working for them anymore. They had all these young horses and they were concerned about who they would get to train them. My friend, Shannon Dahmer, was training out of my barn at the time, and I suggested that Shannon could help her get her horses ridden, and they sent them down. They sent three horses, Hollywood, Pharaoh, and Vegas. They used Nationwide for that and it cost at least a thousand dollars.
“The horses were there from about February 2008 to May 2008. After May 2008, the horses were going back up to Miriam’s place. She said that she missed them and she had found a trainer named Sue Boulware, that I knew of. Sue would be taking over the training and that way they’d be able to see them more.
“I had a lot of contact with Miriam Helmick right around then. The mare I had sold them, Sadie, had just foaled. Miriam called me and said the foal was doing really well. She’d call about horse stuff. Things like how the horses were doing, ’cause I care about all my horses, and like to know that they’re doing well and that they’re being taken care of.
“I actually went to a stock show with the Helmicks. Alan wasn’t feeling very well and Miriam came down and was watching a lot of horse events. She asked if I’d like to come and watch the grand prix jumping, and I said sure. I met her there. She said Alan had been sick a lot with stomach flu, and hadn’t been feeling well. And right about then, when the horses were being boarded and trained at my facility, we didn’t receive some of the payments.
“So I called her to say we didn’t receive the board money and training money. And she said they had been out vacationing on their boat and the payments were in the mail. I called a week later and said the payments never came. Miriam said the payments probably got sent to Alan’s daughter by mistake. She added Alan had taken an overdose of blood pressure medication and he had been misplacing stuff.
“I tried calling Alan once, but only got through to his voice mail. When I finally got a check, it was written on checks from the dance studio. Even then, the checks didn’t clear. My boyfriend called back to see why they didn’t clear. And there was supposed to be two signatures on the checks, but there was only one. From what I understood, Alan was a pretty good businessman. I couldn’t understand why he would write a check, knowing that it required two signatures. That didn’t make sense to me.”
Moving on in time, Investigator Jarrell wanted to know when Jeri Yarbrough first learned about Alan Helmick’s murder. Jeri said, “My friend Stephanie Soule called me and left me a voice mail. I called Miriam and said how sorry I was, and if there was anything I could do to help her, and my thoughts were with her. On Thursday night, a couple of days after he had been shot, Miriam called me.
“She just started talking about what happened and I just said how sorry I was. I asked how she was doing, and had concerns for her safety. She said she was doing fine, but that she was pretty upset because she couldn’t go back home because the police were there. She said it was because they had to do those kind of things. She said they had talked to her for a long time, interrogated her and stuff. And I said, ‘Well, that’s probably normal.’
“She told me that originally on the day he was killed, they were supposed to go out and do some errands together. But Alan decided not to go, and she went off to do the errands. After that, they were supposed to meet for lunch. Alan didn’t show up, and she started trying to call him and he didn’t answer. So she went back home and found him. She said he was lying on the floor and that he was gone. He was cold to the touch, and she called 911 and they instructed her to do CPR, which she did, but she said that she knew he was gone.
“She thought it was a home burglary, but she also thought the police were focusing on her. And I said that that was kinda normal. ‘They
“The horses were there from about February 2008 to May 2008. After May 2008, the horses were going back up to Miriam’s place. She said that she missed them and she had found a trainer named Sue Boulware, that I knew of. Sue would be taking over the training and that way they’d be able to see them more.
“I had a lot of contact with Miriam Helmick right around then. The mare I had sold them, Sadie, had just foaled. Miriam called me and said the foal was doing really well. She’d call about horse stuff. Things like how the horses were doing, ’cause I care about all my horses, and like to know that they’re doing well and that they’re being taken care of.
“I actually went to a stock show with the Helmicks. Alan wasn’t feeling very well and Miriam came down and was watching a lot of horse events. She asked if I’d like to come and watch the grand prix jumping, and I said sure. I met her there. She said Alan had been sick a lot with stomach flu, and hadn’t been feeling well. And right about then, when the horses were being boarded and trained at my facility, we didn’t receive some of the payments.
“So I called her to say we didn’t receive the board money and training money. And she said they had been out vacationing on their boat and the payments were in the mail. I called a week later and said the payments never came. Miriam said the payments probably got sent to Alan’s daughter by mistake. She added Alan had taken an overdose of blood pressure medication and he had been misplacing stuff.
“I tried calling Alan once, but only got through to his voice mail. When I finally got a check, it was written on checks from the dance studio. Even then, the checks didn’t clear. My boyfriend called back to see why they didn’t clear. And there was supposed to be two signatures on the checks, but there was only one. From what I understood, Alan was a pretty good businessman. I couldn’t understand why he would write a check, knowing that it required two signatures. That didn’t make sense to me.”
Moving on in time, Investigator Jarrell wanted to know when Jeri Yarbrough first learned about Alan Helmick’s murder. Jeri said, “My friend Stephanie Soule called me and left me a voice mail. I called Miriam and said how sorry I was, and if there was anything I could do to help her, and my thoughts were with her. On Thursday night, a couple of days after he had been shot, Miriam called me.
“She just started talking about what happened and I just said how sorry I was. I asked how she was doing, and had concerns for her safety. She said she was doing fine, but that she was pretty upset because she couldn’t go back home because the police were there. She said it was because they had to do those kind of things. She said they had talked to her for a long time, interrogated her and stuff. And I said, ‘Well, that’s probably normal.’
“She told me that originally on the day he was killed, they were supposed to go out and do some errands together. But Alan decided not to go, and she went off to do the errands. After that, they were supposed to meet for lunch. Alan didn’t show up, and she started trying to call him and he didn’t answer. So she went back home and found him. She said he was lying on the floor and that he was gone. He was cold to the touch, and she called 911 and they instructed her to do CPR, which she did, but she said that she knew he was gone.
“She thought it was a home burglary, but she also thought the police were focusing on her. And I said that that was kinda normal. ‘They
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