CHAPTER 10
The Delta of Death
When Steven Sibert discovered the first body bag floating in the North Fork of the Mokelumne River, it set off a chain reaction of searches and discoveries. Detective Steve Nash would later note, “The dismembered bodies of Ivan Stineman, Annette Stineman and Selina Bishop were discovered inside nine duffel bags, which were found floating separately in various locations in the Mokelumne River in the Sacramento River Delta.
“Some of the bags were discovered by civilians, some by law enforcement personnel looking for these bags and any evidence that might be related to them, and one was found by a biologist employed by the State Department of Fish and Game. All nine bags were in the water, some floating freely in the river and at least one was up against the riverbank. The people discovering two of the bags saw apparent body parts.”
On August 8, in the Contra Costa Times, there was as yet no mention of body bags in the Delta. Lieutenant Paul Crain told a reporter, “This is very unusual. We have very little information. There is nothing we can say that is a definite lead at this point.”
Nancy Hall also made a statement to a reporter that she couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt her parents. “They’re just regular people,” she said. “They had lots of friends and didn’t get into confrontations.”
By Wednesday, August 9, however, news of the discovery of the body bags was big news in all the local papers. The San Francisco Chronicle ran the story, “Marin County homicide investigators and Concord Police detectives are working closely with Sacramento authorities to identify the human remains discovered near Willow Berm Marina on Brannan Island.”
The Contra Costa Times headline said: TWO CASES COULD BE LINKED. Within the text it stated, “In a sharp twist to a case mired in questions, police said the disappearance of guitarist Elvin Bishop’s missing 22-year-old daughter may be linked to that of an elderly Concord couple.”
Even then, Lieutenant Paul Crain admitted, “We’re trying to find out who, if anyone from the Saddlewood house, has a connection to the Stinemans.”
Captain Tom McMains told reporters, “At this point, we only know that bodies were found. We don’t know if they have anything to do with our case.”
Marin County Sheriff’s Office sergeant Doug Pittman added, “There is nothing to tell me that Selina is deceased. It is our hope that Selina is alive. There is a chain of events surrounding her life which causes us to be concerned for her safety, but at this point I don’t have any information about whether she has been harmed.”
By Thursday, August 10, more information surfaced, and the Contra Costa Times reported that the Stinemans’ van contained fingerprints that belonged to both Helzer brothers and Dawn Godman. Harold Jewett, a deputy district attorney for Contra Costa County, told a reporter, “I don’t think I have words to describe what I’m beginning to see in this case. There is something truly horrible and perhaps evil in the commission of these crimes. It’s obvious to us that the relationship between Taylor Helzer and the Stinemans was very suggestive of a motive.”
With the news coming out, the media were heading in all directions—to the Delta, to Saddlewood Court, to Frayne Lane and to Woodacre. At the Paper Mill Creek Saloon, patrons were glued to the television set as more and more news hit the airwaves. A worker there told reporters, “Everybody loved Selina and Jenny and Jim around here.”
A bulletin board was plastered with mementoes and recollections of the trio. One memo read, “Uncle James, I will forever miss your giant bear hug.”
Another card stated, “Selina, your heart was bigger than this valley. Goodbye, sweet light.”
The Helzer brothers’ mother, Carma, was initially overwhelmed by the barrage of media questions. She spoke later of almost wilting under their persistent questioning. She did tell reporters at this point, “They (Taylor and Justin) haven’t done anything criminal. This is a whole new experience for us.” Then she answered a question by saying, “How am I getting through this? By trusting in God, man and the universe. In the end, everything is going to be okay.”
An acquaintance of the Helzers, Paul Moses, of Martinez, was also stunned by the news. He told reporters, “They always seemed to be straight arrows. I never would have envisioned something like this in a million years. The brothers were very polite. Overtly kind. Their mannerisms were always like, ‘Yes sir, yes ma’am.’”
Cousin Charney Hoffman said, “I felt sick. Literally. It was like someone kicked me in the stomach.”
Aunt Dana Hoffman told reporters, “They were wonderful kids. They were an ideal family. Taylor loved people so much he was willing to go out of his way to help out the person who was not included. He was just an incredible young man.”
