where is the well deserved yacht now

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48 Hours Update: Murdered Couple's Beloved Yacht Now For Sale

By Ryan Smith

June 18, 2009 / 12:30 PM EDT / CBS News

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (CBS News 48 Hours Mystery / AP)

A couple's dream yacht that ultimately cost them their lives is up for sale.

It was in Newport Beach, Calif. that Tom and Jackie Hawks came to find paradise. Their dream was rooted in two simple things: being together and being on a boat. Few people had lived better lives, so it almost seemed like fate when the couple bought a 55-foot yacht that was already named Well Deserved. For Tom and Jackie, a dream had come true. Life was an endless cruise filled with good times and best friends, sailing from Catalina Island to Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

"He said, 'Life's too short, and it's my life, this is our time, and I feel if I hesitate, then it would just go by and I'll miss it,'" says Ryan Hawks, one of the couple's sons.

While Tom and Jackie were living the life they'd always dreamed of, something wonderful was happening in the mountains of Prescott, Ariz., that would alter their lives forever: Tom's son, Matt and his wife, Nicole, welcomed a baby. "They were just very excited," Matt says. "Jackie was already buying baby clothes."

After four years at sea, Tom and Jackie decided To return to Arizona when their first granchild was born to son Matt and his wife Nicole. They put their boat up for sale... And one of the potential buyers would alter the course of the family's life forever.

Skylar Deleon, a former child actor, whose latest line of work was burglary, hatched a twisted plot with his young wife to kill the Hawks, sell the boat, drain their accounts and be set financially for life. Deleon and two accomplices got the Hawks to take them on a test cruise of Catalina Island into the Pacific. The trio overpowered the unsuspecting Hawks, forcing them to sign over the boat and their bank account information. Deleon and the two others tied Tom and Jackie Hawks to the anchor then throwing them overboard of Newport Beach.

Their bodies have not been found.

Skylar Deleon, his former wife Jennifer Henderson and John Kenned have been convicted of charges relating to the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks. The fifth conspirator, Alonso Machain pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Investigators had kept the yacht Well Deserved in dry storage for the past four years as evidence after the 2002 murders.

The sons of Jackie and Tom Hawks say they're ready to sell the boat now that the criminal proceedings are over.

Watch The 48 Hours Broadcast On The Hawk Case

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Tom and Jackie Hawks Killed in Yacht Murder By "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" Actor and His Wife

Skylar Deleon, who appeared on  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,  tied Tom and Jackie Hawks to the anchor of their yacht and then threw them overboard with the help of his pregnant wife.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks christened their yacht “Well Deserved.” It was a fitting name for a happy and successful seafaring couple whose hard work enabled them to retire early and realize their dream lives in Newport Beach, California.

How to Watch

Watch The Real Murders of Orange County on Peacock and catch up on the Oxygen App.

But in 2004, the dream turned into a nightmare. They were murdered in what Caitlin Rother — the  author of Dead Reckoning and former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter —  described as the “most unbelievably horrible” way to Oxygen’ s The Real Murders of Orange County ,  streaming now   on Oxygen.com .

RELATED:  19-Year-Old Ashton Sachs Shoots And Kills Parents In "Brutal Crime" Before Sobbing At Their Funeral

After spending years traveling and living on their 65-foot-boat, Tom Hawks, a 57-year-old bodybuilder and former probation officer with two sons from a previous marriage, and his wife, Jackie, 47, were ready to leave the California coast and get their land legs back. 

Destination: Arizona, where they’d wed in a joyous Hawaiian-themed ceremony years before and now had their first grandchild. In mid-November 2004, they put Well Deserved up for sale and appeared to have found buyers.

But around that time, the Hawkses vanished. They didn’t return calls. Their bank account went untouched , the San Diego Union Tribune reported at the time.

Family and friends wondered if the Hawkses had possibly taken an impromptu voyage as a celebratory last hurrah, but it soon became clear something was amiss. Jim Hawks, a former police chief in nearby Carlsbad and Tom’s older brother, called authorities, according to the outlet . Officers from Carlsbad and Newport Beach police departments got busy on the missing persons case. 

The search began at the couple’s boat, and the discovery of what could have been a bloody partial fingerprint on the Hawks’ yacht gave authorities probable cause to enter the vessel and search for clues. 

No clear evidence emerged, however. Crime Scene Investigation analysis revealed that the suspected partial bloody fingerprint was actually rust. 

How did former  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers  actor Skylar Deleon become a suspect in the yacht murders?

Detectives then turned to Skylar Deleon, 25, and his wife, Jennifer Deleon, 23, who were listed as the buyers of the boat, Well Deserved. Skylar was a former child actor who appeared in the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers  and dabbled in real estate. Jennifer was pregnant with their second child.

Detectives interviewed the couple in Long Beach, where they lived with Jennifer’s parents. They told authorities that they had paid cash — a whopping three quarters of a million dollars — for the yacht. The money had been saved from Skylar’s acting days, they claimed.

Authorities expressed doubts to Skylar about his story, and they were shocked when Deleon admitted that he was actually flush with cash because he was involved in large-scale drug sales — a felony. 

RELATED: Retired Marine's O.C. Murder Traced To His Ex-Girlfriend and Her Two Accomplices

“He admitted to money laundering,” investigators told producers. However, they decided to table this revelation to focus on the missing persons case.

Three weeks after the Hawkses disappeared, there was suspicious activity on their bank accounts. The people trying to access the money were the Deleons. 

This break in the case became doubly alarming. Investigators learned that Skylar was on probation for armed robbery. Moreover, documents showed that the Hawkses had given durable power of attorney to Skylar, which defied logic. 

Skylar, meanwhile, claimed the Hawkses signed over an all-access pass to their money because he was helping them secure a vacation home in Mexico.  

Careful scrutiny, though, raised a red flag: Jackie’s surname appeared to have been signed as Hawk, not Hawks. Did someone else add the “s”? Was it a subtle signal that Jackie signed under duress? 

Despite their suspicions, the document seemed to be above reproach. It bore the name of a witness — Alonso Machain, a friend of the Deleons — and a notary, Kathleen Harris. When questioned separately, their stories confirmed the transaction was legitimate. 

By mid-December, authorities “were desperate to find” the Hawkses, retired Newport Beach Police Department Det. Sgt. David Byington told producers. 

RELATED: "His Throat Was Cut On Both Sides": 24-Year-Old O.C. Man Murdered "With Sincere Hate"

After fliers and bulletins were distributed with information about the missing couple’s car, the vehicle was found across the border. 

Detectives recovered the missing couple’s Honda CR-V in Ensenada, Mexico, the Union-Tribune reported in 2004. The person who had the car said it had been a gift from the Deleons. 

“My heart stopped right there,” Byington told producers.

Inspecting the car for evidence became an urgent priority. Skylar had insisted during police interviews that he’d never been in the Hawks’ car. DNA evidence could prove otherwise. 

While awaiting that proof, detectives learned from Skylar’s probation office that the former child actor requested permission to leave the country for work.

Investigators needed to arrest Deleon, and luckily, they had a reason to in their back pocket: his admission of money laundering. They arrested Skylar at his Long Beach residence. Searching the premises, police found personal papers, IDs, videotapes, and a laptop that all belonged to Tom and Jackie Hawks. 

“Any hope the Hawkses were alive died right there,” Byington told producers.

Meanwhile, Deleon’s DNA turned up on a dashboard knob of the Hawks’ car. 

It was potentially a game-changer, but there was still a high hurdle, according to Newport Beach retired Det. Sgt. Mario Montero. “It’s hard to have a murder case when you don’t have any bodies,” he told producers.

There was more digging to do. Detectives re-interviewed Harris, who initially swore she saw Thomas and Jackie Hawks sign a document giving their power of attorney to Skylar Deleon.  Harris eventually admitted that she never laid eyes on Tom and Jackie Hawks. Motivated by making some extra money, Harris had backdated the documents to Nov. 15, 2004, at the Deleons’ request. 

RELATED: “Evil to the Bone”: O.C. College Student Stabbed 41 Times in Campus Parking Lot

Investigators then set their sights on Machain, who, they discovered, was in Mexico to elude arrest. Investigators believed that he was the only avenue to find out what happened to the Hawkses, so they took the death penalty off the table and Machain returned to California. 

The Yacht Murders

In early 2005 he related the details of the murder: Machain said he was present when the Hawkses were lured out to sea, forced to sign legal documents, and then tossed overboard chained to an anchor.  

Skylar had sought help from a Long Beach gang member named John F. Kennedy to help physically subdue the burly Tom Hawks. He passed Kennedy off as part of his business team. The presence of Jennifer Deleon, a mom with a baby on the way, helped convince the victims there was nothing to fear.

“She’s as evil as anybody on that boat,” Byington told producers.

How did Tom and Jackie Hawks die?

Tom and Jackie Hawks “were pulled down 3,500 feet to the bottom of the ocean,” said former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Caitlin Rother. “They were drowned alive.”

Alonso Machain was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the heinous crime. Jennifer Deleon was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole . John Fitzgerald Kennedy was sentenced to death for his part in the murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks. 

What happened to Skylar Deleon?

Convicted murderer Deleon was sentenced to die by lethal injection . However, because of California’s moratorium on the death penalty, the ringleader in the deaths of Tom and Jackie Hawks will live out his days on Death Row.

