Fatal Visions

I will bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works...

Book of Mormon, Alma 37:25

On the day Faylene Grant died, police filed brief, routine reports. One said, "Faylene's death at this time appears accidental." Another said, "I did not detect the elements of a crime at this time." Faylene's family says they became suspicious almost immediately. For one thing, Faylene had mysteriously fallen off a cliff just three days before. For another, they say they could never get a consistent story from Doug about how his wife drowned in her own bathtub in the early morning hours.

Jody: Well, one of the stories he told was that-- he woke up and she was gonna get ready to get in the bathtub.  He asked if she needed help, and she said, "No."  So he fell back asleep. The other story was that he helped her into the bathtub.

It's right there in the police reports.  One officer writes, "Douglas remembers seeing Faylene walk into the bathroom and remembers hearing the bathtub water running.  He fell asleep..." Another officer recounts a separate conversation:  "He had run a bath for Faylene at her request and helped her into the bath."

Josh Mankiewicz: This to you sounds suspicious, like someone trying to get their story straight.

Cherlene: Right.

And certainly, Doug didn't help matters by marrying Hilary, his supposed ex-girlfriend, just three weeks after burying his wife.  Even his own family was disturbed by it.

Tammy Fuentes: I told him I thought it was way too soon.  You know, he should wait.

But it's possible everybody would have just dealt with their grief and shock and suspicion and moved on, except for one detail. The police reports that day quote Doug as saying he called police and fire, but there was no record of a 911 call from the Grant home.

Doug did call Chad White, the physician's assistant who had prescribed Ambien to Faylene. It was Chad White -- not Doug Grant -- who called 911 ... And what he said in that call was hard to explain.

Chad White:  He said that his wife is unconscious, and that he thinks she took all of the medicine that she had, and I told him to call 911 and he said "I'm afraid to, I'm afraid to."

Sy Ray: It definitely piqued my interest. 

Gilbert Police Detective Sy Ray started looking into the death of Faylene Grant nearly six months after it happened, long after Faylene was buried and Doug had married another woman.

Josh Mankiewicz: You weren't really sure whether this was accidental or a homicide?

Sy Ray: No. We didn't have hardly enough evidence to-- to decide what it was, whether it was accidental, suicide, natural, or anything else. 

But he did have that 911 tape.  It raised obvious questions.  Why would a man who had just found his wife underwater call any number besides 911?  Why would he be afraid to call?  It raised other, less obvious questions, as well.

Sy Ray: When Chad calls 911, he actually reports this as an overdose. Never mentions bath tub.  Never mentions water.  Chad White had no clue she was even in the bath. And then when officers arrive, Doug doesn't mention the pill bottles, it's more of an accidental drowning that he's claiming to officers.

Josh Mankiewicz: And he doesn't mention that she took all these Ambien?

Video   'He said that his wife is unconscious' Hear more of physician's assistant Chad White's call to 911 when Doug told him Faylene had overdosed. Dateline NBC

Sy Ray: No. 

Doug and Faylene were not the only people in the house that morning.  Faylene's daughter Jenna, 11 years old at the time, was there with her two younger stepbrothers-- Doug and Faylene's kids. When police interviewed Jenna four months after Faylene's death, her story didn't match Doug's.

Detective: You woke up the next morning at 7:15, and he was standing in the kitchen?

Jenna: Mm-hmm.

But the phone records showed Doug called Chad White at 7:42-- nearly a half hour after Jenna says she saw him in the kitchen.

Sy Ray: Doug's story just didn't make sense that he woke up out of bed, ran and found Faylene in the bathtub.

Then there was the matter of Faylene's life insurance.

Sy Ray: in the beginning was he was-- saying that there was just enough life insurance to pay for the funeral, about $30,000 worth of life insurance. 

Not true. In fact, Faylene was insured for $300,000. And she and Doug had recently applied for a lot more: 860,000. Detective Ray looked at Doug Grant's phone records, too.

Det. Sy Ray: The thing that jumped off the page was the immediate calls to Hilary after the remarriage to Faylene.

Detective Ray counted more than 200 calls between Doug and Hilary during Doug's second marriage to Faylene, including one shortly after Doug and Faylene got married at the Excalibur Hotel:

Josh Mankiewicz: He calls Hillary and says, "Watch a movie called First Knight."

It was a 1995 costume drama about King Arthur's round table-- with an all-star cast.  So, what was the point?

Det. Sy Ray: He explains that he would be Guinevere, that Hillary would be more or less the role of Lancelot, and that Faylene would be the role of King Arthur. And King Arthur dies.

Josh Mankiewicz: The King Arthur character essentially says, "I'm not going to be around anymore, so therefore you, Lancelot, be with Guinevere."

Det. Sy Ray: Correct.

And within a day or two of Faylene's death, Doug had what appeared to be a clandestine meeting with Hilary. 

Josh Mankiewicz: He meets Hilary in the park and what happens?

Det. Sy Ray: Several things. 

Ray got the story from a close friend of Hilary's.

Det. Sy Ray: He gives her money, tells her that she's going to be the mother of his children soon and that she needs to go out and enjoy herself.  Gives her--

Josh Mankiewicz: How much money does he give her?

Det. Sy Ray: Depending on who you talk to, anywhere between $500 and $2,000.

Oh, and one other thing.

Det. Sy Ray: He also grabs her by the hips, tells her that he missed 'em.

Josh Mankiewicz: He missed her hips?

Det. Sy Ray: That's the statement that was reported.

By the time Sergeant Ray called Doug and Hilary down to the police station for questioning, it was July 2002-- ten months after Faylene's death. Detective Ray had no smoking gun-- but he had plenty of smoke.  And Doug Grant knew it.

Doug Grant: Just awful. I mean, you absolutely have possibly in your mind that I had a major possibility of hurting my wife.

Doug also seemed more confused than ever about the circumstances of Faylene's death.

Doug Grant: You know the story I want to make up in my head, but I-- I'm not going to because I don't know it to be true, and I don't remember. 

Det. Sy Ray: OK.

Det. Sy Ray: It was clear to me after that interview that Doug was hiding information.  That he just wasn't willing to openly speak about everything that occurred in the case. 

And yet, even though Doug had trouble explaining his actions... He had plenty of much-needed help.  The fall from the cliff, the insurance, the calls to Hilary, the meeting in the park, marrying his girlfriend just weeks after his wife died, perhaps even the death itself... All of it could be explained. And not by Doug, not by Hilary, but by Faylene.  You've already seen and heard some of her writings.  But you ain't seen nothing yet.

Faylene, 9/18/2001: Hilary.... I want you to be the mother of my children.

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