Manna Treatment and Counseling, Dr. Genie Burnett (Updated)

Posted on June 15, 2014 by losingemma

Manna Treatment and Counseling and Dr. Genie Burnett

(If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” Both of these posts give a brief description of what happened. As Emma’s mom, I am blogging my experiences with Emma and the things she did/does. This is a child who made up a story about rape, accused a priest of molesting her, and then as her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church, Emma accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the lawsuit because she knew her lies were about to be discovered. Emma was recently living at the home of her fiance’s (Tyler Albert Buchheim) grandparents, Merrie and Albert Knopp in Liberty Township, Ohio. Emma is attending Wright State University http://www.wright.edu/, and talking about getting married to Tyler., an architecture student at Notre Dame. Emma claims to have the TOXICOLOGY REPORT to prove that her mother poisoned her with DDT and that she had to move to get away from her mother. (My attorney has been waiting for months for that toxicology report.) She also claims her future mother-in-law lives, Sherry Buchheim, lives in fear that Emma’s mother will show up and kill her entire family, although I heard from Ms. Buchheim that she feared no such thing. While in Ohio, Emma began telling stories about Tyelr’s family, making herself the victim again, but since she didn’t have her mother to be the persecutor, Emma began saying hurtful things about Tyler’s mother, his sister, Caitlin, and Tyler’s grandparents.

Phill and Emma on our trip to Ct. 2010. My sister and brother-in-law treated us to a wonderful boat trip and clam back dinner on a little island. Phill is drinking a little bottle of champagne because it was also our 26th anniversary. Emma has a great smile in this photo, but she was rude and nasty to my sister and brother-in-law for pretty much our entire visit hiding out in the basement or just being withdrawn and unfriendly.

Phill and Emma on our trip to Ct. 2010. My sister and brother-in-law treated us to a wonderful boat trip and clam bake dinner on a little island. Phill is drinking a little bottle of champagne because it was also our 26th anniversary. Emma has a great smile in this photo, but she was rude and nasty to my sister and brother-in-law for pretty much our entire visit hiding out in the basement or just being withdrawn and unfriendly.

I’ll be the first to admit I had no clue in how to go about choosing a therapist. After claiming to be sexually abused by a priest at our church, I felt like Emma needed to talk to a “professional” who could help her deal with what happened. Earlier, I mentioned that when Emma went to speak to a therapist at the Tree House in Winder, Ga, Emma was uncooperative. Phill and I gave Emma a break for about a month, and then decided she would see a therapist after we returned from visiting family in early July.

The Deacon at our church, who had been instrumental in helping us file a complaint against the priest Emma accused, recommended a therapist, and my friend Sandi McCravy (Sandra Brooks McCravy) recommended her therapist, Dr. Genie Burnett. All I knew about Dr. Burnett was that Sandi had seen her off and on for about 11 years at that point. Sandi had had an eating disorder and had abused laxatives many years before. She told me that Dr. Genie Burnett primarily treated eating disorders but because a lot of eating disorders stemmed from sexual abuse, Dr. Burnett had a lot of experience with girls like Emma. Sandi had gone to private sessions with Dr. Burnett as well as group therapy along with other women. Sandi frequently confided in me about her sessions with Dr. Genie Burnett and told me what she talked to her about. I remember a lot of it was issues with her family, primarily her mother, but also Sandi had issues with her brother and his wife who were more affluent than Sandi and Greg, and issues with her sister, the former beauty queen.

Dr. Burnett also treated Sandi’s son, Derek who suffered with Asperger’s, a mild form of Autisim. At one point, Sandi told me that Dr. Burnett was the one who had diagnosed Derek when he was about 8 years old, but some time before that, Sandi had been in denial about Derek’s problems and had told me all his problems were related to food allergies. She went to see various people about alternative medicine therapies and frequently had Derek on some kind of supplement that was supposed to keep him in check. She claimed that he couldn’t eat gluten or dairy, but if he wanted pizza she could just give him some supplements and he could eat what he wanted. Sandi frequently tried things that I thought were a little odd to me. One time, Sandi bought some sort of foot soak that was supposed to pull toxins out of your body if you just soaked your feet in it. I thought it sounded ridiculous, but Sandi claimed that her godmother, Wren, who had been battling cancer, used one of these things and had recommended it. I remember her telling me it cost something ridiculous, like $600, but Sandi got a deal on hers. I thought the whole thing was bizarre and a waste of money, but people will do what they will do.

Sandi raved about Dr. Genie Burnett when she was telling me how Dr. Burnett was the one to diagnose Derek, but on a previous occasion, Sandi had confided in me that when the boys were little and she was on government assistance, one of the doctors who saw the kids tried to tell her that Derek had autism, but she wouldn’t accept it. I don’t remember what government program the boys were on. Since we live in Georgia, it may have been PeachCare, but Sandi took the boys out of the program because she didn’t want that diagnosis on Derek’s record. She stayed in denial about his problems for many years, and I remember once when a woman named Ruth, who we worked with us gave, Sandi’s name and phone number to a lady who had a child with autism, and the woman called Sandi, Sandi was furious. She called me up, ranting and raving that Ruth had no right to give her phone number to this woman because Derek did not have autisim!

There were so many inconsistencies in what Sandi told me about Derek and autism, but I never questioned her. Sandi was always super sensitive on the issue, and knowing how we mamas are fiercely protective of our kids, I just let it go.
Derek would fight with his parents, pretty much like any teen, and at one point, he got so angry that he stabbed himself with a pencil and Sandi and Greg had to take him to the ER. The ER wanted to admit him to SummitRidge Psychiatric hospital in Lawrenceville, but Sandi would NOT have it! She was concerned that that would create a record that would follow him around for life.

Derek’s senior year of high school, Sandi began falling apart, calling me frequently, crying, sometimes hysterically, over the thought of Derek going off to college. Derek is a very bright young man and received a scholarship to Mercer University in Macon, Ga. I frequently had to “talk Sandi down” as Phill liked to phrase it, and I reassured her that he would be fine, and that Macon was not that far away, and if she wanted, I would drive down there with her to see him.

Derek, on the other hand, seemed just fine about the thought of going off to college, but Sandi thought he needed to see Dr. Genie Burnett at Manna Treatment on a regular basis before he went off to live in the dorm. Because of Derek’s diagnosis, he was able to get a private room in the dorm, and he went off to college happy and excited about his new adventure. In the typical teenage fashion, Sandi complained that he did not call home enough.

Probably the deciding factor in choosing a counselor was that Dr. Genie Burnett was a Christian counselor, and Emma, being a conservative Christian, wanted to go to a Christian counselor. I didn’t really care who Emma went to as long as it was someone she felt comfortable with and someone she could talk to, so we made an appointment with Dr. Genie Burnett.

