CHAPTER 11
The Beehive
At the Concord Insurance Service, Detective Patrick Murray looked at Polaroid photos of Justin’s pickup. He also talked to George Calhoun at Dean Witter and contacted AT&T, where Justin had worked. Detective Murray was put in contact with Don McNay, who was Justin’s supervisor. He advised Murray that employees had their own vehicles and did not share their vehicles with other employees. Justin’s vehicle was towed to the Concord Police Department, where it was eventually searched for evidence.
Edward Berry, of Double Header Pagers, talked to CPD and looked at a photo lineup. He identified Dawn Godman out of a group of six photos. Melissa Mahan at Not Too Naughty was asked about the purchase of handcuffs and leg irons. She also picked Dawn Godman out of a lineup.
Andre Lepage was shown a series of photos at Pep Boys. He picked Justin Helzer out of the lineup. Elizabeth Hand told police about Sky Anderson (Dawn Godman) buying Pro Grip ski gloves.
An interesting thing came to light from a Contra Costa County Jail inmate named Tammy Funderburk. A report on her from a jailer stated, “Funderburk was at the Martinez Detention Facility with several other women waiting for a court appearance. A television set was on showing news on the murders (of the five people connected to the Helzers and Godman). Dawn Godman was in the cell with her and said, ‘Oh, they keep saying he’s my boyfriend (referring to Taylor). He ain’t my boyfriend. I’ve had sex with him and got him high, but he’s not my boyfriend.’
“Godman then said that she had been in the Marin house and saw things there she didn’t like. Godman was asked if she killed anyone, and she said, ‘No.’
“Funderburk said that Godman laughed and smirked at the news about the murders. Her attitude upset the other inmates so much that Godman was removed from the cell for her own protection.”
Dawn’s pickup truck also became an item of interest to authorities. Jailers intercepted a letter from Godman’s parents concerning the pickup, which had never been taken into custody, since no one knew its connection at the time. The parents said in part, “We’re picking up your truck and bringing it home.” Home was up at the small town of Ione in the Gold Rush country.
When officers went up there to search the pickup, they found a purse and small duffel bag in the pickup. Strangely enough, on the duffel bag the letters MIA were on a zipper tag. As an acronym, MIA can often stand for missing in action.
William Miller, of Cool Rides, was asked by detectives about the rental of the personal watercraft. He said that the rental in question had a fourteen-gallon tank, and when it was returned, it had four gallons of fuel left in the tank. He figured that the watercraft had been in operation for about two to three hours to use that much fuel. He also said he was surprised when Justin turned it in earlier than necessary. When asked by Miller why, Justin told him he was tired.
Detective Erin Inskip spoke with the Soladays about Selina’s supposed trip to Yosemite. During this conversation, Jay Soladay mentioned a black Saturn. He identified the Saturn as belonging to Selina’s boyfriend, Jordan.
Leora Soladay identified Justin’s white pickup truck. She said it had been used to help Selina move into her apartment. Leora also picked out a photo of Taylor Helzer from a photo lineup and identified the man as Jordan.
Detective Wick spoke with Elvin Bishop. Elvin recognized a portion of an outgoing audio message on a phone tape that was Selina’s voice. The message was directed to Jordan.
Justin’s boss at AT&T was contacted. He showed the detective time card records that showed Justin called in sick for July 30, July 31 and August 1. Justin was scheduled off on August 2 and 3, but he never showed up for work again on August 4 or any days thereafter, although August 6 and 7 were scheduled vacation days.
CPD detective Steve Harn went to Sears and verified that a reciprocating saw had been purchased there. There was also a purchase of a six-inch and nine-inch blade. The name on a warranty registration was signed Sky Anderson.
Officer Vedder matched white plastic bags with red drawstrings, from the Saddlewood residence, to similar white plastic bags with red drawstrings that held the heads of Ivan Stineman, Annette Stineman and Selina Bishop.
The owner of the Concord Cab Company confirmed that a ride had been given to Saddlewood Court on Tuesday, August 1. Driver Nicolai Nenad was questioned, and it was learned he actually knew Justin Helzer. He related his story about serving as an MP with Justin in Germany.
In the week after the arrests, the media started to get a handle on elements of the case. In an edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, a story stated, “It would take nearly a week for investigators from the two jurisdictions to connect the seemingly unrelated events. When they did, they would uncover what authorities believe to be a bizarre and violent multicounty rampage by a pair of Contra Costa brothers who had had little prior contact with the law.”
