JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Six months after telling a reporter that she loved her recently killed husband to death, a Colorado woman was arrested in Jacksonville and charged with murder.
Miriam Helmick, 51, remained in the Duval County Jail on a $2 million bond Tuesday, a day after she was arrested on a nationwide extradition warrant. She will soon be returning to Colorado.
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After months of investigative work, Colorado authorities said they were able to gather enough evidence against Helmick. The arrest warrant has been sealed in the case because Colorado authorities said they are still trying to tie up a few loose ends.
Helmick was never told not to leave Mesa County, and Colorado authorities said they had a pretty good idea where she was in Jacksonville because of family ties.
She was arrested without incident in a joint operation involving the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Helmick told a Jacksonville judge she wanted to go back to Colorado to face charges she killed her second husband, 62-year-old Alan Helmick.
The Mesa County Sheriff's Office said Alan Helmick, a prominent businessman, was found dead inside his home in June.
They said the man had been shot in the head. His wife claimed he was the victim of a robbery.
"I came in and found him, and then it went from there. That?s all I know," Helmick said shortly after her husband's death.
She is now not only charged with first-degree murder, but also 11 counts of forgery and attempted first-degree murder.
Colorado authorities have not released many details, but they said Helmick tried to kill her husband at least once before.
During an interview shortly after her husband's death, Helmick told reporters she loved her husband and she was afraid to leave the couple's home.
"He grew on me and just I just loved him to death. I'm missing my right arm, I feel like. I'm just missing my life. I don?t know what to do," Helmick said during the interview.
Colorado deputies said Helmick has family in Jacksonville, where she lived with her first husband, Jack Giles, who also died of a gunshot wound in 2002.
Giles death was ruled a suicide.
Jacksonville police said detectives revisited the Giles' case after Alan Helmick's death, but they did not find any new evidence to reopen their investigation.