Thanks for the stories from Friday; I couldn't keep up with all the things I wanted to read today.
Just a few comments, since I had done a lot of background digging on all of this at the start.
I never found any evidence that Esther ever married Ken Dyleski. She has used Fielding, her maiden name, most of the time, but did use Hirschberger's name when she was married to him--which is why I'm not so sure she was ever married to Dyleski--but she did name Scott with that last name, instead of hers.
Ken Dyleski is his father and is "around," as you can read in the articles, but Scott "didn't like him" and since Esther, Scott's mother, is "his best friend," I assume it follows that she may not care much for the ex-whatever he is, either.
When I first found her info while sleuthing all the neighbors and my hinky meter went off, with the "DNA Activation" website (which I misremembered as "DNA Extraction," lol--always the crime buff), and saw articles on the "Amish-style" barn-raising they held publicly for the straw-bale house, I really wondered what kind of place Hunsaker Canyon was!
Horowitz himself had testified in court on neighbor Joe Lynch's behalf in a DUI, that "we're all a little 'different' in the canyon, myself included." Then Dyleski was arrested and I found in his birth record that his mom's maiden name was Fielding and "bingo," he must be related to the DNA lady, because they said he lived close to the resort on the same road. DNA Lady lived one door down.
But I thought she would be his aunt, since his last name was Dyleski and hers was still Fielding. OK. Well, then I found a lot of documents in CoCoCo for some Dyleski's and one appeared to be his father, but no mention of the mother.
We found out about the sister's death in a traffic accident, with her best friend at the wheel and another friend a passenger, who was also killed. They had all been roommates with a 4th person who wasn't in the car, ages 17, 18, 19 and 22, IIRC.
But the court papers about the accident showed that Denika Dyleski's father was married to Lyn Dyleski. Denika's mother's name was Deena. So, evidently Ken and Deena had divorced prior to that.
So, Esther Fielding wasn't Denika's mother, meaning Denika wasn't Scott's full sister. It doesn't appear they ever lived together at all. There is supposed to be another sister to Scott, but I don't know which set of parents belong to that girl or how old she is. I didn't find any Fielding-Dyleski siblings for Scott.
As far as the hay-bale house, it's not a lean-to. Did y'all see the pix of it? You'd never know by looking at it that the construction is what it is. In fact, it surprised me, because usually those are finished out to look like stucco, very SW'ern, but this one isn't.
In some of the stories from yesterday, the reporter referred to "Marcus," who is Scott's mentor, and a person who has tried to be a stabilizing influence in his life. I found that Marcus is Marcus Hogg, who is the brother of Kimberly Hogg Curiel, the female half of the couple who own the property and built the house for Esther and Scott to come live in (they were living in the lean-to on the property at the time).
Kimberly was also Esther's partner in the cafe. Some locals said that they sold it to a bagel shop which is there now. (But I didn't find any RE transfers for that.)
What we don't know yet is who Scott Dyleski's partner in crime was for the MJ-raising and credit card fraud scheme--not the murder. And I never did find any connection with Horowitz as far as legal aid among the civil cases (I don't have access to criminal or other) of *any* of these families, although he said he had given it for free and that means his name wouldn't show up on anything.
The fatal car accident seemed to be the biggest piece of legal action they were involved in--with the parents of the driver. They apppeared to be Iranian, named Mahmood Bagher, Ghazal Bagher and Asfaneh Amin, and owned a dry cleaners and pizza place. I believe the girl's parents divorced between the time of the accident and the time the litigation started. And I could never find any sentencing info on her.
I'm totally perplexed as to how the reported "checking Vitale's house for his mail" scenario could've escalated to murder by this kid. It's just so senseless and mystifying, even taking the Satan bible and weirdness into consideration. Surely there is more to it. Surely.
Excellent work, Rte66.
I knew that Denika was his half-sister. Did you know that his father and step-mother (who are Denika's parents) filed for divorce on Oct. 12 after 10 years?
Very impressive work. I agree there is far more to this story. Too many things do not make sense.
Regarding the bakery - first it was a bagel shop, then Cafe Esperanza. Today when I drove by, it had a temporary sign on it, called "Flipper's." Don't know if it's a name change only, or a change in ownership.