Latanya Henry brought bundles of yellow and red daisies and passed them out to the teenagers. The three Ostuaries, Sara, Jena, and Tatiana, were the first to drop the flowers at the base of the tree.
They addressed the crowd, saying that the final tribute to Calyx would come in the decades ahead. They promised that as they left high school, went to college, and grew into women they would never forget the girl who wanted to go to three colleges at once, live in New York, and see the elephants of Thailand. Sara Wortman summed it all up when she said, “I hope I do something with my life, because Calyx wanted to do everything.”
By the time the dedication was over, the ground and decorative bricks around the tree were covered with a blanket of yellow and red flowers, dropped there one by one. One last remembrance remained. Sara tied a ribbon around the trunk of the tree. And typically of the interaction among these teenage friends, Tatiana said, “The bow isn’t perky enough.”
* * *
At 8:30 in the morning on February 16, Julie Schenecker appeared before Judge Ashley Moody for the arraignment on charges of murdering her son and daughter. Security was heightened in court that day, because of the concerns generated by the high-profile nature of the case. In addition to the possibility that someone might want to take revenge on Julie, the risk that a person would enter the courtroom in order to attempt to create a scene or make a statement was higher than usual. Everyone, including the media representatives who outnumbered the other spectators, was required to be scanned with magnetic wands before admittance.
With a female deputy on each arm, chains and shackles on her feet, and hands cuffed in front of her, Julie entered the courtroom. She was in better shape than she had been at the time of her arrest. With no signs of shaking and no wild rolling eyes, she looked depressed but calm.
She was dressed in a red two-piece outfit that looked like hospital scrubs except for the big white letters “INMATE” stenciled across her chest. On her feet she wore white socks and cheap tan slip-on sandals. Her hair was stringy, disheveled, and unkempt, with dark roots clearly visible. It cascaded across her face, obscuring the view of one side.
Two lawyers from the public defender’s office stood up at the defense table when Judge Moody entered and took her seat. Bob Frasier, gray-haired but with a conspicuous bald spot, wore a black suit and wire-rimmed glasses. Standing beside him, Maura Doherty wore a gray pinstripe suit, with her long brown hair falling a couple of inches past her shoulders.
Frasier addressed the judge: “The record reflects that we were appointed for a first appearance as Ms. Schenecker filed a financial affidavit in accordance with the law that the clerk deemed to disentitle her to services of the public defender.
“We have filed for another determination of that based on the circumstances. The expense of a defense, in this case, is going to be prohibitive and far exceed her family’s assets, and, so … we respectfully request that the court reappoint the office of the public defender … to proceed on Ms. Schenecker’s behalf.”
The prosecution did not object and the judge allowed the public defender’s representation for now. She then moved to the arraignment proceeding itself.
Bob Frasier waived the formal reading of the charges and entered a plea of not guilty on both counts on Julie’s behalf. On the defense motion to freeze the marital assets in case they were needed to fund the defense, the judge said she did not have the power to do that and that Parker needed to be party to any such move. She added that she would consider a lien to recover expenses.
Flanked by deputies, Julie sat emotionless in her chair. Her eyes remained closed or downcast throughout it all. She said nothing, reacted to nothing. There was no way for an observer to tell if Julie was even aware of what swirled around her. In less than four minutes, it was over.
After the hearing, the Schenecker family spokesperson released this statement:
Colonel Parker Schenecker is currently out of state and was unable to attend Wednesday’s arraignment for Julie Schenecker. Currently, he is meeting with family members and close friends to formalize his plans to honor the memory of Calyx and Beau. At the same time, he is considering the best path to help him heal from this tragedy.
Parker would like to thank everyone who has reached out to express their love for Calyx and Beau and who have shown support for his family during this difficult time. The generosity and love supporters have shown through letters, phone calls and donations to the Calyx and Beau Memorial Fund has been humbling. Parker has finalized plans for the Fund’s first donation: C. Leon King High School’s Relay for Life benefitting the American Cancer Society. Calyx’s school recently notified Parker that they will honor Calyx by retaining her as Captain of her Harry Potter–inspired “Wizarding Independence Day” team. This contribution is just the first step in keeping his promise to support those causes and activities his children found important.
CHAPTER 37
On Friday, February 18, 2011, at 7:10 a.m., Parker saw his wife for the first time since he was deployed to the Middle East in mid-January. It was only the second time that Julie had any visitors since her incarceration.
Parker visited Julie in the jail to tell her he wanted a divorce. Although inmates normally talk to relatives via a closed-circuit feed, Colonel Jim Previtera of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office made special arrangements. Parker and Julie spoke to each other separated only by Plexiglas.
Julie could have refused his visit, but she didn’t. She watched him walk in, sit down, and pick up the receiver. A marital gulf had never been wider.
Parker initiated the conversation, “How about we do this: Let’s not talk about anything that happened in the house.”
“Yeah, that would be great,” she said.
