America. After the Pony Express, the railways were perhaps the most significant single thing that helped shape our young nation into the force that it would quickly become. In those dawning days, long before jet planes and the internet were but mere afterthoughts, it was the rails that stitched together our country’s rolling hills, sprawling flatlands, snow-capped mountains and sweltering deserts. The rails revolutionised travel and aided the rise of an Industrial Age that, pro or con, saw America become arguably the mightiest superpower in recorded history. Indeed, these were mighty days for a mighty land, when the unadventurous had no recourse but to get the hell out of the way, shut up and sit down, while pioneers and forefathers carved their names in stone and steel, building the United States of America brick-by-brick on blood, sweat, tears and guts…and maybe a little back-stabbing, double-dealing, glad-handing and bullying too, but hey, in matters of history the end usually justified the means. And so, as Rome also taught us, in the fruit of this brave new world lay also the seeds of its ruin. One glance at the American landscape of 2012 reveals a sad state of affairs and some glaringly inescapable truths. Environmental pollution, government corruption, corporate greed, dwindling education resources, healthcare in crisis, skyrocketing street crime, rampant domestic abuse, and a frighteningly apathetic consumer culture that seems content to let the once-great American dream swirl right down the drain, so long as it can get an ironic tee and viral video out of it to cash in 15 minutes of internet fame. Morality, spirit, soul, and basic truth are all late to the finish line when there’s a fast buck to be made. Just the way it is. Well, iFeel sick, how about you?
The scariest monsters are the real ones
Here in the land of the free, the home of the brave, the post-everything wild west, the good guys don’t always win. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. And sometimes the purest among us aren’t even given a chance. 8-year-old Annette Bright certainly didn’t deserve what happened to her, but when we lay out all we know, the wheels of her fate were set in motion years before she would meet Charles Koschalk. Indeed, years before she was even born. Anything but the facts and records is heresy, but the facts are easy to find and the chronology easy to follow. It ain’t pretty, so if such things linger in your psyche to disturb and haunt for longer than is tolerable, you should read no further. To tell this story is to tell it all, and to flinch in the task would be the greatest disservice to a life taken way too soon. Annette Bright would’ve been eighteen today. But in 2012, she exists only as a photograph, a memory, a campfire story and a cautionary tale. It’s a testament to the idea that our scariest monsters are the real ones, and that sometimes the very people assigned to protect and nurture a child are the ones who feed it to the wolves, and for no good reason. As if there could ever be a reason, or even an explanation, for a thing so evil. No opinion will ever matter or make it better or bring her back, so we’ll stick to the facts because they’re all we need. This story has only one hero and she’s long dead. Her saga begins with a guy who reportedly wasn’t exercising much good judgment in his life.
In 1989, John Bright was enlisted in the U.S. Navy and serving in California, along with his wife Annette, their infant daughter Marcia, and another unnamed daughter from another woman. Acting on complaints of abuse, child services removed both children from the Bright home after John confessed to getting too physical with a belt. It was the first time authorities would take kids off John Bright, but it wouldn’t be the last. The older girl from his previous relationship never returned, which leads us to believe she’d been the one suffering the brunt of the violence, and baby Marcia’s life probably would’ve been much different if she’d remained in the system, but she didn’t – likely due to child welfare’s predilection for keeping kids with their biological mother at any cost. Marcia was returned to the Brights, but things only grew darker as the years passed. In 1993, the couple gave birth to another daughter, Annette, named after mom. Just a year later, a boy entered the mix, this time named after dad. Between 1992 and 1996, San Diego child welfare services logged at least 15 separate abuse complaints against the Brights. Law prohibits the agency from revealing details. Once freed from Naval duty, John Bright took his circus cross-country to Pennsylvania, all the way to – you guessed it – my hometown of Monessen, just south of Pittsburgh. I was long gone – ironically living in California – and I never knew the Brights existed, although it’s entirely possible we passed each other on the road sometime back in the 90s. What is it about the area I hail from that breeds such doom, gloom, madness & destruction? Not sure, but I have my theories. The steel industry that employed so many immigrant settlers and early generation families in Pennsylvania began a rapid decline in the 80s, eventually dying as a career option and leaving many who regarded milling as their inherited way of life with nothing but the breadline and memories of better times. The somewhat isolated suburban river towns were hit particularly hard. With enough time to fester, that type of resentment can instil a kind of wholesale inherited depression. From there, just follow the blood drops. Alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, burglaries, assaults, the list goes on. None of it’s good. All of it looms large in the crime statistics of Western Pennsylvania. Just a thought. Of course, the crime we’re talking about here is worse than all the above put together.
