Unholy Sacrifice

by Robert Scott

  For some reason at this point, Taylor decided to give Ivan and Annette six tablets each of Rohypnol. He thought it would make them compliant, but all it did was make them too drowsy to function well, and they still had some signatures to sign.

  Ivan was taken to a bedroom, where he was forced to write a check. Annette was taken into the office, shackled to a chair, and watched over by Justin while this occurred. After Taylor was through with Ivan, he took Annette into his bedroom to sign a check. By this time, however, his use of Rohypnol was backfiring. Annette was falling asleep. To try and wake her up, he lit some meth in a pipe and put it up to Annette’s mouth, but because she was too drowsy, he had to blow the smoke into her nostrils.

  Even with the meth, Annette was still drowsy. After a long pause, he and Justin carried her to the mattress and laid her down, and laid Ivan down beside her. In total frustration, Taylor told Dawn she would have to practice writing a signature like Annette’s signature. Dawn practiced for a while and then wrote out a check for $10,000 and signed the check with the name Annette Stineman. This was to be a test check to see if it would clear. If it did, they knew the rest of the money would be there as well.

  Since Dawn was doing a reasonably good job of signing Annette’s signature, the Stinemans were no longer useful to Taylor. He dragged them into the bathroom. Annette was so groggy, she was practically asleep.

  Justin Helzer was glad that the Stinemans were dropping off. He hoped that they would eventually be forced to ingest so much Rohypnol that they would just die in their sleep. He figured that would be the most peaceful way to die and he didn’t want them to suffer.

  But Taylor had other ideas—ones that made Justin extremely angry. Taylor woke up Ivan and Annette so that one of two things could happen. Either they could say good-bye to each other, or he could say good-bye to them. Justin would tell Dawn later, “That was totally unnecessary!” Justin was incensed by Taylor’s action, but held his peace.

  By now, both Ivan and Annette were restive on the bathroom floor and starting to struggle. So as not to get any blood on their clothes, Taylor stripped down to his underwear and had Justin and Dawn do the same. Taylor decided to kill the Stinemans by suffocating them. He placed his hands over Annette’s nose and mouth, but that only seemed to make her struggle more. Justin did the same thing with Ivan. Tiring of the battle, Taylor ordered Dawn to bring in two large pieces of plastic and he draped one over Annette’s face, while Justin did the same with Ivan. True to his nature, Justin did everything that Taylor did seconds after his brother took an action.

  Even these large plastic sheets did not work. Ivan and Annette kicked and fought back. In total frustration, Taylor started banging Annette’s head on the bathroom floor and against the edge of the toilet. Justin banged Ivan’s head on the bathroom floor as well. But nothing they did seemed to kill the Stinemans.

  Dawn, who was in the bathroom doorway, watched as the elderly couple were being beaten. She said later, “I really couldn’t believe this was happening. I just wanted them to die. I said to myself, ‘Hurry up and die, so this will just be over.’”

  By now, Justin was pounding Ivan’s head on the bathroom floor very hard. There are indications from a later autopsy that Ivan may have died from a heart attack because of the beating.

  Annette was even tougher. Tired of her struggles, Taylor dragged her to the bathtub, draped her body over the side and stabbed her in the lungs—once in the right lung and once in the left lung. Even that did not kill her immediately. As Dawn watched, Taylor slit Annette’s throat. He pushed her face, down so that if nothing else, she would drown in her own blood. Finally, after incredible brutality, Annette Stineman died.

  Within ten minutes of the Stinemans’ deaths, Taylor told Dawn to get dressed and drive up to Petaluma, about fifty miles north of Concord, to deposit the $10,000 check. Dawn said, “I put on a cotton pantsuit that was lime green. Taylor, when he came out of the bathroom, was acting cool. Justin didn’t look at me or talk to me.”

  With sheets of plastic on the floor and the tub area, Taylor and Justin got to work. No one was there to see them, and neither one spoke of what they did later, but certain things could be ascertained as to what happened. It became apparent to them very soon that human flesh cannot be readily chopped with a reciprocating saw. The brothers had to fall back first into slicing off flesh with knives. Only then could they use the reciprocating saw on the bones. Before long, the bathroom had to look like a slaughter-house. As the bodies were hacked into sections, they were placed in large plastic bags. Just what body part went into which bag would later become the province of a forensic medical examiner.

