Little Lost Angel (8 page)

Three years after the divorce Carl and Gloria decided to get back together for the good of the children. They never remarried, but they made a pact that they would no longer argue in front of the children. However there were still times when the home—a two-story frame house near the railroad tracks in west Madison—was rocked by violence. The two Rippey boys, John and Dan, had developed a rivalry that would often result in fistfights in front of Hope and the rest of the family.

“John was bigger and would beat Dan up,” Carl Rippey recalled. “I allowed them to fight it out because I knew John would not hurt him badly. When Dan said ‘uncle’ the fight would stop.”

The rough atmosphere of the Rippey home rubbed off on Hope, and she developed her own feistiness. When she was in junior high she organized a student walkout over a school policy she disagreed with. While the stunt irritated her teachers, it made her popular with the more rebellious students.

Hope, a medium-sized brunette with an earthy attractiveness, played basketball, ran track, and was in the school band in junior high, but she gave up all three pursuits after entering Madison Consolidated High School. As for the sports, it was probably a practical decision. She wasn’t an outstanding athlete, and she realized she would have had difficulty competing at a higher level.

The decision to give up her formal music training, however, was unfortunate because she had real talent. She could play several instruments and had such a good ear that she could play a song on the piano after hearing it only a few times. But by her freshman year Hope had formed definite opinions about what was cool and what wasn’t. And in her eyes, the school band wasn’t. Every once in a while, Hope would talk about forming a rock band, but her initiatives
never evolved into anything more than jamming in the garage with a few friends.

Hope had also realized that she would never be accepted by the preppy high-school crowd. There was a coarseness about her that kept her outside that circle. Hope had been smoking cigarettes for several years, and when angry she could curse like a construction worker. She liked to hang out at the poolroom in the local bowling alley and she had become a pretty good pool player.

Hope was not a beauty, but she had a pleasant enough face and a nice figure, as well as a forwardness that boys found attractive. Hope’s older sister, Tina, had gotten pregnant in high school and kept the child. Hope too began having sex at a young age. By the time she was a sophomore she had made love with a number of boys. She never had a lengthy relationship with any of them and liked playing the field.

Though an average student, Hope had no firm plans to attend college. She expected that she would eventually find a guy to settle down with, have some kids, and raise a family in Madison. But she didn’t give much thought to any of this, since her main concern was having fun.

It was Hope’s thirst for adventure that had drawn her to Laurie Tackett. While other students at Madison High shunned Laurie and her strange behavior, Hope thought of her as the ultimate rebel, as someone to emulate—in all ways except sexuality. Laurie had confided in Hope that she was gay and, according to Kary Pope, had tried to interest her in a lesbian relationship. Hope had rejected these advances, but this had not damaged the girls’ friendship.

Hope’s parents, Carl and Gloria, tolerated their daughter’s friendship with Laurie, even though they were put off by Laurie’s punk hairstyles and weird clothes. The Rippeys would rather have seen their daughter spend more time with other friends, particularly Toni Lawrence.

Hope had known Toni since kindergarten, and though they weren’t best friends they were still good friends. Toni had been acting a little too preppy lately for Hope’s satisfaction, but she shared Hope’s interest in shooting pool and meeting guys so they still found time to be together.

Toni was the youngest of Clifton and Glenda Lawrence’s three daughters. She lived with her parents and her oldest sister and her family in a brick ranch home a few blocks from the Rippey residence. Although they weren’t wealthy by any means, they enjoyed a modestly comfortable existence. Clifton Lawrence had been a boilermaker until an on-job injury ended his career and he was forced to make ends meet on his pension.

Toni, slim with light brown hair and glasses, was an average student and was well liked by her peers, though she wasn’t the type to stand out in any crowd. Although generally timid and reflective—she wrote many poems—she enjoyed the company of friends, participated in school activities, and did all the things other girls her age did: went to the movies, shopped for clothes, and talked on the phone for hours on end.

