Accused killer says she was treated as slave
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
July 24, 2008
A 19-year-old woman charged in the killing of a man at a campground south of Libby told police the man had been treating her as a slave and that she feared for her life.
Heather Michelle Henson of Kalispell and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Stephen Thomas, have both been charged with deliberate homicide in the shooting death of 67-year-old Larry Kingsley at Sylvan Lake Campground.
Henson and Thomas were arrested on the morning of Sunday, July 13, in Kalispell after police were alerted to the incident by Henson’s uncle. According to court documents, the man called the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office and said his niece had called his cell phone earlier that morning and told him she "had just killed a guy" and needed help.
Henson was arrested at her uncle’s house, where she had been sleeping on a couch. Thomas was found sleeping in a vehicle in a store parking lot. Both were taken into custody without incident.
In an affidavit filed in support of the charges, a Flathead County deputy said Henson told him she and Thomas had met Kingsley the previous Tuesday at Happy’s Inn and went with him to his campsite at Sylvan Lake. Located in the Pleasant Valley area, the small campground is described by the Forest Service as "off the beaten path" and "usually not a destination site."
Henson told the officer she used various drugs offered by Kingsley, including marijuana and several kinds of pills. She said she allowed Kingsley to watch her having sex with Thomas, then had sex with Kingsley himself.
Kingsley acted strange, firing weapons in the air for his "fallen comrades" and saying he had been a Navy Seal in Vietnam, Henson told the officer. She said she told Kingsley on Wednesday night that she wanted to leave, but he wouldn’t allow it and held a knife to her boyfriend’s throat, saying that she belonged to him now. Henson said Kingsley treated her as his slave.
According to the affidavit, Henson and Thomas did get a ride to Libby with Kingsley on Saturday. Henson said she sought assistance from law enforcement in retrieving her belongings from Kingsley’s campsite, but when told no officer was available decided to go back with Thomas to get her things.
Henson told police they got a ride from an unidentified man in a pickup truck, who stayed for dinner at the campsite at her invitation. She said Kingsley wanted her to perform sexual acts on the man who had given her a ride, and when she refused Kingsley became hostile toward the man.
After the man left, Henson said, Kingsley told her they were going to "breed" and threatened to kill her when she refused. She said it was about 30 or 40 minutes after the man in the pickup left the campsite that she was firing a rifle in the air and decided to turn it on Kingsley. She said she fired a shot at his head, then fired about six more shots at his chest. When the rifle was empty, she began shooting him with a .22-caliber pistol, she said. Henson told police she fired about 16 shots at Kingsley, and Thomas also fired a gun at the man.
Henson said she and Thomas took Kingsley’s truck and drove to Kalispell. She said she believed her life was in danger, but she couldn’t explain why she hadn’t left Kingsley when she had had the opportunity, the affidavit contends.
As a 17-year-old accused of deliberate homicide, Thomas has been charged as an adult under Montana law. The law requires a hearing to be held within 30 days to determine if specific criteria are met requiring the case to be transferred back to youth court.
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Editor’s Note: See the July 21, 2008 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Monday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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