When Men Are Driven To Desperation by Charles E. Corry, Ph.D.
When Men Are Driven To Desperation by Charles E. Corry, Ph.D.© 2002-2005 Equal Justice Foundation
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Air Force Master Sergeant Gerry Roadcap
She hits him repeatedly, both end up dead
R.I.P. Louis W. Joy, III — New Hampshire consultant
Tacoma Washington police chief shoots wife before killing himself
Sister tells of long years of abuse David Brame suffered from his wife
North Dakota farmer goes on rampage when officers attempt to serve restraining order
High noon in Lehi, Utah: Former-cop turns violent after wife shacks up with convicted felon
Police link plane crash in Bedford, Indiana, to couple's bitter split
High-school student's affair with female teacher leads to his slaying in Knoxville, Tennessee
Colorado Springs man in hospital after setting himself on fire
Craig, Colorado, miner charged with murder after young, abusive wife's body found
Loveland Colorado father bludgeons process server delivering divorce papers and restraining order to death
Protection order ends with "suicide by cop" at daughter's First Communion
We state elsewhere that men are dangerous. Pushed too far almost any man becomes violent. So lets look at the reaction of men who were driven to the ultimate act of murder or suicide by their wives. We have no doubts that similar murders and suicides happen around the globe every day and every hour.
The first example is from Colorado Springs where an Air Force Master Sergeant killed his popular, but abusive, disk jockey wife after finding she was having an affair with a convicted felon.
The backbone of any military organization is its noncommissioned officers, and Master Sergeant Gerry Roadcap had gone far in the Air Force. After enlisting at age 19 he became a nuclear weapons specialist and progressed rapidly through the ranks.
While serving in Montana he met, and married a vivacious disk jockey. After their marriage, Gerry was transferred to Colorado Springs where he served with Air Force Space Command at Peterson AFB. His wife, Cindy, found a position as a local disk jockey and was widely known and popular with her listening audience.
"Salt of the earth," and "backbone of America and its Armed Forces" are terms that come to mind to describe Gerry Roadcap. Obviously the government placed its highest faith and trust in this man and had given him a top secret security clearance.
Yet on the morning of August 29, 1999, at about 8 AM, MSgt. Roadcap chased his wife into the yard of their Ellicot home, wielding a garden tool against her. There, in front of neighbors, he strangled her to death. He then dumped her body into their car, sat on top of her, and was driving away when sheriff's deputies, called by the neighbors, caught up to him.
Testimony during his trial suggests that Cindy was a volatile woman who often drank heavily, sometimes used marijuana and cocaine, and occasionally hit, shoved, and otherwise abused her husband. After her death evidence was brought forward that Cindy suffered from borderline personality disorder and that disorder probably accounted for much of her erratic and violent behavior.
Until August 29, 1999, testimony indicates MSgt. Roadcap had never fought back against her attacks.
She had also begun an affair with Steven Maness, an inmate at the maximum security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, who was serving a twelve-year sentence for contract kidnapping. Gerry apparently found love letters to Cindy from Maness in her car. Maness also called her at their home on occasion.
Apparently trouble began that morning with Gerry accosting Cindy about the love letters he had found. As he confronted her, and they argued, Maness called her at their house. After a tense exchange, Gerry hung up on him.
Something then gave him reason to believe Cindy was going to vent her wrath on their 15-month-old daughter and Gerry moved to protect the infant. About then, Maness appears to have called again. At that point, Gerry Roadcap apparently went berserk, picked up a garden tool and attacked his wife, driving her into the yard, where he strangled her.
On October 23, 2000, an El Paso County jury found MSgt. Gerry Roadcap guilty of second-degree murder and he has been sentenced to 27 years in the Colorado state penitentiary.
Until his wife irrational behavior drove him over the edge, MSgt. Roadcap had no criminal record. There is no indication that authorities had ever been called because of domestic disputes. Probably the only law he had previously broken was a traffic violation. Thus, no law or order could have protected her from the consequences of her actions.
Any man can be driven berserk by the irrational behavior of a woman he loves. The human male is a most dangerous animal when aroused.
According to the August 25, 2002, edition of Colorado Springs Gazette, as well as police and court documents Ms. Brooke Campbell had repeatedly hit her boyfriend, Don' el Demayo.
In July 2000, Ms. Campbell pled guilty to hitting Demayo in the face during an argument. For that she was sentenced to 36 weeks of domestic violence counseling and ordered to pay $138 in fines and court costs. She was also sentenced to 30 days in jail, but the judge suspended the sentence.
The couple remained together but apparently the violence continued although Mr. Demayo claimed Brooke only hit him "when asked." No matter, it is always dangerous to provoke a human male.
On Wednesday, August 22, 2002, Ms. Campbell's 21 st birthday, Demayo shot her in the head, and then turned the gun on himself, leaving both dead.
Though no one could make out what they were saying, neighbors heard muffled sounds of the couple arguing before the blasts that ended their lives early Wednesday.
In Controlling Domestic Violence Against Men we repeatedly make the point that if domestic violence is to be controlled women must learn not to heedlessly provoke the human male. The sad ending to these young lives is a case in point.
On Friday, August 24, 2001, Jo A. Joy, age 39, and wife for twenty years of Louis W. Joy III, age 43, went to the Milford District Court and swore out an affidavit claiming: "I believe Louis poses a very real and credible threat to my safety and to that of our child and to our property...Louis has said to me on numerous occasions, 'I need to do what I need to do.' I have taken that language as a threat both against me and as a threat of suicide."
As a basis for her fear she stated "Louis owns several firearms...I am terrified that he could harm me or our child as a result." She also stated she had been subjected to psychological and emotional abuse throughout their relationship of more than twenty years. No incidents of physical abuse were listed or alleged in her affidavit.
According to The Union Leader (September 5, 200, p. A2), Mrs. Joy had consulted with the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence for "support and guidance on how to protect herself and daughter," before filing the restraining order.
As a result of her claims, Jo Joy was given a temporary restraining order that gave her custody of their 8-year-old daughter, Angelica, and possession of their new million-dollar home at 10 High Meadow Lane in Amherst, NH.
Louis Joy was served with the restraining order Friday evening at his home and forced to leave by police officers.
The next morning at 7:23 AM EDT, Louis Joy, a nationally-recognized manufacturing consultant and speaker, author of the book "Frontline Teamwork" that he co-authored with his wife, CEO of Manufacturing Excellence, Inc., and licensed pilot, took off from Nashua Airport in a Socata TB20 Trinidad plane owned by the corporation.
About 18 minutes later he deliberately dove the plane into their home on Meadow Lane in Amherst. Rick Crocker, chief of the Amherst Fire Department said the plane clipped trees before slamming into the second floor from the east. Crocker estimated that the plane was descending at a 45-degree angle when it struck the house. A thousand-gallon propane tank in the yard, as well as the high-octane aviation fuel in the plane's tank exploded on impact.
Louis Joy's body was recovered from the cockpit of the plane, which ended up in the basement of the home, and he was identified from dental records. His wife and daughter were not home at the time of the crash.
After her husband's suicide, Mrs. Joy attempted to have the petition and affidavit she had filed against her husband sealed, allegedly to avoid further damage to her daughter's health and happiness.
Three newspapers then filed a motion to unseal the court records in the case. According to The Union Leader (September 5, 200, p. A2) the 39-year-old mother held an impromptu news conference she arranged in an upstairs hallway at the Milford District Court at the time of the hearing. "Seating herself casually atop a table, Joy explained her first choice was not to resort to attorneys to sort out her domestic discord." Instead, as noted above, she had called the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence for advice. She then filed an affidavit to obtain the restraining order against her husband that appears to have driven him to his spectacular death.
Milford District Court Judge William R. Dressler granted the newspaper's motion to unseal Mrs. Joy's domestic violence petition and affidavit and they are in the public record.
