WASHINGTON (DC)
VOA News
September 27, 2018
By Cecily Hilleary
Elsie Boudreau was 10 years old that afternoon in 1978 when Father James Poole called her and two playmates into the office of a small radio station he had founded in Nome, Alaska.
“He had us line up against the wall and began asking us questions,” said Boudreau, who grew up in St. Mary’s, a tiny Yup’ik village in northwest Alaska where Poole had earlier served as pastor. “Then, he told the two other girls that they could leave, but that I should stay. He said it was because I was so much more mature than the other girls.”
The abuse began with hours of French kissing and later escalated, lasting nine years.
“I have a memory of him being on top of me in a super high bed,” Boudreau said. “I must have had an out-of-body experience, because when I look back, I’m actually hiding behind a door, peeking out, seeing myself in bed with him, a little girl with long hair in braids.”
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