Small Town Murder

**

It's been nearly 7 years since Denise was murdered. 7 years her friends and family have mourned and struggled to rebuild their worlds without her in it. 7 years a murder has gone unanswered, and the monster still roams around free.

Thank you for revisiting this memory with me, thank you for your kind words and support. Please be vigilant and aware of the people who hide behind falseness, masked in smiles.

**

I learned the hard way that looks can be deceiving. Monsters, have a way of hiding who they really are, masquerading chameleons, hiding in plain sight. Sometimes even under your own roof.

A TRUE STORY: All accounts are my own experiences'.

When I first met her, (Denise), I was incredibly uncomfortable and anxious. She was my boyfriend’s stepdaughter after all and close with her mama. I, being the new girlfriend, after their divorce, was unsure how receiving she would be towards me.

I always seemed to make a good first impression, and the deck would be stacked against me. But, as soon as he introduced us, she hugged me. It was a hug that made me believe we had been friends forever. She was a beautiful girl, and I learned quickly, she was even more beautiful inside.

From the beginning, she went out of her way to be sure I was comfortable. Always complimentary, polite and helpful. I adored her.

Scott was my best friend, I’d met him years earlier, through a mutual friend. I’d never been with a man that showed me how much he loved me, like he did. He was confident and had a plan. He knew what he wanted and knew how to get that done and I was attracted to that and in awe of him. We were in our 40's when we met, but felt like kids. The kind of relationship most only dreamed of, so it was no surprise when we announced that we wanted to be married.

He proposed during a college football game at my favorite team’s stadium. It was so romantic and one of the sweetest things ever. Everyone cheered when I accepted.

Finally, everything I ever wanted. Or so I thought.

It's funny when you spend so much time with someone, sometimes the edges of a perfect picture begin to curl.

Denise and Justin declined to come to the wedding, not wanting to hurt her mother’s feelings, and we completely understood. They were there the following weekend, and we celebrated our marriage and the newly formed bond between us all.

August 2013, we were married, and as my girls made their way through high school, we decided to move closer to town. It was closer to our jobs, and it made sense to be back in our hometown. We (I) fell in love with the house and Scott made sure we could afford it, and before I knew it, it was ours.

We completely remodeled the inside, making it our own and I redid the flowerbeds in front of the house surrounding the pergola and swing he built for me. It was perfect.

We had so many people tell us that they would be willing to help us move, but as that day arrived, anyone who said they would be there to help had every excuse not to be. The only ones who showed up to help, were Justin and Denise.

Denise helped me with everything from the actual move, to getting everything in place as we got things set up. She was amazing and generous, and I would soon learn, generous to a fault.

As in any relationship, we both struggled. She and I were both a little insecure because of our past and this became a stress that hurt the connections we had with our husbands.

It was becoming obvious that Justin was really beginning to be mean. He used to keep it hidden, but when he was using, he didn’t have the ability to hide what he was feeling. He was stealing and sneaky. He degraded her publicly and was cheating again. Any opportunity he had, he would be snarky to her and then overly nice to whoever else was in the room. If she apologized for making him angry and causing him to cheat, he would let her make it up to him, by doing whatever it took to make him happy. He liked making her grovel. Scott called him out a couple times, but he was getting more comfortable showing his true colors.

He and I were cordial, but I didn’t like his influence on Scott and absolutely hated the way he treated Denise.

Coming into 2017, my mother fell ill with dementia and kidney disease. I had always been very close with my mom, so whenever I had free time, I was with her and my dad. Some nights I stayed over to help dad and Justin would stay at our house. Under the guise of carpooling with Scott

This created More tension at home between Scott and me.

In January 2018, my mom died.

Denise began avoiding spending time with me because of Justin. We still texted and called one another and come February, my marriage began to crumble. The stress of my mother's passing and the troubles we had seemed overwhelming. I believed we needed space, but as things progressed, it was clear we were at a stalemate. So, I moved out.

A few months later, Justin and Denise moved in with Scott. They had lost their apartment and none of her family would allow Justin to stay at their houses. A warning that should have been a red flag and taken seriously. However, we were oblivious to any of the warning signs the past few months had been screaming at us.

I was now the outsider and Denise apologized like it was her fault. She always encouraged me that Scott and I were perfect for one another, and she was sure we could work it out. She confided to me that Justin was getting more aggressive and vulgar in the way he spoke to her. He was using drugs and sleeping around. Now living and working with Scott, they began going to the gym and drinking all the time. She had me tell Scott some of the things Justin had sent to her in text messages, hoping he could get through to Justin, but things continued to escalate.

She mentioned one night when I was visiting, that Justin had gotten in her face, squeezed her cheeks and said, "I will so fucking kill you!"

Scott said he would talk to him and that she didn't need to worry.

Two weeks later

On a shitty, snowy night in October, 2018, my girls and I decided to take in a movie. Before the movie ended, my phone rang, it was Scott, screaming with panic in his voice, “I need you to come home, Justin killed Denise," Not comprehending what he said and not wanting to make assumptions, I asked, WHAT?! He repeated, “Kelli, I need you to come home, there is blood everywhere and I can’t find Denise, I think Justin hurt her, I think she’s dead!”

I am now in-flight mode. I've always dropped everything at any given moment for him, that was not changing now. As I went back into the theater, my daughter’s read my expression, and began to move without hesitation, as I said, “we need to go!” The swirl of questions, and oncoming tears, with no answers, left me feeling overwhelmed. As we headed to the car, my daughter pointed out that the heavy snow would be slick, but I was in "go" mode.

