The Stranger She Loved

by Shanna Hogan

  Over the next few years, the family slowly developed a relationship, and Gypsy was able to reconnect with Heidi.

  * * *

  Throughout her twenties, Gypsy continued to live in Utah and work at various nursing jobs. She purchased a small white house in Bountiful, Utah, a bedroom community on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. In 2004, a friend she had met at a medieval culture event became her roommate. Michelle Savage was a divorced single mom in her thirties, with short brown hair and a round face. Savage’s daughter, Brandi Smith, also lived at the Bountiful house.

  But the living arrangement didn’t last long. After a vicious argument, Savage and her daughter abruptly moved out.

  Years later, Gypsy’s and Savage’s lives would bisect in an unusual way.

  Soon after her roommate moved out, Gypsy had a financial setback and sold the house. For seven years she hadn’t paid taxes, and eventually the government came after her for the money. By then the debt had accrued with interest and she owed nearly fifty thousand dollars. Gypsy later explained the debt by saying that she had unwisely protested paying taxes.

  After selling the home in August 2005, she moved into an apartment in north Salt Lake City. She would eventually return to medical school to work toward a registered nursing degree, in order to earn more money and improve her financial situation.

  Meanwhile, her relationship with Eric Blair had ended, and she dated varied types of men, some of whom she met on the Internet. She had no interest in being a wife again, and many times had affairs with married men, deciding it was their responsibility to be faithful to their spouses.

  “I’ve been married. I’ve had a baby. I’ve been kind of traumatized by that whole experience,” Gypsy explained. “I don’t really want to get married again.”

  By the time she met Martin, an affair with a handsome doctor seemed thrilling. “I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, and that was fine. It was just fun and exciting,” she recalled. “I was just living my life and doing whatever I wanted to do. I came to realize that wasn’t the best attitude. It hurt people, because inevitably they found out.”

  11.

  During the last year of her life, Michele seemed deeply distressed. Her marriage was crumbling, and while she couldn’t fathom the true breadth of her husband’s betrayal, she began to suspect that he was having an affair.

  Throughout 2006, Martin became increasingly icy toward his wife. At home he was possessive of his cell phone—rarely letting it out of his sight. He was also secretive with his computer, consistently deleting his e-mails and search history. Even more alarming, he disappeared for long stretches at a time. On several occasions he claimed to be working late, but when she called the office or drove by the Developmental Center to check for his car, he wasn’t there. When Michele confronted him about it, Martin changed the topic.

  During a marital counseling session at church in 2006, Martin once again confessed to his bishop that he no longer loved his wife and wanted a divorce. Michele confided to at least one friend that she feared her marriage was over.

  In the grip of depression, she gained weight. When she spoke to her family, they heard the sorrow in her voice. “Toward the end of her life, my impression was that something seemed to be bothering her,” Linda remembered. “You’d sense an underlying sadness.”

  * * *

  Meanwhile, Gypsy’s relationship with Martin intensified. While he had to play the part of the Mormon family man in every other aspect of his life, he felt he could be himself with Gypsy.

  “He had a lot of demands in his life—church stuff, a large family, daughters in dance, and he and his wife being social figures … I was the only aspect of his life that didn’t drain him,” Gypsy explained. “I know he felt liberated in my presence, as I did not ask, expect, or judge anything about him.”

  Soon Gypsy too had fallen deeply in love with Martin. He was everything she’d ever wanted in a partner. He was wealthy, handsome, intelligent, and seemed sincere. The traditional Mormon doctor seemed to reignite the deeply held desire she’d had since childhood—to be rescued by her own handsome prince. She would later describe Martin as “the American version of Prince Charming, coming from his glorious castle.”

  While she may have started out with thoughts of a casual affair, it appeared that Gypsy fell under the mistress’s curse—wanting her lover to leave his wife. With her heart belonging to Martin, she stopped dating other men. But late-night phone calls and clandestine motel room trysts soon became unsatisfying.

