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A city where wounds haven't healed

With the Carlie Brucia trial under way, Sarasota remembers her and hopes to never face a similar tragedy.

By CHRIS TISCH
Published November 14, 2005

	[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
	This monument in the garden built in Carlie Brucia's memory behind Sarasota's Central Church of Christ marks where her body was found last year. Last week, the man accused of killing the 11-year-old went on trial.

SARASOTA -- Phil Buckley dumped plastic bags of mulch into piles around flower beds of purple, red and white. He dropped to his knees and spread the sweet-smelling bark.

"I can feel her here," Buckley said. "I just can sense her."

The garden he labored in Friday was built last year in memory of Carlie Brucia, the 11-year-old girl who in February 2004 was kidnapped, raped and killed in this city.

The garden is impressive. A paved walk curves through flower beds and trees before ending at a pond and stone monument decorated with a carving of Carlie's smiling face. The monument sits on the spot where her body was found, just behind a church.

In the weeks after the garden was built, a steady stream of people came to remember Carlie.

But over time, the number of visitors shrank. Maybe one person a day stopped by. Weeds intruded and, in some places, grew 4 feet high. Lamps that lit the garden after dark burned out and weren't replaced.

Buckley, 45, never knew Carlie, but he felt touched by her death. He came by every week to tend the garden. Members of the church also pulled weeds when they could.

Last week, the man accused of killing Carlie, Joseph Smith, went on trial. A second week of testimony in the case begins today.

Buckley figured the trial would reawaken the community's grief and anger and return people to the garden. So he spent more than $300 of his own money to buy 150 bags of mulch.

As he spread it Friday, a car pulled into the parking lot. Soon there was another, then another.

By the time the day was through, more visitors had come to the garden than Buckley ever had seen in a single day.

* * *

Carlie Brucia's abduction and killing galvanized Sarasota, a safe community known for arts and culture and nice beaches. The surveillance camera video that showed a man so easily abducting a child made people here feel vulnerable.

Enrollment tripled at Escape School, where classes teach parents and children how to recognize dangerous people and get away from strangers.

Demand for home security systems surged.

Parents prohibited their children from walking alone, especially after dark.

Some residents say Sarasota seemed to shrink after Carlie's death. The community began behaving like a small town. Parents kept an eye on the street in front of their homes not just for their own kids, but for every other kid on the block.

Today, Escape School enrollment has dipped some, but is still at a level much higher than before the Brucia case, said Pieter Visser, who teaches the class in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

"There just seems to be a different attitude in the community, a different level of awareness and concern," he said.

Tracy Bisel, who lived next door to Carlie and whose 11-year-old daughter was a close friend, said she won't let her daughter ride the bus to school because she doesn't want her walking to the bus stop.

"You never expect it to happen in your own town, right next door," said Bisel, a 38-year-old mother of two. "It changes everything. I myself have become even more protective than I was. And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Probably a bad thing. But at least my child is safe."

But some residents who live or travel near where Carlie was abducted say children now walk the streets alone at night as if her slaying never happened. Parents don't seem as connected or determined to watch all the kids on the block or, sometimes, even their own.

"It's sad because you still see kids walking alone all the time," Bisel said.

Bisel hopes the trial will jolt people to remember the lessons of Carlie's death.

"For the most part, people are starting to remember again," she said. "I'm hoping that it's starting to make parents keep their children closer, keep better eyes on them."

Bisel said she thinks of Carlie every time she drives by Evie's Car Wash, where a camera captured the girl's abduction. She bought three 10-packs of videotapes to record the trial, which a local television station is airing live. She wants her daughter to watch the trial when she is older.

Bisel and her family will head to the garden for Carlie this month. They will plant a Christmas tree for her there.

* * *

Like much of Southwest Florida, Sarasota is a former small town grappling with growth.

New subdivisions surround the area around Carlie's garden. A power station the size of a small city block buzzes next door. The throaty hum of the nearby interstate is a constant soundtrack.

The area is near Cattlemen Road. Cattle still roam there, though their fields are pinched between megastores and gated communities.

The Brucia case made some people wonder about the pros and cons of getting bigger.

Rick Widner, 43, said he grew up in Sarasota about a mile from where Carlie would live years later. He has watched the city grow, but he worries about the number of bad people growth can attract.

"It's a small town that's turned into a big town and I don't know if it's for the better," said Widner, a father of three daughters who now lives in Bradenton.

He said many of his relatives have moved to Myakka City, where they feel kids can still safely play outside.

Gary Della Volpe also has noticed the growth. It has helped his business, Alert Alarm Systems Inc. Business also spiked after Carlie's slaying. He doesn't think the fear will ever wear off.

"They say time heals, but I don't think time will heal this," he said.

He stopped at Carlie's garden Friday afternoon en route to a nearby subdivision to install a security system. "God rest her soul," he said before leaving.

Widner came to pray at Carlie's garden last week, too. The trial had something to do with that, as did the 12-year anniversary of a family member's murder.

"I prayed that God keep an eye on all the children of the community," he said.

* * *

There was no connection between Central Church of Christ and Carlie before she was killed. It just happened to be the place her killer left her body.

The crime at first consumed and grieved the church. Now, Carlie has in many ways become a posthumous member of the congregation. Church members prayed for her the Sunday before the trial began, and church leaders often go to the garden to seek peace and to pray.

"What we hope is for this little girl to never be forgotten," said church secretary Theresa Anderson. "We don't forget her."

Phil Buckley doesn't forget her either.

He was living in Maryland when Carlie was abducted. He can't explain quite why the case gripped him so, but it did. He organized a motorcycle ride in Maryland to raise donations for Carlie. It was about 35 degrees that day, so not many people attended. He still raised more than $400.

He later moved to Sarasota and came to the garden. He saw the weeds and the dead lights and decided to take over maintenance of the garden, which had been built with donations.

Buckley, a hospital maintenance mechanic and part-time Home Depot employee, has spent more than $1,000 of his own money and usually works in the garden every week.

"Carlie was such a beautiful girl, so the way I see it, the garden has to beautiful," he said.

As afternoon faded away Friday, the garden looked in fine shape.

And people continued to come. They were greeted at the entrance by a sign with Carlie's face and a message.

"Look around. There is only joy and peace here. When you see a butterfly or hear a bird sing, that's me saying Hi. Remember, God sends you little comforters like that to remind you of me."

[Last modified November 14, 2005, 07:57:16]