EIGHT

The Girl in the Jeep

As the unknown man hurtled toward them, Sarah just barely managed to slip by him and run to her own room as Kody turned to run out the front door. She slammed her bedroom door and scrambled to find her cell phone.

“He was trying to grab both of us, but [it seemed like] he kind of wanted to do one person at a time. I got by him and ran to my bedroom,” Sarah later recounted. It had all happened so quickly, her recollections would be just a jumble of images.

Before she could dial 911, the assailant burst into her room and grabbed her. He had a large knife with him, and in the struggle he cut her finger. Sarah was sure he would now raise the knife and stab her to death. Instead, he sliced through the electrical wiring of a fan in the room and bound her hands together with the cord. Then he told her he would kill her if she cried out.

Sarah remembered, “He was really angry. His voice was like a yell almost. He was telling me what to do. It was like when someone yells at you, and it’s a command.”

The man found some material to gag her with, and threw her across his shoulder. He was strong, and he carried her down into the basement, where he found an old sled. He cut off the rope that was attached to the sled and bound her legs together. He also put a pillowcase over her head, then hauled her back upstairs and deposited her on the kitchen floor. Before he put her down, the pillowcase fell off her head.

Sarah could not see what he was doing, because of the position she was in, but she could hear him rummaging around for something under the kitchen sink. He seemed to find whatever he wanted, and left the room.

Sarah remembered, “In the kitchen I could see groceries on the floor. It was really weird, because Mom didn’t do things that way.” Tina kept a clean house, and the kitchen was now in a state of disarray.

A hundred thoughts raced through Sarah’s mind as she lay on the kitchen floor. What had happened to Kody? What had happened to her mom? And was this man going to kill her?

After a while he came back into the kitchen and rummaged around again. She could hear water running in the bathroom tub, and every once in a while she could hear the toilet being flushed. The noises from the bathroom seemed to go on and on.

Sarah could see the daylight starting to fade outside the house. The man turned on lights in various rooms and continued doing something in the bathroom. He was in there a long time, and occasionally she could hear what sounded like banging noises.

Sarah recalled later, “When he was in the bathroom, he kept coming out, and he was usually out of breath. He kept opening the fridge. And he kept opening a little cabinet near the sink where cleaning supplies were kept. He got something out of it, and I think he went to the living room. But I didn’t know what he was doing. Then he went back to the bathroom, and I’d hear him turn the water on and off and flush the toilet. I didn’t know what he was doing, but he did it for a long time.”

Her dog should have been barking, but it wasn’t. What had he done with the dog? Sarah wondered. Had he let it out of the house, or had he killed it?

Sarah’s shock was beginning to make way for survival mode. She began to wonder what she had to do to stay alive. Should she try and talk to this man? Should she just stay silent? None of these questions seemed to have an obvious answer. She would have to play it by ear, see what he had to say and go from there. For a thirteen-year-old girl she was suddenly confronted with some very adult decisions to make.

After what seemed like hours, the man came back into the kitchen. He told her not to struggle or make any noise. If she did, he would kill her. He then blindfolded her, picked her up once again and took her down some stairs. Even though she couldn’t see, she soon realized he had placed her in Stephanie’s Jeep. She was inside the Jeep in the garage, and he had left to do something else. She could feel something in the backseat next to her, but she didn’t know what it was. He came back and put blankets over her, covering her up as best he could.

The man left again but returned a short while later. He climbed behind the wheel of the Jeep and backed out of the garage. By now, it was totally dark outside. Sarah could tell, even through her blindfold, which didn’t cut out all light.

The man drove for a time and then parked. He told her to stay where she was and that he would be watching her. He then shut the Jeep door; and she heard him walk away.

Taking a chance, Sarah wiggled her arms and neck, and the blindfold came down a bit. With a shock she realized she was now sitting in the Jeep at a baseball field she recognized, one where her brother Kody had played ball. They were at the Pipesville Road baseball fields. Sarah could also see that there were a lot of trash bags next to her in the Jeep.

Suddenly the man came running back and growled at her, “I told you I was watching!” He pulled up her blindfold and tightened it. Then he said, “If you do that again, I’ll kill you!”

Sarah didn’t take any more chances. When he left this time, she just sat quietly in the Jeep. Once again she thought about what she needed to do to stay alive. She had no idea if he would take her into the woods somewhere or to a house. Whatever he did, she would have to react to the situation when it came up. Thinking too far ahead wouldn’t do her any good at all, she decided.

He was gone for what seemed like more than an hour. Sarah was beginning to get cold. And she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since lunchtime.

More questions raced through her mind. What was the man doing now? Where would he take her? Once they got there, would he kill her? And most of all, once again: where were her mom and brother?

* * *

As far as Matt Hoffman was concerned, everything had gone to hell as soon as the kids walked into the house and started calling for their mom. In Hoffman’s mind, there was nothing to do at that point but grab them. He’d tried grabbing both of them, but the girl had been too fast, and managed to sprint by him.

The boy was not so lucky. He’d taken perhaps two steps toward the door before Hoffman plunged his knife into the back of the boy’s head. The boy died almost as soon as he hit the floor.

As with the two women, Hoffman was taking no chances. He stabbed the boy two more times to make sure he was dead and then raced toward the room where the girl had gone.

