# 22 "Eve, lie to me! Please!"

I have been listening to some audio tapes I have. I don’t think I even told you how I came across these tapes. On July 22, 2003, I received a phone call from a detective who informed me that Craig had been arrested for homicide, and he asked me to meet him at our Kaysville house. At the time I was at Shondells house (the counselor) and she was very concerned it was a set up. She thought Craig was trying to get me to the house for something. She asked me to leave my boys with her and said to make sure I knew it was safe before going into the house. So I drove the 10 minutes down to the house and as I approached the house I noticed cop cars on both sides of the street all the way up to my house.  When I arrived at the house, it was surrounded in yellow Crime Scene tape, and the detectives were waiting for me in the driveway. I knew this was no set up. This was real. There was media everywhere.

They informed me that Craig had been arrested the night before, for homicide, and that they wanted me to know before it hit the news. This was about 3pm. By 5pm it hit the news and was on every channel every 15 minutes as Breaking News. They told me they needed to recover evidence from the house and that I was not allowed to enter the house until they were done, approximately a few days.

After getting a little bit of information and their cards, I left and went back to Shondell to pick up the boys. I told her it was very real and would be on the 5 o’clock news. On the way home, I had to explain to the boys what had happened. The saddest part of this is it was Roccos 10th birthday and we had a party planned at the pool where we lived, with all our family and friends. Obviously it turned out very differently than what we had planned, but I will go over that when we get further into the journal notes.

It took the detectives 3 days to recover all the evidence they wanted from our house. They carried many, many brown paper bags out of the house. During those 3 days I received a phone call from Craig's Real Estate agent who had listed the house for him. She informed me that Craig had not made a payment on the house for a year (basically since I had moved out) and that it was about to go into foreclosure. She said once it goes into foreclosure it would get locked up and everything in the house would be thrown out. She was giving me a heads up that if I wanted anything out of the house, I needed to do it asap.

Remember Craig had not allowed me to get anything out of that house when I moved out, so it was FULL of our things. I had less than 3 days to get everything out of this 7 bedroom home.

My neighbor kicked into gear and I will FOREVER be grateful to her for how quickly she arranged help.  Within a day she had the whole neighborhood over there helping me get things packed onto a trailer, or sold on the front lawn. It was incredible.

I shouldn’t be telling you all of this yet, because it is premature, but I do have a point! While I was in our bedroom, clearing out closets etc, I came across a drawer FULL of audio tapes. I picked them up and noticed they all had dates on them. I couldn’t believe it. This is when I realized that Craig had been recording ALL of our conversations. But they weren’t just him and I. He had audio recorded his conversation with many others…..including Tamara Rhinehart (literally his partner in crime). I found the audio tape of the 2 of them discussing their final plans. I listened to it in the car driving home and when I arrived back in South Jordan, I called the detectives and they came over immediately to get it. I did however, get a chance to copy it before turning it over. So those of you on Patreon will get to hear that conversation. It still blows me away that the detectives never found these tapes. There was more evidence I found, but I will save that for later!

So this is why I have audio tapes. It has been surreal to listen to the tapes and hear Craig driving me crazy with his constant accusations and manipulation. It went on for a whole year.

Another thing I want to tell you, is how much the detectives used my journal notes after Craig was arrested, to track his activity before, during and after the crime happened.  I obviously had no idea what was going on, but I wrote notes almost every day. After Craig was arrested, the detectives came over about 3 to 4 times a week and used my journal notes to trace his activity in the previous month. You never know when your journal will become evidence in a crime.

So this post is backtracking a bit because the last post I put up was about our CA trip in Feb. But I am going to give you some notes from the audio tape that he had marked 12/19/02. It just gives you some background as to what was going on.

Keep in mind that Craig was the one recording all of these conversations, and I had no idea. So he is careful about how he words things. I have no idea what his plan was for these tapes, but nevertheless, they are now in my hands as I write this story.

