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Christine Trial: Photos, friends detail family's spiral
Only weeks later, the pictures and the family had somehow changed, sending
three young girls to the hospital and their parents into a spiral of
desperation.
The couple, both 29, are on trial this week in Douglas County Court on
kidnapping and robbery charges, and as the prosecutor presented compelling
witnesses - including one of the Christines' own daughters - supporters say the
husband and wife were guilty of only trying to get their girls back.
Nathan Guthrie, 27, of Corvallis, said he had known Brian Christine for 14
years, and that Brian was best man at his 1996 wedding. He said his slightly
built friend would have pulled the trigger of the .357-caliber Magnum handgun
only "if it was in self-defense."
Guthrie said he was living in northern California in May or June 2000 - just
weeks before the state took custody - when the Christines rolled up in their
blue-and-white converted bus for a visit. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary,
Guthrie said.
"Every time I observed them with the children, they were playing with
them or eating, just normal family things," he said.
However, on July 31, 2000, the state took custody of the three girls -
Bethany, then 5, Lydia, 3, and Miriam, 2 - after authorities found them
malnourished and dehydrated. Lydia also had a cut on her head after her father
hit her and she fell down some stairs.
Rina Diamond, a retired Department of Human Services worker, said the girls
were in "pretty bad shape" when they were taken into custody. They
were hospitalized for four days. Miriam weighed just 15 pounds and was "two
days away from death," Diamond estimated, although she said she heard that
from someone else.
Diamond said the Christines did not cooperate with case workers who tried to
get the family back on the right track. They missed appointments and didn't
undergo a required psychological evaluation for about 10 months.
Diamond thought it was strange that the couple didn't even try to arrange a
visit until eight months after the kids were taken away. When they did, they
always requested specific dates, usually on the first of the month.
On Aug. 1, 2001, the Brian and Ruth Christine got their girls back - with
Brian allegedly holding a gun on two case workers at an Interstate 5 rest stop
following a supervised visit in Grants Pass. The case workers, a man and woman,
were driving the children in a van to a foster home in Bandon.
The driver, Terrence Nelson, testified Tuesday that he looked down the barrel
of the gun held by Brian Christine. And Bethany, now 6, said in court that her
father "pointed the gun at the people."
Reportedly with help from a friend, the couple fled to Montana, where Brian
Christine was arrested after being stopped for speeding. Ruth Christine and the
three girls were found by authorities at another friend's ranch near Missoula.
Aubrey Jessop, a sympathetic mother whose father owned the ranch, was present
when armed police arrested Ruth and took the girls. Jessop said the girls were
hiding behind an SUV, begging not to be taken away.
Bethany, then 5, "said, `I'm not going with you anywhere', and they
dragged her off screaming," said Jessop, 23.
Jessop said she met Ruth Christine around the time that Ruth's custody
problems began. Prosecutor Rick Wesenberg asked her whether knowing that Ruth
was part of the plot to take the children would change Jessop's opinion of her
friend.
"No, it wouldn't," she said, likening Ruth to a bear protecting her
young from predators. "A grizzly bear will kill you. Brian and Ruth didn't
kill anybody. They just wanted their children back," she said.
Guthrie, Brian's friend, was shown pictures of the girls taken at the time of
their California visit, depicting the girls smiling and in apparent good health.
But then Wesenberg displayed photos of the girls taken later.
"She's skinnier," Guthrie said when showed a photo of Miriam.
Wesenberg asked him whether she looked unhealthy. "Yes," he replied.
Guthrie said that both his and the Christines' religious beliefs permit
fasting, which can last for varying periods of time.
ROSEBURG,
ORE. (AP) - Photographs and testimony from friends portray the Christine family
as generally happy and healthy during the early summer of 2000.