Blood Ambush by Sheila Johnson

interviewed for the first time concerning her knowledge of the murder of Darlene Roberts and her possible role in that murder.
    A large group of agents and investigators from both Georgia and Alabama had assembled in a room adjacent to the interview room so that they could listen to and view the questioning session. ABI agent Jason Brown, Cherokee County investigator Bo Jolly, and GBI agents Carter Brank, Jack Vickery, Wesley Horney, Boykin Jones, and Brian Johnston packed into the observation room, while ABI agent Brent Thomas and Cherokee County investigator Mark Hicks conducted the interview. For reasons not stated, this initial questioning session was neither filmed nor recorded, and the report was written from the officers’ notes.
    After being read her rights and signing a rights waiver, Barbara began to talk. And talk, and talk.
    On April 6, 2006, the day of the murder of Darlene Roberts, Barbara said, she drove her Buick Riviera to Rome, Georgia, in the afternoon, then went to the South Trust Bank. She claimed that she learned about Darlene’s murder on the day of Darlene’s funeral. When she was asked if she knew the whereabouts of the black pickup truck belonging to Schiess, she replied, “I have no idea.”
    The officers then showed her the pair of broken eyeglasses, and she claimed she did not know if they were hers or not. She had broken her pair, she claimed, by trying to in-line skate, and she said she had called Pearle Vision to have them replaced.
    When she was asked if she had ever fired a shotgun, Barbara told the investigators that she could not hold or fire a shotgun because of injuries she had received in an automobile accident. As the questions became more and more direct, Barbara was asked if she had ever been in the field where Darlene was murdered. She denied that, but admitted that she had talked to Vernon Roberts on the phone that afternoon, and said they had talked about his daughter, Angela, and places that she might stay in Georgia.
    When asked if her fingerprints would be on any of the shotgun shells that were found at the scene, she said they would not, because she was not strong enough to load the shells in the shotgun. That statement cast a bad light on her earlier claim never to have been at the scene, and Barbara said that she was not sure if she needed to talk to an attorney or not.
    That put an end to the questions for the time being, while Barbara decided if she wanted an attorney, but after a few moments, she decided to continue talking. Since she had contradicted herself, and now seemed to be acknowledging that she had indeed been at the murder scene, the admissions began coming more frequently.
    Barbara continued to claim that she really didn’t know where the pickup truck was located, but she then said that she and Schiess did not go back to her house after the murder. She admitted that she was at the scene of the crime, but she said that she did not kill Darlene. She didn’t want to be there at the murder location, she said, and claimed to be afraid for Schiess to find out that she had talked to law enforcement. Barbara asked the officers if she would still be charged with murder if she cooperated with their investigation.
    There should not be anything at the murder scene with her fingerprints on it, Barbara told the officers, then contradicted her earlier statements once again by saying that she did not know the name of the storage buildings where Schiess had taken the Dodge Dakota pickup, but she would lead law enforcement to the location.
    Barbara admitted that she was afraid of Schiess, who had anger management problems, she claimed.
    “He starts drinking as soon as he gets up in the morning and doesn’t stop,” she told the officers. She also said she was afraid he would not be able to see his children anymore.
    When the questioning turned toward the motive for the murder, Barbara said that in October 2005, Darlene had to go on a business trip to Texas. While she was