Killer’s Letters Disturb Dad Of Slain Child

TAMPA—Roy Brown has received two letters recently from the man convicted of murdering his 7-year-old daughter more than a decade ago.

In the first letter, death row inmate Willie Crain maintained his innocence but said he and Brown should meet and that Crain would answer Brown’s questions as well as he could.

The letter was dated Sept. 11 – the 11th anniversary of Amanda Brown’s disappearance.

In the second letter, Crain said he been railroaded by the system and that the two men should work to help get him out from behind bars.

“Mr. Roy Brown, I’m doing this because I no I don’t have much more time left here because of my bad health,“ wrote Crain, who claims he’s dying of cancer. “I just want to clear my name and get you to make the detectives reopen the case to get the real persons that took your daughter. I will be dead by the time my case get herd by the federal court.“

Brown said he wrote Crain about two years ago asking Crain to tell him what happened to his daughter, whose body hasn’t been found.

Crain’s letters were mailed to an attorney and given to Brown.

Brown said the content of the letters has caused him tremendous stress, prompting an emergency room visit.

“I’ve got his name in my mouth more than my daughter’s, and that ain’t right,“ he said Wednesday.

After receiving the first letter, Brown sent an e-mail to the Department of Corrections requesting to meet with Crain.

“I hope that if he sees the pain in my eyes he will tell me what he did with Amanda’s body,“ Brown wrote.

“Please give me this chance. All I am asking for is to talk to him behind a glass enclosure.“

Brown’s request was denied.

For security reasons, such requests from victim’s families are nearly always rejected, corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.

“None of us know how Mr. Brown feels, and we certainly sympathize with him,“ Plessinger said. “We can control what comes in the prison, but we can’t control emotions, and this would be an emotionally charged situation.“

As to Crain’s claim of cancer, Plessinger said the department doesn’t comment on inmates’ health.

Brown said Crain, 63, should stop writing to him and instead should tell the media or law enforcement what happened to Amanda.

Crain, a convicted pedophile, met Amanda’s mother two days before the girl disappeared. He ate dinner with Kathy Hartman and her daughter on Sept. 11, 1998, then gave Hartman $100 and five Valiums. They returned to Hartman’s home on Old Hillsborough Avenue, and she invited him to spend the night.

Crain slept in the bed next to Hartman and Amanda.

When Hartman awoke, Crain and Amanda were gone.

Prosecutors said Crain, a commercial crab fisherman, probably threw the child’s body in Old Tampa Bay.

Roy Brown said he still goes to the spot in Old Tampa Bay where he believes his daughter went missing.

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