Saying this is like here I am I mean my
name is my name is Tania... my name is
Tania Culver Humphrey and I say Culver
because it's who I always was and I still am
my dad my dad molested me, sexually
abused me starting him from when I was
preschool, kindergarten age up
through into high school he was the
founder of co-founder co-founder of
Mercy Corps and I don't know what else
to say
Mercy Corps is one of the world's
pre-eminent humanitarian relief
organizations it was founded by
Ellsworth Culver and his friend Dan
O'Neill in 1981 and has a presence in
more than 40 countries
it takes in hundreds of millions of
dollars every year in government funds
as well as donations, grants, and other
gifts. It's highly regarded worldwide and
describes its mission as alleviating
suffering, poverty, and oppression by
helping build secure, productive, and just
communities
This would be a real little souvenir.
Inside his Mercy Corps office Ells
Culver fingers a gift from a friend.
They always wear this, they're
required to wear it. A button
featuring the great leader worn by the
North Korean ambassador to the UN before
he pinned it on Culver's lapel
Ellsworth Culver was the president of
Mercy Corps for nearly a decade and
continued to serve as its public face as
a senior vice president until 2005
He was widely seen as a benevolent force
for good but his lifetime of
humanitarian work has until now obscured
what his daughter and others say was a
much darker reality.  I knew that, you know,
her dad was, I didn't know what his
business was at the time but you know he
was somebody important
Her dad worked for Mercy Corps was a big like head ofMercy Corps, started it, something like that
he was a big figure there
He didn't seem
very warm really or inviting there was
that undercurrent of uncomfortable
interaction that, for 14 year-old girls
He was never an approachable, friendly
man never Tanya said that he was very
different at work, he was outgoing and
friendly and personable, people really
liked him, he was not like that at all
every time I saw him. I kind of felt
things weren't right there but I never
imagined that they were as bad as they were
He would come into my room at night and
he would, he would rape me, he would
sodomize me, I remember holding onto my
Raggedy Ann doll when he did that
Humphrey says she was so young when the
abuse began that she can't remember a
time without it. It didn't end until
sometime in high school
The Oregonian spent 10 months
investigating Humphreys allegations and
has interviewed her multiple times as
she's revealed her experiences with
disturbing detail. We've tracked down
friends of Humphrey's from childhood and
high school. Eight of them said she told
them her father was abusing her. Three of
them said they witnessed the abuse. And
at least one said Ellsworth Culver also
abused her. We've reviewed Humphries
correspondence with Mercy Corps
extensive medical and counseling records,
and reports from Oregon's child welfare
agency. The number of witnesses is a
rarity in cases like this, as is the
trove of documentation
So I'm just I'm gonna get all the things that I've saved
which is a lot of things, things from my
childhood and journals and other things
that are, that I saved that, to bring them
downstairs. Lots of boxes, lots of boxes
there were always these, these boxes
that Tania had. Her journals you know
where she talked about her abuse as a
young child all her other things
surrounding this time period
All my life. All my life. But I've never seen it all
together at once. I guess that's kind of
like my life too like everything's
always so been so hidden and separate
and broken apart
Humphrey describes her
childhood as defined by two forces - Mercy
Corps, and sexual abuse by her father
from the time she was a preschooler
those things were intertwined, the two
sides of her father converging and
crushing her. In the Culver home, she says
nothing mattered more than Mercy Corps,
and protecting its image was everything
Humphrey felt compelled to save
everything she could - documents,
journals, her own poetry and artwork, as
proof that her experiences were real
Her repeated disclosures did nothing to stop her father, she said. Her voice did not
seem to matter. Not to her mother, who
denies knowing about the abuse though
Humphrey says she told her, not to some
of the other people who knew but didn't
act, not to the state which received two
reports of abuse by Culver but did not
intervene, and not to Mercy Corps, the
organization co-founded by her father to
help vulnerable people who are suffering
We cannot undo the traumas you
experienced in the past but in the
future Mercy Corps people will be
treated with fairness and respect and
your sacrifice will bring blessing to
not only the staff but to the recipients
of our programs internationally. We hope
you will continue to find your own
healing so you too can move forward into
a better life than you have experienced
It's not what happens to us. It's what we
do with what happens to us it's not what
happens to us it's what we do with what
happens to us. I don't think my sacrifice
brought blessing to any of their staff
or any of the recipients of their
programs internationally. My sacrifice
allowed them to keep a sexual predator
around. How can you go out and help women
and children when you had to sacrifice
one in order to do it?  That letter was
sent to Humphrey in 1994 by Raymond Vath
then chairman of the Mercy Corps board
of directors. By then it had been almost
two years since Mercy Corps first
contacted Humphrey. Her allegations had
been reviewed by Vath and fellow Mercy
Corps executives Dan O'Neill and Bob
Newell.
