Seven-year-old Geraldine Palma's half-naked body was found inside a suitcase floating on Manila Bay, Philippines in August 9, 2007. The little girl, who was last seen with her nanny, had been raped and strangled with an electrical cord. The case, which had brought a huge media sensation in the country, has been featured in an episode of "Case Unclosed" and despite investigation and suspicion, her case is still unsolved and there is a speculation that the body found in the suitcase is not hers.
Three-year-old Dennis Craig Jurgens died at the hands of his abusive foster mother Lois Jurgens, who also abused her other foster children. But Dennis was the only fatality. His elder foster brother Robert, five when Dennis died, witnessed the abuse singled out on Dennis, who was beaten, given black eyes, force-fed, starved, tied to bedposts, called "Sloppy Fat", forced to eat vomit, burned on the genitals, had a clothespin pinned on his genitals, tortured and eventually died in April 11, 1965. Lois Jurgens also forced the small boy to pray, and wanted him to be "perfect"in her eyes. Cruel as she was to the boy, she was good to his brother Robert, whom she thought was the "good" one. After Dennis died, Lois was arrested and paroled after eight years due to good behaviour and now lives in Minnesota.A novel entitled, "A Death in White Bear Lake" by Barrie Siegel, a tv movie entitled "A Child Lost Forever" and a theatre piece called "The Jurgens File" were made in his memory.
This little girl was only two years old when she died. Riley Ann Sawyers (called "Baby Grace" when the identity of her body was still unidentified) was beaten and tortured by her own mother and stepfather. She lost her life on July 24, 2007 when her mother and stepfather belted her and held her head underwater and finally threw her across the room, killing her as her head hit the tile floor. The child's body was wrapped in a towel and placed in a container before her body was thrown two months later into the water at Galveston Causeway. A plaque honoring Riley Ann Sawyers's memory stands today on the island where her body was found. This same island was officially named "Riley's Island."
Sixteen-year-old Junko Furuta's sadistic and brutal torture-murder shocked the country in 1989. The high-schooler had been biking home from school late at night on November 1988 when four teenage boys(ages raging from 16-18) knocked her off and abducted her. The boys, whose names were kept hidden due to legal reasons, kept her in a room in one of the boys' house, where they constantly beat her, inserted things in her anus and vagina, including lighted fireworks and scissors, gang-raped her, burned her with cigarette lighters and starved her. The parents of the boy who owned the house where she was kept did not report anything to the police because one of the four boys was a yakuza. After more than forty days of captivity, Junko died of shock, and her body was placed in a drumball filled with concrete which the boys placed in a vacant lot. Her decaying body was found, and her case became one of the most controversial and infamous crimes in Japan. Movies, books and a song was dedicated to the memory of Junko Furuta.
Marcia Trimble lost her life at the age of nine in 1975. She disappeared mysteriously while selling her Girl Scout Cookies. More than a month later her body was found. The child had been raped and murdered, and to this day her case is still officially unsolved.
In August 22, 2007, eleven-year-old Rhys Jones was on his way home from a game. He was passing through the public car park when a hooded youth shot him thrice before driving off. Rhys's mother went to the scene and held her unconcious, dying son. By the time Rhys was rushed inside Alder Hey Children's Hospital, he had no pulse. It was reported that he had been shot in an ambush by two rival gangs. Eleven youths were arrested of the murder, the youth who shot him, 18-year-old Sean Mercer, was sentenced to life in prison. The murder of Rhys Jones raised gun awareness in England.
Two-year-old Caylee Anthony went missing in June 15, 2008, but was only reported missing by her mother to the police a month later. Suspicion against Caylee's mother Casey Anthony arises. Traces of chloroform and hair that couldn't be ruled out as belonging to Caylee or Casey were found on the trunk of Casey's car. In December that year Caylee's body was found near a meter reader. Her mouth had been duct-taped. Suspicion remained on her mother, whose pictures during the time her child disappeared were spread online, showing how she partied and drank while Caylee was missing. Her case gained a media firestorm, and many tributes to Caylee were posted online.
Madelyn Rae Clifton was only eight years old when she died in November 3, 1998. She had been at her neighbor's house, where Josh Phillips, then fourteen, killed her in panic because she began screaming when he accidentally hit her with a base ball. Josh hid her body under his bed until his mother found out about it. Josh was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A "48 Hours" episode hosted by Dan Rather was about Madelyn Clifton's case.
Twelve-year-old Teketria Buggs was brutally murdered by her stepfather, who also murdered a cousin named Corey Lynn Brooks in 1998. He had been smoking crack and hallucinating when her bludgeoned Teketria, whom he thought in his hallucination was Brooks. He stabbed her more than one and dumped her body in the Brazos River, just as he did to Brooks back in 1998. Teketria was reported missing and was issued an AMBER Alert. In December 23 her stepfather confessed to the two crimes.
