# 43 Visitation #3

10/08/2017

Visitation #3

I’ve been trying to figure out dates of events, but there is no way to get it perfect. What counts is the information.

I started taking the 2 younger boys to see Craig. The older boys were not interested. I think they understood the severity of what Craig had done, and since he was their step dad, they didn’t feel any obligation to go, although Doug always loved Craig, I believe to this day he still loves him.

Going to visit someone in maximum security prison is not a fun event. After all the paperwork is approved, you still need to call the day you plan on going to make sure they are not in lock down for whatever reason. So I would call in the morning to make sure visitors were being accepted.

We lived in Draper, so the drive was short (less than 10 miles). After we parked, I followed the signs for Visiting. The fences were 20 feet high, with crazy electric wiring across the top. We reached a big gate, and just stood there.No one in site. After a few minutes of waiting, the guards in the “sniper tower” buzzed us in. Then the big gate slid back closed and locked us in. Now we were in what looked and felt like a large dog run. Caged in. We waited there for a while and eventually a cop car drove by, and the cop got out and took our ID’s through a little hole in the fence. Maybe he thought WE were the prisoners because it certainly felt like it! He called the ID's in while we waited. Once we were approved, we heard another loud BUZZ and the second gate opened up for us. We then walked along a path and into a little building. By this point I was already regretting being there.

The waiting room was small, painted white many years ago, and now grubby and dirty from years of visitors coming through, and no new paint. There were lockers you could put your cell phone and car keys in, but if you didn't bring your own lock, you couldn’t lock it. The first time I went to visit at the prison, I had to take my bra off (the underwire set off the metal detectors) and leave it in a locker. I felt uncomfortable leaving my car key and bra in the locker, but had no choice.

After waiting another 20 to 30 minutes, they called us. We stood up and were walked through the metal detector one at a time. There was probably 10 people in our group, so you have to wait for each person to be cleared. Then they led us through another door, which went outside,and we walked to the next building. The worst part of this walk is that a lot of the inmates have skinny windows looking into this area. So you get to hear lots of thumping on the windows as you walk passed them, which raised the hair on my back. Then we went through the door into the Maximum security visitation building. At this point we are all on our own. We walked down a hallway, looking into little windows, looking for the person you are coming to visit. Once we saw Craig, we opened the door and went in.

The room was tiny. There were 2 chairs on our side. Craig was handcuffed and shackled on his side of the bullet proof window. I told the 2 kids to share one chair and I took the other, but I turned it sideways as I couldn’t face him. I was there for the boys, and no other reason.

The visit was 2 hours. Craig asked the boys a lot about school and their friends. He cried a lot, but tried not to let the boys see. After a few visits I figured out a way to bring a crossword puzzle in my back pocket, along with a pencil. That way I could sit and work on the crossword puzzle and not face Craig. My face was always red and hot and I felt like I was going to blow a gasket being there.

After a few visits, Craig started asking the boys to look at me. He said to them “Boys, look at your Mom. Isn’t she beautiful? Will you both give her a hug and a kiss for me?” So they did. Then he said “Boys, I love your Mom very much, please ask her to let me out now. Please tell her I am sorry and I want to come home now.” Upon hearing this I nearly exploded! I glared at him and asked what he was talking about. I told the boys that Mommy had nothing to do with Daddy being in prison, and that it was time to go. We left.

Then of course I got letters from Craig. He continued to try to manipulate and control me for years.

Every Saturday I asked the kids if they wanted to go see Craig. Sometimes they did, other times they were playing games or had friends over and didn’t want to spend half the day at the prison. After months of asking them every Saturday, they were saying no, more and more. Eventually I told them that I would quit asking them, but if they wanted to go see him they just had to let me know and I would arrange it.

Craig's Mom flew out from South Africa to come and see him. It was right before Christmas. Craig had the audacity to tell his Mom he had won his appeal and was getting out in a matter of weeks. I knew this wasn’t true, and I also felt it was very cruel. On the way home I told her that all of his appeals had been thrown out, and none of them were being considered. I can’t imagine the pain she was going through, and I hated the fact that I was now adding to her pain. But I needed her to know the truth.

She flew home, with hope, but she is a smart lady and I think she knew he wasn’t getting out.

That’s it for tonight. Next week I will tell you about the life insurance policy Craig took out on me from prison!! Yes...he really did.

Have a great week, and remember to always listen to your gut!!

Lots of love,

Eve

# 42 Visitation #2

I wish I had kept journals of the times I went to see Craig. I have a lot of memories, but no dates to put with them. Currently I am also typing out the letters Craig wrote to me over the years, and so those help to trigger some memories.

As I mentioned in the last post, it was very difficult for me to know what to do about taking the boys to see Craig. Everyone had a different opinion. He was held in the Logan jail until he was formerly charged and sentenced in November. I drove up there a couple times to see him, but I didn’t take the kids. He was facing aggravated murder in the first degree, as it was premeditated, and they set up a tentative trial start date for February the next year (2004). Utah is a death penalty state, so if he had been found guilty of these charges he would have received the death penalty. There obviously was a lot of evidence against him, and finally he decided to take a plea deal and confess to the charges, rather than risk going to trial. They offered to lower his sentence to a Life without the possibility of parole, in exchange for his plea.

