And Then She Killed Him by Robert Scott

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 about 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.

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