Did Idaho’s Coroner System Let a Man Get Away with Killing His Wife? — ProPublica

Clayton Sturdy pulled as much as a tiny hospital in Idaho, walked via the emergency room doorways and advised a clerk that his spouse’s physique was outdoors of their SUV.

A sheriff’s deputy was on the hospital speaking to Sturdy by the point the coroner arrived. This was an “unattended” dying: one the place no physician might attest to a medical cause for the particular person’s demise. That made it the coroner’s job to find out how and why she died.

Sturdy, a stocky man with white hair and bushy eyebrows, defined that he and his spouse lived in an RV park on the sting of the woods close by. He mentioned his spouse had been bedridden for years with Parkinson’s illness. That morning she’d woken up and requested for peanut butter and water, Sturdy advised the deputy. He discovered her useless a while later.

The coroner seemed over Betty Sturdy’s physique. It was skinny and frail. He didn’t see a cause to suspect something aside from a pure dying for this 75-year-old girl. The sheriff’s deputy gave the impression to be happy with the reason too. So, the coroner dominated that Betty Sturdy died round 8:40 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2016, from problems of Parkinson’s, and he signed off on permitting cremation of her physique.

Lower than 5 years later, Clayton Sturdy’s subsequent spouse turned up useless, too: shot within the chest in Texas.

It seems that each marriages had a historical past of home unrest, with visits from police who documented threats to every girl’s security.

It’s unimaginable to know whether or not a unique strategy to investigating Betty Sturdy’s dying would have uncovered foul play. What is for certain is that clues and proof within the case had been misplaced eternally — and Idaho’s system for dying investigation let it occur.

Relations of each girls consider a extra thorough investigation of the dying in Idaho may need saved the lifetime of Clayton Sturdy’s subsequent spouse in Texas.

“Somebody reveals up with a useless physique and simply says they died of pure causes,” mentioned Amy Belanger, one in all Betty Sturdy’s youngsters. “I imply, actually, do you simply take their phrase for it?”

The reply is not any, in line with 5 of six nationwide dying investigation consultants ProPublica consulted. They mentioned the coroner ought to have obtained medical information to substantiate Betty Sturdy was identified with Parkinson’s, examined the trailer the place her husband mentioned she died, or each.

“You possibly can consider all types of situations — prison, unintended or pure — that would have occurred there,” mentioned Jennifer Snippen, a dying investigator, educator and marketing consultant in Oregon. “However my argument is, in case you don’t go to the scene and also you don’t have a look at the medical information, you simply don’t know.”

A lot of the county coroners in Idaho are part-time elected officers with tiny budgets and no oversight or state funding to help their work. The nationwide consultants mentioned that sort of system is extra liable to cursory investigations just like the one into Betty Sturdy’s dying.

The failure to reform death investigations in Idaho has raised alarms for more than 70 years, in line with present and former Idaho coroners and former ProPublica reporting.

A nationwide journal referred to as Idaho “one of the best place within the nation for a prison to ‘get away with homicide’ within the literal sense” due to the state’s “antiquated county coroner’s system,” the Idaho Statesman newspaper reported in 1951.

Requested whether or not murderers have escaped prosecution in Idaho’s coroner system, Wealthy Riffle, coroner for the county that features Boise, mentioned, “My humble opinion? Sure.”

That nearly occurred in 2019 when one inexperienced Idaho coroner determined to take the phrase of Chad Daybell that his spouse, Tammy Daybell, had died in her sleep after persistent well being issues, vomiting and a cough. Her physique was later exhumed after his subsequent spouse’s youngsters went lacking. An post-mortem by the Utah health worker’s workplace discovered what medical information would have proven, had the Idaho coroner requested them: Tammy Daybell was wholesome. A jury convicted Chad Daybell of murdering her by asphyxiation and of killing his subsequent spouse’s two youngest youngsters. The case is below attraction.

At trial, coroner Brenda Dye mentioned she had regrets. Her voice shaking, Dye advised the courtroom she would have ordered an post-mortem if she’d identified higher, however “at the moment, with my restricted coaching and being new, I did one of the best I might.” She declined ProPublica’s interview request, citing the case’s effect on her mental health.