Side A starts off with Craig calling me and getting my voicemail. I won’t quote everything word for word, unless I feel it needs to be. He sounds despondent, and says I am arrogant, I have bipolar, I have an attitude that is horrendous. He asked me if I hung out with boyfriends the night before (I think this is what triggered the call, he probably couldn’t reach me and so therefore assumed I spent the nights with boyfriends). He said “Let's talk about bipolar, I have a reason to be angry. Chill out, drop the attitude and call me back. I am gone, I am out of the country. Please?”

So I returned his call and got his voicemail and even though he tried to call me back a few times while I was leaving his message, I wanted to finish so I didn’t pick up his call. I told him I have no choice, he made my life unbearable and I had to move out to be able to continue a semi normal life. I explained to him that I could not be with him anymore and that I was serious about moving on.

When he called back he was laughing at me. Almost making fun of me. Like my message was a joke. We had been discussing splitting our assets (the houses) the day before and and he told me I deserved nothing. He said he had never lied to me, never stabbed me in the back. All he was asking for was a commitment from me to our marriage. The more I talked about splitting assets, the more he asked me to commit to him. He said if I commit to him, he will discuss splitting equity with me. He said he is going to a foreign country to start a foreign business and will have nothing. At this point I think he was planning on heading back to SA because he was already in so much trouble here in the US, he had nowhere else to go.

I told him I don’t want any of his money, I just want my half of the equity. I had bought the West Valley house before he and I were even together. I had been in a car accident and received a fairly large payout so I used it to buy the house. He had since then taken out a second mortgage on it. We also had the house in South Jordan we needed to sell.

Craig told me he does not care one tiny bit if the kids and I have to go on welfare and get medicaid and food stamps. He would rather the State pay for our well being than take any money from him. He told me over and over again that I deserve nothing because I won’t commit to him.

We talked a lot about the work that needed to be done on the WV house, and I said I could hire someone to fix it up and then we could pay that out of the equity before we split it. He outright refused and said he will kick it around court until the cows come home.

Then he told me that ALL debt he has and would gain from that day forward, he was going to walk away from, and now that I know that, if I ask him for any money I will be considered an accomplice.

I hung up on him. I was disgusted.

Then he called me back sounding completely different and he said “Eve, lie to me! Tell me you love me, you will make love to me, tell me you’re sorry...then I will be fine. I just have a couple months left, just lie to me and then I’ll be gone” I told him if I did that he would call me in a few days fuming that I lied to him!

I told him I felt he was trying to screw me over. I knew he was trying to get all the money in his name so that he could leave, walk away from it and leave me with the fall.

We also discussed his affairs with Liz and Kathy. He brings up Michael (the man he convinced to come spend the night with me while Craig watched). He was convinced I had an affair with Michael. I told him he had affairs for more than 3 years (that I knew of) and he is upset about a 3 week friendship that he forced on Michael and I,  and he played us like puppets? He said he didn’t leave me emotionally in those 3 years and that he was honorable. Holy Moly….the sad part is he really believed that. I don’t want to categorize men here, but I know men get less emotionally involved in sexual relationships and can just shut it down. But when you carry on with the same person for years…...there is emotion there.

In another part of the call, after he had said that he helps me out all the time and the least I could do was commit to him, I asked him what exactly he had done for me. He said that he had not filed police reports on me, he had not called my previous company to get me fired, and that he hadn’t turned my brother and sister into the INS even though they were actively participating in the destruction of his life. That is what he had done for me. I was speechless.

Then he asked me what I had done for him?

So I answered with the same kind of stupidity he was feeding me. I told him I had not reported him to the cable company for having illegal satellites, I hadn’t told the INS he he was running away and leaving the country to hide from them, and I had not reported to the credit card companies that he had no intention of ever paying his bills.

I felt ridiculous using these as honest efforts for showing someone I cared.

Craig also brought up I hadn’t dropped the protective order after I promised that I had. Well I never “promised” but the Victim's Advocates are there for a reason and they knew he was forcing me to go in and drop the order.  He told me I had made my own bed, and now I get to sleep in it.  He said again “I’m dead, you have killed me, I am gone”

Then we got into an argument about the coffee trailer. He had asked me to run it for a couple weeks for him so that he could work the WV house. I worked for the 2 weeks on the trailer, but he only spent 2 days on the West Valley house.