I received the call from the detective, telling me that Craig had plead guilty in court. I was upset they hadn’t even told me he was scheduled in court, but they said it was last minute and they barely made it in time. They still should have called me.

Apparently this confession took over 2 hours. Craig tells me they wrote his confession out for him and he had to sign it. Then the judge went over it, line by line, stopping after each line and asking Craig if he was in his clear and right mind, was he confessing under his own free will, had anyone coerced him to confess, was he under the influence of any medications? Every single question Craig answered that he knew exactly what he was doing, he knew the consequences of pleading guilty to these charges, he was in his right mind etc etc.

After the judge read the confession and made 100 % sure that Craig wanted to confess to the crime he was being charged of, they dropped some of the burglary charges and a few other smaller charges they had initially piled on him, and he was sentenced to Life in prison, without the possibility of parole. Once the sentencing was done, he was transferred to the Utah State prison to begin his sentence.

The prison had an orientation meeting for the families of new inmates of which I was informed about and decided to attend. In this meeting we were told what kind of programs they offer to the inmates in the prison, what kind of things we were allowed to send to the inmate, how we could send them money for commissary items, how to get on the visitors list etc. it was informative and I was glad I went. At the end of the meeting they opened it up for questions. I had a question, unfortunately I don’t remember my question, but the Head Warden answered it for me.

Once the meeting was over, the head warden walked directly over to me and asked if I was Craig Nicholls wife. I was very surprised he knew that, but he said my accent gave me away. He went on to tell me he had been the head warden of that prison for over 20 years and he had never met a more manipulative individual than Craig. This could have surprised me, thinking of how many inmates this warden had met, but then I realized that he was obviously a very good judge of character, especially when it came to manipulation techniques, and that was one of Craig's biggest traits.

Since Craig and I had never agreed on the terms of our divorce, it was still not finalized. In the end this actually worked out to my benefit because they can’t make a spouse testify against the other. Even though his case didn’t go to a trial, I was relieved I wouldn’t have to testify against him. I was still scared of him, and obviously didn’t need to make more trouble for myself.

So I went back to my attorney with a copy of Craig's charges and sentencing and he was able to get our divorce bifurcated.This meant that the judge simply signed the divorce as is, and I was able to go back to my maiden name and move on as a divorced woman.

A few weeks later, I was as work and a constable came in and served me with papers to appear in court. It was a summons for Contempt of Court. When I read it I nearly FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR! Craig was suing me for not complying with the orders of our divorce, which gave him visitation of the children!! Since the original divorce obviously gave Craig rights and visitation of his children, and the judge had signed it, I was now in contempt of court. Seriously?? Did they expect me to drop the boys off on Friday afternoon with their backpacks and come back on Sunday for them? This seemed absolutely unrealistic and ridiculous! What judge in his right mind would sign that summons and allow Craig to take me to court?

Since the divorce was filed in Farmington, Utah, that is the court that I had to go to. I didn’t know what to expect. I thought I was going to just face the judge alone and Craig would receive copies of the paperwork afterwards. Boy I was in for a big surprise. When they called our names, I was ushered to the desk in front of the podium and told to sit down. Then a side door opened and Craig was brought in!  He was handcuffed and shackled. My heart stopped. I think I turned white. I felt like I was going to pass out.

So the State of Utah (or more accurately the taxpayers) paid for the transportation of a maximum security inmate to go from Bluffdale all the way up to Farmington over a stupid custody battle that couldn’t go anywhere! I started to visibly shake. In the news just a week or two before this, an inmate from that same prison was taken to hospital for treatment, and he was able to grab the guard's gun and he shot and killed the guard. This was all I could think of! Craig was sitting 10 feet away from me, with an armed guard on either side of him. They had uncuffed him so that Craig could go through his papers and notes he had brought with him. My thought was, he has NOTHING to lose, what is to stop him from grabbing a gun and doing the same thing?  He had told me so many times that he would make sure I never get to raise the boys, and that he was going to make sure his mother would raise them. So I knew he wanted me out of the picture. This is when I realized, again, that the legal system is absolutely jacked up. This individual had been listed as the most manipulative inmate in 20 years of the Utah State Prisons history, and had been charged with aggravated murder. How on earth did he manage to pull this off?

The Judge allowed Craig to state his case first since he had filed and was suing me. Sitting there in prison clothes, shackled and surrounded with armed guards, Craig told the judge that the divorce agreement gives him legal rights to his children and that I had not allowed him to see the children since he had been arrested.

Then I was given a chance to give my reasons for not sticking to the terms of the divorce. I was shaking so hard I could barely speak. I told the judge that during the last year Craig had violated numerous protective orders (through that same court) and had become very angry and dangerous towards me and had intended to kill me along with the man he did actually kill. I said I was terrified of Craig and of his manipulative nature and I didn’t think it would be healthy to take a 7 year old and a 10 year old to visit their dad in Maximum Security prison. I couldn’t believe I was actually having this conversation with the Judge.

