bloodrayne
01-27-2006, 03:43 AM
Alaska Teen Maintained Bad-Girl Image On Her Blog, Until Her Mother Turned Up Dead
Rachelle Waterman is charged with conspiring with two men to kill her mother Lauri Waterman of Craig, Alaska, in November 2004.
Craig, Alaska — What 16-year-old Rachelle Waterman seemed to want most in this tiny island village was a bad reputation.
She wore a black leather dog collar and fishnet stockings to classes at Craig High School. She bragged about practicing Wicca and told people she planned to get a pentagram seared into her rear end.
She dated older guys and danced suggestively with girls at school dances. She titled her blog "My Crappy Life: The Inside Look of an Insane Person," and spiked it with swear words, sexual innuendos, and smirking accounts of being an outcast.
"Oh yeah, I also got voted Biggest Freak for my class — that makes me happy," she wrote.
In reality the teen was the prized daughter of the school board president and his equally civic-minded wife.
Like her parents, Waterman appeared to be the ultimate go-getter, she was an honor student, singing in honor choir, suiting up for the volleyball team, and competing in Academic Decathlon. If she wasn't teaching younger kids about the dangers of drugs as a DARE volunteer, she was playing in pep band or working stage crew in community theater.
On a cold Sunday morning last winter, a hunter stumbled across the charred body of Waterman's mother, Lauri. Within days, the teenager was implicated.
What will not be contested at her trial might be its most troubling aspect: Whether she is found guilty or not, evidence indicates that Waterman's exaggerated portrayal of herself as an angry teenage outcast actually led to her mother's murder.
Sixty-year-old Carl Waterman, went to Juneau on a business trip. Rachelle traveled to Anchorage for the regional volleyball playoffs. Lauri Waterman, 48, stayed behind to help at a Chamber of Commerce dinner.
On Sunday afternoon, Rachelle Waterman and her father arrived back at the family home. The teenager put down her bags and booted up her computer to update her blog on LiveJournal, a popular online diary site.
"Well back from anchorage and it was an okay trip. I got kinda sick but oh well. Did shopping, played v-ball (got 5th, bah), and that's about it. Not much to tell, well I got these incredibly awesome boots that go up to my knees. I absolutely love them. will post pic later," she wrote.
Elsewhere in the house, her father was getting worried. He had been surprised when his wife didn't greet them at home. Now it was late and there was no sign of her or her minivan. Stores and restaurants in Craig rarely stay open past 8 p.m., and he was convinced something was wrong.
He reported her missing to the Craig police department.
The officer who took the call knew almost immediately that Lauri Waterman wasn't missing, but dead. At noon that day, a hunter trekking down a remote logging road had seen black smoke billowing over the evergreens. He summoned state troopers who found a minivan on fire and a charred body inside it. The body and the van were on the way to the lab for positive identification, but after "Doc" Waterman's call, there was no doubt about the victim's identity.
Lauri Waterman worked as a teacher's aide for special education students and spent her free time volunteering. She made biscotti for bake sales, chaperoned her daughter's trips, and scored every volleyball game played in the high school. She was a quiet woman who loathed the spotlight. Who would want to hurt Lauri Waterman?
Trooper Robert Claus was one of the first at the scene of the burned-out van, but his suspicions were rooted not in the crime scene, but in his knowledge of the Waterman family.
The man Claus suspected was 24-year-old Jason Arrant, a school custodian. Rachelle Waterman had dated him the previous summer until Lauri Waterman found out and insisted they break up because of Arrant's age.
"Trooper Claus speculated that Arrant may have resented this and may have been involved in her death," prosecutor Stephen West wrote in court papers filed last year.
Based on Claus' information, investigators shared their suspicions with Rachelle Waterman. They asked if she would be willing to wear a wire in an attempt to get the men to discuss the crime.
She told them that "she was reluctant and believed it was sneaky, but she would think about it," .
Perhaps because of her hesitance to assist, investigators pressed her about her relationship with the men. At first, she denied having physical relationships with either man, but later admitted having sex with both of them.
