by Robert Scott
Portia tried calling her father about this situation, but once again got no answer, just a recorded message. Around that same time, Portia received a phone call from a woman named Savanna at the State Farm Insurance Agency in Delta. Savanna told Portia they were closing Alan’s policy due to a lack of payment. This was completely out of character for her father, Portia said.
Portia told Norcross that between June 4 and June 9, she had called her father three times per day, with no response. Miriam did call Portia back on June 5 and said to her that on May 29, 2008, while on the way to Lake Powell, Alan had told her to call the bank and lie to them. The lie was supposed to be that Alan was in Denver receiving electrolyte treatment, and to ask the bank to let Miriam cash a check for him. Then Miriam added that this was information she would not even tell her best friends. Portia thought this comment was very odd, since she and Miriam were not close, and the so-called information Miriam had just provided did not make sense. Portia related that she did not believe her father would ever ask anyone to lie. In fact, Portia adamantly stated, “To my knowledge, he does not lie, and, to the contrary, dislikes people who do lie in business.”
Portia told Norcross that Miriam had made arrangements for Portia’s nine-year-old daughter to have riding lessons at the Helmicks’ Whitewater home every Tuesday at noon. Portia’s daughter had her first lesson on June 3, 2008, and all went well. Alan and Miriam had picked up the girl the night before, and the girl spent Monday night there in Whitewater. The next day, Portia’s daughter had her riding lesson at noon, as scheduled, and then she was driven back to Portia’s home after the riding lesson.
But on June 9, 2008, Portia had tried calling her father to ask if he was picking up her daughter for the next lesson, which was scheduled for June 10. Portia could not get through to him, so she left a message on his cell phone. Portia next called Miriam’s cell phone and also left a message on it. Miriam later called Portia back and said that the new horse trainer was having a problem with a horse named Billy, which her daughter rode. Miriam then added that she wanted to cancel the ride slated for June 10 and reschedule it for Friday, June 13.
Norcross made a note about this horse trainer, Julie, but actually found out later that the horse trainer was named Sue Boulware. Portia added that when she got Miriam’s message, she was very upset, but she said it was okay to do the new plan for June 13. Portia also said that she wanted to speak with her father right then. Miriam replied that Alan had gone to an appointment in the town of Montrose at 2:00 P.M. and planned to stop off at Portia’s home on the way back. Portia now told Norcross that this was also strange, since her father almost never popped in unannounced.
Alan Helmick did not stop off at Portia’s house on June 9, and Portia phoned Miriam once again. Miriam said this time that she had told Alan to phone Portia. That phone call never came, nor did Alan stop by Portia’s home by five o’clock, as Miriam indicated he would do. Concerned about this, Portia phoned her husband, Josh Vigil, since she knew Josh had plans to spend the night at the Helmick residence after his workday with Halliburton. Once Josh got there, he said that this whole scenario was strange. He phoned Portia from the Helmick residence in Whitewater and said that from where he stood he could see both Miriam and Alan out by the barn.
Miriam phoned Portia later that same night and told her that Alan had stopped by the Elks Lodge in Delta to pay his dues on his way home. Then, according to Miriam, Alan had arrived home “really drunk,” so she put him to bed. Portia said that this was unlikely. She had never known her father to drink to excess and drive.
Portia did not question Miriam at the time, but she did phone Josh once again. Josh said that Alan did not appear to be drunk when he saw him by the barn. Portia did not pursue this matter because all the kids were planning to visit Alan on Thursday, June 12, and have their riding lesson the next day. Portia related that she would talk in person with her father on that occasion. Of course, by then, he was already dead.
Portia tried calling her father on the morning of June 10, but as usual, the call went immediately to voice mail. Portia next phoned Miriam’s cell phone and spoke directly with her, telling Miriam that she needed to speak with her father right away. There was some important business he needed to attend to. Miriam responded that she was at Walmart and Alan was not with her. Then Miriam said that Alan was picking up a car and they were supposed to meet and have lunch at a Mexican restaurant later that day. Portia told Norcross that was the last time she spoke with Miriam before she heard about the murder of her father.