  After her trip to Petaluma, Dawn was instructed by Taylor to stop at his parents’ house in Pacheco and pick up some wood. Just what the wood was for, he didn’t say, though it was probably intended for the fireplace at Saddlewood. Dawn did as instructed and brought a wheelchair back to Saddlewood along with the firewood. [Days before, Dawn had been instructed by Taylor to rent a wheelchair.] Once there, she noticed a big plastic tarp in the hallway with several black garbage bags placed on it. Dawn realized that chopped-up body parts of the Stinemans were in the garbage bags.

  Justin was in the bathroom cleaning it and wiping down the surfaces. Dawn sat down with Taylor and discussed the trip to Petaluma. Then she said, “We talked about Selina and getting the money. About everything else that had to be done.”

  On Monday night, July 31, Debra McClanahan went to bed and awakened at 11:35 P.M. with a jolt. Someone was standing silently over her as she lay in bed. For one moment, she had no idea who it was and nearly freaked out. Then Taylor stepped from the shadows and spoke to her. He apologized for scaring her.

  He gave Debra a hug and said he needed access to a key. He said that he couldn’t stay long and that he needed to get into the safe. He asked where the key was and she told him it was beneath a tissue box.

  Debra went into the living room to get a cigarette. When she walked back into the bedroom, Taylor was bent down on one knee, getting contents out of the safe. Inside the safe were packages filled with pills. Debra stepped forward and gave him a hug. Taylor asked for a large bag and she went and got him a gym bag. Taylor took a look at it and told her it was too small. Debra then got him a large garbage bag instead.

  Even as Taylor fiddled around with the safe, he took enough time for Debra to lay down and he gave her a back rub. He said, “You’re my best friend.”

  When he was done giving her a back rub, Taylor went out the door and said over his shoulder, “I put the key on the coffee table.” But when Debra looked there later, there was no key.

  Debra said, “I assumed he was going partying. He was all dressed up. It was yuppie casual. He was dressed to kill.”

  CHAPTER 7

  “Spirit says you get to know this is not a dream.”

  Dawn called various places on Tuesday, August 1, about renting a personal watercraft and was informed that the towing vehicle would need appropriate auto insurance. This glitch would throw off the timing for the Children of Thunder’s plans.

  While Dawn was doing this, Justin headed for an auto shop to have a trailer hitch put on his pickup. He arrived at Pep Boys at around 1:00 P.M. on August 1. The manager had him sign a form for work to be done, and after he talked to Justin, he had a work order put in for a trailer hitch to be put on a 1995 Nissan pickup. The work began at 1:17 P.M. and was finished by 2:50 P.M.

  The manager recalled later that Justin had told him that he was in a hurry. “He wanted to get the [personal watercraft] fast. He said he was going to tow a boat or a [personal watercraft]. In fact, he even mentioned that he was going out on the Delta.”

  Justin did not stick around Pep Boys for the work to be finished. He called a cab company and they sent a taxi out to pick him up. In an incredible twist, stranger than fiction, the cabdriver turned out to be a buddy from Justin’s old National Guard unit. They had served time together as MPs in Germany. The driver was Nicolai Nena
d.

  Nicolai and Justin talked about how things had been going for them since the service and about old times. Nicolai dropped Justin off at a house on Saddlewood Court.

  Vicki Sexton had been a bank manager for nearly thirty years at various branches by the year 2000. On Tuesday, August 1, she was the bank manager of Cal Fed at the corner of California and Olympic Boulevards in Walnut Creek. At two-thirty that afternoon, she was sitting at her desk when a teller named Nicki brought a customer in a wheelchair to her desk. The young woman in the wheelchair was a heavyset young blonde who said her name was “Jackie.”

  Besides being in a wheelchair, this woman caught Vicki’s attention because she was wearing a lime green pantsuit topped off by a large white cowboy hat. Jackie also wore driver’s gloves on her hands. It was unusual attire for sedate and sophisticated Walnut Creek.