Charles Koschalk had a penchant for underage girls
At some point in the family’s Pennsylvania tenure, John Bright exercised his highly suspect judgment by befriending a thirty-something local labourer named Charles Koschalk. The two became fast friends. Viewing the addresses, I can’t help but notice Koschalk resided a mere stones throw downhill from the house in which I grew up. Had I ever crossed paths with this nut-job as a kid? I can’t recall, but if I did, it’s doubtful anything notable would’ve occurred. Koschalk – skinny, skeevy, cock-eyed, and uneducated – had a penchant for underage girls. Or maybe just one underage girl in particular. In what can only be seen as a huge blow to morality everywhere, he would get the girl. For a little while anyway. After reportedly lavishing the Brights with a myriad of gifts, including a ‘new’ used car, Koschalk succeeded in winning the affections of John’s eldest daughter, 9-year-old Marcia Bright. What I mean to say is that, by all indications, the Brights began accepting gifts from their new paedophilic friend in exchange for their silence as he molested their pre-pubescent daughter. Or, to put it bluntly, John Bright pimped his daughter for shiny things and beer. If, when, or how much Marcia resisted her pre-arranged suitor is unclear. Maybe she dreaded every second in his presence. Maybe she’d been raised so skewed to that point that she didn’t immediately recognise how wrong things were. This arrangement would go on unabated for the next three years, until she was 12. The fact that seemingly everyone within eyeshot regarded the Bright girl drama as common knowledge doesn’t shine a kind light on the locals, but to lend them the benefit of doubt, what do you do? What can you do when they carry on like everything’s normal? Well, to answer for the townsfolk, you gossip. But while everyone was busy sniffing their neighbour’s dirty laundry, things were rapidly worsening in the Bright home.
The straw that broke the camel’s back and alerted state authorities to the situation was the night Charles Koschalk broke the unwritten rule and kept Marcia out until the next morning. Cosy in the cab of his truck, in a wooded clearing, just the two of them with no meddling parents. Not that he’d been encountering much resistance at the house. The message, it seemed, was clear. Come bearing gifts, we’ll look the other way. But spirit the girl away and leave us with nothing, we’ll call the cops. Which is exactly what John Bright did that morning, but only after Koschalk phoned to announce he had Marcia. Koschalk was arrested and charged with corrupting the morals of a minor, receiving a 23-month prison sentence that was reduced to 9 months with time served. Sounds like somebody cut the paedo a break, eh? He was also ordered to have no contact with children, including Marcia Bright. So, following his release in 2001, he did what any sane person would do. He went straight back to the Brights. Inexplicably, John Bright ignored the court’s restraining order and welcomed his old friend back with open arms. Almost immediately, they were drinking and yukking it up on the front porch. The gift giving resumed as well, as did the generous alone time with then-12-year-old Marcia. She even began communicating with Koschalk via a secret pager he gave her, as well as a walkie-talkie, according to the girl’s uncle, who’d been watching horrified from afar. Walkies? That’s some militaresque statutory love right there – and some creepy foreshadowing. Believe it or not, some were still wondering if the relationship between 34-year-old Charles Koschalk and 12-year-old Marcia Bright was sexual. Common sense says yes, but what really nails the coffin is Marcia’s on-the-record admission that she’d had ongoing sexual relations with Koschalk from 1998 to July 15, 2001. That, and the 26 counts of statutory rape prosecutors were set to drop on him when this nightmarish journey screeched to its inevitable conclusion a short while later.
