Mothers Are Vanishing: Children Left Behind

Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess

Brandon, 14, Michael, 10, and Phillip Clabough 16, discuss their mother, Pamela Knight, who has been missing since October 2005, in their Seymour home on July 10.

Pamela Knight disappeared without a trace on the day her youngest son, Michael Clabough, turned 7.
It was Oct. 27, 2005. That morning, as Michael lay in bed, Knight, 35, kissed him, told him she loved him and promised him a birthday celebration when she got home from work later that day.
Stirred from sleep, her oldest son, Phillip Clabough, got up and noticed that it was around 4:15 a.m.
Standing behind Pamela Knight was her husband and stepfather to her three boys, Paul Anthony Knight. Phillip watched as the couple left their Bruhin Road home in her green 1994 Jeep Cherokee. He was driving.
Phillip, now 16, said his mom did not appear under any stress. All seemed normal - except for the early hour. Pamela Knight usually left around 6:30 a.m. for her job at Hillcrest North.
Later that morning, Paul Knight returned in the Jeep and drove Michael, Phillip and middle brother Brandon to school. He told the boys their mother would pick them up after school.
At 11 a.m., Pam Knight did not show for a lunch date with her mother, Sandy McBee.
"I went to Hillcrest, and they said she had not called in and no one had seen her," McBee said. "I got scared right then. I knew something was bad wrong."
That afternoon, Pam did not pick the boys up after school, as Paul had said she would.
He, too, had disappeared and would not be seen for more than a year.

Pamela Knight

"There is no way she would ever leave her kids, not on (one of their) birthdays or any day," McBee said.
A week later, the Jeep was found abandoned in Guana River State Park near Jacksonville, Fla., but there was "apparently nothing of evidentiary value," said Knoxville Police Department Investigator Phyllis Tonkin.
Many in Pam Knight's family suspect Paul Knight had something to do with her disappearance.
"If he didn't do anything to her, then why did he run off that day?" asks McBee, who is now raising her grandsons.
But it was not unusual for Paul Knight to drop out of sight, often for weeks at a time.
"And then he would just pop back up, right out of the blue," said Charles Davis, the husband of Pamela Knight's younger sister LeAnn Davis.
Arrested in South Carolina
LeAnn Davis said her sister barely knew Paul Knight, and married him after a two-week whirlwind romance.
After the disappearance, Paul Knight surfaced in August 2006 in South Carolina, arrested after a police chase that ended when the stolen van he was driving crashed. A woman described as his girlfriend and her two small children were in the van, which contained numerous credit cards and other items stolen from several states, police said.
Knight was arrested on a slew of charges. He gave South Carolina police five different names until a fingerprint check confirmed his true identity.
Meanwhile, Pam Knight has still not been seen or heard from. And there is conflicting information as to whether or not she made it to work on the day she disappeared.
"I talked to her supervisor myself, and she told me that Pam did not clock in that day," LeAnn Davis said.
But some employees of the nursing home believe they saw her that morning, according to Tonkin.
Resolving that issue is just one of several puzzles about the case that Tonkin faces. Another is determining the true nature of Pam and Paul Knight's relationship.
"I think he was threatful to her," said McBee.

Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess

News Sentinel

Sandy McBee hugs her grandson Michael Claybough at their home in Seymour. McBee’s daughter Pamela Knight disappeared on Michael’s seventh birthday, Oct. 27, 2005.

