GREENFIELD — Investigators believed the young girl had been assaulted. She was taken to Zoey’s Place, the county’s new child advocacy center, to tell trained professionals what had happened.
The ease the victim felt, sitting in a comfortable environment sharing memories of a terrible encounter of abuse, helped her provide solid information that helped law enforcement make a case against the person accused of harming her, officials said.
If not for the comfortable setting, investigators say, they don’t know whether the reluctant victim would have ever been able to share the details of what had happened.
“She ended up telling the interviewer, that the interview at Zoey’s Place was just like talking with a regular person and the environment was safe,” prosecutor Brent Eaton said. “As a result, there is an investigation ongoing.”
It’s been almost 10 months since Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center opened its doors. The center helps abused and neglected children share details about what has happened to them, providing a welcoming environment for families who are forced to recall traumas they’d rather forget.
Officials are approaching their 100th interview at Zoey’s Place, showing there is a strong need in the community, they say.
“It’s really powerful and impactful to know we’ve helped that many families in such a short amount of time,” said Crystal Wiley, executive director of Zoey’s Place. “It’s sort of the concept, ‘if you build it, they will come.'”
The center, 953 W. North St., Greenfield, was designed to be a safe haven where child victims can come and share their stories with trained investigators, who often need their crucial testimony to build cases against abusers.
Zoey’s Place is named after 1-year-old Zoey Wagoner, who died of severe abuse in 2015. After that, law enforcement, child welfare professionals and other advocates committed themselves to opening a center that would aid in the investigation of crimes and be a safe haven for at-risk children.
Rather than using a police department office or hospital emergency room to interview victims, the center allows for a comfortable, child-friendly environment where victims of abuse and neglect can feel safe.
“With our center being open, families and kids don’t have to drive far away or go to a police station to share their story,” Wiley said. “We’re so thankful we can provide that service and the gap has been filled.”
Wiley, who is also trained as a forensic interviewer, runs the center as the business manager and is the main victim advocate. She works with law enforcement officials who can observe the interviews from a different room, in a private setting, via security cameras. Wiley’s assistant and the main forensic interviewer, Ronda Etherington, talks with the victims in a comfortable setting and makes the operations work well for all parties.
Wiley noted she and Etherington are crossed-trained in their roles, making for a versatile team to help families.
“Ronda’s training and dedication to the craft and commitment to perfecting and becoming an experienced forensic interviewer is great and beyond her years,” Wiley said.
McCordsville Chief of Police Paul Casey is a supporter of Zoey’s Place and sees the logic behind the center.
“The entire concept of Zoey’s Place and how it helps both the judicial process as well as the victims is a benefit to everyone,” he said.
Thankfully so far, Casey noted, his department has not had to use the center very often, but he said just knowing the services are available when needed can be of great help to their investigations.
Detective Dan Trejo of the McCordsville Police Department has listened to three forensic interviews at Zoey’s Place and said it’s a terrific tool for law enforcement.
“Kids love visiting a police department, but not when they’re scared and afraid to let their guard down, and Zoey’s Place helps put them at ease,” Trejo said.
He’s been impressed by Wiley and Etherington’s skills being able to put children at ease.
“They’ve done a great job with the space they’ve been allocated to make kids feel safe and comfortable,” Trejo said.
Eaton noted that if interviews with children in distress continued to be done the previous way — inside law enforcement headquarters, in large conference rooms with several officials around; or even in another county — authorities would not be able to help children as much.
“This is just a better way to do a really hard job,” Eaton said.
Wiley said the child advocacy center’s role is expanding.
“This is not just for some kids and families in our community,” Wiley said. “We have been doing a lot of outreach.”
That includes creating a program with Greenfield-Central schools about body safety issues.
She also said that, thanks to community support and the work of the Zoey’s Place board, they’ve added new furnishings to make the center even more family-friendly.
“I am very proud at how far we have come in such a short amount of time,” Wiley said.