All three men were Ellsworth Culver's
professional associates. After we pressed
Mercy Corps for answers twenty-five
years later, the current CEO apologized
of his organization in any way caused
Humphrey pain, but stood by the board's
initial inquiry calling it thorough
I met Tania in 9th grade at st. Mary's
Academy. You know we were all just 9th
graders and then as the year progressed
you know and we got closer she told me
and her other friend that her dad had
been inappropriate with her on multiple occasions
I kind of was savvy and knew what she
was talking about
I knew her key words that she was saying
that made me go oh you're being sexually
abused
she was saying that her dad was touching her in her sleep at home and
and and being 14 I didn't really know
how to deal with that I don't think I
even really wanted to listen to it it
was kind of like one of those things you
just don't talk about I mean that was
sort of my thought anyways just like oh
this is happening but we're just not
gonna talk about it towards the end of
the year she started to lose a lot of weight
She came inpatient as an
anorexic. I didn't suggest to people with
an eating disorder
I didn't say oh were you sexually abused
she began talking about him as an abuser
more like along a physical line pretty
very quickly I would say the first week.
About the time she left the hospital I
reported to CPS which was I was bound by
law to do, I didn't realize the CPS
really didn't investigate it looking at
the notes that Tania has as an adult
received it looked like they really
didn't do anything
Records show that McIntosh's report was
one of two the state received regarding
Humphrey's abuse by her father. One was
marked valid and was referred to the
Lake Oswego police department, but no
further documentation exists
for unknown reasons those complaints
went nowhere
This is Tania Humphrey
Hi Tania, thank you for calling
Hi, thanks for taking my call
I hope that I can answer your questions
I hope so too
Of course, they're just hard to answer because practice was just a lot different then
yeah
than it is now
I am, you know, I am really trying to do my best to understand you know there's two reports
there and you know why didn't why wasn't
there any intervention?
We can't tell from the documentation that's in archives what did or didn't happen on your case
It just says...
That there was a credible disclosure
That there was a credible disclosure
I wish that I could answer your question around why didn't the state make decision A instead of decision B
But I don't, I don't have those answers.  All I have is what is written here
With what, what you know here and the reports that were made, how would a case like this be handled today?
With today's procedure?
Well it, certainly if we, just generally speaking,
we would need to interview that child, any other children living in the family home, the parents
law enforcement would be working the case in partnership with us
it would be a comprehensive assessment, and we would, you know, make a decision
not only just around did the abuse occur or did it not, but more importantly whether or not the child is safe
So, I've gotta tell you, this is really, it's
fairly emotional for me to hear that
because, you know, and I know this is not,
you were not there and you, you did not do
this, but you know I was definitely not
safe and a lot more abuse continued to
happen, it feels like a little bit
shocking and it's hard to even absorb the
fact that things could be so
dramatically different that literally
nothing happened
I think that where we're at a disadvantage is
we don't know what did or didn't happen because the documentation about that assessment doesn't exist
I wish that I had those answers and I just don't
I, I know that that's not what you wanted to hear
and I wish that I could
answer the questions that you have
if I'm being honest I have the same questions, and I can't find the answers in what I've, what I have read
okay thank you thank you
yes, of course
Fuck.
Humphrey's friend Michelle Green was a
regular guest at the Culver home when
she and Tania were in high school at St.
Mary's Academy in Portland. Some of
Humphreys friends say they were excluded
by her father after initial meetings
when he grilled them on their home lives.
