ON the morning of Wednesday, July 20, 2011, Grant and Amanda Hayes were packing up to leave Texas. Amanda drove her nephew Shelton’s truck with its magnetic sign bearing the name “Critter Catchers” in big arched lettering and a message below that read: “Wildlife Control. Feral Hog Removal.” She went first to an ATM at Waterside Market and made another withdrawal of cash, then shopped at Wal-Mart.
On the way back, she went to the cul-de-sac at the end of Skinner Lane. There she got out and lowered the tailgate on Shelton’s truck. She hauled out the boxes that held the muriatic acid that Grant had purchased the day before and set them one by one next to a cluster of trees. Then she drove away.
While she was gone, Grant started cleaning the four coolers they’d brought with them. Dalton pitched in and helped. Dalton thought they looked brand-new except for one black mark on the inside of one of them. While they worked, Dalton overheard Grant tell someone on the other end of his phone, “I don’t need an alibi. I was with my family.” Grant left two of the coolers behind since they weren’t bringing the U-Haul back and didn’t have room for them in the car. That wasn’t all they discarded. One of Amanda’s old suitcases was dumped in a trash bin, and Grant told Shelton, “I’m leaving the machete. I don’t need it. I was going to use it fishing or alligator hunting.” He added that he had to get back, since he wasn’t supposed to bring the kids across state lines.
Meanwhile, Karen had pulled Amanda aside to talk to her sister privately. She sat Amanda down next to her just like she used to do when Amanda was a child. She looked her straight in the eye. “I’m going to ask you this one time and one time only and I want the truth and I’ll never ask you any questions again. Are you covering for Grant?”
Amanda raised her head and looked straight in Karen’s eyes. She nodded her head up and down.
Grant and Amanda packed up their family, returned the trailer and traveled east back to North Carolina. After they left, Dalton spotted the machete lying on rocks beside the driveway. Karen told him to leave it alone. She used a rag to pick it up and stow it in the garage, along with the rags Grant had used to clean out the coolers.
Karen felt an immense sense of relief with the departure of her little sister and her family. Despite all she had heard, she still wasn’t able to accept that it was all true. Then her children, responding to their mother’s concerns, researched on the computer and fed her information from news stories about Laura’s disappearance. With that knowledge, Karen’s denial began to erode. Now, she was scared. Every time the phone rang, she was terrified that she was about to hear that Amanda and the children had been found dead on the side of a road somewhere.
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THAT same Wednesday morning back in Raleigh, North Carolina, Detective Mark Quagliarello knocked on the door of Sha Elmer’s apartment. He heard a dog barking but no other response. He knocked again, waited and turned to walk away. Finally, the door opened and Sha asked what he wanted.
After he introduced himself, Sha said, “Are my mother and the kids all right?”
“I’m here looking for a missing person, Laura Ackerson,” Detective Quagilarello said. “I’m trying to get information about her, Grant and Amanda Hayes.” He asked for her assistance locating her mother and Grant and requested that she come to the police station with him. Sha agreed, and she called her boyfriend, Matt Guddat, from the back of the detective’s car.
After answering their questions, Sha accompanied Quagliarello to Grant and Amanda’s apartment for the execution of the official search warrant. Detective Latour brought the paperwork. He noticed that, aside from a large bleach stain to the inside right of the door, the place was neat, but the potted plants appeared to be dying from a lack of water.
Detective Previtali assigned personnel to different rooms. Quagliarello searched the boys’ bedroom but found nothing of evidentiary value.
Detective Salmon, after finishing the survey of the area where Laura’s car was found, joined the team at the Hayeses’ apartment. She noted that the large bleach spot on the carpet next to the tile of the front entrance began two feet from the front door and continued for three or four feet along the wall, extending out from it one and a half to two feet.
Senior Agent Shannon Quick with the Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification photographed the entire apartment. In Grant and Amanda’s bedroom, all the bedding had been stuffed into a closet except for the mattress cover, which was still in place on the bed with two reddish brown spots on its surface.
Salmon searched the area labeled as the master bedroom and connecting bath on the floor plan. It was not being used for its intended purpose; instead, it seemed more of a general storage area. The space was filled with a changing table, office furniture, electronics and materials, musical instruments and art supplies.