A woman named Susan, who went to an LDS church in Martinez, said, “You couldn’t find better kids. But you don’t go from being a model Mormon missionary to drugs. Something had to happen in between.”
Susan not only had taught Kelly Lord when she was young, but seemed to remember that Justin had been in her Sunday school at one time as well.
At a press conference in Concord, Gerry and Carma Helzer were besieged by reporters. Gerry said nothing, but Carma made a short statement, while crying. “They are innocent. I would like the victims’ families to join me in prayer for the truth.”
Flowers began to be placed at the end of the Stineman driveway by neighbors and friends. One card stated, “On your family’s loss, may there be peace in knowing they are together. A neighbor who cares.”
Dr. Gregory Reiber was a forensic pathologist with the UC Davis Medical Center. He’d been in forensic pathology since 1986 and had gone to Loyola University. By the year 2000, he’d done more than five thousand autopsies. In August 2000, he was about to do five more.
Initially he was on the Marin County murders of Jennifer Villarin and James Gamble. He noted that the body of Jennifer Villarin weighed 180 pounds, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He also noted that she had two gunshot wounds that entered and exited her head. Gunshot wound number one entered near the upper corner of her left eye, near the bridge of her nose, and then descended through the rear of her head. Gunshot wound number two entered her left cheek, traversed her head in an upward path and exited from the left side of her head.
These were fairly round wounds, with abrasive rings around the edges. There was no soot deposit or gunshot residue (GSR) around the wounds, so he wrote, “These are distant-range wounds.” The gun had to be more than two feet away from her head to have caused the wounds without leaving GSR.
Dr. Reiber also noted, “These would be fatal wounds. They went through the central areas of the brain.”
One other thing that Reiber surmised was that the shooter at one point was at the foot of the bed. He believed that when bullet number one struck Jennifer, her head was propped up. As her head slumped down after being shot, he believed, bullet number two struck her at a different angle.
He also surmised that Jennifer Villarin probably did not live more than five minutes after being shot. He said later, “It’s probable she never knew what happened.”
James Gamble’s wounds were much more diverse and complex. He was six feet two inches and weighed two hundred pounds. Bullet number one struck the right side of his neck. It was a through and through, which meant it struck no obstructions on its path through his neck that caused any deflection. Blood from this wound was, however, sprayed onto his chest.
Bullet number two went from the top of James’s chest into his midchest. Dr. Reiber noted, “It was an atypical wound.” This meant he didn’t believe that it had hit square on, but might have wobbled after striking something else. It lodged in his neck near his spinal cord. This shot was probably fired from near his feet. The spinal cord was struck near the base of the brain and would have caused paralyzation from the neck downward.
Bullet number three hit James Gamble in his left shoulder, then his arm, and entered the left side of his chest, passed through muscle and then out his back. Bullet number four was a through and through on his right calf. Bullet number five was a graze wound on his right arm.
Looking at all the wounds, Reiber decided that the one to the chest would have finally been fatal. He inferred from evidence that Gamble had rolled off the bed after being shot and two more shots had been pumped into him while he was on the floor. In fact, Reiber decided that the fatal wound had occurred when he was on the floor and that Gamble had bled out.
Strangely enough, Dr. Reiber worked part-time for Sacramento County as well as Marin County, and he did autopsies for them. When the body bags from the Delta started showing up, he said, “It was a very complicated case.”
The contents of the first bag came from a nylon Dunlop bag that contained cargo pockets. There was a stepping-stone in one pocket and three rocks in the other pockets. This first bag had been obtained near the Lighthouse Marina. Inside of the bag was the torso of an elderly woman with her organs removed.
The second bag was a black nylon Athletech bag with multiple cut marks. It contained the upper extremity of an elderly male, two lower extremities from an elderly male and the head of a young woman. The lower face of the young female had been mutilated, and the upper and lower jaws, and teeth removed. A red-beaded headband still clung to her hair.
The third bag contained several trash bags and their contents, which were the upper jaws and lower jaws of three individuals. Also within this bag were the lower extremities and the arm of an elderly woman. This bag was from the Willow Berm Marina area.
