The Kidnapping of Isabel Miller

By Tighe Taylor

Taylor Shaw is a farm girl turned crusading attorney. She has been appointed to the U S Attorney's Office. As part of her training, she is required to spend time at an Indian reservation where she makes a connection with the Chief and his staff. Dave Roberts, a gangster, uses his food growing business as a cover for his real business, the bus

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Cat Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781088072899

Tighe Taylor

TIGHE TAYLOR is a graduate of Whittier College, School of Law, located in Los Angeles County, California. Presently, he lives and works in the Los Angeles area where, in addition to writing, owns and operates a real estate consulting business and law practice. His literary works include the book, The Tragic Death of Marina Habe, a true crime account of the most unfortunate kidnapping and murder of Marina Habe, a friend from junior high school, and two crime fiction novels, The Kidnapping of Taylor Shaw and The Kidnapping of Isabel Miller.

Book preview

Truth is stranger than fiction,

but it is because Fiction is

obliged to stick to possibilities;

Truth isn’t.

Mark Twain

1

Two months from Now

The night was pitch black, the type of night one might expect in the desert when there is no moon. It was 3 a.m.

The residents of the cul-de-sac were asleep in their tidy homes.

Rick Miller, Taylor Shaw Miller, and Isabel Miller, their daughter, just moved into their dream home, a 3000 square foot, one-story stucco with tile roof single family residence with a private swimming pool and spa. They moved from their somewhat more modest home in Haven, to the south and east, to this newer part of Palm Springs relatively far west in the valley but still not too far from their respective jobs.

The house was brand new, as were all of the houses in the subdivision. The houses were separated by approximately 10 to 15 feet.

Street lights were in, but were not yet lit, contributing to the darkness.

The guardhouse was completed, but not yet manned.

A truck, which appeared to belong to a utility company, rambled down the street.

At approximately 3 a.m., the truck entered the cul-de-sac, made a u turn, and stopped in front of the Miller house. Isabel was recently given her own room located along the west exterior wall of the house.

Two men dressed in gas company uniforms exited the truck and moved to the west side of the residence, where the gas meter was located.

They did not stop to look at the meter but moved past it towards the window in Isabel’s room. They carefully and quietly removed the screen, cut a neat hole in the window’s glass, moved the latch, and pushed the sliding part of the window over the fixed part.

They entered the room. The smaller of the two men picked up Isabel and covered her mouth with a rag dipped in chloroform. He was able to keep the rag continually covering her face for nearly five minutes necessary to cause her to lose consciousness. When the child lost her ability to scream, the man folded the child into his arms, along with her immediate bedding and her teddy bear which he could not extricate from her arms without leaving trace amounts of DNA.

They were in the California desert. As a result, even at this hour, the air was cool but not uncomfortably cold.

They carried Isabel to their truck. She was still wrapped in her blanket carrying her teddy bear. The smaller man, with the child in his arms, entered the vehicle through the passenger side door where he would sit with the child on his lap. The larger man entered through the driver’s side door. He would do the driving. The larger man put the key in the ignition and started the vehicle. He carefully pulled the truck away from the curb.

The Miller house is located in what is known as the Coachella Valley. The main highway through the valley, Highway 111, runs from Whitewater at the turnoff from the 10 Freeway, across the valley floor. The highway passes through West Palm Springs, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio, and Coachella, on its way to the Salton Sea.

On the south side of Highway 111, there is the south desert. On the far south side of the south desert, there are the San Jacinto Mountains, which make up the southern border of the valley. On the north side of Highway 111, there is the north desert, the 10 Freeway, North Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, and the north mountains.

Just as one turns onto Highway 111 from the 10 freeway, the first development is known as West Palm Springs. It was developed significantly later than downtown Palm Springs. Before its development, when one started onto Highway 111, the highway was surrounded by open desert.

Most of the existing commercial development has been along Highway 111, where the land is flat.

The Miller house is in a newer subdivision located west of Palm Springs and west of the commercial development. There is only desert between the houses at the rear of the subdivision and the mountains.

The two men who took Izzy left the Millers’ street and headed north to reach Highway 111.

When they reached the highway, their instructions were to turn right and travel several miles to the Palm Desert area. Once there, they were instructed to turn right into the desert and wait. They would be met by an off-road vehicle which would escort them across the desert and to the south mountains.

As they were just the hired help, the ultimate fate of the child was not discussed with them.

After reaching the south desert, they followed the escort vehicle across the desert and into a narrow gap between two high, vertical rock cliffs which made up an opening in the mountains. Once in the gap and out of the vision of anyone in the desert, they came to the beginning of a paved road and then a vehicle gate. The vehicle gate is manned by two guards. Beyond the vehicle gate, the road opens into a flat infield. Several buildings were constructed around the outer perimeter of the infield looking into the center.

