SUEANN Cross will never forget the morning of September 11, 1986.
Going to wake her sleeping daughter Staci she was confronted with something no mother should ever have to face.
Staci Ackerman was sexually abused and killed in her bed at the age of eight[/caption]
Her beautiful eight-year-old daughter was lying lifeless in her bed after being horrifically sexually abused and suffocated.
What SueAnn could never have imagined was that the man responsible for this depraved act had been the very same man she and her husband Kenny had shown so much kindness to.
Kenny’s boss Greg Flint had snuck into their home before heading straight to Staci’s bedroom where he stole her innocence and her life.
In 1987 he was found guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, rape and sodomy and sentenced to 37.5 years but this month a parole hearing could see him walk free.
SueAnn, from Farmington, New York State, says: “I mourn my little girl every day, but at least Greg was locked up.
“But last year I had to face the fact his parole date was fast approaching.
“Even if it was refused, he’d get a new chance every two years.”
“Greg gets to plead his case for freedom while I have to relive my child’s murder, again and again.”
Staci was SueAnn’s youngest with two big brothers Jason and Todd.
After divorcing their dad Dave, SueAnn and her kids moved in with her new partner Kenny.
“Dave was a great dad and remained a big part of their lives,” SueAnn says.
“My place with Kenny was on a little close where kids played in the street and everyone knew each other.”
Kenny worked in construction and occasionally his boss Greg Flint, 25, dropped in for a drink after work.
“He seemed nice enough,” SueAnn admits.
“If he drank too much then he would ask to stay over to avoid driving and I was always happy to oblige.”
But despite this in September 1986, Flint faced charges for drink driving.
“The night before court, he stayed at our place since we were closer,” SueAnn says.
The following day as Flint headed to court SueAnn waved the kids off to school before they came home and had dinner.
Staci had bravely tried to fight off her attacker but stood no chance[/caption]
At 8:30pm SueAnn tucked Staci into bed and kissed her goodnight.
Later that evening Flint called to tell she and Kenny that he had been found guilty of drink driving, but the court had deferred sentence to give him time to finish a big job he was working on.
The next morning, September 11, 1986, SueAnn went to get the kids up for school.
It was like any other morning as she headed into her eight-year-old’s bedroom to wake her up.
“Her room was small, and the foot of her bed was almost against the door,” SueAnn says.
“Squeezing in, I crawled onto her bed and gave her a kiss to wake her and she was freezing.
“I knew straightaway something was wrong.
“Staci wasn’t moving, her eyes were wide open, staring, lifeless.
“I screamed for Kenny, everything became a blur.”
Kenny called an ambulance as SueAnn desperately performed CPR on Staci.
Jason and Todd were sent to a neighbour’s as paramedics arrived at the home where Staci was bluelighted straight to hospital.
When they reached the hospital, doctors delivered the devastating news. Staci was dead.
“I felt like I was outside my body watching a sobbing woman, being led in to see her daughter’s body,” SueAnn says.
“I still didn’t know what had happened until detectives arrived and said they were treating my child’s death as a murder.
“They believed she’d been sexually assaulted too, but I just couldn’t take that in at the time.”
I shuddered at the thought that this man had been in our home as a friend
SueAnn Cross
Kenny was questioned by detectives before being released
Kenny was questioned and released.
The next morning SueAnn’s ex-husband Dave called with more distressing news.
The police had turned up at 4.30 a.m. at his to take the boys in for questioning.
“I was distraught,” the mum recalls.
“Like all siblings, mine fought, but they adored each other, Todd, 13, especially was very protective of his little sister and brother.
“Dave said the police found some girlie-mag pictures in Todd’s room, which made them suspicious.
“But he was 13, as far as I was concerned I would have been surprised if they hadn’t found something like that.”
After a lie detector test, Todd was cleared, but then Jason, 11, was subjected to the same treatment.
“I was outraged,” SueAnn says.
“A monster had crept into our home and violated my daughter, and they were treating my sons like criminals.”
Shortly after Kenny went for a drink with Flint, and alarm bells rang.
“He told me there was ‘something off’ about him when they spoke about Staci,” SueAnn says.
Kenny made the decision to call the police and at the same time, Dave learned something alarming.
“He told me that when Todd used to go to a park with his girlfriend Greg sometimes turned up at the park and offer to buy them booze,” SueAnn says.
“Todd says that Greg would make inappropriate remarks about his girlfriend, who was only 13.
“It was sickening, I shuddered at the thought that this man had been in our home as a friend.”
The police took Flint in for questioning and not long after he confessed to murdering Staci.
Police had discovered he’d let himself in while we slept and had gone straight to Staci’s bedroom.
He told police how he had ‘touched her calf’ and, worrying she would scream, placed a pillow over her face, admitting that the struggle had ‘excited’ him.
She’d fought bravely for her life, trying to call out to her big brother Todd for help.
WHAT IS PAROLE?
“Parole” means a prisoner is able to leave jail or be released from custody before the end of their sentence.
It is a temporary or permanent release of a prisoner who agrees to certain conditions before the completion of the maximum sentence period.
Conditions of parole often include things such as obeying the law, refraining from drug and alcohol use, avoiding contact with victims, getting a job and meeting with a parole officer.
The term actually backdates to the Middle Ages, when prisoners were released if they gave their word.
“It was standing room only at Staci’s funeral,” SueAnn says.
“Her white casket was impossibly small. She was buried with my mum and gran.
“Afterwards, I stood in the car park, surrounded by people but feeling completely alone.
“My whole community changed in the aftermath. Kids didn’t play outside anymore.”
Flint went to trial in January 1987 where, despite his initial confession, he denied all charges..
Greg was found guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, rape and sodomy.
He got 37.5 years to life with extra time for his previous drink driving offences.Parole eligibility was set for 2025.
In the aftermath, the family struggled to return to normality.
SueAnn explains: “Kenny was never the same, blaming himself for bringing Greg into our lives.
“I tried to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault but he drank to blot it all out.
“Three months after the trial, though it broke my heart, I asked him to leave.
“He was a good man, but I had two grieving boys to look after and had nothing left for Kenny.
“Staci’s dad visited her grave, but I couldn’t.
“Hanging on by a thread for my boys, dosed up on antidepressants, I feared visiting my baby’s grave would tip me over the edge.
“For years, the boys couldn’t go to school on Staci’s birthday.”
In time, SueAnn met a man named Jim Cross and remarried.
With the help of her sons Jason, now 50, and Todd, 52, SueAnn started a Facebook campaign to keep him jailed and called for parole reviews to change from every two years to every five.
I found my baby’s broken body, and it sometimes feels like yesterday
SueAnn Cross
The local prosecutor joined the campaign, and they started a petition to change the law and keep Flint locked up.
This month there’ll be a meeting to decide if he gets parole. If he does, he could be free weeks later.
SueAnn says: “I found my baby’s broken body, and it sometimes feels like yesterday.
“Some days I’ll suddenly feel tears on my face, not even realising I’ve been thinking about it.
“I’m not a campaigner, I’m just a mum but I’ve had to go on telly, speak to politicians and beg strangers to help keep a monster behind bars.”
So far, 11,300 people have signed the petition, now all SueAnn can do is wait.
“I’m 71 now, and I worry it’s getting harder to remember what my daughter was really like,” she says.
“But then I’ll see a blonde, blue-eyed little girl and the memories come rushing back.
“I can’t bear the thought of another mother going through what I have.
“The day my daughter died, I was imprisoned by my grief.
“I’ll never be released, and neither should Gregory Flint be.”
SueAnn (seen with Staci when she was younger) had fought long and hard to keep Flint behind bars[/caption]
