The Kidnapper's Wife

9. During

Jade Allessia Carter

Part One of Recorded Interview

Continued

Officer Brown: And could you tell us about how your husband's office is laid out?

Jade Carter: Well, there's a desk with a desk chair and then there's another smaller chair, like a kitchen table type chair but padded for an office, and then there's a small couch, a love seat I guess.

Officer Brown: And how were they usually oriented when you would arrive home?

Jade Carter: Well, it depended on the day. Sometimes they would be on the loveseat with a book on one of their laps going over things, and other times they would be at the desk either across from each other or on the same side, working on coding on the computer.

Officer Brown: And you would see them with coding programs up on the computer?

Jade Carter: Yes.

Officer Brown: Okay, and you said that Anna often stayed for dinner after the tutoring, was this every time or just sometimes.

Jade Carter: Every time.

Officer Brown: And you would be the one cooking dinner?

Jade Carter: Connor and I alternate who cooks. I cook on Mondays and Thursdays and he cooks on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays I go to Winesdays at Whole Foods so we each take care of our own dinner.

Officer Brown: And when Connor was cooking, what would Anna be doing?

Jade Carter: Usually she would be sitting in the kitchen, on a barstool and they would talk as he cooked. Usually either about her homework or about robotics or about life in general.

Officer Brown: And when you were the one cooking where were Connor and Anna?

Jade Carter: They were in his office, doing tutoring.

Officer Brown: And when you would all eat together, what would you talk about then?

Jade Carter: Well we would talk a lot about robotics. And then Anna would tell us about things she was doing with her family and about her family.

Officer Brown: And what kinds of things did Anna say about her family?

Jade Carter: Well...Anna has two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister, so she would talk about them a lot. She seemed very close with them, her older brother is a senior and is going off to college so she would fill us in on his college search and talk about how much she would miss him when he left. And she would tell us about things she and her younger sister would do, how they would play together and the sports that her sister did. Anna was involved with volunteering at the local hospital, she did that on Wednesdays after school, and she thinks someday she would like to go into the field of coding and engineering prosthetics and implants for the medical field. Right now she alternates between the hospital's physical therapy department and the surgical unit, apparently the surgical unit is a very high demand intern position so she feels lucky to have gotten it, even though she shares it with another girls so she switches off working with that department every other week.

Officer Brown: I see. And did Anna ever talk about her parents?

Jade Carter: Not a lot. But there were a few occasions yes.

Officer Brown: And did you get the sense she liked her parents?

Jade Carter: Well...no I didn't to be honest, but she never said anything about them that was too bad, at least not around me.

Officer Brown: What sorts of things did she say?

Jade Carter: She would say that they both expected perfection out of their children. They expected them all to get full scholarships to college so they wanted them to achieve straight A grades in the highest level of classes, alongside a slew of extracurricular activities. Anna was also involved in gymnastics, something she does on weekends as I understand, and she plays the flute. She has ranked highly in state competitions for both activities. She also participates in a theater club that meets on weekends as well and has been in several performances. She did say that with so much of her life taken up by activities, she didn't have time to maintain a lot of friends, or to relax very often. She would complain about her parents like a typical teenager as well, that they didn't let her go anywhere unsupervised, that they always had to know where she was, that they wouldn't buy her favorite snack foods and were always on a new fad diet that they would impose on the whole house. Anna would tell us how they would only allow her to buy her favorite, expensive, brands of clothes when she would accomplish something they wanted, like winning a competition. Otherwise she had to make do with what she had. But based on her repertoire of outfits she didn't seem to be lacking in the clothes department. Oh and she would complain about how they wanted the house kept extremely clean even though they had a maid.

Officer Brown: Okay, so a lot of that sounds like pretty typical teenage complaints.

Jade Carter: Yes I would say so. It sounded like her parents were strict and expected a lot from their children, but I could also read between the lines to see how much time and energy her parents were spending to ensure their children succeeded.

Officer Brown: You mentioned before that your husband had said that Anna had a rough home life. Was this the kind of stuff he was referring to?

Jade Carter: Well...no. Connor said that Anna's parents were physically abusive when she did not comply with their expectations. He said he had seen bruises on her. He said that Anna alleged emotional abuse as well, but he didn't really go into detail on that. He also told me that Anna had been sexually abused when she was younger, not by her parents or siblings, but by some other member of the family. But he didn't go any further into that either.

Officer Brown: And did you believe your husband when he told you these things about Anna?

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