An Act Of Murder (12 page)

“And she's mad—she's nasty mad and throws the keys at the cops because the search warrant is for her car,” Maureen recalled. “And I'm thinking, for somebody who's supposed to be innocent, she's not helping herself very much.”

The trooper took Kim's keys and went outside to search her car.

Angry, Maureen turned to Kim and said, “You need to come clean right now.”

“I will,” Kim responded. “I'll tell you everything, but I don't want to be down there while they're doing this. Just let me go take a bath.”

“So once again, stupid me says, ‘Okay, I'll go run the bathwater for you. You go in there and I'll get a glass of wine for you. They'll serve the search warrant, but then you're coming out and you're telling me what's going on,'” Maureen said.

Maureen then went to the bathroom and started running a bath for Kim. Meanwhile, the state police were unloading Christmas gifts from the back of Kim's car and bringing them into the Miller house. Apparently Kim had a number of undelivered Christmas gifts that she was supposed to give to kids in the CASA program, but they were still in the back of her car.

While Kim was in the bathroom, Maureen went in to check on her.

“She was just sitting on the edge of the toilet and I told her to get undressed and get in the bathtub,” Maureen said. “Then I went and turned off the water and left.”

Maureen went into her dining room, where the police were opening and searching the Christmas gifts.

“My dining room is filled with these gifts and the police are going through them, when one of the police officers starts running off at the mouth, saying that Kim is a horrible, evil person and they're going to put her away for a very long time and that she murdered Steve,” Maureen said. “He was really angry.”

Maureen asked him why he thought Kim killed Steve, but he wouldn't tell her anything because they still suspected she helped Kim kill her husband.

At that point Mike, who was in the room also, turned around and started yelling at Maureen.

“I told you,” Mike said. “It's time for you to back away. You need to let her go.”

“I can't let her go, she's my friend, and until somebody tells me what's going on here, I'm not going to do that,” Maureen told Mike. “I would never be able to live it down if they're wrong—that I turned my back on her when she needed me the most.”

The troopers told the Millers that some people had come forward with information and they were going to put her away.

“They said maybe not tomorrow, or next week, or even a month from then, but they were going to get her,” Maureen remembered.

Upset and confused, Maureen went into the bathroom and saw that Kim wasn't taking her bath. In fact, she was sitting on the toilet fully clothed.

“You can't take a bath unless you take your clothes off,” Maureen said.

“I didn't kill him,” Kim said.

“She's talking and she's slurring her words. And I knew she had taken something. At this point she's teetering on the toilet, like she's going to fall off,” Maureen said.

“Oh, my God, what did you take?” Maureen screamed as she searched the bathroom.

Soon Maureen found an empty bottle of pills that had Xanax written on it. Frantic, Maureen told Mike to call an ambulance. Mike, however, was furious that Kim would try to commit suicide with his kids in the house.

The ambulance arrived and took Kim to the Easton Memorial Hospital. Maureen followed in her own car. On the way she received a call from Mike, who told her when he was cleaning up the bathroom, he found razor blades on the edge of the bathtub.

“Apparently Kim staged it to make it look like she was going to get in the bathtub, slit her wrists, and kill herself, because it turned out that the medication she had actually taken was not Xanax, according to the toxicology report,” Maureen said. “Kim put something else in the Xanax bottle and that's what she took.”

The nurse at the hospital told Maureen that Kim would be fine. In fact, the nurse said that Kim would have been worse off taking a bottle of aspirin.

While she was waiting for Kim, Maureen, who was three months pregnant, started to feel really ill. The nurses took her blood pressure and found that it was sky-high. So they asked her to stay in the emergency room until they determined she was okay. In the meantime emergency room personnel were pumping Kim's stomach.

When they were finished, Maureen went to talk to Kim.

“You're a stupid idiot, Kim,” Maureen said. “Why are you doing this? You're innocent.”

At least that's what Maureen wanted to believe.

In hindsight, though, there were a lot of things that indicated that Kim was guilty of murdering her husband. However, Maureen still wasn't totally convinced that Kim had killed Steve.

