Most of you know I lost my Dad on September 4, 2005 to a drowning. It was ruled accidental, but I know in my heart and gut it was not an accident. I do believe he was murdered. And murdered to shut him up about something he and another person did together and got away with it. I hope my family doesn't hate me for writing this, but I need to. It eats away at my heart and soul every minute of each day, and I have to let it out before it destroys me.
In the year 2001 my Dad met an older couple at the dump. They got to talking and soon became friends. I will use their first names but not their last. They were Eddie and Betty. They were always hanging out together, going junking together. Eddie and Betty didn't have to do any of that, they were millionaires, 5.5 million dollars they had in cash, bonds, properties. After a while Betty started coming over alone without Eddie (her husband). This went on for a couple month's. My Dad lived with Jim and I at the time. Rebecca wasn't even in the picture then. We lived in Parksley, Va, in Accomac County. I finally asked my Dad one day when we were alone, what was going on with him and Betty. And he told me. He and Betty were in love, and wanted to be together. I said ok, is she gonna leave her husband? He said no, if she does, she will lose everything and have nothing, and he wanted her to take care of him for the rest of their lives together. A few weeks later my Dad moved to Pungoteaque, Va. Betty owned that property because her parents died and left it to her. My Dad moved into the 2 room cabin on the creek and he and Betty met there. About a month later, Jim and I went to Pungoteaque to visit my Dad. he was at the kitchen table working on an old gun Betty had given him. I thought he was cleaning it, but he was drilling and filing on different parts, mainly the trigger area. I asked him why he was doing what he was, and he said it was none of my business. Hmmmm, that wasn't like my Dad to say that to me. He usually told me everything. After a few minutes I was'nt feeling well, so I told Jim I wanted to go home and lay down. I had just found out I was pregnant. As we were leaving, without looking up my Dad says, I am having dinner guests on sunday. Please tell the family not to come over that day. I said ok, and Jim and I left. All during the week, I felt something was wrong, something bad was gonna happen. My Dad was being strange, the way he talked to me on the visit. I had a bad, real bad feeling. Monday morning my sister Lucy come's over, and says, My gosh Sis, isn't that horrible about Eddie. I say huh, Eddie what you talking about? She says Betty's husband Eddie died last night. My body went numb. I felt like heaving, but I didn't. I said what happened? How did he die? She tells me he was accidentally shot in the head and died instantly. OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! was the first words that I could say. The bad feeling I had came true. Who shot him I asked? She said Betty did. She told the cops as she was reaching for the gun from her husband it went off accidentally and shot him. Just then my Dad walked into the house. I looked at him, and I knew, I just knew it wasn't an accident. I was so drained, I had to sit down before I fell down. I listened to all everyone was saying, my head was spinning, I wanted to scream and tell them all to just shut up, their all lieing. Eddie was not dead, he was still alive. But deep down I know they were telling the truth. Eddie was a good man, a hard worker. A penny pincher also, Betty had said on numerous times. They put on a big act. Betty acted like the in shock wife, mourning her dead husband. Both Betty and my Dad were questioned by the Sheriff's department detectives, and the gun was sent to Richmond to be tested. Word came back as accidental shooting due to a trickey trigger that would stick. Hmmmm, was that because my Dad was drilling and filing it? Betty started opening up more. Telling me on occassions her husband beat on her, both physically and mentally. That he has done it for years. I pictured this in my head, Eddie was 5'5 and 130 lbs, Betty is 5'10 and over 350 lbs. All she had to do was sit on him and crush him. She went around to utility companies, bank telling everyone she accidentally shot her husband in the head, crying as she told this story. If she shot him while he was handing a gun facing her, how did the bullet go in his head behind the back of his right ear? I went with her to thebanks, 5 of them, utility companies and each time she told the same story, and always crying. Then she would tell me she hated her husband, and hated his family. They would get nothing of Eddie's estate. Betty made him put it all in her name. When his body was sent to the funeral home, Betty had him cremated before the family could attend or plan a funeral. I was with her when the funeral director asked if the family could have a viewing and pay their respects to Eddie before he was cremated. She told him no. Cremate the body immediately, and so it was done. She paid the $1665.00 for the cremation and we left. Two days later I went with her to pick up the ashes. She placed them in the trunk of her car and that's where they stayed. As far as I know their still there. She was an evil