that s a little scary. yeah, it is scary. todd was holding ariel, and don was holding alex. and todd came up, he looks just a wreck. todd confronted me, he said, rachel and i aren t divorced yet, and i would appreciate it if you would stay away from her. and? nope. you said no? i said no. there was a pause. if something was going to happen, this would be the moment. and then he turns to me and he goes, hi katelynn. i was like, get off this property. and suddenly, it was over. todd and don and the kids got back into the land cruiser and drove off. what was the feeling like as this was going on? the feeling for me was, god, i hope that this clears the air. i think you know, he he s asked him to stay away so maybe he ll stay away and maybe they can figure out what to do. was it a civilized conversation? yes. yes, very. they didn t yell at each other? no. didn t stare daggers no. there was zippo.
carrying his guilt like a cross for years. i tried to lead all of my children to the love of jesus christ. there was only one major obstacle to that ever occurring in a way that that i would be happy with. and that was my hypocrisy. what do you mean? huh? your hypocrisy? my hypocrisy chasing women uh-huh. blowing my marriage. as don tells it, women found his role as an ascendant artist quite appealing. never mind he was a married father of four. and that kind of thing destroyed this - literally, destroyed my family. by the time rachel was in middle school, don s string of affairs led to a home-shattering divorce. i think that the the obliteration of the nuclear family had a profound effect on rachel. now, he feared, the apple hadn t fallen far from the tree. his daughter rachel was in the middle of an affair herself and it was putting her marriage at risk.
and i grabbed the nine or i didn t grab the nine, i grabbed the m4. katelynn is talking about the guns she had at the ready, a nine millimeter pistol and an m-4 rifle. and james? he had a pistol holstered in the small of his back as he walked out to greet todd and don. i had a nine millimeter on me, and i know how to use it extremely well. here is james memory of a confrontation so tense it sounds almost surreal. as the two men approached the house, he said, they hid behind todd and rachel s children. he had ariel in his arms, using her as a human shield. and don had alex in his arms, hiding on the other side of the car. they were afraid that you were gonna shoot them. perhaps. and i can t remember whether or not todd actually went to the door with the kid or i went to the door or whatever. but he was a human shield. he was going to stop the bullets, right?
amid the chaos, frantic calls, one of the neighbors reached rachel s father. and i get a phone call from a screaming, irrational voice on the other end. i said, is it rachel? yes, it s rachel. i said, i have a question for you. is there a yellow ribbon around the property? yes. is there a big white van in front of the house? yes. don was in the middle of moving. the movers tried to calm him down. and the guys says, we don t know that she s dead. i said, count on it, he killed her. and i got there and, you know, she was gone. he was right to begin with. rachel was dead. the horrific news spread. i got a call from a friend and i said, it can t be. and the next thing i knew, i woke up on the floor. you fainted? i completely blacked out, hit the floor. so i called the sheriff s department and asked them if they knew what was going on. and they said just stay right
during the week, james and rachel were together almost constantly. we tried to spend as much as time as possible we could together. what d it feel like when you did? it felt like we were family, felt like we were one one heartbeat. europe, our hearts were intertwined together like i can t describe. indescribable love, never loved someone so intensely in my life. their children were soon in on the secret. katelynn was beguiled by rachel. you could be talking to her, like we re talking, and she would make you feel like the most important human being on this earth. how did that make you feel? special. loved. i could open up to her. if todd suspected anything he didn t let on. but rachel s dad, don, began to get a queasy feeling during his visits to the airpark. tell me what you thought about him, at the time. he came across as this christian guy. and he you know, he s helping rachel. yeah.