The bottom line here was that it was no laughing matter: This was not some child getting the hiccups and everyone sitting around a BBQ thinking it was cute because they sounded silly and lasted a little longer than usual. This was chronic, extreme, and had taken over every waking moment of Jennifer’s life. She was no longer going to school because it was too much for her and too much of a distraction for everyone else.
Rachel was desperate. She needed to make something happen. She was at the house one afternoon, lying down, trying to get a handle on what to do next.
“It came to me that I should maybe call the local newspaper, see if I can get a Letter to the Editor printed and maybe a doctor or someone who had dealt with this condition would see it and I might be able to get her some help,” Rachel explained later. “I didn’t know where else to turn.”
It was a decision that would change the course of everything.
“I was only looking for answers,” Rachel added. “By that point, we were willing to do and try anything.”
From the moment she called the newspaper, Rachel explained, Jennifer’s story took off. They could never have considered or predicted how fast it would spread or how big it would become. Jennifer’s condition went from a small story in the local newspapers and local television news station to international media calling her and wanting to put her in front of a worldwide audience.
According to Rachel, the Tampa Bay Times sent a reporter to her house to interview the family. At the same time, some of the interview was recorded on a small handheld video camera for the newspaper’s website. Before the print story was published, the video went up online.
“Before the print story published the next day, we got thirty to fifty calls from media wanting Jennifer to do a story with them,” Rachel explained.
That was it: Jennifer’s story was now part of the endless transom that is the Internet pipeline, traveling all around the world, being shared and shared and shared with comments attached.
“After they got hold of it, the blogs made it seem as if I was trying to sell Jennifer’s story,” Rachel explained, defending her decision to take Jennifer’s hiccups public. “Like I wanted to make money off her. But, in fact, I wanted a cure.... She was depressed and had talked about jumping off a bridge. My mission was to find a cure for my daughter and not to show her off like a freak show.”
Rachel believed any parent would have done the same thing.
“I just wish,” Rachel said later, reflecting on her decision to call the newspaper on that day, “I had been more informed when I did it. I never wanted to put Jennifer out there like that. I was just trying to get her some help.”
When Jennifer’s story printed in the Tampa Bay Times the following morning, Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2007, it took on an entire new level of pathological (viral) vitality. The big networks latched on. Rachel’s phone, still ringing from the Internet video story the previous night, was now on fire. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, HLN, and MSNBC were calling; some of them offered to fly Jennifer to New York on the first flight out so they could put her on their morning shows.
This story of the “Hiccup Girl”—a nickname that, in and of itself, had a funny, pop culture ring—was perfect fodder for that early-morning audience, many of whom liked their news served with a sidedish of fluff and a dash of celebrity crash-and-burn seasoning. A fifteen-year-old girl like Jennifer, cute and seemingly innocent and naïve and altogether the classic American child, was the ideal ratings grabber as a winter ratings sweeps period was under way for the big networks. Jennifer would appeal to everyone. People would feel sorry for her. They’d offer help.
Rachel’s hope was that an expert would see Jennifer’s story and offer his or her help—and cure the damn hiccups.
That was the goal.
Nothing more.
That one story on February 14 by Tampa Bay Times reporter Mary Jane Park sparked a storm of criticism, too. But as Rachel fielded calls from producers all over the world, the one she took most interest in, mainly because of what they were offering, was NBC’s Today morning show. Producers promised Rachel that if she and Jennifer appeared that Friday, February 16, they would have a medical expert appear with them and the doctor would try to help Jennifer get rid of the hiccups. It seemed to be exactly the reason why Rachel had called the newspaper in the first place.
What a major coup—ratings-wise—it would be if a network morning show could make the claim that its in-house doctor had cured the Hiccup Girl.
“That’s the reason we’re doing this, to try to get her some help,” Rachel told the Tampa Bay Times in a follow-up story a day before she and Jennifer packed their bags and flew off to New York. “We don’t want to give the wrong impression that Jennifer’s just going for fun.”
