And Then She Killed Him

by Robert Scott

  Francis also mentioned that Miriam’s biological mother was named Betty, and she lived in Mobile, Alabama, but he did not know her address or phone number. Francis added that Miriam’s brother would know how to get in touch with Betty.

  Norcross asked Francis how she could contact Miriam’s son, Chris. Francis replied that he and his wife wanted to leave Chris out of the investigation and would not give that information. Francis added that Chris was in South America serving on a church mission and that Chris had nothing to do with any of this.

  Francis did say that Miriam had phoned Chris and her brother, Wayne, recently. She told them what had happened to Alan Helmick. Miriam had told them that Alan had been murdered during a robbery of the home in Whitewater.

  Later, Norcross spoke with Frankie Morgan again, and she related that she’d heard from Wayne that Miriam claimed she had an alibi for the time that Alan had been murdered. Miriam added that she had been caught on surveillance videotape at the time of the murder and was nowhere near the Whitewater residence.

  Investigator Norcross asked if Miriam had experienced mental-health problems or had gone to a psychiatrist when she was in Florida. Frankie said that they had never known Miriam to have mental-health issues or to have gone to see a psychiatrist. It had come as a complete surprise to them when Miriam had ripped them off for so much money, and allegedly set fire to their house.

  CHAPTER 19

  FORGED CHECKS

  Investigator Jim Hebenstreit again contacted Alan Watkins at American National Bank in Grand Junction. Watkins told Hebenstreit it appeared to him that Miriam had been signing some of Alan Helmick’s checks, even though she was not authorized to do so. Watkins said that he had on numerous occasions tried to tell Alan Helmick that this practice needed to stop. Watkins phoned Alan several times about this issue, but he never got through to him. All he was able to do was leave voice messages, which were never returned.

  Watkins had heard that Alan Helmick had been very sick. He had surmised that was the reason that Miriam had been signing the checks, and also why Alan Helmick had not returned his phone calls. Nonetheless, the practice had to stop, and Watkins planned to go and see Alan in person. Before he did so, Alan Helmick had been murdered.

  Watkins added that he’d seen Alan Helmick at the courthouse in Grand Junction about two months before his death. Watkins said that he had spoken with Alan briefly then, and told how he had left at least twenty phone messages on Alan’s cell phone. Alan Helmick replied that he had never heard any of those messages. Then Alan said, “Maybe Miriam got them and never told me about them.”

  Watkins related to Hebenstreit that when he first heard that Alan Helmick was dead, he assumed that Alan might have committed suicide because of his recent illness and possible adverse financial situations that had occurred.

  Watkins also mentioned that after he had flagged Alan Helmick’s account, a bank teller in an Orchard Mesa branch called him one day and told him that Miriam Helmick was in the branch, trying to cash one of Alan Helmick’s checks. Watkins had the bank teller put Miriam on the phone, and Watkins explained the situation to her. Miriam replied that Alan had been very sick, but that she would tell him and have Alan talk to Watkins about the situation. Alan Helmick never did phone Watkins back.

  Jim Hebenstreit next spoke with American National Bank president Scott Holzschuh. Holzschuh explained that Alan Helmick had personal and business bank accounts with American National Bank, and these were in Alan’s name only. Miriam had a password, and could inquire about the accounts, but she was not supposed to sign any checks on that account.

  The investigators later retrieved a letter from the Helmick residence from American National Bank. It was dated June 6, 2008, and stated in part that Alan had two accounts that were past due and numerous attempts to reach Alan had been unsuccessful. The letter related that $137,746.54 was now “set off” from Alan Helmick’s deposit account to pay down the loans, leaving a current deposit account balance of zero. After applying the setoff amount, Alan still owed $15,564.35 on one account and $21,833.06 on the other account. They were to be paid immediately.

  Following the money angle further, Jim Hebenstreit contacted Alan Watkins again. Investigator Hebenstreit discovered that Watkins had originally wanted to learn the status of two projects that Alan Helmick had going, after the bank had extended the maturity date on two loans in December 2007. Watkins kept trying to tell Alan that he needed to get a personal financial statement before the loans could be extended once again in May 2008. And Watkins added, the more that Alan didn’t respond to the calls, the more the calls increased.

