meegannie
Blue Crack Addict
People piss me off.
From the NY Times:
Body of Boy Found in Bin Inside Home
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN and THOMAS J. LUECK
he body of a 7-year-old boy who had apparently been dead for weeks was discovered yesterday in a storage bin in a house in Newark where his two emaciated young brothers had been found in a locked basement on Saturday, law enforcement officials in New Jersey said last night.
Edward Gordon, director of homicide investigations for the Essex County prosecutor's office, identified the dead child as Faheem Williams, and said his twin brother, Raheem, and a 4-year-old sibling, Tyrone, were being treated at University Hospital in Newark for starvation and dehydration.
While much about the case was unclear last night, Mr. Gordon said the authorities were searching for the children's mother in New York City, where she was believed to have been hit by a car and hospitalized several months ago. Her identity was not disclosed.
Mr. Gordon said the authorities were also searching for Sherry Murphy. The children had been left in her care by the mother, according to the prosecutor.
Pending a news conference today, Detective Todd McClendon, a spokesman for the Newark police, would say only that no one had been arrested and that a number of people were being questioned and sought for information about the weekend discoveries at 188 Parker Street in Branch Brook Park, a working-class neighborhood in north Newark.
As the police cordoned off the area around the two-story, three-family house, neighborhood residents and acquaintances of the children expressed suspicions of a horrendous case of abuse.
One acquaintance said the surviving children were extremely malnourished and appeared to have burn marks on their bodies. But investigators made no accusations.
Mr. Gordon, providing some details in a telephone interview last night, said that Ms. Murphy's boyfriend, Shawn Slappy, 31, acknowledged that he had been living in her apartment at the house for about two weeks, but quoted him as saying he knew nothing about the children.
Dawn Davis, who identified herself as Mr. Slappy's sister, said that he was a security guard at East Orange General Hospital and that he had met Ms. Murphy last fall. She described Ms. Murphy as a topless dancer.
On Saturday, Mr. Slappy told the authorities, Ms. Murphy was not around and he decided to go to the basement to look for a pair of work boots that he suspected Ms. Murphy had hidden from him.
Mr. Slappy said he had found the basement door locked and had used a screwdriver to pry it open, Ms. Davis said. As the door swung open, Ms. Davis said, Mr. Slappy was stunned to see two small faces approaching him in the dim light. "The only thing you could see was their heads coming toward him," she said.
Frightened at the sight, he shut the door, ran upstairs and called the police, Ms. Davis said. She said the brothers had what looked like burn marks all over them and appeared to be starving. "You could count every bone on their bodies," she said.
The police took Raheem and Tyrone to the hospital, where they were listed in fair condition, but they did not find Faheem until yesterday. Mr. Gordon said Raheem had told investigators at the hospital that his twin brother had been missing for weeks.
That apparently prompted the police to return to Parker Street, where they found Faheem's body in a plastic bin in another basement room. Ms. Davis said she understood the body had been hidden in a sleeping bag. The cause of death was unclear last night, pending an autopsy.
The case stunned the neighborhood. "I was shocked," said Miguel Hernandez, 17, who has lived on the block for three years. "It's crazy."
He said he had seen the Williams children playing outside, but not recently.
"They seemed happy," he said. "Nothing really strange about them." But they seemed thin, he added.
From the NY Times:
Body of Boy Found in Bin Inside Home
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN and THOMAS J. LUECK
he body of a 7-year-old boy who had apparently been dead for weeks was discovered yesterday in a storage bin in a house in Newark where his two emaciated young brothers had been found in a locked basement on Saturday, law enforcement officials in New Jersey said last night.
Edward Gordon, director of homicide investigations for the Essex County prosecutor's office, identified the dead child as Faheem Williams, and said his twin brother, Raheem, and a 4-year-old sibling, Tyrone, were being treated at University Hospital in Newark for starvation and dehydration.
While much about the case was unclear last night, Mr. Gordon said the authorities were searching for the children's mother in New York City, where she was believed to have been hit by a car and hospitalized several months ago. Her identity was not disclosed.
Mr. Gordon said the authorities were also searching for Sherry Murphy. The children had been left in her care by the mother, according to the prosecutor.
Pending a news conference today, Detective Todd McClendon, a spokesman for the Newark police, would say only that no one had been arrested and that a number of people were being questioned and sought for information about the weekend discoveries at 188 Parker Street in Branch Brook Park, a working-class neighborhood in north Newark.
As the police cordoned off the area around the two-story, three-family house, neighborhood residents and acquaintances of the children expressed suspicions of a horrendous case of abuse.
One acquaintance said the surviving children were extremely malnourished and appeared to have burn marks on their bodies. But investigators made no accusations.
Mr. Gordon, providing some details in a telephone interview last night, said that Ms. Murphy's boyfriend, Shawn Slappy, 31, acknowledged that he had been living in her apartment at the house for about two weeks, but quoted him as saying he knew nothing about the children.
Dawn Davis, who identified herself as Mr. Slappy's sister, said that he was a security guard at East Orange General Hospital and that he had met Ms. Murphy last fall. She described Ms. Murphy as a topless dancer.
On Saturday, Mr. Slappy told the authorities, Ms. Murphy was not around and he decided to go to the basement to look for a pair of work boots that he suspected Ms. Murphy had hidden from him.
Mr. Slappy said he had found the basement door locked and had used a screwdriver to pry it open, Ms. Davis said. As the door swung open, Ms. Davis said, Mr. Slappy was stunned to see two small faces approaching him in the dim light. "The only thing you could see was their heads coming toward him," she said.
Frightened at the sight, he shut the door, ran upstairs and called the police, Ms. Davis said. She said the brothers had what looked like burn marks all over them and appeared to be starving. "You could count every bone on their bodies," she said.
The police took Raheem and Tyrone to the hospital, where they were listed in fair condition, but they did not find Faheem until yesterday. Mr. Gordon said Raheem had told investigators at the hospital that his twin brother had been missing for weeks.
That apparently prompted the police to return to Parker Street, where they found Faheem's body in a plastic bin in another basement room. Ms. Davis said she understood the body had been hidden in a sleeping bag. The cause of death was unclear last night, pending an autopsy.
The case stunned the neighborhood. "I was shocked," said Miguel Hernandez, 17, who has lived on the block for three years. "It's crazy."
He said he had seen the Williams children playing outside, but not recently.
"They seemed happy," he said. "Nothing really strange about them." But they seemed thin, he added.
*Gasp*
