After the couple split, it was usually David who brought Karly in for medical care. Karly saw the doctor in June 2004 because David wanted to discuss some digestive issues Karly had been experiencing. Dr. deSoyza didn’t see Karly again until November 17, 2004. This time it was at the request of an official with Department of Human Services Child Welfare, who wanted Dr. deSoyza to evaluate the child for signs of possible child abuse.
Before making that first call to the state’s abuse hotline, Delynn had attempted to collect more information from Karly.
“Does your momma work at night?” she asked Karly.
Karly nodded yes.
“Who takes care of you when your momma is gone?”
“Shawn does,” Karly said.
“Do you like it when Shawn takes care of you?” Delynn asked.
“No, Shawn spanks me,” Karly whimpered.
That was exactly the answer Delynn expected. Suspicious of Sarah and her lifestyle, Delynn needed to get as many details as she could. She repeated what Karly had said back to the child in hopes that Karly would elaborate.
“Shawn spanks you?”
“No,” Karly said, shaking her head. She was clearly agitated now, panicky even. “My daddy spanks me,” she said, and began to cry. “I’m tired, Delynn.”
Troubled that she had upset the fragile child, Delynn said, “You eat a little now and then you can lay down on the couch, okay?” Karly nodded.
When David called after lunch, Delynn told him Karly had been listless all morning long, preferring sleep rather than playing with the other children. She did not eat her lunch.
“You need to get her in to a see a doctor,” Delynn said.
“Okay,” David said. “I’ll do that.”
“You know as a daycare provider I’m required by law to report the changes I’m seeing in Karly,” Delynn warned.
“You do what you need to do,” David said. He was at his wits’ end trying to figure out what was wrong with Karly. David had asked Delynn if she had ever seen hair loss like Karly’s before. She had not. David welcomed the idea of the complaints about Karly coming from someone besides himself. Any time he questioned her, Sarah would accuse him of being jealous and controlling. David didn’t know if Karly had some undetermined illness or if she was miserable about her mother’s new living arrangement. He knew, however, that Sarah lived in a constant state of flux, changing jobs, changing boyfriends, and changing living arrangements every few months.
On Tuesday, November 16, 2004, Matt Stark was working at the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), the state agency responsible for protecting children from neglect and abuse, when he first received a referral for assessment alleging possible physical abuse regarding Karla Isabelle Ruth Sheehan.
That next day, in the early afternoon, Stark called Delynn, who carefully outlined her concerns: Karly’s erratic sleeping pattern, her hair loss and an occasional odd bruising. Delynn told Stark she’d insisted the parents get Karly in to see a doctor immediately. David had called to say Karly had an appointment that very evening with Dr. deSoyza at Samaritan Health Services in Corvallis. Oh, yeah, and there was one more thing Stark should know: Sarah, Karly’s mama, was upset and she was a force to be reckoned with.
“David told her I’d called the state and that it was her fault,” Delynn said. “Sarah accused me of getting David mad at her. In the meantime, I’m looking at their daughter asleep on my couch, thinking, why is Karly sleeping for six hours here? Why is she behaving this way?”
Stark collected background information from Delynn. After discussing the case with one of his coworkers, he called Detective Karin Stauder of the Corvallis Police Department.
Stauder handled most of the child abuse cases for the police department and served on the Linn/Benton Counties Child Abuse Response Team (CART). The two discussed the case in detail. Then Stark called Dr. Carol Chervenak, the medical director for the child victim assessment center, known as the ABC (All Because Of Children) House, in nearby Albany.
“I asked Dr. Chervenak for some guidance,” Stark said. “And I reported the disturbed sleeping patterns and hair loss specifically.”
Dr. Chervenak should have evaluated Karly. That was standard operating procedure for any suspected case of child abuse—but Stark made an exception, allowing David and Sarah Sheehan to take Karly to see her doctor instead.
Stark’s decision proved to be a critical blunder, an error in judgment in a long line of such miscalculations. The moment former District Attorney Scott Heiser referred to as a “failure.”
