Gone Forever
Page 10
Ann called Sue on her cell phone and caught her in Sam’s Club picking up food and supplies for Margot’s party on Sunday. Ann asked why she was throwing a party at a time when so much else was going on in her life.
“I feel sorry for Doug,” she said. “It’s his wife’s fiftieth birthday and he doesn’t know what to do. Besides,” Sue added, “I don’t want to be home alone with Rick, and the party keeps my mind off waiting for it all to be over.”
Doug was running his own birthday-related errands that day, but he had a co-conspirator on hand to keep Margot off the scent of his plans. Her college buddy Tom—a frequent visitor to their home—had flown in to keep Margot looking the other way at all times. Margot knew Doug was up to something, but she couldn’t quite figure out what.
On this weekend before Thanksgiving, plans were all in place for another boisterous Christmas celebration in San Antonio. This year as always, the multi-cultural spirit of this former mission town turned the urban center into a jubilant city of lights.
The Fiesta de Luminarias brightened the Riverwalk. Yards and yards of light strings hung from the 100-foot cypress trees that spread their branches across the water—180,000 colorful, twinkling lights in all. Thousands of luminarias—candles in sand-filled paper bags—lined the walkways as a symbol of the lighting of the way for the Holy Family.
Festive boats cruised the river filled with carolers, bell choirs and performers for the hearing-impaired—groups from churches, corporations, civic organizations and schools. The Riverwalk was also home to Las Posadas, a reenactment of the search for shelter by Mary and Joseph on the night of the birth of the Baby Jesus. Bearing candles, the actors were joined by a mob of spectators that followed them to the end of their journey.
San Antonio, like nearly every city, had a holiday parade, but it boasted of one big difference—San Antonio’s procession floated on the river. It began when the mayor pulled the switch to illuminate the thousands of lights on the Riverwalk. The one-hour parade draws 150,000, who watch while dining at sidewalk restaurants or peering out the windows of offices towering over the river or sitting on the grass-covered rows at La Villita’s outdoor Arneson River Theatre. Millions more watch the live television coverage from the comfort of their homes.
Near the Riverwalk, a forty-foot tree was erected at the Alamo and festooned with lights and enormous decorations. At the Market Square, people and pets arrive for the annual blessing of the animals. Near the Justice Center, the San Fernando Cathedral stood like a beacon with every architectural line detailed in white lights. The Riverwalk and its surroundings—always a special place—was transformed into a vision of magic for the holidays.
The first event that put all these plans in motion this year—as every year—was the Seventeenth Annual Light the Way at the University of the Incarnate Word. Sue took her boys to observe this long-standing tradition with Molly Matthews and Blanca Hernandez and their children. She told Molly that she had not invited Rick to come along.
The event began at 7:30 in the McDermott Convocation Center with guests of honor Archbishop Patrick Flores and Singer Patsy Torres. After carols were sung by a children’s choral group, a candlelight procession wended its way through the campus grounds now aglow with endless strings of lights. Around the trunk of every tree, white lights twinkled round and round and up into far-reaching branches. Student volunteers strung the grounds with more than 850,000 lights. The whole campus glowed like the doorway to heaven.
In sharp contrast to the serene, sanctified celebration at the University of the Incarnate Word, the SBC Center up Interstate Highway 35, was rocking and raw. The Rolling Stones were in town and Rick McFarland was there.
From Keith Richards’s opening riff on “Street Fighting Man” to the encore performance of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” Rick grooved in the raucous retro night. The high point for many in the audience that evening was “Satisfaction.” Keith Richards shared a mike with Deborah Harry of Blondie to wail out the frustrations of not being able to get any satisfaction, while behind them the famous Stones tongue logo was set on fire.
In just two days, Rick would take action to find his own personal satisfaction, heedless of the impact on others. And when he did, the flames would light the night again.
21
On Sunday, November 24, Sue took the boys to church. She was raised Presbyterian and wanted to establish the boys in the same denomination—instead of Rick’s Methodist faith. It was important to her for the boys to have a strong church home now that the family was unraveling.
