copyright 2005

The Courier

First of two parts

Editor's note: Evelyn Miller, 5, disappeared July 1 from the apartment where she lived with her mother, Noel Miller; Noel's live-in boyfriend, Casey Frederiksen, and the couple's two younger sons.

Evelyn's body was recovered July 6 in the Cedar River, a few miles away. The death was ruled a homicide. Authorities have not released details about how or when she was killed.

In preparing this news report, Courier staff writers interviewed family members, neighbors, members of the community and authorities. The reporters also reviewed police and sheriff department documents and state and federal court records.

Miller declined to talk to the Courier. Frederiksen is being held in the Linn County Correctional Center. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.

This report is part of a joint reporting effort by the Courier and the Mason City Globe-Gazette, a sister publication owned by Lee Enterprises.

FLOYD - Neighbors and others were willing to overlook when 5-year-old Evelyn Miller appeared outside their door late at night. They didn't think much about heaps of electronic equipment inside her apartment. Or whiffs of smoke thought to be burning marijuana that seeped from her home.

Times when Evelyn showed off the three-legged cat she befriended - or when she greeted others with a radiant smile at 7 a.m. - countered other observations.

As Lynette Connerley said, "I try not to look at everything being evil."

Mystery swirls in the community about the final hours of Evelyn's life.

But troubling signs - all too real and difficult for mainstream society to comprehend - are being revealed amid allegations of a culture of drugs, pornography and neglect that surrounded the slain girl, before and after her death.

"What we were getting out there totally wasn't the norm," Floyd County Sheriff Rick Lynch said.

In the 100 days since Evelyn disappeared and her body washed up in Devil's Elbow along the Cedar River, what's known of her fate pushes some to an inescapable conclusion.

"It reinforces my theory that an evil presence exists in the world," said the Rev. Paul Phillips of Gospel Lighthouse Church and Academy in Floyd.

Residents in Floyd County, Charles City and the small rural community of Floyd - population 343 - wonder who could have killed an innocent little girl. They are haunted by imagined motives.

"Every day you think of what happened and all the different scenarios that go through your mind," said Connerley, the upstairs neighbor who Evelyn called "Grandma."

Investigators have declined to release details as they try to determine who is responsible. They cite the need for secrecy to maintain the integrity of the investigation.

"If any of the details that surround this whole entire incident were to be revealed, the investigators would lose their ability to have their edge in solving the matter," said Floyd County Attorney Marilyn Dettmer.

The unsettling quiet, though, causes speculation to boil over.

From public records and available information, here is what is known.

Daily life

Evelyn's days frequently started early and ended late for a child. It wasn't unusual for her to wander the grounds at 1781 Quarry Road, the rural apartment building where she lived.

Years ago, the structure was the Floyd County Home, where the mentally ill and poor were tended. When it closed, renters moved in, many of whom received subsidized housing payments. For years the address - a mile off U.S. Highway 218 - carried a troubled reputation.

But with a newly installed playground and swimming pool, and a large, well-kept yard, the building was transformed into a friendly place for children. On summer days, a dozen or more kids might play games like hide-and-seek and climb evergreens.

Evelyn lived on the second floor in No. 4, a roomy two-bedroom unit she shared with her mother, Noel Miller, 22; Noel's live-in boyfriend, Casey Frederiksen, 26; and the couple's two younger sons, both toddlers.

Miller and Frederiksen were rarely seen by neighbors before 11 a.m. The couple often alerted other residents they were awake by blaring heavy metal music.

John Lund moved into Tanya Martinez' apartment below where Evelyn lived a week before she disappeared. Lund said Miller and Frederiksen seemed consumed by alcohol and other intoxicants.

"They always had to be high all the time," he said, based on the short time he knew them.

The U.S. Attorney's Office contends in court documents that Frederiksen used and sold marijuana - information contained in a motion for detention on child pornography charges.

Lindsey Christie, who is married to Evelyn's father, Andy Christie of Waterloo, said authorities recovered drug paraphernalia and marijuana in No. 4 the day Evelyn disappeared after a search warrant was executed. Dettmer declined to comment on that matter.

Evelyn frequently knocked on doors long before the music sounded, roaming the hallways looking for playmates. She often played with Connerley's granddaughter, Larissa.

"'I don't like being by myself,'" Connerley overheard the girl tell Larissa.

Evelyn would often stop by around 7 a.m. The latest visit Connerley recalls was about 10 p.m. On that occasion she walked Evelyn back to apartment No. 4.

Connerley is confident Miller and Frederiksen did not know Evelyn was out of the apartment.

But Connerley thought it peculiar that a child afraid of the dark was courageous enough to wander dimly lit halls.

