A Silence of Mockingbirds (12 page)

Nobody wants to be called out on a child abuse case, but patrol
cops like Cox, in particular, don’t like them. Child abuse cases are labor-intensive, requiring a lot of paperwork and follow-up. There’s little glitz
and glamour attached to the work, and very few awards, but a lot of
heartache.

Cox was the state’s eyes that night, and he did not take photos of
Karly. He did not take the time to interview Sarah and Shawn separately,
to look for any inconsistencies in their stories. Cox did not approach
Sarah or Shawn with the same level of distrust that he did David. The
officer had threatened David with arrest but took Sarah and Shawn at
their word. Some of his peers at the Corvallis Police Department feel
that Cox’s investigation that night was shoddy, done haphazardly so that
he could hurry back to the work that brought him the most notoriety:
trolling for drunks.

Cox should have taken photos of Karly that night but he didn’t.
The only documentation was the report he made based upon his own
observations. A photo would have told an entirely different story than
the one Cox reported. There was no way anyone could look at photos of
Karly from that night and think all was well. As the father of young kids
himself, Cox should have approached the case with more due diligence.
His conclusion that Karly’s condition was self-inflicted threw the entire
abuse investigation off the grid, and it was one of the primary reasons
why Shawn Field was not considered a suspect until after Karly’s death.

Back at the house on Walnut Street, David waited and waited,
but Cox did not return to make an arrest. It was well past one o’clock when
David crawled back into bed. His head sank into the pillow. It had been the
most draining day of his entire life. There would be more days like this to
come. But David didn’t know that yet, so he fell into a still and silent sleep.

T
he last letter I sent to
Shawn Field came back marked “Return to Sender, Refused.” He has the right
to do that, refuse to speak to me. I understand why he doesn’t want to talk
to me. He believes because Sarah was once part of our family that I’m biased.
He and his parents, Hugh and Ann, fear anything I write will put Shawn in
a bad light.

Shawn continues to deny that he had any part in Karly’s death.
Jack, the fellow who meets with Shawn weekly for Bible study, told me,
“Shawn is very upset with God. He doesn’t understand how a loving
God could allow many of the things that have happened.”

And that was before the cancer was discovered.

Three years following Karly’s death, I received a note from Jack
alerting me that Shawn was seriously sick and asking I pray. “Shawn
has been ill for nearly three weeks and yesterday they discovered he
has a good-sized tumor in his chest. At this time, I don’t know if it’s
malignant. He is in tremendous pain. Ann and Hugh wonder how
much they can take. I would appreciate your prayers.”

The tumor proved to be a very aggressive cancer. Shawn was moved
from the prison in Pendleton to one in the Willamette Valley, where he
received the best medical care our state is able to provide.

I saw Shawn’s cancer as one more sad twist in an already tragic tale.
David summed up my feelings best: “I think the mom in you probably
senses the anguish of Ann Field.”

It’s true. I feel a good deal of empathy for Shawn’s parents. I wonder
if they feel they failed at parenting. Much like Sarah’s parents have
done, Hugh and Ann have picked up the pieces of their son’s messy life
since he was a high school student at Santiam Christian High School in
Corvallis, Oregon.

Hugh and Ann enrolled Shawn in the private school in hopes that,
being surrounded by “good” kids, Shawn might be inspired to make
better choices. Instead, he got kicked out. Superintendent Stan Baker
didn’t have any trouble recalling the troubled teen. Baker considered
Shawn an ill fit for the Christian school. “He was known to participate in
satanic practices and rituals,” Superintendent Baker told investigators.
“He dressed in black clothes and would go to cemeteries at night. He
was not liked well by other students.”

Baker kicked Shawn out of school in January 1988 after he and
another Santiam Christian School student were arrested for a series of
burglaries in the Vineyard Mountain area of Corvallis, the neighborhood
where Hugh and Ann Field made their home.

I wanted to speak with Hugh and Ann about Shawn’s tenure at
Santiam, as well many other events that shaped young Shawn’s life, like
the death of his brother. So I called Hugh and Ann at their home in
Redmond, Oregon.

Hugh answered the first call.

