Just before the Virginia Tech tragedy began to dominate my own blogging as well as the national news for a good part of the week, I was working on one of the damnedest stories I've encountered in a while.
Such stories sometimes begin with the dead.
The first murder victim of the year 2007 in Scottsdale, Arizona was Travis Hartline-Seffern, age 26. Seffern was found shot to death in a parking lot in South Scottsdale on Friday, April 13. A co-worker said that he found Travis's body after returning from a coffee run.
Travis Hartline-Seffern met his fate behind a work truck. The parking lot where he bled out was shared by a payday loan business and an adult video store. 1.
The "co-worker" who reported the murder was an older man who also stated that he was Travis Hartline-Seffern's stepfather. John Hartline-Seffern spoke to the Phoenix East Valley Tribune the following day about his "stepson."
John told the paper that Travis "was a great man," and that the younger man's "number one concern was taking care of his daughter. He was a wonderful person."
Later that night, police showed up at John Hartline-Seffern's residence at 818 South Westwood. John had become a suspect in Travis's murder. A stand-off ensued. When it ended, cops discovered John Hartline-Seffern dead in his apartment, from what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds.
The Tribune examined Maricopa County Court records after John's death and discovered that both John Hartline-Seffern and Travis Hartline-Seffern had legally changed their names in July, 2003. The "stepfather/stepson" connection was becoming more questionable by the moment. Both men had criminal records, and it appeared as though they might have met up while incarcerated. Travis Seffern had been jailed for car theft. 2.
John Scott Hartline was a con man. The following was published in the Orlando (Florida) Sentinel on January 2, 1993:
Orange County, Phoenix and Tucson authorities have teamed up to arrest a man they say bilked credit unions across the country out of at least $200,000.Hartline would use a fake ID to open an account at a credit union. He'd then alter his starter checks to make them look like they were from established accounts. In January of '93, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and California wanted a piece of him, too.
John Scott Hartline, 31, was arrested as he left his Phoenix home Thursday, said Orange County sheriff's Detective Peter Daiger.
Daiger was assigned to the case in October after Hartline was accused of writing more than $4,000 in worthless checks from the Navy Orlando Federal Credit Union. He and others tracked Hartline to Dallas, Charleston, S.C., Charlotte, N.C., Phoenix and Tucson...
John Scott Hartline went into the system. But that didn't stop him from pursuing money. The East Valley Tribune also discovered that Hartline had begun filing civil suits in 1995 against various institutions and people, but if he'd won any of those, the paper didn't say so. (ibid., 2.)
On April 17 the reason for Travis Hartline-Seffern's murder was revealed: $500,000 in insurance money.
Here was what investigators had figured out in just 4 days:
- John Hartline-Seffern set Travis up. He'd been telling the truth about going to get coffee -- but that was only so he wouldn't be around when the whole thing went down.
- While John was gone, fellow ex-cons Jose A. Figueroa-Quintero and Thomas O. Bastian showed up. Police said they believed Figueroa-Quintero, a Mexican national who had managed to evade deportation for a year, was the triggerman, allegedly shooting Travis several times with a 9mm handgun.
- While surveillance video of the scene didn't help identify the actual shooter, police said it did help establish that Bastian and John Hartline-Seffern were conspirators.
- John Hartline-Seffern apparently dropped the dime on himself to some degree when he tried to collect the insurance on Travis the day Travis Hartline-Seffern was killed.
As if it needed repeating, the old axiom about there being "honor among thieves" was disproven by the story as a whole -- all the men had presumably met in prison. One could only speculate as to the relationships between them. Part of John Scott Hartline's disciplinary record while in prison included a major violation in March of 1999 for "any sex act" or stalking, but he had only one such violation. That might have been the only time he was caught.
Hartline's record also included a list of aliases. Just a few:
- Papesh Chinook
- John Evan Dysart
- Trace Evan Dysartes
- Danny Levy
- Matthew Lewis
- Richard Sodja
And either John and Travis really did have some sort of prior association, or Hartline was serious from the get-go about making it appear as though the men were family.