Where to Watch  The Real Murders of Orange County

You can watch The Real Murders of Orange County on the  Oxygen app . The first two seasons are also available on  Peacock .

Originally published Nov 15, 2020.

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The Final Voyage: Retired California couple chained to anchor, thrown off their own yacht

04/30/2018 5:44 pm pdt.

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A headline-dominating murder mystery in California. A brutal crime filled with so much greed, deception and pure evil that it will continue to be talked about for years to come.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks were living the life they always dreamed of: sailing the Pacific Ocean for nearly two years on a yacht appropriately named Well Deserved .

"The best example one could ever hope for of how couples should treat each other," said Carter Ford, a friend of the Hawks. "They were just totally devoted."

The loving couple had worked hard their entire lives, Tom as a probation officer and Jackie as a stepmom to Tom's two sons. And when they retired, they bought their dream boat, the Well Deserved , a 55-foot yacht. Life couldn't have been better on board.

"They personally were precious people to talk with," said friend Judy Weightman.

Weightman and Ford moored their boats near the Hawks in the same upscale harbor in ritzy Newport Beach, California.

"They lived on the boat better than most people can live in a house," said Ford.

The Hawks cruised the most exotic ports of call from California to the Mexican Riviera. Little did Tom and Jackie know they would soon be headed into troubled waters and a dangerous transition they never saw coming.

After two years of endless vacations, Tom and Jackie's dream is suddenly interrupted in the most wonderful way.

"They had a new grandbaby in Arizona," said author Caitlin Rother.

Crime writer Caitlin Rother says Tom and Jackie decided to embark on a new journey.

"They wanted to get back to Arizona and spend time with this little boy," said Rother.

Tom and Jackie put their beloved Well Deserved up for sale. Instead of paying a hefty commission to a boat broker, they were going to sell the yacht themselves.

"For Tom and Jackie the savings of that fee was going to be significant with what they were going to have left, so they advertised in boating magazines," said Carter Ford.

The Hawks place a small ad in Yachting World magazine, asking $435,000 for the meticulously maintained Well Deserved.

Now all they needed was a legitimate buyer. And it didn't take long.

"They got interest from a buyer for the Well Deserved ," said Caitlin Rother. "This buyer though was young, 25 years old."

The buyer tells Tom he has cash -- lots of it.

"This guy said he had made money as a child actor and made some money in real estate," said Rother.

Initially Tom, the former probation officer is skeptical. But then the buyer does something that eases both Tom and Jackie's fears.

"He brought his wife, and his wife was pregnant, and she brought their little baby daughter in a stroller and that made Jackie and Tom trust them," said Rother.

The Hawks accept an all-cash offer for their asking price of $435,000, and an additional $15,000 for some personal items. Tom and Jackie celebrate their financial windfall with one last trip on board the Well Deserved .

But before the deal is officially sealed, the buyer calls with one more request: a sea trial to inspect the hull and to test the motors.

"The idea is to take the boat out on a sea trial and then they're going to come back and finish the deal," said Rother.

Tom and Jackie expect the buyer and his wife to show up. But this time he has a different crew.

"The buyer comes with a young guy, skinny guy and a much bigger guy, who he says is his accountant," said Rother.

The Hawks are a little suspicious, but agree, and cautiously navigate their way out of Newport Harbor and into open waters for one final voyage on the Well Deserved .

Carter Ford says he made plans to meet up with the Hawks later that night. But as darkness descended over Newport Harbor, he got a troubling message from Jackie.

"'Hey Carter, we don't know why we're not back at shore yet, we're still out here on the sea trial.' We really don't know what's happening other than the fact that they're telling us that there still sea-trialing the boat," said Ford.

Jackie says they'll let him know when they get back to the harbor. But they never called.

When the sun rises, the Well Deserved is moored back in Newport Harbor, but Tom and Jackie are nowhere to be found.

"When they never turned up, it sends chills up your back, of course," said Ford.

The 55-foot yacht is moored back in Newport Harbor, but the Hawks seemed to have vanished into the ocean air.

"They're not calling their friends, they're not calling their family, they're not answering their cellphones, and you know something's wrong," said author Caitlin Rother.

Rother says Tom and Jackie's SUV was also missing, so initially friends assumed the Hawks took a road trip to celebrate their financial windfall.

But when the Hawks failed to contact anyone for more than a week, the family asks Carter Ford to cruise out to the Well Deserved and dig around a little. And when Ford steps onboard the normally meticulously kept yacht, his heart sinks.

What first alerted you that something was wrong with the boat?

"The way it was left, not only was the boat sloppy, there was a white towel hanging out the port hole on the side," said Ford. "This does not look good."

The family immediately files a missing-persons report.

"When I first got the call, I had one of the detectives, I said 'Head out to the yacht, see what you can see,'" said retired Newport Beach Police Detective David Byington.

Retired Detective Sgt. Byington says the detective smashed the lock on the cabin door and entered with caution.

"There wasn't any signs of violence," said Byington.

They find that white towel and a fresh inkpad wedged between the master bed and a wall. Then something else stops him dead in his tracks: a receipt.

"And on this receipt were bleach, cleaning supplies, heavy-duty trash bags and Tums," said Byington. "Just something in the back of my head said 'Well, if I was going to commit a murder, that would be my 'clean kit.' I'd get bags to destroy evidence, clean up and down with bleach wipes, and maybe my stomach would be upset so I would take some Tums."

Newport Police now want to know who was buying the Well Deserved.

"So the buyers were this young couple, Skylar Deleon, 25 years old, and his wife, Jennifer. Jennifer's pregnant and they have a little baby daughter," said Caitlin Rother.

Skylar Deleon may look familiar: he's a former child actor appearing on the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" TV show. His wife Jennifer, the daughter of Christian evangelical parents, worked as a hairdresser.

"He wanted to get the boat with his wife to live on and charter and so have a business on the boat and take families out fishing," said Rother.

With still no sign of the Hawks, Byington secretly puts a surveillance team on the Deleons.

Undercover officer David Moon tracks them down at a local church, but they aren't there to pray. They're actually cleaning the church.

"We show up at a church and he's volunteering his time there with his wife and baby," said Byington.

"We'd also followed Jennifer, she was a hairdresser, and to her job, and she was just walking in, cutting hair," said Newport Beach Police Officer David Moon. "They looked pretty normal. Just a young couple doing their thing.

"I'm expecting to see, you know, some bad guys that you'd get from Hollywood casting. This wasn't it. This was this husband and wife volunteering their time at a church, cleaning," said Byington.

Skylar Deleon and his wife are regulars at church, but they're not volunteering much to help police find the Hawks.

Detectives uncover that Skylar was on probation after being busted for burglary. And when they dig into their finances, they find the couple is $87,000 in debt, living in Jennifer's parents' garage.

Cops start to wonder where in the world did they get the money to buy the Well Deserved ? It certainly wasn't from Deleon's acting career.

"Skylar Deleon had told people that he had been on 'Mighty Morpin Power Rangers,' but in fact it turned out he had just had two minor non-speaking roles," said Caitlin Rother.

Detective Byington hauls Skylar in for questioning, and in the recorded interrogation, Skylar adamantly maintains they did in fact buy the Well Deserved .

"We spent like 485 on it."

"And that was cash, right? That you paid them that day?"

"I go 'How is it that you have this money that you could buy this yacht?' And he said, he almost dropped his shoulders, and said 'I have to be honest with you, the money I got was from drug sales,'" Byington tells Crime Watch Daily.

Skylar says he gave Tom Hawks a briefcase filled with mostly one hundred dollar bills he'd laundered out of Mexico; he handed over the dirty money, and Tom and Jackie signed over the Well Deserved .

"Did he seem nervous?"

"He was excited but nervous. He was just like 'Let's just close this up.'"

"Was it in the trunk so you're out of view, or was it just on the back of the trunk?"

"We were out of view."

Skylar tells Byington the Hawks then asked him if he would use his connections to help the couple open up a bank account in Mexico so they could buy a house.

"He was saying that him and his wife, they were looking at places in San Carlos."

"Did he say anything specific regarding that? 'Cause that's what we're trying to focus looking for them."

"He just said that they liked the Sea of Cortez."

Skylar takes his story one step further, telling Detective Byington that Tom and Jackie even signed a power of attorney giving him full access to move all of their money to Mexico.

"You're telling me you got these two power of attorneys specifically for that, you didn't embellish it any other way. Nothing like that."

As suspicious as it all sounds, the Deleons produce a power of attorney that looks legitimate.

"They hand them over to the police, they are signed, everything looks OK," said Rother.

"Skylar, you have nothing to do with disappearance, wife doesn't either, nobody in your family, your dad. Nobody, right?"

"Even though the story didn't ring true, my first instincts, when I talked to Skylar, was that I don't see him doing anything," said Byington.

Adding to Skylar Deleon's credibility, cellphone towers show the Hawks' phones were "pinging" near the Mexican border the morning after they sea-trialed the boat with Skylar.

Detectives are back at zero, and they turn to the Hawks family for help.

"The Hawks' son Ryan is a really good-looking individual, so we put him in front of the cameras on national news for a plea to find this car and his parents," said Byington.

Cops get the hit they've been waiting for, and it's across the border.

"We finally got a call from an American citizen down in Mexico who said 'Hey, I'm watching the news right now and you say you're looking for a car and I'm looking at it,'" said Byington. "And sure as hell, here's the Hawks' vehicle sitting there."