The article went on to speak of Selina acting like a lovesick teenager and being swept into Taylor’s web of deceit.
In fact, at this point, no one knew for sure how much Selina was involved in the plot. Muddying the waters was a comment made by one of Selina’s friends. This person told reporters that Selina was banking large sums of money and supposedly going to get 20 percent of some huge settlement that her boyfriend, Jordan, was going to get.
Even Contra Costa Deputy DA Harold Jewett admitted, “We have information that Selina Bishop did open a bank account in connection with this case.”
The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article saying, “The financial entanglements . . . deepen the mystery over whether Bishop was a willful participant in the plot or an unwitting pawn.”
Marin County Sheriff’s Office sergeant Pittman shed no light on the subject when he said, “Right now, we’re unclear about what her involvement may have been.”
Then he added a new twist. Sergeant Pittman told reporters, “Although we seem to be focusing on these three suspects (Justin, Taylor and Dawn), we are not limiting ourselves to that. We’re trying to contact people who might have seen or had contact with any of the victims before their deaths. Obviously the investigation still has a long way to go. There is a lot of follow-up to do.”
On August 16, the newspapers added an intriguing new twist to what Pittman was implying. The Contra Costa Times headline stated: NEW LEAD IN BISHOP CASE. In smaller letters, it proclaimed: “Police seek a man videotaped at a Petaluma bank.”
The investigators were indeed handing out copies of photos of the man videotaped at the Washington Mutual ATM machine on August 1, 2000. He was described as being white, between thirty-five and forty-five years of age, of average build, with short dark hair, wearing jeans and a light-colored T-shirt with sunglasses hanging from the collar. The time he was at the ATM was 5:28 P.M., and this corresponded to the time that a check for $10,000 was deposited into Selina Bishop’s account. Even more intriguing was the fact that “the videotape also shows that this unknown suspect arrived and left the bank in a dark-colored sedan. He is not Taylor or Justin Helzer.”
Lieutenant Paul Crain told reporters, “He’s not a suspect, but he is someone we’d like to locate, identify and interview.”
While the hunt for the elusive mystery man went on, in Concord, crime scene technicians were tearing up the Helzers’ front yard with a backhoe. They were in the process of extracting the sewer line all the way out to the middle of the street.
Next-door neighbor Claude Reese told a reporter, “It looks like they took out the sewer line. I have a feeling they’re looking for blood and body parts and whatever else someone might have put down the drain.”
This supposition was given credence by a story told by neighbor Kaye Shaman. She told investigators that one day she went out to use the hose, the same one Justin had asked to use back in the first week of August, and found what looked like flesh and blood near the hose. She had no idea where it had come from at the time. She thought a hawk might have deposited it there. Now she had a whole new theory.
With new evidence being unearthed every day in the grisly crimes, Elvin Bishop told a Contra Costa Times reporter, “My immediate aim and ambition is not to go crazy. Blues was invented to get people through rough times. Since I’m lucky enough to have the blues, I might as well take advantage of it.” He went on to say that he was seeing a counselor and seeking solace in music.
The story of the “mystery man” at the Petaluma bank kept mutating and growing. In fact, the Contra Costa Times reported that the Marin-based company Industrial Light and Magic was set to enhance digitally the videotape of that man at the ATM machine. This company was owned by George Lucas of Star Wars fame. It was ironic in the extreme that Selina had once played on a movie set left behind by George Lucas.
The possibility of a fourth suspect on the loose set nerves on edge in Forest Knolls and Woodacre. Some people feared for their safety. Sergeant Pittman tried to allay their fears by saying, “We have no reason to believe the public is in danger from the person in the photo.” But after the brutality of the crimes and the discovery of body bags in the Delta, many residents weren’t so sure.
On August 18, Taylor’s attorney, Suzanne Chapot told reporters that Taylor was severely mentally disturbed. She said, “He doesn’t know what happened. He hears things that people say in the jail and he is horrified.”
Minutes before the court hearing that day, Gerry and Carma Helzer were served with subpoenas to testify before a grand jury. Carma testified before them for five hours; on leaving the building, according to reporters, she burst into tears.
On August 26, a lot more news was revealed about a conversation Taylor Helzer had with Detective Chiabotti back on August 7, after he’d been arrested. In an interview room, a very interesting exchange took place:
Chiabotti: Do you want to talk to me?
Taylor: I did . . . I do.
Chiabotti: You want to go someplace to sit down or do you want to talk here?
