Watch the Dr. Phil Show this Wednesday, April 14th, 2010, for some history-making television!
The Dr. Phil Show worked with Kathleen Russell on behalf of the Center for Judicial Excellence to develop a compelling show that exposes the systemic breakdown of our nation’s family courts. The tragic story of a young mother named Katie Tagle sets the stage for a deeper conversation about the divorce courts’ routine failures to protect children. Kathleen Russell and Marin family law attorney Barbara Kauffman appear as experts in the 2nd half of the show.
Click here to find your local Dr. Phil station & airtimes.
The taping of this show represents an amazing turn of events in the media’s coverage of this growing national crisis. Don’t miss it!
Yea it’s pretty sad when your just looking up the info about your half sister and you find your dad’s name in the top 5 of the 76 killing dad’s. Yea Mindi Chambers was my sister & I wish I would have gotten the chance to tell my dad how I really felt about his sorry ass. He was a sick individuale but that’s no excuse for him killing my sister & her real mother when my sister was only 2 years old.
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/02/76-killer-dads-fathers-who-ended-their.html
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010
76 Killer Dads: Fathers who ended their children’s lives in situations involving child custody, visitation, and/or child support (USA)
(and this was just as of Feb.16th. on some media reported)
POSTED: 2:58 pm CST February 10, 2010
UPDATED: 8:08 pm CST February 10, 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn. –Â More than a dozen current and former Department of Children’s Services workers say children are at risk from the agency’s focus on mandates and quotas.
Related:Â Pt. 1Â |Â Pt. 2
April Meldrum is the new associate dean at the Duncan LawSchool in Knoxville. But just one month ago, she was a juvenile judge in Anderson County — a judge who dealt every day with broken families, struggling families, foster families and the DCS.
Meldrum quit that judgeship because she said DCS would not help families.
“As you’re faced with making a decision every day of deciding whether or not to remove a child from their parents, you would like to know that the agency to whom you’re giving the child would do a better job than the parents from which you just removed the child,” said Meldrum. “It’s untenable to be in if you don’t have that faith, and I no longer have that faith.”
Meldrum said she constantly had to battle DCS to provide its basic services like drug and alcohol counseling, anger management and just helping with paying a utility bill for a month.
“It happens routinely that services are ordered, and they not provided. Time and time again the department would return without meeting their obligation,” said Meldrum.
DCS Commissioner Viola Miller said those statements are not true, and DCS provides services that are court-ordered in a timely and even urgent manner.
“Do you know that almost nothing that says to me makes me angrier than that? Because I love our kids, and I love her families,” said Miller.
In October, Coffee County Juvenile Court Judge Tim Brock was so mad at DCS that he ordered every DCS caseworker and manager in the county to appear before him and bring all their cases and explain why kids weren’t being seen sometimes for months and why services he ordered weren’t being provided.
This was all done in the secrecy of juvenile court, but it isn’t a secret anymore because of Brian Bagby, who resigned from his position as a Coffee County DCS investigator. He felt DCS was concerned with numbers, not kids.
“I just felt like it wasn’t worth the job anymore,” said Bagby. “I just felt I wasn’t doing anything for families. I kind of felt like I was actually harming families more than doing anything good for them.”
Bagby isn’t alone: Three former and current DCS workers have also made similar complaints to Channel 4, but chose not to appear on camera.
When case managers investigate complaints that children are being harmed in a home, a case is officially opened. As long as a case manager has any contact with the family, the case remains open.
Case managers said cases often stay open for long periods of time because there are so many questions to ask, and they are getting pressure to hurry up and close the case as soon as possible.
“The department really wants you to get it closed within 30 days,” said Bagby. “They really don’t care what’s going on, as long as the media isn’t involved or a child doesn’t die, they want you to close it.”
Miller said there is pressure to close cases, not because it’s costing DCS money but because kids are in imminent danger and deserve fast action.
“This is about kids’ safety. We can’t leave them hanging out there,” said Miller.
