Missing and Murdered Children

This blog is about missing and murdered children and I believe my blog gives a voice to the victims. Why anyone would think it is OK to leave a comment defending a person who has been accused of or convicted of murdering a child is beyond my comprehension.

People who believe it is important enough to leave a comment defending their friend or loved one who has been convicted of murdering one of the children I have written about is also deserving of having their comment answered by me in a blog entry.

Below is the comment left on my blog regarding the Brenda Nguyen murder. I call her death a murder. The prosecutor and defense attorneys called it child abuse, manslaughter and abuse of a corpse.

In case you are not familiar with the case - Brenda was a 13-year-old runaway from the Phoenix, AZ area. She and a friend met up with Ana Hernandez, Clayton Koepke, Ana's 19-year-old-son and Ana's 39-year-old boyfriend. Ana allowed Brenda and her friend to stay in her apartment. In other words, she was harboring two runaways. During the evening the two young men decided, according to court documents, to get Brenda drunk so Clayton could have sex with her. Brenda consumed a fifth of Vodka within 30 minutes and immediately went into seizures.

They all failed to call 9-1-1 and Brenda succumbed to alcohol poisoning. The two young men and Brenda's friend dumped Brenda's body in an alley.

I can think of a couple of reasons why they did not call for assistance and eventually dumped her body. One thing I found out about is the Ana Hernandez is here illegally. I think that was a big motivator for not getting assistance and dumping the body.

Brenda became a Jane Doe who needed to be identified. Sketches were made and given to the media to aid in the identification process. Eventually a friend of Brenda's mother saw the picture and decided it looked enough like her friend's runaway daughter to tell her - and the identification was made.

Eventually the four people involved in Brenda's death were identified and they have been slowly brought to justice.

Now, on to the comment.

The person who left the comment in support of one of the co-defendants, Clayton Koepke, did not leave their name. I have no way of knowing how this person is related to Clayton or is really related at all.

I broke the comment into statements I wanted to address. The original comment statement is in the bold, my answer is directly indented below.

There is SO much more to this case than what people realize, as the media, and the Phoenix Police dept have tried to pin everything on Clayton Koepke.

Out of all the articles I have read on the case I have not detected unbalanced reporting. As far as I can recall most of the articles spoke of each person's part in the crime and did not target Clayton.

If you can send me links to the articles to prove your statement that the media as well as the Phoenix Police Department trying to pin everything on Clayton I am interested in reading the articles.

Clayton was sentenced today to 5 years.

Please provide the link to the news article. As of today, April 19, the news reports are showing Scott Franz being sentenced today to 1 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to child abuse. The article also mentions the co-defendants and their sentences except for Clayton - he is still awaiting sentencing.¹

Scott Franze has a rapsheet a mile long, now he has mitigating circumstances and will most likely receive the longest sentence out of the 4 involved here.

Mitigating circumstances that will give him a longer sentence? Are you indicating by that statement that Scott will serve more time than Ana, even though they have pled guilty to the same charges? Usually the use of the wording mitigating circumstances shows there was some sort of reason why the person should get a lesser sentence.

Mitigating circumstances, for example, Arlene Cota not being charged with any crime because of her youth. Also, supposedly she was prevented by the adults in the apartment from calling for help for her friend.

Please take into account that you do not know the individuals involved, nor do you know all of the details about this case. Its rather unfair to say that "they'll be out and be at it again", simply because....you do not know these people.

Thank God I don't know any of the people involved in Brenda's death. Trust me, if any of these people had been in my life they certainly would no longer be in it now. The quote you are referring to "they'll be out and be at it again" was a comment from a reader of this blog. I see she apologized for hurting your feelings. I do not feel she owed you any sort of apology.

Would you want someone assuming that about someone close to you that made a bad choice? Probably not.

What Clayton did is not merely a "bad choice". A bad choice is choosing to eat spicy food when you know you have a tendency towards heartburn. A bad choice is choosing to write a check when there are no funds in your checking account. You, the person taking the action is going to suffer but you are not going to hurt anyone else.

No one is condoning their actions, however, I know for a fact that Clayton is a good person who was involved in something very tragic, at the hands of people that he should have never been around in the first place. I know this because he is part of my family.

The very act of you taking the time to leave your comment on this blog dedicated to missing and murdered children proves that you do in fact condone their actions. I find it insulting to Brenda's memory that you would even think it is OK to leave a comment here supporting Clayton and pleading for understanding.

Clayton is not a 'good person'.

Meriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines the word 'good' and a 'good person' as follows:

virtuous, right, commendable (a good person)

Having read the above definitions regarding what a 'good person' is, it is not possible in my estimation that Clayton had any of the above qualities prior to Brenda's death. A person who possessed those qualities could not have sat idly by and allowed a child to die of alcohol poisoning.

