The Girl in the Leaves Read online

  Next on the list of people the officers talked to was Valerie Haythorn, who took them again through the story about her concern for Tina, and how she’d decided to enter the residence on King Beach Drive. Valerie reiterated that once she saw blood, she’d exited quickly and called the sheriff’s office.

  Both Lieutenant Rohler and Detective Turpen followed Valerie to her own house after the interview and collected the pair of shoes she had been wearing when she entered Tina’s home. These shoes were taken as evidence in the case, so that the forensics team could try to decipher any footprints Valerie might have left in Tina’s home from those left by the assailant.

  Lieutenant Rohler and Detective Turpen went to Stephanie Sprang’s residence on Magers Road and were given consent to search and seize items that belonged to Stephanie. These included her computer, three toothbrushes, a yellow bag with various papers inside and several other items including jewelry, such as a ring with a missing stone. Stephanie’s stepfather’s truck was also searched for items that might have belonged to her.

  * * *

  Special Agent Joe Dietz of BCI&I was very busy on November 13. Around 11:00 AM he arrived at the Target Distribution Center in West Jefferson, Ohio, where Greg Borders worked, and met with Chris Grieser, the logistics senior group leader at that location, to verify Greg Borders’s presence at work on Wednesday, November 10.

  Chris told Agent Dietz that the facility was very secure, that each employee had to scan ID cards at various security points, and that once inside the facility, employees were not allowed to leave until the end of their shifts. Chris also told Dietz about security cameras at all entrance and exit points of the building, and agreed to contact the personnel/human resources supervisor and have them come in to access the video and records on Greg Borders.

  While waiting for the video evidence to be obtained, Dietz went to the Urbana, Ohio, residence of Patrick Sandy, one of Greg’s coworkers at the Target Distribution Center, to meet with him and his wife. Patrick told Dietz that on Monday, November 8, he and Greg had indeed made plans to go golfing on Thursday, November 11.

  Patrick related that he’d made online reservations to play at the Tree Links in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and that because of its distance away, he’d invited Greg to stay overnight at his house on Wednesday, November 10. Patrick said that Greg had arrived around 5:15 PM that night and had called earlier from a Speedway store to discuss what beer he should pick up and bring over. According to Patrick’s cell phone log, that call had been placed at 4:45 PM. Patrick said that after Greg arrived, they’d watched TV until around 11:30 PM, and then the next morning, they’d gotten up and went to play golf as planned.

  Patrick confirmed that he and Greg were together playing golf at Tree Links for most of the day that Thursday, November 11. They’d been joined by another friend, Nadeem Siddiqui, who was a former Target employee. Patrick stated that he recalled Greg getting a cell phone call around noon from his mother, who told him that Tina had not gone to work the day before and was missing. It was not apparent to Greg or Patrick at the time why Greg’s mom would know this fact. Greg told Patrick that he thought Tina had taken the day off work. According to Patrick, Greg did not know at that point that Sarah and Kody had also not shown up for school that day. All three men continued playing golf until around 3:00 or 3:30 PM, and then Greg left the golf course to return home. It was before he reached home on King Beach Drive that his uncle contacted him.

  Based on Patrick’s information, Agent Dietz went to the Speedway store in Urbana from which Greg had reportedly called Patrick, and talked to the assistant manager, who made him a CD of the store videotape from November 10 that covered 4:00 to 6:00 PM. Dietz reviewed the tape, which confirmed that Greg Borders had been there buying beer at 4:45 PM.

  Around 12:45 PM November 13, Agent Dietz went back to the Target Distribution Center and met again with Chris Grieser. Chris told him that a check of records, including card scans and videos, showed Greg Borders entering the facility at 5:45 AM on November 10 and leaving at 4:05 PM that same day. Chris said that he spoke with the area manager who’d supervised Greg on November 10, and the manager recalled that Greg had been at work throughout that day.

  * * *

  By now news agencies out of the Mount Vernon area were interested in the developing story, noting the law enforcement personnel guarding the perimeter of Tina Herrmann’s house and the investigators coming and going, some of them wearing scrubs, gloves and protective booties.

  A reporter from the Columbus Dispatch was able to talk to Greg Borders in front of the house on King Beach Drive. He told him, “I have a thousand things running through my head and I want some answers.” Greg went on to say that he and Tina had recently broken up, but that they, along with her children, were all still sharing the house they’d lived in since 2007. He’d heard through others that on the day they disappeared, Tina and Stephanie Sprang had planned to go out to look at some apartments and houses in the area.

  Greg went on to recount how he had been out of town golfing on November 11 and the first he’d known anything was wrong was when his uncle told him that there was police activity at his residence.

  Reporters were also able to contact Sarah and Kody’s father, Larry Maynard. He said, “It’s like somebody ripped my heart out while it’s still beating. You have this kind of thing on TV all the time, but it’s never your family. I’m no dummy. I know the longer these things go on, the worse the chances. Sarah is a bubbly child and a star athlete on the softball team. Kody is quieter and a good student who’s always on the honor roll.”

