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Groom with a grudge

Everything was set for the wedding... but someone was getting cold feet


Published by: Laura Hinton and Henry Austin
Published on: 29 November 2012

Seeing the smile on my daughter Sandy's face made me want to grin like mad, too. Life was really begining to pick up for her.
A hard-working single mum to Hannah, eight, she'd recently been promoted at the biscuit factory where she worked.
‘I'm a team leader now,' she grinned, proudly. ‘The company's going to pay for me to start a business course at college, too.'
‘That's great news,' I said, giving her a big hug. ‘I knew you'd do all right, ever since we framed that first dollar!' She rolled her eyes at me.
I'd been so proud when, aged 16, she found her first job at a local fast food restaurant.
‘I'm going to be rich one day,' she joked.
She'd bought a frame so she could hang up the first dollar she'd earned. I still have that frame now.
‘Can I have a drink, Mummy?' Hannah suddenly asked, running over to where we were standing.
‘Oh my,' I laughed, stepping back. ‘You look more like your mummy every day.'
Once Hannah was settled down, me and Sandy, 32, carried on chatting.
‘I've started seeing this guy I work with,' she let slip. ‘He's called Duane.' ‘Really?' I frowned.
This was the first bloke she'd mentioned in ages. She'd be the first to admit that she'd closed her heart off years before. She'd wed her childhood sweetheart Jay when she was just 18. Then he'd cheated on her when she was six months pregnant. I'd been there at Hannah's birth instead of Jay.
‘You're going to be a great mummy,' I whispered, when she held Hannah for the first time. ‘This little one is all you need right now.'
Where she found the strength, I don't quite know. But Sandy had quickly become a great mum. They were like two peas in a pod. So, if anyone deserved a little luck in the love department, it was Sandy.
‘When do I get to meet him? I need to check that he's good enough for my eldest daughter,' I giggled.
‘Next weekend?' she asked. ‘We'll pop round after we've been bowling with Hannah.'
‘Bowling?!' I chuckled. ‘But you hate sports!'
‘Duane's got us hooked,' she giggled.
The following week, they came round for dinner.
‘Pleased to meet you,' Duane said to me. I instantly warmed to him.
Later, I watched him playing with Hannah in the garden. He was chasing her around and she was giggling like crazy.
‘Stop it, Daddy Duane!' she laughed, trying to run away.
‘They get on well,' I smiled to Sandy. ‘I'm so happy for you.'
Eleven months after meeting him, Sandy popped round to see me again.
‘I have some news,' she said, all excited. ‘Duane's proposed.'
‘Congratulations!' I said. ‘As long as you're sure.' I couldn't help but feel protective.
‘He's definitely the one,' she sighed. ‘Hannah really likes him, too. That's the most important thing.' She'd given herself less than six months to organise
the wedding.
‘Why wait when you know it's right?' she reasoned to me.
Soon, me, Sandy, Hannah and her seven bridesmaids were all at the bridal shop trying on dresses.
‘I really like this one,' Sandy giggled in the changing room.
‘Let me see!' Hannah shrieked.
Pulling the curtain aside, Sandy walked towards us. She'd put on a long, white dress with red flowers sewn into the top.
‘That's the one,' I smiled, happy tears pricking my eyes. ‘You look stunning.'
‘I want the same dress as Mummy,' Hannah whined.
‘Sweetheart,' I started. ‘It's not your big day...'
‘We do have it in a smaller size,' the shop assistant interrupted us.
Moments later, the two of them were both standing there in matching dresses. They looked absolutely adorable.
The next few weeks were chock-a-block with all the wedding planning. Soon, Sandy had booked the church, sent out the invites and ordered a cake. I was so swept up in the excitement of her big day. I couldn't wait to see her walk down the aisle.
But, just a couple of days before the wedding, I got a call from Duane while I was making lunch for my middle daughter Kim's two children, who
I was babysitting.
‘Do you know where Sandy is?' he asked, sounding a little panicked. ‘I can't get hold of her.'
‘I think she's picking up the tuxedo today,' I said. ‘I'll hunt out the number of the bridal shop and give them a call.'
But, when I called them, they said she hadn't turned up. That was odd. Calling Duane again later that day, I told him I'd pop over to the house and check everything was okay.
‘Do you think it's wedding jitters?' he asked.
‘Don't be silly,' I said.
‘We're popping out,' I told Nell, six, and four-year-old Daron. Ten minutes later, we'd pulled up at Sandy's house. The front door was wide open, which made me feel uneasy.
‘I'll be two minutes,' I told the children. ‘Stay in your seats.' My heart was racing as I walked up to the front door.
‘Hello...' I called out, walking inside. ‘Sandy?'
But there was no answer. I searched the house, but she wasn't there. Just as I was about to leave, I turned and saw the basement door was open. Curiosity getting the better of me, I walked down the stairs. Each one seemed to creak eerily beneath me. Seconds later, I stopped in my tracks.
Sandy was on the floor in front of me. She was lying face down in a pool of blood.
‘Sandy!' I gasped, letting out a blood-curdling scream. I fell beside her and rolled her over. Her arms fell limply beside her and her eyes rolled back in her head. She was deathly white and ice cold.
‘Oh, god,' I sobbed. Gulping for breath,
I somehow found the strength to run back out to the car and grab my phone. Frantically, I called the paramedics.
