Oct. 10 -- At age 16 Leigh Horowitz had just about everything a precocious teenager could want. She was smart and pretty, with cascades of chestnut hair adorning her rapidly maturing body.

Dancer and dance teacher Leigh Brockman Horowitz knew that one of the first things she wanted to do when she moved from the New Orleans area to St. Louis was get involved with the dance community.

By her sophomore year Leigh was flunking out. The principal told her parents he suspected she was on drugs, and they feared as much. But when Joel Horowitz tried to talk to her, she would cry and ...