Parker told her about the memorial service held for the children. He explained that they were buried in a Fort Worth cemetery and talked to her about the memorial events both there and here in Tampa. He talked about the children’s schools and their friends and the many ways they continued to honor and remember the lives of Calyx and Beau. He and Julie talked for nearly an hour. The meeting was emotional but not volatile.
Toward the end, Parker said, “I want to look you in the eye and tell you that I am going to seek a divorce.”
Julie said, “Okay.”
After he left, Parker released a public statement:
I felt it was important and proper to inform her in person about my need to focus on the future, and my intention to file for a divorce. Clearly, the events of January 27th have taken Julie and me on different paths. I have said for many days now that I will spend the rest of my life honoring the memory of my two beautiful children, Calyx and Beau. This difficult but necessary step will help me do just that … move forward. The meeting was both emotional and productive. We discussed numerous topics but focused mostly on how so many people continue to honor and remember the lives of Calyx and Beau.
Before the day was done papers were filed in court requesting the legal dissolution of their relationship. In his petition, Parker said that his marriage was “irretrievably broken.” It continued with: “Wife shot and killed both minor children.” In addition to the end of the marriage, it requested a fair distribution of the marital assets and asked that their home be sold.
On the next Monday morning, February 21, Julie agreed to have her assets frozen and a lien imposed to repay the public defenders for representing her in the murder charges. That afternoon at 1:30, Julie was back in court for a hearing about the state’s motion to compel saliva samples.
On Wednesday, Parker’s divorce attorney Alexander Caballero filed a response to the financial motion filed by the public defenders:
After his children’s tragic deaths, Colonel Schenecker could not imagine that there was anything else the defendant could take from him. However, her motion to freeze assets threatens to delay their divorce proceedings.… Much more disturbingly, however, it appears to be an attempt to compel Colonel Schenecker—who had only intend
ed to participate in these proceedings to give a voice to his children, the victims—to fund the defense.… Aside from being patently unreasonable, the requested relief is not supported in the law.
Caballero further argued that the decision should be made by the divorce courts, not by the judge trying the criminal case. Arguments for and against the motion were scheduled for a hearing the next day before Judge Ashley Moody. The circuit judge ruled that she lacked the authority to grant the motion because Julie had not yet been convicted of a crime.
* * *
At King High School, another tribute to Calyx took root. The Biology Club started planting a butterfly garden in her memory that week. They planned to expand it as they had funds available to purchase more plants.
On February 28, the school spoke out again about their classmate. Principal Carla Bruning announced that the sixth annual King High School Relay For Life on March 19–20, 2011, to benefit the American Cancer Society, would be dedicated to sophomore Calyx Schenecker: “What better way to celebrate her life and pay tribute to her loss than through an event that is dedicated to curing a disease that takes the life of so many people?” Bruning added that luminarias would be placed on the track in Calyx’s honor and participants would walk a lap right there where she was known to spend hours in practice with the school’s track-and-field team.
CHAPTER 38
Before the sixth annual King High School Relay For Life began, the Wizarding Independence Day team had already raised eleven thousand dollars in their quest to meet Calyx’s vision of being the relay’s top fund-raiser that year. The opening ceremonies kicked off the event at three that afternoon.
Parker arrived and was overwhelmed by the number of people gathered there. He took a moment off by himself to compose his thoughts and emotions. At ten that night, he and more than six hundred people gathered in a football field to honor Calyx and Beau. The lights went dim and the blue and green luminarias, surrounded by photos of Calyx and Beau, lined the football field, creating an otherworldly glow on the faces in front of Parker.
With the King High School PRIDE musical group he stepped up onstage, where the choir sang the words of a song a friend had written in Calyx’s honor. It was a collaborative effort, using the words written by Jacob Gassen and music composed by Betsey Giammattei. Parker then addressed the crowd: “Be proud of your accomplishments. I promise you that I am proud of all of you. Calyx and Beau are beaming with devotion and respect for you.” He added that the school community understood how to love and to be loved. In a closing question, he asked the crowd if they had ever felt true joy. He presented the American Cancer Society with a check for five thousand dollars, the first contribution made on behalf of the Calyx and Beau Schenecker Memorial Fund.
Parker then invited all to participate in a Harry Potter–themed remembrance lap in memory of Calyx and Beau: “If we turn this sad time into a joyful memory then their memory will live on through all of us.” Parker stepped off the stage and took the first steps on the lap and, like the Pied Piper, he soon had many children following in his wake.
At eleven, the event was closed to the public and only the participants remained. Each of the school’s fifty Relay For Life teams set up and decorated campsites to reflect their teams’ names. Students sold food, drinks, and arts and crafts from the campsites day and night to continue their fund-raising efforts.
Parker was part of it all. He took turns with the teams walking the track, laughed at the boys dressed in drag for the “S’He’s so Hot” competition, and refereed dodgeball games, telling the competitors, “Just have fun, don’t cheat, and if you hit the ref you’re out.”