Behind the several buildings, the sheer, jagged rock walls extended vertically up from the infield and to the rim of the mountains, cutting the buildings off from civilization. In front of the buildings, and at a slightly lower elevation, there is the large infield allowing parking and access among the several buildings. The whole affair appears to be located in a large crater in the mountain.

They provided their names to the guard attendant, and the gate’s arm lifted letting them into the infield ringed with buildings. They were told that this location was known only as the compound. Unknown to them, the compound was owned by Dave Roberts, aka Dave Roberti.

Per their instructions, they drove to an area marked for visitors parking. They parked. An older matronly looking woman came over to the vehicle. They remained inside. The child was taken from them by the woman. She took the child up the stairs and into the main building.

The two men remained in their vehicle in the visitors parking area. Their function had come to an end. Their exact fate was not known. It could be something as benign as being let go to fend for themselves after being sworn to secrecy or as active as being taken to a room in the compound and given new identities. It was not outside of the realm of possibility that they would be eradicated, as they had significant information about the crime they had just committed.

The child’s fate was even more compelling. She might be cared for by the matronly woman for the near term or she might be subjected to something quite a bit more unpleasant. This too would remain to be seen.

It was coming up on 4 a.m., Monday morning, approximately two months from today.

2

Back to The Present Day

As we learned, the actual kidnapping would not take place for another two months. Oblivious to their future, the Miller family would continue to live their lives happily and normally in their new home, unaware of the fate that awaited them.

Concerning their more distance past, Rick related the following: Taylor and I had quite a ride over the past several years. We met when she was 19, and I was 29. I was an attorney, but I was also teaching a class at Newton Junior College as I was taking care of my mother who lived there. Taylor was one of my students.

She drew me in by asking me to help her with her ongoing, private investigation of the kidnapping of a 12-year girl old for whom she babysat. The child’s name was Tammy Fitzgerald.

We spent the next month’s searching for, finding, and extricating the child from the gangster who abducted her in order to compel the child’s father to help him build an Indian gaming casino on tribal trust property in Newton. The project first required the extension of the interstate highway between Haven and Newton, which was completed before Taylor and I met.

Using her motorcycle club contacts, who were mostly ex-Army Rangers and Seals, we were able to rescue the child from the gangster’s compound, taking the child from his body guards and his para-military group by force.

The next several years involved unraveling the criminal and civil legal entanglements, including a cash settlement for Taylor’s treatment by the gangster during her captivity, which she used to finish college and law school.

When the legal entanglements were nearly done, Taylor and I began dating. Eventually, we became engaged. She was 25, and I was 35 when we married.

Taylor went to work for the State Attorney General, initially in elder abuse but ultimately in environmental law. I rose up the ranks in the District Attorney’s office and became the senior trial deputy in our office.

While working for the State Attorney General, Taylor went hard after the corporations for toxic waste dumping.

One night, while at work in her office, a tipster walked in and told her of a toxic waste dump that would be consummated within 30 minutes. As it was after hours, she was unable to reach the authorities, so she decided to go to the dump site herself. When Trey, the private investigator in her office found out, he insisted upon going with her. She accepted his help reluctantly, and off they went.

Once at the dump site, she witnessed not only the illegal dumping of chemical waste but also the death of a company employee caused by his handling of the waste.

Trey, who was actually a mole in the AG’s office, not knowing what to do, knocked Taylor out and took her to the company’s office tower, as instructed. She was placed in a cell in the building’s underground parking garage and dressed in an orange jump suit.

To allow the company to continue to profit from its illegal activities without interruption, the CEO devised a plan to throw Taylor from the roof of the company’s 15 story office building while making it appear as if she fell by accident when she was having a lover’s quarrel with Trey.

Her ex-Ranger friends and I intervened.

Imagine this, the night that Taylor was thrown from roof, to save her, I scaled the outside of the glass office tower, ran across the roof, and jumped off of the roof tied to nothing but a bungie cord. Even more unbelievably, I was able to catch her in mid-air, and deliver her gently to the ground. And we both lived.

Taylor went back to the State Attorney General’s Office, and I remained at the DA’s office. Our daughter, Isabel, was born when Taylor was 27. She is now 4 and a half, and Taylor is 32.

I need to digress here a little. Isabel was born after Taylor was kidnapped and miraculously rescued. At the time of Isabel’s birth, I had known Taylor for around seven years.

I never thought that I could love anyone as much as I loved Taylor. From the first instant I saw her in class as a 19-year old who lived on an orange farm and had only an alcoholic mother, abusive men, and hard work in her life, I knew that she was the one.

And at that time, I never thought I could love her more.

But that was before Isabel was born.

After Isabel was born, I quickly learned how wrong I was.

