The Face of America in Year 2015

Boy chained up with dead chicken around neck tells his story

Associated Press / July 1, 2015

Handcuffed and shackled to a block of steel, the young boy would brace himself when he heard footsteps outside his bedroom door. He knew that once the grown-ups entered, the abuse would begin.

For years, he was whipped with belts, his face was burned with electrical wires and his fingers were broken with pliers — all to "teach him a lesson." The abusers, who have since pleaded guilty, were his legal guardian — a supervisor with the Department of Social Services in Union County, North Carolina — and her longtime boyfriend, an emergency room nurse.

The abuse ended in November 2013 after police discovered the boy in handcuffs, chained to the front porch of the house with a dead chicken hung around his neck.

When police entered the roach-infested house "covered with urine and animal feces," they found something else: four other children, ages 7 to 14, who had been adopted by the couple over the years. They were removed and placed in protective custody.

All were abused, but authorities say the boy bore the brunt of the couple's rage.

"I was scared to death," the boy, now 13, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I thought I wouldn't survive."

The AP is not naming the boy because of the nature of the abuse.

Three months after Wanda Sue Larson and her boyfriend Dorian Harper were sentenced, the boy is telling his story. Larson was released from prison in April, just nine days after pleading guilty to child abuse charges. Now, the boy wants everyone to know she didn't serve enough time.

"I want her to be in jail longer," he says.

His mother agrees.

"It's ridiculous," his mother said. The AP isn't identifying the mother, to avoid indirectly identifying her son.

Jeff Gerber is founder of the Justice for All Coalition, which organized protests against the plea deal that led to Larson's release. He said there is widespread outrage over Larson's lenient sentence.

Harper, 58, was sentenced to up to 10 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty March 17 to maiming, intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury and assault with a deadly weapon.

Two weeks later, Larson, 58, was sentenced to nearly 17 months in jail after pleading guilty to four counts of child abuse. But she was given credit for time served in jail after her arrest and was released April 9. She lives in the same county where the boy now lives.

Telephone messages left for District Attorney Trey Robison were not returned Wednesday. Robison has said he agreed to the plea deals mainly to spare the child-victims from having to testify.

Messages left for Larson's attorney, Robert Leas, were not returned Wednesday.

At her sentencing, Larson expressed remorse for failing to protect the boy and the four others. She blamed most of the abuse on her boyfriend.

The boy, however, says Larson not only knew about the abuse, but encouraged it. As he tries to recover, he worries that he might run into her at a neighborhood store, a mall.

What would happen then?

"That's why I want to tell my story," he said, softly.

He now lives with his mother in a Charlotte apartment. Wearing a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt and blue gym shorts, he sat on a couch in his living room, patiently answering questions.

Barely 5 feet tall and slender, with brown hair and brown eyes, he looked younger than 13.

Court documents say he was put in foster care a decade ago after problems arose at the home of an aunt where he had been staying while his mother was moving from another state, and he ended up with Larson. When the boy's mother found out he was in foster care, she tried to get him back. But Larson said the boy had developed a bond with her family and he stayed with her. Eventually she became his legal guardian.

The mother only got to see her son a few times a year at a neutral setting, and he said nothing about the abuse.

Meanwhile, the boy says Larson told him his mother was sick and he couldn't visit her.

"She'd say, 'Your mom is in the hospital. She's there because of your behavior. You're killing her,'" he says.

Eventually, Larson and Harper pulled the children out of a Union County school, saying they'd school them at their secluded home where they also kept farm animals.

The boy says he was handcuffed and chained to a steel anvil in his locked room where he slept on the floor. At times, they'd starve him and he'd have to beg for scraps. Sometime, the other children would sneak food to him and he'd hide the wrappers in a hole in the wall. Many nights, he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom.

The boy says he was even shackled when he went outside. The only time they removed the chains was when he cleaned the house, or picked up animal feces.

One time, he says Harper cut his left arm and poured salt in the wound. The scar is still visible. It reached a point that every time they entered his room, he'd pray: "I hope I don't get hurt."

Then he'd think about his mother, that maybe they'd be reunited. He kept dreaming of escaping, and that kept him going.

A few days before the boy was rescued, Harper blamed him for the death of a chicken and made him wear it around his neck — even at night.

The police were responding to a call about a loose animal when they stumbled on him, chained up on the front porch.

The boy is still recovering. His mother says it will be a long road. Her son goes to therapy twice a week. He's in summer camp and public school. Still, there are times he can't escape. He had a nightmare that Larson came to his house and took him away. He couldn't find his mother.

"I woke up and I thought it was real," he said. "It was just a dream, but I couldn't go back to sleep."

