Death of 11-month-old was caused by child abuse

CHICAGO (STNG)  -- An 11-month-old girl in the Altgeld Gardens area died from multiple injuries resulting from child abuse and her death was a homicide, a Tuesday autopsy determined. DaJae Guy of  E. 132nd St. was pronounced dead at Children’s Memorial Hospital at 3:30 p.m. Monday, according to a Cook County Medical Examiner’s office spokesman. DaJae possibly suffered broken ribs and head trauma, according to the spokesman. An autopsy Tuesday showed she died from multiple injuries and blunt-force trauma resulting from child abuse, according to a report from the medical examiner's office. Sometime Saturday afternoon or evening, the baby was taken from the home of her mother’s boyfriend at 325 E. 132nd St. to Children's Memorial, according to police News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines. Children’s Memorial alerted Chicago Police, who initiated an investigation at the boyfriend’s residence to see whether abuse was involved. Gaines said Tuesday that several people were being questioned as part of the investigation, but as of about 2 p.m. no charges had been filed. Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman Kendall Marlowe said the agency is investigating abuse allegations against the boyfriend of the baby's mother. The suspected abuser had been investigated for abuse in 2007 involving a different family, Marlowe said. The abuse allegations in 2007 were proven true, he said. Calumet Area detectives are investigating.

Suburban man who killed daughter gets 100 years in prison

Lisa Willson fought back tears Thursday as she described the anguish caused by the murder of her 8-yearold daughter, Lauren.

Her ex-husband, Neil Lofquist, who had just pleaded guilty but mentally ill to killing their daughter, stared blankly ahead on the other side of the DuPage County courtroom.

“As a mother, there are no words adequate enough to express the agony and pain I have suffered through the loss of Lauren,” Willson said.“To have someone within my very own family, someone I vowed to love, honor and cherish, commit such a horrific act against his own flesh and blood, is unimaginable."

In a plea deal, Lofquist was sentenced to 100 years in prison after admitting that he choked, drowned and stabbed his oldest child in 2006 in the family’s Clarendon Hills home.

The hefty sentence imposed on Lofquist, 44, “ensures that he will never see another day of freedom as long as he lives,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett said.  

Lofquist could have faced a possible death sentence if he had been convicted of murdering Lauren. Authorities allege Lofquist sexually assaulted his daughter twice in the days before she was slain.

Defense attorneys argued Lofquist suffered from schizophrenia at the time of the slaying and believed his daughter was possessed by evil and had to die — or else the world would end. “He thought he was saving the world,” said DuPage County Assistant Public Defender Jeff York, who disputed the sexual-assault allegations.

Orland Park toddler killed: Aunt denied bail in beating death of girl, 2

Tribune staff report

April 8, 2009

March 30, 2009 (WLS) -- McLean County authorities say Michael Connolly and his two young sons have been found dead in rural Putnam County.

VIDEO: Father, two boys found dead

Nine-year-old Duncan and 7-year-old Jack were the focus of an Amber Alert issued earlier this month. The three-week-old search ended in tragedy about 100 miles south of Chicago.

Michael Connolly, 40, failed to return the boys to their mother - his ex-wife - on Sunday, March 8. Initially, investigators thought Connolly might be in the Chicago area where his relatives live in southwest suburban Oak Lawn.

Charges in slayings of Curry's ex-girlfriend, child

Chicago Tribune

February 23, 2009

Aurora baby died of child abuse

The Cook County Medical Examiner has determined that a 5-month-old Aurora girl died of child abuse.

A Cook County Medical Examiner's office spokesman identified the infant as Julyssa Chavez, of the 1000 block of Terrace Lake Drive. The girl was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood at 7:53 a.m. Tuesday.

(A spokesman for the DuPage County state's attorney's office spelled the victim's name as Yulissa and said she was 6-months-old.)

The medical examiner's office ruled the death a homicide. According to the medical examiner's report, the primary cause of death was multiple injuries, the secondary cause blunt trauma and the third cause was listed as child abuse.

A relative of the girl was in custody on Tuesday. The DuPage County state's attorney's office did not return calls Wednesday to say whether the man was still in custody or had been charged.

The state's attorney's office would not provide information about where the baby died or what might have happened to her. The baby is believed to have died from being shaken or thrown by a relative.

Kendall Marlowe, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, said two other children have been removed from the home, and were taken into the care of relatives.

