Читать книгу Limb from Limb - George Hunter - Страница 24

Within two days of Stephen’s initial missing persons report, Kozlowski had interviewed Sue Murasky, a counselor at Au Pair in America, the agency sponsoring the Grant children’s nanny, Verena Dierkes.

Kozlowski told Murasky about the investigation into Tara Grant’s disappearance, and they agreed the Grant home was not a fit environment for nineteen-year-old Verena. The young native of Aulhausen, a quaint, quiet village in Germany’s vineyard-rich Rhine Valley, was on her first trip overseas, less than a year after graduating high school.

The French term “au pair” often is translated as “on par,” meaning on par with family members, to distinguish the child-care providers from servants or other household staff. Generally, they are young women with an acceptable command of the English language who seek a year or two change of pace in the United States in exchange for working as a parents’ helper.

Au pairs are placed through agencies with the blessing of U.S. Immigration officials. Classified as visitors, not workers, part of the bargain is that they are allowed time off to attend classes at local colleges and to socialize with friends, often other au pairs. Their sponsoring agencies generally provide nearby counselors who lend a listening ear to homesick teens, as well as organizing cultural, social, and educational activities for the young women.

Verena had been placed in the Grant home in August 2007 by Au Pair in America. She had been given a temporary assignment for a few weeks, and then she started working for the Grants. Verena attended Macomb Community College; she hoped to become a teacher.

Erik Standerfer said Stephen wanted Tara to hire a nanny to make his life easier. “They had an au pair in the house at his request from the moment their second child was born,” Erik said.

Verena was the Grants’ seventh nanny in five years. Most of them quit after only a few weeks.

Police contacted the couple’s former au pairs in hopes of getting a clue to Tara’s possible whereabouts. Some of the nannies said they were frightened in the Grant home, fearful of everything from someone snooping through their belongings to “tirades” from the master of the house.

One of the au pairs, a Ukrainian girl named Yana, said Stephen “gave her the creeps,” Lieutenant Darga said.

“She said she never liked him,” Darga said. “And she said she always got the feeling he was watching her. She said she left not long after she started getting that feeling.”

The former au pairs also provided an insight into the Grants’ relationship, Sergeant McLean said. “There were fights, but I don’t think they had a relationship where they were screaming at each other all the time,” she said. “It was a more subtle kind of manipulation, getting little digs in. It was a psychological kind of fighting.”

Despite the qualms of the other au pairs, Verena told police she enjoyed her stay at the Grants’ Westridge home. She joined the Grant family on an outing to a Detroit Tigers baseball game at Comerica Park in the summer of 2006 as the Tigers were fighting their way to a World Series berth.

In a photo taken that day, which would become iconic to followers of the case, Verena looked happy and relaxed as she posed beside Tara and the children in front of the ballpark. She was enjoying life in America.

But on February 16, that all ended.

Verena’s counselor, Murasky, arrived that Friday, helped a reluctant Verena pack her bags, and wheeled them out of the Grant driveway.

This would not, however, be Verena’s last visit to Macomb County.