Incident on Ten-Right Road

by Randall Silvis

  Gessler: I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to her. I swear to God I didn’t!

  DeMarco: Is that why you deleted the texts? Because you were afraid they implicated you somehow?

  Gessler: They didn’t implicate me in anything. I just didn’t want anybody thinking I was involved.

  DeMarco: Why would they think that if the texts didn’t suggest it?

  Gessler: I don’t know! But you’re thinking it. I can hear it in your voice.

  DeMarco: Have I even once insinuated that I suspect you of being involved? If I did, I apologize. I came here hoping to get some help from you, that’s all. Because I know you two were close. I know you cared deeply about each other. What I don’t understand, though, is why you deleted her texts.

  Gessler: I don’t know, I wish I hadn’t. I just got scared when you called me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did it.

  DeMarco: Who’s your carrier?

  Gessler: What?

  DeMarco: Your phone carrier. ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile—which one?

  Gessler: Verizon.

  DeMarco: Then we’re in luck. Verizon retains the contents of all text messages for several days. I can have a printout of them by tomorrow.

  Gessler: Don’t you need a warrant or a subpoena or something like that?

  DeMarco: A phone call, Alex; that’s all it takes. We do it all the time. But you know what? I already have Meghan’s phone. She didn’t delete any texts. So all I would be looking for on your phone are texts and calls to somebody else. (pause) You okay? (pause) You doing okay there?

  Gessler: I don’t think I can talk anymore tonight. I’m not feeling well.

  DeMarco: To be honest with you, you don’t look well. I hope you’re not coming down with something. We haven’t even gotten into what happened at the bar that night. Why you were there, why she was there, who said what to whom, all that kind of stuff.

  Gessler: I’m sorry, I can’t do anymore tonight. Maybe we better wait till my mom and dad get back.

  DeMarco: Tomorrow’s good. How’s tomorrow afternoon work for you and your folks? That will give me time to get the warrant and look over your texts.

  Gessler: I didn’t do anything! I don’t know why you should be allowed to look at my texts. They’re supposed to be private.

  DeMarco: Sit down for a minute, Alex. Come on, just a minute. I know you’re not feeling well, and I apologize for that. It was not my intention to upset you. But you need to know something. Innocent people cooperate with the police. People who have something to hide, they don’t. (pause) If there is any information in your deleted texts that I can use, then those texts are evidence. And you know what it’s called when people hide evidence, right?

  No verbal response from Gessler; he nodded.

  DeMarco: All right then. You let me have your phone for a day, we recover the texts without having to get a warrant, and I bring the phone back to you tomorrow. How does that sound?

  Gessler: What do you mean you recover them without a warrant?

  DeMarco: There’s an app we use. Most times it works great, sometimes we can only recover part of the material. But either way, with or without a warrant, we will recover every single text you deleted. It takes the bull’s eye off you if you hand the phone over voluntarily.

  Gessler: Are you going to look all through it? At the pictures and everything?

  DeMarco: I’m not here as a porn cop, Alex. I’m not here as a drug cop. How about if we agree that only information pertinent to this case can be accessed? There’s no kiddie porn on there, right?

  Gessler: God, no.

  DeMarco: Then you have nothing to worry about. Just say this for the recording: I am voluntarily giving you my cell phone so that information pertinent to the death of Meghan Fletcher can be accessed.

  Gessler (after a pause): I am voluntarily giving you my cell phone so that information pertinent to the death of Meghan Fletcher can be accessed.

  DeMarco: Excellent. Thank you. You have no idea what a wise choice you’ve made. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? To set up a time to return the phone to you.

  No verbal response from Gessler; he nodded.

  DeMarco: Very good. By the way, I’m going to need a sample of your DNA before I go.

  Gessler: Do I have to?

  DeMarco: Do you want to clear yourself of suspicion or not? It’s just a mouth swab, that’s all. Walk out to the car with me. It will take you five seconds max.

  Gessler: What if the neighbors see?

  DeMarco: I could have come in full uniform in a patrol car. And if you don’t agree to the sample voluntarily, that’s what I’ll have to do tomorrow. Come on, you can sit in the car for a few seconds. I have tinted windows.

  The sound of walking.