A year and a half earlier, Toni had gone through the most traumatic time of her life. A boy had raped her while she was at a friend’s house. Toni didn’t tell her parents about it until her mother discovered a letter she’d written to a friend in which she mentioned her attacker’s name. Clifton Lawrence tried to press charges against the boy but ended up seeing him only mildly reprimanded by police as a juvenile. When the story got around school, some classmates took the boy’s side and ostracized Toni for turning him in. Already shy, she withdrew further and her studies suffered. She found a steady boyfriend and began to come out of the shell she’d built for herself. Unfortunately, her relationship with the boy ended when she learned he’d been with another girl, and Toni was eager now to find another boy she could be serious with.

Toni spent a great deal of time with Hope and Laurie during this troubled time. Toni had not liked Laurie much before and had thought her too strange. But at this vulnerable stage Toni became intrigued with Laurie’s weird philosophy and behavior. Once she asked Laurie to spend the night with her. It was a disastrous evening. While sitting in Toni’s room, Laurie tried to show Toni how she relieved stress by cutting herself. Trouble was, Laurie cut herself so deeply she had to be taken to the hospital. After that episode Toni’s
parents frowned on the friendship, and Toni pretty much agreed with them. She’d still see Laurie from time to time when she was with Hope, but she kept at a distance.

When Hope called Toni and asked her to go to the hardcore concert with her and Laurie, Toni was a bit reluctant. She told Hope that Laurie’s strange ways scared her. But Hope was persistent. Laurie had let Hope in on Melinda’s plans for Shanda, but Hope purposely didn’t mention this to Toni. Instead, she pointed out that there would probably be a lot of cute boys at the concert. In Toni’s mind that outweighed any reservations she had about Laurie. She told Hope that she’d ask her mother if she could go.

Glenda Lawrence said no. She didn’t want Toni going down to Louisville at night, particularly with someone as irresponsible as Laurie. Toni decided not to push it. Instead, she asked her mother if she could spend that Friday night with her friend Mikel Pommerehn. Mikel was a nice girl, one of the preppy crowd that Toni usually ran with, and Glenda Lawrence gave her approval. But Toni had no intention of staying with Mikel. She had come up with a scheme to fool her parents.

“Can you cover for me tonight?” Toni asked Mikel the next day at school.

“What do you mean?” Mikel asked.

“I told my mom I was spending the night with you, but I’m going to a concert with Hope and Laurie.”

“Ugh, Laurie Tackett,” Mikel said. “I don’t see why you hang around that girl.”

“Come on, Mikel, be a friend,” Toni pleaded. “All you have to do is tell my mom I’m in the bathroom if she calls. It’s no big deal.”

Mikel reluctantly agreed, and Toni was set. Hope had also lied to her parents, telling them that she was going to spend the night with a friend in a nearby town. That afternoon, Laurie picked up Toni and Hope in the school parking lot.

Laurie seemed in great spirits, ready for an evening of fun. But she was seething inside. The day before, she’d gone to the home of her ex-boyfriend, Aron Hall, and asked him to get back together with her. Aron was fed up with Laurie,
who’d cheated on him with Danielle. Aron had never understood Laurie’s obsession with witchcraft, and now he was hearing rumors around Madison that she was trying to join a Satanic cult. He told Laurie he didn’t want anything to do with her.

“She said she was going to leave Madison because there was nothing to hold her there anymore,” Aron said later. “She was crying and said she was going to kill herself or kill someone else.”

*  *  *

The girls’ first stop was the Madison WalMart, where Laurie and Hope stole some batteries for Laurie’s CD player. Next they grabbed some hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant, bought gas and cigarettes at a convenience store, then headed toward New Albany. They were driving past the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant northeast of Jeffersonville when Laurie nudged Hope.

“Have you told her about it yet?” Laurie asked.

“About what?” Toni asked.

