CHAPTER 18
In April 1992, six months after Charlotte was born, Carol and Steve decided to move their growing family to a 1.4-acre parcel on the 7400 block of Bridle Path in Williamson Valley, which they bought for $78,000. The plan was to live there in a temporary home while they built their dream house, which Carol and Steve were going to design with an architect’s help.
Both of them knew carpentry well, and Steve often did woodworking in his workshop, especially when he was upset or frustrated. Steve had already built their Vermont home, he “made a bed and he made a sofa. He could do anything. He was really, really smart,” Ruth recalled.
While they were designing the main house, Steve and some friends from the college quickly built interim lodging—out of hay bales to be eco-friendly and energy-efficient—for the family. During the building phase Charlotte gleefully played with the straw bales that covered the property.
By 1997, the family had transitioned into their new four-bedroom, four-bathroom house, complete with vaulted ceilings. Carol had even designed a little loft area in the house. Charlotte used to climb up and play with her stuffed animals there, using the same wooden ladder that was found near Carol’s body.
The straw bale structure became Carol’s art studio and Steve’s workout area, with lots of shelves for storage, then later was turned into a guesthouse. They also built a double-car garage, a horse barn and a corral on the secluded parcel, which was surrounded by fruit and nut trees and by trails used by people and horses on the ranch land behind it. Far from the urban life, the house provided privacy and quiet, with a magnificent view of Granite Mountain.
Katherine Morris had heard of Carol and her great reputation as a teacher before they’d even met, and she was determined, even as a sophomore, to take one of Carol’s upper-division courses. These popular classes were tough to get into, but Katherine managed. She started with Carol’s “Yoga Psychology” class in 1994, then went on to take her “Dream Work” course in 1995.
In the process Katherine impressed Carol. After the midwife and nanny affairs, which Carol didn’t discuss with her until years later, she wanted someone she could trust to babysit her girls.
“I couldn’t believe that Carol Kennedy was calling me to watch her children. I was so honored that I was nervous,” Katherine recalled, laughing. “I truly, truly was. She spoke about [the babysitting] at my graduation when she gave me away. It was funny.”
As Katherine was getting to know Carol and Steve, and she first heard people gossiping about his affairs, Katherine thought, “These people are crazy. There’s no way.”
Initially she couldn’t see Steve as a cheater. “I just didn’t believe that he was that type of person,” she said. He never came on to her, although she did get the sense that he would have been willing if she’d given him the nod.
“Do I think I could have gotten with him if I’d wanted to? Absolutely. But had he [come on to me], I would have told Carol,” she said.
For Katherine, Carol and Steve were the ideal parents. When she started taking care of the girls, the family was still living in the guesthouse. Katie was about six years old and quite headstrong.
Katherine liked leaving the house cleaner than she found it so Carol and Steve wouldn’t come home to a mess. But this practice annoyed little Katie. “My mom pays you to play with me, not to clean up after me,” Katie would say, stomping her foot.
Katherine tried to explain. If she didn’t clean up, she told Katie, “your mom will think I’m a horrible sitter.”
Mealtimes were interesting as well. When she asked Katie what she wanted to eat, the child often gave her conflicting responses.
“I’m a vegetarian,” Katie said.
“Do you want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”
“No, I want a hot dog.”
But Katherine would oblige. “Okay, I’ll make you a hot dog.”
Carol sometimes brought the girls to campus with her. “They were just precious kids,” Katherine recalled. “Charlotte was so soft-spoken, quiet and angelic . . . gentle. She was the total essence of peace and peacefulness. She would just look up at you, with her white blond hair, and go, ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’”
Charlotte liked to pick flowers, make bouquets for her mom and dad and put the blossoms in vases. She even made a crown of flowers for Katherine to wear during her graduation ceremony.
“I thought she was sent from heaven,” Katherine said.
Katie had some of the same nature-loving traits and compassion for animals that Charlotte did. “Katie was extremely vibrant,” Katherine said. “Extremely stubborn, passionate from an early age about whatever she was interested in, which at that time was primarily dolphins and horses. She would go after what she wanted, she was determined and she would get it. Katie was loving, way more of an adventurer and very independent.”
“They both had a phenomenal imagination,” she added. “They were both extremely creative in whatever they were doing.”
While the girls were growing up, Carol and Steve thought it was important to expose them to the outdoors. The whole family often went hiking and camping, wearing backpacks and climbing mountains.
By all appearances they looked like the perfect American family: fit, healthy and attractive. As Debbie Wren Hill put it, they were “physically amazing specimens. Truthfully, if Steve could have been different in that way, I think they could have been a family that people would be envying to this day.”