The troopers asked Rachelle Waterman if anything she had ever told the men might have led them to harm her mother.
Waterman said she told Arrant that her mother physically abused her, threatening her with a knife, beating her with a baseball bat and trying to push her down steps. She said Arrant became upset.
"Arrant tried to get her to go to the police, but she refused, she pretended to be depressed and suicidal about this abuse ... so he and Radel might have wanted to do something about it although she doubted they would commit murder."
The next day, troopers questioned Arrant and Radel. Both men confessed and said Waterman was the leader of the plot, that she asked them to kill her mother to stop what she claimed was horrible physical abuse.
According to Arrant, Rachelle Waterman had alerted him that both she and her father would be out of town.
"She and Arrant agreed that it would be a good time to carry out their plan, because Lauri Waterman would be home alone," Claus wrote in a report.
Arrant told detectives that Rachelle gave him detailed instructions about how to enter the home and abduct her mother and that he passed the information on to Radel.
The plan the three allegedly had devised was to make her mother's death look like a drunk-driving accident, and Radel apparently forced Lauri Waterman to drink a bottle of wine.
At some point, however, Radel abandoned the drunk-driving scenario, bludgeoned her with a flashlight and suffocated her. He and Arrant then drove her to the logging road and set the van ablaze.
We were saving Rachelle, they told the police.
For Claus and the other investigators, the allegations of extreme physical abuse by Lauri Waterman were implausible.
The Watermans were kind, well-respected people who were protective of their daughter. No one in the community had heard anything about abuse, and neighbors described Lauri Waterman as a wonderful, caring parent.
The day the men confessed, the police seized her computer to look for evidence. Before they unplugged it, however, Rachelle made a final post.
"Just to let everyone know, my mother was murdered. I won't have computer acess [sic] until the weekend or so because they police took my computer to go through the hard drive. I thank everyone for their thoughts and e-mails. I hope to talk to you when I get my computer back," she wrote.
At one point, Sgt. Randy McPherron of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation tried to persuade Rachelle to talk by detailing the painful way in which her mother died.
"Radel abducted your mother out of her bed. Forced her to drink a bottle of wine. Tied her up. Drove her out to the middle of nowhere on a wet, rainy night. Made her get down on her knees in the dirt, and he tried to snap her neck, because it looks good on TV. But you know what? It doesn't really work. Well, that didn't work, so he laid her down on the ground and he took a flashlight and he slammed it against her throat about 10 times."
"Why are you telling me this," the teenager asked.
"Because I want you to understand what happened here. All right? That didn't work, so he got on top of her and he pinched her nose off and held his hand over her mouth until she died. Then Jason and Brian went up to the end of that road and dumped five gallons of gas on your mother's body and set it on fire. Now, that's what happened and you knew it was going to happen and you didn't do anything to try to stop it," McPherron told her.
Eventually, Rachelle acknowledged that she had asked the men during the summer to kill her mother.
She said she had told them lies about the abuse, exaggerating incidents and making up the stories of beatings. She said, however, that she had called off the murder plan, "but they would not listen."
When she left for the volleyball tournament, she admitted, she was aware they might kill her mother that weekend. At first she told them that she had phoned Arrant to call off the hit, but later she acknowledged she had never placed the call.
Still, she said, "I told them not to do it."
She was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, kidnapping and other charges. In Alaska, a 16-year-old accused of a serious crime is waived into adult court.
Last summer, both Radel and Arrant pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and agreed to testify against Rachelle Waterman. Their sentences are to be meted out after her case is tried.
Her lawyer, public advocate Steven Wells, is tight-lipped about the defense case. He may suggest that the teenager could not have anticipated what effect her tough talk, exaggeration and outright lies could have on Radel and Arrant.
Before her arrest, Rachelle Waterman often posted photos of herself on her blog looking fearless in her leather collar or seductive in a tight T-shirt. At her arraignment last year, she was dressed in a bulky orange jail jumpsuit. As press cameras snapped away at her, she turned toward her father and brother.
