Lives Lost to Autism

2011-08-04T10:33:00.001-07:00

Maryland Psychiatrist allegedly murders 13 year old with autism, self.

This story is from MyFoxDC . Our condolences to the child's father and other family. We'll discuss this in further detail soon. For now, just pray. For Benjamin, Margaret, all of us.

By BOB BARNARD/myfoxdc

WASHINGTON - Montgomery County Police say a well-known psychiatrist and author shot and killed her teenage son, then turned the gun on herself in a murder-suicide inside their Kensington home.

Police were called to the rented townhouse on Simms Court Tuesday afternoon. They say Dr. Margaret Ferne Jensvold, 54, was found in her bedroom with a gunshot wound. 13-year-old Benjamin Barnhard was found in his bedroom also suffering from a fatal gunshot wound. The Maryland Medical Examiner's Office has ruled the case a murder-suicide.

FOX 5 News spoke with the boy's father, James Barnhard, who calls his ex-wife a lovely person who likely killed their only child out of desperation and love.

Barnhard says Ben was tormented by bullies at school for being extremely overweight and on the autism spectrum.

Statement from James Barnhard, ex-husband and father of victims:

"I loved my son and ex-wife, and I was proud of both of them. My son was a successful graduate of Wellspring Academy. He was featured on "Too Fat for Fifteen: Fighting Back," and lost 160 pounds in the last year, due to his hard work and determination.

I do not understand this tragedy, and I do not know why this has happened.

I will hold them in my heart, and they will be sorely missed by all who loved them. Please keep us in your prayers."

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

A psychiatrist specializing in women's health and her 13-year-old son were found dead in their home in suburban Washington in a likely murder-suicide, police said Wednesday.

The bodies of Margaret Ferne Jensvold, 54, and her son, Benjamin Barnhard, were found Tuesday afternoon in their respective bedrooms. Police were called after one of Jensvold's co-workers reported being unable to contact her for several days. Jensvold was divorced and lived with her son in the upper-middle-class suburb of Kensington, Md.

Both bodies had signs of trauma, but police did not elaborate. Capt. Paul Starks, a Montgomery County police spokesman, said officers had obtained a search warrant for the home and were continuing to investigate but believe that the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide. He would not elaborate on what led police to that conclusion, and said autopsy results were still pending.

"We of course still have to gather all evidence," Starks said.

Jensvold was most recently working with Kaiser Permanente in Kensington, said her ex-husband James Barnhard, Benjamin's father. He said he was still in disbelief and had not yet heard a timeline from police as to what they believed happened. He said he had last spoken with Jensvold several days ago to arrange a time to pick up his only son from her house.

"Ben was a very sweet and loving child. I mean, he was just one of the kindest and sweetest kids a parent could ever wish to have," Barnhard said. He said his son had spent the last year at a weight-loss program in North Carolina and had shed more than 100 pounds and loved sailing and other water activities.

He said he had no indication of any problems between his son and ex-wife.

"She was always nice to Ben. Sometimes she could get a little frustrated with him, but she was always nice to Ben," he added.

In 1990, Jensvold filed a federal lawsuit against the National Institutes of Mental Health, where she had been a medical staff fellow.

She alleged that a male superior harassed her because she was female and fired her in 1989 before she could complete the third year of her fellowship program. An eight-person jury found in Jensvold's favor, but that decision was rendered moot in 1996 when a judge held that she did not have the right to a jury trial and called her version of events an "illusion" and "widely exaggerated and skewed."

"She's an incredible person. I know she struggled against significant adversity, personally and in her career, and overcame a lot of hurdles to do some wonderful research and be a really good practitioner," said Lynne Bernabei, an attorney who represented Jensvold in her case.

"I think she had a great compassion for women and improving the lives of women through good health research, and she had a real passion for that," Bernabei said. "It wasn't just a 9-to-5 job for her. She really cared."

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/maryland/maryland-mother-son-dead-in-apparent-murder-suicide-080311#ixzz1U58rl6bn

2011-06-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

John Burton, Age 7

AURORA, IN (FOX19) -

It's a tragic ending for a 7-year-old boy who went missing on Sunday afternoon.

Officers with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources found the body of John Burton Jr., 7, in North Hogan Creek on Monday morning just after 9 a.m.

Police say Burton was playing with his dog Sunday afternoon in area of Park Avenue in Aurora near a creek. The dog returned to the boy's home at 451 Park Avenue and was wet, but the boy was not with the pet.

The family had just moved to the Aurora neighborhood this weekend, meaning it was a new environment for the child.

Over 150 people were out at one point looking for Burton on Sunday. People who did not even know the family searched for hours.

"Everybody wants the same thing, to find a healthy, happy 7-year-old," said Jennifer Gallagher. "We are a very close-knit community and we just had to band together to help out."

John's parents say he would sometimes hide from people he believes are looking for him.

The search for Burton on Sunday ended around 9 p.m. when conditions became too dark for volunteers.

The search resumed Monday morning, but search crews were called back shortly after heading out after officers found the body.

2011-06-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

Kristina Vlassenko, Age 10

http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=969912910001

ARVADA - Authorities are working to figure out what caused the death of a missing girl with autism found on Tuesday morning at a construction site. Arvada Police also want to know why a tracking device on the girl did not work properly.

Kristina Vlassenko, 10, was reported missing by family members Monday afternoon. She was last seen at 3:30 p.m. Her parents contacted police within one hour, said Arvada Police spokesperson Susan Medina.

Medina says a construction worker found the girl's body near 58th Avenue and Oak Street around 7 a.m. Tuesday. Police say she may have fallen into a water-filled hole excavated for the foundation of a new recreation center.

Investigators do not believe foul play was involved. The coroner's office has yet to determine her cause of death.

"It's never easy. You just want to bring that child home and in this case we didn't get to do that," Medina said.

Medina says the girl was equipped with a Life Trak system, which is a transmitter about the size of a wrist watch used to locate at-risk people when they go missing. They are similar to those used for people with Alzheimer's and autism. Arvada began using the program in 2008 at no cost to families that qualified.

According to officers, Kristina's Life Trak had never been activated before, since she did not have a history of wandering off. They were not able to get a signal from it when it was activated Monday.

"We never were able to get a solid ping from that," Medina said.

9NEWS contacted six law enforcement agencies that use Colorado Life Trak. All reported that the technology is reliable - with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office reporting its success rate at 100 percent.

Michael Chylewski, vice president of Illinois-based Care Trak International, says this is the company's first reported fatality in its 26-year history.

"We were very sad to hear about the incident," he said. "We are sending company representatives out to aid the local police and sheriff's office in their investigation."

Jefferson County Sheriff's Public Information Director Jacki Kelley says the key is to report the missing person quickly.

"It should be up and running within ten minutes of the missing child," Kelley said.

Cmdr. Jeff Satur with Longmont Police sys his agency used Life Trak on May 13 to find a missing man with autism. The search took less than 30 minutes once the technology was activated.

"It helps us locate the people that we are looking for very quickly," Satur said. "We're very happy with its success."

Officers suspect Kristina's transmitter probably wasn't emitting a traceable signal because it was under water. They have contacted the manufacturer, Illinois-based Care Trak, to address the issue.

9NEWS left a message with the company after business hours Tuesday.

Kristina's former school bus driver, Liz Garcia, says the girl could have easily wandered into a dangerous situation.

"She is very nonverbal. I just can't imagine her being lost and not being able to cry out for help," Garcia said.

Garcia says Kristina loved to play in dirt and that could have been a reason she went into the construction site.

Investigators are asking anyone who may have seen the girl from the time she was reported missing to the time she was found to call police at 720-898-6900.

(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Elkhart, Indiana: Tristan Guffey, age 15, dies after lighting himself on fire.

2011-04-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Tristan Guffey at a younger age

By Clifton French (cfrench@wsbt.com)
WBST
7:41 p.m. EDT, April 22, 2011

An Elkhart teenager has died after suffering severe burns in a fire that happened Thursday evening in the 1200 block of Rice Street.

Tristan Guffey, 15, was air-lifted to a hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The victim had a severe form of autism. According to fire investigators, he was playing with matches and lighter fluid when he caught himself and his home on fire.

Despite the efforts of some strangers who managed to put out the fire that was burning the teen, on Friday he passed away.

"I wish I could have actually got here sooner to help him out. Maybe I could have saved his life," said Drake Newton. "I really don't know him, but I care for him."

Drake Newton and his nephew Derek were driving by, becoming two of the first to help Tristan when he ran out of his house, his entire body covered in flames.

Drake and Derek ripped his burning clothes off, stopping the fire that was burning him.

Now that Drake knows the boy has died, he wishes he could have done more.

"I wish I could have taken that pain myself instead of him going through that."

The tragedy has hit the entire Elkhart neighborhood. People who knew Tristan remember a happy boy who loved Legos and Transformers.

"He was really nice, because he would always say hi to me and we didn't even know each other," said Hannah Duncan.

Duncan and her friend were walking around the neighborhood when they saw the fire, catching the chaos on their phones.

"We saw him and he was on a stretcher…and he was completely black. We saw his mom screaming…"

Now, for those who witnessed the fire, they are still shocked that the young boy is gone.

"I can't even put it in words right now."

Tristan and his guardian, who he called his mother, were the only two who lived in the house. WSBT talked to a friend of the family who told us Tristan's guardian is back from Kalamazoo, but she does not want to speak to the media right now.

Cushing, Oklahoma: Blake Murrell, age 4, drowns in duck pond

2011-04-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

Blake Murrell, age 4

Cushing Police: Body Found In Pond Is Missing Autistic Child
Body Pulled From Pond
POSTED: 1:48 pm CDT April 19, 2011

CUSHING, Okla. -- Cushing police confirmed to Eyewitness News 5 that the body found in a local duck pond was that of an autistic boy who was reported missing on Tuesday.

Investigators said the child, who was unable to speak, was reported missing sometime after noon.
Blake Murrell, 4, was last seen wearing blue pants with a green stripe down the side.

Cochise County, Airzona: 12 year old boy dies in fire, found under bed

2011-04-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

12 year-old killed in overnight house fire
Posted: Apr 02, 2011 2:46 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 02, 2011 2:46 PM EDT
KGUN9
Brian Pryor

COCHISE COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - Authorities are investigating a house fire that claimed the life of a 12 year-old boy overnight.

Carol Capas with the Sheriff's Office said that they responded to the trailer home in the 400 block of Purdy Lane after 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

Crews from the Naco, Bisbee, and San Jose Fire Department responded, as they arrived they observed two subjects outside the home. The father was seen trying to re-enter the burning home searching for his 12 year-old autistic son.

Once the fire was under control, firefighters searched the scene and found the 12 year-old partially under the bed deceased. The father told investigators that the son evacuated with the family but became confused and ran back into the burning home.

The American Red Cross is providing emergency aid to the family and provided them a place to stay. The Bisbee Fire Department also provided the family a care back with necessities and a pre-paid credit card.

Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire but are looking at the electrical system as a possible cause.

BISBEE, Ariz. (AP) — An autistic Arizona boy is said to have alerted his father about a fire in their mobile home early today, but then ran back inside after everyone had safely escaped. The father says his 12-year-old son appeared to be confused. Sheriff's officials say the home in Bizbee was fully engulfed by the time fire crews arrived.

Ida Township, Michigan: Jackson Kastner, age 4, drowns after wandering from home

2011-03-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

Boy wanders from home, drowns in river
by Ray Kisonas , last modified March 28. 2011 11:36AM

IDA TOWNSHIP — An intense search and a dramatic helicopter rescue attempt ended in tragedy and sorrow Sunday afternoon when a missing 4-year-old boy with autism drowned in the River Raisin after he wandered from his home.

Counselors were on hand this morning for the students and staff at the Riverside Early Learning Center where Jackson Kastner was a student.

“It’s just tragic,” said Donald Spencer, superintendent of the Monroe County Intermediate School District. “We’re sick about it. The staff works so closely with the kids and their parents. They’re just devastated.”

An autopsy was scheduled for this morning but Monroe County Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield said there was nothing suspicious involving the boy’s death, which he expects to be ruled as an accidental drowning. That’s why there was no Amber Alert issued.

“There was no reason for it,” the sheriff said this morning. “It was never a case of suspected foul play.”

Jackson was outside playing in the back yard of the family home on S. Custer Rd. west of Raisinville Rd. when his mother reportedly went inside the house for about four or five minutes, said Sgt. Jeff Kemp. The river is about 300 yards behind the house, police said.

“When she came back out, he was gone,” Sgt. Kemp said.

Jackson apparently enjoyed a neighbor’s playscape and that’s the first place his mother looked. But when he wasn’t there, she called 911 and that launched a search involving 40 to 50 volunteers from area fire and police departments, including three tracking dogs.

Paul Metz, chief of the Ida Township Volunteer Fire Department, coordinated the firefighters’ search. Jackson’s autism was such that he did not respond to his name and he often liked confined spaces, he said.

Chief Metz said firefighters, neighbors and others looked along the river bank.

“The whole time we were totally optimistic,” Chief Metz said, who wanted to thank the community for the effort. “We thought he was going to be fine. There were real high emotions.”

Around the same time, the sheriff’s aviator unit was deployed and searching from above. Pilot Joe Schumaker and deputies Don Duncan and Brian Francisco were in the Raptor about 300 feet above the ground when the two deputies spotted something yellow in the water, which was relatively clear.

It was part of the boy’s clothing.

“You could tell it was him,” Deputy Duncan said.

The boy’s body was spotted at a small island in the middle of the river across from Carrington Farms about 1½ miles downstream from the family home. Mr. Schumaker carefully landed the helicopter on the island.

“It took some fantastic flying skills to get there,” the sheriff said.

Just as he touched down, the two deputies jumped out of the chopper and retrieved the boy. They began life-saving efforts, then decided the best course of action was to fly him across the river to a waiting ambulance.

While police closed traffic on S. Custer Rd. in both directions, Mr. Schumaker landed the chopper in the middle of the road and the boy was taken to the ambulance, which rushed him to the hospital.

Doctors could not save him.

“It’s always extra difficult when it’s a young one,” Deputy Duncan said. “It’s tough.”

The sheriff said that although the rescue ended in tragedy, at least the boy was found quickly. The river’s currents were strong and there is no telling how long it would have taken for a recovery.

“It’s important that we were able to retrieve him and have quick closure for the family,” the sheriff said. “If it hadn’t been for the helicopter and the crew we would not have found him. It was a tremendous effort, but it’s sad.”

Lawton, Oklahoma: Savanah Lawton, age 7, drowns after wandering from home

2011-02-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

Savannah Martin, age 7

Girl, 7, who drowned in Lawton had struggled to overcome autism

A girl who drowned in a Lawton pond struggled with autism but had learned to talk. She was also trying to learn to swim. Her 2-year-old brother was rescued from the pond and has been released from a hospital.

BY ROBERT MEDLEY rmedley@opubco.com
Published: February 23, 2011

LAWTON — Doctors once said Savannah Martin would never talk, but she defied the early diagnosis and started to speak. Then she learned to read. She even tried to learn to swim.

But on Sunday, Savannah, 7, who was autistic, slipped away from her home in Lawton and headed for a chilly pond nearby. Her brother, Tommy Martin, 2, who was wearing a bicycle helmet, may have followed her to the pond, said the children's' aunt, Ruth Sanchez, 35.

Savannah was found face down in the pond, which was about 50 yards from her home. Her brother was floating upright next to her, buoyed by the Styrofoam in his helmet.

“We can't believe this little angel is gone,” Sanchez said.

The children's mother, Beth Martin, 31, swam into the pond but was unable to pull her daughter out of the water. A neighbor, Hector Figueroa, 45, swam in and pulled both children to the bank.
It was too late to save Savannah, despite her mother's efforts to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Lawton firefighters also tried CPR, but Savannah was pronounced dead at Southwestern Medical Center.

Tommy Martin has been released from OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City, where he was treated for hypothermia, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.

Lawton police Capt. Craig Akard said he doesn't know how long the children were in the water. He said officers are still interviewing witnesses and he couldn't comment on the investigation.
Beth Martin had recently separated from her husband, Thomas Martin, who is in the Oklahoma National Guard, and had been looking for a new place to live because of concerns about the pond, said Sanchez, who is Beth Martin's sister.

Beth Martin wanted to get a house with an alarm system because Savannah had recently figured out how to unlock doors, Sanchez said.

Savannah was diagnosed as autistic when she was 2, Sanchez said. Her mother worked to get her daughter to speak. But Savannah had not quite gotten the hang of swimming.

“She loved the water and playing in the bathtub and swimming. Water was a big draw to her, just the movement of it and the shimmering of the water in the sun outside,” she said.

A family friend, Juliet Burk, of Tahlequah, said Beth Martin worked doggedly with her daughter, even traveling to therapists in upstate New York.

She said Savannah started to say a few words and short sentences by the time she was 5.

In a Feb. 8 Facebook post, Beth Martin wrote: “Savannah looked at me straight in the eyes and said, ‘Give me a hug!' And ran into my arms. Can never thank those in her life that have helped get her to this point enough. Your work is never unnoticed or forgotten.”

Sanchez said her niece was on track to be mainstreamed into a first-grade class at Cache Elementary School. Once a week, Sanchez drove Savannah to the ACI Learning Center in Edmond, a therapy school for autistic children.

“Savannah had made tremendous strides,” Sanchez said. “She'd come home and give us hugs and kisses.”

Savannah loved Disney princesses and fairies and her favorite singer was Taylor Swift. Her brother Tommy was her “cohort,” who would go everywhere with her, Sanchez said.

About 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Beth Martin couldn't find the children in the house and ran to the pond, but didn't see them at first, Sanchez said. Then their older brother, Tristen, 11, went to the pond and heard them screaming.

Beth Martin climbed a barbed-wire fence to get to the pond, but was not strong enough to get her daughter to the bank, Sanchez said.

Martin went into shock at the hospital and has not been able to talk about her daughter's death, Sanchez said.

“Beth had told me she was planning to spend the rest of her life taking care of Savannah so she could give her the best life she could,” Sanchez said.

Fort Lupton, Colorado: 3-year-old drowns in golf course lake

2011-02-19T21:50:00.000-08:00

FORT LUPTON - A toddler wandered out of his home Saturday morning to a nearby golf course, where he drowned in a pond.

Fort Lupton Police Chief Kenneth Poncelow says the three-year-old was being watched by his grandmother at a home in the 200 block of Ponderosa Place. He says she stepped away for a moment as the toddler was watching cartoons. When she returned, he was gone.

She called police at 9:18 a.m. and according to Poncelow, officers quickly created a search party. Around 9:30 a.m. they found the little boy in a nearby lake at the Coyote Creek Golf Course.

The boy was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Aurora where he later died.

New York, New York: Jawara Henry, 27, asphyxiated while restrained at a state psychiatric facility.

2010-12-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

Jawara Henry, age 27

Autistic NY patient's death ruled homicide
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 7, 2010; 9:38 AM

NEW YORK -- The death of a severely autistic patient who had been allegedly restrained at a state-run psychiatric facility in New York has been ruled a homicide.

New York City's medical examiner determined Jawara Henry died of asphyxiation by neck and chest compression on Saturday.

Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan tells The New York Times "any decisions regarding a criminal prosecution will be made down the road."

Family lawyer Gary Douglas tells the paper the 27-year-old functioned at the level of a young child but had no history of outbursts. He says the man's mother had seen injuries on her son before. Henry had been at the Staten Island facility for about a year.

The facility declined to comment due to the investigation.

Liverpool, UK: Angela Owen, 45, dies after waiting seven months for a hernia operation

2010-12-15T06:55:00.000-08:00

Autistic woman died after seven month hernia operation wait

Dec 15 2010 by Tom Bristow, Liverpool Echo

AN AUTISTIC woman died after a seven month wait for an operation.

Yesterday Southport hospital, where she died, was criticised at an inquest for negligence.

Angela Owen, 45, from Skelmersdale was due to have an operation on a hernia in April last year.

But after an hour delay the operation was cancelled. Her name then fell off the waiting list for seven months.

On December 19 she was taken to Southport A&E where she later died of a strangulated hernia.

A hospital spokesman denied negligence, but apologised for an unacceptable delay.

Rancho Bernardo, California: Katherine Riley, 26, killed while crossing the street

2010-12-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

RANCHO BERNARDO: Woman hit and killed while crossing the street
December 10, 2010
North County Times

RANCHO BERNARDO ---- A 26-year-old woman with autism was hit by a car and killed Thursday morning while crossing the street to change buses, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.

Katherine Riley, of San Diego, was killed around 9:40 a.m. Thursday while running across Black Mountain Road to switch from a northbound transit bus to a southbound transit bus. Riley was struck by a private-passenger vehicle in the southbound lane.

The vehicle stopped immediately and witnesses called paramedics, who found Riley unresponsive with numerous traumatic injuries.

Riley was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla where doctors pronounced her dead.

Crestline, California: Denise Snyder kills her autistic grandson, 9, then herself

2010-10-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Crestline woman fatally shoots grandson, self

October 19, 2010
KABC

CRESTLINE, Calif. (KABC) -- A Crestline woman fatally shot her 9-year-old grandson and herself Monday, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's deputies and Crest Forest Fire personnel responded to a report of two people shot at a residence on the 500 block of Springy Path in Crestline Monday.

At about 5:30 p.m., Crestline resident James Snyder discovered his wife and his grandson at the home. They both had gunshot wounds. Officers and paramedics determined both were dead.

A sheriff's dept. homicide team was summoned and began a murder investigation.

Sheriff's detectives assert that Denise Snyder, 50, shot her grandson and then shot herself. The Snyders had custody of their grandson since his birth, according to the department. The grandson was reportedly diagnosed with autism.

"To me, I think she couldn't handle the kid, because it wasn't hers, it was her grandkid," said neighbor Mario Julian. "And we did hear her yelling at him a lot, quite a bit, and figured that was normal."

Julian said he spoke to the husband, who said his wife was taking the prescription drug Oxycontin. According to the husband, she was out of medication and may have suffered a breakdown.

"He's saying that she was taking them like six pills a day," said Julian.

Related Content

link: Autism Speaks - Autism Response Team

"This is a small community, so we're all just freaking out about this," said Crestline resident Stevan Oerlemans. "This just doesn't happen up here."

The investigation was ongoing Tuesday.

Anyone with information related to the case was asked to call homicide detectives at (909) 387-3589 or (800) 78-CRIME.

If you have a child with autism or know someone who does, help is available to get you through those tough times. Call the Autism Response Team at 888-AUTISM2 (288-4762) or send an e-mail to familyservices@autismspeaks.org.

Stockholm, Sweden: 21-year-old hangs self

2010-10-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

Young Swedish man commits cyber suicide

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Saying that his life is "simply too hard," a young autistic man committed suicide during a live broadcast on the Internet, police in Sweden say.

Marcus James, 21, hanged himself in his apartment southwest of Stockholm about 20 minutes before police arrived after being tipped off by the public, Sweden's The Local reported Tuesday.

James posted on the popular Internet forum Flashback Monday that he planned to kill himself and would broadcast his suicide live on a Web cam.

He also provided a link with login information to access photos of his hanging and posted his final thoughts on Facebook. He said he loved his family but cannot live for others.

"I have a good life, studying at my own pace, have my own apartment, good income from the regional social insurance office," he wrote. "Have Asperger syndrome/ high-functioning autism."

Police performed CPR when they arrived at his apartment but a spokeswoman said it was too late.

An investigation of the death is under way.

