|
STORIES
BY LOU KILZER
From Sterling to Samoa
Corey Murphy spent part of his formative years in Sterling, a farming town of 10,400 along the South Platte River 125 miles northeast of Denver.
Laura was an anesthesiology nurse at Sterling Regional Medical Center. She, Corey and his older sister Kasio lived in a handsome two-story home in one of Sterling's better neighborhoods.
The children's father, Mitchell Humason, a dentist, had long since been divorced from Laura.
Teachers and staff members at Sterling Middle School, which Corey attended in 1995, remember the boy well.
Assistant principal Bill Herzog recalls Corey's curly hair and gentle disposition. Herzog, the school's chief disciplinarian, says Corey didn't cause trouble.
Donna Eves, now a Sterling High School guidance counselor, taught Corey eighth-grade science. Corey, she says, was a "cute little kid who worked well with whoever was in his group."
Kent Armstrong, Corey's history teacher, says he was a "good kid" who liked to speak with his teacher between classes.
Armstrong and Beth Savolt, Corey's eighth-grade English teacher, noted one behavior that distinguished him:
"He liked talking to adults," Savolt says.
But the educators and neighbors sensed a certain melancholy in Corey. They didn't know he'd already tried to take his own life.
"Every time he had an argument with his mom, he'd have a bad day in school," Armstrong says. "I'd ask what's wrong, and he'd cry."
But Corey wouldn't talk much about what was bothering him.
Corey was on a plane for Teen Help's compound in Western Samoa. His mother had concluded that her son needed the program's strict regimen. Families typically pay about $30,000 a year to keep a child in the program.
Eves says that none of the teachers at Sterling Middle School knew why Laura Murphy sent Corey half a world away to a compound Teen Help calls Paradise Cove.
"We had no idea," Eves says. "She never came to talk to any of us."
Also stunned by Corey's sudden departure were Jeff and Kristy Chavez, neighbors of the Murphy family. Corey, they say, acted as an older brother to their son, and Kristy and Jeff often acted as surrogate parents to Corey.
Corey asked them to attend such school events as track meets and Christmas programs — but begged them not to tell his mother.
Laura says she doesn't remember the Chavezes, and knew nothing about Corey's relationship with them.
Corey, the Chavezes say, was constantly around, taking out trash and performing family chores. "He liked the discipline," Kristy says.
Desperate Measures: Home
| Epilogue: Lost Boy
|
