Day: March 19, 2013

Child abuse murders

Meaghan26 Comments

Today’s updates (not posted yet, I haven’t finished writing them) will include yet another sad case of a child who was murdered by her own mother. This happened, they think, at New Years in 2004/2005, but it wasn’t noticed for months. Typical. The body hasn’t been found, obviously, and probably never will be. Mom pleaded guilty and got 23 years. The child, Kyeimah Spann, will be #305 on my Corpus Delicti “convictions” list. I hadn’t even heard of this case until I stumbled across it on NamUs yesterday. Her NamUs profile has no photograph, but I found three from other sources. She was a beautiful little girl.

So I thought I’d do a list of Charley Project cases where the MP was a child presumed murdered by their own caregivers, be it parents, other family members, foster parents, stepparents, whatever. I do include cases where the kid was killed by a non-custodial parent who hadn’t really been a part of their lives before. (For example, Jay-Quan Mosley.) For cases where the parent’s significant other was the killer, I judge on a case-by-case basis.

I’m only including cases where there is a strong presumption (either the police say so or it’s my own personal opinion) or, preferably, charges filed. But gosh, this is a depressingly long list.

Kynande Bennett, age 4
Acacia Bishop, age 1
Abby Blagg, age 6
Logan Bowman, age 6
Barry, Brandon and Sheketah Brown, ages 6, 2 and 10 respectively
Nicole Bryner, age 3
Gebar Byrd, age 1
Shakeima Cabbagestalk, age 10
Rosa Camacho, age 4
Hasanni Campbell, age 5
Marlena Childress, age 4
Haleigh Culwell, age 11
Haleigh Cummings, age 5
Lauryn Dickens, age 9 months
Crystal Dittmeyer, age 12
Trenton Duckett, age 2
Christian Ferguson, age 9
Thomas Dean Gibson, age 2
Andrea Gonzalez, age 5
Brendan Gonzalez, age 4
Wallace Guidroz, age 2
Katie Gray, age 10 months
Kelly Harris, age 13
Richard “Cody” Haynes, age 11
Adam Herrman, age 11
James Higham III, age 16
Kyron Horman, age 7
Elisabeth Huster, age 9
Kendrick Jackson, age 3
Angelique James, age 4
A’Shia Jenkins, age 2 months
Ashley Jones, age 4
Bianca Jones, age 2
Peter Kema, age 6
Barry “Bucky” Kephart II, age 11
James Lewis Jr., age 4
Emmanuel Limas and Fernando Limas, ages 2 months and 1 year respectively
Ta’Niyah Leonard, age 11 months
Tiana Martin, age 10
Jozlynn Martinez, age 2
Ivy Matory, Violet Matory and Yolanda Williams, ages 12, 9 and 7 respectively
Curtis McCoy, age 2
DeAngelo McNeil, age 2
Justina Morales, age 8
Jay-Quan Mosley, age 9 months
John and Kristina Nguyen, ages 3 and 4 respectively
Alexander Olive, age 4
Isabella Pastrana, age 1
Tyler Payne, age 4
Princess Perez, age 2
Nicholas Plaza, age 5
Megan Pratt, age 3
Michelle Pulsifer, age 3
Alexia Reale, age 5
Grace Reapp, age 5
Christina Richart, age 14
Katelyn Rivera-Helton, age 1
Tiffany Roberts, age 3
Pilar Rodriguez, age 3
Rene Romero, age 4
Luis Sanchez, age 3
Bonita Sanders, age 1
Daniel and Noel Santiago, ages 7 and 11 respectively
Marlon Santos, age 5 months
Jahessye Shockley, age 5
Alexander, Andrew and Tanner Skelton, ages 9, 7 and 5 respectively
Alexandria Suleski, age 5
Aarone Thompson, age 6
Logan Tucker, age 6
Jahi Turner, age 2
Alicia Versluis, age 3
Daisja Weaver, age 9 months
Shawn White, age 1 month
Rilya Wilson, age 5
Johnna Wrisinger, age 16

You’ll note that the majority of these kids are under school age and few of them are over the age of 10. I’m thinking that’s because as kids get older they are both more likely to be missed and better able to defend themselves.