The Stranger She Loved

by Shanna Hogan

  Gustin, however, attempted to diminish the significance of Martin’s actions. “It wasn’t unusual for Martin to change the time because he was demanding?” Gustin asked.

  “Nobody did anything in his department without his direction,” Frost admitted.

  40.

  Rachel MacNeill stepped into the courtroom wearing a simple taupe dress, her hair pulled back in a loose bun, and heavy black makeup lining her eyes.

  Her testimony would be one of the more emotional aspects of the trial. After just a few minutes on the stand, her face was twisted in agony.

  Watching his oldest daughter dab tears from her eyes, Martin took off his glasses, his face sagging. Still, he showed no overt emotion.

  “Do you recognize the man over here?” Chad Grunander pointed toward Martin.

  “He’s my father.” Rachel sniffed, a look of revulsion passing across her face.

  In a shaky voice, she recounted the moment she’d discovered her mother was dead. “When I did get ahold of my father I said, ‘What’s happening? Is everything okay?’ He just said, ‘Rachel, come home.’ And he hung up on me.”

  Days after her mother’s funeral, Rachel had the strange meeting with “Jillian,” who, she later learned, was actually Gypsy—her father’s mistress.

  Grunander presented a picture to Rachel.

  “That’s Gypsy Jillian Willis.” Rachel made a retching noise.

  “Did you see her function as the nanny?” Grunander asked.

  “As a nanny, I didn’t see her do anything related to the children,” she said.

  “At some point did you become aware that your father’s relationship with Gypsy was more than just a nanny?” Grunander asked.

  “Yes.” Rachel squinted her eyes. “It was very apparent just shortly after my mother’s death … And she wasn’t doing anything a nanny would do.”

  At the prosecutor’s request, Rachel stepped down from the stand to demonstrate on the tub exactly how Martin said he found Michele. Clutching a tissue, Rachel put her hand on her stomach as if she was going to be sick.

  “And just even showing me. And talking about the autopsy.” Her hands were shaking as she touched her face. She began to stammer. “It was just—It was so—I was—It was so horrible. I didn’t want to know my mom was dead.”

  Grunander then handed Rachel an exhibit: the clothes her mom was wearing on the day she was found. Wearing gloves, Rachel examined each article.

  “Do you recognize those?” Grunander asked.

  “My mother’s,” she whispered.

  “Did you find that on April 11, 2007?”

  “In the big bloody mess of everything that was thrown in the garage,” Rachel said.

  As Gustin stood for the cross-examination, Rachel shot her a look of disdain.

  “Is it true there wasn’t a lot of blood?” Gustin said, her tone condescending, as she addressed Rachel’s recollection of finding Michele’s bloody clothes.

  “I’m not good at seeing blood.” Rachel took a slow, ragged breath. “Blood is not something I like to see, especially my mother’s blood.”

  In the most searing part of cross-examination, Gustin attempted to discredit Rachel based on her bipolar disorder.

  “Your father didn’t want you to be the nanny because of your mental state, isn’t that right, Rachel?” Gustin asked.

  Openmouthed, Rachel looked toward the judge. “I don’t remember.”

  “You have been diagnosed with a mental illness?” Gustin pressed.

  Rachel paused. “Have I been diagnosed in my life with a mental illness?”

  Gustin brought up the 2012 emergency room visit, where Rachel was diagnosed with delusions and psychosis.

  “You have had delusions and psychosis in your life?” Gustin asked.

  “No. Okay.” Rachel recoiled in her seat.

  “You have been diagnosed bipolar?” Gustin continued.

  “Have I in my lifetime been diagnosed as bipolar?” Rachel cocked her head. “Yes.”

  Rachel leaned back and shook her head, rolling her eyes slightly. Moments later she left the courthouse in tears, surrounded by family.

  * * *

  Vanessa’s testimony was equally heartbreaking. Visibly shaking, tears streaming down her cheeks, she told Grunander how after her mother’s death, she threw her phone against the wall, breaking it. Martin later gave her Michele’s phone, which still had two voice mail messages from Martin.

  “He was worried about her. He said he needed her to stay in bed.” Vanessa described Martin’s message. “He said, ‘Take it easy, I’m going to come home and make you a sandwich, we’ll have a lovely lunch together.’”

  Grunander gently asked about her past, including her felony arrest for drugs.

  “Are you a drug addict?” he asked.

  “I am.” She wiped tears from her face.

  “Are you currently clean?”

  “I am.”

  Vanessa also spoke about her involvement in Martin’s “nanny hiring committee,” where the only candidate interviewed was “Jillian.” Finally, she recalled for the jury the sad comment she made to her sister Alexis.

  “I told her there is nothing to worry about. Because I was convinced that she wasn’t somebody to worry about that my dad might be involved with.”

  “Why did you say there was nothing to worry about?” Grunander asked.

  “Because she was nothing like my mom.” Vanessa cried.

  * * *

  At nineteen, Sabrina MacNeill had grown into a gorgeous young woman with long, shiny brown hair. She was currently in college, living in Logan, near her sister Elle.