Marlowe said the agency has had no prior contact with the family, but is investigating the death.

According to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, more than 300 babies a year die in the United States from being shaken.

Mary Wroblewski, director of women's health at Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, said Wednesday she has seen a much greater awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome over her 30 years in the health care profession.

"I think in my younger days, we didn't even know that it existed," she said. "There's just so much out there on this issue (now)."

It is mandated that all mothers watch a video or consult with a doctor about child abuse before taking their child home for the first time. A recent state law mandates that any time an infant less than 1-year-old is brought to a pediatrician, the doctor must ask questions about post-partum depression and whether they have thoughts about harming themselves or their children.

Rest In Peace

Melanie

Interviews with children suggest mother charged in 5-year-old girl's death permitted siblings to participate in beatings

By Ofelia Casillas and Jeff Long
Tribune staff reporters

March 20, 2007

 

Mom Charged With Murder In Daughter's Death

Children Placed Into DCFS Custody

by Joanie Lum

MAINE TOWNSHIP (CBS) ― A mother is due in court Monday, charged with murdering her five-year-old daughter.

As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, authorities day the child suffered years of abuse before she died.

When Sheriff's Police walked into a Northwest suburban apartment, they saw horrific evidence of child abuse -- a five-year-old girl was unresponsive.

"She was brutally murdered by her mother, these were the acts of a despicable animal," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Police say 29-year-old Mila Petrov routinely tied up her daughter, Melanie Beltran, beat her and burned her with cigarettes.

"The child wet the bed recently and the mother, to teach her a lesson, scalded her and gave her second-and third-degree burns throughout her body," said Dart.

Six siblings, ages one to 10 years-old, witnessed the abuse. This time, Melanie suffered head trauma and was taken to Lutheran General Hospital, where she died Wednesday.

That same day, Petrov gave birth to a baby at Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park. It was there that the mother confessed to killing her five-year-old to Sheriff's police investigators Friday. During the confession, Petrov admitted abusing Melanie and slamming her head into a wall in the family's apartment Tuesday evening.

Mila Petrov, 29, of 8992 Kennedy Dr. in Maine Township, was charged Saturday with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the March 14 death, according to a release from the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department.

Sheriff's police were called to the home at 7:15 p.m. to assist an ambulance at the apartment, according to Cook County Sheriff's Police spokesperson Penny Mateck. When they arrived, they found Melanie, who had suffered "serious head trauma," Mateck said.

Melanie's father and siblings were also home at the time of the ambulance call.

Melanie was transported to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where doctors immediately saw extensive signs of child abuse, according to the release.

According to the medical examiner's office, an autopsy found Melanie had suffered multiple injuries and blunt trauma to the head. Additionally, her death was caused by child abuse and "failure to thrive due to parental neglect."

A neighbor said she never heard a sound from the apartment. She did not know seven children lived there, but had talked to the mother.

"She was a very nice lady, very sweet," said Rosa Daoud. "We're all shocked that this happened."

Sheriff's police estimate the abuse went on for three years. They couldn't find neighbors who knew the family, since the family was extremely secretive. It appears no one stepped in on behalf of the deceased child in unincorporated Main Township.

The girl's father is not charged. The seven remaining children are in state custody. The newborn baby boy is less than one week old.

Police said another child in the family died of SIDS nine years ago. They intend to reopen that investigation.

(© MMVII, CBS

As Melanie Beltran lay dying on the floor, her 5-year-old body covered in bruises, her mother ordered her six other children to clean up the house. The police were coming.

Paramedics arrived to find the mother, Mila Petrov, 29, kneeling over Melanie in the living room.

"I've done everything I can do," Petrov said aloud, according to an account of the incident in state documents reviewed Monday by the Tribune.

Then she pointed to another of her daughters: "She did it," she said.

In the days after Melanie's death last week, child welfare workers interviewed the girl's siblings and others involved in the incident. Their reports portray a violent home where parents punched Melanie in the face with their fists, tied her to beds with belts and fed her hot peppers as punishment.

"There are secrets in the house," one of Melanie's siblings allegedly told child welfare workers. "We don't tell."

According to the state documents, Melanie's siblings denied being physically abused but told workers that their parents allowed them to hit Melanie.

"Everyone hit Melanie because she touched our things," a sibling told a state worker.

Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris said Melanie's case is a classic example of an abuse phenomenon where only one child is targeted by parents, but the others pay a terrible price.