Thomas and Jackie Hawks did what thousands of people do: They took out an ad to sell their yacht. Little did they know they were setting themselves up for a trap.

Detectives are staring at Tom and Jackie Hawks' missing SUV. It's spotted outside a house near Ensenada, Mexico.

Is this the break Newport Beach Detective Sgt. David Byington has been waiting for? The Hawks mysteriously disappeared more than a month prior, last seen heading out to sea onboard their yacht.

A Mexican federale takes the lead and knocks on the door. Byington speaks very little Spanish, but even he understands what the man says.

"The gentleman inside the house said the name Skylar Deleon," said Byington.

The same Skylar Deleon who bought the Well Deserved , and he wasn't alone.

"And then I hear the same Mexican gentleman inside say Jennifer's name," said Byington.

The gentleman at the door is an old surfing buddy, and says Skylar gave him the car. After that, Deleon's very pregnant wife Jennifer picked him up and drove him back to the States.

"He swabbed the knobs within the car and end up hitting Skylar's DNA on the heater knob in there, so it turned out to be amazing," said Byington.

Detectives now believe something bad happened to Tom and Jackie on the Well Deserved -- but what?

Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy smells big trouble.

"This case was uniquely diabolical," Murphy tells Crime Watch Daily.

Murphy suspects Skylar and possibly his wife Jennifer are both involved in the Hawks' disappearance, but he needs proof.

So he circles back to that power of attorney. Skylar told detectives the Hawks willingly signed it, hoping Skylar Deleon could help them buy a home in Mexico.

"They had a durable power of attorney, OK. That makes no sense," said Murphy. "That would give this young 22, 23-year-old couple, strangers to them still, access to their bank accounts."

Here's the problem: the notary, a woman named Kathleen Harris, tells cops it's the real deal, claiming she witnessed the Hawks signing the papers and personally took the required fingerprints to make the documents legal.

"She said, 'I was down there, I saw the transaction. I didn't see how much money was in the suitcase,' but she tells the same story essentially that Skylar told. They also had fingerprints all over the documents," said Murphy.

But when cops ask the notary to physically describe Tom and Jackie Hawks, she stumbles.

"She describes Tom to a tee, but she described Jackie as having brown curly hair, which was odd because Jackie, when they moved onto the Well Deserved , she cut her long curly hair and she spiked it and dyed it blonde. So that was one of those things, it didn't quite make sense."

Could the notary just be confused? The fingerprints on the power of attorney are an exact match, and the signatures also appear to be legitimate.

"We send these things off to the FBI and the finest handwriting experts in the world look at it and go, 'That is Tom's signature,'" said Murphy.

The experts also confirm it's Jackie's signature -- but there is something strange.

"Their last name is Hawks with an 's,' OK, and she wrote 'Jackie Hawk,' and somebody else came in later and wrote in an 's' that's inconsistent with her signature," said Murphy.

Murphy believes Jackie may have been secretly trying to alert someone they were in deep trouble.

"She wanted to send a signal to somebody in the future that something here is not right," said Murphy.

And just as Murphy is about turn the spotlight on the Deleons, the D.A. gets tipped off that Skylar is about to scramble like a cockroach looking for cover.

"Suddenly Skylar contacts his probation officer and says 'Can I get permission to leave the country?'" said Caitlin Rother.

So the quick-thinking D.A. comes up with a plan, and it's all caught on audio tape. An arrest warrant is issued for Skylar Deleon for money-laundering. During Skylar's interrogation, he confessed to laundering money from a Mexican drug deal.

As the officer moves in to cuff Skylar, he is reportedly wearing an adult diaper at the time.

"So they arrest Skylar and Jennifer has the gall to start being angry at the police officers, like 'You have some nerve to take my husband away,' and it was just an unbelievable scene," said Rother.

Detectives also head to that converted garage apartment at Jennifer's parents' place, where the two have been living. Cops hit the jackpot.

"They find all of Tom and Jackie's stuff. They find their camera, they find driver's license and other kinds of very personal belongings," said Rother.

And detectives can't help but notice that in Jackie's driver's license, she looks remarkably similar to how the notary described her.

"So that raised suspicions about the notary, and did the notary actually witness these documents being signed or not," said Rother.

Cops are beginning to suspect there are more people involved with the Hawks' disappearance than just the Deleons.

Detectives also stumble across something else in the garage that raises a few eyebrows.

"One of my detectives found a business card from LAPD and the detective was assigned to as a liaison with Interpol," said Byington.

Newport Police contact the Interpol agent, and when detectives reveal they're investigating Skylar's possible involvement in the disappearance of the Hawks, the agent hits them with a jaw-dropper.

"He says 'That's funny because I was talking to him a year ago because we were looking at him for murder of an American citizen in Mexico," said Byington. "I go, 'They killed the Hawks, because this is no way,' you know, this is too much of a coincidence."

But Mexican federales could never link Skylar Deleon to the murder.

"We have no proof he did anything illegal but its stinks on ice," said Byington.

The noose is quickly tightening around Skylar Deleon in the disappearance of Tom and Jackie Hawks. Cops just need to figure out motive and method.

On a hunch, Murphy calls an old boating buddy he met in Indonesia named "Salty Sam."

"I'm like, 'Hey, man. What should we be looking for on a boat if we're trying to figure out if there was a murder committed?' And without skipping a beat, he said 'Look for missing anchors,'" said Matt Murphy.

Investigators go back to the ad the Hawks had placed in that yachting magazine.

"And in every single photo there were two anchors on the bow," said Murphy.

They rush back out to the harbor to check the Well Deserved . And sure enough:

"On the bow of the boat there's only one anchor, and there should have been two," said Murphy.

"Our working theory was 'Hey, they had him sign the paperwork, they shot them, they threw them overboard,'" said retired Newport Beach detective David Byington.

Cops claim Skylar Deleon is actually a master manipulator. Detectives don't believe Deleon ever intended to buy Tom and Jackie Hawks' yacht. Instead, they say, he hatched a twisted plan to steal it by murdering the Hawks in cold blood, then dumping their bodies into the Pacific Ocean.

"Utterly diabolical," said Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy. "He used his kids to get two innocent people to trust him enough that he would go out to sea with them and they'd let their guard down. And that's what happened."

Murphy has Deleon arrested for money-laundering so he can build a case. But it becomes crystal clear Skylar Deleon didn't pull of the elaborate scheme by himself. Authorities believe his pregnant wife Jennifer was his partner in crime who helped him set the trap.

"The entire investigation at that point shifted to her," said Murphy.

Still, Murphy needs solid evidence to prove Jennifer was a willing accomplice. And he finally gets it.

"We actually have video surveillance pictures of them walking up to the teller, and Jennifer's got a grin ear to ear," said Byington. "They came up and said 'We want to get money out for the Hawks, and here's the power of attorney,' and the manager comes over and says 'I know the Hawks and I'm not giving you a dime until we verify this.'"

"Physically, she wasn't on that boat, she was absolutely on that boat in every other way. She's cheerleading the whole time," said Matt Murphy.

It was all the proof Murphy needed to charge Jennifer as an accomplice. But instead he makes Deleon's wife an offer he thinks she can't refuse: immunity. All Jennifer has to do is rat out her husband.

"She's probably about seven months' pregnant, at that point, so she told us to pound sand," said Murphy. "Young love prevailed and she said no."

Murphy then goes back to Kathleen Harris, the notary that he suspects lied about witnessing the Hawks sign the power of attorney documents. But Harris doesn't flinch either.

"Everybody stuck to the same story. So we had to see if there was somebody that would tell us the truth," said Murphy.

And there in black and white is the mistake that will sink the Deleon's story, a name staring prosecutors right the face: A signature on that power of attorney of a man who witnessed the deal going down, Alonso Machain.

"So Alonso was 19 years old at the time, living with his parents, and he's working at the Seal Beach city jail," said Murphy.

Machain worked as a jail guard, and he'd befriended Deleon when he was serving time for burglary.

"They develop this weird sort of friendship. And I mean he wraps Alonso around his finger and gets Alonso to go with him for all these meetings with Tom and Jackie Hawks," said Murphy.

But when cops try to haul Machain in for questioning, he flees to Mexico. Again, Murphy offers up a deal. He can't give Machain complete immunity, but if he returns and tells his side of the story, Murphy will take the death penalty off the table.

"He decided at that point to do the right thing," said Murphy.

Detectives turn on a tape recorder and Alsono Machain tells his story.

"Skylar approaches me with this plan he has. He was going to do something that was going to make some money. So he offers me to help him."

Machain tells detectives there was another man in Deleon's crew that day. Deleon introduced him to the Hawks as his accountant. But he was actually a notorious gang-banger and a convicted killer named John F. Kennedy.

"He'd been to prison before, he was an original founding member of a gang called the Long Beach Insane Crips," said Matt Murphy.

Machain says before he, Deleon and Kennedy board the Well Deserved , Deleon gives them strict orders.

"The plan is that we were supposed to kidnap them and take them out to sea and toss them overboard."

"And how was he planning to do that?"

"Tasers. He thought of Tasers."

Machain says once out to sea, they set their plan in motion. Kennedy pretends to be seasick and goes down below into the cabin.

"Mr. Hawks becomes concerned because John F. Kennedy is not returning, so he goes down, Skylar follows Mr. Hawks down to the lower area and that's when he gets ambushed," said David Byington.