Salmon, Idaho: Seven-Year-Old Drowns

2010-10-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

Body of 7-year-old boy found in Salmon River
by Associated Press & KTVB

SALMON, Idaho -- Lemhi County officials say the body of a 7-year-old boy has been found in the Salmon River.
Officials say a resident walking the river bank near Salmon spotted the body at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
Investigators are looking into the case as a possible drowning.
Salmon Police Chief K.V. Selker says the boy has severe autism and his home borders Kids Creek. He says it is likely the boy got out of the backyard and fell into the creek. The creek then feeds into the Salmon River. The boy's body was about a hundred yards from his home.
Detectives sent the boy's body to Idaho Falls for an autopsy. Until that's complete investigators say there are more people to talk to, and the investigation is ongoing.

Colorado Springs: 13-year-old autistic boy and sibling killed by mother

2010-10-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Essex Lane deaths apparent murder-suicide

MATT STEINER
THE GAZETTE
A mother apparently shot her two children in their home Monday while her husband was at work, then turned the gun on herself, Colorado Springs police said an autopsy by the El Paso County coroner determined.

The bodies of Rene Ogden, 38, and her twin 13-year-old son and daughter were found in the family’s home at 1941 Essex Lane east of Wasson High School by Tommy Ogden around 3:30 p.m.

Rene Ogden, son Chase and daughter Olivia died of gunshot wounds to the head, the coroner said.

The children’s deaths are the 20th and 21st homicides in Colorado Springs this year.

Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Noblitt said the children’s deaths are still under investigation but provided no information on whether a suspect is being sought, if anyone else had been in the house or if more than one weapon was used.

An officer guarding the home Tuesday said there was no sign of a break-in.

Police offered no explanation for the apparent murder-suicide. Neighbors said the son was autistic, although none said they socialized much with the family or knew them well.

Rene Ogden spent a lot of her time on the Internet, corresponding with people through Facebook and playing games on the social networking site, according to people she befriended online.

One of those, Brad Ake, who lives in Texas where Rene Ogden attended high school, said the two often talked about birth defects and raising children with developmental disabilities. Ake’s daughter had severe birth defects and died very young.

Ake and others who chatted with her, said she loved her children, but that she talked about struggling with depression and loneliness.

“She was very sad most of the time,” Ake said in an interview with The Gazette on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, flowers and other mementos were placed at the doorway of the rented home in the neighborhood near Constitution Avenue and Academy Boulevard. Tommy Ogden, who had been questioned by police about the deaths, went inside briefly, then left, a neighbor across the street said.

The family moved to Colorado Springs while her husband was in the Army. Tommy Ogden had served at least one combat tour in Iraq with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, a former Fort Carson unit now based at Fort Hood, Texas.

In happier times, Rene Ogden had posted the following on Reunion.com:

“About My Personal Life I have been living it up from Hawaii to Colorado with my wonderful husband and kids! We have been married since July of 1996. His name is Tom Ogden, who is now 36, and he has been in the Army for 19 years. We married in Hawaii in July of 1996, where we lived for two more years and then moved here to Colorado Springs in May of 1998. We may end up back in the Golden Triangle Area (in Texas) eventually. It looks like that is where my husband’s job is considering transferring him to. Although right now he is serving one year in Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. We have a beautiful set of twins ... Chase Garrett and Olivia Brianna who were born in 1997.”

The children attended Colorado Springs School District 11’s Galileo School of Math and Science on Union Boulevard, where a short assembly was held Tuesday to inform students about the tragedy and to let them know counselors were available for them.

Thursday, a sixth-grade classmate of the twins, accompanied by his mother, Carla Garcia, drove up to the Essex Lane house.

The were staring at the house when they were told about the autopsy results.

“With the wife being here with the autistic kid and the husband deployed, that’s hard on a mother,” Garcia said. “Everybody’s upset about it. There were kids involved. They didn’t do anything to anybody.”

Garcia, who lives near Constitution Avenue and Union Boulevard, said residents in the area also had been worried about their own safety during the past three days.

“We thought there was a killer on the loose,” she said.

Houston, Texas: Asher Brown, age 13, shoots himself after being bullied

2010-09-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

Asher Brown, age 13

Parents: Bullying May Have Led To Son's Suicide
Student, 13, Said He Was Bullied At Hamilton Middle School
POSTED: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
UPDATED: 5:22 pm CDT September 29, 2010

HOUSTON -- The parents of a 13-year-old northwest Harris County student who fatally shot himself said their son may have committed suicide because he was bullied.

Asher Brown's parents said their son was a constant target of bullies at Opal Hamilton Middle School.

They described him as a compassionate and loving child who was tormented by relentless bullying.
"Yes, he was gay. He was also Buddhist. He was also a child with a disability," said David Truong, Asher's stepfather.

Truong said Asher may have had a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome.
Asher also spoke with a lisp and was a bit clumsy, his parents said.

Truong said he believes Asher was bullied to death.

"It was the same group of kids. It was like a pack -- a pack of animals," Truong said.
Truong said Asher told him he was gay on Thursday morning. Later that day, he found the boy dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Truong said Asher came to a breaking point after another boy kicked Asher down a flight of stairs twice while at school and kicked all of his books out of his hands.

"Eyewitnesses (said Asher) turned and said, 'You better apologize or I'm going to kill myself.' The kid was like, 'Whatever,'" Truong said.

Truong said the faculty at Hamilton treated his complaints, which he claims included three phone calls and three visits, with the same attitude -- brushing him aside and ignoring him.

The school said in a statement, "There was no report from students, staff members or the parents that this student was bullied while at Hamilton Middle School. Such a report would have been investigated and consequences would have followed the Student Code of Conduct."

Truong disagreed and is calling for justice for Asher. He said he wants students to follow what he calls "the Asher rule" -- if you see bullying, speak up.

"Please, rally -- rally, rally around your children," Truong said. "If this is the wild west, circle the wagons around your children."

Truong said they may take legal action against the school.

Suicide is said to be the third leading cause of death for teenagers. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, as many as 25 suicides are attempted for each one that is completed.

Child psychologists provided the following advice for parents of children who may be bulled.
Open communication every day is critical for parents and children, and parents should let their children know they are on their side.

Parents are also urged to talk to teachers at school and find out if they have an anti-bullying/harassment policy.

A record should be kept of what is happening, who is involved and how often it is happening.
Parents should also follow up to see if any progress is made. If not, meet with school administrators and keep notes of the meetings.

In the worst cases, parents should contact law enforcement if a child's been physically assaulted or threatened. An attorney may also need to be contacted.

Barling, Arkansas: 3 year old Sevanna Houser drowns in creek

2010-09-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

Overton, Texas: Adam Wilson, 21, stabs father, David Wayne Wilson, to death

2010-08-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Adam Wilson, age 21

Fear and Grief: Autism and Murder Rip East Texas Family Apart
by Dan Burns

The police found David Adam Wilson, a 21-year-old with autism, hiding in the tool shed beside his rural East Texas home. "We tried to read him his Miranda rights," Lt. Tony Dana told me in a telephone interview, "but he was extremely agitated. He didn't understand what we were saying. We terminated the interview immediately. Dad can't tell us what happened, because he's dead."

Adam Wilson is charged with murder. Normally sweet and calm, he'd reportedly been "drastically different" lately. Raging out of control on Monday, August 16, Adam threatened a family member and then begged for help. His family took him to the emergency room to have his medication adjusted. Allegedly, hours later, during an argument, he stabbed his father with a kitchen knife. The police found Mr. Wilson dead in a recliner. The prescription is still unfilled.

danburnsbenwater.JPG When I heard the story last Saturday I went packing for East Texas. I drove past Adam's house on FM 2039, a beautiful stretch of road that runs over the hills and through the piney woods between the villages of Overton and Arp. That night my 23-year-old autistic son Ben and his mom, Sue, camped and swam in the clear shady waters in Tyler State Park Lake, toes sinking in the soft lake bottom. How lucky I was to be at peace. Since Ben's diagnosis nearly two decades ago, we've been on a bumpy road towards healing. Had events taken a different turn, had we not received the help we needed, the person bleeding to death in that recliner, or hiding in that shed, alone, afraid, ashamed, and in despair, could have been me. Or Sue. Or Ben.

"Autism is literally ripping families apart in horrendous and tragic ways," said Teresa Conrick, in a comment posted in Age of Autism. "People are dying weekly -- nightmare accidents of drownings, traffic deaths, exposure to the elements, locked in a vans, inappropriate medications, psychosis, suicides and homicides." Parents killing their children. Now children killing their parents.

What's going on?

First, the incidence of autism has reached epidemic proportions. A 2009 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased from 1 in 10,000 in the year 2000 to 1 in 110. That's about 1 in 60 boys. But that study is based on data from 2007. Anecdotal evidence from doctors who treat autistic children put the incidence today much higher -- one in thirty or even more. Ask an elementary school teacher and you may get an eye-popping answer.

Second, autism is still classified and treated as a psychiatric disorder, so it is "treated" with psychotropic drugs such as Valium, Ritalin, Thorazine, and Haldol, which do not heal anything and too often exacerbate the symptoms, including violent aggression, which they are supposed to mask. Treated as an immunological disease like allergies and ADHD, autism is sometimes reversible. But pediatricians aren't trained in appropriate biomedical treatments, and insurance usually doesn't cover them.

Third, the face of autism is changing. Eighty percent of these ASD kids are under age 22. Within five years, half a million young adults with autism will age out of the school system and spill into communities unprepared for them. A meltdown by a four-year-old in the library or grocery store is an inconvenience. A meltdown by 21-year-old is potentially lethal.

Fourth, after decades of stress, parents are snapping. Vicki Martin, RN, has a 14-year-old daughter with autism. "In my community," she says, "most of the adults with autism live at home with their parents. Many parents feel as if they have no choice. Kids are aging out of school, their primary support system. Most don't have jobs, and vocational and day-habilitation programs are not geared toward adults with autism. So these young adults are isolated in their homes under the care of their exhausted parents, many facing their own health issues related to the stress of 24/7 care for their severely disabled kids."

Lt. Tony Dana would not release the police report to me because the District Attorney hasn't seen it yet. In due time, though, there are questions that should and must be examined more closely in the public eye:

• What medications was Adam taking, and in what combinations? Did they have the potential for psychotic side effects?
• Was he receiving appropriate biomedical and behavioral treatment?
• How about Adam's dad? Was he suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? It is almost impossible to raise an autistic child without extended family support, yet many single parents do. Adam's mom had long ago moved on.
• What was his relationship with father? With the other family members? Did they love and care for Adam?
• What kind of support was the family receiving from friends and neighbors and community services?

Adam Wilson puts a face on a social issue that's likely to get worse before it gets better. But it is also a terrible personal tragedy. "Jail might not be the best place for Adam," said Lt. Dana, "but that's where he is for now." I pray for frightened, orphaned Adam and his grieving family.

Dan E. Burns, Ph.D., is Adult Issues Liaison for AutismOne and the author of Saving Ben: A Father's Story of Autism. Burns is developing the Autism Trust USA, modeled on The Autism Trust (U.K.) and focused on the creation of new campus communities where adults with autism can work, live and improve their skills and talents in a creative and supportive environment.

Tuscon, Arizona: 5 Year old boy drowns in a golf course pond

2010-08-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

Autistic boy drowns in Tucson pond

Aug. 19, 2010 05:05 PM
Associated Press

TUCSON - A 5-year-old autistic boy has drowned in a pond at a Tucson golf course.

Authorities say the boy was pulled from the pond at the Santa Rita Golf Course on Thursday afternoon.

The victim and his family live in a home near the golf course and the boy apparently wandered away from the house sometime before 1 p.m.

The boy's father called 911 to report him missing. Pima County Sheriff's deputies arrived in the area and began searching for the boy and he was found by deputies in the golf course pond.

Deputies begin CPR on the boy until paramedics arrived. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The name of the victim has not been released yet.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/08/19/20100819tucson-autistic-boy-drowns-in-pond.html#ixzz0xAfPJAhD

Houston, Texas: 2 year old Khoa Nguyen dies after being left in car while autistic brother has seizure

2010-08-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

Toronto boy, 2, dead after being left in car in 50 C heat
Postmedia News August 19, 2010

HOUSTON — A two-year-old Toronto boy has died after being left in a blistering hot car for two hours in a suburb of Houston, Texas.

According to police officials, the toddler — identified as Khoa Nguyen — was forgotten in the vehicle when his older, autistic brother had a seizure as the family was returning from the grocery store. The family, who were visiting relatives in Houston, had gone inside with their seven-year-old son to retrieve medication, leaving the younger boy behind.

When they returned to the SUV two hours later, he was already unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at a north Houston hospital.

“On a day like today, the interior temperature (of a car) can rise almost 20 degrees,” said Det. Sgt. Ben Beall, of the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. “Unless you’re found almost immediately, (there’s) a good probability you’re going to die.”

Houston police said the case will be referred to a grand jury, which will decide if charges will be laid.

The vehicle’s internal temperature was recorded at about 50 C.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Toronto+dead+after+being+left+heat/3419873/story.html#ixzz0xAgVJSkq

Peoria, Illinois: 22 Year old man with developmental age of a toddler beats housmate to death

2010-08-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

By ANDY KRAVETZ (akravetz@pjstar.com)
Journal Star
Posted Aug 10, 2010 @ 09:08 PM

PEORIA — The attorney for a developmentally disabled man who was indicted Tuesday for allegedly beating to death a housemate last week said his client shouldn't be in jail.

"He doesn't have the mental capacity to have a criminal intent," said attorney Timothy Newlin of Joey R. Brooks, 22, who was indicted on one count of first-degree murder for the death of John Vogel. He will next appear in court Thursday to be arraigned on the charge. Until then, he remains in custody at the Peoria County Jail on $500,000 bond.

And that's what has Newlin and Brooks' parents upset. They believe this case is different than others. Newlin said his client has an IQ of 12, and the mental age of a 21/2-year-old. He's diagnosed with profound mental retardation and autism, the attorney said, reading from a 2009 report.

"He's essentially a toddler; you don't lock up toddlers," he said.

Rather, the parents, who live in Peoria County, said they believe their son should be moved.

"He should be at the Jacksonville Developmental Center with supervision and not locked up, and I agree with them completely," Newlin said.

Brooks was arrested Friday afternoon after sheriff's deputies responded to 1042 N. Emily Place, a duplex that is run by Trinity Services and houses several developmentally disabled people. There they found Vogel lying on the ground with head injuries and Brooks in another room, curled up in the fetal position.

Police believe Brooks repeatedly hit Vogel in the head after an argument with another person. A mental fitness test has been ordered, and Newlin said he doesn't believe the report is finished yet.

Brooks moved there about a year ago after spending nine years at the Hope School Learning Center in Springfield. Newlin said there is no evidence that Brooks had any problems while at that school. He did say the 22-year-old had no criminal history.

Newlin said he tried to communicate with Brooks on Sunday during a jailhouse visit and got the sense that he "did not understand" what was happening.

The attorney said his client is nonverbal and used a 20-pound Communication Assistance Device while at Trinity house. The device apparently has a key pad like interface with pictures that would allow Brooks to convey what he wants.

Andy Kravetz can be reached at 686-3283 or akravetz@pjstar.com.

West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 12-Year-Old Boy, Frank Marasco, With Autism Killed in West Philly Fire

2010-08-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

Frank Morasco, age 12

NBC Philadelphia
Updated 6:10 AM EDT, Mon, Aug 7, 2010

Philadelphia police say a 12-year-old autistic boy was killed in a house fire in West Philadelphia Saturday.

Investigators say the fire broke out shortly before 7 p.m. at a home located at 137 South 55th Street. The young boy was discovered in a room on the second floor of the home, according to investigators.

Firefighters were able to rescue a woman from the second floor roof. The victim was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment.

The fire was placed under control around 7:30 p.m. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries. One of the firefighters fell through the stairway while trying to save the little boy. Both were also transported to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment.

Officials say there were no working fire alarms in the home.

"We saw smoke alarms in the home. Unfortunately the smoke alarm that I found did not have the cover removed before you put it into service," Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers.

Four homes suffered damage, according to firefighters.

Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire.

Fatal W. Philly fire sparks 'brownout' policy questions

By JAN RANSOM
Philadelphia Daily News

ransomj@phillynews.com 215-854-5218

..."A lot of things went wrong there, but the brownout isn't one of them," Ayers said. "You have to do the right thing for your family, and the key is to have an escape plan."

Neighbors said that a man who lived in the house was trying to get the 12-year-old out of the house but the boy pulled away and ran back in.

Ayers said that families should coach, and create escape plans for, people with mental and physical disabilities.

The boy's body was found on the second floor, fire officials said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

"It was much, much too late for the boy to be saved," Ayers said.

Neighbors described Frank as a happy child who had moved onto the cozy block with his family last year.

"He was just getting used to us," said Rubye Weaver, 72, whose home also was damaged. "He was a happy young man."

Neighbors said that the boy didn't talk much and he loved playing ball on the porch or on the sidewalk with neighbors and the man who lived with him.

"He would catch the ball and kiss it," said Virginia DeShields, who lived three houses down. "He had a 'Toy Story' doll he would carry all the time. He was a very happy kid."

Fire union leaders said that the maintenance cited by Ayers normally would have been done during the afternoon, and if Engine 57 were not browned out the maintenance could have been completed before the start of the night shift.

"It's a tragedy what happened," said Local 22 trustee Mike Kane...

Columbia, Maryland: Deaths of Tracy Hawks and Christopher Melton, mother and son, ruled murder-suicide

2010-08-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Howard County police complete two-month investigation
By Kellie Woodhouse
kwoodhouse@patuxent.com
Posted 8/09/10

After a two-month investigation, Howard County police have classified as a murder-suicide the death of a Columbia woman and her 18-year-old disabled son.

Police say that Tracy Hawks, 47, used a gas generator June 4 to take her life and that of her son, Christopher Melton, who had autism and mild mental retardation.

New details of the June incident reveal that Hawks suffered from depression.

On the evening of June 4, Hawks’ mother and father called Hawks repeatedly, according to a police report. When she failed to answer, the two went to her Hickory Ridge home to check on Hawks, who had been threatening suicide for more than a month, the father told police. The father used a key to enter the residence, noticed a generator in the dining room and found Hawks and Melton in Hawks’ bedroom, lifeless, a police report states.

He called police, who arrived minutes later. They determined that the “newly purchased” generator was depleted of gas and located a red gas can that was nearly empty, according to the police report. The report states that the two died from suffocation.

Melton, a junior at Atholton High School, participated in the school’s Academic Life Skills special education program. According to the report, his teacher told police that it would not “have occurred to Christopher that his mother would hurt him.”

According to the report, police determined that Melton “was a special needs adult who would not have the capacity for deducing that his mother’s actions would render such life-threatening consequences,” and as such was killed by his mother.

Court documents and the police report show that Hawks was in financial debt, at risk of losing her job as a pharmaceutical rep, in the midst of a divorce and facing criminal charges for misusing her husband’s credit card.

Hawks’ father and sister, who were not named in the report, told police that she struggled with periods of depression throughout her life.

The father said Hawks had been diagnosed with depression two months before her death. According to the police report, Hawks’ sister said, “Tracy had told her best friend... that she was going to commit suicide and take her son with her.”

Because of her threats, Hawks’ family was watchful of her, they told police. Hawks’ sister said they tried not to leave her alone for an extended period of time, the report states.

The sister told police that Hawks had exhibited several warning signs. She told police “she watched Tracy cry every day for two months,” that she received ominous text messages from Hawks, and that Hawks had begun giving her possessions away.

In the report, police said Hawks’ home was “in complete disarray” and was cluttered with paper documents, plastic containers and plastic bags. The report also noted that the residence was sparsely furnished.

According to the sister, Hawks had once been a vigilant homeowner. She told police that “Tracy used to keep her house very neat and orderly, buy expensive stuff and cook (but) she had stopped doing all of these things,” the report states.

On April 26, 2010, the family tried to force Hawks to seek help at Howard County General Hospital, but Hawks would not admit herself into the hospital’s mental health ward voluntarily per the hospital’s guidelines, the report states.

Shortly afterward, Hawks stopped taking her prescription medication, her sister told police.

Hawks’ struggles were first documented in the fall of 2009, when Hawks and her husband, Leslie Hawks, filed protective orders in Howard County District Court.

On August 2009, Tracy Hawks alleged that her husband became “extremely volatile and abusive” when he drank. Hawks said she had bruises on her arms “due to defending myself from his attacks,” court documents state.

She also alleged that her husband had threatened her with an unregistered gun.

The accusations were never proven and the request for a protective order was denied.

In another request filed in October 2009, Hawks said her husband had choked her in 2006 when angered by a high credit card bill, and that he was verbally abusive.

Leslie Hawks also requested a protective order in October, alleging that Tracy Hawks pushed him face-first into a wall.

Both orders were denied.

In a divorce filing, Leslie Hawks alleged that his wife had “harassed and humiliated him” in the presence of his son. In a separate criminal filing, he charged Tracy Hawks with stealing his credit card and accruing $18,000 of charges without his permission.

On May 25, 11 days before her suicide, the two attended a settlement conference for the divorce. According to David Titman, Leslie Hawks’ divorce lawyer, the conference went smoothly.

“There were no raised voices, there was no contentious discussions, it was all very routine,” he said. “Her suicide was a shock to both my client and myself.”

But that same day Hawks wrote an entry in her diary, which was included in the police report:

“I don’t feel that I am deserving of... love. I wish I was different or better. I am so lost,” she wrote. “I feel that my life is over. I have failed at everything. I cannot preserve anything.”

Family members, neighbors, and Melton’s special education teacher all told police Hawks and her son had a close relationship. Melton’s teacher said Hawks regarded her son as her “comforter,” the report states.

Hawks moved to Hickory Ridge in the fall of 2009 so her son could attend Atholton’s Academic Life Skills special education program, which was more tailored to his needs, the teacher told police. Before, Melton attended Mt. Hebron High School, in Ellicott City, for three years.

The teacher, who was not named in the report, told police that Melton’s attendance was “sporadic.” In the week before he died, Melton had not been in class at all, the police report states.

The teacher told police she had worked with Melton for eight years, and in that time she thought Hawks was over-protective of her son and “would not let people in her son’s life.”

The teacher told police Melton was a loving person and a good student.

“Chris was a great kid,” Mt. Hebron principal Scott Ruehl said in an interview. “He was very caring and welcoming.”

Melton’s teacher agreed.

He was the “most delightful, well-behaved child you ever knew,” the teacher told police, according to the report. “Every time someone looked at Christopher, he would smile.”

Austintown, Ohio: Nathan Kinderdine, 7, drowns in pool at school

2010-08-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

Nathan Kinderdine, age 7

WKBN
Nathan Kinderdine, who had autism, has spent the past six weeks taking part in a summer enrichment program at the Leonard Kirtz School in Austintown.

It took less than five minutes for the Boardman 7-year-old known as a "runner" to wander away from his teachers and classmates and end up at the bottom of the school's indoor pool Tuesday.

While workers tried to revive him, Nathan later was pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth's Health Center. Now, police are trying to determine how he got into the pool and if a problem with one of its self-closing doors was the reason Nathan was able to enter that area.

"We're not rushing into it," said Austintown detective Sgt. Raynor Holmes. "We're trying to find the victim's whereabouts, and try and retrace where he went and where everything went from there. It's not the easiest thing to do, but that's what we have to look at."

A timeline in the police report shows that the doors to the pool area were locked just before noon. The last adult left the pool about ten minutes later.

About 12:35 p.m., two instructors took a group of six children into the nearby gym. One instructor first took in three kids, including Nathan because "he is a runner." The instructors then momentarily went into the hall to get three more children and, that's when they noticed Nathan was missing.

After a quick search, by 12:40 p.m. a custodian had unlocked the pool doors and found Nathan floating face down in about three and a half feet of water. The custodian jumped in to get him, and the boy was taken to the school's clinic, where nurses performed CPR.