“I needed to know for sure because I didn't want to make a mistake,” Maureen explained. “This was a person who was at a point of desperation.”

Although she helped Kim, Maureen was starting to get a bit annoyed. She wanted Kim's family to step up to the plate and make some decisions about her welfare.

What Maureen wanted and what she got were two different things.

“Kim's mother was absolutely no help whatsoever,” Maureen recalled. “She was hysterical at everything and she would call these people over and they would start prayer chains. And I'm like, ‘Do you all understand what's going on here.' It was almost like if they prayed, everything would go away. They just had no sense of reality.”

Finally Maureen left the hospital, telling Kim she'd be back to check on her the next day.

When she got back to the hospital the next day, Maureen helped Kim out with some insurance issues and also called an attorney friend, Harry Walsh, to ask him to represent Kim.

Walsh agreed, but he said he'd need a $10,000 retainer. Kim agreed and Walsh said he'd come by the hospital at 2:00
P.M.

“We dealt with a couple of the insurance issues, but in the meantime she's trying to get her family to give her ten thousand dollars for the retainer fee, but they wouldn't give it to her,” Maureen said. “She even called the Hrickos and asked them for it and was mad because they wouldn't give it to her. She wanted to know why the Hrickos wouldn't give her the retainer, because they had tons of money.”

Kim soon started panicking because she didn't have the money for the retainer and didn't know how she was going to get it. She tried to call her father and he said no. Then she called her grandfather and he wouldn't give her any money, either. Maureen just couldn't understand why Kim's family wouldn't help her.

“Kim was talking nasty about the Hrickos because they wouldn't give her any money,” Maureen said. “And then she told me that Jenny Gowen was the one who was telling the police stuff. She said Jenny was lying and she wanted me to call Jenny and find out what she was saying, but I said I wasn't calling her, and if she wanted to know what Jenny said, then she should call her. I told her I wasn't getting involved.”

Kim actually had told four of her friends what she planned to do to Steve. There was Norma Walz, Teri Armstrong, Jenny Gowen, and Rachel McCoy, although Rachel was the only one who knew Kim's entire plan to kill Steve. The others only knew bits and pieces of the plan.

“I still don't know how much Jenny and Teri knew,” Maureen said. “I think Jenny and Teri knew less than Rachel, and I think Norma knew very little.”

Even though Kim pressed Maureen to call Jenny, she refused.

Kim continued to turn to Maureen for help, because now that the police were onto her, no one else—not even her family—would help her.

“There was only me,” Maureen said. “Stupid me.”

Overwhelmed, Kim started crying really, really hard. And Maureen started to feel sorry for her again.

“This was the first time I had seen her cry hysterically since Steve died,” Maureen said. “But I don't think she was crying for Steve. I think she was crying for herself.”

And, again, Maureen wanted to help her.

“Here she was in a hospital on suicide watch with a nurse in her room around the clock,” Maureen said. “I said, ‘Kim, I wish there was something I could do, I really do,' and then she leaned forward and whispered something to me. And to this day I cannot say exactly what she said, but I think she said, ‘I killed Steve.'”

“I said, ‘What did you say?'” Maureen recalled.

But before Kim could respond, state police officers Joe Gamble and Keith Elzey arrived to serve Kim with a warrant to search her purse, and she immediately clammed up. Maureen's head was spinning, because she wasn't quite sure what Kim had said.

“I don't know if I was making myself hear what I thought she said, or if she actually said she killed Steve,” Maureen said.

When the police were finished searching Kim's purse—items they seized included one of Brad Winkler's business cards and a piece of paper with Ken Burgess's name, home, and work telephone numbers on it—Maureen walked out with them and followed them to the elevator.

“You guys have to come clean with me and tell me what's going on,” Maureen said. “That's when I found out they suspected me.”

Gamble and Elzey told Maureen they couldn't tell her anything about the investigation because she was a suspect.

“What do you mean I'm a suspect?” Maureen asked.

