CK Mom’s Trial for Murder to Be Delayed

Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, WA)

By JOSH FARLEY, jfarley@kitsapsun.com

Kimberly Forder, accused of fatally abusing her son, will now be tried June 25.

PORT ORCHARD The trial of a former Seabeck woman charged with the homicide of her 8-year-old adopted son has been pushed back to June 25, according to court documents.

Kimberly Ann Forder, 44, who Kitsap County Sheriff’s detectives believe abused Christopher Forder to death, was to go to trial April 16. But lawyers on both sides of the case appearing before Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Sally F. Olsen agreed at a recent hearing to delay the start of the trial so they could prepare evidence and witnesses.

Christopher Forder died in November 2002, but his foster mother wasn’t arrested until August 2006, after family members came forward with new information about the case. While Forder family members lived in Seabeck at the time of the boy’s death, they had relocated to Africa as independent Christian missionaries, court documents show.

Kitsap County Sheriff’s detectives arrested Forder when she returned to Oregon for medical treatment in late August.

The incidents of the alleged abuse were described as “torture" by Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer.

Forder’s bail was reduced briefly in December to $500,000, but an inmate in the Kitsap County jail came forward with information suggesting that if Forder posted bail, she’d be “gone," according to a detectives’ report.

Forder’s husband, Robert, and their seven adopted children remain in Liberia, according to court documents.