This episode contains disturbing content, including mentions of death, suicidal ideation, sexual

violence and child abuse.

Please take care while listening.

On a rainy winter day this past January, I drove to Calusa, California in the midst of

a flood watch.

Calusa is a small town just north of Sacramento.

I almost canceled my trip due to the weather, but I didn't, because I really wanted to

talk to Kathy Sutton about her daughter, Michelle.

She's a beautiful girl.

She's just beautiful inside now.

In 1990, Michelle was 15 years old.

She had braces and bright blonde hair with feathered bangs.

She loved to draw and play the piano.

Her thoughts were occupied with things like getting her driver's license and buying cool

new clothes.

I know this because she wrote about it in her journal.

Here's her mother Kathy reading some of it.

When I get out of here, I'm going to get a job and earn my car and buy a new wardrobe.

I hope I sleep good tonight.

Michelle wasn't at home when she wrote this.

She was in the desert, somewhere close to the Arizona Utah border.

She was with four other teenagers and two counselors at a wilderness therapy program called

...