I was asked by Lance Wagner and David Vanderhoff to intervene in the online argument between several individuals regarding the idea of posting Raychel's posthumous letters. The arguments have been made on both sides by people more eloquent that I, so I will not re-state them at this time.
For those of you keeping score at home, Lance, David, Kyle, and Sergei were in favor of posting their letters, while Anna Fantiani and Ken Kincaid were opposed. You can also note that Geoffrey MacIntyre has stated that he has not received a letter from Raychel and Laura Douglass and Sharon Wolfe have not been heard from on the issue (as they are currently in jail awaiting their respective trials).
If this was a democracy, that would actually mean something. It isn't, so it doesn't. I am in the fact business, so I will stick with the facts of the matter. They are:
The letters were written by Raychel as part of her sessions with Anna Fantiani;
Raychel wrote the letters to release feelings that were bothering her;
The letters were given to Anna Fantiani who sealed them;
Shortly after writing the letters, Raychel was murdered;
Raychel included a letter to Anna in the packet asking her to deliver the letters and maintain confidentiality;
Anna stated that one of the letters could contain the motive for Raychel's murder.
While all of those points are intriguing to me, the only one which actually means anything is the last one. If Anna (who served as Raychel's advisor and was the bearer of the letters) had not stated that it was possible for a motive to be contained in these letters, I would not agree that these letters were required reading by anyone other than the intended recipient. Her authentication of the importance of these letters was crucial to my bringing this issue to the attention of Detective Wakefield and the District Attorney. Yes, I said the D.A. is involved in this. Actually, he is very involved in this. You see, I spoke with him about this matter because it is possible that these letters will impact the trials of Laura Douglass and Sharon Wolfe (even more so if they also received letters - which is fair to assume). Therefore, rather than just ask everyone to submit their letters to me, the District Attorney on Monday will subpoena the letters from everyone. In addition, Anna Fantiani will be asked by the police to produce not only her letter, but a list of all recipients of a posthumous letter from Raychel. I expect that this, in turn, will force Geoffrey MacIntyre to produce the letter which he has stated repeatedly that he has not received. If he refuses to produce such a letter, a search warrant will be served to facilitate the acquisition of this letter.
"Rather than have Raychel's letters formatted for the web, they will be posted as they were written: by her hand. It may make her letters less legible, but what is lost in legibility should me made up for in unquestionable authenticity." |
As a finder's fee for the investigation, I have received the approval from the D.A.'s office to post these documents as part of Raychel's tribute web site, which we all know is the real reason Painseeker exists.
I would like to point out that at no time did I ever entertain the thought of posting a partial set of Raychel's letters. While some may argue that posting the letters of Lance, Sergei, Kyle, and David would be beneficial, they would not represent a complete image of Raychel's heart at the time these letters were written, which was the whole intention of this endeavor.
I have noted several questions received through the site that have mentioned the possibility that forgeries could be submitted to replace the true letters which were written to individuals. I hope that the addition of the D.A. will remove that fear. Now, if an individual submits a forged letter, the individual is risking several criminal charges including forgery, fraud, and obstruction of justice. And if that doesn't do it for you, how about this: Rather than have Raychel's letters formatted for the web, they will be posted as they were written: by her hand. It may make her letters less legible, but what is lost in legibility should me made up for in unquestionable authenticity.
Now for the bad news. Since I have already begun the process of releasing the police transcripts, I will not begin posting Raychel's letters until after the completion of the transcript process. I believe that the transcripts are by nature more important than Raychel's letters. Maybe you disagree, that's fine, but you're wrong. And I will not interrupt the transcript process by alternating transcript/letter/transcript until both series are exhausted. It is inefficient and ineffective.
When I spoke with Lance Wagner about the possibility of posting Raychel's posthumous letters, I told him that I had hoped to come to a fair and complete method to publish Raychel's letters. I believe I have accomplished that feat. I hope you agree.