  Dawn (as Jackie) started telling Vicki a convoluted story about Cal Fed customers, Ivan and Annette Stineman, about their supposed granddaughter Selina Bishop, who needed emergency medical care. Selina, according to Dawn, was in San Diego and needed open-heart surgery, but she didn’t have medical insurance. (The place of the emergency had changed from the story given to George Calhoun.) The Stinemans were going to pay for the surgery, but they needed to put money into Selina’s account. At that point, Dawn gave Vicki Sexton two checks with the Stinemans’ signatures on them. One check was for $67,000 and the other was for $33,000. Both checks were made out to Selina Bishop.

  All of this was so unusual, Vicki wanted to talk to the Stinemans, and she called a phone number that was printed on the checks. All Vicki got was an answering machine. The voice on the tape sounded like an elderly man’s. The tape said, “Hello, this is the Stinemans’ residence. We are not able to come to the phone right now.”

  Vicki left a message on the tape, stating, “Hi. This is Vicki at Cal Fed. Give me a call as soon as possible. I’ll be here all day, until five-thirty P.M.”

  Dawn never anticipated Vicki calling the phone number printed on the checks. She told Vicki, “Oh, they just moved. Here’s their new phone number.” The new phone number was a pager number with a voice mail service that Dawn had purchased only a few days before.

  Vicki called the new number and a male’s voice came on the line, but it was not the voice on the answering machine. It sounded younger. (In fact, it was Taylor Helzer.)

  Dawn repeated to Vicki that the checks needed to clear in a hurry. Vicki was certainly sympathetic, but she also knew that she needed to protect her bank and her customers. Vicki phoned Dean Witter about the checks, but couldn’t get information from them about the transaction. The person there said he’d need the Stinemans’ Social Security numbers. Vicki related this to Dawn, who said okay, she would find out what those numbers were. Then Dawn rolled her wheelchair out of the bank and through the front door. This was also unusual because wheelchair patrons came down an elevator from the parking lot on the second story. To go out the front door meant that Dawn had to negotiate sixteen steps with the wheelchair.

  When Dawn left, Vicki Sexton felt there was something very odd about the whole situation. She went upstairs to the security department and had them put a “hard hold” on the checks that amounted to $100,000 and were destined for Selina Bishop’s account. A hard hold meant that only Sexton could authorize clearance of the checks.

  On August 1, 2000, at around 5:30 P.M., Richard Hundly, of Concord Insurance Service, received a call from Justin Helzer. Justin had been an automobile insurance client of his for about two years. Justin wanted to know how much extra it would cost to have coverage so that he could tow a rented personal watercraft behind his pickup.

  Hundly said Justin’s pickup would have to be photographed first to see if any damage was already there. He told Justin to bring the pickup down to the insurance office.

  By the time Justin arrived, Taylor was already at the Concord Insurance Service, filling out paperwork. Hundly went outside and took a Polaroid shot of the pickup. While Hundly was doing paperwork, he overheard the two brothers talking about planning to take a trip with the personal watercraft in tow. Hundly was interested in personal watercrafts and he asked them where they planned to go. Justin answered, “Somewhere out in the Rio Vista area.” This was out in the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

  Justin seemed relaxed to Hundly, though somewhat in a hurry because he still had to show the proof of insurance to the personal-watercraft rental place in Livermore, miles away, and it was getting near the end of the business day.

  Once the policy was completed and signed, Justin phoned Dawn on his cell phone and told her that he now had insurance and would be over as soon as possible to pick up the rental.

  Taylor, at this point, said he would get a cab ride home, but Hundly asked him where he lived. When Taylor said near Kirker Pass Road, Hundly said that was right on his way home. He offered Taylor a ride, and Taylor accepted.

  On the way to Saddlewood Court, Hundly let Taylor use his cell phone. Taylor phoned Dawn and left a message. Hundly heard Taylor say, “I’m on my way home.”

  Dawn Godman arrived at Cool Rides in Livermore around 6:30 P.M. She asked co-owner Robin Miller how much weight the craft could handle. Miller told her a two-seater could handle 250 pounds and a three-seater about 350 pounds. Dawn noticed that there wasn’t much room for cargo on the two-seater watercraft—there was only an area under the front seat that could hold a small amount of cargo. The three-seater, however, was almost like a small speedboat. It had runners alongside the craft, and Dawn realized these runners could hold duffel bags. In the end, she chose the three-seater.

