“Who else saw this?” Officer Grantham asked.
“Joshua Camacho and his mother,” Sarah replied.
The cop returned to Ashley Lovelady.
“What do you want to do about this?” he asked.
“I want to file charges and get my mirrors fixed,” Ashley replied.
The cop handed Ashley a booklet entitled “Victims’ Rights.” He advised her to halt all contact with the brothers Camacho. She said she would.
Grantham’s next stop was the Camacho house, where Joshua remained, but Jay had split. As a police photographer snapped images of the dangling mirrors, Grantham wanted to know where Jay was.
Joshua shrugged. “He moves from place to place,” he said.
Grantham was a little persistent and Joshua admitted he’d seen Jay kick the mirrors.
Joshua explained that Jay was pissed at Ashley because she bitched about Jay doing other girls, like Ashley was his girlfriend, when “she wasn’t nothing and had no right to complain about nothing.”
Grantham handed Joshua a business card.
“Have Jay call me,” the cop said.
Joshua said he would be sure to do that.
Even without Joshua’s assistance, Jay was eventually located, but he escaped serious trouble when the state attorney’s office, after its own investigation, concluded that the “facts and the circumstance as presented do not warrant prosecution.”
By June 17, Rachel was again in a new phase of her life, taking a great step sideways in life, going from an on-and-off relationship with Nick Reynolds, to having a stormy on-and-off relationship with Joshua Camacho.
She wrote to Joshua on Myspace. In a blog entitled “Over You,” she accused him again of hitting her, insulting her, cheating on her. Each time she caught him, he would say, “I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again!” He lied, until it just got old; finally she looked at reality, and, well, reality said she deserved so much better! He was a boy. She needed a man! He had nothing to offer her. He was irresponsible, unreliable, unstable, immature, and nothing special to look at. And, most important, he didn’t have the love and affection or the respect for her that she wanted! And since she left him, she saw that there were plenty of other guys who would offer her “at least 90 percent” of that!
So sorry buddy but you can take your bullshit somewhere else! she posted.
Sarah could do math. Ninety percent wasn’t as good as 100 percent.
Sarah sat at the computer and attached a statement: And you think you found better?
At just past midnight, in the early morning of July 2, Officer Scott Galley answered a call from a female.
“I’ve been assaulted in a parking lot,” reported the alleged victim.
When the cop arrived at the scene, he observed two vehicles in the parking lot. A young woman sat on the hood of a car, and two were sitting in a minivan.
Sarah Ludemann told Officer Galley, “I was parked in my parents’ 2000 Mercury minivan, sitting in the northwest corner of a parking lot off U.S. Route 19. My window was rolled down.” Erin Slothower was in the car with her.
“We were following my ex-boyfriend, Joshua Camacho, around because we’re mad at him because he was sleeping with us both at the same time without us knowing about each other,” Sarah explained.
Ludemann said they were arguing back and forth, and then Camacho reached in the window and punched the left side of her face. She was uninjured, however, and required no medical attention. She didn’t want to press charges; but since she was a minor, that call wasn’t hers.
“What did Joshua do after he punched you?” Galley inquired.
“He went to the other side of the van and started yelling at Erin.” Erin, unafraid, got out of the van and the argument continued, face-to-face.
Galley talked to Erin next, whose baby was in an infant seat in the back of Sarah’s minivan. Erin said she saw Joshua reach in the driver’s window, but she didn’t exactly see Sarah being punched. Still, the incident angered her, and she confronted Joshua. They argued but were not physical.
The officer located Joshua, read him his Miranda rights, made sure he understood them, and asked for his version of the incident. Joshua said the girls didn’t approve of his lifestyle, which involved as many women as possible, and they had been following him around. He’d been a passenger, at the time, in a car being driven by his friend Daniel McAndrews. Joshua admitted to hitting Sarah without being asked.
“I got so mad I hit her,” he said.
His story jibed perfectly with Erin and Sarah’s version—which didn’t happen often in disputes of this nature. Joshua agreed that Erin had argued in Sarah’s defense, but that he and Erin did not get physical.