When Hope didn’t volunteer the news, Laurie spoke up. “We’re going to kill a little girl.”

“No you’re not,” Toni said, not eager to be the butt of one of Laurie’s jokes.

“Yes we are.”

Sure that they were pulling her leg, Toni changed the subject and nothing more was said about it.

But it was still very much on Laurie’s mind. She had already selected the place to take Shanda, a place that Laurie and her friends called the Witches’ Castle. It was actually just the ruined remains of a grand old stone mansion that overlooked the Ohio River in Utica, a small town upstream from Jeffersonville. Laurie had taken Hope there before, and since it was on the way to Melinda’s, they stopped by to show it to Toni. During daylight hours the ruins were not that scary, but the house still gave the timid Toni the creeps, particularly when Laurie began calling the cellar a dungeon and told of the séances she and the Leatherburys had conducted there. After about half an hour spent wandering around the site, the girls got back in the car and drove to Melinda’s house.

Melinda greeted the trio at her door, then invited them upstairs to her bedroom. No one else was home. Melinda had met Hope once before when she was with Laurie at the River Falls Mall in Clarksville. She had liked her immediately, though she was a bit surprised that Laurie had a friend who was—well, not weird. She was even more taken aback by Toni, who talked and acted like the preppy kids whom she knew Laurie so despised.

In turn, Melinda was nothing like Toni had expected for a friend of Laurie’s. Toni couldn’t believe how many neat clothes Melinda had in her closet.

“I love those shoes,” Toni said, eyeing all the different styles on display.

“Go ahead and try a pair on,” Melinda said, eager to please. “If they fit, you can wear them tonight.”

Hope joined in the fun, trying on a pair of Melinda’s jeans.

In the middle of this girlish scene—one like so many Toni had experienced in other friends’ bedrooms—a dark specter was suddenly raised. As Toni was trying on the shoes, Melinda pulled a rusty old kitchen knife from one of her purses and said, “This is what I’m going to use to scare Shanda.”

Having captured everyone’s attention, Melinda began a diatribe against her rival.

“Melinda said that she was going with a girl named Amanda and that Shanda was flirting with her and had been trying to steal her away,” Toni said later. “She said they’d gotten into a lot of fistfights and that she wanted to kill her.”

Toni’s first impression of Melinda as a nice, normal girl vanished immediately. As Melinda continued to rant about killing Shanda, Toni began to worry about what she’d gotten herself into. Surely she couldn’t be serious about wanting to kill the little girl. Surely she just wanted to scare her. Then she heard Melinda say how cute Shanda was and that she wouldn’t mind having sex with her if only she didn’t hate her so much. “I’d like to run the knife down her stomach and tease her with it,” Melinda said.

The other girls listened as Melinda mapped out her plan to get Shanda alone. It was the same scheme that had gone
awry that night with Kristie Brodfuehrer. They would go to Shanda’s house and somehow entice her to the car where Melinda would be hiding, waiting to spring. Melinda knew that Shanda usually spent the weekends with her father, so she called there several times, hoping to confirm that Shanda was home. The line was busy, but Melinda was undeterred.

“I’ll bet she’s there,” Melinda said. “Let’s go get her.”

5

S
teve Sharer was a man of medium height with a solid build, wide shoulders, cord-strong wrists, and hands callused by his work as a heating and air-conditioning technician. Thirty-eight years old, he was growing bald and so had a habit of keeping his crown covered with a baseball cap. Not that he was a bit shy. He had a gregarious disposition and easy smile, and he spoke in the Southern drawl of the area.

Steve worked long hours and enjoyed nothing more than relaxing with his wife, Sharon, his stepchildren, Larry Dale and Sandy, and his daughter, Shanda, on the weekends. During the warm months that meant regular family trips to a lakeside cabin in Kentucky. In the winter, Steve would often tinker around in his garage on Saturdays and Sundays or tackle minor household chores—taking time out to watch car racing and college basketball.