by Robert Scott
Over the next several months David met with Gabe quite often. David later said, “He was a sincere, outgoing individual, who cared about others. He lived his faith and enjoyed sharing it with others and seeing the change in their hearts. It seemed like he had a wonderful relationship with his family back home.”
And yet there was always something that set Gabe apart from others. He seemed to have an expectation of entitlement or at least a special relationship with God. At that point, Gabe wasn’t expressing this special relationship to others, but he definitely felt it.
Gabe would look back on this time and later comment about how he was special in the eyes of God. He said that he felt that he was guided by God to go to certain parts of the city or countryside, where he would perform his mission well. This went so far as God directing him to take certain roads and streets and even which houses to visit. It was never enough to just think that things might have worked out that way, anyway. Gabe saw God’s hand in the things that he did, especially missionary work.
When Gabe completed his mission in Australia, he decided to return to his mother’s home, which she shared with her new husband, James Anstey. Despite being so talented as a mechanic, Gabe now decided upon another means of making a living. He became a waiter at the Rip Tide restaurant in Bandon and at the Kozy Kitchen in North Bend.
David Grover owned the Kozy Kitchen and recalled of Gabe, “He was a super good kid. Very courteous and very polite. He cared about all his customers and was a hard worker. Just an all-around good guy.
“He never swore, smoked, drank alcohol or any of that. He was religious, but not preaching to everyone about it or bothering them with it. He kept it to himself pretty much. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body.
“I was familiar with the relationship he had with his mother. He seemed to have a really good relationship with her and his stepfather, James. They would come in quite a bit and have dinner. When she came in and he was working, they would always hug.”
Another person who spoke well about Gabe was Sandra Johns, who managed the Rip Tide restaurant. She unequivocally said later, “He was the best employee I had there. He was kind, considerate and friendly to everyone. Just a decent, pleasant young man. If you needed anything, you asked Gabe. He helped the customers and gave them extra attention. And he never bragged about what he did.
“He did talk about his religion and being on a mission to Australia. But it wasn’t overboard. He talked about wanting to go to college and about his family as well. He and his mother loved each other. Whenever she came into the restaurant, it was like the first time they had seen each other in a long time. There would be kisses and hugs.”
A later police report stated that Gabe became a bartender during his stint at the restaurants. Other people who knew him then would say that this wasn’t true. In fact, it would have been out of character, with him being a devout Mormon, to be plying that trade. But then again, Gabe was never one to adhere to anything strictly. He seemed to devise his own rules in the way he wanted to live his life.
Gabe certainly had a gift for gab and would have made a good bartender. One reporter who later spoke with friends of Gabe noted, “He could talk to you for hours without really saying much.” Talking, planning, dreaming, were all part of Gabe’s makeup. So was a restlessness he could not curb.
Isabelle Anstey remembered about Gabe’s return to the Bandon area that he was very caring about others. She said later, “Bob was our elderly neighbor, and Gabe would go over and help him with anything he needed. Yard work, inside the house, moving things for him, whatever.”
James Anstey also liked Gabe very much, and the feeling was mutual. James was a good guy and treated Gabe with a lot more respect than his own father had. Jesse McCoy said later, “Gabe called James ‘the father I never had.’”
James recalled about Gabe, “He was a very caring person and very smart. He was compassionate with me. We shed tears together. We used to like to hang out and travel around together.” James said that Gabe was a very generous person—not only with his money, but with his time as well.
James encouraged Gabe in whatever he chose to do, and the family of four got along very well at this point. But there was one incident that stood out for James during this period of time. Gabe was even-tempered, except for one occasion; he blew up far beyond what seemed necessary.
James had bought some cans of peaches, and Gabe really liked the fruit. Unknown to Gabe, James ate the last can of peaches in the house. When Gabe found out about it, he blew up. Gabe’s face turned beet red and he yelled at James, “How dare you!” Gabe looked so angry—it seemed that he might strike James.
That incident, however, was like an island in a sea of calm for Gabe. At the time, to James, it just seemed like a minor tantrum. For the most part, Gabe was likeable and friendly. His patrons certainly liked him at the restaurants and so did his managers there. In fact, many patrons actually asked for Gabe to be their waiter.
It seemed as if Gabe had found his niche as a local, well-liked waiter in Bandon and in North Bend. But then, in a complete change of direction, he decided to attend BYU in Provo, Utah. Whether to meet up with Esther Eschler once again or because of other reasons, he did not later state. The main reason may have been, as usual, he just could not seem to settle down to any one thing.
CHAPTER 9
Gabe may have entered BYU to see Esther once more, but something quite unexpected happened. He met a young woman named Jessica Pope, instead. Jessica had come from the small city of Blackfoot, Idaho, to attend college at BYU. She was a Mormon as well, and she was very grounded in the faith. Jessica was pretty and bright; and she had one more aspect that Gabe may have learned about early on. She was the beneficiary of a large insurance settlement because of an accident she had as a teenager. In fact, by the year that Gabe met her, Jessica had $100,000 in her bank account. To someone like perennially cash-strapped Gabe, that seemed like a huge amount.