After I was done the Judge said that in the State of Utah the courts prefer the parents to first try to figure out the best visitation plan for the children of a divorce. If we can’t come to an agreement we must submit, in writing, to the court, what we feel is best and the courts would make a determination. He did not even acknowledge the fact that Craig was in prison for the rest of his life. He spoke as if we were just a couple arguing over visitation of the children. And that was it. Bam! I jumped as his gavel hit down.

I couldn’t even look at Craig. I was told to wait until they had taken him out of the courtroom before I could leave. I knew that Craig would be writing out his notes on how the visitation should go, as soon as he possibly could. In my mind this was going to just continue my impossible battle with the man I thought I was finally freed from.

When I left the courtroom I was informed that the whole thing was recorded and that I could get a copy of the tape. It took them about a week or two to send me the VHS tape, and another few weeks for me to get the courage to watch it. I did finally watch it and could see how badly I was shaking through the proceeding. I still have the VHS tape. I will have it uploaded so that I can post it.

I didn’t have the money to hire an attorney to start another legal fight. I wrote out my thoughts and feelings about this hearing and summons and sent it in to the court. I never heard back from them. Hopefully there isn’t a warrant out for my arrest…..I would NOT be surprised anymore.

One day I was in the car with the boys and we drove past the prison. We lived in Draper and so we drove past it all the time. One of the older boys asked if that was where Dad is. I said yes. Rich (age 7) asked how long do people go to jail for? I told him it depends on what they did. He was trying to figure out how old he would be when he would see his dad again. This broke my heart. So I told them if they wanted to go see him, I would send the paperwork in and take them to see him. They said they did want to see him.

In those days to get on a visitor list I had to write to Craig and ask him permission to be a visitor. He would then send us a form that he had signed and filled out with his information. I filled out each form (one for each of the kids and one for me). It’s a fairly long process, including submitting copies of birth certificates, DL and SS cards, and since we were now divorced I had to show proof of the divorce. Craig was in maximum security and was only allowed one female visitor on his list, at a time, and since we were no longer married I was considered the female visitor, not family. I mailed everything into the prison and waited for Craig's letter informing us we had been approved.

That’s enough for today! Whew. So much more coming!

Have a great week and keep listening to your gut!!

Love and Grit,

Eve

# 41 Visitation

09/12/2017

So I did it. I went to see him. I won't lie, I was very nervous. I knew the control he has had on me in the past, and I knew how easily he could make me squirm (to say the least).

Let me take you back to the earlier years of visitation.

When Craig was first arrested, I told you how hard it hit the news. It was on every TV and news station, every hour, for days...and then spread to weeks, and then would still pop up if anything happened in court, months and years later,

I tried to protect my sons with everything I had in me. I kept the TV off, I tried not to take phone calls while they were around (which was almost impossible), and I certainly would not discuss him with anyone if my kids were within earshot. This was my goal. I did not want them to know what their Dad was being accused of, let alone being charged and found guilty of doing! Craig and I had two sons together, they were 7 and 10 years old when he was arrested. I also had two sons from a previous marriage whom Craig loved and treated as his own. They were 2 and 4 years old when we were married, so Craig had a big part in raising them. When Craig was arrested they were 14 and 16 years old.

Immediately after Craig was arrested he started asking me to bring the boys to see him. Every letter he begged. He was writing to me 3 to 4 times a week, begging me to bring the boys to visit him.

I didn't know what to do!! There was no book out there that covered my situation. I even googled it, but back then information was scarce. Do I take them to see their Dad who is in jail/prison on charges of murder? Or do I let them think their Dad was abducted by the government? I had sleepless nights and huge anxiety over this decision. At this point he had not even gone to court yet, but he was facing aggravated murder charges, in the first degree, which in Utah gives you the death penalty. What would you do?

Dr. Laura Schlessinger had been tuned into my car radio station for years. She has written many books and gives advice on marital and family issues, and Craig and I would often refer to her when we were in disagreement over something.  So in July and August of 2003, if I was in my car, I was either listening to Dr Laura, or I was hearing the news about the local plumber who had been murdered (by my husband, Craig). And he was demanding to see the kids. So I called in to Dr. Laura’s show. They put me through immediately.

Her advice was strong, not wavering and very professional. She said to me that in no uncertain terms should I ever take the boys to see Craig. She said he had "torn up his parent card" and that I had to turn my back and move forward with my children.

But in my gut I still didn't know what the right thing to do was. Everyone around me was giving me advice. How they all knew how to handle it still baffles me, because to this day, no one I know personally has ever had to make this kind of decision in their lives. But I REALLY appreciated all my friends and the people who were trying, with best intentions, to help me get through this crazy experience.

To be continued…..this was part one. I will get part two up within the next few days. The visitation chapter is almost a book on it’s own, so I will try to give it the space it needs.

Thanks again for all your support!! I am amazed and very appreciative of all the feedback and support I have received.