Amber Hagerman, nine years old, was riding bikes with her little brother in Arlington,Texas. Her little brother came back to their house but Amber never did. In January 13, 1996, a man in a pickup truck threw her off her bike, snatched her and drove away with her on his car. Her body was found days later in a ditch; her throat had been cut. A neighbor witnessed the abduction, but wasn't able to provide extensive information. Her case had been updated by the media, but still remains unsolved to this day. The AMBER Alert system was made in her memory, aiming to protect and return abducted children. Hundreds of children had been saved from abduction; and this is little Amber's legacy.
Twelve-year-old Zina Linnik's father heard her frightening scream on a celebration in July 4, 2007. He rushed to the scene, but the little girl was gone, and a grey van was speeding away. Zina's body was found in July 12, 2007 in a hiking path. She had been raped and murdered. Terapon Adhahn, a 42-year-old, had been arrested for her murder and remained a person of interest for a few other child murder cases, including the Amber Hagerman and Adre'anna Jackson murders.
Young Kriss Donald, a fifteen-year-old from Scotland, had been abducted by five men from Kenmure Street, where he was taken 200 miles to a house in Dundee. There he was tortured- stabbed numerous times, castrated, had his tongue cut out and was set on fire in March 16, 2004. His murder was said to be racially-motivated, and his killers had been arrested before due to racist crimes.
Japanese first-grader Airi Kinoshita, aged seven, was walking home from school in November 22, 2005 when she was abducted, raped, suffocated and stuffed in an oven box by Peruvian Jose Manuel Torres Yake. Her case brought a panic in Japan and made a huge impact on child abduction and sexual abuse awareness. Her father, Kenichi, said, "Raping a seven-year-old girl is equivalent to torture." Airi's case affected Japan and Latin America; and unlike some other child murder cases in Japan, her real name was reported and the rate of child murders dropped.
Reena Virk, a fourteen-year-old Canadian, was killed in a party by eight teenagers. She had been burned with cigarettes, repeatedly hit, punched, beaten and drowned. A best-selling book entitled Under The Bridge has been written about her life and murder. The girl had been bullied by the teenagers and allegedly was sexually abused by her father prior to her death.
In May 21, 2008, one-year-old Filipino baby Hasaron Reyes was beaten to death. His mother, 20-year-old Anisa Oti had left him in the care of her live-in partner Sammy Reyes that night. When she came home she saw many sores and bruises on her son's body. The baby had been brutally beaten and was sent to the hospital because of his injuries, where he died soon after.
Ten-year-old Adre'anna Jackson went missing on December 2, 2005, last seen by her father walking to school. It had been snowing and she wanted to learn whether there were classes or not, but she was never seen alive again. Four months later her body was found in an overgrown lot. To this day her case is still unsolved. One of the suspects in the case is Terapon Adhahn, a sex offender, who is also a person of interest in other murdered child cases like Amber Hagerman and Zinna Linnik.
Andria Brewer, a twelve-year-old from Arkansas, USA in May 1999. For three days police investigated her disappearance, her body was found under a bush pile until her uncle by marriage Karl Roberts confessed to the crime. He had abducted her and drove her 10 miles away to Cove, Arkansas. There Andria was raped and strangled to death. She had fought till the end, promising not to tell about the rape if the killer just bring her home. Andria's killer was sentenced to death penalty. Her mother had forgiven Andria's killer, and wrote a blog in memory of her daughter. The blog could be read here: http://sunnybrookrebecca.blogspot.com/2007/02/andi.html.
Six-year-old Corrine Gustavson, nicknamed "Punky" was playing out doors with a friend on September 8, 1992 when a Clifford Sleigh, a man angry with his common-law wife, abducted her. Her friend ran indoors yelling, "a murderer took Punky!" Two days later the little girl's body was found in a yard. Punky had raped and smothered. Clifford Sleigh was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole.
Inside a shopping mall in Liverpool, England, James Bulger, aged two, was abducted by two ten year old boys in February 22, 1993. They took him to places and led him near the railroad tracks where they beat him with rocks, trying to make him fall down. But the little baby kept trying to stand up as the rocks were thrown at him. He was kicked in the ribs and severely tortured and beaten, suffered a broken skull before he was left in the railroad tracks, with his head weighed down with rubble to keep him in place, for a train to hit his body. He died before a train hit him. The toddler's body was found two days later. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, ten at the time of the murder, were arrested. The murder had been planned, as the boys had been reported talking about abducting and murdering a child before the murder.
Severly molested and abused by her father at the age of four, Cynteria Phillips was placed into several foster homes throughout her thirteen years. People who knew her said she was a loving, tomboyic,cheerful little girl who loved playing and always smiled despite her problems in life. She loved the colors pink, red and blue. But then the girl, whose foster family didn't treat her like their own child, ran away, and was last seen in a Miami shelter, sitting and sucking her thumb. The child's naked body was found 9 hours later, near a high school.The thirteen-year-old had been raped and murdered on August 14, 2000, and her case is still unsolved.
No comments:
Post a Comment