Needle Work: Battery Acid, Heroin, and Double Murder(58)

After searching numerous pawnshops in Huron and Pontiac, they found nothing that even looked like it belonged to them. As for pawning her ring, they only offered her $100. A pawnshop she’d checked with a while back offered her $375.

It was getting cold and Carol remembered a sweater she had in the trunk. She opened the trunk. Staring up at her was her kids’ piggy bank.

“What the—”

Tim heard her and came around to look.

“So someone else broke in, huh?” he said sarcastically.

Carol continued to stare. Now she was convinced that Nancy had taken the stuff. She had used the Caddy to transport the rest of the stuff she had stolen and had left the piggy bank in the trunk because she could get nothing for it from her “fence.”

They drove home. When they arrived, Tim went to the bathroom while Carol made them sandwiches. She remembered that there were some people who owed her money from Jessie’s drug sales. After eating, they went over to collect the money they owed her. The debt collected, Tim said he was driving into Detroit to get the heroin for her dad. Carol gave him the money she just got. Tim dropped her off and drove south to Detroit.

November 13, 1997

Tim woke her up out of a sound sleep. It was 8:30 P.M. He wanted to know if she had any pantyhose. She said she had four new pairs still in packages. Tim ordered her to get them all out and to get the piggy bank from the car trunk.

After she put the kids to bed at ten o’clock, Carol got the hose together, went out to the car, popped the trunk, and took out the piggy bank. Tim took the hose, opened the packages, and went down to the basement to the bed where Nancy liked to lounge and watch TV. She was still at work.

“We’ll tie her up,” he said.

Methodically, Tim tied the pantyhose to the front and rear of the bed, then tucked the ends under the mattress. Because the pantyhose had a clear color, you’d have to look twice to see it. He told Carol to go out to the garage and get the battery acid.

It was Carol Giles, not Tim Collier, who went out to the garage and came back with the acid that she put on the bookshelf in the basement. It was Carol Giles who came down with Jessie’s insulin needles, a pair of yellow gloves and a package of “rubbers.”





Seventeen

Listening to the testimony, Helton thought about the condoms. Why the condoms? he wondered. Unless …

“’Cause he said that he was gonna rape Nancy,” Carol Giles said. “I can’t remember what his exact words were, but he said he was gonna rape Nancy.”

If Tim Collier used the condoms to sodomize Nancy when Carol wasn’t around, that would explain why his fluids were not found on her body.

Carol continued her testimony.

Tim had told her she had to be “more assertive.”

She knew. She knew exactly what was going to happen and what he wanted.

Tim was going to kill Nancy, and Carol was going to be a part of it. Not an observer but a participant. Tim needed her to be a part of it. They were in this together.

“Okay, I know what I have to do,” she told him.

She helped him cover the bed with a plastic sheet. Tim wasn’t worried so much about urine as he was about blood. They put the blanket back on the bed and made it up to look neat. Tim put the piggy bank in the corner so it couldn’t be seen. Then Tim laid out the plan.

“When Nancy gets home, I will get her high and we’ll talk. We’ll question her about where the stuff [she burglarized] is. She’s gonna tell us where the stuff is.”

They went back upstairs; Carol to the kitchen, and Tim to the bedroom. They figured they had all the details taken care of.

Nancy came home about 11:15 P.M. The guy who drove her home decided to be a gentleman and escort her up to the house. If he’d stayed, his chivalry might have cost him his life. As it was, the guy came in with Nancy.

Carol was in the kitchen; Tim was in the bedroom. The guy only stayed a few seconds. He said, “Good night” and quickly strolled down the driveway and got into his car. He started it up and drove away.

Nancy asked Carol if she had any drugs. Carol said no, and that’s when Tim walked in. She asked if she could buy some from him.

“Yes,” he said affably.

Tim suggested they go downstairs to the basement. That’s when Carol noticed Tim had his gun. That hadn’t been part of the plan.

They went downstairs and Carol watched Nancy and Tim get stoned. Carol was supposed to start the conversation about the burglary, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to start the plot going. She hoped Tim would forget about it.

He didn’t.

“Nancy,” Tim asked her, “where’s the safe and stuff at?”

“I don’t know,” Nancy replied. “I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t steal, you know. I wouldn’t steal from Carol. And bein’, you know, that’s Jessie’s jewelry, that’s like stealing from a dead man.”

Tim insisted she had taken the stuff.

“What are you talking about, Tim?”

“Carol, what do you think?”

“Nancy, I don’t believe you.”

Tim took out his gun and pointed it at Nancy.

“Where [is] the safe from the upstairs closet at?” Tim asked.

“Tim, you’re scaring me. Stop playing; you’re scaring me.”

“Do you think I’m playing?”