Part 5: Murder in Montrose

The cops and the papers and even Stonie’s mom, they told a story, later on, of what happened that day after Stonie left Jamie’s balcony. And if it is not a true story, well, I had no means of disproving it and still do not.

But if it was not a true story then the world is a better place after all.

The story they told is one in which Stonie – still tipsy from the beer I had finished, probably – drove over to the house of an ex. Finding her house dark and also empty, he climbed in through a convenient bathroom window.

While back at Jamie’s apartment, Jamie and I drank beers and watched the children play, Stonie was stumbling through his ex’s house, and he searched her drawers and maybe flipped through photographs. I don’t know. Perhaps he read his ex’s diary just as I had read Jamie’s. 

Her name was Justine. Everyone called her “Buttafly.”
At 14, Justine Maxwell discovered Montrose and threw herself headlong into its unconventional,  artistic underground. Though she came from the very representation of suburbia – a two-story house in the Champions West subdivision with two parents, older siblings and pets – and grew up with every creature comfort imaginable, a stint at summer camp changed everything. There, Maxwell met some street-savvy girls who showed her how to ride the bus and introduced her to the Montrose way of life. 
Everything about the famously eclectic neighborhood appealed to her – the street kids who answered to no one, the wild hair and tattoos, the exotic shops and coffee bars, the artistic flavor, the humming nightlife.” – chron.com
While back at Jamie’s apartment, I made ambiguous and passive-aggressive references to her dalliances, Stonie was breaking into Buttafly’s email. She and her new boyfriend were pregnant, the emails said.

O, jealousy is such a stupid thing, making some of us say ambiguous and passive aggressive words to someone we love. Others of us it makes lie in wait in a darkened house for the return of an ex and her new boyfriend.

Stonie waited.

He waited while Buttafly and her boyfriend pulled up to the house. He waited while they gathered their groceries. He waited while they opened the front door.

The boyfriend’s name was Danny. The papers never mentioned a nickname.

Stonie killed Robert with his mother’s pistol. The neighbors found Buttafly’s body on the front lawn. 
“Blood spatters leading down the couple’s back stairs and driveway showed that a wounded Maxwell ran for her life, screaming for help, police said. But she could not escape and was shot again outside before collapsing next to her driveway, in a neighbor’s front yard, witnesses say. 
“The couple’s next-door neighbor, who went outside to check the noise, first thought the shape in the grass was one of the cats.” – chron.com
Then Stonie disappeared.

For a while.

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“Part 1: A true crime story” is HERE.
“Part 2: A boy who killed some people” is HERE.
“Part 3: The other voice” is HERE.
“Part 4: Stonie’s bottle” is HERE.

News links:
- This is a news article about the murders.

- This is an obituary for Buttafly. 

Comments

  1. All I have to say is I find the newfangled habit of couples pretending they are pregnant is so precious and twee. It makes me want to throw up. Probably not as much as finding two corpses would, but close.

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    1. It does create some potential problems, linguistically. If "they" are pregnant and then split up during the pregnancy, do they go from both of them being pregnant to just one of them (her, presumably)?

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  2. What an utterly fascinating story. It's always every bit as interesting to me as it is creepy that you can't really tell who's capable of murder and who isn't. Some people are bro-ish jerks, sure, but you don't expect them to go off the rails and kill someone out of anger.

    So does this mean we get to hear another passive aggressive jab as the story comes to an end? Something like, "Wow, you really know how to pick 'em, don't you?"

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    1. Years after this, when Jamie and I were going through a rough period, I was able to say, "Just remember that last time you pulled this crap, the guy turned out to be a murderer."

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  3. This sounds so much like the O.J. Simpson / Nicole Brown case.But I guess so many of these jealous murders do.

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    1. Yes, I suspect guys' sense of ownership over women tends to follow a few specific, well-trodden paths...

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  4. This is an interesting crime story craze.I like montrose,such an interesting place.I could relate to stony lol as i myself was a jealous,bad bitch but cowardly unlike him.I look forward to what happened to stonie.

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    1. If NOT killing someone over jealousy makes you a coward, then bring on the cowards!

      Montrose is the part of Houston where I've lived for 20 years. It's a lot less artsy than it was even in 2003, but I'm still here.

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  5. Heh, I looked up the site and article before I scrolled down enough to find you'd already linked to them. Was surprised to find it was an actual news site, even more surprised to find the quotes were real.
    Oh wow. ):

    The lines between fiction and reality are always blurry with you. You changed some names, but that's fair enough. Did you actually know the Stonie cold killer though, or is this news article just a way to root your story in reality? It's... fascinating how surreal this makes everything feel, but then that's exactly what this would've felt like in real life.
    (Sorry if this is inappropriate, but when lines get blurry on the internet I tend to lean on the side of fiction.)

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    1. Hi, Fang. I have tried to make this as honest as possible.

      My memory sucks (including the fact I thought the boyfriend's name was Robert" when it was actually Stonie's real name). In addition, after all of this happened, Jamie insisted it was the next day that Stonie killed the people, not the day on the balcony.

      But I'm trying. This is as autobiographical as I can make it.

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  6. Replies
    1. Yeah, he seems to have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

      Later, they found a diary he wrote that contained a whole list of names of people he wanted to kill. Fortunately, he didn't get around to it.

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  7. I'm not a fan of ambiguous and passive-aggressive jibes, but at least you're not a murderer. And as someone who has done hurtful things, I can't judge you in the slightest.

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    1. When I think of all of the times I have been worse than I should have been, I am amazed anyone ever stuck around at all.

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  8. I only ever knew one guy I thought deserved to die, but I wasn't ready to give up my own life so I let it be.

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    1. That sounds like a very rational attitude. So long as you could keep it in mind when confronted with whatever made him so awful.

      These things are usually crimes of passion, I think.

      I don't know. I've never even come close to killing anyone.

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  9. Jealousy makes people do really stupid things all right.

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    1. I believe that I have largely removed it from my paintbox of emotions. I hope I have, anyway. It might just be because I'm old and numb now.

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  10. This Stonie fellow is beginning to annoy me. I hope he gets the electric chair.

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    1. I don't want to give it away yet. But things don't turn out well for him.

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  11. Shocking and messy. Jealousy tends to do that to relationships... and to people's lives.

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    1. It's terrible how people can get such tunnel vision that they throw their lives (and others' lives) away on something that would pass.

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  12. Thank you for telling the story.

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  13. This is so sad! Jealousy is one thing I don't let myself feel! (I use to!) Jealousy doesn't do anything for you. Just let things go!

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    1. I think you're right, Stacy. If you can keep yourself from getting caught up in that sort of thing, you're better off. But it's hard to change when we've grown up a certain way, I guess. I'm working on it.

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  14. Always creepy to think of somebody breaking in and lurking in the house snooping--especially before they kill you.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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    1. I've lived alone for five years now. When I hear a bump in the night, I think of this story was too often.

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  15. I sure hope there wasn't any of that kind of crazy left behind on the bottle. Passive aggressive is so much better.

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    1. Everything else being equal, yeah, I'd say a passive aggressive quip might not be so bad.

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