Petscop and the Rebirthing of Candace Newmaker

“I can’t do it, I can’t do it,” she says. “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.” Candace Newmaker cries out during a rebirthing session. A minute later she says she’s going to die, continuing to beg for air. The adults reposition themselves, pushing harder. “Please, please stop pushing, I can’t breathe.” The pressure doesn’t stop, though. “OK, I’m dying. I’m sorry,” she says.

“You want to die? OK, then die. Go ahead, die right now,” the doctors yell back at her.

Candace Newman was born Candace Tiara Elmore on November 19, 1989 in Lincolnton, North Carolina. Her mother, Angie, had planned her pregnancy. She wanted Candace so very much, she even played classical music and read stories aloud while she was pregnant, having heard that those small actions would make her baby smart.

Over the next few years, Candace would have a baby sister, Chelsea, and a baby brother, Michael. Her dad, Todd had difficulty keeping a job, whether he was drinking, or just so unpleasant his employers decided they didn’t want him around. Angie tried to work, spending some time at a nursing home, working fast food, and even tried beauty school, but Todd didn’t want her working, and she was never able to finish school.

The family moved constantly from one run down apartment to another, or trailer park, or even different housing projects. As money got tight, Todd would pawn off family things, including Candace’s high chair, and Angie’s wedding ring.

Tensions were often high, and police were often called to the Elmore residence. On at least one occasion, Todd was charged with assaulting Angie, but the charges were ultimately dropped when she didn’t make it to court to testify.

Candace celebrated her third birthday at a battered women’s shelter. She was developing a strong and protective personality of her own. Her grandmother described her as rebellious but tenderhearted; she couldn’t stand to see anyone cry, but she did have a temper. Candace became a mother figure to her brother and sister, even trying to protect her mother from her father. She would put  herself in the middle of them when they fought, even striking blows at Todd.

It wasn’t long before Candace, Chelsea, and Michael were removed from the home by social services, and when she was just five years old, Angie and Todd’s parental rights were terminated. Just two years later, Candace was adopted and given a new birth certificate complete with a new name, Candace Elizabeth Newmaker, and a new birthplace, Durham, North Carolina. It also said her mother was Jeane Newmaker.

Jeane was considered a brave, loving, and caring woman for adopting Candace, who was seen as a troubled child. She was in her early forties, and confessed that Candace was a handful. She enrolled her with a Duke pediatrician, Dr. Ave Lachiewicz, who was studying children with A.D.D. “This kid had been through a lot,” Dr. Ave Lachiewicz said. “I don’t think she was a normal, happy kid. She could smile and be real cute, then she could be mean. It was like having the average 18-year-old adolescent in your house.”

Dr. Lachiewicz met with Candace’s teacher where she learned that Candace worked hard class, and was truly “invested” in herself. She also noted that Candace did not give affection freely, and her behavior, construed as “frosty,” was likely no more than a defense mechanism.

Jeane wasn’t satisfied, however, and continued investigating other therapeutic treatments. Candace was taken to experts in depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. She saw therapists, and at least two other Duke doctors. She was prescribed antidepressants, an antipsychotic to calm her, and an amphetamine to help with the attention deficit disorder. Yet all the pills and therapists were not able to break Candace open and deliver a warm loving child to Jeane.

Then Jeane came across a diagnosis that was often used in adoption and foster family situations. Attachment disorder, where a child is unable to bond with their new parents. Jeane attended an attachment disorder workshop in North Carolina where she heard symptoms discussed that sounded identical to Candace’s. She took to the internet where she found a group called ATTACh, the Association for the Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children.

She attended the ATTACh national conference in Alexandria, Va., in 1999 where she met therapist Bill Goble, who had her fill out an inventory sheet of Candace’s behaviors. While on paper, Candace appeared to have a “fairly severe” case of attachment disorder, Goble believed that Jeane had already diagnosed Candace before she attended the conference. He suggested she see Connell Watkins in Evergreen Colorado.

Connell Watkins was an unlicensed psychotherapist in Evergreen, along with her mentor, Dr. Foster Cline, were considered pioneers in attachment disorder. Cline theorized that the disorder could be traced back to infancy where everything is a crisis. Hunger, pain, a wet diaper. If your parents did not respond to those needs, the chunk of your brain that tells you to trust people close to you never develops. He has said that these infants then grow into cunning and dangerous children.

On January 20, 2000, Jeane signed a contract with Connell Watkins, agreeing to pay $7,000 for a two-week rebirthing therapy.

Before leaving North Carolina, Jeane had Candace stop taking her Dexadrine, which was used to control her A.D.D. When they arrived in Colorado in April, they were put up with Brita St. Clair, Watkins’ office manager who had agreed to host the Newmakers during their stay.

