A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church
352
A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250124494 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 03/29/2011 |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Sales rank: | 203,298 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
A resident of Washington state, Olsen has been a guest on dozens of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, Learning Channel, and the Discovery Channel. Olsen also appeared several times on CBS's 48 Hours, MSNBC's Special Edition, Entertainment Tonight, Sally Jesse Raphael, Inside Edition, and Extra. He has been featured in USA Today, Salon Magazine, Seattle Times, and the New York Post. His true crime books include If I Can't Have You and Cruel Deception.
Read an Excerpt
1
BY THE MID-1990s, BERRY PATCHES AND CREOSOTE-CURED pilings protruding from the waters of Puget Sound were no longer the prevailing features of Bainbridge Island, Washington. Faux châteaus and gargantuan Craftsman-style homes had arisen, as ubiquitous as strawberry farms and shorefront sawmills had once been. For the old-timers, it was a time of boom and bust. Property values had made rich people out of mobile-home dwellers on forested acreage. Weekend beach cottages had long since been razed by Seattle yuppies with lots of money and a scant sense of proportion. Those who grew up on the island lamented that though their property values had skyrocketed, the friendly rural character of their community was fading. Long gone were the days when everyone knew everyone and chatted while they waited for the ferry to Seattle, just across Puget Sound.
Connected by Agate Pass Bridge to the Kitsap Peninsula to the north and by the state ferry system to Seattle to the east, Bainbridge was isolated and insular—which was a blessing, as far as newcomers were concerned. Islanders hated being part of Kitsap County, the poorest of the major counties around Puget Sound. To resist the influence of a county that allowed chain stores like Wal-Mart to take root like so many scattered weeds, the entire island incorporated as a city in 1991.
It was that kind of insularity and attitude that brought members of Christ Community Church close together and, ultimately, set tragedy in motion.
Many of the Christ Community Church faithful were part of the island’s old guard. Families like the Glasses, Klovens, LaGrandeurs, and Smiths were of somewhat-modest means. While some were ferry ticket-takers, checkers, housecleaners, or baristas, several, like building contractor Einar Kloven, had their own businesses. Dan Hacheney ran an auto repair shop a few doors down from the ferry landing with service to Seattle. Dan and Suzy Claflin owned a restaurant. James Glass and his son Jimmy were skilled carpenters.
Some congregants, like the Andersons and the Mathesons, lived off the island on tribal land in Suquamish, the birthplace and final resting place of Chief Sealth, for whom the city of Seattle was named. Suquamish was a quick drive over the Agate Pass Bridge. A few miles down the road was Poulsbo, an orderly enclave best known for its Norwegian bakeries and a marina that on a summer’s day boasted a rainbow of spinnakers from one side of Liberty Bay to the other.
RAISED MOSTLY ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF POULSBO, NICK HACHENEY came from a troubled family. Observers would later suggest that Nick had been somewhat neglected as a child in a chaotic household, and that it was that lack of attention that had shaped him more than anything else. He was the fat kid without many friends. He was the one who always tried to be outgoing but still managed to be a loner. It wasn’t until he picked up a Bible and dug deep into the meaning of God’s Word that he seemed to find his place. It was God’s calling, he insisted, that gave him strength and shaped every bit of his character. In his family, he became the rock, the point person for every family calamity. When his brother Todd, a drug addict, was rendered brain-dead after being hit by a car on Bainbridge Island, it was Nick who instructed his parents to remove Todd from life support.
“My parents didn’t have the stomach for it,” he told a friend much later. “But I knew what God wanted.”
Nick was seen as the strongest and most responsible member of his family. Nick’s mother, Sandra Hacheney, was a fiercely independent woman who ran a home day care and took in foster children whenever the spirit moved her, which was quite frequently. Nick would later gripe that his mother favored his brothers, his sister, and even the foster kids over him.
“I don’t think she ever loved me,” he told a friend. “Actually, I think she hated me.”
For her part, Sandra Hacheney seldom said a cross word about her youngest.
Dan Hacheney always knew his greatest legacy would be his children, especially Nick. Even when he was a little boy, there was no doubt among the Hacheneys that Nick was the golden child. He had a backstory that confirmed it. Dan and Sandra Hacheney told the story often. Nick recited it too, albeit with a sheepish sense of burden.
“You have no idea,” he told a friend, “what it is like to be handed over to God.”
IT WAS 1970 AND DAN AND SANDRA HACHENEY WERE IN A STATE OF terror. Nicholas Daniel was turning a deep shade of blue. As the auto mechanic and his wife jumped into the car and drove to a Bremerton hospital, they were sure the youngest of their four children was going to die.
At twenty-eight, Dan was a rare combination of toughness and gentleness. His hands were never clean, always stained with motor oil from a job that kept food on the table and Sandra washing coveralls. A year younger than her husband, Sandra could be a somewhat sullen figure, given to what some believed were long bouts of depression. She had dark eyes and hair, like Dan and their baby.
Nick gasped for air in his mother’s arms and Dan knew only one thing to do. So convinced was he that he couldn’t get to the hospital in time, he parked the car on the edge of the roadway.