“We haven't quite figured out if you're involved in this, but we have enough evidence to arrest Kim for Steve's murder,” one of the officers said. “We're just not sure when we're going to do it—it could be tomorrow, it could be next week, it could be next month, but we will be arresting her. And if you didn't have anything to do with this, you may want to back off.”

Maureen told the troopers she didn't have anything to do with Steve's death. She begged them to tell her what was going on, but they again refused. By now, Maureen was convinced that Kim was guilty and that the police had the evidence to prove it.

“And I'm thinking she did it, after hearing what I just heard, her behavior, the
Playboy
being too obvious, what Rachel had said; I'm like, ‘Oh, my God,'” Maureen said.

When she walked back into Kim's room, Harry Walsh was right behind her.

Walsh showed up, even though he knew that Kim didn't have the $10,000 retainer, because he also knew this was a high-profile case. In fact, that's why Maureen called him—she believed he would be blinded by the limelight.

Maureen went home so Walsh could interview Kim in private. When she called Kim later, she asked her what she was talking about earlier. Maureen wanted to find out if Kim really did admit to murdering Steve, but Kim said Walsh instructed her not to say anything to anyone.

“I'm like, ‘Okay, how are you feeling? Is the insurance taken care of?' We had a normal conversation and that was it,” Maureen said.

However, later that day Maureen got a call from an employee of Easton Memorial Hospital to tell her Kim was going to be transferred to the Upper Shore Community Health Center, a state mental-health facility. The employee told Maureen that there was a problem with Kim's health insurance. It seemed because Kim's insurance was through Steve, and because Steve was dead, she technically didn't have insurance.

“So they were trying to get all that straightened out and to ultimately get her into a mental hospital because she was on suicide watch,” Maureen said. “But they said that the other hospital couldn't admit her for longer than three days, so I said go ahead and send her up there.”

While Kim was dealing with attorneys and insurance, Corporal Keith Elzey was laying out the case against Kim in a warrant for her arrest. It had only been about a week since Steve's death, but the state police felt they had enough information to arrest Kim for killing Steve and setting fire to room 506 to cover up his murder.

In the charging document Elzey said on Sunday, February 15, 1998, at approximately 1:35
A.M.
, Trooper First Class Clay Hartness responded to Harbourtowne to investigate an unattended death in room 506. Also present at the scene were members of the St. Michaels Fire Department and other law enforcement personnel.

Elzey said the preliminary investigation revealed that there had been a fire in room 506 and that concerned citizens had removed Steve's burned body from the room and placed it outside on the rear deck before the fire department or law enforcement arrived at the resort. Stephen Hricko was pronounced dead at the scene by a forensic examiner. A subsequent search of the room turned up a package of cigars with one cigar missing from the pack. The missing cigar was not found during the search.

Elzey said when he responded to Harbourtowne he learned that Steve and his wife, Kimberly Michelle Hricko, had arrived at the resort on February 14 and checked into room 506. During questioning by police Kim said that she and Steve were at the resort to attend a murder-mystery play that was being presented on Valentine's Day. Kim told police that Steve had been drinking heavily during the evening and at the end of the play they purchased some alcoholic beverages from the bar at the resort to take back to their room. A short time later, Steve pressured Kim to have sex with him. The couple argued because she said no. Kim left the room at approximately 11:00
P.M.
in order to avoid a nasty scene.

Kimberly tried to drive to a friend's house in Easton, but got lost for a couple of hours and subsequently returned to Harbourtowne shortly after 1:00
A.M.
on February 15. She tried to enter room 506 through the rear sliding glass door, but was met by thick smoke. Unable to see what was happening in the room, she went to the hotel lobby to get help. The concerned citizens who responded to the Hrickos' room found Steve inside on the floor and pulled his badly burned body out onto the rear deck.