Thanks to Paul M. Clements of Dads Against Discrimination and the New Hampshire chapter of the National Congress For Fathers & Children for obtaining and passing along the newspaper clippings of this tragedy.
The next example is from the United Kingdom. There is no question that this man deserves to be in prison. As the murder appears to have been premeditated, perhaps he should even be executed as he can be of no further value to society.
Yet it would appear that society drove him beyond despair and into violence.
Ask yourself who is the "victim" here and who the "perpetrator" ? Perhaps a different approach than hounding this man might have saved her, and many other women's lives.
Telephone: (01727 864257 +44 1727 864257
E-mail: ivorcatt@electromagnetism.demon.co.uk
Web site: www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk
I have acquired the 'Taking Stock' booklet by Stinky and the Home Office Research Study No. 191 on Domestic Violence. It really does stretch the imagination that the general public is misled by the women MP's who are now campaigning to prevent (so-called) violent husbands/partners from having contact with their children. I am a life sentence prisoner convicted of domestic murder. I was exhausted at the time trying to get help, whereas my wife made all kinds of weird and wonderful allegations against me including one that I had made a threat to kill her. I was charged, held in custody and eventually acquitted unanimously by a jury.
It didn't stop there. The aggravations went on even after we divorced. In the end I stabbed her to death. I had reached the end of my tether. No one, even the police, would listen to me; I couldn't afford solicitors' fees to stop her, yet she continued to make allegations and was listened to, especially by social workers.
This prison, the only all lifer prison in Europe, contains mostly domestic murderers like myself. There is a clear history of frustration, anger, confusion and injustice at the way some of us were demonized by social workers, divorce courts, at child custody-access hearings, how some of us lost everything including our self esteem before we committed the ultimate act.
I have recently come across a reference book on psychology written by a Canadian woman psychologist and she referred to a Canadian Government hearing which sought to criminalize those instances where women in child custody/access hearings make bogus allegations of violence and abuse. It is estimated that about 40% of claims are bogus. The details are: 1998 Joint Committee of the Senate and Parliament; 'For the Sake of the Children'; Report of the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access; December 1998; Canadian Publication Services Ottawa. I have written to the Canadian Embassy for details on how to acquire the report.
I believe that this topic is deserving of wider coverage within the context of domestic violence, for it is here that so many men become victims not only of the wife/ex-wife/partner but [also] of the system that generates inequality. Perhaps you could let me know what you think.
HM Prison, Kingston, Milton Rd.,
Please advise whether your letter is confidential. [Wherever and whenever you want to quote me, please feel free to do so. CH, 24 July 2000]
I visited Bernie Downes while he was in prison, (kidnapping his child off to the USA,) but later on he cut off from me, after he came out. I have had occasional letters from people in prison, but the communication fizzles out.
I need the prison dimension now that I edit Ill Eagle, and so you can help me.
Hopefully, Ill Eagle will give you an idea of the kind of area you could help me with. If you clear it, I shall start with a part of your 22june00 letter. However, it would be better if you came up with numbers, even just estimates, to make your assertions more solid.
Ideally, you would become one further member of the network of experts that I have assembled. Whiston is Govt statistics and other statistics, Pelling is amateur lawyer, Yarwood is violence, and so on.
Also, we should plan a questionnaire for the domestic trouble lifers, and get statistics. We should take a long time devising it. Please make initial suggestions for questions.
Tell me if you have access to the Internet. I presume not.
Thank you for your recent letter ....
Kingston Prison was always a domestic lifers prison although a few non-domestic lifers are now creeping in. We domestics are never viewed very favorably by the politically correct psychologists, probation officers etc.
We are expected to undergo Offending Behavior courses and there are specific ones for us, — Relationships, Anger Management, Spouse Homicide, Thinking Skills to name a few.
It matters not that my son from an earlier marriage was having a sexual relationship with my wife, having lost control and stabbed her I am treated like I should have just accepted it and entered therapy implying that there was something wrong with me to have objected, I am now deemed a danger to women by politically correct women probation officers and their ilk. The fact that I had been married 3 times suggests that there is something wrong with me. Who but these liberals made divorce so easy? Who but these want to see the breakdown of family and traditional values and then condemn those like me for being forced to go along with them?
Of course, I regret taking the life of the woman I loved. I can never forget it, and I will be haunted by it for the rest of my life. Life for me and for her parents will never be the same, and I don't need reminders of it. However, the politically correct will not let me forget it. I have to attend dubious courses, where I have serial bereavements.
I do not have the defenses usually and only available to women; for example, PMS, abuse, provocation, the effects of HRT and Prozac. I am expected to cope, and indeed tolerate, what women would get sympathy for. As a domestic lifer I don't have the equivalent of feminist campaigns to free me. I am left with the thought that the male species are indeed the stronger. It is what by implication the feminists seem to perpetuate by holding men like me culpable. The same, however, is not true of the Sarah Thornton's of the world.
Wherever and whenever you want to quote me, please feel free to do so.
I look forward to hearing from you.
P.S. I don't believe that the Home Office or the Prison Service maintain records of wife killers, or as the PC term now applies, 'Partners'. I could be wrong, however. CH
© 2003 The New York Times
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Tacoma, Washington, April 27, 2003 — The wife of the Tacoma police chief was in critical condition today, a day after her husband shot her in the head in a mall parking lot and then fatally shot himself, the authorities said [she died on May 3, 2003].
The shootings occurred at the Olympic Plaza shopping center in Gig Harbor, a maritime suburb across the Tacoma Narrows, a day after abuse accusations in the couple's divorce case appeared in local papers.
Chief David Brame, 44, was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County sheriff's office said. Crystal Brame, 35, remained in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center, according to news reports. Hospital officials would not comment on her condition.
Tacoma's city manager, Ray Corpuz, issued a statement today expressing shock at the shootings, which were witnessed by the couple's children, Haley, 8, and David Jr., 5.
"Right now I' d ask that everyone pray for Crystal Brame and for the future of Haley and David Jr.," Mr. Corpuz said. "More than anything, their welfare is on my mind."
The chief and his wife arrived in the parking lot in separate cars, with the couple's children riding with their mother. At one point, the chief took the children to his car, then went back to his wife's car, where the pair engaged in a heated conversation, witnesses told the authorities.
Witnesses reported hearing two quick shots from the parking lot, Detective Troyer said. The children ran toward their mother's car after hearing the shots, he said.
One witness, Dana Mossman, told the The News Tribune of Tacoma, "I heard them say: `Daddy shot Mommy. Daddy hurt Mommy.'"
The children are now in the care of Ms. Brame's mother.
In their divorce case, Crystal Brame had accused her husband of choking her and threatening to kill her, while Chief Brame said that his wife had physically and verbally abused him, according to court records cited by The News Tribune.
Until then, most city officials had been unaware of Chief Brame's conflicts at home, Mayor Bill Baarsma of Tacoma said in an interview today. He recalled how Chief Brame was "beaming" when his wife pinned a star to his chest at his installation ceremony in January 2002 as one of this city's youngest chiefs of police.
Chief Brame "just seemed to be the absolute perfect choice" for the job, Mr. Baarsma said.
The chief had been in the midst of a wrenching departmental audit, Mr. Baarsma said, but his demeanor betrayed little evidence of any deeper problems.
The mayor, who is also chairman of the city's public safety committee, often worked closely with Mr. Brame. He was also Mr. Brame's faculty adviser while a professor at the nearby University of Puget Sound. He remembered the chief as a serious student and one set on advancing himself.
"He rose through the ranks, always finishing at the top," Mr. Baarsma said. Most people in law enforcement in Tacoma knew Mr. Brame. He was a Tacoma native and a graduate of Lincoln High School in the city's working class East Side neighborhood. Once a uniformed officer, he took pleasure policing the streets where he grew up, Mr. Baarsma said.
