Celebrity Murders

WOMAN CLAIMS CAR NEARLY RAN HER DOWN.

The near-accident at the junction of Castle Creek Road and Highway 82 outside Aspen has come to light again—and this time there’s a witness.

Seems there was a Yellow Lamborghini, after all.

By Barry Keller, frequent contributor to Haunted Hideouts

ASPEN. There’s new furniture in the Aspen House. The bloodstains are gone—some of them cut out of the floorboards, some scrubbed into ghosts of themselves, concealed from view by new paneling. But you can still imagine them.

It’s said that the place where Brienne Cross rested her head—this was against the couch back in the central living area—was marked by a cross of dripping blood.

The couch is long gone.

And then there were the two bloody number eights painted on the walls of the bedroom where Justine Balough and Tanya Williams lost their lives.

Underneath all the cleansers, all the paint, all the paneling, at least a residue remains.

The Aspen Murder House is still on the market, although there have been no takers. You could say it’s been spruced up. The living room is described as “rustic, light and airy.” The floors are heart pine. The cream-colored sofas and ottomans are new and expensive. Ironically, a deer’s head pokes out from the stacked-stone fireplace, probably to add to that “cabin in the woods feel.”

One has to wonder: Did the decorators ever stop to think that Tanya Williams’s head was nearly severed from her body?

Didn’t think so.

There are plenty of windows looking out at the pristine beauty of the area. Outside, aspens encroach. Castle Creek roars past like a freight train.

It’s a beautiful spot.

A beautiful spot—forever sullied by a hideous crime.

By Barry Keller, frequent contributor to Haunted Hideouts

NEW MEXICO. Could the deaths of Hollywood stars be connected to the rising phenomenon of reality TV shows? Rodney Glazer, an adjunct theatre arts professor at Chamisa Hills Community College in Bernalillo, NM, believes there is a direct line between reality TV shows and Hollywood stars’s deaths by misadventure.

“In this Internet age, public and private lives have been distilled down to a sort of…commonality, including Hollywood stars. We see every aspect of celebrities’ lives played out in real time on sites like “TMZ,” “Access Hollywood,” “Entertainment Tonight,” and with many of them now starring in their own reality shows, the general public is beginning to think that they are, at the very least, ‘equals,’ of sorts. As, of course, they should be.

But they also see stars as more accessible, and many address their own emotional problems by seeking redress from a celebrity who doesn’t even know them.

There are more stalkers, now, and people who feel they have a say in a celebrity’s life. And sadly, there are more Hollywood stars whose deaths can be linked to the self-justifiable anger of a disgruntled fan. Fact and fiction have melded into one amorphous mass.

“Now this can be good. I myself have taken a liking to someone whose persona I’d previously disparaged—Gene Simmons of “Kiss” fame. But in Gene Simmons reality show, “Family Jewels,” his real personality comes through. Like Ozzie Osborn before him, we see that he is at heart a family man, whether he has walked down the aisle or not.”

If Gene Simmons reality show has Rodney Glazer’s approval, what about the stars who do not? He poses the question: What about the stars to engender real anger?

“Looking at the trouble some of these celebrities have had with the public, you have to wonder if they are not putting their own lives, and the lives of their families, in danger.” Glazer cited the television show “My Sister Sam,” where a crazed man mistook a young actress’s persona on the show for true life, stalked her, and killed her. “That girl, Rebecca Schaeffer, had no idea she was being stalked by a madman who hung on every word, every line she spoke on that TV show.”

As more and more people confuse fictional reality shows with the real thing, there could be trouble ahead. “Look at the deaths of Brienne Cross and the contestants on her show,” said Glazer. “Did someone take a personal disliking to them because of their interactions on ‘Soul Mate?’ It may be we will never know.”

Greg Dawson, The Ute City New Times

Here’s a surprise—-Michael Jackson is not number one on the Forbes Dead Celebs list. Earning 350 million, Yves Saint Laurent is Number One, and Michael Jackson comes in at Number Three with 90 mil. Not to worry, Michael, I’m sure there’s room for growth.

