Episode 2: “She Built Her Own Prison”

Pushkin last time on Where's Dear?

I could hear her phone and ringing upstairs that she was not anywhere in the house.

Julie and I have spent hours and hours and hours going over every scenario that it could possibly be, and we came down to the same thing.

She did not leave of her own a court. You know, obviously, when you're the last person, this always become the suspect.

Two days after Dea disappeared, Keith Harper, the man who says he was DIA's fiance, drives to New Mexico, and within a week police in San Juan County obtain a warrant and search a lot dodge fenced in storage building belonging to Harper. The cops also search Harper's motor home on the grounds that it's linked to a missing person or possible homicide. They remove a section of the driver's seat and sees it as evidence. Several weeks later, Harper

I feel that I have to speak for my mother because I don't think anybody else really can.

Around a month after DEA's disappearance, Clinton says that he and his sister drove up to Beneatha Vista Ranch with their attorney to take DEA's truck. They didn't want Harper having it. But that's when Diana stops them in their tracks. She hands them a piece of paper, a legal document that has Deer's signature on it.

She handed us the power of attorney.

And the power of attorney is shockingly broad if you read it. I mean it gives them total control over it, whether or not to sell or buy anything. I think it even says even while she's alive.

In other words, DEA's children can't take the truck, and they also have to turn over their set of house keys to Diana and Harper, the keys to DEA's kingdom. DEA's children had only met Harper and Diana a few weeks before this encounter. Clinton told me he also had no idea that Harper was engaged to their mother. How did that feel?

How did that feel? Yeah?

Strange, I mean just weird that people I didn't know were in our family home that we spent millions of dollars building and exerted a lot of effort on designing. And I had gone up there ever since I was a little kid, and my mother always said, you know, she was building it for Grassara and I. And now suddenly, you know, other people who I suspect had murdered her are moving in.

Clinton is suspicious of Harper and Diana right off the bat, even though he has no evidence that proves they had anything to do with DEA's disappearance. This confrontation sets up something that will continue to snowball for years, a power struggle that will become so big it will consume Clinton and Harper's lives. Clinton versus Harper battling it out over

She called me piggy Puff, and I called her I think my mom told me I couldn't say Lydia, so I called her Gia, and that's how she got Dia.

Peggy told me that she and Dea grew up with their older brother Jim, in a nice house with an avocado orchard on a patch of land in La Mesa, a small inland community east of San Diego. Even though Dea was the middle child, she was the one given special treatment.

I remember my dad bought us all pentos, the cars, and my brother and I got these like stripped down pinhos, but Dia got a two toned Pinto that had like fur like carpet in it. And she even had a radio, and so she kind of got, you know, she got the perks for being.

A middle child.

And she always said, I'm the middle child. I'm gonna meat in the sandwich, that's situitious.

The family had chickens and dogs, and Dia loved her animals. Peggy remembers one intense moment in particular that happened after DIA's dog died.

She had a dog one time named Coco that got kipped by a truck and she went up there and scraped up its blood and stuff and second and baggy, and we'll never forget it was a weird that she loved her annals.

Along the way, something changed. Dea became interested in makeup and fashion and fancy things. In getting out of Le Masa and leaving that version of Dea behind.

She was funny, she was hilarious. But didn't she get this money thing where it was everything everything to her and it just created a monster.

Peggy is honest about her older sister, unflinchingly honest, to the point where I felt almost uncomfortable talking this way about a woman who's not here to speak for herself.

You know, she enjoyed money, she wanted more.

Enter clem Abrams, a much older real estate developer who was from the wealthy enclave of La Joya, San Diego. Dea found him in a listing of Who's Who, basically this old school way of dating where young single ladies could find local eligible backs.

We snagged him. D and I did this together back in Jim's old bedroom. I'll never forget doing this.

It's called Who's Who.

I'm San Diego and I called and I would like flirt with him, and then I'd give the phone to her. She would flirt with him and it was hilarious.

And then they met. Clem was old money. Dea had struck gold.

