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

(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 claimed she had to move in with her boyfriend’s family in Ohio to get away from her mother, and later claimed her boyfriend’s mother was afraid that her mother would show up and kill the entire family. (I have confirmed with the boyfriend’s mother that she never feared any such thing.)

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.

A List of Lies

Posted on October 21, 2012 by losingemma

(UPDATED 10/31/12–New material at end of post.)

Emma Roey (Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey) made up a story about a friend being raped, accused a priest of molesting her, and then as her attorney was about to file a lawsuit against the church, Emma accused her mother of physically abusing her to stop the lawsuit because she knew the attorneys would be investigating her rape story since that was the supposed catalyst for remembering that she was molested when she was 12 years old. After this last accusation, I began researching stories Emma had previously told us. Below are some of Emma’s lies that I have documented. I will be adding more as well as some stories that I have not bothered to verify either because I don’t want to disturb the people that are involved or because I believe I have enough documentation to show that Emma is quite accomplished in making up stories.

: Emma Katherine Roey
Emma Kate Roey

Emma met when L. when she was in Georgia Virtual School, her 2^nd semester of 9^th grade in 2009. They had an on-line English class together and were assigned as pen pals for an English project. The two girls became friends writing letters, e-mailing, texting, and Facebook. As far as I know, the two girls have never met in person.

On Dec. 19, 2009, her 16th birthday, Emma was at her church youth group meeting. When Phill and I went to pick her up, Emma immediately told us that her friend L. had called her from the hospital, and told her that she had been raped. Emma was very upset and said L. was crying hysterically and difficult to understand. Before we left, I was talking to one of the youth group leaders, and told her what Emma had said. Emma got very upset with me for telling the youth leader what she had told us about L.

Over the next few days, Emma said she tried to call L. several times, but couldn’t reach her, so she called her sister, E. Over that week Emma changed the story and said that L. had been raped some time previously and was in the hospital because she tried to commit suicide. Emma said L.’s extended family had been over for a family gathering, when L. had taken some pills, laid down on her mother’s bed, and was later found unresponsive by a family member. She was taken to the hospital. I did not know L. or her family, so I did not call the family. Later on, Emma said that L. told her that the man who raped her threatened to kill her family if she told anyone who he was. Over the next couple of months , I asked Emma how L. was doing . Emma said that L. was in therapy and didn’t want to talk about what happened. Emma told me that L. was 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 L.’s mother had breast cancer. She said L. had been homeschooled, but was going to public school for 10^th grade because her mother was too sick to homeschool her. Emma told me, at least twice, that L. 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 L.’s mom was so sick, that the doctors thought she might not survive.

On March 21, 2010, her dad’s birthday, Emma told Phill and I that she had been molested at our church when she was 12 years old. According to Emma, L.’s phone call from the hospital, telling her she was raped, was the catalyst for her coming forward about her molestation by the priest at our former church.

My attorney, verified with L.’s father, that L. was never in the hospital, never raped, never molested, never volunteered counseling other children who were victims of molestation.

An excerpt from a letter Emma wrote to L.:

I was teaching my mom iris folding, the technique I used on the card I sent you (you should have it now). I love her, but it’s sooo hard to teach her. She has arthritis in her hands and she’s sooo slow. It’s like, I could do this ten times faster and not waste half the material she does, but it’s really important to her to do it herself. And on top of that, she gets really angry when I try to keep her from making mistakes. She wants to do it her way, but she will get really frustrated when hers don’t turn out as nicely as mine do (because she refuses to take my advice, which I give in a very respectful tone that still gets labeled “smart-a**”). It gets me so frustrated, because it’s not even fun for me anymore. What’s worse yet is when she wants to ‘help’ with my projects. But she invariably ruins them! So I mostly try to work when she’s not home.

Note: Emma and I spent a lovely afternoon making iris folded cards. We knew a couple of people who were going to be having babies, so we made cards for them, and then made some generic cards. I’d never made one before, but knew the basics of iris folding, having read about it and having watched Emma make them. It is a very easy technique. My cards came out very nicely. I do not have arthritis in my hands, and I have no idea what projects Emma is accusing me of wanting to help with and then ruining for her. I’ve have spent countless hours teaching Emma beading techniques, or beading with her while we watch a movie, as that is my hobby, and I never ruined any of her projects.