But Bagby argued if there are 50 cases, that could be 150 kids. With interviews, court, counseling, psychological evaluations, Bagby said it ends up with a shoddy investigation.
“It just got to the point if you go to the house and nobody was on fire, nobody was bleeding and no broken arm, you (were told) just to talk to the family and kids for 10 to 15 minutes, get in the car and go to the next case,” said Bagby.
Miller said DCS believes a case worker should be able to handle a constant load of 30 cases, and it’s a well-documented standard that DCS is maintaining.
“We don’t have a bunch of caseworkers with over 30 cases, and we’ll be glad to show you that we have the data on that,” said Miller.
But internal caseload summaries provided to Channel 4 by DCS insiders show some issues. In September 2009, for example, there were 75 case managers with more than 30 cases. This represents hundreds of Tennessee kids over the limit.
What Bagby and Meldrum are saying is even these case load numbers don’t tell the story because it doesn’t count the many cases being closed to quickly.
Bagby admits he was reprimanded by his bosses by DCS management. But he maintains that his supervisors at DCS required him to do things he thought were unsafe and eventually quit his job.
Previous Story:
February 10, 2010:Â Ex-Workers: Kids’ Safety Not Focus Of DCS
Apr 2, 2010 5:51 pm US/Central Texas Man Gets 10 Years After Wife Drowns Baby
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) ¯ A Texas man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaving his baby alone with his psychotic wife, who drowned their son in a hot tub.
Michael Maxon appears to be the first husband held criminally responsible in Texas cases involving mentally ill women who have killed their children, said prosecutor Alana Minton.
Maxon, 56, was convicted earlier this year of intentionally abandoning his 1-year-old son when he left the couple’s Mansfield home in 2006 to run errands. According to trial testimony, doctors and relatives had warned him not to leave his son Alex alone with his wife, who had been having delusions that her son was the anti-Christ who would be tortured before causing the Apocalypse.
In 2008, a judge found Valeria Maxon innocent by reason of insanity in the baby’s death. She was sent to a state mental hospital, as required by Texas law with such verdicts.
During Michael Maxon’s sentencing Thursday, state District Judge Wayne Salvant said he was disturbed that Maxon still believed he was not responsible for the baby’s death. Maxon faced from two to 20 years in prison.
But defense attorney Jack Strickland, who sought probation for Maxon, said his client was charged only because prosecutors thought “somebody has got to pay” after Valeria Maxon avoided prison, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Friday editions.
Strickland also cited the high-profile case of Houston mother Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in the bathtub in 2001, the Dallas Morning News reported.
“There was a great outcry after Yates,” Strickland said. “Maybe to a degree those chickens have come home to roost.”
At her first capital murder trial in 2002, Yates was convicted but avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors said they were looking into whether her husband, Rusty Yates, had any culpability but ultimately did not charge him.
Trial testimony revealed that Andrea Yates suffered from postpartum psychosis, which caused delusions, and had been in and out of mental hospitals for other mental illnesses. Doctors warned the couple not to have more children after Andrea Yates tried to commit suicide twice within months of having her fourth child.
But her case was overturned on appeal, and in 2006, Yates was found innocent by reason of insanity and sent to a state mental hospital.
In at least two other cases, women who killed their children and had a history of mental illness were found innocent by reason of insanity. Dena Schlosser of Plano killed her 10-month-old daughter by cutting off her arms in 2004, and Deanna Laney of New Chapel Hill beat her three young sons with rocks in 2003, killing two of them.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/02/76-killer-dads-fathers-who-ended-their.html
76 Killer Dads: Fathers who ended their children’s lives in situations involving child custody, visitation, and/or child support (USA)
Since posting a short list of fathers who had killed their children in cases where child custody, visitation, and/or child support was an active contributing factor (just articles published in 2010), several people have asked me for a more comprehensive list.