The system fell short and Annette Bright paid the price
The end played out in fast succession, beginning with Koschalk’s probation officer spotting him at a Greensburg shopping mall with Marcia, the very girl he was legally ordered to avoid. The system fell short starting right here, but so did every other single person involved and for some damnable reason, 8-year-old Annette Bright ended up paying the price. Timeline. Koschalk was seen violating his probation on May 4, but it wasn’t until June 18 – 6 weeks later – that the probation department issued their report on his activities. And they put as much emphasis on his unpaid $185 civil fine as they did his accompanying the minor in question. Priorities in order, eh? The county needed its beer money, apparently, but the laziness doesn’t stop there. It would be another whole week before the District Attorney filed the petition to return Koschalk to prison for his transgression. At that point, almost two months had passed. For another full three weeks, a lot went on between Charles Koschalk & Marcia Bright. We’ll cover what is known, though much more is sealed in the prosecutor’s records. At some point, the girl refused to continue the relationship and that’s when Koschalk snapped. Judge William Ober had it in his authority to pull Charles Koschalk off the streets at any time, merely by looking at the petition he’d been given, but maybe there was a game on or he’d gotten a lash in his eye or something. By July 2001, Ober had yet to even schedule a hearing on the matter. Zzzzzzzzzzzz… Thanks, judge. I’m sure your retirement fund is secure, and I’m sure there’s a special place in hell for your special kind of incompetence.
July 15, 2001: 8-year-old Annette Bright vanishes. After 13 hours, her family finally reports her missing.
July 16-17: Search teams of local and state police scour the area, including the rivers, for any signs of Annette. Charles Koschalk is one of the ground volunteers, sticking close to the Brights the entire time. John Bright offers this sage gem for the news cameras that have gathered en masse: “I think she’s been kidnapped, and no kidnapper is going to let her live.” Quite the contrast to most parents of missing children who get TV time to voice their message, right? If not for the existence of Charles Koschalk, this fool would’ve been number one by a mile. Number one suspect, that is. The FBI comes in, after the police chief states, “our expertise is not missing juveniles.” Succinct, chief. Not long ago, one of this town’s officers was attacked and mauled by his own K-9 partner during a domestic disturbance. Hell, I’m not sure what their expertise is. Where were we? Ah, yes. Cue the Psych theme music, because along with the FBI comes a crime scene psychic. This is where things get interesting. Koschalk, apparently cool as a cucumber alongside family & police when helping search the town for the girl, instantly begins sweating bullets when the psychic breezes in. He’d been at the top of the suspect list the whole time, of course, just barely edging out father John on the potential scumbag scale. They were just giving him a long leash and watching his behaviour from afar. As everyone knows, shady hillbillies may hate the Man, but they fear the Mojo. Once the psychic starts reviewing and refuting evidence – Annette’s bicycle found on the other side of town, for instance – Koschalk crumbles like a house of cards.
July 18: And on the third day under FBI questioning, Charles Koschalk confesses to killing Annette Bright. In his words, he saw the 8-year-old riding her bike and thought it’d be fun to take her deer hunting, so they went home to get his shotgun, then drove to the woods. As they squatted in the bush, his leg began to cramp. Standing up to shake it off, the gun discharged and he accidentally shot the girl in the face. Frightened by his error, he buried the body and decided to forget the whole thing. He leads investigators to the body and is formally charged with criminal homicide. Annette is found in a shallow grave near a stretch of train tracks on the outskirts of town. Shot once in the chin with a 20-gauge shotgun, she’s identified by her clothing. Tests reveal traces of Koschalk’s semen on Annette’s body, which lead to rumblings that he’d forced her to perform oral sex before shooting her in the mouth in a misguided effort to erase the evidence.