Catherine Woodard, an assistant chief, is now acting chief, Mr. Corpuz said. The Gig Harbor Police Department is investigating the shooting, with the help of the Pierce County sheriff's office.
October 20, 2003 — I have put together the story of my brother, deceased Tacoma Police Chief David Brame, before the fatal shootings on Saturday, April 26, 2003.
David was hired as a rookie for the Tacoma Police Department in December of 1981 at 23 years of age. He worked diligently to move up in the ranks reading and studying books for months to test for promotions. David proudly, but humbly became the police chief in January 2002. He thoroughly enjoyed his police career and worked with the officers to better the department. He was a very trustful, honest person and was well liked by everyone who knew him and worked for him. What you saw with David, was what you got. He would work long hours, go home for awhile, and return at shift change in order to meet with the officers and to be a part of their meetings. He also would ride along with the patrol men and women to get to know them individually, which he felt was important. David took pride in his work and also his home life and children.
David met his wife, Crystal, when she was 20 years old and working for the Tacoma Police Department as a prostitute decoy. She later found an office job working for the courts in Tacoma. David and Crystal were married in August of 1991 and Crystal worked for the first three years of their marriage prior to their daughter Haley's birth.
David had concerns about marrying Crystal from the very beginning but went through with it anyway. One incident that was a red flag for David, and our family, was soon after they met she told him of an old boyfriend who had beaten her so badly she had to be hospitalized. That was where the victim role started in their relationship.
Due to continuing conflicts in their eleven year marriage, David and Crystal separated at the end of February 2003, and their divorce was pending. They had marital discord for about eight years that seemed to start after the birth of their daughter, Haley, in December 1994. The up and down mood swings Crystal had were very wearing on their family. David was always the one on an even keel, quiet, calm and very stable. He always said, "I feel like I'm raising three kids."
Crystal frequently would lash out, scream and yell enough that she would keep David up till after 1:00 AM, not caring that he had to go to work in the morning. He would sometimes go to bed before her and then, in a rage, she would enter the bedroom, turn on the lights and start ranting and raving, keeping him awake for hours. David was not a fighter and never was even as a boy.
David left their home one night to go to our parent's house to get some rest. After he left that night, Crystal called the Gig Harbor police and they came out and took a report. They apparently asked if he had threatened her and she told them no. A report was written but nothing was done. My point is she would take inappropriate steps like that when it was uncalled for, and so minor. Yet she claimed she never told anyone about the "death threats" she accused him of later. I don't think there is any way she would have kept quiet about such threats if they were real, especially since she was so close to her parents.
She practically lived on the telephone. And she told the neighbors, and whoever would listen to her, all kinds of "poor me" stories. When she talked to me on the phone I knew it was going to be an hour conversation, with her controlling it and not giving you a chance to even try to get off the phone. She repeated herself over and over, rambling on and on. It was quite annoying and our whole family went through this experience with her. When we talked, everything she did was a big chore to her, nothing was easy. She made a big deal out of just ordinary daily chores that all mothers do. I often thought she never appreciated being able to be at home with the children and not work.
One time when David was asleep she came into the bedroom and turned the lights on and she held her hands behind her back and then stuck her arms straight out as if she had a gun and pointed it at David. He thought that was very strange. Another time, in the middle of the night when she was pregnant with David Jr., she was crying and upset, sitting in the middle of the bed looking up abortion doctors saying she didn't want to be pregnant. David talked to her about her mental state, but to no avail. This would make her angry and upset, not facing the truth. She was very peculiar and acted as though she never noticed her outbursts.
David owned one gun (not two) and kept it in a locked holster at home. When he got this gun he demonstrated to Crystal the use of it and how careful they had to be because accidents can happen. She transposed what he said to make it look like he was threatening her. She would also pick up stories that David told her regarding his police job and twist them around so as to put herself as the victim somehow and imply that David was the perpetrator.
During their marriage David felt like he never knew what he was going to come home to. He had said when the relationship was "good, it was real good, when it was bad, it was real bad." Crystal was very extreme, seeming to be obsessed in her actions, checking over and over in Haley's crib when she was a baby, as if looking for something that was not there. It was as though she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. She was a very stressed, anxious-type person who had a difficult time relaxing. David would try to encourage her to get involved in activities outside of the home, make friends, get a job if she wanted, but there was no way he was going to make her happy. Confronting her and trying to give her options to enable happiness just did not work.
David Jr. was born in 1997 and her bizarre behavior continued. David had told me that when David Jr. was a toddler, and was sick with a fever, he had vomited on the family room carpet. Crystal stood over the baby, screaming, and swearing at him. Unfortunately, this was something she did on a regular basis when the baby was in his crib and would wake up crying from what we were told by David.
In July of 1998, Crystal was on a tangent and started slugging David. She bruised him badly and he had pictures taken of this. He said he stood and did not touch her, which was the way my brother would have been.
It was said that little Crystal couldn't hurt him. Well, she did and the hitting continued several times thereafter. She was also continually badgering him and complaining. Her excuse as to how he got the bruises was that she claimed David hurt himself while lifting weights with barbells, but they didn't own barbells then. After their deaths, we also read where he performed ritualistic self-mutilation on a regular basis. Now how odd is that? She went to great lengths to cover herself.
When Crystal got angry with David two or three years ago she told him that she was going to ruin his career. And she also stated at another time that she could be a good actress. David was always an honest man and it hurt him to think he was married to someone who would lie at the drop of a hat and could be so vengeful.
David came home from work early one day and heard Crystal screaming at the kids. Another time he came home and changed David Jr.'s diaper and his bare bottom was beet red with hand prints on it. She told David that she "almost lost it." He had real concerns and expressed this to our family and their family physician. David thought maybe it was a hormone imbalance. The doctor was told then about her hitting him and how out of control she was.
She had a hysterectomy a couple of years ago, but her moods never changed. She was in need of serious help for her mental instability. It wasn't just David that was being abused, their little kids went through a lot emotionally and physically. David listened to Crystal last fall (2002) tell Haley, who was almost 8 years old, that the kids were going to laugh at her school pictures because they didn't turn out good. Of course, she had Haley crying and upset. David had to intervene so many times during these outbursts and stop her from being cruel to their kids.
Haley lost a baby tooth last fall and accidentally dropped it and it couldn't be found. Crystal screamed and yelled at little Haley until she was in tears. One night when David tucked David Jr. in bed when he was about three or four, David Jr. said, "good night asshole." He would call his little cousin a "bastard." David did not swear, but the kids were being sworn at by their mother. It saddened David to see his two little children being raised by an abusive mother. These are just a few horrible incidents the kids and David had to endure.
At Christmas Crystal would buy expensive suits, shirts, ties, and such for David and he would tell her, "These things don't mean anything to me, Crystal. All I ask is for you to be nice to me and you can have the world." She didn't get it. Material things were the most important...looking good on the outside. She didn't want to fix what was going on in her head. Birthdays and Christmas' were so out of whack with her and the gift giving. It would take the kids 45 minutes to open their birthday presents. It was so ridiculous it was sickening. Why would a little 5 year old girl need 35 Barbie dolls? David wanted his kids to have everything nice, but not to that extent. Everything was overboard. The normalcy was not there with Crystal.
Crystal also made over 50 long distance phone calls in a two month period up to Canada calling a couple they met in Palm Springs at a resort a couple of years ago. She ran their phone bills up to $400 to $500 for two months. Why would she call a couple that she "barely" knew? She spent a couple of hours roller blading with a man she just met, leaving David at the pool alone. She also spent a couple of hours in the couple's room with them late one night without David. I wonder what she was looking for?
David and I would talk on the telephone on weekends. If Crystal was out of the house at the time, he would tell me if he had to get off the phone real quick it was because Crystal drove up. She would literally feel the phone to see if it was warm to tell if David was using it or not. I thought it was a horrible way for my brother to live. She was very jealous and insecure.