That does is for tonight! Thanks again for following along. We have over 23,400 views so I really appreciate all your support!

Until next time, Keep love in your heart!

# 21 I really did love him. Reminiscing about the beginning.

Today has been a rough day. I have spent the whole day going through pictures and videos and I really am sorry our marriage didn’t work out. We had some really good years and Craig was an awesome Dad to the boys and a wonderful husband to me. I have uploaded a bunch of pictures onto my drive and will post them in the next few days.

I just wonder what went wrong? When did it go wrong? Why? When you marry your high school sweetheart, you don’t expect it to end so tragically. I look back at pictures and I was always attracted to Craig. I loved the way he taught the boys to respect me (and still do today), I loved our lives and how connected we were. We enjoyed so much together. Massage school, raising the boys, boating, taking care of our home, he was very good at fixing everything. He never needed to call a repairman, he figured it out on his own every time. His large family that extended from South Africa to Utah all loved him and he loved them. I went through some of his pictures today and I see Uncle X and Aunty X (not mentioning names). Craig has a lot of cousins who all have great memories of them growing up. All his pictures of him growing up he was always in a river or the bush, exploring. He is the oldest of 3, and his Mom's pride and joy. Craig has an awesome Mom and his Dad was great with how he taught the boys to read and write before they learned it in school.

It has been a big reminiscing day for me, and I realize I haven’t said many positive things about Craig in my writing previously, but he deserves them. He was 40 yrs old when he was arrested, and will now spend the rest of his life in prison. I was the last person to really know him, so I feel it’s my duty to tell the world he was not a bad person. He made a very, very big mistake. He allowed a stranger online to manipulate him and do something that destroyed the rest of his life. Was it one big mistake? Or was it a lifetime of choices that took him down the wrong path?

Since starting this blog I have received numerous emails and messages from people who grew up with Craig. Each has their own memory, and sadly it’s the negative ones that are coming forward to me. This fueled the fire in a way that gave me the strength to keep writing. Unfortunately he did leave some tracks behind him that offended or scared the people who knew him. Craig was raised with a gun in his hand (I have photos of him as a young child, teaching others to shoot), and then went on to join the special forces unit in the military. Did being a sniper, who took the lives of many, have a bad effect on him? Did it make his heart harder than most? Did he become numb to killing? I don’t want to believe this, as I know we have so many military people around us and I don’t want to set a negative precedent that this is how they will behave when things get rough.

But then what did go wrong? I remember the day my heart changed….I remember it vividly. It was the day I received that phone call from our friend Mike, who told me that his wife and Craig had been involved in an affair 2 years earlier. After that I tried very hard to forgive and move on. And then I discovered he was having an affair with Liz. After that, it was a constant roller coaster.

Was it my weight? Maybe it was my fault. I look at the pictures of us and I was very heavy from 1993 until 1999. 6 years. But he never, ever complained about my weight to me. He always made me feel special and always expressed his love. His first affair was with a girl even bigger than I was, which really surprised me.

When I look back, I feel like his neurosis came after I lost 100 lbs. I feel my weight loss became a threat to him. When I was working in the insurance industry, I had to train agents. Craig had a big problem with that. He did not like me going on appointments with men. Part of me believes he intentionally destroyed that business for me because he couldn’t handle me being out at night on appointments.

So I know this is completely different to the types of blogs I have been posting, but I needed to put this part out there too. I loved Craig with all my heart, I was very happy with him and believed we would spend the rest of our lives together. I wish I really understood what went wrong. That might help me move on. I have not remarried in the 14 years since our divorce. I do want to be married again, but it will take me understanding what went wrong in this marriage so that I don’t repeat it again. Was it my fault? Did I respond incorrectly? What made him so angry at me that in the end I was worth more dead to him, than alive. That is a big pill to swallow.

