Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280085
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Was she already being brutalized then? Or was Valerie exactly as she appears, a normal little 6-year-old, still innocent of the horrors that, too soon, would end her life?
One can't help wondering, looking at that sweet face. About that, and about why she was tortured and starved and finally beaten to death at age 12 in her own home, among the adults who were supposed to cherish her and help her grow into a strong, capable woman.
What routine child's transgressions brought such savagery down on her? Or was there nothing, just a brute's desire to unleash his depraved fury on someone small and defenseless?
And, finally, one wonders how it could have happened. How could young Valerie Smelser have been so isolated that a society now sickened by her fate did not see it coming, and save her?
Part of the explanation, of course, is that Valerie lived her short life outside the normal institutions that watch for signs of something terribly wrong in the lives of children in their care. She lived with her mother, three siblings and her mother's boyfriend - who pleaded guilty this week to murder and abduction charges - in a house in Middletown in the Shenandoah Valley.
Her mother got a religious exemption to keep the children out of school, isolating Valerie from that potential refuge. Virginia law does not allow schools even to check on the educational progress of home-schooled children.
Prosecutors say Valerie was brutally attacked before but wasn't taken to a hospital, where staff would report suspicions of abuse. Another safeguard circumvented.
Still, there had been earlier complaints to social services agencies about years of abuse and neglect. Somehow, these reports were never confirmed. Valerie's mother moved often, keeping ahead of authorities.
There are all kinds of holes, it turns out, in the safety net society has tried to spread for children, who are so dependent on the nurturing of family, so vulnerable when family is anything but nurturing.
After all the unanswered questions, what is left is anger.
Anger at Norman Hoverter, who prosecutors say beat Valerie and left her to die in the cold, dark, feces-littered basement that was her prison, then dumped her body on a roadside. And anger at Valerie's mother, Wanda.
Norman Hoverter could not muster enough remorse over Valerie's fate even to admit his guilt, acknowledging only that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. There is plenty of evidence that he is a monster.
Wanda Smelser, also charged with murder, still is being evaluated for mental competency. Whatever her actions, she did not save Valerie from a tortured life or an agonizing death.
What is left, too, is another sign that for all the advances of civilization, evil remains in our midst.
This week, the nation has followed the trial of Susan Smith, who sent her two baby boys to their deaths in the dark waters of a South Carolina lake, while claiming that an anonymous black man abducted them. This week, too, Virginians have witnessed a tale of horror closer to home. A second, unwanted reminder that the threats to children come more often from familiar people than from strangers.
For some children, home is a dangerous place to be. That is a terrible sin.
Keywords:
FATALITY
Memo: ***CORRECTION***