After the incident, an officer fully opened a door leading from the boys' restroom into the pool 10 times. The door is supposed to lock from the outside whenever it closes. That door closed and locked, like it's supposed to, only once.

Officials with Leonard Kirtz are doing everything they can to find out what happened as well.

"We're waiting on the coroner, and Austintown Police Department report to see what they believe was the cause and the time frame involved," said Superintendent Larry Duck. "From there we'll try to look at what needs to be done to prevent this from ever happening again."

Linda Finlay's son, 13-year-old Joshua Finlay, attended the same program as Nathan. While the Salem resident attends West Branch Middle School, autistic children are required to participate in summer programs, Finlay said.

Finlay said she knew something was wrong when Joshua came home with a letter from the school Wednesday that stated the week would continue as scheduled, but there was an incident that involved a student in the swimming pool.

"It's really bad," Finlay said. "I was up all night crying. I feel really bad for the parents."

She said Joshua understood what happened at his school Tuesday. His reaction surprised her, she added.

"He was really shocked," Finlay said. "He said, 'this is a really tragic thing that happened'."

Finlay said she gave her son a choice on whether to attend school Wednesday. He decided to go, she said, but left after lunch.

Langhorne, Pennsylvania: Felony charges filed in heat death of Bryan Nevins

2010-08-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

By Larry King
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Bucks County prosecutors this afternoon filed felony neglect charges against a suspended Woods Services counselor in the July 25 heat-related death of Bryan Nevins, a severely autistic resident of the facility in Langhorne.

Stacey J. Strauss, 40, of Philadelphia, was charged with neglect of a care-dependent person, involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering another person after allegedly leaving Nevins, 20, in a parked van outside Woods Services on a day of record heat.

Nevins was found dead five hours after returning from a field trip to Sesame Place. His parents, who live in New York, have said their son had the mental ability of a two-year-old. Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler has said that Nevins would have been unable to operate the door handles of the van because of his severe autism.

Nevins and his twin brother, who also is autistic, had lived at Woods Services for years, his parents have said. They withdrew the other brother after Bryan Nevins' death. The men's father, retired New York City homicide detective William Nevins, told the Associated Press last week that he believed his son died because of one person's neglect.

Investigators agreed with that assessment.

"Mr. Nevins' death was not simply a tragic accident," said a statement issued by Heckler and Middletown Township Acting Public Safety Director Patrick McGinty. "Rather, his death resulted from the criminal failure of the defendant to discharge her assigned responsibilities."

The charges allege that Strauss and another Woods Services worker took Nevins and three other clients in a van to Sesame Place, near the Oxford Valley Mall. Nevins inexplicably was left behind in the van after their return to the facility around noon.

"It is undisputed that ... Mr. Nevins was not escorted from the van, nor was he returned to the residence by Ms. Strauss as was her responsibility," the statement said. "Instead, he was left in the van on one of the hottest days of this terribly hot summer."

It has been estimated that the temperature inside the van reached as high as 150 degrees, and that Nevins died within an hour of being left there. Bucks County Coroner Joseph Campbell determined that Nevins died of hyperthermia, and that the death was accidental.

The death came one year after 2-year-old Daniel Slutsky died of hyperthermia after being accidentally left in the back of a van outside a day-care center in Penndel, Bucks County.

Then-District Attorney Michelle Henry filed involuntary manslaughter charges against Rimma Shvartsman, a neighbor of the toddler's family who operated the center and had driven the boy there. A Bucks County Court jury found her not guilty of all charges in March.

The neglect charge against Strauss, a first-degree felony, is more severe. It carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

Prosecutors said police had notified Strauss's attorney of the charges, and that she has been directed to surrender to Middletown Township authorities.

Superior, Colorado: Coroner says baby, Rylan Rochester, died of suffocation

2010-07-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

Rylan Rochester, age 6 months

A 6-month-old Superior boy who was allegedly killed by his mother, a mental-health counselor, died of suffocation, Boulder County Coroner Thomas Faure said Wednesday.

Faure said Rylan Rochester, who was pronounced dead at Avista Adventist Hospital on June 1, was the victim of a homicide.

Rylan's mother, Stephanie Rochester, a mental-health counselor at Children's Hospital at the time, is charged with first- degree murder and child abuse. Rochester told police that she thought Rylan had autism and that she felt responsible.

She said she felt she and her husband couldn't have fun while caring for a severely autistic child, according to the affidavit. Rochester also said she didn't want Rylan to suffer and put a plastic shopping bag and a blanket over the baby's face to kill him, according to police.

Her husband, Lloyd Rochester IV, has not been charged.

Colwich, Kansas: Mason Medlam dies after being pulled from farm pond

2010-07-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

Mason Medlam, age 5

BY STAN FINGER
The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA | Mason Medlam, the 5-year-old boy who was found submerged in a farm pond near Colwich, Kan., on Wednesday, has died.

He died this morning at a Wichita hospital, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.

Mason, who had autism, had been missing for more than a half-hour from his home in the 4200 block of North 183rd West before he was found just before 11:15 a.m.

The pond is about a quarter-mile from his house and a mile southwest of Colwich.

Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com

Bronx, New York: , Micaela Jackson and autistic son, Kenneth Holmes, found dead in suspected murder-suicide

2010-07-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Kenneth Holmes, age 12

BY Kevin Deutsch and John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Thursday, July 29th 2010, 4:00 AM

Frustrated over the demands of raising an autistic child, police believe, a Bronx mother shot the boy to death before turning the gun on herself Wednesday night, cops said.

Micaela Jackson, 37, and Kenneth Holmes, 12, both killed by a gunshot to the head, were found in bed in the single mother's apartment on Loring Place in Morris Heights, police said.

The suspected murder-suicide - the second in as many weeks in the city - left Jackson's family and Kenneth's father shattered.

"I don't see the reason for any of this," said Kenneth Holmes Sr. "We were just getting ready to go to Jamaica, and now this."

Holmes, who was not married to Jackson but remained close with her, said he was in disbelief because Jackson had just been promoted at her job at Montefiore Medical Center.

"She was at a good point in her life," he said, tears streaming down his face as he glanced at a picture of his doe-eyed, curly-haired namesake.

Cops were called to the tragic scene shortly before 7:30 p.m. after Jackson's sister, worried because she could not reach her, went to the apartment, police said.

The door was locked and fastened with a chain from the inside, a fact that strengthened investigators' belief that the deaths were a murder-suicide, police said.

The sister got the building's super to gain entry, leading to the awful discovery. A 9-mm. pistol was recovered close to the bodies of mother and son, police said.

Jackson's heartbroken family gathered outside the apartment building last night, some crying, others shaking with grief.

"She's a good woman. She's a good mother," said Jackson's cousin, refusing to provide a name. "We're looking for answers. It's just a tragedy."

Neighbors said they would often see Jackson early in the morning, putting her son on the bus before leaving for work.

Neighbor Esmerelda Diaz, 22, said she recently saw Jackson chase after her son as he darted across the street.

"She really looked stressed out. She was so tired of screaming at him," she said. "Maybe he pushed her to the extreme and it came to this?"

Holmes could not accept that possibility last night, calling his boy "a gift."

"He was autistic, but he had charm," the devastated father said. "He had a great smile. Even if you had an evil heart, you would still love him."

Last Thursday, the bodies of a young mother and her four children were found amid the ruins of their burned Staten Island home.

Detectives have not made a final determination in the case, but believe Leisa Jones cut the throats of three of her children before setting the blaze that killed her and her youngest child.

jlauinger@nydailynews.com

Irving, Texas: Mother, Saiqa Akhter, calls 911 after strangling her children, Zain and Faryaal

2010-07-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

After her two children were strangled to death, a Texas mother called police... on herself.

Saiqa Akhter, 30, was arrested on Monday night and is expected to be charged with capital murder for the death of her son Zain, 5, who died on Monday, according to the Dallas Morning News. Her daughter, Faryaal, died Tuesday evening.

The woman's uncle, Wasimul Haque, said Akhter had been depressed, the Associated Press reported.

"It looks like she had mental problems. I don't understand why she did it," said Haque.

Akhter called police around 5 p.m. on Monday from her Irving home, about 15 miles from Dallas. She told the operator she used a wire to strangle her children until they turned blue.

The uncle said Zain had autism and a severe speech impediment but was improving. He added that the kids' father, Rashid Akhter, was "totally broken."

Police said the woman was the only one at home at the time of the murder.

It isn't the couple's first brush with law enforcement. In May 2009, the parents were contacted by Child Protective Services after they left their son home alone to take their daughter, who was having respiratory problems, to the hospital.

"They admitted to it and they said they understand why it was dangerous to leave a child that young at home by themselves," said Marissa Gonzales, a CPS spokeswoman.

"They said they had been really concerned about their daughter and so they just hadn't been thinking but they were adamant that it wouldn't happen again."

McAllen, Texas: Teen Lance Benson drowns in backyard pool

2010-06-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

June 15, 2010 8:19 PM
Lindsay Machak
The Monitor

McALLEN — A family’s night of fun in the pool turned fatal Monday when 15-year old Lance Benson had a seizure and slipped beneath the water’s surface.

His family said the autistic teen suffered from convulsions that caused him to drown in their backyard pool on the 3100 block of Gull Street in McAllen.

Lance wasn’t swimming unattended, his aunt Rosie Garza said. His family was out enjoying the start of summer vacation when his father noticed something was wrong and found him at the bottom of the pool.

“It was an accident,” she said. “They swam every day.”

Garza, 51, of McAllen, recalls how much joy her nephew had when he was in the pool. He learned how to swim at the age of 3, and activities like swimming kept him at ease.

“He didn’t speak but he understood everything,” she said.

Lance was over 6 feet tall, but he knew how dangerous the pool could be and often stayed in the shallow end, Garza said. He was in the pool’s shallow area, where the water is 3 feet deep — when he had the seizure and drowned.

Lance attended Fossum Middle School and was excited every morning about going to school.

“He would put on his backpack and wait for the bus to come,” Garza said. “He really liked school.”

Garza said she would come over to see her two nephews, but it won’t be the same now that Lance is gone.

“He was beautiful,” she said. “I loved him so much.”

McAllen police continue to investigate the incident. No information was available about a possible autopsy or whether any criminal wrongdoing was suspected.

Gray, Maine: Autistic Gray man, Benjamin McLatchie, 22, killed by his father Daniel McLatchie

2010-04-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

Police say the man, who also shot himself, may have been worried about his son's care in the future.
By Dennis Hoey dhoey@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

GRAY - A father shot and killed his autistic son Tuesday at their home on Yarmouth Road before turning the rifle on himself, Maine State Police said.

Cumberland County sheriff's deputies found the bodies of Daniel McLatchie, 44, and his son, Benjamin McLatchie, 22, in the family's driveway at 227 Yarmouth Road around 2:30 p.m.

The driveway, which is several hundred feet long, slopes down from Yarmouth Road -- part of Route 115 -- before ending at a white, two-story, Cape-style home surrounded by woods.

State police Sgt. Chris Harriman said the sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call. He did not say who made the call.

He said it appeared that Daniel McLatchie was upset about what would happen to his autistic son after he and his wife died. He was a stay-at-home father, Harriman said.

Daniel McLatchie's wife, Allison McLatchie, 45, was at work when the shootings happened.

Harriman said she is a teacher at the Collaborative School on the Pineland Campus in New Gloucester. According to its website, the school serves students from ages 5 to 19 who are eligible for special education services because of emotional or related disabilities.

Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Marguerite Dewitt examined the bodies in Gray. She determined that McLatchie and his son died from gunshot wounds. A rifle was found near the bodies.

The bodies were taken to Augusta, where the state Medical Examiner's Office is expected to do autopsies today.

Harriman would not characterize the shootings as a murder-suicide, but said during a press conference, "We do believe there were no other people involved."

Mary Keith has lived nearby on Yarmouth Road for 10 years, but said she never got to know the McLatchies. She said the family moved into the neighborhood about six years ago.

Ginger Taylor of Brunswick, who writes the blog "Adventures in Autism" and whose 8-year-old son has been diagnosed with autism, said she doesn't know the McLatchies, but noted there are pressures for families with autistic children.

"Having an autistic child is, on a social level, very hard because it can be very isolating. You don't get to be part of those social circles anymore and you can't participate in the life of the town. There are just so many challenges," said Taylor, who has organized Greater Brunswick Special Families, a support group for parents of autistic children.

She said there is "a huge tidal wave of autistic children born in the 1980s and 1990s who are coming of age." Parents who care for autistic children at home need greater support, such as respite care and counseling, she said.

Taylor said one of the most common fears for parents with autistic children is what will happen to the children after the parents are gone.

"That is the big question -- what happens to our child when we die," she said. "We understand their needs better than anyone else. It really breaks my heart hearing what happened to this family. It shouldn't be like that."

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at: dhoey@pressherald.com

Lexington, Kentucky: 21 year old Roland Campbell dies while being held down by police

2010-04-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

Roland Campbell, 21

Mother wants answers in autistic son's death while in police custody
By Josh Kegley — jkegley@herald-leader.com
Posted: 12:00am on Apr 20, 2010

A mother has asked Lexington police and medical providers for details surrounding her autistic son's death after officers tried to handcuff him at a group home for mentally disabled people Sunday.

Roland Campbell, 21, was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Hospital at 4:33 p.m., according to a coroner's report. A cause of death had not been determined Monday, but preliminary autopsy results ruled out physical trauma and disease, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said. Ginn said Campbell had superficial lacerations on his hand.

Police received a call about 3:30 p.m. Sunday regarding "a mentally challenged subject that was out of control" at a home on Waco Road, police Cmdr. Ron Compton said.

At a Monday news conference, Compton said all Lexington officers are trained to respond to people with mental disabilities. He said that he didn't think the two responding officers had violated procedure but that an investigation was ongoing.

Roland Campbell's brothers, Roman Campbell, 21, and Ceasar Cook, 29, said they had been told that their brother had become enraged, turning over tables and breaking items inside the home.
Officers initially handcuffed Roland Campbell without incident, intending to take him into emergency detention. Compton said physical evidence at the scene and witnesses' statements indicated that Campbell was "a danger to himself and others."

Compton said that Campbell became violent and escaped his restraints, and that when officers were cuffing him a second time, he lost consciousness. The officers performed CPR until emergency medical personnel arrived.

Roman Campbell questioned whether police used too much force when restraining his brother, who he said was severely autistic and could not speak.

"He's confused. When they come in jumping on him like that, he's not thinking like we would be thinking, like, 'Oh, we got to calm down, the police are here,'" Roman Campbell said.

Pecola Campbell said that her son had lived with two other disabled men and a caretaker at the home since September and that he was normally "sweet and happy." She said Roland Campbell would not have acted violently unless he had been provoked or felt threatened.

Roland Campbell took several medications that affected his mood, she said. Roman Campbell said his brother might have acted violently if he had been given the wrong medication.

A statement released by Linda Hill, owner of Adult Daycare of Lexington Inc., said "the death was not the result of any action or inaction" of the ADC staff.

ADC, which runs the Waco Road home, contracts with the state Medicaid program to provide services under the Supports for Community Living program. The program allows people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to receive care in a homelike setting, rather than an institution.

Pecola Campbell said Roland Campbell liked listening to music and was fascinated by flashing lights on police cars. She said when he was agitated he was easily calmed by the feel of cotton fabric.

"Even though he couldn't speak, he was still the nicest person you could meet," said Roman Campbell.

Pecola Campbell said she would find out what happened to her son no matter what it took.

"I have nothing to lose now," she said.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/04/20/1230733/mother-wants-answers-in-sons-death.html#more#ixzz1ETb52AOs

Nov 18, 2010
By Josh Kegley | Kentucky

The Fayette County coroner’s office will not conduct an investigation into the death of a 21-year-old autistic man in police custody.

Roland Campbell, who was severely autistic and could not speak, stopped breathing April 18 while being held down by two Lexington police officers and a caretaker at a group home owned by Adult Day Care Inc. of Lexington.

The cause of death was acute cardiorespiratory failure, a type of heart failure, according to an autopsy performed by the state’s associate chief medical examiner. The manner of death — whether the death was an accident, suicide, homicide or from natural causes — is listed as undetermined pending investigation into the events leading up to it.

Campbell’s autopsy was completed in July. The Fayette County coroner’s office released a copy to the Herald-Leader on Tuesday.

Both the state medical examiner and a state advocacy group for the mentally disabled suggested a coroner’s inquest, an investigation into the events surrounding the death.

“One option is to conduct a coroner’s inquest, which should include taking sworn testimony and going to the Waco residence to perform the re-enactment,” associate chief medical examiner John Hunsaker III said in the autopsy report.

However, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said Wednesday legal counselors advised him not to conduct the inquest.
Ginn said any such investigation should come from the courts if a civil lawsuit is filed. There is no guarantee, he said, an inquest would reveal anything.
“It could become inconclusive, which could put us back to square one,” he said. “I don’t see using the county’s funds for that.”

Individual investigations by the Lexington police department and Adult Day Care have been closed.

The police investigation was closed after the autopsy was completed in July, Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts said. Police have said responding officers acted appropriately to subdue a man who was “a danger to himself and others.”

Police were called after Campbell began destroying items in the home and lashing out at caretakers, reports say.

An attorney for Adult Day Care, Jill Hall Rose, said the company’s internal investigation and an investigation by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services ordered caretakers to be retrained to handle emergency situations, but no further actions were pending.

“The department found the home did nothing that contributed to the death,” she said.
Kentucky Protection and Advocacy, a group that supports the mentally disabled, has been investigating the death since May. Director Marsha Hockensmith said the investigations by police and Adult Day Care may not tell the whole story.

“You had so many folks involved in this,” Hockensmith said.

“It’s like there are pockets of investigation … being done, but they never meet in the middle,” she said.

Campbell’s heart failure was brought on by several conditions, including lack of oxygen, dehydration, physical exhaustion, possible medication intoxication and “autism-induced excited delirium during prone restraint,” the autopsy said.

Several incident reports from police and witness statements were included in the autopsy report.
According to documents, officers responded to an Adult Day Care group home at 2961 Waco Road after Campbell began destroying furniture and other items.

Campbell, who was breathing heavily and was covered in sweat, had pulled down a refrigerator and destroyed light fixtures, electrical outlets and furniture before jumping out a window, reports said.

Officers were called to take Campbell into emergency protective custody, police have said.
Two officers, Derrick Wallace and Matthew Smith, and Adult Day Care employee Eric Hatter had pinned down the flailing man with a blanket while trying to handcuff him when he “suddenly stopped moving.”

Officers performed CPR until an ambulance arrived.

According to reports, pepper spray and Tasers were not used on Campbell. At no point was pressure put on his neck or head, the report said.

However, police reports and witness statements do not say whether pressure was placed on Campbell’s back while he was being restrained.

According to the autopsy, “sitting, lying, kneeling, standing or manually pushing on the back needs to be considered because it may cause mechanical interference with breathing.”

The report continued, “Death via trunk compression typically (takes) a couple minutes, so establishing duration of such restraint, if any, is crucial to the investigation.”
Ginn said he did not see any criminal intent in the case.

“This is a civil litigation,” he said. “The courts would handle this rather than me.”
It was unclear Wednesday if a civil lawsuit will be filed.

Source: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/11/18/1529695/coroner-no-inquest-in-case-of.html

Villa Rica, Georgia: Missing Autistic 6-Year-Old, Christian Dejons, Found Dead In Lake

2010-04-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

Villa Rica boy's death ruled accidental

By Marcus K. Garner and Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

So, it was easy for the 6-year-old Villa Rica boy to wander off toward it.

Christian Dejons went missing on Wednesday. His body was found in the lake later that day.

His death was ruled as an accident, Douglas County Sheriff's Deputy Capt. Bobby Holmes said Friday.

"There's no foul play. He just wandered off and got in the water," Holmes told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday.

Dejon was spotted around 3:30 p.m. by a Douglas sheriff's deputy flying in a Georgia State Patrol helicopter over a lake in the Mirror Lake subdivision, Holmes said.

"The deputy saw something that looked like a body in the water," Holmes said. "They landed the helicopter, and the deputy went in and got the little boy and began CPR."

Emergency crews tried to revive the boy, and he was taken to Tanner Medical Center in Villa Rica where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Los Angeles, California: Steven Eugene Washington, 27, shot by police for odd behavior

2010-03-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Steven Eugene Washington, 27

Police Commission overrules chief, says LAPD shooting was wrong
The commission rejects the chief's finding that officers made mistakes but were ultimately justified in killing an unarmed autistic man.

By Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times
March 5, 2011

The civilian commission that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department has taken the rare step of rejecting a recommendation from the department's chief, ruling that two police officers were wrong when they fatally shot an unarmed autistic man last year.

Police Chief Charlie Beck concluded after a lengthy internal investigation that the officers made serious tactical mistakes during the brief, late-night encounter, but ultimately were justified in using deadly force against Steven Eugene Washington, 27.

About midnight on March 20, Officers Allan Corrales and George Diego, who worked in an anti-gang unit, were driving in a marked patrol car along Vermont Avenue in the city's Koreatown neighborhood. Both officers told investigators they heard a loud noise — which one described as a "deep boom" — behind them, according to Beck's report on the incident.

The Times obtained a redacted version of the report, which conceals the officers' names. Because of the redactions it is not possible to tell what role each officer played in the shooting.

Looking behind them, the officers saw Washington walking on the sidewalk in the opposite direction. They turned the car around and drove slowly behind him. The officer in the passenger seat rolled down his window and called out to the man, the report said. The officer told investigators Washington turned toward him, gave him a "hard" look, then reached into the waistband area of his pants, according to the report.

The officer who was driving pulled up alongside Washington. From a few feet away, his partner saw a dark object tucked into Washington's waistband and, convinced it was a gun, drew his own weapon and pointed it at the man, according to the report.

Washington, according to the officers' account in the report, turned abruptly and began to walk directly toward the patrol car as the driving officer brought the car to a stop. The officer in the passenger seat told investigators Washington had a "blank stare" as if in a daze and ignored orders to raise his hands.

From the car, the officer fired a single shot, then ducked down below the window. The shot struck Washington in the head.

Washington had no weapon. The dark object the officer observed was probably Washington's black cellphone. In describing the shooting, the officer initially told investigators that he had seen the object in Washington's hand and that Washington had pointed it at them as he approached.

Los Angeles County coroner's officials, however, found the cellphone still in its holster attached to Washington's waistband.

When pressed by investigators on whether he actually saw an object in Washington's hand, the officer backed away from his statement, saying, "I — honestly, it was so quick so then I was — it was a split second. You know, I couldn't tell."

After jumping out of the car, the driving officer also fired a single shot a few seconds after his partner fired, according to the report. The officer said Washington was still standing when he fired. Investigators were not able to determine if that was possible.

The shooting drew sharp criticism from Washington's family, who said the man was autistic and fearful of strangers. Civil liberties groups questioned the shooting, suggesting that the officers may have overreacted because they had not observed Washington doing anything criminal.

Based on the investigation's findings, Beck found Corrales and Diego had violated department policies in how they approached and engaged Washington, but decided it was reasonable for them to believe the man had a gun and intended to shoot them.

In a unanimous decision, however, the civilian commission found differently. The panel said Corrales and Diego violated department policies that govern when an officer can use lethal force.

The commission almost always follows the chief's recommendations on cases in which officers use serious force. Since Beck became chief more than a year ago, the panel has overruled him only three times out of dozens of cases.

Beck, who alone can impose discipline, initiated disciplinary proceedings against Corrales and Diego following the commission's finding, according to a senior LAPD official who requested anonymity because discipline cases are confidential. Beck declined to comment.

Paul Weber, president of the union representing rank-and-file officers, said he strongly disagreed with the commission's conclusion.

"I don't know what they expect officers to do," he said. "Wait until one of them is shot before they react?"

