More Pieces of the Puzzle Come to Light

After Chet told me about mom’s passing I spent the rest of the afternoon at home.  I spoke with some close family members but mostly just spent some time with Jackie.  Spent a lot of time looking at pictures of mom and trying to comprehend what had just happened.  I second guessed every single decision I made over the past few months, many that were discussed in Post 1.  I was feeling guilty for some of the angry texts I sent mom.  I second guessed if she had even seen them or questioned if I was pushing her away and I was the reason she wouldn’t respond.  But I knew how excited she was about Jackie and I’s upcoming wedding and knew there was no way she would do that. 

Another quick context item for those readers who may not know my family.  Chet and Julie both were married and divorced previously to meeting each other.  Thus, our family of six children growing up was a mix of three kids from Chet’s first marriage and three kids from Julie’s first.  My sister Kayla, brother Nicholas and I and my sister Shaniya, along with another brother and sister who I believe would most likely wish to remain unnamed in a public forum such as this.  I have had no significant contact with the two step-siblings that I will not name for over 12 years; they have also had no contact with Chet either for well over 16 years.  I will not delve into our family dynamics in these posts but this comes into play here on the date of mom’s passing.  My youngest sister, Shaniya, and I have had more interaction in recent years.  She also had forged somewhat of a relationship again with Chet after she graduated high school.  I do not know how “close” they were but she had made some trips down to Arkansas to see Chet and mom and they had kept in contact.  Anyways, the reason for this context is this.  The evening of my mom’s passing I received a message from Shaniya.  She said “I know this is not the best time, but I really need you to call me.  There is something that you need to know.” I called Shaniya and we talked about how tough the day was.  She was very sympathetic, but also told me that she needed to tell me something about Chet.  She told me that some things are really not adding up about how he was acting compared to how they had been talking lately.  She informed me that Chet had been reaching out to her via Instagram under a Blue_buzzard_racing profile.  This is a blank profile with no posts/pictures but is tied to Chet Johnson.  He races dirt track cars and maintains a facebook profile named 8Ball/Blue Buzzard Racing.  Shaniya told me that Chet had been telling her that he left Julie and they are separated.  He told Shaniya that he was now living with his new girlfriend a few miles away from his house with Julie in the same town.  Shaniya asked him about Jackie and I’s wedding, if Chet was going with his new girlfriend or with Julie?  He openly told Shaniya that he was going with Julie and that no one knows that he has a new girlfriend and he is living with her not Julie.  He even told Shaniya that he was not telling anyone before our wedding under the guise that it just wouldn’t be fair to jackie and I. He then even emailed her his new address and information about his new girlfriend.  I was angry and confused.  I took my anger out on Shaniya and made some very inappropriate comments to her and at her.  She did not deserve that and I did apologize to her after the fact a few days later.  I know she was just trying to do the right thing and help us piece together what happened.  Shaniya provided me with screenshots of the Instagram conversation and emails between her and Chet.  I questioned the validity of the Instagram posts at first because I did not know that he had an Instagram account and it had absolutely zero posts, so why would he be using this as a means to carry a conversation?  However, the email was at the time undisputable.  The email screenshot and forward that she sent me originated from Chet’s well known email account he had been using for years.  This was the first instance where I now had valid undisputable evidence of what I had been questioning the past few months.  Not all was well between my Mother and Chet. 

A million things began firing through my brain and memory.  I instantly began understanding all the things I questioned in Post 1 began to make sense.  What did not make sense is why they couldn’t just be open and honest about the fact that they were on the outs or completely separating?  What did make sense is the fact that Chet on many occasions refused to let me talk to mom when he claimed to be home.  All I could do is question the many occasions I spoke to him on the phone and asked hey can I talk to mom?  His response of oh she is sleeping or is not feeling well enraged me to think he outright lied to me and he wasn’t even home or living with her. 

Shaniya and I spoke again and I thanked her for the screenshots.  I asked her specifically to not tell anyone that I now know this new information. Shaniya also expressed concern that something wasn’t adding up with the way Chet informed her of Julie’s death.  She said she didn’t want to tell me about the conversations between her and Chet but wanted me to have them in case there is anything suspicious.  This certainly got my wheels spinning in my brain.  I reached out to the Hot Springs Police Department and asked that the detective or responding officer contact me directly. 