  Gessler: What am I supposed to tell my mom and dad?

  DeMarco: I’d go with the truth if I were you.

  End of interview.

  Notes:

  My guess is he deleted the texts because of Meghan’s claim that she was pregnant to him. I bet he needed a diaper change after reading that. However, he doesn’t strike me as a kid who could slice somebody’s throat. But could he call a buddy afterward? Make a business arrangement? In all likelihood he knew about the key in the hanging basket. Did he pass that information on to somebody who could do what he himself isn’t capable of doing? But why not just man up and take responsibility (even though the claim, unbeknownst to him, was bogus.) Wait a minute; she wanted him to man up. Maybe that’s why she engineered the vis-à-vis with Blyler at Taco King. Because she wanted Gessler to man up, quit playing around and be with her. She must have believed that seeing her with Blyler would make Alex come to his senses. When it didn’t, she played the pregnancy card. Unfortunately, that didn’t do the trick either. And why not? Because she’s been focused on her emotions, whereas Gessler has been focused on his future. “Security and risk management,” he said. “That’s where the big money is.” I am so looking forward to reading that phone data.

  Data recovery info

  Several of the texts recovered from Alex Gessler’s cell phone by Trooper Carmichael of Pennsylvania State Police Troop D, Mercer County, duplicate texts found on the cell phone belonging to the victim. The following additional texts were all sent and/or received by Gessler between 1:41-2:02 a.m.

  August 12.

  Gessler to Liz: I need to tell you something.

  Liz to Gessler: Thanks for waking me up.

  Gessler: I might have a problem.

  Liz: I’m not driving anywhere tonight. You want to come here, okay. He’s away for the weekend.

  Gessler: I just need to tell you something. This is really bad.

  Liz: What is?

  Gessler: I saw Meghan tonight.

  Liz: Asshole!?

  Gessler: Just talked. Went to Taco King for a beer. She was there with her boyfriend.

  Liz: What a nice coincidence.

  Gessler: It was weird. I think she wanted us to get into a fight.

  Liz: Didn’t I tell you she’s nothing but trouble? You need her out of your life.

  Gessler: I know. I’m going to tell her we’re done.

  Liz: Get ready for her to go ballistic.

  Gessler: She’ll have to get over it eventually.

  Liz: You hope. She seems dangerous to me.

  Gessler: Dangerous how? You don’t even know her.

  Liz: I know the type. A woman scorned is a dangerous thing. Pretty soon you’ll need to tell all your little playthings goodbye. One more year and that’s it.

  Gessler: I need to tell you something else.

  Liz: Hurry up. I need my beauty sleep.

  Gessler: She promised me she was on the pill.

  Liz: OMG!!! Did you get that bitch pregnant?

  Gessler: I don’t know what to do. What if she won’t have an abortion?

  Liz: You’ll be paying child support for the next 20 years. And if that’s the case I’m staying put right where I am.

  Gessler: I just feel like
taking off somewhere. Mexico maybe. Been there a couple of times.

  Liz: You’ve been to resorts. You think Mommy and Daddy will finance a dead-beat babydaddy in Cozumel? You know what your mother is like. You really screwed yourself this time, Alex.

  Gessler: What can I do?

  Liz: Short of killing her? Can you pay her off?

  Gessler: I don’t know. Probably not.

  Liz: How much money can you pull together?

  Gessler: Four or five thousand of my own. But I’m supposed to use that for books and food at school this year.

  Liz: You see what I mean about the way your mother is? She’ll make you marry her.

  Gessler: WHAT SHOULD I DO?

  Liz: Any chance you could scare her into getting rid of it?

  Gessler: How?

  Liz: Tell her you have some kind of genetic disease that the baby will get.

  Gessler: She can have that tested though, right?

  Liz: Then really scare her. Scare the life out of her.

  Gessler: And how do I do that?

  Liz: You tell her she either gets rid of the kid, or she tells her bf it’s his, or—How does she know it isn’t his?

  Gessler: She made him use a condom.

  Liz: And she told you she was on the pill? Couldn’t you figure out she was lying to you?

  Gessler: I didn’t know till tonight that she made him use a condom.

  Liz: She WANTED you to knock her up. You have to get rid of that kid one way or the other.

