C
HAPTER 26
S
PECIAL
A
GENT
M
ORTON
Possibly because of their experience with the Michael Blagg case, which had elements of a staged robbery in the home, MCSO contacted Robert Morton, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Morton was an expert in this field, and he came with a lot of experience.
Morton began his FBI career in Chicago as a senior member of an evidence response team (ERT). During his tenure there, he investigated evidence in the Oklahoma City Bombing case and the Atlanta Olympics Bombing case. He also did work at the Pentagon when terrorists crashed a plane into it on September 11, 2001.
Later, Morton transferred to the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC), in Quantico, Virginia. As Morton noted later, “We worked on cases that are so unusual, they don’t usually occur with normal policeman’s experience level. We focus specifically on those types of crimes, and by doing so, we maintain an expertise in those kinds of crimes.”
By the fall of 2008, Morton was certified by the International Association for Identification (IAI) as a senior crime analyst. In order to qualify, he needed a minimum of five years of experience supervising crime scene work and had to pass a four-hundred-question test.
Of the Helmick case in particular, Agent Morton would later recount that he came to Grand Junction to meet with members of the Mesa County Sheriff ’s Office. According to Morton, MCSO wanted his opinion on whether the crime scene at the Helmick home had been staged to look like a burglary gone bad.
Of such a crime scene in general, Morton said, “The whole purpose of doing so is because the offender feels they will be targeted by the police as a prime suspect. So they stage the crime scene to disguise the crime scene to make it appear as something else other than what it really is.
“Staging almost always, in my experience, reflects some type of relationship between the offender and the victim. If I’m a stranger, there’s no connection between me and the victim. Therefore, I have no need to stage a crime scene. I can just walk away from whatever happened.
“In my experience, most of the crime scenes that are staged are done so by people who have very little familiarity with the offense they’re attempting to portray. In other words, if I want to stage a crime scene as a robbery gone bad, but I’ve never been a robber, I don’t actually know what happens in that scene. So I use instead my experience or exposure through the media, television, et cetera, to gain those experiences.
“Because police officers are exposed to real crime scenes on a daily basis, they understand the dynamics and the interactions that occur in those crimes. So when they come across a staged crime scene, it looks to be convoluted or made up to them because it doesn’t have the necessary elements that they’re used to seeing when they investigate certain types of crimes.”
Agent Morton looked at various Helmick crime scene photographs that MCSO had taken right after the murder. Morton commented later, “What was interesting in reviewing the scene and looking at the aerial shots was that it wasn’t the first residence that you would come to. You would have to go past several other residences to target that house for a burglary.
“And there was a long driveway where you couldn’t see the residence from the roadway. You’d almost have to know there was a residence back there to drive back there and find it. That would be a concern to a burglar. If I’m a burglar and I’m stealing property because I need money to do whatever I need to do with it, my concern is not being detected. Getting in as quickly as I can and exiting as quickly as I can. To limit myself to one way in and one way out—well, I can’t even see if there’s anybody at home. If I drive up there and there’s somebody home, and I attempt to flee the residence, I’m basically pinning myself in a very difficult situation.”
As far as two pickup trucks being parked in the driveway at the time of the crime, Morton stated, “Most daytime burglars are looking for an unoccupied house so they can go in and steal things. That there’s vehicles parked in the driveway would almost indicate someone was there. There’s better targets to choose than going into a house and taking a chance that somebody would be home.”
About the photos taken by the sheriff ’s office of the interior of the Helmick home, Morton related, “The ransacking that took place in the residence did not appear as other burglaries I’ve seen. Burglars are interested in finding things quickly. They’ll empty drawers out. There’s no concern for neatness in how you open drawers or close drawers. When you looked at those photographs, the drawers were open, but it doesn’t look like some of the contents were gone through other than there was a jewelry box in the bedroom on the dresser and its drawers were open. Even that was left on the dresser. It wasn’t thrown on the bed and the drawers pulled out.”
As far as the kitchen went, Morton observed, “The trash can was knocked over. If I’m a burglar, there’s no need for me to knock a trash can over and look through the trash can. People don’t keep valuables there. Same thing with the home office. Valuables are kept, for the most part, in a master bedroom because it’s the inner sanctum. That’s where everybody keeps their valuables, guns, money, all those kinds of things.”
When it came to drawers just being opened up and made to look as if they had been searched through, Morton said, “The whole idea for a real burglar is to get in and out as quickly as possible. So you search the areas where you know most people keep things that they can trade. In reviewing the crime scene report, I noticed that there was a handgun and several long guns that were not taken.”