Another key piece of information overlooked was that Sarah’s live-in situation had recently changed. There was a new man in her life, and in Karly’s. Instead, Shawn Field was about the last person investigators suspected. He was a hometown boy. His daddy was a longtime employee of HP. He came from good stock. Shawn had yard signs and bumper stickers on his car urging people to vote conservatively—to protect family values.
Dr. deSoyza agreed to see Karly at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 17, 2004. Shortly before Sarah arrived to pick up Karly from Rugrats, Delynn attempted to pry information from the child. “I asked how she got the ‘owies’ on her head. I hadn’t noticed them the day before, but they were little scabby areas. She told me, ‘My dad did it. He bites me.’”
Delynn was more confused than ever. She drafted a letter for the doctor, insisted Sarah read and initial it.
Nov. 17, 2004
To whom it may concern:
Today Karly slept over 5 hours at daycare. On Friday, Nov. 12, she slept 4 hours (2 naps). Tuesday Nov. 16, she slept 4 hours (2 naps) as well. Karly is requesting to take naps. She complains of being tired. She fell asleep 2 times before lunch 2 different days the week of Nov. 8 while she was sitting up watching “Barney.”
These 2 days are NOT the same days I have allowed her to nap in the morning. Karly has been eating very well (not as much today) and requests “more” food often. Karly is listless and will not wake up from noise (other children) and seems uninterested in childcare routine and activities.
She fell asleep (after asking to go take a nap) on the couch at 9:20 a.m. and I could not wake her up until lunchtime. She ate sparingly and requested to go back to sleep. I laid her down again at 1:00 and she fell back to sleep at approx. 1:15 p.m. She will not wake up readily to prompting and at 3:30 I tried to wake her. She would not wake up. Her hair loss is noticeable and I am concerned about her health. Delynn Zoller.
Delynn was the first person to file a report of possible child abuse. Had she failed to do so, Delynn could have been in trouble with the law herself.
David and Sarah had no idea a caseworker would join them at the doctor’s office. They were talking with Mona Schneider, Dr. deSoyza’s nurse, when Matt Stark showed up. A bookish-looking fellow with straight brown hair, Stark looks like the sort of person who might pluck a guitar and write songs rather than a man who spends his afternoons jotting graphic notes about child abuse.
After introducing himself, Stark asked David and Sarah what changes they had observed in Karly. As her parents talked, Stark scribbled some details about the toddler’s appearance that he would later translate for investigators:
“Karly had short, patchy hair and it appeared that she had lost some hair in areas concentrated to the left and right sides from the center of her head. I also noticed a yellowish spot at the top of Karly’s head. It appeared at first glance to be bruising, an aging bruise or fading bruise.”
Stark asked about Karly’s recent sleeping patterns and, of course, the hair loss. To his credit, Stark also asked Sarah whether or not Karly was ever left alone with her new boyfriend.
Was Karly ever left alone with Shawn? That one question had been burning the edges of David’s sanity for weeks now. David’s heart quickened as he searched Sarah’s eyes for any hint of deception. Surely, Sarah wouldn’t lie to a state investigator when the welfare of her own daughter was at risk. Sarah stared directly into David’s eyes as she answe
red Stark’s question.
“I was looking right at her as she told Matt Stark that Shawn was never alone with Karly,” David said. “Like an idiot I believed her. I didn’t think Shawn was ever left alone with Karly, so how could he possibly be harming her?”
David would later learn of other lies Sarah told him about Shawn. “I can’t believe all the lies she told to protect him from the start. She told me they met at a playground, but in fact it was at a bar.”
Stark was pleased with how cooperative David and Sarah were, but as soon as Stark told Sarah and David that he wanted to speak to Karly without them present, the little girl got visibly upset. Worried about Karly’s reaction, Stark asked Nurse Schneider to stick around and assist him with the interview. She did.
