Too weird to be coincidence? Questions and Answers about the death of Devin Bayles

Q: Is it true that your last fiancé also died?

A: Well, technically I have never been engaged. I was dating Devin Bayles the end of 2005, and things were going well in our relationship. We both hoped that our relationship would progress to getting engaged and married, but we were not engaged. I call Todd my fiancé, because we had decided to get married. As a matter of fact, he had spoken with my Dad, purchased the ring, and picked it up from being resized, and made plans for the actual proposal.

Q: How did Devin die?

A: Ligature strangulation. The detective initially indicated that it looked like an accident. The autopsy determined that it was a suicide. The manner of death is officially recorded as a suicide.

Q: Do you think that John may have had something to do with Devin’s death?

A: Absolutely.

Q: Why has John not been charged with Devin’s death?

A: There is no evidence linking John to the scene of the crime. Although there are parallels in John’s behavior, and the whole thing seems way too coincidental, there is no evidence.

Q: What do you mean by parallels in John’s behavior?

A: Once I started dating Devin in July 2005, John all the sudden became very interested in pursuing a relationship with me, and in fact said he loved me and wanted to marry me. Cards, letters, flowers, and other tokens of affection came, that had never been expressed before. It was a similar situation when I started dating Todd.

Aug 1, 2005 Devin emailed me a written copy of his testimony. Within a few days John had also provided a written copy of his testimony. On May 22, 2008 Todd emailed me a church talk he had written. Within days John had emailed a church talk he was working on.

There was limited contact between the guys, but they knew who each other were. Todd knew who John was, and John knew who Todd was. In October 2005, I attended an event (Amazing Race) with John. Devin was there and saw us together. In November 2005 I attended a Bonfire with Devin. John was there and saw us together. I don’t know that they ever spoke to each other.

In 2005 I did a little back and forth, dating Devin, then John, then Devin again. With Todd, I had totally lost interest in John, and I was resolute to not miss out on a good thing. I was fairly open with both Devin and Todd about the amount of communication I had with John.

In the fall of 2005, after I broke up with John, we decided that it is hard to stay friends with someone you have dated. John found it particularly difficult to distance himself, and I had told him that I was not answering his calls or reading his email. Along a similar vein, while I was dating Todd, I told John that I would not be alone with him. John did not react very well either time. In November 2005 John emailed me or sent me a note every day. He came by my work cubicle for no reason. He even tried to enter my car or house when he was not welcome. In 2007 he also had a hard time, and got to know my roommate Cheryl in order to have an excuse to come by or see me.

Before Devin died, I had several flat tires, due to nails. The week Devin died, my wallet went missing. All along, I think John was doing things to control me, that I just missed. Many weird things happened the month before Todd died. John stole my cell phone, there was bad gas in the car, and the flowers Todd had sent never showed up.

John planted a flash drive with pornography on it to try to discredit Todd in my eyes. Devin’s death was set up to look sexual in nature.

Computer forensics have confirmed that John was monitoring my email during both time periods. Thus, John would have had known about how our relationship was progressing, and had easy access to Devin’s address and contact information.

John tried to use my spiritual sympathies in order the get my attention. In both cases I remember distinctly saying a prayer with John. The timing is a little different, but it makes me so upset to think about it. Tuesday, November 29, 2005 I was distraught about several things. I remember that I had a flat tire, I needed to meet with someone for church purposes, and a few other things. John had given me a ride to pick up my car, and agreed to say a prayer with me so that I could calm down. He probably went and killed Devin that same night. The second weekend in June, 2008 John had given me a coded note, and I was fearful that he would take his life. We knelt and said a prayer that night. It was a few more weeks before he killed Todd, but it is just one more parallel that spooks me out.

Q: Why haven’t you said anything before?

A: At the time of Devin’s death, I did have some concern about John’s possible involvement. Given John’s obsessive behavior, I would have suspected his involvement over Devin taking his own life. I mentioned this to the detective, but it was quickly dismissed. There were no signs of forced entry into Devin’s home where he died, or signs of a struggle. I was not told the cause of death until after Devin’s memorial service here, and I was not involved with the debriefing between the detective and Devin’s family. Even if I had been at the debriefing, I don’t know that I would have had much to contribute. Having no prior experience with the judicial system or detectives, I just assumed that if they said it was a suicide, that it must have been a suicide. It was such an overwhelming emotional experience that it was hard to know what to think. Why his life was ended so early just seemed like something we would never know.

Q: Given the nature of Todd’s death, has Devin’s case been reopened?

A: Well, yes and no. Devin died in Prince William County. Todd was killed in Fairfax County. I immediately brought up my suspicions to the Fairfax County Detective. I indicated that John had probably killed my last boyfriend, and gotten away with it. Fairfax County was allowed to review Devin’s case file for informational purposes. Prince William made a review of Devin’s case, given the facts they had at the time. They did not seem interested in new information or re-investigating. I had the impression that they were just looking for blatant errors in the initial investigation. I was questioned as a possible suspect, but they were not interested in any information about John or parallels in his behavior. There was no contact with Devin’s parents, coworkers or other friends. Because I was not family, I was not allowed any details about the case or information about the scene. I was given a courtesy call last August when they finished their review. As I suspected from previous conversations with the detective, there was no change made to cause of death as a result of the review.

Q: Do you have anything else to say about Devin’s manner of death?

A:

Manner of death: Natural causes?
No.

Manner of death: Suicide?
There was no suicide note. Devin was not depressed. He had just returned from a trip where he was with his family for Thanksgiving and had a great time. He had a plane ticket home for Christmas. At his home there were receipts from purchases he had made earlier that day. He was successful at work, and things were going fine. My last correspondence with Devin we were making plans together for New Years. We had several other things planned for early December. As far as I was concerned, all was going well in our relationship. All of his friends and families would confirm the same.

Manner of death: Accident?
The scene was made to look like an auto-erotic asphyxia. Nothing in Devin’s life supports that as a reasonable situation. To participate in that kind of risky behavior, someone is usually pretty deep into pornography. There was no pornography found on his computer, or around the house. There were no marks on his neck as signs of previous behavior. In auto-erotic asphyxia, there is an escape mechanism set up so that you can’t actual kill yourself. A Fairfax County detective said that he had seen scenes of auto-erotic asphyxia before, and that is not what Devin’s scene looked like.

Manner of death: Homicide
Well, that’s what’s left! John and Devin knew who each other were. They both knew that I had dated the other. If John had said that he wanted to meet with Devin under the pretense of wanting to apologize or something, Devin may have let him in. It’s also feasible to find a spare key or make a copy and return to the scene. With how careful was with Todd’s murder not to leave evidence, I am convinced that he could have concocted Devin’s death so he didn’t get caught.

Q: What now?

A: Unfortunately a disagreement with the official cause of death does not necessitate enough evidence for a new conclusion. I wish there had been more research into Devin or John’s phone or email contact that week, but there wasn’t. I wish that there was some evidence discovered linking John to the scene, but there wasn’t. Devin’s name may not ever be officially cleared, but we have a choice in drawing the conclusions. I choose to believe that Devin did not take his own life. I hope that you will also give Devin the benefit of a doubt. Devin’s family has gone through so much. Of course they want to know how their son and brother died. It’s hard to get your hopes up, and there is likely no hard evidence out there to clear Devin. There is no need to draw media attention, or initiate a civil suit for wrongful death. A confession from John would be nice. Given how much he has lied in court lately, a confession alone probably wouldn’t be enough to convict him either.