It’s nearly impossible to come up with a truly comprehensive list. News articles provide incomplete or inaccurate information. Many articles are not readily accessible through a stardard google search. But I am providing you with the a list of the cases that I have collected over the last year or so, coupled with a few cases submitted by others. Most of these murders occurred during the past two years, but not all. If you have information about additional cases that fit the above listed criteria, please send the information to me.
Note that this list does NOT include ALL the fathers who annihilate their families in murder-suicides or kill their children under other circumstances, even when there was a history of domestic violence or child abuse. If child custody, visitation, and/or child support did not appear to play an identifiable role in the child’s death, I did not include the case on the list. If I were to include all fathers who murder their children for any reason (mental illness, carelessness, “frustration,” anger at the mother–but with no apparent or identifiable child custody, visitation, or child support issues), this list would be nearly endless. So this list is not to be taken as reflective or representational of all fathers who murder children.
I apologize in advance for any errors, either in the newspaper articles or in the transcription.
76 Killer Dads: Fathers who ended their children’s lives in situations involving child custody, visitation, and/or child support (USA)
ALABAMA
Franklin County
Father: PAUL GONZALEZ
Victim(s): Andrea Gonzalez (5 years)
Date of Death: Reported missing in Nov. 1993. Body never recovered.
Custodial father eventually pleads guilty to manslaughter. Stepmother charged with child abuse.
Jefferson County
Father: CORY RICE
Victim(s): Janiya Nicole Hale (1 year)
Date of Death: July 2009
Father, a registered sex offender, is charged with murder. Daughter died during overnight visitation.
ARIZONA
Cococino County
Father: RYAN PETERS
Victim(s): Teigan Peters (aka Teigan Brown) (3 years)
Date of Death: June 2009
Daughter killed in murder-suicide during court-ordered visitation . Mother had applied for orders of protection.
Maricopa County
Father: ALLEN CHAMBERS
Victim(s): Mindi Chambers (17 years)
Date of Death: Assumed to have been murdered around the time she went missing in 1982.
Custodial father ALLEN CHAMBERS is now presumed to have murdered Mindi Chambers around the time she went missing. Daughter had reported sexual abuse to the authorities. Not reported as officially missing til 1995.
Father: JEFFREY DUCHANE
Victim(s): Trenay Duchane (12 years)
Date of Death: Nov. 2008
Custodial father and stepmother convicted of murder.
Father: RAUL MOLINA GONZALEZ
Victim(s): Anthony Gonzalez (11 years)
Date of Death: Summer 2005
Father convicted of murdering son during summer visitation.
Father: NUSHAWN CAMPBELL
Victim(s): Son (5 years)
Date of Death: June 2009
Father with sole custody stabs son to death in failed murder-suicide. Mother had been trying to regain custody.
CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa County
Father: ERHAN KAYIK
Victim(s): Volkan Kayik (16 years)
Date of Death: July 2007
Custodial father found guilty in 2009 of strangulation death of son.
El Dorado County
Father: DAVID ELIOTT
Victim(s): Chandler Nash-Eliott (11 years)
Date of Death: Dec. 2009
Father not charged in the “suicide” of son. Father had physical custody, parents had shared custody. Father had extensive history with CPS regarding neglect, abuse, lack of supervision, etc.
Los Angeles County
Father: DAVID HELMS
Victim(s): Lance Helms (2 1/2 years)
Date of Death: 1995
Custodial dad convicted in beating death of son. Father had obtained custody despite extensive history of violence, drug abuse.
Father: CAMERON BROWN
Victim(s): Lauren Sarene Key (4 years)
Date of Death: Nov. 2000
Father scheduled to go to trial for 3rd time for death of daughter. Daughter was allegedly pushed off cliff during visitation in order to avoid child support.
Orange County
Father: GIDEON WALTER OMONDI
Victim(s): Richie Omondi (4 years)
Date of Death: 2006
Father shared custody with the child’s mother. Convicted of 1st degree murder in Jan. 2010. Drowned son to avoid child support.