Always listen to your gut!! No matter the day or the severity of the situation…..listen to it!!

Love you all,

Eve

# 40

Hi there,

I know it has been a while since I posted, but I have been working on which direction to take from here. I have started posting the letters I received from Craig after he was arrested and sent off to prison.

Here is an excerpt from a letter he wrote on Christmas day, 2003

You ask: How I got to this point? I was looking at a future without the boyz. I know what divorce feels like to a little boy. All the school troubles, social challenges etc. Some dads seem to be able to walk away. I couldn’t! Was it the permanence of deportation? Maybe. I felt so alone, so dead. I had no purpose, no future, I wanted to die.

Another one: The time in here is painfully slow and my feet are painfully cold. At night they hurt too much to sleep. Our blanket is not soft so it doesn’t mold to your body. It is stiff so it leaves big pockets of air and openings. When you roll over you touch a new spot that is freezing.

The good thing about the letters though is they are reminding me of things that happened after he went to prison, so that info I will be sharing on here for you all. It's incredible that even after he went to prison he continued to try and manipulate me and the children.

Thank you all for your continued support! We now have over 40,000 page views!!


Until next time, always Trust Your Gut!!

#39 Update 07/14/2017

Once I reached the point of Craig being arrested, I went into an emotional coma. Every time I reached for my computer, I froze.

I have nearly 39,000 views of my blog which blows my mind! 

I have over 20 audio tapes filled both sides on most, and a duffel bag of letters from Craig since he has been in prison. I want to share this with you all.

I am trying to figure out where to go next. The letters? The tapes? Do I scan the letters in, or do I read them to you? I have received a lot of feedback that people want me to read the blog. So do I apply for a podcast feed? I am not the most internet savvy person, so I am learning slowly. I have a lot more to give you ....I have just been emotionally detached. I am coming back. 

I wrote Craig a letter and asked if he would put me on his visitors list. I really do want to talk to him. It has been 3 years since I have seen him. I want to know if he regrets any of the choices he made? Does he regret how things turned out? Does he regret losing his family? Does he regret killing another father?

I need answers to these questions to help me move on. So I am waiting for a response from him and the prison to see if I have been approved. If so, I will take the 2  to 3 hour drive down south and talk to him. I don't know if he has seen my blog or not. I will go with an open mind. And I will let you all know when I am heading down there. Since phones and notepads are not allowed in there, I will have to just remember as best I can, and as soon as I get back in the car I will write out everything I can possibly remember. 

Thank you to my followers and supporters. Your support means so much to me. This story is so much bigger than it appears, and I have just cracked open the egg shell......

PLEASE ask me any questions!! You can use my Facebook page at facebook.com/evespath and lets talk. I want to help domestic violent situations!!

Yesterday I was in the store and the lady behind me just started talking out of no where. She had been married for 33 years to a hoarder and wasn't allowed to throw anything out. Her whole 1800 sq ft basement is full from top to bottom with boxes. Then he started to abuse her. He hit her, he hit the cops. All this she told me in line at the store. She said she just needed to talk to someone who understood!!!

This is why I want to do this. I need computer time. Right now I work all day and come home exhausted and then get on my computer but feel my effort is weak. I need to free up one or two days a week and focus on these families who are suffering horrendous abuse. 

Thank you to my supporters!! Please share!! I need $120 a day to stay home and work on this. The more you can help me, the more I can help others. I am lucky enough to have worked out my living arrangements to be very inexpensive. All I want to do is spend time researching and helping these families who so obviously need help.

Please give me some feed back! Let me know if you want me to read the blog to you, or read Craig's insane letters to me, or put up the audios of so many fights with a true psychopath. I have come to a fork in the road and need to know which fork to take for my followers. 

You can respond on here or my facebook page facebook.com/evespath

I love and appreciate all of your support. Domestic violence has changed my life forever! I don't even know if I will ever trust a man again. I hope and pray that my sons will be able to have happy, long relationships and not be afraid of what they experienced.  I am on a lot of Domestic Violence Group sites and will keep pushing what I know. 

An innocent man died, and I almost did too. This is something we have to STOP!.

# 38 Eve's turn to go...

Quote from my journal sometime after the arrest.

“I sit upright against the wall, with the light on, night after night. I can’t lie down. That is too vulnerable.  I can’t sleep. I am tense and anxious and horrified and sad and relieved and even though suddenly people are so shocked by the horrific news….I feel safer than I have in a year. With Craig locked up, I finally feel safe. But so much has happened.  I can’t let go. There is  still so much I don’t know, and yet suddenly everything is becoming clear to me. Things are starting to make sense”

But I still had no idea of the whole story that was headed my way.

