An interview with Michelle Theer: 'On the lam'
Q. What caused you to go on the lam?
A. It wasn't sudden at all. After Marty died, my life was shattered–God, you have to remember, I met Marty right when I turned 16, and so basically, my whole adult life, everything had been planned with Marty, I mean, all the way up to retirement, the plans that we had made, everything we had talked about, even if we wouldn't have done half of it, or if we would have changed our minds about half of it, which I am sure we would have. Still, what we had talked about, and what we had planned, was together. And when Marty was gone, that all went down the hole. It was shattered; it was gone. I was living in a town where I had no one, where eventually I became a pariah. I was practicing in a career where my own state of mind was making it more difficult for me to continue in that career. You know, you have to be able to concentrate, to focus, to set aside your own life; you have to be fairly stable; I felt like I had no roots anywhere. I had nowhere that I could go. I didn't want to go back to Colorado because. . . I was afraid that there was too much there to remind me of Marty. Same with Florida, but at the same time, I didn't want to go somewhere where I didn't have anybody. Eventually, I did start off by going to Florida. I thought, you know, I know some people there, that's where I went to school, I have some connections, let me go down to Florida and practice. So, I left Fayetteville.
Q. When was that?
A. That would have been the end of April.
Q. 2001?
A. Yeah. By then, John was arrested, and charged in March. . . I moved down to [Vero Beach] Florida; I applied for my license to practice [psychology] down there. Actually, most of my stuff I put into storage, but I took a few things with me, moved down to Florida, was going to start looking for a job. . . . I was in a holding pattern waiting to see what would happen with John's trial, and at this point really not sure if he was guilty or not, but wanting to know and waiting to see what I could find out. . . . I didn't testify at his trial, based on the advice of my attorneys.
Q. They called you, and you took the fifth a lot?
A. Right, because I was named as a coconspirator. Had I not been specifically named, I might have [testified].
Q. Were you worried when you left Fayetteville in April that you would look guilty by leaving?
A. Well, you know I really wasn't worried about what the general public would think, but I really didn't see how people could expect me to stay there. . . . Why would I stay in Fayetteville when I had no family, no friends, no life, potentially no work. I am living in a four-bedroom house all by myself, alone, why wouldn't I leave? . . . After John was convicted, I was in just in a lot of emotional turmoil. . . I just felt so upset. I didn't know what to do. I decided I didn't want to stay in Florida anymore. . . . I felt a need at that point to be around family, so I decided to go to New Orleans, where my extended family is, so it would be kind of a fresh start, a new place, but I would have the comfort and the security of a very large extended family. So I went and stayed with my grandma and lived with her a couple months.
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