An interview with Michelle Theer: 'On the lam'
Q. How big was your cottage there?
A. Well, it had one bedroom, and it had. . . a living room area, and then an office area, and then a little dinette and a kitchen. . . . It was completely furnished. It had dishes and silverware, towels and sheets, and everything–I think it [rented for] about $900 a month.
Q. One of the things that has come up in this case is that you had a way with men. Is that true?
A. I don't treat them like [expletive]. That's the problem. I'm too nice. I even remember Dana [Horton] making a comment. . . to me, he says, you know, I can tell you are not from Florida. I said, what do you mean? He says, most women in Florida, the only thing they are interested in is how much money you make.
Q. What did he do for a living?
A. He was some kind of customer service representative for a cruise line. . . .
Q. How did the U.S. marshals trace you?
A. I think what happened is, I gave him [Horton] my dad's phone number. The police and everybody think that my parents helped me, which they didn't. My dad definitely did not because my dad and I had a falling out before I left [New Orleans]. . . so he didn't even know that I had left. . . . And he certainly had not done anything–hadn't given me any money, hadn't, you know, driven me anywhere.
Q. This is when you were in New Orleans?
A. Yeah, and I can't remember something, my mom [in Colorado] had gotten a letter from a storage unit company [in New Orleans], the storage unit that was by my condo, where I had all my scrapbooks and my photo albums. See, originally when I left I had just said, forget it, I am cutting ties with all my past, and leaving behind all these letters. I must have had 100 photo albums and scrapbooks. I mean, every minute of my life with Marty was documented, and I had just left it all behind, and of course stopped paying the rent. Well, I had eventually gotten in touch with my mom on the telephone while I was down there [Lauderdale-by-the-Sea], and I had given her a mailing address at one of these Mail Boxes Plus. . . .
Q. This is one of those mail box outfits?
A. Right, so she could get in touch with me if it was an emergency. And she had written me that [the storage unit in New Orleans had contacted her]. . . about either coming to get these things, paying the rent, whatever. . . . When I started thinking about it, I was like, I don't want these photos to be thrown away. . . I didn't want to lose them. So, I wanted Dana to call my dad. . . to see if my dad would talk to me. I know this sounds complicated. I don't know why I didn't just call my dad to see if he would talk to me. Whatever, I think it was because Dana was in Nebraska at the time, and, stupid me, I somehow thought if Dana would call my dad from a pay phone, and just find out if my dad woud talk to me, they would never be able to track me from the pay phone, right? But, stupid Dana, even though I told him, call from the pay phone, he called from his mother's house. And, so, they tracked. . . from [her] dad's cellphone; they said, hmmm, what's this call from Nebraska?
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