That night a Detective did call me back.  He was not on the scene when the report of mom’s death came in and the responding officer was off duty.  He referred me to the Garland County Coroner who would be completing the report due to it being an unattended death.  The next day the deputy Coroner reached out to me.  I asked that any information concerning my mothers death be relayed to me as her oldest son.  He informed me that her husband was at the home when he arrived there for his investigation and Chet is listed as the primary next of kin.  It was then that I informed the Coroner that it is my belief that Chet is not being 100% honest with certain people and very well could be providing misleading information to law enforcement.  The Coroner informed me that it is not his job to investigate criminal acts per se, but to investigate the circumstances around the cause of death.  However, Chet did repeatedly tell him that she was “very sick” and “refused to go to the hospital because she didn’t want to die in a hospital”.  The coroner was polite and understanding.  He informed me that it appeared to be a death by natural causes but he would be investigating her medical history and medications found in her home.  He told me that I should be speaking with the police department if I have concerns about anything suspicious and I would be able to get a copy of his detailed report once it is complete.  I specifically asked him if I would be able to get any toxicology reports and he said that would need to wait until his investigation is complete and if there was an autopsy or not. 

What struck me as most concerning is that he told me that he understands my concern but this sounds like an internal family matter not a matter for the police.  He told me that nothing in his preliminary investigation looks suspicious but the condition of Julie’s body at the time of discover was concerning.  I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that but would soon find out. 

I want to warn readers know that certain portions of this post will get a little graphic and detailed.  I want to be up front with you on this because I am not writing this way for shock value.  I want everyone to understand there are very serious reasons for the concerns and suspicions my family and I have.  I am going to provide you with the information and visuals we endured and how these affected us. H they went against information fed to us and authorities by Chet. 

My sister Kayla and I spoke on multiple occasions in the days after mom’s passing.  We spoke in detail about the information that we had been provided by Shaniya and the inconsistencies coming out of Chet.  We made a mutual decision that we would not let anyone know other than our significant others about Chet leaving mom and living with a new girlfriend.  Most important to us at this time was to ensure that we are able to memorialize mom appropriately.  We did not want her funeral service to turn into a hostile environment with infighting against Chet.  I told Kayla that we can address certain things after mom’s funeral and that I wanted to see how things play out with Chet while we are there in person.  We both agreed that we did not want to question or confront him over the phone.  We needed to do this in person to see his physical and immediate reaction. 

Through talking to family members over the next few days, we began to realize inconsistencies in version of mom’s last days as told by Chet.   For instance when I questioned him about why I did not get a call until after noon that she had passed, but then he specifically said that she passed “sometime last night” how did he not notice until around lunch time?  He said that he had been sleeping on the couch because mom was struggling with incontinence.  So I asked him if she was that ill, did you check on her often did you check on her that morning?  He told me that he talked to her that morning.  I found out that he told another family member that he was gone at the race track till late Sunday night, then mom was sleeping when he left for work Monday (she passed on a Monday) so he didn’t want to bother her he just left.  When he came back he noticed her color had changed so he checked closer on her.  He told a third family member that the last time he saw her was before church on Sunday, he checked on her and told her he was going to church.  Now I fully understand that in traumatic events things blur together often and stories may not 100% match from person to person.  Jackie and I watch way too many true crime shows for this not to draw attention to us though.  We were already suspicious about Chet’s involvement in moms death but things were increasing our suspicion.  I told Chet that Kayla and I are extremely concerned about her rapid and unexpected decline in health leading to an untimely death.  I asked him if there was going to be an autopsy.  He adamantly told me “your mother never wanted that she specifically told me she would never want one and that she wants to be cremated”.  I told him that I understand that may have been discussed (although I find It slightly odd she would say that knowing mom) but Kayla and I think it may be necessary.  He agreed that the he would not allow the funeral home to complete the cremation until after all us children and family arrived and got to see mom.  Knowing that mom would not be cremated prior to Kayla and I getting to talk to the funeral home and coroner, I decided to drop that discussion for the time being. 