Later, police searched Koschalk’s home and removed four guns, two shovels, and over a dozen bags for lab analysis as possible trial evidence. As for the murder weapon, he claimed to have cut it up and disposed of the pieces in multiple trashcans and the Monongahela River. It was never recovered. In a perfect world, things like this wouldn’t happen. But our world’s far from perfect. Maybe the least those involved can hope for from this type of tragedy is how not to live and what not to do. Or maybe, just maybe, a little grace. The Bright family, however, would attain neither. Perhaps they just couldn’t. Perhaps they’d been bumping the ceiling of their moral means already, either too rotten or too stupid to do any better. Whatever the excuse, John Bright used nearly five thousand dollars of money donated to his daughter’s burial fund to go shopping and buy things, including a new car. He was arrested, of course. Just another in a long string of really abysmal life choices. And he had an excuse. The car he’d been using was registered to Charles Koschalk, he said, and he needed to provide for his family, because a man provides, right? I can’t help but think – if family really was a concern for this guy – that a little girl wouldn’t have been dug out of a shallow grave down by the train tracks with half her head destroyed by a shotgun blast. Another little girl wouldn’t have been fed to the foster system in 1989, having suffered untold abuses up to then. Still another girl wouldn’t have to enter her teenage years having essentially been dealt as a sex slave by her own parents, before herself following that older half-sister into foster care. And a little boy wouldn’t have to glean what it means to be a man from two of the fucking worst examples we could ever hold up to the light, before hopefully meeting a real role model and re-learning the rules from scratch.
Charles Koschalk took the easy way out. No, he didn’t kill himself. That would’ve been a little too easy. Better to let him live with what he did. Besides, prison’s not kind to paedos, the guy’s plankton. In the lead-up to what was looking like a circus of a murder trial, state prosecutors made a slam dunk discovery – an underground bunker dug into the hillside behind Koschalk’s house that contained incriminating evidence of Marcia’s long-term molestation, as well as handwritten letters that threatened her and her family, should she ever attempt to stop seeing him. “You better hope they catch me before I kill you or your family,” one note read. “I love you to death and will not let you go. I love you forever and ever.” Before going to trial, wherein his defence would’ve pushed for the accidental shooting sentence, he voluntarily pled guilty to first degree premeditated murder and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Armed with the bunker’s evidence, the prosecution had been planning two trials. One for murder with special circumstances for the semen evidence, one for 26 counts of statutory rape. That’s what influenced his decision to suddenly plead guilty, and though he claimed his desire to spare Marcia the pain of a public trial, he told police he feared going into prison as a convicted rapist. At his sentencing, Koschalk addressed the court. “Life is hard to replace. Sorry. I hope God forgives me.” Me. Notice it’s about him there, but Annette Bright is simply referred to as life. Nice deflection, Chuck. They play dodgeball in C yard, I hear. Watch out for shanks.
In August 2001, a few weeks after Annette’s murder, the remaining Bright children, John, 7, and Marcia, 12, were removed from John Bright’s custody by the state. Today, their names are changed, their whereabouts unknown. Marcia is 23, John is 18. Hopefully, they’ve found some happiness and have grown into good people. I’d like to be optimistic and think so. They deserve it. So do we. There’s enough pain and bullshit in the world and everything we do has a ripple effect. Six months after the kids were taken, Annette Bright, 41, filed a restraining order against John, asking that he be permanently barred from the family home. In the complaint, she details sordid abuses committed against her and the kids over the years, including the charge that John had recently pinned her to the floor for over an hour and threatened to kill her. Given the trajectory of the guy’s life, it’s hard to doubt her claims, but some of her wording is chilling. “John tried to use the belt on my kids, but I took the beating for them,” she writes. Notice how she assigns the cause of the trouble to the kids there. I took it for them. What a mom. It’s a classic victim-as-enabler trait, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that she played a big part in paving the way for what happened, too. That type of attitude and sheer refusal to see things for what they are is what sets the stage for things to snowball so horribly, as they did here. Let’s be good to each other, people. Let’s just be good. Turn off the computer and go hug someone you love, like I’m about to. That’s enough horror for one day. It’s enough for a lifetime. Let’s resolve to keep it on the page, on the stage, and on the screen. For the kids out there that have to live the nightmares for real. They’re all around us, but heroes are sometimes in short supply. Check back next month, Horror of Babylon will lighten it up a bit and do something fun. That’s a promise. ‘Til then, be safe.