Manna Treatment Part 2

After we returned from vacation, Emma had her first visit with Dr. Genie Burnett (Dr. Elizabeth Genie Burnett) at Manna Treatment & Counseling, Duluth, Ga. Emma and I went to meet Dr. Burnett together the first time. Her office was very nicely decorated, and she was young, trendy-looking, loved shoes, and she drove some sort of SUV with “Manna” on the license plate.

Dr. Burnett talked a lot more about herself than I would have thought a therapist would have, telling us about her own history and eating disorder, and she brought her own history up, I think, on every session I sat in on. This just surprised me. Granted my only experience with therapy to this point had been what I’d seen on television, but I just assumed the therapist would sort of keep themselves out of it. On television, they always seem to be trying to get the patient to talk.

Before we left that first session, Dr. Genie Burnett prayed with us, and this was something that was very important to Emma. She definitely wanted a Christian counselor.

Emma really liked Dr. Burnett. She thought she was cool. I can’t say I was crazy about her, but if Emma liked her, that was all I wanted. I thought Emma needed a professional to talk to, and my feelings about Dr. Burnett didn’t matter as she was not my therapist. (Even though she did diagnose me with Paranoid Borderline Personality disorder by asking Emma questions about me! At $135/hr in 2010, I guess we were getting a 2 for 1 !!!) I didn’t think Dr. Burnett seemed like a very warm person, maybe a little snooty, and I wondered if she had had some enhancement surgery, but none of this mattered. I guess I was doing my own evaluation of Dr. Burnett, thinking that if she had battled an eating disorder and had a low opinion of herself, she probably would probably be the type to have gotten plastic surgery.

At Emma’s sessions, she usually went in alone. Phill and I went with her once or twice, and I went with her a few times, but usually just for a few minutes.

On some visits, I brought the family dog, Spike, and took walks while Emma was in therapy. Of course bringing Spike brought it’s own set of complications, but I was determined not to give in to Emma. I was spending a good 2+ hours driving back and forth, and then waiting around for her on those therapy days, and if I wanted to bring our dog to have a walking buddy, I should have been allowed to. Emma complained about everything with Spike. She sat up front with me, but complained that I brought him, when I put the windows down in the back for him, etc. I often thought I was getting a taste of what it would have been like if Emma had a sibling.

Emma had done the same thing with the dog we had before Spike. I always thought it was a jealousy problem. Like in a lot of households, mom is the one who takes care of the dogs, and the dogs always paid more attention to me than to anyone else in the family. That was just the way it was, but Emma was always fairly mean to Spike. She would ignore him when she came home and he ran to her, excited to see her. I would tell her to say hello to him, and she would say a very monotone “Hi Spike.” But not bother to pet him or otherwise acknowledge him. Occasionally, I would see Emma hit, kick, or push Spike out of her way when she had plenty of room to walk around him. My sister also saw some of this behavior when she visited. It upset me greatly, as we volunteered with a dog/cat rescue organization, and here was Emma being abusive to our own dog. I really think Emma could not stand the attention that I paid to Spike, and it made me so sad that Spike always loved Emma. Talk about unconditional love! He was always happy to see her and tried to get some attention from her, but like dogs do, he never held a grudge as to how she treated him. I wonder if now Emma claims she abused the family dog because of the abuse she received from her paranoid borderline mother?

Emma started out seeing Dr. Genie Burnett twice a week, and then when school started, I think that was too difficult, so she began seeing her once a week. On the ride home, I tried to give Emma her privacy about her sessions. I didn’t ask what she talked about, but usually just asked, “How did it go?”

During the time we were seeing Dr. Burnett, we had stopped attending our church, but I wanted Emma doing something with other kids, so I told her we needed to find her another youth group to attend. She went to a couple and didn’t like them, and then started attending the youth group at the Hamilton Mill 12 Stone Church on Wednesday evenings. We had attended a neighborhood Bible study for about 5 years, and many of our friends there attended 12 Stone. Once a year, 12 Stone did a CIA Day (Compassion in Action) and Emma went with one of our neighbors to help at one of the volunteer locations.

12 Stone was a big church with a big youth group, and seemed like a nice place for Emma to get involved. A few kids that she knew occasionally showed up to the group. Emma knew a couple of kids from from homeschooling, and one young lady that Emma knew from Gwinnett Young Singers, a children’s choir that Emma was involved in. I believe her name was Rachael Wood. (You can see Emma in a group Gwinnet Young Singers Photo here: http://gwinnettyoungsingers.com/concert-choir.html Emma is in the top row, third young lady from the left. If I remember right, that is Rachel to the left of Emma (Emma’s right). I will share more on Emma’s experience with Gwinnet Young Singers later.

Emma seemed like she enjoyed the youth group at 12 Stone, although I often had to encourage her to go. Once she went, when I picked her up, she sounded like she had a great time. She would tell me what went on and what the talked about, most of which I don’t remember now.

One time, Emma claimed the youth leader talked about purity, and Emma was upset that her purity had been taken from her. I tried to explain that she couldn’t help what happened and that she wasn’t out having sex, she had been a victim. Emma told me I just didn’t get it, and at the next visit with Dr. Genie Burnett at Manna Treatment, she stated that Dr. Genie understood how she felt about losing her purity even though I didn’t get it. (One of those moments where I thought, “Ok, whatever.” I was glad she had someone to talk it over with because I was the lowly mom, and whatever I said was the wrong thing!)

In Nov. of 2010, Emma wanted to go on a weekend retreat with the 12 Stone group, and Phill and I were all for it except for one little thing. Emma was taking Zofran pretty much round the clock and sleeping a lot. If she didn’t take the Zofran, she was throwing up a lot. We didn’t seen any point in spending a lot of money for her to go on a weekend trip and then sleep through it. Emma and I discussed it with Dr. Genie Burnett at Manna Treatment, and she told me to let Emma go and if she threw up she threw up. I didn’t have a problem with that, but Emma wanted to go and take her Zofran round the clock, which Phill and I did not agree with.
Emma was furious at me because we didn’t let her go. I always got the blame because I was the primary disciplinarian, so even if Phill and I talked it over and made a decision, Emma would always say whatever decision we made that she didn’t agree with was all my fault because Daddy had to go along with whatever I said.

As I mentioned earlier, my main complaints about Dr. Genie Burnett at Manna Treatment were as follows.