  After a few months of dating, Gypsy spoke to Martin about their potential future. At that point, it seemed Martin wasn’t ready to leave Michele. He told Gypsy they couldn’t be more than just lovers. Disheartened but still enamored, Gypsy continued her affair with Martin, but also reestablished her profile on a dating Web site and saw other men.

  Later, she informed another suitor about a conversation she’d had with the doctor. “I guess he felt the way you do, like the friendship was too good to tempt fate and go anywhere else with it,” Gypsy wrote in an e-mail. “After we had a conversation to the effect … I went back to dating and being available.”

  But Martin would come to have a change of heart about Gypsy, deciding he wanted to make her his next wife.

  * * *

  Middle age seemed to trigger something in Martin.

  On February 1, 2006, he celebrated his fiftieth birthday. Around that time he made several abrupt changes in his life. He became consumed with his physical appearance and preoccupied with improving his looks. Perhaps to keep up with his much younger girlfriend, he exercised compulsively, running and lifting weights at the gym. In a few months he’d shed about thirty pounds and had begun frequenting tanning salons.

  “He became obsessed with the way he looked,” Alexis recalled. “He’d start exercising just all the time, just in the middle of a conversation, jumping and doing push-ups, things like that. It was really bizarre. Really strange. Very out of the ordinary.”

  Martin’s children believed he was going through a midlife crisis. To Michele, his newfound focus on physicality felt like another sign of an affair.

  In early 2006, Martin also insisted on moving away from the family’s longtime home in Orem. Michele didn’t want to move, and she told her daughters she feared it was his way of preparing for a divorce.

  In February, they closed on a house at 3058 Millcreek Road in Pleasant Grove, about three miles from Martin’s job at the Developmental Center. Built in 2002, the five-thousand-square-foot, six-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom estate had a large basement, marble floors, and a private den. Although their new house was expansive, it was about half the size of their previous place in Orem. Martin and Michele paid for the house in cash: $571,500.

  All of the homes in their new master-planned community of Creekside encircled a five-acre park, where the residents’ children congregated. The neighborhood was occupied with affluent young families, including airline pilots, attorneys, and even one professional baseball player. Many of the young families were Mormon and attended the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple in American Fork.

  The MacNeills’ older adopted daughters enrolled at John Hancock Charter School. Ada attended a private elementary school, American Heritage.

  As the MacNeills got to know their neighbors, many of the residents were put off by Martin’s brash, boorish behavior. “He’s always felt like he’s a little bit above everybody intellectually,” one neighbor said.

  Sharing a driveway with the MacNeills, Doug and Kristi Daniels couldn’t help but notice the stark contrast between Martin and his wife. While the MacNeill and Daniels families never became close friends, Kristi thought of Michele as a lovely person. “She was very quiet, was always very pretty and very well kept,” Kristi remembered. “All the girls were just dressed perfect, like a tea party.”

  Doug, however, recalled how Martin seemed condescending from their first meeting. “He just made sure to say that he was downsizing into his home, and that he was a doct
or and a lawyer,” Doug said years later. “You could tell that he had a huge ego.”

  Michele settled into Pleasant Grove, decorating, organizing, and arranging the new home to suit her sophisticated style. The house featured large original paintings and sculptures, ballet-themed artwork, and elegant furniture. On weekends, Martin worked on construction projects to complete the home.

  * * *

  Straddling two different worlds, Martin continued to juggle his wife and his mistress. By this time he had become skilled at compartmentalizing his life.

  But as Michele’s suspicions strengthened and she sank further into depression, Martin began to find his wife and adopted girls insufferable. And the more time he spent with Gypsy, the more he seemed to realize that was where he preferred to be.

  During the summer of 2006, Gypsy escorted Martin to a medical conference in Atlanta. At night they explored the city, visiting an aquarium and getting sushi at one o’clock in the morning. Months later they also took a trip to Detroit, where they toured a museum and saw the popular Body Worlds exhibit, which features preserved human bodies.