BC FURTNEY
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First off let me say thanks for a while there i thought my baby cousin was just another stone in the cemetery its nice to know someone other than me is still telling her story you got all the facts true and correct. This was extremely hard on my family and yes john has never been right in the head extremely angry all the time it was just bad in fact he is an evil bastard that’s all i have to say.
I remember this story and this story is why I am where I am today. Kaplin is where I went to get my degree in criminal justice.
Life taken to soon. Didnt not deserve this harsh activity. Rip Annette bright
im glad to see this,i knew chuck&the family.hell I wanted to date him,lol I was to old for him(19),he was always buying things for his brother& family,giving the kids money a lot. ,i lived with his brother&sister in law.i belive him&his sis in law was fucking eachother at one point,i came downstairs one moring&he was hiding in the closet&the sis in law said oh he was trying to scare u,but why would ur bro n law be in ur bedroom while u in ur night clothes.but I remember when chuck would come to the house& pic up his niece&nephew they would fight over who sat next to him in the truck,it was always Marcia that did.smh he is a sick man,i wish I never even met him.i have2kids now&i would kill someone over mines.
I worked with Annette for almost a year. This still haunts me because I mentioned chuckle by name in my case notes several times. That little girl died living her nightmares. I hope he rots in hell.
I was friends with Marcia. I had met everybody named in this including Charles. I was 12 when this happened and it impacted my life a lot. Being so young and learning there truly are monsters out there was a big eye opener for me. Meeting a monster.. Annette was a very sweet girl. The family had once given me their hand me downs and I remember I would sleep with Annette’s shirt when this was going on. I stayed glued to the TV hoping there would be news that she was found. It gave me nightmares. I definitely think it has affected the person I become because I was always very paranoid after that and truly thought that I could get kidnapped or raped and killed. I’m glad that monster is rotting in hell and I hope that Marcia and her brother are doing as well as can be expected. I never saw her again after this happened. If the system did what they were supposed to have done, this could have been prevented.
Hey, this is John. All grown up and 23. Doing pretty good for myself and Marcia is too. Growing up was extremely difficult especially after losing my sister. She was more like my best friend. We hit a lot of bumps in the road but we turned out alright
What I would like to know is why everyone allowed this man to come to the house while the father was at work then hide everything from the father of Annette then allow the public to believe the father knew what was going on when the mother hid everything from him. Does anyone know that the father had a neighbor looking out for Marcia while the father was at work. Does anyone know that the father made plans to send Marcia away to live with her aunt and uncle until he got this guy in jail when his neighbor caught Marcia with this guy. Does anyone know the father ordered the mother to never allow the children to ever leave the house while he was at work until he got this guy put back in jail. How about Marcia’s uncle Donald Simmons who allowed Marcia and this man to use his house as cover to meet for sex. Do you know that annettes father John Bright went to the police station to talk to Carl Fraenzelio the cop to ask for help to get this guy in jail for fear of something bad happening to his children. Why don’t someone ask Marcia Allison if Annettes father knew she had a 2 way radio and pager till 2 days after his daughter was brutally murdered. Does anyone know how Carl the cop promised he was going to get a warrant for this guy’s arrest that very day the father had him called to the police station 3 weeks prior to Annette being murdered then Carl lied to the judge and said we had no such conversation. There is so much you don’t know about John bright and the effort he made to protect his children. It was the mother and donald Simmons who received gifts and money for giving Marcia out for sex. If Annettes father knew of this you can be sure the mother, uncle Donald Simmons and Charles kalschalk would have been dead, not annette. It is so bad that you will never believe nothing but lies, but what’s worse is how you will never know your father or his love for you.