"He wasn't around that much, but when he was they were always lovey-dovey," Paul Clabough recalls.
Brandon Clabough said that about two days before the disappearance, Paul Knight showed all three boys a 9mm handgun - and told them not to say anything about it to their mother.
"I think he shot and killed her," Phillip Clabough said.
"I think he does have something to do (with her disappearance), but to be honest, I never saw any violence out of him toward her," Charles Davis said.
Several days before the disappearance, LeAnn Davis said, Paul Knight came to her house and was very angry - not at Pam, but at Pam's friend, who he said was encouraging Pam to leave him.
"And then, he started telling me how much he loved Pam, and loved the boys like they were his own, and that he would never do anything to hurt any of them," LeAnn Davis said. "But I believe he did hurt her."
Serving time in federal prison
After his arrest, Paul Knight was indicted on federal charges in Knoxville, including a charge of being a convicted felon in possession of two stolen 25-caliber handguns. A federal judge declared him an "armed career criminal" and sentenced him to 16 years in prison.
Through prison officials, the News Sentinel has been attempting to arrange an interview with Knight. Those efforts are continuing.
Knight is not the only person being looked at in the case, Tonkin said. "Everyone is a person of interest in this case, until it is resolved."
Tonkin hopes to get a national TV network to feature the case on a true crime show. And she keeps a picture of Pam Knight at her desk.
"I think about this case every day," she said. "It's really hard, knowing that there are three kids out there without their mother and other family members who don't know where she is."
Knight's family is confident in Tonkin and appreciate the fact that she keeps in touch with them. Still, they feel frustrated. "We know there are probably some things she can't tell us," Charles Davis said. "Sometimes, it feels like we are getting nowhere. If we could just get one piece of good information."
But he said the family cannot afford to offer a reward or hire a private detective, and does not have the expertise to create a Web site for Pam's case, he said.
Now in their teen years, Phillip and Brandon Clabough deal with it as best they can. "I just try not to think about it too much," Phillip said.
Michael, now 10, was asked what he thinks about when he remembers his mother. After a long silence, he said, "Hug."
"Somebody, somewhere, knows something," Tonkin said. "I would hope they will ask themselves what if it was their children left without a mother, and come forward with what they know."
Tonkin said anyone with information can call her directly at 865-215-7137, or the KPD crime information line at 865-215-7212.
Jim Balloch may be reached at 865-342-6315.

Patricia "Pat" Viola: Missing, Featured on AMW

Into Thin Air (from America's Most Wanted)

We...were just a normal family. The pool and the deck, music playing. You think you have it all, and then it is gone.

On the morning of February 13, 2001, Jim says Pat seemed a little agitated. His sister was staying with them, and Pat had been dreading a confrontation about smoking in the house. The discussion didn't go well, but Pat continued her day by going to her son's elementary school, E. Roy Bixby, where she volunteered as a librarian. Her co-workers said she seemed sullen when she first got there, but by the end of her shift seemed much more relaxed. At 11:35 a.m., Pat walked one block back home, talked to her mother on the phone at around noon, and then set the house alarm at 1:11 p.m., and left. She was wearing a green or gray long sleeved sports shirt, jeans, white athletic shoes, and a black cloth winter jacket. This is the last anyone has seen or heard from her.

While this seems like an ordinary morning, police say there are a few things that don't add up. When Patricia set the alarm and left the house, her personal items - purse, wallet, keys, ID, medication - were all left inside. To make matters worse, Pat suffers from epilepsy and is prone to have seizures if not on her medication. The door Pat left automatically locks when closed, and Jim fears she may have accidentally locked herself outside. When she locked her keys in the car or house before, however, she had always called Jim to ask for his assistance.

Earlier that year, Pat's doctor had taken away her license due to an epileptic seizure. She was looking forward to getting her license back before the winter holidays, and was very disappointed when her doctor decided to hold the suspension for another three months. Luckily, Pat's town of Bogota is very small, so it was easy for her to travel around on foot.

Police don't know what happened to Pat that day, but found no signs of a struggle. Search dogs were brought into the house and property, the vehicles were checked, as was the surrounding neighborhood. Roadblocks were put up and cars in all directions in and out of Bogota stopped. The airports, bus, and train stations were all investigated, but no one with Pat's description was seen. It was as if she just disappeared.

Det. James Sepp of the Bogota Police Department regrets that he can't give Pat's distraught husband and family some type of lead. "I would like something to tell him. I wish I had the answer, but there is nothing pointing me in either direction, good or bad."

The 'What-If' Game

For Jim and his family, it is the not knowing that is the hardest. They don't know if Pat had a seizure and is in a hospital somewhere with amnesia, or if someone harmed her. She hasn't been matched with any case in a national missing person or crime registry, and no one seems to recognize her picture. Det. Sepp runs a credit check every six months, but her credit and social security number remain unused.