After Emma was in the custody of DFACS, Phill and I found a letter she’d written to “Lacey” the cyber friend, mentioning that her attorneys were ready to file the lawsuit and that her mother had Paranoid Borderline Personality Disorder. Or, it may have been Borderline Paranoid Personality Disorder. I will have to dig out the letter and see. It doesn’t really matter. Phill and I couldn’t understand how Dr. Genie Burnett could have diagnosed me with anything as I was not her patient. I sat in on a few partial or full sessions with Emma, but that was all. How in the world does a professional psychologist diagnose someone they are not treating? To me, this certainly seems like unprofessional conduct!
Suzie McGarvey at Lanier Counseling (who is now with North Gwinnett Counseling Associates) later told Phill and I that Dr. Genie Burnett went through a checklist with Emma and said, “Does your mother do this, this, and this?” and that was how I got the professional diagnosis of Paranoid Borderline Personality Disorder from Dr. Genie Burnett. Wow. All those years of college and earning a Ph.D. and that’s all there is to it? I think I could do that job without a college degree, and I wouldn’t charge $135/hour to do it! Phill and I were stunned. I would love to see Dr. Genie Burnett’s notes to see exactly what Emma said about me. With her ability to embellish the simplest story, I’m sure she came up with quite an entertaining tale for Dr. Burnett!
I can understand a “professional” psychologist forming an opinion about a person. When Emma was taking AP Psychology on line (which is where I’m sure she got some of her abuse stories from) she would try to tell me I was this or that. Being a teenager with one Psychology course under her belt of course made her an expert, so in addition to being a “control freak” and “micromanaging” her life, if I put something away I was anal, if I checked to make sure I locked the door, I was OCD. I can’t even remember all the labels Emma gave me. Sometimes it was funny, other times annoying, but there was no doubt Emma was into her Psych class.
When Emma’s GI doctor (Emma had a long history of vomiting issues which she now claims is because I poisoned her for years with DDT.) recommended taking Emma to a psychiatrist to put her on an antidepressant, and he wanted me to check with her psychologist (Dr. Genie Burnett, Manna Treatment) to see if she felt like this was appropriate, I asked around for some names, including asking Dr. Genie Burnett. I was kind of surprised at her enthusiasm about Emma going on an antidepressant. She told me she thought it was a good idea and then said, “I’ve been on and off antidepressants for years!” This comment made me very uncomfortable, and the way she was so glib about it, and I told Phill that it bothered me. I thought to myself, “Hmmmm, even if you were on and off antidepressants for years, would you really want to tell people that?”
I don’t remember the name of the doctor that Dr. Burnett gave us, but we lived in Hoschton, and he was in Roswell, about an hour away. Later on I asked Dr. Burnett if she could recommend anyone closer and she told me that the reason she gave us the name of that psychiatrist was that he was going to be joining her office sometime in the next year.
We were having a difficult time getting Emma to get her school work done because she wanted to sleep all the time. She was vomiting a lot and taking Zofran up to three times a day, but I would also guess that Emma was tired because when we thought she was in bed, she was pretending to be asleep, but she was up at all hours of the night with her other “mommy” Sandi McCravy (Sandra Brooks McCravy) chit chatting on the phone. If I tried to discuss anything with Dr. Burnett, there would be hell to pay. Emma always looked at it like I was “telling” on her, rather than I was trying to work on our family life. Emma cared how Dr. Genie Burnett saw her, and wanted to present herself a certain way, but her mom always wrecked things by revealing that Emma was not this perfect little mature, well-spoken young woman she wanted people to think she was. If I said anything that Emma took as criticizing of her, she would be furious with me once we left Dr. Burnett’s office, so I didn’t say too much on the few sessions I sat in on.
I sent Dr. Burnett and e-mail about some of the problems we were having with Emma and how we were having trouble getting Emma to do her school work. When I took Emma to her next session, Dr. Burnett wanted me to come in with Emma for the first few minutes, and then I was MORTIFIED when Dr. Genie Burnett read my e-mail in front of Emma. I should have stopped Dr. Burnett immediately, but I was so shocked that she did that, I just didn’t think. You want to see one angry child! Once again, the story of my teenage daughter’s life, she was livid with her mother!
The comment about being on and off antidepressants for years, diagnosing me with Paranoid Borderline Personality Disorder, and reading my e-mail in front of Emma were all listed in my complaint with the board about Dr. Genie Burnett at Manna Treatment.

Next Post, since several people have asked, I’ll probably switch gears and share the Temporary Protective Order and how Emma Pulled her “I want to live in a group home.” At Suzie McGarvey’s of Lanier Counseling in Buford, Ga. (Now with North Gwinnett Counseling Associates in Suwanee, Ga.) Emma took advantage of several familes who took in the poor abused child who couldn’t live at home with her mother. I will share some of those stories as well.

“I tried nurturing her to spread her wings and fly, but she grew claws and tried to bleed me dry.” —Author Unknown.

Emma’s Descent into Therapy Part 2, Preface to Manna Treatment (Continued)

Posted on May 6, 2014 by losingemma

If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” Both of these posts give a brief description of what happened. Emma is a young woman who made up a story about a story about a cyber friend being raped and claimed it brought up her own “repressed memories” of a priest of molesting her. As her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church, Emma accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the suit because she knew her lies were about to be discovered. I am that mother. Emma claims to have toxicology reports showing that I poisoned her with DDT, essentially accusing me of ATTEMPTED MURDER, but refuses to turn over these reports to my attorney. She also claims that while living with her boyfriend’s family in Ohio, her boyfriend’s mother was afraid I would show up and kill her entire family. When I contacted the boyfriend’s mother, she told me that this was “ridiculous.” Emma’s boyfriend/fiance eventually broke up with her when he had his own doubts about Emma.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, contact me at: losingemma@gmail.com

Manna Treatment and Counseling and Dr. Genie Burnett

Emma, Nathan, Johnathan McCravy, and Derek McCravy on a homeschool fieldtrip to the William Harris Homestead.

to be continued……………

Fish or Cut Bait

Posted on April 27, 2014 by losingemma

PREFACE: If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” Both of these posts give a brief description of what happened. Emma is a young woman who made up a story about a story about a cyber friend being raped and claimed it brought up her own “repressed memories” of a priest of molesting her. As her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church, Emma accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the suit because she knew her lies were about to be discovered. I am that mother. Emma claims to have toxicology reports showing that I poisoned her with DDT, essentially accusing me of ATTEMPTED MURDER, but refuses to turn over these reports to my attorney. She also claims that while living with her boyfriend’s family in Ohio, her boyfriend’s mother was afraid I would show up and kill her entire family. When I contacted the boyfriend’s mother, she told me that this was “ridiculous.” Emma’s boyfriend/fiance eventually broke up with her when he had his own doubts about Emma.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, contact me at: losingemma@gmail.com

Emma was always a big reader, and often was reading when she was supposed to be doing other things, but I can understand that temptation. This is a picture of Emma and one of our foster dogs, Brillo, and as you can see, Emma was also a big Neal Boortz fan.