A commission report outlining its reasoning on the case is expected to be released early next week.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

Greenville, South Carolina: Ryan Emory, 16, Killed in jump from Ambulance

2010-02-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

Ryan Emory, Age 16

Teen Killed In Jump From Ambulance; Lawsuit Filed

Suit Filed On Anniversary Of 16-Year-Old's Death
WYFF4

POSTED: 11:16 am EDT March 23, 2011
UPDATED: 8:30 pm EDT March 23, 2011

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- WYFF News 4 has learned that the family of an autistic teenager who died a year ago after jumping out of a moving ambulance has filed a lawsuit against the ownership of Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Ryan Emory, 16, died on February 28, 2010 while being transferred by ambulance to a hospital in Columbia. Greenville Health Corporation owns Greenville Memorial Hospital and the hospital's Mobile Care Ambulance service.

Shortly after Ryan’s death, his mother, Shelley Hodge, said two local psychiatric hospitals had refused to admit him and that’s why he was being transported to Columbia.

According to the lawsuit, Ryan was admitted to the emergency department of Greenville Memorial Hospital on Feb. 26. Emergency department records said that Emory became “extremely agitated and volatile and displayed symptoms of aggression,” and that Ryan said he was going to “hurt himself and exhibited outbursts of anger, crying and screaming when he was informed he was to be transferred to William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says that despite Ryan and his mother’s objections, arrangements were made to transfer him. The lawsuit says that the transfer form indicated known risks with the transfer and identified “security” as accompanying personnel.

The suit alleges that during transport, Ryan was allowed to release himself from the stretcher, open the back door of the ambulance and fall from the ambulance into Interstate 85.
Ryan died of multiple head and body trauma and cardiac arrest.

The wrongful death lawsuit alleges gross negligence and recklessness and seeks compensation for “conscious pain and suffering of Ryan prior to his death, as well as for his necessary funeral and burial expense and cost of probate.” The family is seeking a jury trial.

Brooklyn, New York: Tavon Turpin, 11, dies in fire after being left alone

2010-02-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

Eleven-year-old autistic boy dies in fire; grandmother charged for leaving him alone

BY Oren Yaniv, Erin Durkin and Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS

Originally Published:Tuesday, February 16th 2010, 12:16 PM
Updated: Tuesday, February 16th 2010, 11:21 PM

An autistic 11-year-old boy who can barely speak died in a fire that he set Tuesday when his grandmother left him alone in her Brooklyn apartment, officials and witnesses said.

Tavon Turpin used matches or a lighter to ignite the blaze in a hallway closet while his grandmother, Melinda McLain, 59, had gone to a deli near the Coney Island apartment, police said.

The grandmother was hit with criminal charges for leaving home without Tavon, who recently sparked a small fire by cooking a cell phone in a microwave, police and FDNY sources said.

"The kid didn't have a chance," said neighbor Wigberto Figueroa, 34. "It's so sad."

Tavon, who lived with McLain in Coney Islands's Ocean Towers, set the blaze around noon. Firefighters tried to revive the boy after pulling him from the 15th-floor flat, but he couldn't be saved.

McLain returned home, saw Tavon's lifeless body and broke down, weeping.

She was arrested Tuesday night at Coney Island Hospital, where she was being treated for smoke inhalation and asthma. Cops charged her with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child, police sources said.

"She loved that boy," said neighbor Allen Pearsall, 48. "That little boy was this lady's life. None of us are perfect."

Four years ago in the same complex, a 7-year-old boy playing with a lighter sparked an inferno that killed three others. Ricardo (Rico) Clark, 16, and his two cousins, Jahgiria Sheffer, 10, and Jahnae O'Pharrow, 3, died after being trapped in their bedrooms.

Hours before Tuesday's fire, a 60-year-old grandmother died after surging flames trapped her inside her Queens apartment.

The blaze tore through the living room of Deborah Kelly's 17th-floor apartment in Lefrak City building just before 3 a.m., blocking the front door, witnesses said.The cause of that fire remains under investigation, but doesn't appear suspicious, FDNY officials said.

Neighbors said Kelly, a mother of two, had lived in the building for about 12 years. She shared her apartment with a daughter and a granddaughter. They weren't home at the time of the fire, neighbors said.

"She was a very lovely person," neighbor Loretta Henderson said. "They're a close family. It's sad."

oyaniv@nydailynews.com

Eden Prairie, Minnesota: Timothy Aleshire, 27, dies after being restrained at work

2010-01-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

Timothy Aleshire, age 27

Gail Rosenblum: Could training in restraint use have averted this tragedy?

Nancy Aleshire is fighting mad. Her son, Timothy Aleshire, 27, was near death Wednesday, after being physically restrained by four people at his state-operated workplace in Eden Prairie.

Aleshire isn't making excuses for her son, who has struggled for years with schizophrenia, developmental disabilities and Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. She is candid about his violent history, including coming at his 4-foot-10 mother with a knife on a few occasions, and nearly strangling her on another. The key word, though, is "history."

For the past four or five years, Tim, who lives in a group home in Minneapolis with a trained, round-the-clock staff, has been making impressive progress. He was taking his antipsychotic medication and hadn't struck his mother in that entire time. He was not problem-free, but his emotional outbursts were fewer and his strategy for dealing with them encouraging.

"When he would see himself getting aggressive, he would go into his room, as opposed to hurting somebody," Nancy said. "That's where he was at."

Something happened Dec. 31 that caused him to swing at a co-worker at Metro Resources Technology Park. He was held down for an unknown period, then rushed to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina. According to the medical report, he had no pulse for 30 minutes.

His mother signed papers Tuesday to allow his organs to be donated should the time come. She hopes criminal charges will be filed or, at least, somebody will get fired.

"My question is: Why four people?" she said. "Being the victim of Tim's assaults, I certainly understand the need for restraining him, but that never resulted in him losing consciousness and going into cardiac arrest.

"Tim," she said, "would want me to fight for him."

Finger-pointing is human, but more helpful is a transparent investigation, which the police and state Department of Human Services have promised.

Disabled man dies of injuries after being restrained at work
Star Tribune

Tim Aleshire, a 27-year-old developmentally disabled man injured while being restrained last week by a handful of people at his state-operated workplace in Eden Prairie, has died, his mother said.

Nancy Aleshire said that her son died Friday. She has yet to hear what the Hennepin County medical examiner's office has determined about the cause of Tim's death.

He was injured Dec. 31 when four people at Metro Resources Technology Park restrained him as he tried to assault a co-worker, Nancy Aleshire said. He remained unconscious until his death, she said.

Police in Eden Prairie are investigating the death. The state Department of Human Services, which runs Metro Resources, is conducting an internal inquiry. Neither is saying more about the case.

Aleshire said Monday that she has hired an attorney to pursue a civil wrongful-death claim against Metro Resources and possibly others.

Willows, California: Man jailed for abuse and neglect in connection with the death of his brother, Walter Knox Hildebrand Jr.

2009-11-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

By GREG WELTER-Staff Writer
Posted: 08/04/2010 10:50:42 AM PDT

WILLOWS — A Willows man has been arrested following a lengthy investigation for possibly contributing to the death of his 20-year-old brother in November 2009, in Elk Creek.

Stuart Allen Hildebrand, 22, was booked into the Glenn County Jail in Willows Monday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and causing pain, suffering or injury to an elder or dependent adult. Hildebrand's brother, Walter Knox Hildebrand Jr., suffered from autism. Walter Hildebrand was found dead on the floor of a bedroom inside a mobile home on County Road 306. Investigators said his body had numerous scratches, cuts and facial bruising. His death was reported by his brother.

An autopsy revealed that the man died of apparent seizure activity due to a known disorder. Although the cause of death is natural, Sheriff Larry Jones said the potential for criminal negligence and physical abuse was present.

The autopsy further revealed that autism and malnutrition were contributing factors in the young man's death.

After several interviews with family members, friends and the suspect, a complaint was issued with the Glenn County District Attorney's office and an arrest warrant issued. Hildebrand is being held on bail of $35,000.

Ocala, Florida: Details on autistic boy, Bernard Latimore, 10, who drowned in neighbor's pool

2009-11-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

Bernard Latimore, age 10

By Austin L. Miller
Staff writer
Published: Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 6:05 p.m.

The woman who was taken to a hospital Friday afternoon after her 10-year-old autistic son drowned in a murky swimming pool has been released and is feeling much better, according to a Marion County Sheriff’s official.

Katese Richardson was overcome with grief when she saw her son’s body before it was taken away by the Medical Examiner’s Office. She was released from the hospital Friday night, but no one was at her home Saturday afternoon.

Bernard Latimore, an autistic child who could not speak, had wandered away from his Northwest 57th Court home and could not be found despite the search efforts of sheriff’s deputies, canines and neighbors. His body eventually was found in a nearby neighbor’s pool.

Additional details became available Saturday from a Sheriff’s Office report.

Richardson left her home around 8 a.m. for work, leaving her 16-year-old son, Bernard, and her two other children at the home. One of the children, the woman told deputies, saw Bernard leave the home and walk south on Northwest 57th Court. The child tried to stop her brother from leaving, but he kept walking.

The girl, officials say, then woke up her 16-year-old brother, and they went outside looking for Bernard. Sheriff’s officials said Richardson called them at 10:12 a.m.

During the search, officials came upon a neighbor who said he had been sleeping when he heard someone knocking on the door. The man said he looked outside and saw someone carrying a pink pillow case. Thinking it was a salesman, the man ignored the knock.

About 11:30 a.m., two deputies went to a nearby residence that had a pool. They did not see anything, and the doors were locked. The pool, officials say, had algae and no one could see the bottom.

The woman who lives there told the Star-Banner on Saturday that she and her mother came home sometime after 1 p.m. and noticed a pillow floating in the pool. They called officials, who in turn saw a pink pillow floating on the south side of the pool.

An autopsy was not performed on the child on Saturday, according to officials.

Edmonton, Ontario: Killer dad 'couldn't cope'

2009-10-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

Family experienced severe behavioural problems with autistic son
By RICHARD LIEBRECHT, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: September 30, 2009 3:16am

It was a "loving, caring" father who killed his 11-year-old autistic son before killing himself, according to family.

That message was passed through a social worker who tried helping the family cope with struggles that bring many parents to the edge.

"I wasn't surprised. It was a feeling of dread, like oh my god, it happened," said Karen Phillips, program director for the Autism Society of Edmonton Area, who worked directly with the suffering family.

"(The mother) said (the father) just couldn't handle it anymore. He couldn't cope. He was worried his son wasn't going to get what he needed.

"Something had to give here."

She broke down, saying, "the bottom line here is that I do worry. There are other families that I worry about. There's intense stress over the long term. It puts people at very high risk, so no, I wasn't very surprised."

The 39-year-old father locked himself in the basement of the family's home at 8403 138 Ave. and, somehow, committed the acts.

The causes of their deaths have not been released, at the request of the surviving mother to protect her remaining young son, said Patrycia Thenu, police spokesman.

However, cops are dubbing it a homicide-suicide.

The bodies were found by family just before 1 p.m. Sunday.

The 11-year-old threw thrashing fits and slept poorly, said Phillips.

In the spring of 2008, he had such a tantrum that his family took him to Royal Alexandra hospital.

"The family gets to the point of becoming unglued. They don't know what to do," said Phillips.

Royal Alex staff originally said it was the wrong place to take him, she said.

She notes that there are no emergency services for autistic people when parents lose control. Also, parents never really know if their child is freaking out because something is medically wrong with them.

The 11-year-old spent 20 hours strapped to a hospital bed, screaming, said Phillips.

It was the breaking point. After 10 years of home care, the family sought to have their son sent out for care.

"They were wondering what they were going to do now with his severe behavioural problems," said Phillips.

It took some time to find a placement.

Meanwhile, the family was stressed. The stress didn't break, even as a group home took the 11-year-old on weekdays.

"Mom has said it's kind of been an accumulation of stress that's built up over time," said Phillips.

Phillips urged that the government and community must step forward to offer parents of autistic children more support, especially for emergency relief.

RICHARD.LIEBRECHT@SUNMEDIA.CA

Mississauga, Ontario: Autistic-murder case: Mother upset by husband's plans to institutionalize their son, Tony Khor

2009-10-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

Tony Khor, age 15

By Catherine McDonald, Global News, and Matthew Coutts, National Post

The Mississauga mother charged with murdering her autistic teenager was distraught in the days before the death because her husband was considering moving him to a care home, neighbours said yesterday.

Peter Varanelli, a long time friend and neighbour of the family, said Boon Khor wanted to move his son to a specialized care facility, but the mother could not bear the idea.

“Her son was her life. Period,” Mr. Varanelli said. “Maybe she should have just accepted that he needed to go to an institution. But she just couldn’t see it that way.”

Tony Khor, 15 (pictured at top), was found dead in a Mississauga hotel on Sunday. He was a low-functioning autistic unable to speak, often making noises in an attempt to communicate. He was found dead after a call from a room alerted police to his whereabouts.

Sources told Global News the boy had been strangled.

His mother, Seow Cheng Sin, 51, appeared in a Brampton court yesterday to face charged of first-degree murder. She is reportedly on suicide watch.

Police said Ms. Sin left the family home with Tony after an argument with Mr. Khor on Saturday.

Mr. Khor, pictured, broke down in tears after leaving his wife’s court appearance yesterday. He told reporters he and his wife had argued before she left and she threatened to divorce him.

“I said ‘I would never bring up a divorce, why would you bring it up? If you want a divorce, go ahead,’” said Mr. Khor, 51. ‘‘I never saw the signs coming .... She said if you divorce me I will kill myself. I should have known.”

Mr. Khor said the couple would often argue, but Ms. Sin would always return home after a cooling-off period. He said she was depressed, but ‘‘dedicated’’ to their son and should not have been charged with first-degree murder.

Neighbours in the family’s close-knit Mississauga neighbourhood described them as caring, seemingly able to manage the stresses of raising an autistic child.

The boy’s autism was so bad he could not speak, often spooking people who were not familiar with his condition, Mr. Varanelli said.

He said the boy relied on routine and would grow agitated around visitors no matter how often they came to visit.

The boy, Mr. Varanelli said, was getting big. He estimated the teenager was nearly six feet tall, and still growing. He already towered over his diminutive mother, leading the family to question how much longer she could care for him.

“He was getting big ... in a few years they were going to have to think about it.

A silver haired woman who lived up the street from the family had spoken to Ms. Sin on Friday about the possibility of moving her son to a home.

“From her point of view — never,” the woman said, declining to give her name. “But the husband thought they would have to at some point. He was worried that she might not be able to handle it for much longer.”

The woman said she had offered to help the woman in any way she could. She said they had moved Tony to a new school in September for more hands-on assistance. He was agitated by the move at first, but she said Ms. Sin felt he was settling in.

Students at St. Marcellinus School said they were told a classmate died in an accident over the weekend. The school’s flag was at half-staff.

Sunil Kapoor and his wife, whose yard is adjacent to the couple’s, were shocked to hear the news, describing them as an open, loving family.

The couple and their 15-year-old son were staples in the community, and often took long walks through the neighbourhood.

Mr. Khor works in the IT sector during the day, leaving much of the child-rearing to his wife, Seow Cheng Sin.

Mr. Kapoor said Ms. Sin lived for her son, picking him up from the bus stop and playing badminton with him on the family’s lawn, weather permitting.

“They would play badminton on the grass and go for walks. Usually the two of them, but sometimes the father too,” he said.

“And she loved him so much. Sure, he had issues, but she would take care of him. He never hurt anyone. He just had episodes.”

The family had lived in their Clansman Trail home for more than 20 years, neighbours said.

Tears welled in the eyes of a Chinese couple living in the neighbourhood as they heard the news yesterday.

Another young man walking his dog past said he had gone to elementary school with Tony. He was too stunned over his death to speak.

“He was a good kid,” he said.

Ms. Sin returns to court on Friday.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: CFHS student, Trevor Varinecz, killed suffered from Autism

2009-10-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

Trevor Varinecz , age 16

NewsChannel is learning more about the shooting that left a 16-year-old student dead at Carolina Forest High School Friday morning.

Horry County Coroner Robert Edge tells us that Trevor Varinecz was shot five times by School Resource Officer Marcus Rhodes.

One of those gunshot wounds was through the chest and that proved to be fatal.

Police say Varinecz stabbed Officer Rhodes in Rhodes' office at the school Friday morning. The officer responded by shooting Varinecz, who died about an hour later at Conway Medical Center.

Officer Rhodes was treated for stab wounds and released from the hospital around 12:30pm.

NewsChannel 15 did speak with Varinecz's mother, Karen, Saturday.

She told us about her son, saying, "he was a wonderful boy. We can't understand what happened... He was not violent, he was never violent. We just don't know what he was thinking."

She did confirm that her son suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism that can effect a person's emotional and social skills.

Asperger's Syndrome is often considered a high functioning form of autism.

People with this syndrome have difficulty interacting socially, repeat behaviors, and often are clumsy. Motor milestones may be delayed. The main symptom is severe trouble with social situations.

Karen Varinecz noted how Trevor found it challenging to make friends.

Trevor's former cognitive behavioral therapist described to us how Asperger's Syndrome can effect a school-aged child.

James Garvey, high-functioning Autism specialist, noted how young children and teens "try to interact but it's just that they fail to interact appropriately. By the time -- when they get to middle school where the social demands are really heightened to be socially involved, they fail even more. So, they get picked on, they become victims and scapegoats and bullied."

State Education Department spokesman Jim Foster says Friday's incident was the first time a school police officer has killed a student on campus in South Carolina.

Solicitor releases school shooting video, SLED report

December 14, 2009
CONWAY -- The 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office released surveillance video and photos from the morning of the Carolina Forest High School shooting-stabbing incident that left one student dead.

Carolina Forest High student Trevor Varinecz, 16, died Oct. 16 after an altercation with Horry County Police Lance Cpl. Marcus Rhodes, the school resource officer.

Surveillance video shows Varinecz wandering through the school's hallways before he met Rhodes and Assistant Principal Frances Gaye Driggers.

According to a voluntary statement given by Rhodes to SLED, Varinecz asked to speak to Rhodes in his office.

Rhodes told SLED Varinecz asked him to close the office door for privacy, then the boy said he was paranoid.

He told Rhodes there was a spider in a corner of the office and asked Rhodes “to take care of it.”

When Rhodes complied and turned his attention to the office corner, he says Varinecz lunged at him with what appeared to be a large knife.

Rhodes said he shouted at Varinecz to drop the knife and yelled to Driggers for help.

Rhodes says he pushed Varinecz into a corner, tried to pull the knife away and began wrestling with Varinecz.

According to the report, both Varinecz and Rhodes had their hands wrapped around the knife. Varinecz then told Rhodes to give him his gun and said "I have no reason to live. Just shoot me."

Rhodes says he told Varinecz he would help him, but the boy seemed determined to kill himself.

Driggers and a few other faculty members by then were at the office door but Rhodes told them not to open the door, since he did not want Varinecz to get out of the room with the knife, according to the investigation.

Rhodes says he was surprised at how strong the boy was and how determined he was to continue the attack so he tried to “short circuit his pattern of thought” and he shot Varinecz in the leg. The investigation shows Varinecz was shot three times in the leg.

Rhodes said at that point, Varinecz became even more difficult to contain and said, "just shoot me."

After Varinecz got one arm free, Rhodes says he felt like he was losing control of the incident and he tried shooting Varinecz in the arm, but then remembered Varinecz stabbing him in the back. The investigation later shows Rhodes was stabbed at least seven times.

Rhodes said he knew Varinecz would have access to his gun, so in order to stop the attack on him or others, he decided he had to shoot Varinecz to end the attack.

According to the investigation, Rhodes shot Varinecz in the chest, pushed him away and the boy fell forward against a storage cabinet.

Rhodes says Varinecz slid down the wall to the floor. At that point a few school employees entered the office and Varinecz said "Thank you sir. Thank you," before losing consciousness

Rhodes says he tried administering CPR before he was relieved by another officer.

The investigation shows there were a total of 10 shots fired by Rhodes.

Five shots hit Varinecz and five missed.

The autospy showed Varinecz died from a single shot to the chest.

The report also said when the autopsy was done, a note was found inside Varincez's pants that read "Check Trevor’s folder on my PC for my last words."

That last word's document was not included in the report given by the solicitor's office.

Photos released by the solicitor's office also show evidence from the shooting-stabbing incident.

Rhodes was cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident by the State Law Enforcement Division and Solicitor Greg Hembree last week.

Stay tuned to News 13 and SCNOW.com to see surveillance video from the incident and more on the investigation reports, once those materials become available.

Seattle, Washington: Devine Farrier, 11, killed crossing a busy roadway

2009-10-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

By ROBERTA ROMERO / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – State Route 99 is a busy roadway, with cars flying by. Eleven-year-old Devine Farrier was trying to cross it Saturday when he was hit by a one ton flatbed pick-up truck.

He died Sunday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

His family had reported the autistic boy had disappeared from his Sea-Tac home just 15 minutes earlier, and in that time he had wandered through the woods and onto the freeway without any shoes.

You may be wondering why an 11-year-old child was walking on State Route 99 all alone, but for parents of children with autism it’s something they worry about all the time. In fact, the National Autism Association found in a recent study that 92 percent of parents with children with autism consider those children at risk for wandering away.

Autism is a complex disorder that affects social interaction and communication. Lakeside Center for Autism in Issaquah educates and helps families and their children cope with the disorder.

It doesn’t surprise them that Devine walked away from home and onto a highway.

“It can be a common problem for most any of these kids,” said Dan Stachelski, Ex. Dir. Lakeside Center For Autism. “Part of the reason is they don’t have the internal motivation or internal feeling about being safe, about being protected by family members, about being connected to their parents to know that it’s not safe to leave their side.”

Protecting a child with autism can be difficult and expensive, from locks on doors to GPS systems, but the community can help as well.

“That’s what they need, they need help and this is an epidemic that’s not going anywhere,” said Stachelski.

Just a few days ago the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that one in every 91 children has a form of autism, and they believe that rate could continue to rise.

Source: http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_101109WAB-autistic-boy-hit-by-truck-SW.209694937.html

South Bar, Nova Scotia: James Delorey, 7, dies of exposure after two nights in the frozen wilderness

2009-09-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

James Delorey, age 7

By: Michael MacDonald and Alison Auld
Posted: 9/12/2009 1:00 AM

HALIFAX -- James Delorey, the Cape Breton boy who died in hospital after miraculously surviving two nights lost in the frozen wilderness, was remembered Tuesday as a calm and quiet child whose big brown eyes did most of the talking.

The seven-year-old succumbed to severe hypothermia less than a day after he was found unconscious in a densely wooded area of the island, about a kilometre from his home in South Bar, N.S.

Rescue officials said the little boy, who had followed the family dog into the woods on Saturday afternoon, probably clung to life by seeking shelter in the thick underbrush and huddling with the pet. However, the cold took its toll.

James wasn't wearing a winter coat and his vital signs were weak when he was found Monday lying in the fetal position, covered in a light dusting of snow. It was unclear whether he ever regained consciousness.

Paul MacDonald, the principal at James's school in nearby Sydney, said the boy couldn't speak because he had autism, but that didn't stop him from leaving a big impression on his teachers and fellow students.

"Even though he was non-verbal, he could show his emotions," he said, adding that the boy loved playing with blocks and hanging out in the cafeteria. "He had a nice way about him... he was very calm, like the picture they're showing in the papers. That's the way he was around the school. Just a nice little boy... He seemed content."

MacDonald said James and his older brother arrived at Harbourside Elementary in September when the boys and their mother, Veronica Fraser, moved from Calgary to live with Fraser's parents in South Bar.

When word spread Saturday that James had disappeared in the marshy woods that surround the town, some of his teachers joined in the search, along with hundreds of other volunteers from across the province.

