Ellen Sawyer

Nell was the daughter of multimillionaire Clifford Michel, one of the founding partners of the great Wall Street investment firm Loeb Rhoades. In 1995, Nell Sawyer was suffering from breast cancer. Unexpectedly, that summer, her husband, David, suddenly died. David Sawyer's Sawyer/Miller public relations company was a force in geo-political chaos. He was a power player and a not a terribly nice guy. It turned out after he died that he’d played fast and loose with pension monies due his first wife. They’d been married for 25 years. Two weeks after David Sawyer died, so did Nell Sawyer. Suddenly, little Luke was orphaned. Nell Sawyer had made plans for her son, however. In May 2005, she’d added a codicil to her will designating friends Leola and Robert McDonald as his guardians. She chose back-up guardians should the McDonalds be unavailable. What was clear was that Ellen Michel Sawyer McFarland did not want her little adopted boy to be raised by her ex-husband and Kathleen Troia McFarland. But neither of the designated couples ever took Luke. Mysteriously, and without question, the boy immediately went to live with his mother’s ex-husband and his second wife. According to court papers, the now 17-year-old Luke’s court-appointed guardians became his older brother Gavin, then 23, and Kathleen Troia McFarland.