in the living room for a while and Miriam smoked. Then we spent the rest of the time in the garage, because she didn’t like to smoke in the house.
“I did not enter the kitchen. I walked past it. There were some towels placed on the floor in a T shape that I assumed was covering bloodstains that were there. I didn’t want to look at it. I was just there to comfort my friend. I was really surprised that stains were still there. That they wouldn’t have been cleaned up already.
“Most of our conversation, I just let her talk. She did mention that when she first walked in from the utility room to the house, she saw Alan’s feet first and didn’t realize something was wrong right away. This was odd, though, because it seemed to be in direct contrast to the way the towels were laid out. I simply chose to shine that on at the time and let it go. I just wanted to be there for her, so I didn’t think any more about it.”
Housekeeper Patricia Erikson also attended the memorial service. Later she recalled, “I walked up to Miriam and apologized for telling the police that I was there the day before, and I apologized for telling them how I felt about that day. I said, ‘I had to tell them how I felt that day.’” (She was speaking about her interview with the police.)
Miriam didn’t seem to be too upset by Patricia’s words. In fact, Miriam was basically telling various people that she was being investigated by the authorities, and she realized that was all very routine in a murder case like this.
The day after the funeral, the Delta County Independent ran an article about Alan Helmick entitled FORMER RESIDENT MURDERED. The reporter spoke with various people who had known Alan over the years, including his friend, John Taylor. John spoke of both of them loving to hunt, fish, golf, and play cards. He relayed, “He’ll be missed. He would bend over backward to put you in the home you wanted with a mortgage you could handle.”
Another friend, Les Mitchell, had known Alan since 1974, when Alan had been hired as the golf pro at Cottonwood Golf Course. Les recalled, “We played a lot of golf together. We took fishing trips to Canada and to Mexico. Our families spent time together as our children grew up. He was big on his kids.”
The article went on to note that Alan had sold his mortgage business to daughter Portia in the previous year, and he’d currently been pursuing land development projects. One of those was before the Delta Planning Commission for town houses between Sixth and Seventh Streets in the city of Delta at the time of Alan’s death.
The article revealed one more thing: The Delta Police Department had forwarded information on an investigation into a fire which damaged a vehicle owned by Alan Helmick. The incident, which occurred at the end of April, was labeled suspicious, according to DPD spokesman Jamie Head.
C HAPTER 13
“S HE W ASN’T G OING TO M ISS H IM AT A LL .”
Detective Beverly Jarrell interviewed Jeri Yarbrough, who was an equestrian trainer and lived in Fort Lupton, Colorado. Fort Lupton was a town hundreds of miles away from Mesa County, just northeast of Denver. Yarbrough had originally met Alan and Miriam Helmick through Stephanie Soule. Much later, Jeri recounted what had occurred when she began talking to investigators.
Jeri said, “Stephanie introduced me to the Helmicks and she told me that she was going to be working for this couple. They were interested in starting to buy young horses and maybe getting into the breeding of warmbloods. They came to look at my horses and at my facility. They bought a three-year-old gelding, Hollywood, and then they bought a mare that was in foal to my stallion, Presley. And they had an Arabian mare, Jasmine, that they also purchased to breed her.
“They put all the horses on Nationwide (a trucking company) and hauled them up to their ranch. Later, Miriam called me in December 2007 and said that Stephanie was not going to be
“I did not enter the kitchen. I walked past it. There were some towels placed on the floor in a T shape that I assumed was covering bloodstains that were there. I didn’t want to look at it. I was just there to comfort my friend. I was really surprised that stains were still there. That they wouldn’t have been cleaned up already.
“Most of our conversation, I just let her talk. She did mention that when she first walked in from the utility room to the house, she saw Alan’s feet first and didn’t realize something was wrong right away. This was odd, though, because it seemed to be in direct contrast to the way the towels were laid out. I simply chose to shine that on at the time and let it go. I just wanted to be there for her, so I didn’t think any more about it.”
Housekeeper Patricia Erikson also attended the memorial service. Later she recalled, “I walked up to Miriam and apologized for telling the police that I was there the day before, and I apologized for telling them how I felt about that day. I said, ‘I had to tell them how I felt that day.’” (She was speaking about her interview with the police.)
Miriam didn’t seem to be too upset by Patricia’s words. In fact, Miriam was basically telling various people that she was being investigated by the authorities, and she realized that was all very routine in a murder case like this.
The day after the funeral, the Delta County Independent ran an article about Alan Helmick entitled FORMER RESIDENT MURDERED. The reporter spoke with various people who had known Alan over the years, including his friend, John Taylor. John spoke of both of them loving to hunt, fish, golf, and play cards. He relayed, “He’ll be missed. He would bend over backward to put you in the home you wanted with a mortgage you could handle.”
Another friend, Les Mitchell, had known Alan since 1974, when Alan had been hired as the golf pro at Cottonwood Golf Course. Les recalled, “We played a lot of golf together. We took fishing trips to Canada and to Mexico. Our families spent time together as our children grew up. He was big on his kids.”
The article went on to note that Alan had sold his mortgage business to daughter Portia in the previous year, and he’d currently been pursuing land development projects. One of those was before the Delta Planning Commission for town houses between Sixth and Seventh Streets in the city of Delta at the time of Alan’s death.
The article revealed one more thing: The Delta Police Department had forwarded information on an investigation into a fire which damaged a vehicle owned by Alan Helmick. The incident, which occurred at the end of April, was labeled suspicious, according to DPD spokesman Jamie Head.
C HAPTER 13
“S HE W ASN’T G OING TO M ISS H IM AT A LL .”
Detective Beverly Jarrell interviewed Jeri Yarbrough, who was an equestrian trainer and lived in Fort Lupton, Colorado. Fort Lupton was a town hundreds of miles away from Mesa County, just northeast of Denver. Yarbrough had originally met Alan and Miriam Helmick through Stephanie Soule. Much later, Jeri recounted what had occurred when she began talking to investigators.
Jeri said, “Stephanie introduced me to the Helmicks and she told me that she was going to be working for this couple. They were interested in starting to buy young horses and maybe getting into the breeding of warmbloods. They came to look at my horses and at my facility. They bought a three-year-old gelding, Hollywood, and then they bought a mare that was in foal to my stallion, Presley. And they had an Arabian mare, Jasmine, that they also purchased to breed her.
“They put all the horses on Nationwide (a trucking company) and hauled them up to their ranch. Later, Miriam called me in December 2007 and said that Stephanie was not going to be
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