And when he was found alive almost two days later, the community's residents were almost as stunned as they were relieved.

"Yesterday, we were really hoping that things were going to work out -- it seemed like it was going to be a miracle," said MacDonald.

"That's why it's so tough today. The kids and the teachers are having a tough time because of that hope...

"They're pretty devastated."

Melanie Sampson, a resident of South Bar who lives down the road from the Fraser family, said she did not see James outside very often.

"His mother never let him wander," she said. "She could never leave him out of her sight, God love her."

With less than three weeks to go before Christmas, the town is in mourning, Sampson said.

Rescuers followed the dog's tracks directly to James.

The dog, a mixed-breed named Chance, emerged from the forest about two hours before the boy was found.

Haines Falls, New York: Missing autistic teen, Ryan Barrett, found dead

2009-08-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Ryan Barrett, age 14

Posted: Aug 14, 2009 10:07 AM EDT

HAINES FALLS -- Officials in Greene County believe they have found the body of a 14-year-old autistic teen that went missing from a campground Thursday. The teen, Ryan Barrett of Lindenhurst in Long Island, was staying with family at the North South Lake Campground in Haines Falls, ten miles from Hunter Mountain.

Witnesses say the boy was found dead in one of the two lakes nearby. Police suspect no foul play, so it is likely Barrett drowned.

His family reported him missing around 7:30pm, shortly after they arrived at the campground. Less than 24 hours later, his body was found.

With two lakes and dozens of trails, State Police had a lot of terrain to search on foot and by helicopter, but it was State Police Divers who found him in a lake.

Sources tell NEWS10 that Barrett wandered away from his campground, a behavior that is typical of people with autism.

"A lot of autistic children like to wander," said Cindy Hermann with the Autism Society of America, "The child's there one minute happily playing and the next minute you look around and they're gone."

Hermann, herself, has an autistic son and says whether it's a campground or a neighborhood, it takes a community to look after an afflicted child because they often lack fear, especially around busy streets or water.

"They just have a fearlessness about them, which can be scary," Hermann told NEWS10.

Barrett's body is now at Saint Peter's Hospital in Albany, where an autopsy is expected to be performed.

Huntington, West Virginia: Christopher Cline dies after untreated head injury

2009-07-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Father blames Autism Services Center for son's death
12/21/2010 12:55 PM By Kyla Asbury -Cabell Bureau

HUNTINGTON -- A man is suing Autism Services Center after he claims it is responsible for his son's death.

Christopher J. Cline had autism and moderate mental retardation and lived with his parents until his death on July 31, 2009, according to a complaint filed Nov. 22 in Cabell Circuit Court.

On July 31, 2009, Autism Services Center assigned Christopher Cline's day services to its employee Joey Cutler. Cutler picked Christopher Cline up at his home and drove him to the Cabell County Public Library, according to the suit.

Daryl Cline, Christopher Cline's father, claims while Cutler and his son were at the library, his son went to the men's restroom, which meant he was out of Cutler's eyesight when Cutler heard Christopher Cline "fall hard and let out a loud bellow."

Cutler assisted Christopher Cline in getting up from the floor and realized that he was disoriented and took longer than usual to be able to get up from the floor, according to the suit.

Daryl Cline claims immediately following the fall, Cutler decided not to seek medical attention for his son and instead drove him to Barboursville Park in order to walk around the track.

While at Barboursville Park, Christopher Cline and Cutler walked around the track several times until Christopher Cline "fell again and let out another loud bellow," according to the suit. Cutler, again, chose not to seek medical attention and decided to drive Christopher Cline to the Huntington Mall.

Daryl Cline claims while Cutler's car was in route to the mall, Christopher Cline began to vomit profusely for several minutes, so Cutler pulled his car over and helped him change his shirt, but did not seek medical attention.

Upon arriving at the mall, Cutler "described a 'gasping, gurgling sound' from Chris in the back seat, who had then become unresponsive, with eyes closed," according to the suit.

Daryl Cline claims upon arrival of EMS personnel, Cutler was asked if Christopher Cline had any recent injuries and "apparently responded that he was 'not sure of any recent injuries.'"

Christopher Cline's patient care record does not reveal that Cutler "informed the responding EMS personnel of either fall Chris had suffered earlier that morning or that Chris had been profusely vomiting shortly before EMS arrived," according to the suit.

Testing revealed the Christopher Cline had suffered a shallow bleed on both sides of his brain, but because he had then reached the neurological stage of fixed and dilated pupils, simple evacuation of the shallow subdural hematomas had been eliminated as a surgical option, according to the suit.

Daryl Cline is seeking compensatory damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. He is being represented by Chad S. Lovejoy.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge F. Jane Hustead.

Kent: Ohio: Sky Walker 19, kills his mother Trudy Steuernagel, and continues to ask for her from jail

2009-01-29T12:48:00.000-08:00

Kent State professor Trudy Steuernagel's fierce protection of her autistic son, Sky Walker, costs her life: Sheltering Sky

By Joanna Connors, The Plain Dealer
December 06, 2009, 8:42AM

"To Whom it May Concern: If this letter has been opened and is being read, it is because I have been seriously injured or killed by my son, Sky Walker."

No one knows for sure when Trudy Steuernagel wrote that letter.

She read it to her ex-husband, Scott Walker, in the spring of 2008, when their autistic son, Sky, had grown so violent she sometimes had to barricade herself in a closet.

By then, Trudy's life had begun to feel a lot like that closet. Small. Dark. Isolated. Her ex-husband was gone, living in Wisconsin with his new wife and stepson. Many of her friends were gone, too, lost to the demands she faced caring for Sky.

Sky remained. But in a way, Sky was gone, too. Over the years, he had slipped away from her, retreating into the shadows of autism. The smart little boy who stole hearts with his smiles and hugs had disappeared. Left behind was a 200-pound teenager who overwhelmed her with his constant needs and his unpredictable, terrible anger.

Trudy spent her days teaching political science at Kent State University, where she was a popular professor. She went home to Sky and long evenings of his ever more rigid routines, girding herself for his next meltdown, and hoping the next medication would bring Sky back.

That spring, as Sky's violence increased, Trudy told Scott she had locked the letter in her home safe, in case the worst happened. Less than a year later, it did.

On Jan. 29, 2009, sheriff's deputies found Trudy on the floor of her kitchen, unconscious and struggling to breathe. They found Sky in the basement, blood on his pajamas and feet.

The next day, Trudy's brother, Bill Steuernagel, found the safe in Trudy's closet. The letter, a single folded page, loose in the pile of papers inside, would have been easy to overlook. Trudy's words were not. Shot through with sorrow and regret, they bore witness to her fierce love for her child.

Trudy Steuernagel died eight days after the beating, at age 60.

Sky, legally an adult at 18 but functionally a child, was charged with her murder and held at Portage County Jail while lawyers, social service agencies and the court tried to figure out what to do with him.

As the months went on, the story of the profoundly disabled son who unintentionally killed his mother unfolded like a Greek tragedy. Sky's life and Trudy's death exposed some of the darkest mysteries of autism - from the puzzle of why a smart, capable woman sacrificed her own safety to keep her son at home to the larger legal and social issues presented by the perplexing, often hidden strain of violence in a neurological disorder that, more than 60 years after it was first described, continues to confound scientists.

"The nursery is finally finished. Today, Nov. 9, 1990, was supposed to be your birthday. Where are you, Sky Abbott Walker? About your name. We both wanted a gender neutral name. Pater loves all things to do with flying and I like nature names. I hope you like it, Sky." - Trudy Steuernagel, in Sky Walker's Baby Book

Sky Abbott Walker was born Nov. 15, 1990. Trudy was 42 and smitten. She had been married just a year to Scott Walker, a former student of hers who was nine years younger.

Scott remembers Trudy showing off her smiling, blue-eyed boy, who flirted with strangers and hit developmental marks ahead of the curve. He walked at 9 months, and at 10 months he spoke individual words, knew the alphabet and could read letters. Before his first birthday, he learned numbers and could add, subtract and count. But then he stopped. At 18 months, he still did not put two words together, and by 24 months, he had stopped acquiring new words. When a doctor told Trudy and Scott that their son might have autism, they disagreed. Didn't autism mean a lack of emotion and a resistance to touching? That was not Sky.

"He loved to hug not only his mom and me but his toddler friends and teachers," Scott Walker remembers. "So we said, 'There's no failure to form attachments, he's doing well.'"

By the time he was 3, they stopped fighting the diagnosis. Sky was still not speaking in phrases or sentences, and he was losing words at a steady pace. His early strides with reading letters and numbers turned out to be hyperlexia -- a red flag for autism.

"Except for the speech delay, you would never have suspected he had autism," Scott says. "It was easier to explain his poor performance on tests by saying he was autistic. We felt he was clearly intelligent. He just had no interest in demonstrating for adults what he knew or could do."

If Trudy grieved or felt frightened for Sky, she did not show it. The Internet was still primitive at the time, but she joined autism mailing lists and searched for resources and services.

She also became more protective. After the diagnosis, Scott noticed that Trudy turned inward with Sky; where she once carried him facing out to the wide world, she now held him facing her heart.

Scott and Trudy enrolled him in Kent's special-needs preschool when he turned 4. At the end of that year, his teacher reported that he showed many of the signs of autism: His play was solitary, his speech delayed, and he avoided eye contact. She also noted that he had a problem with aggression but was learning to handle his frustration. Trudy and Scott worried anew. Was aggression another symptom of autism? Or was it just a symptom of childhood? Why was the sweet boy who once hugged everyone now hitting?

Frustration and aggression

Information on rates of aggressive behavior in people with autism is scarce and inconclusive. A roundup of autism research published last month in the British medical journal The Lancet cited a 2008 study that found "disruptive, irritable or aggressive behavior" in 8 percent to 32 percent of children with autism. It did not explain the wide statistical spread, nor did it offer comparison figures for children without autism.

Doctors and teachers in Cleveland who deal with autism begin discussions of aggression with a caveat: Autism does not automatically lead to aggression. No one wants autistic people to suffer the sort of horror-movie stigma that has plagued the mentally ill for so long. But they do not deny the aggressive tendency exists.

"Aggression has always been part of autism," said Leslie Sinclair, the head of the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner School for Autism. "Not in all [autistic] children, of course."

Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist and director of the Rainbow Autism Center at University Hospitals, says there are many reasons for the aggression.

"They might also have anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, mood disorders, cognitive impairment," he says.

Sinclair and others return inexorably to the frustrations that emerge not just from the struggle to speak, but also from overwhelming sensory stimulation and the need to adhere to set rituals and routines. For some children with autism, even a tiny deviation can lead to a violent episode.

"It is never malicious," she says.

Scott Walker tells this story about Sky to describe his frustrations. He was 5 or 6 and playing alone, in another room, when Trudy and Scott heard a big bang, like something had fallen or broken. They found Sky sobbing uncontrollably.

"What happened, Sky?" They asked. "What's wrong?"

Sky sobbed and heaved, struggling to speak. Finally he managed to say:

"I. Don't. Have. Words."

They never did figure out what had made the noise.

Behavior becomes disruptive

As Sky made his way through the elementary years, Trudy and Scott battled the Kent public school system to get the services he needed and to keep him in mainstream classes, where they felt he did better academically and socially. But to remain there, he required a full-time aide.

"It was adversarial," Scott says. "They were professionals. But they were also fully cognizant that we were asking them to dig deep in their budget for our son. There was always a sense of, 'Gosh, what if there were 10 other autistic kids wanting these services, too?'"

Soon enough there were, and more. In 1994-95, just after Sky was diagnosed, Ohio reported fewer than 100 cases of autism out of almost 1.8 million students. Last year, Ohio reported 12,640 cases out of 1.9 million students.

The Kent City Schools superintendent, Joseph Giancola, declined to talk about Sky, citing confidentiality laws. But voluminous school records in the Portage County prosecutor's files include positive reports from elementary school, when he spent part of the day mainstreamed with an aide.
Around the Web

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities

Autism Society of America

Autism Society of Ohio

Cure Autism Now,

National Institute of Child Health & Human Development

Cleveland Clinic Center for Autism

University Hospitals Autism Center

In first grade, his teachers wrote: "Sky is very sweet and has a nice sense of humor." In third grade, his special-education teachers wrote: "What a joy it has been to be Sky's teachers for 3 wonderful years!"

As he grew older, and his life at home changed, behavior problems entered the picture.

A move from mainstream

Trudy and Scott separated when Sky was 9. Scott did not want to talk about the reasons for the separation, but he did say Sky was not one of them. "I'm sure our disagreements over him were an added stress, though," he says.

That year, Scott moved to Cleveland to start medical school at Case Western Reserve University. He says he saw Sky three times a week, at home in Kent and when Trudy brought him to Cleveland.

He knew Sky missed him. "To the extent that Sky could choose things to talk about, what he would talk about was the next time he would see me," Scott says.

When Sky was 10, a teacher's assessment found him "severely autistic." He avoided eye contact, followed ritualistic patterns, spoke in stressful situations with meaningless one- or two-word phrases ("tater tots," "top grunge"), splayed his hands close to his face and rocked with exaggerated rhythms.

He also angered easily. "When forced to look or interact, [he] may become agitated, cry or have a temper tantrum," the teacher wrote. "Reaction to pain such as a fall or bump of elbow is extreme anger. Reaction to change [in routine] can be extreme with excessive tantrums."

Sky had tantrums with his parents, too. "They were very few in number, but they were very disruptive and certainly caught our attention," Scott says. "Because he was smaller, we weren't afraid of escalation. We used some physical restraint until we were at a safe place."

Puberty often brings a spike in aggression, particularly with boys, who account for three out of four autism diagnoses. Sky was no different. At the beginning of seventh grade, when he was 13, the school removed him from mainstream classes.

"Sky has continued to make progress in the academic realm," his teacher reported, "but has started to have difficulty with appropriate school behavior."

In October of 2003, his aggression became such a problem that the school decided to send him home two hours early every day. Trudy went on part-time leave from KSU; Sky did not return to school full time until the middle of April.

That school year, Irene Barnett, one of Trudy's closest friends, found out that Sky was hurting his mother.

"Trudy forbade me to say anything," Barnett says. "I knew that if I had not respected her wishes, that would have been the end of our friendship. Her loyalty was 100 percent to Sky."

Trudy told Barnett that Sky was getting good medical care and his doctor was trying new psychoactive medications. Using medication to control aggression in autistic patients is a common practice, says Sinclair of the Cleveland Clinic's autism school.

"Some of our kids can be very obsessive compulsive, which is evidenced in rigid adherence to routines," she says. "And [if] you interrupt that, they can become aggressive. If we can target that behavior with a particular medication that takes the edge off the need to fulfill these routines, then aggression comes down."

Health privacy laws prevent authorities from saying which drugs were ordered for Sky, but photographs in the sheriff's investigative files show medicine cabinets and kitchen shelves in the home laden with bottles of prescription antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs and tranquilizers.

"Trudy believed that eventually they would get the right cocktail, and his hormones would stop surging, and it would take care of the aggression," Barnett says. "She did not want him in any institution. She said there was a lot of abuse in institutions, and because Sky was not verbal he could be easily victimized."

At about this time, Scott remembers, he began urging Trudy to consider a residential placement. "That was a real conversation stopper," he says.

Experience led to apprehension

Bill Steuernagel thinks Trudy formed her negative view of institutions working at Ebensburg State School and Hospital in Pennsylvania, an institution for children then diagnosed as "hyperactive mentally retarded [and] trainable." Their father, William Steuernagel, was an administrator, and all three of his children - Marybeth, Trudy and Bill - had summer jobs there as teenagers in the 1960s.

"We took care of the patients, took them out for walks, to the pool," says Bill. "A lot of them were drugged. They were considered mentally retarded, but I'm sure some of those kids were autistic."

Autism was first recognized as a distinct disorder in 1943, but it took decades to emerge as a standard diagnosis. It did not enter the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the standard for psychiatric diagnosis in America, until 1980.

"Back then, if you had a child and you couldn't take care of him, you'd put him in a state home," Bill says, referring to the 1960s and Ebensburg. "My sister cringed at that."
Disney.jpgTrudy Steuernagel wrote about her life with her autistic son, Sky Walker, in several essays and letters. The audio excerpts here were narrated by Plain Dealer Features Editor Debbie Van Tassell.

AUDIO

trudy.mp3">

The truth comes out

In 2004, Scott Walker moved to a small town in Wisconsin for his residency in family medicine. Sky was 14. Two years later, Scott and Trudy divorced.

They maintained joint custody; Sky spent five weeks every summer with Scott and visited some weekends. The rest of the year, Trudy was alone with Sky.

"Trudy was now a single parent of a child with significant needs," Barnett says. "But she was not a complainer. She always used to say, 'You know, you deal with it.'"

Trudy dealt with it by complying with Sky's elaborate system of rituals, which ruled their days from the time she woke up until Sky went to bed. Trudy usually slept for about four hours, then got up to exercise. Sky woke, took the sheets and blankets off both their beds, piled them on the floor, and crawled in to sleep.

He always dressed in the same outfit: blue T-shirt, dark blue shorts, sneakers. Trudy ordered them in multiples from Lands' End. The outfit made him look like a 6-year-old with a man's body, a visual metaphor for the childish tantrums that turned dangerous when he grew to over 6 feet tall and 200 pounds.

He loved children's food, too. After school, they always drove 20 miles to the same McDonald's, where Sky ordered a Happy Meal of Chicken McNuggets and fries, followed by a vanilla ice cream cone. Then they crossed the street to Arby's where he ate another meal of chicken and fries. When they got home, he watched "The Price Is Right" over and over again.

Every night, he tore paper into confetti and scattered it around the house. Before he went to bed, he got his medicine and an M&M ice cream cone.

He said certain phrases when he felt agitated, like "Ride the roller coaster" and "Wheels on the bus." Trudy responded by sending him to his safe room in the basement, a small room crammed with unused games, a foosball table and Trudy's exercise bike and mini-trampoline. In the middle of the clutter, Sky would lie on his mattress and calm himself with his comfort foods, barbecue potato chips and Goldfish crackers.

If Trudy caught the signs too late and the agitation escalated, she calmed him with a warm bath and his favorite snack food. When the calming rituals did not work, Sky lost control and sometimes attacked her.

Barnett thinks she was one of the few people who knew just how bad Sky's aggression was. Trudy's friends did not know each other well, and she parceled out her disclosures. A few friends and family members saw the bruises and black eyes, but Trudy always had an explanation. "I hit my head swimming," she told Bill once.

In the spring of 2008, though, Sky's attacks grew much worse, and Trudy decided to reveal - in part - what was going on. She surprised everyone with the way she did it: In a public essay for the student newspaper, The Kent Stater.

In "Just a Conversation," published March 27, 2008, she wrote: "Life with Sky these past few years has been very isolating for the two of us. We can't go out and do the things we used to like to do because Sky gets so overwhelmed. Much of the time, we're here in the house. ... My life was dominated by trying to teach my classes, trying to run a household, trying to fit everything into the few hours he was at school. On bad days, those few hours could turn into a few minutes. I couldn't be a friend to anyone because I physically and emotionally could not be there for them. I had no patience with good and decent colleagues who told me how busy they were. Busy? Try spending an evening sitting in a closet with your back to the door, trying to hold it shut while your child kicks it in."

Her colleagues were stunned. "We had no idea," said Steve Hook, the department chair.

Molly Merriman, a KSU faculty member, tried to convince Trudy she was living with domestic violence, one of Merriman's academic interests. But Trudy still believed Sky would change.

Later that spring of 2008, Sky went into a steep spiral. He had been in special-education classes for five years, and at 16 had begun community work-experience classes, mostly doing custodial work. He especially liked sweeping.

Even with that outlet, his tantrums and violent episodes became more frequent and intense. Records show teachers and aides had to apply physical restraint seven times in April and May, and called Trudy to take Sky home. They requested that she never travel more than 20 minutes away when he was at school.

On May 2, 2008, Sky's violence was bad enough for the school to call the police and EMS. At one point, a Kent police officer reached for his Taser. Sky's aide and Trudy both rushed to stop him. Later, the officer saw Sky hit Trudy in the head from the back seat of her car.

"She was reluctant to admit there are outbursts at home in which she is assaulted, but made reference to a 'safe room' she has in their home," he reported.

The school called Trudy for meeting to discuss an intervention plan. Afterward, she wrote a two-page letter that praised Sky's teacher but objected to much of what the school administrators said. "On many occasions the school's solution when Sky was in meltdown was to call me to transport him home," she wrote. "I have always responded and done so, even while making the argument that this was reinforcing Sky's behavior and getting him what he wanted."

To go home with Momma.

Mother rejects hospitalization

Every summer, when Sky's school was out, Scott took Sky for five weeks while Trudy taught. Their visits always started with a week at Disney World, Sky's favorite place.

In June 2008, Scott took his new wife and his stepson along. Despite this disruption of his routine, Sky did well, Scott says. He liked his stepbrother, who was 10, and enjoyed the long days at the park and long nights at the fireworks. He had no episodes the whole week. Until the final night.

Sky did not want to leave the next morning and became enraged. Scott sent his wife and son from the room to call hotel security. Sky started breaking furniture and mirrors, and then turned on Scott. "It was the first time I got beat up by him," Scott says. "We were all scared."

They ended up at an emergency room, where a dose of the sedative Ativan subdued Sky. The next morning, armed with more Ativan, Scott got on a plane with his son and brought him to University Hospitals' autism unit. He asked them to find a residential placement for Sky. They came up with a facility in the Cleveland area, Scott says, where they had experience dealing with autistic adults with aggression.

"But his mother did not hold the same view as I did," Scott says. "She came and took him out of the hospital, and it didn't happen. She was angry, but that was nothing new."

Scott went back to Wisconsin without Sky. Trudy's brother, Bill, drove up from his home in North Carolina to help with Sky for the remaining three weeks of Scott's custody.

Fear and denial

Sky's senior year started with seven official reports of aggressive episodes and use of physical restraints and police calls. His food obsession, a common factor in autism, had gone out of control.

Trudy told Barnett that she hid food from Sky in the garage. On Thanksgiving Day, Bill heard fear in Trudy's voice for the first time. She told him she had to hide in a closet from Sky, which was news to Bill. He asked her if she was fearful. "I can handle it,"
she said.

But when Christmas approached, Bill sensed she needed help and came to visit. He took Sky to the movies a couple of times and to see the fountain at Tower City. Sky was in great spirits - until Christmas Day.

Trudy gave him an iPod and a digital camera. Bill gave him "The Price Is Right" game for his Wii. It was all too much stimulation and change from his daily routine. "Throughout the day, he had some meltdowns," Bill says.

After dinner, even though it felt awkward to bring it up and Trudy might get angry, Bill again asked about the violence. "Are you safe?" he asked.

"Yes, it's fine," she said, and changed the subject.
sheriffjail.jpgLisa DeJong, The Plain DealerPortage County Sheriff David Doak did not think Sky Walker would be safe with the general population in the county jail, so he kept the autistic teenager in this booking cell for the two months he was incarcerated. He brought in a TV so Sky could watch The Price Is Right, and allowed his family to visit him in the booking area.

A son's disability, a mother's death

Trudy did not make it through the first month of the new year.

On Jan. 29, 2009, just before noon, a KSU administrator called the sheriff's office to report that Trudy did not show up for work. It was the first time in 33 years that she had missed a class without calling. That morning, she missed two. She did not answer her phone.

A dispatcher sent three deputies to Trudy's house in Kent. Inside, they found her on the kitchen floor, her face battered and covered with dried blood, her eyes swollen shut. Her head rested in fresh blood. Blood tracks led from her body toward the basement, where they found Sky huddled on a mattress.

