Breaking The Silence: OKC Woman Shares Story Of Childhood Sexual Abuse By Local Ice Cream Truck Driver

An Oklahoma City woman came forward only to News 9, she wanted to break the silence on a secret she has held for more than 30 years. Tracey Starwalt was one of several children molested in the 1980s by a local ice cream truck driver.

“I felt alone for so long,” said Tracey Starwalt, sexually abused as child. “Just alone with my own shame and guilt.”

Starwalt said her childhood memories are fuzzy. She and her family moved from Ohio to Oklahoma in the 1980s. Starwalt said her mother was who brought "Chuck" Charles Brown into her life.

“It mostly started with the Rocky Horror Picture Show group,” said Starwalt. “That was a big thing in the 80s. My mom was a part of that, a lot of people were part of that.”

Mostly adults, reenacting a very adult movie with children.

“Now that I look back there is no way I would ever let my daughters, either of them do something like that,” said Starwalt.  

She said Chuck would secretly video tape her dancing.

“He told me I was the only one and I was special, and I was a star,” said Starwalt.  

She said the dancing progressed to more.

“It started becoming dancing with no clothes on and then eventually him touching,” said Starwalt. “And him simulating having intercourse with me. No, he never had intercourse with me but there was instrumentation used in some of the videos.”

Brown even took the young girl along while he drove his ice cream routes.

“As I got older and looked back at things,” said Starwalt. “I kind of realized that I was being used to bring the kids over to the ice cream truck.”

The ice cream truck was where Brown kept the child porn tapes. The videos were thrown away only to be discovered by a trash collector. That spurred the Oklahoma City police investigation into Brown.

“It moved pretty quick from that point on,” said Starwalt. “To me it seemed like a whirlwind.”

Brown fled the state but was captured in Arizona in May 1989. He was charged with 40 counts of lewd acts with a child, oral sodomy and child porn. While the victims remained faceless and voiceless, Brown was oddly vocal, almost proud of the heinous crimes.

“Some of the videos were before I started the ice cream business and some were after,” said Charles Brown, convicted child molester. “But it wasn’t like a girl I picked up from the ice cream route and she’s the only girl I ever touched in any of the videos they have.”

He also admitted to a hidden camera he had in his home.

“I set up a camera in the closet and every time girls went in there, I had it on there,” said Brown. “But I didn’t do if for sexual excitement. I did it like an immature 14-year-old kid would do it, you know?”

Starwalt said she had to testify in Brown's trial, where a jury convicted him.

“I got 410 years, but they tell me I can be eligible for parole after a third of that,” said Brown. “That’s only 165.”

Brown lost his first appeal in 1991 and committed suicide in prison. But Starwalt said she continued to live with shame.

“Trust became a very big issue for me,” said Starwalt. “I was 19 when I finally got out of that whole world.”

Starwalt still had a lot of questions for the people who knew of the sexual abuse. 

“If you knew this was going on and you were an adult in my life,” said Starwalt. “Why didn’t you protect me?” 

 She hopes her story will give other victims the courage to come forward.

“Even though it took me 33 years to find my voice and bring it out, I do want people to know they can survive this,” said Starwalt. “I finally realized it’s not my shame, it’s not my guilt and I don’t want everything I went through to go in vain.”

Starwalt said there were other men who continued the videos and molestation after Brown was caught. She has their names and locations through personal investigation and planned to turn the information over to authorities.