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Saturday, February 12, 2005 -- 1:55 PM
Through interviews with friends and associates of the Hartigan
family, YCSD investigators learned that Jewel Hale was Rita Hartigan's
best friend before her disappearance. As Ms. Hale currently resides in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Detectives Murphy and
Armstrong arranged to travel there to talk with her. Jewel Hale was interviewed at her residence in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The interview was conducted by Detectives Armstrong and Murphy and was
recorded on a portable tape recorder with the witnesses' knowledge and
consent.
- TA = Detective T. Armstrong
- SM = Detective S. Murphy
- JH = Jewel Hale
TA: For the record, please state your name, age,
address and occupation.
JH: Jewel Hale. I'm 25 years old. I live at
4221 North
Chickasaw Road in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And I run my
own catering business with my fiancé, Ted. I mean,
my fiancé's name is Ted. I wasn't being informal
with you.
TA: I understand, Ms. Hale. Now, you said you were
unaware that Denise Hartigan had been killed.
JH: Not until you told me just now. I'm just devastated. I
had no idea.
SM: You heard nothing on the radio and saw nothing on
TV about this?
JH: No, ma'am. I've been so busy starting my business
that I haven't paid attention to the outside world. I
just can't believe it, though.
TA: I take it you no longer keep in contact with the Hartigan family.
JH: No, sir. I haven't spoken to Mr. or Mrs. Hartigan
since I left Oxford.
SM: When was that?
JH: 1998, after I graduated high school. I came down
to Starkville to go to school, and I don't guess I ever
ran into any of them again until Denise stopped in
several months back. I kept up with them from my mother,
who still lives in Oxford, but I don't guess I ever ran
into them myself.
TA: What sorts of things did your mother tell you about the Hartigans?
JH: Let's see... of course, Denise had
run off before I left town, but I bumped into several friends
over the years who told me that she'd been acting all crazy since she
left. No one knew exactly what
she was doing, other than traveling all over with a bunch of groupies or
something. And Mama always mentioned Mr. Hartigan's health -- when he got better
and then got sick again. Just general stuff about running
into one of the Hartigans on the Square or something. Just her opinions.
TA: About...?
JH: About Mrs. Hartigan. Mama never liked her too
much. She always thought Mrs. Hartigan was prissy and stuck-up. Mama's not as tolerant as I am, I guess.
SM: All right. Before we talk about Denise, we'd like you to
tell us about
Rita. You two were friends for how long?
JH: Since first grade. First grade until junior year,
and then I never saw her again. Never a letter or a phone
call. She just vanished.
SM: That must have been peculiar.
JH: Oh, very peculiar. I mean, it's not like she told
everyone goodbye. She just up and disappeared, so
naturally everyone assumed the worst. Foul play, you
know. But the Hartigans -- Denise included -- they all swore
up and down that she ran off to get married to her
boyfriend. And he wasn't even her boyfriend, he was just
somebody she met.
TA: Who was this guy?
JH: Jimmy. I believe his last name was Riddle. I think he was
from New York or New Jersey but had moved to
Cleveland or something?
Anyway, he was in the Marines and had been down in boot
camp in Alabama, and he was going home and passing
through Oxford. That's how he and Rita met.
SM: Did you meet him?
JH: No, I didn't.
SM: You say they weren't romantically involved?
JH: I don't know. Depends on what you mean by romantically
involved. If they had sex, I think Rita
would have told me about it. But then again, she was very
vague about the whole thing, and she did turn up
pregnant. I asked her about that, and she said it was Jimmy's baby. But
she never told me about them having sex or even doing anything more than
laying up under the overpass and talking for hours and hours. I'm pretty
sure they fooled around a little bit, but whether they actually had sex
I couldn't say for sure.
TA: How long was Jimmy in town?
JH: No more than a few days. I remember when he
left she was real sad. She didn't come to school that
day, I think.
SM: And after he was gone, did she continue to talk
about him?
JH: Yeah. She talked about wanting to visit him in
Cleveland. I remember that because I didn't know why on
earth she would want to go to Cleveland. I mean, I hear it's a nice
town, but it's a long way to go just for some guy you barely know.
TA: Jewel, do you remember any of the things you and Rita talked about before she disappeared?
JH: Like I told you before, Rita and I were best
friends. I mean, she told me everything. So I feel awful
saying this... I feel like I'm betraying my friend...
TA: Well, Jewel, we hope to find Rita and make sure
she's okay.
JH: But that's the thing. I mean, she has her own life
now. I hope. God forbid if anything happened to her.
TA: What did she tell you?
JH: She started acting kind of weird. She told me
about the pregnancy and all, and said that it was
Jimmy's kid and that her parents were absolutely
freaking about it. I mean, they weren't consoling her one
bit. I couldn't believe it, but she said her mom told her to get
an abortion. And her dad, he hit her when she told him. I
mean, like slapped her across the face. I saw the bruise.