Portia Vigil learned about a murder in Whitewater and got online on a computer to see what it was all about. There was mention of a robbery out at her father’s house and that a male had been found deceased inside the home. Portia immediately phoned her husband, Josh, who answered and said that he was just pulling into the Helmicks’ driveway. Portia phoned her father-in-law, her sisters, and then her husband once again.
Portia told Investigator Norcross that Miriam had two small dogs, and she was certain they would have barked if there had been an intruder in the house. To a question about cell phones, Portia said that her father’s phone was pink and Miriam’s phone was black. Portia had even joked to her father that it wasn’t very masculine to have a pink cell phone. Her father had joked back that he was comfortable with his masculinity and didn’t worry about having a pink mobile phone.
During the interview, Portia said that Bob Isom was her father’s closest friend. Isom had stopped by her home upon hearing the news about Alan. Bob told Portia that he had spoken to Alan on the previous afternoon about a golf game they had scheduled for the morning of June 10. Bob said that Alan canceled the golf game because Portia’s daughter was coming over to the Whitewater residence for her riding lessons. Portia told Bob that Miriam had canceled the riding lesson. This made no sense to Bob, since Alan had canceled the golf game so he could attend his granddaughter’s riding lesson.
Regarding the Helmick home in Whitewater, Portia said to Norcross that she didn’t think the home had ever been locked. It was in a supposedly safe area, and people just didn’t lock their doors out there. But Miriam had told Portia that two months previously she had found some house keys that had been missing. And Miriam added that they were going to start locking the doors because the area was becoming unsafe. Portia said the area was not unsafe; and despite Miriam’s statement, the doors at the home had remained unlocked during the time period of April, May, and early June 2008.
Portia also told Norcross that her father and Miriam had gone to Portia’s daughter’s dance recital on May 10. It was there that Portia heard about her father’s vehicle being on fire in Delta. The strangest part of all this was that Miriam told Portia at the dance recital that the police in Delta suspected Miriam of being involved in the car fire. Then Miriam added that this was ridiculous and that she and Alan had a prenuptial agreement. If anything happened to him, Miriam was not going to benefit from an insurance policy on his life. According to Miriam, everything that Alan owned, and all assets before he and Miriam got married, were to be split among his children after his death. For her to kill him would have left her destitute.
Miriam related to Portia that she had told Delta investigators she had no policy taken out on Alan’s life, and she added, “I’m better off with him alive than dead.” And Portia knew that even though her father had a $275,000 life insurance policy, the benefactors were his business partners and not Miriam.
Delving more deeply into the vehicle fire in Delta, Investigator Norcross learned from Portia that she and her father had a cell phone conversation about it right after the incident, which had occurred on April 30, 2008. Portia related that the Delta police had called her, because they could not get in contact with her father after the car fire. Portia called Miriam and said she needed to speak to her father immediately. Miriam responded by saying that Alan was busy and would get back to her. But Portia wouldn’t be put off. She told Miriam that the Delta police had just called her a
bout her father, and she wanted to speak with him now, not later. At that point, Miriam handed the phone over to Alan.
Portia said that she could hear her father ask Miriam where his cell phone was, and he also asked if she had turned it off. Portia added that after that point she began to believe Miriam was hiding her father’s cell phone and turning it off whenever she could get away with it.
CHAPTER 11
A MATTER OF POISON
Based on the information that Portia Vigil had given Investigator Norcross, MCSO investigator Chuck Warner called the Delta Elks Lodge about whether Alan Helmick had become intoxicated there on June 9, 2008. Warner talked to Chris Ranker, the Elks Lodge bartender, who had worked the bar that evening. Ranker said that she had known Alan Helmick for years, and she was sure he was not at the bar in the lodge on June 9. In fact, Ranker said she had not seen Alan or Miriam Helmick at the club for four or five months.
