The Cold Case of Bridget Mayes

"I'm going back to the station to find her print card, and when I do, I'll send it to TBI and NCIC and see if they have a name other than Lisa Miller."

It was three before I found Lisa Miller's print card. It was in a stack of print cards taken in 2004 and 2005 taken from real estate agents when their license came up for renewal. The girl in records said at the time they were short of staff and delayed sending the prints to TBI and NCIC until they had time. Like a lot of things that depend upon staffing, the priority of sending those prints decreased over time until nobody remembered having them.

I scanned the print card and then emailed a copy to both the TBI and NCIC. It wasn't likely they could give me a hundred percent match from just the scan, but they could give me a name and a probability of a match to that name. If the probability was high enough, like eighty percent, and it looked like there was fraud involved, that would get me an arrest warrant. With the warrant, I could bring Lisa in for questioning, and given enough time, I'd eventually find out what she knew about Miss Mayes.

It would be at least Monday before I had a name other than Lisa Miller, but at least I had a lead to chase down once I had that name.

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That weekend felt like a month. There's a certain satisfaction any police officer gets from finding out the answer to a question about a crime. Along with the promise of that satisfaction comes the frustration of waiting to get that answer, and both Rochelle and I were pretty frustrated. Solving one of these cold cases is like driving in a thick fog. You know where you want to go and occasionally you can see something like a road sign that tells you you're on the right road. Then you'll see another sign that tells you you've made a wrong turn somewhere. You have to turn around and go back to find out where that wrong turn happened. All the time, you have to drive slowly so you don't miss the turn you have to make to get where you're going.

We tried going to a flea market, something we both enjoy, but we just walked through it without looking much. We tried going out for dinner on Saturday night, but nothing really looked good. We ordered and ate, but it was more because we needed to eat than that we enjoyed what we ate.

We didn't even mess around. When you have as many ideas running through your mind as we did, it's hard to break into that and feel like having sex.

It was Monday afternoon before I got my answer, and I had to read it three times to make sure I wasn't seeing something that wasn't there. The print card I'd sent to the TBI was a ninety percent match to the prints taken of a young girl when she'd been arrested for shoplifting when she was fifteen. That young girl was Bridget Mayes. NCIC confirmed that match with a probability of ninety-five percent.

I now had a reason to arrest Lisa Miller, that reason being that she'd committed fraud when she applied for her real estate license. I didn't have any problems getting a warrant, and as soon as I had it, I took two uniforms with me to the real estate office and sent two more to the house where Sherry and Lisa lived.

Lisa wasn't at the real estate office and the secretary told me she'd called in sick. I called the two uniforms at her house, and Larry said they'd knocked on the door several times with no answer. They saw a blue Mazda sedan sitting in the drive, but there was no other vehicle in the drive or that they could see through the garage windows.

That told me I'd figured out nobody killed Bridget Mayes, but either Bridget Mayes or Sherry had killed another woman and then put her in the pond. Bridget had a reason to run if she thought I wanted to question her about her identity, but Sherry had no reason to fear anything unless she was guilty of murder. I radioed the station and put out a nation wide APB on Lisa's Toyota Rav 4, then called Rochelle to tell her what was going on.

Rochelle was happy with the information, but worried that we'd never find either of them again.

"They have at least a two day head start so they could be a thousand miles away by now. How will we ever catch them since they obviously don't want to be caught?"

"Well right now, there are thousands of police officers watching for a red Toyota Rav 4 with two older women in it. They'll have to at least stop for gas and to eat. The odds are in our favor that some patrol officer driving his regular route will spot the car and investigate. It might take another day or two, but we'll find them."

It actually took less than a day. A patrol officer in Jackson, Tennessee spotted the Rav 4 in the parking lot of a Motel 6. After checking the license number to make sure this was the right Rav 4, he pulled his car up behind the Rav 4 so it couldn't leave and then went to the desk and asked if Sherry Miller or Lisa Miller were staying there. The desk clerk told him they were in Room 112.

