1 - What do you do
for a living?
I work for Hinshaw and
Grunthal as a contract
attorney. I am based in New York, but my work takes me to many
different cities and countries.
2 - How did you know
Raychel?
Raychel is my
sister. She was three years younger than I.
3 - When did you
first meet Raychel?
When she was five
minutes old.
4 - What one word
best describes Raychel for you and why?
Hard. As a child,
Raychel had a spirit of iron, which apparently carried through to her
last days. Raychel was also a person who was hard to really
know. I understand that her poetry was confessional in
nature. I would like to read more of her work to see it for
myself (Lance: please read this). If it is true, then it might
be the first time I would know what Raychel really thought.
5 - What one thing
would you have changed about Raychel and why?
I understand that it
seems contradictory; however, I wish I could have removed that hardness which was
so dominant in Raychel. She developed a series of defense
mechanisms to keep other people from getting to know her.
Raychel wanted to be loved, but I
don’t think she knew how to go about asking for it. All of her
defenses created a labyrinth and she never was able to find the way
out of herself.
6 - How did Raychel
affect your life?
I probably would have
died if my sister had never lived.
7 - How did you
affect Raychel's life?
I doubt that I did. I
don’t believe a single person was capable of truly affecting Raychel’s
life. No let me restate that. Two people could have
changed Raychel's life: our parents. Had I been older and stronger
when she was young, maybe I could have changed her life, but that was
not the case.
8 - What is your
best memory of Raychel?
This is not my best
memory. It's not even something that I try to remember, but I
think it speaks best of Raychel. When I was 13, I was still very
much on the small side. Our father seemed a giant of a man (and
at 6' 3" he was), so he was able to literally throw me around the
house at will. I don't remember what I "did" to
deserve my beating, but I'm sure it wasn't as grievous as our father
made it out to be. Regardless, my father picked me up by my ears
and flung me into a wall. I hit the wall, dented it, and landed
in a heap on the floor. As my father hovered over me, I could
see Raychel creeping up behind him. I didn't have the strength
to call her off, but she wouldn't have listened anyway. She
threw herself headlong into the back our father's left knee. I
heard his knee pop and I saw him fold to the floor with a roar.
Not staying to admire her handiwork, Raychel reached down to help me
up and we escaped the house before our mother could come to her
husband's aid. Yes, we got into more trouble because of it, but
it was a small price to pay. He was permanently hobbled by the
knee injury. After that, we were always able to outrun
him. More than that, I understood how strong Raychel could
be. She was ten years old at the time and she was my hero.
I didn't think of it at the time, but maybe Raychel was trying to show
how much she loved me.
9 - What would you
do or say if you could bring Raychel back?
Had I known what
Raychel was going through out in L.A., I would have bought her a plane
ticket and asked her to take a few week’s vacation here in New York
with my family. But I never knew she was in trouble. She
never told me.
10 - Who do you feel
is most responsible for Raychel's passing?
I don’t know.
Raychel and I were just
getting to know each other again when she was murdered. She had just
reached up out of the blue to contact me and now she’s gone again.
I don't know enough of Raychel's L.A. circle of friends to make an
educated guess. I feel that naming anyone without knowing all of
the intricacies of her life would be more damaging than admitting that
I have no clue to who killed my baby sister.