The fourth bag contained an elderly woman’s head. There were overlapping cuts from several motions on the neck area. The soft tissue had probably been cut with a knife and the bony material with a saw blade.
In one of his notes, Dr. Reiber related, “It would take a great amount of work for disarticulation and some awareness of anatomy.”
As far as the elderly man went, Reiber noted eleven stab wounds on the chest, some of them antemortem. But he concluded that these stab wounds were superficial and did not cause death. In fact, he would later say, “The cause of death was hard to determine on the elderly male. It was not from stab wounds. They were too shallow. And not from suffocation, because there would have been petechial hemorrhaging to the eyes. He might have suffered a heart attack from trauma. Or death could have come from his throat being slashed.”
By the time Detective Alex Taflia arrived, Dr. Reiber had already gone through three bags and was looking at the fourth one. Even then, law enforcement was sending out more dive teams to see if they could find any more bags in the Delta.
Taflia noted in bag number four that there was a male left arm, skin from a hand and a male pelvis. In the same bag, wrapped in a plastic white bag, was most of a female head that was missing its upper and lower jaws. Gray hair on the head made it appear to be that of an elderly female.
The fifth bag was discovered on the South Fork of the Mokelumne River and contained the pelvis of a younger female. It, too, had been altered by certain amounts of decomposition and the length of time it had been in the water.
The sixth bag was discovered on the North Fork of the Mokelumne River. It contained a male torso and paper-wrapped fecal material.
The seventh bag was found close to the sixth and included a female right arm, organs and sections of skin, liver, heart, lungs and intestines. It also contained the head of an elderly male.
The eighth was once again up the South Fork of the Mokelumne River and contained a young woman’s torso and skin sliced away from the shoulder area. Eventually thirty-four separate stab wounds would be discovered in the torso. It was surmised that five of the stab wounds may have been inflicted while she was still alive.
The last bag, found near the eighth, contained a right arm and left arm, and a right leg and left leg. This bag was recovered by a dog team and Marin County law enforcement dive team.
Initially it was a job just to find out who these victims were. Pieces of bone from legs and rib bones were taken for DNA testing. And the discovery of the jaws with teeth were a big benefit. Even though they had been intermixed in a bag, all of the teeth were still there. These dental remains were turned over to Dr. Rawlins and Dr. Good.
One of the big questions early on was whether there was a fourth victim’s body parts among the remains. With the help of dental records, and placing the body parts out on a table and reconstructing them to match a full body, there were only three victims.
Dr. Reiber said later, “It was pretty straightforward. We worked from the heads to the lower parts. There were three physically distinctive individuals. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing.”
After analysis, Dr. Reiber surmised that all of the victims had been cut initially with knives and not saw blades. He believed a saw blade was used second. He said, “There was mark action of blade upon bone.”
It was noted that there were twenty-six stab wounds to the lower torso of Ivan Stineman. All were from a sharp, pointed instrument, probably a knife. A toxicology report showed caffeine in the brain tissue, but no other drugs. Ivan’s heart and lungs were in place and attached to the diaphragm.
Annette Stineman’s head and lower facial area were mutilated and the jaws missing. There was a discolored wound around the right eye and a fractured right eye socket. There were many injuries on the upper torso. He couldn’t tell if some were antemortem or postmortem because of discoloration and the amount of time that she’d been in the water. Her abdominal organs were almost completely gone, and her right arm had been severed from the trunk. There were saw marks on the thighbones.
Dr. Reiber noted that her right lung had severe hemorrhages, so she was probably stabbed there before she died. A plastic bag with her organs was separate from the torso. Her chest organs and heart had to have been removed through the lower torso, not the chest wall, because of the incisions there. There were stab wounds on the head, but Dr. Reiber thought these were postmortem. There were trace amounts of meth in her brain. He determined the cause of death to be only as a hypothetical because of decomposition, and he determined that death was from multiple stab wounds.
The autopsy for the young female noted blunt-force injuries to the head. The left side of her head above the ear gaped open and showed brain tissue. There were skull fragmentations clear down to the middle ear. Dr. Reiber said, “The right and left side of the head showed trauma from a hard, heavy object. There had been at least half-a-dozen blows.”