**************************************************

Jerri

6:09am Jun 19, 2011(Email exchange between myself and a neighbor Emma rode the school bus with.)

I wanted to ask you about when you said Emma exaggerated the drug problems at the school and a couple more questions. I had wondered about this because Emma told us that drugs were sold on the bus all the time, that kids smoked on the bus, and the driver didn’t do anything about it, and things like that, as well as overhearing kids talking about possibly being pregnant. I thought she might be exaggerating to try to get us to pull her out of school, When she went to the freshman orientation, or the first day of school (I can’t remember which), Emma said she sat next to a girl named B. who told her she had a 4 yr. old. I thought this seemed odd, but Emma said she was repeating 9th grade. I know you don’t know everyone in the school, but did you know if anyone with a child this old?

Did you see drugs being sold on the bus? Did kids smoke on the bus?

Another story Emma told us was that J. got caught having sex with her boyfriend, who also rode the bus, and that Mrs. B. came out when J. was getting on the bus and told the bus driver not to let her sit with him in front of everyone on the bus. I thought this was a little bizarre, but never questioned it. Now I wonder if Emma made it up.

Can you tell me if any of these stories are true or not? I’m just looking into a lot of things Emma has told us, and trying to sort out the truth.

Jerri

6:12am Jun 19

Oops, sorry. I wasn’t finished when I hit the enter key.
I also wanted to ask you about a story Emma told us after K’s. b.day party when she was in 9th, and you were in 10th grade. She said that one of the girls was pregnant and had had an abortion. Of course, this wasn’t something I was going to ask any of you, or verify the story. Then, at the end of the school year, she said that after prom one of the girls (you, K, M, K2) thought they were pregnant again.

Neighbors’

Daughter: (after a phone conversation)

woah. none of us have ever been pregnant, ever. and for that matter, none of us were promiscuous at all. these stories are starting to greatly irritate me, because they are such blatant and horrible lies.

B. was a girl who had a baby when she was 16, back in 2008. So no, the child was not 4 (and still isn’t 4), but that baby does exist. No one had sex or ever smoked on the bus. i don’t remember Mrs. B. doing that, but honestly I didn’t ride the bus everyday.

Note: At the time, I did not tell this young lady that she was the one Emma was talking about. Emma claimed that she got drunk and high at a party and ended up pregnant. In Sept. or Oct., Emma went to a birthday party for another girl that rode the bus with them, and she came home in tears. She said that (name removed) had told her that her parents took her to have an abortion, and she didn’t tell
Emma about it before she did it because she knew Emma would try to talk her of it.

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Jerri > wrote:
> No problem, (Name Removed) My attorney has collected some information on Emma,
> and she’s been lying for years. I think both Phill and Emma are going to be
> shocked over some of what we’ve found. Phill has wanted to believe
> everything Emma says. If you want, I will mail a copy to your parents, so
> you all can see what was going on. My attorney is gathering a few
> statements that he needs signed, and then we will be presenting all of it to
> Emma’s therapist.
>
> A couple of other things I thought of that I wanted to ask you about. There
> was a boy in the other part of Deer Creek (Fawn Ct?) that Emma pointed out
> to me one day when he was walking in the neighborhood, and she said he sold
> drugs. Of course she told me he sold drugs on the bus, and you told me you
> never saw drugs sold on the bus, so I’m doubting the whole thing. Would you
> know who she was talking about and if he actually did sell drugs.
>
> Another story she told was that your brother got arrested and was in jail,
> but your parents didn’t know, and he’d been in jail before. She said he was
> arrested for pot. I don’t want to intrude on (Name Removed) life or anything, if
> there’s any truth to this, but if it’s completely fabricated, would you let
> me know so I can add this to the list.
>
> Thanks,
> Jerri

Wow. I don’t know how I missed this message. I’m not sure about that
other boy selling pot, but I can tell you for a FACT my brother has
NEVER been arrested, and certainly not for drugs. I am absolutely
livid right now. It is one thing to be lied about, but when she brings
my family into this, she has gone too damn far. What a terrible human
being she is.

