Girl, 11 by Amy Clarke (best memoirs of all time TXT) 📕

backfired, and she couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pleasure in that.

10

Justice Delayed podcast

December 19, 2019

Transcript: Season 5, Episode 3

[SOUND BREAK: Bell chiming as door opens; indistinct radio music playing.]

Elle:

Hi, are you Simeon Schmidt?

Simeon:

That’s me.

Elle:

Hi, my name is Elle Castillo. I spoke to you on the phone.

Simeon:

Ah, right. Hey, Lily! Lil. Can you come take over for a minute?

Elle voice-over:

I’m at the gas station off I-94, outside Lakeland, Minnesota. I can see the St. Croix River from where I’m standing, just shy of the Interstate Bridge that would take me over to Wisconsin. After a few minutes of wrangling with his wife, the owner, Simeon, brings me to his cramped office in the back of the building. Once we’re situated, I remind him why I’m here.

Elle:

So, I’m investigating the murders of the Countdown Killer from the late nineties, and I understand you have a connection to the case. You helped TCK’s last victim escape, is that right?

Simeon:

I don’t know about that. By the time she came to me, that little girl had run half a mile in the snow, barefoot. I think she gets full credit for her escape. I just gave her a warm place to wait for the police to arrive.

Elle:

That’s a fair point, but I’m sure she would still be grateful to you for providing a warm refuge and a place to call the police.

Simeon:

Anyone would have done the same.

Elle:

You may be right. Now, can you describe what happened that night?

Simeon:

Sure, well, I’ve owned this gas station for over twenty-five years, and I work seven days a week, open to close. My wife and I, we live in the little apartment above here, so when I close up, going home is as simple as climbing the stairs. That night was the same as any other. I was about to lock up, I think, turn in for the night, when I seen this little girl running toward the station. She burst through the door, and I knew right away something was wrong. Her hair was a rat’s nest, it looked like she hadn’t eaten in days, and she was only wearing a nightgown.

It took a few minutes to get her to talk. She seemed terrified, eyes wild, always looking behind her like a monster was chasing her. My wife finally woke up after I yelled for her a few times, and once the girl saw a woman in the room, her shoulders came down from her ears and she talked. While my wife called the police, the girl told me she’d run away from a cabin where a man was keeping her and forcing her to clean his house. She said she climbed out of the window and down a drainpipe and ran to my station in the snow. I wouldn’t have believed her, except you could tell she’d been through hell, you know? Plus, we’d seen the stories on the news about that psycho killer who was kidnapping girls. Anyway, she calmed down enough to drink some hot water and put on the pair of sweats my wife got her, and by then the police and ambulance were there. I never saw her again, except for her picture on the news a couple times.

Elle:

I imagine the police asked you some questions.

Simeon:

Oh yeah, they were here for an hour or two after, and I had to come into the station one other time, I think. Some detective from the Cities was here, the lead investigator on the TCK case, if I recall correctly. He wanted to ask me some questions about it, but I can’t really remember what they were, to be honest with you.

Elle:

And you got some media attention afterward, too, is that right?

Simeon:

Ah, I don’t know, I guess. The news cameras were around for a few days. I suppose it was a big story. We did good sales for a couple months, I remember that. Wife and I were able to spend a week at the Wisconsin Dells.

Elle voice-over:

In the days following Nora’s escape, the public and the police were on tenterhooks. On the one hand, everyone was relieved she had survived and would be returned to her parents after recovering in the hospital. On the other, for the first time, everyone was at a complete loss over what TCK would do. His second victim in a triad had escaped. Would he replace her with another one? Would he move on to the third, the ten-year-old, as if nothing had happened? Would he do the unthinkable and try to recapture Nora? The last, at least, they did everything in their power to prevent. Police put her and her family under twenty-four-hour watch for a month after she escaped. Her father, a moderately wealthy bank manager, hired security for several more months when the law enforcement detail was removed. By July, no new victims that matched TCK’s pattern had been taken, and Nora turned twelve years old.

But by that time, most people believed all of those precautions had been unnecessary.

[SOUND BREAK: Snow crunching underfoot; a crow cawing.]

Elle voice-over:

I’m here at the site of the two-story cabin where police say Nora Watson was kept. To avoid retraumatizing her, police never brought her back here. But based on pictures of the area and distance from the gas station, it’s the most likely location. And there is one other reason to think this is where Nora was held captive. When police found it, it was a pile of ashes and charred wood, still smoldering in the frigid winter air.

There is nothing left of the cabin now, just a small empty clearing in the middle of the woods. Forests don’t come thick in these parts, but this cabin is surrounded by about as many trees as you can find here. It’s set back a mile from any major highway, accessible only by a narrow gravel road that passes by an even narrower gravel driveway. This land is owned now by the same people