Teen blogger murder trial

Don Pierce, friend of the Waterman family: Something she said triggered such strong emotions in Jason that he felt that he had to save her.

People in the small Alaskan village of Craig were shocked by the brutal murder of Lauri Waterman and the arrest of two young locals who quickly confessed to the killing. But nothing could have prepared them for what came next -- the men claimed it was Lauri's teenage daughter who put them up to it.

Dina Keyt, Rachelle Waterman’s aunt: It's not possible.

Larson: It’s like this family's suffering enough-- now you’ve got to drag somebody else into it.

Dina Keyt: Yeah. Right.

What Rachelle's family heard didn't seem possible of the smart, athletic girl they knew and loved. Every summer, Rachelle and her mom would spend weeks with Lauri's family in Tacoma, Washington. Don Martelli is Rachelle's grandfather.

Don Martelli, Sr., Rachelle’s grandfather: She would help me with the projects I had around the yard. And she's right there with me all the time. She would help her mother with the dishes and she would help cooking.

But as the investigators dug deeper, they discovered another side of Rachelle... one her family hadn't seen. A darker side - revealed in an Internet blog Rachelle called "My Crappy Life.”

"Don't you hate it when the little pieces of sh-- pile up to the point you're at the breaking point, and you want to scream and cry at the same time."

In it, Rachelle called home "Hell, Alaska." And while most entries could be brushed off as typical teenage posturing, others were more disturbing:  passages on the occult, a description of a pentagram Rachelle had burned into her skin with a heated paperclip.

And when it came to her mother, whom she called "the female parental unit,” Rachelle wrote that Lauri criticized her weight, read her mail, once went “psycho bitch” on her and threw her down the stairs.

The day after police confirmed Lauri Waterman had been murdered, Rachelle's blog ended with an emotionless entry:

11/18/04 blog entry

Just to let everyone know, my mother was murdered. I won't have computer access until the weekend or so because the police took my computer to go through the hard drive.

But the most troubling information came from the confessed killers themselves --- Jason Arrant and Brian Radel. Brian told police he'd briefly had a sexual relationship with Rachelle when she was just 15 years old and when that ended, he set her up with his best friend Jason. Both men fell in love with Rachelle and over time, she shared stories about life in the Waterman home, a life, she said, far different from what it seemed.

Brian Radel, dated Rachelle Waterman: She would mention that her mom had hit her with a baseball bat, that her mom liked to hit her in the lower back.

Larson: Did you ever see the bruises?

Radel: Yes, I did see bruises.

Larson: Where were they?

Radel: The ones that I saw were on her upper thighs.

Family and friends could not believe it -- Lauri Waterman was loved in town, always the first to volunteer and the last to leave when a job needed to be finished.

Geoffrey Waterman, Lauri Waterman’s son: She was loving. She just really wanted to bring out the best in people.

And, her family says, Lauri would never, ever hurt her daughter, that if Rachelle had bruises, they were not caused by Lauri.

Don Martelli, Lauri Waterman’s brother: She's making up stuff to get attention. And that's the part that bothered me the most. Because I know my sister, I know what she's done for her family. I know that she's a loving person.

But the killers, Arrant and Radel, told police that Rachelle had feared for her life... and that they felt compelled to act.

Radel: I said "I'd protect Rachelle. If I don't go through with this, I’m really not willing to protect Rachelle like I said I was."

MORE FROM DATELINE

Dateline Section Front

NBC's People of the Year: Read the interviews The Night Mary Jane Disappeared The Friday the 13th Mystery Mystery at Lost Dog Road Slideshow: Photos in the Bob Duke case When The Smoke Clears   Sneak peek: When The Smoke Clears Slideshow: The Christie Fleming murder Transcript: Dan Brown and Secrets Of The Lost Symbol Through The Pouring Rain Dateline Section Front   Add Dateline headlines to your news reader: