An interview with Michelle Theer: 'A lovers' confrontation'
Q. What prevailed upon you to stay with Diamond after Marty was killed?
A. I really didn't stay with him. That's another thing that the prosecutors really twisted. When I saw Tom [Harbin] the next morning, one of the first things he said to me was something to the effect that, you know, the cops are going to ask about John [Diamond] or are going to find out about John, I don't know, something like that, and I said, I know. And he asked me, do you think John did it? And, of course, my first reaction was to say, no, of course not. I mean, how or why would I think that someone that I cared [about]. . . would do something that hideous? But after he had left, and after some time had passed, I started thinking about it–I mean, of course, I started thinking about anybody who could have done that. Who would do that? Why would they do that? And, you know, I came up with dozens of horrible possibilities. . . I think it was Wednesday morning [after the murder]. . . I was driving to work, and I started thinking. . . if John had done this. And I saw a gas station and I pulled over and I called him. . . and asked if he could meet me at the coffee shop in 10 minutes, and he said, yes. . . .
Q. In Fayetteville?
A. Uh-huh. . . It was in like a minimall, so it had like glass along the front. I pulled up outside. . . He was sitting inside on the couch, and I rolled down the window and tapped the horn and waved at him to come out to the car. And he came out to the car, got in, and, of course, he looked very concerned, very sympathetic, and he's like, how are you doing, I am so sorry. And I just looked at him square in the face, and I said, I want you to be honest with me. Do you know anything about this? I didn't say, you know, did you kill Marty? I just said, do you know anything about this? Do you know anything about what's happened? And he just said, no, no, absolutely not. . . .
Q. Were you convinced when he said that?
A. I was. I was. And maybe part of it was, you know, obviously I wanted to believe him, so maybe I was stupid. Maybe he's a really good liar. Well, he is a good liar. Of course, everybody would say I'm a good liar, so whatever. But the point is, I believed him, whether it was because I wanted to believe him, or because he's a good liar, I don't know. It doesn't matter. I believed him. And, that was when, you know, I talked to him for just a few minutes after that. He got out of the car, and I left.
Q. You buried Marty at the Air Force Academy?
A. Yes.
Q. After you come back, is it true that you went to Myrtle Beach with John?
A. I went by myself. . . He was never in Myrtle Beach. . . I was in Denver, and after spending two weeks, about two weeks, just under two weeks, I don't remember the exact date I left, like the 29th [of December]. . . I was just exhausted. I had been with both of my grandparents, both of my parents, my extended family for this whole time. . . I was just feeling completely suffocated and smothered, and I felt like I was just ready to die. I just needed to be alone, that's all I could say. . . I felt like I couldn't breathe. The sight of other people, the constant, you know, petting, coddling, and talking, it was, like, overstimulus. And, so my dad made my plane reservations. . . he made the hotel reservations for me for, I think, two weeks. . . I was in a hotel that was right on the beach. Of course, it was freezing cold. Even though it was the beach, it was freezing cold. I pretty much just stayed in my room; I sat on the balcony wrapped up in my coat and a blanket. . . .
Q. John Diamond was not there?
A. No. . . .
Q. Is this true, from Diamond's proffer–Michelle wrote Diamond that she missed him and loved him, her life was empty without him?
A. Uh-uh. I never wrote him. I never wrote him a single letter. I did send him books twice, once when he was at Camp LeJeune.
Q. The proffer says you sneaked a set of silver rings to him prior to his court-martial, wanted him to be patient.
A. Uh-uh
Q. This is all bulls***?
A. Yes. . .
Q. Is he making all this up?
A. (She nods yes)
[John Diamond's appellate lawyer, Donald Rehkopf, argues that Michelle Theer continued to manipulate Diamond even after he was charged with Marty Theer's murder. Rehkopf, in an appeal with the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, says that Michelle Theer arranged to find a defense lawyer for Diamond and even provided the $1,500 used to retain two laywers, Coy Brewer and Ronnie Mitchell of Fayetteville. Brewer says that he has no knowledge that Michelle provided any of the retainer fee.]
Q. One of the things that Diamond's people made a big deal of is that you paid the retainer to Coy Brewer and Ronnie Mitchell. Why did you do that?