I even helped her cover it up with make-up. But the worst
of it is, when she told me her dad hit her and I was so
worried about her and tried to help her, that's when she
started talking about other things. Now I can't really
remember everything she told me because it's not the way I want to
remember Rita, but I got the feeling that maybe Mr. Hartigan had a weird
relationship with her. I mean, the way she talked
about him touching her and making rude comments. And then
I started remembering some of the things he'd say to her
when I was over at the house. I don't know... It might
just be me, but I thought it was a pretty tacky thing to
tell your daughter to go cover up her cute little butt,
talking about changing out of some shorts into something
that covered her up better. Telling her only he could see
her butt. I mean, maybe that's just me. I don't know. I
really don't care to talk about it.
SM: Are you saying that Mr. Hartigan was physically
inappropriate with Rita?
JH: I'm not saying that. All I know is, she was
uncomfortable about him for reasons I didn't totally
understand. I think it's possible, but I don't know that for sure. I guess so. Maybe that's ... I
don't know.
SM: Did she ever mention a specific incident?
JH: I know he walked in on her in the shower one time,
and she was pretty mad. But I don't think anything, like,
really happened. But I wasn't there. I can't say for
sure.
SM: We just want to know what Rita told you.
JH: Well, I've really told you everything I can
remember. It's really upsetting me. Can we not
talk about something else?
TA: Why didn't you try to contact Rita after she
disappeared, presumably to Cleveland?
JH: To be honest, when I found out she was pregnant, I
got kind of scared. We both grew up in very conservative
households, and this type of thing was new to me. You
know, really, I almost felt like I didn't know her
anymore. She was so upset and I was there through
a lot of it, trying to help and understand her situation,
but eventually it got too weird. It was like, every time
I saw her she was in tears. And she cussed like I never
heard anyone cuss. She was a different person. She...
was no longer living the life me and her had lived
together, I guess you would say. But not a day goes by
that I don't think of her. And not a day goes by that I
wish I hadn't turned my back on her like that. Not a day.
TA: And you never heard another word from her or about her
from someone else who knew her?
JH: No, sir. Not a single word. Rita talked about going away to stay with Jimmy, and
she said she didn't want to talk to anyone from Oxford
ever again, except for me. But she never called or got in
touch, so I figured she didn't want to. I suppose she
just had to get on with her life, just like I did. We've both moved on
since then.
SM: Tell us about Denise's visit. When did she
arrive?
JH: It was around the end of October of last year. She just showed up out of the
blue at my store, and we talked for a little while there. Then she came over to the house after work and ate
with us and spent the night. She was asking all the same
questions you've been asking, and I answered her just the
same, only I didn't get into that stuff about Mr. Hartigan.
TA: Why not?
JH: Well, you don't go around suggesting that somebody's
father might have had improper relations with their sister.
You just don't do that. I didn't want to get mixed up in
their family life that way.
SM: How did Denise seem?
JH: She seemed very excited at first. She hugged and
kissed me and had tears in her eyes actually. She was
very happy to see me. We had been close. I mean, there
were many times the three of us would play together when we were kids,
like when I spent the night with Rita. Sometimes it
was like we were all three sisters. It was nice seeing Denise. She was a little spacey, a little worn out. It definitely
seemed like she had done a lot of drugs because
her perception seemed to be a little off. She wasn't
quite all there. But she seemed very concerned about
Rita and wanted to find her.
SM: Did she tell you where she was going next?
JH: I told her Cleveland was as good a place as any
to start, and that's where she said she was going. I drove her to
Jackson, to a hotel there. She was going to stay there,
then fly out to Cleveland, as I understood it.
TA: Did she talk about what she had been doing all
those years since you'd seen her last?
JH: A little bit. She told me she toured around the
country with that band, Widespread Panic. Mainly she
talked about how she'd seen so much of the country, going
back and forth with her friends. And she said she had
been staying with friends in New Orleans for a while, but
she didn't say how long. We mainly talked about Oxford
though.
TA: Did she tell you what she had been doing in New
Orleans?
JH: No, we didn't really get into it. She just said
she'd been doing odd jobs.
SM: When she arrived in Hattiesburg, was anyone with
her?
JH: I didn't see anyone. I asked her how she got here
and she said she bummed a ride, and that's it. I don't
know if someone brought her or if she hitchhiked or
what.
SM: Did she take any drugs while she was staying with
you?
JH: Not that I know of. She seemed sober to me. We
actually had a pleasant visit. It kills me to think of
what they did to her. It seemed like she was starting to get her life
together.
TA: Jewel, one last thing and this will be over. When
you talked to Denise, did she mention anything or anybody
that may help shed some light on her death?
JH: I'll have to think about that... We mostly talked
about old memories. There were painful memories, but...
nothing of death. She was so loved. Who would do it? Who could?
SM: That's what we're
trying to figure out, Ms. Hale. Thank you for your
cooperation. We'll be in touch if we have any other questions.
Interview ends --
2:46 PM |
