Bad Boy From Rosebud (34 page)

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Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #General, #Law, #True Crime, #Murder, #test

BOOK: Bad Boy From Rosebud
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8
Every Woman's Nightmare
''He knew where there was a good-looking girl in a convenience store that he was going to take."
Alva Hank Worley
I
Unlike other Louisiana parishes, Evangeline Parish reflects the cultural and geographic diversity of the entire state. On the southern end, Cajun Catholics and other Louisiana French descendants inhabit a fertile prairie. Farmers take advantage of the high water table to flood fields for the planting and harvesting of rice. The recent craze for Cajun food transformed the flooded rice fields into aquafarms, supplying crawfish to customers around the world. On the northern end of Evangeline Parish, Anglo-Saxon Protestants dominate piney woods, red dirt, and rolling hills. Louisiana's geo-demographic, political, religious, and cultural dichotomy, "north" and "south" Louisiana, meet in Evangeline Parish. This cultural fault line between north and south Louisiana is where Allen and Pat Reed raised their family. They had two daughters, Lorraine ("Lori") and Colleen. Two older daughters named Anita and Mae, from Pat's previous marriage, completed the family of six.
1
Colleen Reed was born in the Evangeline Parish seat of Ville Platte in April, 1963. She was the youngest of the Reed family, but Lori was only eighteen months older; in many ways they grew up as "twins." Colleen attended kindergarten in a Ville Platte public school, then attended the Evangeline Academy from the first through the sixth grades. Her half-sister, Mae, remembers the week Colleen graduated from kindergarten. It was the same week Mae graduated from high school and began packing to go off to college. The ever-observant Colleen packed as well, insisting,
 
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"I'm going to college with Mazie," as she clutched her own diploma and put on her hat.
2
After Colleen's sixth-grade year, the Reed family moved farther into the piney woods into a picturesque area near a hamlet called Bayou Chicot. She attended Bayou Chicot High School until the end of her sophomore year. Afterwards, she went to a parochial high school called Sacred Heart High in Ville Platte, then finished requirements for a Louisiana High School Diploma through a dual enrollment program with Louisiana State University at Eunice.
3
Her sisters remember Colleen as a real tomboy. "She'd go riding through the trees on her Shetland pony, and the trees would rake her off. She'd . . . sock him and get back on and ride some more. She was always energetic and curious and into things," remembered Mae. The sisters had three special trees in the woods. They spent hours playing there, swinging from ropes and having races to determine who would get to the top limb first. But, as Lori remembers, Colleen "could be a little 'chit' " as well. She enjoyed skinning frogs because she knew it grossed out her sisters, and she could be annoying. Her one-liners were particularly good, and she had a gift for planning practical jokes and hiding as they developed. On one occasion she went too far; she threw a snake around Lori's neck. Shortly afterwards, the sisters agreed to explain away their fight and Colleen's bruises by claiming an accident. Her laughter was high pitched and irritating, and she could be an annoying little kidbut they all loved her.
4
Lori remembered that when Colleen decided she wanted to sleep, she did not care where she wasshe slept. That was probably why she was a morning person; "She woke up happy." Years later, Lori could look at photos of Colleen and tell whether the picture had been taken in the morning or the afternoon.
5
Lori admits to being the more rebellious of the two sisters. As soon as she graduated from high school, she headed for Austin, Texas. Her father, Allen Reed, a veteran once stationed in nearby San Antonio, had spoken often of the beauty of the central Texas area, especially Austin. In December 1978, only seventeen years old, but determined to "get the hell out of Ville Platte," Lori drove her truck to what O. Henry had called the "City of the Violet Crown."
6
While still in high school, Colleen visited Lori in Austin, and she, too, fell in love with the capital city. The two young women did "tourist
 