When David went to Quantico, VA last January 2003 for 7 to 10 days, Crystal gave him a card in his suitcase that was very loving. She told him to have a great time, to go sightseeing, say "hi" to George and Barbara Bush, and told him how much her and the kids loved him and were going to miss him. An abused woman does this? I don't think so!
The allegations in the news that when David moved out of the house he'd left a fortune cookie, a newspaper opened to the obituaries, and a book about a wife being murdered by her husband is ludicrous. Crystal was seemingly determined to ruin him one way or another. She was out of control and doomed for trouble. This whole little scenario fits Crystal to a "T."
We read in the paper that, while David and Crystal were separated, for sixty-one days she never was without one of her family members when out and about until April 26th, the day of the shooting. David and Crystal were together at Haley's school one morning and after leaving Haley in the building, they went to David's car and sat and talked for quite awhile. Why would she sit and talk to him if she was so deathly afraid?
The lies about David threatening to kill Crystal and choke her started after David told her that he was telling his attorney about how abusive she was to the kids. So it was pay back time and she was going to get him good. In retaliation, she started the stories of David choking her three or four times and the supposed death threats. David told us that never occurred, which we believe because she would have had him arrested in a flash. David was not a game player like her. She was so angry with him she was adding more stories to the already strained divorce. The reason no one knew of the threats in the past, is because they didn't happen. David said to me, "She's delusional." What I questioned was if Crystal had been abused wouldn't she have told her attorney when she filed for divorce in February rather than wait until April when David told of her abuse?
Crystal did not have anything to lose making all of the false accusations and David had everything to lose. It was as though she was driving herself to the grave. I do not understand how someone can be so devious and cruel and think they can get away with it. Eventually, liars get caught. And why would she go this far with the stories? Because David never did anything to her in the past except for the shooting on April 26th!
Crystal played yet another victim role of not having any money and being physically abused by David. She had called the police and attorney over minor, made-up stories. So why didn't she call them when she claimed he attempted to choke her? This woman could have had him arrested, moved in with her parents, and been protected if all of this was true. It doesn't take much to see through this.
In David's divorce decree, there are copies of credit card charges that total over $10,000 in the past year, all signed by Crystal from her shopping sprees ($300 here, $500 there, etc.). She went tanning on a regular basis, helped out at the school occasionally, had a beautifully-decorated $300,000 home with custom draperies, Thomas Kincaid paintings, and two new cars. They were all very well dressed in name-brand clothes and they were not purchased at the thrift store either. They had the best money could buy, but it still was not enough. She shopped at Nordstrom's, but tried to portray herself as almost penniless. In December 2002 she bought a beautifully decorated $1,100 Christmas tree. They also had three themed Christmas trees, one for the family room with a ton of snowmen on it, and the other two in the kids' bedrooms with expensive Disney ornaments on them.
She would take pictures of the snowman tree before she took it down after Christmas so she could decorate it in the exact same fashion the following year. This was another "odd, obsessive way" she had. She bought a $900 comforter set for a king size bed that they didn't have and stored it in the closet for the future. Per the TNT she tried to convince storekeepers of her penniless state. Well, why would she shop in a specialty shop in Gig Harbor that was too expensive for her? Someone should have taken pity on her and suggested to her maybe it would be at her best interest not to shop there. There are lots of thrift stores around after all.
Crystal was not only divorcing David, she was brainwashing their kids to think of him as a bad father, gradually pulling them further and further away from him, and was working on bringing down his career. It was very apparent she was coaching Haley and telling her all kinds of lies. That was a very heavy burden David carried and he was backed into a corner by his very own wife. When there are continual lies being made and a person is under the stress of going through a divorce, a man feels devastated losing everything he has worked for and loves.
David talked to her on the phone once while they were separated and she said to him, "Remember when you tried to choke me?" And he replied, "Crystal, you know you're lying." I believe her family was right there listening and she was playing the poor little victim part again. David also told me after they separated she said to him, "Now I can start wearing fingernail polish again." David said to me, "I don't know where that came from." I remember her always wearing bright fingernail polish and lipstick and thick, dark eye shadow. She would even put the dark nail polish on Haley, which was so inappropriate for a little girl.
David was a very good father and his kids were his life. Haley and David Jr. both attended a Christian pre-school and David taught Haley to say grace at mealtime. He tried to provide them with a secure and happy home, taking the time out to read bedtime stories to the kids every night.Crystal never wanted to be a part of that even when the kids were really little. David was the one that would tuck them in at night. He said the kids and him had a ritual of running down the hall each night racing to their bedrooms. He was so proud of Haley's reading abilities and had looked forward to David Jr. starting T-ball this past spring. Of course, this was squashed by Crystal telling him there was no way he was going to participate in any of David Jr.'s T-ball practices and games. She even went so far as to change dentists where David Jr. went because David would always take him and be there for him. So she took it upon herself to take another enjoyment out of David's life. He always encouraged Haley to read and do well in school. The kids were the light of his life and loved them more than anything. It hurt him terribly to see their relationships being ruined due to her insecurities.
When he had the kids on the weekends during the separation, he always made sure they had bubble baths because they never got to do that when the four of them lived together. They were used to Crystal jerking their little arms, pulling them into the shower with her everyday. David would talk to her about the way she would grab Haley's arm. Everything had to be hurry, hurry with her. He wanted it to be relaxing for them and let them be ordinary kids. He would fold out the hide-a-bed and the three of them would camp out and watch TV, which was another treat. If the kids wanted to jump on the bed, he would let them. He wanted them to have a fun, relaxed life like he had as a child. He was a very loyal father with a great sense of humor and enjoyed his family immensely.
When I was with David in April when he had the kids for the weekend, he called her to tell her what time he was bringing the kids to her parents and told her that I was coming along also (this was because he needed someone for a witness due to past problems). I listened to David talk to her on the phone and when he mentioned me going with him she said, " No, I' m going to call my attorney. I' m going to call my attorney." David said, "Crystal, it's my sister." So when he got off the phone with her he told me, "Don't be surprised if the Pierce County Deputies are over there." And I just said, "This I have to see." Crystal and I had never had words with each other in the past and we were always cordial even though there were many times I wanted to sit down and have a talk with her and find out where she was coming from. When we arrived at the Security Gate to the housing community Cyrstal's parent's live in, the parents came along with her in two cars, but there were no deputies. All went fairly well though the kids were definitely not happy. David Jr. walked right past Crystal without a hug after not seeing her for four days, and after getting in her car, jumped back out and ran to his dad and said he wanted to go with him. This was pitiful to witness.
Last year my parents went to their home to babysit the kids for awhile. David Jr. was 4 1/2 years old then and for some reason he hit my mom in the chest. She gave him a little swat on the bottom. When David and Crystal returned, Haley told Crystal that my mom spanked David. After this happened and the divorce had started a year later, Crystal was telling everyone (attorney, psychologist, etc.) that my mom had been abusing the kids for years and also, that they went a year without seeing her. There was no truth to that whatsoever. She and the kids were at the family functions during the holidays throughout the years. She told David during the divorce that my mom was never going to see the kids again. He told me that he told her, "We can get the divorce, but I want my mom to see the kids." This was another problem she started. Of course, I could go into great detail what kind of a mother and grandmother my mom has been, but the best way to describe her is being loyal, loving, and very dedicated to family in the same manner as my father is. They have eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren and there have never been any problems with either of my parents with the grandchildren. Unfortunately to this day, our family has not seen the kids since the tragedy occurred. We have seen the psychologist report (TNT let the world see it as well) and Crystal lied her way through that also and was working on the kids big time to turn them against their grandmother, whom they had always been crazy about. So this is another battle we are dealing with besides grieving the loss of David.