  Gessler: Maybe I should just go ahead and marry her. That would make everybody but me happy.

  Liz: Everybody but you, asshole?

  Gessler: We could still keep seeing each other. You stay married and we just keep going on like nothing ever happened.

  Liz: And I keep letting him stick his dick in me? That doesn’t bother you anymore?

  Gessler: It does but I don’t know what else to do.

  Liz: You’re such a child. One crisis in your life and you wimp out.

  Gessler: I don’t want to be a father yet! We’ll end up living in a trailer somewhere!!

  Liz: I already told you what you need to do.

  Gessler: You don’t know her. She doesn’t scare that easily.

  Liz: You’re worthless, you know that?

  Gessler: I’m sorry.

  Text exchange at 6:29 a.m.

  August 12,

  Liz to Gessler: You owe me BIG TIME.

  8:19 a.m., Gessler to Liz: Just woke up. Owe you why?

  8:24 a.m., Liz to Gessler: I must’ve been sleep-texting. Don’t even remember writing that.

  End of text exchanges.

  Notes:

  The individual named “Liz” has since been identified as Elizabeth Tenney née Foltz (23) of 6809 Chestnut Ridge Road, Hubbard Township, Hubbard, Ohio. Married, no children. Mrs. Tenney is employed as the loan officer of the Hubbard Huntington Bank.

  Where was Tenney between 2:02 and 6:29 a.m. on August 12? Need tower ping info.

  Question: Blyler said Meghan made him use a condom. She told Gessler she was on the pill. Was she really on the pill, or trying all this time to get pregnant by Gessler? Junie Fletcher might be able to answer the pill question, but…. Is that information worth causing her more grief? Chief Melvin collected Meghan’s cell phone at the scene of the murder, which means that Junie never read the texts and doesn’t know that her daughter told Gessler she was pregnant. Tricky situation. I’m going to consider it a moot point at least for now. Tenney is up to bat.

  Summary of forensics reports

  Tad Blyler’s truck: Trace amounts of blood on the steering wheel of Blyler’s pickup truck tested positive for Blyler’s DNA. No other matches. Hair samples collected from the passenger seat match the victim’s DNA. Other hair and skin cell samples indicate at least two additional individuals: currently unknown.

  Meghan Fletcher’s bedroom: Blood samples collected from various places throughout Meghan Fletcher’s bedroom show positive matches for Meghan Fletcher only. No other individuals identifiable. Hair and skin cell samples match the victim, plus Missy Cochran, Theodore Blyler, and the victim’s mother, Junie Fletcher. The identity of the two other samples remains unknown. Awaiting DNA results for Alex Gessler. Must obtain DNA sample from Elizabeth Tenney ASAP.

  Summary report of my examination of PA State Game Lands #42 entrance area

  Having weighed the probability for each of the persons of interest in the death of Meghan Fletcher (Missy Cochran, Richard Hickman, Tad Blyler, and Alex Gessler), I considered the possibility that the true assailant is an individual as-yet unknown. Neither Junie Fletcher nor Richard Hickman reported hearing or seeing a vehicle on Ten-Right Road in the early morning hours of August 12 (though Hickman reports being asleep, and Junie Fletcher was busy getting ready for work.) The two functioning security cameras nearest Ten-Right Road (the 7-Eleven store and the Ace Hardware store, both on old route 68), are nearly four miles from the intersection of Ten-Right Road and route 68; all vehicles captured in that footage have been identified and their drivers/passengers cleared. Therefore, the assailant who entered the Fletcher home on the morning of August 12th must have approached the house from another direction. Only two possibilities exist.

  At approximately 6:30 a.m. on the morning of August 15th, I drove down Ten-Right Road to explore the possibility that Meghan Fletcher’s assailant might have entered Ten-Right Road via one of the two intersecting trails. According to Trooper Morgan, an avid hunter, a seasonal road borders the eastern perimeter of State Game Lands #42 not far from where Ten-Right Road dead-ends at the entrance to the Game Lands. The unpaved, grassy road is said to intersect with old Route 68 near the West Middlesex Conservancy building. The only other ingress or egress from Ten-Right Road is an ATV trail that branches off the State Game Lands trail 20 yards beyond the trailhead; its terminus is currently unknown to this investigator, but is assumed to be the nearest farm to the north of the Game Lands. Both trails show signs of recent use. The ATV trail, however, is too narrow and deeply rutted in places to allow passage of a full-size vehicle.

