And Then She Killed Him

by Robert Scott

  CHAPTER 21

  STRANGE MEDICINE

  Jeri Yarbrough’s comment about Miriam possibly being “on the run” was more than just a hunch. Yarbrough knew that Miriam’s son, Chris, had been in the Grand Junction area in early July, and Miriam kept saying that she wanted to leave Colorado and return to Jacksonville, Florida, where Chris lived.

  Penny Lyons, of course, had also been worried about Miriam ever since she had last seen her sometime in early July. Then out of the blue, Miriam phoned Penny on July 25. Penny recalled, “I was at work, and I remember it was a Friday because the other lady in the office had gone home early that day. When Miriam called, I was up front with patients, so I couldn’t talk with her right then. And it upset me very much, because she was crying and I wanted to help her. I couldn’t have a long conversation.

  “She said that she was on her way back from Colorado Springs. That was contrary to where she said she had been staying in Eagle. She was very despondent, and she didn’t know what to do and she was scared. She was worried about her son, Chris. She said that she’d lost everything and felt like driving off the pass, but she couldn’t do it because of her son.”

  Around that same time, Investigator Jim Hebenstreit spoke with Merredith Von Burg, Alan Helmick’s sister. Hebenstreit asked if Merredith had heard from Miriam lately. Merredith said no, but she had heard from Miriam’s friend, Penny Lyons, who had spoken by phone with Miriam on July 25. Penny had told her that Miriam indicated that she would be home in Whitewater in a few days, but that had not happened.

  Merredith gave Hebenstreit four phone numbers that Miriam used to call in Florida in the past. All of these numbers were in the 904 area code, which included Jacksonville, Florida. Von Burg thought that two of the numbers were those of Miriam’s son, Chris.

  Merredith added the last time she had seen Miriam was on July 4, when Miriam and Chris had come over to watch fireworks. Then Miriam left with Chris on July 6; since then, Von Burg had phoned Miriam’s attorney to see if she had heard from Miriam. Hebenstreit asked Merredith if Miriam had mentioned leaving the area with Chris. Merredith said no; all Miriam had said was that it would be fun to be with Chris for a while.

  Merredith expanded upon her phone calling to include Kirsten Turcotte, who was keeping an eye on the Helmicks’ house and feeding the animals. Kirsten had not heard from Miriam in a while. Von Burg went to the Helmick residence and found the garage door open and the door from the garage to the utility room unlocked. Merredith looked around the house for Miriam; not seeing her there, she went down to the barn to look there as well.

  Merredith said that it was strange in the house, because all the doors were unlocked and Miriam had been insisting lately that she had been locking all of the doors. As to the reason for the locked doors, Merredith said, “Miriam thought that someone was trying to harm her.” She added that Miriam told her that after Alan died, she didn’t have any money, even for groceries or gas. Merredith gave Miriam $1,000 and was surprised when Miriam left the area. She wondered if Miriam was using that money for her trip.

  Von Burg also told Hebenstreit that Miriam had related that her wedding ring, watch, and Alan’s wedding ring were missing from the house. She asked Hebenstreit if the sheriff ’s office had those items, and he told her that they did not. Merredith said that Miriam had told her that she and Alan always took off their wedding rings before going out to care for the horses. She wondered if Miriam had found her watch and wedding ring later, and she described Miriam’s wedding ring as containing a blue diamond.

  One of the phone numbers that Merredith Von Burg had given to Investigator Hebenstreit did belong to Miriam’s son, Chris. Jim Hebenstreit phoned the Florida number and contacted Chris. Hebenstreit told Chris that several of Miriam’s friends were concerned about her, and Chris responded that his mother was now staying with him in Florida, and that she was fine. Hebenstreit asked if Miriam had indicated that she was returning to Colorado, or what her plans were. Chris said no to both questions. Then Hebenstreit asked if Miriam owned an Oldsmobile convertible, and he said yes.

  This question about the Oldsmobile was important. Hebenstreit had recently learned from Portia Vigil that Miriam had taken a 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass, which had been owned by Portia’s mother, Sharon Helmick. Miriam was not supposed to have that car. Now Chris Giles indicated that Miriam had driven that car to Florida and was using it at the present time. Miriam had never brought up with Chris the fact that she might not be allowed to have that car in her possession.