Jerri Roey3:27pm Sep 20

(Name Removed), Would you just verify something for me. My husband is trying to say that you told Emma all the horrible things she told us about you (that you got pregnant, your parents took you to have an abortion, that you thought you were pregnant again after the prom…..lots of drinking and drugs stories). He is trying to defend Emma by saying that you made up this stuff, true or not, and told it to Emma, so that’s where she got it from. I think that Emma made it all up, trying to make you look bad (as well as the other girls on the bus). I just want it in writing to gove to my attorney. Again, I will remove your name. Just let me know if you ever told Emma any of those things.

Oh, and you told her that your parents took you to have an abortion. Please let me know if you ever told Emma any of these stories.

(Name Removed)6:56pm Sep 20

Of course Emma made it up. Why would I make up horrible things about myself? I’m sorry, but this is getting ridiculous. I never told Emma about any pregnancies or abortions, because they didn’t happen. Not to me, and not to any my friends. She is lying, and frankly, it’s sad to see your husband believing her. She is clearly unstable, and I am starting to think he isn’t much better.

**********************************************

E-mail exchange between H. and myself:

On 6/27/2011 12:58 PM, Jerri wrote:

Hi H.,

This is your neighbor, Jerri.

We’ve been having a lot of problems with our daughter, Emma, in regards to lying. She told us she’d been molested, but now I think that wasn’t true. Before she came up with the molestation, she tried to tell stories about Phill, but I would not tolerate it. I’m am finding out about some other whoppers she’s told, and am keeping a list to present to her therapist. Most recently, Emma has accused me of child abuse, that when she turned 17, I started hitting her, shoving her, etc. She did that right before a lawsuit was about to be filed on her behalf over the molestation. (I believe she wanted to take the focus off the “molestation”, so she went from being a victim of child molestation to being a victim of child abuse.) It’s a really long story, but there’s one story I wanted to ask you about.

When Emma rode the bus to JCCHS, she claimed that one day you came out to the bus and told the bus driver not to let J. sit with a certain boy. I don’t know his name, but she said he lives in the 2nd house on the right as you enter the subdivision.

Emma claimed that you all had caught the two kids having sex and that was why she was not allowed to sit with this boy. I believe she said J. had to sit at the front of the bus with the younger kids.

Anyway, I don’t want to get too personal, but could you just tell me if this story is true or not?

If you would e-mail or call me:

From: H. Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 4:17 PM

To: Jerri Subject: Re: Question

Hello Jerri
Sorry to hear about the problems you are having with Emma, there is something terribly wrong with our society with the problems young girls are creating for themselves and their families.
First J. was caught sneaking out of the house, but it was to go see the boy who did live in the second house on the right as you enter the subdivision with his guardians. I did not approach the bus driver however about where or with whom J. sat. Actually we realized that there was very little control we had over her behavior outside of our home given J.’s age and past. We decided along with (the boy’s) guardians to encourage an appropriate relationship between the two rather than forbidding that they see each other on the bus or at school and wait and see what happened. We even met with him to get to know him and what he planned on doing in life and sure enough it was over in a few months.
Second I met Emma one day while I was out walking and asked how she like Jackson Co. HS. She told me she didn’t like it and had been sick and in the hospital. She said she had all A’s and had been making up the time and doing the work but she was told she was going to be failed anyway. I just remember how odd I thought this was because I volunteered at the HS counseling office once a week and I knew they had credit recovery in addition to knowing that the HS bent over backwards to try to work with students and get them graduated. I remember thinking that something just didn’t seem right and there had to be more to it however, as a volunteer, I did not feel it would have been appropriate for me to inquire into it further.

NOTE: Emma was never in the hospital that year. Also, I had a long phone conversation with this lady, but I asked her to e-mail me her comments, so I would have them in writing. I have removed the names of those involved.

***********************************************

Jerri to kphillips (Jackson County Comprehensive High School):

Mrs. Phillips,

Our daughter, Emma Roey, was a student at JCCHS in 2008-2009. We’ve had some problems with Emma lying, and wanted to check on a story Emma told us that happened at JCCHS. Emma claimed that one day, she, Christina Romo, and Kayla Gudz were called to the office where an officer and a drug sniffing dog were waiting. She claimed that the drug dog checked them over, after another child on the bus reported them for selling drugs. I wondered about this story at the time, but didn’t think much of it until some other problems with Emma came up, and now we are wondering if she made this up because other people have told us that the dogs can only check school property.

