CLICK HERE TO VIEW HER LETTER

The Shade family left their home in Creighton, NE and drove to the Black Hills and at some point came back from the Black Hills and found an old farm house near Creighton.  But why?  Well, most of those answers are written in the 2 page letter that we received from Rowena at the Knox County Jail this afternoon.

Rowena wrote this letter from behind her jail bars in Center, NE where she's being held.  In her letter Rowena wrote about when the troubles began for her and her husband.  "Last november, matthew and i had gotten in to an argument and i pushed him down a couple stairs. he ran back up the stairs and pushed me back.  i fell into the corner of the kitchen table and got a black eye."
    
At that point Rowena said there was pressure from family and friends to leave her husband.  She says, "I did not see how a pushing match justified throwing away everything we have worked to build... now i know how much it would hurt Matthew if I left and took the children and was unsure of how he'd react.  I figured it was possible that he might hurt me, himself or someone else.  we are his whole world."

She continued to say, "I was still questioning if leaving was the right thing to do at all but knew i could not stay now or the state would try to take the children."

And that's why they left.

Rowena says, "we had no reason to leave except that our family had been threatened to be broken up.   We had a nice home and I had a good job.  Our fines were paid and our obligations had been met for probation.  We were scared, even more so when we realized SWAT was after us."   

Another startling thing that Rowena wrote in this letter regarded her children, she said, "we took the kids out of school after Christmas.  After that, the pressure on me to leave Matt increased dramatically.  one time our daughter was even checked for bruises while staying at a friends house."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL LETTER FROM ROWENA