Sleep, My Child, Forever

by John Coston

  BENDER: What time was that call placed?

  ELLEN: Uh, I don’t remember.

  BENDER: Was it about 11:30?

  ELLEN: Probably.

  BENDER: Okay. Was that true?

  ELLEN: No.

  BENDER: You actually had not even been back home. Okay. And it was not true that he had stopped breathing?

  ELLEN: No.

  BENDER: Could you tell me why you told her at that time?

  ELLEN: I just lied to her. I just wanted to spend the day with, with Steve.

  BENDER: Well, you said that for the 8:30 call, why would you call back? I don’t understand that.

  ELLEN: I just lied to her. I just didn’t want to go into work that day.

  BENDER: Well, she already apparently assumed that you weren’t going to be in to work.

  ELLEN: I know.

  BENDER: You told her that he had stopped breathing about 8:30, any reason why you would call back?

  ELLEN: To, well, she told me the first time to keep her informed of what was going on. To call her back.

  BENDER: Okay. So in other words you called her back about 11:30 and you told her that you got him to the hospital, he started breathing again so you brought him home. But now he stopped breathing again, and was going back to the hospital. Is that correct?

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BENDER: Uh, you mentioned your frustration of bills, uh, for a reason that you’d smothered Steve. Uh, could that have been for the, to gain the, in other words you received a certain amount of insurance when David died. You received about, uh, what was that, Joe?

  BURGOON: $5,000.

  BENDER: $5,000. Uh, that kind of helped you get out of a jam with your bills a little bit, didn’t it?

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BENDER: Could it have been that you were thinking when you smothered Steve that, uh, if you could collect that insurance that would get you, uh, on Easy Street, so to speak?

  ELLEN: No, I didn’t think it would put me on Easy Street.

  BENDER: Did you think that maybe it was going to straighten some things out?

  ELLEN: A little bit.

  BENDER: All right.

  ELLEN: I thought it was wrong.

  BENDER: Okay.

  ELLEN: And I regret every minute of it.

  BENDER: Now, you said that. Did Steve struggle when you smothered him?

  ELLEN: No.

  BENDER: No struggling whatsoever?

  ELLEN: He just kind of …

  BENDER: He just what?

  ELLEN: We had talked, and he kind of was half awake and half not, but he really didn’t, he really didn’t give a struggle.

  BENDER: He didn’t fight like David did?

  ELLEN: No. No. David was the fighter.

  BENDER: Okay. Did he fight hard?

  ELLEN: David? (Ellen begins to choke on her words a little, but there are no tears.)

  BENDER: Yeah. Okay. But Steve didn’t offer much resistance whatsoever? Okay. Uh, after you smothered Steve, I think you indicated that you weren’t sure that he was dead either, is that correct?

  ELLEN: (Nods.)

  BENDER: How long do you think that it was from the time that you took the pillow off of his face and put it back under his head, until you went to look for help?

  ELLEN: Maybe about a minute, a minute and a half.

  BENDER: Not long at all, then?

  ELLEN: No.

  BENDER: Okay. Uh, and then one other thing that I’d like to cover. Earlier we talked about the hair dryer in Stacy’s bathtub. And we talked about the fact that Stacy had talked to two police officers, and her story was that she had, that you had arrived home, and that she had read a story in a book to her brother, Steven. And that she told the officers at that time that Steven had gotten into bed and gone to sleep and that’s when she told you she was going to take her bath, and you helped her with her bathwater and whatever and she began taking a bath. I think we also talked about at the time, uh, she said that she felt something like, she described it as being drawn down into the bathtub. A feeling like that, and that, uh, when she, when this feeling ceased, that, uh, that the only person in the room was you and her, and that she had never seen Steven in the bathroom. You recall that?

  ELLEN: Yes, I recall it, but Steve was there.

  BENDER: Okay. Could you try to explain to us, you know, why maybe she would exclude Steve from being in the bathroom at that time?

