It didn't take police long to suspect that Radel Arrant or both men had something to do with the murder. Nothing we havent experienced before, right? . I'll be like tossed out on my butt. 08.03.2006 . Every summer, Rachelle and her mom would spend weeks with Lauri's family in Tacoma, Washington. Anjette Lyles was known for her good cooking, but no one could have suspected the deadly recipes she was brewing up for her loved ones. McPherron: Okay.Rachelle: First of all, I'd like to apologize for being a smart ass.Sgt. Yes, she did but police had searched Rachelles computer, interviewed friends, and checked into her past activities. Don Pierce, friend of the Waterman family: He called about 3:00 in the afternoon to ask if Lauri was at our house. Rachelle Waterman, 17, is on trial, accused of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the November 2004 death of her mother, 48-year-old Lauri Waterman. I saw the booze in the garbage. Brian was sentenced to 99 years in prison while Jason received 50. Rachelle: Does it look like Im gonna go to jail?Wells: The only way that she could see to get that door to open was to tell them what they wanted to hear. But Rachelle says that Jason kept pressing the issue -- even ran through murder scenarios with Brian, but says she never really took them seriously. Up until then, I was like, Man, where are we going with this? Cuz I wasn't seeing anything until then.. Wells says he thinks the court was fair, but still has reservations about the outcome. Lauri Waterman's murder in Alaska will be featured on the next episode of People Magazine Investigates on Investigation Discovery. Read More:Where Is Rachelle Waterman Now? It was later revealed that the men were, for all intents and purposes, instigated by Lauris daughter, Rachelle. It was Saturday, November 13th. She also threw out the indictment against Rachelle, which meant that no charges were pending against Rachelle as of that moment. Larson: Have you ever really sat and thought on how terrified she must have been that night?Brian Radel: I think about it every night.Larson: To this day, do you think Rachelle was in danger for her life?Radel: No, I don't think so.Larson: Did you still love Rachelle?Radel: I still do.Larson: You still do?Radel: Yeah, I personally think she's a good person. Wells says that Watermans three-year sentence doesnt mean three more years in jail because a third of that time can be taken off for good behavior, and Waterman already served some time during the trial process. In 2004, Lauri Waterman was like any other American mother struggling to understand her teenage daughter. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. The Waterman family is a locally prominent, middle-upper class family. Waterman was found guilty in a 2011 retrial of criminally negligent homicide for telling two men she had been dating that she wanted her mother dead, and then failing to warn her mother or alert authorities when she found out that the two men were, indeed, planning to kill Lauri Waterman. Didn't kill her right away when I hit her in the throat. Lauri Waterman was suffocated after her killers failed to break her neck and make her death appear to be a drunk-driving accident. ago. Radel abducted Lauri and forced her to drink wine to make her death look like a drunk driving accident. Waterman and her alleged accomplices, Jason Arrant and Brian Radel, both 24 years old, are accused of murdering and conspiring to murder Waterman's 48-year-old mother, Lauri Waterman. Rachelle: Then they - it was - that idea started being discussed, murder. Her trial opened this past January in Juneau, Alaska, several hundred miles from Rachelle's hometown of Craig. She was so cold during her interviews, I cannot believe she got off so easy. Get notifications about news related to the topics you care about. Radel had also dated Rachelle at one time. What happened down this road took all the natural beauty and solitude of the place and overnight made it seem ominous. Although Waterman has been waived into the adult justice system due to the nature of the crime, the Governor of Alaska, Frank Murkowski, has proposed increasing the number of personnel assigned to the juvenile justice system. Clearly, Lauri had made it back to the home before she was killed. All other pending charges against the duo were dropped. For a time she dressed all in black, with black nail polish to match, and when she picked out a black velvet dress for prom, her mother told her I couldnt pull it off, she wrote. She appeared to be agitated by the abuse, and prosecutors claimed that she led the duo to believe she wanted her mother dead. It was then that the plan devised by him and Brian would be put into action. (There is no indication that Waterman was a so-called "fetal alcohol" or "drug" child. This woman is now walking the streets & from all indications, enjoying a successful & fulfilling life. Rachelle's relatives were rocked by the news. Teen Blogger Murder Trial (AK v. Waterman 