it wasn t their fault. ben had a challenge that he felt he couldn t overcome and he chose to make a decision that was entirely his own. mark ecker suggested counseling. bill s answer was unyielding. oh, no. now. no. we re good. so, it was kind of that pack it down inside and maybe we can deal with it some other day. but now? seven years after the day of ben s suicide, on the same property. bill was dead. i couldn t fathom this. gone. dead? murdered? none of that seemed real. oh, but it was. did your mind going anywhere in particular? i mean, this is not something that happens in a small town. right? two high profile deaths within a few years. they were my family. that house. how is this happening? how, indeed. what s the old adage? start close. there were sheriffs deputies
emails. and he stopped me and said, no, mark. it s this crazy person. and i said, okay. so, i shouldn t be worried about anything? he said, no. no. don t worry about. so, we just let the whole thing go at that point. then less than two weeks before bill s death, two things happened. a car followed noah home late one night. what did your dad say? about that car following at the driveway? i believe he said something like, i should have gotten my gun or something like that. then, a few days later, somebody took the gun. i just thought well, you misplaced it or something like that. the gun, a 9 mm pistol, was normally stored in a gun safe in bill and anne s bedroom closet. bill was in a panic. had that woman gotten into the house? he called to report into the sheriff s office saying this
things like bill and anne are not going to remain married. and i m going to marry bill. and when i marry bill, anne s great to have to leave. and i m paraphrasing all this. but these emails kept coming in. i m reading this and i m thinking, what does this mean? why are they seeing this to you? so many emails. this one said, freak of arc was changing her email address to montanabarb2001. letters arrived, too, postmarked from fort smith, arkansas. one containing an invitation to a welcome to montana together again barbecue for barbara and bill. an engagement party of sorts. mark finally decided to say something to bill. we re sitting at the restaurant. at one point during breakfast i said to bill, i said, hey, i m not sure exactly how to say this, but i m getting several