Stuff does happen, and it's not always pretty.........this is so sad. What makes anyone do this?

CPS reviewing case of starved 14-year-old in Carnation



A 14-year-old girl who was found starved to 48 pounds in August had told a teacher three years ago that her stepmother was locking her in her room and starving her. Child Protective Services investigated the 2005 complaint and is now reviewing its actions, but officials said the agency would have been hard-pressed to do anything differently.

By Maureen O'Hagan

Seattle Times staff reporter


Three years ago, an 11-year-old Carnation girl told her teacher she wanted to run away from home because her stepmother was abusing her. Locking her in her room. Starving her, even.
The girl figured she weighed 60 pounds. All she'd get was two pieces of toast a day, she said at the time.
At first glance, it seems like a clear-cut case of child abuse. Just months earlier, a Spokane-area boy named Tyler DeLeon died after being starved by his mother. But it was not so simple, and for three more years, the girl remained at home.
On Monday, her stepmother, Rebecca Long, and father, Jon Pomeroy, were charged with criminal mistreatment. When investigators responded to a complaint in August — after a neighbor reported hearing screaming from the house — the girl was 14 years old and weighed 48 pounds.
She suffered dehydration so severe that all of her teeth were rotting, court documents state. It was the worst case of abuse the veteran King County detective assigned to the case had ever seen.
"Obviously we wish we'd had the vision to know that something was going to happen to this child," Children's Administration head Cheryl Stephani said Tuesday.
The agency is still reviewing its work from 2005 to see if there are any lessons to draw. But for the most part, Stephani defended the agency's actions, saying that given the totality of the situation, the agency would have been hard-pressed to do anything differently.
"We're going to thoroughly review the case and see if there were things that were not disclosed at that point [three years ago]" Children's Administration spokesman Thomas Shapley said.
The 2005 case came to light after the girl disclosed abuse to a teacher, who called law enforcement and Child Protective Services (CPS). The girl was home-schooled, but attended a program once a week at Carnation Elementary School.
She told the CPS investigator that she wanted to go into foster care because she was "tired of eating two pieces of bread," according to notes from the CPS interview read to a reporter.
But when questioned further, the girl said that she sometimes ate soup and a sandwich for lunch, and that when her father, a software engineer, came home from work, she ate the dinner he prepared.
Her complaints, the investigator concluded, were focused more on disputes with her stepmother than they were on starvation. Given the girl's report, there wasn't a lot for the investigator to latch onto, Stephanie Allison-Noone, the regional CPS manager in charge of the case, said Tuesday.

The agency was able to determine that Long punished the girl by locking her in a room. That complaint was deemed "founded." The case quickly concluded when the investigator told the mother it was "not OK" to lock the girl in, in case of fire, and Long said she wouldn't do it again.
From appearances, Long was just a typical stay-at-home mom.
One of Long's relatives, who lives in another state and did not want to be named, said she had never seen any indications of abuse.
"The times I've seen her with the children, she seemed very concerned about them. She was home-schooling then because [the girl] was doing poorly and she always seemed to care about them."
To outsiders, she seemed like a woman obsessed — with knitting. She accumulated yarn with a manic focus, buying more and more skeins to add to her "stash." As the stash grew uncontrollably, she vowed on her blog to whittle it down by finishing projects for family and friends at the frantic pace of one a week. But she could not keep up. Last February, she calculated she had enough yarn in her stash for 72 projects.
Meanwhile, she was systematically depriving her stepdaughter of sustenance, court documents state. Investigators say the girl told them that Long permitted her half a Dixie cup of water a day and supervised the girl's showers and toothbrushing so she could not sneak a drink. Once, the girl said she was caught drinking from the toilet, her thirst was so bad. The girl told a detective that her father was "aware of the water restrictions but chooses not to interfere," according to court documents.
In August, a neighbor called CPS to report screams coming from the home. Sheriff deputies found the child emaciated, dehydrated and starving to death — her body resembling that of a 7- or 8-year-old.
Detectives say Long told them she punished the girl by restricting her water intake. Pomeroy, a software engineer described by a former colleague as "brilliant and hyperintelligent," told detectives he thought it was odd that his daughter looked like a child in elementary school. He was also aware of the water restriction but thought "they could just handle it themselves," according to court documents.
Stephani said that this time, the CPS investigator demanded the girl be taken to a doctor. The doctor who saw her the next day referred the child immediately to Seattle Children's hospital, which has expertise in these kinds of cases. She spent two weeks in the hospital and was placed in foster care.
"I'm not trying to make excuses but it — is complex," Stephani said.
Long and Pomeroy were each released on $20,000 bail. They are scheduled for arraignment Oct. 27.
Staff reporters Christine Clarridge and Lornet Turnbull contributed to this report. Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com

Just horrible! I will never understand how anyone can be so cruel to children and how it can take so long for things to be done to correct situations like this. So very sad $20,000 bail? That is all this child's years of suffering is worth huh?

