PAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 9, 2018
WHO,
continued from Page 1
truthful or simply don’t want
to come forward with that
information,” said Det. Tim
Lathrop, the lead detective in
Christina’s murder.
What can be said is her
death – like any loss – is still
felt vividly by her family
that includes her mother
and Christina’s four children,
two boys and two girls. The
youngest recently turned 16.
Jasmine,
the
second
youngest, now 23, was wracked
with grief as she spoke of the
day she found out what had
happened.
“I was on my knees and I
couldn’t get up. My dad had to
carry me to the couch. I may
not have known her well, but
she was my mom,” Jasmine
said. “Every time we talk about
it I wish she hadn’t taken her
path. She had her kids to take
care of and we were taken
away because of her choices.”
IMPERFECT
BEGINNINGS
Sharon gave birth to
Christina on Aug. 2, 1967. At
the time, Sharon herself was
only 16.
“If she would have waited
another day, she would have
been born on my birthday, but
she wouldn’t wait,” said Sharon.
“She was a beautiful baby, but I
was not the best mother.”
Sharon, now 68, provided as
best she could, but it was her
mother who did the majority
of the parenting. Looking back
on it now, Sharon has many
regrets, but the most painful
ones are the times she made
choices that took her away
from her daughter.
“I would go out every
single weekend and dance,
Thursday through Sunday. I’m
sure not perfect, I just felt like
I never had time. She took
her own path because I wasn’t
there,” Sharon said.
Long before Christina was
a teen, Sharon struggled with
the demands of parenting. She
said she never laid a hand on
her daughter, but one night
got particularly bad.
“I got very afraid, one night,
that I was going to hurt her. I
called everyone in my family
to ask if they could come and
take her for a few hours. Then
I made the mistake of calling
Children’s Services,” Sharon
said.
Christina was taken into
custody by the state and then
turned over to her grandpar-
ents, but she was eventually
placed at the Hillcrest Youth
Correctional Facility in Salem.
Sharon said drug problems that
would haunt her for the rest of
her life began when Christina
was a teen.
“She’s was a good girl, she
had a big heart and would give
you the coat off her back, but
she got on the wrong path,”
said Sharon.
Christina left Hillcrest
with a diploma and managed
to hold onto a series of jobs,
mostly of the construction and
repair type, and eventually re-
united with Sharon. That led
to one of the happier moments
Sharon was party to, the mo-
ment she met her biological
father.
“He lived in Hubbard at the
time and I walked her up to
the door and introduced them
to each other. I said, ‘Robert
this is your daughter, Chrissy,
this is your dad.’ She was shak-
ing all over, but her dad and his
wife opened their arms to her,”
Sharon said.
Christina fought hard
against her demons of addic-
tion, specifi cally heroin and
cocaine, and sought faith as a
support. In her short life, she
was baptized into three differ-
ent churches. Still, she strug-
gled as a parent, much like
Sharon did.
“Chrissy was a good mom,
she never laid a hand on them
even though there was yelling
and screaming,” Sharon said.
Sharon suspects it was one
of Christina’s friends who
made the call that put the fam-
ily into another upheaval. All
four kids were taken away from
Christina when Jasmine was
only 2 years old. The young-
est went to live with her father,
while the older three went to
live with other families. Sharon
managed to stay in touch with
all of them and Jasmine now
serves as Sharon’s care provider.
Through it all, and for the
next decade, Sharon feared
for her daughter’s life, not just
because of the potential for
overdose, but because of the
company she was keeping.
When Sharon visited Chris-
tina’s apartment, she frequently
kicked out the associates she
knew to be bad infl uences.
Eventually, Christina began
ushering them out before Sha-
ron arrived.
“When I would try to warn
her, Chrissy said, ‘Oh no, that’s
not going to happen to me,
they wouldn’t do that to me.’ I
said, ‘Chrissy, they will do this
to you.’ That’s what happened,”
Sharon said.
THE SEARCH
Sharon had been looking
for Christina for four days be-
fore fi nding her on Feb. 14.