Finally, it seemed, people believed Rachelle Waterman was tough. And she looked terrified.
Rachelle Waterman is charged with conspiring with two men to kill her mother Lauri Waterman of Craig, Alaska, in November 2004.
Craig, Alaska — What 16-year-old Rachelle Waterman seemed to want most in this tiny island village was a bad reputation.
She wore a black leather dog collar and fishnet stockings to classes at Craig High School. She bragged about practicing Wicca and told people she planned to get a pentagram seared into her rear end.
She dated older guys and danced suggestively with girls at school dances. She titled her blog "My Crappy Life: The Inside Look of an Insane Person," and spiked it with swear words, sexual innuendos, and smirking accounts of being an outcast.
"Oh yeah, I also got voted Biggest Freak for my class — that makes me happy," she wrote.
In reality the teen was the prized daughter of the school board president and his equally civic-minded wife.
Like her parents, Waterman appeared to be the ultimate go-getter, she was an honor student, singing in honor choir, suiting up for the volleyball team, and competing in Academic Decathlon. If she wasn't teaching younger kids about the dangers of drugs as a DARE volunteer, she was playing in pep band or working stage crew in community theater.
On a cold Sunday morning last winter, a hunter stumbled across the charred body of Waterman's mother, Lauri. Within days, the teenager was implicated.
What will not be contested at her trial might be its most troubling aspect: Whether she is found guilty or not, evidence indicates that Waterman's exaggerated portrayal of herself as an angry teenage outcast actually led to her mother's murder.
Sixty-year-old Carl Waterman, went to Juneau on a business trip. Rachelle traveled to Anchorage for the regional volleyball playoffs. Lauri Waterman, 48, stayed behind to help at a Chamber of Commerce dinner.
On Sunday afternoon, Rachelle Waterman and her father arrived back at the family home. The teenager put down her bags and booted up her computer to update her blog on LiveJournal, a popular online diary site.
"Well back from anchorage and it was an okay trip. I got kinda sick but oh well. Did shopping, played v-ball (got 5th, bah), and that's about it. Not much to tell, well I got these incredibly awesome boots that go up to my knees. I absolutely love them. will post pic later," she wrote.
Elsewhere in the house, her father was getting worried. He had been surprised when his wife didn't greet them at home. Now it was late and there was no sign of her or her minivan. Stores and restaurants in Craig rarely stay open past 8 p.m., and he was convinced something was wrong.
He reported her missing to the Craig police department.
The officer who took the call knew almost immediately that Lauri Waterman wasn't missing, but dead. At noon that day, a hunter trekking down a remote logging road had seen black smoke billowing over the evergreens. He summoned state troopers who found a minivan on fire and a charred body inside it. The body and the van were on the way to the lab for positive identification, but after "Doc" Waterman's call, there was no doubt about the victim's identity.
Lauri Waterman worked as a teacher's aide for special education students and spent her free time volunteering. She made biscotti for bake sales, chaperoned her daughter's trips, and scored every volleyball game played in the high school. She was a quiet woman who loathed the spotlight. Who would want to hurt Lauri Waterman?
Trooper Robert Claus was one of the first at the scene of the burned-out van, but his suspicions were rooted not in the crime scene, but in his knowledge of the Waterman family.
The man Claus suspected was 24-year-old Jason Arrant, a school custodian. Rachelle Waterman had dated him the previous summer until Lauri Waterman found out and insisted they break up because of Arrant's age.
"Trooper Claus speculated that Arrant may have resented this and may have been involved in her death," prosecutor Stephen West wrote in court papers filed last year.
Based on Claus' information, investigators shared their suspicions with Rachelle Waterman. They asked if she would be willing to wear a wire in an attempt to get the men to discuss the crime.
She told them that "she was reluctant and believed it was sneaky, but she would think about it," .
Perhaps because of her hesitance to assist, investigators pressed her about her relationship with the men. At first, she denied having physical relationships with either man, but later admitted having sex with both of them.
The troopers asked Rachelle Waterman if anything she had ever told the men might have led them to harm her mother.