Up on deck, Jackie Hawks hears the commotion.

"She says 'What's going on,' and that's when they were actually holding him down. Then that's when I realized that I had to, you know, hold her."

"Alonso at that point produces a Taser and tasers her," said Murphy.

"I was able to cuff Mrs. Hawks. At this time I walked her down to the bedroom area where Skylar told me to go get some tape from the engine room. He got the tape and he told me to tape their eyes, tape their mouth."

"Jackie Hawks is crying and screaming through the piece of cloth over her mouth, and Alonso says the only thing he can see is Mr. Hawks stroking her hand with his fingers, the handcuffed hands, trying to calm her down, and rightly so, because I know Tom Hawks knows what's going to happen," said Byington.

"They had them one by one go up to the kitchen area where she was first. They had her sign a power of attorney."

"Skylar told them 'I'm going to let you go if you cooperate. If you don't we're going to kill you here,'" said Byington.

Alonso Machain says Deleon then heads to the cockpit and punches coordinates into the GPS to steer straight toward the deepest part of the ocean near Catalina Island.

Jackie and Tom, still cuffed and blindfolded, are led to the deck of the boat.

"Got some rope, got up to the back, tied them together."

Then a sound pierces through the ocean waves, a sound Tom and Jackie have heard hundreds of times.

"At that point Skylar disconnects one of the anchors from the bow of the boat and he drags the chain, so they're inside a fiberglass boat and he's dragging the chain to the back," said Murphy.

"He knows that sound," said Byington. "You don't need vision to know that, 'cause they're blindfolded. That chain's coming down the side."

"And she's begging for her life and she's saying 'I have to see my grandchild one more time. I have to see my grandchild again. I'm too young to die,'" said Murphy. "And Tom was stroking her hand, saying 'It's OK, we're going to be together.' So at that point they know what's going to happen. They're going overboard."

"I didn't believe what I was looking at, just pushed them."

The brand new grandparents were still alive when the 50-pound anchor plummeted to the bottom of the sea, dragging the helpless couple 3,600 feet straight down.

Alonso Machain witnessed the inhumanity, and unbearable cruelty of Skylar Deleon, the twisted mastermind behind the murders.

"Skylar picked up this massive anchor and threw it over the side of the boat, and they have the most horrific death I can imagine, and their bodies were never recovered," said retired detective David Byington.

Machain, who helped Deleon kidnap the Hawks, is now a witness against him, telling investigators after Deleon threw the Hawks overboard, he started getting rid of any sign of the Hawks.

"He collected all of Tom and Jackie's personal photographs and tossed them overboard like they were Frisbees," said Matt Murphy. "Skylar had no remorse at all. Skylar Deleon is a complete psychopath."

Once Deleon got rid of the evidence, Machain tells investigators, Deleon and John Kennedy kicked back and started fishing on the way back to harbor in Newport Beach, California.

"How was Skylar acting maybe while this was happening?"

"He was calm, like it was the most normal thing."

Skylar Deleon, John Kennedy and Alonso Machain are all charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Days later, Jennifer Deleon is still standing by her man, telling a Los Angeles television station her husband is absolutely innocent.

Cops say not only is Skylar guilty, but Jennifer is too. Prosecutors charge Jennifer with two counts of murder, claiming she helped carry out the murders from the shore. The motive clear and simple: the Deleons wanted money.

"She's a witch. She knew that they had no money, and yet she's going out to meet the people that are selling Skylar this yacht, and she's bringing her child," said Byington. "She might as well have tied the anchor to those people and thrown them over too."

Separate juries hear each case, but they all come back with the same verdict: guilty.

Jennifer Deleon is sentenced to life in prison.

Alonso Machain is given leniency and sentenced to 20 years.

John F. Kennedy is sentenced to death for the double murder.

Before Skylar Deleon's trial even begins, he's hit with a third murder rap.

"He not only murdered the Hawks, but he murdered, slit the throat of another American in Mexico a year earlier," said Byington.

Cops say Deleon slit the throat of a man named Jon Jarvi after luring him with a promise of turning an investment of $50,000 into more cash. Prosecutors say there was no deal; the motive for the murder was all for fun.

"They purchased a new car because they wanted something to tool their little brood around in," said Matt Murphy. "And then he made a bunch of internet purchases including a $658 piston-driven sex toy."

Nearly five years after the Hawks were murdered, Skylar Deleon faces trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

"There was another motive, and it was a primary motive, and that was that Skylar Deleon wanted to get gender-reassignment surgery," said crime author Caitlin Rother.

Rother, who wrote the book about the Hawks' grisly murders, titled Dead Reckoning , says Deleon desperately needed $17,000 to pay for surgery to transition.

"He had already put down a $500 deposit on this surgery and had one scheduled for two weeks after the Hawks were murdered, but they didn't have the money," said Rother.

Rother knows Skylar Deleon as well as anyone. She started visiting him in prison while researching her book.

"All Skylar wanted to talk was how he wanted to get rid of his penis," said Rother.

But with no money and thinking there was no chance of making the transition while sitting in a cell, Rother says Skylar made a desperate attempt.

"He tried to cut his penis off in jail with a razor," said Rother.

But now the state of California is paying for Skylar Deleon to transition to a woman. Deleon is currently sitting in the psych ward on death row at San Quentin.

"And Skylar is now living as a woman and wants to be called 'she,'" said Rother.

"It's ridiculous," said Byington. "There are legitimate people out there with transgender issues that work their tails off their whole life, if they are lucky enough to get a surgery. Skylar doesn't deserve that right. Skylar doesn't get to kill people and then get rewarded, and that's kind of the way it feels."

Skylar Deleon and his wife have since divorced while behind bars. Deleon continues to maintain he had nothing to do with the Hawks' deaths and has appealed his conviction.

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Skylar Deleon sentenced to death for murders of Tom, Jackie Hawks: Part 10

Deleon was found guilty of murdering tom and jackie hawks as well as jon jarvi. the hawks' son, ryan, called the verdict "a big relief.", january 18, 2020, what’s next for russia, what comes next after texas school shooting, what's next for abortion rights in america, the new battle for voting rights, how we can build a clean and renewable future, the fight for kyiv, examining extremism in the military, gun violence: an american epidemic, border crisis: what’s happening at the us-mexico border, remembering george floyd: a year of protest, the source of covid-19: what we know, how did the gamestop stock spike on wall street happen, why are people hesitant to trust a covid-19 vaccine, how climate change and forest management make wildfires harder to contain, disparity in police response: black lives matter protests and capitol riot, 2020 in review: a year unlike any other, examined: how putin keeps power, why don’t the electoral college and popular vote always match up, us crosses 250,000 coronavirus deaths, 2nd impeachment trial: what this could mean for trump, presidential transition of power: examined, how donald trump spent his last days as president, how joe biden's inauguration will be different from previous years, belarus’ ongoing protests: examined, trump challenges the vote and takes legal action, 2020’s dnc and rnc are different than any before, what is happening with the usps, voting in 2020 during covid-19, disinformation in 2020, abc news specials on, impact x nightline: on the brink, impact x nightline: unboxing shein, the lady bird diaries, impact x nightline: it's britney, impact x nightline: natalee holloway -- a killer confesses, impact x nightline: who shot tupac, impact x nightline, power trip: those who seek power and those who chase them, the murders before the marathon, the ivana trump story: the first wife, mormon no more, leave no trace: a hidden history of the boy scouts, keeper of the ashes: the oklahoma girl scout murders, the orphans of covid: america's hidden toll, superstar: patrick swayze, the kardashians -- an abc news special, 24 months that changed the world, have you seen this man.

For Sale: Yacht With Chilling Past

By jonathan lloyd • published june 17, 2009 • updated on june 18, 2009 at 6:06 am.

Tom and Jackie Hawks wanted to sell their yacht -- the Well Deserved -- because they planned to move closer to their newborn grandchild in Arizona.

The 55-foot Lien Hwa trawler has two decks, two staterooms and hand-carved teak interior. The couple put about $50,000 into improvements.

All attractive features for any potential buyer.

But the Well Deserved will forever be associated with what happened on Nov. 15, 2004. That's when  the Hawks were bound, tied to a 60-pound anchor and thrown overboard. Long Beach residents Skylar Deleon , 29, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy , 43, were sentenced to death in the case. Investigators said Deleon, posing as a buyer and Kennedy, posing as an accountant, went aboard the Well Deserved under the guise of taking a test run. In a video posted on the OCRegister.com , detective David Byington explains what happened next. Byington tours the boat and describes the confrontation between the Hawks and their attackers. "I don't like being down here," Byington said while showing the camera crew the bedroom in which the Hawks were bound. "I don't even like being on this boat. I feel like I'm still invading their home. The worst part is they were downstairs for several hours, and they knew they were going to die." The Hawks' dream boat will be for sale next week. The couple intended to spend some of the happiest years of their lives aboard the boat after Tom Hawks retired after 17 years as a probation officer.

They wanted to sell the Well Deserved so they could return to Arizona to live near their newborn grandson. Tom Hawks' sons, both of whom are in their early 30s, were left with the responsibility of maintaining -- and now selling -- the boat. It will be placed on the market next week after it is returned to Newport Harbor, according to the newspaper. Ryan Hawks , one of Tom's sons, said the yacht broker indicated it will be listed for about $229,000. That's about $70,000 less than the Hawks paid in 2002.