"All of these kids, to an extent, they were abused, essentially raised in a climate of violence, taught violence," Harris said. "From my perspective, all of these kids are in the same boat."

On Monday a judge denied bail for Petrov, who is charged with murdering her daughter. The judge refused to let Petrov leave jail to pay her last respects and said the woman could not visit with her seven surviving children, including a boy she gave birth to on Wednesday, the day Melanie died.

Cook County Circuit Judge Earl Hoffenberg approved a public defender's request to put Petrov on suicide watch.

When Petrov entered the courtroom Monday, she waved and smiled at her mother and the man she calls her common-law husband.

The man, who was at work during Melanie's final beating, has not been charged. But prosecutors told reporters Monday that they are investigating whether he had any role in abusing the girl.

Assistant State's Atty. Martin Moore outlined in court how Petrov gave Melanie two black eyes on March 12 for "being bad," then beat her the next day. The girl lost consciousness and died Wednesday afternoon at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

Moore told the judge that Melanie also had been injured previously, including old burns from scalding bath water, a broken nose, bruises on her abdomen and marks that suggested she had been beaten with a cord across her abdomen and legs. Scars above her ankles suggested she had been tied with a rope, the prosecutor said.

Petrov told investigators that the girl was the most troublesome of the couple's seven children--because of lying, urinating on the carpet and throwing up--and had to be punished often, according to Moore.

The prosecutor said Petrov admitted tying the girl's feet together at times and keeping her in a closet when Petrov needed to leave home.

Moore said in court that the beating that led to Melanie's death started on Tuesday afternoon when Petrov woke up from a nap in their condominium near Des Plaines.

After Melanie threw up on a towel in the bedroom, Petrov hit her in the back of the head, slamming the front of her head into a wall, according to Moore.

Petrov led Melanie into the living room, threatening to feed her hot sauce as a punishment for lying, Moore said. After Petrov struck the child some more, Melanie stopped breathing and lost consciousness, Moore said.

Petrov said nothing during the hearing, but her lawyer suggested Petrov is in danger in jail. Public Defender Wendy Schilling told Hoffenberg that Petrov has been shouted at and given threatening looks by inmates in the Maywood lockup where she has been held since her arrest.

"She has indicated to me that people have been yelling at her and pointing at her," Schilling said.

After the hearing, Schilling responded to Sheriff Thomas Dart, who had called Petrov "an animal" when announcing the first-degree murder charges on Sunday.

"My client is a human being," Schilling said.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty if Petrov is convicted, but they said she would be eligible for it.

Investigators are looking at the possibility that Petrov had another child who died. Officials found a birth certificate for a child born in the 1990s. Petrov allegedly told the investigators that the child died at 3 months of age of sudden infant death syndrome.

Petrov's surviving children, the oldest of whom is 10, have been placed with relatives while the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigates the family. The agency had no previous contact with the family, according to spokesman Kendall Marlowe.

No records have come to light showing anyone outside the home knew of the abuse.

In addition to the interviews with Melanie's siblings, state workers questioned medical workers about the care the girl received at the hospital.

A doctor told state workers this is one of the worst cases of abuse he has seen. "The child was definitely a victim of long-term excessive physical abuse," the doctor said. "The ongoing abuse is at the hands of an adult."

He said Melanie had old and new scars, ligature marks around her ankles and "raccoon eyes from being beaten."

"She has burn marks on her feet, a battered face," the doctor reported. "She has linear marks on her belly, which could be from being hit by a ruler. Her entire back--shoulder to shoulder, neck to waist--is burned ... from hot oil or grease."

A photograph taken of Melanie in her hospital bed as she lay dying showed she had thick hair and full eyebrows. Covered in bandages, blood dripped from her nose.

Melanie had a bruised left eye, a tube in her mouth and wore cartoon pajamas.

One caseworker who saw Melanie at the hospital noted: "She is bruised from her head to her toes."

The father was in the house and the abuse was suspected of going on for 3 years and yet the father was not charged with anything.  Why?  Is a father nor liable for failure to portect?  Many mothers are jailed for failure to protect.  It appears that this woman gave birth at least 9 times in 10 years as she had six other live children taken into custody, gave birth to another and at least one had died supposedly from sids years before.  Accfording to neighbors, the family was so quiet they did not even know 7 children lived there.  Were all the children living with fear?  certainly seeing a sibling terribly abused is child abuse also..

 

 

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