Last, Galley spoke to Josh’s friend McAndrews, who said he stayed in the car and didn’t see anybody hit anybody. While Galley was still in the parking lot asking questions, Sarah’s mom arrived.
Gay Ludemann said she did not want to press charges, but she wanted to know how to keep Joshua Camacho away from Ludemann. The cop gave her a copy of the “Victims’ Rights” booklet and explained to her how to get an injunction for protection.
On Myspace there was a section called “About Me,” in which the account holder described herself. That July, on her page, Rachel described herself as:
Independent Girl, pretty simple with the occasional complicated thought. It really didn’t take much to make me smile.
She knew she sometimes came off as a bitch or intimidating, but the moment that folks started to get to know her, they could tell it was a “total misconception.” She really wished her laziness wouldn’t get the best of her, but it was something she was still trying to fight her way through. She had just recently noticed that she was a hopeless romantic and she dreamed of love like she saw in the chick flicks. A surefire way to win her over was to buy her Chinese food, Red Bull, or Starbucks. She liked to have a good time; and if it just happened to include a pocket filled with money and some alcohol, people shouldn’t be surprised if she took advantage of it. She loved her life and everyone in it. She wrote how she was:
Always down to meet new people, so be my friend. I swear I’m nice most of the time. J So go ahead and say hiiiyeee to me. Anything else, you can find out for yourself!;)
During the evening of July 28, Sarah drove by Rachel’s apartment on Belcher Road in Largo and shouted out, “Come fight me.” For all of the fuss, Sarah and Rachel had still only met face-to-face once, and that was back when Rachel was still with Nick.
A few hours later, on July 29 at three thirty-six in the morning, Rachel called Sarah’s phone and left a voice mail: “Why don’t you act your age, Sarah? Seriously, answer your fucking phone and don’t be a fucking pussy. You want to come through my fucking neighborhood and be a psycho bitch just like fucking Erin. Fuck with Josh’s car, and you are fucking with me when you fuck with his shit. Seriously, I’m letting you know now you are either going to get fucked up or something of yours is, so watch the fuck out or answer your fucking phone and stop being a bitch.”
The words were rapid-fire and almost sounded as if they were being read. The message lasted a mere twenty-two seconds.
Less than a day later, at 2:30 A.M., July 30, Rachel was driving through Pinellas Park with then-roommate Courtney Richards. During that drive, she called police, explaining they were in a white Chevy being chased and harassed by the occupants of a white Nissan. At that moment, they were in the vicinity of Seventy-eighth Avenue and Sixty-sixth Street. By the time police arrived, the two vehicles had moved four blocks up and two over. The Chevy stopped voluntarily. The Nissan was subjected to a traffic stop.
Responding to the call were Officers John Coleman and Scott Galley, along with Sergeant Anthony Motley. Coleman spoke first to Rachel, the person who had called. She said she was a passenger and her friend Courtney was driving. They were going home together after work at Applebee’s. They stopped at Taco Bell, and a car pulled in aggressively and followed them out of the parking lot. Rachel di
dn’t recognize the car, which followed them almost all of the way home. She did, however, recognize the driver, her archenemy Sarah Ludemann, with whom there was an ongoing dispute over a boy.
“I’m dating her ex-boyfriend,” Rachel said.
The chase grew scarier. Sarah pulled alongside Courtney, and then in front of her, cutting her off so that Courtney had to swerve. It finally got to the point where Courtney had to pull off the road. It was too dangerous. And what did Sarah do? Rachel said Sarah rear-ended her. Six angry people piled out of Sarah’s car. Rachel’s car was attacked with Silly String. Rachel and Courtney tried to lock all doors and windows. Courtney didn’t get the window closed fast enough. Two of the girls in the other car—Tiffany Mitchell and Danielle Larson—struck Courtney and kicked her car. They smashed an exterior passenger-side mirror, Rachel said.
Courtney repeated the story, but she left out the part about being rear-ended. In fact, in Courtney’s version, the cars pulled over to the side of the road together, and the Nissan was in front. She said she didn’t know the girls who attacked; and no, she did not want to prosecute.
