4
Easton detective Barry Golazeski knew that there was a death to be investigated, but that’s about all he knew. He hadn’t been to the scene or received any detailed information from the first responders yet. It had been less than an hour since the girl’s body was found in the car at the canal museum.
Golazeski, an eight-year officer with the department, claimed the rank of second in command of the criminal investigation division. He was also assigned to an FBI violent crime task force, in charge of investigating federal organized crime violations in eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
But today he was at the Easton police station, charged with assisting with interviews regarding the death investigation. The body had been discovered at 12:55, and now it was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. Golazeski had nineteen-year-old Michelle Hetzel, one of the young women who’d discovered the body, in a small interview room off the main area of the criminal detective division. Detective Howell Storm accompanied him. Hetzel looked like she hadn’t slept, but otherwise nothing appeared out of the ordinary about this young, blond-haired woman with long, manicured nails. After a little informal conversation, Gozaleski turned on a tape recorder and began the formal interview.
“Michelle, you understand that you’re not under arrest, correct?” he asked with the tape rolling.
“Correct,” she answered.
Golazeski asked her to start at the beginning, recounting how she had met up with Devon the night before and what had happened after that.
“She called me,” Michelle began. “She was at her dad’s house, and she asked me to come over. And I drove over to her dad’s house. Her aunt Candy was there before I got there, and her dad and her dad’s girlfriend. They were drinking vodka when I walked in. Then Candy left, and then Rick and I and Devon went to the Twenty-fifth Street liquor store to get another bottle of vodka. And we went to the mall and we got some CDs for Rick. I drove. And we went back to Devon’s dad’s house and we drank.”
Michelle said she and Devon left around 9:00 or 9:30 P.M. “And then when I got home, I was feeling pretty sick. I drank a lot, and I passed out on the couch. And my husband had spoken to Devon and told Devon, you know, that I wasn’t feeling well, and her and Keary were not OK at that point in time. So Devon and Keary came to my house approximately twenty minutes after my husband had spoke with them. Keary waited in the car. Devon was in my doorway. My husband didn’t want any fights because Devon and Keary have a past of fistfights. And Devon was drinking, which was really going to antagonize her to fight more. So my husband said if Devon wanted to come back, she could, or Keary, just so they’re not there together.”
“Just one at a time?” Golazeski asked.
“Right.”
Michelle said Devon took Keary home and called to say she was coming over. About a half hour went by and she hadn’t shown up. “I called Keary. I thought Keary was lying to me and Keary didn’t let her leave.”
After waiting an hour and a half, she and Brandon drove to Keary’s, waited awhile, then called 911. “I originally called the cops to see if there was any accidents in the area. And then I asked if I had to wait twenty-four hours or if I could file a report now. And they sent a cop over, two cops. And then after that, me and Keary just sat up and waited. Then I took my husband home, because he had to go to work. So I took my husband home and then came back.”
“About what time did you take your husband home, approximately?” the detective asked.
“Before five.”
After dropping Brandon off, she picked up some food at McDonald’s and returned to the Mineral Springs sometime before 10:00 A.M. She and Keary ate, and then they went looking for Devon. Michelle said she called police from the car to give them her cell phone number in case Devon turned up.
First they drove by Servpro on Ferry Street, where Devon worked. Her car wasn’t there, so they proceeded along Ferry Street to Devon’s mother’s house, but her car wasn’t there, either. Next they checked Rick’s house. After that, they went to a placed she called “the bridge” on Industrial Drive. It was a place Keary and Devon would go to sort out troubles in their relationship, Michelle said. “When they’d fight, that’s where they’d go,” she explained. After that, they continued down Route 611 to a place she, Keary and Devon referred to as “the waterfalls.”
“That’s what we called it, in the park. And we used to sit on the little ledge, a little ledge overlooking things.”
Golazeski asked, “Is this by the canal museum? Is that where you mean, the waterfalls?”
It was. “We saw Devon’s car in the parking lot, and we were both very angry because we figured that she was drunk and passed out. So, you know, we were all geared up to yell at her and have Keary drive her home so we can interrogate her some more.”