I’ve been thinking a lot about some conversations Emma and I had in the past. One day, after doing some laundry, I asked Emma to put her clothes away. She walked into her room and right back out again, trying to quietly sneak out to the sun porch so she could get back to the book she was reading. I asked her if she had hung up and put her clothes away properly, and she replied that she had, but I knew she couldn’t have in the 30 seconds she was in her room and back out. Sure enough, I went in to find all the freshly washed clothes on the floor in her closet where she’d thrown them. This was a pretty frequent occurrence in our home. Emma didn’t have a lot of chores, and getting her to do them often seemed like more work than it was worth. For whatever reason, Emma was really bad about putting her clothes away and would throw them on the floor, under her bed, in her bed, cram them under her dresser, under shelves……….. anything to get them out of sight and then say she’d put them away. Sometimes it seemed like she went to more effort to hide her clothes than it would have taken her to put them away in the first place!

I told Emma that her sneaking around should have told her something about her actions. She knew she was doing something wrong, and that was why she was acting the way she did. I told her if she had put her clothes away properly, she should have been walking around like she was not trying to hide her actions. At some point we got into a conversation about how you should life your live as if your mother were looking over your shoulder, and then decided a better way to say it was “as if Jesus were looking over your shoulder.”

Emma is still sneaking around, figuratively that is. She can tell people she was an abused child, and she can tell people her mother poisoned her with DDT. Funny how she won’t bring any charges against this horrible mother of hers.

Well, after giving some serious thought to it, I am going to be taking the blog to some very public sites and message boards. Anywhere there’s discussions about kids, teens, schools, colleges, families, family problems, therapy, child molestation, child abuse, mental illness, etc. Anyplace I can think of, where I might get some opinions, response, comments. I have decided it is time for Emma to bring charges against me and let’s go to court, and if not, cut the crap, and let’s get on with our lives. As long as Emma is lying about me, I will continue to write the blog and tell her story and now I’m ready to make it very, VERY public. Emma can accuse me of abuse and of attempted murder, and then hide behind her daddy and play the victim. Well, if I’m going to be accused, I would like my day in court. If I’m not going to get that, then I will settle for the court of public opinion.

It is time to Fish or Cut Bait.

(I will get back to the story of Dr. Genie Burnett and Manna Treatment next.)

Emmaisms

Posted on April 23, 2014 by losingemma

Emmaisms
“I have Google in my head.”
Emma always knew she was a smart kid. The first time I heard Emma say this was when she started high school at JCCHS. She came home from 9th grade and claimed somebody asked her how she knew so much, and this was her reply.

Emma’s Descent into Therapy Part 2, Preface to Manna Treatment

Posted on April 18, 2014 by losingemma

PREFACE: If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” Both of these posts give a brief description of what happened. Emma is a young woman who made up a story about a story about a cyber friend being raped and claimed it brought up her own “repressed memories” of a priest of molesting her. As her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church, Emma accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the suit because she knew her lies were about to be discovered. I am that mother. Emma claims to have toxicology reports showing that I poisoned her with DDT, essentially accusing me of ATTEMPTED MURDER, but refuses to turn over these reports to my attorney. She also claims that while living with her boyfriend’s family, her boyfriend’s mother was afraid I would show up and kill her entire family. When I contacted the boyfriend’s mother, she told me that this was “ridiculous.” Emma’s boyfriend/fiance eventually broke up with her when he had his own doubts about Emma.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, contact me at: losingemma@gmail.com

Emma played Sandy when the church youth group did a dance skit from Grease, while the boy she had a crush on played Danny. The kids did a great job and it was a lot of fun. The cheerleader outfit came from a friend who graduated from Sandy Springs High School, Sandy Springs, Ga

Emma played Sandy when the church youth group did a dance skit from Grease. The cheerleader outfit came from a friend who graduated from Sandy Springs High School, Sandy Springs, Ga

Manna Treatment – Preface
Before I start writing about our experience with Manna Treatment, I want to first mention my complaints I filed with the State Board about Manna Treatment and Dr. Genie Burnett.

We’ve pretty much established that Emma is a teller of tales. If you’ve read my blog this long, you’ve seen the stories and some of the documentation I’ve collected from others about lies that Emma has told. Emma has a long history of lying, and this is something I want to warn parents about. In our case, therapy was detrimental to Emma and our family. Emma was allowed to go into therapy and say who knows what, and the therapist did not let Phill and I know what kind of things she was saying.

Later, I’ll get into how we chose Manna Treatment and Dr. Genie Burnett and while I have no idea what Emma said during her sessions, I can tell you how Emma acted before and after sessions, and things that she talked about to me after her sessions.

Southeast Electric Flight Festival

Posted on April 6, 2014 by losingemma

I think this photo was around 2002, when Emma donated a dinosaur puppet for her dad to use in a pilot in one of his planes. It was really cute.

PREFACE: If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” Both of these posts give a brief description of what happened. Emma is a young woman who made up a story about a story about a cyber friend being raped and claimed it brought up her own “repressed memories” of a priest of molesting her. As her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church, Emma accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the lawsuit because she knew her lies were about to be discovered. I am that mother. Emma claims to have toxicology reports showing that her mother poisoned her with DDT but refuses to turn over these reports to her mother’s attorney. She also claims that while living with her boyfriend’s family, her boyfriend’s mother was afraid Emma’s mother would show up and kill her entire family. When Emma’s mother contacted the boyfriend’s mother, she told me that this was “ridiculous.”
As always, if you have any questions or comments, contact me at: losingemma@gmail.com

It is a rainy Georgia night, and I was thinking about how Emma is probably down in Americus, Ga. for SEFF (Southeast Electric Flight Festival) to work as Jeff Meyers’ “Executive Assistant.” SEFF doesn’t start until tomorrow (April 7-13) but Phill always liked going down early. SEFF was something he looked forward to all year, and as soon as it was over, he was already planning for the next year. Emma didn’t really care about flying, but she liked running things and being in charge, and she is really Jeff’s right hand. She also liked the pay she received. It was very generous of Jeff to pay the “volunteers” who worked very hard all week.

Phill always liked camping at SEFF, but Emma preferred a hotel, so I was just listening to the rain and am glad to know she won’t be camping in a tent tonight. Emma and I were never quite the “roughing it” kind of girls!

With all the “together time” of homeschooling, I had to admit I enjoyed our little break and having some time to myself when Emma went to SEFF with her dad, but then as soon as she was gone, I missed her, too. I could only talk to her early in the morning or late at night, and usually for just a few minutes because she was so busy, but I always enjoyed hearing about what she was doing. Really though, I didn’t hear too much about it until Emma got home, and then she talked and talked and pretty much gave me every detail of her week. Phill got a kick out of hearing Emma’s name paged over the intercom. Who knows, maybe the SEFF experience has prepared Emma for things she’ll be doing in her professional life, in whatever career she decides to go into.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I was thinking of my baby girl and hope she has a wonderful week at SEFF.