As deputies handcuffed Sky, he screamed and thrashed so hard they had to subdue him with pepper spray. Minutes later, he reared back and kicked a deputy in the head, hard. The other deputies pushed him to the floor and bound his ankles and wrists together behind his back.

"Boo-boo," he said, when a detective asked him what happened to his mother. "Band-Aid." "Tummy hurt." Then he sprayed the detective with spit.

Emergency workers took Trudy, still unconscious, to Akron City Hospital. She had massive trauma to her head, broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a damaged eye socket, and bite marks on her face, arms and upper legs.

The deputies took Sky to Portage County Jail, where they locked him in a suicide-watch cell. They wrestled him into orange prisoner's clothes; he tore them off. They tried again; he tore them off again. They gave him a blanket. Sitting in his cell naked, with the blanket around his shoulders like a superhero cape, Sky screamed, a high-pitched wail that sounded like keening grief.

"Hurt Momma," he said. "Sad."

David Doak had been sheriff for less than a month when Sky landed in his jail. That evening, when Sky had calmed down, Doak went to see him. He was asking Sky questions through the food slot when Sky suddenly reached through the small opening, grabbed Doak's trousers and pulled.

"He put me off balance, almost off my feet," Doak says. "I mean, he was big, and he was really strong. When his adrenaline is running, he's a pretty tough guy."

Doak, a man with the laid-back demeanor of a pilot flying through turbulence, had never dealt with a prisoner like Sky before. He'd seen plenty of wild people during his career in law enforcement, people on alcohol and drugs - or, far worse, and increasingly common in police work, mentally ill people who had gone off the medications that kept them stable.

But Sky was different. Doak didn't know much about autism, but he could see that Sky Walker would be a high-maintenance prisoner. He hoped Sky would not be in the Portage County jail very long.

That afternoon Doak's deputies contacted Trudy's family, who drove to Ohio right away. It took longer to find a number for Scott Walker in Wisconsin. They reached him that night.

"I was horrified," Scott says. He couldn't believe Sky was being held in a jail cell. "Of course, my response was to try to find some way to get him alternatively placed pending arrangements for trial."

Scott and Trudy's family had not spoken after the couple divorced, though they had been on good terms when Sky was a child. After the deputy called, Scott exchanged text messages with Trudy's niece, but says he did not speak with any of the family or feel welcome to come to Ohio. He did not visit Sky during the two months he was in the county jail.

"The reason I didn't come out is, one, there was nothing I could do, and I wasn't even going to be allowed to see Sky at that point," he says. "Trudy was in intensive care, and there were a number of her friends and colleagues there with her. And I had responsibilities here."

Attention on a dark secret

Trudy Steuernagel died without regaining consciousness. Her Feb. 13 memorial service at KSU drew hundreds of mourners.

Thousands more read of the tragedy on autism Web sites and blogs, in newspapers and in the pages of People magazine. Trudy's death focused national attention on what her brother, Bill Steuernagel, calls the dark secret of autism: the violence that sometimes emerges with puberty, especially in boys.

Bill wondered why he had not heard much about aggression in autism before Trudy's death. Then he decided the autism community feared stigmatizing the disorder. In some ways, he understood.

But good intentions can have unintended consequences, and in this case the public silence had a tragic one: Many parents who endure violent outbursts from their autistic children feel very much alone.

Trudy's death spurred some to break their silence. Ann Bauer, known for her writing on autism, described the horrific violence her once-sweet son unleashed on her and others in an online essay titled "The Monster Inside My Son." On news Web sites, including The Plain Dealer's, stories about Sky and Trudy brought responses from parents who said they feared the same thing could happen to them.

"My son is 22 and has autism, mental retardation and is non-verbal," wrote one mother. "He has gotten quite violent with me in the past, severely and repeatedly slamming my head into the floor or head butting me until I was able to escape. I have been lucky and I know it. He doesn't mean to hurt me and he attacks without warnings. I am currently looking into residential placement for my son, but it is a heart-wrenching decision."

A case of murder

Two weeks after Trudy died, a Portage County grand jury indicted Sky on two counts of murder. Trudy's family hired Ravenna attorney Errol Can and also brought in Gian De Caris and Mark Stanton, Cleveland defense lawyers who specialize in mental health cases.

De Caris had never had an autistic client and wasn't sure what to expect. "After five minutes, it was clear that he was on the severe end of the spectrum and had no idea what was going on," De Caris says.

The prosecutor's office also recognized this, but an unnatural death had occurred and the law required certain steps.

First, a psychologist had to evaluate Sky to determine competency. Could he understand his legal situation and assist his lawyers in his own defense? His first court appearance, via video from the jail, offered a preliminary answer. Sky, upset by the unfamiliar proceeding, started flailing and spitting, until deputies strapped him into a restraint chair and put a spit mask over his head.

The photo in the next day's local newspaper made Sky look like Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs." It brought a new wave of national media and Internet attention. On autism Web sites, writers repeated the same outraged questions. Why did a low-functioning autistic boy have to go through the legal process when he clearly had no idea what he had done? And why was Sheriff Doak holding him in a jail cell?

Doak had the same concerns, but there was nowhere else for Sky to go at that point. "We knew he didn't belong in a jail cell more than anybody," he says.

For the two months Sky remained in the jail, Doak kept him in a cell in the booking area because he didn't think Sky would be safe with the general population. "They wouldn't be too happy with the screaming and spitting," Doak says. "Sky wasn't a bad kid. I liked him. But he was a handful."

Sky's cell was the size of a small office cubicle, with half the space taken up by a toilet. To help keep him calm, Doak and his staff bent many rules. They allowed family to visit Sky outside the normal visitation area and times. They let Sky wear his usual outfit of blue shorts and T-shirts, and parked a TV outside his cell so he could watch DVDs of "The Price Is Right."

They put him on a tight routine to help him feel secure, and used picture cards to show him his schedule. When he grew agitated, they calmed him with barbecue chips and Ativan. They continued his other prescribed medications.

Doak and his staff worked with Bill Steuernagel, who took on the parental role in Scott's absence. Bill brought Sky McDonald's chicken and fries almost every day, and gave the sheriff two lists Trudy had written to explain Sky's rote phrases. She called it "Sky-speak."

"If Sky says the following," she wrote, "it means he is unhappy: Dairy Queen; Ride the Roller Coaster; 'Dr. Seuss's ABC'; DVD on, 'Cat in the Hat' on."

A second list meant he was happy: "Trolley school bus; Short neck giraffe; Sixteen J's; Four whammies, Eric."

At the bottom of the list, Bill added: "If he is unhappy, avoid eye contact and speaking to him. If communication is necessary, speak softly."

The corrections officers in the booking area began to develop a relationship with Sky. Sometimes, though, their precautions failed. The prosecutor's investigative file contains several reports detailing Sky's outbursts. "Sky would try at times to kick or strike officers while taking a shower," one reads. "Sky verbalized, 'No guts, no glory,' [and] spit a few times while [the] officer protected himself with a riot shield. Sky kept yelling and kicking."

Once, he attacked Bill when he took him to the shower and missed several signals that Sky was agitated. "It was the first time I had seen the violence," Bill says. "I thought about my sister, going through that."

Like Bill, Doak and the staff knew Sky didn't mean to hurt anyone. "I have no tolerance and no sympathy for people who murder," Doak says. "But there was no intent there."

Every morning, Doak went into work praying that someone had found a better place for Sky.
v "Everybody searched," says De Caris, Sky's lawyer. "The prosecutor's office, the county MRDD board. I used my local contacts, I did Internet searches, I called directors of facilities."

The search kept turning up empty. Because of the severity of the crime, they needed to find a locked unit in a facility for the developmentally disabled. "There were different places they would find, and it would look good, and then it would turn out they didn't have a lockdown. We're talking two or three beds in the entire state," Doak says.

Finally they found Northwest Ohio Developmental Center in Toledo, one of 10 facilities run by the state. On April 1, the Portage County Board of Developmental Disabilities sent a bus to the jail. The jail staff stood outside to say goodbye to Sky, some with tears in their eyes. Sky, giddy to be outside and going on a trip, rode happily with his Uncle Bill all the way to Toledo.

Finding a place for all the Skys

The two-month search for a place for Sky mirrored what many parents nationwide face as their severely autistic children become adults. Federally mandated educational services covered by public funding end at age 22.

"All of a sudden, the kids are growing up and the parents are saying, 'Now what do we do?'" says Rainbow Autism Center's Wiznitzer.

"Because autism is a spectrum, there's going to need to be a wide range of options for adult living," says Susan Ratner, assistant director for special projects at Bellefaire JCB in Shaker Heights, which is in the early stages of developing a small adult-residential facility.

When the Bellefaire staff looked for models around the country, however, they could not find many. "What has clearly come out is that there are big gaps in adult services," Ratner says.

The search process is even more complex and sensitive when violence is involved.

In 2001, the Autism Society of America sounded the alarm on what it called a national crisis: a critical shortage of services and facilities for adults with autism. In 2007, when not much had changed, it updated its call for action. Parts of the ASA's report read like an account of Trudy and Sky's lives.

"In a behavioral, out-of-control crisis, individuals with autism can be scary," it says. "Parents are desperate. Aging caretakers (often single mothers, often living alone with their middle-aged child), knowing how difficult it is to adequately care for an adult with autism, are often prisoners in their own homes."

De Caris came to the same conclusion. "This is more common than I ever imagined," he says. "The facilities are just not out there - not at the level that's going to be needed. What's going to happen to all these children as they get older, and their parents who are their primary caregivers disappear? Even at facilities that do exist, the cost is outrageous. If you're making a typical salary, how do you afford that?"

Trudy had known she could not care for Sky forever. She had planned to keep him in school as a full-time student as long as she could, so that her health insurance would cover him. But she wanted to retire within a few years and started to look for a place for Sky. It became clear how difficult that would be.

The only facility Trudy liked was a private one in Charlottesville, Va., near her sister and nieces. It charged an entry fee of almost $58,000, in addition to about $3,000 a month. That was one problem, but another was bigger, she told Bill: Sky's anger had to be under control before they would take him.

In the meantime, Trudy had also been planning for Sky's life beyond school. A caseworker with the Portage County Board of Developmental Disabilities had told her Sky could do well at their sheltered workshop, Portage Industries, perhaps doing the custodial work he enjoyed. They planned to ease Sky into it with a slow, three-year transition from school.

Trudy did not ask for help with finding Sky a residential placement, however.

The caseworker, George Paroz, says Medicaid and the county offer financial assistance for both in-home help and residential placement. These programs have waiting lists, some of them long, but if safety becomes an issue, families are moved to the top for an emergency placement.

"If she had said, 'He can't live here anymore, he's a danger to me,' that would have been an emergency placement," Paroz says. "And if it needs to be done, it gets done, and we find the money."

But Trudy had never said it. "Trudy was of the belief that she could handle him best," Paroz says.

The judge decides

Two psychologists reported to the court that Sky was not competent to stand trial and would never be restored to that level of competence. Both confirmed that Sky was autistic, and added a new diagnosis, that he was mentally retarded.

"Trudy would never have accepted that Sky was retarded," Bill says. "Eighty percent of the time, when he's in a good mood, the kid is very smart."

On Sept. 14, after listening to evidence that included a DNA match of Trudy's blood to the blood found on Sky's feet, Portage County Common Pleas Judge John Enlow ruled that Sky murdered his mother.

But, since Sky was not competent for trial, Enlow dismissed the charges and ordered him to remain at the Northwest Ohio Developmental Center. The commitment was, in essence, a life sentence, because it is unlikely the court will ever release him.

Medicaid pays $460 a day to shelter him at Northwest, a campus with spacious lawns, outdoor play equipment and nine cottages that can accommodate 162 residents. Sky occupies the one locked facility, sometimes sharing it with other residents. He has two aides on duty at all times. He continues to have violent episodes.

He also has occasional visitors. His father says he has visited several times. His cousins and aunt have been to see him. His uncle, Bill, has visited several times, bringing him his favorite McDonald's foods. When the judge allowed Sky outside the cottage, Bill began taking him for walks in the gym on campus.

The visits do n't last long. Bill usually watches Sky play his "Price Is Right" game. "He'll acknowledge you, he might like the chicken and fries," Bill says. "But there really is no communication."

Sometimes, Bill wonders if Sky knows what happened to his mom, or understands why she is no longer part of his life. The aides tell Bill that Sky has said, "Momma dead," several times, but no one knows where he heard those words.

Scott believes Sky understands what happened. On three visits, he says, Sky has said, "Don't hit Momma," or "Sky sorry hit Momma," each time in response to Scott's questions about his new rooms.

"And he's almost crying as he says these things," Scott says.

Scott is not sure Sky understands death, however. "The closest he came was when the family dog died," Scott says. "His summation of it was, well, she was with her puppies. I have no idea why he thought the puppies were synonymous with heaven, but he did, and there was an air of finality in the way he made that pronouncement."

On one visit, Sky said to Scott, "Want Momma." "And of course I told him, 'Momma loves you very much.'"

Naussau, Bahamas: John Travolta's son, Jett Travolta, dies after a seizure

2009-01-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

Jett Travolta, age 16

NASSAU (Reuters) – The teenage son of actor John Travolta died suddenly on Friday during a family vacation in the Bahamas, according to the family's lawyer.

Jett Travolta, 16, suffered a seizure at his family's vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island, attorney Michael Ossi said.

Attempts were made to revive him, but he died at the scene, Ossi said.

Jett, who had a history of seizures, was the eldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston. They also have a daughter, Ella Blue, who was born in 2000.

Wellington, Florida: Kaitlin Bacile drowned in canal blocks from her home

2008-09-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Kaitlin Bacile, age 5

WSVN -- It is a parent's worst nightmare. Five-year-old Kaitlin Bacile
slipped out of her Wellington home last September.

Jay Bacile: "She was gone probably two minutes at the most, at the absolute most before we realized she was not in the house."

The autistic little girl was found the next morning drowned in this canal just blocks from her home.

Jay Basile: "The shadow of Kaitlin's death reaches into places that none of us like to go."

Autistic children are fascinated with water and because of that, drowning is one of the leading causes of death. Parents of autistic children worry about it everyday.

Richard Nardiello: "My son loves water but has no fear of the water."

Three-year-old Christopher Muniz ended up in a Broward pond last April. He died four days later.

Cindy Anderson: "We need safety nets for our kids. We need them quickly. I need it now."

But the problem is, unlike the Amber Alert system for children who are abducted, programs designed to help missing autistic children are not being used consistently. The "Take Me Home" program supplies police with pictures and information of at-risk kids.

But of the 271 law enforcement agencies in Florida, only 41 use it. "A Child is Missing" is a national emergency system which can put out 1000 alert calls in one minute to a neighborhood where a child has gone missing.

Claudia Corrigan, ACIM: "It's important to get these calls out there immediately, and we can do it. You have a small window of time, it's a two to three hour, and even then, if there's water nearby, it's very, very tough."

The service is free to police, but they don't always use it. Finally, only 37 police departments in Florida have picked up a program called Project Lifesaver.

Wristbands allow rescuers to track the person wearing it, but it puts the burden on parents to pay for a $300 bracelet, and most autistic children have sensory issues and won't wear them.

Tina Brea: "This is a child that cannot communicate, that cannot understand the simple commands that others their age can, so any attention that can be brought to this the better."

Parents say a more unified alert system, like the Amber Alert is needed. Florida is looking into the issue.

Ven Sequenzia: "Something will be addressed in the recommendations to the governor. Again, I can't say what that will be at this point. The report's not due until the end of March."

And parents of these children say they hope something is resolved soon. While it's too late for Kaitlin, her parents hope some good can come from their tragedy.

Jay Bacile: "We want Kaitlin's life not to go in vain. At the very minimum we want to raise awareness. We just want her memory to live on and do good because that's what Kaitlin was pure goodness."

It's estimated that one in every 150 kids are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and it occurs more often in boys than in girls.

Brunswick, Maine: Ashley Brock 2002-2008

2008-05-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today is a day full of grief in our home, in our small town and in our biomed community. Ashley Brock, one of our own and one of Chandler’s classmates, passed away last night.

It is the story we read practically every month. A child with autism gets away from their family, drawn to the water that they love so much, and drowns.

Barry and Michele Brock invited over three friends to cook out on the back porch yesterday. The adults grilled while Ashley, her typical twin sister Alexis and two other children played in the grass.

And then came that moment that we have all experienced too many times.

“Where’s Ashley?”

Everyone scattered around the house calling her name, and immediately they looked over the fence at the neighbor’s back yard. Because the neighbors had filled up their pool the day before and Ashley had seen their children swimming.

And Ashley loved the water.

But when they looked, they didn’t see her and fanned out into the woods behind the house and into the street. A few more neighbors came out of their houses when they heard her name being called to help look for her.

That is when another neighbor checked the pool again... from another angle. He saw Ashley was at the bottom and dove in to pull her out.

Her mother performed CPR on her and a doctor who lived in the neighborhood was quickly called, the paramedics worked on her and the hospital staff continued to work on her for almost an hour and a half.

And they thought they were getting her back… but they didn’t.

Michele and Barry are devastated, and we are heart broken.

It is very hard for me to really believe that Ashley is gone. She was a child full of life and energy. She was always doing. Riding her bike or scooter or swinging. And not just any swing. Last week when the family was going to see their friends across the street, Ashley dug through the garage and brought her own swing over to use at their house.

She was a strong spirit. What she wanted, she wanted, and if you wanted to keep something from her, she made you work to keep it from her. Once Michele had begun teacher her ‘first_____, then _____’, Ashley turned it around on her and began to use it as a negotiating tactic.

“Ashley, time for supper.”

“Mommy, first supper, then cookie, then bike, ok”.

And if she thought you were mad at her, she would ask you for tickles. The girl was smart.

She knew all three names of every major composer. Her favorite was “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” and would sometimes play his music at 3 AM for everyone in the house to enjoy.

She loved books (wouldn't get on the school bus without one), and dogs, and did great animal impressions and carried her flashcards everywhere. And she loved bubbles and she loved to paint and she loved red and she loved stacking things.

And she was great at basketball. They bought her a full sized basketball hoop and she owned it.

And Ashley was loved.

Her parents changed their whole world around for her, giving up jobs and friends and family to come to a place that would be good for her. Barry was a loving, care giver dad and Michele was an autism mom like few others. Her advocacy for autistic child puts mine to shame, challenging school system bureaucrats head on when they weren’t working in interests of her child, but in the interests of their bottom line; searching out the doctors that could heal her child; and letting nothing get in her way.

And what she did for Ashley’s health… let’s just say I could only follow about two thirds of what Michele was saying when she talked about her daughter’s complicated medical picture. Again… her knowledge showed me how much more I had to learn.

And the Brock’s home security is much better than our own. Ashley was an escape artist who climbed out her second story window on the first day they moved into their house. So her windows didn’t open after that.

Which is why Ashley’s death doesn’t just grieve me, it scares me. The Brocks were so much more on top of things that Scott and I are, so if they can loose Ashley in just five minutes when she was only 50 feet away from them…. well…

Last fall I was sitting at my desk paying bills and Scott was upstairs in his office working when the police came to our door with Chandler who had been found three blocks away by a Verizon employee driving by. While we thought he was in the playroom, he left the house apparently to look for his brother who was at school. We never even knew he was gone.

Chandler knows his name and his phone number and his address, but all the police could get out of him was “Webster”. So we have upped our security, and bought a bracelet and even have a tracking system now.

But Ashley was only 50 feet away from them and they didn’t know she was in trouble.

There is not a family among us that doesn’t know in their bones that this could have been any of us. And still could.

This morning Michele all but begged me to get swimming lessons for Chandler. They had just signed Ashley up for them. Again… to my shame… I have not made this a priority, but I will correct that. She is urging us all to make it a priority for our children.

A small correction to what has been in the local coverage. It was reported that the police are investigating Ashley’s death. That does not seem to be accurate.

Last night the police were very respectful and kind to the Brocks and when they left the home they said that they had everything they needed, so even if there is still any formal inquiry going on, or paper work ‘open’, it is probably a formality.

The Brocks are getting good support from their friends and family, and from the community, and many people are asking what they can do to help. But they don’t really know yet. They are still reeling right now.

Michele did say that if any one would like to do something that she would like it if they would make a donation to the National Autism Association’s Helping Hands program that pays for biomedical treatment for struggling families, or to 4 Paws for Ability, who trains autism service dogs for our kids and never turns down a request from an autism family.

For those of you who were on the lists with Michele, she has signed off of all of them. I am sure you could imagine how painful it would be to see those emails coming in. If you want to leave messages for her and Barry here, please feel free.

UPDATE: The Ashley Brock Memorial Fund

A fund has been established to assist the Brock family during this difficult time.

Donations can be made to any Bank of America branch across the country in the name of Ashley Brock Memorial or mailed to
Marina Curtis
5 Balsam Ave
Brunswick, Maine 04011

or via pay pal:

UPDATE: There is a video tribute to Ashley on the Bracket Funeral Home web site.

UPDATE:

Ashley's Obituary with information on funeral services and memorial fund:

Brackett Funeral Home
29 Federal Street
Brunswick, Maine 04011
207 725-5511

Brunswick, ME—Ashley Elaine Brock, age 6, died Sunday, May 18, 2008 as a result of a drowning accident.

Ashley, a daughter of Barry Edward and Michele Sporkman Brock, was born in Lexington, KY on February 7, 2002. She was in Kindergarten at Jordan Acres School in Brunswick, ME.

Ashley was a free spirit in every sense of the word and had an umlimited supply of energy. She enjoyed playing outdoors, the beach, swinging, jump roping, riding her bike or scooter, and shooting basketball on her regulation hoop. She loved bubbles, books, balloons, music, umbrellas, red wagons and painting. She regularly woke her parents in the night with the sounds of reading her dictionary or playing her Mozart cd. Ashley was never without her wildlife flash cards or a favorite book and loved all animals, especially dogs. She was a precious gift from God and the world is a better place because she was in it.

Ashley is survived by her parents, Barry and Michele Brock of Brunswick; her twin sister, Alexis Brock of Brunswick; her grandparents, Glenn and Mabel Brock of Berea, KY, Donald and Elaine Sporkman of West Point, IA; two uncles, Robert Brock and his wife Patricia of Berea, KY, Mike Sporkman and his wife Brenda of West Point, IA; an aunt, Sandra Hammonds of Berea, KY; and several cousins.

Friends and family may visit from 5:30-8 PM on Friday, May 23, 2008 at the Brackett Funeral Home, 29 Federal Street, Brunswick. A Mass of the Angels will be held 10 AM Saturday at St. Charles Borromeo Church, McKeen Street, Brunswick. Memorial contributions can be made to the National Autism Association, Helping Hands Program, 1330 W. Schatz Lane, Nixa, MO 65714, 4 Paws For Ability, Inc. 253 Dayton Ave. Xenia, Ohio 45385, or the Ashley Brock Memorial Fund at the Bank of America.

UPDATE: Yesterday was Ashley's funeral and the outpouring of love for her was beautiful. I want to share three very moving tributes that were given during the service. A letter from her mother:

While we gather here today to mourn the loss of one of our special daughters, Ashley Brock, I would like us to focus on celebrating the truly unique and special individual she was. She would be asking for big hugs or tickles right now if she thought we were upset or crying.

As I struggled to find meaning in this tragedy, it occurred to me that while her time on earth was brief, I believe that she had a purpose. I have been overwhelmed by the support and generosity from the community, our family, friends, neighbors and even total strangers. I have also found comfort in the numerous individuals who have indicated that Ashley may have prevented a tragedy in their home by encouraging them to either enroll their child in swimming lessons or increase security. I believe Ashley would find solace if another family could be spared the pain that we are going through.

