by Robert Scott
Fujii measured the trigger pull and the GSR when he received the Beretta from the safe to see if it had been modified. It apparently had not been modified. He noted that the Beretta ejected casings to the right. He also concluded that .762-caliber ammunition found at the Saddlewood residence was probably for an AK-47. This weapon was never found.
Another person who helped the detectives was Beverly Hodge, who worked for the California toll bridge agency in the Bay Area, which included the Antioch Bridge. Unbeknownst to the Helzers and Dawn Godman, when they drove the pickup with the personal watercraft over the bridge, they were photographed by a video camera. Officer Vedder asked Hodge to view all the videos from August 1, 2000, to August 4, 2000. She did this with Officer Vedder. They were looking for a white Nissan pickup truck.
These two viewed literally thousands of vehicles crossing the Antioch Bridge until they froze a frame from 1:28 P.M. on Thursday, August 3. They saw a white pickup truck pulling a trailer with a watercraft on it. There were three people in the truck, but the videotape did not give a good view of their faces, nor did it pick up the license plate number. But it did show a multicolored personal watercraft on the trailer. A logo read, “Rent me.” This matched the crafts rented at Cool Rides.
One person who was a great help to the detectives was Cal Fed supervisor Vicki Sexton. She had been helping them ever since August 7. She related, “On Monday (August 7, 2000), I saw on Channel 2 that an elderly couple named the Stinemans were missing. I became very alarmed. I started processing information. Then I started hearing about Selina Bishop being missing. ‘Oh, my God!’ I thought. Those are my customers! I have to call the police.”
She contacted the Concord Police Department and Marin County Sheriff’s Office. She told them there was an account for Justin Helzer at Cal Fed. On July 11, he’d written a check to a store called Bags and Baggage. She also told them that $100,000 went into Selina Bishop’s Cal Fed account on August 1, 2000. She’d placed a hard hold on these checks, however, and they had not cleared.
Detectives later noted about Vicki Sexton in their reports that she told Detective Norris that a white female in a wheelchair had shown up at the branch. The woman had been wearing a green top and pants, and a cowboy hat. This had occurred on Tuesday, August 1 at around 2:30 P.M. Sexton had spoken to this women who identified herself as Jackie, but was in fact Dawn Godman. “Jackie” was supposedly a good friend of the Stinemans and close to their supposed grand daughter Selina Bishop.
Godman said that Selina was in San Diego at a hospital and needed money for heart surgery, since she didn’t have medical insurance. Godman claimed that Selina Bishop presently lived in Petaluma. Godman said that she needed two checks to clear the next day. Then Godman said she had driven to the bank, which surprised Vicki Sexton because she was in a wheelchair.
Sexton told Godman that she had to verify the checks before completing the translation. Sexton dialed a phone number printed on one of the Stinemans’ checks, and received a message from an answering machine with the voice of an elderly male. She left a message for the Stinemans to call her back, and Godman told her that the Stinemans had just moved and had a new phone number.
Sexton dialed this number, and received another message by a man purporting to be Ivan Stineman. This voice, however, sounded like that of a younger man. The voice was in a monotone and it sounded like he was reading from a script.
Sexton then phoned a Dean Witter office to verify that funds existed in the two accounts covered by the checks. A man there said he needed the Social Security numbers of Ivan and Annette Stineman. Godman said she would get these for Sexton. Sexton began the process of depositing the checks, but she put a hard hold on them until verification could be accomplished.
Financial Crimes Unit detective Patrick Murray, of the CPD, became involved in the money trail. On August 15, he contacted Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter and traced two checks—one for $10,000 and the other for $67,000. He wasn’t able to track down a third check for $33,000 then, because it was still being processed.
Police work in all directions was spurred on by receipts and handwritten notes collected at Saddlewood. Edward Berry, of Double Header Pagers, was contacted. It was discovered that an account was made out to a Shirley K. Robinson. When Berry was shown a photo lineup, he picked out a photo of Dawn Godman as Shirley Robinson.
Detective Murray went back to Dean Witter and by then the third check had cleared. It was for the amount of $33,000 and the phone number on the check was the same pager number that Dawn Godman (Shirley Robinson) had.