My phone rang as I was driving out of the parking lot and onto the county road that lead home. It was our neighbor.

Staci said, “Oh my god, Kelli, I was afraid it was you!”

“What was me” I asked.

“She, (Denise) is laying in the yard, between our houses, I think she’s dead!" She said, “There are police cars everywhere and Scott is standing in the yard, screaming."

Just then, my phone beeps, it’s him. “Staci, it’s Scott calling, I must answer, I’ll call you later.” “Hello?! Kelli, are you coming? That son of a bitch did it, he killed her Kelli, it was my gun, he used my gun!"

Silence, tears and I can't catch my breath.

Suddenly, as if someone else was speaking, I calmly said, “listen to me, we are on the way, I am about 10 minutes from home” He is screaming in a voice so primal, so broken, so angry that I am scared. This is not the man I have come to know. The one who has everything under control.

“Scott, listen to me, are you listening?"

"Yes, I'm listening-I’m gonna kill him!" he says in a guttural tone.

"STOP, I say, "don’t say anything else, I am almost there.”

Sobbing, “I know, you were the only person I thought to call, I just need you here.”

I can hear the officer telling him to hang up, the officer takes his phone and says to me. “When you pull into the addition, tell them we said to let you through, what do you drive? I will let them know you are coming, he is in bad shape”

I ask the officer, “is she dead?” He pauses and says, “you shouldn’t be on the phone now, see you soon,” and hangs up.

It was the longest drive ever.

As we pull into the addition that I once believed would be the home where I’d greet my grand babies one day, we’re nearly blinded by all the flashing lights. Our house sat in the back of the cul-de-sac and as we drove through, I could clearly see his silhouette, pacing in the driveway. It was then that I noticed a figure covered with a white sheet in the middle of the yard.

Without hesitation, I am out of the car but before I reach Scott, I am stopped by an officer trying to catch me up on what has happened. He is talking, but I can’t hear him. I interrupt him and say, “I need him to know that I’m here”. At that moment Scott turns around and runs to me. He is screaming and crying and undeniably drunk. “What happened? Is that Denise, where is Justin? “

An officer interrupts us and tells me to get him to the police station. I notice blood all over the garage and can hear barking but they won’t let me in to get the dog. “After the coroner leaves you can get her, you can’t disturb the crime scene”

Crime scene?!!! This is my home. What in the world is happening here!

We headed to the police station, Scott, my girls and me. There is another couple that I knew vaguely, but didn’t know why they were there. We're all crying now, as what the actual fuck was going on, begins to sink in.

And I’m mad. No, I was beyond mad, I'm furious. How did my carefully planned life end up at a police station with my daughters sitting across from strangers with my good friend shot dead in my front yard!!?

Turns out, they all went out drinking. They were all so wasted that no one thought that it was a bad idea when Justin returned to take Denise home alone, leaving Scott at the bar.

About an hour after they left, Scott got a ride home. As they dropped him off, they noticed everything was wide open. The lights were on, the doors open and not one car in the drive. As Scott walked into the garage he discovered a pool of blood.

He ran back out, flagging them down to help look through the house. They only find the dog, who is out of her mind with fear. They follow the bloody footsteps out of the garage and through the flower garden, where they find Denise laying face up, her knees bent and her hands folded together on her chest, like she was praying or star gazing, in the snow.

Justin was gone.

The next morning Scott and Connie met with detectives to rehash the events that took place and fill in the blanks.

At noon, another detective arrived at the house informing us that after interviewing Justin, they believe Denise committed suicide (apparently his reaction to the news about his dead wife was appropriate enough to convince them he didn't do it,) despite people coming forward, saying that he did.

I asked if they’d tested for gunpowder residue and he scoffed, saying, “you watch too much tv, we don’t do that”.

I was immediately enraged.

"So, you’re saying they came home, beyond drunk (his words) got into an argument in the basement (according to Justin), where she grabs a gun (which she is deathly afraid of) and threatened to hurt herself. So, he wrestles the gun away and she chases him out of the house, and he locks her out, to protect himself? This man who presses over 250# is hiding from the 100# wife he had just disarmed?

He says, "I’m just relaying what the coroner might say, someone would be reaching out soon,” and simply drove away.

I was in disbelief at their complete disregard for this loss of precious human life.

A few weeks later Justin was arrested for fraud, caught with another man's wife, living in her car. This woman’s husband had been found dead 4 short days after Denise was killed, an apparent overdose. Justin spent about 6 months in jail for that crime and then, re-arrested for battery a few months later, on the same woman.

There were so many mistakes made that night, it seems (due to terrible assumptions and ignorance) that this small-town police department helped a man get away with murder.

Her death certificate still states suicide.

**

I wish I could change what happened. I might feel some satisfaction knowing that the person responsible for silencing such a beautiful voice, was in jail for her death, but he isn't.

All I can do is tell the story as I experienced it.

Denise was a spectacular person. She was beautiful, kind and giving. Her biggest mistake was that she trusted the one man she should have feared the most.

I have no doubt he WILL do this again.

If you know someone in a relationship like this, please listen. Use your voice to help protect those people you love. Ask questions, pay attention, and be aware. I now live by the saying; it is better to be safe than sorry.

In loving memory. Denise

You are missed everyday.