  ELLEN: I think the shock of it, of the water, of the feelings that she was getting. Steven always used to get her radio out and stuff and plug it in, even though we told him repeatedly, “Don’t play around with electrical outlets.” And I was putting the meat and stuff away, the groceries, and I didn’t even know he was up, until I heard the scream. And then he screamed. And I went running and I saw the hair dryer plugged in.

  BENDER: Okay, to your knowledge, he was in the bedroom when she got in the bathtub.

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BENDER: One more thing on the insurance, to clarify that. I think you said that when you took the policies out on Steve, you also took them out on Stacy.

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BENDER: Do you still have those policies in effect?

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BENDER: What policies do you have in effect for Stacy?

  ELLEN: Just the one through work.

  BENDER: Just the one through work. Isn’t that about $5,000?

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BENDER: Okay, Joe, I have no further questions.

  BURGOON: Ellen I have one more question for you. Uh, with Steven, after you took the pillow off, you say you went to get some help. Didn’t you?’

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BURGOON: Where did you go?

  ELLEN: First I went up to the eighth floor because I thought there’s a lady Pauline that my mom knew, I thought she lived at 810 or something. And when nobody ever answered up there, so then I went back downstairs and I ran to Todd’s apartment. I told him what happened.

  BURGOON: And this was, I’m just guessing, approximately four or five minutes of time lapse?

  ELLEN: (Nods.)

  BURGOON: Okay. You have anything more?

  BENDER: No, that’s all I have, Joe.

  BURGOON: Ellen?

  ELLEN: I loved my babes … I can’t … (Voice trails off.)

  BURGOON: Ellen, you made this statement to us voluntarily, is that correct?

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BURGOON: Has there been any threats or promises made to you?

  ELLEN: No.

  BURGOON: Have you been physically abused by myself or Detective Bender?

  ELLEN: No.

  BURGOON: Okay. Are you under the influence of any alcohol or drugs of any kind?

  ELLEN: No.

  BURGOON: And the video recorder and equipment has been on all this whole time. Is that correct, hon?

  ELLEN: Yes.

  BURGOON: Okay. The time now is 11:07 P.M. This is Friday, September the 13th, 1991, and this concludes our videotaped interview at this time.

  The official tape time was forty-one minutes, twenty-four seconds, and six one-hundredths of a second. A high-pitched “beep, beep, beep,” marking the end of the session, was recorded by Mr. Steckhan, the cameraman, who by now was broken up after what he had just witnessed over the last three-quarters of an hour.

  Ellen never shed a single tear. Her eyeshadow was messed up, because she had put the Kleenex to her eyes two, or maybe three times, in what appeared to be feigned attempts to make it look good. In fact, it was obvious that Ellen was looking up now and then, as if to check whether it would be a good time to break down a little.

  Her eyes would roll shut at times. At others, they would roll open. But they were always bone dry.

  Ellen’s Turn to Wait

  She was crying on the phone as talked to her mother, calling from the Homicide Section, telling her mother that she had killed the boys. Ellen kept saying that she was sorry. Sergeant Burgoon and Detective Bender heard it all, because they were standing right t
here.

  Ellen had dialed the phone herself. She was at the phone by the desk in the conference room. The detectives stood at a little distance by the doorway to give Ellen some privacy.

  It was almost two years to the day when Steven Boehm had been transported to Cardinal Glennon hospital. For Joe, it was also poetically perfect that today was exactly two years to the date when Stacy was taken to Children’s Hospital. It had taken a long time. The advice from FBI Agent Wright had paid off, as had Dr. Graham’s unwavering resolve to make an indisputable finding, but Joe also knew that the only reason the investigation was ever started in the first place was because a citizen had cared enough to call. He remembered, too, his promise to call Deanne Bond as soon as they arrested Ellen, and he picked up the phone. He always told her he didn’t want her to hear it on the news.

  It was 11:57 P.M. Deanne was sound asleep when the phone rang beside her bed.

  “Hello.”

  “This is the S.O.B.,” Joe said into the phone.

