McElyea explained that he had drinking and gambling problems, and Doug, whom he'd known for years, had helped him out financially before a falling-out over McElyea's admitted failure to repay him.
McElyea repeated to Ray that Doug had confessed to him out of the blue about murdering Faylene.
Brian Stauffer
Faylene and Doug Grant on the day of their remarriage, July 27, 2001.
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First of two parts. Read Part Two
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"He just started mumbling and he said, 'What did I do? I don't know what I did,' and he started telling me that she wanted to go to the Heavenly Father.
"And she was gonna leave him and was gonna take the boys, and 'I just can't take that chance' and this and that. And I was speechless."
Early that evening, February 16, 2005, Jim McElyea "bumped into" Doug Grant outside a building in Mesa where Doug was about to lead a seminar.
The two hadn't seen each other for more than a year.
Wired for sound, McElyea went along with a script devised by Sy Ray, claiming authorities had questioned him earlier that day about Faylene's death.
"I kind of panicked and told them I hadn't seen you for a couple of days after she died," McElyea said. "They claimed they had information about what you told me about that morning."
McElyea swore he hadn't told anyone "about what you told me about what really happened [to Faylene]."
"What do you mean, about what really happened?" Doug asked. "What did I say?"
"About putting her to sleep."
"What I told you I told everyone," Doug said.
"They implied that somebody told them something," McElyea said, referring to the cops.
"I don't really remember at all that conversation," Doug said.
McElyea told Doug, "You said it was like you were dreaming."
"You'll have to explain it to me, Jim."
"You went in the bathroom, and you put her to sleep."
"I did put her to sleep," Doug said. "What do you mean?"
"Put in the bathtub. Put her to sleep. Then a week later, you said that's not what you meant."
"Number one, Jim, these people say things and try to scare people," Doug told him, sounding calm under the circumstances. "Just tell the truth."
McElyea reminded Doug of being alone in the house with him.
"The only thing that concerns me with what you said is that I said that I put her to sleep in the tub," Doug said. "There's a lot of confusion, but the bottom line is, I don't believe she killed herself, and I know I didn't kill her. And if all this comes out, all it's gonna do is make her look bad when she was one of the most phenomenal people on the planet.
"If they want to come after me, they can try, but I know what happened. It was a really bad situation, but I loved her with all my heart."
Maybe Doug Grant figured that police had compromised Jim McElyea. But if it was a performance, it was an impressive one.
As for McElyea, he never was formally charged with extorting money from Faylene's family.
"I wish I'd never heard of any of these people," he told New Times in 2006.
On July 12, 2005, Gilbert detective Sy Ray stepped into the grand jury room at the Maricopa County Courthouse.
He would be the sole witness for the State of Arizona in its quest for a first-degree murder indictment against Doug Grant.
That the panel returned a true bill against Grant was not surprising. Grand juries predictably do precisely as prosecutors tell them.
But what happened behind the closed doors that day went way beyond the norm — and will be a topic of next week's story on this remarkable case.
One teaser: Sy Ray never mentioned Faylene Grant's goodbye letters to the panel, and not a word about her self-documented history of suicidal thoughts.
On the morning of July 14, 2005, police arrested Doug Grant in Pima, just outside the offices of Optimal Health Systems, which had relocated there a few years earlier.
The cops took Doug to a jail in Safford, where Sy Ray was waiting for him.
"I wholeheartedly believe, without any doubts, that you killed Faylene," the detective told him. "I believe that I can prove that it was a financially motivated crime, for the most part. You stood to gain roughly $400,000 in doing so [and] you did collect the majority of that."
Doug sat mutely.
"I don't think you're as devout to your religion as you claim to be," he said. "But if you are, this is pretty much that opportunity that comes up once in a lifetime to set things straight once and for all. You will be judged, not only for the rest of your life, but for eternity on what you do right now."
Doug said, "I want to talk to my lawyer."
Next week: Detective Sy Ray sells his case against Doug Grant, but troubling problems reveal themselves.