  Watkins said, “It wasn’t like Alan not to return the phone calls. Whenever a borrower stops returning calls, it’s usually an avoidance tactic. This kind of tactic usually happens right before foreclosure or repossession.”

  And then Watkins told Hebenstreit, “Alan was not the type to use the avoidance tactic. We were worried about his mental health. Alan was looking at a situation—if he couldn’t find an investor for his development project, he’d be looking at a situation where the bank might have to foreclose on two of his properties. The closer Alan’s loans came to maturity, the more I tried to contact him. I even drove up to the Helmick residence on May 14, 2008.”

  As to what the land developments included, Watkins said that Alan had been trying to convert an approved single-family–zoned area in Delta to a multifamily development and was looking for investors. The bank’s discussion back in December had been that they would not extend the loans again, unless Alan could show that the project was actually moving forward and he had lined up investors.

  Watkins believed that he had first tried contacting Alan about all of this in March 2008. Watkins said the initial messages he left were just generic in nature, telling Alan to call him back. When Alan didn’t call him back, the messages became more like, “looking for an update on the projects.” Watkins related that he was still trying to be polite because Miriam had told him, “Alan is really sick.”

  Watkins then said, “By April, the messages were more like, ‘Get ahold of me ASAP so we can discuss the status of the loans.’” Watkins described his tone as being “frustrated and firm.”

  On May 12, 2008, Watkins sent a letter to Alan about his accounts. The letter in part stated: Please be advised that the loans mature May 28, 2008. At this time the loans are past due for the April 28, 2008 payment. On behalf of the bank I have made numerous attempts to contact you to discuss the status of these accounts and the options available upon maturity. Due to non-responsiveness on your behalf it is our intention to not renew these Notes and to pursue payment in full upon maturity. Please contact me immediately to set up a time to discuss this further.

  Investigator Hebenstreit noted that this letter was not found when a search of the Helmick residence was done after Alan Helmick’s murder. And during the present interview with Alan Watkins, Hebenstreit viewed a document that authorized only Alan Helmick to be the one to sign his checks.

  Things were looking very dicey as far as Miriam Helmick’s actions went in relation to Alan Helmick during the previous few months. And they only got worse in the eyes of the investigators as they looked further into the matter. Jim Hebenstreit noted that both of Miriam Helmick’s business operations had been losing money on a consistent basis. These were, of course, the dance studio and the horse-training center. Examples of forged checks included a check dated February 7, 2008, for $5,000 to Miriam Helmick and a check dated May 1, 2008, for $4,000 to Dance Junction. Just how poorly Dance Junction was doing as a business was reflected in bank statements. In June 2007, the profit/loss balance was–833.91 (negative $833.91). Without infusions of money, mostly via forged checks, the balance would have always been on the negative side.

  With those facts in place, Investigator Hebenstreit wrote some very damning comments in a report: Miriam Helmick was transferring funds from Alan Helmick’s personal checking account to herself and the Dance Junction account wit
hout Alan Helmick’s knowledge. Hebenstreit added that she was also preventing Alan Watkins at American National Bank from contacting Alan Helmick concerning his loan accounts with the bank. Hebenstreit believed that Alan Helmick would have learned from Watkins that more than $139,000 had been transferred from his personal checking account by Miriam, leaving him with a zero balance in that bank account.

  This was all bad enough for Miriam Helmick, but a lot worse was just about to happen.

  CHAPTER 20

  STRANGE ACTIONS

  Perhaps to deflect some of the suspicions that were starting to swirl around her, Miriam went to the Mesa County Sheriff ’s Office on July 3, 2008. It was termed by the sheriff ’s office, “Consent to Provide Non-Testimonial Evidence,” and Investigator Hebenstreit actually gave Miriam a form with that title to fill out. Miriam was asked to provide head hair, saliva, photographs, handwriting exemplars, and palm prints. Miriam read and signed the statement, and she allowed head hairs and saliva swabs to be taken from her.