  Deanne knew who it was, but she couldn’t imagine why he was calling at this hour. The orange-lighted digital clock on the nightstand told her how late it was.

  “We got her.”

  “What?”

  “We arrested Ellen,” he said in a hushed voice.

  “What?”

  Deanne sat straight up in bed.

  “I can’t talk loud because she’s using the phone next to me.”

  “Jeeminy, oh, my God,” Deanne said, flustered. “Don’t even use my name. Call me Deep Throat or something.”

  “She has no idea.”

  “Who’s she calling?”

  “Her mother.”

  “She confessed.”

  “What, you’re kidding.”

  “No.”

  “With an attorney present?”

  “She didn’t ask for her attorney.”

  “Wait a minute. Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, we videotaped it.”

  This wasn’t making sense to Deanne, because she and Ellen had discussed this time and time again. The first thing to do is ask for an attorney. Deanne hadn’t even known that Joe had gone to the grand jury. Deanne also didn’t realize that there was no statute of limitations on murder. She wanted to believe that Sergeant Burgoon was going to get her, but she also thought that time was running out. She knew that Ellen didn’t have a clue that she was going to be arrested, and she knew Ellen was flat broke. If she ever figures this out. If she killed twice, she’d kill a third time, Deanne thought. Deanne was half serious about getting ready to leave town.

  Because it was a Friday night, Ellen couldn’t be arraigned until Monday, which meant she would be booked and put in the lock-up all weekend. Someone was dispatched to pick up Ellen’s car, and place it in storage.

  The next morning, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s front page carried the story under the headline: MOTHER ARRESTED IN DEATH OF BOYS, ATTEMPT ON GIRL; INDICTMENT FOLLOWS 3-YEAR PROBE.

  The story drew attention to the fact that the police investigation of Ellen Boehm had ended more than a year before, and that the move to make an arrest awaited the certainty of a medical finding.

  Captain Bauman was quoted praising the investigative team, and citing Dr. Graham for the thoroughness of his approach.

  Dr. Graham was quoted in the article, stating: “Sometimes the effects of smothering will show up in an autopsy. Sometimes it won’t. There are ways that a small child can be killed and the cause not show up in scientific tests.”

  Bright and early on that Saturday morning, Detective Bender visited the circuit attorney’s office with an affidavit for a search warrant to retrieve certain items from Ellen’s apartment. Assistant Circuit Attorney Dee Vossmeyer-Hayes reviewed the request and telephoned Judge Robert Dowd at home. Detective Bender was told to take the affidavit to the judge’s residence, where he would sign the search warrant. What Detective Bender wanted to confiscate were Ellen’s nineteen-inch Phillips color television, her Conair hair dryer, and rose-colored couch. Ellen had told them that all of the items were still in the apartment at 5015A South Broadway, where Ellen had recently moved, mostly because she had run out of money and couldn’t afford the Brazillia Apartments any longer.

  By 11:45, Detectives Bender and Trevor, along with a small army of five other officers, drove to Ellen’s apartment and seized the evidence. Another officer first photographed the television, the hair dryer, and the couch as they were found in place.

  That night, Joe and Detective Bender paid a visit to Ellen’s friend Sandy Nelson, who had known Ellen for more than half of her life. Ms. Nelson told the detectives that Ellen had never mentioned anything about insurance to her. She said on the night that David died, Ellen had called her and while they were talking, Ellen said she had to get off the phone because she said something was wrong with him.

  Ms. Nelson said Ellen then showed up at her home, and Stacy and Steven stayed with her mother so that she could accompany Ellen to the hospital. To her, Ellen seemed upset on that night, but since then, except at David’s funeral, when she witnessed her crying, she had behaved as if nothing had ever happened.

  A few weeks later, when the detectives had no further need for anything in Ellen’s apartment, Catherine asked Susan Emily if she would help her clean it out. Ellen’s mother actually needed Susan to do it all, because Catherine couldn’t even navigate a flight of stairs. Susan didn’t look forward to the job, knowing what a poor housekeeper Ellen was. Once when she had visited Ellen at the Brazillia apartments, she was offended by a smell of urine in the living room. When she saw a mold-covered leftover pizza, Susan said something. “Why don’t you do something about this!”