  The other road is wide enough to accommodate any standard vehicle, though heavy brush and small trees closely flank both sides of the road. A vehicle equipped with 4-wheel drive could negotiate the Game Lands road without difficulty. I noted that several small branches had been broken from the recent passage of a vehicle. Tire ruts were deep and well-defined, suggesting that a vehicle had used that road when the ground was soft from rain, but not so early during the last rainfall (on the morning of August 12th) that the subsequent rain would have washed the tread marks away. I used my cell phone to take several photos of those tread marks.

  After assessing the proximity and sightline from the Game Lands entrance to the Fletcher home, I ascertained that a vehicle might approach the game lands from the Conservancy, drive to within 20 yards of the Game Lands #42 sign, and remain invisible from Ten-Right Road. Had the driver of said vehicle then walked another 50 yards or so in the direction of the Fletcher and Hickman homes, heavy brush and trees alongside the road would have provided excellent concealment. From that point on or closer, the Fletcher home could easily be watched with a pair of inexpensive binoculars. More powerful binoculars, such as those owned by Richard Hickman, would of course permit surveillance of the house from an even greater distance.

  By crossing the road and approaching the Fletcher house from the woods behind it, an assailant would be nearly impossible to see. If this were done between 5:30 a.m., by which time Junie Fletcher had left for work, and 8:00 a.m., at which time Hickman claims to have awakened for the day, it is likely that no one would have seen the assailant. Mail delivery to Ten-Right Road does not take place until late morning. Sunrise on August 12 was at 6:25 a.m., but at that time the cloud cover was still thick; during that hour between Junie’s departure from the house and sunrise, the assailant could have followed the gravel road from the Game Lands entrance to the Fletcher house with a minimal chance of being seen by
anyone.

  The rain on the morning of August 12th might or might not have obliterated any shallow foot tracks between the Game Lands trail and the gravel lot. But even if the rain had stopped before the assailant entered the house, the assailant’s feet and cuffs, possibly up to the knees or higher depending on the path taken, would have been soaked by rain and, if the assailant ventured off the road, by wet weeds and grass. The fact that neither Junie Fletcher, Missy Cochran, the EMTs nor the ERT or other law enforcement personnel noticed any signs of anomalous moisture inside the house suggests that the assailant entered the house after Junie Fetcher’s departure that morning, and well before Missy Cochran arrived at 11:40 a.m., by which time the moisture would have evaporated. It is also possible that any anomalous moisture went unnoticed by those individuals because of the moisture they brought onto the porch and into the house. Less probable is the possibility that the assailant left his/her wet clothes at the door.

  Having made this determination, I then walked up Ten-Right Road as far as the Fletcher house, remaining a few feet within the tree/brush line. I did pass three separate places where either a large animal or a human had exited the tree/brush line, but found no other evidence to conclude more than that. I then crossed to the Hickman side of the road and walked back toward the Game Lands parking lot.

  Approximately 40 yards from that lot, I spotted a disposable e-cigarette in the weeds. I returned to the car for a camera and evidence bags, then documented the position of the e-cigarette before bagging it. An area approximately five feet from the e-cigarette appeared to be trampled down more than the surrounding area. Photographs were taken, and later turned over with the e-cigarette to the ERT for cataloging and forwarding to the lab.

  Conclusion: On the day of the incident, the ERT found no signs of forced entry to the Fletcher home. Did Meghan get out of bed to let somebody inside? Then return to bed, only to have her throat cut? Unlikely. The most probable scenario is that the individual, dressed in dark clothing, followed the gravel road from the Game Lands entrance to the Fletcher home sometime between 5:30-6:30 a.m., left his wet shoes at or just inside the door, proceeded to the victim’s bedroom, and assaulted the victim. There is no reason to believe that robbery was the motive. It is more likely that the missing money was happened upon by chance, and that the photograph was taken as a trophy. My gut tells me that the assailant knew Meghan Fletcher, knew the location of the door key, had some knowledge of the area, and was familiar with the layout of the house.