Taylor: Basically what I’m trying to say is . . . You know what? I’m getting freaked out here. I just wanna go back to my cell.
Chiabotti: That’s fine. You can go back to your cell.
Taylor: Okay. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t know. I just see things that I’m remembering now. Or am I having a vision because that happens?
Chiabotti: Okay. Do you want to talk about it now, or what?
Taylor: Yeah, I do. I’m telling you . . . right now that I’m remembering things regarding Selina and regarding Ivan and Annette. I told her (another detective) that I didn’t remember. And I didn’t at the time, but I’m starting to think these weren’t dreams. ’Cause, see, there are two (Justin and Dawn) who shouldn’t be in here. And I knew that already, but these two shouldn’t be here. So as soon as—I’ll just tell you this . . . as soon as I get to hug my brother and tell him I’m sorry in front of his lawyer, then I’ve got a lot to tell you regarding Selina and Ivan and Annette and myself.
Chiabotti: Okay.
Taylor: And I want to talk to them and tell them I’m sorry if I did anything for the betrayal of their trust because my actions have obviously made it look like they did something. Otherwise they wouldn’t be here this long. I need to tell somebody this, but I don’t need a lawyer to do that. I need to make sure they both have a lawyer before I say anything. I need to say my good-byes to both of them. Better get me in the same room at the same time. Whatever.
Chiabotti: Okay, well, let me run this by you. . . .
Taylor: Yeah.
Chiabotti: Probably when the woman detective talked to you, I guessed you asked for an attorney, so there’s really nothing I can do about that. Now they’ve asked for their own attorneys, so they’ll be provided with attorneys.
Taylor: So when I see that they happen to have an attorney, I’ve got some information to share with you guys.
Chiabotti: Okay, what?
Taylor: I’m not very good at things like this. I’m right now having a hard time.
Chiabotti: Okay, Glenn. Just so I understand this right, once they have an attorney and you’re sure of that, then you’re interested in talking with me?
Taylor: Right now, that’s what Spirit says. Spirit says that I should not let them be here.
Taylor may have been feigning ignorance, but it may have also been a clever ploy to make sure that Justin and Dawn were “lawyered up” and not talking on their own. Taylor probably knew that a lawyer would tell the others not to talk. And by saying he was sorry that they were in jail, and shouldn’t be there, he could indicate his loyalty to them, and they should do the same for him.
By August 28, the story of the mystery man was mutating once again. This time it placed him in Selina’s car and had that car being driven by him out to the Delta. Television station KRON reported that divers in the Delta were searching for Selina’s car there. This story got a certain amount of credence when it was learned that a large object, the shape and size of a car, was found to be in the Mokelumne River. The object was scanned by a side-scanning sonar system operated by the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO).
Marin County sheriff’s sergeant Pittman told reporters, “We did locate one object in the water, and its shape and size is consistent with the shape of an automobile. Although it is consistent with a vehicle, it may be that we’ll get out there and it won’t be a vehicle or its not the vehicle we’re looking for. The location is a known place where people often dispose of property.”
The mystery man episodes continued, but the location of Selina Bishop’s car was about to be solved far away from the Delta.
Greg McClish was a traffic control officer for the Petaluma Police Department (PPD). He had regular beats within the city and he would chalk tires on cars parked on certain streets. If a vehicle was left there longer than posted, he would fill out a ticket and place it on the vehicle’s window.
On August 24, 2000, he was training a part-time officer as they moved through the downtown area of Petaluma. They came upon a blue Honda Accord with the license plate 4CQD822. The vehicles in that area hadn’t been checked for two weeks since Petaluma had a budget crisis, and McClish had been doing all of the parking violation work by himself. He placed a parking ticket on the Honda when it hadn’t been moved by his second trip around the area.
McClish came back to the same street on August 31, and the blue Honda was still parked at the same spot and collecting dust. McClish, by instinct, felt something was wrong about the car. Just to be on the safe side, he ran the plates and discovered that the vehicle was wanted in a Marin County homicide.
McClish called in his report to a dispatcher and waited. Fifteen minutes later, two MCSO officers arrived. Crime scene tape was placed around the vehicle and, at last, one mystery was solved. The mystery man at the bank was as elusive as ever, though.
Mysteries over vehicles did not end there, however. The next one concerned Keri Furman’s little silver Eclipse sports car. In her September Playboy bio, she answered the question “When I feel the need for speed, I’m . . .”
