The Disappearance of Norma Bates
The Republic
Sunday, June 24th, 2001. Arcadia Arizona near Phoenix, Arizona
Mother and son go missing
Local business man and real estate developer Sam E. Bates, is asking the public's help with any information on the disappearance of his 27 year old wife Norma Bates and ten year old step-son Dylan.
Mrs. Bates and the child were last seen driving home after the end of school year celebrations with his classmates at Arcadia Elementary. The Bates family having lived in the affluent neighborhood of Arcadia since their marriage in 1994. They have a young son together who is five, and was staying with his grandmother Rose at the time. The youngest Bates child is accounted for.
Sam Bates arrived home around six to find the family home in disarray with evidence of a break in. He said nothing of value was taken, his safe and valuables were untouched, but his wife and stepson were missing, but that the family's Land Rover was parked in the garage.
Mr. Bates had reached out to friends and family before alerting the police.
Mrs. Norma Bates is 27 years old, is 5'5, with long brown hair and eyes. She wears glasses and is roughly 180 pounds. Dylan Bates is ten years old with brown hair and blue eyes.
The most recent picture of the missing mother and son was taken two years ago. Mr. Bates claims his wife didn't like to be photographed because of her weight problems.
Sam Bates is offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to his wife and step-son's safe return.
Any information about this case can be directed to Bill Tomas of the Phoenix Police department.
The Republic
Monday, July 2nd, 2001 Phoenix Arizona
Suspicion shifts in Bates case
With no leads, no witnesses and no new information on Norma Bates and her ten year old son Dylan, detectives have begun to investigate the family home for clues. Sources close to the investigation say there is a growing suspicion around the husband, Sam E. Bates, a local real estate developer.
Recent whispers of a history of violence within the Bates household have now cast Sam Bates in an unfavorable light. Norma Bates had visited a local emergency room with her other child, a five year old son, claiming he'd fallen. Doctors treated the boy for a head injury and noticed bruises that Mrs. Bates attributed to playing outside with his older brother.
The younger child is currently in the care of his father and paternal grandmother.
Sam Bates and his mother Rose refused comment.
The parents of Arcadia Elementary have plenty to say about this case. Parents knowing or having seen the reclusive mother and noticing something was wrong.
"Mrs. Bates never said a word to anyone. She always wore those big sunglasses, never even got out of the car. Dylan was never allowed to play sports or have friends over. It wasn't normal at all." said one mother who asked no to be identified. "She was a heavy set woman. I mean, I hate to say fat, but maybe she ate her feelings. We all do sometimes."
Detectives on the case have refused comment and are still asking for the public's help in any sighting of Mrs. Bates or her ten year old son.
Norma Bates was last seen on Friday, June 22nd picking up her son Dylan from school. She was wearing a brown dress and large dark sunglass over her normal glasses. Norma Bates is 27 years old, has long brown hair and brown eyes, she's 5'5 and weighs 180 pounds. Her son Dylan is ten years old with brown hair and blue eyes. They both went missing from their Arcadia neighborhood home.
The Arizona Daily Star
Monday July 16th, 2001, Phoenix Arizona
Arrest made in Bates case.
Sam E. Bates was arrested for the murder of his wife Norma and step son Dylan last night after police say they'd discovered strong evidence in the house of foul play. A source close to the investigation says this evidence was most likely blood that had been cleaned up by the perpetrator given the sudden lab testing that was done inside the house.
Suspicions were cast on Sam Bates almost immediately after his wife and step-son's disappearance. Sam Bates having a history of domestic violence against his wife and several compelling emergency room visits concerning the two boys. Mrs. Bates had taken them to different emergency rooms over the years to try avoiding social services involvement.
Investigators found doctors notes that Dylan Bates had a broken arm earlier that month. A fact Mr. Bates did not disclose to police in the original missing persons report. He'd also failed to supply the police with any recent photographs of his wife and step-son claiming he couldn't find them. Sam Bates had also waited two days, alerting only his mother and a friend that his wife and step-son was missing, before calling the police. This has also been deemed suspicious by investigators.
Bail has been set for one million in this case. Sam E. Bates holdings are estimated to be worth several million from his building shares and is considered a flight risk.
The National Examiner
Sunday, August 26th, 2001 Arizona
Things look grim for Sam Bates
With his wife and step son missing and presumed dead, it came as no great shock that Sam Bates, the emotionless husband and father, was arrested for their murder.
