A girl was murdered in Sarasota 16 years ago. This is how her cousin wants you to honor her
Carlie Brucia would be 27 years old had Joseph Smith not abducted, raped and murdered the 11-year-old girl in Sarasota.
Carlie went missing on Feb. 1, 2004, and a few days later she was found where Smith left her dead body behind Central Church of Christ on Proctor Road.
As it turned out, Carlie would not be the only victim at the hands of Smith, who abducted the girl from Evie’s Car Wash on Bee Ridge Road while she was walking home from a friend’s house.
“My godfather was Carlie’s uncle,” said Kimberly Gregoire, Carlie’s cousin. “On the first anniversary of her death, he killed himself. Her grandmother, which is my aunt, had a severe heart attack just one day before the second anniversary, but we believe she just died of a broken heart.”
Carlie’s family was left in a whirlwind of anxious fear for the four days between her disappearance and the discovery of her body.
“I panicked,” Gregorie recalled through tears. “The way we found out is we saw it on the news and I immediately called (Carlie’s mother Susan Schorpen,) but I knew, I knew because she wasn’t the type to run away. I knew it right away. I had a pit feeling, but when we saw the video of the abduction, it confirmed it. For the next four days, we were just waiting, but we knew.”
Schorpen struggled with the loss of her daughter and turned to drugs. The physical and emotional toll became too much and Schorpen died in April of 2017 at the age of 47 in a Polk County hospital, from a heroin overdose.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd put the blame on Smith.
“The person who viciously murdered Carlie Brucia is also responsible for the stress and the pressure on his lady who ultimately died of a heroin overdose,” Judd said in 2017.
The family tried everything to help her, but in the end, it was just too much for Schorpen to deal with any longer.
“Susan went through hell and back,” Gregorie said. “I tried to help her and in the end, I thought she was doing better, but in a way, I’m glad she has that freedom because it was hell on her after she lost Carlie, it was hell on her.”
Carlie’s legacy
Carlie is gone, but certainly not forgotten. A prayer walk memorial was built the year after she was murdered and ends with a memorial stone where her body was discovered behind the church. Sixteen years later, the memorial prayer walk has seen better days.
Gregorie drove down from Kissimmee on Saturday morning with her husband and a car packed with fresh plants, garden tools and a pressure washer. Later in the day, a handful of volunteers started to show up to help with the cleanup.
Gregorie said the memorial doesn’t just serve as a way to remember Carlie. It’s important, she said to preserve it as a lesson to other children and their parents.
“She’s a lesson to kids,” Gregorie said. “She should not be forgotten. She’s a soul that’s left this earth because of some horrible, horrible person that I have to forgive if I’m going to heaven. But he’s a horrible person that just took her from us. I’ll remember her until the day I die and I want her legacy to live and I want her death to mean something.”
Gregorie encourages parents to bring their young children to the memorial because, “I want it to mean awareness, safety, and I want kids to learn not to walk home and parents to learn, to be educated. Don’t let your kids walk home. It’s not worth it. It doesn’t matter if it’s two doors down, always pick them up. Take the time.”
Gregorie said there’s nothing wrong with putting a little fear in children about the real dangers in the world.
“Show them what can happen,” she said. “Put the fear in them by showing them and bring them here and that’s what they need if it means what happened to Carlie doesn’t happen to them.”
How you can help to remember Carlie
Gregorie is planning a special event at the memorial on Carlie’s birthday, which is March 16. She’d be a young woman now and Gregorie can see the woman she would have become.
“She would be a veterinarian,” Gregorie said, for the first time smiling as she talked about Carlie. “That’s what she loved to do. Dogs, cats, it didn’t matter, she loved everything. She would have went to college, She was smart and ambitious. She was sweet, always giving me a hug when I saw her.
“She had a beautiful smile. Her smile lit up. She had such a caring soul. She was my girl. She was a sweet girl.”
There is minimal family in the area these days. Gregorie drives down when she can, but she is asking for help from the community to not only keep Carlie’s memory alive by visiting the memorial, but to help keep it maintained as much as possible.
Wipe down the memorial stone, pick a weed on the way out, or bring a rake with you on the way in. Every little bit will help the family and help Carlie’s memory continue to thrive.
Schorpen’s death occurred right around the time that her daughter’s killer was going to get a hearing to remove him from death row. He ultimately was removed from death row in April of 2018 in a split decision from the Florida Supreme Court, after the court had previously ruled that more rigid requirements were necessary to impose the death penalty.
The Florida Supreme Court reversed that interpretation in early January, however, and the state attorney’s office wasted no time in filing a motion on Jan. 29 to have Smith’s death sentenced reinstated.
It’s another waiting game for the family now.
This story was originally published February 2, 2020 at 5:00 AM.