The Girl in the Pole Yard
Remembering Sandy.
For almost a year, I’ve had a coat hanging in my closet that’s not mine. It’s white, delicate, with fur trim around the collar and the wrists. I’ve had dreams where I’m wearing it. The coat was owned by another woman, Sandy Beal, when she was 18 years old. On the night of her death, in February 1977, she had it with her. Police found it in her car and returned it to her family, who in turn gave it to me.
It is a strange thing to live with another person’s story for so long. I have her address books, her letters, even her checkbook where she carefully balanced her bank account. Her life has become enmeshed with mine. It’s almost time I give the coat back. After a year of reporting, my podcast on the short life and mysterious death of Sandy Beal is now live — well, at least the first episode. You’ll have to wait a little to hear the whole series, we’re releasing one episode a week on Wednesdays.
I hope that you’ll listen and let me know what you think.
I was part of the explorer program as a youth from 14-18. In my time in the program I met many officers as well as youth who wanted to be officers or be in the military. During my time it was the early 2000s so being a girl in the program was not a rare or new thing. However I know there was girls that had relationships with the officers. It was jarring to hear in the episode cop freak that officers that were part of the program didnt remember her, in that time I wonder how many girls were part of the program. I dont think it would have been many. These officers used her and kept her quiet with promises of a promising career and life. If she spoke up shes be a pariah and this is not to say it wasnt consensual but in programs with authority figures even if the youth participant is legally an adult fraternizing like that is against the regulations. What happened to Sandy happens to many around the country, maybe not her untimely death but falling into a trap of being taken advantage of. It is sad.