been aware that his prior conviction and history of violence would preclude him from gaining custody. While online records of his address history are unclear, Camila insists that Al stayed in the apartment he had once shared with Dee—that for nearly three decades he mourned the woman he’d mistreated, eventually “drinking himself to death,” as the walls closed in around him. Whenever Camila ran into Al around town, he was always drunk and mistook her for her dead sister. Overcome by emotion at the sight of Camila, Al cried out, “Dee! Dee! I miss you, Dee!” It was a pitiful display and made Camila extremely uncomfortable.
If the man carried a crushing guilt, it was well deserved. Dee had lost all four of her children because of his abuse, and probably would not have been on the sidewalk at that deadly moment if not for that. Dee had, after all, gone to the laundromat as part of her preparation for the children’s return.
But when it comes to fate, so many things must occur to achieve a particular outcome, and the smallest event can change everything. If Dee had dallied at the laundromat another moment, she would likely be alive today. Nothing can change the past, though Shanna Kay’s aunts wish that they had the power to alter it. They were surprised to learn that their niece eventually ended up with the Parsnoll family in Battle Creek, Michigan. Not only did they know of the Parsnolls, Victoria had been to their home on more than one occasion, and had met foster parents, Jack and Nannette Parsnoll, but it had never occurred to her to look for Shanna there.
Before Shanna landed at the Parsnolls’ home, she first spent time with at least one other foster family, and many years later, she would claim she suffered abuse in at least one of the homes she’d been placed in. If indeed she had been abused, it probably did not occur at the Parsnolls’ home. Victoria knows for a fact that Shanna didn’t live with the Parsnolls until at least a year after Dee’s death, because in a strange coincidence, Victoria’s own two daughters were placed with the Parsnolls before Shanna Kay was sent to live there. Victoria realized only recently that the niece she’d spent so many years searching for had lived for most of her childhood with people Victoria had met.
Shanna Kay’s aunts claim that a male social worker, who was later accused of abusing children, had unfairly picked on their family, removing some of their kids because of urine stains on mattresses and other so-called offenses they consider minor. Victoria’s two daughters, Christie and Gillian, were sent to the Parsnolls’ home, and Victoria was allowed to visit them there. “I can’t say the Parsnolls abused us,” says Christie, who was not yet school age when she spent months living there. “But they were kind of unusual.” She recollects that her little sister was forced to stand in the corner, facing the wall because she refused to eat the split pea soup they had served for dinner, and was later sent to bed hungry. Christie also recalls that Patsy Parsnoll, Nannette and Jack’s biological daughter, picked on Gillian. Whenever Patsy pinched Gillian or pulled her hair, Christie rushed to protect her little sister and retaliated by doing the same to Patsy. But Christie usually got caught and ended up getting punished.
The most upsetting thing to occur in the foster home nearly cost Gillian her life, though Nannette Parsnoll claims she doesn’t remember the incident. An older foster child, Shelly, a girl of about nine or ten, allegedly tried to drown Gillian in the bathtub. According to Victoria, Nannette Parsnoll walked in and discovered Shelly, holding the little girl’s head under the water. “Gillian had turned blue,” Camila remembers. “She went to the hospital by ambulance.”
When Victoria learned her daughter had nearly died, she raised a ruckus, and says the disturbed girl was removed from the Parsnolls’ home. Prior to the near drowning, the Parsnolls were apparently unaware that Shelly was dangerous, and Victoria doesn’t blame them for what occurred, but she was very glad to regain custody of her children. Shanna Kay’s aunts insist their children were safer with them than in any foster home, and they believe that Shanna Kay would have been far better off with family than with strangers.
But Shanna’s aunts concede there may be a genetic component to their family’s violence, for she is not their first relative to be