Connerley, a former child advocate and foster grandparent, didn't allow her granddaughter inside No. 4.

Her own apartment, No. 5, shared a back staircase with Evelyn's apartment and one other. The staircase also opens to the outside.

Connerley said on one occasion she found drug paraphernalia on the interior steps. Sometimes she smelled what she thought was burning marijuana.

Yet Connerley thought Miller and Frederiksen were good people, although she met Miller only once. Based on that encounter, Connerley said, Miller seemed like a typical young mother - caring and sweet.

Larissa once fell down while playing near the pool. Concerned the girl was injured, Miller rushed her to Connerley.

"I thought, 'What a nice person,'" Connerley said.

Other neighbors, friends and family who visited inside No. 4 described it as often having food scraps, dirty dishes and trash piled up. Crayon scribbles and stickers decorated some white walls.

On some hot days, a pungent odor leaked from the litter box of Evelyn's two cats. The smell was strong enough for tenants to complain, and landlord Dave Litterer had to intervene.

"It seemed like they were OK renters," Litterer said.

They paid monthly, usually in cash, although sometimes as much as a week late.

"A lot of people here don't have checking accounts," Litterer said.

During the night, Evelyn and her half brothers, Gabriel, 2, and Damian, 1, frequently fell asleep where they were - a couch in the living room, for instance. Accustomed to loud music and the irregular hours kept in apartment No. 4, Evelyn was a heavy sleeper free to set her own bedtime.

Missing

Early on the morning of July 1 when Miller returned home after work, she reported Evelyn was not in the apartment. Authorities received a call about Evelyn's disappearance at 6:46 a.m.

Before they arrived, Miller acted as any mother of a missing child might, neighbors said. She knocked on doors asking for help in finding Evelyn. She seemed frantic.

There was a soft knock at Connerley's door. The neighbor ignored it at first, thinking Evelyn was arriving particularly early.

The second knock was loud enough to suggest something else.

Connerley answered and met Miller, who wondered if Evelyn was inside.

"My heart just dropped," Connerley said.

Miller also visited a downstairs apartment shared by Martinez and Lund. Lund had arrived home shortly after 6 a.m. and was surprised when Miller entered his apartment. She left within moments.

Soon after, Lund, who on previous occasions drank beer with Miller and Frederiksen, fielded a curious request.

Frederiksen wanted a screwdriver, Lund said.

Lund gave him the tool, and Frederiksen and Miller returned with a computer hard drive.

"That was the first thing they wanted to do before they called the police," Lund said.

Lund remembers Frederiksen's rationale: There's stuff on there they don't need to know anything about.

Martinez said she gave the computer part to authorities three weeks later. On Sept. 29, Frederiksen was charged with possessing child pornography. Authorities reported finding 1,000 images and video clips stored in the hard drive's memory.

Search is on

The day of Evelyn's disappearance had just begun. Actions would turn away at least some eager to help.

Volunteers during the six-day search arrived by the busload to aid authorities, who would work 18 or more hours a day to find Evelyn.

"I dropped everything to go out there and look for her," said Jimmy Bluhm of Floyd, who hardly knew Evelyn.

A neighbor had told him of the girl's disappearance, so Bluhm went looking, no questions asked.

At the apartment, he expected a scene of grief. What he and others found surprised them.

"The mom was cursing at police. I thought that was suspicious," Bluhm said.

Miller and Frederiksen blasted authorities "with the worst names you can call someone," Floyd County Sheriff Rick Lynch said.

"Every deputy working for me asked to be assigned away from the complex," Lynch said. "She was out of control."

Frederiksen was drinking alcohol and yelling he wasn't responsible for the disappearance.

When police took Frederiksen for a polygraph test, Miller yelled, "'Go out and find my daughter,'" volunteers said.

Police executed a search warrant and entered the apartment during the evening July 1. Approval for the warrant came 12 hours after police received the initial 911 call.

Lynch could not comment on items authorities seized, but said Miller was angry with authorities.

"She made very verbal and loud comments about what we took," Lynch said.

During the days of the search for Evelyn, Lindsey Christie said, Miller offered her a pipe and got angry when Christie declined.

"I don't want to get stoned when my kid is missing," Christie said.

At one point during the six-day search, Christie said, Miller's mind was on leaving the scene and going to an air-conditioned bar.

"'You know this will be the only opportunity we have to get free drinks,'" Christie recalled Miller saying.

Shortly after the search, Lund, a neighbor, recalled Miller saying: "'This is the first time we never had weed.'"

The Rev. Paul Phillips saw officers bring drug-sniffing dogs into the building.