Crystal had such an exaggerated mind. There was another bizarre story she told everyone. David and she went to a gathering of some sort with other police officers and their wives in December 2002. David said she was going around telling everyone that she was being stalked by a man. The story I heard from David was that a family friend of Crystal's apparently came to visit her parents in Gig Harbor about a year or so ago. He had had problems with drugs and had bouts with the law. He had asked about Crystal because he remembered her as a young person and always liked her. Well, come to find out, after this visit he had with her parents, he was put in the Pierce County jail for several months, apparently on drug charges. He was released months later and Crystal was out of control about that. She was bound and determined he was stalking her. Crystal talked to me about it also and I just thought, "How strange. Here we go again with another fabricated story." She was paranoid and going on and on about this to everyone. David said she going off about nothing. It was really quite embarrassing for him. The victim role was in the works again.
My husband and I would give her a birthday card with $20 in it and she would say, "Oh, now I can buy myself some new tennis shoes. I've had this pair forever." I would think, "who are you trying to kid?" They had more money than most people I knew.
She was always sick with something. She played the hypochondriac for years. I thought that was strange for being so young. And who went over and helped her when she was sick and the kids were babies? My parents!
About two years ago there was a Tacoma rapist loose. She knew the description of him and his truck, and she called David at work and told him she saw the guy driving in their neighborhood. I thought that was a bit much also. She either was looking for attention all the time or she really believed what she said. Our family recognized her as seeming to have bipolar symptoms, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, lying, very self-centered, and downright unbalanced. We would catch her in lies time and time again.
After the tragedy the Tacoma News Tribune stated that David made Crystal weigh herself everyday and would watch her use the bathroom. I don't believe David had time to deal with such oddness. David did tell us how she would get on the scale almost every day and lean her hands against the wall in order to weigh a little lighter. She was obsessed with her weight and was so concerned about getting fat. She was a very miserable young person who simply did not like herself or her life.
The day of the shootings David had his kids for the weekend and was shopping for bath toys and groceries. Crystal followed his car when she spotted it in the Gig Harbor Shopping Center. I think something was said to him that put him over the edge and both of their lives were taken. She was not afraid of him in anyway or she would never have gotten near him. There was not an ounce of fear in this woman. David was living in the family home for a couple of months alone and Crystal and the kids were living with her parents a few miles away. She would come over with her mother and badger David until finally David contacted his attorney to put a stop to it. She was contacting him, he was not contacting her. She would put their daughter up to calling him and harassing him with questions until it was ridiculous. A woman that is afraid of her estranged husband does not tell him to cut the lawn before he moves out. But that's what Crystal did and, unfortunately, David did it. She also told him that she deserved to be married to a millionaire and live in Canterwood (a prestigious Gig Harbor neighborhood where her parent's live).
The day David moved out of the house, his neighbor came over and talked to him. He told David, "Just between us guys, we know Crystal is loosely wrapped." When David told me that I said, "Doesn't it make you feel a little better knowing that the neighbors recognize her for what she is?" And he said, "Yes."
We have an explanation regarding the flowers David sent to Crystal after the alleged choking incidents. David did send her flowers on holidays, but she managed to say he sent them the day after the supposed abuse. Why would she wait until after the separation to go to the florist to find out who sent them to her? Since David sent them to her and they were on their credit card, did she not get the bill in the mail? She was a stay-at-home mom that was home while David was working 10-12 hours a day. Who would get the mail first? H'mmm...I wonder? And would David set himself up to do such a foolish move? Never, he was far too intelligent for that.
We were never surprised when David would tell us some of the odd games she played. It was typical Crystal...we all knew her too well.
I listened to the tape of the phone call Crystal made to her psychologist at 4:35 PM on April 25 th . She claimed she was afraid for her life. I was at David's apartment with my daughter, her husband, David and the kids that evening. Crystal called the kids about 8:30 to tell them goodnight and of course, she had to talk at great lengths to Haley and then had to call back ten minutes later. She sure wasn't afraid to call over there and talk to David to ask to talk to the kids.
I will never be convinced that this woman was afraid of David. There is no way an abused woman would do all the vicious acts that she did. She never thought it would come to this. There are such things as boundaries and I am a firm believer in not pushing people. I was always raised that if you hit someone you might as well expect that person to hit you back. When a person is in an abusive relationship you leave as quickly and cleanly as you can, especially if someone is threatening your life. She had 10 to 12 hours a day alone where she could pack up her things and move out of the house and David would never have known. She had protection all around her, but we know she was exaggerating more absurd stories. She was an actress playing the victim. When this woman wanted to speak up, believe me she could tell anyone off!
David was someone that was dependable in every aspect of his life. My family is terribly hurt and saddened over this tragedy. We have not only lost a son, brother, father, uncle, nephew, and cousin, but the city of Tacoma has lost someone who really cared about our community and had big plans for the Tacoma Police Department. And we have lost the little family that we truly loved. We wish Crystal would have sought treatment for her seemingly out of control serious emotional problems.
Women can be just as vicious as men, if not more so in marital conflicts, and men need the same support regarding domestic violence as women and children receive. David was a strong supporter of domestic violence prevention, yet he was in the middle of his very own abusive marriage. I do not defend the acts that were made on April 26 th , but I do defend David after hearing his agonizing stories throughout their marriage.
Abstracted from article by Ryan Bakken And Tu Uyen Tran, Grand Forks Herald
August 19, 2005, Cavalier, North Dakota — A police officer was shot and two public buildings were set on fire here Friday evening.
The suspect, James Thorlakson, a Hensel, N.D., farmer, was captured about 10:45 PM Friday, about five hours after the incident according to informed sources.
Thorlakson fled after shooting Cavalier Police Chief Ken Wolf and setting the Pembina County courthouse and law enforcement center on fire. The courthouse received extensive damage to the first floor.
The drama started at approximately 4 PM when county officers attempted to serve Thorlakson with a protection order. He reportedly was armed and refused to be served. He then fired on officers and escaped.
He drove the eight miles to Cavalier, where he then set the two fires at about 5:30 PM.
As the dozen firefighters battled the two blazes, gunshots rang out. That was when Chief Wolf was wounded. Wolf was admitted to Altru Hospital Friday evening, where he was reported in stable condition.
"It was quite an ordeal," said a firefighter who didn't want to be identified.
"He had apparently left the scene and then came back. We had to drop everything and take cover.
"We were hiding behind the trucks. One of our units had three bullet holes in it and another one had one. We were never sure if he was firing at us for trying to stop the fires or firing at the law enforcement officers."
The firefighter said the blazes were started with cans of gasoline thrown through glass doors into the entryways of the two buildings, located about 50 feet apart. Because it doesn't have a sprinkler system, the historic courthouse suffered major damage. The law enforcement center suffered minor damage and the prisoners had to be relocated.
There apparently was a standoff for several hours before he was captured. The Grand Forks SWAT team and at least one helicopter assisted during the operation. Cavalier residents and businesses were told to lock their doors and stay inside. Road blocks were set up around the courthouse and in two rural areas, including Thorlakson's home.
Reach Bakken at (701) 780-1125, (800) 477-6572, ext. 125; or rbakken@gfherald.com
Abstracted from story by Lisa Rosetta and Mark Eddington, The Salt Lake Tribune
and from story by Tad Walch, Sara Israelsen and Laura Hancock, Deseret Morning News
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
[EJF notes and comments are in blue Courier font.]
January 28, 2006 — Up until two years ago, Art Henderson, now 38, appeared to be at the top of his game as a Lehi, Utah, police officer. A former amateur boxer proficient in martial arts he worked on the SWAT team, taught a self-defense class for women, and instructed his fellow officers on when it was appropriate to use force.
Prior to working as a Lehi police officer, Henderson was a correctional deputy with the Utah County Sheriff's Office from September 1998 to July 2000, said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Darren Gilbert. He worked almost exclusively at the jail.