Sharon was trying to coordi-
nate a Valentine-themed craft-
ing day with Christina and her
youngest daughter.
“We were going to pick
Chrissy up and take her shop-
ping so they could make some
gifts together,” Sharon said.
For four consecutive days,
Sharon visited Christina’s
apartment knocking on the
door and screaming to get her
daughter’s attention. By that
point, Christina was on liv-
ing on disability, but making
strides to get clean.
“She was even trying to quit
smoking,” Sharon said. “I think
the people who killed her
were upset that she was getting
clean and they weren’t.”
The thing that worried
Sharon the most was a stick
that normally prevented the
window from being opened
was resting on the window sill
rather than in the track of the
window itself.
On Valentine’s day she de-
cided to go a step further. She
“I know she
was holding
me, keeping
me safe. ”
— Jasmine,
Christina Speten's
daughter
found a friend of Christina’s at
her home and encouraged her
to go back to the apartment
with her. The friend climbed
in the unblocked window and
met Sharon at the front door.
The friend commented on the
cold air of the apartment and a
lingering odor.
“I went to the couch and
found her under a blanket,”
Sharon said.
Blake Wheeler, who lived at
the neighboring apartment at
the time, told the Keizertimes he
last saw Christina about four
days prior to when her body
was found. He said she came
to their apartment after he
overheard her side of an argu-
ment with a man, claiming she
was being “manipulated.” She
asked to use a cell phone, and
called her own after it appar-
ently had been stolen, Wheel-
er said. Wheeler described
Christina as “very respectful.
She was religious, and she felt
comfortable around us.” He
said he heard music playing in
her apartment for several days
straight before her body was
found.
Another neighbor Wanda
Derocher, said she and Chris-
tina talked occasionally. It had
been about a week since they
had last seen each other.
“She was real friendly,” Der-
ocher said. “It just shocked me.
I couldn’t believe it – no, no,
not her. I’m going to miss her.”
Lathrop declined to com-
ment on a murder weapon,
details of the crime scene or
speculate on a motive, but Sha-
ron suspects it had something
to do with Christina’s phone.
“The phone caused a lot
of trouble. Everybody went to
her to use it to set up deals. It
had all the phone numbers in
it,” Sharon said. “I begged her
and pleaded with her to get rid
of it. I told her I would buy her
a new one.”
PATIENCE
It’s been a long seven-year
wait for Sharon and Jasmine.
After an initial couple of
months investigating Chris-
tina’s death, the police have
only sporadically turned up
new leads.
Lathrop said the most re-
cent ones are now two or
three years old, but suffi cient
evidence to charge anyone
with Christina’s murder is still
elusive.
“The wait has been very,
very frustrating,” said Sharon.
“But the cops have to do what
they have to do, nothing is go-
ing to happen overnight.”
Even though their relation-
ship was an imperfect one,
Christina remains a real pres-
ence in Jasmine’s life. A few
years ago, Jasmine fell sick
during a trek with her church
but still managed to help lug a
wagon of supplies up a long,
arduous path. When she got to
the top, she swears she heard
her mom whisper, “Good job,
Baby Girl.”
“She always called me Baby
Girl,” Jasmine said. “Another
time I was in a roll over acci-
dent and I know she was hold-
ing me, keeping me safe. I felt
her.”
Jasmine tries to summon
Christina’s spirit into artwork
and drawings she creates while
pondering the path their lives
have taken.
“She had gone through so
much trouble. When I started
drawing, a lot of the themes
were about letting the past go,
staying in the present and mov-
ing to the future when you are
ready. You have to move on,”
Jasmine said.
Sharon remains steadfast in
her belief that someone will
be held accountable for her
daughter’s murder.
“I want the people who did
this to know they had a good
friend with a big heart and
they shouldn’t have taken ad-
vantage like they did,” Sharon
said. “I know that Chrissy isn’t
going to be released or have
peace until this is taken care
of. She made mistakes, but she
wasn’t a bad person.”