That, despite the testimony of pathologist Arch Mosley, who testified that he probably would have ruled the woman's death a suicide had Gilbert police provided him with Fay's "farewell" letters — which detectives intentionally withheld from him.
"The notes in the hand of the dead person are critical," Mosley testified. "The tone of the letters is similar to a lot of other suicide notes I've read — putting one's affairs in order. She's just so prolific with it. That's the most unusual thing."
Michael Ratcliff
Faylene Grant’s sister, Jody Stratton, attended the entire trial.
Michael Ratcliff
Members of Faylene Grant’s family meet with the media after the March 24 conviction.
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Faylene actually was mostly upbeat in her writings about her husband and about life in general, with the notable exception of a journal entry dated three weeks before she died. In that September 5, 2001, notation — which Juan Martinez read to the jury whenever he could — Faylene wondered whether her once-adulterous husband was being straight with her, after he had confessed to sending Hilary money as an alleged goodwill gesture.
Gilbert police lead investigator Sy Ray, a central and controversial player in the case, testified that he had withheld Fay's telltale letters from Dr. Mosley because "it is very common for us to actually not give too much information on an ongoing case to the Medical Examiner's Office, because we have had problems with the information being released [and jeopardizing the investigation]."
This came as news to Mosley (who is now working as a coroner in Coconino County) and other pathologists at the county agency, who tell New Times they don't know what Sy Ray was talking about.
Ray knew as well as anyone that Faylene increasingly alluded to the inevitability of her early death. About three weeks before she died, she wrote that she had confided her fatalistic thoughts to one of her sisters and to a brother-in-law.
"This is it," Faylene wrote to a friend, Fatima Marinakis, about a week before the end. "My last letter, since I don't think they have mail delivery where I am going."
But with a straight face, Sy Ray told Mel McDonald from the witness stand, "I've never become aware at any time about Faylene contemplating her death."
Faylene also told at least two close friends that she was going to die sometime soon, and she said it before she and Doug were even contemplating reuniting. In one odd chat with a longtime girlfriend in early 2001, Faylene explained that she was planning to break off a budding relationship because she couldn't stand the thought of making the fellow a "young widower."
One day before she nearly fell to her death in Utah, Faylene scribbled another strange letter, this one to both Doug and Hilary. Doug later claimed he'd found the letter back in Arizona soon after Fay died.
"I know I will be here with my body until it is buried," she wrote on September 23, 2001. "I have held a secret hope and desire for several weeks that I would be able to see you both married, that I could be there! For some reason, this desire for you to be married immediately and to see you sitting together as husband and wife at my funeral has been so strong . . . I pray that your home will be protected from the adversary [Satan] and filled with the Holy Ghost! I know it will be!"
Hilary Grant testified that Faylene confided in a phone call (supposedly out of Doug's earshot) that she was going to die in Utah. Though, again, Fay never said how it would happen. Within a day or so, Faylene slipped, jumped, or was pushed off the precipice at Timpanogos.
"All we know about that is that she fell somewhere in Utah," juror Matt Percifield says, "and it was kind of a miracle that she didn't die. But Doug wasn't charged with that, so we let it go after a while."
Faylene also apparently had become certain that Hilary was meant to be her successor as "earthly" mother to her children. Faylene noted in her journals that she had, after her divorce from Doug, seen how her children bonded with Hilary.
"I know you have great blessings," Faylene wrote in another letter, this one solely to Hilary. "I want you to be the mother of my children. Remind them that they are precious to their mother who has been called to serve her mission elsewhere . . . There is no place for jealousy; I feel a oneness with you. No matter what, know above all else how much I love and admire you and wish for your happiness."
The relationship between the two women during Faylene's last weeks was profound, no matter how prosecutor Juan Martinez tried to spin it during the trial. To Martinez, Hilary was little more than the classic "other woman," a nasty little gold digger whose sole goal was to win Doug back at whatever cost.
Unquestionably, the situation was weird.
Though the women never met in person after the July 2001 remarriage, Faylene would become Hilary's spiritual mentor and confidante.
The Faylene/Hilary relationship spun this case into the stratosphere. They had known each other through family connections since Hilary, 15 years younger than Faylene, was a child.
