Editing Crothersville, Indiana (section)

==Drug bootlegging and a homicide==
On February 10, 2005, Crothersville was featured in a ''[[New York Times]]'' article about the town's alleged "scourge of [[methamphetamine]]." The ''Times''' narrative was that a town "where everyone seems somehow related," is "seemingly transformed" by the death of a 10-year-old, Katlyn Collman, who "police say...stumbled on (sic) someone with methamphetamine..." The story highlights a Crothersville stricken with fear after the death and the discovery of two facilities for making bootleg methamphetamine. Without explaining who they are or where they have gone, the article claims that "Shady characters no longer stalk the streets of the one-stoplight town, where ribbons of blue, Katie's favorite color, hang from utility poles and porches. Gone, too, are the bike-riding and dog-walking youngsters, now let outside to play only with their parents, or in groups." One father "said he checks what his 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter are wearing each morning, for fear of having to describe them to the police." The article claims that in "Jackson County, which includes Crothersville, meth-related arrests skyrocketed to 116 in 2004 from 29 in 2002." Pastor Jon Pearce, who helped to organize the protest against Lion's Den, is quoted regarding the purported illegal drug problem: "If we had a brothel move into town, people would close it down instantly. If we had an X-rated movie house come, it'd be gone within a week. But this has been here. It is a monster. We didn't know what kind of monster it was." The ''Times'' article includes no crime statistics for Crothersville that might affirm the implication that the town was dangerous.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Jodi Wilgoren|title=Too Late for Katie, Town Tackles a Drug's Scourge|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/us/too-late-for-katie-town-tackles-a-drugs-scourge.html?_r=0|website=nytimes.com|accessdate=December 31, 2015}}</ref>

On May 25, 2005, the ''Times'' reported that, "Tossing aside their original theory that a 10-year-old Indiana girl was murdered because she saw people making methamphetamine, prosecutors on Friday dropped charges against the man whose statements led them to that belief, charging instead another man connected by DNA and other physical evidence to the crime." The ''Times'' quoted a local merchant claiming to have "sold 2,000 T-shirts with Katie's photograph to people in four states, [who] said that even if the methamphetamine theory had no merit, the murder 'shined a light on the drug problem' in town." The ''Times'' reported, "[[Steven Drizin]], legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, said the case had the hallmark of a false, coerced confession.." The ''Times'' did not refer to or retract its own inaccurate reporting in the February article.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Jodi Wilgoren|title=DNA Leads to New Suspect in Killing of Indiana Girl|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/us/too-late-for-katie-town-tackles-a-drugs-scourge.html?_r=0|website=nytimes.com|accessdate=December 31, 2015|date=May 21, 2005}}</ref> CBS did its part to promote hysteria with a report titled, "Girl's Murder Amplifies Drug War."<ref>{{cite web|title=Girls murder amplifies drug war|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/girls-murder-amplifies-drug-war/|website=cbsnews.com|accessdate=January 1, 2016}}</ref>

Anthony Ray Stockelman, pleaded guilty to abducting, molesting, and murdering the child and received a sentence of life in prison. He had no prior criminal record, and no cited connection to methamphetamine. A cousin of the victim, serving a burglary sentence in the same facility where Stockelman was held, was charged for tattooing "Katie's Revenge" on the forehead of her killer.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Christine Lagorio|title=Victim's Cousin Eyed In Tattoo Attack|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/victims-cousin-eyed-in-tattoo-attack/|website=cbsnews.com|accessdate=December 31, 2015|date=October 30, 2006}}</ref>