2006) Court TV The judge then threw out the indictment as well, which meant there were no longer any charges pending against Rachelle. Or start a new search to discover more pictures at IMAGO. Rachelle Waterman (interrogation footage): She was a bit shocked, I guess, that I was talking to this older guy And in another interview two days later, Rachelle shares the same awful story she had told Arrant and Radel: that her mother, publicly well-respected, was privately abusive. Before the night was over, however, Lauri would be abducted in the familys purple minivana vehicle later found 40 miles away, burned with Lauris charred remains inside. On the night of November 14, 2004, Lauri Waterman was abducted from her home in the tiny town of Craig, on the idyllic Prince of Wales Island off Alaska's panhandle coast, and murdered. No one had seen her and she'd left no explanations. It wasnt enough to keep Jason and Rachelle apart, however. Sgt. Rachelle: My mom was really mad at me and they were low on money and she was talking to me about selling me for prostitution as a punishment. The Teen Who Ordered a Hit on Her Mother The prosecution has appealed the judge's decision to throw out Rachelle Waterman's confession, and the indictment. Concern about the age difference led Radel to end the relationship but not before he introduced Rachelle to his friend, Jason Arrant, who was about the same age at Radel. She wrote that her mother was critical of her weight. She tells them her mother tried to push her down the stairs, beat her with a baseball bat, even threatened to sell her into sexual slavery. Rachelle Waterman, now 22, is being tried for the second time for her mother's murder; her first trial in 2006 ended in a hung jury.Lauri Waterman, 48, was . Don Pierce was with Rachelle's father Doc when he heard the news. Her dad, Carl Doc Waterman, was a a real estate agent and president of the school board in small-town Craig, Alaska. We knew who he was but we didn't really know him, what he was capable of. Now, a jury would have to decide whether she was an innocent victim or as guilty of murder as the two men who had killed her mother. Watch our new true crime show, People Magazine Investigates, which airs Mondays at 10 p.m. She threatened me while going like this with a knife. . Growing tired of their search and nearing sunrise, they finally decided on a rutty, rarely traveled road primarily used by logging trucks. Radel said all the talk of murder was coming only from Arrant. Judge Collins originally set a date of February 3, 2005 for the trial, but, at an arraignment that week, the trial was rescheduled for August 22. And what about those stories, Rachelle's dramatic descriptions of abuse? Don Martelli is Rachelle's grandfather. Rachelle claimed in the interview her mother once hit her with a baseball bat, and had pushed her down the stairs once. There they left Lauri unconscious in the vehicle and set it moving unmanned. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.. Showers in the evening, then partly cloudy overnight. She was also a rebellious teen who ran a blog titled My Crappy Life where she referred to her mother as a psycho b*tch and the female parental unit.. Rachelle Waterman (@RachelleWaterm1) / Twitter The defense argued that the Watermans kept a key outside by the back door. Rachelle, then 16, was a student-athlete who sang in the school choir, played volleyball and competed in an academic decathlon. After the failure of the latest appeal, the three-year jail sentence stood. I think there's people saying "guilty," but they had the reasonable doubt in their minds.Larson: Yeah.Kasberg: I think a lot of people were there. Both men were 24 at the time of the killing near Craig, in Southeast Alaska. The jury took one week in its deliberations and returned with not guilty verdicts on first degree murder, kidnapping, burglary and attempted murder, and guilty of criminally negligent homicide. They say Waterman had the power to stop the murder and didnt. He's like the biggest sucker of all time.Demars: Totally. Anchorage jurors found Waterman not guilty of 1st and 2nd degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. Son Jeffrey wasn't even in Alaska, as he was attending college in the mainland. Radel: I said "I'd protect Rachelle. Below is a preview of the episode. Arrant, meanwhile, also said he had been with Radel that weekend, but that he slept at his own home. Through brilliant police and work and interrogations, investigators were able to make swift progress in the case to bring the perpetrators to justice. Facebook gives people the power. The case has rapidly received a wide following on the Internet, partly because Waterman kept a public record of her thoughts and activities on LiveJournal, a popular blogging service. Rachelle was subsequently ordered to serve three years, with credit for time served while awaiting her first trial (479 days). When the interviewer pointed out she must not have protested too hard about the plan, she sarcastically responded, "Well, maybe I shouldn't ever be on the debate team.". Don Martelli, Sr.: Far as she's concerned, it's gone and forgotten. She was rocking back and forth in the passenger seat of my truck, um, she was saying Hail Marys. Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age. The two 24-year-old men, Jason Arrant, of Klawock, and Brian Radel, of Thorne Bay, later confessed to killing 48-year-old Laurie Waterman and were charged with first degree murder. Its hard to imagine a more beautiful place to settle something so ugly. Arrant, meanwhile, as he didn't actually commit the murder, received 50 years. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. But what was real and what was imagined? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. 30 minutes into the interrogation, clearly shaken, the 16-year-old hides her face, as the trooper accuses her of doing nothing to stop her mother's murder. She explained how Rachelle may not have fully appreciated the consequences of her actions -- her venting her problems about her mother to her boyfriend -- because teenagers use a different part of the brain than adults for decision-making, judgment and impulse control. The police put two and two together and concluded that Lauris body must have been put in the car after a brutal murder. McPherron: You told your friends Monday before the body had been identified, that your mom probably died in a drunk driving accident.Rachelle: It's what I assumed.Sgt. Lets find out all there is to know about Brian Radel and Jason Arrant, shall we? Now She's Speaking Out. She was to receive credit for time served. The jury had deadlocked -- 10 votes in favor of acquittal, two in favor of a guilty verdict. Physical evidence recovered at the various crime scenes corroborated many of the defendants' statements Radel, Arrant and Waterman have been charged with murder in the first degree. Alaska State Police Lt. Rodney Dial has stated that a hunter discovered Lauri Waterman's body and her burnt-out van, while driving on Forest Service Road 3012, a remote logging road, early in the afternoon of Sunday November 142004. Brian Radel not only implicated himself, but Jason Arrant was clearly involved in the killing, too. Rachelle Waterman was sobbing and hysterical at school the morning after her mother went missing, a defense witness testified Thursday, the most vivid description presented so far that the . She played 2 losers, and walked away laughing. Why, other than obvious reasons, Lauri was even more adamant than her husband that Rachelle not date Jason, no one will ever know, but she was very vocal with her opinion. IMAGO / ZUMA Wire. She was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, and sentenced to three years in prison. Additional charges of solicitation, conspiracy, tampering with physical evidence and other charges are pending. Her oldest child, Geoffrey Waterman, was away at college. He was a hulking man with wild red hair and a goatee who turned up in town a few days after the murder with his head and face shaved. And Rachelle would find the same to be true in her own family. She was released from prison in 2015 and remains on probation. And when it came to her mother, whom she called "the female parental unit, Rachelle wrote that Lauri criticized her weight, read her mail, once went psycho bitch on her and threw her down the stairs. It happened in this beautiful place of cold, deep water and endless spruce forest. In it, Rachelle called home "Hell, Alaska." Rachels defense argued that Jason Arrant was the real criminal and claimed that he orchestrated the whole plot because Lauri wouldnt allow him to date her daughter. Well, Im grounded, Rachelle posted on June 14, 2004, five months before Lauris killing. John Larson, Dateline correspondent: If everything had gone perfectly, how would this story have played out? Claus raced to the scene, where the car wasstill smoldering. Lauri in particular was described as thoughtful "and helpful, so eager to give help," by her friend Victoria Merritt. After questioning Rachelle for hours again, she begrudgingly answered in the affirmative when police asked if she expected her mother to be dead by the time she arrived home from her Anchorage trip. He was also Rachelles boyfriend. His wife and Rachelles mother, Lauri, was nowhere to be found and the family minivan was missing. Doc and Lauri were prominent members of the community. Her oldest child, Geoffrey Waterman, was away at college. The last entry, which has since been removed from public view, was posted on November 18, 2004 and read: Just to let everyone know, my mother was murdered. Rachelle Waterman is 34 years old and was born on 08/26/1988. It's the only book about this case and thus recommended for anyone looking for more in-depth information about Rachel Waterman, her family, or the two young men who were willing to kill for the attention of a teenage girl.

Michael Jordan Signed Photo, Articles M