The police made a list of the six girls in the Nissan. In addition to Ludemann, Mitchell, and Larson, Ashley Lovelady, Magen [sic] Fitzgerald, and Autumn Seville were also along for the ride.
Interestingly, Sarah said that it was Courtney who had rear-ended her vehicle, not the other way around, and the contact had been made in the Taco Bell parking lot. That was why they were chasing: they’d been rammed.
The police closely inspected the front and rear of both vehicles, and neither showed any evidence of a crash.
Determining that there was a probable cause to search the cars, both vehicles were searched. One of the cars yielded two seeds and part of a stem that might have come from a marijuana plant. But since nothing else was found, the stem and seeds were disposed of without analysis.
Parents were called. The Nissan belonged to Fitzgerald’s mom, and she admitted that she was using it without permission. In fact, Fitzgerald confessed, her parents thought she was home. She’d snuck out. Fitzgerald’s father did not want to press charges for theft, and Ashley Lovelady’s mother agreed to drive the Nissan back to the Fitzgerald house.
The next day, Sarah and Rachel formally accused each other of road rage. Rachel said she was chased. Sarah said she was rear-ended. Sarah told police that she chased the other car, only after it had bumped hers. Sarah said Rachel had once called her twenty times in two hours. Rachel said Sarah was sending her threatening e-mails.
During that summer, Sarah and Joshua were in New York City together for a few days. Joshua was visiting his relatives up there, and Sarah later joined him. Pictures of the two of them together were posted online, and—to make sure her rival saw them—Sarah sent Rachel taunting messages. Rachel looked at the photos and grabbed for her phone.
At 8:30 P.M., August 28, Pinellas Park police were called by Ramon Camacho—father of Jay and Joshua—complaining that his son Joshua’s ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, Javier Laboy, was harassing him and his family.
“Tonight, he threw an egg at my house,” Mr. Camacho said. In addition, Laboy drove by the house repeatedly, before and after the egg, yelling things, disturbing Ramon and his neighbors. Police contacted Laboy and “encouraged a peaceful resolution.”
At five o’clock on Friday evening, August 29, the players proved that they had shifting allegiances and could get into fights in any combination. Erin Slothower was the victim this time, and she was complaining about the tag team of Joshua Camacho and Sarah Ludemann. Erin was at her job as a server at American Pie Pizza. Trouble started when Joshua called Erin repeatedly and was insistent on starting an argument. Erin explained it wasn’t a good time, since she was working. She had to hang up on Joshua.
Next, Sarah showed up at the pizza place in person. Sarah started to verbally abuse Erin in front of customers, and the restaurant’s manager had to ask Sarah to leave. A police officer arrived, took statements, and made a short-lived attempt to get in touch with Joshua and Sarah. Since no battery was alleged, the matter was dropped.
A few hours later, still on August 29, Rachel called Sarah and left this message: “Please tell me, Sarah, why you would be a dumb-ass cunt to fucking put a brand-new picture of you and Josh at the beach on your Myspace. Seriously, I told you to watch your fucking back and not to fucking chill with him. Now your ass is mine, and I’m guaranteeing you I’m going to fucking murder you. I’m letting you know that right now because you know what? Josh might have played me, but, bitch, I’m going to play your ass out, too, so watch. You are a fucking fat bitch and I’m going to fucking kill you, I swear on my life. Watch your fucking window when I get off of work tonight, you dumb bitch.”
This recording was a tad less manic than the recorded call of July 29, and lasted for thirty-four seconds.