San Bernadino County
Father: JESUS ROMAN FUENTES
Victim(s): Jesus Gabriel Fuentes (4 years)
Date of Death: Feb. 2010
Father crashes car, shoots to death son during visitation. Parents divorced. Father in critical condition from self-inflicted gun shot wound.
Father: STEPHEN CHARLES GARCIA
Victim(s): Wyatt Garcia (9 months)
Date of Death: Jan. 2010
Father kills son during court-ordered visitation. Murder-suicide. Parents never married. Mother had pleaded with 3 judges regarding father’s violence, threats.
San Diego County
Father: DENNIS POTTS
Victim(s): Tori Vienneau (22 years), Dean Springtube (10 months)
Date of Death: July 2006
Father is convicted Sept. 2009 in the murders of his former girlfriend and son. Father didn’t want to take paternity test, pay child support.
Ventura County
Father: JAMES MULVANEY
Victim(s): Jason Mulvaney (12 years), Jennifer Mulvaney (7 years)
Date of Death: Sept. 2009
Father stabs to death son and daughter in murder-suicide during overnight visitation. Parents had shared custody and were still involved in divorce, custody case.
COLORADO
Arapahoe County
Father: AARON THOMPSON
Victim(s): Aarone Thompson (7 years)
Date of Death: Reported missing in Nov. 2005. Body never recovered.
Father convicted in Sept. 2009 in daughter’s murder. Father had custody, as he had abducted the children from mother in Michigan.
Jefferson County
Father: JOSEPH TRUJILLO
Victim(s): Adrian Trujillo (5 months)
Date of Death: Jan. 2010
Father charged in death of infant son. Father had physical custody while mother in military. Father alleged to have left baby alone while father went out drinking for 7 hours. Baby later found dead.
CONNECTICUT
New Haven County
Father: MORRIES D. HILL SR.
Victim(s): Morries Hill Jr. (5 months)
Date of Death: 2008
Father charged in connection with the death of son. Baby died from “severe physical abuse.” Infant died in father’s home during overnight visitation.
FLORIDA
Colllier County
Father: SAMUEL SEJOUR
Victim(s): Elijay Kye Aliazar (3 months)
Date of Death: Jan. 2009
Father had shared custody with infant’s mother. Son died of blunt force trauma to the head during visitation. Father charged w. 2nd-degree murder.
Duval County
Father: JOSI M. HALL
Victim(s): Kyla Hall (1 year)
Date of Death: 2008
Father had sole custody, and had been cleared of previous abuse allegations. Daughter died of blunt force trauma at home.
Hillsborough County
Father: CHAUNCEY ROBINSON
Victim(s): Chavon Robinson (22 months)
Date of Death: Feb. 2008
Father convicted Dec. 2009 of murdering child during visitation.
Jackson County
Father: WESLEY JONATHAN WILLIAMS
Victim(s): Danielle Baker (mother), sons Ahmaad (4 years) and Amarion (1 year), and unrelated infant.
Date of Death: 2005
Father allegedly committed quadruple murder because he was angry about child support.
Lake County
Father: RICHARD L. ADAMS
Victim(s): Kayla McKean (6 years)
Date of Death: 1998
Custodial father beat daughter to death. Had been subject of multiple CPS investigations.
Orange County
Father: ROOSEVELT BRADLEY II
Victim(s): Roosevelt Bradley III (8 months)
Date of Death: Aug. 2009
Father arrested for murder of infant during visitation.
Osceola County
Father: MELVIN ORTIZ
Victim(s): Unnamed Son (5 years)
Date of Death: July 2009
Son beaten to death while visiting father, stepmother.
Palm Beach County
Father: TONY CAMACHO
Victim(s): Crystal Camacho (8 years), Nelson Camacho (10 years)
Date of Death: Dec. 2006
Father and mother were finalizing divorce. During Christmas visitation, father stabbed daughter, then killed her and brother Nelson Camacho (10 years) in arson murder-suicide. Mother had unsucessfully petitioned for protection.
