Now this quite possibly will be the hardest part of the story for me to write. It deals with your mother.
She graduated salutatiorian of her high school class. She was a very intelligent young lady and an all around good kid. She loved horses. During the second semester of her senior year, she went to a carnival in town and that is where she met Tony. I am not gonna say much about your dad because I don't have anything nice to say about him or about carnies (I married one too outta high school. Biggest mistake of my life.) I will say for what ever reason, he lied about his age. It wasn't until after your mother died that we found out some other things about him. Cut and Paste the links below into the address bar and see for yourself.
http://justice.dentoncounty.com/isapi/UVLink.isa/dentonco/WEBSERV/CriminalSearch
http://justice.dentoncounty.com/isapi/UVlink.isa/dentonco/WEBSERV/JailSearch
http://justice1.dentoncounty.com/PublicAccess/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=515825
Bevery married Tony shortly after I married Billy (a few weeks after as a matter of fact.)
She was in love with the idea of being in love. Nevertheless, he was the only boyfriend I ever recall her having which made it all the more difficult to reason with her to do things like, use her scholarships and go to school. She needed time to spread her wings and find out who she was and what her place in the world was.
When Russ died, Pat used her inheritance and built a nice home on the family land. She didn't live their very long before passing away herself. That left the home and possessions to Beverly. Beverly had been living in really rat shack places with Tony. He wasn't a good provider. Beverly always had a good head on her shoulders, but she just didn't use it much when Tony was around. After they moved in Pat's house, we started to see that Beverly was truly not happy with Tony. She had all of these people die and she wanted better for herself and you three. I don't remember exactly when it was, Tony was arrested (I think for back child support from his other marriage). This gave Beverly the opportunity to start fresh, without being under his watchful eye.
With a nice home, her inheritance, and family around to help her, Beverly enrolled in beauty school. Sometime later, she met David. He was a short little hispanic cowboy with a gold cap on his tooth. He was very sweet to her and loved being around you kiddos. He never pressured her about marriage or anything. He knew she had been through alot and was very supportive of her starting her life over.
Sometime in the spring of 1998, Beverly came home and Tony was there. She didn't tell anyone. I am pretty sure Shawna was the first to figure it out by her behavior. Shawna and I had both dated/married the likes of Tony, so we both knew what he was capable of and how a woman can tend to become like a puppet and do as they say. We also knew that your mother did as he asked to protect you three.
Mother's Day 1998 was the last time Beverly was seen alive. When she didn't arrive at school that Monday, the school called Tye. Since Beverly's car was in Tye's name, she called the police to have a check ran on the car to see if she could be found. Since she was an adult, the police were less than helpful, and assumed they ran off to work things out. I was told they made a casual walk around the house and saw no evidence of "foul play."
Ten days or so went by with no word. Now Elive was long gone, but he had several buddies from his Sherrif's Posse days in Tarrant County and Tye starting calling them up. When the Texas Rangers are involved, they tend to gitt'er done alot faster than the local cops. I had been at Shawna and Joey's for lunch and we had 'that bad feeling' all day long.
It was just before 5:00 p.m. on May 22, 1998 when I called out to Tye's hoping for some good news. Bill's sister Linda answered the phone. She lived out of town. Just the fact that she was there left me unsettled and fearful of the worst. She didn't want to tell me over the phone while I was at work, so I went to the storage room. She told me Beverly had been found. I was so relieved. Then I asked how she was. "Baby, she's dead," she whispered. She didn't give me too many details. I immediately headed to pick up Billy. As I made the mile and a half drive, I heard it broadcasted over the radio. Not all family members had been contacted and they were airing, "Missing Zephyr Woman Found Dead" all over the local news. Family had already contacted Joey and Billy and I was thankful that I didn't have to relay that kind of news.
One thing about the police, if you go over their head, it makes them look bad, so how do you think it looked when the Texas Rangers came to town with a Forensics vehicle the size of a u-haul moving van? That's excactly what I saw as we drove past Beverly's house headed to the ranch to be with family. The 180-some odd acres were crawling with uniformed police officers and people with baggies of evidence. She was found in the creek behind her house and the only way to the creek was up behind Tye's house, so we probably saw more than we needed too.
The questioned still remained, "Where are the kids?" A small baby shoe was found in the mud near the sight where Beverly was found. It sent us over the edge fearing the worst. I am thinking this was a Wednesday. I don't really think the Amber Alert system was in place yet, but with a homicide investigation now on going they had every cop in the state looking for the three of you, and it didn't take them long to pin point your exact location. We had you back home by Saturday. At the time your mom died, ya'll ranged in age from 3 years to 9 months. I am not giving specifics on your location at the time any thing that you may have said or done. I will say what ever possessed your dad to go back to where he had been in jail, the people he had unknowingly 'hide you out', were saints in my book. They took ya'll in and kept you fed, clothed and safe. We did meet get to meet the lady and her daughter. I don't remember their names, but they are angels in my book. The started getting suspicious because of things Cheyenne was saying and reported it.
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