Keri’s answer was “Blasting tunes in my Silver Bullet (2000 Eclipse), flying to San Fran.”
Two sources close to Selina called the police and said that they had seen a silver Eclipse in front of Selina Bishop’s residence in Woodacre on July 16, 2000. Since Jordan didn’t own an Eclipse, only Keri did, it was wondered what she might have been doing there, especially since she said she wasn’t anywhere near the area in July.
One of the sources told a reporter, “I noticed it. It stood out. You don’t see them out here. Everybody has either a beater (beat-up car) or a truck.”
In this case, the mystery of the silver Eclipse was never solved. It may have been just a case of mistaken identity.
Playboy magazine, which was already embarrassed by Keri Furman’s (aka Kerrisa Fare) connections to Taylor Helzer, was not amused by this new revelation. Playboy’s spokesman Bill Farley told reporters, “It’s been awkward having the magazine’s name in connection with that grisly case.”
Then he added that Kerrisa Fare was astounded by the fact that Taylor Helzer was connected to the murders. He said, “She felt he was a mild-mannered person that hasn’t harmed anyone.”
Then Farley went on to say that Taylor had approached Playboy to write his story. His asking price was $400,000. In fact, headlines in the Contra Costa Times declared, HELZER TRIED TO SELL STORY TO PLAYBOY FOR $400,000. This occurred from the county jail. The article went on to say that Taylor’s lawyer said that he wanted the money to go to charity or a Selina Bishop fund. Carma Helzer chimed in and said, “The money could go to a charity, a fund for Bishop’s memory or to fix up the county jail.”
One of the biggest breaks in the case had nothing to do with vehicles, Playboy magazine or mystery men. CPD detective Darrell Graham conducted a routine interview with Debra McClanahan to determine what she knew about the Helzer brothers and Dawn Godman.
Detective Graham provided a later statement that McClanahan didn’t provide any dramatic information initially. But later that same day, after he’d gone home, the Concord Police Department informed him that McClanahan had phoned back, wanting to talk with him. Graham phoned her about 8:20 P.M. and she told him that she’d just found a black metal cigarette case, with gold trim, inside her apartment and that it contained four movie tickets and a Denny’s receipt, both dated July 30, 2000. She said that the cigarette case had originally been her ex-husband’s, but then she had given it to Taylor Helzer.
Inside the cigarette case she found four theater tickets from the Brendan Theater in Pittsburg for the 8:10 P.M. showing of X Men. There was also a cash register receipt from Denny’s on Sommersville Road in Antioch, from the same date, and stamped 11:37 P.M., for four people. The bill had totaled $33. According to Mc-Clanhan, she had gone to the Brendan Theater that same evening herself with her eleven-year-old daughter, but they had gone to the 8:10 P.M. showing of a movie. She denied knowing who the four movie tickets or the Denny’s receipt belonged too.
Having all that information in mind, Detective Heidi Stephenson interviewed Debra McClanahan on August 22, and Debra began to open up a lot more. What she said was noted in a report:
Debra McClanahan said that she had known Dawn Godman for three years, and had met her at a Mormon dance. She was introduced to Taylor Helzer in November or December 1999. She had sex with him once, and it had been a one night stand. She said that she’d never known Taylor or Justin or Dawn to be violent. She did admit that any one of them might show up at her apartment at any time, day or night.
McClanahan denied that Dawn had a cell phone that had been rented in her name. She admitted that she had gone to raves with both Taylor and Dawn in Berkeley and had taken ecstasy. She also admitted that she knew Taylor was collecting disability money and that he had been a stockbroker.
She said that Taylor had phoned her on July 30 and that Dawn Godman had dropped by on the same day. McClanahan claimed to have asked Dawn if she could borrow a hundred dollars, and Dawn had left her a $100 bill. McClanahan did not reveal why she wanted the hundred dollars.
McClanahan told Detective Stephenson that on July 31, 2000, at about 11:30 P.M., Taylor had dropped by her apartment to say hi. He then said he wouldn’t see her for a week, since he was going out of town. McClanahan said that she’d last seen Dawn Godman on August 6 at about 2:30 P.M.
Earlier that week, Justin and Dawn had called her on August 2 around 11:30 P.M., and actually came by her apartment on Thursday and stayed from around 2:30 A.M. until around 4:30 A.M. They played Canasta and no one seemed upset or agitated.
