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CHAPTER 6

He never had the life of a child. He looked for affection—and would cling to it when he found it. He wanted to be a little boy, but never had the chance.

—Detective Michael Waites

The same day that A.J.’s body was flown to Georgia, Detective Calloway continued his investigation by doing a follow-up interview with thirteen-year-old Jamie Falk at her home. Jamie was a seventh-grade student at Christa McAuliffe Middle School. He asked if she had ever witnessed any abuse directed at A.J.

She told him that about a year earlier she had seen A.J. seated at the dinner table with a plate of food in front of him, but he had tape over his mouth. He could not eat the food but was made to sit there with his mouth taped.

On several occasions, she heard the stepmother screaming and hitting A.J., but she had only actually seen her strike him once.

Two months earlier, the teenager had taken it upon herself to call the HRS abuse hot line. She told the personnel at HRS that A.J. was “always getting hit,” but since she had no proof, they told her they couldn’t do anything.

Calloway then talked to another neighbor girl, twelve-year-old Serena Perryman, at her home. She told the detective that she had seen A.J. walking past her house on his way home from school three months earlier. Jessica Schwarz had come outside and yelled down the street to A.J. that if he did not get down to his house on the count of five, she would make him walk down the street naked.

Serena had also heard Jessica call A.J. a “fucking bitch” and many times she had seen bruises on A.J.

Next was nine-year-old Teresa Walton, a third-grade student at Indian Pines. The child told the investigator that she believed that Jessica Schwarz had made A.J. eat a cockroach. She was standing outside A.J.’s house when Jessica came to the front door—holding a cockroach in her hand—and called A.J. into the house.

Jessica told A.J. she was going to make him eat it because she had found the cockroach in the kitchen cabinets near the dishes and that he didn’t do a good enough job cleaning the dishes.

Teresa walked into the kitchen and saw A.J. standing in a corner, “chewing on something.”

The little girl also told the detective that A.J. was allowed only five minutes to eat his dinner, and if he didn’t finish in that time, the food was given to the dog.

Teresa had also seen A.J. sitting at the dinner table with his mouth taped shut—with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Kool-Aid in front of him. His hands were behind the chair, but she didn’t think they were bound. She believed that he was simply told to keep his hands behind the chair.

Over a 3½-year period, Teresa claimed that she had seen A.J. with tape over his mouth at least seven or eight times, and sometimes there was writing on the tape, such as “I’m an asshole” or “I’m an idiot.” About two months earlier, she had seen him outside his house with silver tape—she thought it to be duct tape—over his mouth.

Later in the afternoon, Calloway met with a woman who had previously lived across the street from the Schwarzes. Gail Ragatz was a pest exterminator who had performed her services at the Schwarz house once a month.

She believed that A.J. had been abused—mentally and emotionally—by his stepmother.

In December 1992, Ragatz had gone over to visit, and while she was there, she saw Jessica put A.J.’s bowl of food next to the kitty litter box. Jessica told A.J., “If you want to act like a dog, you’re going to eat like a dog.” Ragatz remembered the incident vividly: the bowl of food contained macaroni and cheese and a hot dog with ketchup.

Yet another neighbor, Diane Mostov, related two strange incidents to Calloway. About one week prior to A.J.’s death, she was coming home from work at 5:30 in the morning and saw A.J. walking down the street carrying a garbage bag over his shoulder. It was still dark outside and she wondered what a child his age was doing out so early in the morning.

A few weeks earlier, she was taking her own child for a walk and passed the Schwarz house. It was early—between noon and one o’clock—in the afternoon on a school day and A.J. was sitting on the ground outside the garage door. He had no clothes on. He did not speak to her or ask for any help.

Mostov added that she was aware of the Schwarz family and “figured it was just one more of Jessica’s unusual punishments.”

On Saturday morning, Detective Waites returned to the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office and A.J.’s body was released later that day to the funeral home that his natural mother, Ilene, had requested. He was buried the following Monday in Fort Lauderdale.

Detective Calloway returned to Triphammer Road to talk to Louis Steinhauer and his wife, Anne. The Steinhauers had lived directly across the street from the Schwarzes for about 1½ years. Mrs. Steinhauer said that about three times a week she would meet A.J. on the corner and drive him to school. She had asked A.J. if she could take him to school because she felt sorry for him, since he had to walk every day. A.J. accepted the rides from her—but only if she would pick him up on the corner, because he didn’t want his parents to see him riding in a car.

During these rides, she learned that A.J. was grounded most of the time, and when she asked him what he was doing early every Thursday morning, he told her that he had to collect aluminum cans for his stepmother because she was on probation and made him collect the cans.

A.J. was up early every morning doing chores. He had to clean the garage about five days out of seven, but the Steinhauers had never seen the girls doing any chores.

Most disturbingly, Mrs. Steinhauer told the detective that on Saturday, April 24, she saw A.J. working in the garage, and Jessica had walked up behind him and placed her hands around his neck and picked him up off the ground. A.J.’s arms were limp at his side and his feet were off the ground. While holding him by the neck, Jessica started walking around the garage, saying, “See this! Look at this!” Mrs. Steinhauer believed she was showing A.J. certain areas in the garage that he may have missed cleaning.

Mrs. Steinhauer had heard—on a daily basis for 1½ years—A.J. being called “shit for brains,” “stupid,” and an “idiot.”

Next the detective talked to Catherine Turner, the neighbor directly behind the Schwarz residence. She also had seen A.J. with a black eye and had asked him what happened. He told her that he “fell down.”

Turner had baby-sat for Jessica in the past and said that they had changed the lock on A.J.’s room so that it was on the outside, instead of the inside.

Jessica had told Turner that she would make A.J. walk around the house naked as a form of punishment.