On one of the visits with the detectives they asked me to tell them about the time Craig stole jewelry from me. I looked at them, confused. They said that while I was living in my Layton home, Craig had broken in and stolen a lot of jewelry from me. That is the story Craig had given them. He said he waited until I was gone for the day, broke into my house (which would have been impossible because I always set the alarm when we were all gone). Craig said I had a safe in my bedroom closet that he knew the combination to, and so he took all it’s contents, which included jewelry and cash. I told the detectives I had no idea what they were talking about. I told them I never had a safe, and the only jewelry I have ever had is still where I kept it in my dresser. And I never had a stash of cash. Then I jokingly asked that if they could return theses items that were stolen from me I would greatly appreciate it. LOL. They asked me a few times, in different ways, if I was sure that I wasn’t missing any jewelry or cash. It was really bizarre. So they took their notes on their yellow pads and went back to the station to figure this one out. Why would Craig tell them he had stolen items from me, if he hadn’t?

Well, Tamara was being interviewed too. She was really good at telling all. In fact that is how she was caught in the first place, she had told her hairdresser and another friend that her South African boyfriend was going to take care of her ex husband. So now Tamara had more to tell. And boy did she have a lot to tell.

Tamara had an elderly aunt who had a lot of money. Tamara and Craig decided they deserved it more than this elderly lady, so they devised a plan. Tamara invited her sweet aunt out for dinner. While they were at dinner, Craig broke into HER home and stole HER jewelry and cash.

I still don’t know why Craig told the detectives he stole those items from me, but maybe he was trying to protect Tamara?? So they were both charged with burglary for that incident.

Another thing the detectives learned from Tamara was what the plan was for me. They had discovered a passport in Craig's house that had my name in it, but Tamaras picture. They had also found passports for Craig, our 2 sons and Tamaras 2 kids. These were obviously fake as I still had the “passport hold” on both my boys, and if an application had come through for them, I would have been notified. We know Craig knew how to get fake documents made up, and now he had done it again. Up until this time, I had no idea that I was intended to be a part of this crime. Tamara told the detectives that Craig had increased my life insurance, which he could do because he was the owner of our joint policy. Since I had a protective order against Craig, they decided that she would have to be the one to shoot me because I wouldn’t have allowed him to get close enough to me.

Before the detectives told me the plan, they asked me to pull out my planner again and verify my activity on certain dates. I didn’t know at the time why they were asking me for this info. Detectives are very good at not giving any information, just collecting it and putting it together.

The dates they asked me about I did have notes in my planner, and I also specifically remembered what had happened.

I was the Realtor for a development being built in West Point. I had a model home that I would use to show to future clients. One day a lady had called me and asked if she could come and see the model home at 10pm that night. I told her I don’t work that late, could we pick another time. She was very insistent. She said that she was desperately wanting to live in that area and was ready to buy, but since she works all day, the only time she could see the model would be at 10pm. So what did I do? Did I listen to my gut? No. I agreed to meet her. Especially since she was female, and her story sounded very real. So I drove out there at 9pm, turned on all the lights in the house and got it ready to show. This area was still undeveloped so there were no street lights yet, and certainly no neighbors. What a perfect place for a crime. And eerily similar to how they took Mike down.

Anyway, she didn’t show up. I sat there until 10:30pm, tried calling her a few times, and eventually turned off all the lights and locked up the house and went home.

The next day she called me back and apologised profusely. She gave me some story about why she didn’t make it and why she hadn’t been able to call me, but PLEASE could I show it to her that night, at 10pm. Once again I really didn’t feel good about it, but decided to meet her anyway. Now the second night I was back out there, by myself, like a sitting duck in a barrel. I waited for her until 10:30pm and then turned everything off, locked up the house and went out to my car. I remember walking to my car, feeling uncomfortable about something, but just passed it off as being scared about being out there in the dark by myself, so very alone. I jumped into my car, locked the doors and vowed I would not give her another chance.

After I told the detectives my story, they told me that lady was Tamara. She was supposed to come over and while I would show her the empty model home, she would shoot me. I had never seen her before, so I would not have recognised her. She had given a different name.

The reason I am here to tell the story is because she chickened out. Twice. Thank God.

None of this came out in the news. I don’t know if was because she made a plea deal about giving up the true story, or if they didn’t need to include it since she was already being charged with the maximum of aggravated murder.

Both Tamara and Craig were charged with Aggravated Murder. Their trials were set for the beginning of the New Year (2004). The fact that they had premeditated and planned this whole thing out is why they got “aggravated” charges.

In November of 2003 Craig went into court and plead guilty to all charges.

Next time I will give you the story behind his plea and why he has since tried to appeal his confession a number of times since then. And why does he have 5000000 tattooed on his arm?

Thank you again for following me! I know I have been slow with my updates, but my mind never stops thinking about it. I have a lot of letters and audio, so there is still so much more content to go over. To fill in all the gaps. One day at a time.

Until then, stay safe and Please, always trust your gut!!

# 37 News article and post

Kaysville man also faces charges in Cache man's death

By Derek Jensen

Deseret Morning News

Published: July 24, 2003 12:00 a.m.

LOGAN — A Kaysville man was charged with capital murder Wednesday, just one day after prosecutors filed the same charge against his girlfriend in the slaying of a Logan man.

Court records suggest the couple, Tamara Rhinehart and Craig Duncan Nicholls, lured Rhinehart's ex-husband, Michael J. Boudrero, to a North Logan residence where he was shot and killed earlier this month.