When Jackie and I arrived in Hot Springs I told her that I wanted to go by mom and Chet’s house.  I didn’t want to, but I felt like I had to.  Chet told me that he had a close friend come over and do some cleaning up of the house after the coroner was there.  We pulled up and greeted the two dogs that mom and Chet have.  This was another time where I was hit smack in the face with disgust.  Partly because Jackie and I spoil the ever loving shit out of our two pups, and partly because it was another piece of evidence that Chet was likely not living in that home. Not only was he likely not living there, he likely abandoned his moral/ethical obligation to care for mom and the dogs.  Chet’s dog, Duke, was a Weimaraner cross that was always a heavier dog.  I too have a Weimaraner that stayed at my parent’s house for a few months when I was away at training.  My dog was extremely slender at that time like most weimaraners.  Duke, on the other hand was an absolute tank. Thick shoulders and hips with many extra pounds on his frame.  He was a beast of a dog.  Was being the key word here.  When Jackie and I arrived Duke came running over wanting attention and we instantly noticed that he had lost almost all of his extra weight.  He looked like a malnourished animal.  We went into the back yard and there was no clean water for the dogs.  There was a large cooler with a small amount of water in it, but the water was green with algae.  Hot Springs, Arkansas can be miserably hot and humid in July and August.  Jackie and I cleaned the water cooler and fed the hungry puppers.  Now we fully understand not everyone has indoor dogs and all, but these dogs were clearly not being appropriately cared for. 

Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of what we would discover at the home.  As we went inside the house, the moment we opened the door we were hit with a smell I will never forget.  It was a putrid smell of human waste and death.  I walked around the kitchen and living room for a little while, remembering all of the good memories of when mom was there.  She spent countless hours in the kitchen.  The first thing I noticed is that her phone was sitting on the kitchen counter.  It was dead so I found a charger and plugged it in.  It was not broken but fully functioning.  Next to her phone I found a hallmark card that mom had written recently.  I could tell it was written within weeks of her death.  My mother always had immaculate cursive hand writing.  It was truly impressive.  The writing in this card was nothing like hers.  It reminded me of my great grandmothers hand writing in her later years of life.  It looked as though she was weak, unable to completely press the pen down on the paper.  It also was nearly unreadable in some places because you can tell there was shaking in her hands that she could not control.  The precise creative curves of her hand writing were now choppy and scattered.  It literally made my heart sink to think of what it must have looked like as she clearly struggled to do something as simple as write on a card.  Equally as disturbing as all of this was the content of the card.  I will not quote her directly, but it was written to Chet, written to a husband from a pleading wife.  It was clear again that Chet was absent from the relationship.  It was obvious that they had not parted ways mutually but looked more like Chet left her or even I would say abandoned her.  He left her alone in the house and was rarely or never there.  Portions of the card mentioned things like “please come home” and “I will fight for our marriage.”  I had even more proof that Chet had indeed left to live with another woman.  Along with the previously mentioned screenshots and emails, I took a picture of this card to keep as proof that this account happened. 

I worked up the courage to walk through the rest of the house.  The smell intensified as you moved toward the bedrooms which were all located on the same side of the house.  I knew from the coroner and Chet that mom was found deceased in her bed.  As I opened the door to her bedroom my heart that I thought couldn’t sink any further dropped completely to the floor.  Chet mentioned that mom was having issues with incontinence.  I guess in my mind I imaged this was a here and there thing that she had an accident.  Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw that evening.  My mothers bed was covered completely in human fecal stains.  The mattress top/cover had been stripped and taken outside the home.  The level of these staining was simply disgusting and alarming.  This was NOT a struggle with incontinence this was the scene of someone who had been left to lay in and die in their own waste.  There was a clear indentation in the bed but nearly the entire surface was stained except the small area at the head of the bed.  There is no way to calculate how many incidents she must have had in that bed or how long she was there prior to death.  What is clear is that no one was there to care for her.  To assist her with getting out of bed, getting cleaned up, cleaning the bed and sheets.  Now Chet had told many of us he would help her to the guest room to sleep in a clean bed but if things were this bad, the guest room was not stained at all.  Again my mind flooded with just a Jetstream of anger, sadness and aggression.  I knew I was blatantly lied to.  I knew my mother must have suffered.  I knew this could have been avoided.  Did I believe Chet explicitly murdered my mother, no.  But I one thousand percent believe to this day he killed her.  He left her to die, knowing she was helpless and would do just that… eventually she would die.  I do believe he knew that she was dying, he knew that she was helpless.  That she couldn’t eat, couldn’t get out of bed, and had lost control of her body.  He knew all of this and chose to go live his new life with his new girlfriend.  Apparently not a care in the god damn world as future posts will show.  I took many photographs from inside the home.  I do not feel comfortable posting the image of that bedroom publicly.  We will discuss this scene again in a future post when I disclose the details within the Coroners report and in a future paragraph within this post. 

