OK guys, here's Part 2 of AL's First Interview on 7/1/15 with Detective Lathrop at LCSO. I'll have more tomorrow! This one ends right before they start talking about insurance policies, FYI. I knew my eyes were going to start glazing over, lol.
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(JL): Now our understanding is that your sister did a lot of help in the community with, with, uh we heard about, with teens and mothers and all these other things…
(AL): Our Mother’s Home
(JL): And any problems with anyone that maybe she was helping and she’d cut off recently or…
(AL): Could be, yeah.
(JL): cause sometimes in these situations it’s somebody that, she may know someone, but they may have a boyfriend or a husband or somebody that does this type of thing when he hurts his girl or hurts someone…
(AL): She, ok, so she used to be the president, OK? And thanks to listening to me and saying “you need to stop, you’re doing too many things…”
(JL): She’s the president of?
(AL): President of Our Mother’s Home (inaudible)
(JL): Our Mother’s Home. And what do they do?
(AL): They are an organization that works to keep teen mothers and their babies together in, in a system where you have foster care and a teen gets pregnant they separate the mother and the kid and all that does is perpetuate the foster care system. They try to keep the mother and daughter together. Teresa was the president of the board, she ran fundraisers, for the past several years, she had meetings there every Tuesday night, um
(JL): Do they have an office, where do they have the meetings?
(AL): They do. I wish I could give you the name of the person who she’s most closest with now but if you talk to Karen W.
(JL): Karen W.? OK
(AL): Karen W. worked very closely with my sister. Karen W. – Teresa, and just, she was on the board of directors, she was not as active. She wanted to remain on the board. Karen can tell you when Teresa was no longer the president, she can tell you details about cause I know at one time, there was one, one of the girls, Teresa opened up her home to her with the baby
(JL): So the girl actually moved in with her and the kids and Mark?
(AL): For a short, for a short while
(JL): Do you know the girl’s name?
(AL): I don’t know any of it, this is where Karen W. will be able to remember these people.
(JL): Do you know, um, how long ago it is, is it (inaudible)
(AL): I’m guessing, it could have been, could have been three years ago.
But that’s not… and I’m tainting this because Teresa would get very attached… to the girls cause she cared so much. A lot of these girls were victims of human trafficking, they were raped, their mothers whored them out for drugs. And they couldn’t… The problem was this is great we’re keeping the mother with the kid but they didn’t know how to be a mother. So my sister would meet with them and she would teach them how to be a mother. And she would talk to them about respect and what it means to have respect. And you know, they’d get, they’d get, you know, privileges take away, you know, cause what are you doing stealing her, you know, cell phone for? This is what I’m talking about – respect. Teresa was really, uh, she was amazing like that *getting teary* she took time away from her own children and her little bit of time so she could go and try and get this happening.
I know there were a couple of times, I remember I went there once and she’d go “I know you don’t want to hug me, you’re gonna hug me!” And then she would call in a couple and say “hey, you remember that girl I introduced you to and she was all attitudinal, she came up to me and she gave me a hug… Annie, she, Anne, this is progress, this is progress, I’m having an impact on these girls.”
Now, could there have been some girls who were badmouthing Teresa, um, girls who, should not have, who she wanted to keep in the program but they were aging out and she was trying to get them a job or whatever was going on and the legal mother would come back and be able to take the kid, and it would break my sister’s heart because, uh “Anne, she’s done, she’s done.” So that happened a lot.
(JL): And, and the girl who lived there did she just live there with her and the baby, no boyfriend or anything like that?
(AL): Nope, no I don’t believe anybody came to the house…
(JL): Karen or even Mark, even Mark would probably know the girl’s name and everything.
(AL): *points at head* Mark’s memory, I can’t tell ya, Karen W. would be your girl.