Idaho isn’t the one place the place dying investigations fall quick. As a result of there isn’t any uniform federal system, the rigor with which your dying is investigated will depend on the place you die. Different states lack sufficient forensic pathologists to do autopsies. And lots of native methods like Idaho County’s are squeezed for cash.

However even amongst its short-staffed, underfunded friends, Idaho stands out. One measure is the state’s post-mortem price: third-lowest for autopsies in all deaths, final within the nation for autopsies in identified circumstances of murder.

Gov. Brad Little mentioned in January that he would help extra state assets to assist Idaho’s coroners do their jobs. However he by no means obtained the prospect; coroner-related payments handed by the Idaho Legislature this yr contained no funding or different help for coroners and dying investigations.

So for now, every of Idaho’s 44 coroners will bear prices that different states assist cowl: driving a physique lots of of miles to an post-mortem; paying for a few of these autopsies; or attempting to recruit another particular person to hitch Idaho’s statewide forensic pathology workforce of three.

“When you don’t care sufficient about how dying investigations are executed in your jurisdiction to put money into the folks doing it, to supply them with the assets or to have excessive sufficient requirements for the folks that you simply rent to do that, you’re going to get what you get, what you settle for,” mentioned Snippen. “You’re going to get what you permit to occur.”

Florida, 2010-2015

Betty Brock was a mom of seven who loved singing and artwork, lengthy bicycle rides, organizing household images and researching her ancestry.

She was caring for her terminally ailing husband in 2010 when Clayton Sturdy befriended her on the web, in line with Belanger, her daughter. Sturdy claimed to be “principally destitute and residing in his automobile,” a backstory that appealed to a lady with a smooth spot for taking in “wounded folks” and attempting to heal them with love, Belanger mentioned.

Sturdy drove lots of of miles from Southwest Florida and confirmed up on the Brocks’ property within the Florida panhandle. They agreed he might sleep in his automobile there so long as he helped with caregiving and housekeeping. Quickly he was sleeping in an outbuilding on the property, then in the home.

Betty’s youngsters had been puzzled as this newcomer turned a fixture of their mom’s life. They wished to present Sturdy an opportunity, however they quickly grew suspicious.

Betty Brock’s husband died in August 2010. By January, she was Betty Sturdy.

After their courthouse marriage, Clayton Sturdy used their now-shared funds to purchase a Ford truck and an Airstream trailer and took his bride on the highway, Belanger mentioned. The couple visited nationwide parks that Betty had all the time wished to see. They camped and hiked their means throughout the continent. They purchased mining claims and panned for gold within the distant Idaho wilderness.

After that honeymoon, the partitions round Betty Sturdy grew impenetrable, her youngsters mentioned. In line with what two of her youngsters advised ProPublica and to statements two others made to police, Clayton turned the gatekeeper of all communication with their mom, and he padlocked the doorways of their Florida dwelling and held the important thing.

The final time Betty Sturdy noticed her major care physician in Florida was in Could 2013, in line with information her son obtained after the dying. Earlier than that, she hadn’t been in since 2010, the yr Clayton Sturdy entered her life. The notes from the 2013 checkup present well being points frequent in older adults however no Parkinson’s analysis, and neither Parkinson’s nor different neurodegenerative ailments had been listed within the household historical past part.

The kids watched from afar as the wedding devolved over the subsequent two years. Between January 2014 and February 2015, police went to the couple’s residence for welfare checks and home disturbances a minimum of six instances, in line with police stories that Belanger supplied to ProPublica.

Her youngsters advised police that Clayton Sturdy threatened to shoot them in the event that they set foot on the property, threatened to harm their mom in the event that they didn’t again off, and prevented her from seeing a physician.

Within the first of these police visits, in January 2014, the information present that Belanger’s sister, who lived close by, referred to as the sheriff whereas standing outdoors the Sturdy residence, a brown home surrounded by oak timber and pines on a winding nation highway. A deputy arrived to search out Belanger’s sister and Clayton Sturdy in a stalemate, then talked to everybody outdoors, in line with a sheriff’s workplace report. The deputy then watched as Betty Sturdy turned to her husband to “ask him for permission” to hug her daughter, and Clayton Sturdy “eliminated a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the porch entrance gate so Betty might go within the yard” for the hug.

The report says the deputy made a referral to Florida Division of Youngsters and Households, the company that investigates doable abuse of weak adults, and that the division opened a case.

