Mike on Crime

MAY 3, 2002

“Do you know about the reason for this interview?”

Dallas Lockhart sat in the small police interview room while a video camera rolled from above. Directly across from him was Michael Bridges.

“Probably ’cause of Erin. She’s missing,” said Bridges.

Lockhart looked down at the list of questions police had carefully prepared for Bridges.

“We’re investigating the disappearance of Erin Chorney. And as you can imagine, we’re taking it very seriously,” said Lockhart. “And our investigation’s gonna show who’s responsible if she disappeared because of somebody else’s actions, so right off the bat, Mike, I’m just gonna ask you. Did you kill her or hurt her or anything?”

“No, No,” Bridges said immediately.

“Do you know who else may be responsible for Erin’s disappearance?” asked Lockhart.

“I don’t know. Me and her friends aren’t really the exact same people. There’s an age difference between us, like three years. I had been going out with one of her friends. That’s how we met,” he said.

“Is there anyone you feel may have been involved in Erin’s disappearance?” asked Lockhart.

“I’m not too sure. She was hanging out on Thursday with some pretty shady people. She was doing, like, cocaine and stuff like that,” said Bridges.

“Where was that at?”

“I’m not too sure. She didn’t tell me. I don’t ask too many details.”

“So, these shady people, is there any of them that you know well enough that would do anything to hurt Erin?”

“I don’t know these people.”

“Tell me what you know about the whole thing, about Erin’s . . .”

“About the disappearance?” Bridges jumped in. “I know she’s been gone since, well, since last time they said that she was at my house Sunday. We don’t know if she’s been somewhere else and someone else has seen her because no one’s really contacted any more of her friends. She’s been gone, she’s worrying her family, she worries me. She was mad at her parents but not to an extent where you disappear for two weeks and worry them like that. That’s bad. She’s not like that. The most she’d go when we used to be going out is that she wouldn’t contact home maybe for a couple days at a time, nothing too big. Her parents wouldn’t worry much. But now she’s got her parents worried pretty bad and me too, considering she was at my house. Maybe if I had walked her home or something, like, maybe things would have been different or she would have just stayed at my house. It’s pretty upsetting.”

“The Sunday that she left your place. When did she get there?” Lockhart continued.

“Around eight-thirty, ninish. Me and my buddy Bounthavy picked her up,” said Bridges.

“Tell me about your day.”

“Just hanging out with Bounthavy, mostly. My mom was leaving for BC that day, so it was just mainly packing the car, visiting with my sister who came into town. Just stayed at home, maybe cooked some food, watched some TV until I phoned up Bounthavy. Went out with him, phoned Erin up. Well, I had him phone because I wasn’t supposed to phone the house. Asked what she was doing, asked if she wouldn’t mind coming over or whatever. She said ‘all right’ so we went by and picked her up. During the night we talked, she cut back my hair for me, which was nice, and, I don’t know, we just sat around, we joked around, stuff like that. Like just hung out and talked. That’s about it.”

“And what time did she leave?”

“I’d say eleven-thirty, twelvish, maybe, around there. She said she had to work for her dad in the morning.”

Bridges said Bounthavy Sengmany was dropped off at his house on 3rd Street, just beside the adult video store, before he and Erin went to his house. They were alone, as his mom and brother had already left for the West Coast.

“When she left your place on Sunday night, did she say what her plans were? Was she going back to her mom’s or dad’s?” Lockhart asked.

“She said she was walking, not too far. That’s why I didn’t walk her home or anything. I asked her where she was going and she said she was only going a little ways. If she would have said she was walking home or whatever, I would have walked her home, because her mom is across twenty-sixth over by Hillcrest. That’s a fair distance to walk in the dark.”

So where do you suppose she was walking?”

“I have no idea. She didn’t tell me. She mighta had a boyfriend or something, I don’t know. She didn’t really want me to know, and she didn’t really want me to know where she was going either. She said it wasn’t too far so I said ‘Okay.’”

“How’d you feel about that?”

“Well, she’s grown up. She’s smart. If she knew it was really far away, she would have asked. I guess she wanted to walk by herself.”

Lockhart asked Bridges to describe what happened during the time they’d spent alone at his house.

“I asked her how she was doing, stuff like that. We’ve been through a lot, between that whole assault thing and stuff like that. It was just mainly joking around. It kinda felt like we were still together. We were getting along really good. I asked her to trim the back of my hair and she trimmed it up. She gave me a little bit of a massage on my shoulder because it was kind of sore. I asked her how she was doing. She said she was doing good, but not great. We talked about a lot of stuff. I asked her some advice on girl stuff, because I want to still maintain a friendship with her and stuff like that, and who better to ask then an ex-girlfriend? I was telling her about a girl I’d met and asking her advice. She said ‘Oh yeah, you should go for it.’”