Karly never made eye contact with Stark, nor did she answer to any of his direct questions, even the simplest ones. The stuffed animals and the action figures the nurse had retrieved from a toy bin distracted her. Karly nodded her response to most of the questions. Whenever Stark attempted to ask more detailed questions, specifically, “Tell me about your father,” Karly immediately began crying for her daddy.
Stark ended the interview.
Dr. deSoyza greeted Karly warmly and noticed right away that the toddler wasn’t her typical self. During routine visits, well-baby checks and such, Karly was always talkative, vivacious, and full of mischief. Generally, she liked to pull out all the drawers and explore the exam room, but not on this night.
“Karly seemed a little clingy, a little subdued,” Dr. deSoyza noted. The doctor spotted a small bruise on Karly’s right cheek and hair loss at the crown of her head, toward the back. The spot wasn’t tender to the touch but it did have some discoloration.
After speaking with David and Sarah, Dr. deSoyza ordered blood work to test for lead poisoning. She also ordered an iron and thyroid panel. All the tests came back within normal range. Karly’s tiredness, bruising and hair loss were not the result of an underlying medical condition. At this visit and the ones that would follow, Dr. deSoyza was stumped by Karly’s ongoing symptoms. It was difficult for the family doctor to contemplate child abuse, given her long-standing relationship with David and Sarah. She regarded them as caring parents. It was her reluctance to entertain child abuse that would help throw the investigation off-course.
But that night, before leaving the doctor’s office, Matt Stark told David and Sarah that the state would continue its investigation, in cooperation with the Corvallis Police Department.
It was an ominous statement, and embedded within it was a warning for David.
Chapter Eighteen
The next day, Stark attended a meeting with other members of the Child Abuse Response Team (CART). He briefed the team, which included Detective Stauder, about the previous night’s visit with Karly and her parents. The team urged him to conduct another follow-up visit.
That afternoon Matt Stark paid a visit to Rugrats Daycare. Delynn had remembered one other thing she thought Stark might need to know: Karly’s recent haircut. She told him all about the French braid incident.
The braid incident was something even Dr. deSoyza later described to me as disturbing. Sarah gave the doctor the same story she’d given Delynn: that Karly woke up with her hair so badly matted she’d had to cut it short.
“It was a pretty weird story,” deSoyza said. “Why would you cut hair in that fashion? Instead of trying to untangle it, you cut it off? I thought it was a strange way of dealing with a problem like that. You don’t cut off somebody’s hair because it’s too tangled to deal with. It was all too weird.”
It seemed odd at the time, but it was just one more puzzling thing in a long list of puzzling things.
Matt Stark hoped that if he visited with Karly in the safe environment of her daycare provider, the toddler would be less suspicious of him.
The children were sitting around a table, having a snack when Stark joined them, making small talk. Again, Karly avoided eye contact and remained quiet.
Stark asked her about her haircut.
She didn’t respond.
He asked her who took care of her hair.
“My daddy,” she said.
He asked if her daddy washed her hair.
“Yes,” she said.
He asked what else she could tell him about her hair.
Karly didn’t respond.
He asked what she liked about her daddy.
Karly began to cry and ask for her father, in much the same manner as she had night before at Dr. deSoyza’s office.
“As soon as I mentioned him, Karly was immediately distraught and wanting her dad,” Stark said. “This was more than quiet sobbing and tears. It was to the point that I had to respect her emotional state and end the interview.”
Again.
Stark’s methodology frustrated Delynn. She felt he mishandled the interview. “I was very unimpressed by the way he just bluntly asked Karly questions,” Delynn said. “She was very distrusting anyway. Karly cried and said her classic response to any question: ‘I want my daddy!’”
Stark called David and Sarah and left them each a voice message letting them know he had talked to their daughter. He may have been baiting them, trying to figure out their level of concern, to see if he could get a clear read on them.
Sarah made it easy: she was mad and she let Stark know it.
“She sounded like she was pretty upset about this investigation,” Stark said. “I didn’t notice her crying or anything, but she was concerned.”
Once the state launched its investigation, Sarah promised David she wouldn’t take Karly around Shawn anymore. They agreed that from here on out Karly would stay with David.