Good Morning America, more than the CBS Morning Show, wanted Jennifer to sit on its couch, too. But Jennifer and Rachel felt that appearing on Today was enough.
Fly in, do the show, fly back home.
Chris Robidoux told the Tampa Bay Times they did not want Jennifer’s condition or her life “to turn into a circus.”
But, of course, it was far too late for that already.
CHAPTER 30
MEREDITH VIEIRA INTRODUCED Jennifer as the camera focused on her face—and she hiccupped repeatedly. Both Jennifer and Rachel looked good, all dolled up by the Today crack team of makeup and hair personnel. Both wore black blouses, Jennifer black pants, Rachel brown, and Jennifer had a red ribbon of some sort wrapped around her right wrist. They did not appear to be nervous. Both seemed interested in getting to the bottom of what was happening to Jennifer and hopefully finding the child some relief. The only respite Jennifer had experienced over the past three weeks was when she slept. According to her and Rachel, Jennifer’s hiccups ceased during the hours she was sound asleep; but the moment she opened her eyes, they started once again.
On the Today couch, Vieira sat next to Matt Lauer, Jennifer next to Lauer, and flanking them on each side, in single chairs, Rachel and a doctor. The segment was billed as a “Today Show Exclusive: 3 Weeks with the Hiccups.”7
NBC brought in Dr. Roshini Rajapaksa (“Dr. Raj”), a gastroenterologist from nearby New York Medical Center. Dr. Raj sported solid credentials. She graduated from New York University School of Medicine in 1997. A beautiful woman with long, dark black hair, blemish-free bronze skin, and a million-dollar smile, the doctor was there to help Jennifer and give her advice as to which steps the family could take next.
As Vieira had suggested at the top of the story, everyone and their mother seemed to have a suggestion to get rid of the hiccups, but nothing had worked for Jennifer.
After saying good morning, directing her attention to Jennifer, Vieira said, “I feel so bad for you. . . .”
It was a sentiment felt by everyone simply by watching the segment, listening to Jennifer hiccup relentlessly, her entire body jerking, and her facial expression lifeless. No one would want to be in Jennifer’s position, and it was easy to sympathize with this poor young girl who just wanted the hiccups to go away so she could move on with her life.
What would later provoke scores of haters (most “Internet trolls”) to come out from underneath their bridges and publicly demean and hate on Jennifer, calling her a liar, was that when she started to answer questions posed by the Today team, the hiccups stopped. As she sat waiting to talk, before the first question of how they were coping, Jennifer hiccupped repeatedly, second after second. However, as soon as she opened her mouth to speak—“I can’t do what a normal teenager would do. I can’t go to a movie like I would like to do every Friday. I can’t go somewhere out in public without people staring and saying something. I’ve had people ask me if I was drinking or if I was pregnant”—she did not hiccup once.
Yet, as soon as she stopped talking, there they were again.
Hic. Hic. Hic. Hic. Hic. Hic . . .
Quick pause.
Hic. Hic. Hic. Hic. Hic. Hic . . .
Matt Lauer picked up
on it and mentioned how Jennifer had stopped hiccupping while she answered Vieira’s first question. “So there’s the solution right there,” Lauer said humorously, everyone smiling, “don’t stop talking.”
They discussed the pain. Jennifer said it hurt so bad all she wanted to do was cry. That she was actually putting on her best face for the show, because inside all she wanted to do was break down.
She seemed a little manic as the segment progressed. She talked about how a combination of Benadryl and Valium was helping her cope and sleep.
Matt Lauer asked Rachel about all the doctors they had seen and if there was any sort of indication as to what was going on, medically speaking.
“Nothing yet,” Rachel said. “That’s why we’re here. . . .”
Rachel’s goal was clear. It didn’t matter what anyone had said or posted online, what those knuckleheads at the mall screamed at the family as they shopped, or what idiots called and said on the telephone when they accused Rachel and Chris of trying to pimp their daughter into an overnight celebrity. Rachel was determined to help her daughter beat this condition. If that meant hopping on a jet and flying to New York, well, damn it, so be it. Rachel wanted her daughter to find relief.