Blanca, Gil, Molly and Bill arrived at the McFarlands’ house at 2 to help Sue get ready for Margot Cromack’s birthday party that evening. Rick did not assist in the preparations, but instead stayed outside puttering around in the yard. Doug dropped in to check on the progress of the party preparations. To help out, he took the three McFarland boys to McDonald’s. As he left, he spotted Rick in the backyard—the expression of rage on Rick’s face shocked him.
When Margot approached 351 Arcadia Street at 4 o’clock that afternoon, all the pieces of the puzzle slid into place. An enormous hand-painted banner hung high on the columns of the front porch proclaiming wishes for a happy fiftieth birthday.
Inside, everything was perfection. The recently acquired antiques easily fit in with the new decor. The dining room walls wore a fresh coat of paint. Mary Elizabeth’s silver gleamed on her daughter’s table. Food was everywhere—cheese, crackers, fruit, brownies, Swedish meat balls and lots and lots of champagne.
The pièce de resistance was the birthday cake—a huge carrot cake covered with cream cheese frosting and decorated with miniature plastic symbols that were meaningful and significant to Margot.
Everyone who had kids brought them to the celebration. Doors opened and closed as the children raced from the trampoline, into the house for food or drink and back outside again.
Early in the party, Rick asked Molly Matthews where they had all gone over the weekend. Without answering him, Molly ran to Susan. “What should I tell him?”
“Tell him whatever he wants to know,” Sue said. “I have nothing to hide.”
After not getting a response from Molly, Rick turned to her husband, Bill, and expressed his distress that everyone was intentionally deceiving him.
Sue talked to Rick when she wanted him to fetch sodas or other refreshments during the party, but otherwise did not speak to him. For a while, Rick circulated, talking about the Rolling Stones concert. He told anyone who would listen that he bargained down the $300 asking price on his ticket to $50. Most did not believe him. They figured he had paid $300, but did not want Susan to know.
At some point, Rick drifted away, went upstairs and fell asleep. No one noticed his absence until a crisis arose. Gaga Sikes, a frail man in his eighties with a history of heart trouble, became ill and everyone worried it was a heart attack or a stroke. Although Margot and Doug had not worked together for years as a medical team, the nurse and doctor fell back into their old routine without a word. They cared for Gaga until the emergency medical technicians arrived to take over. About the same time the techs got on the scene, the phone rang.
The caller was Susan’s dentist, Dr. Dirk DeKoch. He was responding to the message Sue had left earlier in the weekend about needing an appointment because her temporary crown had worked loose. They set up a visit for 8 A.M. the next morning.
After nearly everyone had gone home, Sue sat in the backyard with Margot and Doug and a few other stragglers. Margot glowed with pleasure over the great food, good people and ceaseless champagne that all came together to celebrate her fiftieth year. Sue was relaxed and contented reflecting on a job well done. Watching her guest of honor revel in the night, and seeing all who attended having a good time, gave Sue a wealth of enjoyment. More than anything, it had been such a relief to put her personal problems on hold for a few glorious hours of entertaining.
Fernando Adamez arrived for work at the Texaco service center on Austin Highway at 7 A.M. on
Monday, November 25. When he left work the previous day, the two-toned Suburban for sale was sitting in front of the gas pumps near the road. Now it was gone.
On that same morning, Sue arrived on time for her appointment with the dentist carrying a cup of Starbucks coffee. Dr. DeKoch replaced her temporary crown with a permanent one and repaired a chip on a lower front tooth. She talked about the elderly man who had a heart attack at her party and how lucky he was that it happened there, since there were so many doctors in her house at the time. Susan left at 8:30 and headed to work.
Upon her arrival, she realized that someone had retrieved the messages from her phone. She knew it had to be Rick—he had set up the voicemail on her phone at work and on her cell phone. Sue called Blanca Hernandez.