On Sunday, August 31, at 10:44 P.M., Rachel called Sarah again and left this voice mail: “It’s so funny that you want to talk shit and you sit there and say that my man was over to your house. Well, tell me what he was wearing tonight, Sarah, because you are a dumb bitch for real, and if you’re fuckin’ lying, I’m going to find you and I’m going to beat your ass. And if you’re not lying, I’m going to find you and beat your ass, okay? You can play your fucking games. You are a pathetic little bitch. You are a little fucking girl. Honestly, what do you have going for you that Josh wants you over me for? I’ve got a job, have my own place. What the fuck! Seriously? He can get anything he wants from me, any fuckin’ thing, not to mention that I probably fuckin’ look fuckin’ ten times better than you. And you fuckin’ run your mouth. You’ve still got your mommy and daddy’s curfew, bitch. For God’s sake, why the fuck do you run your fuckin’ mouth, and why the fuck are you so pathetic? Please do leave the shirt under my face, because that’s old news, just like you and him are. So keep talking shit, Sarah. You don’t know when to stop. You haven’t learned your lesson yet, and I’m the fuckin’ teacher. I’m warning you now, keep fucking with me, Sarah, and you and Erin both are dumb psychotic bitches. I’m warning you now, I am going to show you psycho! So stop fucking with me. You are fucking with the wrong person, and you’re fucking with the wrong thing that I care about. So keep it up, keep playing your motherfucking game and I am going to teach you how to grow up real motherfucking quick.”
This one lasted one minute and fourteen seconds.
Forty-one minutes later, Rachel left another brief message: “Why don’t you come outside now, Sarah? I’m outside your house. Come on out, I fucking dare you.”
Rachel called again and again.
The annoyance pushed Sarah to the brink; at 11:15 P.M., she called the cops.
Officer Christopher Boyce located Rachel outside Joshua’s home. Boyce said Rachel appeared “visibly upset,” and complained that it was Sarah’s fault. She started it by sending Rachel threatening e-mails.
Officer Boyce’s report stated: Ludemann advised that Wade was threatening her during some of the phone calls and just wanted Wade to stop calling her. Wade advised that she would stop calling Ludemann, but requested that I ask Ludemann to stop threatening her via e-mail. Camacho said that he does see Ludemann behind Wade’s back and that Ludemann was just trying to antagonize Wade into a fight. [Author’s emphasis]
Sarah had to promise that she would neither call nor e-mail Rachel. She prophetically told police that she taped the messages because she “wanted it documented in case Wade followed through on her threats.”
On September 12, Rachel wrote on her Myspace page:
I’m an independent chick! Yeah, I got a man. But I’m not one of those spoiled little girls who expects the world from her man. So y’all hoes can just stop hatin’.
On October 8, 2008, the Pinellas Park 911 operator received a call from Rachel Wade’s phone. When police arrived at Rachel’s apartment, she was there alone. She had gotten into an argument with Joshua, who had broken into the apartment.
“He pushed the door in
and broke the dead bolt chain,” Rachel complained.
Despite that, the fight had been verbal only. The responding officer looked for Joshua but couldn’t find him.
“No further action,” he concluded.
Two weeks later, Officer William Holmes answered a complaint from Joshua Camacho’s baby mama, Erin Slothower, who said she’d been receiving threats from Rachel Wade that Wade intended to “slit her fucking throat and to do harmful things to her.”
Officer Holmes added that both Erin Slothower and her friend Jamie Severino had expressed concerns that they were in fear that “Wade will do something to harm them.”
Erin told police that although she had been the target of all the e-mails, some of them had been texted to her friend Jamie Severino’s phone. Jamie had made it clear to Rachel that she and Erin wanted no more harassing messages, but Rachel didn’t stop. Erin explained that Rachel was a girlfriend of her baby daddy, and Jamie had the baby of Joshua’s brother Jay.
On Friday, November 7, 2008, a Pinellas Park grammar school teacher called police and said they had a kid, Isaiah, who complained that his parents had had a bad fight in the home.
The parents in question were Joshua and Jay’s older sister, Janet Camacho, and her baby daddy Robert Williams (pseudonym). Officer Andrea Butson and Child Protection Investigation Division (CPID) investigator Jody Binge handled the complaint.
The allegation, made by their little boy, was that the verbal fight had grown until Janet Camacho grabbed a knife and threatened Robert Williams with it. She “attempted to cut” him. He was trying to take the knife away from her when she was cut. He then got a gun and pointed it at her. Although he “clicked” the gun, it didn’t go off.
Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle Page 67
