Michael Benson - Michael Benson’s True Crime Bundle: Watch Mommy Die, A Killer’s Touch & A Knife in the Heart

Many of my sources for this book have asked to remain anonymous, and so I can only thank them privately. The others I would like to acknowledge here, for without them the writing of this book would have been impossible: Cecilia Barreda, spokesperson for the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office (PCSO); Connie Y. Brookes, legal assistant with the Hebert Law Group; the eagle-eyed production editor Robin Cook; Lane DeGregory, at the St. Petersburg Times; Stephanie Finnegan; Laura Forti, at Turner Broadcasting; Lisa Lafrance; Detective/Corporal Michael Lynch, of the Pinellas Park Police Department (PPPD); counselor/therapist Kathy A. Morelli; Jamie Severino; Erin Slothower; and Jan Zagorski, senior administrative clerk, Pinellas Park Police; and Rachel Wade. Thanks to Anne Darrigan for the emergency (and marathon) use of her computer.

Also, special thanks to my agent, Jake Elwell, at Harold Ober Associates, to my super editor and Man of Ideas, Gary Goldstein, and as always to my wife, Lisa Grasso.

On September 8, 2010, Rachel Wade was moved to the Lowell Annex, a facility for women prisoners in Ocala, where she was known as Florida Department of Corrections Number R67662, and scheduled for release April 7, 2036, when she was forty-six years old.

There was a Free Rachel Wade page on Facebook, dedicated to the proposition that although Rachel was hardly an innocent bystander that night, her life was in danger at the exact moment she lashed out. The same social media that stoked the flames of hostility leading to Rachels incarceration, were now being used in an attempt to set her free.

As of Halloween, 2011, the Free Rachel Wade page had 349 likes.

In 2011, Detective Michael Lynch was a member of the PPPDs Community Redevelopment Policing Unit (CRPU). The unit focused on a blighted two-square-mile area of Pinellas Parks downtown, where there was an epidemic of crime. The idea was to saturate the area with police officers who worked in that area, and in that area only. Lynch conducted follow-up investigations, worked with crime analysis systems, assisted officers with day-to-day operations, and conducted training sessions for businesses and residents. The unit tried to rally businesses and residents to help clean up the communitypainting, picking up the garbage, etc. The CRPU also used surplus tax revenues to help out the designated area in other ways, such as a major drainage project.

During that same year, defense attorney Jay Hebert went on a consciousness-raising campaign, lecturing at schools and elsewhere about the potential effects of the Internet social networks on youth crime.

Erin Slothower graduated from Everest University in 2009 with a degree in medical assistance and nursing. The degree enabled her to cut down from two jobs to one. She gained employment as a medical assistant at a dermatology office in St. Petersburg. That meant she could spend more time with her and Joshuas son, who stayed with her parents and her brother when she was working.

She got back with Joshua briefly, but he wasnt the same. She didnt talk to Joshua anymore, and she was content with her new life. She used to let herself get caught up in the social drama, but shed grown up and had no use for that lifestyle any longer.

Erin Slothower would always have a connection to Joshua Camacho in the form of their son. As for that horrible night, and the press attention it brought her, she just wanted to be left alone.

Erin explained, I mean, I could say a lot, but what good would it do? I just wish I had a do-over button so I could change this terrible outcome. Sarah really did love Joshua. I also know he loved her also, despite everything.

In December 2010, Lisa Lafrance took the bold step of cleaning up her act. As of this writing, she remained clean of painkillers, and was taking it one day at a time.

By 2011, Jamie Severino was out of jail, but her legal woes werent completely over. Her daughter with Jay Camacho was three years old. Alliana Camacho had been staying in day care for a while; but in 2011, Jamies mom, who no longer worked, babysat. Jamie was gainfully employed as a customer service representative over the phone. She was allowed to go to school, but she wasnt allowed to operate a motor vehicle. She had to wear an ankle monitor at all times.

According to police, Joshua Camacho left Florida and was living for a time in New York City with relatives. Joshuas mother refused to give Joshuas new contact information, claiming that the media had been distorting the image of her boy.

Everyone already put his reputation down so bad, told so many lies about my boy. I dont have nothing to say, she said.

As of 2011, Joshua had returned to Florida.

During the summer of 2010, not long after Rachel Wade was convicted of murder, Jay Camacho pleaded guilty of possession of crack cocaine. As he was in violation of probation on charges of stolen goods, he was sentenced to nine months in the Gulf Correctional Institute Annex. He was released on April 21, 2011.

Charlie Ludemann has three tattoos of Sarah on the inside of his right arm: one was made when Sarah was a year old; a second, when she was ten; and a third after her death, at age eighteen.

After his daughter was cremated, Charlie had Sarahs ashes mixed with the tattoo ink so he would carry her around with him forever.

When Charlie drove his cab, he would sometimes stop at the spot where she lost her life. It was there that he felt closest to her.

He asked her why: Why did she go? Why did she leave? Why didnt she listen to him?

Hed tried so hard to protect her.

Over the years, at night, Gay Ludemann tried to soothe the ache in her heart by standing in her backyard and gazing at the sky.

She believed Sarah was a star as bright as a diamond.

In the dark, she can be heard to say, Good night, honey. I love you.

In March 2011, Rachel Wade wrote a letter to the author in which she apologized for not getting in touch sooner, explaining that, obviously, she had a lot going on.

Despite her predicament, Rachel described herself much as she mightve before her freedom was taken away: Im laid-back, carefree, fun-loving, silly, outgoing, hardworking [and] very family oriented. She loved music, work, the beach, and animals. Her interests were art, music, and fashion.

Im very creative, she wrote.

Her flaw was her own trusting nature. She said she always looked for the good in people, even when it wasnt there.

She also smoked way too many cigarettes.