Witness Interviews: Classmates

After a medical records analysis indicated sexual abuse in Crystal Taylor's early childhood, interviews were conducted with her former elementary and middle school classmates. Interviews with her teachers of that period yielded no new information. Following are relevant excerpts from lengthier interviews with former classmates.

Witness Interview Excerpt: Stephanie Greene

Stephanie Greene was a classmate of Crystal Taylor's in third grade (1987-88) at Oxford Elementary School. She is now 19 and working at Subway in nearby Abbeville. Detective Nelson conducted the interview on March 26th at her job.

N = Detective Terrence Nelson
G = Stephanie Greene

G: No, I don't recall much from those days, except that she was always so banged up. Y'know? Bruises and scrapes from hither to yonder, especially on her upper legs and arms. I mean, it looked sometimes, well, you know what I mean? I used to figure it was from all that time she spent ice skating with her brother. I used to tell her that if I had that many bruises on me, I'd find me a new hobby. (laughs). She wouldn't go swimming much, even in the summer when it was so hot around here, because the marks on her legs were so bad sometimes she wouldn't wear a bathing suit.

N: Did she ever indicate that the bruises might have come from something other than skating? Did she ever mention anybody harming her or threatening her in any way?
G: Well good Lord, no. Not that I recall.

Witness Interview Excerpt: Courtney Meredith Young

Courtney Meredith Young was a classmate of Crystal Taylor's in the fourth grade (1988-89) at Oxford Elementary School. She is now 19 and a student at the University of Mississippi. Detective Nelson conducted the interview on March 27 in the lobby of her dormitory.

N = Detective Terrence Nelson
Y = Courtney Meredith Young

Y: Sorry, I never noticed anything funny going on at Crystal's house, Detective. Well, wait a minute -- I don't know if this matters -- but there was this once when I was sleeping over at her house. I think it was a Saturday night. It was a last-minute thing because my mom had to go to the hospital early to have my baby brother, Rodney, and they took me over to Crystal's house. He came almost a month early, so I don't think they'd made any previous arrangements with Mr. and Mrs. Taylor -- I'm not really sure, though. Anyway, just her mom and brothers were there. I think Mr. Taylor was working late or something. So there we were, Crystal and me, up kind of late, horsing around after everyone else had gone to bed, and her Mom had already been in several times to hush us. But we just couldn't quit giggling and jumping on the bed, just being kids. So when we heard Mr. Taylor drive up, we got real quiet so we wouldn't get in worse trouble. We pretended to be asleep when we heard him walking around in the hallway. I can't believe I'm telling you this, it sounds so silly ... but Mr. Taylor came in the room, just to check on us, I thought. You know? I was on the far side of the bed, and it was weird, I felt the bed kind of sink down, and then there he was lying down next to Crystal, not sitting on the edge of the bed like you'd expect, lying down. It was kinda creepy. She was whispering and I heard her start to cry, and I popped up and said, 'Hey, Mr. Taylor, I'm sorry we've been so noisy, we'll be good now, I promise, please don't be mad at Crystal.' Or at least that was what I was going to say. I didn't get it half out of my mouth before her Dad jumped up and almost threw himself up out of the bed. I guess he didn't know I was there until then 'cause the room was dark and I wasn't supposed to be there, at least as far as he knew. It was kind of scary. I don't know -- I never really thought about it much at the time. I just thought it was weird and it made me feel funny. At the time I figured Crystal kept crying and was so upset after that because she knew she was going to be in trouble for staying up so late with me and making so much noise. I felt bad for her. She lay there real stiff, like, for a long time and wouldn't talk to me. I figured she was mad at me. I went home early the next morning. It was the last time I stayed over there.

N: Do you recall any other disturbing incidents at her home?
Y: No, that was it.