Debra claimed that Taylor, Justin and Dawn were supposed to meet her at the Brendan Theater to watch the movie X Men on July 30. She said she had arrived there with her daughter about 7:20 P.M. and couldn’t find the others anywhere, so she and her daughter had watched the 8:10 P.M. showing. She said that she didn’t know about any plans that Taylor had.
McClanahan did admit she had heard the phrase In To Me See which equaled Intimacy. As far as the cigarette case went, she said she had given it to Taylor and first discovered the receipts inside sometime after July 30. McClanahan denied ever having heard of the Stinemans or Selina Bishop. She did say she was with Dawn Godman when Dawn brought two pairs of handcuffs around mid-June, as well as a dildo. Asked what they were for, McClanahan said that she and Dawn enjoyed bondage in sexual encounters. She referred to the Not Too Naughty store as an adult toy store.
A lot of things didn’t add up about many of Debra McClanahan’s statements. Perhaps even she knew that she was now under suspicion by authorities. She called the Concord Police Department and asked if she could bring in a .357 revolver. She did so and Detective Graham took a look at it.
On August 24, Detectives Stephenson and Chiabotti reinterviewed McClanahan, and she began changing many of her previous statements. In this statement Debra said that Taylor had instructed her to take her daughter to the Brendan Theaters without him, but to buy four adult tickets to the movie. Then she was to go somewhere after the movie and purchase four dinners and keep the receipts. Someone was supposed to give her money for doing all of this.
Dawn Godman did show up at her apartment complex and met Debra at the pool area. Since McClanahan couldn’t leave the pool area, because her young daughter was in the pool, she gave Godman a key, and Dawn left a hundred dollar bill in her apartment.
Debra told the detectives of her mission to the theater and Denny’s. Then, however, she said that she put the receipts on a short wall in her apartment and, at some time uncertain to her, the tickets and receipt disappeared. “At various times between July thirtieth and August sixth, Taylor, Justin and Dawn all visited her apartment. At some time, Debra was aware that her ex-husband’s metal cigarette case was on the short wall in the apartment. Debra knew she was doing a favor for the defendants and knew that they were asking her to cover something up for them, but she didn’t know what specific behavior or crime that she was helping them conceal but thought it might be drug-related.”
As to why she was starting to cooperate now, Debra said later, “I didn’t know the extent of everything at the time. I only knew of two murders then (Jenny Villarin and James Gamble). I was thinking I could give this to the police department.”
Detective David Chilimidos later got a tip about a safe stored at Debra McClanahan’s apartment on Ryan Road in Concord. (Just who the informant was has never been revealed.)
With a consent to search, Detective Elo searched McClanahan’s apartment on Ryan Road and looked in the bedroom closet. A safe was discovered in the bedroom closet and a wheelchair in her daughter’s room.
In the safe were a number of important documents and items that were listed:
1. Checkbook of Ivan Stineman and Annette Stineman for a Morgan Stanley account
2. Washington Mutual account for Ivan and Annette Stineman
3. Checkbook for Annette Stineman on a liquid-assets fund
4. Numerous credit cards:
a. Chevron card for I. L. Stineman
b. Chevron card for I. L. Stineman
c. Chevron Visa card for Annette Stineman
d. Chevron card for Annette Stineman
e. A Visa card for Ivan Stineman
Social Security cards belonging to Ivan and Annette Stineman were also found, along with a Social Security card and driver’s license owned by Selina Bishop.
There was a paper with Selina’s phone number on it, along with Cal Fed numbers, and a scrap of paper that read: “Sky and J meet me at 2 Bird Cafe at 5 AM. To go to Bolinas. But I sick. I stay home.”
Along with these paper and plastic items was found a magazine for a 9mm Beretta pistol, razor blades, two diamond rings, two magazines for a .22-caliber pistol, a semiautomatic pistol with the serial numbers scratched off and a three-ring binder.
There were more esoteric items in the safe as well—crystals and green stones, a Digi Tech scale that weighed things in grams, hypodermic needles, a glass smoking pipe, handcuffs, a box of Rohypnol, a marijuana roach, Zig-Zag papers, a typed-out script and cigar box with Playboy Bunny logo.
The investigators also received a list of telephone calls from the Saddlewood residence to McClanahan’s place. On August 3, 2000, there had been a one-minute call at 3:40 A.M., followed by a one-minute call at 4:30 A.M. There was a one-minute call at 5:21 A.M. and a two-minute call at 5:30 A.M.
The next day there was a search warrant executed for Gerry and Carma’s residence in Pacheco.