“Did you make out at all?” asked Lockhart.

“No. That’s all over. I think if that would have happened, that would ruin things because we were trying to have a friendship. You start going back into it, it brings up all old feelings and stuff like that, and it’s not really worth it. I wanted to just maintain a friendship with her and I think she wanted the same. If none of that happens, you get along, then it’s good. You can’t fool around with people and try to still be friends because the feelings get mixed up. It’s not good for a friendship.”

“You’re okay with just being friends?” said Lockhart.

“Oh yeah. I’m grateful that she wanted to be a part of my life. After what happened, that was pretty bad and I lost her and she was pretty much, from the time we were going out, my best friend. I don’t know; I was happy that she wanted to maintain a friendship with me. I’d rather have that than nothing at all. For four months, we were together, like, every day, so to have that just stop and go away is bad. She was a good girl.”

Lockhart asked more about the assault charge and why Bridges dealt with it so fast.

“It got remanded and we were going to go to trial but enough’s enough. That wasn’t helping with a friendship basis, having that still ahead of us and having to go to trial, where it’s her word versus mine. It wasn’t going to help us being friends. I want to put it all behind us, hopefully, when I pleaded guilty and we can start fresh,” said Bridges.

“So how do you feel about being interviewed over Erin’s disappearance?” asked Lockhart.

Bridges wasted no time answering.

“If it helps anything, by all means. I have nothing to hide. If there’s anything I can to do help . . . I want to see her. I want her to be safe,” he said.

“Do you think Erin disappeared as a result of someone hurting her, killing her?” asked Lockhart.

“I don’t think so. I think maybe she likes to get attention or maybe just wants to show how pissed off she was at her parents,” said Bridges.

“If something has happened to Erin, if someone’s hurt her or killed her, who do you think would’ve had the best opportunity to do that?” asked Lockhart.

“I’m not too sure. Like I said, the people we hang out with are totally different.”

“But if you’re playing armchair detective . . . who do you think would have had the best opportunity?”

“I’m not too sure. It could be anybody. There’s no saying she actually made it to her destination. Or who knows, maybe she hitchhiked or something. She might be in Winnipeg, for all we know. She has friends there, too,” said Bridges. He provided the names of a couple Winnipeg friends, which Lockhart jotted down.

“Assuming something has happened to Erin, have you ever thought of being so mad or doing something like that?” asked Lockhart.

“No. The night that assault on her happened was because I was really intoxicated. I regret every day that happened, because she’s gone from my life, like, as my girlfriend, since that night. That was pretty rough on me. I’ve never thought of ever hurting her. I’m up to the point where I’m trying my hardest to make it up to her and try doing things for her to help her out,” said Bridges.

He mentioned getting a friend to help teach Erin to parallel park so she could get her driver’s licence.

“I was just trying to make it up to her for what I did. I can never undo it, but I can only try making it better and making her trust me again and feel that she can be my friend,” he said.

“So why wouldn’t you do something to hurt her?” asked Lockhart.

“Why wouldn’t I? Because I love her still. That’s pretty much it. I regret what I did. I know it was wrong.”

Lockhart took a few minutes to read over his notes. Bridges sat in silence. The interview wound down with some small talk about Bridges’s schooling and how he got kicked out of class at Neelin High for repeatedly missing classes. Bridges said he was now looking at upgrading his education through an adult learning program.

“I’ll be twenty-two in a month and a bit. Right now, it’s unemployed, no education, really going far in this world,” he said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“What kind of interests do you have?” asked Lockhart.

“I don’t know. I was thinking I’d have to get really determined and step up, but I was thinking psychology. I like to analyze dreams and stuff like that. I think it’d be good,” he said.

“If our investigation shows that something did happen to Erin, if she was killed, what do you think should happen to the person responsible?” asked Lockhart.

“They should go to jail. They should get whatever’s coming to them,” said Bridges.

“When you say ‘whatever’s coming to them,’ what do you think they deserve?”

“About fifteen years, twenty years,” said Bridges.

“Even if it was maybe somebody she ran into, a guy she was interested in and was interested in her and it came during the heat of the moment? “ asked Lockhart.

“Yeah.”

“Do you think if someone did hurt or kill Erin that they deserve a second chance?” asked Lockhart.

“I don’t think so, because what kind of second chance are you going to give somebody who did something like that? I can’t think of anything,” said Bridges.

“Once the investigation is completed, how do you think it will come out concerning whether or not you were involved?” asked Lockhart.

“I wasn’t involved, so I have nothing to hide. I think I’ll be cleared,” said Bridges.

“Would you be willing to come back here and take a polygraph?”

“Yeah. Go for it,” said Bridges.

“And what do you think the results of the polygraph test will be?”

“Negative.”

“Which would mean what to you?”

“Good for me.”

The interview was over.