Another motherkilling failed abortion
elizabeth
Alaska teen maintained bad-girl image on her blog, then 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.
By Harriet Ryan
Court TV
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 once wrote.
But among the 1,100 close-knit residents of Craig, few were buying
Waterman as a true bad girl. To them, 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,
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.
Rachelle Waterman in a black collar
She could wear all the black clothes she wanted and talk tough to her
friends and on her blog. To those in Craig, Rachelle Waterman was still
a decent kid.
But on a cold Sunday morning last winter, a gruesome discovery deep in
the forest that covers Prince of Wales Island called that assessment
into question.
A hunter stumbled across the charred body of Waterman's mother, Lauri.
Within days, the teenager was implicated, and people in Craig began
asking themselves how much of the honor student's tough-girl act
actually had been real.
"We all just thought of her as an extension of her mother, just
somebody who is always doing something for somebody," said Scott
Willburn, whose son Jon attended school with Rachelle Waterman. "People
were shocked and stunned."
On Tuesday, Waterman goes on trial for first-degree murder and other
charges that could land her in prison for the rest of her life.
Supported by her father and some friends, she maintains her innocence.
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.
Dreadful homecoming
The second weekend of November 2004 was an exceptionally busy one for
the Waterman family.
Carl 'Doc' Waterman's realty office
Sixty-year-old Carl "Doc" Waterman, a real estate agent, 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. (The Watermans' son, Geoffrey, 20, was at
college in Washington state.)
Traveling to and from Prince of Wales, one of the most remote places in
southeast Alaska, is no easy job. The 140-mile long island, the third
largest in the United States, sits in the Inside Passage, the string of
islands and peninsulas between Juneau and British Columbia.
The cruise ships that patrol the passage's whale-rich fjords in the
summer bypass Prince of Wales. The island has the breathtaking natural
beauty, native culture and wildlife that visitors to Alaska seek, but
its rustic towns lack the big hotels, fancy restaurants and nightlife
many tourists desire. It is accessible only by pricey sea plane and a
three-hour ferry from Ketchikan.
For the approximately 5,000 islanders, a trip to Wal-Mart or Burger
King means a 12-hour journey; a junior varsity basketball game often
requires a ferry ride, a flight and a night in a motel.
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.
Carl Waterman holding a photo of Lauri Waterman
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 "Doc" Waterman 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.
The news spread through Craig quickly. From the Dockside Café to the
fishing piers to the Moose Lodge, people were shocked.
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. People asked: Who would want to hurt Lauri
Waterman?
One man in town thought he had an answer.
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.
His wife taught at the high school. His daughter went to school with
Rachelle Waterman and had dated Geoffrey Waterman. 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.
The trooper suspected Arrant, shy and aloof, might have had help from
his close friend, Brian Radel, also 24. Radel was a 6-foot-4, 270-pound
hulk of a man with an interest in guns and the military. He had run a
computer business where Rachelle Waterman once worked.
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," according to prosecution papers.
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 she acknowledged she
had sex with Radel the previous spring and had been intimate with
Arrant when they were dating.
\
The troopers asked Rachelle Waterman if anything she had ever told the
men might have led them to harm her mother.
Waterman said she once 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 did not want to,"
according to prosecution papers. "She was 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 eventually
confessed and fingered Waterman as the leader of the plot. They said
she asked them to kill her mother to stop what she claimed was horrible
physical abuse.
Murder plots
Arrant said their first plan was to cement Lauri Waterman in a bathtub
and use Radel's boat to dump her at sea. That plan fizzled when they
could not think of a way to lure her to the boat. The second plan was
to gun her down in her car after she dropped off her daughter for
volleyball practice. That plot, which they code-named "the hunting
trip," was called off at the last minute.
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.
Radel admitted that he broke into the home, roused Lauri Waterman from
bed, shoved her into her minivan, and drove out of town.
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.
Rachelle's blog provided no information about physical abuse by the
woman she called "the female parental unit." The teen described only
occasional arguments, including one when her mother nagged her about
her weight.
