Bruce®
hardwood floors

11ARS
11 (AIM I I 1 -
,\ ND VAI tII

Bruce

PRE-FINISHED x
SOLID OAK

4 Colors Urethane Finish
Standard Nail Down Installation.

$ 5 99

Sq. Ft. INSTALLED

Bruce
hardwood floors

LINDA page 25

FREE
3rd COAT
OF FINISH
With this ad

with one teacher. The woman
suggested, "What if I put her in
foster care for awhile?"
Linda responded that she
would "just separate myself' from
Chelsea by locking the door if
things got too bad.
Not long before Chelsea's death,
Linda received a message at work
from a Detective Wilson. He said,
"I have to tell you we have your
daughter."
Apparently, someone at the
school had contacted the police.
The police had been told that "I
hated my daughter, I was going
to hurt her, and I was going to put

UNFINISHED x
SOLID SELECT OAK

Jordan Solomon in court.

$695 Sq . Ft. INSTALLED
FINISHED

FREE 4X6 AREA RUG Reg. '299'
Colors, Very Heavy Textured,
A Assorted
Bordered, Beveled, Backed, Bound.
RUG FREE WITH S1,500m PURCHASE

RE-FINISH YOUR OLD WOOD
FLOORS LIKE NEW!

SPECIAL PR10E $219 SQ Fr.

Sand, Stain, Finish With 2 Coats Pacific Strong.
STANDARD COLORS

Free 3rd coat not included.

Our craftsmen take great pride in the quality of their work-
manship. A pride that assures the hardwood flooring you
choose is the very best you can buy, and your home main-
tains a very beautiful and natural look for many years to come.

co

Floor Covering Plus, Inc.

2258 Franklin Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302
1 block East of Telegraph, North of Square Lake Road

26

(810) 332-9430

Mon. & Wed. 9-7, Tue., Thur. & Fri. 9-6, Sat. 9-3
* previous orders excluded

sia and purple, with a turquoise
skirt and T-shirt. Then she put on
red tights.
Linda frowned. "I don't know
about those red tights with that
outfit," she said.
So Chelsea returned to her
room, and came back this time
in white tights. She told her
mother, "Oh Mom, I'm so glad
you told me about putting these
on."
Chelsea's room was a mess.
Junk was all over the floor and
there was a swing hanging offher
bed which Chelsea had made from
a king-sized sheet and old nylons
that had been stuffed into a pil-
low.
By 11 a.m. Linda found herself
depressed, without reason. She
decided not to go into the office af-
ter all.
Chelsea and Linda went to the
bathroom to clean Chelsea's new-
ly pierced ears. Her earrings were
small, pink-and-yellow mer-
maids, and it was difficult to get
them out.
They went into the kitchen,
where Linda told her daughter,
"I'm kind of glad I stayed at home
today because I get to spend some
time with you."
Linda ate corn flakes and
Chelsea had raisin bran with a
banana.
They watched a little television,
then Linda took a nap.
At about 2 p.m. Linda went to
take out turkey for spaghetti
sauce. She watched a PBS prO-
gram about oil painting.
Chelsea spent a lot of time in
her room. She would come in
Linda's room to hug her moth-
er. Sometimes, Linda chased her
out.
From her room, Chelsea said,
"I love you, Mom." Linda said she
returned, "I love you, too."
Later, there was a loud noise
from Chelsea's room and Linda
called, "Don't bang on the wall."
Sometime afterward, Linda
heard another noise in her daugh-
ter's room. She decided to ignore
it. In any case, it didn't continue
but a moment, Linda said.
That was when Linda believes
Chelsea "killed herself."
Forty-five minutes after hear-
ing the noise Linda walked into
Chelsea's room. She thought her
daughter must be asleep; she had
been quiet for so long.
he day Chelsea died did not
The door was shut. Because of
begin like any other.
the mess, the room smelled ter-
Linda stayed in bed un- rible.
til 8 or 9 on Saturday, Jan.
"I opened the door," Linda re-
28. Usua lly an early riser, she de- called. "There she was, like a rag
scribed this as "sleeping in."
doll. She wasn't hanging. Her
Linda planned to go into the of- mouth was open. Her head was to
fice. She had found a job doing the side."
clerical work downtown. One of
Linda said she found Chelsea
the attorneys there had a son with with her feet on the futon atop her
whom Chelsea was friendly. bunk bed.
Maybe he would be there and the
It appeared she had been stran-
two could play.
gled with plastic wrapping that
But it wasn't easy to get going. had been attached to the bed.
Linda "was just dragging."
Carefully, Linda lifted her
Chelsea dressed herself in a daughter's body so it would rest
plaid jacket of turquoise and fuch- on the top bunk. She tried CPR,

PHOTO BY J EFF KOWALSKY

Standard Nail Down Installation
SANDED, STAINED, FINISHED
Standard Colors
2 Coats Pacific Strong Comm. Finish.

influence on her life has been pro-
found. His name is David-Peter
Murphy.
David-Peter came to know
Linda through mutual friends.
One of the first things she told him
was, "I'm Jewish but I'm not a
JAP (Jewish American Princess)."
David-Peter "hit it off right
away" with Chelsea. "It was like
we had known each other years
and years and years and years."
They went to the Plymouth Ice
Festival and to see The Lion King.
Other times, David-Peter came to
visit Chelsea at her last home on
Windsor Woods in Canton.
Linda and her daugh-
ter lived in a second-floor
apartment in a complex
where hats with flowers
decorate the doors of
virtually every unit.
In the back of the build-
ing is a lone merry-go-
round underneath a
small tree.
David-Peter was in Las
Vegas when Chelsea died.
Linda had left three mes-
sages on his answering
machine.
At Chelsea's funeral,
David-Peter stayed close
to Linda. She clung to
him during the service, a
small ceremony at the
Machpelah Cemetery chapel.
A native of England, David-
Peter, 31, lives in Ann Arbor. He
described himself as a kind of
"holistic healer," who feels com-
pelled to speak "my truth."
According to that truth, Chelsea
accidentally became entangled in
the plastic cording on her bed,
then "chose" to die.
"I believe there was a point in
time she had a chance to come
back and she chose not to," he said.
She decided to die because she was
"in a lot of pain."
David-Peter said he continues
to be in regular contact with
Chelsea. He has good news: "She
is happy again."

her in foster care" — charges
Linda regards as ridiculous.
Chelsea did go to school with
scrapes on her neck, Linda said,
but that wasn't because of abuse.
Linda had accidentally brushed
her long nails against her daugh-
ter, she said.
"We were very close," Linda
said of her relationship with
Chelsea. "But at times we were
very far away."
They enjoyed reading books to-
gether, like James Herriot's
Bonny's Big Day, the story of an
old horse who wins a family pet
contest. They planted sunflowers,
too, and made peanut butter-and-
jelly sandwiches to take to home-
less men and women. "I was
teaching her to care about others."
But for the most part she was
a poor mother, Linda said. She
found Chelsea "difficult to con-
trol."
There were times she hit her
daughter, Linda said. Sometimes,
Chelsea would be sitting at the
table and Linda would come up
from behind and, for no reason,
smack her hard on the back of the
head. `That wasn't right," she said.
Linda also used "nasty words"
and made "terrible faces" at her
daughter. She described herself
as appearing "like a monster."
She said she feels terrible about
it all now, and often apologized
to Chelsea herself after the abuse.
"But saying 'I'm sorry' ust doesn't
do it."
Today, Linda characterizes her
treatment of Chelsea as "abusive."
About one month before her
daughter's death Linda became
friendly with another man whose

Linda doesn't
remember her
parents ever saying,
"I love you."

I