After Isabel was born, and as I witnessed, first hand, the relationship between the two of them, the unconditional love and the bond, my feelings soared to new heights; heights that I never knew existed. It was one part amazing, but it was also one-part frightening.

Though Taylor is now far removed from her unfortunate family circumstances, I know that deep down inside of her soul, there is still a beast. Though fairly well concealed at this point and known only to me and a couple of her ex-Ranger friends, with the wrong provocation, that beast could again emerge, and no one, and I mean no one, wants to be around when that happens.

That said. Pity the fool who crosses Taylor Shaw where Isabel is concerned. If such a thing were to occur, that person would be sending himself down a path so imbued with pain that death would come as a welcome relief.

3

Our Life After Taylor’s Kidnapping

As I mentioned, Taylor was kidnapped and then rescued by me, Moose, Bart, and Lester (the three ex-Army Rangers), Dave (a computer guy), and Amanda (Taylor’s one girlfriend).

As disturbing as it was, Taylor chose to return to work and let the past stay in the past, much as she had done with her abusive childhood, and with everything else in her life for that matter.

It worked for me. Isabel was born, and Taylor remained very busy raising her and working for the State Attorney General in Fairview, now exclusively in the environmental law department.

She was, and remains, fearless. She went after the corporate toxic waste dumpers and polluters with reckless abandon. She became a legend in the field. She was asked to speak at attorney gatherings, universities, and continuing education seminars.

As in her life, her emphasis with the law was always to serve ordinary people. When corporations dump toxic waste onto the ground or into the water, those chemicals enter the water table and expose all of the plant and animal life, and all of the people consuming that plant and animal life, to the harmful effects of those substances.

In the overall spectrum of things, I cannot see how big corporations save by illegal dumping. But I guess that they do. I have to admit that I know nothing about big business.

It appears as if when illegal dumping is prosecuted as a civil or administrative wrong, the corporations prefer to pay the fines rather than shoulder the cost of legal dumping. It must be the better option for them.

But Taylor would have none of it. She chose to pursue the corporations for criminal penalties, often finding ways to jail corporate executives in addition to requiring them to pay fines.

She was, of course, well hated in corporate circles, a hatred she wore as a badge of honor. Groups of corporate executives had more than a few choice words for her. If it would have been possible to ostracize her from some sort of polite society for her activities, she would have been so ostracized. But no one cares less about polite society than she. Remember, she grew up on a farm where you have to work for what you get.

During her tenure at the State AG’s Office she was able to make some worthwhile friends. One such person was Amanda Warren. They met when Amanda first joined the AG. Taylor helped her get her feet on the ground. She also helped her on a personal level.

Amanda grew up with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth. Successful father. Loving mother. Fancy schools. Important clerkships. Though an attorney, at 25, Amanda was really still a child, making all of the mistakes with work, life, and men that children make.

Amanda struck up a personal relationship with the investigator at the office, Trey St. James. It turned out the he was a bad guy planted in the Taylor-Amanda camp by the higher-ups to keep them from becoming too successful in prosecuting corporate wrongdoing.

He was the same person that the CEO of Allied Chemical contended was Taylor’s love interest. When Taylor was pushed from the roof, it was contended that it was the verbal altercation between him and Taylor that caused them to fall, a fall survived by Taylor, but not by Trey.

The CEO’s story was truly unbelievable as Taylor hated Trey with a passion, as she tended to dislike all pompous men. However, in a police investigation, sometimes the facts are overlooked or become twisted, particularly when they lead to an outcome favored by the police. Even improbable facts may be accepted if they fit the prevailing narrative.

During Taylor’s abduction, Amanda was of great help with her rescue. It was at her house that the two men sent to silence her were captured. They ultimately gave up the name of the offending corporation, after some persuasion.

She came with Moose, Bart, Lester, Dave, and me when we took over the office tower in which Taylor was being held in a cage in the underground parking garage; she acted as a faux receptionist when it became necessary to buy time to complete our business on the roof. For me, Taylor’s relationship with Amanda was great. Amanda was the first woman with whom Taylor made friends. It was nice to see Taylor interact with another woman.

Taylor’s boss at the AG’s Office was Mr. Patterson. From all accounts, he appeared to be a straight shooter and not corrupt.

He had always been supportive of Taylor and gave her great latitude in her methods. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in Taylor’s abduction. Paul Sinclair, and others at the AG’s Office were not so lucky.

White-collar crime provides an arena fraught with problems. It provides an uneasy mix of government lawyers, who are just making a living, and corporate executives, who make great fortunes for doing what appears to be nothing. Jealousies are bound to happen.

As corporations may make significant profits, particularly if they do not have to abide by all of the environmental rules, it is not a great leap to think that they might be willing to offer government lawyers gifts for looking the other way. This happened in Taylor’s kidnapping case.