Candace met with Dr. John Alston, a private practice psychiatrist who worked with The Attachment Center at Evergreen on April 10. Alston stopped Candace’s use of Effexor, an antidepressant. Then on April 11, they doubled her dosage of Risperdal, her antipsychotic drug, which was being used to counteract Candace’s assaultive behavior – though Jeane was never able to provide specifics regarding what happened during these “assaultive” times.

Her drugs were controlled by Brita St. Clair, and she dispensed them as instructed, however after a week and no progress, on April 17, Candace was put back on the Effexor. She was then taken for “compression” therapy.

Candace was wrapped in a sheet with only her head exposed and was then instructed to lie down on the floor. Two cushions from a nearby couch were placed on either side of her and Jeane was instructed to lay across the cushions and Candace, making a cross with their bodies. The goal of the exercise was for Candace to become compliant and for Jeane to be in charge. The therapists believed if all went well, Candace would connect visually or in some other way, the therapists said.

After three hours, Jeane got up and moved to a chair, and Candace was instructed to crawl to her and lie in her mother’s arms like a baby would and let her mother feed her. Candace did as she was told, and Jeane began to sob uncontrollably, she actually felt the connection.

The next morning, another session was scheduled and recorded. In a first-floor room at Watkins’ home, therapist Julie Ponder joined them. Ponder inquired about Candace’s constant yawning, and Candace told her about the nightmare she had again last night. In the dream she was being murdered. She recounted a vague memory of her birth mother thinking when she was very little, her mama dropped her from a two-story window.

Ponder reassured her by telling her that her new mom loves her. Then she asked, “Do you want to be reborn to your new mom?”

Candace said yes, she does, that she wants to be safe and not fall out the window.

Ponder then told her about their next activity, where she would be reborn. She told Candace that being a baby is hard, being born is hard. She tells her, “you must scream and cry because that’s how a baby does it. Then, you must look for your mother, reach for her out of the womb. You will have lots of air to breathe.”

Ponder then instructed Candace to take off her shoes, leaving her in jeans and a T-shirt sitting on a pad on the floor. Candace was told that the sheet will be wrapped around her to represent the womb, that it will be tight around her, that she will have to work hard to wriggle out and be born to her mother. “You’re going to go through the birth canal. While you’re in the womb, you’ll have plenty of air to breathe,” Ponder assured her once again.

At 9:44am Candace is told to stand up. Ponder lays a queen-size blue flannel sheet on the floor. Candace then lies down on her left side and folds herself into the fetal position. Ponder wraps her tightly, gathering the four corners of the sheet at the top of Candace’s head and twisting them together. Watkins comes in and props four pillows tent-like over her body. Then Jeane Newmaker and Jack McDaniel (fiancee to Brita St. Clair) enter the room. Then Brita St. Clair comes through, pushing Tammy, her wheelchair-bound adult foster daughter, and places her in the corner.

Watkins sits at Candace’s feet. St. Clair leans her back against Candace’s knees. McDaniel lies next to St. Clair, along Candace’s chest. Ponder is at Candace’s head, holding the sheet tightly closed in her left hand. Jeane is instructed to stay near Candace’s head, where she is supposed to emerge, and to aim her words to Candace through the top of the sheet. Then the four adults, with a cumulative weight of 673 pounds, begin pushing against the 70-pound girl.

Uncomfortable and confused, Candace says, “Whoever is pushing on my head, it’s not helping.”

Ten minutes later, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it,” she says. “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” Candace cries, ready to give up. A minute later, she says she is going to die, begging for air.

But Watkins and Ponder keep pushing, telling Candace that being reborn is “the hardest thing that you do.” The adults reposition themselves, with Watkins bracing her feet against a couch, and Ponder pushing from a brick hearth.

“Please,” Candace says, “please stop pushing, I can’t breathe. Then, “OK, I’m dying. I’m sorry,” she says.

Watkins and Ponder yell back at Candace. “You want to die? OK, then die. Go ahead, die right now.”

It  doesn’t stop, they all continue pushing, sometimes even sitting up against Candace, even reclining, placing more weight on top of her. Then Jeane begins feeling rejected, despite the warning Watkins had given her, saying that kids try to get out of it by saying they can’t breathe, that they have to go to the bathroom. The unattached child is manipulative. You must show who’s in control.

“Please, you said you would give me some oxygen,” Candace says after 20 minutes. Then a minute later, she gags and vomits. “I’m throwing up. I just threw up. I gotta poop. I gotta poop.”

“Go ahead,” Ponder says.

“Uh, I’m going in my pants,” Candace says.

“Stay there with the poop and vomit,” Watkins says.