"This appears to be the classic definition of a cold-blooded murder," Cache County Attorney George Daines said. "There's no sign of a struggle."

The motive for killing Boudrero may have been a life-insurance policy taken out for the longtime Cache Valley plumber. Police found the policy in Rhinehart's Clearfield apartment, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in 1st District Court. The policy was apparently for $50,000, and investigators have found several other potential policies or policy applications for higher amounts, Daines said.

Rhinehart, 44, remains in the Cache County Jail without bail after 1st District Judge Clint Judkins ruled Wednesday that she was indigent and would need a public defender.

Nicholls, a 39-year-old South African national, was expected to be transferred to the Cache County Jail sometime Wednesday night or this morning after being held in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Police arrested Rhinehart and Nicholls at the woman's Clearfield apartment Monday night without incident, Daines said.

Family members had suspected foul play as soon as Boudrero was reported missing July 9. He was last seen July 8 when he told his mother he was going to meet with someone in North Logan to discuss a plumbing job.

"We knew something was up because he just didn't come home," Boudrero's 27-year-old son, Chris Boudrero, said Wednesday following Rhinehart's court hearing. "We thought the worst."

Chris Boudrero joined several family members at the court hearing, including Michael Boudrero's mother and sister.

Rhinehart was escorted into the courtroom wearing navy jail pants and a shirt, with her wrists and ankles handcuffed. She spoke only a few times during her brief appearance. The judge ordered her to appear again Monday, where she will likely be appointed a public defender chosen from a list of lawyers qualified to work on capital cases.

Rhinehart's 20-year-old son, Shea Croshaw, was the only member of Rhinehart's family to attend the proceedings.

Outside the courtroom, he struggled to articulate his feelings on the charges against his mother.

"I'm here to lend any support that I can. She's my mother," he said.

Croshaw spoke with Boudrero's family members both before and after the hearing. He characterized his mother's relationship during her 10-year marriage to Boudrero as "generally healthy."

According to court documents, however, Rhinehart complained to a confidential police informant that her ex-husband was late in paying alimony. She also told the informant that Boudrero withheld child support money from her by working "scab jobs," court documents stated.

"Everything was about money to her," Chris Boudrero countered. "I think she'd do anything for money."

Rhinehart told the informant she "knew how to get Mr. Boudrero out of the house to look at a 'scab job' at a construction site, consistent with how the homicide was committed," court documents stated.

On one occasion, Rhinehart told the informant, "Well, plan A is going to happen soon," court documents stated. When the informant asked Rhinehart what she meant, the woman replied, "You know he's going to be gone," court documents stated. Rhinehart also told the informant on other occasions that she would have her boyfriend kill Boudrero, according to court records.

Nicholls matched the description of a man seen on a Brigham City Wal-Mart surveillance video purchasing a phone card on July 8 that was later used to call Boudrero's cell phone three times that same day between 5:30 p.m. and 8:50 p.m.

Boudrero told his mother July 8 he was going to North Logan to discuss a potential plumbing job. He left his mother's house about 8 p.m. and was last seen alive by workers near the North Logan residence, 2771 N. 1400 East, where he was found dead three days later, court documents stated. Police found Boudrero's body on July 11 locked in a storage room under the front porch of the unfinished house with bullet wounds in his chest and back, court documents stated. It appeared he had been shot and then dragged to the storage room, court documents stated. Police lifted fingerprints from the scene and a shoeprint from someone stepping in Boudrero's blood, according to court documents.

Investigators had not yet recovered the murder weapon, Daines said. However, in addition to murder, Nicholls was also charged with possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony. Nicholls' criminal history includes convictions for theft, forgery, shoplifting and simple assault, Daines said.

Investigators have evidence that Nicholls obtained the firearm through a third party but Daines would not comment if the weapon was in police custody or whether it matched the murder weapon.

Nicholls is still awaiting a court date on his charges. Daines said it was possible his office could be filing more counts against Rhinehart in connection with the insurance applications found in her apartment.

Meanwhile, the 9- and 13-year-old sons born to Rhinehart and Boudrero during their 10-year marriage are now in Division of Child and Family Services custody, agency spokeswoman Carol Sisco said. A custody hearing originally set for Wednesday for the two boys, ages 13 and 9, was rescheduled for Monday, she said.

If convicted, Nicholls and Rhinehart could face execution, though Daines said it was too early to say if prosecutors would seek the death penalty.

*********** End of Article****************************************************************************

I will continue on, after I picked the boys up from Shondell.

As I drove back home with the boys, there was a million things going through my mind. I still didn’t quite understand the fullness of what Craig had done, but I knew it was serious. The boys asked me a few questions about when they would see Dad again etc, but they were pretty oblivious to the big picture.

At the pool party, the kids played and the adults talked. My cell phone rang constantly, with numbers I had never seen. Every person I knew, and that Craig knew, was calling me to find out the details. In those days we paid for minutes used on our cell phones. My bill came to over $2000 that month. I called Sprint and explained to them what had happened and they DROPPED the whole bill for me!! As much as I hate Sprint now, I will always be grateful to them for doing that for me.