But Green, who says she had no father
figure, was allowed and even encouraged
to visit. I always wanted to get out of
my house
once he met me and knew a little bit
about my family home he was okay for me
to come around Tania and to their house
Multiple times of spending the night I had woken up and
I saw him leaning over the bed I think she
just laid there and allowed things to
happen, she kind of, I always took it like
an out-of-body kind of thing and he
would be there standing at the edge of
the bed, on the side of the bed, touching
With an erection
Because I was afraid for Tania. And I wanted to protect her so I
really was, I wanted him, if he was gonna
mess with anybody, I can take it, I'll be fine
Well I don't want her to think that it's
her fault, but he did do, you know, a lot
of things and make me touch and he touched, and...
yeah
And he gotta touch me. Well I let him,
because I had no other choice. One of the
times that he wanted the oral sex was
when he was driving me home and he had
pulled down, it was near my mom's house and it was at a parking lot, he put my hand on
his on his penis and I held it and this
is with it out and that's all I would
do, I was, I was too nervous and somehow
I got out of not, having to perform any
of that, but I wanted him to stop there
so I allowed myself to just touch
it a little bit and I feel really gross
and, and horrible about saying that, but I
didn't want him to make me put my mouth
on there and I'd rather rub his penis
until he could finish doing what he had
to do. And I've been nervous to even say
any of that. So I'm... yeah. But that uh, I, I've never told
Tania that but um
that was really bad
That was intense.
Just knowing everything that's happened, and what will from this
My dad kept trying to get me to sit on
his lap too
I can't help but watch it and
see that reality and then know the rest
of it all at the same time it's like I
know everything that's happening in me
at that moment, I just don't wanna
touch your leg, I don't wanna be on your
leg like it just makes me overwhelmed
Furious, kind of, like how, how do
you do that to somebody, like, that little
Like to know what's actually
happening to me and had already happened
to me and I can see my resilience too. My
dad makes me wanna vomit watching that
but that's okay
Humphrey said by the time she was in
college
her father's sexual abuse had stopped.
But she remained haunted by her
experience and in need of help. She
joined a support group for women who had
survived sexual abuse in their teens
She came in to work with me as a counselor
but she also joined our recovery program
I didn't immediately know that her
father had abused her sexually but I did
know that home was not safe. She had
heard that she was not being honest so
often that it takes a while and the
details began more and more to unfold.
Humphrey said she ultimately disclosed
the identity of her abuser to members of
a prayer group she was also attending
while she thought this would remain
confidential
it did not. Soon after she said she got a
call from a member of the Mercy Corps
board who asked if the allegations were
true. When she said yes, this appears to
have set the organization's internal
review of Ellsworth Culver into motion
Humphrey said she was asked to turn over
her medical records, journal entries and
other evidence that would back up her
account. She called me and said she
wanted me to release the records to
Mercy Corps. At the time that I released
the records I did this summary for Mercy
Corps to highlight what had concerned me
the most, and her memories at the time
included fondling of her crotch fondling
of her breast, chest at an early age. She
was forced to kiss him on the lips with
some tongue involvement by him and she
had to do it over and over until she got
it right. She remembered being tied to a
bed hands and feet spread-eagle and
feeling violated, dirty and terribly
saddened, and I said very strongly that
she needed to have legal counsel herself
and that she was entitled to that and
that were irresponsible if they didn't make
sure that happened
During this time Humphrey was taken in by another family
while Mercy Corps was looking into her
allegations. She stayed there for more
than three years, sharing many late-night
conversations with Kim Weber after
Weber's husband and kids had gone to bed. A lot of it was hard for me even to
hear and to absorb and to process you
know everything that happened to her but
it was real I knew that she was truthful
and there was no question in my mind
ever. I don't even know how she could
function, you know, but she did.
She's a strong person
As part of Mercy Corps' review, Dan O'Neill, Raymond Vath and Bob
Newell interviewed Humphrey in person.
She was accompanied by Pam Faatz and Kim Weber
but did not have a lawyer. The
interview was held at the Davis Wright
Tremaine law firm, and Humphrey recalls
the Mercy Corps officials referring to it as her "deposition"
They kept us waiting in the waiting room for about 30
or 40 minutes, she's getting more and
more frightened by the minute
They marched in in their big bully suits and
attitudes and really did a number on her
I remember we were in a room and there
was a lawyer across this big table and
then I was sitting there with her and
Tania was there and then it must have
been Pam on the other side.
