Daughter Helped in Burial, Police Say; Records Describe Her Mother's Death in Portage

Jun 20, 05:34 PM

Current Headlines: By TOM KERTSCHER

Portage - A day after hearing her injured mother "sighing" in the trunk of a car, a teenage girl helped dump the body in a backyard grave and then plant flowers over it, according to court documents released Tuesday.

It was unclear from the documents whether the 15-year-old daughter was coerced into participating in the macabre chain of events, or did so voluntarily.

The Columbia County medical examiner identified the homicide victim Tuesday as Tammie A. Garlin, 36, of Sanford, Fla.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate she was strangled.

More details of the case - which also involves abuse of the woman's 11-year-old son and the alleged abduction of a 2-year-old girl - could be learned today. Prosecutors are expected to file criminal charges, and three adults who have been jailed since Garlin's body was discovered are scheduled to make their first appearance in Columbia County Circuit Court.

Tuesday's revelations are the latest in an unfolding drama that began when an abduction report from Florida involving the 2-year- old led police last Thursday to a Portage home. They found Garlin's burned and battered 11-year-old son in a closet and returned Friday to discover Garlin's body in the backyard.

Garlin apparently was one of nine people who lived in the four- bedroom home at 304 W. Oneida St.

According to the court documents:

The 15-year-old girl said Garlin had AIDS, cancer and other illnesses. The teenager said she was told that the man who lived in the house, Michael S. Sisk, 25, had kicked her mother in the stomach on Memorial Day or the day after, and her mother had to be put in the trunk of a car. She and Sisk's girlfriend, Candice Clark, 23, drove to Wal-Mart to buy a shovel, and she could hear her mother sighing in the trunk.

Garlin was left in the trunk overnight, and the following night Sisk dug a hole in the backyard. The teen and Sisk put Garlin's body in the grave, while Clark acted as a lookout.

After Sisk filled the hole with dirt, the 15-year-old and Clark planted flowers there.

Differing statements

The court documents also include statements from Clark and the other adult in the home, 20-year-old Michaela Clerc.

Clerc told investigators that Garlin's 11-year-old son could be found, with burns all over his body, in a closet inside the home.

That is how investigators found him.

But according to the court documents, the 15-year-old girl and Clark told investigators that it was Clerc who burned the boy with hot water and abused him in other ways, including pulling his penis with a pair of pliers.

Clark told investigators she knew Garlin had died and that Garlin was buried behind the home, the court documents say.

Clark has three children - ages 2, 1 and 3 months - and was suspected of taking the 2-year-old from Florida after she lost custody of the child.

Investigators were able to confirm some of the statements from people in the home by evidence seized there, said Portage police Detective Klaude Thompson.

It still remained unclear, however, why the group had moved to Portage in February. Investigators said the group has no known connections to the area other than that they lived briefly in the Wisconsin Dells area before renting the Portage home.

Last week, a neighbor had said that Sisk attended Portage High School, but police said that information is false.

Unclear connections

An arrest warrant was in effect on Friday when Sisk was arrested at the Milwaukee Greyhound bus station. He had failed to return to jail in Mesa County, Colo., where he was serving a two-year term with work release privileges for stealing a car, according to a probation supervisor in Mesa County.

It is unclear how Sisk connected with Clark or Garlin, but the two women lived together for several months in Sanford, Fla., then left in a hurry, said a neighbor in Florida, William Mackall.

"They left and I thought they had gone just on a week's vacation somewhere because they left their two dogs here," he said. "They left stuff in the yard, and there's still furniture in the house."

Little else about Garlin or Clark stood out, except for Garlin's medical problems, which prompted several calls for paramedics, according to Mackall.

Clark, meanwhile, had lost custody of her 2-year-old because she was jailed in a fraud case and then jailed a second time for failing to follow Florida rules to keep custody, said Detective Jim Vachon of the Lake County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office.

The child abduction report was put out, Vachon said, after Clark persuaded the 2-year-old's foster parents - who are friends of Clark and are Clerc's parents - to let the girl go with her. It is not known whether Florida authorities will charge Clark with abduction, he said. And as with the others, it is not clear how Clerc ended up in Wisconsin with the group.

Vachon said he eventually developed information indicating that Clark and Sisk were in Portage - and that led to the abduction report.

Rex Taylor, who rented the Portage home to Sisk and Clark, said they gave him false names and told him they earned money by working over the Internet. He said they paid the $700-per-month rent in cash and caused no problems.

"They were one of my better tenants," Taylor said.

------------

Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel staff, reporting from Milwaukee, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

(c) 2007 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.