Less than a month after both men went to court to effect the change, 78-year-old Willard "Brad" Brafford died in Herrin, Illinois. His obituary was published on in the Southern Illinoisan on August 10, 2003. In the obit was the following passage:
Survivors include his wife, Venita Brafford of Herrin; a son and daughter-in-law, David and Cheryl Brafford of Orange Park, Fla.; a daughter, Darla Dee Brafford of Penn Valley, Calif; three stepsons, John Scott Hartline and Travis Seffren(sic), both of Phoenix, Ariz...While John Hartline-Seffern was identifying himself as Travis's stepfather just after Travis's death, the men appeared to be brothers (or half-brothers) for the purposes of the obituary.
John Scott Hartline seemed to be up to something in the summer of 2003. The court records of the name change showed that he initiated the process on June 19 that year, and he was in court on July 24, 2003. Travis Seffern filed the exact same day and was in court on the 24th, as well. On July 15, 2003, Hartline registered a new business with the State of Arizona, The World Partner's (sic) Group, LLC.
Hartline wasn't even close to done trying to establish "businesses."
And finding his tracks wasn't hard, once one reversed the order of the hyphenated last names: Hartline-Seffern to Seffern-Hartline.
Usually using the name J. Scott Seffern-Hartline, John put together the following (in no particular order):
- http://www.cashflowfundingdirect.com/;
- http://www.phoenixpowerwash.com/;
- http://www.vendorcapital.us/;
- http://www.aboasphalt.com/;
- http://www.arizonacleansweep.com/;
- http://www.saguaroasphalt.com/.
A check of Arizona Corporations records showed that J. Scott Seffern-Hartline became the agent of record for Saguaro Asphalt early in 2006. The domain names for the other companies had all been created in 2006, most of them in the fall, October and November.
Some of the sites even had weblogs attached, where "J Scott Seffern Hartline" would pontificate about the subject of asphalt sweeping at length. It appeared he'd copied from other sources and then perhaps summed up what he copied in italicized notes at the end of each entry, usually prefaced with "in a nutshell."
Some of John Scott Hartline's work assignments in prison included computer work, data entry, so he seemed to be quite comfortable with the Web, and he also seemed to understand how he could use the Web as a tool to make his business endeavors seem legitimate He did things like create press releases. This one was interesting because it included the young man John was allegedly scheming to murder, Travis Seffern:
Travis W. Seffern, the sales manager for Phoenix Power Wash Systems of Arizona, a 6-year old company that offers complete pressure wash services to both commercial properties, residential homes, and fleet vehicles explains, the consumer knows which convenience or retail store parking lot is the dirtiest. They shop there often on a daily basis. In Arizona it's hard to disguise dirty asphalt or concrete without scheduled maintenance.In Arizona Corporations Commission records "Travis W. Hartline-Seffern" was listed along with J Scott Seffern-Hartline and two others as directors for ABO Asphalt, which was apparently registered with the State in October of last year.
(...)
The marketing director for Phoenix Power Wash Systems of Arizona, J. Scott Seffern-Hartline adds, Every customer shops where they feel good. A clean parking lot provides the first impression each person has of a business. In this election year we are asking the consumer to cast a Dirty Vote and give our power washing service away...
For a long time, then, John Scott Hartline's post-prison focus as a business/con man had been asphalt maintenance and cleaning. It is likely that the large amount of insurance he had on the life of Travis W. Seffern was in part justified to the insurance company by their co-directorship of ABO Asphalt.
In February of this year, J Scott Seffern-Hartline's career ambitions appeared to take a hairpin turn. He registered the business name eTravel/iTravel with the State of Arizona, and listed his company Cash Flow Funding as the owner. From eTravel/iTravel's networking page:
eTravel / iTravel is a business that sells travel related products and services, particularly package tours, to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers, such as airlines, hotels, tour companies, and cruise lines. In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists, eTravel / iTravel is devoted to travel arrangements for business travellers. eTravel / iTravel specializes in travel and the marketing of the home-based travel business opportunity...John Hartline had made quite the change then, from "asphalt docent" to "travel docent." Could it be that he was actively planning, with the help of Jose A. Figueroa-Quintero and Thomas O. Bastian, to fund this new endeavor with the blood of Travis Seffern?
