Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 24, 1992 TAG: 9203240369
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: BLAND LENGTH: Medium
The Rev. Allen Shupe, associate pastor in evangelism at First United Methodist Church, and his wife, Penny, were taking their 2-year old daughter, Kayla, to Bluefield, W.Va., last Saturday to see a Disney movie.
It was shortly after noon when they saw the girl walking toward them in the Interstate 77 median strip south of Bluefield, near Rocky Gap. She had a pillow in her arms and no shoes on her feet.
Shupe pulled off, backed up and persuaded her to get in the car with them. He was surprised that nobody else had done so.
"Traffic was heavy and I thought about that. She was walking for a period of about 10 minutes," he said. "I guess there might have been about a hundred cars that passed her, and that concerns me."
She was wearing a cap and her father's coat, he said, and it might not have been immediately obvious that she was an 11-year-old girl. "She really made an impression on us all, though. She was a very courageous little girl," Shupe said.
She was carrying some journals belonging to her mother, Cassandra Cooper, 30, which had descriptions of death and issues about dying. She also had some PTL Bibles in which Cooper and her husband, Lorne Wayne Cooper, 27, both of Woodbridge, had marked passages in blue ink about death being a way out and a kind of release.
Shupe said he later tried to find the corresponding passage in the Psalms in his own Bible, but the PTL Bibles were written differently. The Coopers were driving through Virginia from North Carolina where they had been visiting relatives at New Heritage USA, the resort near Charlotte, N.C., founded by former PTL minister Jim Bakker.
The girl told the Shupes that her parents talked increasingly about committing suicide and asked her and their other child, a 5-year-old boy, if they wanted to go with their parents to heaven. The parents told her they wanted to see her grandfather, rock musician Eric Clapton's son who died last year, and others.
The little boy agreed to go with them, but the girl did not. Shupe said she told them she was 11 years old and she wasn't ready to die. "I shudder to think what might have happened . . . if they'd not have given [their daughter] the choice," he said said.
The little girl embraced and kissed her parents goodbye. Her mother told her God would send somebody to take care of her.
"It took us a good 45 minutes to get into Bluefield and find the police station," Shupe said. "We were afraid that the worst had happened because it was just so obvious to us that they were intending to commit suicide. . . . You let your little girl out and you're serious about something."
After reporting the situation to authorities at the Bluefield Police Department, the Shupes took the girl "to get a bite to eat and to get some shoes. She was without shoes. She had shoes in the car but the parents wouldn't let her take them."
While they were driving, the girl found her father's wallet with all his credit cards and identification in the jacket he had given her. The Shupes hurried back to the police station with the new information.
The Coopers were arrested shortly afterward near Beckley, W.Va., on charges of child abandonment. They were still being held in the Raleigh County jail there Monday, but had agreed to waive extradition back to Virginia.
In a statement released by his attorney, Warren McGraw II, Lorne Cooper said, "I have seen and heard the incredible accusations against me and there is a huge misunderstanding. I certainly am willing to cooperate with authorities to clear this up. I love my wife and children very much and I would never do anything to harm them."
Their son was with them, and was placed temporarily in the custody of a human services agency in Raleigh County. Bluefield authorities told the Shupes that the daughter had to go back to Virginia, which had jurisdiction in the matter, and they drove her back to the Bland County Social Services Department. She is now with relatives who live at Heritage USA.
Shupe said the girl broke down and cried on the way back to Bland, when she was looking in the wallet and came across photographs of the family. He described her as "bright as a light bulb" and said she acted as though she had been through a situation of this kind before.
"She just made a real impression on us, and I grieve for her that she has to deal with what happened to her," he said.
The Washington Post contributed some information for this story.
by CNB