Death of Maryland boy pushed in swing for three days ruled homicide

Reuters / June 30, 2015

The death of a 3-year-old Maryland boy discovered last month in a park swing where his mother had been pushing him for three days has been ruled a homicide, authorities said on Tuesday.

The boy died of dehydration and hypothermia, according to a statement from Charles County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Diane Richardson.

Officers found the boy, Ji’Aire Lee, around 7 a.m. on May 22 after witnesses reported seeing a woman pushing a child on a swing for an unusually long time at a park in La Plata, about 35 miles (55 km) south of Washington, Richardson said.

When the officers arrived they found the 24-year-old mother, who has not been identified, still pushing the child, and realized immediately that he was dead.

The boy and his mother had been at the park since Wednesday morning, Richardson said. Police found them Friday.

The boy was alive Wednesday when he was placed in the swing where he stayed until police found him, Richardson said.

Police did not give a time of death, but Thursday's temperatures were unseasonably cold, Richardson said.

There were no obvious signs of trauma. The mother was taken to a hospital for an evaluation.

No charges have been filed pending a review by the Charles County State's Attorney's Office.

Father charged with murder after leaving 2-year-old in car for 16 hours

The Washington Post / June 23, 2015

A Baltimore man who left his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car for 16 hours after he had five drinks (and passed out) has been charged with her murder, police said.

Baltimore police said they were called at 5:15 p.m. on Monday for a report of an unconscious child inside a vehicle. Paramedics arrived and took the girl — Leasia Carter — to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

A preliminary investigation found that the girl had been inside the vehicle unattended for 16 hours, according to police. Police said that the temperature outside reached 89 degrees while she was in the vehicle. She suffered second-degree burns in the car.

Her father, Wilbert Carter, 31, is charged with murder and child abuse. He is being held at the city jail.

Police said in a charging document that Carter told them he had consumed five alcoholic drinks during the day on Sunday. Around midnight, he said, a friend drove his car to Brendan Avenue.

He said he has no memory of what happened after that. His mother and aunt told him they saw him come home at about 7 a.m. When he woke up at about 4 p.m. on Monday, he asked them where his daughter was, he told police.

They told him that they had assumed the girl was with Carter’s sister.

A cousin then called to tell him that his car was still on Brendan Avenue. He went there, and found his daughter still buckled into her car seat.

Police said that Carter has a history of consuming so much alcohol that he passes out.

Sister of slain woman charged with helping mom dump her body

Associated Press / July 1, 2015

The younger sister of a woman who authorities say was killed by their mother in March has been accused of helping dump the body in a field.

Hannah Tyburski, 19, was arrested Tuesday on charges of obstructing justice, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.

The body of her sister, 26-year-old Rachele Tyburski, was found March 15 near a recreation complex in Lorain County.

Their mother, 46-year-old Janet Tyburski, was arrested May 5 and charged with aggravated murder. Authorities say she suffocated Rachele Tyburski. Janet Tyburski has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $2 million bond.

Hannah and Janet Tyburski were charged in a secret indictment filed in Lorain County on June 18.

Authorities said Janet Tyburski contacted Hannah Tyburski two days after the killing at a home in Lakewood, a Cleveland suburb, and asked for help disposing of the body. Police and prosecutors haven't said why Janet Tyburski would have killed her daughter.

Hannah Tyburski, a college student, is free on $7,000 bond. She has a hearing scheduled for Thursday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.

Ohio women sentenced to six years for contaminating son's IV bag

Reuters / July 1, 2015

An Ohio mother pleaded guilty on Wednesday to child endangerment and was sentenced to six years in prison for injecting feces into her son's intravenous bag at a Cincinnati hospital, prosecutors said.

Candida Fluty, 35, a West Virginia resident, was seen on a hospital security video in January injecting something into the IV bag of her son, then age 9, causing him to run a fever. Authorities later found evidence of fecal matter in the solution.

Fluty's son was being treated for Hirschsprung, a congenital medical condition that affects the bowels.

Fluty was charged in Hamilton County with two counts of felonious assault and two counts of felony child endangerment. She pleaded guilty to one count of child endangerment in an agreement with prosecutors, the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said.

Prosecutors say Fluty may suffer from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, in which a caregiver fabricates a medical problem for someone in their care.

"We are satisfied with the plea and sentence," Chief Assistant Prosecutor Julie Wilson said. "Our concern was for her child and we hope that he is doing well."

Fluty could have been sentenced to up to eight years in prison if convicted on all four counts.