Pasco County
Father: THOMAS LUDWIG
Victim(s): Diella Ludwig (2 months)
Date of Death: Dec. 2008
CPS granted father THOMAS LUDWIG custody of infant twins. Father charged with 1st-degree murder in Diella’s death.
Volusia County
Father: MICHAEL REESE
Victim(s): Jeremiah Reese (14 years)
Date of Death: Sept. 2009
Jeremiah Reese died of “accidental overdose” at the home of his custodial father. Father had long history of abuse, neglect with CPS.
IDAHO
Ada County
Father: NICHOLAS BACON
Victim(s): Bekm Bacon (8 months)
Date of Death: Feb. 2010
Father shot to death son in murder-suicide. Parents going through divorce, but had joint custody. Infant killed during visitation with father.
Jerome County
Father: ROBERT ARAGON
Victim(s): Sage Aragon (11 years)
Date of Death: Dec. 2008
Custodial father acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in hypothermia death of daughter. Father had told to her to walk to mother’s home during blizzard.
Twin Falls County
Father: JIM NICE JR.
Victim(s): Justin Nice (6 years), Spencer Nice (6 years), Raquel Anna Nice (2 years)
Date of Death: 2005
Father murdered children with rat poison during court-ordered visitation.
ILLINOIS
McClean County
Father: MICHAEL CONNELLY
Victim(s): Duncan Connelly (6 years) and Jack Connelly (4 years)
Date of Death: March 2009
Father killed sons in murder-suicide during court-ordered visitation. Mother had extensive involvment with the courts trying to prevent contact with father.
Will County
Father: CHIDI ESI
Victim(s): Nathan Esi (19 months)
Date of Death: Oct. 2009
Father accused of drowning son during visitation.
INDIANA
Green County
Father: RONALD A. BOHANNON
Victim(s): Travis Bohannon (14 months)
Date of Death: Aug. 2009
Father separated from wife. Son “accidently” shot during visitation. Father convicted of reckless homicide Jan. 2010.
Lake County
Father: CORDELL RICHARDSON
Victim(s): Eboni Richardson (19 months)
Date of Death: Aug. 2009
Father shot daughter during visitation. Didn’t want child’s mother to do moveaway.
Father: TERRY BETHEL (aka Terry Noel)
Victim(s): Josiah Shaw (13 months)
Date of Death: Jan. 2008
Father allegedly arranged to have visitation with son, then shot him to death to avoid child support.
KANSAS
Shawnee County
Father: JAMES KRAIG KAHLER
Victim(s): Karen Kahler (44 years), Emily Kahler (18 years), Lauren Kahler (16 years), Dorothy Wight (89 years)
Date of Death: Nov. 2009
Parents were in the process of divorcing, reportedly “sparring over children.”
Sumner County
Father: UNNAMED FATHER
Victim(s): Caden Michael Reemes (4 years)
Date of Death: Aug. 2009
Child asphyxiated at the home of his custodial UNNAMED FATHER.
KENTUCKY
Anderson County
Father: TIMOTHY FRAZIER
Victim(s): Cole Frazier (21 months)
Date of Death: May 2009
Father obtained custody with police assistance through fraudulent EPO. Shot son to death in murder-suicide. Mother suing police, city.
Clark County
Father: PATRICK WATKINS
Victim(s): Michaela Watkins (10 years)
Date of Death: 2007
Custodial father, stepmother found guilty of murder in girl’s death. Girl removed from mother’s home by social workers.
LOUISIANA
Pointe Coupee Parish
Father: AARON BOWMAN
Victim(s): Aaron Bowman, Jr.
Date of Death: Nov. 2009
Father had “temporary” custody of son, 2-year-old daughter when son beaten to death. Father charged with 1st-degree murder.
MAINE
Kennebec County
Father: SHANE SOUCY
Victim(s): Connor Soucy (4 months)
Date of Death: Aug. 2009
Infant became “unresponsive” during visit with father. Later died at hospital.