  Sabrina described for the court the last time she saw her mother—on the day of her death. “There was nothing odd about her behavior at all. She was tired because she had just woken up, but we had a perfectly normal conversation.”

  When the girls returned home from school, Sabrina said, Martin walked into their room to tell them that their mom was dead. It was April 11. The next day, Sabrina turned thirteen.

  Gustin asked about Martin’s emotional reaction.

  “Your dad was upset when he told you about your mom?” Gustin asked. “He was crying?”

  “I guess he was crying. He had a towel over his face. He took it down and said our mom had died and that’s all I remember.”

  * * *

  Five years after her relationship with Damian MacNeill had ended, Eileen Heng’s life had dramatically changed. Having since graduated with a law degree from Brigham Young University, she was now a practicing attorney in Lehi and was in a long-term relationship with a man she would later marry.

  On October 23, Eileen was forced to reminisce about “one of the worst days” of her life.

  “That morning when I was in class I received a lot of missed calls and voice mails,” she told Jared Perkins. “When I got out of class I checked and Damian had left me a few messages.”

  She explained how she rushed to the MacNeill home and later granted Martin’s request to flush his wife’s prescriptions down the toilet. “At the time it seemed strange,” Eileen said.

  “Why did you comply with that request?” Perkins asked.

  “Because he asked me to and he just lost his wife and I wanted to help,” she testified.

  Later, Eileen said, Martin asked her to help interview a nanny candidate. But when she learned the only applicant was Martin’s suspected mistress, she recommended he not hire her.

  “Was Martin and Jillian’s relationship limited to that of employer and nanny?” Perkins asked.

  “No,” she said. “A couple of months later we found out they were in an intimate relationship.”

  “How did you find out? Did Martin ever tell you he was in an intimate relationship with Gypsy?” Perkins asked.

  “Yes,” Eileen said. “Everyone found out.”

  41.

  Strutting into the courtroom, Gypsy Willis glanced briefly at her former lover as she took the stand. The beige pantsuit she wor
e hugged her full frame, stretching across her midsection. Her dark hair framed her plump cheeks.

  It was the afternoon of October 25, and Gypsy would spend the next two days reluctantly testifying for the prosecution against the man she had once planned to marry. She was unrepentant and unapologetic as she spoke about her affair with the married doctor. At times she grinned and smirked, appearing flippant.

  Having been subpoenaed as part of her plea deal in the identity fraud conviction, her testimony was adversarial. Gypsy still believed Martin did not kill his wife, and seemed determined to protect him. She answered most questions with a “yes,” “no,” or “I don’t recall.” By the second day, the judge would declare her a hostile witness after determining “her interests are somewhat aligned with the defense.”

  While the prosecution tried to paint Martin’s relationship with her as a motive for murder, she repeatedly denied their relationship was heating up in the months prior to Michele’s death. “This was a very informal thing. This was a very discreet thing. We were not interested in other people knowing. I think he was trying to keep it quiet. I respected that.”

  Under questioning, Gypsy admitted that in the spring of 2007 she and Martin were speaking more frequently and that he was paying for her duplex and living expenses.

  “This sounds like a commitment,” Sam Pead said.

  “Yeah. He’s helping.” Gypsy shook her head nonchalantly.

  To further try to prove Gypsy’s relationship with Martin, Pead presented the phone records showing the numerous texts and phone calls between the two, including twenty-two texts exchanged on the day of the funeral.

  Pead also entered into evidence the racy photographs Gypsy had sent Martin from her cell phone. “In a number of these pictures it’s your exposed back,” Pead said. “You’re showing your buttocks.”

  “There’s one picture where it’s a little suggestive,” Gypsy admitted unabashedly.

  As for the introduction to Rachel outside the temple, she conceded it was a ruse but downplayed the significance.

  “So he staged and directed this encounter?” Pead asked.

  “I don’t understand the terminology there.” Gypsy’s voice was defiant. “He wanted me to meet his family on the best possible terms.”

  And although she was eventually hired as the family nanny, she said, the job was not guaranteed prior to her interview. “I don’t believe that Martin would have had me come and help if his children would have objected strongly to me.”

  Looking away from Gypsy, Martin took off his glasses, leaned over, and put his hands on his face. There was no denying that Martin had done just that—hired Gypsy over the objections of his children.

  “And the two of you were hiding the fact that you were sexually involved from the children?” Pead asked.

  “Yes.”

  “If I told you that others have testified that you were not much of a nanny in terms of cooking and cleaning and taking care of the children, and were just staring goo-goo-eyed at the defendant, what would be your response?” Pead asked.

  Gypsy smiled wide. “My response is that when the adult children were home I deferred to them and went back to studying my nursing. I did actually help with the children.”

  Gypsy returned to court a second day, and the prosecutor continued to press her on her relationship with Martin. She continued to give calm, direct, matter-of-fact answers.

  Pead asked about the seven-thousand-dollar diamond ring Martin gave her during their Wyoming trip.

  “I know there was a ring. I know I was given a ring,” she said. “I truthfully don’t recall the details.”