  Ellen tried to shrug it off with a throwaway line: “Oh, you know. I don’t know.”

  As Susan carted things out and tidied up the kitchen and the bathroom, a friend who was helping her noticed something in a small cubby space behind the toilet. He reached in to remove what appeared to be an bottle of Scope mouthwash. First he wondered why it had been stored in such an inaccessible place, then he called Susan to examine it. They were both puzzled by what was inside the bottle. It was greenish in color, but there was no clarity to it. What had happened to this bottle of Scope? When Susan’s friend uncapped it, he knew right away that it wasn’t mouthwash. It was antifreeze, he told her.

  Susan felt a sudden chill. What was Ellen doing with antifreeze in a Scope bottle in the bathroom? She thought immediately of Stacy. Was she to be next?

  In the same year that Steven had died, another child’s death had caught the headlines in St. Louis. Patricia Stallings, a young mother who lived south of the city in Hillsboro, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in the death of her five-month-old son, whom authorities believed had been poisoned with antifreeze. The case proved to be a sensational one when Mrs. Stallings, who was pregnant when she was imprisoned, gave birth to a second son, who suffered from a rare disease, methylmalonic acidemia, which offered an entirely new explanation for her first son’s death. She was eventually granted a new trial and was freed, but until then everybody knew about it as the “antifreeze murder case.”

  Susan stared at the Scope bottle. Was Ellen considering this route? She knew that Ellen had killed the boys, because just weeks before she had talked to her on the phone. It was by chance that she had been visiting Catherine when Ellen had called from the city jail.

  Susan had then confronted Ellen about it: “You done wrong, Ellen.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  Weeks later, on December 18th, Joe would receive a phone call when he got into work. The caller identified himself as a resident of 4720 South Broadway, the Riverbend Apartments, and said he had been out of town for the past few months, working in Atlanta, Georgia. Upon his return, he said, he had read the newspaper articles about Ellen Boehm, and it triggered a memory about something that had happened on the night of Stacy’s electrical shock.

  Joseph Rodriegquez said he was walking in the hall
past Apartment 501 on the night Stacy was hurt, when he heard loud shouts and screaming coming from within the apartment. It troubled him so much that he returned to his apartment and called 911. Then, he told Sergeant Burgoon, he went to the lobby to wait for the police to arrive. While he was there, Ellen and her children came downstairs, and it was clear they were heading out somewhere.

  Mr. Rodriegquez said he distinctly overheard Stacy saying: “He was not in the bathroom. There was nobody there.” The little girl kept saying it, he said.

  He then saw the police car pull up, and overheard Ellen talking to the officer, who was telling her about Alexian Brothers Hospital, located a few blocks away. After Ellen left with her children, he went over to talk to the officer to inquire about what had happened.

  Joe thanked Mr. Rodriegquez for calling, and told him that what he had said was important. When he hung up the phone, and as he wrote up the report, Joe felt another sense of vindication that this had been a good investigation and a good arrest. He knew that now he had at least someone else’s word to challenge Ellen’s statement that Steven had been in the bathroom, that he had gotten up from his sleep and plugged his mother’s hair dryer into the outlet in the hallway and then dropped the high-voltage appliance into his sister’s bathwater.

  A Capital Case

  In the week after Ellen’s arrest, she was arraigned before a circuit judge, who ordered that she be held without bond. By the end of the week, the city of St. Louis trial office had interviewed Ellen and decided that she was eligible for a public defender.

  Just as Deanne had already figured out, Ellen was broke. The public defender’s office came out fighting in Ellen’s defense, but it was pro forma paperwork in the beginning. First the office filed a motion to quash the indictment charging her with murder and assault. Then, in the early days of October, if filed another seeking a reduction in the bail, so that Ellen could await her trial on the outside.