It certainly was not virtuous to encourage Brenda to drink a fifth of Vodka in 30 minutes so he could have sex with her after she was drunk out of her mind. It certainly was not right. And it certainly was not commendable to throw Brenda's lifeless body into Clayton's car and dump her in an alley like an old sofa.

The following quote is from an article written by Arizona Republic Columnist Laurie Roberts:

When they awoke, she was loaded into Koepke's car. Police say the two 18-year-olds and Brenda's friend then drove around until daybreak, when they dumped her in an alley near Fifth Avenue and Indian School Road.²

So, Clayton's car was used as Brenda's hearst and he drove her to her grave site.

I suggest you click on the link above and read Ms. Robert's entire article.

Before you say "but good people don't murder innocent children"... he didn't murder anyone, nor was he the individual forcing her to drink so heavily in order to have sex with her. The police officer investigating the case in the beginning put that out to the public. See? this is what the media will NOT release, because it gets ratings..it gets people to follow the case for a while..gets the buzz out there and everyone forms their opinions. But at whose expense? Ours..our family.

Clayton and his co-defendants murdered Brenda just as if they had run her over on the road and left her to die.

This chapter of our lives is now over..thankfully. We're all saddened that Clayton was involved, but proud of him also that he has been cooperative with the police and court system the entire time. Like I stated earlier, no one is condoning his actions. He was involved, and he has a price to pay. We know that, he knows that, and he's man enough to admit it as well.

I am really glad you posted your comment. I can see from this statement how easy it was for Clayton to participate in this murder. You are thankful this chapter in your life is over, you are proud Clayton was cooperative with the police and the court system the whole time.

It is easy for me to see where Clayton gets his lack of compassion for another human being. You do not mention one time in your comment how sad it is that Brenda died. How sad it is that her mother lost a child, that her sisters lost a sister.

I know I cannot change everyone's opinions about these kinds of situations..but having this happen so close within my own family, has made me think twice about how I voice my opinions on such matters. Think outside the box folks..Clayton, Armando, Ana and Scott have families and loved ones too.

You certainly are not going to be able to change people's opinions about Clayton by posting a comment here asking for sympathy for him. Frankly I could care less that the defendants have families and loved one's. At least they all will still be able to see them in jail and when they get out of jail as well.

Brenda's mother will get to visit her daughter's grave. She will never be able to see her daughter go to the prom, graduate from high school, go to college, get married or hold a grandchild from Brenda. Clayton and the rest of their ilk took that all away from Brenda's mother.

Clayton is not a hardened criminal, nor is he a drug abuser, a gang banger, a runaway..he had no criminal history before this..not even a speeding ticket.

No, Clayton may not be any of the above mentioned types of criminals, but he is a convicted felon.

I find it interesting that you mentioned runaway in your list of criminal elements. When a child under the age of 21 is reported missing as a runaway they are not looked for because they are criminals. These runaways are looked for because they are at extreme risk of being taken advantage of and being harmed - even murdered.

As far as Clayton having no criminal history before this, what did you call it - tragedy? Yes, well I can think of a few people who are cooling their jets in prison who had no prior criminal history as well.

Ted Bundy - serial killer³

Lisa Holland - Foster mother who tortured and murdered her adopted son.⁴

Tim Holland - He watched his adopted son die for an entire week and then dumped the body in a swampy area. Unlike Brenda, Ricky's body lay in that swamp for 18 months until Tim manned up and told the truth. Tim Holland worked for the US Government and had a very high security clearance. He agreed to a plea deal and testified against his wife at her trial neatly avoiding his trial.⁵

Kevin Underwood - Murdered his neighbor Jamie Rose Bolin and planned to eat her flesh.⁶

Clayton is about the same as Tim Holland. The only difference is that Tim Holland is serving a longer sentence than what Clayton or the rest will serve. It is a bit ironic.

Put yourself in someone else's shoes for a moment..think about how YOU would feel if people were condemning your loved ones without getting ALL of the facts first?

I can put myself in the shoes of Brenda's family and I still cannot imagine how it feels to lose a child to a senseless murder.

The facts are in and maybe you are the one who should get a clue. Your relative plead guilty to manslaughter. He is guilty of manslaughter as well as abuse of a corpse.

In the future, I suggest you think twice before posting a comment defending a convicted murderer on a blog giving voice to murdered children.

1. 'Man sentenced in teen's alcohol poisoning death,' azfamily.com, April 19, 2008. [↩]
2. Laurie Roberts, '4 didn't care at all, now teen is dead,' The Arizona Republic, March 3, 2007. [↩]
3. David Lohr, "Ted Bundy: The Poster Boy of Serial Killers," Crime Magazine, an encyclopedia of crime, April 8, 2008. [↩]
4. Jack Kresnak, "The Ricky Holland Story," The Detroit Free Press, December 2, 2007. [↩]
5. Ibid. [↩]
6. Julianna Parker, "State rests in sentencing phase of Underwood trial," The Norman Transcript, March 3, 2008. [↩]