“Is Logan OK?”
A young mother felt shackled by her sons
Editor’s Note: This is Part One of a six-part series
Katherine Rutan wanted to be loved again. With her chestnut hair, blue eyes and bright smile, she easily attracted men. Keeping them was the hard part. At 27, she already had run through four husbands and some live-in boyfriends.
She had two young sons by different fathers.
Logan was 6 years old with blond hair. Justin was 4 years old with hair a little darker. If they weren’t around, Katherine could live the carefree life she wanted.
She didn’t want to wait anymore. On April 27, 2002, while living in Tulsa, she called a crisis hotline. Two officers from the police department visited Katherine.
I’m afraid I’m going to hurt my boys, she told the officers. I don’t want to be around them. Logan makes me so mad I want to hit him as hard as I can.
The officers took Logan and Justin into protective custody. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services opened an investigation.
Maybe, Katherine thought, I’m finally free.
‘A big step’
The day after DHS took Logan and Justin into custody, Katherine logged onto an online dating service as “sonnysgirl2731.”
She received a response to her profile from a man who went by “fire_taz911.”
In his early 30s, Michael Pettey served as fire chief in Fort Supply, a one-blink town near the Oklahoma Panhandle, three and a half hours west of Tulsa. Michael also worked as a prison corporal at William S. Key Correctional Center, a minimum security prison in Fort Supply. He enjoyed riding motorcycles.
Michael was a widower. Katherine and Michael continued to exchange emails, and on May 2, 2002, she told them that court had gone well; she would not be getting Logan back; Justin will be coming home, but it could take months.
Michael invited Katherine to a fish fry in Fort Supply a couple days later, on the weekend. She stayed with him until Sunday. Their relationship quickly became intimate.
The following weekend, Michael visited Katherine at her apartment in Tulsa. Her boys weren’t home. However, they showed up the next day. They had been staying with a Big Brothers and Big Sisters-type of organization, Katherine said.
Her story now changed, Katherine wanted to bring her sons and live with Michael in Fort Supply.
He emailed Katherine on May 15, just two weeks after they first met in person. By then, Katherine was going by “tazssextoy.”
“I do wish you wouldn’t push me so much on moving in with me,” Michael wrote. “It’s not that I don’t want it, I just think it’s a big step.”
May 23 was a special day for Michael. His wedding anniversary. He sorely missed his late wife. That day, Michael drove to Oklahoma City to pick up his big sister, Debra. She wanted to visit their mother in Fort Supply.
On the drive back from Oklahoma City, around 11 p.m., Michael received a phone call from a friend who lived in Woodward, about 15 miles south of Fort Supply.
Katherine and her boys are at my house, the friend said.
Michael let them move in with him up in Fort Supply.
A promise
During her visit, Debra learned about Katherine and her sons. Katherine didn’t interact much with her boys, Debra thought. She wasn’t cruel. She wasn’t loving. She was just — there. The boys were very quiet for kids their age.
Debra asked Katherine why Logan wasn’t in school. Katherine told her Logan had started a house fire in Tulsa and the school district banned him from attending.
And, Katherine told Debra: I promised Justin that if Logan ever sets another fire, I’ll be forced to do something to Logan that I don’t want to do, to protect you, son. About two weeks into Katherine’s stay at his home in Fort Supply, Michael told Katherine it was time for her and the boys to move out. He knew a co-worker at the prison who was looking for a roommate to help pay the bills.
Melody Lennington worked as a prison guard at William S. Key Correctional Facility. She lived on Texas Avenue in Woodward, a windswept gateway to the Oklahoma Panhandle, where truckers rumble through town each day.
The population there rises and falls with the jobs available in oil and gas production, but in 2002, when Katherine arrived, Woodward had settled into a town of about 12,000 people, the largest city in a ninecounty area spanning millions of acres.
“This isn’t an easy country in this part of Oklahoma to make a living,” said Johnny McMahan, managing editor of the Woodward News. “And you know, it’s people that they work hard and try to take care of each other.”
