Lost and Found

If you wanna know what happened, I have to tell you everything, my parents taught me never to lie. I'm also not allowed to talk about this stuff though, my parents say if I keep making up stories, everyones just gonna think I’m a fibber, and I'll never have any friends. But I’m not making it up, It's not my fault my eyes and ears are broke, cuz I didn't ask them to break

See I don't have many friends anymore on account of my eyes and ears are broke, with some people only their eyes break, and sometimes only people's ears break, some really unlucky people have their eyes and ears break. The Pewtids say this isn't a curse, it's a blessing. They say, I’m special and that I’m really important. But, if it really was; why then does nobody even know about anything I’m talking about. I'm sorry you don't know what a Pewtid even is, Pewtids are the first things that would talk to me. They don't have real names so i call them Pewtids. They all look different and every human has one, but you can never see them; some people call Pewtids demons, but that's not true….. Demons are deformed evil looking things that smell like bad garbage.

Pewtids are cute; they look like fat kitty cats with black fur and three eyes. They always sit on peoples shoulders, and tell jokes and have fun, Pewtids like mischief, but they never want to hurt anyone. I can't see my Pewtid, because those are the rules, but I can sometimes hear him whisper when its quiet. He always tells me to do funny things, the other day he told me to buy that new video game I want with my moms credit card; even though she said no. He says he's sure she won't notice because she's more focused on how my aunt has been in and out of the hospital lately.

Pewtids aren't the only things the eyes let me see. I see everything. I even HEAR everything. People are like crayons. They all have a colorful flame that surrounds their entire body. And they're all different colors And depending on what kind of person you are depends on the color and even how big it is. Sick people flames are really small and shaped weird like the fire is going out. Your flame was blue until I started talking, but now its bigger and yellow, like your confused. I've been seeing pewtids and flames since I was 8 but my parents and the doctors all say that it's all made up because of my imagination.

It wasn't until I was 10 my ears broke too….. I stopped playing with the other kids after that. The closer I got to someone’s flame the louder the voice would be. Sometimes when I'm in the lunch line I’m too close to too many flames and it feels like the voices are all arguing in my head. I don't think the voices are talking to me though because the voices usually have nothing to do with me. Sometimes they do though, when someone is talking to me they're flame will say things like that they think I'm weird, or that they don't like me. Jenny Roberts’ flame is scared of me because it has a crush on me. It doesn't make any sense though because Jenny’s so mean to me, I feel like she hates me. I can tell if a voice is gonna be happy or sad before i hear it though because of the color of the flame. Red flames are always angry, blue and green flames are happy, Pink flames mean you got a crush on somebody, and black flames are bad.

When I stopped talking in school the teachers started calling home and my parents had to talk to my teachers, my teachers thought something bad was happening at home. Before the meeting my parents told me not to talk about pewtids or flames or any of my made up stuff. After the meeting I saw my doctor once a month to talk about what I see. The pewtids told me I needed to stop talking about what i see so everyone would stop worrying about me, they said its okay to lie if it makes everyone who loves me feel happy again.

When i started lying everyone was so happy! They said the medicine worked and for the first time in a while, I felt like my family wasn't worried about me. I remember the day my parents took me out for dinner to celebrate the last time I had to see the doctor. My parents bought me so much ice cream i thought i was gonna be sick. And my mom and dad cried that night when they tucked me into bed. I didn't understand why they cried if they were happy though. I asked thier pewtids and the pewtids said it’s a silly thing adults do when they love someone.

I still kept to myself at school but I met jayme 3 weeks ago. Jayme is the one whos the real hero! Jayme is the first girl i've ever had a crush on. Jayme is the prettiest girl on the planet. She has beautiful black hair, blue eyes, and braces. She wears the same pink t-shirt with a picture of a big horse on it and a pair of blue jeans that only comes down to her ankles. Her favorite sport is soccer; even though she doesn't like it anymore. And I'm her first boyfriend she’s ever had.