Lauer encouraged viewers to go to the show’s website and write in “any solution” they might have, no matter how crazy it may sound.
Vieira asked Dr. Raj, who had sat listening, what caused the hiccups.
The doctor explained how common they were and also warned how the medical establishment really didn’t know a lot about the causes. Dr. Raj explained how the hiccups were associated with the diaphragm and the muscles in the chest. Meanwhile, the Today producers put a graphic on the screen to explain what was happening in the body as a person hiccupped.
In the background, while everyone talked, viewers could hear Jennifer hiccupping incessantly.
After a very brief explanation by the doctor, Lauer patted Jennifer on the knee and said good luck.
The entire segment clocked in at two minutes, fifty-three seconds—most of which Jennifer hiccupped throughout.
Rachel and Jennifer were given no new remedies or any advice from Dr. Raj. The segment, basically, introduced Hiccup Girl to the world, showed how aggravating and frustrating the hiccups were for Jennifer and Rachel, and that was it. NBC had scored the first national interview with Hiccup Girl.
Jennifer and Rachel hung around the studio after the segment. Keith Urban was slated to play on the outside stage—the Plaza—later that morning, and Jennifer, especially, wanted to see the performance.
When it came time for Keith Urban’s performance, the outside temperature was 15 degrees. Absolutely freezing. The wind blew. Crowds shivered. Quite the culture shock for Jennifer and Rachel, who pined for the warmth of Florida they were used to. But there they were, dressed in winter clothes, outside at the Plaza, waiting for Keith Urban to do his thing.
When cameras panned to the stage as Keith Urban stood in front of the microphone, that signature Fender Stratocaster hanging around his neck, Jennifer was off to the side of the stage, trying to stay warm, wearing black gloves, an ankle-length, cowboy-like leather jacket, smiling best she could manage under such extreme conditions.
Keith Urban felt so bad for Jennifer he brought her up on the stage and gave her a big hug as the crowd went wild.
Jennifer smiled. She had met her first A-list celebrity.
Since Matt Lauer had made that announcement earlier in the morning to e-mail the Today website any solutions viewers might have, the website had received about ten thousand e-mails from people commenting on the Jennifer Mee story, many of whom offered advice and remedies of all types: lemon juice, apple juice, massage therapy, hypnotist therapy, and acupuncture.
It all seemed so glib. Jennifer and Rachel had heard it all before. There was nothing new, other than maybe the acupuncture, which Jennifer was opposed to, “because of the needles,” she claimed.
Back at the hotel, preparing to catch a flight back home, Jennifer and Rachel took a call from one of the Today producers. The show wanted them to stay in town for another appearance on Monday morning. The segment had gone over so big, with so much national and international interest, they wanted to revisit the story again next week, maybe get a new doctor and talk some more about what they could do to help Jennifer.
Back in Florida, Chris reported the phone ringing as relentlessly as Jennifer’s hiccups. Calls were coming from everywhere. It was overwhelming and difficult. They had no idea what they’d gotten themselves into with all of this. The story was taking off at a rate that seemed unbearable and unpredictable. Already there were ten pages of links to stories about Jennifer on Google, more showing up with every page refresh.
Jennifer and her hiccups were now an international wild fire burning out of control. Jennifer felt special all of a sudden. Everyone now recognized her wherever she went. She felt like a bona fide celebrity. Some of it was already going to her head after Today promised the royal treatment for Jennifer and Rachel if they agreed to stay in town for an appearance on Monday: spa, restaurants, spending money, maybe a Broadway show.
That weekend, as they waited inside the hotel for Monday to come, Good Morning America producers called Jennifer’s house in Florida a reported fifty-seven times in one day. While all of this craziness happened, Jennifer and Rachel watched as notes from GMA producers were slipped underneath their hotel room door. GMA had found out where they were staying and were desperate, according to Rachel, to steal Jennifer away from Today.