I heard mom’s phone come to life from the kitchen.  Jackie and I wrapped up taking some photos and left the room.  Mom’s phone was inundated with texts and notifications.  Unfortunately, I did not know her passcode.  I tried a few of the combinations that I thought it could be with no success.  I attempted to compose myself, hugged my wife and we decided it was time to move along to meet up with the rest of the family that had arrived. 

Most of the close family arrived in Hot Springs and Kayla reserved us a large farm house property Air BnB so we could all stay together and not worry about getting hotel rooms.  It was a tremendous blessing and uplifting time to be able to be around my brother, Sister and her boyfriend with the nieces and nephews, and additional family members were are very close to arrived and stayed there with us also.  As uplifting as this was, it was also extremely hard to hide my disgust for Chet when he was around.  I still trusted that he was being genuine in some way but it took every ounce of me to not confront him.  I just couldn’t take it.  There were so many instances where he would be talking to family and I just had to walk away to not be near him.  He was going on and on about how his life is never going to be the same.  How much he loved mom and stories about her.  I would hope that he had a shred of humanity and he truly was saddened that she was gone.  However, I just couldn’t believe his lies any longer.  I kept telling myself this is not the time or place.  I have to contain myself a few more days.  Mom deserves a proper send off her friends and family deserve a few days to remember everything good about her.  Chet already ruined the last few months of her life.  I was not going to allow him to ruin our memorial service for her. 

The first night we were in Arkansas two additional things happened.  First, a married couple close to both Chet and mom called me knowing I was in town.  The wife, told me that she had witnessed Chet in town with a woman on more than one occasion.  Her husband worked for the same company as Chet.  One night Chet showed up at their home to drop something off for the husband and had his new girlfriend, who I will refer to as BN.  She said that she confronted Chet and said do not ever bring her here to my home again and threatened to tell Julie.  According to her, Chet insisted that she was not a girlfriend or mistress and she was misunderstanding the situation.  Chet told her that BN was a girl that he was training in to potentially work for the same company.   This is a lie that Chet told many times, to this person and others that had confronted him about seeing him out with BN.  Chet even told me this same lie when I confronted him – which we will get to shortly.  But to stay in order this particular story was told to me my first night in Arkansas.  Secondly, Jackie, my brother and I decided to try to go out to a bar that night.  My brother, nick, was wanting to meet up with a friend in downtown Hot Springs.  Jackie and I needed to get away from the Air BnB and away from Chet so we offered to drive nick and go out with him.  Now keep in mind, Jackie and I had not informed Nick of any of the additional information that we had yet at this point.  As we were driving into town to go to the bar, nick opened up to Jackie and I.  Chet had picked up nick from the airport, which is about an hour away from Hot Springs.  Nick asked Jackie and I what we thought about Chet and how he’s acting as we were riding into town.  Jackie and initially didn’t really react but I remember us exchanging looks in the front seat.  Nick went on to say “I don’t know guys, something just isn’t adding up for me here.” I told nick that I have some questions for him but I want to wait to really ask them until after mom’s service.  Nick agreed that makes sense but his first concern was the variation in stories from Chet about when mom died.  Nick and my grandpa both expressed anger that we couldn’t even get a defined answer on when exactly mom died or when exactly Chet found her.  Even before Kayla and I discussed our concerns about Chet, Nick was able to clearly see his own issues. 

The following day is the day that we got to see mom.  We had a mid afternoon appointment at the funeral home and it seemed like such a long day waiting for that moment.  Earlier in the afternoon we had a scheduled meeting with the Pastor who would be officiated mom’s memorial service.  Mom and Chet have been members of their church for over a decade and mom worked with Pastor Capaci here and there at the church.  She was particularly close with CarolAnn Capaci the pastors wife.  My family is extremely grateful for the wonderful service they provided and the kindness showed to us as guests in their town.  During the meeting with the pastor I again had to fight the urge to confront Chet.  The meeting was about mom, the best of her and how to orchestrate her service.  Chet cried, we all cried, and had to listen to how amazing their marriage was.  How in love they were and how much he misses her.  I was struggling to keep my composure planning my mothers funeral service but listening to this and fighting to urge to confront him about his new girlfriend BN made it more difficult.  We wrapped up with the service planning and prepared to go to the funeral home. 