She "wants to send me to fat camp this summer. I think it's rather
hallarious. I mean, I agree I'm chunky, but if she sends me off I'll be
the skinny girl and get sat apon," the 5-foot-4 125-pound teenager
wrote.
In other postings, she hinted at a positive relationship. She described
them making Christmas cookies together and recorded other incidents
that indicated they had a close bond.
"My parental unit asked me if I was depressed. I said 'yes' and
apparently she might get me an appointment with dr so I can get some
happy pills. Yey for me," she wrote.
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.
Details of a murder
The next day, they brought Rachelle into the Craig police station and
told her that the men had accused her of being the driving force behind
her mother's murder.
At first, the teenager insisted that she had no idea what Arrant and
Radel were planning. The troopers continued, telling her of Arrant and
Radel, "They've given you up."
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, according to
transcripts.
"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.
Her arrest rocked the island.
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.
Rachelle's blog provided no information about physical abuse by the
woman she called "the female parental unit." The teen described only
occasional arguments, including one when her mother nagged her about
her weight.
She "wants to send me to fat camp this summer. I think it's rather
hallarious. I mean, I agree I'm chunky, but if she sends me off I'll be
the skinny girl and get sat apon," the 5-foot-4 125-pound teenager
wrote.
In other postings, she hinted at a positive relationship. She described
them making Christmas cookies together and recorded other incidents
that indicated they had a close bond.
"My parental unit asked me if I was depressed. I said 'yes' and
apparently she might get me an appointment with dr so I can get some
happy pills. Yey for me," she wrote.
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.
Details of a murder
The next day, they brought Rachelle into the Craig police station and
told her that the men had accused her of being the driving force behind
her mother's murder.
At first, the teenager insisted that she had no idea what Arrant and
Radel were planning. The troopers continued, telling her of Arrant and
Radel, "They've given you up."
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, according to
transcripts.
"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.
Watermans
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.
Her arrest rocked the island.
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.
Rachelle's blog provided no information about physical abuse by the
woman she called "the female parental unit." The teen described only
occasional arguments, including one when her mother nagged her about
her weight.
She "wants to send me to fat camp this summer. I think it's rather
hallarious. I mean, I agree I'm chunky, but if she sends me off I'll be
the skinny girl and get sat apon," the 5-foot-4 125-pound teenager
wrote.
In other postings, she hinted at a positive relationship. She described
them making Christmas cookies together and recorded other incidents
that indicated they had a close bond.
"My parental unit asked me if I was depressed. I said 'yes' and
apparently she might get me an appointment with dr so I can get some
happy pills. Yey for me," she wrote.
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.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, according to
transcripts.
"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.
Her arrest rocked the island.
Doug Rhodes, the high school principal, said he considered Rachelle
Waterman "the type of student you'd want to have in your school."
"It caught me off-guard," he said. "It was completely unexpected."
In town, people could speak of little else.
"If this were New York City, it would be just one of a thousand
stories. Here, it is the story of the millennium," Craig mayor Dennis
Watson, a commercial fisherman, said.
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.
Seeking a fair trial
Just before the trial was to start in Craig last week, Superior Court
Judge Patricia Collins granted a defense motion for a change of venue
to Juneau.
According to a defense survey, 94 percent of potential jurors on Prince
of Wales Island had heard about the case and 66 percent of those
believed Rachelle Waterman was guilty.
The judge concluded that Waterman could not get a fair trial on the
insular island.
Rachelle Waterman in a formal dance photo (fourth from right)
Her father has stood by her since her arrest, monitoring the hearings
in Juneau by telephone and visiting her in jail. Asked this week
whether he believes she was involved, he said that he and his daughter
have not had a chance to really talk since her arrest.
"Talking through glass or in a room full of inmates is not really
conducive to an in-depth conversation," he said, adding, "I'm sure her
involvement is less than the troopers are alleging."
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 in the gallery.
Finally, it seemed, people believed Rachelle Waterman was tough. And
she looked terrified.