Murray spoke with Greg Matthias at Dean Witter about Taylor Helzer. Then he spoke with George Calhoun. Murray began checking all the money that both Taylor Helzer and Justin Helzer owed various agencies. He learned that Taylor owed his mother $16,338. Justin owed large amounts to various places, such as $5,200 to Citibank, $5,000 to Metro 1, $7,600 to Household Finance and $2,400 to People’s Bank. There seemed to be a financial incentive for murder, as well as some religious angle.
One interesting thing that popped up was a $185 charge to a place called Wet Pleasure in Napa. Murray surmised that Justin might have paid this amount to go “jet skiing” on Lake Berryessa as early as July 2, 2000. Later evidence indicated that Taylor, Dawn and Selina did, in fact, spend time there.
Strange names kept popping up on bills. There was Shirley and Emil Robinson for Pacific Gas and Electric and Concord Disposal Services. Dave and Sherry Birnauf showed up on Contra Costa Water District bills for the Saddlewood residence. Murray guessed that Justin and Dawn were using these false names to get services.
Robert Brady, of the CPD, analyzed the illegal drugs seized from the Saddlewood residence. From the twenty-six packages of pills (ecstasy) found, he concluded that each pill was worth from $15 to $20 dollars if sold at a rave.
Senior Inspector Ted Spyrow went for a more intensive and thoroughgoing interview with Keri Furman in September 2000. This interview took place in Carmine Carlucci’s office in Las Vegas. Detectives Warnock and Oppit were also there. The detectives all wore plain clothes, and they brought along a series of photographs, documents and letters.
During the interview, Keri told them several new things about Taylor. She said, “He was going to find a married couple. [I] would have sex with the married man. Then Taylor would blackmail him.”
They asked her about Taylor’s fascination with numbers and their meaning in prophecy. She said, “His whole idea was having three core people. Justin was one. He wanted me to be another. He was testing my value of trust. Because I didn’t handle it the way he wanted, he didn’t trust me at all.
“He always wanted to see if I’d freak out. I was freaking out. He was afraid I’d turn on him. Like I’ve turned on him now.”
Asked about the date rape drug Rohypnol, she said she was living in southern California at the time, away from Taylor. He came down for a visit and they both went to Tijuana and purchased the drug. Senior Inspector Spyrow brought up the plan about getting young women from Mexico to turn into prostitutes. She corrected him and said Taylor wanted them to come from Brazil.
About the Feline Club, she said, “Olivia and I were supposed to help with the operation of the club.”
Asked about Taylor’s dominance over other people, Keri said, “Taylor had an overpowering power of love. You felt the intensity in your bones. He said that God told him to go on disability. And to sell ecstasy. I was very confused about the teachings of Taylor. We were always butting heads. From day one, it was like that. He felt no guilt about anything he did. He could do no wrong.”
When Senior Inspector Spyrow got back to the Bay Area, he looked at a map of the Delta region. At this point, the detectives had no idea where the Children of Thunder had launched their personal watercraft. Spyrow noticed that an area around Korth’s Pirate’s Lair was circled in ink on a map found at Saddlewood. He decided to go investigate and talked with owner Kip Korth.
Kip Korth owned a little bit of paradise on the Delta.
Known as Korth’s Pirate’s Lair, it included a marina, tree-shaded mobile-home park, restaurant and launching facility. The place had been owned by the Korth family since the 1930s. Subsequent investigations proved that the Children of Thunder had indeed launched from the ramp there. There was a notation on a log-in sheet about a white Nissan pickup that launched a personal watercraft, along with the pickup’s license plate number.
Like a giant circular puzzle, the leads, which had started with a duffel bag being found on the North Fork of the Mokelumne River in the Delta, were returning to close the gap on what had occurred during the Days of Thunder.
CHAPTER 12
Crossing the Bar
Taylor’s schemes, plots and murders continued to drag more people down with him as the facts came out. In late August 2000, his mother, Carma, had to testify before a grand jury. At the time, it was still not clear to authorities if she had helped Taylor in any of his schemes. After all, he had written her name down on several notes.
