3 Month Old Baby Beaten to Death at Homeless Shelter

[Proverbs31]

It really hurts my heart when I hear of stories like this. My prayers go out to the family and to the little girl.

[ADPiAkron]

Posted on Fri, Jan. 30, 2004

Toddler starves to death
Coroner says 17-month-old Canton boy found dead in crib is worst case he's seen
By Ed Meyer
Beacon Journal staff writer




Juanita Johnson-Millender is charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangering.


Calling it the worst such case he had ever seen, a pathologist for the Stark County Coroner's Office said Thursday a 17-month-old Canton boy discovered dead in his crib Wednesday night died of starvation.

Findings of the autopsy showed that the child, identified by police as Joshua Rumph, weighed only 10 pounds, 4 ounces, Chief Deputy Coroner P.S.S. Murthy said.

He said Joshua, who lived with his mother in an apartment in the 800 block of Alan Page Drive Southeast, was ``extremely emaciated, extremely thin and has virtually no body fat. All the bony prominences are visible.''

Murthy, who performed the autopsy, said the preliminary cause of death was ruled as ``a severe case of malnourishment.''

Joshua's mother, identified by Canton police as 19-year-old Juanita Johnson-Millender, was arrested on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangering.

She was being held in the Stark County Jail Thursday in lieu of a $500,000 cash bond, Canton Police Sgt. Jack Angelo said.

When the child was found in his crib Wednesday by Canton Fire Department paramedics, Murthy said Joshua was wearing a little housecoat and some clothes underneath it.

``The clothing was soaked with urine, and the child had extremely severe diaper rash. It's what appears to be an extreme case of neglect,'' Murthy said.

Stark County Family Court Administrator Richard DeHeer said Joshua's 2-year-old brother, identified by police as Jeremiah Rumph, was taken from the mother and placed into the temporary custody of the Job and Family Services Department after a hearing Thursday before Judge John Hoffman.

Citing court records, DeHeer said Jeremiah was ``found to have a scratch on his face, a black eye and a bump on his forehead.''

In addition to placing Jeremiah in a foster home, Hoffman also issued an order prohibiting the mother and grandmother -- identified as Madeline Rumph, 42 -- from any contact with Jeremiah, DeHeer said.

He said records showed the court had one previous report about the mother, but there was no arrest and no details because the case was dismissed.

Joshua was born Aug. 24, 2002, according to police records.

In his long career in pathology, the past 10 ½ years as chief deputy to Stark County Coroner James R. Pritchard and five years before that with the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, Murthy said flatly: ``I have not come across such a severe case of malnourishment.''

Murthy said he checked with a well-known area pediatrician about the normal weight for a 17-month-old boy and was told that it should be 26 to 28 pounds.

Angelo said the boy's father, identified as Jamarr Rumph, was living in Florida. He said detectives have not been able to locate him.

Detectives who responded to the call at the Alan Page Drive apartment, DeHeer said, were ``unable to locate any baby food or cereal, appropriate for this child's age, in the home.''

DeHeer said court records showed the following circumstances before police arrived at the apartment:

Johnson-Millender, the mother, called a friend at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. She and her friend watched television while Jeremiah played with one of his friends.

The mother's friend called a relative, who arrived at the apartment at 4:30 p.m., and the relative called 911 at 4:50.

DeHeer said there was no immediate identification on Johnson-Millender's friend.

He said the next hearing in Jeremiah's custody case was scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 25.

Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Dennis E. Barr said he could not comment on the case.

He said the maximum prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony, is 10 years. The maximum penalty for felony child endangering, he said, is five years in prison.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[CrimsonTide4]

Couple charged with forcing foster child to bring meals to dead man in room

CLARK, N.J. (AP) — A couple has been charged with forcing their 13-year-old foster daughter to take meals to an elderly relative's room for several weeks even though they knew the man had died, prosecutors said.

Police were called to the house in August and an autopsy determined that the 82-year-old man had been dead for several weeks in the room where the girl was sent every day with food.

Kenneth and Donna Keaveney were charged Tuesday with child cruelty and elder neglect following a five-month investigation, Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said.

"They both knew the grandfather had passed away and was rotting to the point where the house reeked of death," Romankow said.

The decaying remains of Donna Keaveney's father, Nicola Lombardi, were found Aug. 28.

The 13-year-old and two other foster children, ages 11 and 4, were immediately removed from the house by the state Division of Youth and Family Services.

The Keaveneys had been foster parents for almost five years, agency spokesman Andy Williams said. It was not known how long the three foster children were living at the home before the body was found.

The Keaveneys were scheduled to make their first court appearance next week. Assistant Prosecutor Robert O'Leary said the couple did not yet have a lawyer.

No one answered the door at the home Tuesday evening.

Bill Megee, a 60-year-old retired electrician who livec jext door in the middle-class neighborhood, said the couple moved in to the blue, split-level home about 10 years ago with elderly man and his wife. But the wife was killed in an auto accident several years ago, Megee said, and the family underwent drastic changes afterward.

Megee said he sometimes heard Kenneth Keaveney ridiculing the older man.

A Collingswood couple was charged in October with starving their four adopted children.

That case caused outrage after DYFS officials said a caseworker was supposed to have been visiting the home regularly yet made no report that anything was wrong with the children.

Troubles at the agency led officials to order a safety assessment of every one of the thousands of children under foster care in the state last year. Williams said it was not known if the Keaveney home had been visited as part of those assessments.

James Davy, the newly appointed human services commissioner, called the assessments into question last month and ordered that about half of them be repeated with DYFS caseworkers under the supervision of independent supervisors.

