The poison POWER RANGER
Tuesday 10th March 2009
For a moment, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
'You've met a Power Ranger?' I spluttered.
Was my dad, Tom, 57, taking the mickey?
'He was in this show called Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers,' Dad continued over the phone, very matter of fact. 'His name is Skylar.'
I remembered the programme, but I'd never heard of this actor.
'So he wants to buy your boat?' I asked Dad.
'That's right,' he replied. 'He's only in his early twenties and he's got a wife, Jennifer, who's pregnant. He must have made a fortune.'
Too right he must have done. If he could afford to buy the boat that my dad and stepmum, Jackie, 47, owned, he had to be ready to part with $440,000 (£300,000).Not that Jackie and Dad were rich. They'd saved for years to buy the yacht, called the Well Deserved. And as the name suggested, Dad had worked hard all his life in his job in the probation service to pay for it.
They'd sold their home in Prescott, Arizona, to buy the boat back in 2000, and spent two years sailing around California and Mexico. Of course, I'd missed them. So had my brother, Matt, 25. But we'd got regular emails and I was pleased to see them having such a good time. So why were they selling the boat now? Because there was one thing that meant more to them. Family. Matt and his wife, Nicki, had a 4-month-old son, Jace, so Jackie and Dad decided to move back to Arizona to watch him grow up.
They'd put the boat up for sale and now, Dad was telling me this actor who used to be in Power Rangers wanted to buy it. Before I hung up, Dad asked if I wanted to go on their farewell voyage, but I couldn't as I'd be away on business. Next morning, I flew off to Seattle for a week as part of my job in medical sales. I couldn't wait to hear about the trip, though, so as soon as I got back home, I gave Dad a ring. It went straight to voicemail.
That's weird, I thought. Then a friend of theirs rang me.
'I've driven up from Arizona to help Jackie and Tom pack up the yacht, but they're not here,' he said.
It wasn't like Dad to let a friend down, so I rang my uncle, Dad's brother Jim, to see if he knew what was going on.
'I'm trying to get hold of Dad, but his mobile's off and so is Jackie's,' I told him. 'Have you seen them?'
He hadn't. In fact, no one had heard from them since 15 November. My heart pounded.
What was going on? Jim decided he'd go down to the harbour and check out the boat. When he rang back later, the news was worrying.
'You should've seen the state of the yacht,' he said. 'It was tied up wrong and there were wetsuits just slung about the deck.'
Dad was careful when it came to the boat, always mooring it securely and keeping it tidy.
'You think Dad didn't harbour the boat?' I asked.
But if he didn't, who did? Maybe he'd sold it to that Skylar bloke and he'd done it. But if that was the case, where were Dad and Jackie? Calling around friends and family, no one knew, not even Matt.
'We're going to have to go to the police,' I told him.
'You're right,' he agreed. 'They can't just have disappeared.'
The police interviewed Skylar and Jennifer Deleon.
'They say they paid your parents in cash, then they drove to Mexico,' an officer reported back. 'It seems above board. They've got all the paperwork.'
Above board? Well it sounded all wrong to me. Dad wasn't the sort to take $440,000 in cash and drive off to Mexico without telling his family.
'Something's wrong,' I insisted to Uncle Jim, 'What if they were driving back to Arizona and came off the road?'
I imagined those long, deserted highways. If they'd had an accident there, it could be weeks before they were found. By now, they'd been missing for 11 days. In desperation, I even went on the telly asking for help.
'Please help us find our parents,' I pleaded.
Not long afterwards, their Honda CR-V car was found in the town of Ensenada, Mexico. But there was still no sign of Dad or Jackie. As the weeks turned to months, Matt and I finally came to a heartbreaking conclusion.
'They're dead,' I said. 'I know it.'
It was the only thing that would have stopped them contacting us. December passed with no leads.Then on 15 January, the police arrested Skylar Deleon.
'We've had reports he was seen driving your dad's car in Mexico,' an officer told me. 'And we believe he's tried to take money from your dad's account.'
Skylar had lied to Dad about his background, only ever having had a non-speaking part in one episode of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers back in 1994. He was broke, not a big star after all.
That wasn't the only thing he'd lied about. Skylar had known all along what happened to Dad and Jackie. In March, an accomplice, Alonso Machain, admitted his role in killing my parents, saying they had been thrown from the side of the boat so Skylar could steal it to sell on. It was too awful to think about. The next month, Jennifer Deleon was also arrested. She was the first to stand trial for first-degree murder, but not until November the following year. Matt and I sat side-by-side in Orange County Court.
'I won't cry,' I vowed. 'I'm not going to show any weakness to those evil b******s.'
Machain was the only one who'd pleaded guilty to the murders and his testimony was worse than any horror film. He said Skylar had offered him $1m (£678, 000) to help get rid of some so-called 'bad people' and introduced them to my parents at their boat in early November. Skylar's plan had been to kill them that day, but seeing my dad was a bodybuilder, he decided they needed more muscle and went off to hire a gang member as a third accomplice.They returned on 15 November, with the 6ft, 17st gang member posing as his accountant. They headed out to sea on the Well Deserved with Dad and Jackie, who had no idea of the danger they were in.
While Jackie was chatting happily to Machain, Dad went to show the master bedroom to Skylar and his so-called accountant. Next thing, Machain handcuffed Jackie and forced her to the floor, then dragged her through to where Dad was being attacked by the other two men. The men put them in the bedroom back to back, their eyes and mouths duct-taped. But Machain could see Jackie shaking and sobbing as she whimpered: 'Why are you doing this? I don't want to die. I have a grandchild.'
Heartbreaking.
There was no way I could stop the tears as Machain told how Dad had stroked Jackie's
hand to comfort her. I'd seen him do that so many times. They were forced to sign over the boat before being dragged to the back of it, tied together and roped to the 66lb anchor.
'Then they were yanked into the ocean,' Machain said, as I struggled to hold myself together.
His evidence was enough to see that Jennifer Deleon was convicted of first-degree murder and will face two life sentences without parole. She hadn't been on the boat with my parents that day, but she'd been part of the con that persuaded them Skylar was a genuine buyer, and she'd helped bleach the Well Deserved clean afterwards.
The next September, Skylar was found guilty of murdering my dad and Jackie, plus the murder of a man called Jon Jarvi in December 2003, in an unrelated crime.
We're still waiting for him to be sentenced. There are still the trials of Alonso Machain, and the hired muscle who posed as Skylar's accountant to get through, too. It's been over four years since I said my last goodbye to Dad and I miss him and Jackie like anything. All I can do now is make sure they get justice. We've had a small memorial service, and when their killers have all been punished, we'll have a big celebration for the two of them. Thanks to Skylar, we won't have Dad and Jackie's bodies to say goodbye to. They're still missing at sea. But that will never stop us remembering their spirit. Skylar and his friends took everything from us when they killed Dad and Jackie. And all because of a boat that began as their dream and finished in their murder.