  * * *

  Later that day, November 13th, Sheriff Barber held a press conference, an occurrence that would become routine over the coming days. He began by saying, “On behalf of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and the families of Stephanie and Tina, I’d like to thank you in the media for assisting us as far as the four of them being missing. The photographs [of the missing individuals] and things like that have been very helpful. We’ve received some good information—so we appreciate the participation of you folks.

  “Any kind of information we receive, tips and other things, are being followed up by investigators. Evidence is continuing to be collected. BCI&I is not back yet, but will be later on today, processing Tina’s truck, which was recovered near Kenyon College on Thursday evening. They’re also processing the vehicle that belonged to Stephanie that was found in the garage at the scene.

  “It is our hope that evidence obtained from both of these vehicles, as well as evidence that has been and will continue to be collected from the house, will lead to more information as to their disappearance.

  “We are asking people to keep a guarded but optimistic attitude about how the case is going to unfold. We would constantly ask that everyone, not just in Knox County, but in Ohio—well, they [the missing] do have friends and family outside of Knox County—we would ask that on behalf of them and their families we all keep them in our thoughts and prayers and hope for a positive outcome.

  “What is taking place and will continue to take place today is that the aircraft that you see overhead are from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s aviation unit. They are flying over this area, and they have infrared equipment and are checking some areas. We also have officers on quad runners searching some areas around here.

  “In the area around Gambier, there have been some citizen volunteers. They thoroughly searched some areas on Thursday and Friday. We do hope these folks, if they do come across something that looks unusual, they will stay back away from it and notify the sheriff’s office immediately.

  “If anyone sees something unusual or has any information about Sarah, Tina, Kody or Stephanie, call the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. Our detectives would also like to have contact with anyone who may have had contact with any of the four of them any time on Wednesday.

  “We have talked to a
lot of people that have had contact with them [before Wednesday]. Students at the East Knox schools where Sarah and Kody go to school. Folks like that. What we’re trying to do is try and establish a timeline and try to find out if there was anything unusual about the four of them. If they had any concerns about family issues and things like that.”

  Sheriff Barber then opened the floor to questions from the media. One reporter asked, “Are the airplanes, helicopters and people on four-runners looking for anything specific?”

  Barber replied, “We’re looking for anything or anyone that may have gone from Tina’s house away from the scene.”

  Reporters asked if the investigators were searching nearby lakes. Sheriff Barber answered, “Yes, we have watercraft out today. And as potentially tragic as this week has been, we have been blessed with good weather. That has definitely improved our chances of locating evidence and locating those four people.”

  He said they were searching Apple Valley Lake and that investigators from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources had gone around the lake with scent dogs, though the dogs had not picked up any indications that the missing people had been there. Barber added that the lake was so large, it would be a waste of time to just send divers out on a random search.

  Another reporter queried, “Is it still just a missing person case?”

  Barber answered that it was, and in response to a question about whether people in general should be concerned, he said that, no, “people should just use common sense as far as their children go and personal safety.”

  Another reporter asked, “Just so we get this right. You are not saying at this point that you think these four are dead?”

  Barber replied, “Not at this time, no.”

  Someone wanted to know if there had been any activity on any of the missing people’s credit cards. Barber said there hadn’t been, and added, “We’re checking those kinds of things. Bank accounts, cell phones, text messages. We are utilizing the FBI in doing a lot of analysis for us. We’ve also joined forces with the Central Ohio Child Abduction Response Team, which includes Franklin and Delaware County detectives. They were here most of yesterday.”

  One reporter wanted to know more about the blood that had been found in the residence, how much of it there was and where exactly it had been located.

  Sheriff Barber declined to go into specifics, citing investigative reasons, but noted that “there was an unusual amount of blood in that house. The one thing I can say is, it was not from someone stubbing their toe or cutting their finger while peeling an apple.”

  “It’s not like an ax murder or anything like that, right?” the reporter asked.

  “No,” Barber said.

  Though in truth, that wasn’t a far-off description of events.

  “How long will it be for BCI&I to analyze the blood?” another reporter asked, and Barber responded that BCI&I was making it a priority case, but that it would take more than just a few days to do the analysis.

  In response to “Any persons of interest surface at this time?” Barber said there were none as yet.

  “You’ve talked to Greg, the boyfriend?” a reporter pressed.

  “Yes, certainly.”

  “And he is not a suspect?”

  “No, he is not.”

  A journalist commented, “Stephanie had three children, I believe. Do you know what is going on with them?”

  Barber said, “Detectives have interviewed those family members. And they, like the rest of us, are brainstorming to try and figure out where Stephanie went.”

  “Are Stephanie’s children in any kind of custody, like human services?”

  “No. I think her youngest is nine, and there is a twenty-year-old son and seventeen-year-old daughter. They are not in custody of children’s services or anything like that.”

  “You’re getting a lot of help from the FBI and other agencies—can you tell us what the functions of your office is right now?”

