Team 4: 'Forbidden Room' In Dead Girl's Home
WTAE's Paul Van Osdol Reports
The body of 4-year-old Kristen Tatar, weighing just 12 pounds, was found in a picnic cooler at her Armstrong County home last week. Her parents, James Tatar and Janet Crawford, are accused of murder.
In a Team 4 exclusive, two of Kristen Tatar's half-sisters spoke with Paul Van Osdol about the girl. That report, which aired Aug. 14 on Action News, appears below.
Jaycee and Jocelyn Reese had not seen their half-sister, Kristen (pictured, left), in two years.
In June, Jaycee tried to rekindle her relationship with her mother, Janet Crawford. She started spending time with Crawford and her husband, James Tatar. One of Jaycee's first questions was, "Where's Kristen?"
Jaycee Reese: "I asked several times when I went back, and it was always either she's in rehab or at Catholic Charities."
But Jaycee had doubts, especially after hearing about what her mother called the forbidden room -- Kristen's bedroom.
Van Osdol: "Why was it called the forbidden room?"
Jaycee: "Because it had a very strong odor and she said not to go in there."
Jaycee also got concerned when she asked her 5-year-old half-brother, Nick, about Kristen.
Jaycee: "He said when Kristen was bad, Mom put her in the attic. I said, 'Where is she now?' And he said, 'I think she's still up in the attic.'"
Jaycee was too afraid to go into the attic. One night, when Crawford and her husband went out, she did go to the forbidden room.
Jaycee: "There were clothes everywhere, toolboxes, coolers. It was just a junk room, basically."
Van Osdol: "Did you see any sign of Kristen when you went in there?"
Jaycee: "Just a toddler bed, two pairs of shoes and a teddy bear. No clothes, nothing else."
Her mom blamed the foul odor on water seeping up from a crawl space, but Jaycee thinks it was something else.
Jaycee: "I believe they had Kristen's body in the crawlspace and they moved it to the cooler. In order for that room to have that odor, it had to be quite a while."
The girls moved to the Stahlstown home of Michelle Reese two years ago -- first as her foster daughters, and then as her adopted daughters. It was Michelle Reese who first contacted authorities after Jaycee raised questions about Kristen.
Michelle Reese: "When I know that Janet, her mother, let her go through that house with her dead sister, let her spend nights there, it makes me sick."
Jaycee and her sister, Jocelyn, are still trying to cope with the reality that their mother and her husband are charged with killing their half-sister, Kristen.
Jocelyn: "I wouldn't put it past them that they're guilty. That's hard, it really is, because that's my mom."
The two young girls seem composed, but their adoptive mother says there have been many tears during the past week.