MARYLAND
Baltimore County
Father: MARK CASTILLO
Victim(s): Anthony Castillo (6 years), Austin Castillo (4 years), Athena Castillo (2 years)
Date of Death: Mar. 2008
Mother had tried to stop father from having access, but blocked by courts. Children murdered during court-ordered visitation.
Father: STEPHEN NELSON
Victim(s) Turner Jordan Nelson (3 years)
Date of Death: Feb. 2008
Murdered by father by being thrown off bridge. Father and mother had argued in court over custody.
MASSACHUSETTS
Bristol County
Father: KRISTOPHER GRIFFIN
Victim(s): Kaitlyn (6 years)
Date of Death: July 2009
Father allegedly murdered daughter because he was concerned about possible moveaway.
Worcester County
Father: LESLIE G. SHULER
Victim(s): Nathaniel Turner (7 years)
Date of Death: June 2009
Father charged with beating death of son. Took place during father’s summer visitation.
MICHIGAN
Oakland County
Father: JOHN KELLY
Victim(s): unnamed infant (13 weeks)
Date of Death: Feb. 2010
Infant died during unsupervised visitation.
St. Clair County
Father: JOE GALVAN
Victim(s): Prhaze Galvan (3 years)
Date of Death: Jan. 2010
Child died of blunt force trauma in home of father, stepmother. Both face murder charges.
MISSOURI
Cass/Jackson Counties
Father: MARK GUENTHER
Victim(s): Elizabeth Guenther (18 months)
Date of Death: Feb. 2010
Father to be charged with 2nd degree murder. Baby suffered fatal skull fracture during father’s weekend visitation.
Father: DAN PORTER
Victim(s): Sam Porter (7 years), Lindsey Porter (8 years)
Date of Death: June 2004
Father murdered children during court-ordered visitation. Had extensive history of domestic violence.
St. Louis County
Father: Nathaniel Robinson
Victim(s): Desmon Valenzuela (3 years)
Date of Death: 2007
Father obtained custody 1 month before child’s beating death. Convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jan 2010.
NEVADA
Clark County
Father: BRANDON TODD ARDUINO
Victim(s): Brandon Christopher Arduino-Boggs (13 years)
Date of Death: Sept. 2009
Son killed in auto homicide case where father DUI. Parents had been in lengthy child custody case.
Father: ALEX KOPYSTENSKI
Victim(s): Giovani Kopystenski (5 years)
Date of Death: July 2009
Custodial father. Autistic son “accidentally” shoots himself in head after finding gun in father’s car.
NEW JERSEY
Passaic County
Father: EDELMIRO GONZALEZ
Victim(s): Adrian Gonzalez (7 years)
Date of Death: Nov. 2009
Father in “bitter custody dispute” with “estranged” wife. 7-year-old son shot to death, 11-year-old son, wife, in critical condition.
NEW MEXICO
Bernalillo County
Father: RICHARD ROBERT SANCHEZ
Victim(s): Richard Jr, Daniel, and Christopher Sanchez
Date of Death: Aug. 2001
Father “went missing” with sons during custodial visit. Bodies recovered, identified in July 2009.
NEW YORK
Erie County
Father: JAMES E. KENT
Victim(s); Joshua Kent (3 years)
Date of Death: Mar. 2005
Sole custody father beats son to death.
Genessee County
Father: UNNAMED FATHER
Victim(s); Marcus Peters (6 years)
Date of Death: Oct. 2009
Child dies during weekend visitation with father, but authorities say death not “suspicious.”
Monroe County
Father: MARK RESCH
Victim(s): Hunter Resch (7 years)
Date of Death: Feb. 2010
Child shot to death in murder-suicide during court-ordered visitation. Father had history of DV, mother had filed two orders of protection.
Orange County
Father: CHRISTOPHER RHODES
Victim(s): Jerica Rhodes (7 years)
Date of Death: Jan. 2005
Sole custody father convicted in daughter’s stabbing death. Had extensive history of DV.
