DATE: Tuesday, November 11, 1997            TAG: 9711110044

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Elizabeth Simpson 

                                            LENGTH:   64 lines

AU PAIR TRIAL HITS CLOSER TO HOME THAN YOU REALIZE

WE ARE A NATION addicted to trials.

We thrive on gory detail, tearful testimony, dramatic closing arguments.

With O.J. Simpson ancient history, Marv Albert tried and humiliated, we needed something judicial to feast our eyes upon, a fresh defendant to satisfy our gavel-to-gavel addiction.

Louise Woodward, the British au pair convicted for killing 8-month-old Matthew Eappen, was a logical choice to fill our voyeuristic void.

It had the makings of a good novel: A well-to-do family in Cambridge, Mass., a fresh-faced British au pair, a chubby-cheeked child dead at 8 months.

Only once the case unraveled, the issues became too familiar. And rather than a look inside a life far different from our own, the undercurrent of themes hit home for many working parents:

The juggle of two-income families, the guilt over leaving children with child-care providers, the angst over finding just the right person to fill a parent's shoes.

The courtroom drama tapped into the vulnerable spot of working parents, the deep-rooted fears we keep tucked away in our subconscious.

Maybe that's why the case of baby Matthew and his British caretaker became an icon for the working parents' dream gone wrong.

But consider for a moment, these names. Zachary Frank. Natasha Chipp. Evan Grandelis.

How many of those names ring a bell?

They lived much closer to us than Matthew did, but I bet the majority of readers don't have a clue as to who they are.

They are Hampton Roads children who shared a common fate with Matthew: Someone shook them too hard, and they died.

And yet their stories end up in the back pages of the newspaper, which is where I found their names myself.

I repeat their names for a reason.

To remind people that you don't have to tune into Court TV, or the national news to hear about cases like Matthew's. Children are shaken too hard more often than we read about on the front pages of newspapers.

Just as people on both sides of the ocean couldn't believe an act so cruel could come from the hand of someone so young and innocent-looking as Woodward, so too do many of the defendants in other shaken baby cases pass as loving caretakers. Frustration, lack of knowledge about child care, and a crying baby can turn a caretaker into a killer in just a few minutes.

While we focus on a case across the country, we should also remember the children and families right here in our own communities who have suffered similar tragedies.

The 36 Virginia children - seven in South Hampton Roads - who were victims of shaken infant syndrome just since January.

Zachary, 2 months old, whose mother was convicted last month of second-degree murder. She told police she ``lost control so much (she) can't remember some parts.''

Evan Grandelis, a 1-year-old Norfolk boy, whose baby sitter pled guilty to second-degree murder in September. The sitter originally told police an older child she was watching struck Evan. The investigation, however, revealed she had shaken Evan so hard his head hit the floor two to three times.

And Natasha Chipp, a 4-year-old Virginia Beach girl, who died while visiting her father and stepmother in Missouri. The stepmother was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter.

The lives of these children were short. But their message - like Matthew's - can still live on as a reminder of just how fragile a child's life can be.

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