New York mother arrested after police say she tied her son to a bush

KFSN Fresno / July 1, 2015

Police say she had no one to take care of him and did not want to bring him to the house she babysits at, so she tied him to the bush by a leash so he wouldn't run around the condo complex.

Bloody hell how much worse does things have to get before government officials stop farnarkeling around and bring punishments up to fit the crime outrageous the whole show

those poor kids

Paul

2 arrested in twisted, gruesome child abuse case; Corpse, starved teen and sick infant found

Associated Press / April 8, 2015

Two people have been arrested in what authorities describe as a twisted, gruesome case of abuse involving a child's corpse hidden in a broken-down car, a starved baby living on water and a sheltered teenager impregnated by her stepfather.

Jondrew Lachaux, 39, and Kellie Phillips, 38, turned themselves in after the three children were discovered, North Las Vegas police said.

The two face child abuse charges. Lachaux is also charged with concealing evidence after the toddler's badly decomposed body was found in the garage.

According to court documents, the man and woman took five of their children on a trip to Oakland, California, eight months ago. The couple left behind two daughters — a teen and a sickly 3-year-old toddler — in their suburban Las Vegas home because the rental vehicle was full.

The teen is Phillips' biological child and Lachaux's stepdaughter.

Authorities say Lachaux reportedly impregnated the teen, who gave birth at home without any medical care to a now 4-month-old girl.

She struggled to care for herself while pregnant and her 3-year-old sister who had medical problems while they were home alone. But the teen said she was too scared to call for help even after the food and medication left by their mother ran out.

"The totality of evidence is leading investigators to believe she was almost a prisoner in her home," police Sgt. Chrissie Coon said. "Fugitives can psychologically confine their victims without physically being present."

The case first unraveled on April 1.

The teen was seen at McCarran International Airport with a very sick baby. The infant was hospitalized in extremely critical condition for severe malnutrition and hypothermia from surviving on watered-down baby formula.

In an interview with police, the teenager described abuse at home in detail, saying Lachaux raped her without her mother knowing.

For the last five years, the family had lived in North Las Vegas, but the group of children rarely went outside and was homeschooled. The teen told police she has had braces on from five years ago but hasn't seen a dentist since.

In late March, she said her stepfather came home to hide her sister's corpse and then kicked her out of the house in fear that her mother would find out about the pregnancy. She survived for a few days homeless in public places, including at the airport and on the Las Vegas Strip.

The teen said the 3-year-old sister apparently had trouble breathing and died about a month ago. She called her parents for two weeks before Lachaux called back to learn of the death.

Lachaux and the teen hid the badly decomposed body in the back seat of a broken-down Mercedes in the garage. The corpse was leaking fluids but was concealed in a box surrounded by blankets, plastic bags and pizza boxes, according to court records.

The coroner's office said it has not yet positively identified the body or the cause of death.

The teen is now being held in juvenile detention on a child abuse charge.

The other five children -- ages 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 -- were found with Phillips in good health and have been put in protective custody.

Texas mom murdered daughter, 4, stuffed her in car trunk

New York Daily News / June 22, 2014

A Texas mom facing an impending divorce murdered her innocent 4-year-old daughter and stuffed the body in the trunk of a car because she was jealous of the happy little girl, shocked family members say.

Stacie Marie Parsons, 25, walked into the Athens, Texas police department just before 9 a.m. Monday and told officers she had murdered her daughter.

Police found the badly beaten girl, with severe head and chest trauma, wrapped in a garbage bag in the trunk of the car along the 400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Investigators believe the woman drove to a bridge some five miles away and committed the horrendous act before driving the car back home and walking to the police station.

Gary Wyatt, her common-law husband of six years, said he’d told the woman he wanted a divorce Sunday night, setting off a ferocious argument.

Parsons and little Victoria were gone when he awoke Monday morning but that he assumed they had gone to sign up for prekindergarten. When she returned home, she wouldn’t talk to her 45-year-old husband or his friend, Randy Dyess. Instead, she turned with a dark stare and said, “I wouldn’t be in that car if I were you.”

"Oh, God it was awful,” a weeping Wyatt told the TV station. “Foaming out of her mouth, her head was bashed in. My baby's dead, she killed my baby."

Cops haven’t released a motive, but a bawling Wyatt said his wife resented Victoria, her own baby.

“To be honest with you, I think she's been jealous of that little girl since the day she was born," he told KLTV.

And family friend Dyess said the woman was always on edge, even before the recent dustup over the possible divorce.

"She said I'd rather kill Victoria and spend the rest of my life in prison, than to put up with you," Dyess told the station.

Parsons is held in jail in lieu of $2 million bond. She has no prior criminal history.