“You need to change your passwords and greetings,” Blanca advised.
“What do you think about me going to Amarillo for Thanksgiving?” Sue asked.
“I think you should stay in town. Rick might get upset if you try to leave with the boys. You can come over to my house so you don’t have to be around Rick,” Blanca offered.
After a short discussion, Sue conceded that Blanca was right and said she would not leave town.
Later, Sue talked to Dee Ann and shared Blanca’s concerns. She expressed uncertainty about what Rick might do if she spent Thanksgiving with Dee Ann.
“Then bring Rick with you if you want—we’ll keep him busy. Whatever you need to do is fine.”
The next call came from Molly Matthews. Sue told her she was still thinking about going to Amarillo. “Rick is angry with me,” she confided, “because I am not talking to him.” Molly and Sue then discussed the possibility of getting tickets for the Riverwalk parade the day after Thanksgiving.
Around 11 that morning, Sue’s old Amarillo friend Dyann Folkner called. “I am so excited that you are coming to Amarillo.”
“I’m not coming now,” Sue said.
“I haven’t seen the boys since December of 1998,” Dyann complained. “Why did you change your mind?”
“A friend of mine thinks Rick might become violent if I take the boys.”
“Do you think Rick would get violent?” Dyann asked.
“Yes,” Sue said. “Rick has been really weird lately.” She went on to recount examples of his strange behavior during the party the day before. She also told Dyann that she was filing for divorce.
Dyann consoled her by bringing up a mutual friend who was in a similar situation, then warned, “She has really turned her girls against their father.”
“I would never turn the boys against Rick,” Sue vowed.
“Is he acting any different with the boys?”
“No. But I really can’t talk now because I don’t want people at work to hear me. Call Dee Ann—she knows more about what’s going on.”
“I’m still going to try to see you this year even if I have to surprise you on your birthday.”
“Now that would be a really good time,” Sue said.
“I love you, Sue. We will get through this,” Dyann reassured her.
Ann called and asked Sue about the success of her party. Sue told her about the medical emergency and how disturbing it was to her that Rick never came downstairs—not even when the ambulance arrived.
When Ann asked about the trip to Amarillo, Sue said, “Rick would make a big scene.”
“What do you mean? Are you afraid of him?”
“No, no, no. He’ll just make a big scene with the boys.”
Sue called her niece just a few minutes before Kirsten’s 1 P.M. staff meeting.
“What’s new?” Kirsten asked.
Sue laughed. “A whole lot.” She told her niece about the divorce, her “real aggressive attorney” and the serving of the papers in one week. “I have finally done it,” she said, “because my friends have been telling me how strange he is.” She recited a litany of Rick’s bizarre and irresponsible behavior during the last few months.
The conversation turned to Thanksgiving preparations. Sue said that plans were off for Debbie and her family to come up from Houston and spend the day at her house as they had done the past two years.
“Is it safe for you to be there?” Kirsten asked.
“Rick might hurt me, but he would never hurt the kids.”
“What are you going to do, Sue?”
“I’ll do something.”
After that call, Sue fulfilled a volunteer commitment—she drove over to Woodridge Elementary School and delivered muffins for a hospitality committee function at the school the next day. Margot’s out-of-state friend Tom, an architect, taught a special lesson about buildings in cities and towns to Sue’s Junior Achievement class that day.
Between 4 and 4:15 that afternoon, Frank Salazar left the office. He saw Sue, his supervisor, still at her desk. “See you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Sue said.
Christine Tharp returned from the courthouse just past 5 and called Sue McFarland at work. They ran down the plan of action. Tomorrow, Sue would come to Tharp’s office to review, approve or modify the Divorce Petition, Restraining Order and the Order Setting Hearing to enable Tharp to file the documents in court on December 2. While there, Sue would sign the affidavits her attorney prepared and get ready for the temporary hearing scheduled for the morning of December 6.
Sue left work just before 6 P.M. and stopped by the H-E-B Central Market grocery store on her way home. The evening flowed through dinner and homework much like every other school night.
