ON January 2, 2011, Grant Hayes wrote to an old carousing buddy asking him to remove any photos of him from his Facebook page. “I still got a long way to go with this court shit and I know Laura’s spinning everything.”
The next afternoon at three thirty, Laura Ackerson wrote to request to speak to her boys, and said that she’d been trying to reach them since noon. Two and a half hours later, Grant responded and Laura asked if she could have a video chat with them. After nine that night, Grant wrote back, complaining about her desire to talk to the kids, even though daily conversations with their mother were ordered with the court. “We don’t bother you when you have the boys. . . . I’d rather not infringe on their time with you. . . . It is good to miss and be missed.” He went on to claim that the boys didn’t want to talk on the phone and that he would not force them to do so. He ranted on for a bit, accusing her of playing head games with little Grant and claiming that she encouraged the boy to “antagonize Daddy.”
Laura fired back, “Wow, Grant. I guess I will never stop being simply in shock about how far you stretch the truth. . . . I’m not going to stop calling Grant IV or Gentle.”
Grant listed more of his hostile perceptions of her. He alleged that her reckless behavior had made Gentle sick. He accused her of needing a scapegoat to have someone to fight with and blame for all the problems in her life. He ended with a mocking prayer to the universe to send Laura “a sweet, handsome, Christian man.”
Laura went on the defense about allowing the boys to play in the snow and blaming him for their son’s illness. “You criticize me constantly, taking a GRAIN of truth and building a pearl of crap around it. . . . I have put up with your need to degrade and manipulate people to feel better about yourself for several years against my better judgment.” She wrapped up her message with a request that he help out financially with health insurance for the children. She reminded him that the judge would view that as a positive contribution to the boys’ welfare.
Grant refused, saying that the insurance cost more than it was worth and all his money was being spent on the custody case, rent, food, toys, clothing and medical bills. “And you want me held in contempt of court for not having more money to pay Calloway? I grew up poor in Kinston and it sucks. My kids will not live that way. This is their only childhood. Grant will be three soon. His whole life has been mommy and daddy fighting. . . . You got some real stuff you need to deal with. You got a raw deal when you were their age and you are trying your damnedest to make sure your kids get one, too. That’s bad karma, Laura. . . . I was weak and let you intimidate me, exploit my guilt and hold my failed marriage over my head. . . . One of my biggest mistakes was not showing your hateful, twisted, childish spirit to the door sooner.” He went on to shred Laura’s character to bits with allegations of promiscuous and crude behavior.
Laura’s response to his lengthy tirade was brief and to the point: “I am literally LAUGHING right now. Thanks! I’m done, Grant, DNR [Do Not Resuscitate].”
But when Grant questioned what she wrote and accused her of creating drama, Laura wrote again asking if he believed his own lies and begged him to stop spreading them. She ended with: “Grant, I’ve spent too long in conversations like this. Go talk to your wife.”
Grant wouldn’t let it go. He poked at her with every stick he could find. Despite Laura’s expressed desire to terminate the conversation, she kept responding like a cornered animal.
The acrimonious exchange finally came to an end when Laura wrote that his messages and attitudes were proof of why a psychological evaluation was necessary and urged him to turn in the required paperwork. “E-mail me about our boys, not our case, not our past, not your conquests. Bye.”
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ON February 12, 2011, Grant was still trying to repair his online image. He wrote to musician Frankie Goodrich via Facebook, pleading for his help to get rid of any images that showed him under the influence or engaged in any illegal or questionable activity that the courts might view as unacceptable or inappropriate. He said that he had serious problems with the custody case and the IRS was on his back for his 2009 earnings.
Five days later, another friend complimented him for the photo of his family on Facebook saying that his kids were beautiful but “this clearly isn’t the wife we met, right?”
Grant responded to her, referring to Laura as a “hanger on” and said he met Amanda in St. John. He complained again about the custody battle: “We been in court for a year, it’s hard on everybody. She’s just gold diggin’ and thinks these kids are her ticket.”
On February 7, 2011, at Grant’s urging, Sha moved out of her mother’s apartment and into another unit at the opposite end of the complex.
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A few days later, Heidi Schumacher brought Laura and Oksana Samarsky together at Reader’s Corner on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. Heidi thought Oksana was a fantastic artist and Laura was a marketing whiz. “I thought they would hit it off and they could help each other,” Heidi said.
Laura brought the boys with her, and as the women talked, Gentle and Grant crawled all over her. Oksana thought the bubbly mother made a good first impression. As Heidi predicted, the two became very quick friends. Oksana felt a bit like Laura’s side project but was grateful for the other woman’s belief in her talent and willingness to help her succeed. They e-mailed and phoned for the most part—occasional face-to-face meetings did happen, but only when the two women could juggle often conflicting schedules of school and work demands and within the confines of Laura’s first priority, her boys.
The casual and flexible relationship worked well for both women until everything went horribly wrong.