By 2004, he started to come undone when his wife began an affair with a convicted felon. He was using pain medications while on duty and assaulted a man who was shagging his wife, an incident that led to his termination in July 2004. That assault charge would be the first of three filed against him during the next 18 months.
His wife, Natalie Barnes Henderson, 37, who says he abused and threatened to kill her [no doubt after the mother of his(?) five children started having affairs], later filed for divorce, sparking a bitter custody battle.
Finally, on the streets he once patrolled as a peace officer, Art Henderson snapped the morning of January 27, 2006.
After crashing his Toyota pickup truck into a car driven by his estranged wife, Henderson shot and wounded her boyfriend, Craig Trimble, 35, who was in the passenger seat. He then fired at police officers — his former colleagues — who fired back, striking him in his left knee and foot. Police haven't ruled out the possibility Henderson was attempting to commit suicide via a police shootout.
Henderson is expected to live but likely will face three counts of attempted aggravated murder, charges that could land him in prison for five years to life.
"He went from everything going good for him to a point where he gets in a firefight with us,"
said Lehi Police Chief Chad Smith.
"Everything went to hell in a handcart for him."
According to documents filed in Provo's 4 th District Court, the Hendersons were married April 19, 1990, and have five children together, ages 10, 13, 15, 17 and 19.
Their marriage soured in 2004. Natalie Henderson, now age 37, filed for a divorce from her husband on January 19, 2005. According to documents filed by Art Henderson, her boyfriend Art Trimble was already living with her at the time [in his house with his(?) children].
Less than a month later, Natalie Henderson asked the court for a protective order [no doubt using a victims handbook as a guide] . In it she described an alleged fight in October 2004 at their Lehi home.
"I was in my room...when Art came in [and] grabbed the phone out of my hands and...started grabbing me," she wrote. "I tried to run and he grabbed me and put my head through the wall."
The woman said she then yelled for help and Art Henderson picked up a box of bullets and threw them at her head. "Art then came after me again telling me he was going to kill me." She claimed one of their teenage sons tried to hold her husband back, while the other yelled at his father to stop, she wrote. In another incident about the same time, she said her husband struck her in the chest and arm and threatened to shoot her at her work.
• In December 2003, her husband "took out his gun and held it to my head."
• A similar incident with a death threat occurred in August 2002. "He pulled over right in front of my parents' house and told me he was going to kill me...He told me he was going to kill me right in front of my parents' house," she wrote. "Art has made many other threats...so many I couldn't possibly remember them all. This has been going on for 14 years." [No doubt the five kids are the result of repeated marital rapes?]
• In June 2004, Art Henderson kicked and bruised her after she caught him talking on the phone to his girlfriend. [Funny, no other mention of Art having a girlfriend? One would think the press would be after that like flies on cow manure.]
She asked the court to apply the protective order to her boyfriend, Craig Trimble, as well. The order was granted, but two days later she asked 4 th District Judge James R. Taylor to dismiss it, saying she believed that would help her divorce move along.
"Art has promised that we can share joint custody of the children and I can stay in the house with my children. We have also agreed to visitation and that he would continue to stay away from me. I do not feel that I am in any danger from him."
The judge refused to immediately dismiss the protective order, saying the allegations of abuse were "very serious and significant....It is simply incredible that 14 years of that kind of abuse can be resolved in less than 72 hours." But after a hearing on March 2, the judge dismissed the protective order. [Evidently her story was so incredible coming and going that even a judge couldn't believe it.]
In addition to his marital problems, Art Henderson has been prosecuted on at least three misdemeanor assault charges, including domestic assault, during the past two years. One charge accused him of attacking another man on June 26, 2004, and he was convicted by a Utah County Justice Court jury of a class B misdemeanor of simple assault [no mention as to whether this was another of Natalie's boyfriends?]. He was sentenced to pay a $957 fine. That altercation and conviction led then-Lehi Police Chief Chad Smith to fire Henderson.
He allegedly committed another assault January 1, 2005. In that case, according to a Utah County sheriff's deputy, he assaulted another man. The case is pending in Justice Court.
The sheriff's office filed another charge against Henderson on December 18, 2005, this one involving domestic violence.
At 9:31 AM Friday, January 27, 2006, Utah County dispatchers got a frantic call from Craig Trimble stating that Art Henderson was chasing them in his Toyota pickup.
Minutes later, Art Henderson rammed his truck into the back end of Trimble's gray Chrysler Sebring, which Natalie Henderson was driving, at 924 W. 1500 North.
Natalie continued driving east and, as she attempted to turn left into her father's driveway, Art rammed her car broadside, causing it to spin around and face west.
As Art's pickup continued coasting toward the Chrysler, he jumped out and fired eight to 12 rounds with a revolver through her window and past her face, striking Craig Trimble in the leg and abdomen. As Trimble ran toward the house Henderson shot him again in the leg [pity he was such a poor shot].
Trimble managed to flee into the home of Bill West, two doors east of Barnes. [From his extensive criminal record Craig Trimble no doubt has plenty of experience fleeing. Note that he apparently made no attempt to rescue his inamorata.]
Art Henderson then went back to his truck, grabbed a rifle with a scope, and pointed it east toward Lehi police who had just arrived on the scene.
The first officer on the scene Friday was Alma Owens, who "was an officer with Art, and friends with him outside of work, besides. They had been friends before they started working together on the force." Nonetheless, Art Henderson shot at Owens, Lehi Police Sgt. Darren Paul said, putting a rifle bullet hole in the upper right corner of the front windshield of patrol car No. 67. Owens backed out of the line of fire, then confronted Henderson with officers Tim Hunsaker and Dave Boss. Police in at least four patrol cars took position around 1500 North and Trinnaman Lane (see diagram).
Henderson, whom Sgt. Paul described as a "well-trained officer," fired multiple rounds at the officers.
The officers returned fire, hitting him in the knee with a shotgun and the foot with a .40-caliber handgun, Sgt. Paul said. Police did not attempt to spare Henderson, he added, saying the shots in the leg instead of his chest are accounted for by the distance of the shots, which were about a half a block.
Henderson was taken by ambulance to American Fork Hospital. He was released late Friday and booked into jail on suspicion of three counts of aggravated attempted homicide.
Because the incident involved Lehi police officers it will be investigated by Provo police.
After Art Henderson was taken into custody, Gary Barnes, Natalie Henderson's uncle, who witnessed the shooting, pushed her car forward so he could open Natalie Henderson's door and help her out. She was uninjured.
Craig Trimble was flown to LDS Hospital by helicopter and was expected to survive [pity, that].
Craig Trimble, a convicted felon, likely will be part of Lehi police scrutiny. His criminal record dates back 17 years and includes convictions for forgery, theft, drug possession and weapons charges, according to state court records.
At 18, he was charged with burglary in Salt Lake County. A few years later, he racked up several charges for unlawful possession of alcohol in Salt Lake, Iron, and Washington counties. He was charged in 1993 in Salt Lake County with assault on a police officer.
On May 26, 1996, Trimble was sent to prison for theft. He was in and out of prison on parole violations until his release in August 2000, said Utah Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford.
Craig Trimble returned to prison in February 2003 on drug and weapons convictions in Salt Lake and Davis counties [After that he apparently began shagging Art Henderson's wife, before moving in with her and her kids.]
A sickening story of a slattern's betrayal of her husband and children for which no penalties will attach to her. After all, in the 21 st Century she is clearly a "victim." The fact that she has destroyed her husband, apparently a capable police officer before she began her affair, and her five children is of no consequence in today's society. At age 37 one can but speculate whether an FSH test would reveal that Natalie has entered perimenopause, or had a hysterectomy before this tragedy began? Whether there are other mental conditions would be even more speculative but Craig Trimble does not appear much of a catch for a sane woman.