I know my grandchildren will grow up and want to know about their grandfather. They deserve to know he was a great man, who made a very terrible decision and paid for it with his life.

Thank you for reading this. I hope you understand why I needed to put this up. The rest of my blog will continue as usual. The emails, the phone calls and the journal notes are disturbing. Then after his arrest will come the press, the newspaper articles. And then his letters to the boys and I, and the threats I received from other people in the prison. There is lots more to come. I just felt the urge to put out the good side of Craig tonight.

#20 A trip to CA

#20

Here is another journal entry that I have a very VIVID recollection of.  But since I have it written the day it happened, I will give it to you as it was written.

Sunday Feb 2nd, 2003

Craig phoned at about 12:30 pm and asked if he could come over to talk to the kids and I. I said it was OK as long as there would be no fighting. He arrived at 1:15 pm and sat down at the table and called the kids over. He told them he wants to take them to California for a week, to Disneyland and SeaWorld. He then looked at me and said they would be leaving at midnight on Friday. My heart sank. I remembered the call I received from Laura who said she felt Craig was going to try and get the kids out of the county. I went cold. I asked where they would be staying? His response was “Some motel somewhere”. I said I needed to think about it. At this he became very angry at me. so I said to him quietly that he is not allowed to leave the State according to the INS. He started yelling at me that he has every right to take his kids away on a trip. He swore at me in front of the little boys sitting right there. I asked him to watch his language in front of the kids. He turned to them and told them that their mother won’t let them go on a trip with him. He started swearing the F word at me again so I told him to leave. He yelled louder and started calling me scum. Then he pulled a tape recorder out of his jacket pocket and pushed it into my face. I reminded him to watch his mouth in front of the kids. He just got louder and continued swearing at me and calling me terrible names. I told him to leave again. He just continued yelling inches away from my face. I opened the front door and told him to leave. He just got his face right into mine and yelled that I was scum. I was very scared and shaking. I called 911. While I was on the phone to the dispatcher Craig continued yelling at me. Then he wanted to leave but the dispatcher said he had to wait for the officers to arrive!........!!??!!

He got in his car in the driveway and actually waited, which surprised me. The officers arrived (about 10 cars) and they spoke to him in my driveway for some time. After he left they came and told me to lock my door and if he tried to come back I must call them. They had told him to stay away.

I keep thinking, hoping, that he will behave normally. I keep hoping he will give up the fight. I am very concerned about the way he yells at me in front of the little boys. It is not right for them to be exposed to that.

Monday 02/03/2003

I tried to get another protective order today after last night's events, but it was denied because Craig didn’t physically touch me. (It’s unreal that computers get to be the brains in these events, because a human would be able to pick up on the real problem)

I am VERY concerned about him taking the kids to CA. He is not supposed to leave the State without getting permission from the INS.

Craig picked the boys up after school to spend the night with him, but then he brought them home at 9:30pm. I guess his plans changed.

Tuesday 02/04/2003

I left a message for Dwight Williams on his voicemail. He did not call me back. Craig picked the boys up after school again today and they spent the night. Rocco told me Craig is taking them out of school early tomorrow ,at 1pm, to go to Park City and spend the night in a cabin. I am missing them terribly.

Wednesday 02/05/2003

Craig is really angry today. He fought with me all morning. ( I have this all on tape). He says when he spends time with the kids he realizes how much I am taking away from him and he hates me for it. I asked him numerous times to let me say good morning to the the kids, and all he did was yell at me. He yelled until I was in tears. Eventually Richie called me and I got to talk to him.

I worry he won’t let them call me from CA.

I spoke to Officer Gaye at the INS and he said if I give them a sworn affidavit next week that Craig was out of State more than 48 hours, then Craig would be in violation. Violation?? Whoop ti doo!  They are a circus over there! There is nothing I can do until a crime has been committed. No one will listen. It is an absolute JOKE. They all do nothing!!

