She was born in Fort Ord CA, a military base in Monterey County, on 10 April 1952. Her father was a renowned Army Psychiatrist, who served in Japan, Europe and the USA. He specialized in creating profiles of ‘Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, etc. Her Mother was an Emergency Room nurse at a hospital in Marin County.
When the family lived in the Presidio in San Francisco, Catherine, was abducted by two Mexican Nationals and taken to Mexico where she was kept hostage for more than 500 days. She was kept looked up in a chicken coup while being abused in many different ways. She does not want to talk about that ordeal.
Due to her father’s military service & connections, the FBI got involved and eventually freed Catherine from her kidnappers in Oaxaca, Mexico. At the time, Catherine was only 13 years old. Her nightmare lasted more than a year and a half, she returned in not so good shape mentally and emotionally, having suffered tremendously at the hands of her captors. Catherine needed many hours of private care, psychological counseling and other support… as she coped with the trauma of a horrible crime. She definitely was emotionally traumatized by what happened…..Children who are molested tend to survive the ordeal pretty well if their families provide them with an enormous amount of support in the ensuing weeks, months and years, …in order for them to gain trust in others…again…..which is still difficult for Catherine, up to this very day.
Her family, few in numbers, was not very close at times.
Obviously, it has been and still is very difficult for Catherine to properly support herself. She has held several jobs as a cashier, at times as a care giver, and other menial jobs. Now, at 60 years old she barely survives on SSI payments.
She gave birth to her son Jacob at UCSF on Parnassus Street in San Francisco on 21 November 1972; she was just a bit over 20 years old. Together with the help of her parents she gave Jacob a good home, primarily residing in Marin County. It was in 1990….when Jacob was first diagnosed with ‘paranoid Schizophrenia’ by Dr. Barshock, now retired.
Catherine became Jacob’s fulltime caregiver, until the incident in 1995 in Fairfax, which earned Jacob a six-year prison sentence.
There of course is more to the story…..
Jacob is currently at the Salem, Oregon State Mental Hospital, where he is being ware-housed. Different medications are tried on him…in order to learn how he will react…. or whether his mood / behavior will improve ….. he is a guinea pig one more time. Oregon’s plan is to release Jacob during spring 2013, into a facility with a stronger medical component….in contrast to a psychiatric facility where he is currently housed. It is not clear where Jacob may wind up…or whether the next facility would benefit Jacob in any way.
Catherine would like to place Jacob into a specialty Traumatic Brain Injury Facility, for a short time, which could cost $20K per month or more… so that it may be determined what illness and to what extent, Jacob is suffering from.
“Men’s wretchedness in soothe I so deplore, Not even I would plague the sorry creatures more.” – Mephistopheles, Faust
In memorial:
In 1977, Dr. Donovan, chief psychiatrist at Marin Community Mental Health denied service to Catherine’s brother Robert Allen Powers, who consequently committed suicide and became the 332nd suicide-victim of the Golden Gate Bridge.
His body was found in the south tower moat on December 9th 1977.
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