DECEPTION IN THE DESERT
When newly-single Cindy Monkman met a handsome German stranger in a bar, for her it was love at first sight. Within three weeks they’d eloped to Las Vegas and got married. But just days later Cindy was dead, her body dumped in the desert, while her ‘husba
TO everyone who knew her, Cindy Monkman was bubbly, energetic and beautiful.
A registered dietician with a master’s degree, she was exceptionally bright and loved by her family.
And yet in September 1988, Cindy was at her most vulnerable.
She’d just split from a long-term boyfriend and, instead of pursuing her dream career, she’d somehow stalled to the point where she was working two low-paying jobs as a waitress and a health adviser to a medical group.
She wrote in her diary that her life was at a ‘crossroads’ – brought into sharp contrast by the fact she’d just turned 30.
A week after that diary entry, she walked into a bar in Mesa, California, and caught the eye of 25-year-old Michael Apelt, a tall, dark stranger with a movie star jawline.
On October 28, 1988, having known him for just three weeks, Cindy eloped to Las Vegas with Apelt, her family none the wiser.
Apelt had been in the US for just two months. He was unemployed and didn’t even have a social security card.
Ten days after those nuptials, the pair walked into a Phoenix insurance agency and took out a life insurance policy that would see one of them pick up a cool $300,000 in the event of the other’s death.
Assaulted
Early the next evening, they took a romantic drive to a remote site east of Apache Junction, a town nestled beneath the imposing Superstition Mountains made famous by countless Western movies.
Little did Cindy know that a car was following their own and it would herald her imminent death.
Inside that car were Michael’s brother, Rudi, and his former lover, Anke Dorn.
At the foot of the mountains, Cindy was brutally assaulted, thrown to the floor and had her head stamped on.
While Michael’s boot pressed her face into the desert sand, a knife was dragged across her throat with such force it almost decapitated her.
Michael then waited until the early morning of December 24 before calling the police to report his wife had disappeared.
Her body was found in the desert later that day.
When cops learned about the life insurance policy, they became instantly suspicious.
They brought the Apelt brothers and Dorn in for questioning.
After turning up the pressure during several interrogations, the whole sorry tale soon unravelled.
Dorn got immunity from prosecution by agreeing to testify against the brothers.
Memory
Both Michael and Rudi were handed death sentences – though Rudi’s was later commuted to a life sentence after his lawyers successfully argued he was mentally handicapped.
Michael Apelt remains on Death Row, having first been sent there on August 10, 1990.
Cindy’s memory, meanwhile, is being kept alive by her eloquent and passionate sister, Kathy Monkman Higham, who runs a blog titled ‘ Two Innocents’.
It’s impossible not to read her posts and feel a deep sadness for her loss.
Crammed with family portraits showing the siblings growing up together, Kathy speaks movingly about what Cindy meant to her.
“We lost our mother when we were five and seven,’ Kathy explains. “She was my entire world up until the time she was killed.
“Our brother, John, who fell in to mental illness after her murder, is living near me in Arizona. I am now his primary support person.
“Cindy was murdered by a man who, with his brother, came to the US from Germany with a plan to trick women.
“Their various cons elevated to the plan to find women to marry, take out life insurance and kill them for money.
“My sister was their first and last victim.
“I was 29 and she was 30 at the time of her murder.
‘I know the death penalty appeals process intimately as well as the toll it takes on families.
“The worst treatment our family ever received over these years was by death penalty appeal lawyers.
“I also know that I have a life to live that is my own and that was never taken by this tragedy.
“I endeavour to help others and find inspiration wherever I can.
“I feel living this kind of quality life is the best tribute I can give my sister.’
Violent
The Apelts arrived on American soil leaving a horrific past in their wake.
Michael had been a labourer in his native West Germany and had already racked up convictions for burglary, theft, insurance fraud and prostitution.
Rudi, meanwhile, had a worse rap sheet which included convictions for burglary, assault and insurance fraud.
He had also served five years in a German prison for his part in a violent gang rape of a woman.
The court in Cindy’s murder trial also heard disturbing details about the Apelts’ childhood.
Michael had been despised by his parents. He’d been raped on at least two occasions as a child and had suffered psychological damage because of it.
His father – an alcoholic and former Nazi – would regularly chain Michael and Rudi in the basement and beat them to the point of unconsciousness.
The court also heard how when Michael got a tattoo from a friend, his father burned it off and punched the boy in the mouth whenever he attempted to scream out in pain.
On the evening of October 8, 1988, Cindy and Kathy were together in a bar when a friend, Annette Clay, introduced them to the Apelts.
Kathy was instantly suspicious. She got the impression they were a pair of womanising lotharios.
“I had a bad feeling from the start,” she said. “And this isn’t a hindsight thing.
“Rudi tried to hit on me and he totally blew off my friend Annette – the girl he supposedly wanted to marry.
“I told Cindy later, ‘These guys are gross’.”
Cindy, though, was already smitten.
Kathy adds, “She kept saying, ‘He’s so into me, he’s so into me, he wants to marry me’.
“I told her to just try to keep her feet on the ground.”
That happen.
After marrying Michael in secret, Cindy wrote in her journal, ‘I’m VERY happy. For some reason we have been clearly didn’t brought together. Now, I’ve made my decision. Where do I go from here?’
By that point the Apelts were running low on cash, despite having swindled scores of other women.
So they progressed to their sickest plan of all – murdering Cindy.
Court records state, ‘Michael Apelt told the group they could have a ‘lot of money’ if he killed Cindy.
‘They agreed to the idea that evening.
‘They made plans to meet in front of a German restaurant and proceed from there to the desert, where Cindy would be killed.
‘Michael stated that he would bring Cindy and make sure she could not see where they were going.
Slashed
‘Cindy’s body was found in the early afternoon of December 24. She had been stabbed once in the lower chest and four times in the back.
‘Her throat had been slashed so deeply that her head was almost severed from her body.
‘There were a large number of bruises on her face and body. Police found a length of nylon cord and a blood-soaked beach towel near her.’
RAPIST: Brother Rudi then and now
Little sister Kathy immediately fingered Michael as the culprit.
She says she even spotted Michael and Rudi laughing and joking as they drove away from Cindy’s grave.
But, while the Apelts are safely behind bars, the agony continues for Kathy – particularly as the media spotlight has been turned on Michael rather than her sister.
She also rails at the women ‘ pen pals’ who write to Michael in prison, believing him innocent.
Talking to on of them Kathy said:, “You’re writing to Michael Apelt, who was wearing a European-made, size 15 Reebok tennis shoe when he stood on my sister’s face while she was still alive, leaving his footprint behind as a bruise.
“I guess you think there was another man in a unique European Reebok tennis shoe in the exact same size, who would have had a motive to kill Cindy and lie like Michael did.
“Except that there was a photograph in my sister’s camera of Apelt posing in those exact European-made Reebok tennis shoes, of the same large size.
“And he disposed of those bloody shoes, as he did his clothing, according to his other accomplice, Anke Dorn.
“Do you know that about seven other women came forward who he was conning and stealing from at the same time he married and was plotting to murder my sister?
“Then there were the Rolex dealers, all of the luxury car dealers in Phoenix and a custom home builder who came to court telling tales of these tall German brothers who had convinced them they were anything from professional athletes to pilots.
“Everyone them.
“They were spending Cindy’s life insurance while she was alive.
“Yet there are still people like you torturing us with your own twisted agendas nearly 30 years after the fact.” believed