30 minutes in, Candace becomes quiet. Ponder and Watkins order her to scream for her life. Despite the fact that she’s gagging, she still says no.

Ponder then repositions herself, breathing hard and grunting while pushing on Candace with her hands and body. Candace gasps for air, then whimpers. “She needs more pressure over here so she can’t … so she really needs to fight if she wants air,” Ponder says.

McDaniel obeys, and repositions himself on the pillow over Candace’s head. She whimpers again. “Getting pretty tight in here,” Watkins says.

“Yep, getting tighter and tighter and getting less and less air,” Ponder says.

Ten minutes later, Jeane asks, “Baby, do you want to be reborn?”

“No.”

None of them knew that would be Candace’s last word.

“She’s stuck there in her own puke and poop,” Ponder says. After another ten minutes, she reaches inside the sheet. “I got my hand right in front of her face.”

“No, she’s breathing fine,” Watkins says, but Candace stays quiet.

Seven minutes later, Ponder places her hand inside again. “She’s pretty sweaty, which is good. It is wet inside there.”

On the video, Watkins can be seen gesturing to Ponder, putting her hand to her face, as if to ask, is Candace breathing?

“Oh, I’m not sure. I touched her face and it’s just sweaty,” Ponder says. “She’s not answered. We could do this forever, just stay here.”

Another minute and Watkins asks Jeane to leave the room, believing Candace is picking up on her sorrow. Jeane agrees and goes to an upstairs room to watch on a TV monitor, still crying. Watkins joins her, telling her not to give up, before heading back to the rebirthing room.

Then McDaniel and St. Clair are asked to leave six minutes later, heading upstairs to join Jeane to watch the session on the monitor, taking Tammy with them.

Watkins and Ponder are alone in the room with Candace, bundled in the sheet, still and quiet. They work for four more minutes, then decide it’s time to check on her. They unwrap her. “Oh, there she is,” Watkins says. “She’s sleeping in her vomit.”

But Candace doesn’t move. She’s lying on the floor, still and quiet.

“Candace?” Watkins says. “Candace,” she repeats, louder.

10:53am and Jeane runs into the room. Candace’s face is blue and she isn’t breathing. Jeane and Ponder start CPR and Watkins calls 911 at 10:56am.

Ten minutes later the paramedics arrive. McDaniel meets them at the front door and tells the medics that Candace was left alone for five minutes during a rebirthing session and she isn’t breathing. Medics find Candace on the floor with the two women still doing CPR, and the sheet still at Candace’s feet. She has vomit on her face and a smear of blood around her nose. She’s blue and cool to the touch. Both of the paramedics think, she’s been “down” — unconscious and possibly not breathing — for some time.

The two men cut off her T-shirt, do chest compressions, wipe the bile from around her lips and perform mouth-to-mouth.

“No heartbeat, no nothing,” one of them says.

Her pupils are fixed and dilated, with some redness in her eyes, often a sign of asphyxia.

By 11:20am they have a faint pulse, and put Candace on a backboard to transfer her to the Flight for Life helicopter.

The little girl who dreamed of being murdered survives the night on life support at Children’s Hospital, but at 9am, the following day, Dr. Kurt Stenmark pronounces her brain dead.

Candace dies from brainstem herniation and cerebral edema, brought on by mechanical asphyxiation.

She was smothered, the doctor wrote, when she “was restrained during therapy session.”

Candace’s entire fourth-grade class at Easley Elementary attended her memorial service. There were balloons and songs and poems. Jeane hid her swollen eyes behind sunglasses and stayed away from the crowd. A keepsake was handed out, a cream-colored card covered with black and white pictures of Candace, laughing, riding horses, blowing bubbles. The Rev. David McBriar talked of Candace’s life. There was no mention of how she died.

Jeane’s friends and family surrounded her, guarded her inside the big house on Georgia Avenue. There was no talk of Candace’s death, even as neighbors brought over cakes and casseroles. A month later, on May 18 and May 19, news of Candace’s death made big headlines. Her school picture complete with a tentative smile, plaid blouse,and her hair a little messy, was flashed across television screens. Parents tried to shield their children from news accounts.

Pediatricians and psychologists who had treated Candace including Jeane’s colleagues at Duke, were equally stunned. “We all sat around and tried to think, ‘Could it have been different?”‘ Lachiewicz said. “If I knew she was taking this kid to some wackos in Colorado, I’d say, ‘Don’t do it.”‘

Candace’s problems were no different than you’d expect from a 10-year-old who’d been bounced around in foster care, she said. She thought Jeane had not allowed Candace enough time to overcome her problems. “She wasn’t the most damaged kid. I think this kid could’ve made it.”