Investigators were holding the yacht until the end of the criminal cases.

Yacht With Chilling Past Up for Sale

By jonathan lloyd • published june 19, 2009 • updated on june 19, 2009 at 6:43 am.

Tom and Jackie Hawks wanted to sell their yacht -- the Well Deserved -- because they planned to move closer to their newborn grandchild in Arizona.

The 55-foot Lien Hwa trawler has two decks, two staterooms and hand-carved teak interior. The couple put about $50,000 into improvements.

All attractive features for any potential buyer.

But the Well Deserved will forever be associated with what happened on Nov. 15, 2004. That's when  the Hawks were bound, tied to a 60-pound anchor and thrown overboard. Long Beach residents Skylar Deleon , 29, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy , 43, were sentenced to death in the case. Investigators said Deleon, posing as a buyer and Kennedy, posing as an accountant, went aboard the Well Deserved under the guise of taking a test run. In a video posted on the OCRegister.com , detective David Byington explains what happened next. Byington tours the boat and describes the confrontation between the Hawks and their attackers. "I don't like being down here," Byington said while showing the camera crew the bedroom in which the Hawks were bound. "I don't even like being on this boat. I feel like I'm still invading their home. The worst part is they were downstairs for several hours, and they knew they were going to die." The Hawks' dream boat will be for sale next week. The couple intended to spend some of the happiest years of their lives aboard the boat after Tom Hawks retired after 17 years as a probation officer.

They wanted to sell the Well Deserved so they could return to Arizona to live near their newborn grandson. Tom Hawks' sons, both of whom are in their early 30s, were left with the responsibility of maintaining -- and now selling -- the boat. It will be placed on the market next week after it is returned to Newport Harbor, according to the newspaper. Ryan Hawks , one of Tom's sons who lives in Carlsbad, said the yacht broker indicated it will be listed for about $229,000. That's about $70,000 less than the Hawks paid in 2002.

Investigators were holding the yacht until the end of the criminal cases.

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Yacht murder trial begins in California

The young man and his friends appeared to be genuinely interested in buying the $500,000 yacht. The retired couple selling the boat were delighted to have found a buyer. Now they would be able to spend more time with their grandchildren in Arizona.

Their initial suspicions that the buyers were not typical yacht people were assuaged when the man brought his wife and their baby to see the yacht.

A former child actor, he even attempted to impress the couple by telling them of his role in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

But when they took the yacht out to sea from its mooring in Newport Beach, south of Los Angeles, things turned ugly. The man and his associates overpowered Tom and Jackie Hawks, forced them to sign over ownership of the yacht, handcuffed them to the anchor and tossed them overboard.

"No bodies, no murder," Skylar Deleon is alleged to have told an associate after the November 2004 crime.

In the opening statements at his trial for murder, Deleon's attorney took the unusual step of admitting that his client was guilty.

"My goal is simply to save Skylar Deleon's life," defence attorney Gary Pohlson told the court. "Skylar is guilty of all three murders," said Pohlson, alluding to another murder case in which Deleon is a suspect.

Pohlson argued that the Deleon hatched the plan to gain ownership of the 55-foot yacht, the Well Deserved, because he was facing severe debt and lived in a converted garage.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy said that Deleon had simply tricked the couple for financial gain.

"The evidence is going to show that is how Tom and Jackie Hawks died, begging for their lives," Murphy said.

Deleon's now ex-wife, Jennifer Henderson, was convicted of two counts of murder in 2006 and sentenced to two life terms. Three other men have been charged with murder and await trial.

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Thomas and Jackie Hawks Murders: How Did They Die? Who Killed Them?

When a pair of the adventure-loving couple went missing for several days, it raised the alarm with friends and family members who were expecting to see them soon. Thomas and Jackie’s closest acquaintances were worried that something bad had happened to them. They turned to the police for help. What the police found subsequently will go down as one of the most brutal and spine-chilling crimes in American criminal history. The crime has been covered by several true-crime features and podcasts, including ABC’s ‘20/20’ under the episode titled ‘Overboard.’ The harrowing details of the crime have left us shocked and wanting to know more. We indulged in a little investigation of our own to find out more about this crime.

How Did Thomas and Jackie Hawks Die?

57-year-old Thomas Hawks and his 47-year-old wife, Jackie Hawks, were living the dream retired life. Thomas and Jackie were described as a very happy, healthy, and athletic couple who had worked hard all their life to fulfill their early retirement aspirations, living on adventures and whims of traveling. Tom worked as a Yavapai County deputy probation officer in Arizona, and his wife, Jackie, was stepmother to his two sons from a previous marriage. Shortly before commencing his retirement from his job, in August 2001, the Hawks couple sold their house and shifted to a yacht, referred to as their dreamboat. The yacht moored in Long Beach, named “Well Deserved,” had luxurious interiors with two decks, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a gallery.

Tom indulged himself in renovating the yacht, adding the latest technology and features to the yacht to make it suitable for long voyages. Tom and Jackie were known to be dedicated fitness buffs, with strict gym regimes that the two of them followed religiously. According to his sons, Ryan and Matt, Tom had also made a name for himself in the Arizona arm-wrestling circle. Tom and Jackie met during a chili cookoff and married in 1989. Tom was known for having a passion for boating. Hence, soon after the couple bought “Well Deserved,” they pulled out of Long Beach in 2002 and set sail on an almost two-year-long cruise down the coast of Baja California, around Cabo San Lucas, and into the Sea of Cortez, stopping in Baja and the Mexican mainland.

The Hawks decided to call their cruise to a rather wonderful end when they were blessed with a grandson back in Arizona. The proud and happy grandparents, eager to spend their time with the little boy, put up their adored yacht “Well Deserved” for sale. They decided to sell the yacht themselves rather than heftily commissioning a yacht broker to do so.  The Yacht advertisement in ‘Yachting World Magazine’ asked $435,000 in exchange for the fastidiously maintained “Well Deserved.”

On November 15, 2004, the couple boarded their precious ship to embark on the last trip to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, California, to commemorate the yacht’s sale. They had finally found a buyer for “Well Deserved,” and they had informed their family of the upcoming sale, which was to take place within a few days. After this, they disappeared. The yacht was found in its usual spot in Newport Beach by the family the next day. However, the couple’s car and the couple were nowhere to be found.

The family was sure that the person to have last seen the Hawks was the buyer. Jim Hawks, Tom’s brother, also a retired police officer, left his card with his number on the yacht, hoping they would contact him. Before leaving the card, he and the Hawkses’ friend Carter Ford surveyed the yacht to find any signs. They smelled trouble as soon as Ford observed the 11-foot dinghy that ferried Tom and Jackie between the Well Deserved and Balboa Peninsula was tied sloppily to the dock. On the yacht, they noticed similar imperfections that were not characteristic of the Hawkses, for example, a towel hanging out of a porthole. On the next day, a lady called Jennifer Deleon called Jim and told him, she and her husband had paid for the boat in cash.

When there was reportedly no activity on the Hawks’ bank accounts, the family knew that something wasn’t sitting right. It was eventually revealed that Skyler Deleon and her then-wife Jennifer Deleon had entrapped the Hawkses in a heinous plan that led the Hawkses to their death.

A witness to the crime who testified against Skylar Deleon detailed the events leading up to Jackie and Thomas Hawks’ death. The yacht’s buyer had reportedly expressed a willingness to test the yacht before buying it by taking it out to the sea. The Hawkses agreed after Skylar Deleon managed to create a good impression of herself on them by bringing in her former pregnant wife Jennifer Deleon and their daughter. On the day of their last trip onboard “Well Deserved,” the Hawkses received their buyer on the yacht along with two other men, one of whom Skylar had claimed to be her accountant. Once they set sail and were on waters, Jackie and Tom were ambushed by Skylar and her two companions, who became Alonso Machain (who later testified against Skylar) and a notorious gang member John Fitzgerald Kennedy respectively. Skylar managed to make the couple hand over the ownership of their yacht by making them sign attorney papers and promised them mercy if they cooperated, according to Machain’s testimony.

However, the couple was handcuffed with their mouths and eyes shut, covered by duct tape, and then kept under watch for several hours. Alonso Machain was given the responsibility to “baby-sit” them, following which the couple was then tied to an anchor and “yanked” over the yacht and into the Pacific Ocean. Their bodies have not been recovered to this day.

Who Killed Tom and Jackie Hawks?

The primary convicts in the conspiracy and murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks are Skylar Deleon, her wife Jennifer Deleon, Alonso Machain, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, an Insane Crips Gang member, and Myron Sandora Gardner, also a member of the Insane Crips Gang who had introduced Skylar to Kennedy.

The family filed a missing-persons report approximately two weeks after they went missing. An investigation into the missing couple was fueled by a sudden activity in the couple’s bank accounts, three weeks after their disappearance. The Deleons, who were living out of Jennifer’s parents’ garage in Long Beach at the time, were trying to gain access to the Hawks’ financial resources. The investigators found out more about Skylar, who turned out to be on probation for an armed robbery. Besides, documents suggested that Hawkses had handed him over their power of attorney, which seemed unrealistic.