At first Keary said no one was in the car. “I walked over. Keary has keys to Devon’s car, opened up the car. Devon was in the backseat and it smelled. And alls I remember Keary saying is ‘Devon’s purple.’ Then I got sick. Keary started crying, and the guy got in his truck and got on the CB and he called the police and the ambulance to come.”
Golazeski asked how it was that Keary hadn’t seen Devon in the car at first.
“I think that she was standing in the front of the car. And I think that she just glanced in the car and she said that nobody was there. And then I said, ‘What do you mean that nobody’s in the car?’ And then I ran over and she opened up the car. And then I remember her saying that she sees blood. And I only looked at the back of Devon’s body, and it was all bloody and I just got sick.”
“When Devon and Keary came to see you last night, OK, and your husband told them to come back one at a time, how long of a time frame were they gone before—before you heard from Devon again? She did call you on the phone?”
“Yeah. It was less than an hour. Less than an hour, I believe.”
“You were sure that she called from Keary’s place?”
“I don’t have caller ID, but, yeah, I guess.”
“But you thought so. And Devon and Keary were having a fight?”
“Yeah. I guess Devon pulled out some of Keary’s hair.”
“Well, they had a relationship,” Golazeski reasoned. “You said they’d also—they had had some sort of physical altercation that night?”
About a week ago, Michelle said, when she and Devon got back from St. Croix, Keary was threatening to kill herself, and Devon went to grab the knife from her and got cut on the hand or thumb. Michelle said she didn’t know if Devon had needed stitches, but she did go to the emergency room.
“OK. But you and Devon used to have a relationship a while back?” the detective asked, trying to keep it all straight.
“Yeah.”
“About how long ago was that?”
Two years ago, Michelle told him.
“Were you two, like, getting together again?”
She said no. “Sometimes when Keary would fight with Devon, I would fight with Brandon. It was never really—like we never slept together like that. That was just basically we hang out together. We’d drink together. We’d basically go to Rick’s like every—at least four times out of the week. That’s basically when Devon gets off of work, that’s all she really wanted to do.”
“But how did Keary view the two of you hanging out four times a week?”
“Um, well, being that Devon—”
“Did she know that you had a relationship with her in the past?” Golazeski pressed.
“Right. Devon would sneak around Keary’s back and she would tell Keary she was just going to her dad’s. And she would tell Keary that I’m not there. And she’d tell Keary that she told me to get out of her life and leave her alone and whatever. And I’m just like, ‘She didn’t say that.’ I mean, Devon—Devon’s the kind of person where she can’t be alone. And when she is, she gets very angry and sometimes—basically, she would never really tell Keary. She would let Keary—Keary would have to find out for herself that I was with Devon ’cause Keary—Keary, you know—I don’t know if Devon was afraid of her or not.”
“Well, how did you feel about Devon?” Golazeski asked. “Did you want to get back together with her?”
“No. My family doesn’t like her, but she was always really good to me and we were always really close. We had a lot in common.”
“You said she was your only friend?”
“Yeah, in high school.”
“Now, how about Keary? Were—you and Keary ever have a relationship?”
Michelle told him they were best friends for four years, until Devon moved back from Arizona, coming between them.
Now that he had some background, it was time to get down to business. “Well, what do you think happened last night?” Golazeski asked. “Do you have any idea? Can you think of anybody who wanted to hurt her?”
“Hurt her?” Michelle echoed.
“Yeah.”
“No, not Devon. No, Devon has ... Devon has a lot of friends. She has a lot of friends. And she’s ... Devon gets along with everybody, really. The only time she kind of gets stupid and out of her mind frame is when she’s drinking, because then, like I said, she does drink a substantial amount of vodka.”
“How about her and Keary when they have these fights?” he asked. “Is it possible that something could get out of hand, I mean, especially if they were both drunk? You said that she got jealous of you hanging out with her?”
“Possibly. I’m not going to say it’s ...” Her voice trailed off.
The detective let it go for the moment.
“When you got to Keary’s house last night, OK, how did the place look?”
“Ransacked.”
“Ransacked?”
“A mess. There were tables turned over. She had newspapers on the floor. There was like a whole bunch of crap on the floor. There was dishes thrown, um, just on the countertops that, you know, like—and the place was a mess. Like you really couldn’t walk without stepping on something, and she said that Devon did that.”