Can you just let me know if the dogs check students like that, if this story could be true, and would you have a record of the girls being called to the office? We just want to verify if this was true or something Emma made up.

Thanks,Jerri

Reply:

Kendra Phillips to me

show details Jun 15 (7 days ago)

The drug dogs are allowed in the parking lot, lockers, and inside classrooms with students out of the class. If administration has reason to believe that a student could possibly have drugs on them, the search is conducted by an administrator and usually the School Resource Officer. If females are involved, I am usually the one that completes the search. During the time your daughter was here, I was never involved in a search with her.

I hope this answers your questions. If not, please feel free to call me.

Kendra

Jerri Roey to Kendra

show details Jun 16 (6 days ago)

Thank you. Emma told us quite an elaborate story about being called to the office and being checked by a drug dog after being reported by a child on the bus (The older Bridgeman boy who was in ROTC with her. I believe his name is Josh.) along with Kayla G. and Christina R. I believe it was you or the female counselor that she told us was there.

We’ve had a lot of problems with Emma and I’m just trying to check on some things she’s told us in the past, to see if they are true or not.

Thank you,

Jerri Roey

Kendra Phillips to me

show details Jun 16 (6 days ago)

Not a problem-Please feel free to call or email anytime.

Jerri Roey to Kendra

show details Jun 20 (2 days ago)

Hi Kendra,

I tried to call you, but your mailbox was full, and I couldn’t get a message through.

I wanted to ask you a couple more questions.

Emma’s taken other people’s stories and told them to people, putting herself in stories of things that never happened to her. I wondered if Emma heard about this happening to someone else and then made the story about herself. Also, I was wondering, if there is a record when a child is drug searched? I would like to know so I can tell Emma’s therapist that if this happened, there would have been a record of it. Also, Emma said that she, C., and K. were called to the office over the PA system to be checked. I had wondered if this kind of thing even happened. Would the school page a child over the PA to come to the office to be searched for drugs? I didn’t know how the school goes about searching a child for drugs.

Thanks so much for your help. If you need to call me:

– Show quoted text –

Reply		Forward
I checked Emma’s discipline record during the time she was enrolled at JCCHS-there is no record of any behavior issues. We don’t call students over the PA if they are going to be searched. An Assistant principal or the School Resource Officer goes to the classroom to get them. I hope this helps.Kendra

That does. Thank you very much.

Jerri

*****************************************************

– Show quoted text –

E-mail exchange between Fr. George Ivey, of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, and his wife Paulette, Ivey, and myself after Paulette told me the story about Emma babysitting and having to call 911 after one of the boys she was babysitting got out of control. (Not True.)

Dear Jerri,

Paulette is fighting a stomach virus last night and today that she got at school. She wanted me to add that Emma told her that she had called the police to protect her from the priest’s son during the night described. So, I have added it into this edited version of the e-mail to you.

If we can help please let us know.

Fr. George

————————————————–

Dear Jerri,

On December 23, 2010, Emma told me that she had been employed to baby sit for the priest of Mary and Martha Episcopal Church in the Hamilton Mill community. She said that the son of the priest was bi-polar. She said that during the evening the son became so unruly that for her safety she had to lock herself in the bathroom and that she waited there until the parents returned to allow her to come out of the bathroom in a safe situation. It seemed to me that this was a bazar and improbable story. She further told me that she called the police to come to the pastor’s house to protect her. It bears seeking the collaboration of the parents of the boy in question to be certain that she baby sat for them and that this circumstance truly occurred.

Please let me know if you need more information concerning this discussion with Emma.

Sincerely,

Paulette Ivey

Note: Emma NEVER babysat for the priest at St. Mary and St. Martha

At a women’s group meeting, at the home of A., that I think was sometime in the spring, I heard the story about the priest’s older son, who is bipolar, getting so out of control that the parents had to call 911. I later told Emma about this incident, so this lie was based on a real event, but Emma was never there when it occurred.

Letter to a former youth leader at Walnut Fork Baptist Church:

July 25, 2011

Dear M.,

A few years ago, my daughter attended a youth group meeting at your church after being invited by your daughter, A. I don’t know if you will remember, and you might want to check with A., but I wondered if you could answer a couple of questions for me. At the moment, I am visiting family in CT., and I have tried to call you, but the only number I have was disconnected.