(JL): Did Mark have like a, an accident or injury or something or he just, he’s kind of (inaudible)
(AL): Teresa was always trying to figure it out. She was like “Is he being pa-“ I go “I don’t know maybe he’s being a passive aggressive, Teresa, because you’re kind of a drill sergeant, you uh, you know, you wear the pants, you’re making the money,” but Mark worshipped the ground Teresa walked on. He was Mr. Mom. No matter - She could, she could finish ripping him out like “Mark! I told you a hundred ****ing times don’t let the dogs out!” “I’m sorry honey, you know what” And then she would be doing something and he would go “sweetie, let me get that for you.” And I’d go “how can you be so nice to her?” *laughs* And she’d be like “shut up!”
So anyway, um, she said to me, you know, several years ago she goes “I don’t know what the **** is wrong with my husband” I’m like “well maybe he’s just being passive aggressive” she goes - “I don’t know him” – she goes “I don’t know Mark, Mark wouldn’t do that.” I go “it seems like, you know,” cause he’s always like goofy, you know, like even in his fingerprints *points to her right like she’s pointing in another room next to where she is* you know, he’s just goofy. Um, uh, she goes “You know I’m gonna do a test on him and see. He may have, uh, metals – if you are exposed to a lot of metals it can affect your brain and I think she came to some sort of conclusion like – and he also had head trauma I think at one time. So he literally can’t remember ****.
(JL): OK
(AL): Little **** like if she said every day “I need you to take these four blankets and hang them on the line” he wouldn’t remember. And it would make her insane cause she’s trying to run a business, he’s raising the kids, she had to tell him everything fifty ****ing times and she’d be like “you’re exhausting me!” So that kind of stuff.
(JL): Now, um, anybody else, did she have any problems with any – we understand there’s some - a cleaning staff, there’s pool people, maintenance, things, lawn maintenance any problem with anybody doing any maintenance on the house or something like that?
(AL): I , you know what, I’ve never heard her talk about anything like that.
(JL): OK. And Mark’s mother, that’s the other woman that’s here with you guys, and she’s, she was like watching the house when they were, when they were up north, correct?
(AL): Correct
(JL): OK and she’s (inaudible), she drives like a red car and she’s always at the house and helping out with…
(AL): I don’t know what she drives. Honestly, I know her name is Bonnie. I met her at Teresa’s wedding, I know she’s married to another woman named M. Um, I know that they live close by, I know that, uh, you know, Teresa wasn’t overly fond of her inlaws because she felt like they were needy and controlling with one another and they had a lot of issues as Teresa would always point out people’s issues and, you know, she’s like “Oh God, I just don’t want to go there for Christmas Eve because they’re not gonna have good food and I need to get my gluten free this and my dairy free and my non-GMO and all my stuff.” Um. And she didn’t like – Even Mark will tell you that, if they had, you know, they moved there to be close to help Teresa and Mark but they were so not helpful, and they needed help with the girls and it drove ‘em ****ing crazy. So, um, like even if they said to the girls, “we’re going to take you over to grandma’s” and they’d be like “ugh, can’t Mimi come down?” Mimi, my mother from Connecticut because they didn’t like being with her cause she just, they’re just, you know, whatever. But they needed them to take care of the dogs this weekend and Mark told me last night, which I’m sure he told you, that his mother was in and out of the house and she wasn’t able to get the alarm set. Did you know this?
(JL): Um, I’m not sure. I didn’t interview Mark. My partner Jamie is interviewing Mark now, talking to him, but I’m sure (inaudible)
(AL): OK. So we talked about it last night. And I said well
(JL): So they just like, they just weren’t clear on how to operate it, so they weren’t able to…
(AL): She couldn’t get it – dingy – like “uh uh uh” Mark’s like “All right, mom, you know, I, just, what can I tell you”
(JL): So rather than have it go off fifty times and have the police at the house and everything ok, well, it’ll probably be fine *waves hand*
(AL): Right.
