Joe and Nancy Neuwelt, parents of Bethany Storro, gave a press conference in front of their Vancouver home on Friday afternoon.
Here is a transcript of their remarks.
Joe Neuwelt: “As I stand before you today, I would like our neighborhood, the city of Vancouver, our nation and the world as a whole to know that we are we are deeply sorry for what happened.
“If I could find words to express myself other than text off a sheet of paper, I would. Nancy and I are deeply sorry. We’re going through a very tough time.
“As any good parent would, we stood by our daughter when she told us these different scenarios. We stood by her. We believed her. Any good parent would do that, so that’s the course we took. Up until yesterday, we believed her fully — there was no reason to doubt her, at all.
“We will lean on our faith, our families and our friends and our community to get our daughter the medial attention that she needs and the counseling that she deserves.
Nancy Neuwelt: “We also acknowledge there was hurt and betrayal to the communities involved, and we want to apologize for that.
“Bethany is extremely sorry for the pain to her friends, family, co-workers at Safeway and friends at Anytime Fitness in Vancouver, the Vancouver, Camas and Washougal communities and surrounding area, but now she can begin to heal because the truth has been revealed.”
Joe Neuwelt: “All the money that was donated — communitywide, nationwide, worldwide — will be returned. We are not holding back any monies for any reason whatsoever. All money will be returned in the appropriate manner. That will be guaranteed.”
Nancy Neuwelt: “As to the questions as to why she did this, there were no signs, and we really don’t know why at this point. But it is our hope that the medical community can find the answers. She is obviously dealing with some deep internal emotional and psychological problems that we had no knowledge of, and we hope she’ll get the help she needs. We’ll be there with her. She has a long road ahead of her, but she’s on the road and we’ll walk it with her.”