Kevin Ryan, the state's new Child Advocate, said the latest case "again raises very profound questions about the safety assessments and whether children in foster care are safe."

[AKA2D '91]

That is a dayum shame!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

What kind of sickos do this!!! Poor little 13 year old.

[Honeykiss1974]

Exclusive: Couple convicted of incest speaks out
(MOBILE, Ala.) Jan 30 - A local couple guilty of incest are out of jail, and now speaking out.

Father and daughter, Carrol and Alice Ferdinandsen, married last spring, defend their relationship.

“All we want is to be left alone,” Carrol Ferdinandsen told NBC 15 News, “so we can finish our lives together.”

Thirty-year-old Alice and 53-year-old Carroll Ferdinandsen are out of jail this week after serving six months for incest. The father and daughter married last May.

“We need to pick up our lives and start all over again," he added.

They say the half-year behind bars, and apart from each other, made their love stronger.

“It was rough, very rough,” Carrol said. “I’d see her in the halls: we really couldn't say much, but I knew it was there and that's all it took."

While Carrol was married to Alice's mother when she was born, they separated when Alice was four months old.

Carrol says he never acted as Alice's father, and was not convinced he was Alice's biological father until a DNA test confirmed it last month.

“We really didn’t know until the fifth of December that she is legally mine,” he said. “But that's just a blood test, not in feelings. I've never been in her life."

But they say even though their suspicions are now confirmed, it makes no difference.

“I would do anything for him,” Alice Ferdinandsen. “I would die for him: that's how much I love him."

“I don’t think I'm crazy crazy,: said Carrol. “I am crazy in love with her.”

Their relationship began more than 16 years ago.

“The love I felt for him started when I was thirteen,” she said. That landed Carrol in jail for second-degree rape of a minor.

“I served 9 months for that in the penitentiary,” he said. “But to me it was worth it, and our love has grown since then.”

Their relationship re-kindled seven years ago.

"We've been through hard times and good times," Alice added. "And it's just going to continue."

But now, they are court-ordered to dissolve their marriage and live apart during their three years probation: which they say they are willing to follow, as long as they remain a couple.

"There is other people who have done worse than we have,” Carrol said. “And the only two people we'll hurt is me and her . We're not taking the whole world down.”

The Ferdinandsens could also receive psychological treatment over the next three years, if their probation officers find it necessary.

Carrol Ferdinandsen says he's now also required to register as a sex offender for his rape conviction involving Alice back in the 1980s.

http://www.wpmi.com/news/local/story...3-C26DAB0CBDC3

[lovelyivy84]

I feel sick!

Those two people need SERIOUS therapy.

She was sooo desperate for a husband that was a father figure that she MARRIED her DADDY. That is the ultimate example of what can go wrong when girls have no fathers

[CrimsonTide4]

THAT IS Supremely GROSS AS HELL!!!!


I cannot even fathom!! This took the Oedipus complex way too far. I need to see pictures of this "couple"

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I feel like I am going to puke.

[delph998]

ICK!

[BabyBlue91]

Umm, that's an impediment for marriage anywhere! Isn't the marriage void based on their kinship?

[AKA2D '91]

Puhleeze. Peeps down here have been known for marrying/ having children with their OWN relatives to keep them "pure". (skin color)

Dat's why some of the ones I know are crazy with a CK!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

European royalty used to marry their cousins all the time before they knew about all the genetic problems that could occur. That's why there was so much insanity and hemophilia. For this to happen in the 21st Century is just gross!

[OrigamiTulip]

Cousins is one thing. Father daughter is just gross and wrong.

[pirepresent]

Incest couple back behind bars
Last Update: 2/4/2004 11:10:32 PM
Posted By: Richard Allyn

(SARALAND, Ala.) Feb 4 - A father and daughter married last May and on probation for incest are once again calling Mobile’s Metro Jail their home.

Alice and Carrol Ferdinandsen: back behind bars after violating probation. And now, those close to the couple are speaking out.

The Ferdinandsens were father and daughter for 29 years before becoming husband and wife last May.

“We don't want to call it quits,” they told NBC 15 News last week. “We're not going to call it quits.”

But someone called their probation officer on Tuesday to turn them in. After that call, Saraland police arrived at the Bamboo Motel, and found Alice and Carrol Ferdinandsen together alone in Alice's motel room: a violation of their probation.

Alice had checked in just a day earlier, paying up through Wednesday morning. Carrol has told NBC-15 news he was staying at friends.

“We told Carrol he could stay a night or two,” said one acquaintance, who asked to remain anonymous.

She added she tried to convince Carrol to stay away from Alice during their probation, but predicted, “They're going to stay together. You can put them in jail, but when they get out they're going to go right back together."

“We just want to be a couple and want to be left alone,” Carrol Ferdinandsen told NBC 15 News.


As part of their probation, the Ferdinandsens' nine-month marriage was dissolved, and they were required to keep separate residences.

“They can't tell me they weren't staying together,” said the acquaintance. “We all knew for as fact they were.”

DNA tests confirmed last month that Alice is Carrol's biological daughter.

“We really didn't know until December 5th that she's legally mine,” said Carrol. “But that's just in blood tests, not in feelings.”

Those familiar with the Ferdinandsens are now voicing their feelings.

“It is not right for daddy and daughter to be sleeping together,” she said.

But they also say it will fall on deaf ears. “When they get out, Katie bar the door, they're going to get back together. They're going to leave."

Carrol Ferdinandsen is also required to register as a sex offender, for a rape conviction involving Alice when she was a teen-ager.

A court hearing for the latest charges has not been scheduled.


http://www.wpmi.com/news/local/story...8-AE2BFFDBAF89