The Devil, The Darkness & The Cheerleader

Julie Diane Heath was eighteen years old in the autumn of 1993 and living in Malvern, Arkansas, a town of about ten thousand people in Hot Spring County, some forty-five minutes from Little Rock. She had just left high school, where she had been a varsity cheerleader, and she was working two jobs, one at Taco Bell and one at a factory that made jeans, while saving towards her goal of becoming a police officer. With her father, William, she was restoring an old car, a 1967 Mustang or Camaro, that she used to get around. She had a boyfriend in Hot Springs, and on the evening of 11 October 1993 she set out in the car to visit him.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He also had a girlfriend, Christy Jones, whose house in Hot Springs he left between nine and half past nine that night, heading back towards Malvern in his truck, wearing overalls, a T-shirt and shoes.

Julie left her home at about nine o'clock. A friend, Samantha Brooks, saw her at about that time and was told she was going to Hot Springs to see her boyfriend and would be back in an hour and a half. She never arrived. Her mother, Nancy Heath, telephoned the boyfriend's house, and he said Julie had never turned up. Nancy called the authorities. About an hour and a half after Julie had left, her car was found locked on the side of US 270, with the keys still inside. The car had a habit of overheating, and her mother suggested she might have pulled over to let it cool. By midnight the police had a roadblock running, and a rookie officer stopped almost sixty cars that night asking whether anyone had seen her. The FBI was called in, and within days eight agents were working the case.

Another witness, Rebecca Doyle, said that at about nine o'clock she had seen a truck pulled in behind a car in the area where Julie's car was found. details of the account remain covered until revealed He was hot and sweaty, had no shirt, shoes or socks, and had dark, apparently fresh stains on the front of his overalls. He said his truck had broken down and he had run there, then went to the bathroom and came out drying his hands. He telephoned his mother and brother and asked them to help him fix a flat tyre. The following day he washed the truck and shampooed its interior at his girlfriend's house, and she thought he seemed depressed.

Julie's body was found on 18 October 1993, a week after she disappeared, off Wild Hog Road near Highway 171, by Herbert Chandler Jr., a hunter preparing for deer season on land beside his own. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She was fully clothed, but her shirt, socks and underwear were inside out, one shoulder pad was on the outside of the shirt and another lay a few feet away, her bra had been pulled up around her neck and shoulders, her belt buckle was partly undone and her zip was partly down. Clumps of her hair were found between the road and the body, suggesting she had been dragged. Dr. Frank Paretti, the medical examiner, found the head and neck area badly decomposed and skeletonised, and concluded that she had probably been killed by a knife wound to the throat. The autopsy could not establish the cause with certainty because of the scavenger activity, but he put the time of death between midnight and 1.15 a.m. on 12 October.

this part of the story is covered for now The hospital contacted the Arkansas State Police, who by then were interested in him: he and Julie had been driving in opposite directions on the road that night, his truck had had a flat tyre about a mile from the body, and he had been seen with stains on his clothes. details of the account remain covered until revealed Inside they found blood and red pubic hairs microscopically similar to Julie's, and DNA analysis of her muscle tissue was consistent with blood from the truck seat. On 26 December his sister Belinda visited him and he asked her to retrieve an orange utility knife from an abandoned service station near Highway 71 and Interstate 30 and burn it. She found it covered in dried blood and grass, wrapped it in her sweater, and took it to the sheriff's office instead. When she told him, he said, 'You've just given me the electric chair,' and laughed hystcovered nameally.

His story was that he had stopped to help Julie, that his knife fell out of his pocket, that she panicked and kicked and punched him as he drove, and that during the struggle the knife became lodged in her throat. Later, through a psychologist, he produced another account: that he and Julie had been in a sexual relationship, that he had bought a new box cutter at Walmart that night, that he heard gossip there that she was HIV positive, that he confronted her and, dissatisfied with her answer, hit her so hard that he broke her neck. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now Belinda Kritz and Johnny Hood, Julie's cousins, spoke outside the court. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

Nancy Heath never recovered. She was admitted to hospital after becoming incoherent on the way home from court, stopped eating, and attempted suicide four times over the following year. this part of the story is covered for now She was thirty-eight and is buried with Julie at Clear Creek Cemetery. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it On 28 November 2005 the clemency board voted six to one against clemency, with Bill Walker dissenting, and the governor refused clemency after what he called prayerful consideration. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He said no last words, apparently not hearing the offer, and his spiritual adviser turned to the witnesses and said, 'May God have mercy on your souls.' the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Julie Heath was eighteen. Her family said afterwards that they no longer acknowledge Christmas.