Emma and SEFF (Southeast Electric Flight Festival)

Posted on February 25, 2014 by losingemma

***UPDATED MARCH 9 2014***
If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” Both of these posts give a brief description of what happened. As Emma’s mom, I am blogging my experiences with Emma and the things she did/does. This is a child who made up a story about rape, accused a priest of molesting her, and then as her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church, Emma accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the lawsuit because she knew her lies were about to be discovered. Emma was recently living in Ohio at the home of her fiance’s grandparents, attending Wright State University http://www.wright.edu/, and talking about getting married to T. Emma claims to have the TOXICOLOGY REPORT to prove that her mother poisoned her with DDT and that she had to move to Ohio to get away from her mother. (My attorney has been waiting for months for that toxicology report.) She also claims her future mother-in-law lives in fear that Emma’s mother will show up and kill her entire family. A while back I received an e-mail from T’s mother that said, “…. I am not afraid of you or fear that you are going to murder me or my family. That is ridiculous!!!” P.S.T., you are very welcome.

As a child, Phill built and flew RC planes, but had quit them before I’d ever known him. Years ago, at my job, I met someone who flew, and told this gentleman, “Oh, my husband did that as a kid.” He made it sound like so much fun, I went home and talked to Phill about it and encouraged him to get back into it. (It didn’t take much encouragement.) He picked out a plane for his birthday, and his hobby grew and grew. It wasn’t long before our house was full of planes, plane parts, radio parts, materials for building, and odds and ends that I couldn’t have identified.

Phill got involved with some local groups like the Scenic RC Flyers in Winder/Statham, and the Electric Drones in Jackson County, near our home, but his favorite RC event was SEFF (Southeast Electric Flight Festival) which is held in Americus, Ga. http://www.seffweek.com/ This year, SEFF will be held April 7th-13th. Phill talked about SEFF all year long. Before SEFF, he spent months planning what planes he was going to build and take, and after the event, he talked about it for months and made plans for the next year. He volunteered with SEFF, which paid for his trip and hotel, and his main job was being in charge of the raffle. It is a big raffle where vendors donate lots of prizes, and Phill always bought a lot of tickets, so he came home with at least a few prizes. Because I was homeschooling Emma, and worked at an arts program where the end of the year program coincided with SEFF, plus the fact that we had 3 dogs and a foster dog at home, I never attended but finally planned on going in 2011, the year Emma’s really turned into a mess. Although her actions stopped me from attending, I don’t think it stopped Phill, and I believe he took Emma with him. Phill’s family could be falling apart, but he was not going to miss his big week of airplanes.

I don’t remember what year it was when Phill took Emma with him to Seff. I believe she was in 7th or 8th grade. Phill had volunteered the year before and thought it would be great if Emma could go and help. It sounded like a good opportunity for Emma to get to try something new, and as a homeschooling mom, it gave me a break as well.

Phill had tried to get Emma interested in RC planes, but she never was. She built a simple plane with his help when she was about 10-12, and she would take the controls if he took her out to the field, but she was never that interested. It just wasn’t her cup of tea. SEFF, however, would become an event that Emma looked forward to every year.

I’m not sure of his title, but SEFF was run by a man named Jeff Meyers of the Fayetteville Flyers. He may have started the event, I’m not really sure. From what Phill and Emma told me, it’s a week long RC event where there are vendors, “pilots” (the folks who fly RC planes) and lots of socializing with dinners, drinking, poker, entertainment, contests, etc. It became the largest electric RC plane event in the U.S. or maybe the world, and one year they broke the world record of the most planes in the air at one time. Phill was partiulcarly proud of being part of this event which can be seen here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/meojwdw

Seff takes place in Americus Ga. at Mac Hodges field:

Hodges Hobbies‎
428 Neil Hodges Road
Andersonville, GA 31711
(866) 924-9505
hodgeshobbies.com‎

Phill liked to camp at SEFF so that he could be in the middle of the action all the time, but Emma was not a “roughing it” kind of girl and preferred to stay in a hotel. She was also afraid of staying in a tent, that the boogie man would get her. If Emma went to bed at night, from what Phill told me, he was close by, drinking beer with the guys or whatever, but never far away from Emma. Emma was the kind of kid who got nervous taking a walk in the neighborhood by herself, so it didn’t surprise me that Emma didn’t like going to bed by herself when Phill was still up. They always ended up compromising and spent a couple of nights in a tent, and then the rest of the time in a hotel.

The first year, Emma’s duties were fairly minimal. I remember her talking about things like labeling the beer bottles. (One of the RC members made an annual “SEFF Beer.”) Every year, her duties grew, and she loved being Jeff’s right hand and was given the title “Administrative Assistant.” Phill and I were both very proud of Emma and the job she did every year at SEFF. The child who, in typical kid fashion, couldn’t do her chores at home, or who lied about having done them until mom or dad went to check, worked her tail off at SEFF and did a great job. No one had to remind her what her jobs were and no one had to tell her over and over again to do them. Maybe she was growing up! One year after SEFF was over, I believe Emma was in about 9th grade, Jeff sent out a nice e-mail about SEFF and while I can’t remember word for word what he said, there was something in there about how he thought he was going to quit SEFF until Emma came along and made his job so much easier. Phill and I couldn’t have been more proud.

During SEFF week, Emma and I talked on the phone every day, although sometimes not for long as she was very busy. When she would get home from SEFF, she would talk to me for hours about everything that went on. One of the things Emma was responsible for, as she told me, was vendor placement, and she had to deal with vendors complaining about their spots. She got a little frustrated with some of the vendors giving her a hard time, but it sounded like, from what she told me, that she handled her responsibilities well, and I thought she was getting some great experience for what would be coming down the road for her in real life one day. To make things even better to Emma, Jeff started paying the volunteers. I believe Emma came home with something like $300-$350 after spending a week at SEFF. For a kid who’d never done more than babysat, that was a nice chunk of change! Even though this was supposed to be “volunteering,” I couldn’t object to Emma being paid because from what she and Phill told me, she put in some long hours for the week she was down there.