woman. Cold hearted and got whatever she wanted. My Dad started living high off the hog's soon after the death of Eddie. he got a big TV and a new VCR, satelite tv, pocket full of money all the time, all the whiskey and beer he could drink, new fishing poles, lots of food in fridge. Betty had bought a brand new 3 bedroom 2 bath mobile home and had it put in Pungoteaque. Had a new well dug and a new septic well put in. Bought a nice black pick up truck. Brand new Bed, brand new washer and dryer. Bought a computer a stereo. Spending hundreds of hundreds of dollars every day. A few month's after Rebecca was born, my Dad drove up in my yard. He had been drinking. We sat at the kitchen table. I looked him dead in the eye's and said, OK Dad I want the truth. What really happened? My Dad could scare the death out of you with a certain staring look he has. He looked at me then in that way and said, Sweet heart, I love you, but if I told you what really happened you would have to be killed also. I swallowed hard. My Dad just threatened my life I thought. How could a person who gave me life threaten to take it away? Was he that cold hearted that he'd kill his own child, the child who raised the other 5 kids after my Mom died in 1970? He sat their drinking his whiskey and drinking and drinking. Finally the words came out. He told me what really happened. He and Betty wanted to be together and the only way they could have the money and he could live off of her money and not just his SSI each month was if Eddie was dead. He cooked a supper, they came over that sunday, Betty got her husband's attention and my Dad came up behind him with the loaded gun and fired one shot into Eddie's head. Hedied instantly on my Dad's kitchen floor. He rigged the gun to where it would have a trickey trigger and he and Betty put the plan in action and did it. Eddie was dead and they could live out their lives together spending the 5.5 million dollars. He said Betty gave him 15,000.00 to shoot her husband and she would take care of all his needs and buy him whatever he wanted also. He again said, If I said anything Betty would have me killed. Finally in 2003, I had enough. I couldn't take it there anymore, and we made plans to come back to Philadelphia. In July of 2003 we left Virginia. Our friend Joe has a one bedroom apartment over top his house that he said we can stay in. Which we did and still are staying in. It's small but it's cozy and we like it for now. About 6 month's after I left virginia, things were going down hill for my Dad. He drank even more, he got violent and would threaten people with a knife. he got arrested for drunk driving and lost his license to drive. Betty drove him anywhere he wanted to go. In early part of 2005 my Dad and Betty got into an argument and she pulled a small .25 pistol out of her bra and shot at my Dad, twice. Missing him both times. he pushed her down, grabbed her keys and drove off in her car. She called the police, my Dad drove to my brother in law's house and told what had happened. Police came, did nothing to my Dad, questioned Betty about the shooting at my Dad and she told them leave her property, they were trespassing. And guess what? They left!!!!!!!! Nothing happened to her. My Dad told my brother in law that he and Betty got into an argument cause he could'nt deal with it anymore, he wanted to turn himself in for the murder of Eddie. And if he did so, Betty would be arrested also. My brother in law told my Dad he could stay there with him. He had a huge camper along side of the house, already furnished and it's his for as long as he wanted it. Four days later Dad moved back to Pungoteaque. And a week later his lifeless body was found floating face down in the creek. My Dad could'nt swim, and was afraid to go into the water. Betty and a black male, who supposedly worked for her and was a well known crack coccaine dealer, were missing for 24 hours. They were questioned and that's it. Corriner's report, accidental drowning. What about the foot print at the edge of the creek in the mud, which was huge, like a size 13 to 14 men's, what about the cane found near the creek's edge. betty used a cane to walk. My Dad's shoe size was a size 9. All these question's and no answers. I called the detectives after my Dad died, I told them the entire story, they said their is nothing more they can do, case is no longer under investigation. So, Betty got away with her husbands murder and now she get's away with murdering my Dad. I know he was not a great person, that he took a life, but he was still my Dad and I did love him.
Not knowing, year's ago my Dad gave his bible to my ex son in law. he said if anything ever happened to him to make sure Cindy got this bible. She will understand all the high lighted passages and know what to do. I was given that bible this morning. My ex son in law gave it to Emma to give to me. So many things were high lighted, words of family, death, murder, deception. I only glanced at it. I am going to show it to Jim tonight after Rebecca goes to sleep and try to figure out what he was saying to me through these passages. I am not sure how I feel right now. Things are spinning so fast right now, that I feel dizzy. The only question in my mind right now is, WHY?