  Sheriff Barber responded, “We are the primary investigating agency. Obviously when you have a situation of this magnitude—I mean it’s very unusual you would have four people go missing at the same time. We did ask for assistance. As far as the analysis of evidence and computer analysis, the FBI has those kinds of resources.” Barber added, “I’ve never been afraid to ask for help. You know that the Knox County Sheriff’s Office will participate with anyone it takes to get the case done.”

  * * *

  The WBNS television station out of Columbus, Ohio, spoke with Larry Maynard again for a short time that day. Larry told a reporter, “Tina was searching for a new place to live.” He added that Sarah and Kody had told him things that did not put Greg in the best light.

  Greg Borders, who said of his relationship with Tina, “We were fairly civil. I mean, as civil as you can be living in the same house when you are split up. There were arguments every once in a while and disagreements, but I was still watching her kids at night when she went to work. I do think that something bad happened.”

  As to that part, Larry Maynard told the reporter, “I’m expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.”

  By now, some of Sarah’s and Kody’s friends had gotten involved. One of their friends, Morgan McCarthy, created a page on Facebook to coordinate volunteer search activities in the region. McCarthy told a reporter, “I’m hoping that they find them and they are safe and Kody and Sarah are back in school soon.” By that night, more than six hundred people had joined the group page, which became a repository for messages and prayers. One of them was from Rebecca Cook, who wrote, “I’m hoping that someone will see the missing people at a gas station where they might be on vacation or something, and they say, ‘Hey, people are looking for you.’”

  Though Larry Maynard hoped that would happen, deep down he knew it was a very slim possibility.

  FIFTEEN

  A Huge Break

  On November 13, 2010, Captain David Shaffer contacted Walmart in Mount Vernon to cross-reference purchases of the tarps and fifty-five-gallon heavy-duty trash bags found in Tina Herrmann’s garage. A woman from customer service was able to locate the purchase of a tarp with the same bar code and a purchase date and bar code on the trash bags. The purchase had occurred just after midnight on November 11, 2010. The only problem was that the person who had bought the items had done so with cash, not a credit or debit card.

  To try and identify the person who had bought the items, BCI&I Special Agent Joe Dietz and Detective David Light went to Walmart to request that the store provide them with a video of purchases made around the given time frame. They spoke with Jared Scoles of the store’s security department, telling him that they needed the video immediately.

  Dietz noted in his own report that he obtained a copy of the receipt for the transaction, and by comparing the product codes on the receipt with items on the shelf, and relaying that information to Special Agent Daniel Winterich at the crime scene, was able to determine that the items recovered at the crime scene exactly matched the items purchased at Walmart. Dietz noted that in addition to the garbage bags listed on the receipt, tarps, a turkey sandwich and T-shirt had also been purchased during the same transaction.

  Scoles provided a video for the two investigators. One person on the footage soon caught their attention: a white male who exited the store with a purchased tarp and garbage bags. He looked to be between twenty-five and forty years of age, and was wearing eyeglasses and a camouflage shirt. He had brown hair with a partially receding hairline. They could see on the security cameras that the man crossed the parking lot and got into a small silver-colored car, then drove out of the parking lot eastward in the direction of Apple Valley.

  Scoles told the officers that he thought the car looked like a Toyota Yaris. The officers uploaded photos of a Toyota Yaris from the Internet and agreed tha
t the silver car in the video matched that description.

  This was a huge break. Officers began researching all male owners of Toyota Yaris’s in Knox County. Special Agent Dietz and Lieutenant Gary Rohler checked the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway system for owners of silver Toyota Yaris vehicles in Knox County. Rohler quickly pulled up one image that looked a great deal like the man on the videotape. The man was named Matthew J. Hoffman, and he had renewed his driver’s license on October 26, only sixteen days previously. Incredibly, when Hoffman had his driver’s license photo taken, he was wearing the same kind of camouflage shirt as the man on the Walmart videotape. While the new driver’s license photo did not show Matthew Hoffman with glasses, earlier driver’s license photos did.

  Agent Dietz checked the Knox County Auditor website, looking for Hoffman’s current address. He found two possibilities: the first listed was the 3000 block of Apple Valley Drive, within walking distance of King Beach Road, and the other location was 49 Columbus Road in Mount Vernon.

  * * *

  Over at Matthew Hoffman’s house, Sarah lay alone on her bed of leaves. After forcing her to do things that disgusted her, he left her alone. It was dark, cold and damp down there, and her sense of time had almost evaporated by now. In fact, it was so dark down there, she could not tell night from day. She had no idea of all the frenzied police activity going on all around the area.

  At least the man wasn’t with her now. She had done what he wanted, and he’d left for some other part of the house. She was always cold, even though she was bundled up and covered with blankets. She even had gloves on her hands, which he’d put on her. It didn’t matter, though; she still shivered from the frigid temperatures down in the basement.

  Her stomach growled from hunger. All she’d had to eat since being kidnapped was a few mouthfuls of cereal with spoiled milk. She constantly thought of food, but was determined not to eat the squirrels he had offered her. She thought of daylight. But most of all, she thought of freedom.