didn’t matter to the guy. Uneasy. Like maybe she had done something wrong.
“He could have cared less,” she remembered.
Erika was the type of person who her friends thought would have wanted a glorious, over-the-top wedding, seeing that she was daddy’s girl, and her daddy had lots of money to make the day as special as she wanted. Mitch even later told the author that he had always dreamed of walking his girl down the aisle and giving her the wedding of her dreams. On top of that, one would think Erika would want both her parents, along with her large family (some of whom had lots of money) and friends, to see her get hitched.
Instead, Erika ran off to Las Vegas and married BJ at the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel in Clark County. The Reverend David King, a retired minister, oversaw the five-minute ceremony. When they returned, Erika transferred all her classes to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and moved off campus and into where BJ was stationed with the SEALs in North Carolina. Soon after that, the navy sent BJ to Arkansas until January 2000, so they hadn’t really lived together until later. When they did start actually living together, BJ began to notice that the woman he had married on a whim, essentially, was not the woman he was now living with.
In his absence, another person had emerged.
“She worried,” BJ later said in court. “She had obsessive compulsive disorders and anxiety problems.”
And it started to drive him crazy.
Later, when friends looked at the guy she had actually chosen, they couldn’t believe it. Erika was not into the “rough and tough” guys, said a friend. Back in high school, she was more of the type to go after the nerdy guys who fit with her more conservative nature. A man like BJ—gruff, strong, quiet, intense, and into all things military, obviously not cut from the same cloth—was a strange choice for a mate.
But then again, as Kristin Heinbaugh stood and spoke to Erika in the mall that afternoon, it hit her that she really didn’t know Erika anymore. She hadn’t hung out with her for years. People change. Sometimes for the better.
Sometimes for the worse.
Erika was a woman now. She was no longer that basketball star kid everyone talked about and Kristin had played with.
“Married,” Erika said to Kristin that day in the mall after Kristin asked what she had been up to.
Erika stuck out her hand to show off the wedding band.
Kristin couldn’t believe it. How come she hadn’t heard about the wedding? No notice in the newspaper?
Surprised, Kristin asked, “Married?”
“Yeah, on a dare,” Erika responded, laughing, watching BJ out of the corner of her eye as he sauntered around the mall by himself.
“He dared you to run away and get married?”
“Yes.”
“Where’d you two meet?”
“At a party.”
As strange as all this may have sounded to Kristin, Erika had gone as far as to bring BJ home once after they had gotten married, but she did not tell her parents what she had gone and done. It was only the second time Mitch and Cookie had ever met BJ. It wasn’t until months later that Erika made the announcement. Shortly afterward, Mitch and Cookie put up the money to buy Erika her own business: a one-stop shop for all things associated with creating a scrapbook. The store, located in that same Altoona mall where she ran into Kristin that day, opened April 2001. There was talk about Erika opening the store in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she and BJ first lived after getting married (and Erika had gone to college). But after spending some time in the area and scoping it out, Erika and BJ found other scrapbooking stores already up and running.
“So they came back here,” Mitch explained to this author, “and found no other store . . . here and decided to open. [It was] nice to have her close [to] home, certainly.”
Regarding a later assumption that Mitch fronted the money to Erika in order to keep her close to him and Cookie,
“He could have cared less,” she remembered.
Erika was the type of person who her friends thought would have wanted a glorious, over-the-top wedding, seeing that she was daddy’s girl, and her daddy had lots of money to make the day as special as she wanted. Mitch even later told the author that he had always dreamed of walking his girl down the aisle and giving her the wedding of her dreams. On top of that, one would think Erika would want both her parents, along with her large family (some of whom had lots of money) and friends, to see her get hitched.
Instead, Erika ran off to Las Vegas and married BJ at the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel in Clark County. The Reverend David King, a retired minister, oversaw the five-minute ceremony. When they returned, Erika transferred all her classes to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and moved off campus and into where BJ was stationed with the SEALs in North Carolina. Soon after that, the navy sent BJ to Arkansas until January 2000, so they hadn’t really lived together until later. When they did start actually living together, BJ began to notice that the woman he had married on a whim, essentially, was not the woman he was now living with.
In his absence, another person had emerged.
“She worried,” BJ later said in court. “She had obsessive compulsive disorders and anxiety problems.”
And it started to drive him crazy.
Later, when friends looked at the guy she had actually chosen, they couldn’t believe it. Erika was not into the “rough and tough” guys, said a friend. Back in high school, she was more of the type to go after the nerdy guys who fit with her more conservative nature. A man like BJ—gruff, strong, quiet, intense, and into all things military, obviously not cut from the same cloth—was a strange choice for a mate.
But then again, as Kristin Heinbaugh stood and spoke to Erika in the mall that afternoon, it hit her that she really didn’t know Erika anymore. She hadn’t hung out with her for years. People change. Sometimes for the better.
Sometimes for the worse.
Erika was a woman now. She was no longer that basketball star kid everyone talked about and Kristin had played with.
“Married,” Erika said to Kristin that day in the mall after Kristin asked what she had been up to.
Erika stuck out her hand to show off the wedding band.
Kristin couldn’t believe it. How come she hadn’t heard about the wedding? No notice in the newspaper?
Surprised, Kristin asked, “Married?”
“Yeah, on a dare,” Erika responded, laughing, watching BJ out of the corner of her eye as he sauntered around the mall by himself.
“He dared you to run away and get married?”
“Yes.”
“Where’d you two meet?”
“At a party.”
As strange as all this may have sounded to Kristin, Erika had gone as far as to bring BJ home once after they had gotten married, but she did not tell her parents what she had gone and done. It was only the second time Mitch and Cookie had ever met BJ. It wasn’t until months later that Erika made the announcement. Shortly afterward, Mitch and Cookie put up the money to buy Erika her own business: a one-stop shop for all things associated with creating a scrapbook. The store, located in that same Altoona mall where she ran into Kristin that day, opened April 2001. There was talk about Erika opening the store in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she and BJ first lived after getting married (and Erika had gone to college). But after spending some time in the area and scoping it out, Erika and BJ found other scrapbooking stores already up and running.
“So they came back here,” Mitch explained to this author, “and found no other store . . . here and decided to open. [It was] nice to have her close [to] home, certainly.”
Regarding a later assumption that Mitch fronted the money to Erika in order to keep her close to him and Cookie,
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