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- For a month 9-year-old Travis Butler had a secret.
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- It haunted him every time he cut his own hair, every
time he got dressed and every time he went to catch the bus.
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- His mother was dead.
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- And Travis, afraid to go into foster care, told no one
that her body lay on the living room floor of their East Memphis apartment.
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- The woman was identified by officials as Crystal Wells,
30.
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- Although the cause of death hasn't been determined, investigators
have no reason to suspect foul play, said police spokesman Debby Hall.
One of Wells's friends said she had health problems, including high blood
pressure.
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- Travis told family friends that his mother has been dead
since Nov. 3.
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- Since his mother's death, Travis has been going to school
every day, to the grocery store and living in the Mallard Pond apartment
the two moved into three years ago.
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- ``He told us he kept it a secret because he didn't want
to be put in a foster home and he also didn't want his mother to be taken
away,'' said family friend Dorothy Jeffries.
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- Jeffries and her husband, Nathaniel, found Travis in
the apartment Monday night about 7.
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- The Olive Branch, Miss., couple drove to Wells's apartment
at 4136 Tarry Park in Memphis after trying to reach her for several days.
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- When they arrived, Travis answered the door and finally
told his secret.
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- ``At first he said his mother was at work and wouldn't
let us inside,'' said Jeffries. ``When we kept asking he finally just broke
down and said, `Mama can't talk anymore because she got really sick and
I think she is dead.'''
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- Travis had covered his mother with her coat and placed
sheets of notebook paper over her face, Jeffries said.
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- ``I just don't know how that baby survived in there for
a month with that smell,'' said Jeffries. ``It was the saddest thing I
have ever seen in my life.''
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- She said Travis begged them not to call police because
he was afraid of being placed in a foster home.
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- ``When the ambulance came he ran to his mother because
he didn't want her to be taken. I will never forget that sight.''
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- Jeffries said after Travis's mother was taken away, he
told them that since November he has been living off frozen pizza, soup
and cereal.
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- His mother had some money in the house and when he ran
out of food he would walk to the grocery near the apartment.
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- ``I asked him if anybody came to check on him during
Thanksgiving break and he said he was OK because he had a big frozen pizza
for Thanksgiving dinner,'' Jeffries said.
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- At South Park Elementary, officials said Travis, a fourth-grader,
has been coming to school every day on time.
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- His teacher, Pamela Lawson, said Travis hadn't shown
any outward signs that anything was amiss at home. He was just a normal
kid, ``not extremely shy or extremely outgoing.''
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- He didn't miss any days at school and was not tardy,
Lawson said. He dressed as usual, caught the school bus in order to get
to school and even did his homework.
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- ``There was an incident (Monday) where his hair had been
partially cut. I thought he had tried to do something and his mother was
just going to take him to the barber later.''
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- Another time, a few weeks back, Lawson said Travis didn't
bring back the packet of papers she sends home with students each Tuesday
to show their parents. She wrote a note to Travis's mother requesting that
she sign the papers.
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- ``They were returned signed,'' Lawson said.
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- After school officials found out Tuesday about Travis's
mother, Lawson said she checked the signatures on his papers.
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- ``He had been signing his papers and he had signed his
report card. He had her signature down, somewhat.''
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- Lawson said some teachers had heard on the radio before
coming to school Tuesday morning that police had found a child who was
a fourth grade student at their school.
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- ``We were wondering who it could be. And then when I
found out, it was such a shock. You just get this feeling...
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- ``I thought, `Was I missing something? Was he trying
to hint at things and I didn't get it?' He never even tried to say anything."
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- Travis didn't go to class Tuesday. The school's assistant
principal and a guidance counselor talked to Travis's classmates who were
full of questions.
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- Many of the questions centered around how Travis was
able to care for himself for possibly a month. Other students worried who
would care for Travis now.
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- Lawson said the students were encouraged to write down
their feelings or write notes to Travis.
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- ``This is just the most bizarre thing I've ever dealt
with,'' said Ronnie Clark, manager of the detention center at Juvenile
Court.
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- Clark said the boy spent the night in the court's emergency
shelter.
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- Tuesday morning, the court awarded temporary custody
to the child's maternal grandparents, said chief probation officer Charles
Gray.The relatives indicated that they planned to stay in town to finalize
arrangements.
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- His grandmother, Shirley Wilder couldn't be reached for
comment at her Carthage, Miss., home.
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- Jeffries said Wells moved to Memphis from Grenada, Miss.,
about three years ago. Jeffries and her husband met Wells two years ago
when Wells's car broke down in Olive Branch.
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- ``She was walking along the road on a hot summer day
and we picked her up and offered her a ride because my husband is a mechanic,''
Jeffries said. ``Since then we've been to see her once in Memphis. But
Crystal was a loner and didn't trust anyone. She taught Travis how to rely
on himself because she said she didn't trust people, especially men.''
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- Jeffries said Wells never mentioned Travis's father and
when she asked Travis he said he didn't have a father.
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- ``When we talked she was always depressed but she loved
Travis,'' Jeffries said.
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- Jeffries said she didn't know if Wells worked because
she suffered from health problems including high blood pressure.
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- ``I'm not sure how they lived, but Crystal made sure
Travis had what he needed,'' Jeffries said.
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- She said Travis told her that he did his homework and
watched television after he came home from school since his mother died.
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- Juvenile court employees who had contact with the child
said he seemed to be doing fine Tuesday.
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- ``He appeared normal,'' said Wain Rubenstein, administrator
of Juvenile Court's youth services bureau. ``He was watching TV in the
day room area while he was waiting on his grandparents.''
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- Rubenstein said Juvenile Court officials didn't question
the boy much about his mother or how he managed to take care of himself
for so long.
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- ``We really didn't question him on the situation. But
we advised them (grandparents) that they might want to seek counseling
for him.''
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- Neighbors of the boy were reluctant to comment about
the situation late Monday afternoon.
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- Wells lived with her son in a upstairs apartment in the
rear of the Mallard Pond Apartments in southeast Memphis. A sign at the
entrance of the complex announces remodeling work in progress.
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- Monday, yellow police tape still cordoned off Wells's
apartment. By late afternoon, the two-story apartment community was mostly
deserted except for a few people huddled outside near the front of the
development.
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- ``Crystal said she didn't associate much with her neighbors,
so they probably didn't know much about her,'' Jeffries said. ``I'm not
surprised they didn't check on her because she kept to herself and I guess
she taught Travis to do the same.''
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- _____
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- To reach reporter Yolanda Jonesy
- jones@gomemphis.com
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