Kim subsequently told Elzey that she and Steve had been having marital problems and they were both seeing separate marriage counselors. Kim also told Elzey that Steve chewed tobacco and smoked when he was drinking. However, Kim said she didn't think Steve brought any cigars or cigarettes with him to Harbourtowne, nor did she buy or bring any smoking materials to the resort for him. After interviewing several people who had known Steve for several years, Elzey said he learned that no one, except Kim, had ever known him to smoke.

Elzey said Steve's body was removed from the scene and taken to the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore. After performing an autopsy, Dr. David Fowler, the medical examiner, told Elzey that there was no carbon monoxide found in Steve's blood, nor was there any evidence of soot or burns in Steve's trachea or any related injuries to his lungs. That meant that Steve was either not breathing or dead before the fire started, Fowler told Elzey. The medical examiner also said that Steve's blood alcohol content was 0.00 percent, which meant that there was no alcohol found in his blood. At that point Fowler told Elzey he was waiting for the results of more tests to determine the exact cause of Steve's death.

Elzey said on Tuesday, February 17, two days after Steve's death, he spoke with one of Kim's friends, Rachel McCoy, who said that about three weeks before Steve died, Kim told her that she planned to kill him. According to McCoy, Kimberly planned to inject Steve with a drug that would paralyze him and stop his breathing. Kim said because she was a surgical technologist she had easy access to the drug. She said because the drug wasn't classified as a controlled substance she could get it at work without being noticed. Interviews with medical personnel at the hospital where Kim had worked confirmed that she wouldn't have had any trouble obtaining these types of drugs without being noticed.

Then she was going to set the curtains on fire with a cigar or candle, making it look like Steve died in a fire in their town house. McCoy tried to talk Kim out of her horrific plan by telling her it would look suspicious if she used a cigar because Steve didn't smoke. Kim countered that the fire wouldn't look suspicious because she had purchased a smoker's life insurance policy on Steve, so everyone would think that he really did smoke.

In the arrest warrant Elzey said that Sergeant Karen Alt, of the Maryland State Police Bureau of Drug and Criminal Enforcement Unit, had also interviewed several of Kim's other friends. In those interviews Alt learned that Kim was having an affair with a younger man and wanted out of her marriage and even had asked Steve for a divorce, but she didn't think he would agree to divorce her. She also said that Steve would be better off dead and that she would kill him immediately if she thought she could get away with it. Kim advised her friends that Steve would probably just kill himself if she told him about her affair. The problem, though, was that she wouldn't be able to collect on his life insurance if he committed suicide.

One of Kim's friends told Alt that Kim had taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy on Steve. A check by Maryland State Police corporal David Sharp, of the insurance fraud unit, revealed that Kim took the policy out in November 1996.

Elzey said that on February 22 Corporal Joseph Gamble, of the Maryland State Police, met with one of Kim's former coworkers, who had contacted police after he learned of Steve Hricko's death. Ken Burgess, the coworker, disclosed that about six weeks before Steve's death, Kim had approached him and asked him to kill her husband for either $5,000 or $50,000—but later said it was $50,000. She also asked Burgess if he knew anyone who would kill Steve for money; Burgess declined to take Kim up on her offer.

Elzey said on Sunday evening, February 22, Gamble monitored a conversation between Burgess and Kim. During that conversation Kim acknowledged that she talked to Burgess about having Steve killed. Elzey said he questioned Kim the next day about Steve's death and the fire in room 506 at Harbourtowne. During the interview Elzey presented Kim with the results of the investigation to that point. He said Kim then said if she told him what really happened, would she have to go immediately to jail? Kim never told Elzey what really happened and the interview was ended, he said in the arrest warrant.

“It took us a week to put this case together,” Gamble said. “First off, we have a fire death, that's all we have to start with. Then the next day we have the autopsy. On Sunday afternoon the investigators find out there are problems and they start doing some research. But Steve's gone. Kimberly had the body cremated and his sisters are all screaming that there's something wrong.”

Not only were Steve's sisters crying foul, so was Mike Miller.

“Mike told us Steve didn't smoke—he chewed tobacco,” Gamble said. “He said Steve was often offered cigars at dinners, but he didn't smoke them—although he sometimes took them for Mike. So all these people are calling us saying Steve didn't smoke—even though Kim said he was smoking.”

