This deserted trailer at Mt. Terrace trailer park off state Highway 42 once housed John Berven and Samantha Haskinson, their three children and an 8-year-old girl who was taken into state custody after years of abuse and neglect. World Photo by Madeline Steege

On the gray, rainy day, Mt. Terrace trailer park is quiet. Little highway noise penetrates the canopy of tall firs and cedars that ring the park on Roderick Road, separating it from state Highway 42.

The rain splatters on 22 mailboxes lined on a fence at the park's entrance, where a paved lane winds up a hill. At the top, it gives way to a gravel road, bordered with mud and riddled with potholes full of water. Trailers, all of them old, most of them weather-beaten, line both sides of the road, fitted snugly together like pieces of a dreary puzzle.

Some of the trailers have little yards; nearly all have plants, trees and shrubs growing in pots, tubs and even coffee cans. Cats and dogs are everywhere. Hulks of old autos and pickup trucks can be seen at several spaces, and throughout are the unmistakable signs of children. Tricycles, small bikes and scooters lean on porches. At one space, a small, soggy teddy bear is propped up on the trailer tongue and, at another, a kiddie kitchen is on display, with a stove and a washer and dryer, all in bright pastel colors.

At one derelict trailer, in space 20, grass is growing up around a stack of tires and hubcaps near a makeshift front porch. The skirting of the brown Barrington trailer has been pulled away from the front, and underneath, a gray Siamese cat laps water from a brackish puddle. In the front-yard area, piles of garbage mingle with empty boxes, chairs and old appliances - and dozens of discarded toys and games.

But the family who once lived in the trailer at space 20 is gone. And neighbors have been left to wonder why they never knew about the 8-year-old girl who was part of the household.

Even veteran child protection workers were appalled at the level of the abuse and neglect suffered by 8-year-old Ina Rose. Pictures of her when she was taken into protective custody on March 4 show a tiny creature whose ribs are clearly defined on her tiny body. Dark rings encircle her huge, sad eyes. Her body is bruised and a red welt stands out across the bridge of her nose.

The 8-year-old, identified in this story by her middle name, weighed 31 pounds.

According to court documents, she weighed that same amount at the age of 5, in 2002.

Bay Area pediatrician Carla McKelvey was asked to compare Ina Rose's weight - or lack of it - with the average.

"It's extraordinary," McKelvey said. "At that age, a little girl should weigh right about 54 or 55 pounds. You just don't see 8-year-olds who weigh 31 pounds. When you do, you know there's a problem."

According to an arrest warrant served the same day Ina Rose was picked up, the problem was starvation.

According to an affadavit from Robert VanZelf, a sergeant with the Coos County Sheriff's Office, Ina Rose "was extremely small for her age and suffering from malnourishment."

And she wasn't just denied food. VanZelf indicates in his affadavit that he was told Ina Rose's mouth was covered with duct tape so she couldn't have eaten even if any food were available.

The effects of the starvation are obvious on Ina Rose's emaciated frame, but there are other effects that should be of concern, according to McKelvey.

"Starvation affects every part of the body," she said, "and sometimes you never recover. A child suffering this, she might not be as tall as she would have been had she not gone through that kind of stress. It affects brain development, how well they do in school."

McKelvey wondered aloud how that kind of starvation could have been overlooked.

"At 31 pounds, she would look like just a little skeleton. The only thing that may have masked it is if she was dressed in oversized clothing."

But as VanZelf's affadavit makes clear, oversized clothes weren't used to hide Ina Rose. He was told the little girl was usually kept naked, so that she couldn't go outside.

Indeed, many of the Mt. Terrace neighbors say they never saw her. She didn't play outside with the other children. She didn't ride a bike or scooter through the park. She didn't climb on the school bus. She didn't go to school.

To anyone outside of the trailer in space 20, Ina Rose was invisible.