He began to pray.
“Dear God, don’t let him die. If you let him live, I’ll give him over to you right now, forever. Please, God, you raise my son! You be his father! Please, God, don’t let this boy die.”
A moment later, the blue cast on his son’s face was transformed to the rosy flush of a healthy baby.
“Thank you, Jesus,” Dan said.
BREMERTON, THE BLUE-COLLAR HEART OF KITSAP COUNTY, HAD its positive attributes: decent-paying jobs, cheap housing, mountain and water views at every turn. Kitsap County’s largest city was home to a U.S. Navy shipyard, submarine base, and port for aircraft carriers, and for many years that meant nothing more than topless bars, tattoo parlors, sailors on leave, and the women they left behind on the prowl when ships and subs departed for tours of the Pacific. Things had improved somewhat in Bremerton, though it was still “Bummertown” to many, the butt of Seattle jokes. But in 1990 a great irony came to pass when Money magazine named Bremerton “America’s Most Livable City.” Even locals, proud as they were of the completely unexpected designation by a well-known publication, wondered out loud if Money’s editors had bothered to visit the town in person.
Dawn Tienhaara had been raised in Bremerton. Her father, Donald, was a shipyard worker; her mother, Diana, a homemaker. Dawn was the oldest and the only girl in a brood that included three brothers—all named with the initial D. She was a honey blonde with pretty green eyes, a tiny birthmark above her upper lip, and a knack for memorization that, when she was a schoolgirl, took her all the way to the Rose Garden of the White House and a meeting with President Ronald Reagan when she competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Diana Tienhaara was an anxious woman who by her own admission required more love than she could get from her husband, Donald. Diana wanted a happy marriage, but she didn’t quite know how to achieve it. Her search for affection and acceptance sometimes brought turmoil. In February 1980, Diana left her husband, daughter, and son, Dennis, to live with the father of a baby she named Daron, whom she conceived during an extramarital affair. after some soul searching and a flood of tears, she returned to the family home on Rimrock Avenue in East Bremerton. She didn’t tell her youngest son about his true parentage until he was a young adult. During the difficult times, Dawn lent her mother as much support as a child could. Sometimes Diana would find small notes from her daughter under her pillow. You are great, Mom! I love you.
THAT NICK AND DAWN WOULD FALL IN LOVE AT NORTHWEST COLlege of the Assemblies of God—known informally as Northwest Bible College but celebrated and mocked by some as “Northwest Bridal College”—in Kirkland, Washington, was hardly a foregone conclusion. Those who attended the east-of-Seattle college with the young couple were surprised by the relationship. Dawn was an achiever, after all. She wasn’t gorgeous, but she was pretty in a girl-next-door way. Her roommates at the time saw Nick, on the other hand, as a loser—a guy “who tried too hard” and was clueless about it. He was brash and pushy, but Dawn was no match for his everlasting persuasion. Always a little overweight and with his hairline starting to recede while he was still in his teens, Nick was more concerned about the spiritual than the physical. No one would have said he was handsome. And yet, he had a kind of magnetism that some couldn’t resist.
Nick proposed marriage to Dawn over Oreo cookies and milk on Alki Beach, not far from her grandparents’ home in West Seattle, and the two married soon after, on April 20, 1991. They moved into a place in Bremerton; Dawn found work at the credit union and Nick set his sights on his long-held dream: to be a youth pastor under the tutelage of his beloved pastor, Bob Smith, at Christ Community Church on Bainbridge Island.
Despite being so capable—she was, after all, her high school valedictorian—Dawn surprised many with how quickly she abdicated all decision making to Nick. She appeared to go along with the fundamentalist edict that submitting to her husband’s authority was God’s plan and the greatest gift a woman could give him. When Nick’s decisions seemed foolish, Dawn backed him all the way. If he wanted to take in a troubled congregant, she agreed, although she longed for privacy. When he charged hundreds of dollars in music CDs for church friends on his credit card, Dawn shrugged it off, even though she’d had her eye on a new Jaclyn Smith outfit for work.
YEARS LATER, A WOMAN WHO LIVED WITH NICK AND DAWN IN THE early days of their marriage stumbled onto a cache of dildos and other sex toys in the master bathroom of a house they were remodeling on Nipsic Avenue in East Bremerton. Crystal Gurney, a twenty-year-old church member going through a bad patch with a new marriage at the time, wasn’t horrified by what she’d discovered. She’d lived a tough life of her own and had seen plenty. Long after her friend’s death, though, Crystal grappled with her observation. “It just didn’t seem like Dawn at all. Not the girl I knew. I wondered how it was that Nick got her into that.”
Excerpted from A Twisted Faith by .
Copyright © 2010 by Gregg Olsen.
Published in April 2010 by St. Martin’s Press.
All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher.
Reading Group Guide
A Message from Gregg Olsen
The headlines that first beckoned me to the Nick Hacheney story were shocking and salacious.
Murder. Sex. Religion. Betrayal.
All things that pique a reader's interest. And a writer's too.