On August 25, Detective Warnock brought Debra McClanahan into the district attorney’s office in Martinez and then on to the grand jury. At last they had someone who knew some aspects of the crime spree and was willing to talk. Up to this point, there had been lots of evidence, but it was all mute evidence.
Detective Elo discovered in Justin’s AT&T vehicle a bottle of Insta-Clean. This could be used to mask a drug test by putting a drop of it into the urine.
Detective Warnock talked to Olivia Embry, Richard Hundly and Kelly Lord. He also talked to Jessyka Chompff about Taylor and interviewed the carpet cleaners who had been to Saddlewood. Detective Warnock spoke with Dawn Kirkland about the Helzer brothers’ behavior at the Third Ward in Walnut Creek, and he analyzed the poster that held the Twelve Principles of Magic. This poster had been in the possession of Brandon Davids.
A gold ring from Selina’s Honda was given by Detective Alex Taflia to Detective Mingas, and it was noted that an inscription on the ring stated, “ALS to ILS.” The Stinemans’ daughters confirmed that this wedding ring had been given by Annette to Ivan.
A roll of plastic film from the Saddlewood residence was also looked at. There was about fifty feet missing from the roll. It was later surmised that this amount of plastic had been used in the bathroom while the bodies were being dismembered. The plastic had obviously done a good job, as had Justin Helzer. It would be learned later that he’d gone over every square inch of the bathroom with a toothbrush. Not one drop of blood of any of the victims was ever found in the bathroom, despite all the bloodletting there.
Sergeant Andrew Gartner studied the voice mail greeting from Selina to Taylor. On one part, she declared, “Hi, sweetie. I’ll call you in twenty or thirty minutes.” In the background could be heard the voice of Jenny Villarin, sweet-talking to a cat.
Selina’s diary was discovered and scrutinized for evidence. In late July, she had written that she didn’t want to be part of Jordan’s “big plans.”
On August 1, 2000, she wrote, “I wish we could be together. Why is it so difficult?”
Then she wrote about wanting to go to Great America. Taylor cryptically answered, “I’ve got something better planned.”
A pager message from Dawn to Taylor was found. The message said, “Hi, you’ve reached Taylor.” Another voice message from Taylor stated, “You’ve reached Jordan Taylor for In To Me See.”
Based on having heard Dawn Godman’s voice in person, detectives thought the second message was from her to Taylor.
Clint Carter spoke with detectives at length about two male subjects he had seen walking toward the Stinemans’ residence on Sunday, July 30. He said that the dark-haired male had stopped outside the door and looked hesitant. The blond-haired, or lighter-haired man, came up from behind, put his hand on the dark-haired male’s shoulder and gave a gesture with his head toward the house, as if to say, “Come on.” This surprised the investigators. Taylor had been seen as the decisive one, not Justin.
Detective Graham went to Washington Mutual in Petaluma to check out that angle of the case, and what he found at last put to rest the theory about a fourth suspect, the mystery man at the ATM machine. Graham spoke with the manager there to see what might be found on their video camera. She hoped to find out which teller had done any business concerning checks to Selina Bishop, and what day and time that might have occurred.
A time on the teller’s record was processed for Monday, July 31, 2000, at 5:28 P.M., but when they looked at the videotape, the person at the ATM at 5:28 P.M. was no one that they knew who was connected with the Helzers and Godman. It was a photo of the mystery man. It had made them wonder if there were more people connected to the conspiracy than they knew about.
Finally it was discovered that the video camera’s time was off by seven minutes. When they looked again, it was found that at 5:21 P.M. a large blonde in a wheelchair, wearing a cowboy hat and lime green pantsuit, was videotaped. It was, of course, Dawn Godman in disguise and the mystery man episode was finally laid to rest.
Joyce Sheehan, the branch manager, was asked to look at checks concerning Selina Bishop. She discovered that no transaction had been over $100 in all of July until a $10,000 check had been deposited. But the signature on the check was wrong. Instead of spelling Stineman correctly, the person wrote Stinman, without an e after the first n.
Detectives also had Nancy Hall look at various checks. She noted that a $33,000 check, dated August 1, 2000, to Selina Bishop had her father’s handwriting. A check for $67,000 to Selina Bishop had her mother’s signature. These were true and accurate signatures.
Christina Werk had a degree in forensic science and was a field evidence tech. She started doing fingerprint analysis of some items. She used powder method for lifting prints from vehicles and chemical method for paper items.