By now the state police knew there was a major problem, but they couldn't tell anyone.

“We're stringing Kim along the whole week,” Gamble said. “People from all over are coming to the barracks asking about the case and we're telling everyone, including the press, that it's just a normal death investigation with some weird circumstances. Even
Hard Copy
was calling and telling us they were from the family in order to get information.”

Gamble had a theory about how Kimberly killed her husband.

“The guy who dragged Steve out said he was sitting at the foot of the bed and his pants were down,” Gamble said. “I think what she did is she killed him, and she staged it to look as if he was masturbating—she pulled his pants down and had the
Playboy
book open to look like he's had all the pleasure that he wanted and then he's puffing on the cigar. I think she's so bizarre that she actually set this thing up.”

Gamble believed Kimberly got Steve in a compromising position—either they were having sex, or she was performing oral sex on him.

“He's lying in bed and he's thinking it's all great and she's got all this stuff ready—she goes into the bathroom and she's got this needle ready and tells him, ‘Just lay back, honey, I'll take care of you,' and he feels a pinch. ‘Oh, what's that?' he says, and she says, ‘Oh, I'm sorry,'” Gamble said. “Even if he sits up, all she has to do is avoid him for a couple seconds—and he's gone. The doctor says you're conscious and it's like somebody's suffocating you. You're conscious—you can see, you can hear; your muscles are going, but your brain is still working.”

Gamble continued, “The medical examiner thought Steve would be incapacitated within one minute. He thought Kimberly could inject him and he would be totally out in thirty seconds. He'd be conscious, awake, alert; his brain would be functioning, he would know what's going on, but he wouldn't be able to move.”

 

 

On Tuesday, February 24, Kim was transferred to the Upper Shore Community Health Center, and at 10:30
P.M.
she called Maureen and told her the police had arrived and they were arresting her for Steve's death.

“They're saying I murdered Steve,” Kim told Maureen.

“I told her to call her lawyer and I hung up. That was the last time she and I spoke,” Maureen said. “Well, after she had been arrested, everything came out in the paper about the succinylcholine and her affair. And when I heard about the affair, I knew immediately who it was. I knew it was Brad. Then I talked to Jenny Gowen and Jenny confirmed it was Brad, and all the pieces fell into place, and I was like, ‘God, how stupid was I?' I fell for everything hook, line and sinker.”

In the months leading up to Kim's trial, she and Maureen never spoke. In fact, it wasn't until a week before the trial that Maureen even started talking to Kim's other girlfriends, including Rachel and Norma.

“When we all started talking, then we started piecing the puzzle together,” Maureen said. “When I was at Kim's that first day after Steve died and I called Rachel, and Rachel called another friend, and then Rachel called Kim—that's when Rachel knew Kim had killed Steve. And then the next day Rachel called the police and told them everything.”

When the women started piecing everything together, they realized Kim had totally screwed them over.

 

 

At approximately 4:00
A.M.
, on February 25, Kimberly was taken before a Talbot County Court commissioner and then was incarcerated without bail at the Talbot County Detention Center in Easton, where she was placed on suicide watch.

At a bail review hearing later that afternoon, Talbot County deputy state's attorney Marie Hill asked that Kimberly continue to be held without bail because of the nature of the charges and because she had no ties to the area. District Court judge William H. Adkins III granted Hill's request. Adkins also granted a motion filed by Kim's lawyer, Harry Walsh, asking that Kim be transferred to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, the state's maximum-security psychiatric facility in Jessup, for a psychiatric evaluation to determine her competency to stand trial. She was moved to Perkins that afternoon.

That same day Elzey contacted the Maryland Underwater Recovery Team and asked the team to go to Harbourtowne and search the Miles River directly behind room 506, as well as a nearby pier, for a hypodermic needle or anything else related to Steve's murder. The dive team conducted the underwater search on Thursday morning, but they came up empty.