In the early morning of October 20, 1996, my world as I knew it was destroyed.

Old faulty wiring in the attic of the house I was renting caused a fire that took the life of my 17 month old son Joshua and almost took my daughter as well. On the night before my sons funeral, the local news announced that I was suspected of starting the fire. Four weeks later, I was arrested and charged with first degree arson, murder,attempted murder, and I was facing the death penalty. My daughter was pushed and pulled from different foster homes until she was finally placed with my mother. At four, she had lost her home, her brother and the system had taken me from her. I knew the only way to stop the madness was to fight, and for the next year and a half, I fought back hard. My attorney was court appointed and kept telling me he was working on stopping it all, but I never saw any results. He told me not to talk to anyone about the case, and for a while, I listened. But I had been in college studying criminal justice and I knew in my gut that what he was telling me wasn't right. Without my attorneys knowledge, I took it upon myself to quickly learn how to use a computer and to find my way around the internet. Had it not been for three men, all strangers to me, and the internet to allow us the connection, I would not be here today. After many hours of clicking on pages and pages brought up in a search engine, I found an article written by Tony Cafe, a fire investigator in Australia. I sent him my first email. I had no idea what email was, but when he answered it, I figured it all out pretty quick. He led me to Dr. Gerald Hurst, a Chemist in Austin, Texas. And Dr. Hurst trained me on how to research what was needed while he performed various tests, reviewed files, etc... Dr. Hurst brought in Ken Gibson, a fire investigator in Texas, and the two of them, along with many others working in the background, were able to piece together what had actually happened the night of the fire. Dr. Hurst and Mr. Gibson came to where I was and convinced the District Attorney that I was innocent and the charges were dismissed.

After it was all over, and I had gotten my daughter back, I spent some time trying to "find myself" again. I asked Dr. Hurst what I could do to repay him. After all, he had just saved my life. He told me to help someone else. I worked for a while reviewing cases, etc... until my daughter had a breakdown. All that had happened to her became too much for her little mind to handle at the age of 8 and for the next 2 years or so, I didn't work. I did what I had to do to get her the doctors and counseling she needed. Now that she is 11 and doing much better, I am again going to go back to helping people. I could have gone back to a "normal" job of management, secretary, etc..., but in my heart, this is what I want to do. During the time I was helping my daughter, I always felt that I had let people down or wasn't living up to my end of the bargain. No one deserves to be in jail or prison if they are innocent. It is ironic that I was studying criminal justice and had the fire not occured, today I would be helping put people behind bars in one way or another. Now, you could not pay me enough to have a job like that. I know how it feels to be caught up in the system and how easy it is for the system to destroy a life.

This site is one of the ways I am using to reach people who need the help that I once needed. If you or someone you care about needs my help, please send me an email by using the contact button. Every email will be answered.