I would have thought pop-star-slash-murder victim Brienne Cross would been at least in the top two or three, but believe it or not, she didn’t make the list at all.

So I have to ask: What do you have to do to make the Forbes celebrity list? How to you break out in a field of famous people still earning money while dead? You would think the brutal Manson-style murders of a rising mega-star and five other innocent people on a reality show would yield better results. What can be more real than that?

As a Coloradan, I see this as a snub.

Yes, I can see why Elvis Presley made the list of dead celebrities—he’s always been a staple on the Forbes list, but where did the other regulars go? Where is James Dean? Where is Marilyn Monroe? And how can Michael Jackson, King of the Celebrities, come in third behind Rogers and Hammerstein?

But most important, where is Brienne Cross?

ASPEN. In April 2009, people from all walks of life—mostly young and attractive—auditioned for Brienne Cross’s new reality TV show, “Soul Mate.” “Soul Mate” was the second title for the show, after it was learned Paris Hilton had a reality show in the works called “My New BFF.”.

All the contestants were aspiring singers, just as Brienne Cross was when she burst onto the music scene in 2006 with her second-place finish on “America’s Newest Star.”

The show was a mish-mash from the beginning. Not only were the producers looking for someone who could sing back-up on Brienne Cross’s new album, but the real prize was for the person who could become Brienne’s best friend and confident.

Writer Nick Holloway, who covered the project for Vanity Fair, said in an interview with The Aspen News that the atmosphere was “divisive.” He would not elaborate, but did mention that in addition to writing a series of essays about the everyday workings of this reality TV show, a new approach to the genre, he took hundreds of photographs. Holloway, in conjunction with Vanity Fair, was planning to produce a photo retrospective of the taping.

In the aftermath of the Aspen Massacre, Vanity Fair has decided not to publish Holloway’s essays, and it is doubtful these photos will ever see the light of day.

ASPEN. Could the Memorial Day Weekend murders of celebrity Brienne Cross and the contestants for her reality TV show, Soul Mate, be related to celebrity burglaries?

Although it’s unlikely that the kind of people who would commit burglaries in celebrities’ homes would leave mutilated bodies behind a la the Charles Manson Murders, more than one former member of the law enforcement community thinks there could be a link. A retired Aspen PD captain claims that some valuable items had been stolen from the Aspen home where Brienne Cross was taping her new reality TV show, “Soul Mate.”

“There’s been a rash of burglaries at celebrity homes in Aspen,” he told me under promise of anonymity. “And they have become increasingly violent. It doesn’t matter how rich or how famous you are. In these desperate times, people will do anything to get money, including home invasions.”

It’s something to think about.

THE MAN UNDER THE ESCALADE

By M.J. Hawk, reprinted by permission:

In one of the newspaper accounts—I think it was The Aspen New Times—the subheading of the front-page article said, MAN FOUND UNDER ESCALADE AT MURDER HOUSE.

The man under the Escalade was Nick Holloway, a freelance writer and author of the bestselling political thriller, Hype. Holloway was writing a series of articles about the show. He wrote about “Soul Mate” behind the scenes.

I would love to see the articles, but Vanity Fair decided not to run them—they said out of respect for the dead. I’m guessing it was mostly due to legal issues.

I’m sure Nick’s observations of the cast and crew, and of Brienne herself, will be invaluable to detective on the case, Derek Sloan. I myself am wildly curious about what Holloway wrote. He was like a fly on the wall, watching the interactions among the cast—the flirting, the friendships, the alliances, the flare-ups. I’m sure he gained insight into their characters, seeing them in unselfconscious moments, seeing them at their best and at their very worst.

So Nick is perhaps the most interesting victim, other than Brienne herself.

This is what I really want to know. Did Nick Holloway hide under the Escalade to escape the carnage? Or was he the killer, sleeping it off after an orgy of bloodlust?

With all that Rohypnol in his system, could he have made his way down along the side of the log home and into the garage? Could he have had the presence of mind to crawl under the Escalade, when he was, to all intents and purposes, in a complete blackout?

But if someone did stash him under the Escalade, why was he spared?