It wasn't cordial
They were just attacking her words they were attacking what she said they were attacking her
character. They were not there to hear
the truth. They were there to protect
Mercy Corps and all of their reputations.
They were there to protect their arses
I remember the feeling of like having to
defend that it wasn't like just an
accident, there wasn't an accidental rubbing up
against somebody or something, it was under my underwear, it was like not... I remember
that being a specific thing and, and
talking about being in his bed and him
being behind me and rubbing up next to
me and pushing himself up to, in...
I don't know if I said exactly into me... I
told them enough. It was too scary to
talk about. Isn't putting their hands
like under your underwear, like, bad
enough? Like isn't that supposed to be enough?
I just looked at her and said
Tania, we need to be done here.
I held her up as we walked out because
she was just so powerfully destroyed by
how they had handled it. I've had a lot
of experiences with devastating things
that clients have experienced but I have
to say that that's one of the most anger
producing. Boasting about all the good
things... well that's, there is no good thing good
enough to make up for the character
defects that will do the things he did to her
I was washing the car, just washing the
car. I was probably 12 or 13
This picture's hard to show
Not really a picture a dad would normally take
One of the hardest things
to deal with about this is that my dad
took photos of me um pornographic photos
of me, naked or partially naked, in
positions that were sexual
Always had the Polaroid camera around. The hardest part about this is that the
other stuff happened and I can try to
tell myself I'm safe now it's over it's
done. But with this there's these photos that
I don't know, I knew he had them, I know
he looked at them... I don't know who has
them I don't know who's seen them I
don't know how many people have seen
them... my experiences and my body in those
pictures could still be looked at could
still be used. Like I'm participating
against my will, still
Like trauma that just keeps on happening
Mercy Corps ended its review after about two years
saying in a letter to Humphrey that it
had completed what it called a rather
careful evaluation. It said it was
pursuing a redemptive approach with her
father and makes vague references to
Culver's apparent dysfunctional
influence and his daughter's past trauma.
It makes no mention of abuse. Culver was
reassigned but continued to travel the
world in the organization's name
Nobody did anything about it,
I guess that was one of the hardest
things for me to wrap my mind around - what, nobody did anything? Who is this guy that
no one would you know turn him in or say...
anyway, it was really hard
They need to be accountable for what they have done and not done. They could have helped her
why didn't they if they really care
about people in other parts of the world?
Your mission starts at home
We move freely around the community, we
go in and out of the marketplace, we find
it quite possible to get about and do
our work. Mercy Corps ensured Culver was
free to keep working with people in
troubled regions around the globe even
after his daughter told them he'd
sexually abused her. We don't know if
Mercy Corps received sexual abuse
complaints about Culver from anyone else
including refugees he encountered in his
work. Mercy Corps officials didn't
respond when we asked if they'd received
other reports of abuse
Tania's room was down this hallway
and the bathroom was there on the one
end of the house and her dad's office
was also there
It had brown carpet, dark brown carpet, he
had a big dark brown desk and I remember
Tania, we were talking about the art or
pictures and she went in there she was
gonna show me something, and in the top
drawer there were a bunch of pictures
three by five or whatever they were, of
girls, refugee kind of girls, young, naked
knowing who her dad is I'm like oh this
is like National Geographic cuz that's
what I related naked brown-skinned people
with, and then I remember thinking no this
isn't like that. It was more explicit.
Legs spread, and this is kind of graphic
but I remember like very pink vaginas.
None of those pictures were boys. They
were all young girls, and I remember
being very nervous and that we shouldn't
be in there and you know Tania shuffled
things up and we got out of there and
like that was it
In 2005, Ellsworth Culver died. His
funeral was covered extensively by the
media. A front page obituary ran in The
Oregonian. Mercy Corps kept a glowing
tribute to Culver on its website. In 2018
Humphrey's husband Chris noticed that Mercy
Corps had publicized a new internal
ethics policy. He and Tania reached out
asking the organization to take another
look at its original inquiry into
Tania's father. Mercy Corps completed an
investigation about child sexual abuse
they did it kinda under the table, you
know, they didn't have any reports they
didn't really tell anybody,
Tania what happened, it just sort of
disappeared but now there's this whole
process and they want to investigate
ethics, internal ethics. The Humphries
were at first encouraged by their
correspondence with Mercy Corps, but the
tone quickly shifted from cooperative to
cool. At one point during their exchange
a Mercy Corps lawyer told the couple
that the organization had no interest in
what he called "relitigating" Humphrey's
allegations. The couple felt they had
reached a dead end. I think it would be
helpful for us to discuss just what it
is you think Mercy Corps can do now to
help your wife gain closure on whatever
occurred between her and her father and
her family some twenty four years ago.
