An Act Of Murder (4 page)

As Kimberly was relating the rest of her story, Alt asked her if she was able to continue and let her know that the officers understood that she had been through a great deal. Alt gave Kim a glass of water and asked her if she wanted anything else, or if she needed to use the bathroom. Kim didn't take any breaks when offered, nor did she ask for any herself. Both Alt and Elzey said that Kim didn't seem to be either emotional or in shock.

“During the interview with Kimberly, I noticed that she exhibited little reaction,” Elzey said. “However, she was continually holding a damp face towel to her mouth while she periodically sobbed and moaned.”

Alt noted that Kimberly offered very detailed information to police—information that they had not asked for, and that was very unexpected.

“Kimberly told us that her husband smoked only when he had been drinking and then he smoked cigars,” Alt said. “She made a point of saying that she had seen no cigarettes or cigars in there, but added, ‘I did not pack for him.' This information was given like the information about the pornography, it was unasked for and a very unexpected detail.”

Deputy Fire Marshal Schlotterbeck was also present while Alt and Elzey questioned Kimberly. When they finished interviewing her, it was Schlotterbeck's turn to ask her some questions about the fire. First he asked her if she or Stephen had used the wood-burning stove. Kimberly said they had burned two logs, each of which was in a wrapper. She said they lit the logs with matches that were in the room. Kim told Schlotterbeck that when she got back to her room and tried to enter through the patio door, she was hit with a blast of heat. However, she didn't see any light or glow in the room. She added that the smoke “stunk bad” and that it had a “burned plastic synthetic smell.” Kim also told Schlotterbeck that Steve hadn't been smoking anything in the room.

When the interviews were completed, Kimberly told Alt that she wanted to see Steve's body. Even though Alt discouraged her, Kimberly insisted, so Alt went back to room 506 to arrange a viewing. When she got there, another officer gave her the open package of Backwoods cigars, which was minus one cigar. Alt returned to room 1016 to talk to Kim again, but she had to wake her up first. Alt showed Kim the package of cigars and asked her if it looked familiar. Kim said she had seen the package at home, but not in the room at Harbourtowne. Alt then mentioned to Kim that Mike Miller said Steve didn't smoke. Kim responded that Steve had been doing a lot of things over the previous two months that he had never done before. In fact, Kim said it was like living with a stranger.

“Her expression and tone indicated this was not a favorable change,” Alt said. “She mentioned Stephen ‘smothering' her recently and this seemed oddly negative in time and expression, also especially considering the proximity of his corpse.”

Alt again asked Kim if she wanted to see Steve's body, telling her that she wouldn't want to see her husband under the same circumstances because it would be very unpleasant. When Kim didn't answer, Alt told her straight out that Steve had been burned very badly. Kim looked away and said she didn't want to see him then. Alt then returned to the Hrickos' room and helped the funeral home personnel move Steve's body to their van so they could take it to the medical examiner's office in Baltimore. Alt returned to the Easton Barracks to prepare a press release for the media about Stephen Hricko's death, while troopers Elzey and Fey were assigned to witness the postmortem exam. They provided Dr. David Fowler, the medical examiner, with a brief synopsis of the events leading up to Steve's death.

About 8:30, on Sunday evening, Elzey, who was off-duty, received information pertaining to Steve's death from Sergeant Tom Williams, of the Maryland State Police. Williams told Elzey that one of Kim's friends had called him to say that Kimberly might have killed her husband by injecting him with a drug that would paralyze his muscles, preventing him from moving and leaving him helpless. After talking with Williams, Elzey called the on-duty officer, advised him of the situation, and asked him to tell the medical examiner not to release Steve's body.

Shortly after Mike's parents arrived at the Millers' house around 8:00 or 8:30, Sunday morning, Maureen drove to Harbourtowne to take care of Kim. At this point Maureen knew that Steve was dead.

“I had made a couple more phone calls and Mike told me Steve had died. He said they were [in the Hrickos' room] and they were going to have to go through all this stuff, and Kim was up in another hotel room waiting for me, and could I please come and take her home,” Maureen said.

When Maureen got to Harbourtowne, she went straight to the Parkers' room, where Kim was staying. The first thing she noticed was Kim's brother, Matt (pseudonym), sitting in between the two beds, crying hysterically. What struck her was that Matt was completely falling apart—bawling and crying—while Kim, on the other hand, was sitting in a chair at the far side of the room, absolutely still. It was almost as if she were catatonic.

“I was hysterical to a point that I ran to her to try to comfort her and put my arms around her. But she walked right by me and walked into the bathroom and started like dry heaving. And then she came out and said, ‘Can you take me home?'” Maureen recalled. “And I'm like, ‘Are you okay, do you want to talk about this?'”

Kim told Maureen she was fine and that she just wanted to go home. Now Maureen was beginning to think Kim was acting really weird. She asked Matt what was going on, but he was so hysterical he couldn't even answer her. So she told Kim to pack up her things so they could leave. Kim told her everything was already packed up and ready to go. She said she and Mike and Matt had retrieved the Hrickos' belongings from room 506 before Maureen arrived.

