Kill the Ones You Love by Robert Scott Read Free Book Online

all about her before they got married.” As to marrying Jessica, Jesse said later, “Gabe was one of those guys who was very charismatic, handsome and well spoken. It seemed like he could have dated any girl he wanted to, but Gabriel seemed to go after the ones who were more intellectual and in tune with him. It was never about how beautiful they might be. When he married Jessica, I wouldn’t say for a second what the heck was going on, because she was like night and day to Gabriel’s personality. But he really loved her faith and dedication. I drove out to Oregon with my wife to see Mom. Gabe, Jessica and her family drove out there from Idaho and we all had a reception in Bandon.”
    It wasn’t long before Gabe convinced his new wife to use a lot of her insurance money so that they could put a down payment on a house in Provo, Utah, while they both went to college. As it turned out, though, they soon had housemates as well. Gabe asked Jesse and his wife to move into the new house with them. Jesse remembered, “Gabe and I agreed that me and my wife would move in with him and Jessica. We missed all the time we used to spend together. He was a wonderful guy when he was at BYU. As far as I knew, he was no longer using marijuana and he didn’t drink alcohol. He was very healthy and seemed very happy.”
    Jesse liked Gabe a lot, but he did not like his continuous preaching about the Mormon faith. Jesse was not a Mormon and did not want to become one. Gabe, however, would not let up on the subject. He dogged Jesse about it day after day. Jesse said later there were times he would leave the house just to get away from Gabe’s preaching.
    Another thing that Jesse did not like was Gabe playing video games on his computer into the wee hours of the night. Jesse said later, “I voiced my concern about this and thought it was ridiculous.” Gabe responded that it wasn’t hurting his studies, but there were times he went into states of denial. Jesse was sure that Gabe spent so much time on there, that it did hurt his studies.
    Another person who was in the household for a while with Gabe, Jesse and their two wives was Gabe’s stepsister, Isabelle. She was there for a couple of months and acknowledged that Gabe was still a wonderful brother. Isabelle said that it was always good to be around him. He was very positive and helped her in a lot of ways.
    One place where Gabe continued to shine was in his studies in ROTC. As far as Colonel Roger Maher was concerned, everything seemed fine in Gabe’s family. In fact, years later, Maher recalled an incident that stood out in his mind: “Gabriel did something exceptional, for any of the cadets I ever had. He and his wife, Jessica, invited me and my wife over to his house for dinner. Most people would have been too intimidated. But Gabe was very personable and excited to have us over. He prepared an Australia repast. He made it, not Jessica. We enjoyed a very fine meal and good conversation.”
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    Jessica was smart and persistent in her studies, but Gabe had fallen back into his old ways. Distracted and restless, he was more prone to playing video games than studying. He did have dreams of becoming a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and his ROTC training seemed a sure route toward that goal. But never one to let the truth stand in the way of a good story or a good presentation of himself, Gabe told Jessica and her parents that he had already been accepted into an air force flight-training program. Nothing was further from the truth. And what exactly occurred next, and why it occurred, became very murky in the years to come.
    Gabe’s stories always seemed real to the person he told them to. Especially when they had known him for some time. The one quality almost all of them commented upon was how honest he was. They couldn’t perceive of Gabe embellishing the truth about a situation.
    As Colonel Maher recalled of the