J. Gonzalez - Survivor

Mabel smiled, trying to look grateful." hank you, dear. You've been such a big help."

No problem, ma'am. Would you like to check any bagsr

'No, thank you.' Mabel picked up her carry-on bag, which was a small duffel bag she had packed with her overnight clothes and toiletries. 'Ibis is all I have. Thank you! She smiled at the ticket agent and shuffled away, down to the security checkpoint.

Mabel smiled as she hobbled down the gateway. She smiled and nodded pleasantly to the airport security checkpoint people as they ushered her through. She smiled as her carry-on bag was placed on the conveyor belt as she went through the metal detector. She picked her bag up on the other side, smiled at the young black girl who handed her bag back, then hobbled along, smiling pleasantly at those who looked at her and nodded. Those who saw Mabel Schneider on her flight home would think she reminded them of their elderly grandmother.

HUMAN BODY PARTS, BONES, AMONG HORRORS FOUND IN HOME OF RECENTLY DECEASED GRANDMOTHER

September 15, 1998

Lancaster, PA-AP

In what has to be one of the most bizarre cases in the annals of modem crime, authorities in the small Pennsylvania town of Lititz are puzzling over the discovery of the partial remains of several human beings found in the home of a recently deceased grandmother.

Sources say the woman, identified as eighty-three-yearold Mabel Schneider, lived alone on the quiet tree-lined street, often entertaining her children and grandchildren in her two-bedroom cottage. The woman was also known for contributing cakes and pies to church fund-raisers, and was known throughout the neighborhood as quiet and neighborly. When her oldest daughter Miriam, 57, discovered her dead last month from natural causes, she had no idea she and the rest of her family would be plunged in a whirlwind of media activity.

Found among Mrs. Schneider's possessions in a basement room that had been sealed off was a cardboard box containing mason jars filled with the pickled remains of various human body parts. "They aren't discarded lab specimens," remarked Detective Barney Hillman. "We did a routine check with medical centers in the area, and a DNA check on one of the remains came back with a match to an unsolved homicide from five years ago." That homicide, the murder of eighteen-yearold Doug Sawyer of Spring Valley Road, had puzzled investigators. Sawyer went missing on May 2, 1993, around eight P.M., when he was last seen by his mother when he left the house for the Weis Market on Broad Street. He never returned. Partial remains were discovered in a ditch on Route 772 outside of Brownstown, but no solid leads had yet emerged. Until Mrs. Schneider passed away last month.

"I'd hate to think that Mrs. Schneider had anything to do with Doug's death," her neighbor Claire Ellerwood said yesterday. "She was such a nice lady, always happy and cheerful. She mostly kept to herself, but she was such a nice person."

Forensics investigators say some of the remains may be as old as forty years and may have come from children. Some match other missing persons going back to at least 1955. A Lititz high school jacket from the class of 1956 was among the items found in the basement; it's been positively identified as the jacket worn by Bonnie Febray, a- teenager who went missing in November of 1955. Mabel Schneider and her husband George, who died in 1989, lived a few doors down from the Febray family in the early nineteen fifties. So far, none of the human remains discovered have been identified as those at Miss Febray.

Also found among the deceased woman's belongings were various sexual devices and pornographic material, including child pornography. "All the pornographic materials we confiscated at the Schneider residence are on the extreme side," Hillman said. "It's very sick and graphic in nature, and I will find it hard to believe that the people depicted in the stills and videos we found actually lived through the brutality."

Meanwhile, Mrs. Schneider's three adult children are reportedly shocked at the findings and allegations and are refusing to comment on the matter. All inquiries directed to them have been referred to their attorney, Joseph B. Lockerman, who also refused to comment on the case.

Six Years Later

April 12, 2004

Laguna Beach, California

It was a beautiful spring day when Brad Miller got out of his car, a brand-new Saturn IS, and walked over to the plots that he had picked out for the girls five years before.

He had chosen a spot beneath a shady oak tree, near the far eastern corner of the lot. In the summer the massive branches and leaves provided ample shade, and Brad and Joan had bought a small concrete bench for visitors to sit on when they came to visit. The final resting spots themselves were lined up rather nicely; Lisa had picked out the stones herself, and when Brad had Lisa's stone picked out he chose one that was similar to what she had picked out for Alicia and Mandy. It was only fitting. He didn't know if it was what she would have wanted, but it made him feel better. It had made him feel good to take care of her-to take care of them-during those dark years.

Brad paused when he reached the grave sites. The lateafternoon sun shone high in the sky, casting rays of warmth across his face. He looked down at the headstones and read each one, savoring it, committing them to memory.

Alicia Lynn Stevens

May 8, 1971-August 5, 1998

Amanda Beth Stevens

June 4, 1998-August 5, 1998

Between both names were the following words: Mother and daughter, always in our hearts.

Then the next stone:

Lisa Ann Miller

December 8, 1967 June 22, 1999

Below Lisa's name, Brad had added a line from Psalms: "Yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.'

Brad closed his eyes as tears pooled out and dripped down his cheeks.

Then, mustering up his courage, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

He sat down cross-legged on the grass so he could talk to Lisa.

"I know that… well, I know you probably know about what's going on with me, Lisa. I mean… sometimes I can't help but feel you're still with me, you know? Even though you're… " He paused, feeling the tears sting at the back of his throat. He swallowed, gained control of himself. "I still can't believe you're gone. Despite all that's happened… I still can't believe you're gone."

After his father's sudden suicide and the revelation that he had been responsible for the horrors he and Lisa had been embroiled in, Brad had plunged into a deep depression. He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, and he couldn't work. He lost fifty pounds in two months. On the flip side, Lisa seemed to bounce back stronger than ever. She had undergone four hours of surgery to repair extensive damage to her intestines and stomach, and was laid up in the hospital for three weeks after infection set in. Those first few weeks when she was recovering seemed to be a battle for her; she'd been determined to live, just to spite the men who had done this to her. Brad had visited her every day, slept at her bedside, and she'd seemed to draw on this for her strength. She'd bounced back improved as news of the investigation unfolded. When the bodies of Animal and Tim Murray were found, she identified them; a month later, when Mabel Schneider was discovered dead in her home in Pennsylvania and the news of the horrors that had been found in her home reached her, an FBI agent had flown out and shown Lisa photographs of the woman. Lisa had identified her as the woman who had killed John Pbnozzo; Tim's murder was also pinned to her officially.

"Anyway," Brad continued, pulling up tufts of grass. "I know I haven't been by in a while. Hell, it's been almost a year. That's the longest I've been away from you, if you know what I mean."