Slain teen's mother says girl ran off to be with neighbor

Sixteen-year-old Kelsey Carter was an excellent student who aspired to become a lawyer before suddenly dropping out of school and running away from home, apparently to be with a 25-year-old neighbor whose children she had baby-sat, according to her mother.

On Oct. 20, Christy Doll said she woke up and found a note from Kelsey, saying she "needed to figure some things out." She immediately reported her daughter as a runaway with Enumclaw police.

"There was no fight. She snuck out," said Doll, a 35-year-old single mother.

Kelsey died Saturday night from a gunshot wound. King County Sheriff's detectives are still investigating the shooting, including the possibility it may have been an accident, and will forward their case to King County prosecutors for a charging decision, said spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

On Saturday night, shortly before the shooting, Doll saw Kelsey smoking a cigarette outside a house in the 33900 block of Southeast Green River Headworks Road outside Enumclaw and called 911. Two sheriff's deputies responded, but Kelsey's 25-year-old boyfriend and two other men told the deputies the girl wasn't inside, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Doll, who had been parked across the street in a friend's car while the deputies talked to the men, said she was certain they were lying. But she had no choice but to head home to Enumclaw.

That was at 6:37 p.m. At 8:26 p.m., Doll received a phone call from Enumclaw Community Hospital.

Doll later learned that Kelsey's boyfriend and another man had driven Kelsey to the hospital, but she died before they arrived.

According to Doll, Kelsey was shot in the left elbow and the bullet traveled across her chest, exiting through her right shoulder.

The man who owns the house where Kelsey was shot insists the shooting was an accident.

The 31-year-old mechanic, who asked not to be named to protect his privacy, said he was upstairs when he heard "a loud ka-boom and ... two terrible screams" from the basement. He ran downstairs.

"I don't even think my feet touched the stairs," he said. "My friend said, 'I just shot Kelsey.' "

The homeowner ran upstairs and called 911, but the boyfriend and another friend decided it would be quicker to drive Kelsey to the hospital themselves, he said.

The homeowner said the handgun belonged to his friend's grandfather. "It was really powerful and really old," he said.

Phone and e-mail messages left for the boyfriend were not returned. The Seattle Times is not naming the man because he has not been charged with a crime.

But Doll, who works as a bartender two nights a week and also has a 10-year-old daughter, doesn't believe Kelsey's death was an accident and questioned how a revolver could be accidentally cocked and fired.

Doll said Kelsey baby-sat her 25-year-old neighbor's two young children after he split from his wife. She said she didn't realize her daughter was romantically involved with the man until Doll hacked into Kelsey's MySpace account after she ran away from home and found explicit messages.

Doll said she learned the whereabouts of her daughter from the 25-year-old man's mother.

A funeral service is planned for noon, Dec. 21, at Enumclaw High School. To help pay for funeral expenses, Doll's friends have established the Kelsey Carter Memorial Fund and donations can be made at any KeyBank branch.

"I am angry. I am more than upset," Doll said, her voice breaking. "What does a 25-year-old man want with a 16-year-old girl? What is he doing, watching a 16-year-old girl dropping out of school? He's 25 and a parent — he should've been saying, 'Kels, go home.' "

Source: The Seattle Times