The only thing that concerned me was that Emma never seemed to get along with kids her own age. Not that there were a lot of kids at SEFF, but one year, a couple of girls who I believe were the granddaughters of one of the “Hodge Hounds” (some of the SEFF regulars) who wanted to volunteer. Emma, for whatever reason, didn’t get along with these girls and complained frequently about them. From what she told me, the drove the golf carts which were used as shuttles, and they were lazy and didn’t work as hard as Emma did. Emma always seemed to have trouble making friends her own age. I’ll get more into this topic later when I talk about Emma’s schools and schooling, but just like the church youth group, Emma loved running things, but didn’t seem to make friends if she was around anyone for any length of time. She could see them once or twice a year and leave messages on facebook, but she never had any close friends that she saw regularly. She got along well with adults, and younger kids, like the little girls of Mike and Wendy Timms, who also went to SEFF. Emma loved being “big sister” to younger kids like the Timms girls, who were also homeschooled. (Emma would later take advatage of the Timms family while claiming to be “abused” but more on that later.

Another interesting note is the year that Emma claimed to be “molested.” On March 21, 2010, her dad’s birthday, Emma confessed to her dad and me that she had been molested by the priest at our church a few years before when she was 12 years old. She made up a story about a cyber friend being raped and claimed that this friend called Emma from the hospital ER. Emma then claimed that this incident brought up her “repressed memories” of her own molestation. SEFF 2010 was held about a month later, April 22-25, 2010, and Phill was not going to miss it. We talked it over and decided it might good for Emma to go to get away from all we’d been through dealing with the police, detectives, the church, DFACS, the sheriff’s department, etc. in the wake of Emma’s accusation.

Phill took Emma to SEFF 2010, but he told me she mostly hid out in the tent. It sounded like she did not do much in the way of assisting Jeff like she had in previous years. I spoke to Emma on the phone every day, and she was very paranoid about the priest finding her and coming after her. I tried to reassure her that the priest would have no way of knowing that she was at this RC event down in Americus, Georgia, but Emma was adamant that he would find out and come after her. Phill finally had to tell Jeff what was going on because Emma wasn’t doing her job. Of course, Emma got lots of attention and sympathy for being the sexually abused child. I now suspect that her paranoia was her guilty conscience, although I have often wondered if Emma has a conscience. I’m not sure how Phill now justifies Emma’s behavior. He knows Emma made up the rape story, and he knows Emma wasn’t molested. I wasn’t there, in Americus, when Emma was acting so fearful and paranoid about the priest coming after her, but from what Phill told me, and from speaking to Emma, I can picture just how she behaved. Does Phill actually still believe this child was sexually molested by a priest?

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can e-mail me: losingemma@gmail.com
Sorry, no time to proofread, so bear with me and I’ll work on it later.

Emma and Kayla —–With Friends Like This…

Posted on November 16, 2013 by losingemma

Updated Nov. 22, 2013

Emma Kate Roey and Kayla Benifield Weaver at church camp in 2003. (Kayla is now a computer science student at Armstrong University in Savannah, Ga.)

Emma met Kayla Benifield at church camp in 2003 when Emma was 9 years old. Kayla was a couple years older. The two girls were in the same cabin and became friends. On the last day of camp, the parents come to see a performance, pick up their kids, and have dinner in the dining hall. Phill and I sat at a table with Kayla’s parents and grandparents. At one point, I told Kayla’s mom and dad that we’d love to have Kayla over to visit, and I got sort of a noncommittal response and sensed something odd. Later, I was to find out that Kayla’s parents were divorced, and Kayla was actually being raised by her grandparents who lived in Martin, Ga., but Kayla’s mom Sheree Benifield (later Barwise) lived not far from us in Buford. Later, she moved even closer to us in Hoschton. I never found out why Kayla’s grandparents were the ones who raised her, and I never asked. When I met Sheree, she was working for a vet and going to school. She seemed like a nice lady, and she was probably a good bit younger than I, so I always assumed maybe she’d married young and wasn’t equipped to be a single mom after the divorce.

Kayla came down to visit her mother now and then, and Emma and Kayla would get together a couple of times a year. Emma said Kayla only visited her mother twice a year because her grandparents had custody and that was all the time Sheree was allowed to have Kayla. Sometimes Kayla would come to our home and spend the night, but probably a little more often, Emma went to Kayla’s because Kayla was never down for very long, and we didn’t want to take away from time with her mom.

Kayla was always the perfect guest in our home. She was kind of quiet, shy, well behaved, and never a bother. She loved butterflies and had almost platinum blonde hair, and when she got a little older, she started dying some of her hair bright pink. It sounded odd when Emma told me about it until the first time I saw it, but it was cute and seemed to fit her personality. Anytime she was down visiting her mom, we were always happy to have her over, although that “we” usually meant me because when Kayla first started coming over, Phill was working out of town on the weekends. Of course, I was relegated to cook and maid, but at that time, we were homeschooling Emma, so it was always nice for me to get a break from her. As well as mom and teacher, and even though Emma was in many extracurricular activities, I was usually her playmate, breakfast, lunch, and dinner companion, the one she wanted to play a game with, sit and watch a movie with, and the one who read to her in the evenings before bed. During the 5 years that we homeschooled, I never got much of a break, so in addition to not having Emma constantly at my side, it was fun to be more of an observer and get to see Emma and Kayla having fun together.

I think Emma was in 10th grade when Kayla graduated and went off to Marist College in New York. Recently, I heard that Kayla married her longtime boyfriend, Blair Weaver. I wish Kayla and Blair a long and happy marriage.

Now that I’ve introduced you to Emma’s childhood friend, next post I will share some of the lies and stories Emma told about Kayla and her family over the years. I haven’t verified all these stories, but I will let the reader decide what sounds plausible and what doesn’t.

Emma’s stories about Kayla and her family may have started innocently enough. One of the first “stories” I remember would have been in about 2004, when Dan Rather, with CBS, attacked President George W. Bush’s service with the National Guard. Since Phill and I were fans of WSB talk radio, a radio was usually on in our home or our cars all the time, so Emma heard a lot about this story, and she learned a lot about politics.

Kayla had been down visiting her mom, and we’d taken Emma over to Sheree’s home to spend time with Kayla. After Emma got home, she said, “Mom! You are not going to believe this!! Kayla’s mom got married?”

She was right, I didn’t believe it because I’d have thought we would have heard about it when we either dropped off or picked up Emma, so I said, “She did? Who did she marry?”
“Dan Rather!”
I said, “Ha. Ha. Very funny, Emma.” And thought to myself that this was Emma’s funny sense of humor.

When Emma was little, maybe about 3 or 4, she got into “Knock Knock” jokes. It was always when we were riding in the car, and whatever she happened to see would become part of her joke.
“Knock, Knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Tree.”
“Tree, who?”
“Tree, Lampost!” and then she would burst out into a fit of laughter.

“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Cloud.”
“Cloud who?”
“Cloud, Stop Sign!” and again with all the laughter. It was so precious. This could go on and on and on, but I never got tired of it because each time, Emma laughed like she’d just told the funniest joke in the world.