‘Please save her!' I sobbed when they arrived. But I could only watch as they felt for a pulse in her neck, then shook their heads.
‘She's already gone,' one said.
This couldn't be happening.
I refused to believe it. ‘No, she's getting married,'I kept telling them. ‘You don't understand...'
I heard a raised voice and realised Duane was there.
‘Let me see her!' he yelled at the police, who were holding him back from Sandy's lifeless body.
‘Oh, love,' I sobbed, opening my arms. He collapsed into me. I wept with him as we both let out our pain and sorrow together.
‘What happened?' I asked the paramedics
‘We believe she was shot at least four times in the head,' they told us. ‘There aren't signs of a break in and nothing was taken. At this stage, a burglary has been ruled out.'
I couldn't get my head around it. Sandy didn't have any enemies. Why would anyone want to kill my daughter?
Over the next two days, I did everything I could to ignore that hollow, empty feeling. I spent most of the time with Duane, organising the funeral.
‘Are we going to bury her?' he asked. I saw such grief in his eyes. It was like he'd aged 20 years in just a few days.
‘No, we'll cremate her,' I said, remembering a conversation I'd had with Sandy years before.
‘It might get a bit cold in the earth,' she joked.
The following morning, it was what should have been Sandy's wedding day. I could barely drag myself out of bed. When I did, I just curled up on the floor, holding her wedding dress.
‘You would've looked beautiful,' I sobbed, imagining her smile as she walked down the aisle towards Duane.
A short while later, there was a knock on the door. Stumbling downstairs, I found Kim on my doorstep.
‘You look as bad as I feel,' I mumbled.
But there was something she wanted to tell me. I could see it in her face.
‘You might need to sit down,' she said, before pausing. ‘Duane's been arrested on suspicion of murder. His girlfriend went to the police and he's since confessed.'
‘His girlfriend?!' I spluttered, not even processing the rest of her sentence.
Kim explained that the cops had been keeping track on Duane for the past two days. Unknown to me, he'd gone around cancelling things for the wedding. It hadn't even crossed my mind to do this.
‘He even went to the church and hall to see if he could get the deposit back,' she croaked. ‘Then he rang the travel agent.' They were meant to be going to Cancun on their honeymoon next week.
‘How could he?' I gasped, completely winded.
According to his girlfriend, Duane had shot Sandy because he couldn't go through with the wedding.
‘He rung me, knowing I'd go round to look for her,' I sobbed. ‘I consoled him... I held him when he cried.'
An anger I didn't know I was capable of suddenly consumed me. I didn't want it to, but that was how I felt.
I hardened to the world. In fact, the only person I could soften for was Hannah. She was staying with her dad, but the poor thing was distraught.
At Sandy's funeral, a week later, she sat beside me.
‘I'm here for you, sweetie,' I whispered, holding her hand.
She nodded, her lip trembling. I didn't know quite what Jay had told her. How could he explain that the man she'd called Daddy Duane had killed her mum?
Hundreds of people came to pay their respects. I struggled to speak to anyone, though. It was too much. Still, I was touched to hear that Sandy's bridesmaids had all got tattoos with ‘7 sisters' written on them, as a mark of respect..
‘We'll get justice,' I promised them.
But it was more than a year before the case reached court. Only then did the full story emerge. We learnt that shortly after Duane proposed to Sandy, he'd started an affair with a married woman called Becky Kirk.
‘He told me there was only one way out of the wedding,' she testified.
Together, they'd thought about faking a robbery. She'd even taken him round to her mum's house so he could get some target practice with her husband's guns. But, with her conscience weighing on her, Becky claimed she'd backed out of the plan.
‘I told him I didn't want to do it,' she said, sobbing on the witness stand. ‘I said it was best we don't see each other anymore... but then he showed up at my door the next morning.'
Visibly shaking, I felt utterly sick to the bone.‘She could have stopped this,' I raged to Kim, who was sitting beside me.
‘Why didn't Duane just call off the wedding?!' I couldn't understand it all.
Becky claimed Duane thought he'd lose his job if he jilted Sandy at the altar.
She was doing so well at work that he thought she could influence that kind of thing. ‘Coward!' I hissed. This was all about money.
Duane, whose full name was Calvin Duane Pettey, 40, was jailed for life without parole.
Justice had been served, but I felt hollow. He'd robbed us of a daughter, mother and sister. Even though he's now locked away, I feel like there are so many unanswered questions. I still have no idea why Duane took such extreme action.
I suppose I can take some comfort from the fact that Sandy was happy at the end. She would have been blissfully unaware that the man she loved was plotting to kill her. At least Sandy died with a smile on her face and happy thoughts in her head.
Hannah, now 11, still lives with her daddy, but I get to see her often. Just recently, she's had red streaks put in her hair.
‘I want to look just like Mummy,' she grinned up at me.
I knew, then, that within Hannah, Sandy's precious smile would live on forever. No matter what happens, nothing can take that away from me.
Mary Patterson, 51, Missouri, USA