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- Mrs. Blanchard, the victim's mother, was
interviewed at the department offices at 7:30 p.m. on
Saturday, Sept. 20.
-
- N = Detective Terry Nelson
- CB = Caroline Blanchard
-
- N: For the record, Mrs. Lamar, could you please
state your full name and address?
- CB: Of course. Actually, Terry, I prefer to use
Blanchard now. So that's Caroline Allen Blanchard, and
I live at Magnolia Ridge, 20302 route 5.
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- N: Sorry about that, Mrs. Blanchard. Magnolia
Ridge is apartments?
- CB: Yes.
-
- N: Thank you. Let's start with the mall. What
happened?
- CB: We left at, gosh, I guess it was maybe two or
two-thirty. Macy forgot her purse, so we had to go
back, and then we had to get gas, so we didn't get to
the mall until three or so, I'd say. We went to
Penny's and Goody's. I was looking for a pair of
shoes, and Macy wanted some new sweats for
cross-country. She's on the cross-country team, you
know. She's very fast . . .
-
- N: Do you want to take a break?
- CB: No. No, I'm all right. (pause) Macy found the
sweats in Penny's, and we looked at some earrings and
scarves. I couldn't find the kind of shoes I wanted.
She was getting bored and wanted to go to the music
store, so I said we could meet back at the entrance at
6. It was six o'clock, I'm sure, because we had to be
back at 6:30 in time to have
- dinner with the Wilsons. They live two doors down.
-
- N: But she wasn't there?
- CB: No. I went outside to make sure she wasn't
sitting on those benches right by the door. Then I
waited for maybe fifteen, twenty minutes. I didn't see
her at all. I thought maybe she saw a friend and was
late, but she's always very responsible. She always
calls home, always shows up when she says she will. So
I kind of knew, right then, that something was wrong.
I began worrying right away, and so when fifteen or
twenty minutes had gone by I went and found a security
man. You know, one of those hired guards.
-
- N: What happened?
- CB: He got on the radio and asked for help,
asking all the guards to look around in the stores.
They did a page, but I just knew, somehow I knew she
wasn't there. Maybe it was female intuition. Anyhow,
she didn't turn up. I was pretty upset by then, I
guess it was maybe getting on to be 7 - and I called
Chuck and told him what had happened.
-
- N: Chuck is Charles Lamar?
- CB: Yes.
-
- N: And he came down?
- CB: Yes. I mean, he sent out a dispatch right
away and then came down, so there were a few of the
other fellows there by the time he arrived.
-
- N: Was there anyone Macy could have met at the
mall who she would have left with?
- CB: No. Definitely not. I mean, she has friends
and all, lots of friends, and they sure do like to go
shopping. But she would never do something like that,
even if she was is a bad mood. She's a very
responsible girl.
-
- N: Does she have bad moods?
- CB: Yes - I mean, she's just like every other
teenage girl in that way. Sometimes she's just
fighting the entire world. But she doesn't take it out
like that. I'm proud of her for that. She says
something if she's mad. She wouldn't try to get back
at me.
-
- N: Was she in a bad mood today?
- CB: Not as far as I could tell, no. She was
pretty chipper. She has a big meet next weekend -
that's what the sweats were for.
-
- N: Does Macy have a boyfriend?
- CB: No. well, nothing serious, which is the way
it should be. Girls should take their time.
-
- N: But she's seeing someone?
- CB: Yes. A boy named Tom Westerbeke. I think he's
a senior.
-
- N: You didn't see him at the mall?
- CB: No. In fact, I'm sure there's no way he could
have been there - he went up to Duke this weekend, you
know, for a college visit. I heard Macy talking about
it yesterday.
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- N: He wouldn't have tried to take her with him?
- CB: No. Nothing like that. They aren't serious
that way.
-
- N: All right. Let's talk about the election. Has
it affected Macy at all?
- CB: Not really. I, well, I suppose it's hard to
hear nasty rumors about your daddy. From that man
Mazza - he's been saying the worst things. Sometimes
there's a lot of pressure.
-
- N: Do you think your daughter's disappearance has
anything to do with the election?
- CB: Oh, no! Absolutely not. There's nasty, and
there's *nasty*. Chuck and Harold know each other, I
think they've met once or twice. It's not like that.
They would never really hurt each other.
-
- N: What about otherwise? Is there anyone at all
who might want to take your daughter?
- CB: No. I mean, Chuck and I have talked about it
- I mean, you know, the fact that he's in his career.
And that there are all kinds of evil people out there,
criminals, who are probably angry about being caught.
I guess we've always feared revenge. But we brought
her up so well - we taught her to be responsible. She
would never get into a situation like that. Not our
Macy. (begins crying)
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- N: Would you like to take a break?
- CB: No. I want to keep going. I want to help find
her.
-
- N: All right then. We're almost through. I just
need to know if Macy seemed happy at home.
- CB: You mean would she run away? No. She
wouldn't. We brought her up to deal with things
differently. To face them, you know, head on. She
understood that running doesn't help.
-
- N: But she was doing well in school?
- CB: Yes, fine. As and Bs. There was absolutely
nothing wrong. Nothing to be afraid of.
-
- N: Mrs. Blanchard, I'm sorry to have to ask this,
but could you tell me a little bit about your divorce?
- CB: I'd rather not. We just decided to part ways.
But I guess if you're thinking Chuck might have wanted
her back, or this is because of something between us,
it's not. It's not like that. We just decided it was
time to part ways. We didn't go to court, just settled
everything quietly. I wish him the best with the
campaign and everything. It was just better for us to
be apart.
-
- N: So is the divorce final?
- CB: Not yet. I don't think there'll be any
holdups or anything. We're just working through the
details.
-
- N: How is Macy taking the divorce?
- CB: Hard, I guess. It's not easy for anyone. We
talked about it a lot, talked about all her concerns.
She's really strong. A rock. And it's not like Chuck
is far away. They see each other all the time. He
comes to her track meets and everything, so I think
we're doing our best, given we're apart, to give her a
normal life. We have a pretty normal life at home.
She understands that things sometimes just don't work
out.
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- N: All right. Are you seeing anyone new?
- CB: No. That really doesn't have anything to do
with this. I would tell you, if there was something
relevant to the case.
-
- N: Okay. Is there anything else to add?
- CB: No. Just I hope you catch that monster soon.
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- N: All right, thank you Mrs. Blanchard. Give us a
call if you think of anything else.
- CB: All right.
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