Cassandra also wrote about the alleged abuse in a journal that included among its pink and purple pages other mundane entries about boys, Cassandra's slipping grades and her older sister's annoying behavior. On the cover, written in a little girl's haphazard letters, were the words "Confidential. No taking peeks."
Later in 2001, in an interview with Longview police investigators, Cassandra used stuffed animals to illustrate what her father had allegedly done to her, reports said. She also drew a picture of a bathroom where she said one of the rapes happened. Police later measured and photographed the room.
Cassandra's account included frightening detail, according to police reports. But if it wasn't true, police wanted to know this year, how could an 11-year-old know so much about sex? Cassandra told police in January that she began engaging in sexual activity as a second-grader. She also said she may have known what to tell police from watching a movie or from walking in on adults having sex.
In March of 2001, Cassandra was examined at a Vancouver clinic where she told a doctor about the alleged abuse. "She looked at me and said, 'Are you telling the truth?" Cassandra said this year of her appointment with the doctor. "I lied to her and said, 'Yes.' "
The doctor found trauma in Cassandra's groin area, according to a report.
Police described Cassandra's allegations during an interview with Kennedy in March of 2001. Kennedy, who was at the time a laborer and equipment operator at Metro Metals Northwest in Kelso, "denied doing anything," a Longview investigator wrote in a report. "He was very upset. He told me he would do anything to prove he didn't do anything."
A jury convicted Kennedy of three counts of first-degree rape of a child in 2002, and now-retired Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Jim Warme sentenced him to more than 15 years in prison.