There is the fact that Natalie Henderson has a convicted felon with multiple drug and alcohol convictions living with her five children, ages 10, 13, 15, 17 and 19. One hopes none of these five kids are girls as sexual abuse would then seem a foregone conclusion. Next will come intervention by Child "Protective" Services and the younger kids will be sent to a foster home.
A future for these children involving substance abuse, dropping out of school, teenage pregnancy for any girls in the family, imprisonment, and five wasted lives seems all too probable, and a terrible price to pay because this woman couldn't keep her knees together. Certainly Art Henderson will not be in any position to pay child support so Natalie will probably lose the house and go on welfare.
But, shame on us, we're "blaming the victim."
MIght not it have made more sense to move this adulteress out of her husband's house and given him sole custody of the five children? Might Art Henderson have then retained his sanity, society would have retained a capable police officer, and the impact of the divorce on the children would have at least been minimized. Instead society will pay for years of incarceration for Art Henderson and Craig Trimble will continue his fornicating ways, unless he goes back to prison as well for some new crime.
Abstracted from various news reports
March 7, 2007 — The cracks in Eric and Beth Johnson's marriage first appeared after their daughter's birth. They grew deeper last summer as Beth Johnson sought a restraining order and divorce amid allegations that her husband had held her at gunpoint in an effort to change her mind.
But even as police cars parked daily outside the couple's Southern Indiana home, few apparently knew how broken the relationship was.
Police believe bitterness over the couple's November divorce led Eric Johnson to deliberately crash the single-engine Cessna he was piloting into his former mother-in-law's house Monday, killing him and his 8-year-old daughter, Emily.
Ever vindictive, Vivian Pace told reporters outside her damaged home yesterday that her daughter, Beth Johnson, reached her husband on his cell phone shortly before the crash. Ms. Pace claimed he told his ex-wife:
"I've got her, and you're not going to get her...That was the only way he could hurt Beth. That was the only way he could get to her."
Ms. Pace told reporters her daughter could hear Emily in the background saying: "Mommy, come get me, come get me," and claimed Eric Johnson had been harassing Beth Johnson for months, including buying a house near hers.
Ms. Pace said Eric Johnson threatened her daughter with a gun last summer, while granddaughter Emily was in Iowa with relatives, in an effort to change Beth Johnson's mind about the divorce. Bedford police said they never received a complaint from Beth about the alleged incident.
The couple reportedly met while playing in recreational volleyball leagues and dated for about a year before Eric proposed during a carriage ride in downtown Indianapolis. The couple's relationship began to change after the birth of Emily.
Court records showed Beth Johnson had obtained a restraining order against her husband on July 14, 2006. Bedford police Maj. Dennis Parsley said the order was requested due to "fear of retaliation" during the divorce proceedings. The couple divorced in November after 12 years of marriage and Eric had been moved out of his home under police supervision before the divorce.
"He said he did everything he knew to do to make Beth happy," longtime neighbor Mary Webb said. Ms. Webb also said police cars were parked outside the home for several weeks last summer. Eric Johnson told her they were there to protect his wife and daughter. "He said, 'I wouldn't hurt her, I wouldn't do that,' and I took his word for it. He didn't seem like that type of person at all." Ms. Webb also indicated he was "very bitter about the divorce."
Johnson obtained his pilot's license in November, the same month the couple divorced after 12 years of marriage.
The couple shared custody of Emily, alternating weekends, according to court records. Eric Johnson was supposed to take Emily to school Monday after a week's vacation together in Cancun.
When she didn't arrive, Beth Johnson went to the Bedford Police Department to file a missing person report, unaware of the crash at her mother's home.
Eric Johnson had worked 20 years for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and managed more than 18,000 acres of forest, said Mark Farmer, a department public information officer and "by all accounts he was a good employee, generally well-liked."
Pastor Paul Neuman of the Calvary Lutheran Church in Bedford said Eric and Emily Johnson were regular attendees at the church, where Eric was a member of the board of trustees and helped with remodeling and landscaping. Johnson and his daughter had attended service Sunday morning and there was "absolutely no indication" anything was wrong, Neuman said.
Andrew Todd Fox of the National Transportation Safety Board declined to say whether Johnson, 47, said anything over the plane's radio before the crash. The Bedford airport has no controller on duty, so no recording was available of any communication, he said. Fox said investigators would look at the plane to see if mechanical failure was a factor but, in the circumstances, that seems very unlikely.
March 13, 2007 — In a tragic twist to an all-too-familiar story, a teenager who had sex with his married, 30-year-old teacher was fatally shot outside the woman's home, and authorities have charged the woman's husband, Eric McLean.
On the evening of March 10, 2007, Eric McLean called police to say an intruder was at the couple's home. About 7 minutes later, Erin McLean called back to say her husband had just shot her lover, Sean Powell, outside in the boy's car.
Eric McLean fled in his car, which was later found at the high school. McLean was arrested Sunday, walking along railroad tracks about 6 miles away, still carrying the suspected murder weapon, a shotgun.
The attorney for Eric McLean, 31, acknowledges that McLean killed Powell. " So this trial is going to be about what really did happen and why — not who," attorney Bruce Poston said.
Poston said McLean is in a "state of shock. Like watching a deer caught in the headlights. Literally wondering, 'Have I made a decision that will ruin the rest of my life as well as others?'"
McLean's wife, Erin, had completed half of a one-year teaching internship at West High School, where she met the 18-year-old Sean Powell in the fall of 2006 and quickly began a sexual relationship with him.
Powell's mother, who gave him up for adoption a dozen years ago but re-established contact in 2005, said her son acknowledged having an affair with a teacher. Powell "was a great kid, full of life," Ms. Flynn said. He had taught himself to play guitar and just received his driver's license. His adoptive parents, Scarlett and Jack Powell, had just bought him a car.
But Sean left school on November 20, 2006, and did not return. School officials refuse to explain, citing privacy laws. Ms. Flynn said her son had a substance-abuse problem and went to rehab for less than a month.
Eric's father, Norman McLean described his son, one of his eight children, as "an excellent person," who was not violent, but he acknowledged that his son "had a lot of burden on him for months now," referring to his wife's affair.
"Now, I am only talking about myself. But I can personally only take so much," Norman McLean said. "Everybody has a breaking point and there is only so much you can endure before you get to that place...where you lose control."
Norman McLean said Eric, once a percussionist in the University of Tennessee marching band, put his own academic career on hold to support his family while his wife, Erin, of 11 years pursued a graduate teaching degree from the University of Tennessee.
Eric McLean has worked as a pizza deliveryman while taking classes at the university and is one semester short of completing a bachelor's degree in music education. A popular performer in local rock 'n' roll bands, he hoped to become a school band director.
Mrs. Erin McLean has moved in with relatives in Nashville with the couple's two young sons, ages 11 and 7. She has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Police say she has hired a lawyer but could not provide a name.
May 14, 2007 — A Colorado Springs man was in critical condition at a Denver hospital Sunday night after setting himself on fire because of a fight with his girlfriend, police said.
Jonathan McKinney, 21, drove to the woman's house in the 1500 block of Laurette Drive about 9 PM on Friday, May 11, 2007. There he doused himself in gasoline, called his girlfriend on the phone and told her to look out the window, then lit himself on fire, police said.
Engulfed in flames, McKinney jumped out of the car and started rolling around on the yard, police said. A neighbor sprayed McKinney with a garden hose.
McKinney suffered second-degree burns over 80 percent of his body, firefighters said. He is being treated at the University of Colorado Hospital and Health Sciences Center.
Court records show McKinney pled guilty to an assault charge in May 2005 and received two years probation.