The walks continued through the night. Calyx’s friends embraced Parker as he walked, often hugging him so intently, they were forced to come to a halt as the other walkers had to flow around them. With a baseball cap on his head and a big smile on his face, Parker often progressed around the track with his arms around two and three kids at once.
Music that night started out sad and melancholy immediately after the remembrance ceremony, then gradually turned to a more energetic beat as Frisbee and Twister games broke out on the sidelines. At one point, Parker picked up a football, tossed it back and forth as he walked, and sang along with the popular songs.
On one pass of the Harry Potter tent, Parker said he had to read the series, because Calyx had said, “Dad, nerd is the word.” Parker walked with his daughter’s classmates until the sun rose. And then he walked some more—up until the end of the event at eight o’clock that morning.
At the closing ceremony, the winning team was announced—the Wizarding Independence Day team led the fund-raising effort in Calyx’s name. Parker stepped back on the stage to accept the trophy in her honor.
CHAPTER 39
Julie’s public defenders filed a motion to waive Julie’s presence at the hearing to set deadlines on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. The motion was accepted and Julie was not present in the courtroom when the proceedings began at 8:30 that morning in front of Judge Ashley Moody.
The prosecution team was focused on harvesting data and evidence from the five computers recently seized from the Schenecker home. The defense attorneys were doing their best to squelch the flames of the intense media fires in the hopes of securing a fair trial for their client.
At the end of the hearing, their focus shifted to some degree because of the ruling from the bench. Judge Moody issued deadlines for both sides. The state had until August 15 to decide whether or not they would seek the death penalty. The defense had until then to announce if they would pursue an insanity defense.
* * *
On April 16, Parker attended a game played by a soccer team that once included Beau. Parker cheered on the sidelines and afterwards exchanged hugs with Beau’s friends and classmates. These moments strengthened and comforted Parker and helped the children who knew Beau to heal from their shared pain.
* * *
That month, in response to Parker’s request that the court determine a division of the couple’s estimated $2 million in assets that was “unequal in his favor,” Julie’s divorce attorney, Ed Brennan, laid out her demands. First, he insisted that his client deserved a full half of the value of the savings, military pensions, vehicles, and three homes they owned in Tampa Palms, Maryland, and Kansas.
In addition, the document requested an immediate forty thousand dollars for a lawyer, ten thousand dollars for a forensic accountant, and permanent alimony and health coverage. Julie also requested a life insurance policy on Parker, naming her as the beneficiary, and the return of her diamond engagement ring.
Attorney Brennan also wanted the court to order an inventory of the contents of the house on Royal Park Court. He claimed that Parker was sending much of the family property to Texas, including Julie’s personal items and jewelry.
Indeed, Parker was packing up the family’s belongings in preparation for putting the house up for sale. His main concern was the school papers, report cards, track-and-field gear belonging to Calyx, and Beau’s soccer trophies. He told People that he did not want to overlook a single scrap of paper: “I have to properly take care of things, for the kids. They were stolen away from me; they were stolen away from the world.”
Parker also wanted the world to know that, although he traveled a lot, when he was at home he never missed a game or school event. “I was a connected dad,” he said. “I was not one of those fathers who roll into a man cave.”
In addition to the obvious reasons, Parker expressed a desire to leave the home because it was simply too big for one person. When People correspondent Steve Helling asked him how he felt about Julie that day, Parker took a contemplative pause before responding. “I feel for Julie,” he said. “I’m going through my hell; she’s going through her own hell. There’s not hate in my heart. But there is no way I could see myself remaining married to her.”
With his children gone and his wife behind bars Parker was alone, but he was not lonely. He received more invit
ations to dinner from the military families at MacDill Air Force Base than he could handle. He received e-mail messages from other military facilities all over the world. He said that, other than changing his place of residence, he had no desire to start a new life, meet new people, or change anything in his life. He was intent on leading a life dedicated to the memory of his children, finding his comfort among old friends and the lasting alliances he had formed during his military career.
The exclusivity of this interview with a leading national magazine left local reporters wondering about how People managed to pull it off. Had they blurred the lines of journalistic ethics by making a donation to the Calyx and Beau Schenecker Foundation or with the purchase of photographs in exchange for this arrangement? Parker’s public relations representative denied those possibilities when directly asked by Tampa Bay Times reporter Alexandra Zayas.
On May 6, an entity that delivered the headlines became part of the news. Media General, parent company of The Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV, News Channel 8, and TBO, filed a motion in opposition to the temporary protective order filed by the defense. They wanted access to restricted information that they believed the public had a right to know.
CHAPTER 40
On May 9, Parker Schenecker filed his response to Julie’s demands. He denied her request for alimony, calling it “unjust and inequitable,” and requested that the court dissolve his marriage prior to the June date scheduled for the court battle. His attorney Alexander Caballero wrote that Parker “has tried to treat his Wife with a respect she declined to show her children but to remain married to the person that coldly executed his children would be morally repugnant to him.”
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