Micromatic powder was used on the Stinemans’ Chevy Lumina and on Selina’s Honda. It was dusted on with a fiberglass brush. She then used a fingerprint-lifting tape. One side of the tape was sticky, the other side not.
Eight “possibles” came from the Chevy van, she said later. These came from such diverse areas as the driver’s side door, the rear driver’s side, the passenger door and hood.
Fingerprint technician Sergio Solis became the custodian of record. He already had the fingerprints and palm prints of Taylor, Justin and Dawn.
Solis noted down:
80.1—Fingerprint driver’s side door—Justin Helzer.
80.4—Fingerprint from Dawn Godman.
80.5—Palm of Taylor.
So all three members of the Children of Thunder had touched the Stinemans’ van at one time or another.
Kenneth Fujii had been a criminalist for eighteen years by 2000. He was an expert in firearms and tool marks. He noted that the bullets recovered from the crime scene on Redwood Drive in Woodacre all came from the same gun, which he decided was probably a Beretta or Taurus semiautomatic. The Taurus in essence was a copy of a Beretta.
Fujii measured the trigger pull and the GSR when he received the Beretta from the safe to see if it had been modified. It apparently had not been modified. He noted that the Beretta ejected casings to the right. He also concluded that .762-caliber ammunition found at the Saddlewood residence was probably for an AK-47. This weapon was never found.
Another person who helped the detectives was Beverly Hodge, who worked for the California toll bridge agency in the Bay Area, which included the Antioch Bridge. Unbeknownst to the Helzers and Dawn Godman, when they drove the pickup with the personal watercraft over the bridge, they were photographed by a video camera. Officer Vedder asked Hodge to view all the videos from August 1, 2000, to August 4, 2000. She did this with Officer Vedder. They were looking for a white Nissan pickup truck.
These two viewed literally thousands of vehicles crossing the Antioch Bridge until they froze a frame from 1:28 P.M. on Thursday, August 3. They saw a white pickup truck pulling a trailer with a watercraft on it. There were three people in the truck, but the videotape did not give a good view of their faces, nor did it pick up the license plate number. But it did show a multicolored personal watercraft on the trailer. A logo read, “Rent me.” This matched the crafts rented at Cool Rides.
One person who was a great help to the detectives was Cal Fed supervisor Vicki Sexton. She had been helping them ever since August 7. She related, “On Monday (August 7, 2000), I saw on Channel 2 that an elderly couple named the Stinemans were missing. I became very alarmed. I started processing information. Then I started hearing about Selina Bishop being missing. ‘Oh, my God!’ I thought. Those are my customers! I have to call the police.”
She contacted the Concord Police Department and Marin County Sheriff’s Office. She told them there was an account for Justin Helzer at Cal Fed. On July 11, he’d written a check to a store called Bags and Baggage. She also told them that $100,000 went into Selina Bishop’s Cal Fed account on August 1, 2000. She’d placed a hard hold on these checks, however, and they had not cleared.
Detectives later noted about Vicki Sexton in their reports that she told Detective Norris that a white female in a wheelchair had shown up at the branch. The woman had been wearing a green top and pants, and a cowboy hat. This had occurred on Tuesday, August 1 at around 2:30 P.M. Sexton had spoken to this women who identified herself as Jackie, but was in fact Dawn Godman. “Jackie” was supposedly a good friend of the Stinemans and close to their supposed grand daughter Selina Bishop.
Godman said that Selina was in San Diego at a hospital and needed money for heart surgery, since she didn’t have medical insurance. Godman claimed that Selina Bishop presently lived in Petaluma. Godman said that she needed two checks to clear the next day. Then Godman said she had driven to the bank, which surprised Vicki Sexton because she was in a wheelchair.
Sexton told Godman that she had to verify the checks before completing the translation. Sexton dialed a phone number printed on one of the Stinemans’ checks, and received a message from an answering machine with the voice of an elderly male. She left a message for the Stinemans to call her back, and Godman told her that the Stinemans had just moved and had a new phone number.
Sexton dialed this number, and received another message by a man purporting to be Ivan Stineman. This voice, however, sounded like that of a younger man. The voice was in a monotone and it sounded like he was reading from a script.
Sexton then phoned a Dean Witter office to verify that funds existed in the two accounts covered by the checks. A man there said he needed the Social Security numbers of Ivan and Annette Stineman. Godman said she would get these for Sexton. Sexton began the process of depositing the checks, but she put a hard hold on them until verification could be accomplished.