Everybody loved Clem. Clem was really down to earth. Comb used to drive around an old El Camino. No last, no, no, you didn't have here.

They have to be. In nineteen eighty four, Deer got pregnant with Clinton, and so Clem and Dea, who was four months pregnant, tied the knot in front of a hundred guests with a reception at SeaWorld, although not before signing a prenup on Clem's insistence. Deer became this socialite in San Diego, and her siblings saw her less and less until one day Peggy and her brother Jim told me she just cut them out, the only ties she had left to that life in La Mesa.

I think what she felt put off by us. We liked simple things. She wanted grand things.

And she had her own family by that point, Clem, the husband, and their two children, Clinton and Chrissara. Clinton says he was incredibly close to his mum.

Oh I was a child we were best friends. We would go shopping all the time. She loved the shop, and she'd take me with her and I'd help her pick out clothes and such, and she thought I had a good fashion sense for a male.

When Clinton was around thirteen, Dea lef La Joya. I moved to Idlewild to her Benita Vista ranch without Clem, though he still supported her financially, and over time cracks began to show in Clinton and DEA's relationship.

It just wasn't a day to day interaction really, and so it was, you know, more sporadic. I talked to her every couple of weeks or see here, you know, every month or two months or so, that kind of thing.

According to her friends, Dea felt the kids didn't make an effort to see her, although Clinton says that wasn't the case. Regardless, Clinton and DEA's relationship did come under strain when Clem's health began deteriorating.

I didn't feel like she shared the same degree of concern. At the time, I thought everybody was being callous because I was so sensitive to him dying.

Clinton also started to take over Clem's businesses, including the upkeep of Deer's properties in Idlewild, and he and Dea disagreed over how to manage them. Clinton is a real estate guy. He loves land, he loves property. He prides himself on having good business sense, and he was pushing Dear to get rid of one of her proper tees.

It wasn't really a point of contention, but the interest rate on it was just horrific, and nobody living there.

It was a large monthly nut to cover.

I asked Clinton's sister Krisara, to do an interview too several times, but I didn't hear back from her or her lawyer, so I can't tell you much more about their relationship. Still, Clinton says that disagreements were never that serious, and it was his mother who started pulling away, not him or his sister, and he doesn't know why.

From the outside looking in, she had the perfect life. I mean, the best husband. I mean, my dad was just so gentle and giving, gave her everything she ever wanted. You know, she had multiple properties, horses, all the jewelry that she could ever want.

You know, she went antiquing, she traveled the world.

I don't know, I can't explain it, but she did have a tendency to kind of create her own misery in a certain certain way.

But if DEA's life was that perfect, why did she leave everything behind and moved to this remote mountain ranch. Maybe her life looked perfect on the outside, but she must have had her reasons for leaving Lahoya. Dea seemingly had everything that she'd wanted as a child. She lived in the glamorous seaside town, so beautiful that it's known as San Diego's Jewel by the Sea, but she turned her back on it for the craggy San Jacinto Mountains.

I would call her paranoid because I always told her that. I said, you know, you came out here and we built this beautiful mansion, and it's all of all of these valuables, because she would have doors that locked from the inside, so you had to have a key to get out of the house. And so I would always kind of say, you know, you have all these guns, and it's kind of like you built yourself a little bit of your own prison, like you're guarding, you know, all these treasures up here in the mountains.

When I pieced together everyone's different versions of events. I can see a pattern of estrangement, Dia distancing herself from those closest to her and where her family was moving out of the picture. These other characters, her Idol, Wild Crew, Diana, and eventually Harper started moving in. That's after the break. In October of twenty sixteen, when Dea was sixty two years old, something happened that I think shows just how

And she talked about how she was thirsty, and she asked if he could get her something to drink. And she said, you know, I was coming out of them, of the drugs that they had given me, And she said, you know, I was a little disoriented for a while, but she said, you know, after I took the drink and he gave me, I flipped into a very deep coma and I was in that koma for nearly two and a half days so far. He came out and

Wow. And did she tell anybody else about that?