Abstracted from article by Howard Pankratz, Denver Post
August 27, 2007 — Colorado gold miner, Terry Hankins, appeared infatuated with Cynthia Denise Runnels. Although the 70-year-old Craig gold prospector was 34 years older than Ms. Runnels, he sent letters to the Texas prison where she was serving time for felony "family violence."
"He apparently corresponded with people in prison because he felt they needed someone to talk to,"
Craig Police Chief Walt Vanatta said.
After Cynthia Runnels was released from prison in July 2006, Hankins tried to persuade her to come to Craig and marry him. "When she got out of prison, he was calling her to convince her to come to Colorado," her mother, Willie Fay Runnels, said. "She really didn't want to go. I didn't want her to go. He was too old for her."
Hankins would send Cynthia Runnels money. When she wouldn't move to Colorado, he would send more, her mother said. Eventually, Cynthia moved to Craig and married him.
Now, Terry Hankins is in the Moffat County detention facility, accused of murdering his wife of six months, among other charges.
Cynthia Runnels-Hankins' body was unearthed Saturday near one of Hankins' gold mines, 5 feet below ground, covered with a pile of dirt 12 feet wide at the base and 6 feet high, Craig Police Chief Vanatta said. She had been missing since June.
The body was found 33 miles north of Craig in Moffat County on Bureau of Land Management land. Vanatta said Hankins, who has no criminal record, had mined in Colorado and Wyoming for decades.
Hankins' family was reluctant to talk about him. Pat Hankins, the first of Terry Hankins' three wives, who divorced him in 1980, didn't want to comment on her ex-husband other than to say he has several children. A man believed to be his son declined to comment.
But Runnels-Hankins' family members and investigators say the relationship between the miner and his wife went downhill rapidly after they married in December.
In March, Mr. Hankins went to court seeking a divorce and a temporary restraining order against Runnels-Hankins, alleging domestic abuse. The allegations were similar to two criminal cases filed against her in Texas.
But days later Terry Hankins withdrew the divorce and temporary-restraining-order requests, Chief Vanatta said.
Runnels-Hankins' family members also said things didn't go well in the new marriage.
Cynthia Runnels-Hankins would call home at least three times a day because in Texas she had two children — son Jordan O'Neal, 13, and daughter Tamera Runnels, 11.
She had originally wanted the children to spend the summer in Colorado with her and her new husband, Willie Fay Runnels said, but decided against it because the relationship was deteriorating rapidly.
"He was just so jealous," she said. "Every time she went somewhere and came home, he'd accuse her (of being unfaithful)."
Eventually, Cynthia made it clear to her family and Hankins that she'd had enough of the marriage and was planning to leave and divorce him, Mrs. Runnels said. The last time her family heard from her was around June 1 st . Officials said Cynthia disappeared June 3, 2007.
For months, Chief Vanatta's officers, assisted by other agencies, searched for Cynthia Runnels-Hankins.
They executed search warrants on the couple's apartment in Craig, on one of Terry Hankins' mining claims near Encampment, Wyoming, and at the mining claim 33 miles from Craig and the adjacent BLM land. The couple's vehicles also were searched.
Chief Vanatta said investigators believe Runnels-Hankins was slain at the couple's Craig apartment. A Human Remains Recovery Dog alerted police to the presence of human fluids in the apartment.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
© 2008 by Kieran Nicholson, The Denver Post
May 29, 2008 — A Loveland man is suspected of fatally bludgeoning and stabbing a process server was strangling his children in their home when deputies found him, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office said.
James Scott Whitler, 45, is being held at the Larimer County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, according to the sheriff's office.
Deputies were called at about 8 PM Wednesday to Whitler's home in the 4900 block of Otero Avenue and found a man in the home who was "severely" injured, said sheriff's spokeswoman Eloise Campanella in a press release.
Deputies rushed the injured man, Stephen D. Allen, 57, to paramedics, but he died at the scene of his injuries. Allen had been struck 10 to 12 times on the head with a baseball bat and stabbed three times in the abdomen.
Deputies found Whitler in the home "in the act of strangling his two children, and both were unconscious," Campanella said.
Whitler was Tasered by deputies who arrested him.
The children, a 10-year-old boy and a girl, 12, were taken to Medical Center of the Rockies, where they remain hospitalized, officials said.
Whitler's wife, Lisa, suffered minor injuries during the attacks.
Earlier Wednesday, Lisa Whitler had filed for divorce in Larimer County District Court, and a temporary restraining order was granted against James Whitler, according to court documents.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said today at a news conference that Allen and Lisa Whitler had been to the house earlier in the day and removed a "long gun." Apparently Allen shouldn't have come back the same day.
Witnesses told investigators James Whitler left a room at the home to gather personal property but returned with a baseball bat and attacked the process server, also stabbing him, the sheriff's office said.
During the attack, Lisa Whitler fled the home and called 911.
On May 17, Lisa Whitler called the sheriff's office about voice messages being left on her phone by her husband. She also complained to investigators about threatening text messages sent to her by her children. Apparently the children were angry with their mother and wanted to stay with their father according to officials.
James Whitler had told sheriff's deputies that "his wife was out of control and that the children did not want to go with her." Deputies called child-protection services, but no crime was committed, and no charges were filed.
When the couple began to have marital problems at first James Whitler moved out of their tri-level home and had gotten an apartment. But he soon moved back into the house and Lisa moved out and lived with her parents. Apparently she was planning on using the restraining order to force her husband back out of the house.
Abstracted from story by Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain News
July 11, 2008 — A coroner's report stated that a knife-wielding father, killed by Denver police at a family party in May, had cocaine, amphetamine and alcohol in his system when officers shot him. The shooting erupted as the family celebrated the First Communion of Odiceo Valencia's daughter.
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey found that Denver officers were justified in shooting Odiceo Valencia, 45, after he refused to drop a knife and kept moving toward one of the officers.
In the Montbello neighborhood where the shooting occurred, a small memorial marks the spot where Valencia was shot. Plastic flowers adorn a makeshift cross with Valencia's name. A brown balloon reading, "World's Greatest Dad," is tied to a nearby tree.
Valencia's daughter, Carolina, said her family would not comment on the district attorney's findings. "We don't know what we're going to do yet," she said and referred inquiries to insurance adjustor and investigator Donald Fymbo.
Fymbo said that he has videotaped testimony from six witnesses disputing the officers' accounts that Valencia remained armed with the knife when he was gunned down.
The shooting enraged Valencia's family and sparked anti-police sentiment in Montbello.
Family members were distraught that they witnessed the shooting and blamed police for inflaming the situation by encouraging Valencia to return to the family home. The officers told investigators they wanted Valencia to return to the house so that paramedics could care for a self-inflicted wound to his wrist.
• Odiceo Valencia's wife had obtained a restraining order against him after months of fights had escalated [Given Odiceo's age, 45, we're guessing his wife is suffering from perimenopause].
• Valencia, who had moved out of the family home, showed up at the church for his daughter's communion and at the party afterward.
• Valencia's son said his dad was drunk and threatened to kill himself then took a butcher knife and sliced open his left wrist.
• Valencia then left the house but kept calling back.
• During one of those phone calls, Valencia's son handed the phone to police, who urged Valencia to return to the home and have paramedics attend to his injuries.
• When Valencia returned, officers Chris Cesarec, Chris Pappas and Tony Bruce said he threatened Cesarec and chased him around a van while holding a knife. Officers tried to subdue him with a taser and pepper balls but said Valencia continued to threaten Cesarec.
• Morrissey found that the officers were justified because they tried to use nonlethal force and Valencia continued to pose a threat.
In his report, Morrissey found that Cesarec kept trying to back away, but Valencia kept moving toward him.
"For reasons known only to Valencia, his suicidal actions and statements prior to police involvement and during the confrontation are consistent with an intention to force the police to shoot him — commonly referred to as 'suicide by cop,'" Morrissey concluded.
Staff writer Hector Gutierrez contributed to this report.
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