In a briefcase, she found a receipt from the Apple Store in Crabtree Valley Mall, stamped at 8:45 P.M. on the day after Laura was last seen, for the purchase of a MagSafe power adapter for $79—a total of $84.33 including tax, paid in cash. When they later obtained the shop’s video, it showed Grant, accompanied by little Grant and Gentle, making that purchase.
Then Salmon went to the kitchen area to review a handwritten document with writing from two separate individuals, discovered by Detective Previtali in a stack of miscellaneous papers on the counter. One of the people contributing to the note was later confirmed to be Laura Ackerson. It read:
“I, Laura J. Ackerson, for the sum of $25,000 agree not to pursue custody of the two minor children, Grant and Gentle Hayes. I am not surrendering parental rights but I do consent to leaving them in the sole custody of their father for now. Further, I agree to drop all pending litigation against their father in the Lenoir County Family Court.”
A different hand penned an added statement:
“By notifying counsel John Sargeant of our arrangements, less monetary considerations, I understand I’ll be able to see my kids when I want at the discretion of their father.”
The paper was initially dated “6/13/11.” The six was marked through and a seven added in its place. The initials “LA” were next to the revision. It ended with the signature “Laura Ackerson.”
Sergeant Brian Hall aided in the search, too. He noted that the foyer was relatively clean, the only anomaly being the bleachlike stain on the carpet bordering the linoleum by the entry. He found the hall bathroom remarkably clean—practically sterile—with a distinctive odor of cleaning solution in the air. There was no shower curtain or rod and no floor mats.
After Sergeant Hall finished up in there, Agent Quick entered the room wearing orange goggles and carrying a mini BlueMax alternative light source. She was looking for telltale indications of blood but found none. However, the presence of soap and shampoo on the rim of the tub told her that, despite the immaculate state of the room, it had been used as a functioning bath.
After leaving the apartment itself, Sergeant Hall researched the situation with the apartment Dumpsters and learned that the most recent pickup had been on July 15 and the next one wasn’t scheduled until the twenty-ninth. He drove out to the trash center and asked the employees if they’d noticed anything unusual. They said that they looked for hazardous materials or currency when the refuse was dumped and felt certain that they would have noticed a body or a lot of blood by the smell if not by the sight of it. They provided him with the video that showed a couple of employees working the load when it came in that day. Hall also found out about a discouraging fact: with forty to forty-five trucks coming in each day, the trash from that apartment would now be underneath ten feet of newer trash.
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ACROSS town, Matt Guddat was very concerned about his girlfriend being hauled off by law enforcement. He called Sha’s mother and left a message asking her to call as soon as possible. Amanda sent a text with her sister’s phone number. Matt called Karen Berry’s cell and Amanda picked right up. “Sha has been picked up by the police.”
“Huh,” Amanda said. “That’s strange.”
Matt asked, “What do I need to do for her?”
“Well, we’re getting ready to leave Texas. We’ll be back soon.”
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DETECTIVE Latour drove back to Kinston to get the files on the missing persons case from Detective Gwartney. While he was there, he went by Laura’s apartment in the renovated old warehouse building. He secured Laura’s BB&T checkbook, hair from her hairbrush and a tape from the video camera in the complex showing Laura leaving on the morning of July 13. Latour then went to Star Day Care Center, where Patsy Hayes, Grant’s mother, worked, and interviewed her before returning to Raleigh at 7:15 on the evening of July 20.
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THAT day, Grant Hayes, while en route from Texas to North Carolina, had a conversation with Lauren Harris and continued the lies about his location. He told her that his boys were with him in Kinston and they were going to a candlelight vigil for their mother at a church there.
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THE police brought Sha back to the station and Matt picked her up. The next time they wanted Sha to come in to talk, she was very uncomfortable. Matt offered to go with her for moral support and he ended up being questioned, too.
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THE media caught the scent of a hot, developing story. ABC News interviewed Patsy Hayes about her missing daughter-in-law. Speaking of her grandsons, she said, “They get over things a lot faster and they could probably not be affected by things as much as adults are. You know, because they are small and they’re very resilient so they probably figure they’re just staying with Dad now.”