No One Can Hurt Him Anymore. Scott Cupp
of the house and went over to where A.J. was sitting on the driveway. She heard Jackie say, “What did Mommy tell you to say?” A.J. replied, “That I fell and hit my nose on the bicycle.”
The day after the HRS/PBSO investigation was conducted at the Schwarz home, Mrs. Callahan received a phone call from the HRS investigator who had been with Calloway the day before. Unbeknownst to Eileen Callahan, her phone number had been recorded on the report of the complaint she made—which was now in the hands of Barbara Black.
Black told Mrs. Callahan to leave the Schwarzes alone and that she was not to call or make up any stories of abuse, and that if she did in the future—she could be prosecuted.
“She instructed me that she had spoken to me on a prior occasion, which I denied. She told me that if I continued to call, that they would slap a harassment charge on me, and that she would take my children instead. And that A.J. was lucky to be having a roof over his head. And gave me the supervisor’s name and phone number—if I had a problem with the phone call.”
At that time, Eileen Callahan was still unaware that her first name sounded the same as A.J.’s biological mother’s—and she didn’t know Barbara Black’s name.
She was, of course, very upset by the phone call, so she called Joan Wyllner to make a complaint.
“I did tell her it was the woman that showed up at the [Schwarz] house because Barbara Black addressed herself as that. Ms. Wyllner said there was nothing she could do to find out who the person was that called me because there were so many people in that office. That there was ‘no way’ she could track it down. And then she went into great length explaining A.J.’s past.
“She was telling me that they had put him there so that he would be safe. The house that he grew up in or was living in—in Broward County—he was being abused there. Supposedly, he was sexually abused.
“She told me that Palm Beach County was looking into this as a favor to Broward County, that this was not Palm Beach County’s problem. She told me if I wanted to file a complaint, that I could write a letter to H.G. Holley [state offices] complex. But she couldn’t give me an address or a phone number, or her supervisor, or [whose] attention that I should mail the letter to.”
Eileen Callahan told Joan Wyllner that A.J. was “going to end up dead” if HRS didn’t do something about the situation.
There would be no more “harassing” phone calls to the hot line complaining about A.J.’s treatment at the hands of his stepmother—save one last anonymous call, on May 2, in the afternoon, after his body was found.
At eight o’clock on Tuesday evening, May 4, Detectives Restivo and Waites, along with Sergeant Deischer, met with Mary Idrissi—A.J.’s third-grade teacher—at her home. She told them that A.J. was very wanting of attention—constantly wanting to be hugged and shown other signs of bonding. She further stated the he often talked about his home and appeared to be happy and, in fact, often referred to being happy living with his natural father and his two sisters [sic].
Idrissi described A.J. as being open and intelligent and able to cope with problems very well. She related a disturbing incident—which had taken place during the first week of school—involving the child and Jessica, in which Jessica spoke very demeaningly about him and recited his faults to her. Jessica continued to belittle him while he was standing right there beside her.
Idrissi sent weekly progress reports home with A.J. and often received belligerent replies from Jessica. He was not allowed to have school supplies or participate in school field trips, since he was not responsible enough to do so—according to his stepmother. She received these belligerent replies to the progress reports until—roughly—March 1993 when there was a meeting with her, Jessica and David Schwarz, and some representatives of HRS. Idrissi stated that during this meeting she was very positive and reinforced the fact that Andrew was happy being at home, which resulted in Jessica having a change in attitude toward her.
The teacher told the investigators that A.J. was absent from school more than was normal. He had been absent three or four days in January 1993, and when he returned to school, he had two black eyes and his nose was bruised. When she questioned him about what had occurred, A.J. told her that he had hit his nose on his bike and that he did not want his stepmother to be blamed.
Idrissi added that she often saw bruises on him, but they were in areas that would be common for a ten-year-old boy to have them.
CHAPTER 5
Jimmy was Jimmy—retired NYPD—and not afraid to voice his opinion, whether you wanted to hear it or not. He would tell you like it was.
—Detective Michael Waites
The morning after A.J.’s body was found, a woman named Connie Mason called the sheriff’s office and asked to talk to a detective in reference to Jessica Schwarz. Jimmy Restivo went to her home in Lake Worth to interview her.
Mason told Restivo that on April 19 she had attended a group counseling session with Jessica, and had had a very disturbing conversation with her about A.J.
Restivo: Would you tell me some of the things you remember her saying about A.J.?
Mason: She first caught my attention because she said she had a little “Jeffrey Dahmer.” After a few minutes, she said it again and I questioned her on it and she started telling me how he was abused by his original mother—and that he was uncontrollable. She talked a good twenty to thirty minutes about him.
Restivo: Just about A.J.?
Mason: Just about A.J.
Restivo: Did she ever say anything about hurting him because he dunked one of the girls [under the water]?
Mason: She stated, I believe, that he held one of the girls under and she grabbed him by the throat and pulled him out of the pool, slammed him up against the fence, and said that she would “kill him and cut him up in pieces if he ever touched one of her girls again.” Jessica said that she’d call the cops and turn herself in and go to prison for the rest of her life, but he would never hurt her children again.
Restivo: Did she tell you about something she had told a judge?
Mason: She stated she told the judge that if A.J. ever—I think this might’ve been in reference to molesting the girls—because I did ask about that. Was she afraid that he would do that to one of the girls and she, ah—
Restivo: You mean sexually molest?
Mason: Yeah. ’Cause he had been—she said that he had been. She said that she would kill him. She said, “I even told the judge I would kill him if he hurt one of my girls—and he still gave me custody of the kids.”
Restivo: When she was saying these things, did you believe her? What was your reaction? Honestly?
Mason: I wanted to help her help the child—that’s how I felt. That I could probably—by talking to her—help her love the child, as he needed more love. I felt like he needed more love, ’cause he was far from getting it, with her calling him a Jeffrey Dahmer. That’s the wrong way.
Restivo: But she did talk about killing this little boy?
Mason: She said she’d kill him—several times. She said—not only the incident when she told him that she’d kill him—but she said to the whole meeting that if he hurt her girls, she would kill him. She said another thing about waking up in the morning. I wish I could word this right. She said everybody just had to leave her alone until like ten o’clock in the morning, as she was mean—extremely mean—in the mornings. And that A.J. just didn’t comprehend that she was mean—to leave her alone. Sometimes he just didn’t get it through his head.
Restivo: Did she ever indicate that she’d hurt him in the morning?
Mason: Not that I recall.
Restivo: Did she talk about her husband?
Mason: I know his name is Bear. I know she said he was big and