Miranda Chapter 5

Alex arrived at Jayne's home at seven-thirty on Friday evening to spend the weekend. It had been an entire week and he couldn't wait to see her. He ran up the sidewalk and knocked on the door. Her car was out front, so she should be home. He dug out his keys and unlocked the door and entered calling, "Jayne. Where are you Jayne?1

When she didn't answer, he bounded up the stairs. She was probably taking a shower. The door to the bathroom was open so he went straight to the bedroom and looked in. Alex almost collapsed when he saw Jayne taped down to the bed, nude with tape over her nose and mouth. He knew she was already gone, but couldn't believe it. 2

Alex stood there shaking for a few minutes trying to keep from fainting. He knew what his eyes were telling him, but he could not allow his heart to believe. He went downstairs crying to call the police. 3

Alex rushed to the phone and dialed 911 and screamed, "She's dead, please get someone here quickly, She's dead!" 4

"Please Sir, calm down and give me an address."5

"It's 213 Azalea Drive. Please get someone here now." he pleaded. 6

"Please stay on the phone, Sir."7

"I can't. Please hurry!" Alex cried as he hung up the phone and ran back upstairs to Jayne. He knew he shouldn't touch anything but he reached out and pulled the tape from her mouth and nose. It was too late to help...she wasn't breathing and her body was cold and her mouth was blue. Alex went and got a blanket and covered her nude body. He stood there crying as he waited for the police.8

Alex heard them at the door and hurried down to let them in. "She's upstairs in the bedroom," he cried. 9

Darcy and her partner went up the stairs wondering what they would find while two other officers secured the scene. Darcy asked Alex to step out in the hall and they asked him if he had touched anything. 10

"Both her mouth and nose were taped and I pulled the tape off. I knew she was dead but I had to remove it. I also put a blanket over her." 11

Alex looked like he was about ready to collapse, so Hank took him downstairs to the living room to sit down and brought him a glass of water. 12

"We just become engaged last weekend and I come down every weekend to see her." Alex told him.13

Darcy stepped back in and observed the scene. She was so young and beautiful and what a horrible way to die. She saw no wounds on her face but her lips were blue. She assumed she had suffocated but would not know for sure until the autopsy was performed. The coroner should be here soon along with a CSI team.14

She noticed when she walked in the door that someone had written the words, 'You broke my heart.' on the wall above her bed in lipstick. 15

"What have we got?" Gail asked as she entered the room and walked over to the body. 16

"It looks like she was smothered," answered Darcy as she explained what Alex had told them about what he found when he discovered the body.17

Gail looked closer and said, "Her lips are blue. That's probably the cause of death but we'll know more when we do the autopsy." She stepped aside as the CSI team entered and started photographing the entire scene. They carefully removed the blanket and bagged it, then lay the tape back over her mouth and nose where it had been and took pictures. They took pictures of her body showing where the killer had drawn a heart with lipstick over her left breast with a jagged line through it. 18

Gail Monroe had been the County Coroner for twenty-two years and she and Darcy worked well together. She was fifty-five years old and admired by everyone who had worked with her. Darcy knew if there was anything to find, Gail would find it. She worked quickly securing the scene and any evidence that might be there.19

After the Coroner removed the body, Darcy and the CSI went through the entire house looking for clues. While CSI dusted for prints, Darcy went downstairs to talk to Alex some more. She asked him if it looked like anything was out of place or missing. Alex got up to walk through the house.20

Darcy and Hank walked through the house with him and inspected everything.21

When they went into the kitchen, Darcy could see that the drape was pulled off the wall and checking the sliding door, realized that it was unlocked. She made her notes and called the CSI team to check the door for prints. 22

Alex looked sick as he realized the back door was where the intruder had entered. 23

Darcy checked out the rest of the house. She found nothing suspicious. She walked out into the back yard and looked around. There was a privacy fence completely around the back yard. She looked up and saw the bulb was missing from the security light. This was where he entered. She walked over and opened the shed. This is where he had been hiding. She saw the small mound of cigarette ash and figured he must have spent quite awhile here waiting. He had picked up all the butts and there were no prints on the floor. He must have been very careful. That means he has probably done this before. She made a mental note to check for other murders similar to this one. 24

When Darcy went back in, she followed Jayne's trail of discarded clothing. She found her heels in the kitchen, her skirt and blouse in the bedroom and a short slip and bra in the bathroom. "That's odd," she said. 25

"What?" asked Hank. 26

"I'm finding everything she wore yesterday. I'm assuming she worked yesterday. She had on a short skirt but I don't find any panties. She surely didn't go to work without them." Hank agreed, the perp must have taken them as a souvenir. 27

"That's another thing that points to it not being a first time for our killer." What kind of pervert are we dealing with? Darcy wondered. 28

Darcy asked Alex a few more questions and told him he could go for now. They would want to talk to him more later. They were both pretty certain that he had nothing to do with this tragedy and was heart broken.29

After checking out his alibi, Alex was ruled out as a suspect. He had worked in Little Rock today and had driven to Hot Springs later this evening. Jayne had been dead since the night before.30

Darcy had the feeling that this was not the first killing for this killer and it wouldn't be the last. From the message left it sounded like it could have been an old boyfriend of Jayne's. Alex, her parents and everyone she worked with said she had never even dated anyone steady before Alex and they had been together since she was sixteen. 31

There had been no fingerprints in the apartment that could not be identified as someone who would have been in her apartment. The killer must have been extremely cautious to have left no evidence. They had found no prints, no DNA, no hair or fibers. That was very unusual in a murder case. He either watched a lot of forensic shows or he had been doing this for a long time. The killer had used the victim's lipstick to draw a heart with a jagged tear through the center. He had also written, "You broke my heart" in lipstick. There had been no prints on the tube of lipstick. 32

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Hot Springs was a resort town and had always been a low crime area and there were few murders. The ones that did occur were usually a bar room brawl or a domestic dispute, that's why it was such a shock to be called to the scene of a rape, homicide.34

The victim was Jayne Haskell and she was twenty-three years old. She had been the evening anchor for NBC News and was well loved by the whole city.35

Jayne Haskell's death was the top news story in the state. Her picture was in every paper and on every news network. NBC had issued a one-hundred-thousand dollar reward for clues that led to the capture of Jayne's killer. The whole city was stunned by the senseless murder of the beautiful young star.36