I “worked” this investigation along with many other law officers. After doing this job for 40 years, I can not recall a more horrific crime. If interested in knowing the back story, feel free to contact me.
dear Frank, i would appreciate the back story on this case. people pimping their young daughters for material things is more common than people realize. i had a stepfather who was constantly trying this, it was exhausting staying a step or two ahead of his ideas. horrific case. there but for the grace of God go I.
This Is John, her brother. I would love to know everything you know.
I knew the Koschalks as they grew up down the street from my Grandmother. Honestly this doesn’t surprise me. Id love to know back story if you can.
I’d Love to know the back story Annette used to play with my biological brother as kids he was devastated when this happened.
Just read your reply. My contact information is fgalilei@co.westmoreland.pa.us
Wow I grew up with the brights and I knew Marcia very well and her sister Annette. I use to stick up for annette cause the neighborhood kids used to make fun of her. I’ve heard this story so many different ways. But this is definitely was heard once for me this way so it must be true. When this happen it hurt me really bad cause I was friends with them. Plus growing up in monessen you never heard of anything like this so it was very new and very scary. Never did I once think anything like this would happen. It’s so sad and it still hurts my heart that an innocent little girl would lose her life because of a monstrous man! I remember wanting to go search for her when I found out she was missing but my mother and gram wouldn’t let me of course. I prayed that she would be found safe. But God had other plans. I just hope that her lil soul is at rest. I visit her grave every once in a while cause she is right next to my great grand mother. And I lay flowers or a toy something for her. R.i.p annette. What a sad story.
I will always remember Annette bright I used to go to her house to play I still have the Grinch watch she had given me forever in my heart.
I recently found out Chuck killed himself in jail he took the easy way out. Wow I knew he wouldn’t last long
ty for this update.she is my cousin i never got meet!!!
I did a simple search on the PA DOC’s Inmate Locator and it said as of 4AM today (Jan-3-22) Koschalk is alive. From the looks of it they update it every day.
I just searched the PA DOC’s Inmate Locator, and as of 4AM today (1-3-22) Koschalk is still alive.
my name is michael peluso….i am the cousin.my mom is karen bright.she is a head case herself all 3 of us children have nothing to do with her.abusive psycho should have never had children!i never met annette…god rest her soul.something in the water in fayette county pa.alot of evil.something about that last name in general,”bright”.not so bright.however there are alot of that family who are really good people.i was at her brothers wedding john allison last summer and hes doing great in life,as am i.ty for this read.
I remember Annette. She used to come over to Shawnee Park a lot and me and her would always play with each other. She even stopped by once. Finding out years later on what happened to her was truly upsetting. Such a beautiful soul taken too soul. RIP Annette.
I am the mother of john brights daughter julia.John bright is a crazy person.I made sure julia was away from that crazy stuff.Childrem and youth from ca told me that john bright was beating my.daughter and his wife was mistreating her.So children and youth broght her back to me on a plane.I was so happy to have her back.Her brothers mark and frank were so happyto.John bright would come to myhouse a harass me because i wouldnot let him around her.I am glad that i did keep her away from him.Now he went to jail for trying to come on to a miner
He served 3 years
Now her dad is her life and putting lies in her head.Julia beliving anything she hears
John is on megans law.Julia will not talk to me because she do not belive he did it.
I was thinking about this the other day!! Annette was playing with me and friends the day before she was killed!! Smh
I grew up on the same street as Charles. I was friends with his sister. I was in their house many times. Their dad was an abusive alcoholic whom beat their mom. Couldn’t believe this happened to that little girl. When they showed on tv where the bunker was it was where we as children used to play and build cabins. Growing up Charles was always made fun of. I always thought he was a little strange but never thought he would do anything like this. Shame on all the people who didn’t interject when they should have. May Annette Rest In Peace and have everlasting life.