  Handwriting exemplars from Miriam were also obtained. Hebenstreit dictated things for Miriam to write down, such as “To the grieving widow” and “Alan was first, you’re next.” Miriam had to print these things, rather than do them in cursive style.

  Perhaps Miriam thought she was being clever by slightly changing her printing style; but after she was gone, Hebenstreit noticed some similarities between the card that had been under the Helmicks’ doormat and Miriam’s exemplars. The most glaring similarity was the use of the word “your.” Instead of spelling “you’re next,” on both the card and in Miriam’s exemplar, the word was written as “your.”

  These exemplars and checks from American National Bank, which were believed to have been forged by Miriam, were sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. So were checks from Wells Fargo and First Equity.

  Later, Investigator Hebenstreit received documents from the CBI. Agent Bryan Jordan related that he had compared the copy of the First Equity check with Miriam Helmick’s handwriting exemplars. Agent Jordan stated, “It has been concluded that Miriam Helmick probably wrote item number one-seventeen.”

  Other items included check #5798 from American National Bank. Jordan noted that he believed that Alan did not write the signature on that check, nor did he do so for check #5800, and that Miriam most likely wrote the numbers and lettering on the body of the check. This also held true for check #5854. Agent Jordan could not determine if Alan or Miriam wrote the signature on a Wells Fargo check, #9356, but he believed that Alan Helmick did not write the body of the check.

  Around this same time, Penny Lyons received a phone call from Miriam. Penny recalled later, “She told me that she had an offer from friends in Eagle to stay up there with them for about a week. They had offered her a home so she could just get away from everything for a while. And I thought that was a wonderful idea. The police had never said she couldn’t go anywhere. I didn’t know that she had friends in Eagle, but I thought it was a great idea. She said that she’d be gone about a week.”

  While Miriam was gone, an event occurred on July 15, 2008, that was absolutely devastating for her. Investigator Pete Burg spoke with Joe Vessels. Vessels was, of course, the main security officer for City Market. Vessels told Burg that he had found a record of three card purchases with the UPC of 7000063849 and associated video footage of those transactions. The first two transactions were from the Rood Avenue City Market on June 25 and June 26, 2008. The investigators did not recognize the people involved with those purchases. The third transaction had occurred at the Orchard Mesa store and Vessels didn’t immediately have video footage of that transaction.

  At around 12:30 P.M., on July 15, Joe Vessels obtained the video footage, and Investigator Robin Martin went to the Orchard Mesa store and met with Vessels again. They both sat down and Vessels told Investigator Martin that the card in question was sold at 2:06 P.M. on June 22, 2008. The purchase amount was $3.18, and had been purchased at the self-scan terminal. As Investigator Martin looked on, he immediately recognized the woman buying the card. It was Miriam Helmick.

  Viewing the whole video footage of that time period, Investigator Martin noted that Miriam Helmick entered the south-facing doors of the Orchard Mesa City Market at 1:54 P.M. She entered alone and did not appear to be carrying a purse. A few minutes later, a surveillance video camera picked her up near the pharmacy area of the store. She went out of frame and was not seen again until 2:01 P.M. in the greeting-card aisle.

  Due to the angle of the camera, the only portions of Miriam that could be seen were her black pants and distinctive striped shirt. Investigator Martin noted that the “Insanity” card, with the yellow envelope, was located at the eastern end of the aisle on the south side. And due to the quality of the tape, Miriam was not clearly seen again until 2:04 P.M. at the self-scan terminal. The camera angle only showed her head, as the terminal itself blocked the rest of the view. A minute later, Miriam was seen on video leaving the store holding a single City Market plastic bag. There wasn’t video footage of Miriam actually scanning the card in question, but it was noted that the card was purchased at that time.