We have had some problems with Emma lying and greatly exaggerating some stories. Some are harmless, but some have been quite vicious. I have been collecting some of these stories for Emma’s therapist to see the stories she’s been telling over the years. Unfortunately, her dad and I didn’t realize what she was doing, and she seems to have a serious problem with lying.

In 9^th grade, Emma attended a Wed. night youth group meeting with A. She went home on the bus with A., and I think your wife dropped them off at the church that night, and you were in charge of the youth group. Emma came home with quite an elaborate story about you calling on her and her giving her testimony. I found this a little odd, that a visitor would be singled out like that, but didn’ t think much of it. Emma went in to great detail when she told me what she said. Now I’m just wondering if it happened it all.

Another thing Emma said was that you were late for the meeting (car trouble, I think), and that when you came in, you were talking to the kids and mentioned something about your family dog getting run over that day. Emma made it sound horrible and said that A. and her sister did not know about the dog and were very upset, and Emma thought it was horrible that they found out by you telling the youth group and not telling them directly. She said that they sat there and cried throughout the meeting, and you just went on talking about how animals don’t have souls. She tried to make you sound very heartless and cruel for the way you talked about the dog like it was nothing.

Would you either call me or e-mail me to verify if any of these stories are true?

Thank you very much,Jerri

Hi Jerri,

I received your letter today, and wanted to get back to you as quickly as possible concerning Emma and any way that we may be able to help. I’m thankful to you for taking the time to let me know how anyone (youth or parent) may perceive or have even the slightest concern for any of the content or situations that take place during our ministry time together.

I spoke with A. this afternoon just to confirm that I remember the correct young lady (Emma) and her joining us for a couple of visits at church, especially during the night that you referenced in your letter concerning the death of my dog “Max” almost 3 years ago. The timing of your letter is beyond coincidence, because I was talking with our neighbor (K.) last week about how helpful he has been during two very sad times when I was not at home. About eight weeks ago, we had a similar situation with our family dog “Tucker” being hit by a car when my wife, E. and daughter (9 years old) were outside to feed him. We have an electronic fence to keep the dogs in the yard when they are free to run while not in the kennel, but that evening he decided to charge right though. The car which hit either dog did not stop, and Mr. K. was the first person driving by on his way home from work and stopped to help. Both times our pet had severe internal injuries and did not survive even after taking Tucker to the vet for treatment.

On the evening that Emma describes, E. did drive the kids to church and normally stayed with the youth or helped with the children on Wednesdays. Mr. K. came to the church around 5:55 pm and told E. and S. (my assistant) what had happened. He had moved Max from the road before coming to get E. while Miss B. (another neighbor) stayed with Max. E. called me when I was on my way to the church from work and I met them at the house. She had ridden with K. back home while S. and K. stayed with the youth. When I arrived at the house there were three or four cars in our front yard including a Jackson County sheriff who stopped to see why other people were parked along the roadway. Max died before we were able to get him loaded into my pickup. K. carried E. back to the church while I drove Max to a friend’s house nearby who has a tractor and an area where we have buried other animals which have passed over the years. Afterwards, I went to the church around 7:45pm and the students had already finished their lesson for the evening. A. and L. both remember the discussion that was taking place when I arrived, and someone made the comment that ‘the events of their day resembled a country song’. I was under the impression that E. had already shared the news with A. and L. when I replied “ … and how sad it is when your dog dies”. It was not my intention to share the news in that way, but they knew already that something was up when E. had left the church earlier.

I don’t recall making any comments about “animals not having a soul” that evening, but I do believe animals are different from humans in that they do not have a soul which will live for an eternity as humans do. It is hard to explain when someone asks if they will see their pet in heaven when the bible doesn’t address that issue specifically, but I do know that there will be animals in heaven (In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all. – Isaiah 11:6)

We always strive for an environment where the students feel welcome, comfortable to share and discuss any issues without feeling judged. Very seldom have students shared a testimony during a regular Wednesday night service, and I cannot remember any guest having ever given a testimony. This happens more often during a trip to a youth conference, a special weekend event at church or a week long missions trip; and only then after the students know one another very well.