Jessica had received her insurance settlement because at the age of thirteen she had endured a terrible sledding accident. It had required a great deal of rehabilitation and she had a permanent two-inch scar on her neck.
Gabe later explained how he and Jessica met, and many things that Gabe said had to be believed with caution. Gabe recounted, “We were both twenty-six years old. She introduced herself and we went to a Sadie Hawkins dance, the worst date of my life. But she’s a wonderful person.”
This was odd. At that point he didn’t seem to be that attracted to her, or enjoy being in her company all that much, and yet he acknowledged she was a wonderful person.
Gabe and Jessica began dating. Alicia Bitton shared an apartment with Jessica when they were students at BYU in 2002. Both Jessica and Alicia lived in the Cinnamon Tree apartment complex along with many other BYU students. Alicia recalled that Gabe was friendly and a nice-looking young man. She added that he was fun to be around, always willing to help someone out and genuinely seemed to care about others. Alicia noted that Gabe was very active in the same LDS church that Jessica also attended. Alicia thought that Gabe and Jessica were very happy together.
While Gabe was at BYU, he joined the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at that university. Part of the reason may have been that by being in ROTC, he received a substantial sum of money from the air force to cover his costs of tuition, food and housing. Another reason was that Gabe liked the idea of being an air force pilot. It fit the image he had created for himself as an adventurous young man. And he also wanted to live up to the image he had of Jesse McCoy, who had been on dangerous missions in exotic locales. Being a member of ROTC, Gabe was expected to keep up his grades at BYU and enter the air force after graduation from college.
Colonel Roger Maher was Gabe’s ROTC detachment commander and professor of aerospace studies. Colonel Maher was responsible for 320 cadets that year. Maher recalled later, “I had Gabriel Morris in a class. As a professor of aerospace studies, I realized that Gabriel was on
e of the most exceptional young men that I had met that year. He was bright and he was positive. Optimistic and very personable. We actually had a great year together.
“Gabe was willing to do anything that was asked of him. A good team player who demonstrated leadership qualities. Gabriel was very humble and even-tempered. He pledged a service organization, the Arnold Air Society, and was very engaged in helping people.”
Gabe and Jessica Pope became serious in a very short space of time and Jessica took him to meet her parents, Bill and Rita Pope, up in Blackfoot, Idaho. Bill had some suspicions about Gabe and asked if he intended to marry his daughter. Bill was aware that Jessica had a substantial amount of money because of the insurance settlement. He worried about his daughter being taken advantage of on that account.
Gabe assured the Popes that he and Jessica were just friends. And then in something so typical of Gabe, he proved how false that statement was. Without Bill and Rita Pope knowing about it, Gabe asked Jessica to marry him. There was whirlwind activity before the wedding and then they were soon married at an LDS temple in July 2002.
Bill and Rita Pope were stunned by this turn of events. Gabe had just assured them that he and Jessica were not romantically involved. Now the Popes had a new son-in-law on their hands. Before they knew it, Bill and Rita Pope were heading out to Bandon, Oregon, where Gabe and Jessica had a reception. Gabe’s mom, Robin, was there, as was her new husband, James, and Jesse McCoy and his wife as well. It remained to be seen just how well Gabe would treat the Popes’ daughter, Jessica.
CHAPTER 10
Jesse McCoy recounted, “I got out of the service about the time Gabe got married to Jessica. We talked all the time on the phone and he told me all about her before they got married.” As to marrying Jessica, Jesse said later, “Gabe was one of those guys who was very charismatic, handsome and well spoken. It seemed like he could have dated any girl he wanted to, but Gabriel seemed to go after the ones who were more intellectual and in tune with him. It was never about how beautiful they might be. When he married Jessica, I wouldn’t say for a second what the heck was going on, because she was like night and day to Gabriel’s personality. But he really loved her faith and dedication. I drove out to Oregon with my wife to see Mom. Gabe, Jessica and her family drove out there from Idaho and we all had a reception in Bandon.”
It wasn’t long before Gabe convinced his new wife to use a lot of her insurance money so that they could put a down payment on a house in Provo, Utah, while they both went to college. As it turned out, though, they soon had housemates as well. Gabe asked Jesse and his wife to move into the new house with them. Jesse remembered, “Gabe and I agreed that me and my wife would move in with him and Jessica. We missed all the time we used to spend together. He was a wonderful guy when he was at BYU. As far as I knew, he was no longer using marijuana and he didn’t drink alcohol. He was very healthy and seemed very happy.”
Jesse liked Gabe a lot, but he did not like his continuous preaching about the Mormon faith. Jesse was not a Mormon and did not want to become one. Gabe, however, would not let up on the subject. He dogged Jesse about it day after day. Jesse said later there were times he would leave the house just to get away from Gabe’s preaching.
Another thing that Jesse did not like was Gabe playing video games on his computer into the wee hours of the night. Jesse said later, “I voiced my concern about this and thought it was ridiculous.” Gabe responded that it wasn’t hurting his studies, but there were times he went into states of denial. Jesse was sure that Gabe spent so much time on there, that it did hurt his studies.
