Unholy Sacrifice

by Robert Scott

  Selina had also told Lanelle Simon, Jenny’s housemate in Novato, that Jordan came from a good family. Simon said later, “He was a nice guy and romantic. She seemed to have gotten what she dreamed of.”

  However, one time when Jordan phoned Selina, Simon answered the phone. As she recalled, “He said, ‘Is Selina there?’ He thought I was Jenny, her mother. He was very sickeningly sweet on the phone. He reminded me of Eddie Haskell on the Leave It to Beaver show.”

  Jenny was indeed curious about this mysterious Jordan, who was seeing her daughter, and she wanted to meet him in person. Rosanne Urban said later, “We assumed Jordan was a trust fund baby. He had a lot of spare time on his hands and money. Selina and Jordan were supposed to pick up some furniture from my house. Time after time, the dates were broken and he never did show up. Selina would make excuses for him.”

  Rosanne recalled, “On a Monday morning, Jenny didn’t have to work. We went to breakfast early and drove to Woodacre. Selina had let it slip that Jordan was staying the night with her. I said, ‘Let’s go over there. But what do we say?’

  “Jenny said, ‘I’ll say I need a fresh blouse for work.’

  “I kind of egged her on and we went over there. Once I pulled up near her place, I said, ‘Well, I can’t go in. I’m not going to work and I don’t have any excuse for being there.’

  “So Jenny ran in and she was only there about five minutes. She sandbagged him. When she got back in the car, I asked, ‘Well, how was he?’

  “Jenny didn’t seem overly impressed with Jordan. She said, ‘He was cute, I guess.’

  “She didn’t say anything more, and I didn’t press it.”

  In late July, Selina Bishop, her mother, Jenny, and Gloria LaFranchi all had lunch together at the Two Bird Café. Selina told the two women, “I like Jordan, but he won’t open up our relationship. I’m really in love with him, but he wants to back off on the sex for six months to see where the relationship will go.”

  LaFranchi didn’t say anything then, but recalled later, “I thought, what’s up with that?”

  Then Selina related to her that she and Jordan were talking of going camping in Yosemite. She wanted to go, but was worried by what Jordan had just said about their relationship.

  Selina also talked to Rosanne Lusk Urban about the trip. Rosanne said something more prophetic than she realized at the time. She told Selina, “Everybody should see Yosemite once before they die.”

  Mulling over the situation about Jordan, Selina asked her boss at the Two Bird Café for some time off so she could go to Yosemite in the first week of August. Tony Micelli recalled, “She was going with her boyfriend, Jordan. She was very excited.”

  To Julia Bernbaum, Selina also seemed excited about the upcoming trip. Bernbaum said that Selina and Jordan planned to go for only a couple of days up to Yosemite. And she thought this was odd, since it was a six- or seven-hour drive up from Marin County to Yosemite. They wouldn’t have much time for sightseeing in the park because of the amount of time getting there and back.

  “She was really gullible about a lot of things. I told her, ‘I’m worried about you.’ Selina said, ‘I’m worried about me too. But I’m going.’

  “Then we both dyed her hair pink and red. We were twenty-two years old. We did it as a lark.”

  Around this time, Selina wrote one of the most heartbreaking segments in her journal. It was written to Jordan, but he probably never read it.

  She wrote that she wished she and Jordan could be together more often, and wondered why it was so difficult. She said that she’d found the person she’d been looking for and it filled her heart with joy. When they were together she was in a state of bliss.

  When she was away from him, however, doubts crept into her mind. She wondered why he offered her only “crumbs of his time.” She tried to imagine herself without him, and it was a painful thought to her. She realized that some women tricked the man they wanted into having a baby, by saying they had used birth control, when they had not. She said she understood this mentality, but she would not use it on Taylor, even though she wanted a part of him to be with her always.

  Pulling back from her fantasies, Selina wrote that she really didn’t know him any better than “a can of paint.” She said that over time she would lose weight and her body would be more desirable for him. She still wondered, however, if that would be enough for Jordan.