This is just as bizarre as it is sad

Quote:

WICHITA, Kan. — Deputies say a woman in western Kansas became stuck on her boyfriend's toilet after sitting on it for two years. Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital. "We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it." Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend. "She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself." He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom. "And her reply would be, `Maybe tomorrow,"' Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom." The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call. Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said. "She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said. She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators. Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled. Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number. The case has been the buzz Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor. "I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said. Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years. He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there. "It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said of the bathroom incident. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

_________________

"You can kinda just be. Just live your life -- and play." Adam Lambert - OUT mag.

Another horribly sad story. This is the kind of stuff that has always scared the crap out me as a mom and daycare provider. When my boys were younger and played baseball a lot a 10 year old boy from a nearby town died instantly when a baseball hit him the chest in just the right way that it stopped his heart.

Quote:

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. — A fifth-grade boy died after a football hit him in the throat as he blocked a punt at recess. He collapsed immediately and could not breathe. Principal Carol Whitten said students summoned a teacher who attempted CPR while other staff alerted the Lake Oswego Fire Department. The boy, whose name has not been released, died at a Tualatin hospital shortly after Tuesday's incident at Palisades Elementary School in Lake Oswego. None of the other students knew the injury was fatal until Whitten e-mailed parents at the end of the school day, asking them to tell their children.

_________________

"You can kinda just be. Just live your life -- and play." Adam Lambert - OUT mag.

I think the mistake made here was that when
the girl said she was in fact eating meals her
father prepared - the social workers latched on
to that and 'switched off' instead of investigating
the mother further. Also - did the social workers
not consider the fact that maybe the girl changed
her story out of fear of reprisals from her parents.

If the mother was at home all day - how come it
was the father who prepared the evening meal when
he came home from work ?

As for the mother locking the child in a room all day -
I can't believe that the social workers just took her
word for it when she said she wouldn't do it again. Of
course she would say that. Did they ever check back
on this family !

I will never, ever understand letting little kids shoot real guns The little boy in my daycare who is moving back to Oklahoma has gone hunting with his grandpa and dad and has shot a real gun. He is FIVE This story is just too sad.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/27/boy.shoots.himself.ap/index.html

lord that is terrible. I would never let a young kid near a gun. Never.

I don't understand this at all.............it's so very sad. It is an accident that didn't have to happen..............

Everyone be careful tomorrow! Keep your eye on the sky!

http://news.aol.com/article/space-station-trash-plunging-to-earth/234755?icid=100214839x1212185712x1200767583

OMG! What a litterbug! What were they thinking?

I know! It seems crazy! They don't "think" anyone will get hurt?? Why take the chance?

Goodness, this is a horrible story. Like there is not enough for parents to worry about already

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081101/D9469H900.html

I guess the boys were right! We girls DO have cooties!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7705608.stm

I just read a story in the Chicago Trib that is so freaky! A 68 year old woman collapsed and died at a Chicago Blackhawks game the other night. The weird part is 22 years ago her mom collapsed and died at a Chicago Blackhawks game

Wal Mart Employee Killed In Black Fridat Stampede

I don't know if this happened because no one has money so sales are very important, or if no one realizes that no one has money so buying things, no matter the cost, is still very important. But, it happened. A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death early this morning during a Black Friday shopping stampede on Long Island. The man was a 34-year-old stockroom employee of the super store, who was trying to keep a bargain-crazed horde at bay. In the end they proved too strong for him.
<BLOCKQUOTE>
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."</BLOCKQUOTE>
A 28-year-old pregnant lady was also knocked down in the frenzy. The good news is that most people got that cheap XBox that Ricky wanted, and the "My First Sex Scandal" karaoke microphone/dildo that Amber was desperate for. So the young man didn't die in vain. What were we just saying?
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Before police shut down the store, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the store clerk's life.
"They were working on him, but you could see he was dead, said Halcyon Alexander, 29. "People were still coming through."
Only a few stopped.
"They're savages," said shopper Kimberly Cribbs, 27. "It's sad. It's terrible."</BLOCKQUOTE>