Children struggling to come to terms with friend's death
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
The rainwater catchment on the Navy's Pearl City Peninsula housing area had flooded periodically since military families began moving into the newly built units two years ago. By late Friday, it had become a murky lake.
By shortly before noon Saturday, it had taken the life of Charlotte Schaefers, a 5-year-old girl who liked Barbie dolls, swimming at the neighborhood pool, and joining in with the boys as they canvassed the neighborhood for "toad eggs."
"She was sort of an all-girl, tomboy mix," Allison Schaefers said of her daughter, Charlotte.
"She's really good at finding them," said Brandon Moran, a 7-year-old playmate who is among the children of the Pearl City Peninsula housing area struggling to come to terms with Charlotte's death.
"It's one of those kinds of neighborhoods where everyone watches everyone else's kids," said Brandon's mother, Sabrina Moran.
"It could have been any one of our kids," said Karen Eggers, another of the Schaefers' neighbors.
Saturday was a sunny day over Pearl Harbor, and a number of the neighborhood children were outdoors. Charlotte was playing Barbies with some other girls on the back stoop of the Schaefers' home.
"She was sort of an all-girl, tomboy mix," Allison Schaefers said of her daughter.
Charlotte's father, Scott, was one of the parents watching over the children while Allison shopped at the commissary for food for a neighborhood party planned later that night. Shortly before 11 a.m., he saw that Charlotte had moved away from the girls on the stoop and farther out on the shared lawns to play with the boys. He put on his shoes so he could go outside and tell her to stay away from the rainwater catchment.
U.S. Navy photos
When he stepped outside, Charlotte wasn't there, Allison said. Her husband saw the other children screaming for help and running from the area. Charlotte was in the water, they said.
Residents of the Navy housing area say they have complained for two years about flooding at the catchment area. "We're angry," one resident said. The Navy says it's looking into any drainage problems.
Neighbors made a memorial for Charlotte beneath a tree near the catchment, which is now surrounded by a temporary fence.
"Her 3-year-old friend had gone in," Allison said, "and she went in to get him out."
Seven-year-old Brandon had pulled the younger child out, but couldn't find Charlotte. Scott jumped in, followed by his neighbors, including Karen Eggers.
"The water was pitch black," Eggers said. It was 4 feet deep in most areas, she said, deeper in some.
"We started walking, hands together, trying to feel something under the water," she said.
Eventually, one of the neighbors succeeded.
Allison said her daughter was found under water, near one of the slick, muddy walls of the catchment.
Scott and the other neighbors performed CPR, but were unable to revive her. Charlotte's short life had ended.
Yesterday, Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis of Navy Region Hawaii took reporters onto the housing area to see the catchment. Although the water had clearly gone down, helped along by a recently installed pump and leaving dark rings to mark its progress, several inches of black water still filled a hole nearly the size of a community swimming pool. The surrounding back yards of the houses on Waianiani Court sloped down toward it, and the grass was slick with water.
Beneath a nearby tree, neighbors had made a memorial for Charlotte. Nestled among the flowers, the teddy bears and the notes written by children were two Barbie dolls.
A temporary fence, metal poles linked with thick plastic netting, surrounded the catchment. The military had finished installing it a few hours before the visit.
"Too little, too late," said Sabrina Moran.
Moran, Karen Eggers and a half dozen other neighbors said that for two years, since their section of the housing development opened, they had been complaining to the Navy about the flooding and the unsafe catchment.
"We're angry," Eggers said. "This is the fourth time (it has flooded) this year."
Davis said the Navy is investigating to determine why the catchment and surrounding properties were not draining properly.
"We are deeply saddened by this incident," Davis said. "Our sympathies go out to the family, and we will do everything we can to find out what contributed to this, and hope to prevent anything like this from happening again."
Services for Charlotte will be on Thursday at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Pearl City. Visitation will be 10 a.m. to noon, and the funeral will be immediately after. Charlotte attended Our Lady of Good Counsel School, and the family plans to set up a scholarship fund in Charlotte's name for students there. They prefer contributions to flowers.
In addition to her mother, Allison, and her father, Scott, Charlotte was survived by her older brother, Joshua.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
