There was a media circus over Gary Lynn Wilks burying bodies in garbage bags and reusing the caskets. As if this was not bad enough, the crematory used by Gary Lynn Wilks's funeral services did not cremate the bodies and simply tossed the bodies behind the crematory. Movies have been made about this event, but no one noticed the little girl caught in a custody battle.

Sadly, the little girl no one seemed to notice was fighting for her survival.

This little girl lived a difficult life, with family members fighting over her, using her as a baseball bat to get back at one another; and this behavior continues today, based on the anonymous letter Hope4KidZ received from Nashville, TN.

On October 29, 2007, "our" precious BobbieLynn Wilks passed away during her sleep. (More)

BobbieLynn's story is written using BobbieLynn's letters, emails, and phone calls.

BobbieLynn's Cry for Help (This will open in a new window)

The voice in a message attached to an e-mail was measured, calm and self-assured, especially for such a young lady, and it held a pleading edge. What happened in her young life to make BobbieLynn want to take such drastic action?

When Hope4KidZ received the email with the audio voice of BobbieLynn begging for help to be able to live with her mother, step father, and brother, this was the most shocking request for help H4K has ever received.

BobbieLynn's trials prompted the Tennessee Legislature to write a law, named for her, that forbids the awarding of child custody to certain types of convicted felons. It was a hard-won law that BobbieLynn and her mother had trouble getting a judge to enforce.

BobbieLynn was born in April 1988 to Theresa and Gary Wilks in Tennessee. Four months later, in August, her father was sentenced to two years in prison for burial fraud. His father, BobbieLynn's paternal grandfather, was sentenced to 28 years. At the cemetery the family ran, hundreds of bodies had been removed from caskets and buried in garbage bags, so the caskets could be reused. A nearby crematory owner was also convicted for dumping bodies behind the crematory instead of following the families' wishes and cremating them.

In a 1990 divorce, Theresa was given sole custody of BobbieLynn, and they moved to Florida in 1993.

Gary Wilks was out of prison by November 1993, and BobbieLynn went for a visit that Thanksgiving. Gary Wilks defied the 1990 custody decree and refused to let her return home to Florida, yet he did not have time for BobbieLynn or want her to live with him. He left BobbieLynn at his mother's home, and his daughter rarely saw him and for only short visits at that.

Rachel Turner and her husband, Gary Wilks' stepfather, were extremely cruel and physically abusive to BobbieLynn, according to a letter the girl wrote in March 2000. In that letter, BobbieLynn says the Turners told her that her mother didn't want her, and that Theresa was a stripper and had no time for her. They did not let her see her mother at all for three of the more than five years BobbieLynn lived with them. When BobbieLynn would ask to speak to her mother, she was told her mother never called her. BobbieLynn was hit, and at one time her head hit a coffee table as she was knocked down. She has headaches to this day she traces to that episode of abuse.

BobbieLynn said she never believed what the Turners told her about her mother. Theresa, not understanding the higher rights she already had, got visitation rights in 1994 and visited BobbieLynn for two years. Her daughter repeatedly begged Theresa to take her home, away from the Turners and the abuse. In April 1996, BobbieLynn cried "Please don't make me go back; I promise I will be good. Take me home, Mommy!" Theresa couldn't stand it any longer, and she took her daughter home to Florida.

It was a short-lived visit. A few days shy of three weeks later, Theresa was arrested in Florida. During the trip back to Tennessee, she was led through three airports in shackles and handcuffs. The parent who had sole legal custody of her daughter was arrested for taking the girl home. Because Theresa was in jail, BobbieLynn was returned to her father and the Turners, who shut her away from her mother even after Theresa left jail.

Theresa was charged with interfering with child custody. While she spent 21 days in jail, Tennessee authorities discovered a problem: Gary Wilks did not have legal custody of his daughter. People still wonder why a mother with sole custody was arrested without the authorities first confirming whether Gary Wilks had legal custody. He did not have legal standing to make the claim on BobbieLynn.