At the Cromack house, discord reigned. For as long as her children could remember, whenever a member of their family or the McFarland family had a birthday, they had gone to one another’s homes for cake and ice cream. Their mom had not invited Sue and her family over, and Monday was their mother’s actual birthday. Margot insisted that they were not breaking tradition. They’d had cake and ice cream together the day before at the party and besides, she told them, she was very tired. Her children were not mollified.
That evening, Margot went to bed earlier than usual. In days, she would regret not giving in to her children’s demand.
In the McFarland house that night, Sue helped her boys get ready for bed. There were the usual complaints about taking baths, the everyday whines about staying up just a little longer. The night was all set to the typical rhythm of a household that included three boys.
In the master bathroom, Sue prepared to begin her nightly ritual—washing the days’ makeup off her face, brushing her teeth—all the habits of a lifetime.
In the midst of all these dull everyday concerns, while the children slept in their beds, a spark flew out into the night. Its glow revealed the plan Richard McFarland harbored in his heart for days. It ignited the violence of Rick’s ultimate solution to his problems.
Fueled by a fiery rage, Rick beat the mother of his children over the head with a blunt object. He splattered her blood all over that room. Droplets hid in the crevices of a small wicker wastebasket and blended with the label of a bottle of bath gel in the shower. Blood dropped straight down on the bathroom scale and spattered the closet door. He smeared her blood on the door frame leading to the bedroom.
Sue fought back, drawing Rick’s blood as she struggled. In places, their blood intermingled. The two became one in an ugly, fatal way that mocked and betrayed the vows they had exchanged. Despite her efforts, Sue died that night, beaten to death by the man she once loved.
No one but Richard McFarland—and perhaps his oldest son—know the exact sequence of events that followed his fatal actions. Perhaps he left her body on the love seat that Sue inherited from her mother—it had been against the wall by the bathroom door but was not seen again after that night. Maybe he left her downstairs in the hallway area by the living room in front of a piece of furniture—a bloodstain was found on the floor there and light-colored hairs were caught in the nail of the hinge.
Missing carpet in the white Windstar van indicated that he moved her there at some point. Missing floor mats i
n the Explorer raised questions about that vehicle as well.
Eventually, Rick did move Sue’s body to the two-toned Suburban he had stolen from the Texaco service station. Her presence in that vehicle was apparent. DNA testing proved that her blood was on one floor mat. Forcibly removed strands of her hair were on another.
July 1969—Beaufort, South Carolina. Sue at 10 1/2 years old with her niece Jenny and her Uncle Bill. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
Sue at 15 in St. Louis. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
1976—Ann’s house in St. Louis. Jenny, Huck Smith, Sue at age 17, and Ann. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
Sue in 1977 at William Woods College. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
Sue (right) with sorority friends in 1977. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
January 15, 1985—Sue at Ann’s wedding to Gary Carr, with her mother, Mary Elizabeth Smith. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
August 19, 1989—Sue’s wedding to Rick at Webster Grove Presbyterian Church (l to r): Ann, Huck, Sue. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
1991—Oxford, Mississippi, at a family funeral. Sue with two-week-old William. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
Sue and Rick with Kirsten, her boyfriend, and the bartender at a bar in Cape Cod, 1991. Courtesy Kristen Smith
Sue with William on a Cape Cod Beach in 1991. Courtesy Kristen Smith
Mary Elizabeth’s 80th birthday in April 1999—at the family plot in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Oxford, Mississippi (l to r): Ann, Mary Elizabeth, Sue. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
Christmas 2001 in St. Louis. Sue gathered with other family members at Mary Elizabeth’s house while she was in the hospital. Courtesy Ann Smith Carr
The gracious home where Susan McFarland lost her life. Photo by Diane Fanning
The side, garage and back yard of the McFarland home in Terrell Hills with Susan’s car parked in the driveway. Photo by Diane Fanning