When Candace’s birth mother, Angie, is informed of her death she begins to cry, “Where’s my baby? Where’s my Candace? Oh my God.” She begins to cry and covers her mouth. “They smothered her,” Angie finally says, her voice low and cold. “That was my daughter. How did she die from a blanket? Isn’t that why they say don’t put pillows on babies, don’t put bags by them? It’s stupid, it’s stupid. You don’t put a child under a pillow and push on her.”

When Angie learns of Candace’s nightmare, about being thrown from a two-story window, Angie says, “No, I’ve never done anything like that,” though she did remember once sending Candace and Chelsea to the second floor room for misbehaving. When she and her mother Mary checked on them, they found the girls standing on a window sill. “We told them, ‘Please don’t do that. Do you know that would have killed you had you hit that cement?”‘ Mary says.

Then Angie says she knows why Candace wouldn’t bond with Jeane. “You only have one birth. I’m her mama. What I did was God’s will,” she says. “What (Jeane) did was cuckoo. She played God with my child.” Then, changing the direction of her anger to the social workers who took her baby away, “I told them, ‘If you take her away from me, it’ll kill her.’ And that’s exactly what they did.”

Connell Watkins, Julie Ponder, Jack McDaniel, and Brita St. Clair, were charged with “knowingly or recklessly” committing child abuse resulting in death.  Jeane Newmaker was charged with child abuse resulting in death.

Watkins and Ponder were both convicted of reckless child abuse resulting in death and received 16 year prison sentences. Brita St. Clair and Jack McDaniel pleaded guilty to criminally negligent child abuse and were given ten years’ probation and 1,000 hours of community service in a plea bargain. Jeane Newmaker pleaded guilty to neglect and abuse charges and was given a four-year suspended sentence, after which the charges were expunged from her record.

Watkins was paroled in June 2008, under “intense supervision” with restrictions on contact with children or counseling work, having served approximately 7 years of her 16-year sentence.

So how does this relate to Petscop? 

Petscop is an unreleased video game, made in 1997 for the PlayStation. Through the YouTube channel of the same name, you get to see Paul go through in a “let’s play.”

At first, the game is simple, and for lack of a better word, cute. You see the main character, known as the “Guardian,” capture strange creatures known as “pets” by solving puzzles. However, as he progresses through the game, it reveals a darker, more surreal, picture. 

At one point, he reaches an area known as the “Newmaker Plan,” which is a vast, grassy field, and dark aside from a spotlight which follows the Guardian. There are a few landmarks, along with a large network of underground tunnels and chambers. 

Although Paul still finds puzzles, he finds himself immersed in a darker plot involving a man by the name of Marvin, and the disappearance of his childhood friend Lina. In the story, Marvin kidnaps his own daughter, Care, who he believes to be Lina reborn. 

As he plays, Marvin requires Paul’s help to find landmarks on the Newmaker Plane, and re-enact the process of rebirthing his daughter, Care. 

Without watching the gameplay, the link between Petscop and Candace Newmaker, may be difficult to identify. However, watching the series you will notice that the central location is named “Newmaker,” the very name she was given at one point. 

In the game, you will find the “Quitter’s Room,” where the question, “Do you remember being born?” is asked repeatedly.

The game characters include:

• Guardian or Newmaker – The player character that Paul controls. It is a green animal-like creature of an unknown species.
• Tool – A large red object that the player can ask questions to, though it usually responds with “I don’t know”. It is found under the Newmaker Plane.
• Marvin – A strange green-faced creature in “Petscop 8”. He is the father of Care, and kidnapped her in 1997 to perform rebirthing. 
• Carrie Mark (Care) – Care is depicted in the game, and is mentioned to have existed in real life. She was abducted for a period in 1997 before returning – what happened in the interim is unknown, as is what happened afterwards. In the game, she is considered a “pet” and is caught under the Newmaker Plane. She exists in three different states: A (before her kidnapping), B (during her captivity) and NLM (“Nobody Loves Me”, after escaping). A fourth state exists, depicted as a literal Easter egg, after her failed “rebirthing” attempt. She is depicted only as a static item.
• Michael Hammond (Mike) – A 7 year-old boy who lived from 1988 to 1995. His tombstone is found by Paul in the game, and he is later implied to be Rainer’s brother, making him the cousin of Care.
• Lina Leskowitz – Carrie’s aunt, who went missing as a girl in 1977 – along with an entire windmill, which vanished behind her. Marvin saw this happen, and later believed that Lina was “reborn” into his daughter, Care. Lina is thanked for “making (the game) possible”, and is referred to as “boss.”

The link could be considered quite the stretch, but you should decide for yourself. Check out Petscop here.

Up Next: Marcus Fiesel: Foster Failure