Oh? She told the doctor.

There was nothing in the medical records about this accusation, but there was this note in her chart. Found her unresponsive to name and stimuli, unable to wake up, called nine one one, and sent to ED for further evaluation. I had no luck tracking down dear's doctor to find out more. I did ask Diana about the story, though. Was she concerned that Clinton may have tried to poison her while she was in hospital?

She was adamant that he did well, that he slipped her something while she was there.

Of course I asked Clinton about this too, What is your response to these accusations that you tried to poison your mother when she was in hospital?

Just totally silly and not even worthy of.

A sad Clinton also disagreed with what Dea had told her doctor, that everyone in her family was too busy for her.

I think, unfortunately, she could be mellow, dramane. I don't doubt that the doctor made the assessment that she was depressed or sad, because I do feel that she had some sort of mood disorder.

But no.

Both my sister and I am my father visit her in the hospital multiple times, and we were always more than willing to take care of her.

She seldom reached out.

I mean, she never asked me for help, or I would have been happy to help her.

Regardless of what actually happened, the surgery seemed to be a significant turning point in Dea and Clinton's relationship. Whether she was growing apart from her kids or not, she felt like she was. Dea was in a long period of recovery from surgery for about two months after being discharged. During that time, according to court records, she created her own trust, separate from her husband's. In it, she put all of her anti Peak's guns, jewelry, and property, including

She liked cowboys that type.

Uh, they're mostly pretty boys, you know, and they were useless.

Julie is the third slice to the Dear Diana Julie Pie, this tight knit trio who'd been such good friends before Dia disappeared. Julie and Dea had known each other for years.

Basically, when I needed rescuing, she helped me. When she didn't rescue me, that helped her, you know, that kind of thing, that kind of good friendship.

Dea confided her love troubles to Julie. She didn't have a lot of luck when it came to finding the right guy.

She would dig guys that were online. And I told her, I said, Dia, you did these guys. I said, don't bring them here.

You know.

It's like, don't show these people you met online what you have.

But that's exactly what Dea did. According to Harper, they met some time in the spring of twenty sixteen on a dating site called farmers only. Harper told me about the first time they met face to face. He had flown from Colorado to California after months of talking to Dea online.

She picked me up at the airport. She had Ruby in the back, her dog, and I looked at her and she had hey in her and I said, boy, you are kentry girl, aren't you? And she said, why do you ask that? And I you got hey in your hair and she laughed and said really, he said, I fed the animals before I come, but I thought I'd brushed my hair.

Harper says they spent four blissful days together horseback riding, hiking, and then the adventure was over. Harper flew back home to Colorado, but they kept in touch, and then he decided to come back for another visit, and then another until the end of twenty sixteen, a couple of months after Deer's surgery. He says he just moved in for good.

You know, the ranch was pretty overgrow when I first came in. You could hardly leave the cabin. But we started behinding the place up because you know, her camp was to use it as they airbnb, and it just needed to work before it done.

Julie disputes the timeline when Harper moved in, saying it was more like twenty eighteen. Regardless, when Julie finally met Harper, she approved. Harper owns land and businesses in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. He's a soul of the earth kind of guy. I like the pretty boys Deer usually went for. He gets his hands dirty.

Harper he had a do thing, do you care things work around the match, and that was something she needed and someone to kind of lean on.

She was lonely, and that still that's void.

Harper and Deer had something else in common too. They both loved money. There was one occasion when Julie and Deer were showing Harper around Julie's place back then. Julie lived in a trailer on a beautiful property that used to be a cattle runch.

We were so on Harper the place, and we took them down the road and looked, and he just saw dollar signs. He said, well, this splace ought to be developed, you know. So you know, he had the thing about money, money, money all the time.

There's this stretch of time where I don't really know what's going on.

Up there at the ranch.

Harper says that after he moved in, they just lived their lives, traveling around the American Worth managing the ranch. But then something happened that caused a domino effect of events. DEA's husband, Clem died.