The same scene performed out when one in all Betty Sturdy’s sons went to the home to test on her in February 2015. For 2 years, Clayton Sturdy turned the son away when he tried to go to, and this time Sturdy “threatened to shoot him with a gun if he didn’t go away,” the son advised a sheriff’s deputy. Clayton Sturdy denied that, the deputy’s report says.

The deputy discovered Betty Sturdy alone on a mattress in an RV parked behind the house, the report says. She mentioned she had Parkinson’s illness and couldn’t get round nicely. Clayton wasn’t holding her towards her will, she advised the deputy, however she couldn’t maintain herself with out him.

She had a walkie-talkie. The deputy requested: Is Clayton utilizing that radio and telling you what to say? Betty answered “no” whereas nodding her head “sure.” It was a cold afternoon, and the deputy observed Betty had a blanket however no heater.

“Betty’s demeanor, residing situations, and the controlling conduct by Clayton” warranted a referral to the Florida Division of Youngsters and Households, the deputy wrote.

Requested for the result of that referral, a spokesperson advised ProPublica the division investigates “all allegations of abuse, neglect, or exploitation” however that information of these investigations are confidential below state legislation.

Days after the referral in February 2015, police had been once more dispatched to the Florida dwelling. This time, it wasn’t one in all Betty Sturdy’s youngsters who referred to as; it was somebody from grownup protecting providers in want of police backup. In line with the dispatch log, the employee mentioned Clayton Sturdy “has threatened earlier than to tug a gun on her and could be very anti-law enforcement.”

The couple left city a month later. Betty Sturdy’s youngsters by no means heard from her once more.

Idaho, December 2016

By the point Betty Sturdy died in Idaho County in December 2016, she hadn’t been seen in Florida in 21 months.

Idaho County’s elected coroner, Cody Funke, had been within the job about as lengthy.

He knew the county nicely. Its huge forests, mountains and meadows stretch throughout extra land than Massachusetts. Rugged and distant, it attracts individuals who wish to be left alone and who mistrust each authorities and traditional drugs.

Funke, pronounced “funk,” was in his late 20s in 2014 when he realized his part-time job at a funeral dwelling was being eradicated. His boss requested: Had he thought-about working for coroner? The coroner on the time was retiring and urged Funke to do it. So did Funke’s boss from his different part-time job, as an EMT. What sealed the deal for Funke: As coroner, he would get medical insurance.

Funke began the job with a sense of “good luck, godspeed, you’re gonna want it.” There was no apprenticeship or ride-along to observe seasoned professionals, like he’d gotten when he skilled to be an EMT. There was a coaching convention he attended in Las Vegas earlier than taking workplace, and Funke obtained greater than double the 24 hours of coroner training required by Idaho legislation. Even so, he isn’t certain it was sufficient to arrange him.

Funke realized on his first day that he wasn’t getting a automobile to maneuver our bodies from a dying scene. If the native funeral dwelling’s automobile was occupied, Funke had to make use of his household truck. A yr after Betty Sturdy’s dying, the county fee obtained the coroner a automobile: a pickup truck the sheriff’s workplace didn’t want anymore.

The workplace he inherited additionally had no digital camera, and the county hadn’t budgeted to present him one. He’d have to make use of his telephone to take footage of our bodies and dying scenes.

There was no morgue.

The Idaho County coroner’s workplace didn’t even have an precise workplace.

Funke’s predecessors saved their information on paper, at dwelling, he realized. The earlier coroner’s home had flooded, so when Funke took over, all that remained slot in two manila folders.

The coroner’s complete funds this yr is $85,651. By comparability, coroner’s places of work serving small populations had a mean funds of $280,000 in 2018, in line with a nationwide research.

Paid $13,000 a yr, Funke is on name 24 hours a day and, final yr, investigated and dominated on 71 deaths, about one each 5 days. Papers on a further 102 deaths of individuals below a physician’s care got here via needing his signature for cremation.

Funke does the coroner work on prime of a full-time job. When a name is available in throughout enterprise hours, he dips out to go to a dying scene. If somebody dies at dinnertime, he may not see his household till morning.

He should determine with every dying what the circumstances require: a easy telephone name; an all-out investigation with post-mortem, witness interviews, tissue samples and extra; or one thing within the center.