Waterman said she told Arrant that her mother physically abused her, threatening her with a knife, beating her with a baseball bat and trying to push her down steps. She said Arrant became upset.
"Arrant tried to get her to go to the police, but she refused, she pretended to be depressed and suicidal about this abuse ... so he and Radel might have wanted to do something about it although she doubted they would commit murder."
The next day, troopers questioned Arrant and Radel. Both men confessed and said Waterman was the leader of the plot, that she asked them to kill her mother to stop what she claimed was horrible physical abuse.
According to Arrant, Rachelle Waterman had alerted him that both she and her father would be out of town.
"She and Arrant agreed that it would be a good time to carry out their plan, because Lauri Waterman would be home alone," Claus wrote in a report.
Arrant told detectives that Rachelle gave him detailed instructions about how to enter the home and abduct her mother and that he passed the information on to Radel.
The plan the three allegedly had devised was to make her mother's death look like a drunk-driving accident, and Radel apparently forced Lauri Waterman to drink a bottle of wine.
At some point, however, Radel abandoned the drunk-driving scenario, bludgeoned her with a flashlight and suffocated her. He and Arrant then drove her to the logging road and set the van ablaze.
We were saving Rachelle, they told the police.
For Claus and the other investigators, the allegations of extreme physical abuse by Lauri Waterman were implausible.
The Watermans were kind, well-respected people who were protective of their daughter. No one in the community had heard anything about abuse, and neighbors described Lauri Waterman as a wonderful, caring parent.
The day the men confessed, the police seized her computer to look for evidence. Before they unplugged it, however, Rachelle made a final post.
"Just to let everyone know, my mother was murdered. I won't have computer acess [sic] until the weekend or so because they police took my computer to go through the hard drive. I thank everyone for their thoughts and e-mails. I hope to talk to you when I get my computer back," she wrote.
At one point, Sgt. Randy McPherron of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation tried to persuade Rachelle to talk by detailing the painful way in which her mother died.
"Radel abducted your mother out of her bed. Forced her to drink a bottle of wine. Tied her up. Drove her out to the middle of nowhere on a wet, rainy night. Made her get down on her knees in the dirt, and he tried to snap her neck, because it looks good on TV. But you know what? It doesn't really work. Well, that didn't work, so he laid her down on the ground and he took a flashlight and he slammed it against her throat about 10 times."
"Why are you telling me this," the teenager asked.
"Because I want you to understand what happened here. All right? That didn't work, so he got on top of her and he pinched her nose off and held his hand over her mouth until she died. Then Jason and Brian went up to the end of that road and dumped five gallons of gas on your mother's body and set it on fire. Now, that's what happened and you knew it was going to happen and you didn't do anything to try to stop it," McPherron told her.
Eventually, Rachelle acknowledged that she had asked the men during the summer to kill her mother.
She said she had told them lies about the abuse, exaggerating incidents and making up the stories of beatings. She said, however, that she had called off the murder plan, "but they would not listen."
When she left for the volleyball tournament, she admitted, she was aware they might kill her mother that weekend. At first she told them that she had phoned Arrant to call off the hit, but later she acknowledged she had never placed the call.
Still, she said, "I told them not to do it."
She was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, kidnapping and other charges. In Alaska, a 16-year-old accused of a serious crime is waived into adult court.
Last summer, both Radel and Arrant pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and agreed to testify against Rachelle Waterman. Their sentences are to be meted out after her case is tried.
Her lawyer, public advocate Steven Wells, is tight-lipped about the defense case. He may suggest that the teenager could not have anticipated what effect her tough talk, exaggeration and outright lies could have on Radel and Arrant.
Before her arrest, Rachelle Waterman often posted photos of herself on her blog looking fearless in her leather collar or seductive in a tight T-shirt. At her arraignment last year, she was dressed in a bulky orange jail jumpsuit. As press cameras snapped away at her, she turned toward her father and brother.
Finally, it seemed, people believed Rachelle Waterman was tough. And she looked terrified.