A Mother's Anguish

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story.

No headstone marks Kelsey Carter’s grave.

It’s been more than a year since the 16-year-old died from a gunshot wound at the hands of her 25-year-old boyfriend, James Radtke. ()

But her mother, Christy Doll, is waiting.

“I'm not putting up a headstone until he goes to jail,” she said.

Trial hasn’t started yet for Radtke, now 26, who was charged in July with first-degree manslaughter in Kelsey’s death, which he says was an accident.

The wait has made the past year feel like suspended animation for Doll.

“I honestly don't know how I got through the last year,” she said. “The day of her shooting, I could tell you exactly what I was doing minute-by-minute. That was on the 11th [of December 2010]. Once the 12th hit, I don't remember anything.

"It's been a rough and tough road because I still don't have any answers.”

So many questions

Undisputed in Doll's account, as well as investigative reports and witness statements collected by King County Sheriff's investigators, are the following:

• Kelsey ran away from her Enumclaw home in October 2010.
• On Dec. 11, 2010, Doll contacted police to help her get Kelsey back after she tracked her to a Ravensdale home on Southeast Greenriver Headworks Road.
• Sheriff’s Deputies Whitney Richtmyer and Erik Thronson talked with Radtke at the house. He told them he hadn't seen Kelsey. They warned him of the consequences of harboring a runaway but left the house to return to Doll, who was waiting in the street. Doll told them she didn't think Kelsey was in immediate danger, as the girl had been with Radtke before. But the mother stayed to watch the house after deputies left.
• At a little past 8 p.m., Kelsey was brought to Enumclaw Regional Hospital with a gunshot wound; she was declared dead at 8:26 p.m.

Beyond those few facts, many questions still remain for Doll, including why Kelsey ran away from home in the first place.

“I have no clue at all,” she said. “There was one phone call she made to me after she ran away, and it was brief. She said, 'Mom, I just wanted to call because I know you're worried about me. But there's something I need to take care of.' This was three days after she ran away. She left me a note when she ran away. It said something like, 'I don't want you to be mad at me. I've got some stuff to take care of.'

“But Halloween passed, Thanksgiving passed and Christmas was coming, so I called the cops numerous times to help me get her out.”

Patch’s attempts to reach Radtke and his attorney for this story were unsuccessful.

According to Doll, police went to Radtke’s house several times asking if he'd seen Kelsey, and he kept telling them no. Doll even knocked on his door herself – “I rang the doorbell a hundred times until he answered the door” –but he insisted she wasn't there.

Still, “it's a parent's intuition,” she said. “You have a feeling where they're at.”

A strong kid

Kelsey was a strong kid who took advanced classes at White River High School and generally never missed school, according to her mother. At 16, she aspired to be a lawyer – to stand up for the bad guy – and oftentimes preferred to stay home, listen to music and go on MySpace rather than hang out at a school dance or football game.

“For her 16th birthday, I bought her a car, and she'd just go sit in it,” Doll said. “She didn't care to get her license and drive it. She more or less kind of wanted to stay at home and hang out in her bedroom ... Mainly her friends came over and stayed the night. She never really went anywhere.

“She was perfect up until right about August 2010 when she met up with this guy [Radtke], and it went downhill from then on.”

Warning bells

In August, Doll recalled, Kelsey had gotten in trouble for something – “a  kid thing; nothing major” – and was grounded. Soon after, Kelsey asked if she could go baby-sit “for a friend of a friend whose kids were going through a divorce.”

Doll reminded her she was grounded but said she'd have no problem with Kelsey watching the kids at her home. Kelsey later told her mom they'd found another baby-sitter.

Later, Kelsey again asked if she could go baby-sit for the same family, which  lived down the street. Doll agreed, but told her to call once she arrived so she knew she was safe.

Kelsey never called.

Doll said she remembered getting angry at Kelsey, who apologized but explained that the father didn't have a home phone and had taken his cellphone when he left.

Shortly after that, Kelsey told her mom that Radtke wanted to take her and her little sister to the zoo with his kids. That set off warning bells for Doll.

“I'm like 'Kelsey, you're 16 – you don't like the zoo,' ” she said.

Kelsey told her Radtke was 24, and Doll told her then that she wasn't to baby-sit for him any more.

“I said, 'Do you understand what I'm saying?' and she said, 'I do understand, Mom. It doesn't look right,' ” Doll recalled. “She was totally compliant, and I thought it stopped there – that was September. I didn't think she was still talking to him until she ran away and I broke into her MySpace account. I made records and brought them to the police.”

A grown-up lifestyle

What continues to puzzle Doll is that Kelsey never appeared unhappy.

“But as a 16-year-old kid, you're trying to grow up. You're trying to get out of the kid phase. You think you're an adult and you want to act like an adult and you want to do things.”

Doll speculates that it was that kind of “grown-up” living arrangement with Radtke that might have appealed to her daughter.

“I honestly think that she was like, ‘This is great–to be on your own, living on your own.' I think back to when I was young; I wanted to move out so I could do what I want.”

Coming Wednesday on Enumclaw Patch: Kelsey’s Last Day