Another person who was in the household for a while with Gabe, Jesse and their two wives was Gabe’s stepsister, Isabelle. She was there for a couple of months and acknowledged that Gabe was still a wonderful brother. Isabelle said that it was always good to be around him. He was very positive and helped her in a lot of ways.
One place where Gabe continued to shine was in his studies in ROTC. As far as Colonel Roger Maher was concerned, everything seemed fine in Gabe’s family. In fact, years later, Maher recalled an incident that stood out in his mind: “Gabriel did something exceptional, for any of the cadets I ever had. He and his wife, Jessica, invited me and my wife over to his house for dinner. Most people would have been too intimidated. But Gabe was very personable and excited to have us over. He prepared an Australia repast. He made it, not Jessica. We enjoyed a very fine meal and good conversation.”
Jessica was smart and persistent in her studies, but Gabe had fallen back into his old ways. Distracted and restless, he was more prone to playing video games than studying. He did have dreams of becoming a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and his ROTC training seemed a sure route toward that goal. But never one to let the truth stand in the way of a good story or a good presentation of himself, Gabe told Jessica and her parents that he had already been accepted into an air force flight-training program. Nothing was further from the truth. And what exactly occurred next, and why it occurred, became very murky in the years to come.
Gabe’s stories always seemed real to the person he told them to. Especially when they had known him for some time. The one quality almost all of them commented upon was how honest he was. They couldn’t perceive of Gabe embellishing the truth about a situation.
As Colonel Maher recalled of the incident, “After what I thought was a very successful year, with great promise and leadership potential, I thought that Gabriel would serve as an officer in the air force. I think he would have served well as an officer in the air force.
“He came to my office in the springtime of 2002 to say he was leaving the ROTC program. When I asked him why, he told me he had to protect his mother. After that first year, he said he knew the military was going to cost him timewise. I asked him, ‘Isn’t that something that law enforcement agencies would do?’ He said, ‘No, they can’t. I have to protect my mother.’ Out of respect for Gabriel, I didn’t pursue it. That was the first time his mother came up in conversation with me.”
To another person, Gabe said that he dropped out of ROTC because he did not want to kill innocent women and children. And to others, he said that he did not want to drag Jessica around the country and the world as a military wife. Just what the truth really was, Gabe probably didn’t even know himself in years to come. He seemed to believe whatever he was telling someone at a particular time.
Gabe was not accepted into a flight-training program or even the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, because he had no degree from BYU. His studies there had slackened to such a degree that he didn’t finish college. Deciding to cover up this fact, Gabe told Jessica and her parents that he decided not to become an air force pilot because it would mean moving Jessica from place to place, depending upon where he might be stationed. Gabe sugarcoated all of this by stating that he was giving up his dream because he didn’t want Jessica to “endure the rigors” of being a military wife. This story became his most persistent one, but he would use the other stories as well, when he could get away with them.
All of that might not have been so bad, but because he had not performed the requirements in college, the air force now demanded that Gabe pay back all the money he had received from them while at BYU. Gabe did everything in his power to dodge and weave his way around paying anything back to them.
By his dereliction, Gabe had squandered his opportunity; even worse, he had no job and no prospects of a good-paying job at any time soon. He began running up huge amounts on credit cards, just so they could stay afloat and pay bills. Gabe talked Jessica into letting him invest funds from her settlement that were not used in the down payment of the house in Provo. She allowed him to do so; he promptly lost all of that money in bad investments.
Jesse noted that around this time Gabe started drinking beers and smoking dope. He seemed to have fallen back into the malaise of his high-school years before meeting Esther Eschler. The sunny, outgoing Gabe was starting to be eclipsed by a restless, sullen Gabe. He even tol
d Jesse not to let Jessica know about his drinking and smoking dope: “It’s better that she doesn’t know.” And since she was the one out working, while he sat around the house getting stoned or drunk, he was able to get away with it.
Life had not turned out as planned for Gabe or Jessica Morris. He had made many, many promises to her, and most of them had been hollow. She was, however, still in love with him. To try and get back on their feet, the young couple sold the house in Provo. They moved up to a place in Blackfoot, Idaho.
Jessica recalled, “We bought a house in Blackfoot, and I got a job working at the state hospital. From selling the house in Provo, we essentially came out even.”
The Popes were glad to have Jessica nearby again, but they were much less enthusiastic about Gabe’s presence. As usual, Jessica seemed to be the one putting all her energy into the marriage. And it was Jessica who had the energy and drive when it came to anything concerning family finances. Gabe was always drifting off into flights of fancy about what he could accomplish rather than sticking to any actual plan to make it happen. Bill Pope had always had reservations about Gabe. As time went on, those reservations seemed to be more accurate than he would have wished.
CHAPTER 11
Looking around for some way to earn a living, Gabe got a job at the State Hospital South, a psychiatric inpatient facility in Blackfoot, Idaho. His title was “psychiatric assistant trainee.” Gabe related later that he liked working at this job. A report indicated that Gabe got along well with doctors, staff and patients. Yet, once again, it wasn’t long before Gabe was looking for greener pastures. The hospital assignment was only a stepping-stone to something else.