Back To Utah

After five trips to Utah last year, I was not planning to return before the end of the summer when Kyle hopes to be awarded his Masters Degree from BYU. However, the Great State of Utah sent me greetings last month in the form of a subpoena and requires my presence from the 24th to the 26th of February.

I am scheduled to testify in a preliminary hearing for the trial of Jerry Hicker who is accused of murdering my former roommate, Barbara Rocky. (See earlier post) I really don't know what information I have that is worth the $1080 the are paying for my airfare (they won't reimburse me if I buy my own ticket on Southwest for $240) along with my hotel expense and food vouchers. I think my testimony helps to establish a time-line and points out some inconsistencies in the defendant's story but I really don't know much. I had been waiting to hear if the hearing was going forward because the defendant had health problems, but my ticket and hotel room have now been reserved.

The hearing could still be postponed, but I am committed to going out now because my sisters are planning to meet me in Utah for some sisters' time. It may turn out to be a good thing that I was forced back since it appears there may be a buyer for my mother's house. This will give us one last chance to go through her things and save or make copies of any documents and paperwork we are interested in before the house is cleaned out. It will also likely be my last chance to spend time in Utah with free housing. I've been able to stay at my parents' home for the last 34 years so it will be strange to find someone else living there. (Of course, I can stay with Erin but her accommodations have less privacy and a lot more commotion and I feel like I am intruding on their family.)

I thought my story about testifying in a murder trial was pretty out of the ordinary, but I recently talked to someone whose story was lots more interesting than mine. He was an actual suspect in the Boston Strangler murders! I won't give his name here because I don't want him to be led to my blog if he decides to google his name, but his initials are K.R. and he hangs around with Guido at church. He told me that his name was mentioned in the Boston Strangler book so I googled him and he was right about that. He said he has never read the book and it took a long time for him to quit having nightmares about the whole thing.

Apparently while he was a student in Boston some guy came to his door asking where Joann Graff lived and he told them she lived down a floor. The next day he came home to a flurry of police activity and his wife told him that Joanna Graff had been murdered. I could understand why police would want to question him but didn't understand why he would have been considered a suspect until I did a little more on-line research and discovered that at the time of the first murder he had lived across the street from that victim. I suppose when you move around and just happen to live right by two of the victims it might seem a little fishy. He said they hauled him in and after hours of questioning tried to convince him that he had murdered these women but just didn't remember doing it. (Even after all this time, it was clearly not something he wanted to talk about - but, inquiring minds want to know). He felt that the police were under so much pressure to arrest someone by then (Joann was the 12th victim) that they really weren't as interested in finding the right guy as they were in just making an arrest. They never did solve the case. It was just closed when Albert DeSalvo who was already in jail on other charges admitted to the murders. Many remain unconvinced that he actually committed the murders as there was no evidence to tie him to any of the crimes other than his own admission of guilt. Hard to imagine someone wanting to take credit for murdering a bunch of people but I guess there are people like that. Anyway, many investigators feel the real Boston Strangler was never caught.

Well, that is my story for today.