How Brenda Heist became Lovie: A 'Gilligan's Island' name and a beach life
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Lancaster New Era
Updated May 06, 2013 15:09
Lancaster
Originally Published May 06, 2013 12:21
Within a year of the time she disappeared from Lititz, Brenda Heist had found a boyfriend, a new life and a new nickname.
Heist met Jim Stewart, an outgoing woodworker and handyman, at an Outback Steakhouse in the Key West area in 2003, a former employer said.
Heist and Stewart moved into a trailer together and soon had established a nice lifestyle: sunbathing, nights out, vacations to New Orleans and the Caribbean, and trips to visit her boyfriend's family in Kansas during the holidays.
Heist had left her Lititz home in 2002, leaving behind two kids, a husband and a suburban mom lifestyle. She vanished without a trace, leaving her family to believe something terrible had happened to her until she surfaced late last month in Florida.
During her early days in Florida, Heist, 54, was known as Kelsei Smith, a name she was quick to correct people was pronounced Kel-say, not Kel-see.
It was during those early days that Heist got the nickname "Lovie."
Her boyfriend, Jim Stewart, "dressed like he was really wealthy, like he had just stepped off a yacht," said Carol Dochow, who employed the couple and gave them a place to live at the time.
"I used to call him Mr. Howell," Dochow said, referring to the millionaire character Thurston Howell III, portrayed by Jim Backus on the 1960s TV show "Gilligan's Island."
"That's how she got Lovie," which was fashioned after Lovey, the name of Howell's wife on the TV show. "He started calling her that."
"It sounds like a Lifetime movie," she said.
It became even more of something out of a movie when Dochow got a call early this year from her mother, who had gotten a call from police that Dochow had been arrested for a drug offense. Dochow had listed her mother as an emergency contact on her driver's license.
Now an addictions counselor in Key West, Dochow said she knew something was wrong.
It turned out that Heist had used the name of her former employer when she was pulled over for alleged drugs and traffic violations in Tarpon Springs, Fla.
Police also found identification cards with the name Kelsei Smith in her purse, though Heist said the purse didn't belong to her.
And Heist's housemate at the time later found a lockbox with the names, social security numbers and addresses of four women, including one who said she had her driver's license stolen by Heist last year.
Dochow said today that things are starting to fall into place about Heist's early days in Florida.
For one, Heist refused to get a regular job, even when her boyfriend could have used help in paying bills.
"She would be sitting there, doing nothing, chain-smoking," Dochow said.
Dochow finally asked Heist to paint her house. She did a meticulous job, she said. She also was an excellent housekeeper, and equally meticulous about that.
Stewart and Heist moved north to Pensacola, where Stewart bought a house. They kept in touch with Dochow.
Dochow heard in recent years that Kelsei Smith, as she knew her, had left Stewart.
Stewart liked to drink and could be a little crazy at times, Dochow said. He was under pressure because of a woodworking business he was trying to get going.
"She kind of pulled a Heist on him," she said, referring to Heist's disappearance from Lititz.
"He had all these jobs and needed money to buy materials, and she wiped out all of his accounts and left," Dochow said, relating what Stewart told her. "He was really upset. He said he was shocked."
Later, Stewart told Dochow that Heist wanted to get back together but he was done with her by then.
Dochow believes it was then that Heist moved in with a woman in Pensacola, Fla., who gave her a place to stay for a year. After that, she moved from place to place.
She now is in prison, for a parole violation on a charge that she stole a woman's license while working as a housekeeper in Pensacola. She turned herself in on Friday.
"I don't think she's a bad person," Dochow said. "She's just desperate."
Dochow doesn't know if Heist was ever homeless, which is what she told Lititz police Detective Sgt. John Schofield after she turned herself into police. Schofield had investigated her disappearance for years. Almost everyone he spoke to said Heist was a devoted mother who would not have left behind her two children, then 8 and 12.
Schofield said Monday that police are now questioning the truthfulness of Heist's entire story, including her contention that she met a group of homeless hitchhikers and decided to hitch down to Florida on a whim, after she became upset about a pending divorce and some financial problems she was having in 2002.
"I'm fascinated by the mind," Dochow said. "I just remember talking to her about so many things, and trying to make sense of them."
Dochow guesses that Heist has some kind of mental illness.