"(Miller) was moving around outside and was very frustrated," said Phillips, a volunteer searcher. "It seemed a little odd that she was upset with officers who were trying to help."

In the afternoon, Frederiksen returned from the lie detector test. He passed, according to members of the Christie family.

Frederiksen drank beer on the building's front steps, according to eyewitnesses. Empty cans piled up.

"I never saw him when he wasn't drinking," Connerley said. "I just thought, 'That's not how I would react.'"

Miller publicly blamed Frederiksen for Evelyn's disappearance because he was supposed to be watching the girl and her younger brothers.

Later that day, Frederiksen smashed his head into a wall, causing blood to gush, Connerley said.

Candy Peck, a long-time friend of Miller and Frederiksen, views the actions as those of parents wounded by the loss of a child and in a state of confusion.

"Noel hasn't even grieved for her daughter yet," Peck said. "Sometimes she just sits there and stares into space. There is no emotion."

Marijuana was present in apartment No. 4, Peck said, but she thinks the situation was no big deal.

"I think it should be legal," Peck said.

Suspicions

Lynch said authorities verified Miller's account that in the hours when Evelyn reportedly disappeared, she had been at the Nora Springs Care Center, where she was employed for a month.

She left the center at 6 a.m. and returned home to find Evelyn missing.

Lindsey Christie spent hours with Miller during the search and remembers one of Miller's statements in particular.

"'People suspect Casey, but they don't suspect me because I was at work," Christie recalls Miller saying.

Dan Slick and Randy Patrie admitted visiting the apartment after 2 a.m. July 1 to see Frederiksen.

"He told us they would be home and to stop in if we wanted to catch a buzz," Patrie said.

Frederiksen maintains he was sleeping and never knew the men were in the building.

Patrie and Slick say Evelyn answered the door and told them Frederiksen was sleeping. The two men are the last people to report seeing Evelyn alive.

Patrie and Slick have been questioned by authorities, who executed a search warrant at their home in Charles City. The two men maintain they cooperated with the investigation, turning over the clothes they wore that night.

"It made me angry when someone tried to accuse me of something I didn't do," Patrie said.

Patrie said during questioning officers asked if the two men had been at the apartment an hour later. Patrie said a neighbor told authorities they heard a car door slam at 3:30 a.m.

Floyd County Attorney Dettmer declined comment when asked about that.

From the outset, Miller made repeated requests for authorities to search Rotary Park, a secluded natural area situated between a gravel road north of Charles City and the Cedar River, volunteers said.

Six days later, searchers found the 5-year-old's body along the banks of the Cedar River near Rotary Park.

"Citizens came up to me and said, 'That's odd,'" Sheriff Lynch remarked in regard to Miller's comments.

Hundreds of people attended Evelyn's funeral service in Charles City. At the reception that followed, witnesses noted Miller's first concern after arriving at the Floyd Community Building was where to plug in a portable stereo.

The case continues

In short order, life at apartment No. 4 returned to what neighbors describe as the normal routine.

Miller and Frederiksen drank and smoked marijuana.

"They ended up buying more (marijuana) while Evelyn was missing," Lund said.

Lund says he tried to keep his distance from the couple. Only after several days did he agree to visit Miller's apartment. Miller wondered why someone would take Evelyn and not take a stockpile of computer equipment, Lund said.

When Lund went into the apartment, he saw a pile of electronics - video games and computers.

"You name it, they had it," Lund said.

On July 12, a Floyd County judge placed Miller and Frederiksen's two sons in foster care.

The boys had been staying with Sandra Kuykendall -- Frederiksen's mother - in Floyd.

The situation apparently deteriorated, however. On July 8 and again on July 11, Kuykendall called the Floyd County Sheriff saying Frederiksen and Miller were trying to get their children when they were not supposed to have them.

Miller and Frederiksen moved to a house in Charles City, drawing hostility from residents and neighbors. One erected a fence around his property to keep them out of his yard.

The couple's life remains unsettled. Police records show officers responded several times to complaints by neighbors concerning loud parties and harassment at Miller and Frederiksen's Charles City home.

In mid-September, Frederiksen cut himself with a knife on his left forearm. Less than a week later he was charged with possession of child pornography. Federal authorities arrested Frederiksen in New Hampton on Sept. 29. He remains in the Linn County Correctional Center.

In federal court Monday, Miller professed her love to Frederiksen.

No arrests have been made in regard to Evelyn Miller's disappearance and death.

"We all have the same objective," Lynch said. "We are going to catch the sick person or people who are involved."

Staff writer Jessica Miller and Regional Editor Dennis Magee contributed to this story. Contact Brian Spannagel at (319) 291-1570 or brian.spannagel@wcfcourier.com.

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