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Girl's life was full of abuse, fear

DCF documents allege years of physical and mental abuse by Sarah Lunde's parents.

By KEVIN GRAHAM and BRADY DENNIS
Published May 18, 2005

TAMPA - Long before she turned up murdered in an abandoned Ruskin fish pond, 13-year-old Sarah Lunde endured a childhood full of physical abuse, neglect and starvation, according to 1,300 pages of documents released Tuesday by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

In October 1999, a judge ordered Sarah, then 8 years old, removed from her mother's care and placed in a foster home. Listed in DCF records as the cause for the placement: "inadequate supervision, inadequate food, physical abuse and family violence."

While in foster care, Sarah was treated for mental illness three times under Florida's Baker Act. A judge awarded her mother custody again in July 2000, and Sarah headed home again.

Attempts to reach Kelly May, Sarah's mother, were unsuccessful Tuesday.

The DCF records released Tuesday trace Sarah's journey from her early years in West Virginia, when social workers described her as walking around for days at a time without a bath and wearing soiled clothes.

Sarah and her siblings allegedly were beaten on several occasions with belts, boards and fists. Sarah also was burned in the face with a light bulb, according to reports.

While the DCF reports chronicle years of alleged physical and mental abuse on the Lunde children by their mother and father, they also provide details about the intensely violent fights between Sarah's parents, Kelly May and Richard Lunde.

"There has been ongoing domestic violence between mom and dad since the children were small," a social worker wrote in a 1995 report.

Documents say Richard Lunde beat his wife with a 2-by-4 while the children looked on. He also broke her ribs and injured her in other ways that required her to be hospitalized, the allegations said.

Richard Lunde claimed that his wife was the abuser and that she physically assaulted him and the children.

"This seems to be a family with a lot of family violence within it," a DCF investigator once wrote.

In West Virginia, Kelly May and the children went to a shelter after she reported that they had been physically abused. She returned home the next day to her husband, DCF reports said. Case closed.

But the news wasn't always bad. During a 1993 investigation, the principal at the children's school told DCF that "all the Lunde children are good students" and that they "all are dressed appropriately for school. The teachers have no suspicion of abuse or neglect."

The principal went on to praise the Sarah's family, saying "the family works very hard," and that they had just moved to the area and were struggling to be successful.

At some point they apparently returned to West Virginia.

In 1995, Kelly May and her two daughters left Richard Lunde and came to Florida to escape. Her three sons followed later.

Sarah was so afraid of her father, according to DCF records, that she was "tearful and jumpy" and said, "Oh please, don't let dad come get us."

Florida's DCF examined the family's history in West Virginia, and determined their situation was "too complicated by what appeared to be conflicting reports" to pin anyone with the blame.

DCF noted in 1995 that the accusations involved a custody dispute, and the parents "waged a war of words."

By April 1997, DCF began investigating reports that the Lunde children weren't attending school and were receiving little supervision at home. "The children beg for food from neighbors and strangers and go through the Dumpsters looking for food," the report stated.

Kelly May denied the allegations, saying there was always food at home. The children later denied that they ever begged strangers for food. A later DCF report said there was adequate food found in the home and no indication that the children had a lack of supervision.

In October 1999, DCF reported that Sarah was forced to sleep outside by a tree. Her sister would bring her a blanket and pillow.

Sarah was once beaten 11 times with a black leather belt for not picking up the trash in the yard. DCF documented a bruise left on her buttock, red and about 2 inches in diameter. Sarah also said she didn't get enough to eat.

The DCF documents released Tuesday also offer more details into the troubled history of David Onstott, the 36-year-old registered sex offender charged last month with Sarah's murder.

Onstott, who once dated Lunde's mother, has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery. He has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities say Onstott confessed to choking Sarah to death and dumping her partly clad body in a pond near her home and church in rural southeastern Hillsborough County.

He has a lengthy history of violence against women, broken marriages, sexual deviance and failure to pay child support. He once beat a man with a baseball bat and later was accused of attacking another with a machete. He allegedly stalked a former girlfriend and scared her so badly that she moved to a different city and got an unlisted phone number. He drank heavily and used cocaine.

Onstott was convicted in August 1995 of raping a 25-year-old Ruskin woman. During the sentencing phase of that trial, his former wife and stepdaughter testified against him.

Onstott's ex-wife claimed he raped her repeatedly and fondled her 16-year-old daughter, according to a transcript of his 1995 rape trial.

Documents released Tuesday delved further into those claims. In November 1990, one report states, Onstott picked up the stepdaughter from school, drove her to a rural area, fondled her breast and left two "hickeys" on her chest.

Officials took no further action in the case because Onstott already had been ordered to stay away from the home where the girl lived because her mother had requested a restraining order.

[Last modified May 18, 2005, 00:49:11]