“Hi, this is Karen Zacharias,” I said. “Is this Hugh Field?”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Hugh replied, sharply, gruffly. I
expected as much. People had warned me Hugh is a tough guy. “Control
freak” is a term I often heard others, attorneys and law enforcement
folks alike, use when describing Hugh.

“I don’t really want you to…” I was going to say “…talk.” I wanted
to give Hugh a chance to ask me questions, but he hung up before I
finished my sentence.

I called back straightaway. This time Ann answered the phone. She
wasn’t gruff, but she was curt. As soon as I identified myself, she hung up.

Not at all surprisingly, I received the following e-mail that same night:

Karen,

I received a disturbing phone call tonight. Hugh called to
tell me that you had started calling Ann and Hugh. As a professional journalist,
I know you are working every angle to find more information on the case, but
Ann and Hugh would appreciate it if you would not call them again. They have
no desire to talk to you about anything. Period. They consider your phone
calls a severe invasion of privacy. Shawn also has no desire to talk to you
in person, by letter or any other means.

How you run your business is up to you, yet as a friend I
ask that you would please consider my request.

Thank you,

Jack

Jack is willing to forgive my tenacity. While he insists neither Shawn
nor his parents are ever going to grant me an interview, he understands
I’m probably not going to quit asking for one.

To be honest, Jack’s relationship with Shawn intrigues me, bugs
me somewhat. I can’t help but wonder, if he knew what I know about
Shawn, if Jack would be so eager to defend him. I wrote and asked him
about it:

Jack,

I don’t have a clue what you know about this case, but based
upon what you know or have been told, whom do you think killed Karly? Care
to share how you reached your conclusions?

Because it occurs to me that if you think Shawn killed Karly,
how are you able to sit with him and guide him through the Scriptures? If
you believe Shawn killed a three-year-old child, do you really truly believe
that God offers grace to such an individual?

On the other hand, if you don’t believe Shawn killed Karly,
then you are sharing Scriptures with an innocent man, wrongly convicted. And
in that situation, what hope does Jesus offer such a man?

ksz

Jack sent me a note back:

Karen,

Journalists never rest, do they?

I have heard many things and have many other questions I would
like the answer to. Most of my opinions are best kept to myself but I can
tell you this. I am a firm believer in redemption and the power of God’s love.
God called me to be a friend to Shawn. I am not his counselor, Father Confessor,
judge, or conscience. Shawn is a friend who I care deeply about. I visit him
not because I have to but because I want to. I listen to him, question him,
tease him, debate with him, laugh with him and cry with him, and share the
gospel with him.

The questions you ask are good ones and tough ones. God is
obviously the only one who knows all the answers in this case and though I
would like to know more and might have a chance to later, I will willingly
spend time with Shawn as long as he and I are on this Earth. When you visit
a person in prison you don’t ask other people what the person they are visiting
is doing time for or how long their sentence is unless they volunteer it,
but one day a woman, who I assume was a newbie, asked when my friend was getting
out and I said, “Until they carry him out or I die.” The look on the lady’s
face told me I might have gone too far, but she asked a tough question and
she received a tough answer.

 There are things that this case raises and throws in my face
regularly about justice, forgiveness, redemption as well as the role of believers
and what we are called to do. Mercy and love are hard to give. This whole
ordeal has stretched me and made me reconsider my own beliefs.

I regularly pray for the players in this play and pray that
they might come to know God as Lord and Savior and one day experience his
love, mercy, forgiveness and peace.

Jack

During the time in which Shawn’s cancer was discovered and
treated, I lost two of my dearest friends to cancer. As I type this, Shawn’s
cancer is in remission and he enjoys good health.

K
ate Field, age eight, School Journal.

Sept. 2004.

A bully is someone that make bad daseson and sometimes they
can hert you. I have never been bullied by a bully and I have never seen a
bully. A bully is big. They ruen your life. They can be really dangerus. They
never say sory. Their not smart at all. They torger you. They can easly stell
from you when your not looken so thats why you have to be really carful case
you never no when there is a bully around. Bullys hert your mom and dad.