The officer radioed for backup, and when another officer showed up, they knocked on the door of Room 112. Both Sherry and Lisa surrendered without resisting after the officer charged Lisa with impersonation to defraud and charged Sherry with aiding and abetting. They were both on the way back to Knoxville and would arrive sometime around nine that night.

I was at the station at seven and waiting on the car from Jackson. At about eight fifteen, I got a cell phone call from one of the officers. He said they were in Knoxville and wanted to know where he should bring Sherry and Lisa. I said to bring them to the garage and I'd be there to take them off his hands.

Neither one said much when I arrested them and took them to holding. I just said they'd have to stay in holding until the next morning, and I'd talk to them then. I was going to put them into an interrogation room that night and questioned them until one broke, but looking at them made me change my mind.

I knew Sherry was sixty and Lisa claimed to be sixty-one. The birth date on Sherry's driver's license matched the date of the birth announcement Rochelle had found. Her appearance matched that age as well. The birth date on Lisa's driver's license matched the age she claimed to be, but her appearance didn't. Her breasts and hips didn't sag like Sherry's did, and the lines in her face weren't the lines Sherry had.

Both looked about done in, and I didn't want some lawyer claiming they'd just told me what I wanted to hear so I'd let them get some rest. That's a typical defense when an interrogation lasts a long time. The lawyer would claim I'd intentionally deprived them of sleep in order to get a confession and that the confession was coerced. I intended to keep questioning them until one of them finally told me the truth. I needed them to have a night's sleep and something to eat before I started.

I asked holding to put both of them in the same holding cell for another reason. I expected they'd try to get their stories straight and I wanted to give them an opportunity to do that. They'd come up with enough variations one of them would forget what they'd agreed on and tell me something different. I could use that by working on first one and then the other until they had to tell me the truth.

I let them have until nine the next morning before I put each in a separate interrogation room. I started with Lisa first.

"Miss Miller, or should I say, Miss Mayes, I'm going to advise you of your rights before we talk. You have the right to not answer any of my questions. You have the right to have an attorney present and if you can't afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. I would recommend you get an attorney because anything you say to me can and will be used at your trial. Do you understand these rights?"

She nodded and said she should probably have an attorney and that she couldn't afford one. I left the interrogation room and called the DA to get her a lawyer and then went to the interrogation room where I'd put Sherry. I repeated the same when Sherry, and when she said she also needed a public defender, I left her in the room and called the DA for another public defender.

I checked on Lisa and her attorney an hour later. He said she was ready to talk with me. I started with an explanation of why she'd been arrested.

"Lisa, I know your real name is Bridget Mayes so don't try to convince me you aren't. The only thing I've been able to find out about you is you were raised in two different foster homes and that you were arrested for shoplifting when you were fifteen. Is that why you changed your name, so that shoplifting charge wouldn't keep you from getting a real estate license? Tennessee considers that fraud since you benefited from the name change."

Her lawyer interrupted before she could answer.

"Detective Owens, Lisa will admit to changing her name in order to get a real estate license, but the statute of limitations for fraud is six years at the most. Since no one suffered any injury or financial hardship, the statute of limitations is only one year after the offense. I'll be taking my client home now.

I smiled.

"Well, that's true, but she had to renew her license from time to time, and she used the same false identity to do it. In the eyes of the DA, she's committed fraud every time she renewed her license. That's why she's here and charged with fraud.

I turned to Bridget then.

"Miss Mayes, as old as you are and since fraud by using a false identity is just a misdemeanor in Tennessee and you haven't had even a parking ticket, it's not likely the DA would have asked for anything other than probation. You'll no doubt lose your real estate license, but you're almost old enough to retire anyway and judging by what I read on the Knoxville Homes and Farms website, you've been pretty successful, successful enough you probably don't have to worry about money. Why did you run on me?"

She leaned over and whispered something to her lawyer. He whispered something back and then looked at me.

"Miss Mayes has chosen not to answer this question."

I smiled and closed up the folder in front of me.

"OK, I'll go ask Miss Miller. She's being charged with aiding and abetting, and since the judge will consider your multiple misdemeanor offenses to constitute a felony, she's being charged with aiding and abetting a felon. She'll probably get five years or so."

