Laura Rogers visited her sister throughout 2006 whenever she could. Because she knew Jocelyn was not the most diligent housekeeper, she pitched in to get things under control every visit. She’d finish up Jocelyn’s laundry, load her dishwasher, and put away dishes in the cabinet. Laura was certain that without the straightening up that she and Jennifer Kerns did when they were there, Jocelyn would have just lived out of a laundry basket or piled her clothes on top of her dresser.
Laura noticed that one thing had changed since her sister separated from her husband, however. Now, Jocelyn was diligent about reminding her to lock the doors.
• • •
When the 2006–07 school year began, Wesley Earnest had sought and achieved his goal of a more prestigious position at another facility, Great Bridge High School, also located in Chesapeake. He and Shameka Wright were still together, taking turns driving to each other’s homes every weekend when they weren’t off vacationing or skydiving.
Wesley also sent another letter to Jocelyn. “I’m so very sorry for the turmoil in our lives over the last few years.” He claimed that his mother called his younger brother, Tyler, “an agent of the devil.”
He also resurrected his false claim that Jocelyn had told him to sleep with someone else in order to fix their marriage, but still audaciously claimed that the best thing he’d ever done was marry her. “I want to grow old with you . . . I am a broken man, ready to get my life back, and I need you.”
• • •
On November 8, 2006, Jocelyn returned home from work to discover that her home had been invaded. The whole house was cold. Not only had the thermostat been turned off, but the pipe to the gas logs in the fireplace and the water pipes to the heater in the pool had been cut.
A lot of property had been removed from the home: a bike, a camera, a shotgun, financial paperwork, a coin barrel with a thousand dollars in change, a safe, a computer, fishing gear—including one rod that belonged to Jennifer’s daughter Emily—and some of her clothing.
The greater sense of loss was caused by items of sentimental value, like the pictures, furniture, and gifts that Jocelyn had received from her grandmother; the moose memorabilia decorating the downstairs bathroom—given to her by Jennifer; an inuksuk, a stone figure built by the Inuit of Arctic Canada that Jocelyn had brought home from a trip to the cabin; her diplomas; and three of her personal journals.
Jocelyn immediately suspected that Wesley was behind this violation, and she was most concerned about him having those journals in his possession, because they gave him access to the information the private investigator had provided Jocelyn, and revealed her preparations for the dissolution of the marriage and the personal thoughts she’d shared with her therapist. Jocelyn was convinced that Wesley thought she was too stupid, too dense, or too naïve to take any actions to protect her best interests. Now that he would know otherwise, Jocelyn became extremely frightened of her estranged husband.
Through lawyers, Wesley claimed he had not been there, but said that he had hired movers to remove his belongings. It was hard to believe, however, that professional movers would have entered her home, taken items of sentimental value, and committed acts of vandalism.
Jocelyn tried everything to get her possessions back from Wesley. She tried anger, niceness, pleading—but nothing worked.
• • •
After this invasion, Jocelyn did a drive-by of her house looking for anything suspicious whenever she returned home at night. On the advice of her therapist she packed “go” bags, each with a change of clothing, copies of any important papers, and money. She kept one in her car, another at the office, one at Jennifer’s, and a fourth at her mom’s house.
Jocelyn thought only one solution remained: she had to go to the lake house and get her things back from Wesley before the divorce hearing, where she anticipated that the judge would rule that Wesley could not enter her Pine Bluff home, and Jocelyn could not go into his lake house.
On December 4, 2006, the day before the hearing was scheduled, Jocelyn called Jennifer from work. “Would you go with me to the lake to get my belongings? After tomorrow, I won’t be able to go in there.”
Jennifer agreed. On the drive out, Jocelyn stopped at Penske’s. “I want to rent a moving truck,” she said.
“When?” the man behind the counter asked.
“Now,” Jocelyn said.
“This is the only one I have right now,” he said, pointing to a huge truck on the lot.
Jocelyn took it, and the two women drove out to reclaim Jocelyn’s property, hoping that Wesley would not be there when they arrived. He wasn’t. They searched all over the property, except inside the garage and an outbuilding, both of which were locked and Jocelyn did not want to break inside. Stymied in her quest for her own property, she decided to take some of Wesley’s belongings as bargaining chips. They loaded the truck with a large-screen TV, a DVD player, a large wooden trunk, a quiltlike bedcover, a light tan sectional sofa and matching love seat and recliner, a new twin mattress, random tools, a toolbox, a leather tool belt, cleaning supplies, lightbulbs, cans of spray foam insulation, a glass coffee table, two small cutting boards, a small rug, silk plants and ficus trees, documents, and the leftover tile from the installation at the house.
After three hours, just around dusk, they drove away from the lake and unloaded the truck at Jennifer’s house for safekeeping. Jocelyn hoped Wesley wouldn’t know what she had done until after the court hearing the next day.