Morton noted that computers, a fax machine, and a laptop were not taken. These were all items most burglars wanted to get their hands on—especially the laptop. And as far as a pistol went, Morton stated, “It’s a very good item for a burglar to steal, simply because you can sell it on the street with no strings attached. You can get a very quick turnover of money.”
And when it came to the master bedroom, Morton said, “Other than the drawer on the nightstand being opened, and the jewelry box drawer being pulled out and some other drawers ajar, nothing seemed to be taken. The jewelry box was still in place on the dresser instead of drawers being pulled out and contents dumped. That was unique to me. If I was trying to steal things, what happened to those person’s belongings were of no concern to me. I’m only concerned with taking things out of there and leaving as quickly as I can.”
And there was the position of Alan Helmick’s body as well. Morton stated, “From my experience and training, the position that he fell in . . . Well, most people, unlike on television, when you get shot, you fall in the direction of the shot. You don’t get blown across a room and through windows, and all those other things they love to do. What happens is, especially with a shot like Mr. Helmick received, which would have been almost instantaneous in killing him, he falls directly back toward the direction of the shot. It would put the position of the person who did the shooting in very tight quarters near him. A very narrow position.
“The distance of the gunshot was not a contact shot, so the offender didn’t have the gun at the back of his head when it was fired. For a stranger to shoot him in that position would be very unusual. It seemed to have occurred at about a two-foot range. If I was a burglar and I’m confronted by the homeowner, the easiest thing for me to do is run out the door and escape. And for the offender to literally target Mr. Helmick is not consistent with any kind of daytime burglar who’s there to steal.”
C
HAPTER 27
A
N
A
RREST
By the end of November 2008, investigators for MCSO had amassed an immense amount of material that put Miriam Helmick in a bad light concerning the murder of her husband, Alan. There wasn’t a smoking gun found in Miriam’s hands, or, for that matter, any GSR on her hands or clothing that could link her to the murder. But all the bits and pieces of evidence collected by the investigators kept pointing to only one viable suspect in Alan’s death—Miriam Helmick.
On December 1, 2008, Investigator Jim Hebenstreit wrote up a probable cause warrant for the arrest of Miriam Helmick. The document was eighty-three pages long and contained incident after incident alleging the acts that Miriam Helmick had engaged in to murder her husband, Alan. The key lines at the end stated:
Based on the preceding, there is probable cause to believe that on June 10, 2008, in the county of Mesa and State of Colorado, Miriam Helmick (AKA Miriam Morgan Giles) committed the crime of Murder in the First Degree.
Also based on the preceding, there is probable cause to believe that on April 30, 2008, in the County of Delta and State of Colorado, Miriam Helmick committed the crime of Criminal Attempt to commit Murder in the First Degree.
As to this second charge, Hebenstreit noted that it had happened forty-one days before Alan Helmick was actually murdered. And he wrote,
Although the two crimes were committed in separate counties, they arise from the same continuing criminal episode.
Investigator Hebenstreit wanted all of these acts charged, contending that Miriam Helmick had been trying to kill Alan all spring long to cover up the fact that she was stealing from him. She may have even tried to poison him, although that possibility was only alluded to in the document, and was not part of the charged acts.
The actual arrest of Miriam Helmick was carried out by MCSO investigators, Jacksonville Police Department (JPD) detectives, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), and the United States Marshals Service (USMS). It happened on December 8, 2008, in Jacksonville, Florida, and Miriam went under arrest quietly. She was taken to the Duval County Jail and was booked on first-degree murder and the other stated charges stemming from the car fire in Delta in April 2008.
In a short press release, MCSO announced,
Today, investigators with the Sheriff’s Office in cooperation with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and U.S. Marshals Service arrested Miriam Helmick for the murder of her husband, Alan Helmick. As with any on-going investigation, details which led to Miriam Helmick’s arrest cannot be discussed or released at this time.
That didn’t mean that Colorado newspapers and television stations didn’t try to find out as many details as possible. On December 9, the
Daily Sentinel
ran an article with the headline
WOMAN ACCUSED OF KILLING HUSBAND. MCSO
sheriff Stan Hilkey wouldn’t say much to the reporter other than sharing, “Miriam Helmick was a suspect right from the beginning. We’re confident we’ve got the right person.”
The reporter managed to contact Barbara Watts, and she said that she wasn’t surprised when she heard about Miriam’s arrest for the murder. Watts declared, “Miriam is a very, very powerful lady and she plans things very, very well and wisely. She was a dynamic woman and experienced dancer. I thought she was dynamite. She was after a hot sugar daddy. She wanted someone to take care of her.”
Watts went on to say that she learned Miriam had stolen money from her, and she told Alan “watch your back.” Watts added that Alan couldn’t see the dark side of Miriam because he was so much in love with her.
