Obsession

Hoda Kotb Correspondent • Profile

GAINESVILLE, FLA. - College attracts the best and the brightest: idealistic kids, full of fire, ready to change the world.

But there's idealism, and then there's Michelle Herndon.

Belinda Herndon: She gave to the World Wildlife Fund, to the Animal Relief, all these little organizations.

Jessica: She had a fascination with apes she worked at a primate sanctuary.

Belinda Herndon: She went to St. Francis house and volunteered which is a homeless shelter.

Belinda Herndon: I’ve actually seen her get out of her vehicle in the middle of a Target parking lot because someone threw a cup in the parking lot.  And she was so irate she told him, it was a young man, a college student just like her, "There's a trash right there.  Would it have killed ya?" and that's just what she said.

For Michelle, it was simple: We are all custodians of our planet, and of every thing on it.

Belinda Herndon: She was a caretaker, yes.  Of people, of things, of animals.

Hoda Kotb: Of everything.

Belinda Herndon: She's called me on her way to work, "I’m going to be late for work.  I’m going to get in trouble!"  I’m like "why?"  "A squirrel!  I found it in my road.  It has a broken leg.  I have to take it to UF to the veterinary clinic."  I’m thinking, "Oh, Michelle..."

Just 24-years-old, Michelle Herndon wanted to join the Peace Corps and spend time doing charity work in Africa.  She even donated money every month to sponsor a needy child.

Belinda Herndon: She had the photo of the boy in her day planner and would bring it up to me.  It was, "Jessica, look at this boy I just adopted."

Belinda Herndon: She had the world by the tail and was riding it.  She was--my child has never been happier. She had everything she wanted.

But her life would take an unexpected turn in early November 2005, becoming the center of a mystery that would baffle detectives and forensic experts and take more than two years to resolve.

Michelle Herndon dreamed of traveling the globe, but she got her start on the two-lane county roads of Live Oak, Fla., a sleepy, tight-knit community just south of the Georgia border.

Belinda Herndon: She was our everything.  Her brother used to always say that we all lived vicariously through Michelle, through her eyes.

Athletic and tall, with long, blonde hair, Michelle loved attention.  She was comfortable at the center of any crowd and knew how to work a room.

Belinda Herndon: She usually made a grand entrance.  Her smile could light up the darkest night.  And she had the bluest eyes she just reminded me of a butterfly the way she would just kind of float around.

When she left the cocoon of Live Oak to attend college in Gainesville, Michelle’s parents knew their social butterfly would land on her feet. 

Michelle lived by herself off-campus and bounced around from house to house, sometimes not in the best neighborhoods.

Belinda Herndon: She had a little Christmas get-together and one of the girls said, you know, if my mother knew I was over in this area of town, she would not be very happy.  But like Michelle said, "Who's going to rob me?  They all think we're as poor as each other!"

To make some extra money, Michelle, a health nut, worked part-time as a personal trainer at Gainesville health and fitness.  She started a recycling program almost immediately.

Jessica Seipel: She was a breath of fresh air.

Jessica Seipel also worked the early morning shift at the gym.

She and Michelle became inseparable, and pretty soon, you could always find Michelle at Jessica’s house giggling, talking and co-hosting dinners and barbeques in Jessica’s big backyard.

Jessica Seipel: Once a week, we tried to have what we called "family dinners" where we would all sit around and have a nice home cooked meal.  And it would, it would be myself, Oliver, Sonia, my girlfriend Sky and also Michelle and whoever else we would just invite over to have dinner.

The dinners were mostly girlfriends, but occasionally Jessica’s roommate, Oliver, would join them.  He was shy. A bit awkward around women. But Michelle always did all she could to make him feel at home.

Belinda Herndon: He said, "I really don't have very many friends."  He said, "I'm so much smarter than most people, that I have a hard time relating to them".   Michelle's like, "Yeah, he's kind of full of himself." She said, "But I feel bad."  She said, "He's the kid that got picked on in school." 

Hoda Kotb: It also seems to me that she was one of those people who sort of took in the strays a little bit.

Jessica Seipel: Uh-huh. Animals and people alike.

Jessica Seipel:  People wise, it seemed like everybody who needed a little bit of encouragement or a little bit of help, she was always right there to get their back.

Michelle had a very full social life, but she was ready to make as much room as possible for one particular guy: Jason Dearing.

Belinda Herndon: She had actually tried to fix him up with her cousin at a family reunion in 2001.  And she said I realized at that moment when Kim kind of looked at him like oh! She said I wanted him all to myself.

Jessica Seipel: You could pretty much tell that they were in love with each other from the get go.

Now, after four years of on and off, off and on, they decided they wanted to be on -- for good.

Jessica Seipel: She looked like a little school girl.  She was like "Oh my gosh, you have to hear about this conversation I just had with Jason!" They just really decided OK, let's go for it.  Let’s, you know, go a hundred percent.  A real committed relationship.  Let’s go for it.