On the upper torso, there were multiple stab wounds that were postmortem. Five stab wounds in the central chest area had occurred possibly before death. These included stab wounds to the heart and each lung. This could be ascertained from the amount of blood that collected there.
A segment of skin had been cut away from the young woman’s back. It was a section about 4½“ by 3½” in diameter. This portion of skin was not found.
The young woman’s arms were amputated far down from the shoulders. On the lower torso, there were twenty or more stab wounds, and stab wounds on the legs.
It was noted that she had two broken fingers on the left hand. These may have been defensive wounds—indicating that she may have thrown up her hand after being hit the first time.
Cause of death for the young woman was listed as multiple traumatic injuries. Blunt-force trauma to the head, or stab wounds to the lungs or heart, all of these could have been fatal.
Dr. Reiber told the San Francisco Chronicle, “I would say this is the most complicated case I’ve had to deal with in my career.”
Besides just the body parts, law enforcement was also interested in the stones placed in the duffel bags. Detective Nash noted, “Eight of the duffel bags had been weighed down with rocks and/or man-made concrete stepping-stones. Most of the stepping-stones were concrete gray in color. All are about twelve inches in diameter and about one and a half to two inches in thickness. Officers from the Concord Police Department, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office and criminalists from the Contra Costa sheriff’s crime lab, who processed the Helzers’ residence on Saddlewood, found similar concrete stepping-stones in the backyard of the property. Some stepping-stones had been placed in a pattern on the ground, while others had not. Obvious indentations where stepping-stones had previously been were noted within the pattern.
“A second type of rock was also present in some bags. It appeared to Concord Police Officer Vedder to be a type of broken/crushed rock, distinguished by rough and irregular surfaces and edges. Officer Vedder thought she had seen this type of rock used on river levees.”
The news of the body bags being found in the Delta hit all the family and friends of the Stinemans and Selina Bishop like sledgehammer blows. Judy Nemec recalled, “Detective Crain said that a bag containing a young female’s torso had been found in the Delta. Nancy immediately said, ‘Selina!’”
Later, Crain called the daughters of the Stinemans again and said that a dismembered male torso had been found in a bag from the same area. Right after Nancy and Judy had gone to the police to give DNA samples, Crain told Judy, “You’d better prepare yourself.”
Judy remembered, “We were in such a state of shock. I knew we wouldn’t find them alive.”
Nancy recalled, “They found a young woman’s torso and arm. And then Daddy’s arm. At first they didn’t find any bags with Momma. I thought they might not find her. But they did.”
Of Selina’s family members, cousin Jill said, “We first heard about her from the media. It was a shock. A microphone was shoved in my face and I was informed of the news. I was asked how I felt.”
Jill was incensed by the callousness of the reporter. Any normal person would have known how she felt.
Another thing irritated her greatly. She said that after Elvin Bishop was informed about Selina, all law enforcement news went to him because he was the closest surviving family member. She and the others were now out of the loop and they felt shut out.
Lydia Young was also angry about the sudden clampdown on information. She said later, “We weren’t next of kin. Elvin was. So we’d hear new stuff on TV. I was angry at the police.”
Elvin Bishop, when contacted by the San Francisco Chronicle about the body bags, said, “I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Sacramento County sheriff’s sergeant Dennis Arnal told a reporter in reference to the search for body bags, “When you find two eggs in a henhouse, you keep searching until you find more eggs, or you finish searching the henhouse.” Then he added that the last two body bags were first identified as being similar by “weight, size and smell.”
Two days after the first body bag was discovered, the Helzer brothers and Dawn Godman were arraigned at a court in Martinez. At the time, Taylor was only charged with burglary, use of a deadly weapon and making terrorist threats. This stemmed from his invasion of the Sharp and Mozzochi residences.
Justin and Dawn were only charged with auto theft at the time, concerning the taking of the Stinemans’ van. The police let the media know, however, that further charges were pending. All three of the Children of Thunder were held in the Contra Costa County Jail without bail.
At the arraignment, Carma Helzer made only a short statement to the press. She said, “We think that the truth is that our boys are innocent.”