A gambit is a maneuver used in any game strategy situation that sacrifices that which the player might normally need as an asset in order to have a stronger advantage later in the game. The term is most commonly associated with chess play.
From the moment he entered the court in 2003 to adopt his prison buddy's name, Travis Seffern was an unwitting pawn in a long-term gambit being played by long-time con man John Scott Hartline. In the end, he was indeed sacrificed.
But maybe Hartline felt he'd waited far too long for his payoff -- his trying to cash in on a big insurance payday the very day the insured person was murdered was a rash, impatient move, and the spotlight of law enforcement scrutiny whipped around and focused on him with a blinding intensity.
Cons fascinate me -- the complexity of the game being played by one man against the system. I always wonder how the con keeps it all straight. How he (or she) tracks the names they use, the types of con, who they know and who might know of them. Fortunately for the cops who track the cons down, most con artists don't keep track of their deceptions very well, and they slip up.
Eventually, like John Scott Hartline, they get sick of waiting for the payoff, and that's when they get particularly stupid.
John Scott Hartline was in check. He knew the game was over, and that his tangled web of cons, names, and accomplices would be unraveled. So with a blade, Hartline took the psychopath's peculiar approach to self-slaughter; it wasn't a suicide born out of grief, it was his way of saying he was done, and he remained in control.
Either way, his gambit still led in one direction: Checkmate.
UPDATE 1.
After I completed the entry above I did some extra searching.
John Hartline began to push eTravel/iTravel soon after he trademarked the name in February, 2007. In March, he even made a post on the Phoenix Craigslist. Though he registered eTraveliTravel.com, and at least one other associated domain, FreeTravelOpportunities.com, the former seemed to re-direct to a loosely-related site and the latter was defunct.
I also thought to search the Arizona Corporations database for some of Hartline's past aliases. Prior to his arrest in 1993, he'd used the name Papesh E. Chinook (see above) to register "The Merchant's Banc Processing, Inc."
Another alias, Richard Sodja, yielded so many results in the Corporations database that I had to wonder if Hartline had stolen that name from a real person, at some point.
An odd find was this Topix.net discussion of the crime. The thread began with a sick joke: "maybe the killer was somone who doesn't like hyphenated last names..."
Then posters began to defend John Scott Hartline. Sheri, who appeared to be from Missouri, wrote:
Scott was a generous man. He was brilliant and helped people from all walks of life.I guess Sheri didn't know Hartline's major violation while in lockup for sexual activity, among other things. I'm pretty sure the prison "rape-ee" doesn't get those on his record, but I could be wrong. Sheri's post made it more clear than ever that John Scott Hartline was, in some respects, a pretty good con man after all.
He loved Travis and his family. He was devastated with Travis' murder.
As far as the life insurance policy... every business partnership I know they carry life insurance on each other.
Scott was a non-violent man. He wouldn't even go hunting. He loved life. He loved family. He had been to prison for white collar crime. It was not violent. This is where he assisted other inmates to get back into society. This is where he might have chosen to assist those with less pure motives.
For those of us who knew Scott he will be missed. He was loved. I'm so sad that he was so sad to take his own life. He probably feared 'the appearance' of a conspiracy since one of the accused he had just taken in under his roof to give him a leg up. Scott was smart enough to realize the 'appearance' did not look good and he was already quite distraught over losing Travis that he decided to end it.
Because there's pretty good evidence John was still the same guy who was popped for financial crimes in 1993.
Further searches in Maricopa County (AZ) court records revealed that the end of 2006 had been rather bad for John Scott Seffern-Hartline's Saguaro Asphalt Maintenance LLC.