When the police investigated the interiors of the “Well Deserved,” they came across a receipt from Target dated two days after friends say the couple had taken their prospective buyers on a trial trip. Newport Beach Detective Sgt, Dave Byington said , “If I was going to kill somebody, I’d have my clean kit. And it would be bags to get rid of the evidence, bleach to wipe down the scene, and maybe, if I had a conscience, some Tums to settle my stomach after killing some poor people.” The police then found the SUV the Hawkes owned in Ensenada, Mexico, at a mobile home.

The Mexican authorities got in touch with the homeowner, who said they did not know the Hawkses and that the car was given to him by his friend, Skylar Deleon. In December 2004, Skylar Deleon was arrested on money laundering charges, mostly based on the fact that he had previously told the police that the payment for the yacht to the Hawkses, of about $400,000, had been made in cash. But the investigators kept looking into the Hawkses’ murder. They found the Hawkses’ laptop and their video camera at Deleon’s home. The videocamera which initially had films of the Hawkses’ travel, suddenly cut off to Deleons celebrating Thanksgiving with their family.

Machain had turned himself in, and the police arrested Kennedy later. In 2006, Jennifer Deleon, previously arrested in connection to the murder, was also convicted of the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks and was later sentenced to two consecutive life imprisonments without the possibility of parole in 2007. Skylar and John Kennedy were sentenced to death in April 2009 and May 2009, respectively. Machain was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2009.

Read More: Where Are Skylar Deleon and Jennifer Deleon Now?

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the ninth in a series of the top stories of each year since 2000. Look for the 2009 story of the year Thursday.

The 55-foot yacht where Thomas and Jackie Hawks met their fate between Newport Beach and Catalina Island is still up for sale at a local yacht brokerage firm.

Yacht broker Jerry Wakefield of Dixon Yachts International in Newport Beach has had serious buyers look at the Well Deserved, a fiberglass Lien Hwa trawler with a hand-carved teak interior, but none have been able to put the funds together to finance the boat.

Because of the bad economy, it’s harder for potential buyers to finance an older boat like the Well Deserved, Wakefield said.

“It’s just about getting the right person in it,” he said.

The Well Deserved was released earlier this year to Thomas Hawks’ sons, Ryan and Matt Hawks, after sitting in a city shipyard for the past four years, a piece of evidence in one of the most publicized murder cases of the past decade.

The sons put the boat up for sale last summer.

Attempts to reach Ryan Hawks, who has acted as a spokesman for the family in the past, were unsuccessful.

“I know it’s been tough for them because it’s pretty much the worst time to sell a yacht in this economy and it’s a notorious boat now,” said Orange County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy, who prosecuted the case.

The boat is priced at $229,000, a little more than half what the Hawkses were asking for it in 2004, when con man Skylar Deleon convinced the couple he was a successful former child actor with money to burn who wanted to purchase the vessel.

Deleon, 30, who once had a bit part on the television show “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” was convicted in 2008 of conning the Hawkses into showing him the Well Deserved before he and two other men bound and gagged the couple, lashed them to the anchor and tossed them overboard. Their bodies were never found.

In April, Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel handed Deleon a death sentence for the Hawkses’ murders and the separate 2003 murder of Anaheim resident Jon Jarvi.

Deleon is incarcerated at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. The men’s prison is reserved for inmates with serious mental or physical health problems.

Citing state and federal privacy laws, officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Tuesday that they could not disclose why Deleon was being held at the medical facility instead of San Quentin State Prison, where most death row inmates reside.

Calls to Deleon’s attorney, Gary Pohlson, were not immediately returned.

Deleon’s accomplice, Long Beach Insane Crips gang member John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was also sentenced to death in May.

Deleon’s ex-wife, Jennifer Henderson, was convicted for her role in the Hawks killings in 2007 and sentenced to life without parole. Henderson helped Deleon gain the Hawkses’ trust by visiting the Well Deserved with her infant daughter. She was also pregnant with her and Deleon’s second child at the time of the murders.

Another accomplice, Alonso Machain, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the Hawkses’ deaths as part of a plea agreement. Myron Gardner, who played a tangential role in the murders, was sentenced to a year in jail and given credit for time served.

The fact that Jackie Hawks cried and begged Deleon to spare her life that November night in 2004, while lashed to the anchor of the Well Deserved will always stick with Murphy, he said.

“It was a horrific way to die, crying and begging for her life,” Murphy said. “The lingering thing for me is how do you cry and hold your breath at the same time.”

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Judge orders lethal injection in yacht-murder case

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San clemente doctor gets 15 years to life for killing wife and making it look like she fell.

SANTA ANA – Convicted murderer Skylar Deleon was sentenced today to die by lethal injection for three slayings, including the murders at sea of a couple forced to sign over ownership of their yacht , then tied to an anchor and thrown overboard.

Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, did not show any emotion or speak at the hearing. He knew the sentence was coming. A jury in November recommended that he should die rather than spend life in prison. No Orange County judge has ever reversed a jury’s death verdict.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks, who were living aboard their 55-foot yacht, called the Well Deserved, were murdered on Nov. 15, 2004, after showing the boat to Deleon. The couple had hoped to sell the boat and move to Arizona to help raise their newborn grandson.

To read a timeline of events in the case, click here.

Ryan Hawks, one of the couple’s sons, told the judge he hoped Deleon’s two children wouldn’t be able to visit him while he waited on death row.

“I know the best possible environment for his kids, (would be) not knowing who their father is and what he did,” Hawks said.

Deleon’s five-week trial ended in November, when he was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. During closing arguments, prosecutor Matt Murphy called the murders “diabolical and heartless,” saying Deleon showed no remorse and was after money.

He was behind bars in the Seal Beach jail when he plotted the first killing in December 2003. He persuaded fellow inmate Jon Peter Jarvi, 45, of Anaheim, to give him more than $50,000, purportedly to take part in an investment opportunity in Mexico. Instead, Deleon later killed Jarvi in Mexico by slashing his throat and leaving him to die at the side of a road.

Jeff Jarvi, the brother of Jon Peter Jarvi, asked Judge Frank Fasel to impose the death penalty at today’s sentencing. He said he had nightmares about the killings, dreaming he was tied to an anchor or crawling on a desert floor like his brother.

“The Hawks, my brother, were murdered all for a boat,” Jeff Jarvi said after the sentencing. “He put more value on a boat than three people’s lives.”

In November 2004, Deleon then moved on to the Hawks.

Deleon convinced the couple he wanted to buy their boat. He introduced the Hawks to his then-pregnant wife, Jennifer Henderson, and one-year-old daughter, to put them at ease, prosecutors said.

During a test cruise aboard the Well Deserved near Santa Catalina Island on Nov. 15, 2004, Deleon and two co-conspirators subdued the Hawkses and forced them to sign sales documents.

The couple begged for their lives, according to one witness, but they were tied to a 65-pound anchor. Still alive, they were thrown into the water. Their bodies were never recovered.

The prosecutor, in interviews after the sentencing, said Deleon deserved his death penalty.

“It’s difficult to imagine a case more cold-blooded and calculated than these series of murders,” Murphy said.

During a jailhouse interview in January, Deleon said he was remorseful for the murders, and wasn’t frightened of death. “There are not enough words to say how sorry I am,” he said then.

Prosecutors have also pursued charges against Deleon’s co-conspirators.

Henderson is serving a sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole for her part in plotting and covering up the crime.

The death sentencing of one of Deleon’s co-conspirators, John Fitzgerald Kennedy is pending, as is the disposition of the case against Alonso Machain, who testified for the prosecution in the Deleon and Kennedy trials.

Charges against another man, Myron Gardner, were dismissed last month, court records show. The gang member was approached to take part in the crime, but declined to participate.

For complete coverage, go to www.ocregister.com/deleon

Contact the writer: (714) 834-3773 or [email protected]

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• 15 min read

Episode 44 | THE CHILLING YACHT MURDERS of Southern CA

We’re going to unpack a heavy one today. When I first heard this story back in 2004 it really shook me for its callousness, greed, and evil. A former child actor already with one murder under his power ranger belt planned and carried out a most heinous murder of a retired couple in Southern CA. They had been living a dream aboard a beautiful 55ft trawler that they had spent decades saving for. The ‘Well Deserved’ was their home and their life. However, they decided to sell it, and the buyers had no intentions of paying for it. None at all. The boat was worth nearly 1/2 million dollars and what the buyer’s had in mind for the cash THEY would sell it for after taking it.. well that adds a whole other twist to this horrific story. What took place aboard the Well-Deserved Nov. 15th 2004 was far from deserved and would alter the course of Tom and Jackie Hawks’ lives forever. Let me explain.

It was in Newport Beach, Calif. that Tom and Jackie Hawks came to find their paradise. Their dream was rooted in two simple things: being together and being on a boat. Few people had lived better lives, so arguably it was fate when the couple found fell in love with and bought a 55-foot yacht christening it ‘Well Deserved’, a name their close circle of friends and family agreed was perfectly suited.

Life was an endless cruise filled with good times and besties, sailing from Catalina Island to Mexico's Sea of Cortez. Wining and dining, snorkeling, and becoming even more inseparable as a couple very much in love.

Tom Hawks, a Vietnam veteran, and father of two boys had prudently saved and invested his money for decades, with a goal of buying a big boat. After years of planning, Tom and Jackie eventually bought the 55-foot trawler yacht for about $300,000. They renovated the vessel finishing the interior entirely in teak and macked it out with the latest technology. A rig any abled-bodied seaman would kill for. And that’s the sad irony. For two years they traveled from their Newport Beach mooring along the California coast to Mexico, stopping at various ports of call along the way.