  Selina wondered if she was “too ghetto” for him, or he wasn’t “ghetto enough” for her. She said that she didn’t want to be a part of his “big plan.” She didn’t want a fancy house, expensive cars and clothing and a drug-filled lifestyle. All she wanted was a normal life with kids, a comfortable home and Jordan.

  Rhetorically she asked, “Do I see a husband here?” She answered it by saying, that only time would tell. And she finished by writing that she loved Jordan, whoever he was.

  One more person Selina spoke to about the upcoming trip was coworker Chris Caley. He had moved from New Jersey out to California and didn’t have many friends in his new locale. Selina took him under her wing and was very nice to him. They often took cigarette breaks together, and she told him a lot about her boyfriend, Jordan.

  On Sunday, July 30, while the Helzer brothers were kidnapping the Stinemans, Selina and Chris Caley went to a rave in San Francisco. They arrived there at around 9:00 P.M. Caley said later, “They were playing techno music. There was a deejay spinning records. I danced some and then watched Selina dance. She seemed to be having a good time. She and I milled around and had a couple of drinks. I was there just as a friend.”

  While at the rave, Selina told Caley a little more about Jordan’s supposed scheme that was in progress. He recalled, “She said he was involved in some kind of bank scam. I thought it sounded kind of shady. She talked about some financial things, and said that she still didn’t know Jordan’s real name. I thought that was odd.

  “She said again that they were going camping. She seemed to be concerned, but nothing outside the typical. Then she said about her boyfriend, ‘We’re working things out. It’s a compatibility issue.’”

  Selina and Caley left the rave about one o’clock on July 31, and she drove him home to Marin County.

  On Monday afternoon, July 31, Selina sat in the kitchen of the Soladay home and chatted with Leora. Leora asked her about Jordan, and Selina sighed, then chuckled. She said, “Oh, he has a three-million-dollar plan.”

  Leora knew that Selina was planning a special dinner for Jordan, but he called thirty minutes before he was supposed to show up and said that he couldn’t make it. Selina was very upset.

  Selina was having a frustrating week, as far as Jordan was concerned. His plans for the trip to Yosemite kept changing, leaving her up in the air about when they would go. At one point, she even asked Lucia Villarin if she wanted to go along. But Lucia had a one-year-old baby and thought that it wouldn’t work out.

  Lucia also had her suspicions about Jordan. She wondered why he wouldn’t tell Selina his real name.

  Selina wrote about everything being in God’s hands at that point. She said that Jordan was probably afraid to commit to her, that he might think of her as a burden. She said, however, that she was tired of trying to figure him out, and that she was particularly tired of his “secret agent bullshit.”

  Selina wrote that she desired to know if he really loved her. She said she was not looking for a soulmate or a husband, but just a boyfriend. If Jordan wasn’t ready for that, then her search would have to continue.

  Near the end of the journal entry she drew back from her ultimatum and wrote that all she wanted at the moment was to be held and loved. She said that her heart was always lonely when they weren’t together and she told her mind to be quiet and take all the love he would give her, even if it was doled out a small amount at a time.

  On Tuesday evening, August 1, Matthew King, of the Bison Brewery in Berkeley, looked up from the bar to see one of his regular customers come into the establishment. It was
Selina Bishop. He knew her by sight because she and a young man had met there several times since June to have drinks and talk.

  King said later of Selina, “She had a nice smile. I thought it was kind of romantic that she came from Marin County and he came from Concord, and they met halfway in Berkeley.”

  Of Selina’s boyfriend, whom Selina introduced as Jordan, King would remember, “He was tall, well-dressed, with a professional-type ponytail. He had a swagger about him. Confidence. Cockiness. I thought of him as a ladies’ man. Maybe even a porno star. They would walk in. Have a couple of drinks together. Hold hands. Maybe a hug. A girlfriend/boyfriend kind of thing.”