Matt Stark was out of the office on Monday, December 13,
2004, the first business day after Officer Cox’s midnight visit to investigate
a reported possible child abuse. In Stark’s absence, his coworker, Elizabeth
Castillo, received Cox’s report regarding the child Karly Sheehan.

Castillo arranged to meet David late Monday afternoon at the DHS
offices. David, who’d had Karly with him all weekend, brought Karly
along. Castillo attempted to talk to Karly, but as usual, Karly wasn’t
having any of it.

“She didn’t want me being close to her,” Castillo said.

Most of Karly’s hair was missing. She had scratches on her face, a
couple around her left eye, and yellowing bruises on her temple and
forehead. Karly kept picking at the scratches around her eye.

David explained the whole situation to Castillo. He told her about
Sarah dropping Karly off on Saturday in this horrific state with no more
of an explanation than “this happened on my watch.” He told her about
Officer Cox’s late-night visit on Saturday.

David held out hope that state investigators would finally see
what had been clear to him: for Karly’s sake, Sarah needed to put
some distance between herself and Shawn. His hopes were completely
obliterated by Castillo’s response.

“Hispanic fathers are known to pull their kids’ hair out as a form of
discipline,” she said pointedly.

David was stunned. What the hell was that supposed to mean? He
wanted to blurt out, “As a Catholic I see lots of Hispanic kids in mass.
They are not bald!” Besides, where in this situation was the Hispanic?

Castillo was insinuating David had snatched Karly bald.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!” David said. “This is the
treatment I got from the people who were supposed to protect children?
Any foreign father in my situation would have felt like he was under a
microscope. I’ve had problems with that statement ever since Castillo
made it.”

David was pissed but he kept his emotions in check. He told
Castillo he had taken photos of Karly on Saturday, and would be happy
to provide those to DHS. Great, Castillo said, but said she needed to
take pictures of Karly herself. No problem, David said. Castillo got out
the digital camera and took some snapshots of Karly. She told David
that Matt Stark would be in touch.

Earlier that day, David and Sarah had taken Karly in to see Dr.
deSoyza.

“What happened over the past week?” deSoyza asked. The doctor
was disturbed by Karly’s condition.

Sarah explained that Karly had gotten upset when Sarah took her
over to Shawn’s house.

“She refused to sleep. She yanked out her hair, and clawed at her
face,” Sarah said.

The doctor urged Sarah and David to consider taking Karly to see a pediatric
psychiatrist. Sarah said she’d already made an appointment for Karly to see
a counselor at Old Mill Center for Children and Families. Sarah also assured
David and Dr. deSoyza that she was moving out of Shawn’s house
that very
day
, admitting her new situation was too stressful for Karly.

“Hopefully a change in environment will have a positive impact on
the patient’s symptoms, but the underlying causes for this do need to be
looked into,” the doctor wrote in Karly’s chart.

Dr. deSoyza knew something was terribly wrong with Sarah’s new
living arrangement, and she had her suspicions.

Matt Stark returned to his office the following day, Tuesday,
December 14, 2004. He retrieved two voice messages left by David Sheehan.
Delynn Zoller had also called and left a message. Stark returned her call
first. Delynn asked if he had seen Karly. He had not.

“My god, she looks awful!” Delynn exclaimed. “You need to get a
look for yourself.”

Stark called David, who said Sarah had taken full responsibility
for Karly’s battered condition. She had assured David she was moving
out of Shawn’s place immediately. Sarah agreed for the time being that
David would have full custody of Karly.

Stark put in a call to Dr. deSoyza and spoke with Mona Schneider,
deSoyza’s nurse. Yes, she said, the parents had indeed brought Karly in
yesterday. She described the abrasions around Karly’s eye and the wispy
tuft of hair on the child’s head.

Stark decided to make an unannounced call to 2652 N.W. Aspen
Street. Despite telling Dr. deSoyza and David she was moving out of
Shawn’s place, Sarah was still at Shawn’s the next afternoon when Stark
showed up. Because it was winter break at school, Kate was there too.

Sarah stepped out on the porch to talk with Stark. She did not invite
him in.

