By Tom Grace
Shyanne Autumn Somers was an outdoors girl, fond of art, drama, horses and home, community members said Thursday.
"She was a nice girl, very close to her family," said Nancy Gallaher, elementary school principal at Otselic Valley Central School, on Thursday. "She loved her older brothers, Ryan and Gabriel, and she loved her parents."
In the small elementary school in rural Georgetown that Shyanne attended, she was fond of drawing and acting, her principal said. So, when she died _ allegedly run over by seasonal resident George Ford Jr. _ students and staff thought it best to remember her with artwork, said Gallaher.
"We have a gallery in the hallway with her picture and a plaque," she said. "Last year we started it, and every year a picture will be chosen, then framed in her memory."
Gallaher said small towns and schools ache when bad things happen to students.
"Everyone knows everyone else, so everyone's affected," she said.
Back in July 2007, Shyanne had just completed fifth grade and was known for diligence at school.
When out of school, she was often seen riding her bike around town, said Kristi Tefft, manager of the South Otselic Store.
"She was nice girl, and she'd come in here sometimes, usually with her brothers," she said. "They'd come in for a snack on their way from the summer recreation program."
Shyanne lived at 1946 State Route 26, South Otselic, in a log cabin high off the road. According to her father, James Somers, she liked nothing better than being outside.
"She was a very happy child, just a little girl, really," he testified Monday at Ford's second-degree murder trial in Chenango County Court.
The Somers kept horses, and Shyanne's father taught her how to ride, he said. She loved nature, including the wild flowers that bloomed through the weeds on nearby Will Warner Road. On the way up this hilly seasonal road is a remote, abandoned white house that Somers had considered buying, he testified.
It was by this house, which Shyanne had visited, that Ford's truck was parked from midnight until about 3 a.m. July 8, 2007, according to the GPS unit in his truck.
And it was on this road, but downhill and closer to home, that she was hit by that truck at 3:03 a.m., according to Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride.
Ford, 43, a contractor from Piscataway, N.J., had a summer home just down the road from the Somers, at 1757 State Route 26. The families knew each other and Somers had helped Ford with a roofing project, Somers testified.
Late on the night of July 7, 2007, a Saturday, Ford pulled up the Somers driveway and asked if Shyanne or her mother could baby-sit so he and his wife could stay at a party, James Somers said.
His wife was already in bed, and Shyanne wanted to try baby-sitting, so he consented to let her go, he said. If Ford drank at the party, he wasn't to bring Shyanne back until morning, Somers said.
"The next morning, we got up and my wife and I were having coffee when we heard a vehicle pull up the driveway," he testified. "I said, Shyanne must be home.' I didn't know she was gone.
"I looked out in that driveway and saw a deputy sheriff. He said there was an accident involving my daughter."
Police soon charged Ford with first-degree reckless endangerment, but after reading information from the GPS unit in the truck, they charged him with murder.
Ford has said he hit the girl accidentally, according to police.
John Messineo, a neighbor of the Somers, said Shyanne's death sent a shock wave of sadness through the community.
"For a while, after she died, her family had lights out on the hillside," he said. "I think it was their memorial to her."
But now the lights are out, he said, and the Somers have moved away.