Deputy DA Harold Jewett, when asked about Selina Bishop, said, “It’s a little bit more of a mystery as to how Selina Bishop met her end the way she did.”
The mystery was only deepened when a friend of Selina’s told police that Selina had suddenly started buying nice furniture for her apartment before she disappeared. She was also buying a lot of compact discs. Even though this money was probably coming from Taylor, no one knew how involved Selina had been in the plot against the Stinemans.
One friend of Selina’s told the San Francisco Chronicle, “She was very naive.” While another friend said, “She was so longing for this point in life. She would have done anything for him (Taylor).”
Family members who had known Selina all their lives were incensed by the implications that Selina might have been involved in the plot to kidnap and kill the Stinemans. A friend of Selina’s told reporters, “She would have rather earned her money by working her fingers to the bone than by taking it from two elderly people.”
Selina’s cousin Tammy Young was sure that Selina and Jenny were marked for death because they knew too much about Taylor, or at least a person they knew as Jordan. Tammy said, “Selina told Jenny everything. Maybe he (Taylor) thought Selina had told her mother and was worried because he had been seen by her.” Without knowing it at the time, Tammy Young was right on the mark.
Authorities were still looking at Selina as a possible suspect, however. They told reporters that they theorized Selina might have been in on the whole plot, but got cold feet at the last moment. They theorized that Selina had threatened to squeal on the others and had been killed by one or all of them.
In fact, Marin County sheriff’s sergeant Doug Pittman told a reporter, “Right now, we’re unclear about what Selina’s involvement may have been.”
Because Keri Furman’s name and phone number were found on a bulletin board in Saddlewood, Detective Marziano contacted her by phone. Detective Marziano didn’t know Keri’s relationship with Taylor Helzer at this time, but he thought it might be important. Eventually he was able to contact Keri through her lawyer, Carmine Carlucci. A teleconference call was set up for the next day. At 3:00 P.M. on August 11, Detectives Fred Marziano, Steve Chiabotti and Dave Ishikawa were on a line in the Bay Area, while Keri and her lawyer were on a line in Las Vegas.
The detectives said hello, and Keri answered them in a friendly voice.
Detective Marziano introduced himself and related why he was calling. Keri was not surprised. She said, “I found out about it yesterday.”
Keri was very frank about her and Taylor’s use of ecstasy and his selling of the drugs at raves.
The detectives wanted to know about Impact America. She told them that Taylor claimed that God would show him the way about it. Then she said, “I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t want to be dragged into his thing. I didn’t support him in this idea.”
She said Taylor finally didn’t trust her with things about Impact America. He started talking to Justin and Dawn Godman about it in private.
Detective Marziano asked her, “Did Taylor think he was like Joseph Smith?”
“Yes,” Keri responded. “He said he was now like a prophet of God.”
One question zeroed in on why she had put money into Justin’s account. She said she had borrowed $4,000 for her car and was paying it back. Taylor had told her to send the money to Justin.
On August 2, she had called Taylor and he was very upset to be receiving a phone call from her. He said he didn’t want her phoning back. He said, “Don’t call me unless you’re dying or seriously injured.” Of course, this was right in the middle of plans to kill Selina Bishop.
Keri told the detectives that at six o’clock on Thursday morning, August 10, one of her girlfriends, Alisha, had phoned her and said, “Taylor killed five people!”
Keri didn’t believe her at first. Then she looked it up on the Internet. She saw that it was true and she said she got chills on her arms.
She told the detectives she remembered the knives and swords that Justin and Taylor used to keep in the garage at the Oak Grove residence. She was very cooperative with the detectives, but she did have one big worry. Her modeling career was just starting to take off. Her Playboy spread would be in September and she had a deal going with an alcoholic beverage company for a television commercial. She asked, “Is my name going to be released to the press?”
Detective Marziano answered, “Only if this goes to trial.” Then he asked her, “Do you have a cell phone?”
She answered that she did.
She told them that she would soon be going to Dallas and Denver for part of a promotion tour. The detectives wanted to get in touch with her again.