In June of 2006, United Rentals Northwest filed suit against Saguaro Asphalt. A judgment was reached against Saguaro to the tune of $8,561.90. This was just 3 months after John signed papers to become the State-registered agent of record for Saguaro.
Then came August of the same year -- and another judgment. This time the court found in favor of Sunstate Equipment Co. -- $5,720.31 plus $1,904.86 in attorney's fees. In both cases, it appeared that Saguaro had represented itself -- likely John Scott Seffern-Hartline himself, as he'd become something of a jailhouse lawyer, filing multiple civil suits to pass the time while in lockup.
The capper came in late December of last year. That was when a judgment was rendered against Saguaro in favor of Rental Service Corporation -- $4,315.23 and $650.00 in plaintiff's attorney fees.
By the dawn of the new year, one of Seffern-Hartline's companies had more than $20,000 in civil judgments against it.
A new cash inflow was in order, in the con man's scheme of things.
There was a mysterious note sounded as I looked at more civil court records. On April 12, 2007, Travis Seffern -- using the non-hyphenated version of his name -- filed a Petition For Injunction Of Harassment against one John Adams. A day later, Seffern was dead.
Could have been about anything, of course. For now, it only adds another layer of strangeness to this already odd and complex story.
UPDATE 2.
Thanks to Diane for spotting this: Asphalt Docent's Blog.
This entry is interesting. The closest the "Asphalt/Travel" Docent came to being personally revealing in any of the blogs or sites associated with his endeavors.
UPDATE 3.
Long-time reader Diane has been posting further evidence of John Scott Hartline's deceptions and cons in the comments section of this blog entry. Quoting from one of Diane's comments:
Hartline was using one of men arrested for murder to write Yahoo reviews for his websites. Thomasbastian143. Except on Oct 19 (when the reviews were written) Thomas was still in prison, he wasn't released till this year...Here is a profile for thomasbastian143. Another Yahoo profile for that nick has little info save the date it was created: 4/19/2004. This Google search shows the screen name popping up in several places, usually associated with a glowing review of a business run by John Scott Hartline.
Bastian's record with the Arizona Dept. of Corrections shows that he was previously incarcerated between June of 1999 and January, 2007. I've never heard of a con who somehow could access the Internet and do reviews for businesses he had no need of, due to his being incarcerated.
Thomas "Tommygun" Bastian most likely never even knew that Yahoo account existed. This does seem to make it all the more obvious that Bastian and Hartline knew each other from Hartline's own time in prison.
Diane also discovered that Hartline used the name, "J. Scott Seffern-Hartune." "Hartune" is quoted on this page at CEOTraveler.com:
J. Scott Seffern-Hartune, CFO of Saguaro Maintenance in Scottsdale, and his brother spent a summer afternoon at Aji Spa. Seffern-Hartune drove to Phoenix because the spa "had always been recommended to him.” Of his Watsu (pool-based shiatsu) he commented, "It took me to a place I didn"t know existed.” He had had a facial once before and decided to try it again, saying, "It made me smile a lot.”I have a pretty good guess as to who that "brother" was. Diane also found evidence that Hartline used "Hartlin" as a last name in at least one instance.
Hartline was on eBay, as well. Diane noted this eBay page, where you could see a small photo captioned, "Travis, Abigail, and Scott." The photo showed murder victim Travis Seffern, a little girl who was presumably Travis's daughter, and Hartline.
Diane pointed out in her comments about Hartline's eBay account a remarkable thing -- on eBay, at least, John Scott Hartline was completely on the up-and-up. Since he'd not used the site in 2 years, maybe he'd just found other diversions.
My appreciation as always goes to Diane for her sleuthing.
Mainstream media sources:
1. "Worker found fatally shot is city's first homicide victim of 2007," Web-posted article at KVOA.com, April 14, 2007.
2. "Suspect in Scottsdale killing commits suicide," by Jill Redhage, East Valley Tribune, April 15, 2007.
3. "Agency moves to deport suspect in Scottsdale slaying," by Mike Sakal, East Valley Tribune, April 17, 2007.