  Each night they returned to their hotel room and made love. After returning to Utah, Gypsy bragged to her friends about the exciting trip and her exhilarating sexual escapades.

  Martin’s and Gypsy’s lives would grow oddly tangled. Martin confided thoughts and desires to Gypsy that he could not reveal to anyone else in his life. In turn, she grew fiercely loyal, later going to great lengths to protect him.

  It’s impossible to know what occurred during those romantic getaways, late-night phone calls, and covert sexual trysts.

  Had Gypsy gotten a glimpse of Martin’s malevolent side? Like Anna Osborne Walthall, was she one of the few to learn his abhorrent truths? Did Gypsy ever meet the real Martin MacNeill?

  It is a mystery that would be fiercely debated, dissected, and examined in court. What is known with certainty is that Gypsy was a paradox.

  And she was a woman with her own secrets.

  12.

  A cryptic ailment afflicted Martin in late 2006. It began with a pain in his foot. His big toe swelled grotesquely and became inflamed for weeks at a time, often so severely that he limped or walked with a cane. Perplexed, Martin consulted several doctors and specialists in an attempt to diagnose the condition. Over the next few months he would undergo three surgeries on his toe.

  Martin seemed consumed by his health problems. He spoke about them to anyone who would listen—his coworkers, church congregants, and family. With various colleagues at the Developmental Center, Martin’s explanations about his condition were often contradictory. In December, he limped into the office of human resource manager John David Laycock.

  “Hey, Martin,” David said. “How’s it going?”

  “Well, I’m having some issues with my toe.” Martin sighed, slumping into the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

  Without prompting from Laycock, Martin slipped off his shoe, tore off his sock, and propped his foot on top of the desk. Laycock glanced down at Martin’s toe, noticing it was indeed swollen. Later, Laycock observed Martin using a cane.

  Martin’s toe problem seemed to progressively worsen. That December, Martin told his family his prognosis was grim. “I don’t have long to live,” he said somberly.

  That Christmas the MacNeills gathered at the new house to celebrate the holiday. No one knew it at the time, but it would indeed be their very last Christmas as a family.

  * * *

  Over the next few months, Martin seemed to be living as if he were gravely sick and dying. He made plans for his final arrangements. On January 28, 2007, Martin took out a two-million-dollar life insurance policy on himself, including Michele and Alexis as beneficiaries. In addition, he signed the house into Michele’s name.

  But even Martin’s family was confused about his illness. In December he told his wife he had cancer. Later, he said he also had multiple sclerosis.

  Michele told her friends about Martin’s ailments. On January 15, Michele had turned fifty. To celebrate, she had gone to lunch with her “Ya-Ya Sisters,” Cheryl, Loreen, and Karen. They had spent much of the afternoon discussing Martin’s health. “We would frequently discuss Martin’s health because he had told her he was diagnosed with MS,” Cheryl said years later.

  Neighbors in Pleasant Grove also heard about Martin’s impending death. He told the Daniels family that his condition was rapidly deteriorating and that because of the diagnosis, he had put all of the family assets in Michele’s name. “I’ll be dead in six months,” he said.

  On Sunday, February 4, the MacNeill family attended church at the Mount Timpanogos Temple. Alexis and Rachel, who were both in town, also attended the services.

  During Sunday school class that day, Martin taught a lesson. He stood before members of the congregation and discussed his incurable illness. “I’ve been diagnosed with terminal cancer.” Martin’s voice was husky with emotion. “I’ll be dead soon.”

  Looking at his wife in the front row, he told the congregation how he had been preparing Michele to take over the financials of the household. Tears welled in Michele’s eyes.

  One of the MacNeills’ neighbors, Angie Aguilar, was seated with her family behind the older MacNeill children. “He taught a lesson in which he discussed his deteriorating health in a Sunday school class,” Angie said years later. “It was a very heartfelt, tearful lesson. And the family was there as well, and tearful.”