  “Have you been proposed to since the defendant proposed to you?” Pead asked.

  “Yes.” She smirked.

  “Despite never being officially married, you still held yourself out as Jillian MacNeill?” Pead said. “The wife of the defendant?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  Finally, Pead added up the details of Martin’s relationship with Gypsy just prior to Michele’s passing.

  “Are you telling us you don’t know more about Michele’s death?”

  “That is correct,” she said, her expression impassive.

  On cross, Gustin clarified again for the jury the plea deal under which Gypsy was testifying.

  “You got a deal from the prosecution to testify here today,” Gustin said. “And the deal was that if you testified, you wouldn’t have to spend three years in prison?”

  “That’s correct,” Gypsy said.

  “And if you didn’t testify truthfully, you will have breached that deal,” Gustin said.

  “Yes,” she agreed.

  * * *

  Vicki Willis hadn’t seen her daughter in almost five years. And even though they were both in the same city—and would sit at the same seat on the seventh day of the trial—they declined to speak to each other.

  Vicki testified that the last time she had seen Gypsy was in 2008—when they got into a physical altercation in Wyoming. On a previous visit in May 2007, when Vicki first met Martin, she had been proud of Gypsy and pleased to welcome her new boyfriend into the family.

  Vicki said that later she’d had a chance to speak privately to Martin about his deceased wife. “He said to me that he had never loved Michele. And then he amended that to say, ‘Well, I did. I loved her as a sister. But I did not love her the way I love Gypsy,’” Vicki testified.

  * * *

  Earlier in the week, outside the presence of the jury, the defense continued the fight to keep Ada off the stand.

  “Ada has been influenced to the point where she believes it true,” Spencer told the judge.

  Investigators Witney and Robinson, as well as Alexis, all swore that Ada had not been coaxed.

  But the following morning the judge ruled that Ada would not be allowed to testify. Instead, her 2008 interview at the Children’s Justice Center was played for the jury. The light in the courtroom dimmed, and on the projection screen appeared the then seven-year-old as she described finding her dead mother.

  “What did you see when you walked into the bathroom?” the investigator asked.

  “It was just like water—just a different color. She was just laying down in the bathtub,” Ada said.

  “Had you ever seen your mom wet her hair like that before?” she asked.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  42.

  Linda Cluff rose from her seat in the first row of the gallery, behind the prosecution, and walked directly to the witness stand.

  Testifying for the prosecution, she could have talked for days about her beloved sister. Linda would have been pleased to explain to the jurors something that was impossible to truly understand: Michele meant everything to her.

  Instead, Linda was questioned for mere minutes.

  She was barred from telling jurors about Martin’s criminal past, his false education credentials, his history with her family, or even the fact that he banned most of the Somers clan from the funeral. The judge ruled that none of those facts could be presented in court because they were too prejudicial against Martin.

  Instead, she testified only about her interactions with Martin on the day of the funeral as he ran back and forth from the parking lot. After just a few questions from the prosecutor, Linda somberly stepped off the stand and returned to her seat.

  * * *

  Later, Michele’s friends Cheryl Radmall, Loreen Thompson, and Lani Swallow spoke about the shock of learning of their dear friend’s death.

  “Michele was in great health,” Cheryl said.

  She also discussed going to the MacNeill family home on the afternoon of Michele’s death to offer condolences.

  “Did Martin appear emotional?” the prosecutor asked.

  “No,” Cheryl said definitively.

  Loreen agreed that Martin acted odd that evening and also at the funeral when he delivered his eulogy. “It was very different. I just remember the first comment he made was something ab
out the fact that he stood there looking at his wife who was in a pine box,” Loreen said.

  Lani testified that on the day of the funeral she approached Martin and offered to be the nanny but he refused. “He said that he had already hired a nanny,” Lani said. “That it was a nurse that he worked with.”

  Michele’s close friend and the children’s ballet teacher, Jacqueline Colledge, also testified about Martin’s eulogy. “He talked more about himself than he did Michele,” she said.

  “What did he say about Michele?” the prosecutor asked.

  “I can’t remember a lot, actually,” she said. “I do remember him talking about how he would survive and the children would survive this terrible thing that had happened to him.”

  Later in the trial, Martin’s former mistress, Anna Osborne Walthall, testified about her affair with the doctor. After sex, she said, they engaged in deep conversations.

  “When did conversations like that usually occur?”

  “Pillow talk.” She glanced around the courtroom. “After you have sex and you’re laying there and you feel close so you’re a little more open.”

  “Did Martin ever describe the process of making someone have a heart attack?”

  “Yes. There’s something you can give someone that’s natural … that’s not detectable after they have a heart attack.”

  Randall Spencer tried to discredit Anna’s testimony.

  “You’ve shared dreams you’ve had about the case,” he said, “that you thought were of evidentiary value.”

  “Possibly.” She shrugged.

  “You’ve been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder?” Spencer asked. “What used to be called multiple personality disorder?”

  “I have.”

  “You also wrote in an e-mail that you’re very excited about the prospect of Martin being off the streets for a very long time, right?” Spencer asked.