Michael offered to pay Katherine’s bills at Melody’s house. Katherine and Logan and Justin moved in with Melody on June 10, 2002.
On occasion, Katherine and her boys stayed overnight with Michael. One morning, Michael woke up to find his lighter missing. Katherine told him she found Logan with the lighter. One time, Logan burned my house down, she told Michael.
Katherine calls DHS
About 9 a.m. June 19, 2002, a little more than a week after Katherine and the boys moved in, Melody found Justin in the kitchen with matches. Logan came out of their room, with two unlit cigarettes.
Melody was horrified. She had heard the stories about Logan supposedly burning down a house.
When Michael found out about Katherine’s boys playing with matches, he told her to get out of Melody’s house. I don’t want you at my house or anybody else’s house I know, he said.
Katherine panicked. She called her adoptive parents in Florida and told them she couldn’t stay in the house if Logan was there. She called DHS to schedule an interview with a mental health professional to determine if Logan needed to be examined.
The next day, Thursday, June 20, Katherine met with a woman named Jimmie Fraley, a gatekeeper for DHS. Gatekeepers determined if children needed inpatient psychiatric services.
Katherine spun wild stories about Logan’s birth. When Logan was born, Katherine said, he had a twin sister who died at birth. I lost oxygen three times during the delivery, she told Fraley. I know it affected Logan.
Fraley agreed to have Logan tested. She told Katherine she could place Logan in Meadowlake Hospital, a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents in Enid. They would have a spot open for Logan on Monday, four days away.
Enraged, Katherine demanded that Logan be placed that day. You people never listen to me, she told Fraley. He’s a house burner, and you won’t do anything.
That same day, Katherine called a DHS caseworker named RaGenia Ives. Ives opened a “priority one” investigation, when children might be in danger. She visited the house on Texas Avenue in Woodward. Katherine wanted to relinquish her parental rights.
Ives recommended Logan be placed with DHS. She made the recommendation to the assistant district attorney’s office in Woodward. The DHS investigation remained open.
On Friday, June 21, Michael and some of his friends rode to a motorcycle rally in Sparks, Oklahoma, about 200 miles southeast of the Fort Supply-Woodward area.
Katherine couldn’t go. Nobody wanted to baby-sit Logan. Katherine boiled with anger. Why am I the only one left behind, she asked Michael.
Late Saturday night, Melody and Logan and Justin went to bed. Near a bay window in the living room, Katherine sat at a computer.
Early Sunday morning June 23, 2002, something rattled Melody awake. She thought it was Logan screaming because of a nightmare. It was 3 a.m. Melody walked into the living room and found Katherine still sitting at the computer.
Is Logan OK?
He’s sick, Katherine said. I put him in the back room. Melody returned to bed.
When she woke up at 6:30 a.m., Melody found Katherine still sitting at the computer.
Katherine asked, did Logan disturb you last night?
I need to get my work uniform in the back room, Melody said. But I don’t want to wake him if he’s sleeping.
Don’t worry about it, Katherine said. He’s in the basement.
Melody’s basement was no place for a child to sleep. Much less a sick child. It was a solid cement basement furnished with an old, greasy bed and a battered cabinet.
Melody was furious. Logan shouldn’t have been down there.
Later, when Melody arrived home from work, she found Katherine at a neighbor’s house. DHS came and got Logan, Katherine said. They wouldn’t let him take his clothes or any of his toys.
Katherine showed Melody a bruise on her arm. She said Logan inflicted the bruise when DHS took him. He didn’t want to go, Katherine said. But they were going to place him with his natural father, she said.
“Is Logan OK?”
‘Makes sense’
Michael made the 200mile motorcycle drive home from the rally in Sparks. He stopped in Woodward first, at a friend’s house. Katherine came over. She said DHS took Logan.
Makes sense, Michael thought, if the boy is lighting houses on fire. She’s trying to get him some help.
Katherine asked Michael to visit her on Texas Avenue. Michael went home to Fort Supply, showered and returned to Woodward, to visit Katherine.
She was dressed up. Like we were going out, Michael thought.