Friday 02/07/2003

I spoke to the DCA office about Craig taking the kids out of state and how worried I am. Craig has nothing left and nothing to lose, and I know he would just take the kids and run as fast as he could to get away from me and away from all his demons chasing him. It scares me so much Their advice….tell Craig I insist on going with them or he cannot take them out of State. I decided that would be better than staying home and being worried sick every hour about where my boys were.

So obviously I don’t have journal entries from the days we were in CA. But I have pictures which I am posting on Patreon. When I look at the pictures they make me very sad. I know how unhappy I was and it showed on my face, but I thought I was putting on a happy face for the boys. It should have been a very happy, fun trip, but instead it was tense and false. I am so sorry that my boys went through all of this. Kids are so resilient and can put on happy faces, but you know….the hurt goes deep. Just because they look happy, doesn’t mean they don’t know what’s going on. They are more aware than adults are. Children are like animals with fierce instincts and don’t be fooled by their sweet smiles and cute playful actions. They pick up on everything and they know things are not right. Adults lie to themselves and like to believe the kids are fine….but they are more instinctive than adults are and they are not stupid. I didn’t choose to make the trip miserable, but there was so much on my mind I couldn’t fake it well enough that everything looked ok.

We went to Disneyland, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. I think Universal studios too. Craig tried very hard to be affectionate to me, but it pushed me away. It was a tough battle because even if I did respond, he knew it wasn’t real and got mad at me. He was constantly frustrated with me for not being affectionate enough and so it was a very tense few days. In the end I couldn’t even stand to be in the car with him for the drive home, so I bought a plane ticket and flew home. I still feel so bad that my boys holiday was ruined by my emotions. I really tried….but to explain the hell my heart and my head were going through is next to impossible. I had been through so much and couldn’t just get over it. The pain and confusion ran very deep. He kept reminding me that I didn’t touch him enough and picked on anything negative he could find.  I didn't ever feel relaxed and knew I was always upsetting him. But not intentionally. My existence upsets him.

Sorry it's a short post tonight. My neighbors baby has severe colic so I tended him for a couple hours to give his parents a break. It's late so I want to get this out to you.

Thanks for following me, please spread the word. I have 21,812  views on this  blog page so we are growing!!

Please keep sharing!!

Until next time, Keep love in your hearts!

#19 Crying out for Help!

# 19 Crying out for help!

01/19/2003 Sun

Craigs ex wife, Laura, (names have been changed) called me out of the blue tonight!. She found my number after calling 4 different people. She said she is really concerned  because when she spoke to Craig recently, she picked up that he may be considering taking the boys out of the U.S. with him. We spoke for an hour. She said when they split up she also feared for her life which is why she got a protective order. And he blames everyone else for his problems and doesn’t accept any responsibility and hates to lose control.

This was a big night for me. I was terrified that something was going on that I had no idea about. I really felt like Craig was going to go through with his plan of taking the kids away so that I would never be able to raise them.

Here are more journal entries from those days:

01/22/2003 Wed

Karen (my Kaysville neighbor) and I met with Sean Firth at Senator Hatch’s office to discuss Craigs case and the INS. He said they would fax a signed letter from Senator Hatch over to the INS to request info on why Craig hadn’t been picked up yet. I also spoke to Davis County Attorney's office, and they said they were still waiting for the conviction letter to be signed by the judge and there was nothing more they could do.

01/23/2003 Thurs

By this point I was terrified that Craig would take the kids out of the country and I would never see them again. He had told me numerous times that I would NOT raise them, and then when I got that call from Laura….everything came together. I knew I had to do everything I could to stop him from taking them away. I was terrified!! So I made some phone calls to find out what could be done in this instance.

I sent a fax and original copy in the mail to Washington DC to put a RED FLAG alert on Rocco and Richie in case a passport application came through for them. I will now be notified if one does get submitted for them, and know that no passports will be issued for them. Both parents have to sign off when a child leaves the country but I wanted to be very sure.

Sean Firth from the Senator's office said they had sent the letter to the INS and were waiting for a response. The head of deportation was scheduled to have a meeting at the Senate's office and Sean said he would meet with him to discuss the situation.

