Rust’s birth and the following five years are undocumented and enigmatic. She was found feral in the woods near Crellin in Moriah County of West Virginia. Her rescuers and the town police would seemingly forgo proper legal channels and paperwork before naming her aptly, “Meadow,” and releasing her to the care of a very poor and dysfunctional local family, the Bennetts: a single family household where the patriarch was a negligent junkie with 6+ kids under their small roof to boot. Their mother went missing in the winter of 1987. Despite everything, Rust was adapting very quickly to her new life.
The Schulz', Rust’s rescuers, would be heavily involved in Rust’s life after the incident for reasons unexplained. After helping her get placement in school, Rust would quickly surpass every expectation set for her and also that of her peers. The Schulz during this time took it upon themselves to induct Rust as troop leader of their girl scouts chapter, and enter her into child beauty pageants- financial incentive was given to her father for permission to meddle in Rust’s life. Though Rust disliked the activities, she complied for the sake of security: Going along with everything meant a confirmed meal or two that day, and maybe a sleepover at the Schulz- a much more comfortable arrangement. However, Rust was starting to display very unsociable traits, playing cruel pranks on peers and on adults. Lots of animals and violent outbursts, save for the actual anger you might associate with one. By the time Rust was 11, The Schulz’ interest and involvement with Rust faded, leaving her to her father and siblings. The privileges she was afforded went with them.
Less security meant Rust had to re-prioritize, she started doing the minimum in school to get by- it was easy to pass classes but even easier when she realized she could slack off as long as she sucked up to the right teachers, made friends with the right kids. School had not been challenging to her for a while at that point, and she was rapidly losing interest in it. She could've easily played hooky with no pushback at home, but staying enrolled meant lunch and after-school programs where she could read comics and listen to music and watch movies, but mostly, it gave her access to people. Enrolled alongside a Schulz kid, Runner, and the daughter of another big-name family in town, Sissy, Rust realized playing nice with them also meant access to their homes for playdates; clothes, toys, money if she could manage, and best of all, she could keep the spoils instead of waiting on them in school.
Rust, increasingly bored with school and home, decided to use the yet-to-be monitored school buses to travel into neighboring towns, where she started to snowball with impulsive behavior; shoplifting, shoplifting beer and cigarettes, throwing rocks down highway overpasses, setting fire to random things with no regard for anyone else. Eventually, she started waiting for nightfall to break into peoples houses to plainly rob them. One night, Rust broke into a shack bordering Kentucky, and was met with the barrel of a shotgun pointing straight at the back of her head.