Carma spent most of one day testifying before the grand jury, and even a part of a second day. The testimony was sealed, but at one point she did ask for a lawyer. For a short time, Gerry Helzer had to speak before the grand jury as well. He told a reporter later that they were being treated fairly, but he said about Carma’s testimony, “She’s being pounded in there.”
Across town, Taylor Helzer sat in a jail cell along with Justin and Dawn. His lawyer, Suzanne Chapot, told reporters, “He’s distraught. He doesn’t know what happened.” She indicated that he was suffering from mental illness and had done so for a number of years. She added that he was “remorseful and horrified” by what people in jail were telling him that he’d done.
The eighteen counts and thirty-nine overt acts against the Children of Thunder were incredibly long. The count list began with: “On or about March 2000 through August 2000, at Concord of Contra Costa County, the defendants, Glenn Taylor Helzer, Dawn Susan Godman and Justin Alan Helzer, did unlawfully conspire together to commit the crimes of murder, extortion, robbery, burglary, false imprisonment and obstruction of justice.”
The overt acts ranged from “the defendants did kill Ivan and Annette Stineman” to “on August 4, 2000, in Oakland, the defendants abandoned Ivan and Annette Stineman’s van.”
Just where the trial would be held was a matter of conjecture. Jenny Villarin and James Gamble had been murdered in Marin County, while the Stinemans and Selina Bishop had been killed in Contra Costa County, and the body parts had been discovered in Sacramento County. Finally Marin County and Sacramento County agreed that Contra Costa was the appropriate site for the trial. Sergeant Doug Pittman said, “This decision is based on the fact that the circumstances leading to these killings had their genesis in Contra Costa County and that a majority of the overt acts attributed to the conspiracy to commit these murders occurred in Contra Costa County.”
“Remorseful and horrified”—or not—by the crimes, Taylor Helzer had to face a hearing. During the proceedings, Deputy DA Harold Jewett alluded to the fact that Taylor had tried to sell his story for $400,000 to Playboy magazine. Suzanne Chapot made no comment about this matter, but Gerry Helzer did. He told a reporter that Taylor had thought of selling his story, then decided that if there was a buyer, he would donate the money to charity.
Justin’s lawyer, William Veale, was trying already to distance his client from his older brother. Veale said, “I don’t have any reason to believe that Justin Helzer killed anybody, hurt anybody or stole from anyone, and we will prove that in court.”
Taylor and the others had plenty to worry about, however. Deputy DA Harold Jewett said that he would be seeking the death penalty against all of them. He told reporters, “The interests of justice would be served by the imposition of the death penalty for anybody who was directly involved in these brutal murders and really callous desecration of the bodies. It was methodical and almost clinical. There was almost sacrilegious mistreatment of the bodies.”
In fact, some authorities wondered if there had been satanic rites performed because of the removal of Annette Stineman’s internal organs. Her heart had been stabbed many times, apparently after it had been removed. There was no logical explanation for that.
Jewett went on to say, “I do not believe Selina Bishop was part of this extortion. There is some indication that she had prior knowledge of a grand get-rich-quick scheme by Taylor Helzer. I feel reasonably certain that not later than the time the Stinemans were killed, it became apparent for the Helzers that Selina knew more than was safe for them.”
The proceedings for Taylor, Justin and Dawn came one month to the day after they were arrested. At one point during the proceedings, Taylor, who was supposedly suffering from mental illness, told Judge Michael Coleman, “Personally, I don’t understand why we can’t just say what happened to get it over with.” His attorney, Suzanne Chapot, cut him off before he could say anything else.
Taylor, however, had a hard time being quiet. At another point, he told the judge, “Your Honor, I’ve wanted to tell about this for a long time.”
When Deputy DA Jewett asked Taylor if he realized he was giving up his right to a speedy preliminary hearing, Taylor said, “I’m not sure what you’re doing.”
Irked by Taylor’s behavior, Jewett responded, “Listen to me closely!”
After the hearing, Chapot told reporters, “He’s disturbed and scared.”