But after 4 years at sea, they were ready for the next chapter, becoming grandparents. While they were living yacht life in So Cal, back in the mountains of Prescott, Ariz., Tom’s son, Matt from a previous marriage was welcoming a baby. Tom and Jackie were excited and were already buying baby clothes.

They put the Well Deserved up for sale, choosing to list it for sale themselves rather than through a broker, they could save tens of thousands of dollars that way and that would go a long way for retiring back in Arizona. This was a life-altering mistake.

On November 12, the couple took their last trip to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, California, to commemorate the end of a dream lived and to mark the beginning of the next chapter in their lives. A sale was imminent. They told family and friends that they’d found a buyer and that the sale was going to take place in the next few days.

A young couple, Skylar and Jennifer Deleon had answered their ad about the Well Deserved. The soft-spoken Skylar told them that he had been a child actor and had saved a large sum of money and like the Hawks, it was their dream to live on a yacht with their young child and soon to be number 2. This tugged at the heartstrings of the Hawks as it would being expecting grandparents and all. They arranged to meet, and the Deleons joined them at the marina in Newport along with their toddler to check out the boat.

Before closing the deal, plans were made to take the boat out along with the Hawks for a short cruise to check the vessel’s seaworthiness. The Hawks had one final party aboard the Well Deserved with friends before that fateful cruise.

Over the next few days, the family became concerned as no one could get a hold of the couple. Their phones were switched off which was extremely out of character. When Tom’s brother Jim went to the Newport Beach moor, he knew something was wrong right away.

He found the Well Deserved moored in its usual berth at Newport Beach but the couple and their car — a silver Honda CR-V — were nowhere to be found.

He noticed the dinghy they used to get to their yacht hadn’t been tied properly to the dock and its motor hadn’t been lifted from the water, which was protocol.

Tom Hawks’ friend who moored a boat in nearby slip, also noticed things were out of place on the yacht. The tarps on the deck and on the flying bridge, were all off. All the controls were just kind of peeled back and there was a towel hanging out one of the portholes. They never left the Well-Deserved in such a state. It was as though Tom and Jackie were in an urgent rush to leave the vessel or more likely they weren’t the last ones to disembark. He got a sick feeling something was very very wrong.

Their friends and family knew Tom and Jackie had gone with the prospective purchaser on Nov. 14th to take the boat out for a cruise. They wanted to check the boat’s seaworthiness, which was nothing out of the ordinary. They also knew that the buyer of the boat was likely the last person to have seen them.

Tom’s brother Jim, a retired police officer, left a note on the Well Deserved with his phone number in hopes that the buyer would contact him. It wasn’t long before he received a call from a woman by the name of Jennifer Deleon. She told him she and her husband Skylar were the buyers and had paid for the boat in full with cash. Being a former cop and still unable to reach Tom and Jackie, he was suspicious. He reached out to a close friend of the family, Trisha Schutz, who managed the couple’s finances while they were at sea.

According to her, if they had sold that boat for cash, they would have deposited the money into their bank account right away. But there was no activity on their account. They knew something was very wrong. They contacted the police department and filed a missing persons report.

It would be 2 weeks after the couple’s disappearance before Newport Beach police took on the case. Det. Sgt. Dave Byington headed the case and was struck with some obvious red flags. The purported buyers, Skylar and Jennifer Deleon, were a very young couple that appeared to not have the means with which to buy a luxury boat worth 1/2 million dollars. Add to that, Skylar Deleon happened to be a convicted felon and was on probation.

It didn’t take much more digging for Det. Byington to start to assembling the horror story that had unfolded.

Who is Skylar Deleon? He’s is a former child actor who joins a long list of child actors that have come completely off the rails. As a youth, he appeared in television commercials, as well as an episode of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1994. After his legitimate work on camera dried up he started performing on other cameras- the surveillance type, predominantly while breaking into homes. He began to chock up a rap sheet of theft and burglary, receiving a felony conviction. Adding to the mix, Skylar Deleon wasn’t always Skylar Deleon. He was born John Julius Jacobson Jr. to a real piece of work dad, former U.S. Marine “Big John” Jacobson, himself a convicted felon. As an adult, triple J (quadruple j if you count the jr. bit) changed his name to Skylar Julius Deleon. What’s more, Skylar Julius Deleon is now Skylar Preciosa Deleon, and what’s even more, he now identifies as a woman! More on that later. Are you still with me?

Apparently Skylar has identified as female since childhood but was forced to live a lie for years in large part due to Big John’s harsh rearing. After he discovered young John Jr. was dressing up with the neighborhood girls and wearing mascara, he was livid and the beatings began. Lucky for John jr., Big John got sent to the pokey for drug trafficking. Dad of the year nominee right there! When he got out of prison, he saw an opportunity to make some extra income with John Jr. and registered him with some talent agencies in the LA area. He started landing some gigs including roles in the Saturday morning kids’ show “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” during the 1993-94 season. John jr. hated the work and never saw any of the money he made. Wonder where it went?

Fast forward to 2001. Skylar looking for love online meets a super cute hairdresser named Jennifer Henderson. After dating a short time they got married and had a little girl together. Jennifer, a hairstylist, was the breadwinner for the family while they lived in a converted garage behind her parents’ home in Long Beach.

He was expecting another child with her at the time that the Hawks went missing.

After a short-lived career in the Marine Corps,15 days to be exact, Deleon began bouncing from job to job, eventually staying home with their daughter, unable to earn enough to pay for childcare.

From all indications, Jennifer Henderson led a trouble-free life until she met Deleon, himself racking up an impressive rap sheet for burglaries and other crimes. It wasn’t long before Deleon corrupted that innocence. The couple was severely in debt by the time their child’s first birthday, however, the promises of a future of great riches by Deleon had Henderson setting her sights on a lavish lifestyle. The first installment in that wealth scheme would come in 2003 with the murder of Jon Peter Jarvi.

JARVI MURDER

While serving time at the City of Seal Beach jail, Deleon met Jon Jarvi where the two became acquainted during the day on a work-release program. After Jarvi was freed, he stayed in touch with Deleon, who promised him a big score.

It was December 2003, a year before the Hawks’ disappearance, when Deleon sold Jarvi on an investment opportunity to make a tasty chunk of money. As part of the deal, while Deleon was out of jail on a supervised furlough, Jarvi gave Deleon $50,000 in cash, then accompanied Deleon to Mexico where they were supposed to close the deal and make out like bandits. Deleon promised he’d triple or quadruple his investment. Jarvi never returned. Deleon murdered him in Mexico by slashing his throat and leaving him to die at the side of a road.

Turns out there was never any deal in Mexico. He took Jarvi down there specifically with the intent to kill him and pocket the $50,000.

Mexican police questioned Skylar Deleon at the time, but Jarvi’s case remained unsolved until Newport Beach detectives started working on the Tom and Jackie Hawks case.

INVESTIGATION BEGINS

Based on the information they had and no sign as to the whereabouts of the Hawks, Police began their investigation with a search of the Well Deserved. Onboard they found a receipt from Target. The purchase, which was dated two days after the Hawks were taking the prospective buyer for a test ride, listed trash bags, bleach, and oddly the antacid Tums. OK I get that if you are going to kill someone you need a clean kit. Garbage bags, and bleach yes. Tums? Perhaps those were to settle their stomachs after the murders.

Investigators requested surveillance footage from Target to see if they could identify the purchaser. But investigators, who expected to see Skylar Deleon buying the supplies, were surprised to find his wife’s dad, Steve Henderson, instead.

Police learned Jennifer Deleon sent her father to buy the Garbage bags, bleach, and Tums so the couple could help clean their new boat. When asked by authorities where the Deleons were, Henderson pointed them to a nearby church that he said the couple was helping to clean.

When Det. Byington saw the family volunteering at a church, he was put at ease a bit and thought, ‘OK, this is going to turn out OK. The Hawks are fine. When he spoke with Jennifer and said that they were looking for the Hawks and that the family's very concerned, she replied very genuinely, that she and Skylar were really concerned, too. Indicating that they’ve been trying to reach out to them continually since they had bought the boat, they had questions about operating the boat itself and that there were a lot of items still on the Well Deserved they wanted to return to them.

To Detective Byington she seemed very genuine in her concern for the Hawks and finding them.

Skylar Deleon produced complete, legal paperwork for the boat’s purchase, including signatures, fingerprints and a notary public’s certification. Signatures could be forged, and fingerprints could be taken from a dead body, but what about the notary Public’s certificate?

To the surprise of the detective, Skylar Deleon openly admitted to him that he had used drug money to buy the vessel. Now that's an odd smokescreen considering he was on probation for armed burglary.

He told Det. Byington he was turning straight. He’s a father now and has another child on the way. In earnest, he wanted to do the right thing. So with his ill-gotten cash from drug dealing, he wanted to invest the money in a way that he can support the family.

Deleon told police that on Nov. 15, 2004, he present the Hawks with a briefcase full of cash in the parking lot near the moored yacht. He said that his wife, child, a notary public and a friend from Mexico, Alonso Machain, were also there for the transaction.

According to Deleon, Tom [Hawks] asked him, if the cash was all there. He assured them that it was and the Hawks gave them the keys to the yacht. And with the transaction complete, Tom and Jackie drove off in their silver Honda CR-V and that was the last time that they saw them.

