No gun was located at the house, but the two Christmas teddy bears were found and seized. They clearly had been used to transport something of approximately the same size as the gun for which they were looking.

Bob Brinson arrested Susan Grund for the murder of James Grund as she stood and watched while investigators thoroughly searched the premises. She was immediately transported to Knox County Jail to be incarcerated for the remainder of that night. It was hoped that once all the correct paperwork had been completed she could be on her way back to Miami County.