Skeletons Out the Closet: A Never Ending Nightmare

Chapter 1

The Beginning

G et everyone together, and I will meet you later at the spot, Ms. Sherri Ponder told Tight Rope as he opened her car door.

The Ponder family was a well-known and powerful family. Sherri Ponder was the baby girl. She had two older sisters and four brothers. She and the others had been abandoned by their mother at a young age. It was rumored that their mother, Camilla Ponder, left after a huge disagreement between her and her sister, Sara Ponder. Camilla was now supposed to be married to a man from New York City and had started another family there. Sherri and her other siblings were being raised by their grandfather, George Ponder, and grandmother, Liza Ponder. The Ponder’s were well respected in their town and being that George worked for the railroad was always away. He also owned an after-hours spot in the city’s downtown area called the Corner Café.

Sherri Ponder had always been a fighter. Her grandparents did the best they could, but with her grandfather being gone all the time and her grandmother working laundry service mornings during the week at a hotel, the children were left to raise themselves. They had to deal with incest, rape, and abuse from their two older brothers. No one wanted to bother the grandparents with what was happening because they felt that they were already a burden. It was decided that they would deal with it the best way they could.

It was a summer evening, and their older brother Joe Ponder was nowhere to be found. There was a family that had recently moved in down the street and on the same street as the Ponder’s last week, and there were police outside of their home. All of the neighbors were looking and in shock to hear that the neighbor’s five-year-old son Mitchell Ford Jr. was missing. The mother, Mrs. Greta Ford, didn’t know her neighbors and her husband, Mitchell Ford Sr., was away on business. Greta was crying and at lost when questioned by the policeman as to any friends that her son may have had. He had not started school yet and before today wasn’t even allowed outside. All she knew was her son was playing in the front yard that was the last she saw of him. She went to answer the phone, and when she called him in to eat his lunch, he didn’t come in. She looked all over and could not find him anywhere.

No one knew that about an hour before Greta went to answer the phone, Joe Ponder had been looking at the little boy from afar and rubbing on his penis. When Mrs. Ford went in, Joe made his move.

Come with me, Joe said as he held out a candy bar in his hand toward the little boy.

Mitchell wanted the candy, so he followed the stranger away from his home. No one knew that Joe had lured the child away using the candy that he had just stolen from a nearby store. Joe led the child to an under path near the bridge, and by some railroad tracks about a block and a half from the neighborhood. He kept him entertained by giving him more candy and telling him that he was taking him to his dad. No one saw them because he was up under the bridge. He made the boy take off all his clothes, and when he tried to make the child suck his penis, Mitchell began to cry and beg louder. Scared that someone will hear the child, Joe took a rock and hit him over the head a few times. Blood was everywhere, and as Mitchell lay lifeless, Joe then raped him and left the child for dead.

He threw the boy’s body on the tracks in a shallow area and ran away before anyone could see him. When he got home, Joe washed up, threw the bloody clothes in a fire he made, and went to the kitchen to get him something to eat. Hearing the blows of the midday train, Joe smiled as he sipped his juice. Joe then went to take a nap and paid no attention to the police sirens or helicopter in the area that was looking for the boy. He knew that the train conductor would think the body was a small animal and hit him. Once that happens, no one would even be able to tell it was a human and that his body will be torn beyond recondition.

Joe was hated by all his siblings. He was the cause of all the physical and mental abuse made toward the others. Their older sister, Sara Ponder, got it the worst. She was responsible for the care of everyone being the oldest girl. She was keeping these hurtful secrets away from their grandmother and grandfather. This was in the sixties, and a time where people handled things like this in their home. No outsiders knew anything besides what was seen. And with their mother leaving, that was enough shame brought to the family already. It was truly hell for them. Behind the scenes, nobody really knew what things was happening or so bad. The Ponder girls and the younger boys had endured such rapes for years. They lived this painful life in silence.

Weeks had past, and there was talk of the Mitchell’s body being found on the track. This was all that the small community could talk about. This was unheard of. Fear was spreading throughout. Who could have done this. Luckily, the train was able to stop in time, and Mitchell Ford Jr. had been in the hospital since the day that he was found. He could recall some of the events that happened but not everything. The police didn’t release any information about the case, or the fact that the child was alive because they didn’t want whoever did this to know that the child could identify them. No one knew anything else about the Ford family because his mother never left his side or the hospital. The police wanted to make the suspect believe that he had gotten away with this foul act. The boy wasn’t able to tell them who did it even with the fact that a few days after they moved into the Dixie Hills community, the Ford family met the Ponder family and some other families as they came to welcome them to the neighborhood. The person described by Mitchell sounded like Joe Ponder, but the investigator needed more evidence. He decided to seek out him for questioning anyway.

Ms. Coral Copeland and her husband, Jerry, owned a small in-home store that sold the basics being: bread, milk, candy, tissue, soap, etc. Joe had just left the store when he noticed a policeman get out of the police car. When the policeman tried to stop him, Joe ran. The officer called for backup as he gave chase close behind Joe. Joe ran through some woods and jumped a fence. The policeman lost sight of him.

Joe didn’t see Sherri and Debra sitting and playing on the back porch when he hid in the family’s doghouse—a dog that he had killed. The family dog was no longer there because Joe got mad at his grandfather and hung it from a tree in the backyard. The girls heard sirens and police were everywhere. Sherri knew where her brother was hiding. She saw him run into the doghouse. A policeman hid his gun as he approached the girls because he didn’t want to scare them. Debra was scared, but Sherri wasn’t. Sherri quickly stood to her feet.

Hello, little ladies, said the policeman.

Do you know where your brother went?

Debra looked to the ground. If I tell you where he is, will you kill him for me? Sherri asked.

Not knowing what to say, the policeman said no. He then continued, I don’t want to hurt him, I just need to talk to him.

Sherri then said, Well, if you not gonna kill him, then I don’t know where he is.

Because of the crime Joe had committed, it was clear that something had to happen to this little girl, which made the officer even madder. The policeman pulled his weapon from behind his back and told Sherri, Okay, I will kill him for you.

The officer then whispered in her ear that he will make sure that Joe will be hurt badly if she can tell him where he was, but she needed to tell him quickly because the others won’t allow him to hurt Joe. Smiling, she proudly said that Joe was in the doghouse and pointed to it. Before the officer could get there, Mrs. Liza Ponder and other officers had gotten to the backyard as well. Ms. Ponder was crying, and there were other officers holding her back. The policemen all surrounded the doghouse. Two of them pulled him out from the inside of the doghouse and onto the ground.

Sherri wasn’t happy about such a clean arrest. She wanted to see her brother dead. She and Mrs. Ponder were crying but not for the same reasons. The officers handcuffed Joe and placed him into one of the many vehicles. When Mrs. Liza Ponder tried to approach the police vehicle that was holding Joe, they stopped her. One of the Lieutenants explained the charges that they thought they had him on. Once the police officers and everyone had left, Mrs. Ponder quickly called for her husband to come home.

Mr. George Ponder Sr. was not a man to play with. He had two more years before he could retire from the NS Railroad, and he was a businessman at home. He was a real pillar of the community. It was the next day before he could get home, and when he came through the door, everyone know that he would be ready for answers. Mrs. Ponder explained the events the best way that she could, but their grandfather wasn’t satisfied with what he heard. He wanted answers, and he was more than prepared to go and get them, but first he had to talk to all the