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STORIES
BY LOU KILZER
An Internet support group
While Corey was confined in Western Samoa, Kasio was breezing through Teen Help's Montana program. She "graduated" from Spring Creek Lodge in 16 months.
Judge Shinn says that he and Kasio's social workers received an invitation from Laura to attend her graduation.
"I truthfully was hopeful that it was sent in the spirit of just saying 'she succeeded,"' Shinn says.
Others, he says, weren't so sure.
"Their interpretation was that it was sort of a message saying, 'I told you so."'
Laura says her reason was simple: "I wanted them to know that she was doing fine despite the fact that they didn't like what I had done with her, and in spite of the fact that they didn't like me."
On her way to El Paso, she stopped by Jetta Schmitt's home in Breckenridge, telling the foster mom that "she would have never made it" without the "tools she learned living here," says Schimtt.
After visiting her mother, she hoped to move to Denver and start college, Schmitt says.
Kasio began living with Laura. But by last November there were signs that things weren't turning out as Laura Murphy wanted.
In an Internet chat room for parents of Teen Help enrollees and graduates, Laura posted long letters encouraging parents to get tough with their kids and to believe in Teen Help.
Some of those postings were sent to the Denver Rocky Mountain News by a social worker who received them from a parent in the group.
Laura complained to other parents that Kasio was "unwilling to invest any effort in making friends and building a life here in El Paso because she has decided to dislike the town."
Kasio, she said, was looking for answers elsewhere.
"Elsewhere," Laura concluded, "is where she will find them."
Kasio moved out and was last known to be living in North Carolina. Efforts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful.
Kasio's phone has been disconnected, but Laura says she has called her recently.
Desperate Measures: Home
| Epilogue: Lost Boy
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