“Karly hasn’t been sleeping well,” Sarah said. She added that she
didn’t have much sleep herself on Friday or Saturday because she’d been
up with Karly those nights. “I had to restrain Karly to keep her from
clawing at herself.”

Sarah said that whenever she tried to get Karly to quit playing
around and go to sleep, Karly responded by digging at her eyes.

“On Friday night, I made a bed for Karly in the living room in front
of the TV, and I lay down with her. I hoped she would sleep, but Karly
kept digging at her eye,” Sarah said.

It wasn’t until morning’s light that Sarah realized how badly Karly
had hurt herself.

“It wasn’t just the scratching at her eyes,” Sarah added. “Karly was
also smacking at her head and pulling out her hair. And she climbed
up on the bunk bed and jumped off the top bunk. That’s how she got
the bruise on her forehead. She hit the Barbie house on the way down!”

“How long have you been at Shawn’s?” Stark asked.

“Pretty much all week,” Sarah said.

“And how was Karly earlier in the week?”

“She was fine on Tuesday and Wednesday, but she’d started acting
out some on Thursday,” Sarah said.

“Why do you think Karly’s behavior has gotten worse over the past
few days?” Stark asked.

“I think Karly really needs a schedule,” Sarah said. “Whenever she
gets off her schedule she gets out of control.”

“How come you didn’t take Karly to daycare this week?” Stark asked.

“Because Karly had the stomach flu,” Sarah said. “You can’t go to
daycare if you are throwing up.”

“How does Shawn deal with Karly?” Stark asked.

“Shawn tries to be helpful,” Sarah said. “He understands and agrees
that Karly needs to be out of his home for a while.”

“Is Shawn here?” Stark asked. “Can I speak to him?”

“Just a minute,” Sarah said. “I’ll get him.’

Shawn stepped out onto the porch. Neither he nor Sarah invited the
state investigator inside. Shawn told Stark, “I’ll answer general questions
but nothing else without my attorney.”

Stark thought it odd that Shawn would immediately be on the
defensive when he hadn’t asked a single question yet. He reassured
Shawn he was there to inquire specifically about Karly’s recent visit to
the doctor’s office.

“You don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to,” Stark
said.

“I have my own daughter to take care of, and I don’t want you guys
snooping around, threatening my daughter’s safety.”

“I just want to ask you a few questions about Karly,” Stark said.
“Have you noticed any changes in her behavior recently?”

“She hasn’t been sleeping well,” Shawn said. “And she throws these
big fits for no reason. Karly’s been unhappy ever since Sarah moved in.”

“Do you think someone is abusing Karly?” Stark asked. He studied
Shawn’s face as he answered.

“No,” Shawn said, shaking his head. “When she has these temper
tantrums, she slaps her head and pulls out her hair, fistfuls of it.”

“What do you do when she does that?”

“We—me and Sarah—will grab Karly’s hands and tell her not to
do that,” Shawn said. “We’ve even threatened to send her to the corner
if she doesn’t stop, but that doesn’t do any good. Karly will go to the
corner on her own, punish herself. Karly does not want to be to here,
and she does not want her mom here.”

“Do you think Karly’s afraid of you?” Stark asked.

“No,” Shawn replied. “She’d be that way even if I weren’t around.
Karly acts out because of the change in routine, not because of anything
I do.”

“Was Karly sick this week?” Stark asked.

“Sick?” Shawn asked. “No, she hasn’t been sick. She was really
thirsty but otherwise she ate okay. She did throw up once, but I think
that was more nerves than anything else.”

“Would you mind if I spoke with Kate?” Stark asked.

“Sure,” Shawn said. “But only with me here.”

“Okay,” Stark agreed.

Shawn called Kate to the door. He stood off to one side as Stark
asked Kate some questions. “Do you remember me from our previous
visit?”

“Yes,” Kate said, nodding.

“How has Karly been?” Stark asked.

“She’s been sick,” Kate said. “She threw up.”

“Did you see her throw up?” Stark asked.

“No,” Kate said. “I think I just heard her.”

“Do you know what happened to Karly’s hair?” Stark asked.

