Make-a-List Monday: Child abuse homicides

In honor of little Wallace Guidroz, this list is for all the Charley Project children who were allegedly murdered by their caregivers. I’m only taking the names from the Corpus Delicti convictions list. (Imagine how depressingly long this list would be if I also included all the SUSPECTED child abuse homicides out there.) I also don’t include every case where a parent/step-parent/babysitter/whatever killed a kid; for instance I don’t think Jay-Quan Mosley counts; in my eyes it was just a regular old murder, not a child abuse murder.

Kynande Kalehje Bennett, 4 — killed by mother; both parents were indicted but only mother was convicted. There’s no confession here but the police believe Kynande was killed accidentally as a result of child abuse.
Logan Nathaniel Bowman, 5 — killed by mother and possibly her boyfriend. Mom pleaded guilty and testified against the boyfriend at trial, but he was only convicted of child neglect.
Nicole Lynn Bryner, 3 — killed by mother’s boyfriend and buried by him and the mother. This is a case where, supposedly, Nicole mysteriously died after being slapped once. As in Wallace’s case I think there was probably a lot more than that.
Lauryn Dickens, 9 months — killed by mother, who has confessed and pleaded guilty to murder.
Andrea R. Gonzalez, 5 — killed by father and stepmother. Father was convicted of manslaughter; stepmother was charged with murder but only convicted of child abuse. Stepmother admitted she’d caused Andrea’s death but says it was an accident.
James P. Higham III, 16 — killed by his one or both of his two guardians. One pleaded guilty to child endangerment and the other to reckless homicide. One of only two teenagers on this list, James was developmentally disabled.
Kendrick Terrell Jackson, 3 — killed by his father, who was convicted of murder but maintains his innocence.
Angelique James, 4 — killed by her mother, who pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter.
A’Shia Monique Jenkins, 2 months — killed by her father, who confessed and pleaded no contest to manslaughter.
Hevin Dakota James Lee Jenkins, 2 — killed by his aunt, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He was autistic and non-verbal.
Ashley LaShay Jones, 4 — killed by her aunt, who was found guilty of second-degree murder.
Bianca Lily Jones, 2 — killed by her father, who maintains his innocence but was found guilty of murder and child abuse.
Tiana Neshelle Martin, 10 — killed by her aunt, who was her guardian. She was convicted of second-degree murder.
Jozlynn Mari Martinez, 2 — killed by her mother’s boyfriend, who admitted to smothering her and was found guilty of second-degree murder.
Justina Morales, 8 — killed by her mother’s boyfriend, who was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter. He admitted to causing her death but said it was accidental.
Alexander Sol Olive, 4 — killed by his father, who was convicted of second-degree murder.
Tyler Christopher Payne, 4 — killed, along with his younger sister, by his father and stepmother. The sister’s body was found, but not Tyler’s. The stepmother pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; the father was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. This is as horrific a crime as I ever heard tell of.
Megan Lee Ann Pratt, 3 — killed by her stepfather and her mother. The mother pleaded guilty to child abuse and the stepfather to second-degree murder.
Alexia Anne Reale, 5 — killed by her mother and stepfather, who thought she was possessed and forced her to drink bleach to rid her body of demons. They were both convicted of murder.
Christina Marchell Richart, 14 — killed by her uncle’s wife, who was one of her guardians, her husband being the other. The aunt pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Christina is one of only two teenagers on this list; the other is James Higham.
Katelyn Selena Rivera-Helton, 1 — killed by her father after he abducted her from her mother. He maintained his innocence but was found guilty of second-degree murder.
Tiffany Roberts, 3 — killed by her mother, who pleaded guilty to murder. I have very little information on this case.
Luis Angel Sanchez, 3 — killed by his mother and her boyfriend. The boyfriend was found guilty of manslaughter and the mother of being an accessory.
Kyeimah A. Spann, 6 — killed by her mother, who confessed to it and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Alexandria Christine Suleski, 5 — killed by her father and stepmother, who were later found guilty of kidnapping (?), murder and child abuse.
Aarone Thompson, under 6 — killed by her father and probably her stepmother. Father was found guilty of murder; stepmother died before charges could be filed against her. Aarone wasn’t reported missing for some time, maybe as long as 18 months, after her disappearance, so she was probably only four or five at the time of her death.
Logan Lynn Tucker, 6 — killed by his mother, who was convicted of first-degree murder.
Alicia Breann Versluis, 3 — killed by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, who were both convicted of second-degree murder.

A surprising number of these children were drowned: I count four, maybe five.

Longtime missing NZ man’s case closed; he was never found

Per the New Zealand Herald, 19-year-old baker Graeme Timlin has been declared legally dead after having been missing nearly fifty years. Circumstances:

The coronial inquest at the Hamilton District Court yesterday heard that Mr Timlin vanished from his bakery in the city on May 15, 1965.

An assistant baker, Carol Sanders, arrived at work that day to find the shop locked and Mr Timlin’s Bedford van gone, but an oven was still hot and baking sat on the bench as if Mr Timlin had “just popped out”. She reported him missing and police began a search the next day.

Five days later his van was found abandoned at Mt Maunganui with two flat tyres. Inside were three cigarette packets. Mr Timlin did not smoke.

Police searched ships at the Port of Tauranga but, despite being in dire financial straits with his business, Mr Timlin was not thought to have tried to flee to Australia.

The case was wound down until three weeks later when Mr Timlin’s mother, Ursula Purchase, read an article in the Herald about a body that had been found on Kawau Island. She went to Auckland but police had not been able to find the body so she found the fisherman who identified Mr Timlin as the body he saw.

Timlin was one of those MPs featured in Scott Bainbridge’s book Without Trace: On the Trail of New Zealand Missing Persons.