Jackie and I made a point to get to the funeral home before Chet did.  We had some questions that we needed answers to and wanted to ensure we had the ability to ask these questions without him present.  When we arrived we were greeted by the director in charge of our services.  Jackie, Kayla and I requested to speak with him in private.  We first asked about the possibility of an autopsy or if one will be mandated by the police.  He told us they had the preliminary, unsigned, version of the death certificate and that the coroners office did not request an autopsy.  My sister asked if we can request one specifically for the family.  The funeral director was very respectful and told us that Chet ultimately has most of the control over the disposition of Mom.  However, we can request that he is not authorized to carry out the cremation and pay for a private autopsy.  The funeral director could tell that we had our concerns about how mom died.  He was very respectful and honest with us.  He informed us that he and his staff also had very serious concerns about the condition Julie’s body was in when it arrived at the funeral home.  He told us that he will try to answer all of our questions but some of the answers would be a little graphic.  We asked what he meant by serious concerns over the condition of her body.  The funeral director told us that the mortician that worked on Mom’s deceased body was quite shocked at the level of wounds, infection and decomposition of her remains.  So much so that he inquired with the funeral home staff on which coroner transported her body to their location.  They informed us that it was actually the deputy coroner that brought in mom’s body.  The mortician knows the head coroner of Garland County and we were informed that he was so concerned with the condition of Mom’s body that he called the head coroner to confirm the cause of death listed on the death certificate.  Jackie asked by what they meant by wounds on Julie’s body what kind of wounds were these?  The funeral director told us that when we get to view Mom, she will be wrapped in a cloth and covered up to her chin.  He went on to tell us that it took more than double the usual time to prepare Julie’s remains.  It was clear to the staff that mom had not left the prone position in her bed for many days, more than likely longer than a week.  He re-emphasized that he wants to answer our questions but not be too graphic.  He told us that there were certain bedsores and wounds on her back, shoulder and hip areas that were so far progressed they were literally open wounds that were likely bleeding and when the coroner removed her from her position on her back on the bed, some of the skin peeled away from these wound areas.  The funeral director told us they did everything they could to clean Julie’s body from laying in such a dirty condition.  It was at this point that we found out that one of the leading causes of death listed on the death certificate is Septicemia.  We began discussing the possibility that her open wounds in conjunction with lying in her own excrements for days on end could have been the underlying cause of death.  Unfortunately at this time Chet arrived and was looking for us.  The funeral director understood completely that there was a lot of friction between us and Chet and he gave us his card and told us we can reach out to him later if we had more questions.  He did call us back within an hour of mom’s visitation to inform us that Chet did ultimately have sole authority for cremation so we would need to go through him to halt cremation and pursue an autopsy.  He did tell us that he refused, we could request a legal injunction halting the cremation and if they were aware of legal proceedings they would not allow cremation.  Overall, this gentlemen was extremely tactful and sympathetic.  We appreciate his honesty and willingness to be up front with us on such a delicate matter.  This conversation and information brings into question many things Chet has said.  Mainly the fact that he claims that he spoke to her the Saturday and Sunday prior to her death.  If that is true, like he claims, what kind of pathetic human would he have to be if he saw her, likely unconscious laying in her own urine and feces, and just leave her there in such a state.  IF he saw her any day within 2-3 days of her death he would have known how bad that situation was and made a conscious decision to leave here there in that literally deadly condition.  It was at this point in time I was convinced Chet was at a minimum responsible for her death in some way even if he didn’t murder her.  Which also was not out of the equation in my mind.  He either willingly left her in her own bed to die after knowing how bad her health was.  Or, he knew that she was going to die eventually and simply stopped seeing her and checking on her essentially waiting for her to die. 

Seeing mom for the last time was by far the most difficult part of my time in Arkansas.  The funeral home did an absolutely amazing job of allowing us one last look at the Julie/Mom that we all loved and wanted to remember.  After how the conversation with the funeral director went, we were quite nervous about what we would see and have to remember.  She looked peaceful and happy.  It made me happy to see her in that way.  To remember her has the happy loving mom we knew.  Jackie and Kayla mentioned they even did the makeup the way she always did from her pictures.  Although it was extremely difficult for us all it was the reason we were there. 

