"I go over every tiny detail of the last days, months and years, looking for the ONE domino that could have been removed or repositioned to create a different outcome." - Jody Schaubroeck on Hannibal Rivertalk message board

UTICA -- Amanda Thomas spent last Christmas here, bringing her two young children for a holiday visit with her mother and two half-siblings.

Two months later, Thomas, 27, was dead.

On the morning of Feb. 28, she and a former high school friend with whom she'd reconnected the night before were found dead in Thomas' Hannibal, Mo., apartment. Police say Thomas and Carl Patrick Epley, 25, had been stabbed to death, allegedly by Manuel Cazares, Thomas' ex-boyfriend and father of her 20-month-old son.

The boy and Thomas' 7-year-old daughter, who had a different father, were staying with relatives when their mother was killed.

Cazares, 32, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, had been living for at least three years in Hannibal, where he waited tables at a restaurant.

According to Hannibal police, on the morning of Feb. 28, Cazares walked into the Hannibal police station, blood spattered on his hands and shoes, put his hands out and told an officer to arrest him. He then directed officers to the bodies of Thomas and Epley.

Cazares is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action. He has pleaded not guilty. His bail is $1 million.

His trial, set to begin Jan. 12, has been moved to a nearby county because of extensive media coverage, including Internet blogging regarding his immigration status and why police had not arrested him earlier. His attorney called the Internet blogs "incendiary."

Meanwhile, as Cazares awaits his next court appearance, Thomas' mother, Jody Schaubroeck of Utica, grieves. She ponders whether she could have done more to prevent her daughter's murder - more beyond her and her daughter's relentless pleading with police and prosecutors to stop Cazares' alleged threats and stalking. And she campaigns against domestic abuse and violence.

* * *

Schaubroeck's teeth chatter, not from cold but emotion. She steels herself to continue the interview.

She says she's replayed every detail in her daughter's history with Cazares, wondering what could have changed the outcome.

Schaubroeck said Thomas' kids - Taybryn and Skylie - "were her life. Every mountain she climbed, every hurdle she jumped was for her kids. She was a dedicated mother."

Taybryn is living in a safe home while Skylie is now living with her father.

Thomas herself was reared mostly in a safe home in Monroe City, Mo. After her parents - Jody (now Schaubroeck) and Bill Thomas - divorced, Jody became involved in another relationship. When that relationship became violent, Schaubroeck said, the only way she felt she could protect Amanda was to give up custody. But Schaubroeck never gave up her parental rights, and she and Amanda never lost contact.

Though Amanda grew up in another home, Schaubroeck says, she shared many traits and interests with her half-siblings, Kelcie Schaubroeck, 17, and Cole Schaubroeck, 15, who live in Utica with their mother and attend Centennial Public Schools.

Schaubroeck said Thomas, who had worked as a phlebotomist and as a medical assistant, had been attending classes for nearly a year to become a registered nurse.

She was an artist who excelled in pastels and who had won awards for her pottery. She was a reader, a swimmer, an animal lover. She feared tornadoes but relished ghost stories.

Schaubroeck described her as "a scrapper" and one who would defend others against bullies.

Schaubroeck said Thomas met Cazares when they worked next door to each other, she at International Eyecare, he at a Mexican restaurant.

Though they had a child together, Schaubroeck said, they never lived together and eventually her daughter became "scared to death" of Cazares.

During an interview in Utica, Schaubroeck talked about Cazares' alleged threats to kill Thomas, about three protection orders that failed and about how she and her daughter had Thomas' windows reinforced to make the apartment safer.

On Dec. 22, 2007, Cazares was arrested for misdemeanor assault of Thomas.

On Feb. 22, 2008, Cazares was arrested for first-degree burglary of Thomas' residence, which was pleaded down to property damage.

Schaubroeck, who volunteers in the York County court system as a child advocate, said she talked to Hannibal police and the Marion County prosecutor's office about how she believed Cazares violated protection orders. She said Cazares was picked up and questioned but was not held or charged.

At one point, she says, "I asked him (a prosecutor) point blank: Am I going to have to bury my daughter before you listen to me?"