He found her in there, trying to make a phone call. Hoffman snatched the phone out of her hand and raised his knife to stab her. But then—he pulled back. Even later, Hoffman couldn’t express why he did so. He felt a sudden impulse that he didn’t want to kill her.

Instead, he cut a length of electrical cord and tied her wrists together, then told her that if she screamed, he would kill her. He gagged her with some material, slung her over his shoulder and took her to the basement. There, he found some rope and bound her feet. Then he carried her back up to the kitchen and laid her on the floor.

It took several hours for Hoffman to dismember the bodies, put them into garbage bags and pour motor oil on the bloody spots around the home. When he was finally done in the house on King Beach Drive, Hoffman loaded the girl into the Jeep, along with several of the trash bags. He knew what the trash bags contained, but the girl didn’t. She was still securely tied up and blindfolded.

Hoffman drove the Jeep to an empty parking lot at the Pipesville Road baseball fields near Howard. He told the girl not to peek, but she disobeyed him, and he caught her. Telling her that he had someone who would be watching her, Hoffman then left the ball field parking lot and walked to the Gap Trail parking lot where he’d left his Toyota Yaris. This took longer than expected. His plan had gone off track very early on and just kept getting worse, as far as he was concerned.

Hoffman got into his Yaris and drove back to where the Jeep was. Since he’d parked it far back in the lot, no one had come by, and the girl and the trash bags were still there, undisturbed.

Hoffman picked up the girl and deposited her into his Yaris. Once again he told her to behave herself and she wouldn’t get hurt. He started the engine and drove back to his own residence on Columbus Road. He parked the car in a small alley in back and then, after making sure no one was watching, carried the girl into his house.

His luck was holding so far. No one had seen him bring the girl into the house. Once he had her there, he again told her not to make any trouble for him. He told her there would be someone outside the house watching to make sure she didn’t do anything foolish.

* * *

After what had seemed like a very long time to Sarah Maynard, the man finally came back to the Jeep. He roughly picked her up and carried her into another vehicle. Even though she couldn’t see, she knew they were traveling some distance from the ballpark. It was more than just a few minutes to wherever they were going.

Once the man stopped the vehicle, he picked her up once again and carried her into a house, took her into a room and removed her blindfold. Sarah saw that it was a bathroom, but unlike any bathroom she had ever seen. There were dozens of weird drawings on the walls. They were done mostly in black paint upon a white wall, with figures of people and animals all jumbled together. There was a dog, a bird and a smiling man with a yin and yang symbol on his shirt. There was also a truck that appeared to be a vehicle used in tree trimming. But the strangest depiction of all was a large drawing of a middle-aged balding man. Coming directly out of his mouth was the actual bathroom faucet.

All the drawings and writings looked crazy to Sarah. Obviously this man was crazy as well. Just how crazy, she didn’t know. She wondered once again what his plans were now that he had her here. Would he keep her for a while? Would he kill her right here? Or would he take her someplace else in his car?

* * *

Hoffman was far from through for the evening. He had the blond girl in his house, but now he had to go back and get rid of all those trash bags sitting in the Jeep he’d stolen and left at the ballpark. Making sure the girl was safely tied up in the bathroom, with duct tape and rope, Hoffman got back into his Yaris and took his tree-trimming climbing gear with him. He had a spot in mind where he could deposit the trash bags, and if he was lucky, they might never be found.

Hoffman drove to a Walmart near Mount Vernon and bought some blue tarp and large plastic garbage bags. He also bought a turkey sandwich, and on impulse, a Halloween T-shirt because it was on sale for a dollar. There was hardly anyone in the store at that hour, which was around midnight. Hoffman paid for his purchases with cash and walked out to the parking lot. All of it had gone smoothly, and no one had been suspicious about his activities.

Hoffman drove away and at around 12:30 AM, parked his Toyota Yaris at a canoe access parking lot on a river. He started walking toward the Pipesville ball field parking lot where he’d left the Jeep, quite a distance away. Once again, all of this was taking longer than planned. He didn’t get there until around 2:30 AM.

Hoffman started the Jeep and drove to a nature preserve miles away. Once there, he had a very good hiding spot. He was sure no one would ever find where he was about to put all those trash bags. If his luck held, no one was ever going to know exactly what had happened at that home on King Beach Drive. And in one regard he had been lucky: Greg Borders was gone all day and night. After work on November 10, Greg spent the night at a friend’s house, and on November 11, the two went golfing.

For Hoffman, meanwhile, time was moving on. After getting rid of the trash bags, he drove the Jeep back to the house on King Beach Drive and swapped it for the pickup truck that was there. His intention was to get a couple of gas cans, fill them with gasoline and bring them back to the Herrmann house. For some reason, he left the extra trash bags and blue tarp that he’d just bought at Walmart in the garage. This may have been because he intended to come back and burn the whole place down, but that part of his plan did not work out. The pickup truck was having problems and would not stay in gear. It bumped and jerked down the road, and Hoffman didn’t want to be pulled over by some policeman.

Finally, in frustration, Hoffman abandoned the pickup truck in a parking lot near a place called the Brown Family Environmental Center, close to Kenyon College, in the small town of Gambier. From there he started walking once again and did not reach his Toyota Yaris until around dawn.

Instead of going back to burn down the house on King Beach Drive, Hoffman returned home. He was exhausted by now. Hoffman went inside his house and looked in the bathroom. The girl was still tied up and lying on the bathroom floor. It was time to deal with her.