Jim and the children have continued to live their lives, but each day they awake with the hope that they'll have news of Pat.

We have two children, Christine, now 18, and Michael, now 15. Time is moving forward, and the children are growing up without their mom. We did everything together as a family and never saw this coming. We do not even know what THIS is.

We have no idea what happened to my wife...We only need one person, the right person, to recognize my Patricia's face and make the call to help us. I need her; our children need her, and we all love her so much.

Patricia's Law

Background

"Patricia's Law" - model Missing Persons Legislation, signed into NJ law on Jan. 13, 2008, and the majority of its language were born almost three years ago in April 2005 as Model Legislation at the first National Strategy Meeting on identifying the Missing. At this conference, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service brought together Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement, medical examiners and coroners, victim's advocates, forensic scientists, key policymakers and families who have lived through this tragic experience to develop the baseline Missing Persons' Model Legislation. The Model was now ready for the next step.

ProjectJason.org, a not for profit Missing Persons organization, facilitated the next step and called for volunteers in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to retain a Sponsor to support the Model Missing Persons' Legislation at the state level. Campaign for the Missing 2006, a grassroots effort, was born and volunteers came forward from many states to take the Model Legislation, tailor it for their respective state, retain a Sponsor and forge it into law. Patricia's husband, Jim Viola, took on New Jersey and State Senator Loretta Weinberg (District 37) and her staff immediately embraced the new proposed Legislation, making NJ the first state to obtain sponsorship and making it a reason for all of us to be proud. New Jersey is on it's way to passing some much needed new Missing Person Legislation as Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri-Huttle and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson also sponsored an identical proposed bill in the Assembly.

If you know ANYTHING about Pat's disappearance, or where she is, we beg you to call Detective Dan Creange or Sgt. James Sepp of the Bogota Police Department at

(201) 487- 2400 or Detective Richard Fonde of the Bergen County Sherrif's Department of Missing Persons Bureau at (201) 646-2222.

Shon Pernice: Slow Burn

Kansas City Star Reports:

“I will kill them,” authorities quote Pernice as saying. “I am now prepared to protect myself.”

Moments later, authorities said, one of Pernice’s sons is heard saying, “Dad, you are too mad. … Let me talk. Put the knife down.”

Pernice says: “I am prepared to protect myself. The blades are going to start going. It is bad.” ............(from 911 call)

Who would say this? Someone who isn't afraid to hurt, maim or kill, even in front of his own children. This is part of the 911 call to authorities made by Shon Pernice, "person of interest" in his wife Renee's vanishing. Arrested again, it seems Shon is on a slow burn and feeling the squeeze!

"Shon Pernice now faces two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of witness tampering in the July 4 case. He was taken into custody Thursday at his home. " 

The 911 recordings show that Pernice was “highly intoxicated and completely out of control,” court records say.   (from Kansas City Star)

Time is still ticking away and Renee Pernice is still missing. Her family has filed with the court to gain custody of her two sons and get them into a safer, more stable environment. These children may very well have witnessed or at the least have knowledge of what has become of their mother. For them to continue to be in the custody of a "person of interest" baffles me and has shades of Drew Peterson all over it. Just as in that case, what will become of these children?

Whether these two fathers are found guilty or not, they should be doing everything in their power to shield the kids from the negative attention they are bound to be getting. There should be something in place that will protect the fragile psyches of children in these circumstances and intense therapy ordered to guide them through. Yes, I know, he is innocent until proven guilty, however, the children are innocent bystanders to the possible crimes of their fathers.

Hopefully the next time I see a news report about Shon Pernice, he will have squeezed out the truth and Renee will have been found. In the meantime, I can only hope that Renee's children will somehow find their way.

And while the authorities have him in custody, don't forget to ask him about STAR BOOMER, another woman that was in Shon's company and has never been seen again.