On June 12, Investigator Pete Burg interviewed Bob Isom at the Mesa County Sheriff ’s Office. Isom stated that he had known Alan Helmick for forty-five years and they had gone to school together. They had been friends for a long, long time, and even neighbors at one point. Bob also stated that he and Alan were members of the Elks and that they used to boat on Lake Powell together. Those trips, according to Bob, ended when Miriam came on the scene, except for one trip to Lake Powell. That had been on May 30, 2008, to June 1, 2008, when he, his wife, Peggy, Alan, and Miriam had been there.
Isom told Investigator Burg that Miriam had been hard to get to know, but on that particular trip to Lake Powell, she was more relaxed and talkative than usual. Bob added, “My wife, Peggy, even thought it was kind of funny how nice Miriam was being to all of them.” Bob did admit that he didn’t notice any problems between Alan and Miriam on that trip.
Bob related that the last time he saw Alan Helmick alive was on Monday, June 9, 2008, at around 1:30 P.M. Isom had driven to the Helmick residence and invited Alan to play golf the next morning at nine-ten. Alan told Bob that he had a horse-riding lesson scheduled for his granddaughter, but he would see if he could move that to a different date. He promised to call Bob back about the golf game.
Bob Isom told Investigator Burg that at that meeting, “Alan looked like his old self. He looked super.” After Isom left, Alan phoned him about four hours later and said that he could not make the golf game on the following day. Alan said he had to do the “grandbaby thing”—meaning he had to be there when his granddaughter took her riding lesson.
Isom did go to the golf course on the morning of June 10 and played a round of golf. When Bob returned home that evening, his wife, Peggy, immediately told him that Miriam had called earlier and said, “There was a robbery and Alan has gotten shot, and he’s dead.” Then Peggy told Bob that Miriam wanted him to go and be with Alan’s daughter, Portia, because Portia would be distraught.
Isom did go over to Portia’s house, and it was there that he first learned from Portia that Miriam had canceled the riding lesson. Isom told Investigator Burg, “This made no sense! Alan had canceled the golf game because of that riding lesson! He would have gone golfing, if not for that riding lesson.”
Investigator Hebenstreit went to see Dr. Robert Kurtzman, who had done the postmortem on Alan Helmick. Hebenstreit told Dr. Kurtzman that some of Alan Helmick’s family and friends were suspicious that Miriam might have been poisoning Alan before his murder. This was based on Alan’s long period of illness, where at times he could not even get out of bed.
Dr. Kurtzman told Hebenstreit that he had found no evidence of poisoning, but Alan did have serious heart disease. Kurtzman said this would have caused Alan intolerance to physical activity, fatigue, and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such as heartburn.
Hebenstreit said that several people mentioned that Alan had looked and acted better one week before his death. Hebenstreit wanted to know if that was consistent with heart disease. Dr. Kurtzman said yes, and all things considered, family and friends might have mistaken legitimate health issues for poisoning.
On June 12, 2008, Detective Beverly Jarrell interviewed Sue Boulware by phone. Boulware said that she had first been contacted by Miriam Helmick in February 2008 to train the Helmicks’ horses. Boulware’s duties as a trainer were dressage training and an evaluation of the equestrian sport property. Sue said she did not know much about the personal lives of Alan and Miriam, and she didn’t ask. In fact, she had never been to the Helmick residence in Whitewater. The training had taken place at a location in Loma.
Boulware related that on June 9, 2008, the day before Alan was murdered, both Alan and Miriam arrived at the training center in Loma to take one of the horses to Dr. Harris for medical treatment. Sue said that Alan and Miriam were in a hurry, but that was nothing unusual. The Helmicks got the horse into the trailer and then transported it to the vet. Boulware added that everything seemed normal between Alan and Miriam that day, and they returned a few hours later with the horse.