The next day, Marziano decided they needed to talk to Keri in person. They agreed to meet her at her lawyer’s office in Las Vegas. Then the detectives flew down to Vegas on Friday, August 11.
The interview was taped and all the detectives wore casual dress. They said later they didn’t want to intimidate her. No guns or other weapons were displayed. Looking for more background on Taylor, Keri told them, “Most people will talk behind your back. Taylor would do it to your face. He would make you mad. I had given up what little self-esteem I had to be with him. He’d say something and you’d go, ‘Ooohhh!’
“I never saw Taylor get angry. It was the other person who got angry. Actually, everything wasn’t about Harmony. It was all about Taylor. He’d talk about walls and bringing them down. If you disagreed with him, he’d say, ‘If you don’t want to listen to me, I don’t want to be in your space.’ And then he’d leave.”
Concerning Justin, she said, “He was very much a follower.”
Detective Marziano asked Keri if she thought Taylor could have brainwashed Justin. He asked, “Do you think he could make Justin do whatever he wanted him to do?”
Keri answered, “Absolutely! If you were around him for a little bit of time, he could brainwash you. He would say, ‘this is God’s plan. You’re my number one. I need you. He could also make a person feel like nothing, unless you were right on the same path with him. Otherwise, you were doomed.”
Keri elaborated about Justin’s life as well. She said, “He didn’t have any friends, except Dawn and Taylor. He was very odd. He had things he didn’t like about himself. About life. About people.
“Taylor told Justin to get that house (on Saddlewood Court) in his name. And Justin did. I felt bad for Justin. I knew that Taylor was never going to pay him back.”
Keri told Justin about this and he replied, “You don’t trust him and don’t believe in him. He’s going to make a lot of money.”
Keri also talked about how Taylor began to dominate Dawn Godman. “He fed off people. I started getting jealous about his relationship with Dawn. I asked him, ‘Why are you spending so much time with her?’ He said, ‘Because she believes in me. I have stuff to teach her.’”
The detectives asked Keri about In To Me See and Impact America. She admitted that she had helped with In To Me See. She said she was even the one who designed the colorful business cards.
She told of Taylor’s ideas that changed so rapidly she could barely keep up with them. Underage girl prostitutes, Feline Club, yuppies and blackmail. It all started sounding too bizarre and unrealistic to her.
Keri said, “Impact America—I didn’t want to be a part of it. I knew from the beginning it was just la-la land. I never thought he was a prophet of God. He’d say stuff like, ‘I’m feeling God’s plan.’ He said it would take a million dollars to make a million.”
She told them that Taylor became upset with her after her professional Playboy shoot and her interest in a modeling career. He wanted her to be one of the three core people. He didn’t want her going down to southern California. He wanted her to stay and soak in his wisdom of Impact America. As time went on, however, she felt that he was talking gibberish. He was moving toward the Days of Thunder, and she wanted no part of it.
Hundreds of miles away from Las Vegas, in Marin County, two hundred friends, family and the merely curious gathered at the Paper Mill Creek Saloon in Woodacre. On a fence across the street were hundreds of messages for Selina Bishop, Jenny Villarin and Jim Gamble. Tom Pinkson, a next-door neighbor of Selina’s, told reporters, “This is a valley of love, and that’s been violated. We’re going to have to heal that love. It’s going to take a lot of work. If we stay with bitterness and anger, then we’ve lost twice.”
Mark Land, who was married to Jenny’s sister Olga, said, “With her patience and her insight, she gave my children the gift to read. She touched all our lives. I can see that here today.”
Jenny Mehrtens spoke of Jenny Villarin always having a laugh and a smile: “The things in the paper and the news, we’ve got to forget about it. We’ve got to think about the things these people brought us.”
Even a person who had not seen Jim Gamble in thirty-eight years was there. He was a classmate of Jim’s from high school days. He said, “He was a real great guy.”
Elvin Bishop’s brother-in-law said of the guitarist and his family, “They’re so overwhelmed by grief, they find it impossible to face anyone right now. But they’re immensely touched by this gathering.”
Robert Asuncion declared, “You can bet this family will be stronger. Every moment with your family is special. Don’t let this happen to your family, where you lose touch, then get together to grieve.”