Empty Promises

held their breath, reminding each other that they mustn’t criticize him or she would be even more attracted to him. But they didn’t want to give him a stamp of approval either. Perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered; Jami was in love with Steve and determined to marry him. The Hagels watched in horror as they saw their feisty, bubbly, self-assured daughter and sister become more and more submissive to a stranger in their midst. They had no idea how to stop her frightening metamorphosis.
    As he did with every woman in his life, Steve set out to “customize” Jami to meet his specifications. She was the right size and had a lovely face, but that wasn’t good enough. Although Jami’s thick brown hair was one of her best features, Steve told her he much preferred blondes. Jami lightened her hair, but it reacted oddly to the bleaching process, which left it orange-yellow.
    True to the profile of the abusive male, Steve systematically distanced Jami from her family. He complained about how close she was to them and was annoyed by family get-togethers. When he did go to holiday dinners or ball games with her, Jami constantly darted glances at Steve to see what his reaction was. His mood was more important to her than anything else. She was no longer the confident young woman she had been; her whole life seemed dedicated to making Steve happy, even when his demands were excessive and selfish. She was very tentative, looking to Steve to determine what he wanted her to do and say.
    Steve didn’t want Jami to see her women friends, her family, or anyone else who took her attention away from him. His was the classic posturing of the possessive male. To make the situation worse, as he had done with Bettina, Steve convinced Jami that they should move to California.
    “They came to our house,” Judy Hagel recalled, “and said they were going to California, supposedly for a vacation for a week. I think that was in May 1986. But I just sort of had a feeling it wasn’t going to be just a week, and so I waited all week long, just waited for Sunday so she could come home. She didn’t come home. The next thing I know I get a phone call from her saying they’ve decided to stay in California … I kept in close touch with her. She called me often, and I called while she was there.”
    Judy and Jerry Hagel had watched their precious daughter drive away from everyone she had always counted on as she and Steve headed off to Palm Desert, California. She was an adult; there was nothing they could do. She had yet to marry Steve and they hoped she never would. Judy Hagel had seen purple bruises and the marks of fingers on Jami’s arms and legs. Jami always had an explanation about falling, banging her elbow on a doorway, or hurting herself in some other way.
    Steve had good reason to want to leave the state of Washington. He had been bombarding Bettina with phone calls and letters, and she was frightened enough of him to call the police to record each violation of her order of protection.
    More dangerous to him was a recent burglary in Bellevue. In the late afternoon of April 7, 1986, someone had broken into a residence and taken stereo equipment, jewelry, and a small-caliber handgun. Without a job, with his mother cutting down on loans and handouts, and with his prodigious appetite for drugs and gambling, Steve was hungry for money.
    Bellevue detectives were able to lift latent fingerprints but AFIS (Automatic Fingerprint Identification System) was not yet in wide use. (In October 1988, AFIS matched the burglary prints to Steven Frank Sherer, but that was two years after the fact.)
    In California, Steve continued his spotty work history; he had worked occasionally for his father’s construction firm, but he didn’t have any particular skill as a builder. Sometimes he got sales jobs, but they never lasted long. He still liked to gamble and he still liked drugs; he was more than dabbling in cocaine by this time. And he always drove like a bat out of hell.
    Steve spent some time in jail on traffic warrants in San Bernadino in September 1986. While he was there, he flooded Jami with romantic cards:

I miss you, baby! When I get out, will you spend the rest of your life with me? I hope so, because your [sic] what I want in life. Your what I’m living for! Please wait for me. Wait and spend the rest of your life in my arms. I love you so much and it just gets stronger every day. Please have faith in our love…. Things will never be