To look at a dying scene, Funke may need to drive three hours or longer every means. Every time he orders an post-mortem, Funke or his deputies must take the physique to the closest post-mortem middle, a visit that takes a full day and often calls for an in a single day keep. His present funds can cowl 10 autopsies a yr.

In these first years as coroner, Funke typically leaned on police.

Funke discovered it unusual that Clayton Sturdy had loaded his spouse’s physique into their SUV and pushed to the hospital. Most individuals name 911 to report a dying and look ahead to assist to reach, Funke mentioned. However Sturdy provided a proof that appeared to fulfill the sheriff’s deputy: He didn’t know many individuals on the town and wasn’t certain what to do.

Sturdy had mentioned his spouse hadn’t seen a physician as a result of she caught to homeopathic cures. That’s commonplace for Funke to listen to.

The widower gave Funke the impression a coroner and sheriff’s deputy wouldn’t be welcome contained in the trailer the place she died. That’s not so outdoors the norm for Idaho County both, Funke mentioned.

Betty Sturdy’s dying seemed like a straightforward name. So Funke helped transfer her physique to a cot to be taken from the hospital to an area funeral dwelling.

In line with a later report from the sheriff’s workplace, Clayton Sturdy confirmed up on the funeral dwelling that day, mentioned he wished her cremated and paid $2,310 in money. The best way Funke heard it from a funeral dwelling worker a couple of days later, Sturdy paid in $100 payments out of a lunch field.

The element struck Funke as peculiar. However he let it go.

Florida, 2017

The couple’s Airstream trailer confirmed up sooner or later in January 2017, parked outdoors their home in Florida. A neighbor referred to as Amy Belanger with the information, and she or he dispatched her brother, Daniel, who lived close by. They’d spent virtually two years fearing the worst.

The one particular person on the home was Clayton Sturdy.

The household’s matriarch had died a couple of weeks in the past in Harpster, Idaho, Sturdy mentioned. Then he advised his son-in-law to get off the property.

Amy Belanger began making calls the subsequent day. One of many first folks she reached was Funke, the county coroner. She was perplexed, she mentioned. Why hadn’t anybody referred to as her or her siblings? Why didn’t he query whether or not Betty Sturdy had truly succumbed to a illness or if one thing else had killed her? Belanger advised Funke in regards to the historical past of police calls in Florida and issues about their mom’s security.

Funke thought again to what he’d heard from the funeral dwelling. A lunch field of money for a cremation? That picture by no means sat fairly proper. Now he had stable floor for suspicion. Funke advised Belanger he’d discuss to the county prosecutor and see what might be executed.

The prosecutor and the sheriff’s workplace initially advised Belanger that they had opened a murder investigation, in line with an in depth timeline she created on the time. However the dying scene — the Strongs’ trailer — was lengthy gone, the physique cremated. The sheriff’s investigator and prosecutor in the end didn’t appear to suppose there was sufficient proof for a murder investigation, Funke advised ProPublica.

(The prosecutor and sheriff’s investigator didn’t return telephone calls, emails or licensed letters from ProPublica requesting touch upon their selections following Betty Sturdy’s dying.)

Notes from Belanger’s timeline quote a Florida detective saying he was sorry the dying had occurred outdoors his jurisdiction. He defined to her that “in Florida, deputies would have had the health worker’s workplace confirm medical information and take a blood pattern.”

The yr Betty Sturdy died, 20% of pure deaths investigated by a health worker within the a part of Florida the place she had lived underwent autopsies earlier than the examiner determined the reason for dying was pure. About 65% of all deaths taken in by Florida’s health worker that yr had been autopsied. Each numbers dwarf Idaho’s coroner post-mortem charges.

It’s not simply Florida. Many states have extra refined methods for investigating deaths than Idaho’s. In a lot of the nation, centralized state health worker places of work oversee all dying investigations or present a backstop to elected coroners in every county.

Idaho’s rural neighbor Montana has a hybrid system of medical experts and coroners, supported by a coroner liaison who works with dying investigators to make the method extra constant statewide. And subsequent door in Wyoming, a state board units rules for coroners to follow. The foundations spell out what every dying investigation ought to embody: scene investigation, toxicology pattern, DNA pattern, images, exterior examination of the physique and a listing of property, proof and medicines.