Police have now disclosed that a significant amount of blood was found in the house matching Norma Bates' blood type. It's suggesting that she didn't survive the wound and it was doubtful that an intruder had caused the injury and removed the body since there had been an attempt at cleaning up.
"We utilize special chemicals to see blood even if it's been cleaned." a police spokesperson said.
This new information on top of verified reports of child abuse and failure to report is wife and step-son missing right away have all lead to Sam Bates' arrest.
Now it seems he can't even make bail until trial because there is three million dollars missing from his business accounts and that of his partners. Forensic accountants have been called in and shareholders notified. This isn't the first time Sam Bates was arrested for fraud. He was acquitted nine years ago in Florida due to lack of evidence.
Despite a nation wide media campaign, Norma Bates and her ten year old son Dylan are missing and are now presumed dead.
A younger child, who was staying with his grandmother at the time of his mother's and brother's disappearance, has been staying in her custody until the trail ends.
The trail is expected to start next month and DA Doug Wells stated: "We have a very promising case against Sam Bates."
Sam Bates and his lawyer have refused comment.
~ Norma Bates is dead. Norma Bates is dead. Norma Bates is dead.
With every passing mile, I have to tell myself that this is true. Maybe someday soon, I'll even believe it.
Norma Bates never really existed to begin with. She was a ghost living in that mansion in an oasis in the desert. That ridiculous planned community where no one noticed her. No one noticed her children being abused or Sam hitting her. Her selfish mother-in-law trying to steal her child and calling her crazy.
No, all they saw was the expensive SUV and private school they sent Dylan to. The pricey mansion with a pool; but no furniture inside it. It was all a facade, a blind to make Sam Bates look good and it was crumbling now. With every passing mile, ever new state she entered, Sam Bates was falling deeper into a hole he couldn't crawl out of.
I look at my son Dylan with his new buzz cut and the cast still on his arm. An arm that Sam broke because he'd been drinking and caught Dylan messing around with his tools.
I knew I was done with Sam long before he broke my son's arm. I knew I was done when he punched my youngest child in the face and claimed he'd provoked him. How does a three year old provoke anyone? Bastard.
So, I began to plan our escape. I could feel this fire inside me burning like something out of mythology. This monster of a woman ready to rip itself free and for the first time in my life, I could see what I had to do. I must have looked pathetic enough, huddled in the boys room with their mattress on the floor, Norman crying and Dylan whispering he was scared, but God, I'd never felt more alive. Never more powerful; like I could have snapped my husband's neck in that moment.
I don't know why I hadn't killed Sam then, but that monster inside me, that newborn animal hissed wisely to wait. That it's not enough that he die, he has to suffer first.
This feeling didn't pass with a night's sleep, as most things do. I woke up with a plan and put it to action. As soon as Sam was gone for the day, everything would change. I started to remove myself and the boys from family photo albums read everything I could on crime scenes and forensic investigations.
But that wasn't enough. Not even close, with Norman always being 'babysat' by his grandmother Rose I decided to hit the gym hard. I needed to be strong mentally and physically; but most importantly, I needed to be unrecognizable to people who knew me now. Before I'd been content to watch TV and eat, but not anymore. Now, my anger, the thing that fed the monster, needed that energy to thrive and grow.
I started eating better and losing the weight. Weight I'd helplessly gained after my son's birth and on our family's diet of fried foods. I told no one I'd hired a personal trainer who helped me to lose fifty pounds in less than a year. I kept wearing baggy clothes, kept dying my hair brown, kept wearing my glasses although I got blue contacts that made me look like a completely different person.
I could feel myself radically changing. Not like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, but like a dragon emerging from the embers of a fire. Soon enough, I'd destroy Sam, his possessive mother and everything they held dear. I'd steal back my son and we'd run away.
With money, a thing that Sam hoarded, you can buy anything. It was at the gym, a good hours' drive from our neighborhood, that I met Victoria Deeds. The woman who's identity I would assume. She was my height, blond, beautiful, toned and with artful tattoos all over her body. She was the kind of woman I could never be, but the kind of woman the newborn dragon inside me hissed that I could trust.
Victoria had been in a motorcycle accident several years ago, an incident that had left her body broken, but and had somehow renewed her spirit. She left her fiancé as soon as she was out of the hospital and started to travel the world. In fact, she would be going to Spain in May to get married to a wealthy executive who seemed to follow her around like a little puppy.
She told me how she doubted she'd be back to the states and it would be a simple matter to just, assume her life in her absence. Her parents were dead, she had no siblings and she sympathized with my situation. The real Victoria Deeds would be the only person who knew the truth.