Financial Crimes Unit detective Patrick Murray, of the CPD, became involved in the money trail. On August 15, he contacted Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter and traced two checks—one for $10,000 and the other for $67,000. He wasn’t able to track down a third check for $33,000 then, because it was still being processed.
Police work in all directions was spurred on by receipts and handwritten notes collected at Saddlewood. Edward Berry, of Double Header Pagers, was contacted. It was discovered that an account was made out to a Shirley K. Robinson. When Berry was shown a photo lineup, he picked out a photo of Dawn Godman as Shirley Robinson.
Detective Murray went back to Dean Witter and by then the third check had cleared. It was for the amount of $33,000 and the phone number on the check was the same pager number that Dawn Godman (Shirley Robinson) had.
Murray spoke with Greg Matthias at Dean Witter about Taylor Helzer. Then he spoke with George Calhoun. Murray began checking all the money that both Taylor Helzer and Justin Helzer owed various agencies. He learned that Taylor owed his mother $16,338. Justin owed large amounts to various places, such as $5,200 to Citibank, $5,000 to Metro 1, $7,600 to Household Finance and $2,400 to People’s Bank. There seemed to be a financial incentive for murder, as well as some religious angle.
One interesting thing that popped up was a $185 charge to a place called Wet Pleasure in Napa. Murray surmised that Justin might have paid this amount to go “jet skiing” on Lake Berryessa as early as July 2, 2000. Later evidence indicated that Taylor, Dawn and Selina did, in fact, spend time there.
Strange names kept popping up on bills. There was Shirley and Emil Robinson for Pacific Gas and Electric and Concord Disposal Services. Dave and Sherry Birnauf showed up on Contra Costa Water District bills for the Saddlewood residence. Murray guessed that Justin and Dawn were using these false names to get services.
Robert Brady, of the CPD, analyzed the illegal drugs seized from the Saddlewood residence. From the twenty-six packages of pills (ecstasy) found, he concluded that each pill was worth from $15 to $20 dollars if sold at a rave.
Senior Inspector Ted Spyrow went for a more intensive and thoroughgoing interview with Keri Furman in September 2000. This interview took place in Carmine Carlucci’s office in Las Vegas. Detectives Warnock and Oppit were also there. The detectives all wore plain clothes, and they brought along a series of photographs, documents and letters.
During the interview, Keri told them several new things about Taylor. She said, “He was going to find a married couple. [I] would have sex with the married man. Then Taylor would blackmail him.”
They asked her about Taylor’s fascination with numbers and their meaning in prophecy. She said, “His whole idea was having three core people. Justin was one. He wanted me to be another. He was testing my value of trust. Because I didn’t handle it the way he wanted, he didn’t trust me at all.
“He always wanted to see if I’d freak out. I was freaking out. He was afraid I’d turn on him. Like I’ve turned on him now.”
Asked about the date rape drug Rohypnol, she said she was living in southern California at the time, away from Taylor. He came down for a visit and they both went to Tijuana and purchased the drug. Senior Inspector Spyrow brought up the plan about getting young women from Mexico to turn into prostitutes. She corrected him and said Taylor wanted them to come from Brazil.
About the Feline Club, she said, “Olivia and I were supposed to help with the operation of the club.”
Asked about Taylor’s dominance over other people, Keri said, “Taylor had an overpowering power of love. You felt the intensity in your bones. He said that God told him to go on disability. And to sell ecstasy. I was very confused about the teachings of Taylor. We were always butting heads. From day one, it was like that. He felt no guilt about anything he did. He could do no wrong.”
When Senior Inspector Spyrow got back to the Bay Area, he looked at a map of the Delta region. At this point, the detectives had no idea where the Children of Thunder had launched their personal watercraft. Spyrow noticed that an area around Korth’s Pirate’s Lair was circled in ink on a map found at Saddlewood. He decided to go investigate and talked with owner Kip Korth.
Kip Korth owned a little bit of paradise on the Delta. Known as Korth’s Pirate’s Lair, it included a marina, tree-shaded mobile-home park, restaurant and launching facility. The place had been owned by the Korth family since the 1930s. Subsequent investigations proved that the Children of Thunder had indeed launched from the ramp there. There was a notation on a log-in sheet about a white Nissan pickup that launched a personal watercraft, along with the pickup’s license plate number.
Like a giant circular puzzle, the leads, which had started with a duffel bag being found on the North Fork of the Mokelumne River in the Delta, were returning to close the gap on what had occurred during the Days of Thunder.