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.
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.
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.
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
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
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."
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.