I walked out then without giving Bridget or her lawyer a chance to reply. I didn't know how close Bridget and Sherry were, but if they were, I wanted Bridget to think about what she was going to cause Sherry to endure.

As soon as I sat down at the table, Sherry's lawyer tried to tell me Sherry was just riding with the woman he called her sister.

"Detective Owens, unless a law has been passed of which I am not aware, riding with your sister isn't a crime. Unless you have some evidence that Miss Miller has done something against the laws of the State of Tennessee, we're done here and I'll be taking Miss Miller home."

I smiled.

"Well, I don't think you'll be taking her anywhere. You see, the woman you just called Miss Miller's sister isn't her sister. Her name is Bridget Mayes. She admitted that to me and said she changed her name so the background check she had to undergo to get her real estate license wouldn't show the charge for shoplifting she got when she was fifteen.

"I find it very difficult to believe that Miss Miller doesn't know about that, so unless she can convince me that she wasn't helping Bridget Miller run from me, I'm charging her with aiding and abetting a felon. The last case of aiding and abetting a felon that I was part of resulted in the defendant getting five years in prison.

"So, Miss Miller, let's start by why you and Bridget decided to drive to Jackson?"

Like always happens with almost every question, Sherry touched her lawyer on the arm and when he leaned over, she whispered something to him. He nodded.

"Yes, I know about Bridget changing her name. We were going to Jackson to see where her parents are buried."

I smiled again and pulled the DCS file on Bridget and flipped through a couple pages.

"Well, unless DCS made a mistake, Bridget was born in Maryville, Tennessee and lived there until her parents passed when she was twelve. If they passed away in Maryville, why would they be buried in Jackson?"

Sherry rubbed her left arm.

"I don't know. That's where she said they were buried."

"Why did you go with her? Did you know her parents?"

Sherry shook her head.

"No, I didn't know them. Lisa is just a good friend and I thought she needed some support."

I frowned at Sherry then.

"You mean Bridget, don't you?"

Sherry shifted position in her chair.

"If that's who you say she is, I guess so."

I turned to another page in my folder.

"I suppose you don't know she was raised by foster parents either. Do you know that?"

Her lawyer leaned to whisper something to her, and when he sat back up, he asked how that had anything to do with the charge against his client.

I smiled.

"Well, it has to do with the reason your client was assisting Bridget Mayes to run from the police.

"Miss Miller, according to the records I got from the DCS, Bridget Mayes was placed with Gerald and Bertha Tolliday. I know you knew the Tollidays because you told me your mother wouldn't let you go over to their farm to see their horses. That's where you two met, isn't it? You both rode horses and you met because that was something you had in common.

Since you knew her then, you had to know when she changed her name. By the way, did she change her name before or after 1991 when she moved in with you?"

Sherry was having trouble sitting still. I had her pretty stressed and I was about to make her a lot more stressed.

"I think it was before, when she went to school to get her real estate license."

I opened another folder.

"That can't be true because according to the website for the real estate agency where she works...that's Knoxville Homes and Farms, isn't it?"

Sherry nodded.

"Well according to their website, she's had her license for thirty years, so she wouldn't have gotten it until 1993, two years after she moved in with you."

All Sherry said was it was a long time ago and she might have forgotten.

I could tell she was just reacting instead of following whatever story they'd put together. It was time to hit her with the question I really wanted an answer to.

"You know, right before 1993, on December 20, a dead woman was found by the pond on the Tolliday farm. Do you remember that? You must because it was in all the newspapers and on all the TV stations."

Sherry tugged on the lawyer's arm then. After about three minutes of whispered conversations, the lawyer turned back to me.

"What does some dead woman by a pond have anything to do with the charges against my client?"

"Well, someone called the detective investigating that dead woman and told him the dead woman's name was Bridget Mayes. I think your client knows that Bridget Mayes killed that woman and dumped her by the pond, and then called the police station and said the dead woman was Bridget Mayes. I think that's also when she changed her name and that Miss Miller knows exactly what happened."