But, the Dan Rather story didn’t seem to be a joke. Emma tried to convince me that Sheree had married Dan Rather, and that he was Kayla’s new stepfather. At first I went along with it and said things like, “Oh, really?” and “Hmmm.” And Emma went on and on until I finally said, “Emma, I know Kayla’s mom really didn’t marry Dan Rather.”

This just seemed to make Emma angry, and she tried harder and harder to convince me until I just let the subject drop and ignored anything else Emma said about Kayla’s mom and Dan rather.

I remember later telling Phill about it, and how I thought it was a joke, but how Emma got so upset when I didn’t believe her. It was just really odd behavior. You Psych people will have to tell me what you think, because to this day, I wonder if they way Emma was acting should have been an early warning sign of a potential problem.

Another early story was about Sheree’s boyfriend (now husband), Jeff. Emma might have been about 10 or 11 when we found out Sheree had a boyfriend. He wasn’t usually around when Phill and I dropped off or picked up Emma at Sheree’s house, so I can’t remember how we found out about him, but fine, whatever.

One day, after being over at Kayla’s, Emma and I were home, and she was talking about her visit. She mentioned Jeff, and I asked if he had any children, and Emma told me he had a three year old boy, but the boy lived with his mother. Oh, ok. Sounds plausible, right?

It had to be a year or so later when Emma had been over at Sheree’s home to see Kayla, and she was telling me about what they did that weekend, etc. and I asked if Jeff’s little boy had been over that weekend. Emma told me that Jeff didn’t have a little boy. I reminded her that she had told me some time back that he had a son. Emma denied it, and I figured it wasn’t worth arguing about, and thought perhaps she’d been confused. Maybe it was a neighbor who had a three year old or whatever and Emma didn’t have the story straight. I let it go, but it bothered me for quite some time because it just seemed odd. Later, when I found out about many of the lies Emma had told, I wondered if this was one of those times where she didn’t know the answer when I asked if Jeff had any kids, so she just made it up.

As Emma got older, her lies got more interesting and a little more vicious. More to come……….

Chapter 1 The Big Lie That Started it All

Posted on January 20, 2013 by losingemma

(If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July and read “Sending out a Letter.” Both of these posts give a brief description of what happened. As Emma’s mom, I blogging my experiences with Emma and the things she did/does. This is a child who made up a story about rape, accused a priest of molesting her, and then as her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church, Emma accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the lawsuit because she knew her lies were about to be discovered. Emma is now attending Piedmont college in Demorest, Ga. She has been telling people she is engaged to a young man named T. Emma does not care who she hurts to get what she wants, and I hope for T.’s sake, Emma gets some help before she gets married. )

Why would a child make up a story about rape? Let me give you some details of what was going on with Emma in Dec. of 2010, when Emma made up the rape story about on on-line friend she had never met in person. Could all this have been over a boy? Read on and see what you think.

On Emma’s 16th birthday, her dad and I went to pick her up at her church youth group. Upon entering the parish hall, Emma ran up to me to tell me that her on-line friend from an English class pen-pal project had called her during her youth group meeting. Emma claimed that the friend, whom I will call “Lacey”, called Emma from the hospital after being raped. Emma was so shocked and shaken up, I really believed something had happened, but the whole thing seemed so bizarre. Emma went off with her friends, and I talked to one of the youth group leaders for a few moments, sharing with her what Emma had told me. One of the youth leaders had gotten a cake for Emma’s birthday, so everyone had cake and ice cream at the end of the meeting. Later, when we got in the van to leave, Emma was very angry with me for talking to the youth group leader about what she told me.

Over the next few days, Emma claimed she tried to call Lacey several times, but couldn’t reach her. She said she spoke to her older sister. Over that week Emma changed the story and said that Lacey had been raped some time previously and was in the hospital because she tried to commit suicide. Emma said Lacey’s extended family had been over for a family gathering, when Lacey had taken some pills, laid down on her mother’s bed, was found unresponsive by a family member, and then taken to the hospital. I did not know Lacey or her family, so I was not going to call them about such a personal matter. This turned out to be a big mistake. Later on, Emma said that Lacey told her that the man who raped her threatened to kill her family if she told anyone who he was so Lacey was afraid to talk about what happened. Over the next couple of months , I asked Emma how Lacey was doing . Emma said that Lacey was in therapy and didn’t want to talk about what happened. Emma told me that Lacey also had been molested as a child and volunteered with a group at her church that counseled or supported other victims of molestation.
Sometime during the summer of 2009, Emma told me that Lacey’s mother had breast cancer. She said Lacey had been homeschooled, but was going to public school for 10th grade because her mother was too sick to homeschool her. Emma told me that Lacey had called or texted her to tell her that her mother was hospitalized several times that summer. On at least two occasions, Emma told me that Lacey’s mom was in the hospital and was so sick, that the doctors thought she might not survive. Later, I was to find out that about the only truth to all the things Emma said was that Lacey’s mom did have breast cancer, but she was never hospitalized and never close to dying. She did outpatient Chemo and was never on death’s door as Emma led us to believe.

What would make Emma create such a bizarre story about her friend? Was it so she could get upset at youth group, feign concern about an emergency phone call, and let all her friends know how upset she was?

Over the summer and fall, Emma had been spending a lot of time around a young man in the youth group. The two of them seemed to like each other, and it was all very sweet, but after a while the young man pulled away from Emma. While it is my goal to get to the truth, it is not my wish to embarrass Emma as to why the boy lost interest in her, but Emma was still very interested in this young man. She talked about him frequently, had told me that he said he loved her, and said that when his dad was visiting from Va., the boy wanted Emma to meet him. I thought that seemed like a stretch considering the two had never even been on a date, but I just let it go.

I’ve spoken to a psychologist, a couple of social workers who work with problem children, and a Ph.D. counselor who told me that teenage girls often get so engrossed in young love, thinking that their love interest is “the one” whom they will spend the rest of their lives with, that these young girls don’t take it well when they are rejected. Is that what happened with Emma? She didn’t get the boy she wanted, so she made up all this drama? Did she just want attention, or was she hoping all the drama would get this boy’s attention? Kids lie all the time. We all know that, but wasn’t this a bit extreme? All this over a boy?

More Lies

Posted on November 11, 2012 by losingemma

Because I am doing this blog sort of piece-meal, I will preface each entry with a synopsis for new readers who may not know Emma’s story. Eventually, I will re-do the blog, and put the entire story in order.