"She definitely has some kind of diagnosis," she said. "Nobody just goes and does that, especially if she was a great mother.
"To leave them tormented like that," she said, "that is so cruel."
Heist met Jim Stewart, an outgoing woodworker and handyman, at an Outback Steakhouse in the Key West area in 2003, a former employer said.
Heist and Stewart moved into a trailer together and soon had established a nice lifestyle: sunbathing, nights out, vacations to New Orleans and the Caribbean, and trips to visit her boyfriend's family in Kansas during the holidays.
Heist had left her Lititz home in 2002, leaving behind two kids, a husband and a suburban mom lifestyle. She vanished without a trace, leaving her family to believe something terrible had happened to her until she surfaced late last month in Florida.
During her early days in Florida, Heist, 54, was known as Kelsei Smith, a name she was quick to correct people was pronounced Kel-say, not Kel-see.
It was during those early days that Heist got the nickname "Lovie."
Her boyfriend, Jim Stewart, "dressed like he was really wealthy, like he had just stepped off a yacht," said Carol Dochow, who employed the couple and gave them a place to live at the time.
"I used to call him Mr. Howell," Dochow said, referring to the millionaire character Thurston Howell III, portrayed by Jim Backus on the 1960s TV show "Gilligan's Island."
"That's how she got Lovie," which was fashioned after Lovey, the name of Howell's wife on the TV show. "He started calling her that."
"It sounds like a Lifetime movie," she said.
It became even more of something out of a movie when Dochow got a call early this year from her mother, who had gotten a call from police that Dochow had been arrested for a drug offense. Dochow had listed her mother as an emergency contact on her driver's license.
Now an addictions counselor in Key West, Dochow said she knew something was wrong.
It turned out that Heist had used the name of her former employer when she was pulled over for alleged drugs and traffic violations in Tarpon Springs, Fla.
Police also found identification cards with the name Kelsei Smith in her purse, though Heist said the purse didn't belong to her.
And Heist's housemate at the time later found a lockbox with the names, social security numbers and addresses of four women, including one who said she had her driver's license stolen by Heist last year.
Dochow said today that things are starting to fall into place about Heist's early days in Florida.
For one, Heist refused to get a regular job, even when her boyfriend could have used help in paying bills.
"She would be sitting there, doing nothing, chain-smoking," Dochow said.
Dochow finally asked Heist to paint her house. She did a meticulous job, she said. She also was an excellent housekeeper, and equally meticulous about that.
Stewart and Heist moved north to Pensacola, where Stewart bought a house. They kept in touch with Dochow.
Dochow heard in recent years that Kelsei Smith, as she knew her, had left Stewart.
Stewart liked to drink and could be a little crazy at times, Dochow said. He was under pressure because of a woodworking business he was trying to get going.
"She kind of pulled a Heist on him," she said, referring to Heist's disappearance from Lititz.
"He had all these jobs and needed money to buy materials, and she wiped out all of his accounts and left," Dochow said, relating what Stewart told her. "He was really upset. He said he was shocked."
Later, Stewart told Dochow that Heist wanted to get back together but he was done with her by then.
Dochow believes it was then that Heist moved in with a woman in Pensacola, Fla., who gave her a place to stay for a year. After that, she moved from place to place.
She now is in prison, for a parole violation on a charge that she stole a woman's license while working as a housekeeper in Pensacola. She turned herself in on Friday.
"I don't think she's a bad person," Dochow said. "She's just desperate."
Dochow doesn't know if Heist was ever homeless, which is what she told Lititz police Detective Sgt. John Schofield after she turned herself into police. Schofield had investigated her disappearance for years. Almost everyone he spoke to said Heist was a devoted mother who would not have left behind her two children, then 8 and 12.
Schofield said Monday that police are now questioning the truthfulness of Heist's entire story, including her contention that she met a group of homeless hitchhikers and decided to hitch down to Florida on a whim, after she became upset about a pending divorce and some financial problems she was having in 2002.
"I'm fascinated by the mind," Dochow said. "I just remember talking to her about so many things, and trying to make sense of them."
Dochow guesses that Heist has some kind of mental illness.
"She definitely has some kind of diagnosis," she said. "Nobody just goes and does that, especially if she was a great mother.
"To leave them tormented like that," she said, "that is so cruel."
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