Chapter Nineteen
One happy day during the fall of 2004, David and Karly took a stroll, kicking golden leaves high off the tips of their boots. “Karly, why are you so good?” David asked.
“Because I am,” Karly replied.
“Karly, why are you so lovely?”
“Because I am.”
David paused as Karly jumped down hard on a pile of crunchy mulch. “And precious too?” Karly asked, smirking slyly at her father. “Karly, why are you so precious?” David asked, accepting the cue. She gave a dismissive but confident shrug and replied, “Because I am.”
The first week in December 2004, David took Karly to a rodeo at the Benton County fairgrounds. It was a first for the both of them. Karly whooped it up for the cowgirls on fast horses making sharp turns around big barrels and giggled through the antics of the big-footed clown. And every single time the big bulls came snorting out of the holding pens, Karly let loose with a loud guttural “ROAR!” sending others sitting nearby into fits of laughter. But halfway through the show, shortly after she’d finished her hot dog lunch, Karly grew restless.
David noticed her inching away, exploring the dusty bleachers. He told Karly to stop rolling around and to sit down beside him. His tone was firm. Frustrated, Karly responded by slapping at her head, open-handed. David took hold of Karly’s hands and told her that if she didn’t start behaving properly they were going to leave. Tired and crying, she continued slapping herself, so David picked her up and took her home.
The whole incident unnerved David enough that he mentioned it the next day during a phone call with Matt Stark, who made a note of it: “Karly got mad and started tugging at her own hair. Father is convinced she has been pulling her own hair.” Those were Matt Stark’s words and his assessment. David recalls telling Stark that Karly tugged on her hair, but David never saw, or said he saw, Karly pulling her hair.
Stark told David that Karly needed to see her doctor again. Then Stark called Delynn, who told him Karly was much better. She wasn’t crying nearly as often, nor as clingy or tired. Delynn attributed the changes to Karly spending less time with Shawn and more time with David. Stark made a note of that, too.
During the previous week, Stark had stumbled across troubling information while running a routine background check on the adults
in Karly’s life: Shawn Field’s history of domestic violence with his ex-wife, Eileen. The state investigator did not bother to mention it to Dr. deSoyza or Delynn Zoller or even to Dr. Carol Chervenak. Despite the documented history of domestic violence, Shawn wasn’t even on the radar as a suspect for child abuse.
The same day that David spoke with Stark about Karly’s behavior at the rodeo, Stark called Dr. Chervenak again, seeking her advice. Dr. Chervenak had personally examined more than 1,500 children on suspicion of abuse. But in Karly’s case, Dr. Chervenak relied on two people to provide her with an on-site evaluation: Matt Stark and Corvallis Police Detective Karin Stauder. The fact that Dr. Chervenak did not examine Karly prior to her death indicates that someone suggested such an assessment wasn’t warranted. That oversight would be identified later as one of the first major foul-ups in a case chock-full of them.
On Monday, December 6, 2004, per Matt Stark’s suggestion, David and Sarah took Karly back to Dr. deSoyza’s for a follow-up exam that afternoon. David told the doctor about Karly slapping herself during the rodeo.
Dr. deSoyza knew David Sheehan had recently changed jobs and was driving back and forth to Hillsboro, due west of Portland—a three-hour round trip from Corvallis, even longer in bad traffic. David was also working on his master’s degree at George Fox University one night a week, a seventy-five-minute drive from home. But as David explained to Dr. deSoyza and Matt Stark, on the days Karly was with him David worked shorter days, so that the time he spent with her was the same as it had been before the job change and long commute.
In Karly’s medical file, Dr. deSoyza made note that Sarah had recently moved in with a new boyfriend shortly before Karly started displaying bruises, thinning hair, and exhaustion. Dr. Chervenak, who had vast experience in identifying child abuse, would have automatically suspected Karly was being abused, given the physical symptoms and all the changes in Karly’s life: her dad’s prolonged absences, her mother’s new boyfriend, and the new living situation.
A Silence of Mockingbirds Page 9