She died on December well, two thousand eight, keen, and she said to me, you know, it's Independence Day. It's the first day that I actually feel free.

On that very same day, on DEA's Independence Day, she went back to that trust she created after her surgery, and she revisited the part that left her entire estate to her daughter. I've seen this document. I've seen how over the name Chrissara Abrams. Dea scribbled four or five lines in black ink. She wrote, denied, dated it twelve twelve, twenty eighteen, and added her initials.

D A.

Few pages later next to that line, which said quote trust her leaves nothing but her love and affection to her son Clinton Abrams. Dia added in her own handwriting and daughter Krissara Abrams. So at this point in time, if Dea were to suddenly drop dead, her children would get nothing. All these changes to DEA's trust reflect in real time changes she wanted, unlike Will's Trust impact your life immediately because they dictate how your assets are managed.

It was up to the butterfly rock. It's up by the waterfl we would get married. The idea was that it would be in Jackson, Oul, Wyoming, being.

There's a little church there. That's where we have identified it.

He says he gave her a gold engagement ring, but Dian never told anyone they were engaged, at least nobody I've spoken with, and Harper claims as a reason for that, if Dia married Harper, she might lose out on the financial support provided by Clem's estate.

When she brought it up to her attorneys, they said, you're foolish idea, because he has written in there that if you don't marry, you continue to give benefits. If you marry, you would find yourself maybe out.

Of any recourse anything.

That's the reason we didn't look forward on it.

Oh, you weren't going to get married.

We decided not to get married advice of the attorney.

And here comes another domino. Remember there are two trusts at play, DEA's and Clem's, and after Clem's death, Deer doesn't just change her own trust, she takes another look at Clem's. The entire time Deer lived in Idlewild, Clem was paying the bills. When he was alive, he provided for her, made sure she had everything she needed. But now their children were left in charge of his trust and in charge of how much money she was going

Took out the bridge, It took up the dam and then left cavities everywhere. And when she had at Clinton if he would help make the repairs, he refused. He said, you know, if you're eating, that's all you need for right down.

Harper also told me that in January twenty twenty, the kids cut Deer off financially. Clinton says this wasn't the case at all. He says that he sent his mother plenty of money.

She was never cut off, not even for a second. I didn't know about the flood. I don't recall being asked to help. I do recall her discussing it as a potential reason why she couldn't attend Clem's memorial. And I said, you got to find a way. This is your husband's and I'm throwing a nice service. That's about really the extent.

You know.

They loved to try and make it sound as if we were refusing her money or some such.

Did she make it to your dad's memorial?

She did.

Yeah, Again, we have these two opposing narratives. Whatever the reality of how much money the kids were sending Dea, we do know that she felt it wasn't anywhere near what she deserved. To make things more complicated, there was a change in tax law that affected the amount Dea stood to gain from Clem's estate. So, as Clem's legal wife, she was expecting to get around half of his estate around five million dollars, but after the change, she could

I had already been aware of the different things that the kids were doing to make her life miserable with the lawsuit, and she turned to me and she said, if anything ever happens to me, Clinton did it.

So we're almost back to that June of twenty twenty, back to the day when Deer disappeared. But there's one other thing I've got to tell you. About before we can close that loop of time, remember that Deer had crossed Chrissara out of her trust and had very specifically noted that Clinton would get nothing. Well, Dea made one

A piece of paper that said that she feared for her life.

He would constantly call me, constantly text me is the dead?

Is Dea alive?

She stays over and over over and over again to me and others that if I disappear, and if my son's doing.

Where's Dear is written and hosted by me Lucy Sheriff. Our producer is Daphne Chen, editing by Karen Shakerji. Production assistance from Joey Fish, ground fact checking by Lauren Vespoli. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Original score, sound design and mastering by Echo Shaw's Where's Deer is a co production of Pushkin Industries and iHeartMedia. Where's Deer was originally developed with Truly*Adventurous.