Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Page #10

and asked a woman for directions

along this road

around 12:
45 a.m.

She parked behind his house,

left a used tampon and photos of

the two of you on his property,

completing her attempt

to frame this man

for what she was about to do,

then took you down to the ocean

behind his home.

A night watchman in the area

thought he heard a baby crying

in the distance

around 2:
30 a.m.

Shirley took her prescription

for Ativan,

prescribed for her

by psychiatrist John Doucet,

mixed it into your formula,

then took some herself.

The only good thing

we know about this

is that you were not conscious

and you did not suffer.

She then...

She then walked

to the edge of a pier

and with you strapped

to her stomach with a sweater,

she jumped

into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mommy loves you.

Yes, I do.

Mommy loves you.

Did you have a nice nap?

What did you dream about?

Mommy loves you.

Mommy misses you.

He was found face upward

with his eyes wide open.

And the policeman who found him

said that he had wrapped him

in a blanket

rather than a plastic bag,

and he and another officer

carried him gently back.

And he made very sure that

he kept the body very far away

from the wicked woman

who had murdered him.

When I sit here,

I hate her so much.

When we came here,

David and I realized

what Shirley Turner was.

She was the devil.

But people think that you're

some kind of basic religious nut

if you believe in the devil.

I haven't prayed

since Zachary died. I haven't.

I have some issues

I have to deal with.

You know, my faith

has been tested by this.

Was a beautiful service.

A real tribute

to the little boy.

Oh, I don't know how many people

were here, probably 300 or 400.

Maybe more.

I don't recall.

I've never seen a coffin

so small before.

They shouldn't have them

that size.

He was in his little suit

that he'd had

the pictures taken in, I think.

What went in it?

What went in it?

His little ball.

And I don't remember

if she put a truck in.

Lots of kisses and hugs

and tears went in it.

Lots of hopes and dreams.

Your grandma and grandpa

went back to England

and spread your ashes

with your dad's.

They went back to St. Louis

and spread your ashes

with your dad's.

And I didn't go with him.

Andrew wanted to be cremated.

Oh, yes.

Yes.

What bothers Kate

is that she did not go with him

to the crematorium

and stay with him

right to the end.

He went from the funeral home

to the crematorium all alone.

In plastic bags.

With only his head sticking out!

Come on, Kate.

He wouldn't care about that.

That's why we went right up

to the oven doors with Zachary.

This is what

that f***ing b*tch didn't know!

Or maybe she did know.

This is what she's leaving.

Maybe she did know.

If she thought about it at all,

she didn't give a good goddamn!

And this is what I hate her for.

I hate her for a lot of things.

Stealing

the rest of Andrew's life

and virtually

all of Zachary's life

and then this.

Leaving us like this.

A couple of times,

lying in there in bed at night,

I considered fixing the problem

myself.

Pick a night when Kate took

a sleeping pill,

so she wouldn't know I was up.

Get up in the middle

of the night.

Dream up a pretext.

Go kill Shirley and come back

and go back to bed,

so Kate would not know.

That way, number one,

she could not harm Zachary.

And number two, even if

they did catch me at it,

I'm the first one they come

looking for, of course,

but Kate could truthfully say

she didn't know

that I was doing it,

so she might still

get to bring up Zachary

and get him started, even

if I go to prison in Canada.

We've worked through

possibilities ad nauseam.

Suppose we grab Zachary and run.

Number one, we got to get

off the island of Newfoundland.

The big drawback against living

here is getting out of here.

There's only three ways

to do that.

Ferry, boat, airplane.

The airplane and the ferry

would be covered

as soon as Zachary's missing.

We'd have to hire a boat

somehow,

which means you take in

a third party

to the crime of kidnapping.

We can't go home.

We cannot ever identify

ourselves as ourselves.

Have cash only stashed

all around the country.

Zachary would never be allowed

to know his family, our friends.

So that path...

big, big, big, big risk

with a horrible life.

So that's out.

Legal approaches we might

have taken. Invent something.

File affidavit saying

Shirley slipped one night

when we were around

and said a threat of some kind

that might get her incarcerated.

But that would just be

our word against hers.

The best shot we had

at keeping Zachary alive

was I kill her myself.

Other than doing that,

I can think of no other way

to save Zachary from that b*tch.

There's a logic in it.

But I didn't do it.

'Cause I trusted government

to do its job.

Government

is supposed to stop that

so I don't have to do it

personally.

In this case, they didn't even

get her off the street

and they even gave her a baby

to look after.

My understanding is that

proper protocols were followed.

I have asked my officials to,

did ask them some time ago,

to follow up with the board

to see, in fact,

that all the proper protocols

had been adhered to.

They were gambling

Zachary's life.

They were gambling the lives

of anyone

in the general population

that Shirley

came in contact with.

We, the vast majority

of good people

who don't kill people,

are stuck.

We got nowhere to go.

We figured we'd hold

a press conference

and try to push

for changes in law.

The morning that we had

scheduled the press conference,

I was in the shower.

Kate came in with the phone.

"It's Jackie.

She says we can't hold

the press conference."

Technically, there's still

a press ban in place.

I said, "F*** them.

F*** them!

If they want to lock me up

for talking

while they let murderers walk

around free, just..."

We believe that Shirley Turner

bears 100%

of the responsibility

for the murder of our son,

Andrew.

We believe that the legal system

helped her to kill our grandson,

Zachary.

When Shirley Turner was formally

charged and escaped to Canada,

we naively thought she would be

sent back to Pennsylvania

within a few weeks at the most.

When we learned

that she was out on bail,

under an order

from Justice David Russell,

we were numb.

Numb!

Good afternoon.

Judge Russell's office.

I'm a documentary filmmaker,

and I'm doing a documentary

about the Zachary Turner case.

I think all he might have done

one time

was probably a bail review.

Is that what

you're calling about?

Yeah, it was December 12, 2001,

actually. Yeah.

Okay.

Judge Russell is sorry, but he

won't be able to be interviewed

in connection with that matter.

Crown Prosecutor Mike Madden

didn't even argue against

her release on bail that day

and instead entered

the courtroom

with an agreement already

in place for her release.

Mike Madden speaking.

I'm a documentary filmmaker.

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