  Portia also told Hebenstreit that other items, listed in her father’s estate, were missing. These included a 2006 Arctic Cat, valued at $5,000, a horse vacuum, valued at $2,500, tack worth $2,000, and a ring owned by Alan, which was valued at $4,200.

  Portia knew about all of these items because she was the administrator of her father’s estate. Back on July 17, 2008, Portia had been so concerned about Miriam removing items from the property that she began listing them in a court order. Paragraph 5 stated: Assets of the estate of Alan Helmick are being removed from the decedent’s residence and some assets have been sold. Paragraph 6 noted that Portia had repeatedly tried contacting Miriam about this, and had not been able to reach her.

  And so it went, in paragraph after paragraph. One paragraph noted that payments on Alan’s debts were not being handled properly by Miriam. In fact, many checks written to Alan’s creditors were being returned, due to insufficient funds in his bank accounts. Bank personnel had contacted Portia that there was a problem, but they could not legally discuss the deficient accounts with her.

  In another document, Portia noted that even Alan’s home in Whitewater was not being properly maintained, and Portia worried that things might become so bad that the house would not be suitable to be put up for sale.

  Reporter Paul Shockley of the Grand Junction Free Press was always keeping an eye on developments, and he contacted Portia Vigil not long after her recent interview with Jim Hebenstreit. Shockley learned that Portia had been granted “emergency legal authority” over her father’s financial matters. Shockley also learned that in her affidavit to the Mesa County Court, Portia wrote, While I am not accusing any person of wrongdoing, the circumstances surrounding his death suggest that special care should be taken to preserve assets, property and records. At this time, no one knows what information might be helpful to the sheriff ’s investigators.

  Portia had also not been able to contact Miriam for a lengthy period of time. In fact, Portia wrote: Despite repeated attempts, I have been unable to contact the spouse to be formally named as personal representative for Alan Helmick’s estate.

  Shockley added a comment of his own to the article: Sheriff’s office remains tight-lipped about the murder and has named no suspects.

  All through August 2008, the investigators were busy with other sheriff ’s office matters, but they still took time to do more research about the Helmick case. And one of the main focuses was what Alan or Miriam Helmick had been looking at on the Internet. Investigator Mike Piechota examined the Helmick residence computers and sent a CD about “Online Medical Searches” to Investigator Jim Hebenstreit.

  There had been twenty-eight searches on May 18, 2008, with the keywords “how to put a horse down.” There had also been searches with such words as “horse euthanasia procedures,” “barbiturate painkillers,” “painkiller overdoses,” “OxyContin,” and “Halcion drug overdose.” This was all very interesting in light of Portia Vigil’s concerns that Miriam might have been poisoning Alan when he’d been so ill.

  Someone had also looked at an article on the Helmick’s computer that was titled, “More Drug Overdose Deaths from Painkillers than Cocaine or Heroin in the U.S.” On May 19, 2008, there had been a visit to BestRXPharm.com, and the activity stated: Your cart contains two items—60 Ambien 10mg pills and 30 Ambien 10mg pills. The total order was $388, but there was no indication that the order had actually been purchased. There was a similar preliminary order for Triazolam and Oxy
Contin at that Web site, but no indication that they had actually been purchased as well.

  Someone had been particularly interested in Ambien. The person had searched on the Helmicks’ computer for “Ambien overdose,” “Ambien CR and alcohol,” “Ambien death,” “Heath Ledger’s death linked to Ambien,” and “Accidental death ruled in death of Joliet detective.” The last search about the detective included the line: Coroner has ruled the death of police detective Frank Miller last month was an accidental overdose of prescription medication.

  On May 27, 2008, someone had searched on the Helmicks’ computer about “purple foxglove.” Some of the sentences that came up read: poisonous, the source of digitalis and liquid nicotine. Another article described the death of a Phillip Morris scientist from drinking liquid nicotine.