I still think I could have a huge case if I went after any of these people. Michael Boudrero should be alive today and my boys would not have a dad in prison. Not that I’m blaming anyone else for what happened, but just saying things could have worked out differently if any of them had paid attention to what I was saying. I was going to the police, the Senator's office, County Attorney's office, the INS….everywhere. I was telling them that Craig was buying guns (as a restricted felon) and making plans to leave the country. I felt threatened and I knew something bad was about to happen, and the only response I ever got was ….”well until something actually happens, we don’t have a case”. Well, I’m sorry Mr. Boudrero, and to your family,….I really tried. I made as much noise as I possibly could. No one would listen.

I have since read, learned and heard that the problem stems from people “crying wolf”. Charging someone with a crime is a very big deal, and if every time a couple had an argument and some one could claim violence happened, and there is no evidence of any violence, then you are not only costing the state a lot of money to chase after someone who isn’t a threat, but you are also destroying that person's life. Just like the idiot who put a bomb in his shoe and walked onto an airplane, now for the rest of time we get to endure crazy searches in the security lines. So what I am saying is, too many people have called foul when it wasn’t so, and now the ones who really are in danger…..have to wait for something to actually happen before we can get the help we need.

01/24/2003 Fri

Craig told the boys he would pick them up at 4pm. He went shopping with Liz and arrived here at 5:45pm. He took the boys shopping to RC Wiley and bought them lots of games and a  gamecube. Rocco told me all this afterwards but begged me not to tell Craig that he had told me because Craig had made him promise not to tell me. While Craig and Liz were shopping, she had bought him a gun at a pawn shop. I found the receipt. (And still have it to this day.)

Sean Firth from the Senator's office did not get back with me as promised. I had left him a voicemail at 10:45am.

01/26/2003 Sun

Rocco talked to me tonight about the gun Liz had bought for Craig on Friday. It was obviously bothering him. He said Craig had bought a lot of ammo for it.

My question is WHY? Why does Craig need a gun if he is planning on leaving the country? They don’t let you take one with you, so what is he doing?

Rocco said Craig made them promise that they wouldn’t tell me about the gun.

The boys were telling me that Craig had guns everywhere. They said there was a few in the van and a bunch in the house.  When I called the PD to ask them what can be done about it, they said nothing. If they had another reason to go into the house and they found the guns, he would be charged. But me just reporting that I know he has guns, there is nothing they can do about that.

01/27/2003 Mon

I phoned Craig this morning to ask him if I could list the WVC house. He started yelling at me about how he doesn’t care about me or love me so why should he do anything for me? I explained he doesn’t have to do anything, I can just list it, sell it and get the bills paid off and split the equity.  We have equity in it and it would help us both if we could sell it. He just became more angry and said I made my bed and now I have to sleep in it. (again).  He was very angry today.

01/28/2003 Tues

I called Craig to ask him if I could help him get the WVC house cleaned up to sell. I can’t keep making the payment on it, it’s making me go broke. That didn’t go well. I didn’t even get to make the offer. Before I finished my sentence, he said NO DEALS.  I’ve ruined his personal life and I can’t have anything of mine from his house. He is very angry and said he is sending me another email.

Patreon peeps….I will get those emails uploaded for you!

Casey from D.C.A office called and said the judgement on Craig is back and Kathy, the prosecutor, will forward it with her letter to the INS. today. I called the Kaysville PD to get a civil standby at 2pm today to get more things out of the Kaysville house.

01/29/2003 Wed

I met with attorney Dwight Williams today and gave him all the info on Craig. I went to the DCA office and picked up a copy of Craigs judgement and faxed it to Dwight Williams.

I received a copy of the following letter from the Davis County Attorney's office to the INS regarding Craig.