I just asked Rocco if he remembers that day and he said no. He remembers his birthday party at the pool, and he remembers seeing Craigs mugshot on TV, but not on the same day. That comes as a relief to me.

The crazy part about this, is, I have NEVER sat down with my boys and discussed this whole event. There were moments I remember where one of the boys would be having a bad day, and I would sit down with them on my bed and tell them I understand, and we would cry together for a few minutes…..but I couldn't talk about it. As soon as the words came to my mouth I would get very emotional, and shut up quickly. I never wanted my boys to see me weak. I needed to be their rock, I would not let them see me crumble. They needed to rely on me and know that no matter what happened in our lives, I would always be there for them. Since starting this blog, I have found I can talk more to them. But it has taken me 13 years of silence to get to this point.

We were living in a small apartment in South Jordan. It had 3 bedrooms. Wil and Doug were a little older, so I gave them each a room. Richie shared my room and Rocco slept in the living room. He actually loved it. His black kitty would sleep on his stomach, and he had all his important things around him (like his pokemon cards) and he was a happy camper (literally) in the living room. A few years later we moved into a condo where Rocco had his own bedroom. He still insisted on sleeping on the floor and would not let me put a bed into his room. Cute boy.

But, this Tuesday night was different. None of us wanted to be alone. Both Rocco and Rich slept in my room, Rocco on the floor of course, Rich in the bed with me. I put a Spa CD into my CD player, and we listened to it to go to sleep. But I couldn’t lie down. I couldn’t turn out the light. I sat up against the wall, with the light on, staring into space,  all night. Every night. For I don’t know how many weeks, seemed like months. I felt that if I lay down I would be vulnerable. I wouldn’t allow myself to be vulnerable. I had to stay strong. But there was another part to this that no one else knew about. I FINALLY felt SAFER than I had in a year! I had a lot of people checking up on me, making sure I was OK, but they didn’t know how bad things had been between Craig and I over the last year, so even though I was horrified and shocked and devastated for the boys, I felt a sense of peace. I won’t be getting harassing calls and demands every day anymore. That part felt very, very relieving. I had a lot of mixed emotions.

A lot happened this week that Craig was arrested. So I am just going to type it all and hopefully it will make sense.

The next day the detectives asked me to go and pick up our van. We had an astro mini van that Craig had taken to Tamara’s house on that Monday night when they were arrested. So now the van was parked at her place and I needed to go and get it, That was a surreal event on it’s own. To see her place and know that my boys had been there many times while she and Craig made their plans. It was so eery. I still have the detectives business card that was on the van window, and he had written “Do Not Tow” on it.

And then the Logan jail called me and said Craig needed his meds. So I had to go to his house and pick up his medications and drive them up to Logan to him. The police allowed me into the house to get his meds. My sister came with me that day. While I was up there in Logan, dropping off the medications, I received a phone call from Wil. He said Richie had fallen and broken his arm (in South Jordan). They said it was obviously broken and that he was turning very white. My sister had worked in emergency rooms for years and she said that Rich needed to get to the ER immediately. So I called a man I had met when I moved into those apartments (who had become a good friend) and asked if he could get Richie to an emergency room for me, since I was at least 2 or more hours away. My friends name is also Rich. His daughter and Richie had become good friends, so I knew Richie would be OK with him. They got him to the hospital and by the time I reached him he was already being treated.

The detectives told me they needed a few days to search the house for evidence and that once they were done, I could go in. It took them about 3 days. They carried out bags and bags of things. They took all our computers, including the boys laptops. They took Craigs shoes, and some of his clothing. Then I was cleared to go in.

I started in our bedroom. I walked around the house like I was in a ghost town. The house was in such a mess. It was dark, dirty and smelled terrible. Animal control had come over and taken all the animals out. Craig had snakes, rats, guinea pigs and more, but their cages were filthy. He had stopped caring for them weeks or months prior.  His cats had been breeding in his closet, so there was a bloody shirt on the ground where she had delivered. Craig had also trained them to use the toilet instead of a litter box, so the guest bathroom looked disgusting. I couldn’t believe the state of the house. It was no wonder the boys were having a hard time going over there.

In the bedroom, I went to my dresser and opened some of the drawers to see what I had left in them.  This is when I discovered that drawer full of audio tapes. I didn’t even know Craig had been recording all our calls. He had them labelled with the dates, and/or names on them. This is where I found the one that he had written “Tamara and Eve” on it. I took that tape with me to listen to in the car while driving back to South Jordan. (How did the cops not see this?)

Then I went over to my bedside table. He had papers everywhere, notes etc. I found one sticking out from under the phone. I picked up the phone and pulled the paper out. It had Mike Boudrero’s name, birthdate and social security number on it. All in Craig’s handwriting. It also had the name of an insurance company on it. Then I noticed all of my information on it too! My birthdate, SS#, my insurance company I have been with for years.  All I could think was “How on earth did the police spend 3 days collecting evidence and miss these items??” So I took the paper and the tape and headed home. I played the tape in the car and heard the conversation between Craig and Tamara discussing their plans about living like kings in Belize as soon as they got “the loan”.

