Starved their four-month-old son to death.
Mother told police her baby appeared emaciated because of a “family trait.”
Katherine Hatten, 22, and Thaddeus Adam Bechtel, 29, were arrested due to the death of their 4-month old son, whose gaunt body was found in a swing inside their filthy apartment.
Daniel Bechtel weighed just four pounds, and bones jutted out of his skin. Obviously this condition didn’t happen overnight.
This child was not fed or cared for at all in its very short life.
It took some time for this child to die.
Officers found Daniel dead after responding to a 911 call about an unresponsive child Tuesday morning. Sgt. Tranter said the couple’s apartment was filthy, with trash covering the floor.
A court document said ants and cockroaches were crawling all over the apartment and on Daniel.
A preliminary autopsy found the baby had no food or formula in his stomach, and that the cause of death was consistent with neglect, the document said.
Police said Hatten told them Daniel appeared emaciated because of a family trait.
Hatten was being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, while Bechtel was being held on one count of child abuse. Bond was set at $207,000 apiece.
Tranter said police were not seeking murder charges against Bechtel because he is a truck driver and came home only once a week. Police also removed a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl from the apartment and placed them in the care of Child Protective Services.
As long as the us find external affairs more important then internal affairs, these eevnts will happen due to poor social grow in us.
the results are these terrible things.
only judging the people who are near this event is same as closing the eyes for the structual way down for us-citizens.
The social community of US is for large part responsible for these things to happen.
To relativate: It was only 1 or children who lived i9n hell or died. The millions of children have not this attention. WHY?
[Reply]
gagirl reply on March 19, 2008:
to:”Joop”
from:”ga girl”
Your post makes it clear that English is not your first language, so some of your “logic,” or lack thereof, can be forgiven…some. You sound like an advocate for socialism, i.e., these are “state” problems. I understand the GIST of your points- this is an ongoing societal problem in the land of the haves vs. the have-nots (what you call “us”). BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My dear “Joop,” this child murder is not a mere statistic for a crappy term paper (”only 1(sic) … died”). NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The “flip side” of living in the “us” is that food is plentiful and cheap- there are plenty of soup kitchens/food banks/charities, esp. when minor children are involved. I have two sons and I have had some hard times, but not because of the lack of food. You know why??? BECAUSE , as a mother, even if I had NO $$$$, not even a dollar, to feed my children, I would BEG/BORROW/ and, fuck YES- STEAL to feed them. Then, if for some sorry reason I couldn’t feed them on a REGULAR basis, I would have Child Protective Services come get them so that they would not have to starve to death. There is NO EXCUSE for a child to die from starvation/malnutrition in this country. It’s the fault of those sorry-ass parents, plain and simple. And I somehow DOUBT that those two were going hungry. What pieces of selfish, self-centered SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Reply]
GaGal: Well stated!
I would be willing to bet the bones of the -sorry-ass parents were not “sticking out”.
I do wonder - were there no relatives or friends or neighbors to see what was happening to this little infant. So tragic that supposed adults sit on their asses and let a helpless infant die.
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