  But while church friends, neighbors, and Martin’s own family believed he was dying, no one at his work was under the impression that his condition was terminal. Martin explained to John David Laycock that he was having two separate health concerns—one was related to his nervous system, and the other was cancer. “He said he had cancer in his toe—he shared that with me,” Laycock explained, adding that Martin never said he had a few months to live.

  Martin also showed his toe to Guy Hale Thomas, the Developmental Center’s director of nursing. However, this time he had a different explanation. “He told us he had Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome,” Thomas recalled. “From what I understand, it was a neurological atrophy–type problem similar to MD [muscular dystrophy] and it affected his toe and he had to have some surgical work done on it.”

  Steven Nickelson heard yet another story. Martin told the nurse practitioner he had a genetic problem, possibly “peripheral neuropathy,” a nerve condition causing pain and numbness.

  * * *

  During her relationship with Martin, Gypsy noticed his injured toe on a number of occasions. “It was huge. The toe was half the size of his foot. It was red and it looked like it was coming down with cellulitis half of the time. It was bad,” Gypsy recalled. “Some days were better than others. Some days he used a cane and some days he didn’t need it.”

  At first Martin told Gypsy he’d broken his toe and it hadn’t healed correctly. Later, he said he had briefly been concerned about cancer but that blood tests proved he didn’t have the disease. Eventually, Martin explained to Gypsy he had been diagnosed with a genetic nerve disorder.

  As Martin sought out medical answers for his toe problems, he made two separate trips in February to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he underwent medical testing at the Mayo Clinic, the prestigious medical and research practice. On February 12, he went alone, staying for three days and undergoing a battery of physical and psychiatric testing. For his second trip, Gypsy accompanied him to Scottsdale. The date of that excursion would hold a special significance for Martin and Michele.

  * * *

  While planning for his impending death, Martin simultaneously prepared for a future with Gypsy. During the last few months of his wife’s life, something changed between Martin and Gypsy. He decided he wanted more than just simply an affair—he wanted a life with Gypsy. And by January 2007, their relationship had grown serious.

  By then Gypsy had decided to go back to school. She had enrolled in a program to further her nursing education and earn a registered nurse
degree at AmeriTech College in Draper, about twenty miles south of Salt Lake City.

  Gypsy gave notice at her apartment and lived cheaply by staying with friends, sleeping on their couches. “I didn’t have a lot of money saved up because I didn’t do that well,” she later said. “It was a very intensive nursing program. I was very overwhelmed. It was a very hard time.”

  Her schedule made it difficult to see Martin as often, which he lamented. And without her apartment they had little privacy. Once, they actually arranged a rendezvous at a vacant building in American Fork that was scheduled to be demolished, and a stranger walked in while Gypsy was nude.

  Searching for a place nearby for her to stay, Martin asked neighbor Angie Aguilar for a favor. A few houses north of where the Aguilars lived was the home of pro baseball player Jeremy Guthrie. The Baltimore Orioles pitcher and his family were currently away for spring training. Martin asked Angie if they needed a house sitter.

  “There’s a gal who works at the Developmental Center who is also going to school to be a nurse,” Martin said casually. “She needs somewhere close by to stay.”

  “I’ll ask if they are interested,” Angie replied.

  The Guthries declined, which Angie informed Martin of a few days later.

  Martin then came up with another solution. In January, he told Gypsy he had a duplex he had leased for construction workers he hired to complete a renovation on his home. Martin said the workers had skipped out on the job but that he still had to pay the lease. The duplex was located in Lehi, a small suburb about eight miles from Pleasant Grove. “You’re welcome to stay there,” he said.

  Gypsy agreed, and moved in weeks later. The accommodations were not luxurious—there were holes in the carpet and dated seventies décor. But having a place to stay meant a lot to Gypsy.

  Martin paid for rent and utilities. He also provided Gypsy with a debit card to use for all personal expenses. With Gypsy closer by, they met more frequently for sex; at least twice a week. “We communicated more, and just being closer to him, we had more visits,” Gypsy later said.