Rachel was loyal, she said. She was not going to jump over to the other, competing network and have Jennifer appear there. This wasn’t about turning Jennifer into a commodity.
Meanwhile, Jennifer was soaking up all this attention—and loving it.
“We’re going to move you two,” said a producer from Today after Rachel explained what was going on with GMA. “We’re going to put you up in a new hotel under fake names.”
Thus, Jennifer and Rachel were shuffled under the cloak of secrecy to a second hotel, checked in under aliases, and told to stay in the room until they appeared on Monday morning.
In what would become a sore issue for some later on, Today paid for everything that weekend Rachel and Jennifer stayed in town. They had their clothes washed, and Rachel couldn’t believe the laundry bill was close to $300. They gave Rachel money for missing work, because she told them she had to go back to Florida so she could earn money. Every day in New York was a missed day of work. Rachel and her family needed the money.
Jennifer got herself a French manicure. They needed to eat, so Today bought them meals. The show even picked up the tab for two packs of cigarettes. In total, Rachel later said, she was given $2,200 for expenses, which included some pleasurable things to do while they waited and that work money she lost while in New York with Jennifer. Those who would later criticize Rachel and claim she was making money off her daughter, selling her out, were quite ignorant to the situation because there was no money to be made. No one was paying Jennifer for her story. And $2,200 was not a payday that would change the family’s lives in any way. Even Jennifer would later tell a friend she was “upset” because Rachel and Chris spent all the money she made from the hiccups. But in reality there was no money. It was just one more way for Jennifer to, as her celebrity rose, allow it all to go to her head—and also one more in a long line of contradictions posed by Jennifer.
On that Monday morning, Jennifer did a second interview with Today, which amounted to much of the same fluff from the previous Friday. The main focus of this second interview was the response Today had to Friday’s segment. Jennifer and Rachel spoke with Natalie Morales, and once again Dr. Raj was there. This time, Dr. Raj suggested treatments such as acupuncture, chiropractic manipulation, massage therapy, and even certain types of injections, intravenous medication, and endoscopy.
That afternoon, before flying back to Florida, Jennifer taped an interview for Inside Edition. She’d made the rounds. She wa
s an overnight media sensation and now a recognizable, albeit disposable, celebrity.
When they arrived home, people stared, pointed, and whispered at the airport. Some came up and asked for an autograph. Others hurled insults. Some wished her well.
Jennifer took it all in as if she were walking the red carpet. The elation on her face was derived from all the attention she was getting. Here was the other side of all that pain: being noticed, being wanted, being popular.
Walking out of the airport, Jennifer said all she wanted to do was go see her friend. “I haven’t seen her in a million years.” She wanted to reconnect with this friend and bring her into the fold. She wanted to allow the friend to hang with her and enjoy the ride.
Rachel needed to get back to work. She was the breadwinner of the household. With Chris on disability, Rachel needed the income. Many doctors were donating treatment, but bills would start to pile up. All this traveling cost money, even though NBC Universal had paid for most of it.
The local media was waiting at the airport, of course. Jennifer did several local interviews while exiting the airport. She was told the Ellen DeGeneres Show had called and was hoping to book her. Additional calls had come in from Britain and Canada and Australia and other countries. For some reason, Japan was crazy for the story. Everyone wanted a piece of Jennifer Mee. There was also word that a husband and wife team in Pennsylvania that had apparently invented a cure for the hiccups wanted to speak with Jennifer, allow her to use their product, and talk about a possible endorsement deal.
As the whirlwind continued, Tampa Bay Times reporter Mary Jane Park spoke to Chris Robidoux, who was rather tired of all the calls, e-mails, and knocks on the door. Chris wanted their lives back. He needed peace. He wanted life to go on quietly again.
But all of this had just begun, essentially. There was no turning it off now.
One Breath Away: The Hiccup Girl - From Media Darling to Convicted Killer Page 11