Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / April 2006

Hi, I actually know Mercedes Farquharson, and I would like to explain
the situation from her perspective. Aside from obvious inconsistencies
in the statements made by the so-called "slave" sisters, (such as
having to clean the house until it was spotless, when it was actually a
terrible mess; and such as Jasmine being a "slave" for 13 years
since she was 12, and yet she is only 22 years old), I would like to
clarify the following points:

1.    The three sisters made statements to the social welfare in December
2005 that life was "normal" and their home was "normal and
fine" right up until the beginning of 2005. Claims of years of
servitude were made later, clearly contradicting their earlier
statement. In January 2005, the fourth and oldest sister, Faith 30,
left the family home in N.C. to live in Spain for 1 year. It was during
this year that problems developed, culminating in a neighbour's phone
call to the Department of Social Services.
2.    The girls' father (who lives in Hong Kong) lost his job about 6
months prior to Faith's departure to Spain, and as his savings ran
thin, the family suffered one year of financial hardship: less movies
and DVDs, no concerts or travel, fewer outings, etc. Mercedes had to
buy her daughters 2nd hand clothes from the Salvation Army.
3.    Fearing that her husband would not find another job because of his
advanced age, Mercedes decided to sell up and move to a farm where the
family could grow their own vegetables and raise animals for meat, eggs
and milk. Based on an agreement made with a potential buyer for her
property, Mercedes bought a few goats, sheep and chickens in
anticipation of their imminent move to a farm, but the buyer backed out
at the last minute.
4.    At about this time, the three girls started spending a lot of time
at the home of one of the neighbours - a man in his 60s whose wife
had recently died. This neighbour asked Jasmine (21) for a date.
Jasmine was eager to date him, so despite misgivings due to the
age-gap, Mercedes gave her consent because Jasmine was an adult. The
neighbour took Jasmine to see Cirque du Soleil, but much to her
surprise and disappointment, he never asked her out again. Shortly
thereafter, he expressed his "love" for Emma (15). Mercedes
expressly forbade him to date Emma because she was legally still a
child, yet despite their mother's disapproval, all three girls
frequently snuck over to his house in the middle of the night.
Neighbours have reported hearing Mercedes calling her daughters outside
in the small hours of the morning. They have interpreted this to mean
that the girls were working outside at this time, when in fact she was
calling them because they had snuck out to visit this particular
neighbour.
5.    Mercedes did not punish her daughters for their disobedience as she
thought they were just young innocent girls coming under the sway of an
older, sophisticated man. Instead, she approached the neighbour
directly several times, imploring him to stay away from her youngest
daughters, but he refused and insisted that Emma was "a woman". He
also liked Holly and said that of the three sisters, she was "the
most feminine". He was not interested in Jasmine, and Jasmine was
convinced (but mistaken) that Mercedes had somehow influenced him in
this decision. Jasmine became resentful and hostile toward Mercedes.
Photographs were found of Emma posing for this neighbour in his house
and lying on the grass in his garden. He also gave her gifts, such as
CDs.
6.    An earlier visit by the DSS was made to Mercedes' residence a
couple of years earlier. The complaint was made to the DSS by Faith's
ex-husband. He made the call out of spite because Faith had refused to
tell him her social security number. Whatever the girls may say about
that visit, the fact is, the DSS officer came into the house, looked in
all the rooms, talked to the girls, and found nothing abnormal or
unusual. During this visit, Jasmine admitted to having grown and smoked
marijuana (until Mercedes discovered what she was doing).
7.    During this year of financial hardship, Jasmine physically assaulted
Mercedes on several occasions, pinching, pushing, throwing things,
scratching and hitting her. Mercedes had to resort to calling the
police on two occasions. She also had to call the police to issue a
warning to Jasmine who had been intercepting her mail (including
packages delivered by UPS) and throwing it away.
8.    All three of the youngest sisters engaged in physical fighting with
one another - pinching, pushing, slapping, and kicking. The DSS is in
possession of a document written by Jasmine describing Emma's use of
violence and intimidation against her.