At a news conference following the homicides, Marion County prosecutor Tom Redington said the relationship between Cazares and Thomas had long been rocky, with Thomas seeking restraining orders in 2007 and again early last year. Redington said the first order was dismissed when Thomas failed to appear at a court hearing; the second was dismissed at her request.

Thomas made a third attempt around Thanksgiving and obtained a restraining order that was supposed to keep Cazares away from the small brick duplex where she and her children lived.

Yet neighbors said they often saw Cazares in the area.

"We pulled up one night and he drives up the street with his car lights off and just sits there watching her house," neighbor Charles Thomas, who is not related to the victim, told The Associated Press.

In early February, according to reports, Thomas told police she thought Cazares was stalking her. Thomas played cell phone messages for police, including one in which Cazares said, "No one can love you like I do."

Schaubroeck said she called the county attorney's office five days in a row and never got a return call. "He never returned my calls. He never returned Amanda's calls. I went and saw him the day after the funeral."

Redington said he didn't have Cazares arrested immediately because of the "on-again, off-again nature of their relationship." He said he asked Thomas to obtain records that would show that Cazares had been calling her, but she never got the records.

Schaubroeck doesn't gloss over her daughter's misjudgments. She believes Thomas negotiated and compromised with Cazares so her son would have a father in his life.

And Thomas apparently could not move from Hannibal because the father of her 7-year-old daughter had visitation rights that precluded her leaving.

But Schaubroeck also believes her daughter, despite her constant pleas for help, felt she was let down by authorities, that they had written her off.

* * *

Coping with grief is not new to Schaubroeck. She lost a son to congenital heart disease when he was six months old. She coped in part by forming a parent support group.

Now, as she tries to move on after Amanda's death, she tries to keep domestic violence in the spotlight.

"We have a horrible loss with Amanda, but we've been provided an amazing opportunity to get the word out on domestic violence," Schaubroeck said.

Schaubroeck has posted on Facebook and Hannibal Rivertalk (Hannibal's community online). She's fielded interviews with newspapers and television stations.

"I spent weeks explaining, informing about the dynamics of domestic violence and looking for ways to dispel incorrect information," Schaubroeck said.

"I felt I was troubleshooting and clarifying for three weeks, maybe a good month afterwards."

But that openness also made Schaubroeck a target. She's received hate mail and vulgar messages.

She recalled the gist of some of them:

"Why don't you grow up and accept the fact that you ditched Amanda"- a reference to her relinquishing custody of Amanda while she was in an abusive situation, though she never relinquished her parental rights.

"By keeping this issue in the news, Amanda's soul cannot rest," someone wrote.

"Which is just the opposite," Schaubroeck said. "If they knew my daughter, they would know she was an avid advocate for the underdog. She would never expect me to shut up or back down."

But for every mean e-mail, Schaubroeck said, she's received 20 supportive ones.

"There were all kinds of people I didn't know telling me how kind, how positive Amanda was in school. There were over 500 people at her visitation."

And then there are the piercingly familiar stories shared in e-mails from those who are in similar abusive situations or who have daughters caught in the same web of domestic violence and asking what they can do.

"The shame and stigma of domestic violence keeps them (the abused) locked in a prison they can't escape from. You can't underestimate the power these men have over women. It's not just the financially vulnerable. It's not just the underprivileged - even women like Amanda who have myriad support systems" become victims.

Schaubroeck has been a court-appointed special advocate, or CASA, volunteer in York County for three years. She also teaches pre-service training for foster parents before they get licensed.

"Jody has gone above and beyond what we require of any advocate for children. She just is right out there. She leaves no leaf unturned," said Carol Knieriem, director of York County's CASA program.

"She gives so much of herself," Knieriem said. "She makes the commitment and she just gives and gives. Along that line, I know she advocated for the safety of her daughter. I know she did everything she could."

While she speaks out for abused women, advocates for children and helps ready foster parents for their new roles, Schaubroeck said Amanda is never far away in her mind.

"Every single second she is like a radio playing in the background, because there is never a time she is not there."

Reach Joanie Cradick at joaniecradick@gmail.com.

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