Point Reyes Light - October 5, 2000
Diary shows Bishop knew nothing of murders
Excerpts from the diaries of slain Woodacre resident Selina Bishop have corroborated investigators' theory that she was an innocent victim in a nefarious plot by her boyfriend and his housemates to extort money from an elderly Concord couple.
A Contra Costa County judge released sections of Bishop's journal last week that show the 22 year old was aware of a possibly lucrative scheme devised by her boyfriend Glenn Helzer but didn't want any part of it.
Days before being stabbed and beaten to death - one of five murders that Helzer is accused of committing - Bishop wrote that she "did not want to be involved with [Helzer's] big plan."
The journal, which investigators confiscated from Bishop's Redwood Avenue apartment, also substantiates statements by her friends and family that although Bishop was infatuated with Helzer, she was also leery of him because he did not want anyone to know his real name or photograph him. Helzer was known to Bishop and those close to her only as "Jordan."
Marriott's Great America "Hopefully, it's really all taken care of now," Bishop wrote on Aug. 1, presumably referring to an argument the pair had over Helzer's plan. "I told him I wanted to go to Great America [amusement park] and he said he had something better planned. I don't know. I hope we have a nice time."
The optimistic entry was made just one day before Bishop - the daughter of Lagunitas blues guitarist Elvin Bishop - was last seen at a Berkeley brewpub with Helzer. She was reported missing Aug. 4 when she failed return to work at the Two Bird Cafe in San Geronimo after the planned outing with her boyfriend, a former Dean Witter stockbroker and Mormon missionary.
Harold Jewett, the Contra Costa County deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, has repeatedly stated that law enforcement officials firmly believe that Bishop was an not an active participant in the trio's illegal activities.
'Innocent victim' "We regard Selina Bishop as an innocent victim here," Jewett affirmed on Tuesday. "Perhaps she was a little naive or lovestruck, but she was not someone who was actively engaged in the series of crimes... We have known about the contents of the journal all along, and the comments released do not change our position in the case in any way."
Helzer, 30, his brother Justin Helzer, 28, and their housemate Dawn Godman, 26 - all of Concord - were charged in August with the murders of Bishop and Ivan and Annette Stineman of Concord. Prosecutors allege that the Stinemans were abducted, taken to the Helzer residence, and subsequently forced to write a series of checks totaling roughly $100,000 before they were stabbed multiple times and beaten.
The dismembered bodies of Bishop and the Stinemans were discovered over a week-long period starting Aug. 7 in nine duffel bags dumped in the Sacramento River Delta.
Court date in January The trio has also been charged with the Aug. 3 shooting deaths of Bishop's mother, Jenny Villarin, and her friend James Gamble as they were house-sitting Bishop's Woodacre apartment. Bishop, Villarin, and Gamble were presumably killed to eliminate them as possible witnesses to the extortion of the Stinemans, prosecutors said.
The suspects, who have all pleaded not guilty to the array of charges associated with the case, are scheduled to next appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 22, 2001.