On the drive home Kimberly didn't say a word. She didn't even cry. It was as if she were dead, but in a live body, Maureen said. The only time Kim opened her mouth was when Maureen needed directions to get from the highway to Kim's house in Laurel. When they arrived at the Hrickos' house, Maureen took Kim inside and unloaded the car. The pair then had to figure out how to get Sarah, who, they thought, was still at her friend's house, and bring her home. Kim's brother had called their mother, Lois Wolf, and she was on her way to Laurel, so they decided to wait for her to arrive before making arrangements to pick up Sarah. They also contacted the counselor Kim had been seeing and asked her to come to the house to help Kim tell Sarah about her dad.

While they were waiting for Kim's mother and the counselor to arrive, Kim still wasn't talking much. She just sat on the couch and started rocking back and forth. Finally Kim spoke to Maureen and told her what happened before Steve died.

Kim explained that when she and Steve went back to their room, they got into an argument. After that, she left Harbourtowne, but didn't know where to go. She said she got confused and couldn't find the Millers' house.

“And I said, ‘Kim, you were just at my house two-and-a-half months ago, how could you not find my house?'” Maureen said. “Why didn't you call me to find the house?”

“I didn't want to wake you up,” Kim responded. “I couldn't find your house, so I just drove around for a while.”

“But you would have woken me up when you got here,” Maureen said.

“That was a red flag—that she got lost—because she had driven to my house from the club the night of the bachelorette party two-and-a-half months before. Not to mention, her brother lived down the street from my house,” Maureen said.

Kim said when she couldn't find the Millers' house, she decided to go back to Harbourtowne.

“When I got back to the hotel, I remembered I forgot my key. And I remembered we had been walking in the back, so I walked around back to the sliding door, hoping that it was still unlocked and I could get in that way,” Kim told Maureen. “But when I went and pulled the door open, this huge heat rush came out and I knew the room was on fire. So I drove to the lobby and I ran inside and asked for help, and everybody just ran past me and I went down there and nobody would tell me if he was hurt, or if he was alive, or if he was dead, or what was going on.”

“Didn't you go into the room to see if Steve was okay?” Maureen asked.

“No. I knew the room was too hot.”

Then Kim said something that caught Maureen off guard.

“They think that I did it,” she said. “They wouldn't let me see him. They wouldn't even tell me how bad he was hurt, or if he was dead or alive. They treated me like I was a criminal.”

Maureen thought it odd that Kim could only focus on herself.

“It was all about her,” Maureen said. “About her and how mean they all were to her. I'm looking at her and I'm thinking, ‘Man, everybody really does grieve differently.'”

Maureen just kept telling herself that Kim was in shock and she had no idea what she was saying. But Kim still wasn't crying and she just kept saying she was tired and she wanted to go to sleep, so she fell asleep on the couch before anyone else arrived. While Kim was sleeping, Maureen cleaned up the house. When she was done, she found Kim's address book and started calling people she thought should know about Steve.

“I called her work and said she wouldn't be there. I called CASA because she was a child advocate and said she wouldn't be available for awhile. I called all her friends I could remember,” Maureen said. “I called Jenny Gowen. Jenny acted really weird on the phone and said she couldn't come right over because she was busy. I said. ‘Fine, come when you can.' Then I spoke with Rachel McCoy. I told Rachel that something really, really bad happened at Harbourtowne the night before—that there was a fire and Steve was killed in the fire. I asked her if she could come over and help me take care of Kim. Then there was total dead silence on the phone and Rachel asked me to tell her what happened one more time, so I told her again, and then she said she couldn't talk to me right then and she hung up.”

Maureen was really confused about the reactions of Jenny and Rachel.

“I'm thinking, ‘What is wrong with these people?' My God, where are all these people who are supposed to be her friends? What's going on here? Am I the only friend she has?”

Kim also called Jenny Gowen to tell her about Steve and ask her to come to see her. Jenny said she'd be over later. Immediately after speaking with Kim, Jenny called their mutual friend, Norma Walz, who now lived in Washington State, to tell her that Stephen Hricko had died in a fire.

Jenny told Norma that Kim had called her to tell her about Steve's death and she was on her way to Kim's house with her husband, Sean, and she'd call Norma back with more information as soon as she could.

“Do you think Kim did it?” Norma asked Jenny before hanging up.

“Yes,” Jenny replied.

“At this point, and with very little information—Jenny and I didn't know any details—our immediate conclusion was Steve's death was not an accident and Kim must be involved,” Norma said.

As soon as she finished talking to Jenny, Norma called the Maryland State Police and spoke with Sergeant Karen Alt. She gave Jenny's contact information to Alt and explained that they were scared that Kim had killed Steve and wanted to come forward with the information.

Coincidentally, about an hour before Kim called Jenny to tell her Steve was dead, Norma and Jenny had been discussing Kim's recent behavior. Jenny, it seemed, was really bothered by the way Kim had been acting toward Steve over the past two months or so. During their conversation Jenny shared something with Norma that made her skin crawl.