I looked at Sherry than and she was shaking.

"You know what happened, don't you, Miss Miller?"

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It was almost seven when I got home because I had to do a lot of checking before the DA and I finalized the charges against Sherry and Bridget. Rochelle was waiting on me and said she had a casserole in the oven when I was ready to eat. I knew she was going crazy wondering what I'd found out, so while we ate, I told her how things had worked out.

"It took a lot of questioning and a few threats, but both Sherry and Bridget finally told me what happened.

"We had everything figured out right except for one thing. It wasn't a murder at all. It was just sort of an accident.

"Sherry Miller was and still is a lesbian. According to her, she was never interested in boys at all. Instead, she favored girls. She couldn't do anything about it while she was in high school, but when she got out, she started looking for another lesbian.

"When she was twenty-one and could legally drink, she got up enough nerve to go to a little club called "Skirts" just outside of Knoxville. There, she met a lot of women who liked other women and she had several girlfriends, but nothing serious until her father turned sixty and her mother sixty-two. Neither was in good health so they moved to an assisted living facility, rented the farm to another farmer, and left Sherry there to make sure things were getting done like her father wanted them done. That gave Sherry the freedom to do what she wanted. Her last girlfriend was a woman named Mandy Richardson and Mandy moved into the farmhouse with Sherry.

"By the time Bridget was eighteen, she'd figured out what was going on between Sherry and Mandy and she told Sherry she wanted to join them so see how it was. Sherry and Mandy taught her how two women could make love to each other. After that, they spent weekends together at the farmhouse.

"One of the problems Sherry's father had was a bad back. He'd bought one of those cot things that let you hang upside down because it's supposed to take the weight off your spine. When he and Sherry's mother moved to the assisted living home, he left it behind because he was getting physical therapy at the home.

"One night when they were all together, Mandy asked how it worked so Sherry strapped her in and turned her upside down. Sherry didn't explain exactly what happened after that, but she said Mandy thought it was the best orgasm she'd ever had. After that, they all took a turn once in a while. Sherry said it was pretty good, but she didn't like they way it made her head pound and Bridget told me the same thing. Apparently Mandy liked it a lot.

"The night of December 28, they'd celebrated Christmas together and Mandy said she wanted to do the hanging thing again. Sherry and Bridget strapped her ankles to the tilting thing, turned her upside down, and then started arousing her. Like you thought, that's probably how the female DNA got inside her. Sherry said things were going about like usual when Mandy jerked a few times and then stopped moving.

"They didn't know what happened except that Mandy wasn't breathing and they couldn't find a pulse. They took her off the tilting thing and tried CPR, but after half an hour, Mandy was cold and still had no pulse so they gave up.

"Both were scared to death they'd be accused of murder if they called the police or an ambulance. It was Bridget who thought of taking Mandy to the pond. She didn't remember anybody ever going to the pond in winter so she wouldn't be found until at least spring. They decided that Bridget should change her name to Lisa Miller and begin living as Sherry's sister. To help that along, Sherry called Harry and told him the girl by the pond was Bridget Mayes. They thought that since the police thought Bridget Mayes was dead, they wouldn't be looking for her.

"Lisa had to have an income, and getting a real estate license was fast and the job paid pretty well. Once she changed her name, which she didn't do legally by the way, she applied for a Social Security card. She took her original birth certificate and faked her and her parent's name, and then made a copy as proof of age. She was young enough that the person who interviewed her at the Social Security Office didn't question why she didn't have a driver's license as Lisa Miller. Instead, they accepted the student ID card she made by using her student ID card from high school, changing the name, and making a copy.

"I don't know how the Social Security Office ever approved her based on those documents, but they did and she got a Social Security Card as Lisa Martin. She used the Social Security Card as proof of identity and a power bill from the Miller farm as proof of residence and got a driver's license as Lisa Miller. Once she had those, she left her apartment without telling anybody where she was going and moved into the farmhouse with Sherry. Then she went to real estate school, got her license and she and Sherry settled down as sisters.