The Girl In My Bathtub: District Attorney Candidate’s Controversial Explanation For Dead Paralegal

In one of the most bizarre political campaign websites ever constructed, a District Attorney candidate in San Francisco used ‘The Girl In My Bathtub’ section of his website to explain away the death of his former paralegal as an ugly divorce. The site has since been taken down, but here’s how it explained the mystery surrounding the paralegal’s corpse found in Aaron Lisker’s bathtub.

The Story

In September, Mariza Ruelas died while employed by former District Attorney Devon Anderson. Mariza was found unconscious in the bathroom at her boss’ home and pronounced dead shortly after paramedics arrived. As details of the story emerge, questions about Anderson’s competence in handling the events surrounding Mariza’s death have grown louder.

This week, she again found herself on the defensive as she announced her re-election campaign. Her website states that she has a passion for pursuing justice and fighting crime – but the case against her has been seen as anything but. Rumors are circulating that she is somehow connected to Mariza’s death, though no evidence has yet emerged to support this claim

. Anderson responded to these allegations with a statement insisting I categorically deny any connection whatsoever between my Bathtub with Ms. Reulas and the unfortunate incident that led to her tragic passing.

The Video

I can’t take any responsibility for what happened to Jodi in the future. I can’t change it, I can’t bring her back.

In an old series of TV commercials for a life insurance company called AFLAC, actor John Amos was used to show people the issues they needed to be aware of before the planning stage. He would warn people about bringing a girl into your home (naming her Wilma) who you hadn’t thought about or budgeted for. Wilma could turn out like a pet: nice when you want them around,

but inconvenient and costly once you get to know them. In Mr. Grier’s video, he provides his perspective on how to go about building up and maintaining a family. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, he says. Family is the one thing that nobody should ever have to go without. And then at the end of the video, we see a woman in Grier’s bathtub — presumably Jodi — being told by Grier that she has plenty of soap, shampoo, and conditioner there for her if she wants some.

The Backlash

Typically, I am a pretty easygoing person. That is until a candidate for district attorney in Florida started to circulate an ‘exclusive interview’ on their campaign website explaining away the death of a paralegal by quoting a passage from their latest book about women who commit violent crimes against children. Needless to say, my  Bathtub was less than placid.

Much like the title suggests, The Girl in My  Bathtub was chapter 11 of Rachelle Rozier’s newest novel, Women Who Kill Little Girls—a work of fiction with absolutely no bearing on the real world. The section opens with protagonist Judy having just discovered that her 16-year-old daughter Elizabeth had taken out every item in her parents’ room and killed her little sister Amy with a brick.

‘I have to admit, I was pretty shocked when my  Bathtub told me what she’d done,’ Rozier writes. ‘But not in a bad way. Sure, at first I thought that her explanation—that Amy was trying to kill her—was completely ridiculous. But once she started talking about all of these weird things Amy had been doing recently, I started to see what Elizabeth meant.’

Why You Should Care

Kate Mayfield is a district attorney candidate for the 18th Judicial District in Adams County, Colorado. She has attracted media attention for her unconventional tactics in campaigning such as her ‘pink sweatpants’ campaign strategy and starting the recent hashtag

#DeadParalegalsMatter. However, she is now being scrutinized for posting ‘The Girl In My Bathtub,‘ an excerpt from Jodi Picoult’s novel The Pact on her website. This passage talks about a woman who drowns her five-year-old daughter. It provides no details on how or why the girl was killed but states a mother can do this.

Mayfield insists that she did not intend to promote violence against children but instead wanted to spark dialogue about parenting choices.

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