Free Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder by Kathryn Casey Page A

a man. Yet Brenda sensed that for her sister to be with David Temple, Belinda had no other choice. “It seemed like everything had to be his way,” says Brenda. “But I couldn’t say anything. Belinda was in love.”
    When he met David at family get-togethers, Tom’s brother Chuck also had misgivings. “The boy didn’t talk much to us,” he says. “He never seemed to fit into the family. He just never showed very much affection for anyone.”
    It would seem later that Chuck Lucas had sensed a problem. As the holidays passed, Staci heard David referring to the Lucas family as rednecks and white trash. Then Belinda opened up just a little about the way the relationship was developing, statements like, “Well, David flew off the handle again today.” Rios spoke up, telling Belinda that all wasn’t well with David Temple. But as his parents had before her, Belinda made excuses for David, saying it was near finals and he was under a lot of pressure.
    “We were so young,” says Rios, who years later would lament that Belinda hadn’t recognized the signs. “Neither of us really understood that there was anything to be really worried about. But I just didn’t like David Temple.”
    That Easter, Belinda made her first trip to Katy, replacing Pam at the Temple family celebration. At the annual egg throw, Belinda winged one at Ken Temple. It cracked and he had egg all over, but he was left rolling in laughter. In his flamboyant manner of speech, Ken would later say Belinda “exploded into our lives,” and that “the Temples must have had a void and she fell into it, and immediately everyone was drawn to her and it seemed to be reciprocal with our family and Belinda.”
    Ken Temple, Brian and Jill would later say, told the truth. Belinda did move easily and eagerly into her place as a member of the Temple family. By then, there were rifts in the Lucas family, and the children weren’t gathering on holidays. “They just weren’t coming around that much,” says Carol. “Tom and me, we didn’t understand why.”
    Her own family was important to Belinda, but there was a distance between them, more than physical, emotional. In contrast, at least on the surface, David’s family appeared close and loving, the embodiment of the traditional Norman Rockwell family, the type of homespun happiness Belinda had grown up longing for.
    “David looked like the All-American football hero, and his family seemed like they had a lot to offer Belinda,” says Jill. “She talked a lot about the Temples, how they were such a close family, and that there wasn’t the strain her own family felt. At first, Brian and I were happy for her, grateful that she felt so loved.”
    Describing those early days, Ken Temple would say, “Belinda was there for keeps. We did everything for Belinda that we would have done for a naturally born daughter, and we loved her unconditionally and without hesitation.”
    By then, the youngest of the trio of Temple sons was also in Nacogdoches. Kevin and his girlfriend, Rebecca, a petite woman with long dark hair, moved into SFA dorms. They’d been dating since high school. Taller than David and with a mop of dark hair, Kevin circulated over to David’s apartment often. Before long, Belinda was doing Kevin’s laundry along with David’s, and making them all quesadillas for dinners. They went to happy hours at the La Hacienda restaurant, laughed and talked. The daughter of an engineer and a schoolteacher, Becky and Belinda grew close. As her months with David passed, Belinda spent less time with her family and friends. Instead Belinda, as Pam had before her, devoted her free time to David. She was at his apartment often, where they grilled outside on the patio with Moore and his girlfriend. Or they went out dancing. “They both really enjoyed that,” says Moore. “Two-stepping at country western bars.”
    Coming off their most successful season, the Lumberjacks only won one game that year. Months after