Child dies after running for hours carrying firewood, Grandmother and mother-in-law charged

WYFF / March 10, 2015

An Alabama woman charged with capital murder in the death of her granddaughter forced the girl to run for more than three hours carrying sticks and firewood as a punishment for lying, prosecutors said Monday.

Joyce Garrard is accused of forcing 9-year-old Savannah Hardin to run until she died as punishment for a lie about eating candy on the school bus. She could be sentenced either to death or life without parole if convicted.

According to prosecutors, neighbors said Garrard yelled at the girl as she ran, forcing her to continue "like some kind of drill sergeant."

A neighbor, Chad Jacobs, said he saw the girl running and carrying firewood and sticks over a two-hour period as he came and went from his home.

"Joyce and Savannah were in the yard, and Joyce was telling Savannah to keep running," said Chad Jacobs. "She was just saying, 'Keep running, I didn't tell you to stop.'"

Jacobs said he wasn't concerned at first but eventually saw the girl "on all fours" on the ground and vomiting with Garrard pouring water over her. Paramedics arrived within minutes, he said.

When paramedics arrived, they found Savannah on the ground, "freezing cold to the touch," her clothes and shoes soaking wet, Reid said.

Garrard never told the medics that the girl had been running; she said only that the girl collapsed in the yard, Reid said.

Savannah wasn't supposed to eat candy because she was on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and had a bladder problem, but she had eaten candy on the school bus the day before she died.

Garrard was angry that Savannah ate the candy "but she was more upset about the lie," Reid said.

Surveillance video from a school bus shown to a jury showed Garrard talking with the bus driver, Raenna Holmes, about Savannah taking candy without paying from another student who was selling it. Garrard told Holmes: "She's going to run until I tell her to stop."

The women then talk about a bladder condition the girl had and a procedure she had related to that condition. The driver then asks, "Is she OK?"

Garrard replies: "She might be when I get about four more bottles of water in her."

The girl's stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, is awaiting trial on a murder charge in the girl's death. Authorities said she failed to intervene while the older woman forced the girl to run.

no wonder animal rights supporters are all over the place making sure its a felony if any animal is caused pain, because we cant look at ourselves and humanity and attempt to fix "us". I think we have this backwards maybe people should get a cat, then if its still alive after a year and in good health then maybe we can allow them to reproduce, if the animal is not still well, spay or neuter the care taker.

PS i dont want to see any dogs harmed so i would leave them out!

The frigging judges that give these light sentences ought to be hung. Liberal bastards always find some excuse for murderes and think they can be rehabilitated instead giving them the death penalty or the life sentence with HARD MANUAL LABOR where they pray for death. Instead they treat them better than their victims. The running joke in Montana is your better off killing a human than a wolf or grizzly.

Mother tosses son off bridge, killing him

KGW-TV / November 4, 2014

A 34-year-old woman is charged with throwing her son off the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

Jillian McCabe of Seal Rock, Oregon., called 911 at about 6:25 p.m. PT on Monday to report that she threw her 6-year-old boy into the water.

"I just threw my son over the Yaquina Bay Bridge," she told a 911 dispatcher.

Before throwing her son to his death, she searched “not guilty by reason of insanity” on Google on her phone.

McCabe told police that she heard voices telling her to throw the child off the bridge, which is 133 feet above the bay.

She told the dispatcher her son, London, was gone in the water and described him and his clothing in detail. She then described herself as an officer approached her.

She told several officers on the scene that she had thrown the boy into the water.

The 6-year-old boy's body was found almost four hours later by the Coast Guard floating near a marina.

McCabe was charged with aggravated murder, murder, and first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter and is being held on $1 million bail.

Jillian McCabe appeared by video in Lincoln County Circuit Court in Newport, where she entered no pleas on the charges against her, the court reported. Two Portland attorneys were appointed to represent her.

The aggravated murder charge, which carries a potential death penalty, was filed because the boy was under 14 years old.

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Toddler thrown off Allentown bridge dies

The Morning Call / May 10, 2015

A 20-month-old boy died Saturday morning, six days after his mother threw him into the Lehigh River from the Hamilton Street Bridge in Allentown.

Zymeir Perry of Allentown died at 11:51 a.m. at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said.

Authorities say the toddler's 19-year-old mother, Johnesha Perry, kissed her baby before pushing him over the rail and into the water, then jumped from the 52-foot-high bridge herself. Witnesses said Perry managed to walk to shore before collapsing, while Allentown police Officer Joseph Ianetta pulled Zymeir from the river about 700 yards downstream and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Witnesses told police that Perry said it was her time before she plunged into the water.

Allentown police had charged Perry with attempted homicide before the baby's death.

