Recipe For a nightmare... The conclusion of my story about my sister and niece.

This is a crazy world and it is sad that we have to be hardened by it and not be the trusting person we are naturally but be guarded.  This was a hard lesion my little sister and one I had to learn recently too.  But the fact is this is a cursed world and sin is in it.  We cannot blame God because of other people's evil actions.  He did not author sin, but all that is good comes from him. 

I shared my previous entries with my Mom wondering if it would be suitable to share with Marcy.  You can guess this is an emotional thing and I do not ever want to cause pain to my family.  I am glad my Mom approved of me telling this story in my Blog but I am sad that it made her cry and relive those memories.  I have yet to decided if I will send Marcy a link.  She knows my journal but like most in my family does not follow my day to day rants.  I have to invite them most of the time when I have written something I feel pertains to them and is something I really want them to read. It is crazy.. most of my deepest thoughts can be expressed here and if my loved ones would bother to read them they would know me so much better but yet again, I should be able to talk to them and tell them my thoughts, it just seems easier to work it out in here.  Sometimes I am grateful my husband doesn't read this often or that my other family members only think of this as my silly place in cyber space.  And I am so grateful for my journal friends who almost know me as well as my off line friends.  Sharing with ppl who I know are sweet and kind yet objective adds to the draw of J~Land, but really it is just bonus.

So what is the story?  How was Jasmine Kidnapped out of a Chicago Bus Station on Christmas Eve '01?  If you watched the news or read about it in the papers they make it sound as if Marcella said "Here hold my baby", to a total stranger and she walked away to cash in her ticket.  They make her look irresponsible and almost unfit to have a child.  I have heard ppl say WHAT WAS SHE THINKING, how dumb can you be! And even that she deserved what she got for being so trusting!  Well, for one people only know what the media said and another, people can be so judgmental. When given the circumstances, you don't know how you would behave or react. How did we become a society that blames the victim and feels sorry for the assailant?

The police had said that Marcy trulywas not to blame, that she just happen to be the one picked out, to fit a profile, to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, if it wasn't her it would have surely been someone else.

Imagine a women, who had gotten away with kidnapping children and claiming them as her own before and getting off with just a slap on the wrist.  Imagine her wanting to desperately hold on to a man who was in her life and then he became the guest of the Cal. Prison system.  Imagine telling said man that she had a baby girl by him, a mixed child.  It is Christmas and he is visiting his family in Chicago because he is on parol and finally wants to meet this child of his.  Imagine she has planned this all out to the letter, preparing a home with baby items and clothes that would fit this mythical child.  She travels from West Virginia, where she is not the closets with her own family, to Chicago to a family waiting to meet this child she claims belongs to them. She gets there and tells them her mother is going to meet her at the bus station and give her this child to share with this family... If you could imagine such a women you would be thinking of Sheila Matthews.

Now imagine my sister Marcy.  Weary from travel.  She had just taken a plane ride from St. Louis with her children, both under 5.  They had taken a taxi from the small out of the way airport to the bus station.  The children are fussy, her bags are heavy. She is upset that the children's father is not with her as planned but is happy to return home to him to spend Christmas as a family with each other.  Most of her life she has only received kindness from strangers who have helped her here and there, as was the case with the trip to St. Louis when she was abandoned by her boyfriend and aided to the plane by many smiling ppl.  She gets to the bus station and it is packed with holiday travelers, like herself.  She gets out of the taxi with the small children in tow and is struggling with her bags.  Again there is a kind man offering to help her with her bags, who even walks in line with her as she purchases her tickets to Milwaukee. She notices a lady walking around as if looking for someone, she walks by Marcy and smiles but doesn't say a word to her and keeps looking for who ever she is there for. Marcy gets her tickets and finds a place to sit in the crowded bus station, in for a long wait ahead of her.

You put the two women together and you have the recipe for this nightmare.

I don't know what the exact dialogue was between the two of them.. That would be for my sister to tell but I know the gist of what was said and what Marcy herself had told me.  The woman walking around passed by a few times, always with a smile but then looking away as if waiting for someone and then came and sat next to her. Jasmine was fussy, tired and probably a bit hungry also.  Alysia was probably not in the best of moods either.  Traveling with two small children is never the easiest thing.  I myself have traveled threw that Chicago bus station with just one small child and know the difficulties associated with that.  As people do they sit and chat about their travels and what they are doing and where they are going.  This women told my sister she was waiting for her older daughter to come home from College and then she was going to drive her up to Milwaukee, no doubt after Marcy had told her that was her destination as well.  This women must be very smooth for Marcy to feel comfortable with her enough to hold Jasmine as they wait.  I am sure it was something of a relief to get a bit of help with her.  Shelia likely played and sang to her some as she was talking with Marcy.  I know this is something I have done with other ppl in doctor offices and waiting rooms, both ways.  Children are always good conversation starters.  In the course of thier conversation this women invites Marcy along for the ride up to Milwaukee, since that is where they are all heading, she had plenty of room for her and the girls in her van.  For most people this would send up big red flags and warning signals but for Marcy it was the help she needed, she would save on the money for the 3 tickets she had to buy and also would not have to be stuck in a bus that takes almost twice the time to make the trip than a car ride would take.  As the saying goes.. too good to be true.