9.    Jasmine's behaviour worsened rapidly in the absence of her older
sister Faith, until Mercedes told Jasmine that when Faith came home
from Spain, Faith would arrange for Jasmine to leave home and return to
London to live. Faith has a law degree, and Mercedes thought she would
be better able to arrange for Jasmine's smooth departure from the
U.S. given that her visa waiver had expired.
10.    Jasmine did not want to leave without her younger sisters, and she
did not want to go to London. She desperately wanted to stay in
America. All three sisters had previously said they would "do
anything" to get visas to live and work in America.
11.    The neighbour who had "befriended" them is a criminal attorney
who specialises in trials involving South American immigrants. He knows
that an immigrant can get a three-year visa if they are required to
testify in a criminal trial.
12.    Faith was due to return home for Christmas 2005. In the 3 weeks
leading up to Christmas, the house became more and more dirty inside.
Mercedes cleaned and cleaned, and was confused and frustrated by her
daughters' seemingly intentional desire to dirty it up again.
13.    In the space of 3 weeks, the house, which had been "normal"
inside by the girls' own admission to the DSS, became an unbelievable
mess. Four days before Christmas, a neighbour (we can only guess which
one) called the DSS. Faith arrived home on Christmas Eve to find the
house trashed and her family gone. During her stay there for two and a
half months, Faith cleaned the house, found homes for all the animals,
attended meetings with the DSS, attended court hearings, and
co-operated with the police, even though they accused her of hiding her
mother somewhere in the house. The police then obtained a search
warrant for the house, but Mercedes was not there. Faith informed them
from the start that she would be returning to Spain within 3 months as
that was the maximum time she was allowed to stay in the U.S. on her
visa waiver, and she had nowhere else to go but back to Spain.
14.    When the DSS descended on Mercedes' home to remove the girls,
they entered the house and took photographs of the mess, which the
girls themselves had made. It was subsequently admitted that the girls
had secretly conspired with DSS in Mercedes' absence and that the DSS
had already been around to the house at an earlier time. The girls kept
this a secret from Mercedes, and - knowing at exactly what time the
DSS was going to return - all three girls contrived to be carrying
chickens into the house just as they drove up the driveway. The girls
said that Mercedes had "ordered" them to carry these chickens into
the house, but this was a total lie, as are the rest of the
accusations.
15.    Besides the dirty house, there is no evidence of any crime except
the girl's statements. These statements have enabled them to get
visas to live and work in the United States.
16.    All three girls were given medical exams within a couple of days
of being removed and there were no bruises or strap marks or other
marks suggestive of abuse. All three girls are healthy and well fed,
being the appropriate - or slightly above the appropriate - weight for
their height.
17.     There are objective witnesses who can testify that there was a
large amount of food in the house at the time the girls were removed,
namely: tins of vegetables on the kitchen shelves; several TV dinners
in the kitchen freezer; vegetables in the fridge; several large
packages of ground beef; several steaks; milk, fruit juices, rice
puddings, smoked salmon, shrimps, and a big basket of fruit. None of
these foods were locked up.
18.    There was a lock on ONE of the THREE fridges in the house. The
lock was on the mother's personal fridge in her bedroom because she
sometimes kept a bottle of wine in that fridge, and once or twice
previously, Jasmine had taken the wine and drunk it. None of the other
fridges or freezers had locks on them. The girls had access to plenty
of food all the time.
19.    It has been stated in the press that the girls were starved and
had to eat livestock food to survive. Why would they eat livestock food
when they were getting about 60 eggs a day from the chickens? There
were also four heavy-bearing fruit trees, and potatoes and summer and
winter greens growing in the garden. There were so many apples on the
apple tree, they were lying on the ground rotting. The pear trees were
so heavily laden, Mercedes had to prop the trees to stop their branches
from breaking. Jasmine also had her own pet milking goat.