This is what it said:

DAVIS COUNTY ATTORNEY

Dear Agent Gay,

I am a Deputy Davis County Attorney and recently prosecuted the above name individual (Craig Nicholls) for a Violation of a Protective Order. A copy of the Sentence, Judgment and Commitment resulting from that prosecution is attached. As you can see, Mr. Nicholls was convicted of a Class B misdemeanor for an incident involving his ex wife. (technically we were still married)

It is my understanding that deportation has previously been ordered for Mr. Nicholls. The above mentioned conviction is an additional crime since that deportation order. Mr. Nicholls appears to be a very dangerous and manipulative individual. I would strongly recommend that the INS follow through with actual deportation of Mr. Nicholls or that he be detained pending such action. I believe he is a danger to his ex wife and a potential danger to others that he comes in contact with.

If you would like further information, please contact me at XXX

Sincerely,

Kathi Sjoberg

Deputy Davis County Attorney.

I received another email from Craig telling me to back off. He doesn’t know about the letter to the INS, but possibly he got a call or something to set him off. I emailed him back and suggested he try be less hostile and more communicative, and to quit insulting my family.

When you see the emails you will understand why I brought up my family. I have an entire binder full of emails he sent me, just threatening and ridiculing me and my family.

Thanks again for following. I promise I will keep writing while you all keep reading.

Those of you who don’t know a lot about the story, I will give you a bit of a heads up here. In July of 2003 (the year I am giving you journal entries from) Craig was arrested for homicide. There is a lot of information that leads up to that day. He actually killed the guy a couple weeks before he was arrested and so I was still dealing with him after he had murdered someone. During the investigations, it was made known to me by the detectives that I was supposed to be part of his plan as he had also taken out more life insurance on me, made his girlfriend a passport with my name in it and they were going to leave the country as a happy, rich couple. That was their plan. Fortunately for me they were caught before they took me out because I wouldn’t be here today to tell the story.

So these next few posts just keep getting us closer to the day he was arrested, but that is not when he stopped terrorizing me. It continued for years. And once I get the whole story out, I want to work on helping other people in similar situations. This is not just a place to type up my journals. I am giving you the complete background to a horrible story that was a large part of my life. But the longer I live, the smaller this chapter will become :)

Until next time!

# 18 So much more drama...

I hope you all had a great holiday. Hopefully we all have some New Years Resolutions that we will keep to and make 2017 GREAT!

Now, back to the story.....

On Nov 9th 2002 Craig got the summons that I had filed for divorce. On the 16th he called me up and said he was going to create a bunch of evidence and make a bunch of phone calls to get me locked up so that he can raise the kids. He promised me I would never get to raise the boys. At this point I didn’t realize how serious he was, but turns out he really meant it.

On Nov 25th Craig asked me if he could borrow my Glock. Obviously I said no. He said he wanted to take the boys shooting. I said NO, not with my gun.

I worked in the coffee trailer the first week of December because Craig wanted the time off.  It was a fun week and I enjoyed getting to know the customers up in Ogden. I don’t know why Craig needed that time off, I didn’t even care. He was supposed to be working on our West Valley City house, but he ended up only spending 2 days there.

I know this sounds sporadic, but it’s how my notes are.

12/04/2002

I received a letter from the Office of Crime Victim Reparations stating I had been approved for reparations. This was approved due to the assault on 05/15/2002 (outside coffee shop). This covered medical, dental, mental health counseling, loss of wages, travel or relocation expenses, replacement of door locks, windows etc.

I didn’t end up using any of it, except for some counseling.

12/16/2002

Craig went to court and was charged with violations and domestic violence. Sentencing on the 6th.

I have no notes about Christmas. Hopefully that means it was ok. I remember pieces of it, but mostly sadness.

2003

01/06/2003

Craig went to court and was sentenced to 12 months probation plus a fine. Sentenced to jail for 180 days but it was suspended.

I kept a lot of journal notes in 2003 so I am going to type them out and will include anything else I remember at that time. The journal entries will be italicized.

01/09/2003 Thurs

Craig has not attempted to contact me or the boys since last Tuesday. Rocco has kept his cell phone charged and turned on in case Craig wanted to call them. He used to call them every morning before school, and visit them a few evenings a week, but we haven’t heard from him.