Love Letter From Mother

I've just discovered a new "internet friend," Abby Lurae and her blog, Taking a Walk Through Abby's World.  Abby's mother vanished from her life when she was 5, and she was reunited with her later in life. This is such a poignant letter that I felt the need to share and hope that many of the children left behind when a mother goes missing, would someday have a letter like this to hold on to.


Abigail Lurae is a published author who has a lot to say and writes from the heart. Her path in life has been a challenging one, but one filled with many valuable lessons along the way. Her inspirational writings are formed from what she personally has learned. Welcome to her world and taking a walk along side of her.



It took me many years to find my biological family because I didn't get to grow up with them from the age of five years and on up. However, since finding them, I'm getting to know and understand more about myself and where I came from.

Awhile back, I had posted this love letter in a writing group I belong to, but I posted it as the beginning of a new story. In all actuality, it is a letter I received from my own birth-mother. Her love for me shines through what she penned and I am honored to be her daughter...




Love Letter from Mother

My Dearest Daughter,

It seems as if you are the only one of my seven children who wants to really know her mother and who can forgive her imperfections. The others have this idealism of what a mother should be, and you have the knowledge of just how human beings are. Did God bless me with an angel without me realizing this way back when? Perhaps so, because you were such a good baby and rarely cried. You were my sunshine on my cloudiest of cloudy days and a wonderful little playmate in your toddler years.

I’m so sorry for the way things turned out and us not being able to grow up together. You see, I was very young when you were born, only a child myself. I didn’t know what it was like to be a, “mother,” in the true terminology of the word- the title bestowed upon a woman once she has given birth, or in my case, a girl who had made a horrible mistake.

Now, I’m not saying you were a mistake- not at all! The mistake I made was to marry your father to try and gain a better life. What a joke that was! Let me explain, however, I don’t think you require an explanation but, I do want to let you know where you come from.

My mother was a wild thing and yes, I suppose I inherited that trait from her. She could never keep a man for very long and always caused us to get kicked out of every house we tried to live in. Do you know she was married a total of ten times before she finally passed away? I’ve done good to not go beyond four.

Anyhow, when we didn’t have a roof over our heads, she discovered that boxcars were a glorious temporary means of housing and travel too! I got to see many cities that way. You may wonder about schooling? Well, my mother brought along a few books and taught me how to read and write, plus taught me math through the money she made along the way. I have my opinions on how she made her money but I will spare you my speculations as they aren’t very nice.

By the time I turned fifteen, I decided I didn’t want to travel anymore with mother and got into an awful fight with her. She hauled off and hit me so hard upside my head, knocking me backwards that I fell out of the opened boxcar door. The train was moving slowly but fast enough to where I received a bad case of, “road-rash,” as they call it now-a-days. Mother wouldn’t allow me to wear jeans or trousers as I had to wear dresses and look like a, “young lady.” Boy! What a sight for a young lady’s appearance too. My dress was torn in places and filthy dirty from rolling on the ground. I had blood and dirt mingled all over my face and the rest of my body. I was a sight to see…

But, there I am, finally standing up after this nasty fall, watching the train gather speed and my mother was standing in the doorway of her home on wheels, leaning out, waving good-bye to me with the smirkiest of smirky grins on her face. I think I could hear her call back, “get a life,” before the train finally disappeared on the horizon.

I didn’t know what to do- my mother abandoned me and I felt so lost and all alone. My head felt like stars were swimming around in it and I couldn‘t see clearly… I don’t know where the strength came from within me but, the next thing I remember after this happening is I’m walking along this old country road.

Your father was driving his old beat up pickup truck and spotted me. He was so kind and took me into town to one of his lady friend’s house. She helped me get all cleaned up and gave me some new clothes to wear. What fancy clothes too! I didn’t know it at the time, but she was a madam of an escort service. Anyway, after my wounds had healed, she began to insist that I pay her back for all of her generous kindness and hospitality, and wanted me to become one of, “her girls.”

I was so shocked after she explained what, “her girls,” did! I didn’t want to do what she wanted me to do so I left with the clothes on my back, then headed for the train station. If I had to live in a boxcar, that was better than living in her house and doing unspeakable things.

