“Believe in what you’re doing. That’s awesome.”
“Thank you.”
“When Chris was in North Carolina, how many times did you see him when he was out there that summer, 2018?”
“At least 6 weeks he was down here. He came down for the last week. And that’s when they went to the beach and stuff. Of course, we were went out to the beach the same time. We said we was 5 miles apart and we got to see him cuz she wouldn’t allow it. And we got to see him one day the day before they left to go back, more or less. It was They They stopped down to see my mother when she was in a rehab center. She was 93 years old. And I had to She wouldn’t bring him by here. We had to go pick him up there. I did. And he spent the afternoon here at the house with me and Sandy and Jamie and Robert and the kids and then Jamie uh all the grand babies. And we cooked out and just sat around and talked and stuff and hung out on the porch and that’s when he told me that she already knew that they they wanted to get a divorce. And and that he was looking for an apartment for a two-bedroom apartment with bunk beds for him and the girls cuz uh that’s how his life was going to be from now on. He had already more or less set a schedule up for a month or so out from that so he could know uh what the schedule would be. He’d have them, you know, one week he’d have them and the next week type thing.”
“So, you guys did know he was getting separated or getting a divorce.”
“Well, I suppose I suppose that she had heard of it. That uh she already knew about it. And actually the house is already already for sale. On the market.”
“So, that’s a big I think people don’t know that. People don’t know that you guys knew that that was even in the works.”
“Mhm. Yeah, that was the first we That’s the first we had heard of it. It was up about what that one day you got to spend with us that week he was down here.”
“And how was he that day when he was with you guys?”
“He was pretty much upbeat and stuff. He was He knew what what he wanted to do. Like I said, he just told me he wanted a two-bedroom apartment with beds for the girls. He was ready to move on with his life.”
“Yeah. Now, Chris wrote a letter when he was at your guys’ house. Why did he write that letter? How did that come about?”
“Well, the way he used to land him and act and the two times he’d come down two times he’d visit with us. She uh her and Cindy got into it a couple times basically over minor things. One which everybody heard about was the nut gate where she more or less said Cindy was trying to hurt Cece and give her ice cream and stuff, which you know, she never gave her the ice cream. And it was a plain vanilla ice cream cup which didn’t have nothing in it. And it all blew up on that when she accused Cindy of trying to hurt Cece by giving her something with nuts in it, which we all knew she couldn’t have nuts.”
“Right.”
“But But it was the time before that she come down twice, two weekends in a row. And the time before that when my neighbor had passed away and she said she would get her hair fixed and stuff. And she come by my work and sign some paperwork on a car that we was getting. And she was gone, you know, probably three or four hours or whatever. And she called my phone at work blowing it up cuz Cindy left her phone at the hairdresser. And had to have me go back and get it, which made her later. And Cindy offered beforehand she could have me go and take you back to 7 Palms. And I said, ‘No, I’ll just wait till you get done with everything.’ And she fussed Cindy saying, ‘You left me alone with these kids for 5 hours.'”
“I said, ‘Well, they’re your kids, too.’ I’m like You’re You’re not down here for us to watch them 24/7.”
“Right.”
“When you first heard that like Shannan and the girls were missing, what did you think?”
“I thought she just run off with the kids just to punish Chris for something. I thought she would just run off with the kids somewhere and just punishing Chris for something. That’s just the way she is.”
“Right.”
“Um when you picked up Chris from the airport, what did you guys talk about? And did he say anything particular that stood out to you?”
“Not just one thing that really I didn’t I didn’t catch what he was saying. I mean the the police department the Frederick Police Department had called him and wanted to talk to him. They kept calling him and they kept dropping the call. And every time we start talking he’d call back again and then Chris would talk to him a few minutes they’d drop the call on him, bad reception or whatever. And he just said one thing which it didn’t make any sense to me at the time. He said, ‘So, I wish I I should have just went to the Rockies game that night.’ Which it didn’t click at the time. But”
“Right. Now I know.”