The way I met Jayme was that I was outside on my porch staring at the sunset, and I saw her walking. She looked really sad when she was walking by my house all by herself. So I shouted at her “Hey, cheer up, its saturday we don't got school tomorrow”. When Jayme heard me she seemed really surprised; she walked all the way up my porch and said “I don't have to go to school anymore” and I said “well why is that”. She responded “I just don't anymore, if ya stop showing up, eventually they stop trying to make you go”. At that point, I envied Jayme because I hated school, but I was too scared to tell my parents no. “I said hi my name is Chester you're really cool, I wish I could quit school, what's your name?” at that point she blushed as if she couldn't believe I wanted to talk to her, “hi my name is Jayme, your not normal are you”? At that point I couldn't believe it, she had figured it out already; just by talking to me for 5 seconds. in my shock I said “well so are you, you're flame is tiny and silver, and you don't have a Pewtid”. In my frustration, I had accidentally told her just how weird I really was without even thinking. Jayme said “its because im different, just like you. Let's be friends, I have to go back to the house now because soccer practice is over, but let's hangout tomorrow when you're done with school. I'll wait for ya at the bus stop” I agreed and we said goodbye to each other. That night I told my parents I had made my first real friend in years and they were so happy. They couldn't wait to meet her.

Jayme never wanted to meet them though, she liked the idea of sneaking into my room, or hanging out in my old tree house, just the two of us. She didn't like playing video games but she enjoyed watching me play them. Jayme was the first person I ever told my secrets to that believed me. She didn't think I was crazy at all; she said she even saw the Pewtids too. She didn't call them Pewtids though she called them “night kitties”. She said she started seeing them 3 years ago too; so we had that in common. Jayme one time told me she wished more people were like me; she thought if everyone was like me the world would be a better place. That there would be less bad people. Jayme always knew what to say to make me feel happy too. Even when she called me a butthead for forgetting to hold the door for her, or a weirdo for not having any other friends; I knew it was in a kind way. Deep down I could tell Jaime was secretly sad, I knew that being around me cheered her up. Every night when she went home, the huge smile she had would just completely go away when she would give me a hug goodbye.

One day when we were playing, I told Jayme she was my favorite person in the whole wide world, and I asked her to be my girlfriend….. When I did she laughed, she said “I'm not allowed to have a boyfriend, but I guess if you can keep it a secret it might work”. Then she gave me a kiss on the cheek. My face was so red I thought it was gonna be warm like that for a week. I asked her why she surprised me like that and she said “that's what girlfriends do is surprise you.” Like every other night Jayme left right at 8 because soccer was over, I asked her why that always meant she had to go, and she told me “if I went to soccer then when would we be able to hang out together at all” so I agreed and snuck her out the window.

That night I was so excited I almost slipped up in front of my parents and told them Jayme had agreed to go out with me, I'm glad I didn't though, I didnt wanna make Jayme mad.

The next day Jayme didn't show up at all, even though she promised she would, I thought I scared her away. That whole day I just sat there thinking why did I have to tell her I liked her, why did I scare away the first person that accepted me. I felt for the first time in the longest, completely alone.

The next day Jayme waited for me at the bus stop, she was holding back tears in her eyes and she told me she needed my help. At the time I didn't know what it was but I knew I had to help her. I had never seen Jayme this serious or upset since the whole time I had known her. Her flame was even bigger it was blinking, I had never seen a flame blinking and changing colors like that before, it was all so scary.

Jayme grabbed me by the hand and took me all the way down to the end of my neighborhood, to this one house with a nice white picket fence and a bunch of bushes. By the windows the house was really big but it seemed empty. Something about the house gave me the creeps even though I didn't know why.

Jayme had not talked to me since she said she had needed my help, she looked over at me and finally said that we needed to go inside for a second; to help someone. She was really vague and really serious, she said we would only have another couple hours before soccer practice was over and that we had to do something today or it would be too late.

Jayme said we could sneak in through the basement window in the back, and to be quick. She said there would be someone down there whos sleeping and I needed to wake her up: and get her out the window we came in. She told me it was very important that I just make that person come with me no matter what happens, and Jayme said that she would keep lookout while I do it.