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things," visiting the Hill Country, Barton Springs, the highland lakes, and enjoying panoramic views from places like Mount Bonnell. Their sisterly bond, however, was severely strained when Colleen announced, at the age of seventeen, that she would marry Keith, her high school sweetheart from Pine Prairie, Louisiana. Lori had married at a very young age and considered herself in a position to impart some wisdom relative to Colleen's decision. Colleen married anyway; the union lasted about two years and ended in divorce.
7
Colleen finished her degree requirements in Accounting at LSU in Baton Rouge. Shortly afterwards, she passed the exam to become a certified public accountant and took her first job in New Orleans. She did not like it there, and after only one year she accompanied her boyfriend Jamil to Austin, where his employer, the Marriot hotel chain, transferred him. It worked out well for Colleen; Lori lived in Austin and Colleen knew and loved the area. Colleen and Jamil lived together for about two years and then split up. The breakup was a bitter one, both emotionally and financially, because during their two-year relationship the couple had co-mingled much of their assets. After the breakup, Colleen moved in with Lori until she could get her life back together.
8
Lori and Colleen were extraordinarily close, even for sisters. Their friends often marveled when, even as adults, the sisters sat in the same chair. Through rough times, Lori often rubbed Colleen's back as Colleen cried. Lori needed support as well. Her first marriage had ended in divorce and she had two small sons to raise. The fact that both lived together after divorces brought them closer together.
9
Lori was the organizer, the one who paid the bills. Colleen was the player, which came in handy in a house with two small boys. Her neighbors remember Colleen as a friendly, down-home woman who never bothered anybody. She never took drugs and rarely drank. She and Lori often treated their neighbors to authentic Cajun cooking. Lori admits that Colleen made a better gumbo, but both sisters entertained with delicacies like tasso and crawfish etouffeé.
10
"Colleen was brilliant but she was a ditz," remembered Lori. She would run out of gas, lose her keys, or discover she had nothing to wear to work because she had forgotten to pick up her dry cleaning. Quite often, Lori had to stop cooking dinner, put her kids in a car, and bring Colleen a gallon of gas or an extra set of keys along some highway or at work. But at work, Colleen was a professional. While her personal mat-
 
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ters were uncharacteristic of what was expected of an accountant, her career was important to her and she had specific, long-term goals. She intended to continue her education in order to advance. She had a vision for her personal life as well. She wanted to get married and have children, and she seemed anxious not to let the "biological clock" catch up to her.
11
Colleen's first Austin job was as an accountant for the city, but during the summer of 1989, she applied for and accepted a position as an accountant with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). At the time, LCRA was implementing a reorganization plan and new positions in the audit department opened. (Employees joked, among themselves, that LCRA really means "Let's Consider Reorganizing Again.") She started her new job on September 1, 1989. Her friend at LCRA, Heather Bailey, remembered her as "very professionally motivated."
12
While still a city employee, Colleen had met and developed a relationship with Oliver Guerra. A native of Killeen, Texas, he was one of her supervisors. At the time they met, Colleen was engaged and he was separated. After she broke off her engagement, they went out on a few dates to Austin nightspots like the South Point Restaurant and Esther's Follies, Austin's legendary comedy theater. They jogged, hiked, biked, and golfed together. Oliver remembers Colleen's habit of picking up wildflowers and placing them on their golf cart, and how her Cajun accent surfaced when she spoke to family and friends in Louisiana. The couple worshipped together in the Catholic Church. In May, 1991, after her engagement was broken off for good, and his divorce was final, they began to live together, but in October, it became apparent that Oliver was not yet ready for another marriage, so she decided to move out. Even after their separation, however, their relationship continued to be loving and intimate.
13
After leaving Oliver, Colleen moved into an apartment on the 1800 block of Westlake Drive in an Austin suburb. The apartments were simple, but Colleen was attracted to the view of a wooded area near Bee Creek. It probably reminded her of romps through the piney woods of Evangeline Parish. After moving into the apartment, she noticed a small, emaciated stray cat shivering during the first cold spell of 1991. Immediately, she adopted the cat and called it "Menou" (pronounced MEE nooCajun French slang for "cat"). Colleen's spontaneous adoption and her extreme patience when the cat made a mess of her apartment surprised none of her neighbors.
14
Colleen earned two promotions in two years, and at age twenty-eight
 