It so happened, your father was in town that day and saw me walking. He had taken some bales of cotton to the cotton mill and you had to go past there to get to the train yard. He yelled at me when he recognized me and motioned for me to go over and talk to him. I was crying…

I guess, he took pity on me and had me hang with him all day. By evening, he had gotten me a motel room and paid for a month’s stay. He also gave me some grocery money and took me to the store to get some food. After he left, I was in heaven! I had my own place, my own roof over my head and I felt so independently joyous.

The next morning, he showed up in his old truck and helped me get a job being a server at the local café. Every day, he’d come in and have breakfast and flirt like there was no tomorrow. After my sixteenth birthday, he asked me to marry him and I did…

We lived together in the motel for a couple of months and were fairly happy until the day his father had been struck ill. We had to move into his family’s home so he could be there to help out. Now, mind you, I had never been to his family’s home but I agreed to this change and went there with him.

What a nightmare! Their house was nothing but a shanty with big wide opened gaps between the planks of wood that were the outside frame of the place and it was located right smack dab in the middle of a cotton field! There was no screen or glass on the windows and when it rained, it poured in, not only through them, but the walls as well.

In the winter-time, his mother would take newspaper and fill the gaps in with it and put cardboard in the windows. And at night, even sleeping with five quilts on us, it never kept us warm enough. By spring time, I had my fill of being there and told your dad I would leave him if we didn’t move out! By this time, I was two months pregnant with you.

His mother was also getting down right nasty with me and I couldn’t stand to look at her anymore. She wanted me to get out in the fields with the guys and hitch up the horses to plow the ground for new cotton seeds to be planted, while her daughters sat on their fat keesters all day doing nothing! She knew I was with child and she even went as far as to say, you would either be born a strong baby or you would be weak and die in my womb. Your dad overheard her say this and I was so happy to hear him say, “let’s get out of here.”

We got us an upstairs apartment and not long after that, your father got a job at the local distillery company. It wasn’t long until he started drinking with his friends and come home in a foul mood.

The day before you were born, he knocked me down the flight of stairs that led up to our place. He said it was an accident- I think not, but that is my opinion. Anyway, a few days after you were born, I received word through the newspaper of my mother pulling an armed robbery at a restaurant in Chicago. The police chased her clear into Ohio before she was finally arrested and from what I could find out, she was sentenced to five years in the state prison.

When your father found out that she was my mother, all kinds of trouble started in between us. I left him- he followed, we made up and I became pregnant with your brother. This happened time and time again and by the time you were almost six years old, I was saddled with five other mouths to feed.

You were taken from me at this time and I never got to see you while you were growing up. Of course, when the threat of the other children being taken away from me arose, I ran for dear life with them. But, my eldest daughter, my sunshine, my little helper was no where to be found. You were such a great help to me when you were little- do you know that?

If anyone had a right to judge me, it would be you but you don’t? Why? Why do you not hate me like your siblings do?

I know you spent a great deal of time in trying to find your family- this is something I had prayed for over all of those years. Somewhere along the line, I grew up and am now, who I am.

Thank you my angel for being who you are. You have turned out well and I am so very happy that you want to know this heart that has bled, that has cried and that had been broken when you were taken from me.
I love you dearly.
Love,
Mother

Renee Pernice: Break the Silence!

It's been 6 months since Renee Pernice mysteriously disappeared from her own home, leaving her children and all her belongings and identification behind.  Her husband, Shon Pernice, is considered a person of interest, has been to court recently on stolen gun charges, was suspiciously present when another woman, Star Boomer, also went missing, yet still has not been arrested!  Someone knows something! 

BREAK THE SILENCE - COME FORWARD WITH WHAT YOU KNOW

The person/people responsible for Renée's disappearance have such a secret to hide.  The people that know something but haven't come forward have such a burden to live with; the knowledge that they could provide justice in this case but they aren't. 

CLOSE THIS CASE - PROVIDE JUSTICE FOR RENEE

Call the TIPS hotline @ 816-474-8477