THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 17, 1995 TAG: 9501170291
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
Daniel Diehl, 17, journeyed from Manteo, N.C., to Virginia Beach on Monday to thank a congressman for helping him get an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy.
It was a journey with far more meaning than a simple ride up the Carolina coast. Daniel Diehl's return to Virginia Beach was an object lesson in just how much adversity a young man can overcome, given the proper chance.
In 1986, when he was just 8 years old, Daniel Diehl's family came apart in a horrific and cruelly public manner: His parents, Karen and Michael Diehl, were charged with murder after one of their 17 children, Andrew, died from a sickening regimen of punishment that ended with a beating to the head with a wooden paddle.
The family, made up of mom, dad, four biological children and 13 adoptees, had been living in a yellow bus at a campground near Sandbridge. Before Andrew's death, they'd been heralded in news stories as a model of family love and triumph.
Afterward, there was only horror.
Daniel Diehl and his brothers and sisters were spirited off to foster homes as their parents stood trial for murder and related crimes. Karen Diehl was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 31 years in prison. She was released on parole in 1993. Michael Diehl is still serving a 41-year sentence for murder.
Few scars from that ordeal were apparent on the young man who surfaced Monday inthe office of Rep. Owen B. Pickett, D-2nd, who'd sponsored Diehl's bid for the Air Force Academy.
Confident and friendly, Daniel Diehl handled questions about the dark days of his childhood with a disarming openness.
``Like any problems we face in life,'' he said, ``there's always a way to get through it. . . . There was nothing I could do about that, you know; it's time to move on with my life and get where I want to go.''
He seldom thinks about those days, he said, unless somebody else brings it up. He and his parents exchange letters from time to time, and he sees them about twice a year. There is a distance between them, he said, that has not been easy to bridge. ``By now it's more like an acquaintance,'' he said. ``I talk to them more in passing than anything else. They show an interest in me, as I feel they should. I have a harder time showing an interest in them.
``Who knows, the years may tell a different story. Anytime when you're apart from somebody for, what is it now, seven years, your relationship is going to diminish. I still feel a bond because they are my birth parents.''
He stays in touch with two older brothers, he said, but the rest of the brothers and sisters are lost to him. ``I haven't been able to keep up with most of my family,'' he said.
For the past five years Daniel Diehl has built a new life with his foster parents, Jim and Candy Southern, on Manteo Island on the Outer Banks. He's part of a family again. ``I feel like they're mine,'' he said, smiling at the Southerns across the room, ``and they feel like I'm theirs.''
He works part time, has earned nearly straight A's in school, and is in line to become Manteo High School's valedictorian. He was high on the list of students that the Air Force wanted to snag, Pickett said. Diehl, whose official residence is still Virginia Beach, wants to be a pilot.
``Whatever Daniel says he'll do, you can count on him to do it,'' said Paul Deal, a teacher and adviser at Manteo High. ``He's a man with outstanding integrity. His whole motivation is to be successful in the best kind of way. He doesn't seem to be driven by the same things other kids his age are driven by.''
``Daniel is always his own person,'' said Allison Sherman, a Manteo senior. ``He doesn't change to impress people. He's himself, and people like him that way.''
Few of his friends, though, are aware of what he went through in Virginia Beach in the 1980s. He and his older brothers had to testify at different times about a torturous series of punishments inflicted on their adoptive brother, Andrew, who was described in court proceedings as a belligerent and disruptive 13-year-old.
The parents' efforts to control Andrew grew increasingly brutal. He was handcuffed or shackled to the floor of the bus much of the month before he died, was often naked, and was forced to eat his own waste. His final beating took place while his father gunned the engine of the yellow bus to drown out Andrew's screams.
Daniel Diehl said Monday that Andrew's difficult behavior drove his parents to a breaking point. ``I think they had dealt with him so long,'' he said, ``they just really forgot what they were supposed to be doing.''
The other children were not treated that way, he said. ``It stereotyped the whole family. Me, I had my normal spankings like any other little kid should have, but it was nothing abusive.''
The Diehl family's odyssey began in Idaho. Karen and Michael Diehl, who were fundamentalist Christians, had four children by birth and adopted 13 others, literally from around the world. Several of the children had severe medical problems and developmental disorders.
The family took to the road in 1984, on a meandering route that took them though much of the United States. The children were schooled by their mother and were not allowed to watch television. They were encouraged to read. Daniel Diehl credits that mental toughness for his ability to master his school work to this day.
Not all his memories from the family's days on the road are bad.
``Well, I mean, from your perspective it might have seemed a little weird,'' he said, ``But from mine it seemed normal.
``We had a lot of brothers and sisters to play with. I enjoyed it because I've been to 48 of the 50 states. I've seen a lot of things people my age haven't.''
There is a strong cord of self-determination, too, that is wound of threads from his childhood years and the love and guidance he found in his foster family. It shows up when asked what advice he would give any friends facing difficult times:
``Depend on yourself,'' he said. ``You can do anything; just don't let circumstances pull you down.'' MEMO: Correspondent Miles Daniels of Manteo contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo] BILL TIERNAN/Staff
1995
Daniel Diehl, at 17, with U.S. Rep. Owen B. Pickett, who sponsored
him for the Air Force Academy. ``Like any problems we face in
life,'' he says, ``there's always a way to get through it. . . .
It's time to move on with my life and get where I want to go.'' He
wants to be a pilot.
1986
FILE PHOTO
Daniel Diehl, at 8, gets a hug from his biological mother, Karen,
who was later found guilty in the beating death of one of her 13
adopted children, Andrew. She was paroled in 1993.
FILE PHOTO
Daniel Diehl, third from left in back row, posed with his family in
Virginia Beach for this photo in 1986. Andrew is last in the row.
by CNB