  Everything pointed to the couple enjoying each other’s company for King, until August 1. On that day, Selina waited and waited for Jordan to show up. She exchanged some dollar bills for quarters and used them at a pay phone to call Jordan. When she returned from the phone, she told King, “I’m waiting for Jordan”; then she rolled her eyes. She added, “I don’t know why I go out with him!”

  Jordan finally did arrive at the Bison Brewery at about 6:30 P.M. King could see that Selina was perturbed at him. King recalled, “They talked and milled around for about half an hour. They never settled down. They finally left between seven and seven-thirty P.M.”

  Selina apparently went over to Lanelle Simon’s place in Novato, where her mother was staying. She arrived about 9:10 P.M. All of them discussed going to a fair in Santa Rosa, but decided it was getting too late. Selina talked to Lanelle a bit more about her upcoming camping trip with Jordan. Lanelle said, “She seemed excited, but seemed hesitant too. She went back and forth with it.”

  Dawn said that Taylor’s plans now went through various revisions. One plan was for Selina to pick up the money from Washington Mutual and bring it to Saddlewood. The next plan was that Taylor would actually take her to Yosemite until the money was transferred from Cal Fed to Selina’s Washington Mutual bank account, and then would kill her.

  Then Taylor became concerned that Selina might go to her ATM and discover that she suddenly had $100,000 in her bank account. That had to be prevented at all costs. On top of all of this was Taylor’s long-standing plans to go sell drugs at “Reggae on the River” up in the redwoods on August 4 through 6. As he dwelled on all of these matters, he decided that things had to be wrapped up for him with Selina by at least August 4.

  Even as he was planning to kill her, he admitted on a notepad that his thoughts about Selina had changed somewhat since targeting her as a victim in the spring. He wrote, “She is becoming a better person by being around me. I had a realization that people are changing for the better by just being around me. She is not evil, saintly or exceptional. But how can I take her life when she is becoming saintly?”

  In the end, Taylor decided that his larger plans for Transform America were more important than Selina Bishop’s life.

  About the same time that Taylor was writing his note, Selina made an entry into her journal. Selina wrote of a phone call between her and Jordan where he was making excuses once again about the delays for their Yosemite trip. She called it “his garbage.” Then she wondered what she was going to do by herself for the next couple of days. She even told him she just wanted to forget the Yosemite trip and go to the theme park, Great America. Jordan told her he had something better planned.

  The garbage that Selina alluded to was the killing of the Stinemans and their dismemberment, though she had no way of knowing this. The “something better” than Great America was Taylor’s plans for her murder.

  Taylor called Selina on Wednesday, August 2, and told her to meet him at the Marriott parking lot in Concord. The excuse he used was that his wife had just given him a treasure chest of gems and rings and he wanted them to be appraised at a local jewelry store. In fact, what he intended to have appraised were the Stinemans’ wedding rings.

  The last message Selina left on her phone message machine was “Hi, sweetie. I’m getting ready for the trip.”

  It’s not clear if Taylor and Selina ever went to a jewelry store to have the wedding rings appraised. What is known is that Taylor and Selina drove to Saddlewood around dusk in their separate cars. Kaye Shaman noticed that a dark-haired young woman walked up to Taylor in the driveway and gave him a kiss. Then she and the man walked into the Saddlewood home. Selina sat down with Taylor, Justin and Dawn and they all played a game for a while. Dawn recalled, “Selina was happy. We all smoked some marijuana (except for Justin, who did not get stoned). She was at ease.”

  There was a plan in place to lure Selina into the bathroom. Dawn told her that they were remodeling the bathroom and wanted to show her what they’d done. It was remodeled, all right—the bathroom had been stripped of all the cabinets and shower curtain for the butchery of Ivan and Annette Stineman.

  As Dawn went into the bathroom, Selina stood at the door, and Justin was behind her—with a hammer. As soon as Selina turned her back on Justin, he was to hit her in the head with the hammer until she was dead. But Selina never did fully turn her back on Justin. The plan was scrubbed and they all went back into the living room.