My thoughts here are this is about the time he met Tamara Rhinehart online.

01/10/2003 Friday

I asked Rocco this morning if he wanted to call Craig to see if he is coming to get them for the weekend. Rocco said NO. He said he hopes Craig has forgotten and asked me not to call him and remind him. I have emailed Craig twice asking him what he wants to do about the WVC house. I haven’t heard back from him. It is strange that we have not heard from Craig.

Note. As I mentioned before, our West Valley house had 2 mortgages on it. Craig was responsible for the first and I was for the second. The house needed some work on it, but we had good equity in it and Craig and I had discussed fixing it up and selling it. I couldn’t do the manual labor, but Craig said he would, and was so capable. I wanted to get it fixed up and sold and we had agreed to split the equity in it after all bills for it were paid.

7pm

Craig called to say he was on his way to get the boys. Rocco did not want to go with Craig. He cried, and begged with me to stay home. Craig got mad and blamed me for child abuse. Rocco had begged me all day not to remind Craig to come. Rocco was crying when they left. I was heart broken! I didn’t want them to go either...but I will be in contempt of court if I don’t let Craig have them. What am I supposed to do?

01/11/2003 Sat

Rocco called me all day asking if he could come home. I would talk to him and tell him his dad wanted to see them and it was his turn to have them. This is so traumatic on the kids. Late that night he asked me to bring his Giga pet to him. I took it over to him at 10:30pm and both boys came outside, in the middle of winter, late at night, and said Craig had gone to bed already and asked if they could please come home. I told them to go ask their Dad, which they did, and they came home with me.

NOTE: These boys are 6 and 9 years old at this time.

01/12/2003 Sun

I expected Craig to call this morning and complain about me taking the boys last night, but he didn’t. He called this evening to say good night and Rocco said he was very “ticked” that they had left last night.

I could tell at this point that Craig was distracted by something, but just had no idea what.

01/13/2003 Mon

Craig picked up the boys at about 5:45pm. Rocco was reluctant to go, but went. They got home at 9:15pm. They were supposed to be home at 8pm to get ready for school tomorrow. Obviously that’s not their fault.

01/14/2003 Tues

I tried to talk to Craig at Shondells office to no avail. He is completely unreasonable and illogical. Shondell said it was pointless and that I’d have to get an attorney to deal with him. I called Jay, my attorney, who said he would push our divorce through for us and then he would evict Craig from the WVC house so that I could sell it. Craig is not living in it, but he is pretending to work on it and it just costs me a payment every month that it sits empty. Craig refuses to give me anything that I have left at the Kaysville house, the kids clothes, furniture etc. He won’t give us anything. What do I do? He fights me on everything.

01/15/2003 Wed

Craig came to take the kids for a while and tried to get into my house for computer discs. This ended up in a huge fight. I told him he could not have my computer discs and needed to get out. Numerous times. He just kept pushing harder and harder. He started yelling at me and called me some horrible names, 2 inches from my face. I tried to get my cell phone to call 911 and Craig kicked it right out of my hands. At this point Wil came in and stood RIGHT between us. He is 14 years old and was face to face with a raging man that was almost 100 lbs bigger than him. Wil looked Craig right in the eye and with the deepest voice I have ever heard from Wil, he told Craig “Don’t you EVER call my mother a whore! Don’t you ever touch her, and GET OUT of our house right now!”

I have never been more proud and sad. This 14 year old boy has seen and heard more than he ever should have at his age. He stood up for me and risked himself to protect me. Wil, I love you so much, you have no idea how much that meant to me. Thank you.

Doug ran up the stairs and called 911. Thank you Doug. Within minutes our whole neighborhood was full of cops because Craig had a violent record with me.  They spoke to him outside in the driveway, and let him go, because at this point I don’t have a Protective Order in place. But it is time to get it reinstated. He is very hostile around me.

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So many more journal entries, emails and also audio recordings to come.

Thanks again for all your support. As always, Keep LOVE in your hearts!