A. mentioned that she has not spoken with Emma since she transferred from Jackson County. Please know that me and my family are available to help in any way that we can and will keep your family in our prayers. Our contact information is listed below, and you can call on us at any time.
In Christ’s name,

NOTE: When Emma told me about this evening, she told me the family was “rednecky” and let their dogs run loose. She never mentioned the electric fence. While I knew the mother babysat children in her home, Emma claimed that once the kids got home from school, the mother left to run errands, leaving her daycare children unsupervised.

********************************************

Other lies:

In, I believe Jan. 2011 when Kodi, a Pup and Cat dog was at adoptions, and a man named Dustin (I do not remember the last name) asked to see him, Emma spoke to the man and got Kodi out of the crate for him. Dustin was interested in adopting Kodi and filled out an application. When our director found out that he didn’t have a fence, she was hesitant about Kodi going to this home, and Dustin told her that he was told Kodi by the “young lady” that Dustin didn’t need a fence.

Ursulsa, our director, called Janice Vollmer and asked who said that Kodi didn’t need a fence, and Janice remembered Emma spending a lot of time talking to Dustin, so she called me and said that Ursula was upset about about this. I asked Emma if she had told Dustin that, and she said no, that she just got Kodi out of the crate, but that “Lily’s mom” was the one who spoke to Dustin. Both Janice and I saw Emma interviewing the man for quite a long time, and since the three of us volunteering that day were 50+, and Dustin was younger than all of us, I doubt that he would have called any of us a “young lady.”

When we first started to attend Holy Trinity, a dog that Emma and I knew from the rescue had just been adopted to a woman in a senior community, and after church Emma told me that BR., a woman we met at church, lived in the same neighborhood and had met Denny Mac, the dog. A few weeks later, as I got to know BR., I asked her about meeting her neighbor’s dog that came from our rescue, and she said she didn’t know anything about a dog. I later asked Emma if I was mistaken, and she denied saying it at all.

The church is very small, and I knew I wasn’t mistaken about who she was talking about.

*****************************************************

Like the story about Kodi, and the story about Denny Mac, I think Emma just makes things up sometimes to have something to say. When Emma was a co-teacher for the pre-school Sunday school class at St. M&M, there was a new family to the church. They had two little girls, and one of them was in Emma’s class. After church, Emma was telling me about talking to the dad after Sunday school. She claimed that he was very impressed with her and thought she was in college. She told me that the mother was actually the step-mother and that the dad had been married before. Later, as I got to know the family, I found this was not true. When I asked Emma why she had told me that Mrs. E. was the step-mother, she denied ever saying it.

I don’t remember what year it was, maybe 2009 or 2008, but it was on my birthday. A friend, Karen and her mom were going to the Cirque De Soliel and had an extra ticket, so Karen invited Emma to go. When Emma came home, she said she had a great time, but said something like, “You know how when you go to a movie or something and there’s someone near you that won’t quit talking, that was what Karen and her mom were like.” She claimed that people around them kept looking at them, giving them dirty looks, etc. I thought this story was odd at the time, but I wasn’t going to call Karen up and ask her. I had been thinking about this story a log recently, so I asked Karen about this story, and she said this story was not ture. She said that it was the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Cirque De Soliel, and that if you had been talking, they would ask you to leave. This can be verified with Karen.

I’m not sure why Emma felt the need to make up a story like this to someone who was being so generous to her. Karen knew Emma for several years while we volunteered almost every Sat. with the rescue. Karen came to see Emma when she was in the hospital, and we went to Karen’s open house when she bought her home.

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In early Sept. 2011, I believe, Emma sounded like she was making some friends at school at Jefferson High School, Jefferson, Ga., so Phill and I encouraged her to invite several of the girls out one evening for dinner and to watch a movie or just hang out. Four girls came out one Fri. night, Bell Blankenship, Jordan Buchanan, and another Jordan, whom I believe was Jordan Blair Hamby, and Bree (I believe her name was Bree Hanson.) We cooked hamburgers, had beans, chips, watermelon, soda, and an ice cream cake for the girls. My husband and I waited on them, but pretty much stayed in the background and let them visit.