  Dawn made small talk with Robin Miller as time passed. Dawn told Miller what a hassle it had been to try and get a personal watercraft. She said that Cool Rides was the only outlet in the area that rented these. Then she added, “It took three of us working together to rent [one].”

  Both Robin Miller and Dawn Godman were worried that Justin was not going to make it on time and Miller was getting antsy to close up the store for the day. It wasn’t until nearly 8:00 P.M. that Justin finally arrived. As soon as he did, Miller turned on a mandatory safety video for them to watch as she filled out paperwork. Miller had them give her their driver’s licenses and a valid Visa card. The transaction cost $500, which Justin paid for, all in $20 bills.

  Robin Miller heard Dawn call someone on her cell phone and say, “We got the [rental].”

  Things still weren’t going smoothly, however. While Robin filled out the paperwork, her husband, William Miller, realized that the personal watercraft they intended for Dawn and Justin to rent wasn’t running properly. So he fueled up another one—#8.

  Finally, after it was already dark outside, #8 was placed on Justin’s trailer, and Dawn climbed back into the Saturn. As she drove away, Robin Miller noticed that there was a wheelchair in the backseat. She thought that was an odd item for someone renting a watercraft.

  Later that night, Dawn left an outgoing greeting on voice mail supposedly from the Stinemans, but it was really her speaking, as well as Taylor. This voice message was in case Vicki Sexton called. It was supposed to fool her into thinking the Stinemans were in a hurry to get down to where Selina Bishop was having emergency medical surgery.

  When Vicki Sexton got to Cal Fed on the morning of Wednesday, August 2, at eight o’clock, there was a note on her desk that someone had called and left the Stinemans’ Social Security numbers for her.

  A short time later, “Jackie” called and asked about the funds that were to go to Selina Bishop’s account. Once again, Vicki had a gut feeling that something was not right. Jackie, in person, had a raspy voice. So Vicki asked the teller who had received the earlier call about the Stinemans’ Social Security numbers if the person claiming to be Jackie on the phone had a raspy voice. The teller said that the caller indeed had a raspy voice. This was one more suspicious circumstance.

  When Vicki talked to Dawn this time, she tried to trick her and said, “Thank you for
calling last night.”

  Dawn responded, “I didn’t call last night.”

  Vicki replied, “I need to speak with the Stinemans.”

  Dawn hemmed and hawed about the Stinemans not being available, which indeed they weren’t—they were already dead.

  Vicki Sexton phoned the number that Dawn had given her for the Stinemans and left another message on the answering machine. She said, “This call is very important. Please call back.”

  Then Vicki tried another number that Dawn had given her. A woman’s voice came on the answering machine, claiming to be Annette Stineman. The message said, “I can’t deal with this right now, Ivan.” That was all.

  Vicki said later, “I was weirded out by the message. I left one of my own on their machine. I said, ‘Hi, this is Vicki Sexton from Cal Fed. We found your information. We’ll call you next week.’”

  Vicki Sexton’s fears and the hard hold on the $100,000 checks was knocking everything off schedule for the Children of Thunder.

  On the way home, Dawn picked up some food and she and Taylor and Justin all had dinner together. After dinner Taylor phoned Selina Bishop. Taylor was becoming very uptight about how things were progressing at this point. Dawn recalled, “Taylor was angry about Cal Fed. He thought something was wrong. Things should have been working better. He thought that I screwed up somehow.”

  Taylor didn’t know that things weren’t working according to plan because of Vicki Sexton’s hard hold on the Stinemans’ checks. More than anything else, it was disrupting the Children of Thunder’s plans.

  Taylor was also vaguely aware at the time that something that Jenny Villarin had done was going to come back to haunt him and everyone in the Villarin family. For what should have been such a small occurrence, it had terrible ramifications.

  In late July, Jenny and her friend Rosanne Lusk Urban were aware that Selina was quite taken with a guy named Jordan. Urban said later, “Selina was quite enamored of this Jordan. She said she was really in love with him. But she was intimidated too. She said one of his former girlfriends had been a Playboy Bunny. This made her very self-conscious. She wanted to see a photo of a Playboy Bunny. So I bought her a copy. I thought the girl was cute, but not that big a deal. I think Selina was self-conscious because of her weight.”