The Tennessee authorities' solution to the problem made the situation much worse for BobbieLynn. On May 13, 1996, the Tennessee courts awarded custody to Gary Wilks in violation of the federal Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act. Theresa was never notified about the hearing.

Thus began a long, hard fight for Theresa to right the wrongs of that ruling in a Davidson County court in Nashville, Tenn. Gary Wilks not have legal custody at the time Theresa was arrested and the Tennessee courts did not have jurisdiction to be hearing the case. Under the UCCJEA, child custody cases are to be heard in the state where the child is a resident, and BobbieLynn was legally a resident of Florida.

During the ensuing three-year battle for her, BobbieLynn says she lived a lonely life of abuse and endless lies from the Turners. One day she hid and heard her step-grandfather hang up on her mother. BobbieLynn hit redial on the phone and whispered to her mother "Mommy, please come and get me. It's so bad, Mommy. PLEASE COME AND GET ME NOW!" Theresa knew the Turners would hang up on her, but she wanted her daughter to know that she had never given up. Later, BobbieLynn would see telephone bills showing that her mother had called twice a day, every day that BobbieLynn was in the Turners' care.

In the meantime, Theresa was successful in getting the BobbieLynn Wilks law, forbidding child custody by certain types of felons, passed by the Tennessee Legislature. The governor signed it into law on June 10, 1998, with Theresa standing near him.

Theresa hired a detective to work along with the child advocate who had been helping Theresa regain BobbieLynn. The advocate and a reporter from the Leeza Gibbons show happened to find BobbieLynn in the front yard of her grandmother's house one day, and they made a videotape as they spoke to her, telling her they were friends of her mommy's. BobbieLynn wanted to be taken to her mother immediately and had an intense, emotional outburst when told she wasn't going that day, but the advocate assured her that her mother was working tirelessly to bring her home -- legally.

In March 1999, Theresa appeared on the Leeza Gibbons show, and the video of BobbieLynn was played. Gibbons asked viewers to call the governor of Tennessee and give BobbieLynn a voice. The governor received more than 300 calls per hour!

In June 1999, Theresa regained visitation rights to see BobbieLynn. Theresa and BobbieLynn were finally allowed to see each other on July 28, 1999. It was their first visit since April 26, 1996.

The costly custody battle continued, and BobbieLynn was still living with the Turners. Then in November 1999, Gary Wilks agreed to allow BobbieLynn to live with her mother. He wanted his daughter to visit for Christmas, and arrangements were made for a visit. However, when BobbieLynn called her father before the trip, she was told she would have to stay with the Turners because Gary Wilks did not have time for her. BobbieLynn refused to go back to the abusive people she had been made to live with for so many years. Theresa could not force her to go, and the visit didn't happen.

Gary Wilks renewed his battle to have BobbieLynn returned to Tennessee, to the Turners' home. Theresa faced contempt of court charges and jail time from the same judge who unlawfully took custody of BobbieLynn away from her. That Tennessee judge refused to uphold the BobbieLynn Wilks Law, prompting BobbieLynn to ask about the law in her 2000 letter: "… if the judges won't listen, what good is it?"

BobbieLynn had vowed that if she was returned to the Turners, she would run away. The only chance BobbieLynn had of staying with her mother was to get her own attorney and, as she put it, divorce her father. Attorneys cost money, and after paying $100,000 to get BobbieLynn home, her mother and stepfather had run out of funds. Money was raised for the girl's legal battle. BobbieLynn never had to return to the Turner home.

At last report, BobbieLynn was living with her mother, stepfather, brother and two adopted siblings. She said she was very happy and doing well in school. She was somewhat shy but thanked Hope4KidZ for helping to get her need for safety and security met.

It is with great sadness that Hope4KidZ recently learned that BobbieLynn Wilks, age 19, passed away on October 29, 2007. There are no words to express our deepest condolences to BobbieLynn's family. If BobbieLynn could ask anything of her family, it would be that the fighting stop. The never-ending fighting was one thing she often spoke of with the director of Hope4KidZ.

The Robertson Funeral Home Obituary allows for condolences to be sent to the family

Rest In Peace, Sweet Angel