It was mid December, nearly a month after the Hawks’ disappearance, and the case had reached a dead end. Ryan Hawks, Tom’s son was urged by his uncle and investigators to go on national television to recruit the publics’ help in finding his dad and stepmother.

A retired couple in San Miguel, Mexico, were watching when they heard his plea. They contacted authorities right away when they saw the missing couple’s 1998 silver Honda CR-V parked next to a mobile home near their residence.

When Mexican authorities questioned the home's owner he told them he didn’t know Tom or Jackie Hawks, but that the car was given to him by a friend: Can you guess who that friend was? Yep… Skylar Deleon.

And at that moment…the case got it’s wind back but for investigators and family and friends of the Hawks, the possibility that Tom and Jackie were still alive became far more remote.

Det. Byington concluded that Skylar had murdered these people but still didn’t have enough to prove it, just yet.

On Dec. 17, 2004, police moved in and arrested Skylar Deleon on money laundering charges while they continued investigating him for the murder of the Hawks. The money laundering charges of course were related to his admitting the cash he supposedly used to pay the Hawks for the yacht was acquired through drug dealing.

When investigators searched the Deleon’s home, they found a heap of compelling evidence including the Hawks’ laptop and their video camera, which the Deleons had the audacity to use to film their Thanksgiving feast, just 10 days after murdering the Hawks. A Thanksgiving that the Hawks never got to spend with their family. Cold heartless killers.

For months after Skylar's arrest, Jennifer Deleon continued to insist on her husband’s innocence in the Hawks’ disappearance, even declining an offer of immunity in exchange for information as to the whereabouts of the Hawks. Something I imagine now she greatly regrets.

The investigation began to expand. Detectives questioned Kathleen Harris, the notary who certified the paperwork for the sale of the Well Deserved. She had been interviewed by police several times but repeatedly denied that anything was amiss until she finally came clean. It was the first domino to fall.

Harris admitted to detectives that she'd actually never met Tom and Jackie Hawks. She had nothing to do with the murder. She had been given documents and paid handsomely in cash to backdate those documents to Nov. 15, which was the day that the Hawks went missing.

Then investigators began pressuring everybody else because they knew everybody else had lied to them.

One of those was Alonso Machain. You see it was Alonso Machain’s signature as ‘witness’ on the Well Deserved sales documents that the Hawks had signed under duress while out at sea. Why on earth would he use his real name!? Don't get me wrong I am thrilled that he was dumb enough to use his real name and hence lead to cracking the case wide-open as you're about to hear.

He told police that he first met Skylar Deleon when he was a jailer at the City of Seal Beach jail. Remember that’s the pokey that Deleon was getting 3 hots and a cot in after being convicted for armed burglary. It’s also where Deleon met Jon Jarvi, the guy he murdered in Mexico. Machain next revealed his role in and the full scope of the murder conspiracy of the Hawks.

Machain said Skylar Deleon convinced him that Deleon was an international hitman and that he needed to take out Tom and Jackie Hawks because they were bad seeds. Well based on the fact that Einstein used his real name as a witness on the documents we can assume it was pretty easy to pull the wool over his eyes.

Machain told police that on November 15, 2004, he, Skylar Deleon and another accomplice, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, ( yes that’s the guy’s real name) met up to go over the plans. JFK (the thug) was a member of the Long Beach gang called Insane Crips. Lovely. He was posing as Deleon’s accountant and was tasked with being the muscle to subdue the well-built Tom Hawks. (I know it sounds like tomahawk) God these names are getting confusing. By age 40, Insane Crip Kennedy had racked up an impressive 21 arrests to his name, including battery, grand theft, drugs, and attempted murder. Sounds like the perfect guy for the job.

The trio met the Hawks at the port, were welcomed aboard the Well Deserved by Tom and Jackie, and set out toward Santa Catalina Island on a “sea trial,” or test run of the boat.

Tom Hawks was skeptical if not a little nervous having these 3 guys along for the short cruise. After all he and Jackie had only met Skylar and Jennifer Deleon and suddenly these other dodgy-looking guys are in the picture.

Machain explained that Skylar Deleon and Kennedy followed Tom down into the galley where they overpowered him and handcuffed him, while Machain subdued and handcuffed Jackie Hawks. They then forced them to sign over the boat and authorize power of attorney to their bank account. The Hawks’ Signatures and fingerprints were secured.

At one point when Deleon was in striking distance, the muscled Tom Hawks donkey-kicked him sending him flying across the boat. This only enraged Deleon.

Machain said he, on Deleon’s orders, taped over the couple’s eyes and mouths and tied them together as Deleon navigated the boat toward the deepest point of the sea, where depths reach more than 3000 feet.

Machain said they then tied the still handcuffed couple, to one of the yacht’s anchors. And we can guess what happened next to the loving couple. According to Machain, Deleon threw the anchor overboard and it dragged the horrified couple over the side of the Well Deserved and into the deep to their deaths. An absolutely horrific way to die.

Machain added that after the Hawks’ were murdered, JFK cracked open a beer and they even fished on the way back into port. With the Hawks now out of the picture, Deleon’s master plan was almost complete. All that was left was to sell the boat, drain the Hawks’ bank accounts and be set financially for life.

While Newport police were searching the Deleon’s home, they discovered another interesting clue – a business card for LAPD Det. Joe Bahena, who worked as a liaison with Mexican police. When Det. Byington contacted him, they found that Bahena was helping Mexican authorities investigate the case of one Jon Jarvi. Hmmmm…

Fast forward to 2009. It would be 5 years after the brutal murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks that justice would finally be served to all parties involved.

Alonso Machain pleaded guilty to two counts of murder. He was sentenced to 20 years and four months in prison. Machain had reportedly cooperated with authorities in unraveling the mystery of Hawkses’ murders, hence the lenient sentence. Machain had initially tried to escape justice by fleeing to Mexico, but he returned to Orange County threatened by Mexican authorities’ arrest. The earliest date for his parole is reported to be this year, 2021.

John F. Kennedy (the thug) was sentenced to death for his role in the murders and is currently on death row in San Quentin State Prison.

Although Jennifer Henderson Deleon was not aboard the Well Deserved for that final cruise, she had an integral role in planning the murders, and was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

As for The Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, Skylar Deleon, well he also received a death sentence by lethal injection for the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks and was also tried and found guilty of murdering Jon Jarvi in Mexico. He was convicted as a man and if the capital punishment sentence is carried out will die as a woman. What!?

Skylar Preciosa Deleon, is on death row at San Quentin Prison in California where she has undergone hormone therapy and continues to hope for gender confirmation surgery on the State’s dime. The audacity!! Apparently, it was the desire to pay for the surgery in the first place that fueled the ghastly murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks. Deleon’s name was officially changed to Skylar Preciosa Deleon, by Supreme Court of California order in 2019 and her gender was officially changed to female.

In a jailhouse interview with a television network, Skylar Deleon says she is attracted to women exclusively, but has identified as a woman for many years.

At one stage being so desperate and driven to live life as a woman that she tried to remove her penis in prison with a disposable razor blade. Thwarted only after jailers spotted the bloody mess.

According to Det. Byington, At the end of the day, all those involved are getting what they deserve. Only Alonso [Machain] will ever see the light of day again.

What a sad tale indeed. As we see with so many of these stories, money is the impetus. Sheer greed and an unconscionable lack of respect for a fellow human, fuels these monsters.

#truecrime #murder #truestory #homicide #homicideinc #crime #investigative #interview #killer #tylerdeleon #horror

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The Gruesome Yacht Murder Case of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

• Justice Well Deserved

On Friday November 17, 2006, Jennifer Deleon was found guilty on two counts of first degree murder, after only four hours of jury deliberation. In October 2007, Jennifer Deleon, now calling herself Jennifer Henderson since her divorce from Skylar Deleon, was sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole.

"She didn't have so much as a traffic ticket back then. If Jennifer had never met Skylar, none of this would've come into her life," said her attorney, Michael Molfetta, who blames Skylar for the couple's woes. "She had no idea what he was up to, no idea that he was into killing the Hawkses."

But if you ask the trial prosecutor, he'll say that Jennifer ran the show and was the driving force behind everything. "She was the dominant one in the relationship, she wore the pants," Murphy said.

Jennifer has since divorced Skylar and a friend of hers from jail said she wants nothing more to do with him. This is in marked contrast to her earlier frequent visits to him in jail, pledging her love, before she herself was charged. Then the visits stopped.

Deleons case went to trial in the Fall of 2008: Deleon admitted his guilt at the beginning of trial, but prosecutors persisted in an effort to convince jurors to recommend the death penalty for sentencing. A California jury found Skylar Deleon guilty of all three murders on October 20. The penalty phase began October 22; On November 7, the jury returned its recommendation: the death penalty for Deleon.

For Ryan Hawks and the rest of the victims' family, resolution for both cases will mean they can move on with their lives. Hawks and his brother Matt set up a website to help find their parents. Matt posted this note on Father's Day:

Happy fathers day DAD. They don't make words that can explain how great of dad you truly are. I am so thankful to have been raised by someone who taught me so much. I thank you for all the wonderful years we had, and the time spent with us. I promise dad that I will be the father to your grandson Jace that you were to me. I know that Jace will never get to meet you or mom again, but know that he will know all about you and the legacy you leave behind. I love you both so very much. Happy fathers day. Matt Hawks

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