Chapter 4 - THE BAG IN THE PICKUP
Police secured both vehicles.
Matthew refused to unlock his pickup.
He claimed my bag had always been inside it because he planned to take me to my sister’s house after I calmed down.
Nora immediately contradicted him.
She had seen Matthew carry the bag from the house after opening the garage.
Her doorbell camera captured him leaving through our front door with it while I was still trapped inside.
The footage showed him placing the bag in his pickup, returning to the garage and standing in the driveway for six minutes before Nora confronted him.
A warrant was obtained later that evening.
My bag still contained clothes and toiletries.
The important items were gone.
My passport.
The mortgage photographs.
My father’s trust documents.
The notebook where I recorded dates of assaults and missing money.
Police found those items beneath the rear seat of Matthew’s truck, separated into a plastic file box.
Beside them was a typed letter.
The letter appeared to be written by me.
It said I was exhausted, ashamed and leaving voluntarily. It asked my family not to search for me and apologized for “causing Matthew years of pain.”
At the bottom was a copy of my signature.
I had not written or signed it.
There was also a life-insurance policy.
Nine months earlier, Matthew had increased coverage on my life from $250,000 to $1.8 million.
The electronic authorization used the same forged signature attached to the home-equity loan.
Matthew was the sole beneficiary.
His attorney later argued that the insurance did not prove intent and that the letter was only something Matthew drafted during a “marital crisis.”
But another item was harder to explain.
Inside the truck’s center console, investigators found a prepaid phone.
It contained messages between Matthew and Derek.
Three days before the garage, Matthew wrote:
She found the loan. If she reports it, the lender will come after both of us.
Derek replied:
Get the documents back. Make sure she cannot show up Monday.
Matthew answered:
I can handle Sarah. You handle the bank.
The morning of the attack, he sent one final message:
After tonight, she won’t be a problem.
Derek did not respond.
May you like
He deleted the conversation from his own phone.
The prepaid device retained it.