Marcy agrees and Sheila suggest to Marcy to go up to the counter and cash her tickets back in and when her daughter gets there they can be on their way.  Marcy stands up and starts to take Jasmine back but Sheila says she will hold her as she goes up.  Marcy insists on taking Jasmine back so Sheila says she will walk up there with her and stand in line with her, to make it easier on her.  They stand in line together and inch by inch threw the line back to the counter of the crowded bus station.  Sheila is by Marcy's side the whole time in line but looking around again, as if looking for her own daughter that was supposedly due in any time.  They get to the ticket counter, Marcy again says she can hold Jasmine now but Sheila insists, it would be easier to sign what ever papers if she held the 18 month fussy girl herself. Marcy turns for a split second to say something to the person behind the counter and hears Sheila say "Oh there is my daughter, I will be right back".  Marcy turns back around and yells "Wait! Hold on, give me my child back" but the women is already making her way threw the holiday crowd.  For Marcy it was like slow motion and her voice was being drowned out by all those around her. 

It was the start of her nightmare, the kind that you try and wake up from but can't seem to.  The woman holding her child was running and getting farther and farther away and Marcy tried to get to her, to get past the other people in her way.  No one seems to be aware that someone has just stolen her child and Marcy is just becoming aware that this could be the fact of the matter.  The women is now out of sight and Marcy is franticly searching every possible nook and cranny of the bus station, the bathrooms, the outside terminals, the street, but nothing. The women and Jasmine are gone, just like that!

Sheila had dashed off to the street where she had someone waiting there for her with the car running.  She yells go go go, my mother is crazy and is chasing me, she didn't want to give me back my child.  The one driving is believing she is the grandmother to this child and she speeds away.  Sheila Matthews is one of the cruelest con-persons out there, the kind that gives you hope and makes you feel good about doing her dirty work.  They get home and have a wonderful Christmas as they love on this child, dress her up in the most beautiful outfits and take pictures in front of the tree.  Only Sheila knows the truth and she is insistant that she leave for her home in West Virginia and her boyfriend tags along with her.  The family feels something is up, but do not act on it. It was only two days later, after all the Christmas festivities was over and they turned on the t.v. and seeing the news reports and the pic of the child on, they realize it is the same baby they just had in their home.  How Sheila ever got out of Chicago is amazing, since the Police had the city shut down tight and doing a detailed search of all cars leaving on the highways. 

The family calls the police and turn over the pictures that had been taken.  It was heart breaking for Marcy to look at them and identify Jasmine in them.  The Christmas they had with her child, the one stolen from her and her family, it should have been their tree and the clothes she had picked out on Jasmine, it should have been Marcy and Greg in those pictures, not these strangers! The family asked to be kept out of the media and to this day that request has been met. They themselves had felt like fools and also cheated. Very understandable. 

On the way back to WV it is said that Jasmine never once cried out or was out of the ordinary.  She was perfectly comfortable.  Sheila Matthews on her arrival to her home state was in a car accident and had called her sister to come and pick them up and drop them off at home.  The sister said she was not alarmed that Sheila had this child with her, she figured it was the visiting boyfriend's child.  She said Jasmine seemed fine with them, almost natural I guess.  I have to wonder how much of that is true, surely Jasmine fussed some, she must have asked for her momma, she was the baby of the family and not used to being with strangers.  When the sister got back to her home she also saw the news reports, the alerts of the missing child taken on Christmas Eve.  She knew it was Jasmine and she says Jesus told her to not hesitate in calling the authorities and turning her sister in.  For this we all are very thankful!

It took awhile for the media circus to die down around Marcy and our family. Every morning show wanted her and fought for the first interview. All the local news crews was camped outside her house.  Marcy just wanted to get back to normal life and enjoy being home with her daughters.  She tired to fade back into that. It was hard. People recognized her all over, went to her work just to talk to her and tell her how they had followed her story and prayed for her.  Anytime there was a kidnapping the news would call Marcy for a quote.  She had nothing to say, just that she was blessed and to keep the faith.  When Sheila Matthews came up to trial it all heated up again.  At firstit looked good that this women would get life for this crime, but that fell threw since the previous cases involving her as a kidnapper had not been processed right or tried right.  The Lang of the law is a funny thing sometimes I guess.  Letters was written to the judge encouraging him to give this women the full sentence so that she could never repeat this crime.  I guess the best the Judge could do was give Sheila 10yrs in Federal prison with mandatory psychiatric monitoring and that 5yrs after she got out she would still be monitored.  It was assured that she would serve the 10 yrs, no chance for early release.  The best we can hope for that by then she will be past child bearing years and will have the idea out of her head.

Our families are still healing. I can say I forgive this women and pray for her to find forgiveness threw Jesus Christ and that she would turn her whole life over to him.  Jasmine will always be treasured by us but not anymore than my other nieces. Jasmine will never remember unless told of what happen when she was a baby.  Marcy has since had twin girls and has gone on with her life.  It is a happy ending.