Fatal Visions

Beware of false prophets....

Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 14:15

Each member of Faylene Grant's family received a farewell letter after her death. Doug himself passed them out.

Josh Mankiewicz: You think-- you think Doug manipulated her into writing those letters?

Glenna: Yes, definitely.

Cherlene: Some of them, yes.

Glenna: He probably was right there when she wrote 'em.

Not one of them believes that writing the letters was Faylene's idea, even though Faylene had, more than once, told them she expected to die young.

Cherlene: She had a feeling she wouldn't live long.  She didn't have dreams and visions and premonitions of when it would happen and how and how soon.  That was Doug.

Josh Mankiewicz: Is it possible that Doug could sort of place all that in her mind?

Glenna: It is possible.

Doug is the most manipulating person I've ever met in my life personally.

Doug's videos showed he was a brilliant salesman.  At one time he'd even claimed he'd been paralyzed.

Doug's brother-in-law Shan had seem him perform at sales conferences:

Shan: I can remember as he was speaking and turned on these tears. 

Josh Mankiewicz: He started to cry talking about his product?

Shan: It wasn't hardly a presentation that he gave that he didn't cry. And literally by the time of walking to getting off the stage, his eyes are bone dry.  And he says to me-- he says, "Now that's how you work a crowd."

But selling vitamins on video is a long way from selling someone on the idea they're about to die.  Detective Ray says that to do it, Doug exploited Faylene's faith.

Det. Sy Ray: There's-- there's quotes all over in her Bible and her journals that if it's coming from a prophet or if it's a revelation, you don't question that.

And, he says, Doug set himself up as Faylene's prophet.

Det. Sy Ray: She had completely bought in to this theory that she was going to die very, very soon.  And she writes about it constantly.  And it's no longer her feelings.  It's Doug's visions.  It's Doug's premonitions.  It's Doug's dreams.  She's very clear. 

He points to this entry in Faylene's journal, dated September 5, three weeks before her death.

Faylene, 9/5/2001: It just touched me that this is another reason I must have faith in Doug's vision (he dreams it every night now) that I will get to go to the celestial kingdom because that is where Nicole is in the pre-existence.

Remember, Faylene was convinced she was destined to have a little girl named Nicole.  According to Detective Ray, Doug used that belief against her.

Det. Sy Ray: Her mission was to go to the Celestial Kingdom where she could bring Hilary a baby girl and then Doug and Hilary could then raise this girl.

Josh Mankiewicz: You're making Faylene seem like kind of a simpleton. I mean, this a guy that she knew by then had already cheated on her multiple times. And what?  She's such a sucker that he can use her religion and her feeling that she's not gonna live forever to get her to write anything he wants?

Det. Sy Ray: I believe that he convinced her that she was going to die in September based off of her religion and-- and using her just as you explained.

There's another journal entry two days later. Try to picture the scene it describes.

Faylene, 9/7/2001:  I cut up all of my maternity garment (nursing) tops tonight. Doug sat by me for moral support. That was hard! It feels sad to know I'll never have another baby on earth but I know I will some day - however that works!

And then an entry addressed to Doug, on September 17.

Faylene: "Just before I'd gotten into the shower you'd picked me up and thrown me onto the bed and looked into my eyes and told me not to worry about you; that you were going to be ok and that you could not deny the visions you'd had in church yesterday and that I was going to have an incredible blessing this weekend."

Josh Mankiewicz: Well, what happens that weekend? 

Det. Sy Ray: They go on their second honeymoon, which is also just full of issues.

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

It was during that second honeymoon that Faylene wrote all the farewell letters to family and friends. Remember, she and Doug had planned a trip to the Mormon holy sites in Nauvoo, Illinois-- then took an unexpected detour to Timpanogos National Monument in Utah, where Faylene apparently fell off a cliff. We noticed, when we talked to Faylene's family-- her sister Cherlene didn't seem eager to discuss the particulars of that fall.

Glenna: She explained what happened, didn't she?

Cherlene: I can't say that.

Glenna: Oh.  She can't say that.  (laughter)

Josh Mankiewicz: Why can't you say that?

Cherlene: Sorry.  I shouldn't have brought that up.

Josh Mankiewicz: That-- wh--

Cherlene: I can tell you my sister said she felt her left knee buckle and her foot slipped off the rock.  That's all I can tell you.

Josh Mankiewicz: Okay.

Cherlene: I don't know how her left knee buckled.  I don't know who made it buckle.

Josh Mankiewicz: Well, I mean--  but there's no-- you have no reason to believe that anybody made it buckle, right?

Glenna: Sure, I do. I'm sorry I brought that up.                  

Josh Mankiewicz: I mean-- I mean if she told you Doug had something to do with this, this would be the time to tell me.

Cherlene: No, she did not tell me that.

If that topic seems uncomfortable for the family, this may be the reason.  Listen carefully.

Det. Sy Ray: I think whatever caused Faylene's injuries in Utah she was a willing participant.  I-- I don't believe that Doug Grant against her will did anything that caused those injuries.  I believe that she was a willing participant.

But why?  Was Faylene divinely inspired?   Brainwashed? Suicidal? Or all three?  The detective knows what he thinks.

Josh Mankiewicz: You think if she jumped or deliberately fell, it was because that idea was placed in her mind by her husband?

Det. Sy Ray: Absolutely.

In other words, he thinks it was an attempt at murder by manipulation. A brilliant --if diabolical-- plot.

Det. Sy Ray: If Faylene would have died in Utah, I believe that Doug would have more or less pulled off a perfect murder.

But -- Faylene didn't die. And in fact, seemed to have shifted her thinking about dying.

Det. Sy Ray: She tells Doug.  Doug tells multiple people she doesn't think she's going to die anymore.  She thinks she's going to live.  And I think what happens at this point is that Doug has so much vested, if you will, in this plan and it's quickly unraveling. 

So, the detective claims, Doug started to improvise.  He convinced the physician’s assistant to prescribe the sleeping pills. He found a way to make Faylene take them. Then, he put her in the tub and drowned her. She wouldn't kill herself, so Doug was forced to do it.

It was a wild theory.  And, since police did virtually no investigating the day of Faylene's death, there wasn't close to enough physical evidence to prove -- or disprove it.  What's more, Faylene's writings still make a pretty powerful case that she might have killed herself.

Det. Sy Ray: If I've got these letters, it's real hard to say that I killed anybody because she-- she predicted this.  Absolutely is.

Five months after she died, the medical examiner ruled the manner of Faylene Grant's death "undetermined." Maybe murder, maybe suicide, maybe an accident-- no way to tell.  By early 2003, the investigation appeared dead, too. For the next two and a half years, no police reports were written.  And then, in a case with no end of strange detours, there came another. 

You won't believe what happens next.

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