The detective kept silent.
She continued: “She said that Devon turned over the tables and Devon started throwing things. I mean, I don’t know that to be true. I don’t know if Devon really did do that or Keary did that. Because I know Keary’s very—has a temper and so does Devon. They both could have had a part in it, but I don’t know. Keary told me that it was Devon.”
Golazeski switched gears a moment.
“And Keary doesn’t have a car, right?” he asked.
“No. Her dad took it away from her, so she—Devon transports—transports her to and from work.” Michelle said Keary worked as a security guard at a nearby hospital.
The detective resumed the previous line of questioning. “When you were at the house, did you see any blood or anything around the house?”
“No, but I—”
“Just overturned stuff, just looked ransacked?”
“Just looked a mess. It just looked like that they were having a bad fight. And then Keary showed me a clump of her hair, so then obviously something—something had to [have] happened.”
That got the detective’s attention. “That happened last night that her hair was pulled out, that big clump?”
“Right.”
“Is that still at the house?”
“Should be. Unless Keary threw it out. I know she was starting to straighten up things.”
“She was straightening up things while you were there? Was she cleaning up?”
“Right before the cops came, she asked me if we could . . . if we could help pick the stuff up off the floor and—”
“Before you filed the missing person’s report?”
“No, after we did.”
“After you did?”
“Yeah, we ran around the house and we put the stuff on the tables, because it was a pigsty. So we just ... I mean, it really ... It was still a mess when the police got there, but, I mean, at least they could step.”
Golazeski explored a possible scenario. “From where Keary lives to the canal, how long of a walk would that be approximately? Is it a long distance?” he asked.
“May take her half an hour, forty-five minutes,” Michelle replied.
“How much time from when you last spoke to Devon until you went up and actually met up with—”
“Keary?” Michelle offered.
“Yeah, with Keary. About how much time had passed?” Michelle said about an hour or an hour and a half went by, but she’d been talking with Keary every twenty minutes or so.
“From when Devon called and said, you know, I’m coming to your house, you didn’t see her for like a half hour, right? And then when you called back, you get Keary, and what does Keary say?”
“Well, I was hysterical, Keary’s hysterical, and I just said, you know—I said, ‘Keary, if she’s there, just tell me.’ And Keary said she’s not there. I said, ‘You’re lying.’ She was like, ‘No, I’m not.’ She goes, ‘Come here and see for yourself.’”
The detective sprung a direct question: “When was the last time you and Devon were intimate?”
“It was—you mean like sex?”
“Yeah.”
Now it was on the table, the unspoken issue. Michelle seemed taken aback. She waffled, coming short of any kind of outright admission.
“A long time ago,” she said. “I mean, I hugged her and kissed her, but we ... Her and Keary did that thing. Um, I—”
Golazeski eased off. “Well, the reason I’m asking is Keary, it appears to me, that she was very jealous of you, OK?”
“Right. I mean, well, Keary is very jealous of a lot of people.”
“OK. Well—”
“I knew her long enough never to take it personally.”
“You and ... but you and Devon were close, so—”
Michelle agreed that they were close, but said Devon always called when Keary wasn’t around, or when she was in the shower or at work.
“How was Devon?” Golazeski asked, digging further into Michelle’s relations with Devon. “Did she want you to get back together, if she was having trouble with Keary?”
“Devon was a very confused person,” she said, adding that she had trouble choosing among various boyfriends. “And you know, with me, with Keary, she was like very confused. She didn’t know which way to go, which person to stay with. She always felt really bad for Keary, because she would pay Keary’s rent and bills, and like Devon ... and Devon was very, very confused, yes. She just had a lot going on.”
At the conclusion of the interview, Golazeski asked, “Do you have anything else that you would like to add at this time?”
“I guess I just want to know what happened,” Michelle said.
“All right. That’s what we’re here to find out,” Golazeski said. He turned the tape recorder off at 3:22 P.M.
Michelle said later that she was asked if she wanted to get back to the canal museum to get her car, since she’d come to the station in a police vehicle. She said she declined the offer, asking instead to be taken to her mother’s house.