Throughout the state of Oregon, services are in place to take care of children who, like Ina Rose, are abused or neglected. In Coos and Curry counties, workers at the Department of Human Services Child Protective Services office are on the front line in helping the littlest victims of mistreatment. Paula Warr is the leader of a team of nine caseworkers. Three of them screen calls and the others investigate reports of possible abuse and assess living situations.

The nine carry heavy caseloads.

"We get 1,600 to 1,800 in-and-out calls per month to those three workers," Warr said.

The calls come from friends, neighbors, even strangers who are concerned about potential child abuse. And they come from professionals.

"There are mandatory reporters," Warr said, "people who know who to call; teachers, police, doctors, nurses, child-care providers, social workers, therapists, Head Start workers ..."

She reeled off the professionals who are required by law to report suspicions of abuse. (See sidebar.)

But even with so many professionals on the lookout for mistreatment, Ina Rose suffered.

That doesn't surprise Warr. Unfortunately, no one will know, she said, "if a kid is not in school or isn't school-age, if she isn't going to a doctor and her parents are keeping her isolated."

And nobody - apparently not school officials, not health officials, not children's services officials - knew about Ina Rose.

Neighbors at Mt. Terrace say that Child Protective Services was called three times about the abuse of Ina Rose. But that can't be confirmed because Child Protective Services won't discuss its clients. The public record of the state's involvement with Ina Rose began on March 4, the day the little girl was taken into protective custody.

Richard Whitwer, the Department of Human Services service delivery area manager for Coos and Curry counties, said his department got involved with the case at the request of the Coos County District Attorney's Office. His office took the steps necessary in such cases, he said.

"We go to court, petition for temporary custody and see that the child is placed in foster care," he said.

Such action is standard in abuse cases, according to Whitwer, while an investigation is started into the accusations of abuse and/or neglect.

In Ina Rose's case, court documents contain multiple references to both.

In his narrative, VanZelf related reports that the way Ina Rose was treated "was in fact worse than they treated their dog." When he entered the trailer in space 20, VanZelf wrote, "I noted that it was extremely filthy, unsanitary, and had an overwhelming bad odor ... and was completely unfit for human habitation."

Charges resulting from the case include withholding food, physical care and medical attention. Court records also relate acts of deliberate cruelty involving physical injury by means of dangerous weapons - a fork and an oar.

The few documents in the court file are all that speak to the level of abuse and neglect suffered by Ina Rose. While viewed by many as appalling, according to Nancylee Stewart, it might be closer to the norm than people know.

Stewart is the Child Welfare Program manager of Coos and Curry counties. She has been a children's services worker for more than 18 years - most of them on the South Coast. She believes there is a greater awareness of abuse and neglect now, and a greater willingness by people to share their suspicions. But even as the community is becoming more enlightened, there also is more abuse, Stewart said, and much of it can be traced to drugs.

"I believe there are more cases," Stewart said, "and there is so much more meth."

But what really worries Stewart are the abuse cases that "slip through the mandates" in the system - situations involving youngsters too young to be in school. According to Stewart, 50 percent of the cases in Coos and Curry counties involve children under the age of 6.

And little children, like Ina Rose, can be easily isolated from the rest of the world.

"We can only respond to what we know about," Stewart said.

When the state learned about Ina Rose, officials acted quickly. They removed the 8-year-old, along with three other children, from their household and arrested 32-year-old John B. Berven and Samantha J. Haskinson, 22.

On Monday, in Coos County Circuit Court, Berven and Haskinson entered guilty pleas to charges of mistreatment and assault. (See sidebar, Page A1.)

The courtroom was packed with attorneys and other prisoners waiting to go before the bench. Berven, Haskinson and their lawyers were present. So, too, was an attorney representing Ina Rose, who, the state says, has been placed in a foster home - a special home that deals with youngsters with special medical needs.

But the little girl wasn't in the courtroom.

Free from her abusers and cloaked with state-mandated secrecy, she remains an invisible little girl.