Watch 20/20 on December 3rd

As many of you know or have heard, Catherine (Kate) Puzey was a volunteer here in Benin who was killed last year in March. The details surrounding her murder have been frustratingly concealed from us as current volunteers and her family as sections from the following letter will show. Kate served as an English teacher in Badjoudé, a town close to Djougou, where I live. In fact, my post is the closest Peace Corps post to her town. When we arrived in Benin this summer we were informed of the event and there was an informal discussion about the events surrounding her death. I was surprised to find out the depth of involvement from higher ups in the Peace Corps Benin and I am actually continuously surprised at the fact that Peace Corps/Benin did not get completely discontinued. I am glad it hasn't, though. At least not yet. The trial is supposed to start this month, but has been delayed for various reasons. On December 3rd there will be a feature about Kate's death on 20/20 that I hope you all tune in for. While this was a very specific, isolated incident that in no way jeapardizes the safety of current volunteers, it is incredibly important for all Peace Corps administration and volunteers and thus all Americans to pay attention and prevent it from happening again.

Many names have been left out to protect privacy and I am including the letter here solely in order to provide information to the public and those concerned about Benin in particular. This email was forwarded to all currently serving Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in Benin as well as many recently Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) from two RPCVs who knew Kate well and is in no way an official document related to the current investigation:

Dear All,
Hello!! How are all of you?? ...A lot, a lot has gone down since we all left Benin, in terms of Kate and the impending trial. Not to make excuses, but it's been really difficult forus to sit with all of the information we're going to share, and not know when the appropriatetime to disperse it is. We'll get to it a little later,but there will be some publicity regarding Kate and the PeaceCorps soon, so we knew it was time to write this email. Since coming back to the States,we've been in consistent, close contact with the Puzey's. Through this,we've been privilege to a lot of knowledge that we otherwise wouldn't have been, as the Peace Corps has done a mighty fine job of keeping information out of our(all of our) hands, both as former/present volunteers and friends of Kate. We're not sure who knows what at this point, so we're just going to start at the beginning.

Towards the start of our 2009 February break from school, -- went to Badjoude. While there, Kate expressed concern about C-- (J--'s brother, thelanguage facilitator for Health) and stories she'd been told of his raping and humiliating two of his young students. She also was led to believe that he breached his contract by having a relationship with at least one stagiaire. Because of this information, as well as her own knowledge of C--'s general sliminess/coming to classes drunk/etc., Kate knew she neededto bringthis toAdmin's attention. She spent a lot of time trying todecidethe best way tocontact S--. She eventually chose email, and sent theattached note to S--, CCing F--, on February 27, 2009. We've also attached the responses Kate received. As you can see from the chain, S--and F--quickly took to heart what Kate told them. However, Kate never knew this. She sent the email on Friday from Natitingou. She left for Badjoude (no internet) on March 1, 2009. To be fair, at somepoint during the two weeks Kate was in Badjoude she received a callfrom M--. I remember getting a fewtexts from Kate about this, but I can't remember specifically what she wastold. I do know that she was made aware that PeaceCorps was "handling" the situation, and M-- asked if Kate would be interested in legal action beingtaken against C--for the raping of students. Because that knowledge washearsay, Kate said she didn't think that was yet appropriate. Thisis the only indication we have that Kate would have any idea that Admin was taking her email seriously.We want to interject here. We assume you all remember All Vol at DuLac in March 2008. One of the biggest issues tirelessly discussed was the refusal by Admin to not use email as a valid method of quick communication. Case in point. Kate never received the emails that youseeattached. She also never knew that on March 10, C-- received a letter letting him know that he would no longer be contractually employed by the PeaceCorps. (For the record, we're unsure if any disciplinary action was taken by the school.) Kate was killed either the night of March 11 or the morning of March12. In this email, we're tryingvery hard to be as diplomatic as possible, but there are times, like this one, when that just seems insane. By emailing Kateinstead of calling, Peace Corps actively took her right away to make decisionsabout what would be best for her and her safety. ...

About a week after Kate's death, J--loses his security clearance. Beforethe Easter break in April 2009, several of us were interviewed when the Peace Corps Inspector General's Office sent two investigators to Benin. We were told by the investigators that their purpose was to determine what, if anything, happened in the Peace Corps office that would have directly been tied to Kate's death. On May 28, 2009 F-- resigns. In mid-June 2009,S-- announces herintent to resign by the end of the month. Another pointtirelessly discussed atAll-Vol was Admin's constant breaching ofc onfidentiality. While in Benin wespeculated this had a major role in Kate's death since ONLY S--and F--were emailed about C--. ...Now we're home. We'reapproached by Lois (Kate's mom) to be part of a task forceto seek justicefor Kate, both in terms of a trial as well as Peace Corpsreform. Lois expressed to us how initially the Peace Corps was sympathetic totheir loss,but that soon turned to complete stonewalling when they startedaskingquestions. Not to mention how they were notified. ... Her effects were simply dropped off some time later with no note or representative. For several months, we compiled information and brainstormed various ways to affect chance.This all came to a head in February 2010 when we, along with Kate's parents and her cousin, went to Washington to meet with Director (of the Peace Corps)Williams, Senator Isakson, andseveral other staff members for various other Senators and Representatives.Our goal was to present the reform we seenecessaryto ensure that nothinglike this happens again to a volunteer. This included:
A. Better notification practices of next of kin
B. Standard procedure for keeping confidentiality
C. Standard procedure for ways that volunteers can notify PC Admin of sensitive information
D. Standard procedure for communication(particularly ofsensitiveinformation) between Admin and volunteers
E.The possibility of volunteers being covered under the Whistle Blower Protection Act

...

One more thing. So throughout this whole process the lackof media attention for Kate's murder has been kind of astounding. The Puzey's arevery much interested in Kate's story being told on a national/international platform...ThePuzey's were approached by 20/20,and jumped at the opportunity. As part ofthisprocess, we were interviewed. The experience seems to have been quitepositiveand therapeutic for Kate's family. However, for us, it was really pretty terrible. We realize our position as former volunteers creates adifferentdynamic than that of family. Although we feel strongly that Kate'sstory be toldand that Peace Corps reforms are put in place, wedidn't feellike we were in theposition to do any speculating or name names on national television, much less on a sensationalistic program. 20/20 wasn'tso happy with our position. We still agreed to be interviewed, discussingonly first-hand knowledge, as the Puzey'sreally wanted that. All of this tosay, the first segment of the program will beairing in December 3, 2010 at10pm (EST). We have no idea what to expect...

The trial, although slated to happen this November, will not happen until who knowswhen...We know that a lot of information to take in. And we also know that we might nothave presentedit in entirely the clearest way possible. So please let usknow if you have anyquestions. We're sending this email to all TEFL butplease pass this along toanyone else you think should know.
Love to all,
--

So that's that. I have a little bit more information for anyone who emails me or facebook messages me directly, but I do want to keep things respectful of the privacy of those more involved than me. I want to reiterate as well that this email is in no way official and is also not completely represented here, so there's no way to take it as anything more than just hearsay, right? I have no authority here and my opinion does not reflect that of the Peace Corps/Benin or Peace Corps/Washington or the Peace Corps Inspector General's Office. So please just watch the show in a couple weeks and someone please tell me how it goes!

Elaina