A. I didn't. . . .and I'll have to admit my memory about some of this stuff is very bad. There is something about, where I did send his sister a money order for $500 for something. . . .
Q. The Diamond family would have no way of knowing who Brewer was. It seems pretty clear that you must have told them that Brewer and Mitchell were the people to hire?
A. Well, I guess if you were anybody, and you just call and say, who's a really good attorney, anybody could find out.
Q. Did you recommend Brewer and Mitchell to the Diamonds?
A. No, uh-uh, now I might have told him you should get an attorney, but actually I might not have because, I don't know.
Q. I think you paid something like $1,500.
A. Well. . . I did save. . . a money order receipt for $500 to the sister [Deborah Dvorak, younger sister of Diamond]. . . I am not sure I remember why I sent that to her, except I did start calling her on the phone after John was arrested. We did start communicating fairly frequently.
Q. Why were you sending her money, to help him?
A. No, no, and I don't remember the specific reason, but I did start communicating with her on a regular basis, and I would say we became friends. . . The best I can remember what I sent it to her for was a loan. . .
I think that is why I sent her the money. . . .
Q. Did you ever practice black magic?
A. No, or white magic.
Q. Both Deborah Dvorak and Diamond's proffer said that you did practice black magic. Deborah told me you put a spell on the military prosecutor in the Diamond case. Where does that come from?
A. I don't know where the two of them cooked that up.
Q. Was your grandmother ever a high priestess, did you ever tell anybody that?
A. No, my family is from New Orleans. There is voodoo stuff in New Orleans. . . .
Q. You never practiced any kind of black magic or put spells on people? You are not going to put a spell on me?
A. No. Uh-uh. I used to have a little jar that said, Love Potion Number 9.
Q. On your license plate down in Florida, you had a license plate, Godd5ss?
A. Right.
Q. Isn't Goddess part of witchcraft?
A. No, that was actually part of my–remember I said I went through several religious phases. That was at the point where after I turned 16, I refused to go to church anymore because I was tired of the whole–we had gotten past the dark ages, and we were still going to church, like a Presbyterian, but we were at the hypocrite phase because we went to two different churches where the churches ended up splitting because of divisions in the church. . . . At that point, I decided that all Christians were hypocrites–say one thing, do another, that they were all backbiters and back stabbers. So, when I turned 16 and I got my driver's license, I told my mom I'm not going to church ever again. So then–I don't feel I was an atheist–but I was antireligious until I went to college and then I sort of opened my mind a little bit, and I went to, like, Christian Student Fellowship and tried to open my mind to that a little bit. And Marty and I were actually married by the pastor of Christian Student Fellowship at Greeley. . . . The first years when we were married, every now and then we would go to church. . . . This is when I got to college, and during the time that Marty and I were married. I was looking for a spiritual home. I felt something missing. But we'd go to a church, [and] if I felt even the tiniest whiff of cultism, or dark ages, or hypocrites, that was it–we were gone, and I wouldn't go back. So, when Marty died, I got angry with God. I mean that I had made mistakes, but, still, I was going to blame God. . . my mom and I spent a lot of time talking, and this is sort of when I entered my Goddess phase. Because I told my mom, I said, you know, why does God have to be a man? Who says the spirit has a penis? Why does he have to be a man? I'm tired of the angry father God. I want to know, what about, what about the father, what about the God Mother? I am looking for the mother. I am looking for the God that is going to be nurturing and is going to mother me. I am looking for the creative God, the nourishing God, that's what I want. So that's what I call–you could call my Goddess phase.
Q. When you are referring to the dark ages, what do you mean?
A. When I say dark ages, I am referring to the time in my childhood when we were going to the Southern Baptist–that's the dark ages of my religious childhood. Yeah, and my mom and I spent a lot of time talking about that, because, you know, my mom is a very strong Christian. . . .
Q. Is Deborah Dvorak capable of making up stuff that you put a spell on a prosecutor?
A. I feel like she would say or do anything probably to protect her brother. And she told me a lot about their family growing up. Her and John had a very rough childhood. . . .
Part 6: On the lam