Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Page #3

a month before in his mind.

It sounds so easy,

but it's hard

when you're a genuine person

who cares.

He didn't know

how to be a son of a b*tch

because he wasn't

a son of a b*tch.

Shirley had been really,

like, all over Andrew.

Just acting possessive of him.

I said, "Andrew, hey,

do you want something to drink?"

and she said, "There you go,

hitting on the best man."

My jaw dropped. It had to have.

I remember going...

On the afternoon

of Saturday, November 3, 2001,

he broke up with Shirley

once and for all

over lunch at the airport

in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Then he put her on a plane

back to her place

in Council Bluffs, Iowa,

I remember the morning

that Shirley showed up.

He said, "You'll never guess

who showed up on my doorstep

at 5:
30."

And I said, "Who?"

He said, "The psychotic b*tch."

And I told him, I said,

"You know, Andrew,

when I break up with somebody

and put them on a plane

and send them 1,300 miles away,

they knock on my front door,

I'm going out the back door

and I'm calling the police."

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "Andrew."

I said, "Be serious.

Nobody drives 16 hours

after you've just broken up

with them."

I said,

"Do not meet her in private."

He said, "What can happen?"

And he said, "I'm gonna

need to catch up with you

and we're gonna have to do

some serious talking."

I said, "Bring some beer.

I only live a block away.

When do you think

you'll be done?"

He said, "Well, it's 4:30 now.

Meeting her at 6:00.

Things people should know

about Andrew.

He was never late.

And you know what?

When Andrew didn't show up

at 7:
30,

I knew something was very wrong.

And when I went back down

at 9:
00

and didn't see his car there...

I knew something was wrong.

Well, let me tell you

the events of the day.

Andrew didn't show up

for morning report.

Morning report ended

around 8:
00.

I went down to my office.

I called Andrew's house.

Hi.

You've reached Andrew Bagby.

Please leave a message

at the tone. Thank you.

Called his cellphone.

"Andrew, where are you at?"

No answer on either one.

As I recall,

we're getting pretty close

to 9:
00 in the morning,

and Rhonda and I

and some of the residents

are starting to get

a little nervous.

I remember Bill coming in

and standing

in front of the television

and telling us.

One of the E.R. docs

turned to me and said,

"They found a body in scrubs

out at Keystone Park."

Dead silence fell over.

A heaviness

like I've never felt.

And eventually almost everyone

was congregated there

just waiting for more news.

Rhonda got the call,

and she said to me,

"They need you in Mr. Clark's

office right now."

And I remember

my heart pounding,

going up at damn near a sprint.

I opened the door,

and I remember seeing

three Pennsylvania State Police

troopers in uniform

sitting in the room.

And I said, "You're here

to tell me about Andrew Bagby."

They asked for us all to gather

in the conference room.

- And they closed the door.

- He cleared his throat.

He just walked right up

to the podium and he said...

"Andrew Bagby is dead."

I said, "Well, hell,

you don't have to look far."

They're like,

"What do you mean?"

I said, "This woman was in town.

She was here."

I said, "Find her, and I think

you'll find who did this."

A summary of the evidence

against Shirley Turner.

He was found on the morning

of Tuesday, November 6th,

laying behind his car

in a parking lot

at Keystone State Park

in Derry Township, Pennsylvania.

A man walking

through Keystone Park

at 6:
10 p.m. the previous

evening, November 5th,

had seen his black Toyota

Corolla parked next to an SUV.

This was 10 minutes

after he told Clark

he was going to meet Shirley.

"Meeting her at 6:00."

Shirley drove a Toyota RAV4 SUV.

He was shot five times.

In the face, the chest,

twice in the buttocks,

and in the back of the head.

He also received a blunt trauma

to the back of the head.

That didn't sound random.

That sounded like rage

and vengeance.

The ammunition used

was CCI.22-caliber bullets.

There were six spent casings

and one live round

on the ground beside him.

Shirley owned a Phoenix Arms

.22-caliber handgun.

She had three lessons

with a firearms instructor

who said that at her last lesson

she was using

CCI.22-caliber ammunition

and her gun malfunctioned

and would sometimes eject

live rounds onto the ground.

Then she said,

"No, I can't find it."

Then she said,

"I gave the gun to Andrew."

She claimed

she was home sick all day

on Monday, November 5th.

The cellphone records show

that a phone call was made

here, here, here, and here.

While she claims

to be home in bed,

she's making cellphone calls

from Chicago, Illinois,

at 7:
08 and 7: 10 p.m.

on Sunday, November 4th.

Then another

from South Bend, Indiana,

at 10:
19 p.m. that night.

Then another

from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

at 8:
07 a.m. the next

morning, November 5th,

the day he was killed.

She logged on to eBay

that morning

from his computer at his house.

And back again.

At 11:
26 p.m. that night,

she makes another call

from Cleveland, Ohio,

clearly on her way home

this time.

Then another call

from Stuart, Iowa,

at 9:
48 a.m. the next morning,

Tuesday, November 6th.

Then another once she got home

to Council Bluffs.

And this one's to him.

But when she realized

that she couldn't possibly

be sick in bed

when she'd been caught

making cellphone calls

from Pennsylvania and back,

she changed her story again.

Then she said, "I gave the gun

to Andrew in the parking lot,

and I saw him put it

in his trunk."

And that clearly shows if she

did this, she planned it.

She is a manipulative,

deceitful planner of a murder.

In order to prove

her whereabouts

when she made these phone calls,

each individual cell tower

along her 16-hour drive

had to be manually checked,

which was a process

that took almost two weeks.

While the police were uncovering

this crucial piece of evidence,

Shirley left the United States

for her home

in St. John's, Newfoundland.

We were absolutely helpless

for the whole time

we were in Latrobe

after this initial nightmare.

The other residents

and Andrew's...

They're Andrew friends now...

came in, sat with us,

brought us meals.

They had a sign-up sheet at the

hospital to bring us a dinner

and sit and cry with us

and listen to us

and cry some more.

Great people.

The whole hospital grieved.

It was profound.

Just picture the masses

that just came out for that.

From memorials

in Newfoundland to California

to England.

- To St. Louis.

- To Latrobe.

I'm so proud to say

that I loved him so very much.

I'd be happy if I had 1/10

the people care 1/2 about me

as much as they did Andrew.

I know at the point

we had the memorial service,

she was back in Canada.

She was there at the memorial

service that we had here.

She broke down crying

during the service

and sobbing really loud,

and, you know, I wonder if it

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