  As they played the game once again, Taylor brought them all some wine. Unbeknownst to Selina, he had put some Rohypnol in her wineglass. He hoped she would just go to sleep and not wake up again.

  Selina, however, noticed something floating in her wine and commented about it.

  Taylor quickly said, “Oh, let me get you a clean glass,” and exchanged glasses. Apparently, he didn’t put any Rohypnol in the new glass of wine.

  A short time later, Taylor talked with Dawn in private. He said that he would lure Selina into his bedroom. Dawn and Justin were to wait for a half hour; then when Selina was asleep, Dawn was to throw a towel over Selina’s head, and Justin would hit her in the head with a hammer until she was dead.

  Taylor did take Selina into his bedroom and the minutes ticked away, but after a while, he came out of his bedroom and told Dawn and Justin, “She’s not falling asleep. I’m going to have her go into the family room and I’ll give her a back rub.”

  As planned, Selina came out of the bedroom and Taylor spread a blanket on the family room’s floor. He had Selina lie down on it and face the windows, away from the center of the room. Her head was turned away from Justin, who was standing nearby. She had no idea that Justin had a hammer in his hand.

  Justin waited for fifteen minutes as Taylor began to massage Selina’s shoulders and back. Then Justin moved forward, hammer in hand. Selina never saw it coming as Justin raised the hammer and slammed it down into her head with all his might. She cried out from the terrific blow. There is some evidence that Selina raised her hand before the second blow from Justin. Later, her body would have a broken finger and severe bruising up one arm. Justin slammed the hammer down into her head, again and again, at least four more times, for a total of six blows.

  Dawn, who was nearby, said later, “I watched it all. They picked her up and took her into the kitchen area because she was bleeding a lot, and her blood was saturating the carpet. She didn’t move anymore.

  “Taylor told me to clean up all of the blood on the carpet. Then he and Justin went to the bathroom to get it ready.”

  At this moment, something very unexpected happened. Dawn was startled to hear Selina moan. She was still alive, after all. Dawn recalled, “I heard Selina moving around in the kitchen. But I just kept cleaning up the carpet. Taylor came out and saw her, and said, ‘I’m sorry, Selina.’ Then he hit her with the hammer. He did it at least three times. She stopped moving.”

  Justin and Taylor put a plastic garbage bag over the upper half of Selina to prevent more blood from getting on the carpet. Then they rolled Selina into a blanket and carried her and the blanket into the bathroom. Dawn kept cleaning the rug until Taylor called her into the bathroom. Dawn walked to the door and Taylor told her, “Spirit says you get to know this is not a dream.”

  He took out a large knife and slit Selina’s throat. From the amount of blood tha
t poured out, it was evident to experts later that Selina was not dead until that point, despite all the hammer blows to her head.

  Dawn recalled, “Then I was scared of Taylor!”

  Dawn quickly retreated to the family room and heard the reciprocating saw start up in the bathroom. She knew the sound of the saw from when she had used it working on the dog run in the yard. Taylor and Justin apparently moved Selina’s body onto some sawhorses they had placed in the bathtub. They had laid plastic sheeting down in the tub. Dawn could hear body parts thump as they fell into the tub.

  At one point, Taylor had Dawn come in with some chopsticks to pull body tissue out of the bathtub drain because it had fallen below the plastic. One thing they hadn’t counted on was blood seeping up under the handles for the cold and hot water. As much as they tried, they couldn’t get rid of all the blood.

  In frustration, Taylor sent Dawn to a Yardbirds home improvement store to buy a couple of new handles, faucet and some disinfectant.

  When Dawn came back, she replaced the handles and faucet, while Taylor and Justin started burning Selina’s clothes in the fireplace. The firewood that Dawn had picked up at Gerry and Carma’s house helped fuel the fire.

  Taylor wanted to see if the dog, Jake, the Rottweiler, would eat human flesh, so he cut off the area around Selina’s tattoo and held a small piece of flesh out on one of his fingers. The dog ate the flesh. Taylor held out a larger piece of flesh with the tattoo on it. Jake ate that as well.