Jennifer Snippen, the dying investigator in Oregon, was one of many consultants who drafted the Nationwide Institute of Justice’s 2024 death-scene investigation guidebook.

She mentioned dying investigations usually tend to be thorough when states and counties give their investigators sufficient funding and training, “in order that they’ve the motivation and the power to get to as many scenes, and get as a lot details about each single dying, as doable.”

Those that research the work of coroners and medical experts within the U.S. have realized that the deaths of elderly people are especially likely to be written off as age-related, with out contemplating whether or not the particular person might have additionally been a sufferer of abuse or neglect.

Snippen’s research in 2023 is likely one of the most up-to-date research to substantiate that. She reviewed knowledge from 1000’s of circumstances. The particular person least prone to get a scene investigation or post-mortem? An aged girl who dies at dwelling.

Lauri McGivern, a nationally acknowledged skilled in dying investigations, mentioned nationwide requirements would have Funke confirm Betty Sturdy’s Parkinson’s analysis and ask extra questions of Clayton Sturdy as the only real caregiver of a weak grownup. McGivern, who coordinates medicolegal dying investigations in Vermont, reviewed the details that Funke was given on the time of Betty Sturdy’s dying and his subsequent report at ProPublica’s request.

To observe nationwide requirements, McGivern mentioned, Funke additionally would have gone to the Airstream trailer or requested legislation enforcement to look at the dying scene and report again to him.

However McGivern and different consultants mentioned they perceive why Funke didn’t observe these nationwide tips — as a result of they’ve seen it occur so many instances in locations like rural Idaho.

“He’s doing what he was proven easy methods to do,” McGivern mentioned. “And doubtless doing one of the best he can, with no funds and no help and no training.”

Pissed off by how little Idaho officers knew and why they hadn’t dug additional into her mom’s dying, Amy Belanger channeled her grief into looking for solutions on her personal.

She adopted a path of public information left by Clayton Sturdy. Had he harmed different girls? Had he been in a relationship with anyone who went lacking? “I used to be wanting into his previous to see if there was a sample like that,” Belanger mentioned. One thing she might share with officers in Idaho.

Then she stumbled throughout a doc: a current marriage license.

Three months after depositing Betty Sturdy’s physique at a hospital in Idaho, Clayton Sturdy wed a lady from Texas.

Belanger wanted to warn her.

Texas, 2017-2021

Shirley Weatherley had so much in frequent with Betty Sturdy. She was a mom and grandmother. She’d been married earlier than. She lived in a small, modest dwelling on a big piece of land in a rural locale, the place she’d been caring for a terminally ailing former partner when Sturdy contacted her on Fb.

They’d identified one another as youngsters in Lubbock. Their reconnection after he arrived at her home in Weatherford, a suburb of Fort Price, finally started to fret her youngsters.

“He remoted her,” mentioned Jamie Barrington, Weatherley’s son with a earlier husband. “He wouldn’t let grandkids, my brother — anyone’d come over, he simply saved them at arm’s size.”

Barrington mentioned he and different members of Weatherley’s household had suspicions about Sturdy. Then they linked with Belanger and heard what occurred in Florida and Idaho.

Belanger urged the household to inform their mom every part they’d heard. She “truly was pleading with us to be careful,” Barrington recalled.

Understanding one other household was nervous helped gas Amy Belanger’s quest for the reality about her mom’s dying. Her siblings chipped in to assist Belanger hire a van and drive throughout the nation in quest of clues — something that would make clear her mom’s dying.

As soon as she obtained to Idaho, Belanger spent greater than per week investigating. She met with the coroner and sheriff. She went to the mining claims the Strongs had bought. She stayed on the RV park the place Betty Sturdy died and interviewed the individuals who’d owned it in 2016; they remembered speaking to one another about how “hinky” the dying and Clayton Sturdy’s response to it appeared.

Again in Texas, Weatherley’s household tried to warn her.

After they relayed the story about Betty Sturdy to her, Weatherley chalked it as much as a grieving household attempting to deal with loss by greedy for a proof, Barrington mentioned. In any case, Sturdy had a dying certificates that listed pure causes.

The small print Barrington later realized from members of the family and police about his mom’s life with Sturdy had been “fairly horrific,” he mentioned. Weatherley had reported that Sturdy threatened to kill her, however no fees had been filed. Then at one level, within the midst of an argument with Sturdy, Weatherley lobbed the accusations about Betty Sturdy’s dying at him, Barrington mentioned. Sturdy flew right into a rage.