Ashley also taught me to be more patient, compassionate, and empathetic and to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. My dear friends, if I have learned one thing in my journey with Ashley it is this – take nothing for granted. Appreciate what you have instead of focusing on what you think you want. Look at what you have right in front of you and cherish it – every smile, every hug and yes, even every trying moment. Practice patience when you think you have none left for harsh words can never be unspoken. Celebrate today versus yearning for tomorrow. Live life with no regrets and seize every opportunity to find all that is good in the world.

Ashley was truly a gift from God. While I feel so honored to have had Ashley in my life for six wonderful, yet challenging, years, I know that I am equally blessed to have her beautiful twin sister, Alexis. Alexis, while at times I may be sad because I miss Ashley, I promise to thank God each and every day because we have you. You too are a gift from God and I am so lucky to be your mommy. Mommy & daddy love you very much.

A poem written by her neighbor:

Fly, Spirit, Fly
To a place where every day is warm and sunny, and every beach is Popham.

Fly, Spirit, Fly
To a place where bouncing balls stretch out as far as the eye can see, and there’s a dog to chase every one.

Fly, Spirit, Fly
To a place where bubbles fill the air, monkey bars replace sidewalks, and there’s a bounce house on every corner.

Fly, Spirit, Fly
To a place where bike rides last forever, and you can run and never tire.

Fly, Spirit, Fly
To a place where words and hugs and kisses come easily.

And back here, when it’s time, and the time will come, although the journey will be difficult,

When it’s time to begin replacing sorrow with peace,

Aching with comfort,

And emptiness with fond memories,

We will understand that the flight is not
away
from us,
But instead is over us and around us,
Embracing us and whispering in our ears

“Thank you for everything.

All these things that bring me joy I know because of you.

This place is just like home.”

- Dave Aust

The eulogy given by her speech therapist Cathy Burgess:

Good Morning.

I am Miss Cathy, one of Ashley’s many speech therapists. When Michelle and Barry asked me to speak today, I knew immediately, that if there was ever a moment in time when I wanted to be present, it would be here, right now, in this moment. I am not exactly sure why, except to say that in all my years as a speech therapist, if there was ever a moment in time to give a voice to one of my precious children it is now.

For more than two and a half years Ashley would grace my doorstep promptly at 4:00 on Wednesday afternoon. She was a charmer. With those magnificent dark brown eyes, engaging cheshire grin, and an incredibly inquisitive mind, she stole my heart immediately and melted it into a million little pieces.

Teaching her to talk and communicate effectively was my charge, and as a seasoned therapist I was confident that I could meet that challenge. So with my agenda and materials in hand we would set off for the therapy room where I would begin my lesson. With a secure and authoritative voice I would tell her what the plans were for the day. Well, I think that if there was ever anything that could make Ashley laugh, it would be when you told her YOUR plans. She would look at me as if to say, “girl, its time for you to eat some humble pie.”

I learned quickly that I was not there to teach her, but rather she was there to teach me. And while she could not always say it in words, her message was clear…She didn’t just ask, she demanded, that I Listen, Watch and Learn.

Her first request was always the same. “I want pink and white ball please.” Mind you, it was not the blue and yellow one, or the red and yellow one, but the pink and white one…and God help me if I couldn’t find it. She would place it in a simple maze and watch with delight as it traversed down its winding path. Doing something once however, was never enough. While I might have interpreted this simple game as repetitive and monotonous, she found it fascinating and delightful. So I watched and I learned, and found myself becoming a master at how to find a zillion ways to teach a multitude of a skills with just one simple pink and white ball.

Next, came one of her passions. And there were many. She loved music and singing. Whether it was chanting songs that she had learned at school or playing her little piano, music was part of her captivating spirit. She made it clear though, that there were no rules about singing or playing music. As a matter of fact, it was obvious to her that one should sing absolutely everything and anything any time of the day or night. And as Michelle and Barry will attest to, the more Mozart you put in your life between the hours of 3 and 5 am, the more delightful your day will be, that is if you remember to play the same song 87 times at full volume. Who needs sleep? Mom always said that sleep was over rated anyway.

Colors intrigued her and when she learned what painting was all about, she would set out to create masterpieces. And, as any great artist knows, there are a multitude of canvases from which to choose from that can display your inner most creativity. There are one’s hands, one’s shirt, one’s pant’s, ones’ belly……

Her fascination for letters, words and the alphabet opened up the world of reading to her by the time she was three. Words helped her to say and practice all the wondrous things she saw in her world. Her language blossomed. Each week, brought new and exciting ways for me to understand and reach her. Looking back I recognize how tolerant she was of my stupidity. It was really as simple as knowing your ABCs.

A is for Ashley, athletics and activity.

B is for Bubbles, Books, Baby Einstein, Bikes, and Basketball.

C is for cards, cards, and more cards.

Yes, cards. She loved them. She had cards for every category of life. She carried them everywhere and recited them faithfully. There were cards for animals, toys, foods, and clothing. We had cards for letters, numbers, shapes, verbs and adjectives. Well, I thought, at least I got the cards right. But she told me this week loud and clear that there was one category of cards I failed to give her. I didn’t think to make Ashley her “I love you” cards. So I will do it now.

The first card would say on the front,

“I love you Mom and Dad”

And on the back,
Thank you for your abundant love, commitment, patience and dedication to ensuring that my days with you were the best that any child could wish for. I am so very lucky to have two parents who demonstrated their incredible courage, strength, persistence and unconditional love every day.

“I love you Lexi”
Thank you for being the beautiful, kind and loving sister that you are. Thank you for your hugs, your guidance and for being my teacher and my friend.

“I love You Grandma and Grandpa, nanny and papaw, and all my wonderful aunts and uncles and cousins.”
Thank you for accepting me for who I am and embracing my challenges with love and support. Thank you for being there for me and for helping mom and dad through many challenging times.

“I love you special neighbors and friends”
Thank you for playing with me, accepting me into your lives, and for providing comfort, protection, support, laughter and friendship to our whole family.

“I Love you all, my wonderful teachers”
Thank you for filling my days at Merrymeeting, The Bath Y, Jordan Acres and Longfellow with fun, excitement and learning. Your dedication and commitment to me was incomparable. Thank you for cherishing me, recognizing my gifts, and believing in my potential.

Knowing Ashley, I am sure, that she would add more cards to the stack every week. I am also sure that as I continue to work with children in the years to come, they will all have I Love You cards.

Yes, Ashley had many glorious gifts, but like most children she had her challenges too. Did I mention that she also had Autism? While I refuse to define any child by the parameters of a disability, I am haunted by the fact that like Ashley, too many children in our community, state, nation and world are afflicted with a disorder that in my mind is as senseless and tragic as Ashley’s passing. Autism is a disorder that now affects 1 in every 150 children and there is no cure. For those of you here, who are in the trenches along with me in fighting this insidious disorder we must ensure that Ashley’s voice not be silenced. I implore you to allow this incredible child’s journey to speak through your heart and your voice. Be persistent. We must be vigilant in our efforts to increase autism awareness, educate our communities, and advocate for services so that we can ensure the safety and future of all these children. If we are able to use this tragedy to save just one life, then Ashley’s death will have not been in vain. We can make a difference. We do make a difference, and if there is ever moment when you doubt this for even a second, just repeat it 87 times until the doubt fades away.

I will miss you dear Ashley. While my Wednesdays will no longer be the same, I know for certain that your voice, your gifts, your lessons and your challenges will forever be a part of my life. I know I have many more lessons to learn. But yours are really simple to learn if we just remember what is truly important in our lives.

1. Celebrate the love, the joy and the magic in even the simplest of things.

2. Find your passions and embrace them with each new dawn.

3. Sing with sheer abandonment even if it is a Christmas Carol on a warm spring day and wear your fire hat if you feel like it.

4. Use your voice. Say “no” when you need to, even if it’s not what others want to hear.

5. Remember to Practice saying your “I Love You cards” everyday, even if someone else forgets to say theirs to you.

6. And never, ever forget, that as we journey through this life, no matter what the challenge, remember always

“Where there is a will…
there is a way.”

Rest in Peace, My Sweet Ashley.

Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec: Gabriel Poirier, 9, suffocated while being restrained at school

2008-04-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

Gabriel Poirier, age 9

A coroner's report released today revealed suffocation as the probable cause of the death of a nine-year-old autistic boy.

By The Gazette June 19, 2008

A coroner's report released today revealed suffocation as the probable cause of the death of a nine-year-old autistic boy.

The boy's parents described the reports findings as a “shock” because the school told them he had passed away “naturally and calmly.”

The boy, Gabriel Poirier, attended a specialized school in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in the Montérégie region of Quebec.

On April 17, Gabriel began to disturb his class with loud sounds. After being told repeatedly to calm down by a teacher, he was rolled in a weighted blanket. With his arms by his side, he was left on his stomach for over 20 minutes with only his toes exposed.

When the teacher went to check on him, he was “listless and blue in the face,” the Coroner's report said. The teacher called 911 but the boy was already in a deep coma and passed away the next day in the Sainte-Justine hospital.

“He was a very gentle boy. Sometimes he was loud, but he was never aggressive or violent,” Gilles Poirier, the boy's father, said today.

The parents' lawyer, Jean-Pierre Ménard, said vulnerable children like Gabriel need better protection.

“We're asking Minister Courchesne to implement a legal framework to regulate how these children are handled,” Ménard said.

Weighted blankets are custom-made blankets filled with a specific material that gives the blanket added weight. They are considered an effective tool for helping calm down high-energy children, especially autistic children who respond well to sensory therapy.

“They have a therapeutic use and can be relaxing,” said Kathleen Provost, executive director of the Autism Society of Canada.

But occupational therapists have developed a set of rules and protocols that must be followed when using a weighted blanket, Provost said.

bbundale@thegazette.canwest.com

Worcester, Massachussetts: Tribute to Elias Tembenis

2007-11-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

Elias Tembenis, age 7

Continental walk to fight autism
CARRYING A MESSAGE ACROSS AMERICA
By Lisa D. Welsh TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — “One step at a time” is an apt description of life now for Harry and Gina Tembenis, who lost their only child, 7-year-old Elias, last November.

It also defines The Elias Tembenis Walk for Autism, a 3,000-mile walk across the country that their good friends, Robert Williams and Bobby Genese begin today in San Francisco.

Elias was diagnosed with autism when he was four months old. After watching the family care for Elias and then struggle to come to terms with the boy’s short life after what his father called an “absolute monstrous seizure,” the pair offered their help.

“They just came to us and said ‘we feel really bad about what happened,’ ” Mr. Tembenis said. “We thought they would make a donation in his name or have a fundraising party. And then they said ‘We want to walk across the country to raise awareness about Elias’s autism.’

“I’m honored, humbled and I’m very blessed to have them do this,” he said.

According to Mr. Tembenis, Elias began having seizures after his four-month checkup, when he received four vaccinations in one day for nine different diseases. Elias is one of 4,900 children represented in a lawsuit filed by Autism Omnibus that alleges vaccines caused autism in the children.

On Nov. 9, 2007, a landmark court decision came in the vaccine-autism debate when the division of vaccine injury compensation of the federal Department of Health and Human Services conceded the case of Hannah Poling v. Sec HHS, stating that the 9-year-old Georgia girl’s vaccinations aggravated her mitochondrial disorder, resulting in “features of autism spectrum disorder.”

Mr. Tembenis said that like his son, Hannah Poling appeared healthy until she received four shots for nine diseases in one day and suffered her first seizure. Should the Tembenis family receive money from the suit, it will be capped at $250,000, which would not cover the $400,000 they have in medical bills.

“This isn’t about getting rich. It’s about accountability,” Mr. Tembenis said. “The doctors were pretty tight-lipped, but being parents, we knew something was wrong.

“What the guys are doing goes a long way in leaving a legacy to our son,” he said.

Both 36 and single, Mr. Williams and Mr. Genese last week packed their belongings and headed to California. To make the nine-month trek, Mr. Williams took a leave of absence from Diorios, the hair salon owned by his family on Plantation Street and from his work as a rigger at the DCU Center and Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Mr. Genese is a familiar boxer in the city. He fought most recently in an exhibition bout against Jose Antonio Rivera at the Palladium during the annual event presented by the Worcester Police Gang Unit Boxing Club. He left his job at Jillian’s on such good terms that the company’s franchise in San Francisco held a sendoff party in the walkers’ honor Sunday.

“What they’re doing means the world to us,” said Heather Nejaimey, the sister of Gina Tembenis. “They’ve put light into a situation that was really dark.”

During their walk along Route 50 and the American Discovery Trail, each will carry a backpack of basic supplies. On their way out to California, they buried water in the desert and food is being mailed to post offices situated every 50 to 70 miles. They expect to end their walk in Washington, D.C., before Christmas.

With support from the National Autism Association, fundraising events will be held along the walk to help them reach their goal of raising $1 million.

But between a couple of sendoff events in Worcester, and a few corporate sponsors, they raised $22,000 before they even took one step in a warm-up walk over the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday.

“It was a pretty thrilling experience,” said Mr. Williams. “It was foggy, so you couldn’t see the top of the bridge, but it was still pretty breathtaking.

“I’m feeling excited and overwhelmed. … After all of the planning, determining where to have the meal drops, burying the water last week in the desert, thinking of the gear that I want to be on my back for the next six months. It’s very surreal.”

Included in that backpack is some solar-powered equipment, including digital recording cameras that will document their travels.

Miss Nejaimey will post the pictures on www.myspace.com//eliastembeniswalk. Spectrum Magazine, an online publication for families of people with autism and developmental disabilities, is featuring them in its June issue at http://spectrumpublications.com and ABCNews.com is doing a profile at the end of June.

Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin: Body of missing autistic boy , Benji Heil, recovered in Wisconsin

2007-06-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

Benji Heil, age 7

Associated Press

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis.— The discovery of a 7-year-old autistic boy's body in a pond not far from his home Tuesday ended a community search effort that drew hundreds of volunteers each day since he disappeared last week.

Even those who weren't in on the organized search for Benjamin "Benjy'' Heil stayed on the lookout for him since he vanished Thursday, said town of Nekoosa resident Darcy Peckham, 33.

"It's a tragedy that this whole community is going to have a hard time getting through,'' said the mother of six. "I've got children of my own that age, and it just makes you realize how close that family is. You realize that, wow, in a split second it can all be gone.''

Wood County sheriff's Lt. Dave Laude said the boy was found about 11 a.m. in a pond adjacent to Ten Mile Creek less than a quarter mile from his town of Saratoga home. A search dog led to the discovery, he said.

Wood County Coroner Garry Kronstedt said an autopsy was scheduled Thursday in Portage.

The boy had been playing in the basement when his family realized Thursday evening that he was gone and called authorities.

Hundreds of people turned out each day to look for the boy.

Miami, Florida: Denis Maltez, age 12, dies of psyc med overdose

2007-05-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Denis Martez, age 12

Red flags overlooked in 12-year-old's prescription drug death

The prescription-drug death of 12-year-old Denis Maltez raises troubling questions about the state's safety net for disabled kids.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com

Born with autism, 12-year-old Denis Maltez was ``hyper, needy, pesty,'' his psychiatrist wrote following a May 2007 visit.

Dr. Steven L. Kaplan solved the 70-pound boy's problems with a prescription pad, writing orders for two different anti-psychotic drugs along with a tranquilizer and a mood stabilizer -- two of them in the highest doses recommended for adults, records show.

When state medical regulators sent Kaplan letters suggesting the dosages were worrisome, he ignored them.

Two weeks after Kaplan last saw the boy, on May 23, 2007, Denis simply stopped breathing. The Miami-Dade medical examiner's office attributed the death to a life-threatening side effect of over-medication, records show.

``I . . . never had any suspicion he was being overmedicated,'' Kaplan testified in a November 2009 sworn statement.

A review of records from three state agencies, however, makes clear that plenty of other people did.

Though a number of Florida agency heads have wrung their hands about Kaplan's methods for more than three years, he has never been disciplined. The state Medicaid program, which insures the needy, asked the state Board of Medicine to investigate Kaplan in 2008, but the complaint was dismissed, records show.

Disability administrators encouraged underlings to send him new patients just as the agency's chief described his practices as ``very disturbing.''

QUESTIONS

Florida's regulatory history with Kaplan -- which includes four state agencies and thousands of pages of records -- raises important questions. Among them: Does the state have an adequate regulatory scheme for doctors who work with the most vulnerable? Can the state effectively oversee doctors who reject advice from their peers?

``Three agencies all raised concerns and red flags, and each agency was saying this is somebody else's job to take it a step further,'' said Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon. ``I'm not sure what the solution is.''

Sheldon blamed much of the problem on historically poor billing rates for doctors who are paid by Medicaid, the state and federal insurance program for the poor and disabled.

``I think it's difficult to recruit in the Medicaid arena any child psychiatrist,'' Sheldon said. ``The rates really do have an impact on who is willing to do it.''

Kaplan, who mainly practices in Miami-Dade, declined to speak with a Miami Herald reporter.

With as many as 800 patients in South Florida -- all but one percent of them disabled or impoverished children insured by either Medicaid or Medicare -- Kaplan is listed by the Agency for Healthcare Administration as number five on their list of doctors whose mental health prescriptions were red-flagged by an oversight group.

Denis was 8 when his volatility and violent outbursts prompted his mother, Martha Quesada, to move him into a sparkling new Miami group home called Rainbow Ranch. Administrators for the Agency for Persons with Disabilities had recommended the home, run by a man who had once pleaded guilty to practicing medicine without a license.

In May 2006, the owner of Rainbow Ranch discontinued Denis' treatment by a team at Jackson Memorial Hospital and instead hired Kaplan, who already was treating the group home's other residents, Kaplan said in a deposition taken Nov. 2 by Quesada's attorney, Howard Talenfeld.

In testimony that is part of an ongoing lawsuit by Denis' mother, Kaplan acknowledged that he never once spoke to Quesada before prescribing powerful mind-altering drugs, and never sought nor obtained her consent for treatment.

``I was told that the boy's mother had abandoned him,'' Kaplan testified. In fact, Quesada had never been stripped of her parental rights by the state, and had remained actively involved in Denis' care.

Denis was prescribed 20 milligrams of Zyprexa, 800 milligrams of Seroquel -- the highest adult dose for both anti-psychotics, a reviewer said -- one-half milligram of Klonopin, a tranquilizer and 2000 milligrams of Depakote, a mood stabilizer -- also a high dose for Denis' 70-pound frame. Neither of the anti-psychotic drugs has been approved for use with children.

In his deposition, Kaplan testified he was aware that the two anti-psychotic drugs both carried an ``increased risk of sudden cardiac death.''

By early July, 2006, group home workers had told Kaplan the boy was ``lethargic and unresponsive in the morning,'' Kaplan said in his deposition. On July 17 that year, teachers at Denis' school noted that he was sleeping through class, and he was taken to Miami Children's Hospital for emergency medical treatment.

That same month, on July 24, Kaplan received a letter from the Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program for Behavioral Health, a program of the Agency for Health Care Administration run by the University of South Florida, questioning his medication of Denis. On four ``key'' indicators, the letter said, Kaplan's prescribing of drugs to Denis fell outside generally accepted practices.

And AHCA was not the only state agency with concerns.

DCF received its first report involving Denis on Oct. 26, 2006. The report made some findings of medical neglect based on a teacher's complaints that Denis was ``sleeping in class, shaking and trembling.''

And on Jan. 9, 2007, DCF received another report that, among other things, Denis had ``a history of being overmedicated -- based on an August 2006 visit to Baptist Hospital with symptoms of overmedication. ``Denis was sleepy because he was over-medicated,'' a DCF investigator was told.

In all, DCF conducted six investigations of Denis' well-being, some of them including allegations that Denis was being over-drugged, an Agency for Persons with Disabilities report says. Sheldon said his agency had received a total of eight calls to the state hot line about Kaplan.

WARNINGS

The disabilities agency also had been warned that Kaplan's patients appeared to be drugged.

An April 2007 memo from an APD administrator said a number of caregivers in Miami had expressed concerns that Kaplan's patients at Rainbow Ranch appeared to be overmedicated. A former group home manager said she found ``clients always asleep and barely walking.'' The mother of one boy said he went home for Thanksgiving all doped up.

Denis last saw his psychiatrist on May 10, 2007. In progress notes from the visit, Kaplan wrote the boy was sleepy during the day, and school officials felt he was drugged. He added: ``Hyper, needy, pesty.''

Denis died two weeks later, on May 23, 2007. He was 12.

In his deposition, Kaplan said he is not responsible for Denis' death. ``I don't believe he died of anything that I did,'' he said.

After Denis' death, APD hired a psychiatrist, Jorge J. Villalba, to study the group home's practices. He reported ``overmedication with sedation of clients,'' noting that 99 percent of the group home residents were on an anti-psychotic drug.

Villalba wrote that Denis had been on three different mental health drugs, two of them in the maximum dose, and that ``in combination, all three of these agents have additive effects as a central nervous system depressant.'' The drugs, he added, ``may have been contributing factors in the client's death.''

The following December, the Miami-Dade medical examiner's office concluded Denis did die of overmedication, from a disorder called Serotonin Syndrome.

A week after the medical examiner's report was released, on Dec. 28, 2007, the then-head of the disabilities agency, Jane E. Johnson, called the case ``very disturbing -- especially if that psychiatrist is still providing services through [the] Medicaid state plan.''

During the next two years, administrators at both the healthcare and disabilities agencies continued to monitor Kaplan's activities, writing dozens of e-mails and reports:

• A nurse on staff at APD noted on Feb. 5, 2008, that one boy under Kaplan's care ``was taking 10 medications in total,'' including two anti-psychotic drugs and two tranquilizers. ``All of the medication listed cause somnolence,'' the nurse wrote.

• Thirteen days later, on Feb. 28, 2008, Kaplan received an ``academic detailing'' visit by a pharmacy expert from the University of South Florida, as part of the university's effort to oversee problematic prescribers for the state healthcare agency. Though Kaplan was reportedly ``very courteous and professional,'' the reviewer noted, ``he didn't appear familiar with the material or interested in the guidelines.''

• In mid-March 2008, several disabilities administrators exchanged e-mails voicing worries about Kaplan. ``He's still practicing and we're concerned,'' Chuck Faircloth, APD's inspector general, wrote on March 12.

The next day, Evelyn Alvarez, a top Miami administrator, wrote: ``Our medical case manager as well as I continue to have concerns regarding the abundance of meds that he is prescribing to some of our consumers.''

• Two months later, another USF monitor visited Kaplan in his office. Kaplan, he wrote, said that his patients are ``schizophrenic and become violent, aggressive, dangerous'' -- making such medication necessary. ``Provider states that he does not use antipsychotic medication for sedation,'' a report says.

• In June, 2008, while both agencies were expressing concern about Kaplan's use of mental health drugs, at least two APD administrators suggested he be considered for new patients when scores of disabled people were to be moved from a large institution in Fort Myers into group homes.

``He has lots of clients, so he may well qualify from the point of view of a large and varied practice,'' wrote Alvarez, who only three months earlier had expressed concerns.

• A USF monitor once again visited Kaplan on May 15, 2009.

``He said he did not find the time to deal with non-important things such as paperwork,'' a report says of the visit. ``He said he had been practicing long enough to know how to treat his patients and was tired of being told what to do.''

STATE CONCERNS

In his deposition, Kaplan acknowledged he received ``hundreds'' of letters from the state suggesting he revise his prescribing practices. ``I didn't think it required any kind of response,'' he said. He later added: ``I never thought of myself as a red-flagged physician.''

Talenfeld, Quesada's lawyer, urged healthcare and disability administrators in a letter to better protect disabled children, ``who are powerless to protect themselves from being unnecessarily drugged for the convenience of staff. . . . Without proper oversight and action by your respective state agencies, these individuals will continue to be in harm's way.''