At one point, I took something out to where the girls were sitting on the deck, and one of the girls, Bree thanked me for inviting them. I told her that we were so glad they could come, and Bree said, “Well, I didn’t have anything better to do.” The girls laughed, and Bree looked a little sheepish, realizing what she’d said, but laughed too. I turned to the other girls, laughing, and said, “Ok, so the next time we do this, you all are all invited,” and then pointing at Bree said, “But, she’s not!” The girls all laughed, even Bree. No one was upset or angry; no one sulked or went home. They all knew I was joking. I think I said something to Bree like, “That’s ok. I knew what you meant.” Later on, when Phill and I met with one of the SEC therapists on Mar. 21, 2011, I told Tamesha (I do no know her last name.) that there were some problems with Emma, for example she had 4 therapists, but no friends at school. Tamesha told me that Emma said she had invited some friends over once this school year, but I had been mean to them. I explained that Phill and I waited on them hand and foot, and they all seemed to have a great time. Phill said he would ask Emma what she was referring to, and she said that I was mean to Bree when I said she wasn’t invited back. Phill was not out on the deck with us when I was joking with the girls, but he knew we waited hand and foot on those girls, ensuring they all had plenty to eat and a nice time.

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Comments and Corrections on Psych Eval

Originally written 4/14/11

Edited 5/13/11, 7/22/11

Emma stated that she had four dissassociative episodes and that all were while riding in the car with me. Actually, there were six episodes and four of them took place with her dad. Four of them took place on her way to Jefferson High School, which she hated, and blamed me for the fact that she was going there. She screamed at me many times that I had given up homeschooling her and it was all my fault. One episode was with her dad in Suzie McGarvey’s office, and the other was when her dad was driving her to Peachford (Psychiatric) Hospital for a week of daily outpatient care.

Emma had taken AP psychology, and I believe that’s where she learned the symptoms of abuse and learned how to fake catatonia. One mistake she made was that her seizure episodes lasted way to long, as long as 30 minutes, while in true catatonia, the seizures last only seconds. Emma was very dramatic in the car, flopping around like a fish.

Emma told Dr. Born that all the incidents of molestation were in the restroom, but she told Phill and I, along with several others that one incident was in the restroom and the rest were in the sacristy.
Emma told Dr. Born that I “confronted” her about the molestation. I never confronted her. She told Phill and I about the molestation on Mar. 21, 2010, Phill’s birthday. On Emma’s birthday (Dec. 19, 2009), Phill and I went to pick up Emma from her church youth group. She told us that she’d received a phone call from an on-line friend, whom Emma has never met in person. Emma said L. had been raped, and had called Emma from the ER, and that this was the incident that stirred up memories of her being molested 4 years before. When I questioned Emma a few days later, she said that L. had tried to commit suicide because she’d been raped some time before, and that she was afraid to go to the police because this man had threatened to kill her family. Emma said L. was in therapy, but would not tell who raped her. Emma also said that L. had been involved in a church program counseling girls who were victims of molestation or sexual abuse because she had been molested as a child. This young lady never called Emma from the hospital, and my attorney has verified with her father that none of this is true.
Emma stated that the priest moved on to a different church. This is not true. He was retired when he took the position at our church and went back into retirement and other activities afterwards.
SEC did not get involved until Jan. 2011, after DFACS was called and was not involved at the time of the molestation.
When I was interviewed by DFACS, I believe two of the dates that Emma said I abused her were dates when Phill was home. One was Dec. 17, when Phill took Emma to Marietta for an appointment with her GYN. I was out Christmas shopping for Emma. I was never alone with Emma the entire day.

The other date was Dec. 19, 2011, her birthday, and Phill was home on that day. We were both there when she kicked the cabinet in her bathroom, screamed, and then came out and told us what she’d done. She had sock on, but I asked her to wiggle her toes and she did. She asked me what they did for broken toes, and I told her they couldn’t put a cast on them. On Dec. 20^th, I asked how her foot was, and she said it still hurt, but was ok.

Also on Emma’s birthday, her Aunt Lee called after she had opened her presents. Emma told her aunt that she wasn’t doing or getting anything special for her birthday, and that I had taken her shopping for clothes a couple of weeks before, and that was her birthday present. She also told her aunt that we didn’t even get her a birthday cake. I did not take Emma shopping for clothes at all, and her big present was a netbook computer which she was very excited about. She also received several smaller presents. Emma was angry that Phill did not want to go out to eat on her birthday because he wasn’t feeling well, and he said that he said we’d go out when he got back in town on Friday. Also, instead of a birthday cake, she had asked that we get her a cheesecake instead, just as she had asked for a cheesecake for the past 3 years for her birthday. My sister did not tell me until sometime later what Emma had told her. She thought maybe when she called, Emma hadn’t opened her presents, and that maybe Emma hadn’t known we’d gotten the cheesecake she’d asked for.