Boulware told Jarrell that she received a phone call at eight forty-three in the morning on June 10. Sue believed that Miriam was calling her on a cell phone while driving, because at one point near the end, Miriam said she was at a store. During the phone call, Miriam said that she would be canceling the noon appointment for the riding lesson for Alan’s granddaughter. Miriam added that they had not made it to Delta on the previous night to pick up the granddaughter as scheduled. This was news to Jarrell. Miriam had told Portia Vigil that it was Sue Boulware who had canceled the riding lesson, because the horse, Billy, was having problems.
Boulware related that at the end of the cell phone conversation on June 10, Miriam had offered to drive to Loma and pay her for the missed lesson. Sue told Miriam that it was too far to drive, and just to send her a check, instead.
Oddly, even after such traumatic events on June 10, Miriam phoned Sue Boulware the very night of Alan’s murder to tell her that the check would be late. The reason for the late check, Miriam said, was that there had been a robbery at the house and Alan had been killed. Then Miriam told Sue that they never locked their doors. Miriam even went out of her way to tell Boulware that all the assets that Alan had were in a trust fund, and she didn’t know how her finances were going to be for a while. Sue was stunned that Miriam was phoning her after such a devastating event.
Boulware told Investigator Jarrell that the Helmicks were nice people and she never had any trouble with them. Then she added that Alan was intelligent, business smart, and financially oriented; he was reasonable to get along with. It was Alan who had been more involved with the business side of the horse training center. Miriam had been more involved on a day-to-day basis, but Boulware thought that both had been enthusiastic about it.
That same day, Bev Jarrell also met with Stephanie Soule and her husband, Brian, at the MCSO headquarters. Stephanie told Jarrell that she had been approached by the Helmicks in March 2007 regarding horse-riding lessons. Miriam had been the first to take the riding lessons on one of the Soules’ horses. As the lessons continued, Miriam had talked about having her own business venture in horse training. She wanted to use land that Alan owned for riding lessons, horse training, and also the selling of horses.
The original scheme was to divide some of the Whitewater property and make it into a “horse subdivision.” All of these initial plans had come from Miriam, but Stephanie added that all of the horse-riding lessons were being paid for by Alan Helmick.
When the plan went into reality, it was Stephanie Soule’s job to set up the facility, to arrange schedules, equipment, and diet for the horses. The trainer said she was there about five days a week, but there were occasions that the Helmicks would cancel because of Alan’s other business operations.
Stephanie then said that Miriam lied to Alan regarding the financial issues of the equestrian-training center. And she became concerned when Miriam asked her to put down more time than she had done on the actual training. Miriam told her, “That’s to prepare Alan for the future.” The trainer
told Miriam that she was not comfortable with falsifying records.
Stephanie related that initially Alan had been very nice with her. But over time, he seemed more irritated and questioned her about discrepancies. And Miriam made an odd comment to her: “I don’t maintain any type of financial records because of something that happened to me during my first marriage. Alan has been trying to help me out of this financial problem.” Just what that problem was, the trainer didn’t know.
Stephanie said that Miriam would often make excuses for not training or riding when Stephanie was under contract for payment. And even though Stephanie was going by the contract, Alan started becoming angry with her for writing down on her training log times that he knew Miriam had not ridden or trained horses. It got so bad that there were times that she had to go to Miriam in order to get paid for services she had rendered.
Both Stephanie and her husband, Brian Soule, said that things only got worse in relation to the Helmicks. Brian described Alan questioning his wife’s training time; and when Miriam tried to intervene, “he would shut her down.” Brian added, “Alan became irrational at the end of 2007. He cursed Stephanie around Christmas, 2007, and said that this was his business and she could not tell him what to do!”
December 30, 2007, was the last time Stephanie Soule contacted the Helmicks in person at their Whitewater home.
On June 13, Investigator Lissah Norcross interviewed another of Alan’s daughters, thirty-two-year-old Wendy. Just like Portia, Wendy said that it had been very hard to get in touch with her father over the past several months. Wendy declared that Miriam had been keeping Alan’s phone and not turning it on. This wasn’t a secret, however, since even her father had stated that Miriam was keeping his phone for him. To Wendy, it seemed more like Miriam was keeping the phone from him.
