One of the things that Janelle complained about was how seldom she was defended. She would regularly complain that others defended the person she believed had wronged her and not her. This included regular complaints in her journal about her husband’s lack of defense when it came to demeaning things his family members would say to Janelle, particularly when they would taunt her about her weight. Why Janelle visited these family members as often as she did if they were that cruel to her remains a mystery. Perhaps she hoped deep down that they would change. Or maybe she did so for her husband.
Janelle decided that one of the best ways to avoid jail sentences would be to stop going to court altogether. Before moving to New Mexico, the few times she’d gotten in trouble were for petty misdemeanors such as prank phone calls. Yet she had quickly graduated to committing much more serious offenses not long after moving.
One day, after leaving her home in exchange for the streets until she believed it was “safe” to go home and she was no longer being hunted in such an aggressive manner for failing to appear in court, she showed up at her mother and sister-in-law’s door hungry. She knew they knew what was going on with her, another thing she often complained about in her journal. She hated how her husband shared so much personal information about her with the family even though much of it was in the news and a matter of public information anyway.
Deanna, the sister-in-law, tried to act sympathetic to Janelle’s plight, a mess she’d gotten herself into in reality.
She was no longer surprised by the additional weight gain Janelle had accumulated in the few months since she last saw her due to the fact that gaining weight was something Janelle did regularly anyway. It would be a while before Janelle finally went to a doctor where she discovered she had hypothyroidism. That would eventually be medicated. Her bulimia, however, would not be dealt with willingly or properly for a while because Janelle refused to own up to the problem, insisting she just had a “bad stomach” or ate something that didn’t agree with her as a means of explaining her frequent throw-ups.
“Hi,” Janelle said cheerily as if it was any ordinary day when Deanna opened the door. She was holding a long blond wig in her hand and asked how Steven was doing since she knew they talked regularly. Then she asked if Deanna could let him know she had stopped by before begging for food. She was afraid to call home in case the line was tapped.
Janelle had always been obsessed with the idea of having blonde hair and blue eyes. Although most people would agree she had eyes that ranged from light brown to jet black when pissed, along with light brown hair, she loved to describe herself as a dark blonde with amber eyes.
“Hi, back,” Deanna said trying to appear pleased to see her sister-in-law even though the reality was that she was both nervous yet hopeful that she could help get her behind bars where she belonged.
Deanna asked her husband Spencer to make her a sandwich. Before making the sandwich, however, the husband called 911 and then made the sandwich as slowly as possible to keep his sister-in-law at the door long enough to be picked up on the warrant she was wanted for.
When invited inside, Janelle declined, saying she didn’t want to get her in trouble if it was later found out that she’d been inside the house. Knowing he couldn’t stall forever and frustrated that the police were slower than expected since a lot was going on in the area that day, the sister-in-law’s husband handed Deanna the sandwich which she handed to Janelle who promptly bit off nearly half of it at once and swallowed it mostly whole, unable to talk for several seconds.
Deanna tried to stall for additional time but Janelle began backing away, thanking her for the sandwich and insisting she didn’t want to get either one of them in trouble, not that Deanna and her family stood a remote chance of getting into any trouble, of course.
“Don’t forget your little disguise,” Deanna said, gesturing to the cheap, tangled wig Janelle held.
“Oh, yeah,” said Janelle as if it was a funny joke, “my little disguise.”
Deanna directed Janelle to head in a particular direction. “They can catch you if you get too close to the main road,” she said, hoping that if she took off before the police arrived, she could at least point them in the right direction.
However, as Janelle would later write in her journal, she had a bad feeling come over her so she was sure to quickly change directions once she got out of view of Deanna’s house.
“I should have known Deanna was the last person I could trust,” she was quoted as having written.
Nonetheless, Janelle zipped around the corner just as a couple of patrol cars stopped abruptly with a slight screech in front of the house.
It would be the following day when the police finally caught up to Janelle. Some controversy would eventually ensue as to how the arrest went down. Janelle had been exiting a diner, unarmed, after getting a drink of water when she was approached by two armed officers aiming guns at her. They told her to freeze yet she walked on, saying something to the effect of, “I’m not going to play this game today,” as if she had any choice and could simply ignore what was happening and as if the police were merely silly children with toy guns wasting her time with childish games.
But Janelle kept walking and continued to ignore further warnings to stop and put her hands on her head. This earned her a bullet that would lodge against the side of her spine and cause her to need surgery and experience temporary paralysis.
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