  By now, there were multiple angles about Miriam Helmick that the investigators at MCSO were checking into. On July 17, 2008, Investigator Pete Burg spoke with Kirsten Turcotte, who had been caring for the animals on the Helmick property. Since early July, Miriam had asked Turcotte to do it; because according to Miriam, her son, Chris, had come to visit her from Florida, and Miriam told Kirsten that she was going to show Chris around the area, especially Grand Mesa and Colorado National Monument. Miriam was supposed to have returned on July 11, but she had not done so.

  Burg asked if Miriam and Chris had planned to go to Denver. Kirsten said that Miriam hadn’t mentioned anything about that. Miriam did phone Kirsten from a non-Denver area code on July 11 but said that she was in Denver with Chris. Then Miriam told Turcotte to keep feeding the animals until July 18, when she would be home. Miriam did not arrive home then or any day thereafter.

  Kirsten added that no one had been able to reach Miriam directly since she had taken off. All the messages went directly to voice mail. She added that she had not seen any suspicious activity around the Helmick residence since Miriam had been gone.

  That same day, Investigator Pete Burg talked by phone with Kevin Cooney, who had purchased a horse from Miriam Helmick about three weeks previously. Miriam had insisted upon cash, and Cooney had given her $1,250 for the horse. Kevin was interested in buying another horse as well, but Miriam said that horse was part of Alan’s estate and she couldn’t sell it.

  While Kevin was at the Helmick residence, she told him that she wanted to sell all the things that were not part of Alan’s estate, including tack, buckets, stock panels, and other horse-related items. Miriam told him that her husband had recently died, but she did not go into details about it. Miriam did mention that there was some kind of prenuptial agreement and that she couldn’t sell the house or property. Cooney ended up not only buying a horse, but farm equipment, too, which he paid for in cash.

  Penny Lyons recalled later about Miriam’s absence from Whitewater, “I tried continually, after seven days had passed, to call her. I never got in touch with her. And I went by her residence. I wanted to see if anyone was there. I left a note inside the garage in case anyone found it, to please just give me a call if they’d heard from Miriam.

  “I went to the utility room door, off of the garage, and it was unlocked. And I stared into the house, but I did not have the courage to enter the house. One of Miriam’s dogs was still at the house. Cisco, the Lab.”

  An MCSO investigator spoke again with Jeri Yarbrough, on July 23, 2008, and asked her if she knew what had become of Miriam’s horses and if she had spoken to Miriam lately. Jeri said that she had spoken with Miriam almost daily, until July 6. And then Yarbrough added one very interesting comment: “During my last conversation with Miriam on July sixth, I got the feeling she was going to leave town and run.”r />
  Around that same time, reporter Paul Shockley of the Grand Junction Free Press was doing some investigation of his own. Shockley either contacted Jeri Yarbrough, or she contacted him. Whatever happened, she was speaking with Shockley only a day after she had spoken with an MCSO investigator. Yarbrough told Shockley about the investigator questioning her about whether she had seen Miriam lately. Jeri added, “I haven’t heard a word from her, and nobody I’m aware of has talked to her. She and I last spoke on July sixth.”

  Jeri related that Miriam had given her a new cell phone number on July 6. She left messages twice on that number, but she never got a return call. Yarbrough related, “I figured if she wanted to get ahold of me, she would. She said her son had been visiting, and she might go to Florida later.”

  Paul Shockley next spoke with MCSO spokesperson Heather Benjamin about what Jeri Yarbrough had said. Shockley asked if MCSO knew where Miriam was. In reply, Benjamin said, “I’m not going to say. But her whereabouts are not a concern to us.” That indicated one of two things: Either they didn’t know where she was, and they weren’t concerned about her. Or they did know where she was, and could reach her whenever they wanted.

  In his article, Shockley noted that he had been out to the Helmick residence three times since July 16, and had found little activity there, other than three horses roaming around inside a fenced area. Shockley did speak with Kirsten Turcotte, whom Miriam had asked to keep an eye on the place. Kirsten told Shockley, “Miriam left a couple of weeks ago and was bound for Denver. Nobody can reach her. She gave me a cell phone number, and it’s not working.”