And he basically said well we asked
around, we looked around, we did a
thorough, you know, review
Our conclusion is there's no documents
whatsoever
there's no records. This was
apparently an official investigation of
their president for child sexual abuse.
We had a hard time believing well, how
could they not have any kind of records
or memory or what, what have you of this
I lost so much from that. I mean I lost my family, I was
treated with no dignity or respect at
all. I was even told that I was, there's a
sacrifice for them. It's unconscionable
what they did and how they did it. They
stand as humanitarians to help women and
children around the world that's what
they stand for, people in need, vulnerable people. And that's how they treated me?
Did you guys see that I had the
birdhouses out, over here? Okay
You didn't see it? You can, you can decorate them and you can also use the stuff that we
collected. Can you see? I can't even see
I need my glasses. Oh that's so pretty. That's so pretty!
Tania Humphrey has made a life for
herself
despite childhood trauma most people
couldn't imagine. The Oregonian sought
comment from Bob Newell, Dan O'Neill and
Raymond Vath
We made repeated requests to speak to
them, but they declined. They also didn't
respond to our written questions.
Eventually, Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer
sent us a statement calling Humphrey's allegations horrific. We are deeply
sorry for any pain Ms. Humphrey has
endured, he said. We are sorry if in any
way, 25 years ago or more recently, we
contributed to her pain.
Keny-Guyer pledged that an external review of how the organization responded to Humphrey
last year would eventually be undertaken.
As a relief organization, Mercy Corps has
undeniably made a significant impact on
regions in crisis and helped people in
need. But the harm that can be
traced to its origin raises troubling
questions about what it was willing to
sacrifice in service of that mission
This is my old neighborhood this is
where I grew up, and I used to go down
this path. I used to go down the path to
hide and to escape so I always felt like
I was lost I felt that feeling of being
lost all the time
like I need to go back and find her that
little girl and find her and save her
like I felt like I couldn't save her
like she was lost forever and then I
realized you know more recently now that
I am saving her. Like, that, that, that, that
you know this is, this body is her body,
like, like I'm sitting right here and I'm
alive, and that means she's alive. Like,
like that five year old me and that nine
year old me that 12 year old me was, is
alive. And I'm... she gets to be saved, even if it's now
I honestly thought when I saw
her last, I didn't know if she was gonna
make it. I mean I really didn't know she
was gonna survive. It's almost like a, a
relief because someone's finally
listening, and cares to listen
I feel like not necessarily someone should pay for it
but they should be outed, they knew and
they still didn't do anything
The people in her life including her
father and lawyers or whomever the
people with the power and influence
are the people that she was dealing with
It would have been devastating for the
organization, her dad... I think there was
probably a lot of people, in my
opinion that
didn't want any of that to come out. I
think the story is a valuable story to
be heard in the event that others have
had the same experience that they will
have the courage to step up, find
somebody that they can tell their story to and be heard
I'm a strong believer in her having her voice and be heard about
this. She was shut down before and it was
always such a secret, it's been in the
dark for all these years and it needs light on it
What do I want? I want them
to admit that they left him there, this
predator with how much access for how
many years? I want them to use their power
because they have a lot of power, to do
something about it, to own their sins
I mean own their sins! Drag the cross for
a little while. This process has been
like terrifying. I'm putting out things
out there that are not gonna make people
happy, that I know a lot of people aren't
gonna want to hear. At the same time I'm
I'm I'm being heard
I'm being taken seriously.  Like a real
investigation is actually happening
I know it will be worth it... sometimes that worth it part goes on faith that I don't see yet
But that's still worth it too