Right before I went down in the room Jayme gave me a big hug, and she told me not to be scared, she started actually crying a little and said how she wished things were different, but how she had the best boyfriend ever. The last thing she said to me didn't make any sense, but people say silly things when they're sad. She said “I've been lost for 3 years, but it's all over because you found me, please go find Charlotte now too”

I trembled through the window to a dark scary basement room. I looked around and there were weird tools that gave me a shiver down my spine. There was a really scary whisper that you could feel in all of the room. The only light in the room came from the outside window. When I fell I made a loud bang and to my surprise I saw someone. This girl was chained up like a puppy, she was about my age and had looked really scared. Her flame was huge and grey; and took up the whole room. The flame screamed in my ears over and over again “help me, help! I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die” ! The screaming was so powerful it made me wanna cry.

Although there was no light in the room I took off the tape over the girls mouth and told her Jayme had sent me, and I was there to help. Without hesitation, she told me she saw tools on the table and after multiple attempts, we broke the chain good enough to free her from the pole she was chained to. I boosted her up and she climbed out the window, she almost trampled my head she moved so fast.

Once I got outside too, I started shouting for Jayme. I wanted to tell her that I found her friend and that she's safe, I didn't see Jayme anywhere; so I assumed she went to the clubhouse to wait for me like she did some days when I got a ride home instead of taking the bus.

I told the girl; who was still crying and panicking that we can go back to my house, she agreed. She kept thanking me, in between crying and asking how I knew where she was. She told me how something bad had happened to her yesterday; and when she woke up, she was in that house. She said her parents had warned her that bad things happen to kids, but she had still not listened to her parents. She said how she probably thinks her parents are angry at her and she told me she's still so scared.

When we finally got to my house, my parents were hysterical. They said yesterday a little girl never made it home, and they thought it had happened to me too. The police were already at my house when me and charlotte got there. And it turns out, Charlotte was the girl who went missing yesterday. Me and Charlotte talked to the cops and I showed them the house, it belonged to the highschool soccer coach. I don't really know what happened next but the soccer coach was taken by the cops and then a bunch of adults brought me here.

Either way just like I told my parents, and just like i told the cops. I promised not to lie and I’m not lying when I say Jayme is the one who knew where the house was. The real hero is Jayme! Jayme found Charlotte, and Jayme showed me how to get her to safely.

(grown man’s voice) “Son, thank you for giving your audio testimony, that stacked with the physical evidence of your account of the incident, the testimony of Charlotte Fernandez, and the bodies discovered in coach Ronald Feldman’s yard, we have all we need here”

“What about Jayme did you find her?”

“No we did not see any other little girls on the crime scene, next time you see your little girlfriend, tell her to come in so she can tell us how she knew where to look to find Charlotte”

“Okay I will tell her after school”

“Alright well Officer Clark will escort you back to your parents I think you've given them quite the scare”

“Okay detective Bye bye”

Door Shuts

(female voice) “Well Chet what do you make of that one?”

(man's voice) “ Well I don't know what to make of that one it all seems so crazy, to almost not believe this kid found the little girl all on his own, let alone saying he had help from a friend”

(female voice) “Yeah he caught the killer right before he took his 4th victim”

(man's voice) “ The boy’s a hero.”

“ We got back the dental records and they matched the 3 other missing person’s reports of middle school girls who have went missing the past 3 years”

“Lets see here Claudia Vermo, Amelia Christionson, and oh my god Jayme Littenbaugh, was the name of his first victim…. 3 years ago”

“Her picture matches the boy’s description…. Dark hair, blue eyes”.

(female voice) “ Oh my god you don't think?”

(man's voice) “Of course not just a coincidence, either way the killers caught, eyewitness testimony is gathered, looks open and shut, I'm gonna go home”

*tape clicks*

This audio recording was never used in court when processing Ronald Feldman for the kidnapping, sexual abuse, and murder charges stacked against him. He still was sentenced to multiple life sentences in prison and found dead in his cell two months into serving his sentence. The 11 year old child is Chester Burman who single handedly stopped Witchita’s biggest child abductor in years. The boy now receives weekly Psychiatric therapy and treatment for his diagnosis. Chester’s testimony was unusable evidence in a court of law however, due to the testimony being given of a child diagnosed with schizophrenia. This recording, is his story.