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she supervised older and more experienced people. As in all offices, relations with colleagues varied and could get tense, but Colleen enjoyed working at LCRA. Her professional life was in order.
Colleen had large, dark brown eyes and dark brown, shoulder-length hair. She had an infectious smile, and was a very attractive young lady. But she was never quite satisfied with how she looked. She wore gold, wire-rimmed glasses "whenever she wanted to see," said Lori. But more importantly, she considered herself clumsy and pudgy, especially when compared to her very skinny sister. "If Colleen passed by a buffet you could see it on her hips," said Lori, who asserted that her sister was never fat. And so, shortly after moving to Austin, Colleen joined the Army Reserves. She wanted to get whipped into shape at someone else's expense and get paid for it. She also figured that basic training would give her the coordination she believed she lacked, and a figure she wanted. It did. ''She came out looking wonderful," Lori remembered. Colleen took care not to lose her new-found physique. For the rest of her life she jogged, played golf, worked out at Future Firm Fitness Center in Austin, and otherwise led a healthy lifestyle.
15
Her Army Reserve Unit was the 363
rd
Support Group stationed in nearby San Marcos, Texas. By late 1991, she had attained the enlisted rank of Specialist, E-4. For the most part she enjoyed her enlistment, but after about two years she apparently decided to take advantage of the military downsizing that came with the end of the Cold War. After summer drills in August 1991, Colleen quit going to her regular monthly meetings. Many of her fellow soldiers never knew why she stopped going. She was never charged with any inappropriate absences. Few knew that she was being processed out.
16
As Lori's children grew older and Colleen's career began to take off, the sisters spent less time together. They saw each other about once every two weeks and tried to talk every few days. By the fall of 1991, Lori remarried and Colleen seemed to be doing very well for herself. Each sister had been through hurtful times with husbands and boyfriends, and each, in her own way, came through for the other.
II
In a rural area south of Waco, just off Interstate 35, a picture of Melissa
 
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Ann Northrup hangs in the hallway of the home of her mother and stepfather, Brenda and Richard Solomon. Melissa is in a baseball uniform and her smile and image project a picture of a beautiful little girl growing up amidst the beauty of Central Texas. Melissa and her brother, Clay, were the children of a Frenchman named Clebert Leger, from Rayne, a small town in the heart of Cajun Country, and about forty miles from Ville Platte, where Lori and Colleen Reed grew up. The Leger marriage broke up and Melissa's mother, Brenda, later married Richard Solomon when Melissa was fourteen. Richard Solomon treated Clay and Melissa as if they were his own children.
17
Melissa grew to be a small young woman. She wore a size 6-1/2 shoe, was less than five feet tall, and weighed around 100 pounds. Her eyes squinted during a full smile, and in spite of her beauty, she hated to have her picture taken. Her room was always a mess, and like Colleen Reed, she often had trouble finding things. To make things easier, she simply put everything that was important to her in her purse.
At age sixteen, Melissa became infatuated with an older boy who, according to Brenda and Richard, convinced her to run away from home. The young couple ended up in Kansas. Soon, they were married, but the union lasted only long enough for them to have two childrena boy and a girl. After the breakup of her marriage, Melissa and her children moved back to the Solomon home.
18
The extended family had an understanding: Brenda and Richard provided for Melissa and her children, but Melissa worked to provide what she could and was wholly responsible for paying for the day care required for her children. She had a healthy work ethic and genuinely wanted to provide well for her son and daughter, but since she had no high school diploma, and no other employment training to speak of, she had to accept low-paying menial jobs. She worked at taco and hamburger places. While working as a cashier at a Whataburger, a well-known fast food chain, during the summer of 1990, she met another employee, a young man named Aaron Northrup. Their courtship was very brief; Aaron and Melissa were married on June 17, 1990.
19
Like Melissa, Aaron was a high school dropout and had to settle for low-paying jobs. Shortly after their marriage, both Melissa and Aaron left fast food for jobs in convenience stores. Melissa became a cashier at a Circle K store while Aaron went to the Quik Pak Stores. On his job application, Aaron indicated that he wanted a management position with

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