“Jenny said Kim was feeling like she would never be able to divorce Steve and it would be easier if he were dead,” Norma said. “I told Jenny that people say things like that, thinking it would be easier, but it wouldn't. And the likelihood of Steve dying at thirty-five years old just wasn't going to happen.”

Jenny told Norma she just didn't know if she could continue being Kim's friend.

 

 

Jenny, Norma, and Kim met at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, where they worked in the main operating room as surgical technologists. They had been friends for several years. When they were together, the three friends often discussed what made them, and other people, tick. But Norma felt that she and Jenny shared a stronger bond of friendship and trust than she shared with Kim.

“I've always described Jenny and I and our conversations as being able to think out loud with each other,” Norma said. “Jenny and I don't have to worry about saying something stupid to each other because we know each other's hearts and there is a trust that exists—a trust that has not existed the same way with Kim.”

Still, Norma said Kim had always been a great friend to her and Jenny.

“I would describe Kim as a strong, intelligent woman who knows what she wants and doesn't stop until she is satisfied with the outcome,” Norma said.

And Norma and Jenny admired Kim for her know-how and “go-get-'em” attitude. For example, Norma said because Holy Cross Hospital was a Catholic hospital, it had refused to pay for any type of birth control products for its employees, regardless of an employee's insurance plan.

“Kim thought this was outrageous and unlawful and spent may hours contacting women's groups to get the policy overturned,” Norma said. “Kim was always very aware of her rights as an employee and gave Jenny and I advice sometimes on some management problems we had at work. Jenny also noted how well Kim could work the system and could beat people at their own game.”

Nevertheless, Norma said, there was a lot about Kim that she and Jenny just didn't understand and a lot they didn't know.

“There was a lot of things Kim didn't share—her marriage to Steve was one of them,” Norma said.

Norma recalled a time early in their relationship when she invited Kim and her family over for dinner. Norma was really surprised when Kim showed up with Sarah, but not Steve.

“She made some excuse that he had family in town or he was tired, I don't remember the exact excuse, but I remember how odd it seemed that he wasn't with her,” Norma said.

Norma and Jenny often discussed Kim's relationship with Steve, and why he was not really a social person, but they didn't feel they could talk about it with Kim.

“Kim would say things like ‘he's shy,' or ‘he gets up early, so at the end of the day, he's tired and he just likes to chill out at home,'” Norma said.

Norma and Jenny, though, concluded that people could be shy, but when they were adults, they just needed to “get over it” and at least be social.

“Jenny and I found Steve to be rude and antisocial—the complete opposite of Kim,” Norma said.

Whenever Norma or Jenny would try to talk to Kim about her marriage, she would just blow them off, saying she and Steve got along great. Even though they were different, she said, they complemented each other and they understood each other. To Norma and Jenny, it seemed Kim was always on the go and Steve was always at home, if he wasn't at work.

“Jenny and I would often marvel at Kim's energy and we would often wonder how she managed to do it all,” Norma said. “We would also wonder if she was trying to fill some void by filling up her time, so she didn't have time to stop and think about something she didn't want to think about.”

In October 1996 Norma and her husband moved to Washington State, but they still kept in close contact with Kim and Jenny by phone. The three women still maintained their great friendship. In fact, Norma and Kim were both in Jenny's wedding to Sean Gowen on November 29, 1997. Kim was the matron of honor and Norma, who stayed at the Hrickos' town house while she was in Maryland, was a bridesmaid.

During her first year in Washington, Norma and Jenny often talked about Sean's cousin Brad Winkler, who was in the marines and living at Sean's parents' house. Jenny always spoke very affectionately of Brad and how she thought he was a great guy and fun to be around.

Brad was very involved in his cousin's wedding plans and was at Jenny's bridal shower at the Hrickos' house. Like Jenny, Norma found Brad to be warm and funny and felt comfortable with him. While Norma was in Maryland, she, Kim, and Brad spent a lot of time together doing last-minute errands for Jenny's wedding. Once, when the three were together, Brad told them about his bad marriage and subsequent divorce.

“Looking back, I see how sympathetic Kim was to Brad,” Norma said. “I remember her saying to me, ‘That's too bad that happened to Brad, he's such a nice guy' and ‘The girl who gets him will be lucky.'”

About two weeks after Norma went back home to Washington, Kim called to tell her that she and Brad were having an affair. Kim asked Norma not to be angry with her.

“She said things between her and Steve had been bad, and she asked him to go to a counselor in August, but he missed his appointment and just blew it off,” Norma said. “I remember saying I didn't know things had been that bad in her marriage and I reminded her that this was a subject she would never discuss before—even with me, a good friend.”

Kim admitted to Norma that she had been living a lie for a long time and she was really miserable, but she added she wasn't sure she wanted to throw away ten years of marriage. Norma encouraged Kim to stop seeing Brad until she made a decision about what she wanted to do with her life.

“It was important to her that I didn't judge her,” Norma said. “I wasn't mad. I wanted her to be happy, even if it meant that she divorced Steve. But if they could work things out, that's what I wanted for her. I wasn't in a position to tell her what to do, and all she wanted was for me to listen and be a shoulder to cry on. I was willing to do that.”