(continued from previous entry) Soon after Sandy realized what Izzy was up to, “V” started to figure things out as well. According to “V”, It is during this time that Isabelle advises “V” to stop reading or posting on Fornits. “V” then started to catch on to what was going on, and forwarded me her correspondence with Isabelle. Soon after, Isabelle Zehnder, apparently started to realize that referring parents to Fornits was not the best idea in the world. One would suspect, based on her next move, that she sensed the upcoming disaster.
I couldn’t have been more surprised when i answered my cell phone to hear “this is Isabelle Zehnder.” My first words to her were along the lines of “may I record this call? I normally wouldn’t ask, but Washington is a two party state.” She refused, so I decided to play dumb and take notes. Her first subject of conversation was Patti Atwoods. She proceeded to lie about various details that I could verify as fact. Her basic explanation was that she was “set up”; that she was threatened into referring to sue (or else the kid would end up in Cross Creek Manor).
Although I could easily have proven her various claims to be false on the phone, I was more interested at the time with seeing how much she would say. I pretended to be interested in her explanation and offered to give up the identity of Patti Atwoods if she could prove to me that she was, in fact, duped. Among other things, what most interested me were her often self-contradicting claims about her “work” as an “advocate”. During her “explanation” of the Patti Atwoods debacle, Isabelle Zehnder claimed that she had “investigated” a private school in Texas “like [she] always do[es].”
Notice she claims competance when it suits her. In contrast, when I questioned her about the unlicenced, WWASP associated transport service, she responded with “Well… I had no idea”. I questioned Isabelle as to whether she investigated the facilities Sue Scheff referred to. She responded that she only investigated facilities in which there had been allegations of abuse, apparently unlike “[she] always do[es]”.
Isabelle then claimed that she had never checked Sunrise Adolescent Transport and was “shocked” to discover their affiliations. She claimed to have received a good report on the transport service from a WWASP parent whose child she had recently removed from program (and who had been placed in another program). Regarding that parent, and the “one time” she had referred a child to Sue, she stated:
“You’ll never find a kid out there that I referred to a program except the one I told you about [referring to her story about “V” she told me over the phone] and there was no choice – it was give the mother Sue’s number or he would have stayed in TB. I had to make what I believed was the best decision for the child. In the end it has turned out to be just that and he’s doing much better now. I wanted him home and fought to get him home. I lost. Most times I win.” [emphasis added]
Note that she states the “one time” came from Tranquility Bay (later on, she told me of another “one time”, this time from Carolina Springs). Note that she also claims that the parent, “V”, basically threatened her into contacting Sue (the same “explanation” she gave for referring Patti Atwoods to Sue). Upon forwarding the above mentioned email from Izzy to “V”, about the only thing that turned out to be accurate was that Isabelle did contact her, requesting the phone number for Sunrise Adolescent Transport. Apart from that, “V” was greatly angered by Isabelle’s perception of events and (among other things) denied that Isabelle had any significant involvement in the removal of her child from Tranquility Bay, stating:
“If she’s, now, trying to say she was key in moving him, and trying to get him home, she can blow me.”
Isabelle Zehnder then claimed that the transport company was only supposed to be used to remove the child from Tranqility bay, and not to transport to a new program. I found that more than a little absurd considering her final email to Patti seemed to contradict those clams (ie. Isabelle referred Patti Atwoods to PURE, for the purpose of finding a placement for the child after Tranquility Bay. One can only assume that a transport company would be required for this move).
When I began to question her association with Sue Scheff, PURE, and whether or not she had any knowledge of her Sue Scheff’s activities, she claimed that she was completely ignorant. Isabelle claimed to never have fully read the WWASP vs PURE transcripts, just the first 400 pages. She acted shocked as I read to her page after page of Sue Scheff’s own admission under oath that she took referral fees from programs. She claimed that nobody had taken the time to calmly explain the situation to her.
Multiple, very reliable sources, contradict this statement, stating that they took the time to explain Sue Scheff’s misdeeds when they first found out about the association between PURE and Isabelle Zehnder. She defended Whitmore Academy at length, despite the lengthy, documented history of that facility. Even after reading to her key passages of the WWASP vs. PURE transcripts, with all the the evidence I presented, she continued to defend Sue Scheff, stating:
“If it weren’t for her, every single kid I saved would still be sitting where they were” [emphasis added]
It was only until I suggested that Sue Scheff is currently referring to WWASP associated programs (article on that subject coming soon) that Isabelle’s tune started to change. I hypothesize that she saw the possibility of that particular revelation as something that Sue Scheff (and as a result, herself) could never recover from. Later that night, after the phone conversation, I sent Isabelle an email detailing some of my notes regarding the WWASP vs PURE transcripts. The next day, she sent me an email stating:
“Out of respect for you as a survivor, because after all that’s who I’m here to support, I have taken down the Whitmore blog and the blog where I said PURE and CAICA are working together. I have also removed the link to PURE on my links page of CAICA.” [emphasis added]
Several days later, I talked with Isabelle on the phone again. This time I was much more direct. I stated that if she wanted to save herself she would have to start handing over some solid intel regarding Sue Scheff and the schools she refers to. After hesitating, she gave me the name of Harbor Oaks. She claimed to have helped remove a girl from Carolina Springs, and helped place that girl in Harbor Oaks. This time, however, Isabelle claimed to have done her “investigation” (like she “always” does) This thorough investigation consisted of a telephone call to Harbor Oaks in which she spoke with two girls.
She reported that they sounded very happy to be placed in Harbor Oaks and that she could actually hear the laughter of children in the background. She claimed the phone call was completely unmonitored (how could she tell over the phone) even though the Harbor Oaks contract (obtained by sueschefftruth.com by a source who wishes to remain anonymous) explicitly states that all phone calls and mail will be monitored. When I raised objections, and spoke of my own personal experiences regarding elaborate program deceptions, she changed the subject, telling me that the “kids (plural) needed help”.