Weatherley referred to as police in July 2021. She and Sturdy had been splitting up, and he shoved her whereas shifting his stuff out of the home, Weatherley advised the officer. Sturdy had “harm her” up to now, so she referred to as police to verify it didn’t occur once more, the officer’s report says. The officer obtained Sturdy’s aspect of the story — she was “working him off,” however he didn’t push her — and caught round till Sturdy agreed to go away.

Police would later doc discovering two objects in the home. The primary was a duplicate of Weatherley’s will that left every part to Sturdy, on which she’d written “VOID,” the second was a digital digital camera hidden of their bed room. The digital camera contained selfies of accidents to her face and chest and a video of Sturdy placing his arm round her neck as she screamed for assist.

Sturdy persuaded Weatherley to let him again into their dwelling as soon as extra on Aug. 4, 2021, in line with police information.

4 days later, Weatherley’s son and grandson discovered her physique wrapped in a grey tarp close to the entrance steps to her dwelling. She’d been shot within the chest. Authorities matched shell casings on the scene to an AK-47-style rifle, which safety footage confirmed Sturdy ditching in a purchasing cart outdoors a Walmart.

Picked up later by police in Mexico, Sturdy died of cardiac arrest whereas awaiting extradition in Weatherley’s killing.

Immediately

Jamie Barrington, Shirley Weatherley’s son, was reluctant at first to talk publicly about his mom’s dying in Texas, even years later. He agreed to speak with ProPublica, he mentioned, as a result of he needs Idaho’s coroner system to enhance. He mentioned he by no means imagined {that a} dying like Betty Sturdy’s might be dominated “pure” primarily based on what a partner advised authorities.

“I actually consider that if there had been a correct investigation and never taking his phrase for it,” Barrington mentioned, “that it most likely would have made a giant distinction” in what occurred to Shirley Weatherley.

Phrase of Weatherley’s homicide finally reached Funke, the coroner in Idaho. He mentioned in hindsight, Sturdy’s actions in Idaho County appear extra suspicious than they did on the time to his inexperienced eyes and ears.

Now, after 10 years as coroner, “I might have pushed a bit bit tougher” to have an officer or deputy observe up or go to the RV park with him. He would have requested police to make use of a nationwide database — one he didn’t find out about on the time — to search out Betty Sturdy’s members of the family and study extra about her background. “I’ve belief points after circumstances like this,” he mentioned.

Funke mentioned the story of Betty Sturdy’s dying must be advised, even when it reveals that he and Idaho County made errors, as a result of it may assist lawmakers perceive what’s mistaken with the state’s system.

Idaho’s coroners want extra funding, he mentioned, as a result of proper now they’re an afterthought in county budgets. Most counties set a coroner wage at what quantities to lower than minimal wage, so it’s unimaginable for somebody like Funke to be coroner and not using a second, full-time job.

“These places of work must be absolutely staffed,” he mentioned. “Perhaps now we have one or two folks which can be right here full time to reply questions and reply to those calls, versus, ‘Hey, I’ve obtained to take time without work work, boss.’”

And he believes new coroners who lack expertise must be required to discover ways to work a case from begin to end earlier than they’re referred to as out to a dying like Betty Sturdy’s.

Daniel Belanger, one in all Betty Sturdy’s youngsters, got here away from his interactions with Idaho County officers satisfied that the one means deaths like his mom’s will probably be correctly investigated is thru laws forcing coroners and legislation enforcement companies to vary their approaches.

“They fully dropped the ball,” he advised ProPublica.

Amy Belanger mentioned her household has reclaimed only a few of her mom’s possessions from the Airstream trailer. Sturdy emptied the Florida home of household heirlooms after their mom’s dying, Belanger mentioned. A lot of the household picture albums her mom toiled over are gone.

The brown home on the winding highway in Florida remains to be there. Belanger’s reminiscences of household cookouts and vacation gatherings linger in the home; they weren’t wiped away by the police visits and padlocked doorways. However the household dwelling isn’t the household’s anymore. Years later, it’s caught in authorized limbo — the deed nonetheless within the title of Clayton Sturdy and Shirley Weatherley, the girl he married after the dying of Betty Sturdy.