With her help, I was able to get a new driver's license with her name using her birth certificate. I'd dyed my hair blond like hers and cut it short, I'd wear a brown wig until it came time to make my move. Sam would never notice.
As for the boys, that's where the money came in. Over $40,000 in cash gave me perfect birth certificates with the names John and Brian Deeds. No one would suspect as long as Victoria stayed out of the country. It was easier to forge a made up identity of young children, but I needed to have a history, schools, medical records for someone as old as I already was.
It was easy to get the cash from Sam. It was even easier to create the money troubles and point investigators in the direction of fraud. He had me do his bookkeeping since we were married and I had access to all his accounts.
For two years I waited until the time was right. Saving cash money, buying a cheap economy car for cash online, keeping everyone at arms length including my husband.
Maybe I won't do it. Maybe I won't do this crazy thing of faking my own disappearance and take the boys away. Maybe we can work it out.
Then Sam broke Dylan's arm and that was it. It was go time.
I waited until Dylan was done with school for the year. He had no idea that the car down the block was packed with his and Norman's clothes. Only the essentials. Things Sam wouldn't notice were gone. Dylan and Norman would never see this house or Sam again. We were free.
Then, Sam's mother Rose had to go and turn my plan to shit. She'd always been so possessive of our son Norman. Hated the name I'd given him and called him 'Her Little Sammy' out of spite. She came to the house before I could pick Dylan up at school and took Norman.
"I'm going to have his hair cut." Rose said even as I told her she couldn't take him. The bigger, stronger woman practically shoving my child into her car. "You can have him back when you calm down, Norma!"
She pushed me in the chest, a tactic that her son was so fond of using and mumbled something under her breath about me being unstable.
For some time now, I know that Sam and Rose were talking about sending me away. Sending me to a rehab for some made up mental problem. They were alway gas lighting me and lately, their efforts had seemed intensified. The moment Rose would walk into my home, announced or uninvited, she would tell me I looked tired and would constantly ask if I was alright. Then she should take Norman for the day and that my son should call her 'Mamma'.
I'll always regret answering the door that day.
My plan was already in motion. I couldn't stop it now. The crime scene had already been staged in the master bathroom. I'd spent the morning pouring out and cleaning up a quart of my own blood that I'd learn to draw off a youtube video. There was no going back now.
The bags were packed, we were leaving. Without Norman, but with over $100,000 in cash.
~ "Mom?" Dylan looked wide eyed at his mother who emerged from the motel bathroom. Her slender body, short blond hair and contacts instead of heavy glasses were all radial changes, but they were nothing compared to the big smile on her face.
"What do you think?" his mother laughed and spun around in her form fitting jeans and t-shirt like a ballerina.
"You look… nice." Dylan giggled and ran his good hand over his fresh buzz cut hair. "Really different."
"It's important we look different." she said eagerly. "You know why? Remember?"
Dylan wasn't used to seeing his mother this way. The blue eyes and make up and the blond hair made her look like another person entirely.
"Because we're hiding." he said.
She nodded.
"Remember, we have new names to." she said.
"I'm John." he said.
"And I'm Vicki." she grinned happily.
"Norman?" Dylan asked.
His mother's face fell.
"We're going to get your brother soon. As soon as we can." she promised.
"Grandma Rose took him. She won't want to give him back." he told her. He didn't want to tell his mom how his step-dad Sam was talking to the older woman about sending his mother away.
"She won't have a choice." his mother said with a grim determination he wasn't used to seeing. "We're getting your brother back. We just have to lay low for a while. Be invisible."
"How long?" Dylan asked. He liked all the driving he was doing with just him and his mom. They felt like wild outlaws running from state to state and were now in Northern California. His mother watching the news earnestly and not seeing anything that caught her interest.
"You'll never go back to Arizona." she promised. "But you'll start school in the fall."
"Where?" he asked eagerly.
His mother opened the road map and asked him where he wanted to go. A big grin on her face as she did it.
"As far from Arizona as possible!" Dylan said eagerly. He looked at the map and traced his hands along it. It had been his favorite pastime in the car while his mother drove. He'd played her navigator and she'd made him feel very important. He looked at the different colored states and shook his head at the pink ones. He decided against yellow to. Arizona had been yellow and he didn't want to live in a dessert again.
Finally he pointed to a green colored state.
"Oregon?" his mother laughed.
"Yeah!" Dylan said. "It's green."
"Well, alright." she said and hugged and kissed him.