  As if that wasn’t enough about medication overdoses, more Internet searches had been done through early June 2008. These included “Viagra overdose” and “Viagra overdose possible cause of death in Rome.” Another Internet search was about Lisinopril. Investigator Hebenstreit noted that bottles of Ambien, Lisinopril, and Viagra had all been collected at the Helmicks’ home after Alan’s murder.

  On August 19, 2008, Jim Hebenstreit spoke once again with Stephanie Soule about her dealings with the Helmicks. This conversation centered around the Internet searches Miriam had conducted concerning horse euthanasia and horse euthanasia drugs. Hebenstreit asked Stephanie if she was aware of any of the Helmicks’ horses being ill or injured. The trainer said she wasn’t aware of any.

  Hebenstreit asked if the Helmicks had ever euthanized a horse, and Stephanie said that just before she started working with them, she understood that they had euthanized a colt in 2007. Soule said the colt had a bowel problem and the Arrowhead Veterinary Services had put the colt down. Following this lead, Hebenstreit contacted Arrowhead Veterinary Services and asked about the colt. The secretary there said that the vet had indeed put a colt down, but the Helmicks had not complained of any horse problems in 2008.

  Looking further into this horse euthanasia and drugs situation, Hebenstreit spoke with Portia Vigil. Portia told him that she thought the Helmicks’ horse, Pharaoh, had a leg problem and had been seen by Harris Equine. Hebenstreit spoke with a vet there, who said that he had seen that horse on two occasions, and both times had been in June 2008. In fact, the second time had been on June 9, the day before Alan was murdered. Both Alan and Miriam had come to the “horse hospital” at about nine in the morning and stayed until noon. After some ultrasound tests, the vets recommended physical therapy exercises for Pharaoh. At no time had there been a discussion about euthanasia.

  Horse euthanasia drugs and medication overdoses—someone in the Helmick household had been very interested in those matters in May and June 2008. And all during early 2008, Alan Helmick had shown signs of possibly suffering from misuse of medicine. If Miriam had been the person on the Internet looking at these things, it gave the idea of poisoning more validity.

  CHAPTER 22

  A MURDEROUS WEAPON

  In the course of the investigation, Jim Hebenstreit learned that Alan Helmick had possibly owned a .25-caliber pistol, and this pistol had not been located after his murder. Hebenstreit began contacting Alan’s friends and family members to ask if they recalled this pistol and any other weapons that Alan might have owned. Alan’s daughter, Kristy Helmick-Burd, remembered seeing a handgun in her father’s dresser drawer at his house in Delta. She thought she had seen it while putting laundry in the dresser drawer for him sometime between August and December 2004. Kristy described it as a small handgun—the type that a woman would put in her purse.

  Kristy said this particular handgun had originally belonged to Gerald “Gerry” Wait, her mother’s stepfather. When Gerry Wait died, Sharon had come into the possession of the pistol. And when her mom, Sharon, died, the gun passed to Alan.

  Jacob Burd, Kristy’s husband, had also seen this handgun. He described it as being silver in color, with white handgrips. The handgrips might have been mother-of-pearl. Jacob thought the caliber was .25, although he didn’t know which company had manufactured the gun. Jacob believed it was a .25, because he had looked at a .25-caliber Bauer pistol around the time that he had seen that particular handgun.

  This whole handgun business had an interesting side story to it. Investigator Hebenstreit contacted Mike Pruett, who was Sharon Helmick’s brother-in-law. Pruett recalled an incident in Delta, Colorado, in the 1980s when a neighbor of Gerry Wait’s had to wrestle a handgun away from him. In the struggle, Gerry Wait had a heart attack and died.

  Jim Hebenstreit spoke with Sean Wells, of the Delta Police Department, about any incident from the 1980s that might match this. Jamie Head, of the Delta PD, got back to Hebenstreit concerning an attempted homicide by Gerald (Gerry) Wait on October 5, 1989. A .25-caliber Lorcin handgun had been recovered from the scene, and photographs were taken of it.

  Looking at reports of that incident, Hebenstreit noted that Gerry Wait had gotten into an altercation on the 800 block of East Fourth Street in Delta. Gerry had actually fired a shot from the gun at his wife, Wanda, and neighbor Terri Helm. Gerry had been standing in the front yard when he fired at the women. Terri Helm’s husband, Daniel Helm, ran over and tackled Gerry Wait and disarmed him. Gerry Wait subsequently had a heart attack and died.