20.    A skin problem on Emma's hands has been put forward as evidence
of excessive labour without protective gloves. Emma has suffered skin
allergies on her hands since infancy. Neither of her two sisters has
anything wrong with their hands despite alleged similar hard work, so
why is Emma the only one to have this problem? Emma's hands always
develop red bumps and severe dryness in winter, which seems to be
exacerbated by contact with water. Mercedes bought Emma special Playtex
gloves just to wash her hair because she was so concerned about
Emma's hands. She also bought her special creams to apply.
21.    All three girls were enrolled in accredited courses for
home-schooling during school age. Jasmine and Holly were never very
academic and were eager to cease their studies as soon as legally
permissable. Emma is very academic, and spent most of her time reading.
She did precious little physical work, if any. When invited by Faith on
one occasion to accompany her in some gardening, Emma replied
succinctly, "I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a sharp
object." When the DSS removed Emma from Mercedes, they put her in
school. The DSS informed Faith that Emma's standard of schoolwork
exceeded her peers. How can she be so educated if she was having to
clean and scrub all day?
22.    Holly did very little of anything. Prior to Faith's departure,
she and Faith used to cook dinners for the family, but after Faith's
departure, Holly refused to cook anything. Holly and Jasmine have very
good singing voices and would spend many hours a day just practicing
their singing. All three girls also spent many hours writing their own
songs and filled many, many notebooks with lyrics.
23.    Jasmine assisted Mercedes with some work in the garden, but she
did not work without Mercedes' participation, and she never did any
housework whatsoever. Jasmine frequently expressed her love of the
outdoors, considered herself a tomboy, and loved being around animals,
planting vegetables, and doing other outdoor activities. She had a real
soft spot for animals. Jasmine is athletic, enjoys sports, and during
her teenage years dreamed of becoming a solider, even going through a
period of shaving her head to achieve a "military cut". Jasmine was
quite passionate about gardening and read a lot of gardening books. She
was also enrolled on a course with the Royal Horticultural Society for
a while, but eventually quit because she found the scientific aspect
too difficult.
24.    When Mercedes became concerned that the chickens were breeding too
much and their numbers were increasing, she went to great lengths to
gather all the eggs to discourage hatching of chicks. Jasmine would
secretly take the eggs back outside and tuck them under broody hens in
the hopes they would hatch because she loved baby chicks. All three
girls loved the chickens and other animals and gave them all pet names.

25.    Jasmine liked to spend her free time watching the TV in her bedroom
or practicing singing with her sisters. Her big dream is to compete in
American Idol. All three girls had TV sets, stereos, portable CD
players, MP3 players, and Internet access. After turning 21, Jasmine
would often watch TV for most of the night, despite Mercedes' concern
about her lack of sleep. She would frequently take naps in the
afternoon. If anything, Mercedes was over-indulgent with her daughters.

26.    Mercedes did not "run away". She left the U.S. weeks before
any charges were made. She left because she was in the U.S. on a
student visa but was not actually attending classes. She had no reason
to think she had done anything wrong except to breach some immigration
regulations. She did not "abandon" Emma (almost 16). When the
social welfare arrived, all three girls were calm and prepared. It was
apparent from their behaviour that they had made previous arrangements
with the social welfare. They calmly packed their bags and walked out.
Emma did not ask to stay with her mother. Emma is 5'6", weighs
about 125lb, and is a mature, intellectual, fully developed young
woman. She wanted to leave, and her mother saw no reason why she should
try to force her to come back. It also became apparent to Mercedes at
this time that she had been set up by her daughters. She was hurt and
confused. She was NOT afraid of arrest as she had not done anything
illegal.
27.    Both Holly and Jasmine have lived independently (in different
countries) from Mercedes during their teenage years, and both chose to
return to her voluntarily. Mercedes did not travel with them. Why did
they choose to return to Mercedes if they had been treated like slaves?

28.    At the age of 18 Jasmine lived alone in Spain for 6 months,
working as a waitress. She had a home, a job, and several friends, and
yet she chose to move to America to be with Mercedes. Holly also lived
for a time in London before imploring Mercedes to take her back.
