A Sad Story about Charity Powers

When I was in 6th grade, Charity Powers went missing. The blonde hair blue eyed Charity was a classmate, but had recently transferred to a neighboring school in town. Naturally, the story of her "abduction" spread like wild fire around my Sleepy Virginia town: her mom dropped her off at Chester Skateland but forgot to pick her up and the last anyone saw of her was at a nearby Hardee's Restaurant. As one story had it, when Charity asked a sassy Hardee's employee for the time, the woman answered, "Time for you to be in bed."

Normally, when something like that happens at a school, grief counselors are brought in to help students deal with it. When another classmate died that year of Leukemia, an official announcement was made and our teachers asked us if we wanted to talk about it. And years later, when a popular senior at my high school died in a car crash, almost everyone was allowed to stay home and mourn.

But when Charity Powers disappeared, none of that happened. It wasn't talked about in an official way. Even the rumors were discussed very casually, as if we were gossiping about a cheerleading scandal or new gym class policy. We weren't given a "Don't Talk to Strangers" lessons or asked what we would do if our parents never showed up to pick us up. And I don't remember being scared. As it was, my town was largely middle class family town, and Charity was from "the wrong side of the tracks". Her mom had a different last name as Charity. Sadly, most of the adults in my town thought her abduction didn't apply to their children. Whenever it was discussed, there was always a tone of "That could never happen to you, dear, your mom wouldn't forget to pick you up."

While that may be true--my mom always did come through for me--I wasn't struck by how sad and regrettable the whole affair was until later, in my college years, when I realized the implications of that attitude. I was reminded of it again, this past fall, when Hurricaine Katrina devastated Mississippi and Lousiana and the people who were left stranded those who didn’t have the resources to leave, were initially forgotten and dismissed.

Within a few weeks of her disappearance, the chatter about Charity subsided. Months passed and Charity was never found. What seemed like a year later, her body was found in the back yard of a man who lived near the Skateland.

Recently, curious to know the truth, I researched her death on the internet and discovered the facts: Charity’s mom had arranged for a family friend to pick her up, but the friend fell asleep. Later that evening, Charity’s mom came home and discovered that she was missing. Charity was indeed last seen at a Hardee’s restaurant, and so was Everett Lee Mueller, according to 4 teenage eye-witnesses who had also been at the skating rink. When the police searched Mueller’s backyard, four months later, they found Charity buried in a shallow grave. Mueller later confessed on video tape to taking her home, having sex with her and strangling her. He testified that he was drunk at the time and thought that the 10 year old Charity was 19 years old. The next morning he thought the whole episode was a dream until he came across her body. He proceeded to burn her clothes and jewelry and bury with a shovel. Autopsy reports say that Charity’s throat was also cut and also indicated that she was also stabbed repeatedly. Mueller was tried by jury and sentenced to death for 2 counts of capital murder, but petitioned clemency by saying that he found the girl's body while walking through the woods behind his home. His petition was denied and Everett Lee Mueller was executed on September 19, 1999 by lethal injection, the 573rd American to be executed.

In my research, I came across a picture of Charity. It was interesting to compare the picture in my mind to the real picture. She looks like a normal, happy 10 year old.

When I was in sixth grade, I was told her mother was to blame—that Charity’s fate would have been different had her mother been a good mom. But what if I were at the Skateland and my mother was in a car crash and failed to show up? That creep still would have been on the prowl and the outcome probably would have been the same. And what about all of the others involved? What about the owners of the skating rink? Why hadn’t they noticed that a 10 year old girl was stranded? What about the teenagers who knew Charity? Why didn’t they offer to help her? What about the Hardee’s employees? Weren’t they worried about this little girl, who was there unattended late at night? Maybe it was unwise for the mother to leave her daughter in the care of someone irresponsible enough to fall asleep and forget her. Maybe her mother should not have left a 10 year old girl unsupervised at a skating rink, despite the fact that she was familiar with the staff.

Ultimately, the community didn’t protect her. We didn’t protect her life when she was stranded, we didn’t protect her honor when she was abducted and we didn’t protect her memory when she died.