NORTH CAROLINA
Edgecombe County
Father: BRICE MCMILLAN
Victim(s): Tyler Brice (13 years)
Date of Death: June 2008
Custodial father, stepmother convicted of 2nd-degree murder. Boy tied to tree, died of dehydration, heat exhaustion.
OKLAHOMA
Bryan County
Father: WOLF ABEL
Victim(s): Cheyenne Wolf (11 years)
Date of Death: April 2008
Custodial father, stepmother charged in girl’s death.
OHIO
Cuyahoga County
Father: ANTHONY JOHNSON
Victim(s) Anthony Johnson Jr.
Date of Death: Aug. 2009
Father accused of beating child to death during visitation.
Franklin/Delaware Counties
Father: DANIEL J. DOBSON
Victims: Nicole Dobson (15 years), Sarah Dobson (11 years)
Date of Death: Dec. 2009
Father had physical placement of 15-year-old daughter. “Shared parenting” plan in place with divorced mother. Girls shot to death in murder-suicide.
Stark County
Father: JAMES MAMMONE III
Victim(s): Macy Mammone (5 years), James Mammone (3 years), Margaret Eakin (57 years)
Date of Death: June 2009
Divorced father convicted of stabbing children, beating to death former mother-in-law in Jan. 2010.
OREGON
Clackamas County
Father: DONALD L. COCKRELL
Victim(s) Alexis Pounder (3 years)
Date of Death: Jan. 2010
Father, mother had shared custody. Father, girlfriend charged with beating, starving girl to death. Mother allegedly blocked from seeing child by father.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia County
Father: DOMINGO “ANIBAL” FERREIRA
Victim(s) Charlenni Ferreira (10 years)
Date of Death: Oct. 2009
Girl died from abuse in the home of her custodial father, stepmother. Father later (allegedly) committed suicide in jail cell.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Anderson County
Father: JAMES T. DICKERSON
Victim(s): Jeremy Dickerson (7 years)
Date of Death: July 2009
Father with “full custody” charged in son’s beating death.
Chester County
Father: UNNAMED FATHER
Victim(s): Xymerra Evans (11 months)
Date of Death: Sept. 2009
Child sexually abused, beaten during visitation with father. Later died at hospital.
TENNESSEE
Shelby County
Father: CURTIS LEE MORRIS, JR.
Victim(s): Isaiah Snipes (16 months)
Date of Death: Nov. 2009
Father had just obtained custody of son, 3-year-old daughter in Sept. 2009. Father charged w. 2nd-degree murder.
Warren County
Father: MITCHELL STONE
Victim(s): Kayndace (3 years), Akeelia (1 year)
Date of Death: May 2009
Custodial father, stepmother charged in deaths of two girls.
TEXAS
Denton County
Father: DUKE WATROUS
Victim(s): Ashley Watrous (10 years)
Date of Death: Dec. 2009
Custodial father charged in shooting death.
Gaines/Yoakum Counties
Father: MARIO ROMERO
Victim(s): Mitchell Romero (3 years), unnamed mother
Date of Death: Oct. – Nov. 2009
Mother reportedly murdered by father during child abduction. Son later killed in car accident.
Jasper County
Father: LEO DESMOREAUX IV
Victim(s): Triston Dobbins (21 months)
Date of Death: Dec. 2007
Boy died of head injuries while visiting father, stepmother. Father on trial for capital murder Jan. 2010.
VIRGINIA
Norfolk County
Father: JOSHUA SAWYER
Victim(s): Carly Sawyer (5 years)
Date of Death: June 2009
Custodial father, stepmother charged with 2nd-degree murder. Mother lost custody during divorce, father denied mother contact.
WEST VIRGINIA
Mercer County
Father: RONALD HOLCOMB
Victim(s): Brooklyn Holcomb (5 years)
Date of Death: Jan. 2007
Custodial father convicted of 2nd-degree murder in daughter’s death. Mother had lost custody the year before after applying for child support.