Michelle Herndon was the happiest she'd ever been.  Practically yelling from the rooftops.  But then... silence. 

She stopped calling her mom. Her boyfriend. She missed work and even her best friend said she couldn’t reach her.

Jessica Seipel:  I called her probably 10 times just to see what was going on.

Belinda Herndon: I thought gee, she must really be working or classes or something's going on. 

Then finally, at 3:30 in the morning on Nov. 10, Michelle’s mom, Belinda Herndon, received a phone call. It was Jason.

After not being able to reach Michelle for two days, he had driven back to Gainesville from his house in Miami and was standing outside her house, sick with worry. 

Inside, he could hear her dog barking, her cell phone ringing. But there was no sign of Michelle.

Belinda Herndon: He said I’m at her house and her car's here. She’s left her cell phone and she's left Duke.  And Duke was her baby. All I could think of was maybe Jessica got sick so she went over there.

Belinda roused herself out of her sleep and tried to call Jessica.

Jessica Seipel: Michelle’s mom had called she couldn't get a hold of her. I just jumped out of bed and got dressed and called Michelle’s mom and said I’m going to drive over to Michelle’s house right now.

So Belinda Herndon waited.  She waited for Jason, Jessica, anyone to tell her what was going on. 

But her phone didn't ring. Wouldn't ring. So there was nothing left to do.

Hoda Kotb: Start driving?

Belinda Herndon: Yes.

Hoda Kotb: When did it hit you?

Belinda Herndon: I knew going down there. I knew something wasn't right.  I just -- I knew. I passed people.  I went in the parking lanes in the middle of Gainesville to, I mean, I kept thinking, please God, please let a policeman pull me over, because then they'll be able to get me there quicker. But it was the longest drive of my life. 

It took Belinda an hour to get from her home to Michelle’s, and when she finally arrived, she was greeted by the very last thing any parent wants to see: Yellow police tape, squad cars, and the grim faces of detectives already at work.

Belinda Herndon: The detective walked up to me and he said that our daughter had been found dead in her home.  And I could remember dropping to the ground and telling him if he didn't find the man that did this, her father would and this family would suffer another tragedy.

Her daughter was a healthy and vibrant young woman who'd never suffered anything worse than a migraine. So right away, Belinda thought foul play.

But Gainesville police Det. Michael Douglas wasn't so sure.

Hoda Kotb: Did you see any signs of trauma or any blood or anything like that?

Det. Michael Douglas: None whatsoever.

Hoda Kotb: Nothing?

Det. Michael Douglas: Nothing.  I was perplexed...

Hoda Kotb: So the detectives had to consider the idea that Michelle had done this to herself.

Jessica Seipel: There were so many things, so many different thoughts that were tossed around. I remember somebody saying, maybe it was suicide, and I just wanted to choke them.  They obviously, you've never met her.  You have no idea what you're talking about.

Based on accounts of Michelle’s demeanor in the previous days and the absence of a note, that theory was ruled out pretty quickly.

Det. Michael Douglas: This girl-- but, you know, didn't appear to be suicidal at all.  You know, she had too much-- she was looking forward to the future.

Next, Detective Douglas thought perhaps she was a drug user who overdosed by accident.

Det. Michael Douglas: You can usually tell a lot about a person's personality as you go through their-- their belongings.  And I went through everything-- in her house.

Hoda Kotb: What did that tell you about-- Michelle?

Det. Michael Douglas: She seemed like a very neat, conscientious, health-conscious individual.     

Hoda Kotb: How could you tell-- she was health conscious?

Det. Michael Douglas: By what's in her refrigerator.

Hoda Kotb: Yeah?  What'd she have in there?

Det. Michael Douglas: She had milk, water, some yogurt, fruit, things like that.

Hoda Kotb: Right, not like beer or--

Det. Michael Douglas: Right.  Beer—

Hoda Kotb: Pizza and stuff that—

Det. Michael Douglas: --and cold pizza. 

Hoda Kotb: --college kids would have.

Det. Michael Douglas: No, nothing like that.

Hoda Kotb: So, just so I'm clear, you didn't find-- you didn't see any signs of drugs?  No signs of alcohol?

Det. Michael Douglas: No.

In a matter of hours, they had pretty much ruled out an intruder, suicide, an accidental overdose.

There was only one other explanation: Michelle Herndon had died of natural causes.

Det. Michael Douglas: It happens.  But not very often. I’ve had deaths where a seemingly healthy person had a seizure disorder and died.  I had one since Michelle’s death--this girl was 19 years old.  No medical history.  Found dead in her bed.

Hoda Kotb: So it does happen?

Det. Michael Douglas: It does.

So Detective Douglas began wrapping up the investigation.  But before he could close out her file, procedure dictated that he send Michelle’s body to the medical examiner for a routine autopsy.

Dr. Burt: It just didn't make a lot of sense.  Why a young, healthy girl would be dead.  She wasn't known to use drugs, she didn't hang with a rough crowd, she didn't have any of the signs of someone who was in danger.

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