Administrators at AHCA declined to discuss the agency's history with Kaplan at length. In an e-mail to The Herald, the agency's spokeswoman, Tiffany Vause, said it was ``extremely difficult to measure the quality of prescribing practices'' based upon Medicaid claims.

The USF program, she said, enables doctors to explain their practices -- which may be entirely appropriate -- or to change their habits once they are better informed.

``Dr. Kaplan is being monitored through this system and has received feedback from the USF clinical staff, Vause said. ``The agency is closely monitoring this physician's claims and the unique patient caseload he treats and will take appropriate action. This can include termination from the Medicaid program.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/18/v-fullstory/1586109/red-flags-overlooked-in-prescription.html#ixzz0wQ8UBLwt

Oshkosh, Wisconsin: Teacher Laurie Ann Hoopman, 48, dies after being repeatedly kicked in the chest by a student

2007-03-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer K. Woldt • of The Northwestern • August 17, 2010
More than three years after an Oshkosh middle school teacher died, attorneys are still arguing whether she died from injuries she received while working with an autistic student.

At stake are death benefits a state commission says the Oshkosh School district and its insurance company owe her family.

Laurie Ann Hoopman, 48, was found dead by her children March 20, 2007, days after her co-workers said they saw a student kick her in the chest.

Her family argues Hoopman died due to injuries she received when an autistic student in her Carl Traeger Middle School class kicked her in the chest multiple times in the days before her death. The Oshkosh school district and its insurer said the cause of Hoopman's death is unknown.

"We're just trying to get the truth out there," Laurie Hoopman's husband, Steve Hoopman, said Monday. "Everybody's not accepting the truth that we know is out there."

Attorneys representing the Oshkosh School District and Acuity Insurance Company, filed an appeal in Sheboygan County Circuit Court last week that seeks to reverse a state Labor and Industry Review Commission's ruling that the school district and insurance company pay Hoopman's family death benefits and funeral and burial expenses along with making a payment to the state's work injury supplemental fund.

Officials from the Oshkosh school district declined comment and others did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on this story Monday.

An administrative law judge presiding over a state Department of Workforce Development Worker's Compensation Division hearing ruled it was unclear what caused Hoopman's death and therefore benefits did not need to be paid out. On appeal, the Labor and Industry Review Commission reversed the decision and ordered the family was entitled to the benefits.

A circuit court judge will review the evidence that was presented during those hearings before making a ruling, said Terence Bouressa, the De Pere-based attorney representing Hoopman's family.

The appeal has been filed in Sheboygan County, where Acuity Insurance Company is based, but Bouressa said these types of action are usually heard in the county where the injury occurred or where the employee or employer is based. He said he is planning on filing a motion to see if the case could be moved to Winnebago County Circuit Court.

Bouressa is unsure when a decision would be made, but said it could take four to six months.

Jennifer K. Woldt: (920) 426-6676 or jwoldt@thenorthwestern.com.

Niskayuna, New York: Jonathan Cary, 13, asphyxiated while being restrained at group home

2007-02-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Carey, age 13

Welcome to the Jonathan Carey Foundation.

Lisa and I, the parents of Jonathan, would first like to thank everyone for your love, your prayers, and your encouragement throughout this extremely difficult time, and for all your support as we were fighting for Jonathan’s Law. Our hearts are broken and the pain of missing Jonathan is excruciating at times, but we know that Jonathan is happy and safe with our Lord Jesus in Heaven for all eternity, which helps us tremendously.

Right now we must move forward. We are compelled to help other vulnerable children, and to help prevent other children from suffering abuse and neglect like Jonathan suffered. We would like you know a little about our son Jonathan. Jonathan was diagnosed mentally retarded before he was two years old and then diagnosed autistic at six years old. Jonathan’s life was difficult in many ways because of the afflictions he suffered, as well as not being able to speak and communicate properly. You can only imagine the frustration, if it were you. Lisa and I placed Jonathan in the Anderson School in Staatsburg , New York , in January of 2003, so he could learn and prosper more as well as be toilet trained. We were told that the school had 100% success with toilet training, and highly structured teaching in their school, and that the carry over in the residential settings was excellent. Jonathan was making some significant gains, but in the Fall of 2004, things took a horrible turn for the worse. We received a call from the Director of the school saying that our son was in a crisis. Afterward, we found out that the school was withholding meals on a daily basis from Jonathan for behavior modification, or “intense programming” in their own words, whenever Jonathan did not have his shirt or clothing on. Jonathan was struggling with a compulsive problem of keeping his shirt on, and this is how the school planned to program our son, without our knowledge or consent, or the knowledge or consent of a Human Rights Committee. This unbelievable abusive and neglectful plan was then carried out by numerous staff for over five weeks. Jonathan was also secluded for extended periods of time in his bedroom, at times naked lying in his own urine, missing many days of school, without our knowledge. During this time, Jonathan sustained dozens of bruises over much of his body, which was not reported properly by the school to both New York State agencies, OMRDD or CQC, as required for investigation. How can such things happen? How can people do such inhumane things? It is still hard for Lisa and I to understand how people can do such things. After a four week investigation was completed by OMRDD regarding these abuses of our son Jonathan, all of the records were then immediately sealed by the State of New York and none of the individuals involved were held accountable by law. The State of New York continued to withhold all of these records from us until the amendment to Jonathan’s Law was signed by Governor Spitzer on July 18, 2007. Now under Jonathan’s Law, parents and legal guardians are able to obtain valuable investigative records and incident reports regarding their children to help insure their safety. Under the amendment to Jonathan’s Law, parents and legal guardians can obtain investigative records and incident reports dated from January of 2003 until the current date, by requesting their records in writing, by no later than December 31, 2007.

After removing Jonathan from the Anderson School , Jonathan struggled incredibly as a result of the abuse he went through. Jonathan was then diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result. After doing our best to care for Jonathan at home, without getting much assistance from OMRDD, despite pleading for help, we had to place Jonathan in another facility. We could not care for Jonathan alone. At this time Jonathan went into OD Heck, in Niskayuna , New York , which is a State run residential facility. A year and a half later, on February 16, 2007, while away on a trip, Lisa and I got the most horrible news any parent could ever get. “Last night Jonathan stopped breathing and he could not be revived”. Lisa and I both buckled to the sidewalk under the grief of the news coming over the payphone. We were in St. Thomas trying to get some respite from life’s difficulties, to get the worst news imaginable. We later received, a call saying that two men have been arrested and charged for improperly restraining Jonathan to death. Lisa and I were a couple of thousand miles away, and our precious first born son Jonathan was killed, we are told. If it were not for our faith in Jesus, there is no way we could have survived it all. By His amazing grace, as well as the amazing outpouring of love through so many people, we are doing OK. Hurting, yes, but we know there are many things we must do. We are compelled to help prevent this from happening to other children or their families. This is why Lisa and I have established the Jonathan Carey Foundation in Jonathan’s name, to do everything possible to stop such injustices, and help vulnerable children.

Most vulnerable children cannot speak or defend themselves and desperately need our help, meaning each and every one of us, in whatever way we can. Lisa and I have gained much insight through all that we have gone through, and have a responsibility to use that insight and knowledge to help bring about necessary changes and fight for what is right. Our hope and our prayer is that these changes will affect the lives of thousands of precious children and their families. We must continue to raise awareness of the issues facing those living in residential care facilities and schools, and their families.

We are also compelled to raise awareness and to encourage people to get involved in rescuing orphaned and abandoned children. We have been involved with a ministry called Hearts of the Father Outreach for many years now. I have seen first hand several young children, without parents, poor and destitute, sleeping on sidewalks in plastic corn meal sacks in need of a home, love, and their basic needs met, such as regular meals, clothing, and medical attention. These children can be rescued and literally saved for very little cost, if people first care, and second have an avenue to help. Our desire is to help point the way to other existing organizations and ministries that are doing such wonderful work. The Jonathan Carey Foundation is all about helping vulnerable children in any way possible, but it is going to take a team effort. There are millions of vulnerable children, in all sorts of dire need. Will you help? If everyone helps in whatever way they can, a tremendous number of precious children’s lives will be turned around, and I believe forever.

We are closing our family business named Solo Auto Sales, located at 90 Delaware Avenue in Delmar , New York , and are converting the use of the property into the office for The Jonathan Carey Foundation. We are now currently able to accept charitable contributions, which are tax deductible. We are going to need your help, as well as the help of our entire community, to accomplish and bring about the necessary changes needed to insure the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children. Thank you for caring, and thank you for considering supporting The Jonathan Carey Foundation. If you would like to help financially, please click on the donate tab for the information necessary. Thank you.

Michael Carey

Miami, Florida: Amber Alert boy, Jared McGuire, found Dead

2006-02-24T17:02:00.000-08:00

Jared McGuire, age 8

The body of an 8 year old autistic boy was found in a pond 100 feet from his home today, one day after police launched a massive search for him.

Jared McGuire's mother told authorities she last saw him sleeping on the couch Thursday afternoon. After she reported him missing, police searched the Greenacres area with officers, dogs and a helicopter. Police in this Palm Beach County town issued an Amber Alert after a witness reported seeing a child matching Jared's description being forced into a van. It is now unclear whether that witness was mistaken.

Greenacres police say an autopsy will be conducted this afternoon to determine a cause of death. Authorities said Jared suffered from severe autism that required medication and that he had trouble speaking.

Toronto, Ontario: Woman guilty of drowning autistic daughter, Scarlet Chen

2004-07-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Scarlet Chen, age 4

toronto.ctv.ca
Date: Sat. Mar. 1 2008 7:21 PM ET

A Toronto mother has been found guilty of drowning her four-year-old autistic daughter in a bathtub inside their Scarborough home.

A Superior Court jury returned its verdict Saturday morning after two days of deliberation.

Xuan Peng, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her only daughter Scarlett Chen.

Scarlett was discovered unconscious by her father David Chen in their home on Rosebank Drive on July 12, 2004.

At the time, police questioned Peng, who said she had filled up the tub to clean some kitchen utensils, court heard.

Peng said her daughter had been taking a nap in the bedroom next door, and must have wandered in and drowned accidentally. The two were home alone.

However, seven months later, investigators charged Peng with killing her child.

Prosecutors said Peng drowned her daughter in a moment of frustration, saying she was upset after being told by a doctor just hours before Scarlett died that there would be no surgical solution for the girl's problems.

Shortly after her arrest, Peng removed her glasses, smashed them and used them to slash her arms, according to evidence at her bail hearing that the jury wasn't allowed to hear, the Toronto Star reported.

Scarlett was described as a healthy but developmentally delayed girl who was diagnosed as mildly autistic. Her parents sent the baby to live with her maternal grandmother in China for 2 1/2 years, the court heard.

When Scarlett returned to Toronto with her grandmother in March 2004, she never really bonded with her parents and Peng couldn't cope with her, Crown prosecutors argued.

Defence lawyers, however, insisted Peng was a loving and devoted mother. Her husband testified that she adored their child.

Peng began to suffer from depression after Scarlett was born, which is one of the reasons she could not care for the child, police said at a bail hearing, according to the Star. She was diagnosed as suffering from a bipolar affliction disorder.

Emotional trial

The trial was an emotional one for those involved. After the verdict, one of Peng's lawyers broke down in tears, too upset to speak to reporters.

"We think it's a reasonable verdict and at the end of the day this is about Scarlett, and unfortunately she's passed and there's nothing that can be done about it," said Crown prosecutor Kim Motyl.

Even veteran investigators were torn with emotion.

"Even though there has been mental illness problems with Mrs. Peng, I feel just as much sorry for her and her family because there is a loss for her and Mr. Chen and her mother," said Det. Sgt. Ray Zarb. "It's a sad day for all parties."

A conviction on second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence. The judge must now decide when Peng will be eligible to apply for parole.

Prosecutors will ask that Peng serve 10 to 20 years before being eligible for parole.

Sentencing has been set for March 14.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Ken Regular

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Torrance Cantrell, 8, dies after parishoners perform exorcism for his autism

2003-08-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

Torrance Cantrell, age 8

Autistic Boy Dies During Exorcism
8-Year-Old Wrapped In Sheets During Storefront Prayer Service

(CBS/AP) An autistic 8-year-old boy died while wrapped in sheets during a prayer service held to exorcise the evil spirits that church members blamed for his condition.

The minister who performed the service was arrested in connection with the death, which occurred Friday night at a church in a run-down strip mall.

The mother had been taking her son to Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith three times a week for the last three weeks in hopes of curing his autism, said Bishop David Hemphill Sr.

It was after more than an hour of prayer that a parishioner noticed the boy was no longer moving and called emergency workers, Hemphill said. The boy's grandmother said force was used, an allegation disputed by church members.

“We were asking God to take this spirit that was tormenting this little boy to death,” Hemphill said. “We were praying that hard, but not to kill.”

Hemphill identified the boy as Torrance Cantrell and the man arrested as Ray Hemphill, his brother and another minister who led Friday's service. David Hemphill said he has not talked to his brother or the boy's mother, Patricia Cooper, since Friday night. Cooper could not be reached for comment.

Police have not released the boy's name but have said they don't believe he was struck. The results of an autopsy also have not been disclosed.

Church members had wrapped the boy in sheets to keep him from scratching himself and others, but he was allowed to sit “any way that he feels comfortable,” Hemphill said.

The boy's grandmother said the boy had been restrained.

“They held the boy down, they held him down until ... he went to a smothery grave,” Mary Luckett told Milwaukee television station WTMJ.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that David Hemhill's wife, Pamela Hemphill, said that Torrance's mother held the boy's feet and two other women held the boy's hands during the prayer session.

David Hemphill started the independent church in 1997. It meets twice a week and has a congregation of six families.

Cooper, the boy's mother, started coming to the church about three months ago after she met a parishioner at a doctor's office, Hemphill said. Cooper told the parishioner about her son's autism, and the church member invited her to a Sunday service. She joined the next week.

A makeshift memorial with four colored candles and a few stuffed animals sat on a window ledge outside the boy's home Sunday.

Waukegan, Illinois: Brian Kent's unsolved death in an insitution leads to Brian's Law

2002-12-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

Brian Kent, age 25

August 8, 2010
BY MAURA POSSLEY

Brian's parents were still in shock when they arrived at a Waukegan hospital on a fall night in 2002.They hadn't spoken much during the hour-and-a-half ride from their Oak Forest townhome.

They could think only of the news they had so far: Their 25-year-old son had arrived at the hospital with no pulse. Doctors couldn't revive him.

Jim and Linda Kent saw the white sheet pulled up to Brian's chin, covering the rest of his 100-pound frame.

He was gone, and something went terribly wrong.

The deputy coroner agreed. He looked Jim Kent in the eye that night.

"He says, 'He's 25 years old, young - I'd sure like to know how he died,' " Kent recalled. "I said, 'We do, too.' "

Eight years later, the Kents still aren't sure what happened to Brian.

They do know he never got the services he should have, as someone with profound disabilities in the state's care.

Though Brian's life had ended, his story would continue with his parents discovering a new way for their son to live on.

Through this one couple's determination to speak out, Brian's life became the inspiration of a new state law that will examine these deaths in a new light, in a bid to prevent another of these vulnerable residents from dying prematurely. The law takes effect Jan. 1.

"He was kicked in the abdomen. Nobody was held accountable, and that's just what floors me," Jim Kent said, reflecting on the nightmare his family was only beginning to face on that October night.

"His heart was excellent," his mother said. "He would have lived forever."

The baby brother

Brian Kent was born March 8, 1977, in Rock Island, a third child for the Kents. Sister Laura was the eldest, followed by brother Randy.

He had inherited his dad's traits - at least in his shock of red hair.

Quickly, the family knew there was something different about Brian.

And by age 10, Brian's autism and other disabilities needed more care than they could provide.

He had compulsive tendencies, whether it was arranging furniture in a certain way or knocking on windows or flipping through magazines. Knocking on a window one day, it broke on Brian and his mother found him standing in a bed room holding a piece of glass.

Brian was nonverbal and had vision problems, but he communicated with others physically - by gently taking their hand to a faucet if he wanted water, for instance.

He spent his youth in two facilities downstate before he was transferred in 2002 to the Kiley Developmental Center in Waukegan. Run by the state, it seemed the appropriate next step needed to monitor his medications and handle his care into adulthood, his parents said.

"They had everything right there," Linda Kent said. "It was so impressive."

Cottages shared by residents were laid out in an oval, with a walking path connecting them. The Kents thought Brian would love it there. He constantly was active, and it offered a place to safely be so.

Thirteen weeks later, Brian was dead. He died from peritonitis due to blunt force trauma to his abdomen, which caused a distended intestine. A coroner's inquest later ruled his cause of death undetermined.

Searching for answers

In the year after Brian's death, the Illinois State Police and state inspector general's office investigated Brian's death.

No charges ever were filed and no one person could be pinpointed for the injury to his abdomen.

The Illinois Department of Public Health also investigated and admonished Kiley staff for failing to properly care for Brian and ensure his safety. The department also required Kiley to take corrective action, which the center did.

The family was left feeling Brian became lost when he moved into Kiley, an expansive facility compared to his previous homes.

They felt no one was ever held accountable for a lack of care they believed led to his demise, and the set out to change that.

A year after their son's death, the Kents read about the Chicago-based Equip for Equality, a federal watchdog group that advocates for people with disabilities. They told Brian's story, and the poor care they felt he'd received.

So began their quest together to bring about more oversight in light of his death.

Last moments

In its own report on Brian's time at the Kiley Center after state investigations concluded, Equip for Equality found that not one incident led to his death but many factors, including "the lack of recognition of Brian's value as a human being to direct care staff."

Equip for Equality has pushed for residents of state-run centers for the developmentally disabled be moved to smaller, community-based settings.

The group chronicled Brian's last day at Kiley and found he was unusually lethargic, was doubled over when he walked and vomited. It found staff assessments of his health were delayed.

When staff found he wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse at 6 p.m., they failed to give CPR. Instead, they called his name, rubbed his legs and arms and propped him up in a chair, according to the report.

The group also found in his 13 weeks there, Brian, who had a staff member monitoring him 24 hours a day, had suffered 57 injuries, 18 of which were unexplained.

Finding closure

The Kents' quest became reality last month, when Gov. Pat Quinn signed what has become known as Brian's Law. It aims to prevent another early death of anyone receiving developmental or mental illness services statewide by creating a independent oversight committee.

The committee is charged with investigating deaths of anyone with a mental illness or physical disability receiving services by the state. They'll report their findings to the state Department of Human Services, which must respond to the committee based on its recommendations.

Members of the committee must be volunteers. Equip for Equality said the bill likely would not have passed if it required the state to pay the members, given the state's massive budget deficit.

The law's watchdog role into these deaths, the group said, comes at a critical moment as the state budget has scaled back social services.

"There's no question that (the Kents') personal story and willingness to share what happened made a huge difference and had a huge impact on legislators," said Equip President and CEO Xena Naiditch. "So I really think this is their bill, this is Brian's Law."

Enduring memory

In a room at the top of the stairs in the Oak Forest home of Jim and Linda Kent, a memorial to Brian hangs. A dried flower wreath from his funeral adorns his framed picture, flanked by fake ice cream sundaes.

Soft serve was his favorite.

They had to put up something to remember Brian, his parents said.

Indeed, Brian Kent will live on even after his memorial doesn't some day.

"It's not going to bring him back, but we're hoping the law really changes things for others," Jim Kent said. "I guess it makes his life worthwhile."

BRIAN'S LAW

In the eight years since 25-year-old Brian Kent died, his parents, Jim and Linda Kent, have struggled to find a way for their son to live on.

The Oak Forest couple saw their dream realized on July 23, when Gov. Pat Quinn signed what has become known as Brian's Law.

First introduced in the Illinois General Assembly in 2008, the bill received the overwhelming support of lawmakers this past spring session.

It helped that the Chicago-based Equip for Equality group, an advocate for people with disabilities, backed the bill after the Kents came to them in 2003 with the story of Brian's death. It's not often parents of children like Brian speak up, the group said.

The law creates an independent committee of experts to examine every death of a person with a mental illness or developmental disability who dies while receiving services at a state facility or community agency.

The team is volunteer-based and will report recommendations and findings to the Illinois Department of Human Services, which is required to respond. The committee must include people from the following professions:

• Physicians experienced in providing care to people with developmental disabilities and mental illness.

• Registered nurses experienced in providing care to people with developmental disabilities and mental illness.

• Psychiatrists.

• Psychologists.

• Department of Human Services staff not employed by the facility where the death occurred.

• Department of Public Health staff.

• State's attorney's representatives.

• Coroners or forensic pathologists.

• Staff from local hospitals, trauma centers or other emergency personnel.

The law takes effect Jan. 1.

Barnegat, New Jersey: The Jason Tallman Story : Death and the High Cost of Kidspeace

1993-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Jason Tallman, age 12

CAICA
He was a small, brilliant and difficult little boy, full of poetry, and cherished by the parents who loved him, Rick and Jane Tallman. It is over a decade now, but feels like yesterday. I represented the Tallmans in their special education dispute against the Barnegat School District in southern New Jersey. I was in the courtroom when Jason was ordered into KidsPeace by an administrative law judge, against parent wishes and medical recommendation. Barnegat had sabotaged the only available school placement for Jason, so that there was no place for him to go except a Human Services placement in Pennsylvania. After the order, his mother whispered to me, “He’ll die there. That’s not for Jason.” But nobody listened, in spite of Motions to Reconsider. DYFS and the State of New Jersey abandoned this jumping bundle of creative, endless energy to the system. He had disabilities. He had genius. He had parents who fought for his survival. But nothing could win against the corruption of the bureaucracy and the State. Jason needed a school. What he got was death. Jason died less than a day after he was placed at KidsPeace, suffocated by an obese employee who sat on him and suffocated him.

I’ve learned about more death and abuse at KidsPeace recently, remembering the federal judge who refused to hear Jason’s case after his murder until it had gone back to the administrative court for fact finding. I did that trial, too, remaining haunted by the school’s manipulation of facts, the smugness of the school personnel who had neither shame nor guilt. They were proud of their ability to prevent justice and kill the child they failed to teach. I remember the look on the face of the judge when the case was remanded. The same judge who originally ordered Jason to KidsPeace, Joseph Martone, presided over the fact-finding trial. He knew his actions resulted in unspeakable tragedy. He was a good judge who made a fatal mistake that killed a child because that is the way the system is designed. At the end of the trial, the political hands within the OAL “Decision Review” wrote the decision.

The present status of special education will cost more deaths and abuse at KidsPeace, as well as other places throughout the country with staff untrained to handle the needs of disabled children. Spiraling costs of special education leave school districts desperate to put the funding responsibility elsewhere. The new Individuals With Disabilities Education Act recognizes the need to address “high cost placements” through interagency agreements. But New Jersey has never abided by the concept that special education is the responsibility of multiple agencies. It is cheaper to have custodial placements than to create schools to instruct the extremes of the disability spectrum. Departments of Education have their list of approved private schools. DYFS has an entirely separate list of placements. So does each agency within State government, and none will implement an IEP except a school. Residential placements for educational reasons are now treated in a managed care approach that does not permit the intensity of essential services, or the implementation of a genuinely individualized program. No agency coordinates with another. Jason was murdered by an incompetent aide, nobody able to figure out a way to get the child what he needed. Nobody was found guilty. Nobody was punished for this worst of sins.

Ten years later, more Jasons are in line for the KidsPeace mill. Schools and human services agencies continue to act with impunity, often conspiring with local school districts against parents in order to intimidate them and have somebody else pay the bill. The Tallman story is a parable for this decade. Jason’s mother knew he would not survive. Anyone who represents children in special education knows the increasing difficulty of finding appropriate placements, waiting for another child to die while the schools and the courts grind on.