Grace Spulak, an attorney who represented children and young people in New Mexico, said she became a foster parent after seeing what she viewed as failures in the foster-care system. She believed older children, particularly teenagers, needed a home and another chance. When Clayton, a pseudonym, came to live with her, she tried to provide that. Eight months later, however, he ran away without warning.
Three months after his departure, someone broke into Spulak's home, and she was found unconscious on her bedroom floor. She woke in the hospital with no memory of what had happened. Spulak said she suffered extensive brain damage after her brain was deprived of oxygen. Nearly a year later, she said investigators told her they had found Clayton's DNA among evidence connected to the incident.