After we wrapped up at the funeral home we told Chet that we wanted to go to the house and make a plan for going through mom’s things.  Unfortunately we did not have a lot of time and we felt like we had to get into the house to go through some things that we knew we would want of mom’s materials.  Kayla and I knew things were likely to go south quickly with Chet in the weeks after the funeral, but man was that an understatement.  When we got to the house it was a rather quick trip through the house.  Chet informed us that we would not be able to really go through the house that night because there was an ozone machine in there to assist with the smell and toxins in the house.  We were not allowed to be in the house during this process.  Jackie and I left first again because we wanted to go get a new sheet from Walmart to ensure we were able to cover the bed in mom’s bedroom.  We did not want my brother and sister to see what we had to see by going there the night prior. 

When we arrived at the house we did a quick walk through and Chet showed us some of the major things we should go through after the funeral.  Kayla looked through mom’s clothing, jewelry and some other items.  Nick and I were able to simply look through a lot of the older pictures and moms collections of Christmas décor and precious moments dolls.  Item one on my radar was mom’s phone.  I wanted that phone and I wanted it unlocked so we could look through it.  Kayla and I wanted to be able to get a glimpse of anything that could show us what mom’s last weeks were like.  Did she reach out for help? Did Chet call or text her in any way to check on her?  Did she leave us any clues?  We also wanted to be able to pull pictures off of there for us to have on ourselves.  I grabbed the phone and asked Chet where did this come from?  He said that he did not know, he thought she lost it.  Side note, I knew where it was found.  I spoke to the person who found it.  It was under mom’s bed.  I asked him to unlock it and told him that I want to take the phone for the night.  He unlocked the phone and began going through some of the apps on it.  We were in the kitchen and I was standing right next to him.  He was quiet and kept filtering through some things that I couldn’t quite see so I tried positioning my body in a way where I could more easily see the screen.  He responded by tilting the phone more towards him so I couldn’t see.  I remember getting the feeling that he did that on purpose to limit what I could see.  I again asked for the phone and he finally looked up and said “Justin can I have this for now?” I told him no, I really want that for tonight.  I told him he gets to keep it when we leave I think Kayla and I deserve to have our time with it tonight and tomorrow.  He didn’t really have an argument for that.  He walked out of the kitchen toward the back of the house and said as he walked away “let me get you a charger” and he walked away quickly.  It clicked in my head that I believe he was trying to evade me so he could do something on her phone without me seeing so I followed him to the back bedroom.  I told him there was a charger right next to us on the kitchen counter and I have a charger at the BnB.  He reluctantly gave me the phone and passcode.  He seemed extremely nervous and like he didn’t want me to have mom’s phone.  It was just he and I in the kitchen during this time so this is one thing that is purely based on my intuition and opinion.  He really could have simply been grieving and wanting the phone for himself but that’s not the vibe I got.  When I got into the car with Jackie and Kayla I explained to them what had just taken place and how I felt about it. 

That night Kayla and I were able to do some investigating and download many of the photos we wanted from mom’s phone.  I will not get into all of the details about her text message threads but it was abundantly clear that her and Chet were going through some personal marital issues.  They appeared to be working through them.  The last text messages that stuck out to me was one where mom offered to come to one of Chet’s racing nights.  It is clear to me that mom knew he was cheating on her with someone in the racing community because she made a comment about “I’ll just come sit in the stands so I don’t have to see anyone else”.  However, a later text thread dated in July talked about Chet and Julie going out for dinner and him coming home.  This again caused confusion, there were nothing there explicitly showing when he moved out of the house, or that they were splitting up/divorcing.  It is my believe that Mom was not aware how serious Chet’s relationship with his girlfriend BN had gotten.  I can tell you from her phone/ipad.  The last text conversation between Chet and Julie was July 23^rd.  This leaves over three weeks preceding her death where it appears they did not talk over the phone. 

Questions that flooded my mind concerning mom’s phone usage are these.  1. If her phone was found under her bed, why on earth did Chet not help her find her phone if she was able to talk to him.  2. If her health was that bad and he actually knew about it being that bad why would he not go out of his way to make sure she had a phone at her use for emergencies?  3. Did he specifically keep her from her phone so she couldn’t call anyone for help? Sounds extreme but these are raw thoughts that some of us had, and as we progressed through the next few weeks, we found out we were not the only ones with these questions.  We even reached out to the police again to see what the process is to request phone records from Verizon for legal purposes.  We wanted to know when the last time the phone lest the house was. We also used this as another opportunity to plead with investigators to simply take a closer look at some of the questions we had.  All this wouldn’t need to be placed on hold for a day.  Tomorrow was mom’s day and we weren’t going to let anything distract us from honoring her.