“She’s been pulling at her hair,” Kate said. “And slapping her face.”

“What did your daddy or Sarah do when Karly did that?”

“I dunno,” Kate replied.

“You can’t remember?” Stark asked.

“No. I think I was asleep then,” Kate said.

“Thank you, Kate,” he said. “Would you tell Sarah I want to speak
to her again?”

“Sure,” Kate said.

Stark asked Sarah about her plans to move out of Shawn’s place.
Sarah said she’d decided to let Karly stay with David for now.
Back at the office, Stark went over the day’s events with his supervisor. “We were both concerned over Mr. Field’s apparent defensiveness,” Stark said.

Two days later, on Thursday, December 16, as promised, Sarah
took Karly for evaluation at the Old Mill Center for Children and Families.
Sarah told the counselor, Caitlyn Chisholm, that Karly had been having extreme
fits of anger, marked by Karly screaming until she turned purple and sometimes
hitting herself. Sarah said it was heartbreaking to watch Karly behave in
this fashion because she was usually such a vibrant, bouncy, and fun girl.

“Do you know when Karly started acting out?” Chisholm asked.

“Yes,” Sarah said. “A couple of months ago. In October. It was right
after I moved in with my new boyfriend, Shawn.”

Sarah said DHS got involved after Karly made some startling
statement about her daddy hitting her. Sarah was so concerned she’d
had a long talk with Karly about whom she meant when she said “Daddy
hits me.” Sarah said Karly would only identify David as her daddy, not
Shawn. DHS had been investigating the issue, and closed the case out
a week ago.

“But then Karly went crazy last week at Shawn’s house and pulled
nearly all her hair out. So my ex called Children’s Services again,” Sarah
said. “The real reason he made the call is because he’s angry that I’ve
moved on in my life. He got pissed and took Karly to the neighbor’s
house and told my girlfriend there what a terrible parent I am. He even
sent a police over to my boyfriend’s house at midnight. My ex is crazy
jealous. Now Children’s Services has reopened the case and that’s why
I’m here.”

Chisholm noted that while Karly seemed calm and cooperative,
because of the balding, Karly looked like a child undergoing chemotherapy.

“Have you or Karly seen other counselors?” Chisholm asked.

“I’ve pretty much been in therapy my whole life,” Sarah said,
chuckling. “I’m adopted and my parents made me go. I don’t have the
best relationship with them.”

“And Karly? What about her?” Chisholm asked.

“No,” Sarah said.

“Any other symptoms she’s having that concern you?”

“She has nightmares,” Sarah said. “And she talks a lot about monsters.”

Chisholm turned to Karly who was playing nearby.

“Tell me about the monsters, Karly.”

“Sometimes the monsters bother me,” Karly said.

At the end of only one short session, Chisholm diagnosed Karly
with acute anxiety and depression. Chisholm concluded that Karly was
suffering adjustment disorder. When Sarah repeated this to David, she
seemed elated. David thought the diagnosis was complete bullshit and
he told Chisholm so in Karly’s only follow-up visit.

At no time did Sarah mention to either Dr. deSoyza, David, or
the counselor at the Old Mill Center that Sarah had been bedridden
the week Karly reportedly “went crazy.” Sarah was in bed that week,
the result of a miscarriage or an abortion. Police were never able to
determine if she really had either one. But Sarah said she was knocked
out with sleeping pills, pills she later claimed Shawn Field had been
plying her with while he looked after Karly. None of that came out,
however, until five days after Karly’s death, during an interview with
Corvallis Police Detective Mike Wells.

Since their divorce, David and Sarah had a formal custody
agreement, which included rotating holidays. It was Sarah’s turn to have
Karly for Christmas.

Shawn and Kate were headed to Arizona to visit his parents at their
winter home. Shawn was angry with Sarah about the investigation. He
blamed her for getting him and Kate involved. He wanted to end his
relationship with her but the two were wildly attracted to each other,
in all sorts of unhealthy ways. Shawn thought going to Arizona would
give him breathing room, time to clear his head of her. Sarah was not
invited along, and that pissed her off. They fought over it but Shawn
didn’t change his mind.