Last week, Primetime Crime detailed the story of Justine and Eric Abshire. Married just five months, Eric says that he and Justine had an argument early on November 3, 2006, about his mother’s ailing health at which time Justine took off in her car. It was the middle of th night. Next, according to Eric, Justine calls him to tell him that her car broke down approximately 5 miles from the house, and so Eric says he got on his motorcycle to go get her.
Eric says he drove up on what looked like an animal in the road, but then realized as he got closer, it was a person, and that person was Justine. I find this statement interesting, and unusual.
“I turn onto Taylorsville Road. I saw something in the road, which I assumed was an animal, and as I got closer, I realized it was Justine in the road.”
First, I find it odd how Eric’s tense changes from “turn” to “saw”. We usually recollecting things in past tense.
Also, what human body in the road would like look a dead animal? I’d be especially curious to know what Justine was wearing that night. Regardless, this statement is a red flag for me.
Read morePolice who have investigated this crime say that Justine had defensive wounds with her body, and if this is true, it is flat out inconsistent with what Eric wants us believe. Furthermore, and on top of that, Justine’s injuries were just not consistent with colliding with a car say investigators.
The scene of the crime also did not support a hit-and-run scenario either. There was no broken glass, no skid marks–nothing. And there was no grease, oil or other elements from a car found on Justine’s body or in the vicinity of where Justine laid.
In the interview on Primetime, Jay Schadler asks Eric if he thinks someone could have beaten up Justine, and Eric’s response to Jay also raises a red flag for me. Instead of giving the idea consideration, Eric immediately discards it. This is unusual behavior for an uninvolved person to do.
When we truly don’t know what happened to our loved one, we typically don’t rule anything out. We consider all options and all investigations because we want to get to the truth. We want to know what happened to our loved one because we want to hold the person who did this to them accountable.
Eric never seems to talk about any of this. He doesn’t seem to feel violated in anyway that someone, in one form or another, robbed him of his beloved wife. I find this a red flag as well.
Eric, instead, gives us a lousy explanation as to why he wants to believe she was hit by a car instead of having been beaten up. He says he didn’t want to believe she exited the world that way (being beaten up), or something to that effect (forgive me, but I don’t have the transcript).
This explanation as to why Eric doesn’t want to consider another theory really bothers me. Would it be any easier for you to believe your spouse was hit by a car than beaten up by a stranger? Would either one of these scenarios give you more comfort than the other? Would you not want to find the correct individual who did this, and hold them accountable? Wouldn’t finding the truth be important to you?
Why isn’t it important to Eric?
Also, when Jay Schadler tells Eric that the police drove Justine’s car away from the scene without any mechanical problems (and the car was also looked at by a certified mechanic and found to be fine), Eric’s response bothers me again. He says something to the effect that that’s what the police are saying. His response indicates that he isn’t willing to accept that.
Tell me, if your wife called you with a broken down car, and you come up to her body on the road and find her dead, and then the police tell you the car is running fine, wouldn’t you want to know that? Wouldn’t you want to find out what the heck went on? Wouldn’t you be curious about that fact? Why isn’t Eric? Does he know what went on? This troubles me, too.
Also, Justine’s family says that Eric had insurance policies on Justine that he could cash in the event this accident is truly ruled a hit-and-run worth over a million dollars. Eric says it is only a fraction of that in reality, but regardless, he is not going to cash it in. He is adamant about it.
This is perplexing to me, and again, this makes no sense. If your wife was truly a victim of what you believe is a hit-and-run, and you had a policy on her for that, and you are 100% innocent, why wouldn’t you cash it in? Isn’t that why you got the policy in the first place? Or is he not able to cash in it at this time because of legal issues? I’m curious.
Let’s hypothesis further for a minute. What if, in a fit of anger, you lost it on your wife and you accidentally killed her, would you ever want to cash in that policy? Just food for thought.
Also, according to phone records, a call came in from Justine’s cell phone at 1:19 a.m., but it wasn’t until 1:57 that a neighbor near Justine’s body was alerted by Eric to the situation and called 911.
What took Eric so long to get help? Worse case scenario is that it took Eric 15 minutes to get to Justine after the phone call, and that would put him on the scene at 1:35. Eric says he ran to several houses before he got help — all the while leaving Justine lying in the road.
How many houses did he attempt to get help at? How far apart are the houses? Were the people not home in those houses? Has that been checked? Does his time frame add up?
Also, he had a cell phone on him, but he didn’t use it. I find this perplexing. He says he forgot about it until an hour later. Did he remember it when it was convenient?
Eric also tells us that he placed his jacket over Justine, but that he didn’t move her off the road. Did Eric believe Justine was dead and could not be revived? I am curious if it was outwardly apparent that she was deceased. Police are not discussing the details of Justine’s injuries.
Also, was there an indication she couldn’t be revived? Usually loved ones hold on to ALL hope until the very end that their loved one is alive, or could be revived. They summons help immediately, and cling to the hope they will make it. But it appears Eric didn’t do this. I wonder why. Was she that visibly deceased?
“There are no words to describe it,” [Eric] said. “That’s a situation nobody, unless they’ve ever lived through it, could describe …I just held her and talked to her.”
Abshire says he was overcome with emotion.
“I [sat] there with her. I covered her up with my jacket, and when I finally came to my senses enough I went and called for help.”
All the while Eric talks, he doesn’t show a lot of emotions. I can also be pretty confident that not many people would leave their loved one lying dead in the road in the middle of the night when they went to get someone to call for help. Would you?
The idea of it is mortifying. It goes against every grain of common sense. We all know roads are dangerous places — especially at night. What if another car came barreling into his motorcycle and hit her again? Most people would instinctively move their loved one without thought to a safe place when they summoned for help. It would be a reflex response, whether that person is dead or alive, but again, this wasn’t the case for Eric.
Add to all of this that Eric has a history of physical violence against women, was seen being physical with Justine in their relationship, that Eric didn’t want to be married, that Justine was known to not go out at night alone, or have a temper (which would cause her to go out at night), and frankly, you get a picture of what likely happened here, and it isn’t pretty.
I think Eric is an intelligent man, but I am not buying his story. At a minimum, discarding all the red flags that I see, the facts just don’t add up no matter how you look at it.