I wasn't sure what I'd find when I started dialing phone numbers and doing the intrusive outreach that comes with writing a true crime story. The truth is no one ever really dreams of being in a true crime book. Not the victim's family. Not the killer or his or her family.
The Hacheney case had an even more difficult dynamic at play. Most of the players in the saga of the minister convicted of murder had been members of a church; a congregation in an affluent community that had embraced some teachings and ideas that went beyond what most of us expect in a church setting. They believed in prophecies coming from God, counseling sessions that bordered on exorcism, and a bevy of rules that made some feel as if they'd been involved in a cult.
Digging deeper, I discovered a story about women who had secret liaisons with Hacheney to serve God; ministers who'd let the unthinkable happen right before their eyes because something greater was about to come; and finally, the power that shame has over lives lived in the shadows.
I admit that I had some preconceived notions about what I'd find when I began my research. I expected to find people who were so far out on the fringes of society that I'd have a hard time relating to them.
I found decent, hardworking people, people who still sought to accept what happened and the consequences of their roles in the story - large and small. For the most part, they were like that frog in the cold water, under the rising flame...not knowing what they were involved with until it was too late.
I hope that the book provides the impetus for discussion, and ultimately understanding.
Gregg Olsen
1. Although religious cults are usually ascribed to the power of a single, charismatic leader (think Jim Jones and Rev. Moon), there may be some parallels to the story told in A Twisted Faith and other well known cults. Olsen writes of special dietary requirements, social edicts and the ostracizing of members who did not follow the tenets of the church. Did you notice any other examples in the book? Do you consider the congregation of Christ Community Church a cult?
2. Christ Community Church pastors preached the importance of a woman to be subservient to her husband. Indeed, the church leadership for most of its history was all male. Women were secretaries, music leaders, and daycare workers. Do you think that the male-dominated power structure of Christ Community Church made it easier for the women to be lead astray by Nick Hacheney?
3. In 1997, Apostle Robert Bily seemed driven to prove that Nick was a philanderer. The following year, he even went so far as doing a "stakeout" near Nicole Matheson's house to catch Nick in the act of an illicit relationship. Why didn't Robert put his foot down and remove Nick from church leadership even when he suspected an affair between Nick and Sandy Glass?
4. Members of the church claimed to receive prophetic words from God or heard the Lord speaking to them. Olsen writes extensively about Sandy Glass's prophecies, but several others (Adam Bily, Pamela Bily, and Ken Linden) reported messages from God too. Has that ever happened to you? Do you feel that prophecies are genuine and should be shared?
5. As Olsen writes it, the dynamic between the church leaders - Bob "PB" Smith, the Apostle Robert Bily, and Nick Hacheney - seemed to propel the events that ultimately cost Dawn Hacheney her life. It appeared that each were either distracted or more concerned with personal ambitions than the wellbeing of their flock. What do you think about the relationship between the leaders and its role in the story?
6. Why do you think the authorities were so quick to assume Dawn Hacheney's death was an accident, and move so quickly to close the case? Several people told author Olsen that they suspected Nick might have killed his wife when they heard the news of the fire. Why do you think they held their suspicions rather than communicating concerns to the police? Have there been times in your life when you wish you'd spoken up and shared information you knew?
7. One of the most disturbing revelations in the book occur between Dawn's mother Diana Tienhaara and Nick Hacheney. On page 185, Olsen writes of an encounter between Diana and her son-in-law at a Bremerton boat launch. On page 208, the author recounts an encounter after a late night dinner. This is a startling scene in the narrative, Diana says that she wanted to "be Dawn" for her heartbroken son-in-law by offering herself to him. What do you think it says about Diana and her state of mind? Her character? Similarly, what does it say about Nick Hacheney?
8. Nick Hacheney was adept at drawing people close. He confided to Annette Anderson that he'd been abused as a child; he reportedly told Sandy Glass that her spiritual gifts were far beyond other's; he played on Lindsey Smith's devotion to her family and how they'd viewed him as an integral part of the family. Nick's charisma, his magnetism, came from his ability to connect with people's needs. What specific things can we draw from this type of predatory conduct? Was Nick's physical appearance and persona his cover for his salacious behavior?
9. Sandy Glass kept the secret of Nick's "take the land" confession for years. Do you think she would have kept silent forever if Craig Anderson hadn't scheduled the meeting with Bob Smith and other former Christ Community Church leaders after his wife Annette confessed her sexual relationship with Nick? Why do you think Sandy held the secret of the murder so long? Do you consider Sandy a victim of Nick's evil-doing or party to it?
10. In some ways, A Twisted Faith unfolds as a cautionary tale of what can occur when self-proclaimed prophets and pastors discard the checks and balances that come with most well-known religious denominations. In fact, some church edicts concerned several congregants and incited them to leave after the shift from the Assemblies of God to Robert Bily's vision of an apostolic church. What practices of the church were "red flags" to those who left? Would any have been enough for you to leave?
11. Olsen reports at the end of the book that all of the central characters presented in A Twisted Faith have returned to church - though some took a lengthy break from organized religion. What does their continuing faith say about those people? Does it speak to strength of conviction and the enduring power of faith, or do you see it as a weakness?
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