(JL): Because that neighborhood is relatively quiet, there’s really not any problem down there
(AL): Right, which said to me ok, well then Teresa got into her house and the alarm wasn’t set. I know. The very first thing, the very first thing my sister would do – set the alarm. Very first thing. Cause my sister didn’t like being alone, I mean, she did from the standpoint of like “ahh, peace and quiet.” But at night she’d get freaked out and a couple of times I know she called, she would hear things and she’d “Aaahhh!” You know, she was very jumpy, and call the police. So I said to Mark, “So that means. Somebody was waiting there.” Because. She would have set the alarm. And I guess if somebody cut an alarm it would still, right, Mark would have gotten a phone call…
(JL): Yeah we can’t, I can’t go into the details…
(AL): OK. I understand.
(JL): Um, how about, uh, now, how about her relationship with Mark, and the more honest and open you are about what’s going on, um, you know, obviously, we’re the police so anybody close to her, family members, but we need to know cause we’re gonna find phones and we, you know, it was the same thing we told him, we want everybody to be candid with us because now we find pictures or texts and we’re like “wait a second” you said everything’s hunky dory and everyone argues, everybody fights, we know that, we’re all married, we know
(AL): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Teresa always said “I’ll never leave Mark. I won’t ever do that to my girls.” Recently, she was at least able to say, she got energetically together – my father left when Teresa was very little. She goes “I feel like, and I told Mark this, you know what Mark, I love you and whatever but I’m not afraid, if I had, if I just can’t take your driving me crazy kind of thing, if I had to leave you, I wouldn’t be afraid, you know, it wouldn’t trouble me if I had to.” But, that wasn’t anything we talked about, she wasn’t having an affair
(JL): She wasn’t, she wasn’t, um – How was their relationship, you know, some of the neighbors said there was some, maybe some arguing or
(AL): Oh, listen, I would leave with a headache, OK? Cause they’re, they’ve got those big high ceilings and I’d go “I have to go outside you guys I can’t take you two” so they were always, that’s why I’m thinking maybe when somebody heard her scream, it was like “oh, there’s, there’s Dr. Sievers again.” My sister was extremely loud. OK and she would cut a fuse like that *snaps fingers* So if you did something wrong two or three times she’d be like, she would yell, she was a screamer. And she was equally loving, kind, and compassionate but she was intense, she was a screamer. It was never anything out of you know, being anything other than loving but she’d get frustrated with you if you weren’t going *snapping fingers* as quickly as she was cause her brain worked very fast.
(JL): Sure. Any, uh, history of domestic violence or
(AL): No
(JL): Where Mark would hit her or she would be hitting Mark or any kind of
(AL): Oh no never. Nope.
(JL): No problems, she’s never confided in you if there was any fighting, with punching, hitting, kicking…
(AL): Nope. No my sister would never tolerate that.
(JL): Any threats when she was upset threatening to leave him, I know cause she’s the breadwinner and he’s more of the stay at home mom, you know the roles were reversed
(AL): Like I said the only thing I said to you was she had a real, an epiphany. She said “I at least feel good in my heart – I’m not saying that I want to – But I don’t feel like I have to. I feel like if it really drove me crazy, you know remembering things,” and just you know, you make five miles forward and you go one mile backwards cause Mark forgot to do this, Mark forgot to do that. I mean I can remember just driving to the beach with her and Mark would be like, you know, driving the van *holding hands out like she’s driving in and out of a lane* and she’d be like “why do you have to take the car off the road like that?” And he would look up and laugh – like look at us, and we would laugh because we enjoyed watching Teresa *laughing* get angry cause she was…
(JL): Get her fired up?
(AL): Get her fired up. Cause she was funny cause you just never knew what was going to come out of her mouth. So, um, what I’m saying is she never said to me “I think I’m going to leave Mark.” She never said to me – she said, "I’m at a place” – And this was probably oh my God, two years ago, it wasn’t like she just said this. “I’m in this place.” And I said “Well that’s good Teresa because you know, I know that you can’t live for your kids. Your kids are important but you need happiness, and you need peace, because then you can be better for them.”