  From the report, Hebenstreit learned that the .25 Lorcin pistol, was a Model L25, and contained a magazine of six live rounds, and one spent .25-caliber shell casing. That casing was found in the driveway. The Lorcin pistol was silver-blue in color and had white handles. It seemed very possible that this pistol had been passed to Sharon Helmick and then to Alan Helmick when Sharon died. And there was a very good possibility that this very same pistol had been used to murder Alan Helmick.

  During a conversation with Terri Helm, Jim Hebenstreit learned from her that the bullet fired by Gerry Wait went into the ground in the front lawn as she was running away from him. This was very interesting to Hebenstreit, and he asked Palisade police chief Carroll Quarles to assist him in searching the front lawn with a metal detector. During the search, Chief Quarles located a .25-caliber bullet from the east end of the lawn. The bullet was embedded in the soil under the grass, about an inch deep in the ground, and had been there for eighteen years.

  Hebenstreit booked the bullet into evidence at the Mesa County Sheriff ’s Office as item JH-35. It was taken to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for analysis to determine if that bullet and the bullet fired into the head of Alan Helmick had both been fired by the same gun.

  The examination of the bullets was performed by CBI agent Sam Marso, who was a ballistics expert. Eventually Agent Marso got back to Hebenstreit and said that both bullets had similar characteristics and could have been fired by the same gun. But there was too much damage to the bullet recovered from the lawn to reach a positive conclusion. Both bullets, however, did have characteristics of being fired from the Lorcin brand pistol.

  Hebenstreit contacted Brad Kolman, an attorney in Delta County, and faxed a copy of the report about the case involving Gerry Wait. Kolman looked through his files and noted that after her father’s death, Sharon Helmick had asked for the pistol to be released to her custody. A letter was also in the file that indicated that the pistol had indeed been given over to the custody of Sharon Helmick.

  There was even an audiotape from April 1991 by a secretary to Kolman. The audio part related, “Sharon wants pistol and tape recorder only of the items you got from the PD. Wants to sell to help out Wanda.” Wanda was the wife of Gerald Wait. Eventually Sharon did receive a Lorcin .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol with six live rounds, a box of Remington .25-caliber ammunition (minus 7 rounds), and a GE voice-activated tape recorder.

  This possible sale of the .25-caliber Lorcin pistol, of course, threw a wrinkle into the mix. Had Sharon ever sold the pistol to someone, or had she kept it? Hebenstreit didn’t know at that point. Had that .25 Lorcin pistol eventually been retained by Alan He
lmick, only to be used by Miriam to kill him on June 10, 2008? The investigators intended to find out.

  CHAPTER 23

  WHERE THERE’S SMOKE

  Investigator Hebenstreit had continuously been intrigued by Miriam Helmick’s comment in her conversation with several people about a car fire. In fact, Miriam had only brought up such an important incident very late in the interview, when asked directly by Detective Bev Jarrell if she had been involved with any other police matters. Miriam had mentioned that the authorities had found a wick-type item placed into the gas tank and ruled the fire as arson.

  MCSO Investigator Chuck Warner contacted Sergeant Sean Wells, of the Delta Police Department, regarding the car fire of April 30, 2008. Sergeant Wells said that there had been a suspicious car fire on that date and the case was still under investigation. Wells faxed Investigator Warner a copy of the report about this car fire. The vehicle in question was a 1994 Buick Roadmaster registered to Alan and Sharon Helmick. The fire had occurred on the 700 block of Main Street in Delta, Colorado.

  A short time later, Investigator Hebenstreit received a packet of material from the Delta PD related to the car fire. Included was an audio CD of Officer Summer Kirkpatrick’s interview with Alan and Miriam Helmick about the incident. The interviews had been conducted on May 1, 2008. During the interview, Miriam Helmick said that a woman named Barbara Watts was the only person she could think of who might have wanted to start a car fire. Miriam added that she didn’t know if Watts was in town.