Maggie Greene says she knows about poverty and unconditional love.
And now the 22-year-old journalist - an intern for The State Journal - knows firsthand what it's like being on the family end of a horrible news story.
For almost five years when she was a child, Greene lived in Owen County with her cousins Penny Michelle Brown and Tim Brown, who made national news this week.
On Oct. 24, Penny Brown's mummified body was found in the trunk of her brother's car.
Tim Brown, 30, of Georgetown, was arrested Tuesday evening in St. Louis on charges of abuse or neglect of an adult and interstate flight to avoid prosecution. He has waived extradition to Kentucky.
Police think Penny Brown, 31, who had cerebral palsy, has been dead for two years and that her body was in her brother's apartment when social workers went there in September to take custody of Tim Brown's 8-year-old son.
Although Greene, of Frankfort, had lost touch with her cousins for years, she decided to visit them this year on Memorial Day weekend.
She went to Tim Brown's Georgetown apartment and knocked on the door several times. No one answered so she called him on her cell phone.
He answered, she said, and she told him she was standing outside his door and wanted to see them.
"He said it wasn't a good time," Greene said. "He said, "No one is here but me and I'm trying to sleep.'"
She said she begged for him to let her in but he refused.
Greene returned to Frankfort and immediately told her mother - an aunt to the Browns - what had happened. Her mother had to work until 9 p.m. that day and after that they were going to return to Georgetown, "and this time we would not take no for an answer," Greene said.
Again no one answered the door. But they saw a "silhouette of a child through mini-blinds."
Greene's mother then said she would sit on the porch all night if necessary and she wanted Maggie to go to the Speedway where Tim Brown worked the third shift.
Greene said she found Tim Brown at work and told him they weren't leaving until they saw his son.
"He kept saying he didn't want to get in trouble," she said. "I said, "We're not here to get you in trouble. We're here because we love you. It's been way too long since we've seen you.'"
She said he got in her car and they went to the apartment. He apologized that the apartment was a wreck, she said, "and his whole body was trembling."
She said they waited just inside the apartment door and when they asked about his sister he said she was living with Danielle Saucier, a friend of his in Dry Ridge.
At their request, he allowed his son to go home with them to spend the night - and after that, weekend visits to Frankfort became "a regular thing for his son," Greene said.
Then one day in September, "Tim called us because social services was at his door," Greene said. "He wanted us to come get his child. He trusted us and knew we would be there for his son.
"This whole time we were calling court systems in all the surrounding counties, Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati asking about a guardianship transfer," since Tim Brown said he had transferred his sister's guardianship to Saucier.
In mid-September a social worker in Georgetown told Greene and her mother the home environment for Tim Brown's child was the worst case of filth she had ever seen, Greene said.
"She said the child was alone every night and he really looked forward to weekends because he got to spend them with us and we made everything OK. So we were awarded temporary custody."
Soon after that Greene's mother filed a missing person report regarding Penny Brown and a few days later the FBI began investigating, Greene said.
"Then Tim went missing," Greene said.
She cried Thursday afternoon recalling the last few months. She now believes Penny Brown's body was in Tim Brown's apartment at the times when they went to get his son for his weekend visits to Frankfort.
"That's part of why this is so difficult because we were right there," she said.
Greene said she doesn't know the smell of death.
"I just know there was a distinct smell that I noticed when I hugged Tim and his child," she said. "It smelled like their house and it wasn't pleasant."
Greene said between ages 7 and 11, she shared a room with Penny Brown.
"I bathed her, washed her hair, brushed her hair and fed her. Whenever anybody walked in the door of the house, she was overcome with excitement and joy. She was always happy to see me or family members or neighbors.
"Her speech was impaired. She had a language that only a few people understood and I was one of them. She didn't really have to say anything. Her expression and eyes were full of information."
Greene said Penny Brown also was stubborn about what she wanted for dinner.
"She loved going to school. She couldn't read but she would hold a book and pretend to read. She watched a lot of movies. She would have enjoyed a lot of other things if she had been given an opportunity.
"She loved animals. The last time I saw her (in Georgetown Healthcare Center), I took my cat, Bruce, in with me. She was so excited and kept saying, "soft' and "pretty.'
"She was obviously not articulate but she was incredibly smart. She knew when we were upset about something and she told everybody how much she loved them."
Greene said she was crazy about Tim Brown too.
"He meant so much to me during those childhood years," Greene said. "I was devastated when he went away to college because he was my only connection to whatever world could possibly exist outside of that household I was in.
"He was so smart. He is so smart. He was knowledgeable about everything. He would sneak and let me stay up late and watch Saturday Night Live when I was a kid. He was like my big brother. I looked at him for guidance and support. I mimicked his style for so long and still the music I love resonates to that time."
Greene graduated from Berea College with a degree in communication in May.
She said she invited Tim Brown to attend her graduation.
But I said, "Don't come if you can't bring Penny too. I want all of you here.' And he said they couldn't
come because they didn't have any money. That was a poor excuse."
Now Greene reads in news stories that no one had seen Penny Brown for a long time, her Social Security checks, $600 to $700 a month, kept coming and her brother kept cashing them, according to investigators.
Greene says she wants to visit Tim Brown in jail.
"I want to talk to him. I don't want to ask him why. Everybody else is going to be asking him that. For the first time in his life I want him to be strong enough to admit he's weak and to take responsibility for himself.
"I don't feel sorry for him. He's where he is because of his decisions. But I love him and I will continue to love him because I believe in unconditional love. I hate what he has done. I hate that he may have felt that was his only option. I'm trying to be compassionate and understand where he might be in his own mind."
Greene said Penny Brown has already forgiven her brother.
"That's the kind of person she was. She forgave all of us - every time we said we would come back soon to visit her and didn't. She knew unconditional love."
Greene said she feels her whole family has been victimized by poverty.
"But Tim had a choice in what he did and Penny didn't. She never ever in her life had a choice and she loved living. Tim had a choice to go to college, the same choice I had and I've graduated. I will continue to work and reach my goals. I feel I owe that to myself."
In all the family turmoil this year, there was a bright spot for Greene in September. While waiting at the judicial center in Georgetown for a court hearing, Greene went outside to smoke a cigarette.
When she came back, her mother told her Carl West, editor of The State Journal, had called her.
"In the middle of all this mess he called me and wanted me to work at the paper," Greene said. "To be a writer had been a dream of a lifetime."
She said she wasn't worried that her family problems would jeopardize her job, but she knew it could affect her work.
"I knew the media coverage of this was a very real possibility, but I could not have anticipated the fear I have felt this past week," Greene said.
"Part of being where I am right now is combating the fear I have harbored my entire life. A part of me doesn't want to leave the house. I don't want to answer the phone.
"I fear for my mother that when she walks around the corner there will be a news van."
Greene said she and other family members are grieving and want to have a memorial service for Penny Brown, "but I'm afraid the media will infiltrate us. They've already taken over (Tim and Penny Brown's father's) driveway."
Greene said she knows as a journalist, it's her job to "extract information. But people can only go so far, can only offer so much.
"I feel as a journalist because this has happened to me, I have no choice but to take that under consideration and be sensitive to that when people say "no' or they don't want to talk about it."
She said she understands "because I don't want to talk about it. This feels incredibly surreal."