Emma claimed that we had a physical altercation on the night of her birthday because she could not get a tv program that we were trying to watch on the computer to come on. There was one night that Emma couldn’t get the show to come on, but it was not on her birthday. It might have been the Tuesday after her birthday. She was doing it though a web site, and it didn’t work. I told her to wait until Daddy got home because he would be able to figure it out.

see note #6

Emma told Dr. Born that I hit her with a pot, but told DFACS told me that she claimed I hit her with the handle of a pot. She also claimed I kicked her foot into a corner of a cabinet to cause the injury to her toes, and Emma’s therapist, Suzie McGarvey pointed out that if I had kicked her like she said, she should have had a bruise to the inside of her ankle or foot.

Emma’s grandmother is in a home in Social Circle, Ga. This past summer was not the first time Emma had seen her. She saw her twice as a baby. Emma has photos of herself with her grandmother. Her grandmother was never interested in spending time with Emma.

Emma claimed to be frightened of her mother for several years, but Phill told me that she became frightened of me after she claimed I started abusing her which said said was when she quit throwing up in December. We had always been very close. Emma frequently want to sit, snuggle, and talk “girl talk” and did not want her dad in on our conversations. Emma frequently told me things and asked me not to tell Phill. Most of the time, these things were harmless, and I never verified the stories she told me because I thought there was no reason to,but I later found out she’d told me many lies about other kids she knew from school that were not true.

Dr. Born did not talk to me alone. He only asked me about our family history and Emma’s health history. He did not verify what Emma had told him, nor did he talk to my husband and I about problems we’ve had with her over the years. He did not get Emma’s medical history, nor her history from Peachford Hospital. I specifically put a note in the papers I filled out for Dr. Born, requesting that if he wanted to talk to me, to do so privately because Emma gets angry if I talk about her. Emma became very angry when she found out Phill and I had gone to talk to her therapist without her. I explained that we were trying to work on things as parents and needed to talk to Suzie about how to help our family. Emma accused me of going there to say “horrible” things about her.

Emma went to JCCHS in 9^th grade.

Emma was the interim organist, along with another high schooler for about 6 weeks in 2010 at St. Mary and St. Martha’s in Brasleton. Also, she’s had 3 piano teachers, not 5, and started taking lessons in kindergarten or first grade, not in preschool.

Emma became very socially isolated after she told us about the molestation and did not want to do things with other kids, quit the youth group, etc. Before she told us about the molestation, she was very active in church, the youth group secretary, atteneded church Wednesday nights, in a choir, and a neighborhood bible study group. Emma may have wanted to leave the church over a boy that she liked who had quit paying attention to her. Also, her grades in Physics and Spanish, the two classes she hated, were poor when she told us about the molestation. She spent a lot of time on the computer, chatting with other kids, and not doing her work. She may have made up the molestation to take the focus off her grades because it was always important to her to make good grades and be known as a smart girl.

In 2009, Emma turned on her dad, telling me he called her a “bitch” and a “slut” every single day. She told me that she didn’t like her dad, etc. She was rude and belligerent towards him, and made a point of hugging me and smiling as if she were trying to show she loved me and not him. She and I had many arguments over the way she treated her dad, and I told her I would not listen to her saying these things that weren’t true. I tried to discuss with her what a good person her dad was and how he took care of us, supported us so that I could stay home with her, etc.

In March of 2010, Emma told us she was molested. She would tell me one thing when Phill wasn’t around, and then tell him another. She told me she wanted to see the man punished, and the church punished for how they did not handle her complaint, etc., which resulted in us finding an attorney.

In Dec., our attorney had just e-mailed me that he was going to be filing the lawsuit against the church and this man, but I waited to tell him Emma that the suit was to be filed. A week after I told Emma, she had someone call DFACS on me to claim I was physically abusing her. I believe she wanted to stop the lawsuit because the molestation never happened. Now, instead of being a victim of molestation, she could be a victim of child abuse.

Losing Emma

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