The reporter contacted Miriam’s attorney, Colleen Scissors, but Scissors made no comment. Duval County Sheriff ’s Office (DCSO) spokeswoman Melissa Bujeda, however, had a few things to say about the fact that Miriam’s first husband had died from a gunshot wound to the head, just as Alan Helmick had. Bujeda revealed, “Mesa County Sheriff’s Office investigators have discussed their case with our investigators.”
Picking up on this story of Miriam’s first husband being shot to death with a pistol, allegedly by his own hand, the
Florida Times-Union
ran a story headlined,
TWO-TIME WIDOW HELD IN COLORADO KILLING
:
Jacksonville homicide detectives reviewed the 2002 death of Miriam Helmick’s first husband, Jack Giles, after learning several months ago that she was a possible suspect in a Colorado slaying. Chief Rick Graham, of the sheriff’s office, will likely stay in touch with Colorado officials to see whether anything relevant to the local case turns up in their investigation.
There were several interesting comments, in relation to this article, that readers posted on the
Florida Times-Union
Internet page. One person who had known Miriam before she had moved to Colorado commented: Having been a former roommate of Miriam, it’s not surprising at all. Always had a gut feeling she had a dark side.
Another person wrote: Miriam—the moll of the docks.
The
Denver Post
ran an article, stating,
Miriam Helmick appeared in court, shackled, stooped and dressed in a high-security red jail jumpsuit.
Even Jacksonville television station Channel 4 reported about the two dead husbands, and its news coverage noted that both men had been shot in the head. Miriam had claimed about Alan, “I came in and found him, and then it went from there. That’s all I know.”
Miriam soon had her first court appearance in a Florida court. Bail was set at $2 million, an amount she could not post. So she remained in jail, awaiting extradition to Colorado. And instead of fighting extradition, Miriam told the judge she looked forward to going back there to clear her name. Perhaps she was buoyed up by the fact that in all the charges brought against her in an earlier case by Barbara Watts, she had eventually been acquitted. Even the alleged burning down of her parents’ house and stealing money from them had never gone to trial.
A few days later, the
Grand Junction Free Press
was still looking at the aspect of the car fire in Delta County. A reporter spoke with Mesa County assistant district attorney (ADA) Richard “Rich” Tuttle, who said, “We’re alleging this [car fire] is part of the same criminal episode.” Tuttle added that it didn’t matter that the car fire incident had occurred in Delta County. Under Colorado law, it could be prosecuted in Mesa County, as long as it was part of the same criminal acts by Miriam Helmick to murder her husband, Alan. Tuttle contended that Miriam had been attempting to murder Alan Helmick since at least April 30, 2008. According to Tuttle, she had succeeded in doing that on June 10, 2008.
Following a different angle, the
Daily Sentinel
ran the headline
DESIRE TO DANCE MAY HAVE COST MAN HIS LIFE.
The article described Alan Helmick in the following way:
a natural athlete who played college baseball and had a solid golf game. Helmick was trying to get a new lease on life after his first wife, Sharon, died, said Dennis Edson, a longtime business associate and friend of Helmick in Grand Junction.
In a prophetic turn of phrase, Edson said that one of the items on Alan’s “bucket list” was to learn to dance. Of course, “bucket list” included things a person wanted to do before they “kicked the bucket.”
The reporter also spoke with Barbara Watts again. Watts said, “Miriam Giles asked to be sent to Grand Junction. She begged me to send her. She was very persuasive.” Barbara also said that during the time she knew Miriam in Gulfport, “I had told her not to fraternize with customers outside of class.” Then she added, “It didn’t take long for her to get her claws into Alan.”
Another associate of Alan’s had a very different take on the couple. Ken Rabideau said, “There was nothing at all to make you cast any suspicion or doubts about the relationship.”
Even Dennis Edson agreed with this assessment by Rabideau. He declared, “It came as a great surprise when we found out he was murdered. He wasn’t the type of guy I would have thought had enemies.” In this case, the enemy wasn’t someone he did business with, but rather the person who lived in his own home.
As good as her statement, Miriam Helmick did not fight extradition, and was back in a Mesa County, Colorado, courtroom by December 12, 2008. Miriam was clad in a red jail jumpsuit, which indicated that she was being held in a high-security pod at the Mesa County Jail.
In front of Judge Bruce Raaum, Miriam asked for a court-appointed defense lawyer, because she could no longer afford the services of Colleen Scissors. Miriam’s bail was set once more at $2 million, which was an amount she could not raise. So Miriam stayed in the Mesa County Jail, awaiting trial.