Canyon of secrets

Outside the courthouse, the community, shocked by the jury’s verdict, had rallied around Cody’s case, as everyone nervously waited for the judge’s decision.

Judge (in court): The court orders that the child be committed to the custody of Children Youth and Family Dept. until age 21.

The judge decided not to send Cody to prison but to a juvenile treatment center for a maximum of five years.

Then he would be free to try to start his life over.

Now Cody could look to his future. But could Cody Posey  escape his past? A past much darker than the jury ever knew? There had been one more horror, kept secret from the jury.

When he was only five years old, a headline appeared on the front page of the local paper: A “murder-suicide” was Cody’s grandfather and grandmother, his father Paul’s parents.

Cody’s grandmother shot his grandfather as he slept, then shot herself. Was it because of abuse?

Cody’s Uncle Verlin insists his father was no abuser, though he admits his father was tough.

Verlin Posey, Paul Posey's brother:  I’m not gonna lie to you.  My dad was a hard man.  And when we got a spanking, it counted.  We both got spankings.  I mean with a belt or reigns or whatever.  You know I mean we got our butt busted.

A neighbor, Jim Forrester, says he saw those boys get their butts busted and he saw their mom, Cody’s grandma, when she was hurt.

She told Forrester to go away before her husband saw them talking.

Jim Forrester: And she turned around and the whole side of her face was just black and red.  She had big sunglasses on but she was, oh, she was hurt. 

And Cody’s dad Paul had even told his second wife, Sandy, that he had grown up in a family with regular beatings—where violent outbursts were normal.

Sandy, Paul Posey’s ex-wife:  He did tell me one time they were driving down the road and his dad just reached over, opened the door, and pushed his mom out of the car.

John Larson, Dateline correspondent: When it was moving?

Sandy: When it was moving.  Yes.

Folks around here still whisper about the murder-suicide, though no one will ever be sure why it happened. For Cody, it is a part of his young past that he must grow to live with. He’s hoping to break the cycle of abuse in his family.

Cody Posey:  I want to go to fathering classes. I would like to know how to become a good parent. Being that I only knew one father’s way, I need to learn more.

As for the others who watched Cody grow up, many still felt somewhat guilty that they hadn’t alerted authorities.

Slim Brittan, one-time ranch hand at Donaldson ranch: If I had it all to do over again, yeah, I’d be calling the sheriff, the state police, the governor, whoever I had to call I’d be doing it that way.

And they now knew that just like a range wind storm, murder can begin with silence.

Alvera Lerma: I think everybody felt helpless. We could all have done something together, and we none of us stood up when we knew it was going on.

Sheriff Tom Sullivan: I believe there was abuse.  I believe there was.  But it just wasn’t reported. We didn’t know about it. Maybe we could have prevented this.

Cody Posey is said to be doing well in a juvenile treatment center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Some day he hopes to go to law school.

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