The Innocent

                                                                                                   Chapter One
                                                                                         Easter Morning 1994




                                       Heidi Allen and her boyfriend Brett Law had awaken early Easter morning. Around 5:45 a.m., and headed to the local D&W convience store. Heidi was working as a store clerk. Heidi had swithed shifts with another employee and agreed to open the store that cold, wet and snowy Easter day. They arrived safely at the store at 5:50 a.m. and Heidi opened the store at approximately 5:50 a.m... Heidi performed her duties and stocked the shelves and the coolers, as Brett sat peacefully behind the counter drinking his cup of coffee and laughing as he read the Sundays funnies. Brett painted a pretty picture, a perfect morning. He describes sharing the funnies with Heidi and laughing as Heidi turned the cash register on, and as Brett described pushed some buttons.
                   As the morning progressed customers started to arrive. Brett left the store at 6:30 a.m., driving a Bronco he made his way to his parents house.
                   Heidi had several customers that morning. At 7:41 a.m., a man named Stitson arrives at the D&W. He knows he arrived at 7:41 a.m.( Easter Morning happened to be day light saving and time leapt ahead one hour). Prior to leaving his home he had set his time on his watch. Upon arriving at the D&W, he noticed no other vehicles in the parking lot other than a maroon station wagon. There were no other customers parking in the parking lot or in the store and not even a store clerk to cash him out.
                   Stitson waited patiently at the counter waiting to pay for his morning paper, as he waited he looked through the Sunday paper making sure it was all in tact. Stitson assumed she was in the rest room as he had noticed the door was closed. A few more minutes passed and Stitson started to look around the store, as he did, several other customers had entered the store and bought a Sunday paper, placing the appropriate amount on the counter. Stitson looked down the aisles and heard a noise in the back room. He thought someone was moving things and thought maybe that is where she was, but there was no one there. Stitson unsure of what to do, exits the store to look outside, maybe she was outside. As he is searching outside of the D&W a Sheriff pulls up to the intersection. Stitson waves him down as he is speaking to the sheriff explain to him of the missing clerk, he glances at his watch, 7:48 a.m..
                    The time Stitson says 7:48 in the reports on time of arrival for the Sheriff's had later changed to 7:45 a.m..
                    Stitson stated, "It seems everyone's memories were vague that Easter morning, but mine were not."
                   As Stitson had wandered through the store that morning he had noticed that there was meat left uncut on the slicer, one single newspaper on the clerks side of the counter, on the floor and $ 9.50 placed on the counter for gas and newspapers. Nothing seemed out of place. As the morning dragged on. The sheriff that was waved down, Officer Curtis, called the store owner to come to the store immediately and also contacted Heidi's family and one of the last people to see her, her boyfriend Brett Law.
                   The store owner arrived on the scene and the officer made her open the cash register to see if any money had been missing. But nothing was missing, this was not a robbery. This was a kidnapping.
                   There seemed to be no sign of even a struggle. The Sheriff's were uncertain if she had left on her own, was lured out of the store or taken by gun point. Heid's family described her as helpful, friendly and trouble free. One of Heidi's long time friends, Jodi, and sister in law to the store owner, informed the public that Heidi had no enemies. That she had frequently stopped at the store and that Heidi had never mentioned any problems.
                   "From the difference between two people setting their time's, I had arrived and seen nothing." Mr. Stitson.
Those were words from the man that reported Heidi Allen missing. The Sheriffs collected the cash register receipt and had reported the last transaction the last sign that Heidi had left behind was 7:42 a.m.. Stitson still stuck by his time of 7:41 a.m., and saw nothing. At one point Stitson says."Officer Hall came to him and told him he had to do better on his time." Stitson so confident in his time. Retraced every step he had made. He and Officer Hall drove to the D&W and timed their trip. When he arrived at the store, he noticed, that the clock was not right on the wall and the register was broken, and each morning the clerks had to reset the time. When they arrived the cash register time, was way off. Officer Hall and Stitson were confident that he had arrived at the store at 7:41 a.m.. So confident in his times, he testified that he arrived at 7:41 a.m..
                   The reporters started to air the information on Heidi's disappearance across the news as early as they could. By 10:10 a.m., there were search teams out looking for what they called a," Needle in a Haystack." They had literally nothing to go on other than her description of five foot eight and one hundred and sixty pounds, light brown hair that reaches the middle of her back, hazel eye's. Last seen wearing a gray Syracuse University Sweat shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. Reporters requested that any one who saw or knew anything or had been to the store that morning was asked to call the Sheriff's office. A man by the name of Richard Thibodeau had driven to the D&W early that morning, in his white and black beat up old van. He made a phone call, informing the Sheriffs that he had purchased two packs of generic cigarette's. That one phone call, would change the course of his life and of his brother's life for years to come.