In 1992 I found my daughter, Terese, with a fatal gunshot wound to the forehead. After a perfunctory investigation, Riverside County, California Sheriff and Coroner officials ruled her death a suicide. My son and I feared she’d been murdered, and when we presented evidence supporting our suspicions to Sheriff officials, they responded with disinterest and rudeness, claiming we were in denial. I hired private investigators, who accumulated compelling facts implicating suspects who had substantial financial motives to kill Terese.  When law enforcement continued to dismiss our findings, I financed a more extensive investigation with outside investigators. 

After nine years of tedious work by private investigators and me, my attorney contacted the California  Attorney General’s Office in San Diego with our Investigative Report, but  Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary W. Schons' office merely referred the case back to Riverside County.

My private investigator turned over all evidence to the Riverside District Attorney’s Office.  Soon after, intending, I believe, to frighten me from further efforts to have Terese’s death investigated as a homicide, the D.A.’s Office named me as “their only suspect.”  After my persistent demands for an investigation, D.A. officials escalated tactics, and presented a Search Warrant Affidavit to a judge filled with thirty-one proven material misstatements and omissions, including outright lies. Five officers tore apart my home, car, and garage, seizing nearly every item of taped, typed, or written material in my possession.

These acts by authorities were alarming, degrading, and humiliating--but the threat of a false murder charge didn’t stop my overriding need for justice for Terese.  I continued to press for a homicide investigation, and repeatedly begged to answer any questions (even without counsel present) D.A. officials wished to ask.  They ignored me.  My Citizen Complaint against D.A. Inv. Martin Silva (regarding his Search Warrant Affidavit lies and deceptions) was dismissed by his superiors, Sr. Inv. Larry Thayer and Chief of Investigators Michael J. Curfman.

I received no response from District Attorney Grover Trask to my repeated letters informing him and Asst. Dep. D.A. Randall Tagami of Silva's misconduct and of Thayer and Curfman's refusal to discipline Silva. In spite of Silva's fraudulent affidavit, no one acted responsibly to remove him from Terese's case. Trasks' refusal to act indicated his tacit approval of his subordinates' actions.

Calling me their “prime suspect,” Chief Deputy D.A. Michael Soccio claimed he had no responsibility to review our nine years of investigative work with me and my private investigators.  They refused to question me further, apparently hoping they'd extinguished my efforts on Terese's behalf and buried her case forever. But I refused to surrender to, or accept, their unscrupulous behavior.

This website exposes the ugly facts about law enforcement misconduct and recounts my efforts for justice.  I hope it will assist others whose loved one’s murder was mishandled by law enforcement or mislabeled a suicide. If you are struggling with the confusion, pain, and trauma that accompanies such a heartbreaking circumstance, perhaps you will find solace and assistance here.

Law enforcement officials, covering up for each others’ negligence, incompetence, and/or malfeasance, can be brutal toward those seeking justice for a deceased loved one.  They want to make you doubt yourself.  Ten years passed before I fully understood that the officials involved in my daughter’s case hadn’t simply made mistakes, they were wantonly protecting a murderer, maliciously and lawlessly violating my rights in order to conceal their own wrongdoing.

The organization I’ve established, Wings of Justice, provides educational and spiritual sustenance, with special assistance to law-abiding citizens abused by corrupt law enforcement. Wings of Justice is a vigorous advocate for the hiring and promotion of law enforcement personnel who honor and obey the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics and who understand their mandate to protect and serve law-abiding citizens.

Competent, ethical officers and officials need and deserve citizen support.  We must purge from our criminal justice system those who chose their jobs not to protect the innocent and insure justice, but for the “high” of dominating others.  When confronted with negligence, mistakes, or wrongdoing, these abusers of power and violators of the public trust attack the blameless in their attempts to “save face.”

If you’ve been victimized by incompetent and/or corrupt officials, or are a caring person who shares our goals, we invite you to participate in our work.  Our loved ones in spirit are with us, and our labors on their behalf advance justice for all. Through our voices, they speak. Through our work, their deaths will not have been in vain.

Mary Stewart has been a California licensed Marriage, Family Therapist since 1979.  Her private counseling practice has been located in Temecula, California since 1984.