District Attorney Jim Martin said Saturday evening that Perry has been released from Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest and moved to the Lehigh County Jail.

Perry had previously been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. She was being held under $100,000 bail.

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Father tosses 5-year-old daughter off Florida bridge to her death

A 5-year-old girl is dead after her deranged father tossed her off a Florida bridge, and then calmly drove off as frantic rescuers tried to recover her body, police said.

The girl plummeted some 62 feet to the Tampa Bay waters below while her father Nicholas Jonchuck took off, police said.

Rescuers from Eckerd College found the girl in the water nearly two hours after the fatal plunge, about a mile from where she was tossed. She was pronounced dead at a hospital around 2:45 a.m., police said.

Jonchuck has previous arrest for domestic violence dating to 2008, online jail records show, and he was busted for DUI and battery in 2013. Despite his checkered past, he had custody of his daughter.

when we can kill a fellow emplyee,and then proclaim"WHAT DIFFERANCE DOES IT MAKE"......YES WHE HAVE A MORRALS ISSUE!

and taking excellent care of illegals and criminals while our poorest and senior citizens have crap!

Those stories above are really sad and sound like nightmares.

Although it doesn't seem to me as a shortage of moral. I'd say it's unhealthy psichics.

Such folks can't be called "humans" on my mind. And should be separated from the society, to jail or a closed hospital, no principal matter.

The sadness of those facts is that 100% of any population can't be absolutely "normal". Some ones might be bad exceptions. And to our great sorry they can have kids or contact with.

Maybe I use to live in the other kind of society but liberalism doesn't seem to me as the way to deal with such people.

The world has became a ungodly country and think they don't need God for any thing but how wrong they are.Just think back as for back as you can and think about the people then.Most respected the other and most was fair in their trading but now its what I can get for nothing.Just think back a few years ago and most of you remember when we all went to church to tell the Lord how thankfull we was for almost nothing as of todays standards and now very few go to church and some that do cant wait till service is over.God is going to turn a back to this world soon.This president was not put in office as easy as he got in for some one to take him out.People voted for him not knowing any thing about him so go figure how did he get in if its not part of the last show.

I will say one thing. My generation played Army, Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians. Had toy Rifles, Six Shooters cap guns, Bows and Arrows, Waster Pistols and later BB guns and Whamo Sling Shots. If you grew up in the country a .22 rifle or a 410.

We grew up watching war movies about WWI, WWII and Korea. We watched T.V shows called Combat, Rat Patrol, 12 o'clock High, Walter Cronkite's 20th Century, The World At War andVictory at Sea. Watched countless Westerns and other shows like The Un Touchable's, Naked City, Dragnet and such. we had Comic Books like the Haunted Tank (haunted by Jeb Stuart) and others.

We did not grow up angry and violent. We got in fights but didn't stab or shoot anyone. I never pointed a real weapon at a person until in the Army in combat.

The only differences I see are parents who took the responsibility to raise us with values and taught us right from wrong. Teachers who taught knowledge not their views. Police, your Principle and your parents hands weren't tied by the ACLU and the Government. Screw up you got a swat, a paddling or the worst two. . . a note from your teacher or the local cop bringing you home to your parents.

Lawyers were somebody you used to buy or sell property or a Will. Scrape you knee or arm, get a bruise or a shiner.... mom patched you up and than a lecture on being stupid or careless. Parents went for Band-Aids and Bacteen not a lawyer and money.

How did we manager to undo all that in 30 or so years aftere having those valiues for 200 or so years ?

I tihnk it started down hill with LBJ's "Great Society" in 1965

How did we get here like we are now?we stopped praying.Some may get tired of hearing this but its the truth and if I know it and don't pass that along then I am stupid.

God knew that in the end of age man would do this.To me the world is so messed up that no one president of country could put peace back in the world with out getting a war started.Rush said a while back that only thing that will stop the threat of world war is a war.When you study the Bible it tells us that all of these things will come about and to look up for your redempsion drawth nigh.(end of age) But God knew in the end that the greedy will rise up over us and I remnber when the government something to us and now its our enemy.

Those stories above are really sad and sound like nightmares.

Although it doesn't seem to me as a shortage of moral. I'd say it's unhealthy psichics.

Such folks can't be called "humans" on my mind. And should be separated from the society, to jail or a closed hospital, no principal matter.

The sadness of those facts is that 100% of any population can't be absolutely "normal". Some ones might be bad exceptions. And to our great sorry they can have kids or contact with.

Maybe I use to live in the other kind of society but liberalism doesn't seem to me as the way to deal with such people.

Can stories like the ones posted above be found in Russia???