by Niles Reddick<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I told them I was innocent, but the cops didn\u2019t believe me, my ex didn\u2019t believe me, and most of my friends and family didn\u2019t believe me either. I\u2019d been in for five years, got my degree free online, and when I never expected it, one of the guards came to the door and said, \u201cMan, it\u2019s your lucky day. You\u2019re out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep, apparently you\u2019re innocent after all. So, you\u2019ll get a set of clothes, and the state will have to pay you back for your time. Startin\u2019 over money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPay me back? Startin\u2019 over money? What the hell? I know I ought to forgive and forget, but I\u2019m not going to, and I\u2019ll swear I\u2019ll sue somebody. I would have never killed my little girl. Do you know what happened to overturn the verdict?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know they don\u2019t give us guards details, but the warden may know. He\u2019ll see you out.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I met the warden, he told me they\u2019d finally found my girl\u2019s remains in Denali\u2019s mountain forest not too far from the log cabin I\u2019d rented for a vacation with sweet Claire. I could see it as clearly in my mind as if he happened yesterday. Claire was only five at the time and so petite. My ex Susan didn\u2019t want her to go with me. \u201cWhat if something happens to you?\u201d she\u2019d said. I figured she was more concerned with me having some time with her after our divorce than she was worried about something happening to me. I was devastated when she disappeared. We\u2019d been fishing at the lake, we had a fire going, and I walked into the woods just a few hundred yards to get more firewood, and when I walked back, she was gone. First, I thought she was playing a trick on me. She loved Hide and Seek. I called to her and looked around. Then, I worried she\u2019d fallen in that lake. I called out and then dove in trying to see or feel for her. I came out of the lake, called the ranger\u2019s office miles away, and they said they would send assistance. It took thirty minutes before they got there, and we combed a radius around the lake and cabin, and there was no evidence at all. The sheriff\u2019s department even brought in the dogs, but it was like Claire was there one minute and gone the next. They couldn\u2019t pick up a scent from the blanket she slept with, her doll, or even a spare pair of shoes.<\/p>\n
At night, I cried and prayed. I couldn\u2019t eat and lost twenty pounds in two weeks. The sheriff dredged the lake, but he was suspicious of me. He kept asking about the divorce, insinuating Claire liked her mother more, asked about my temper and bar room brawls I\u2019d been in when I was young that he\u2019d found on my record. The district attorney was itching to put me away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWarden, can you tell me anything else? What about Claire\u2019s remains?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey found them in a nest. A ranger spotted the bird, and he tracked it to a nest up the mountain near the top of a tree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEagle or Condor?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNope. They believe it was a Thunderbird.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat? I thought those were extinct or mythical. Part of Native lore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, so are giants and big foot, but you know, it\u2019s Alaska. Plenty of things hiding out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never would have guessed. I never saw it take her, didn\u2019t hear her scream, didn\u2019t see the bird at all, and never heard the noise of wings flapping.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ranger took some video with his phone. Son-of-a-bitch had a wingspan of twelve feet and took off as he approached. He found your girl\u2019s bones and a couple of other missing hikers. I\u2019m sorry to be the one to tell you, but you can put this behind you now and move on. Start over with your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing Claire was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I don\u2019t think you can put your child\u2019s death behind and move on. I wished that damned bird would\u2019ve taken me, but the fact that no one ever believed me only added to my pain. I\u2019m glad they found her remains and I\u2019m glad I\u2019m getting out, but I\u2019ll always be in prison and never be free.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Niles Reddick \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I told them I was innocent, but the cops didn\u2019t believe me, my ex didn\u2019t believe me, and most of my friends and family didn\u2019t believe me either. I\u2019d been in for five years, got my degree free online, and when I never expected it, one of the guards came to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1516,77],"tags":[1517,1123,1540],"class_list":["post-13978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-69","category-english","tag-egophobia-69-70","tag-english","tag-niles-reddick"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3Ds","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13979,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13978\/revisions\/13979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}