Local girl says she's out of options

It started with a phone call.

"I've taken in a lot of girls over the years, but this is the toughest case I've ever seen," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "I just don't know where to take her. I can't go to the Humane Society, she's not a pet."

She was talking about a 19-year-old girl we'll call "Jamie." I'm using pseudonyms for the two women because they fear being located by Jamie's violent ex-husband.

I agreed to meet them Tuesday at a pavilion in Jackson City Park to discuss the girl's problems.

Jamie has strawberry blond hair and aqua-green eyes that well up when she talks about the wrong turns her life has taken. If not for the 15-month-old baby in tow and scarring under her left eye, she could be a beauty queen.

Jamie grew up in a trailer park in Scott County. The place, she said, was filthy: strewn with dog feces and infested with roaches. As a child she was removed from the substandard home by social services only to be returned a few months later.

Beginning at 16, she worked at the local Burger King, walking an hour to and from work and relishing the time away from the trailer. She dreamed of getting out.

But as always seems to be the case, where there are desperate people, predators follow. At 17, Jamie met a man at the local Pentecostal church. She fell in love. Before graduation came, she discovered she was pregnant and the two decided to get married.

It would be the start of a nightmare. Not long after the wedding day, Jamie discovered her new husband abused and sold drugs. He was also a control freak who told her not to go to church, see her friends or leave home without him present. Jamie wanted to go to college and even earned a full scholarship. He told her to forget about it.

And he was abusive. One day she put a pair of his jeans in the wash without emptying the pockets. The spin-cycle ruined a "roach" he was saving for later. He grabbed her hair, slammed her against the washing machine and started whaling away. He liked to beat her in full view of the couple's infant daughter, she says, as a lesson.

After a year of marriage, Jamie ran away. In January, penniless and homeless, a mutual friend told her to call "Grace."

Grace knows abuse. She spent time living out of her car with two small children while hiding from a man who wanted to kill her. Grace gave Jamie a home and helped her find a job at a convenience store. She also agreed to drive her 44 miles round-trip to work.

Grace expected to put the girl up for a few weeks but the arrangement has stretched into months. Jamie now works 35 to 40 hours per week for $6.50 an hour and receives about $200 a month in welfare. Even living rent-free she says she can't save any money.

"I just want her to have a better life," Jamie said of her daughter. "I'm at the point right now where I'm at the end of my rope. I'm between a hard spot and a rock, and I don't know what to do."

In recent days the two women have called a long list of local service agencies asking for housing assistance. They've been passed from person to person.

They found a local shelter that charges $75 per week. They've examined federal programs like HUD and found long waiting lists. Local family services officials I spoke with Tuesday confirmed the options for homeless people this time of year are scarce.

Now Jamie is asking for help from the community. She says she needs help paying for day care and paying for rent until she can get on her feet. She says she has nowhere to turn and continues to fear for her life from her ex-husband.

"Right now I feel like there's no help out there for a person in my situation. I just don't know what to do," she said.

I told her I'd put the word out. Anyone with suggestions can e-mail me at tgreaney@semissourian.com.

TJ Greaney is a reporter for the Southeast Missourian.