PREFACE: At the age of 16, Emma Roey (Emma Kate Roey) made up a lie about a friend being raped, and then claimed that her friend’s rape brought up repressed memories of being molested by a priest at the age of 12. Emma told these stories to: DFACS, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, the Gwinnett County police, four attorneys, 7 therapists, two psychiatrists, two psychologists, the staff at Peachford Psychiatric hospital, friends and family, church officials from two different churches, teachers, her high school counselor, etc. Emma’s attorney had just contacted us and was about to file a lawsuit on her behalf against the church and the priest, and Emma knew she was about to be caught in a very big lie, so she accused her mother of physical abuse to stop the lawsuit.

Emma Kate Roey
Emma Katherine Roey

A couple days after Emma’s 17th birthday, she had someone call DFACS to say that she was physically abused by her mother. The police came to our home, and then DFACS came to our home and wanted us to provide a place for Emma to go. (I was later told the do this so as not to incur any cost for taking in a child.)

DFACS did not tell me that I was the one being accused of abusing my child, only that she needed to leave the home. During all this, I was on and off the phone with our pastor, Fr. George Ivey, and my friend, Janice. Fr. George suggested that maybe someone from our old church had called DFACS as retaliation for the lawsuit we were filing against the church. I mentioned this to Emma, and she kept bringing up the name of a woman for whom she had babysat for. I thought this odd because this woman had been very supportive to us. I talked to Emma a couple of times on the phone after she left out home, and she continued to bring up that she thought this woman might have called DFACS. of course, at the time, I had no idea that this was all Emma’s doing.

Emma kept requesting to go to my friend, Sandra Brooks McCravy’s home, but for some reason I did not feel comfortable with this idea. Sandra had been one of my closest friends for the past seven years, and Emma had a crush on her son, Johnathan. I was not aware that there was an inappropriate relationship going on between Emma and Sandra, and the two were on the phone late at night, when Phill and I thought Emma was asleep. (I will publish the phone records later.)

At 3 am, our pastor, Fr. George(Holy Trinity Anglican Church) and his wife, Paulette, came over and got Emma and took her to their home. Because they were going out of town, we had to make arrangements for Emma to go somewhere else, and my friend Janice agreed to take Emma. (I have mentioned Janice in an earlier post, and you can read her comments on Emma’s stay with her in that post.)

We had known Janice for about 7 years, and for the past few years always did Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with Janice, as well as occasional cook outs for Memorial Day, July 4th, or Labor Day. Emma and I saw Janice almost every Saturday where we volunteered with a dog/cat rescue. Emma loved Janice and called her “Aunt Janice.” When Janice called, Emma would check the caller id, and grab the phone before I could, and frequently ended up talking to Janice longer than I did. At the end of their phone conversations, Emma always said, “I love you.” to Janice. Janice proofread Emma’s English papers, and even talked to a friend of hers who was a judge in juvenile court, on Emma’s behalf, when we believed Emma had been molested. We had been to Janice’s home many times. Janice lived in a highly Hispanic neighborhood, and Emma did not like the neighborhood.

While at Janice’s, Emma lied to Janice over and over again. Although Phill had asked Sandra Brooks McCravy not to contact Emma until her got her home, and we asked Emma not to talk to Sandra, they both lied to us and violated our wishes. Sandra Brooks McCravy even went to far as to slip Emma a tracphone and hid it in a Christmas gift that she dropped off at the home of Fr. George.

Below are some facebook e-mails that Emma sent to Sandra during the time Emma spent at Janice’s home:

Emma’s FB posts to Sandi

Dec. 24, 4:25 pm

Hey. I am doing okay. I have a house phone in my room and will call you late tonight. I changed my facebook password so they won’t be able to see my messages. I have called Suzie (Suzie McGarvey, Lanier Counseling, Emma’s therapist.) but haven’t heard back yet. Apparently the DFACS worker was here for less than three minutes. What a joke. I hope Fr. George comes back early!! This is just so crazy. And as horrible as it has been, I still miss my family. I hope Suzie can make my dad see reason and I can go to you on Monday. Please, God. I am figuring out how many chocolates, how much popcorn, etc I can eat per day. This definitely qualifies as Worst Christmas of my Life So Far. Hopefully Worst Christmas Ever. My parents DID bring me some clothes. Guess what they brought me? Shorts. My summer shorts. Just exactly what I want to wear on this 42 degree day. I just hope this is over soon.

NOTE: I had packed up some clothes for Phill to take to Emma while she was at Janice’s. As most of you know, teenagers are not the neatest creatures, and there was no order as to how Emma put her clothes away. I took some jeans out of a drawer and did not notice that one pair was a pair of capris. There were no shorts in her bag of clothes, but there was one pair of capris, because folded up, they looked pretty much like the rest of her jeans.

Dec. 24 2010 6:04pm

Have fun at the family’s house. I haven’t heard from Suzie today. I hope will soon, but I don’t know. I am typing this on my phone so I can’t really format or edit it, sorry you have to wade through my stream of consciousness. Oh this is just so scary. My biggest hope is for this week to pass quickly. Thanks for your prayers. We need them. I miss you guys soooooooo much. I wish I could spend Christmas with you, but I know that’s not going to happen. I talked to my friend Rob’s family. They will be home Monday and I hope that if I can’t come to you, I can go to them. We’ll see. But ohmigoodness I just hate this. I know I am loved but I am so far away from the people I’m close to, and it’s so horrible to feel alone. I am really scared in this neighborhood. They are making lots of noise and I don’t know what they’re doing. It’s so loud. I may have to take sleeping meds tonight, I think, if I’m going to get any sleep. I don’t think I’ve slept ten hours in the past two nights. I’m too nervous. Oh I miss you so much. I miss my parents. I just wish I could be with somebody. Suzie my not call me till Monday. I am making a cross stitch but it’s scaring me. It’s birds. It is just not looking good. Oh well. I might try something simpler, this has so many colors. I want to make you one for Christmas. Maybe I will even design my own. At least it keeps me occupied. If I stuffed them with potpurie (oh that is spelled so wrong) they would smell good but would it last? I don’t know. I love you. I really hope I can see you Monday.

Dec. 24, 2010, 7:22

Ohmmigoodness. They are shooting. I hear them. I have no clue what they are shooting but it is LOUD. I can hear it

Note: Emma claimed to not be sleeping, but she was actually up at night, and Janice told us sleeping a lot during the day. She did ask Janice for some sleeping pills, but Janice would not have given them to her, even if she had any. As for the “shooting” that frightened Emma so badly, Janice’s Mexican neighbors shoot off fireworks on every major holiday. Emma knew this, as she had been at Janice’s many times on holidays, and had heard the fireworks there when we visited on other holidays. DFACS had checked into the neighborhood before Emma went, and found it to be a safe area. Fr. George Ivey and Paulette drove Emma over to Janice’s and later told me, from the way Emma described it, they thought they were going into a bad area and were surprised to see what a nice neighborhood it was.

Losing Emma

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