Posted on 05/09/2003 6:51:17 AM PDT by Loyalist
CREDIT: Grant Black, Calgary Herald
Ald. Darlene Heatherington
A Lethbridge city councillor -- who claimed to have been drugged and abducted in Great Falls and driven to Las Vegas -- staged the elaborate hoax from the beginning, right down to tossing her keys under a rental car and leaving her personal belongings in clear view, authorities told the Herald.
"That was clearly an effort to show that something happened to her," said Cascade County Attorney Brant Light.
"By her doing that, it would be consistent with someone attacking her from behind and knocking the keys out of her hand, which, of course, didn't happen," Light said Thursday.
Darlene Heatherington, who turned up Tuesday night on the Las Vegas Strip claiming to have been abducted from Montana, drugged and sexually assaulted, lied about her entire alleged ordeal and instead admitted she ran off with a married Alberta man, Light said.
Heatherington, a married mother of three, changed her statement during a three-hour interview with Great Falls police on Wednesday night.
As a result, the 39-year-old first-term alderman has been charged with the misdemeanour offence of providing false information to police. It carries a fine of $500 US and/or six months in jail.
Light said initially a sobbing Heatherington told detectives she was loading her belongings into her rental car at a Great Falls parking lot last Saturday morning when she was approached from behind by a stranger.
"She said she felt an arm around her neck and a pain in her arm from someone drugging her," he said.
"She said she woke up in the passenger seat of a car, handcuffed and driving to Las Vegas."
Light, who sat in on the interview, said Heatherington admitted she had fabricated the story about 45 minutes into the process, when Det. Bill Bellusci challenged her claims.
"It was unbelievable. You could see it in her face that she was busted," Light said. "She admitted there was no crazed guy with a syringe walking around Great Falls."
She told police the truth was she had met a man on the Rivers Edge Trail along the Missouri River while riding a bicycle she had bought from a pawnshop, and by coincidence discovered he was from Alberta.
"She said she wanted to get away and go to L.A., and instead the two of them drove all the way to Vegas," Light said, adding she left the bike on the path.
Following her admissions, police told her husband, David, that she had been lying.
Light said David Heatherington became distraught and asked for some private time with his wife.
"We're not sure he believed it," Light said.
In Lethbridge, David Heatherington said Thursday in response to the allegations of infidelity by his wife that he was only aware that "something" was being talked about in Montana.
"I understand (the county attorney) has released some information. I have to hear what that information is through him and then I will make some determinations with Darlene and the appropriate counsel," the longtime firefighter told reporters at the couple's home.
"I have not seen his remarks or heard his remarks and I don't want to do anything that would jeopardize this case," said David.
He pledged to stand by his wife of 17 years, saying he made a commitment to her on their wedding day and he is keeping that promise.
"In the past day, I have told her many times that I trust her, I believe in her and I love her," he said.
It's not clear whether Darlene Heatherington knew the married man beforehand and planned the rendezvous once her business meetings last week in Great Falls were finished and her colleagues from Lethbridge went home, Light said.
"But I do find it quite a coincidence that she's riding along the trail and she runs into someone from Alberta."
Heatherington was aware of the searches and heartache her disappearance caused and was emotional about it, Light said.
"She said her life was over. She was upset about what her family and kids and the community would think."
Both Lethbridge and Great Falls police say the investigation is now closed.
Heatherington has until next Wednesday to answer to the charge, and she must face a judge in Great Falls to enter a plea.
One reason Heatherington was charged, Light said, was to send a message to her and the people of Great Falls.
"She has to be held accountable," he said.
"People were scared in this town and she ate up a lot of our money and man-hours when we still thought she was a victim."
Lieut. Ron Steffens of the Great Falls police department declined to provide a timeline of Heatherington's whereabouts between Saturday, when she was last seen shopping in Great Falls, and late Tuesday when she was spotted in Las Vegas.
"It is not our intention to further embarrass Mrs. Heatherington," Steffens said, adding that "some medical assistance was given to her" while in Great Falls.
Darlene Heatherington, who was resting in bed on Thursday, has not yet seen her doctor because he is out of town.
Her husband told reporters: "I am not going to allow any more speculation on the medical care that happened while she was in Las Vegas, and we are following up with her family doctor here in Lethbridge."
David Heatherington said when he heard that Darlene was in Las Vegas, he made arrangements to fly there and "rescue" her.
"Because she was exhausted, I took her from Las Vegas prematurely.
"She did not have an opportunity to finish giving statements to the Las Vegas police," he read from a prepared statement.
© Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald
Says little for her judgment, or Lethbridge voters. Surely isn't first time she's wigged out, if not this badly.
That's so sad. Time for a very painful rude awakening.
"I am not going to allow any more speculation on the medical care that happened while she was in Las Vegas, and we are following up with her family doctor here in Lethbridge."
Crack? Abortion? Enquiring minds want to know.
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