I called the detectives and they came and picked these items up from me. Luckily I still had an old tape to tape machine in my stereo, so I was able to copy that tape before they took it. In fact, I have the original with his handwriting on it, so I must have given them the copy. They also took the paper with the personal info on it.

Among the phone calls I had received in the last few days was one from a lady who was freaked out about lending Craig her gun. She said that Craig had borrowed her .32 cal pistol when he took the boys up to Park City for the weekend, and when she asked Craig for it back, he said he had lost it. Now she was on the phone to me, freaking out, because that was the exact caliber Craig had used to shoot Mike. She wanted her gun back! It was too late. He had thrown it in the Salt Lake. She knew Craig was a restricted person, and her job was a dispatcher or something, so she was really worried she would get into trouble for lending him that gun. I have no idea if she was ever questioned about that.

Another call I got was from a girl Craig had been dating apparently, and she said there was a lot of cash in Craig's bedroom. She said she had been with him over the weekend and that Craig had about $5000 in cash on his bed. I had asked my boys about it, and they verified that Dad always had a lot of cash in his room. He used to let them jump on the bed with $100 bills all around them. So while I was in the house, of course I looked for cash. But there was nothing. I did however find his safe, but it was locked. I was able to get the safe over to the fire department (my brother in law was a Captain) and he used the jaws of life and broke open the safe for me. Much to my horror, there was no money, just  a few porn videos. Joke was on me I guess. To this day I don’t know if Craig had put the money somewhere else on Monday, or if he took it to Tamaras. Or did the detectives find it and take it as evidence?  I will never know.

Craig had been trying to sell the house, so it had a For Sale sign in the yard. His agent called me and told me that the house was in foreclosure. She said Craig had not made a payment on it for about a year (basically since I had moved out). I think he knew his time was up and that everything was going to come to an end and he would be long gone before it caught up with him. So he stopped paying on EVERYTHING, and took out as much credit as he could. I also found out he had bought a house in Farmington that he had not made a payment on either. I had never even heard about that house. All the credit he was using still had my name on it, so I discovered I owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So the Realtor agent said that since our house was in foreclosure, I literally had a few days to get my things out before they came and locked it all up. This was our 7 bedroom home. There was no way I could get everything moved out in a couple days, but I didn’t want to lose my things either. If you remember, Craig wouldn’t let me into the house once I moved out, so ALL of my things were still in there. My best friend and neighbor jumped into action. I will forever be SO GRATEFUL to her for how she handled everything. She spread the word in the neighborhood that I needed to get everything out of the house, and either sold or packed it. It was basically a massive yard sale where so many people came to help. My friend took care of everything that sold and she organized everything else to get moved or to be left. My mind was going in a hundred different places. By now the news had spread to all the neighbors about Craig, so I really got so much love and help. I could not have done it without all of them. At the end we had most everything out of the house and a lot of it sold. We did end up leaving a lot behind, that we still look back and think about, but at the time, we did the very best we could.

Then the detectives were meeting with me 3 to 4 times a week, for a few hours at a time. They would sit with me for hours and ask me so many questions. Since I had been keeping a journal and my planner updated, they were able to put things together and figure out when and how things had happened. Craig had already given some information so they were matching it up to my records. They asked me if I would give them permission to talk to my boys, with me present of course. The boys willingly gave information they had no idea had anything related to what had happened with their Dad. They told the detectives that Craig had been taking them to the Great Salt Lake a lot lately, which interested the detectives because Craig had told them he had thrown all the evidence into the Salt Lake. So the detectives asked if they could take us to the Salt Lake and see if the boys could show them where they would go. But that was hopeless. That lake is so big, and the boys were so young, it all looked the same to them.

Then the detectives asked if they could show us a video. It was the surveillance video taken from the Logan Walmart, where Craig had bought the phone card and called Mike. When we watched the video, the boys immediately recognised Craig's car pulling into the parking lot, (he had a headlight out) and then they saw him walk into the Walmart, pay for the card, walk over to the pay phone and make a call. The boys didn’t know this was the day Craig had committed the crime, they just watched the video and recognised their Dad. This was all used as evidence against Craig. Since Craig and I were still legally married (he had not ever agreed to the divorce documents) I was not asked to testify. It’s a law in place, that you don’t have to testify against your spouse. I was relieved to hear this, since I already felt like I had done enough. And now I realised how much I had given them, and Craig would not be happy with me. I started to really fear that they would let him out on a bond or parole and that he would come after me. The detectives assured me he was not getting out, but that they would place us in protective custody if, by chance, he did get out.

Next time I will tell you about the jewelry Craig told the detectives he stole from me, but what the real story turned out to be. And then how the detectives told me that I was next on the list to be taken out, and how they had found a passport in my name, but with Tamaras picture in it. They had everything figured out, I was the last thing on the checklist to be done and off they were going to Belize, with all the children.

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