Her boss Mr. Deaver was tagged for being in league with the CEO of the company that kidnapped Taylor. Her immediate boss, Mr. Patterson, was not.

4

Taylor’s Boss Mr. Patterson

Mr. Patterson, Taylor’s immediate boss, was shown to not have been involved in Taylor’s kidnapping, which was a very good thing.

Taylor liked and respected him. He was always kind, polite, and respectful of her. He allowed her great latitude in her pursuit of corporate actors, perhaps more than any other boss might have allowed.

I met him socially on several occasions and liked him. I think that he gave Taylor the latitude he did because he secretly believed in what she was doing and, perhaps also secretly, in her methods, even though he would never admit to it.

If one did not know better, one might think that the supervisors at Mr. Patterson’s level were coached to treat the corporations with kid gloves, as the corporations contributed to political campaigns, gave money to favored causes, and could make the lives of government lawyers either very easy or very difficult, if you know what I mean.

Mr. Patterson was the type who did not need more than he earned. Sort of the way Taylor and I were.

Unknown to Taylor (and, of course me), Mr. Patterson was contacted by Daniel Anderson of the United States Attorney’s Office. Mr. Anderson was tasked by his boss with contacting the heads of various governmental offices (primarily the State AGs and the County DAs) for candidates for a new task force being formed in the U S Attorney’s Office.

The new task force was being formed to assist with Indian relations. Riverside County was an area in which several Indian reservations were located. Because of this proximity, the offices in the Riverside area would be contacted for at least one or two candidates for the new task force.

The memo that Mr. Patterson received asked him to present the person from his office who he thought would be the most qualified.

Taylor Shaw was Mr. Patterson’s immediate choice, as she was by far the most qualified.

Mr. Patterson told Taylor of the opportunity. Even though a new job would probably mean longer hours and less time at home with me and Izzy, I knew that her career was important to her, and trying to get her to not take the job would certainly cause more problems than it would solve.

The U S Attorney’s Office was quite a step up from the State AG. I knew that she worked for it and deserved it. She was smart enough to keep me in the loop during the decision-making process, though I know that she knew that I would never stop her from realizing her goals.

Mr. Patterson gave Taylor the option to turn down the new job and remain with the State AG, though I do not think that he expected her to do so.

She indicated that she would like to take the job. He advised her that there would be an orientation meeting at the U S Attorney’s Office in Riverside. She was to meet with Daniel Anderson, an Assistant United States Attorney, who would be in charge of the new task force.

5

Daniel Anderson, United States Attorney

Daniel Anderson is an Assistant United States Attorney. After 20 years, he worked himself up to the rank of supervisor. He was now working out of the Riverside office.

He received a memo from his boss, Matt Cohen, outlining the program and the various local offices which would be sending candidates to him.

Mr. Anderson knew that he had no control over hiring. Mr. Cohen, his boss, would contact the local supervisors, such as Mr. Patterson, and the local supervisors would submit candidates. The theory was that by using local supervisors rather than any of the present members of the U S Attorney’s staff, the selection process would appear to be more-fair.

Even though they were working for the largest law firm in the world, the Department of Justice, human nature still prevailed, and Mr. Anderson’s curiosity got the better of him. He called Mr. Patterson to see who he would be sending for the task force.

The telephone conversation went as follows:

Mr. Anderson: Hello Mr. Patterson. This is Daniel Anderson of the Riverside office of the United States Attorney. I have been advised by my boss, Mr. Cohen, that you would be selecting and sending someone to be on the new Indian task force. Could you let me know who you have selected?

Mr. Patterson replied: I do not believe that I am at liberty to tell you that. I was told that I was to send the person of my choice. It was the hope that this transparency would make people less apprehensive about the selectees. Indian relations can be tricky with both the criminal and environmental violations alleged often taking place on reservations.

Mr. Anderson stated: I know that all of the choices have been made and submitted at this point and that no changes can be made. I was just curious.

Mr. Patterson answered: I am sure that by now your boss will have the information, and you can get it from him. I would not feel right telling you that which I have been specifically asked to not tell you.

The conversation ended.

Mr. Anderson called Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen said that all of the selectees had been told of their new jobs, all had agreed, and all would be available to serve. Mr. Cohen said that coincidentally, his secretary was preparing and emailing the list of the four people who would be appointed to the task force as they spoke.

About an hour or so later, Mr. Anderson received the email from Mr. Cohen with the names of the four task force candidates. There was one name on the list that he was hoping he would not find, and that name was Taylor Shaw.

Because of the procedure utilized, he was unable to pressure Mr. Patterson to withdraw her name. The procedure required that Mr. Anderson accept anyone appointed by the boss of the candidate, and that appointment could not be questioned by the U S Attorney’s Office. This was to allow the choice to remain outside of the system rather than being an extension of it.

Mr. Anderson knew that his corporate friends would be very