Justin’s attorney, William Veale, said, “He’s (Justin) got a gun in the house, but anybody who was in that house had access to it. Taylor Helzer had access to that house and to that gun. They (the prosecution) don’t know who did what and they leapt to the worst possible conclusion.”
At the proceedings, Jewett told Judge Coleman rather optimistically: “I hope that all of the forensic examinations will be completed by the end of November.”
That Taylor, Justin and Dawn would not receive a speedy preliminary hearing was an understatement. It was eventually scheduled for January 5, 2001, and then moved to April. Even that was too optimistic. By the one-year anniversary of the abduction of the Stinemans, the preliminary hearing had still not taken place.
Even Taylor was frustrated by the delays. He told a judge during a brief hearing on July 28, 2001, “I wish it would happen a lot sooner. I don’t understand why it takes so long for this process.”
Part of the reason for the delays was the subpoenaing of 450 witnesses and the collection of thousands of pages of documents. Harold Jewett said, “There is a huge amount of information in this case. It is the largest and most complex case that I have ever seen.” In fact, the amount of documents and evidence filled two entire storage rooms.
On the one-year anniversary of the crimes, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Sam McMannis wrote, “If one thought the Helzer brothers’ alleged crimes would drive longtime residents out of the neighborhood or make them cower inside their homes in fear, you are wrong. None of the seven home owners has moved or even considered leaving.”
Alfred Rivera, who lived on Saddlewood Court, told him that the crimes could have happened anywhere. Rivera said that he felt sorry for the landlord. The house had not been rented since the murders in August 2000. Rivera also said he knew it would be difficult to find any renters for the place, considering its violent past.
Christine Rivera said that she’d lived in the neighborhood for twenty years and had raised two kids there. She added that the only way she was leaving the area was when they took her out in a pine box.
Neighbor Kaye Shaman, who’d found the bloody piece of flesh near her garden hose, said, “I’m not comfortable with the thing that happened. But I’m very comfortable with the court.”
In fact, the neighbors often got together to discuss what had happened and to talk about the case as it moved along in the court. Alfred Rivera said he hoped the owner would just sell the place. Then he laughed nervously and added that if Mr. Cheng rented the place again, he hoped the landlord would be more careful about the renters.
Across the bay in Marin County at Forest Knolls, in a local park, an eight-foot-high grizzly bear had been carved from an old pine tree to commemorate Jenny and Selina’s affection for bears. A potluck dinner was served at the Paper Mill Creek Saloon, followed by live music by Walt Dixon and the Sky Blue Band.
The summer of 2001 went by and still there was no preliminary hearing for Taylor, Justin or Dawn. There were arguments by the defense lawyers that Harold Jewett’s murder and conspiracy charges were “vague” and should be thrown out. Jewett countered that his briefs were lengthy, cogent and detailed.
On top of this, a lawyer for Taylor, deputy public defender Simone Shaheen, asked that the upcoming hearing be closed to the media. The San Francisco Chronicle, Contra Costa Times and KGO-TV argued that very little media attention had been exhibited since the fall of 2000 and that there was a jury pool in Contra Costa County that numbered into the hundreds of thousands.
Jewett joined in the fray by saying media publicity was not only necessary, but therapeutic for the public. He added, “You could no more put a lid on the facts of this case than you could on the events of September eleventh. One of the reasons we have the Fourth Estate (the media) is so that we can know. So that we don’t live in fear and ignorance.”
In the end, Superior Court judge Douglas Cunningham came down on the side of the media. The hearing would be open to public scrutiny.
When the preliminary hearing did begin on December 3, 2001, more new evidence came to light. Detective Heidi Stephenson said that Taylor Helzer had not only killed the victims, but he had planned to fake his own death as well. By this means, he hoped to go underground after the crimes.
Stephenson also spoke about Debra McClanahan, who allegedly had taught Dawn Godman the pagan practices of Wicca.
When McClanahan took the stand, she confirmed her allegiance to Wicca. She spoke of herself as a good witch. She also said that she had taught Dawn and Taylor some spells. She said that Taylor sometimes referred to himself as a warlock.