29.    The girls have always enjoyed extensive freedom. Jasmine is
practically a skating athlete having learned to skate around Marbella
as a teenager. She has been out on dates in the U.S. and her mother
paid for her to go to Charles Grayson hair salon to have a stylish hair
cut and highlights prior to one of her dates. All three girls have been
dropped off at the mall several times with pocket money, and at the
cinema. They also made trips with their mother to Barnes & Noble in
Matthews where they chose books for themselves. They often went with
their mother to drive-thrus at Sonic, TCBY, and BoJangles. In the
family's more affluent years, both Holly and Emma went riding and had
their own horse. The girls enjoyed normal festivities during Christmas,
Easter, birthdays etc., Their older sister Faith would make their
Halloween costumes by hand, and the social welfare is in possession of
many photographs of the girls showing them happy and healthy and living
normal lives. Faith also took Emma and Holly to a Clay Aiken concert
shortly before she left for Spain; to Southpark Mall for make-overs; to
the Raptor Center, to a skating rink, and other outings. She would also
go jogging with them and workout with them. She made music CDs for
them, and practiced singing with them. She also taught them how to play
the card game, "Magic", and they enjoyed playing this and Monopoly.
Emma is also a proficient chess player.
30.    Much fuss has been made about "chickens living in the house".
On one occasion, one of the chickens' shelters collapsed due to
terrible weather, and Mercedes and Jasmine (NOT the two youngest
sisters), carried the chickens from the collapsed shelter into a shed.
The chickens were not taken into the house. When the girls were removed
by the DSS, workmen were actually in the process of installing a small
barn, which was bought specifically for the chickens. On another
occasion, over a period of about 10 days, 3 hens were kept in 2 cages
in the house for treatment when they were sick. They were kept caged at
all times until, going AGAINST her mother's instructions, Jasmine
started opening the cages and letting the chickens out to roam in the
house a few days prior to the social welfare's intervention. Mercedes
would return the chickens to their cages, but Jasmine would open the
cages again in her absence. When Mercedes asked why she kept doing
this, Jasmine replied that she felt sorry for the chickens being kept
in cages. All three girls also encouraged other chickens to come into
the house by opening the windows and doors and throwing bread to lead
the chickens inside. Their mother could not understand why they were
doing this because it was making the house filthy inside, but on
retrospect she realized it was part of their plan to trash the house
and then blame their mother.
31.    In the days leading up to the social welfare's intervention, the
girls also unscrewed pipes from the kitchen sink which later caused
flooding, they flushed rags down the toilets to block them, they
punctured a hole in the hot water heater, they ripped lights off their
fixtures, they ripped switches off the cooker and other appliances,
they threw straw around the house, they threw clothes around the house,
they slashed bed covers, and they hammered nails into the tires on
their mother's van.
32.    It is Mercedes' belief that the three youngest sisters have made
these accusations because of a series of events:
a.    Jasmine had become violent and knew she would be made to leave home
imminently and return to England.
b.    She did not want to leave without her sisters and did not want to go
to England.
c.    Her sisters also wanted to leave because their quality of life had
suffered for the last year due to financial hardship. The plans for
buying a farm had fallen through and the family was left with some farm
animals in less than ideal conditions. Finally, shortly before the
social welfare's intervention, there was a spout of foul weather,
which turned the garden and the animals' living areas into mud. This
combination of factors made the two youngest girls depressed and
resentful of their mother, and they easily came under the sway of their
older sister.
d.    Jasmine was also very unhappy living there because the neighbour had
dated her once and then professed his preference for her younger sister
Emma.
e.    Jasmine and her sisters all agreed that they wanted to live in
America, but they did not have visas to live and work there legally. If
they had left home peacefully, without any criminal charges being
brought against their mother, they would have had to return to England
- something all three of them dreaded, as they all love America.
f.    It is suspected that the neighbour advised them on how to get 3 year
visas by becoming witnesses in a criminal trial. They set up their
mother by systematically trashing the house and then when it was ready,
the neighbour called the social welfare.

I am not a regular at this group, nor is that my usual email address,
so I may not reply to comments.