This is 28-year-old Stacey Mendieta.
We here at People You’ll See In Hell don’t quite know what to think about Stacey, so we’ll give you, our reader, the facts and let you decide.
For a few years, since 2004, Stacey Mendieta was married to a man named Hugo Mendieta. Hugo Mendieta is an illegal immigrant who does a variety of jobs that Americans won’t do.
Hugo Mendieta and Stacey Mendieta produced two children: 5-year-old Jasmine Mendieta and 2-year-old Nathan Mendieta.
In February of 2008, Hugo Mendieta moved on, leaving his wife of four years with the kids in their apartment in Castle Rock, Colorado. Stacey filed for divorce a month later, in March.
Process servers couldn’t find Huge Mendieta to serve him with divorce papers, probably because, as court documents state, “Hugo Mendieta is an illegal alien who is most likely is Honduras or elsewhere in South America.” In the end, Stacey served the divorce notification by publication - meaning she put it in the newspaper.
In the meantime, Stacey Mendieta got on with her life. She moved back home with her parents and gave up the lease on her apartment. She looked around online for dates.
She found a new man who lived in Kuwait who she got along really, really well with. They got along so well, in fact, that she decided to move her family from Colorado to Kuwait after her new man proposed to her.
It’s not surprising that Stacey Mendieta was on a man-hunt. Life for a single mom can be hard, even when she has her parents around to help out. Stacey Mendieta worked full-time for Time Warner at night and slept during the day while the kids were in day care or being looked after by her parents, Ken and Pam VanHerpen. Finding a man in Kuwait must have seemed rather exotic and fun. Stacey Mendieta referenced her upcoming trip on her Myspace page, which can be found here.
In the second week of August, 2008, Eric Ruderman, who represented Stacey Mendieta in her divorce, got a court order of approval for Stacey and her children to move to Kuwait. After she was awarded sole custody of her kids, Stacey quit her job at Time Warner and started packing for her trip to Kuwait.
On the 20th of August, 2008, at 3:15 in the afternoon, Stacey Mendieta called 911 and reported that she couldn’t find her children. Police responded to the call within minutes, arriving at the affluent subdivision and finding Stacey alone in her parents’ house.
Outside, on the driveway was a red, four-door Honda Civic that belonged to Stacey.
Inside the red, four-door Honda Civic, with the doors unlocked, were Stacey’s two children.
Jasmine Mendieta, who was scheduled to enter Kindergarten in the fall of 2008, was on the floorboard in the front of the car. Nathan Mendieta was on the floor in the back of the car.
And yes, they were dead.
For a while there was a bit of a mystery as to exactly how the two children had died, but on the 29th of August, 2008, the Douglas County coroner’s office announced that they had determined that the two children died of hyperthermia.
Investigators questioned Stacey Mendieta a few times, but have yet to make any accusations of foul play. It looks, for all intents and purposes, like the two Mendieta children died in a horrible accident that seems to be all too common nowadays.
Still.
Go to a Kindergarten somewhere.
Grab a 5-year-old girl and throw her into your Honda Civic, then sit back and wait.
Good money is on the 5-year-old being able to open the door, especially if she’s in the front seats - where child safety locks aren’t installed. And once the 5-year-old is out of the car, the 2-year-old would be right behind her - or the 5-year-old could open the rear car door from the outside and defeat the child safety locks.
No charges. No charges at all.
From all reports, Stacey Mendieta was a good mother who loved her children. Why would people ever suspect Stacey of doing something…bad? How dare we broach the subject?
Is it due to a terrible cynicism about human nature? Is it because there have been a few too many deaths due to kids being left in cars this year? Is it because you’ve read People You’ll See In Hell?
Imagine, if you will, that you were a youngish, still-attractive woman who was going to go meet the man of your dreams in a foreign country after going through a divorce. Wouldn’t you feel more attractive if you didn’t have some other man’s children along with you?
Dona Alrich, who lives across the street and knew the family well told the press:
They were a beautiful caring and loving family. The children were important to all of them. They were their primary reason for living.
Isn’t it sad that we’ve gotten to the point where we have doubts about the veracity of that statement?
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I don’t buy this story at all. Period. I have a 5 year old, and she is able to lock and unlock the doors-and open the door. I don’t buy that a 2 year old and a 5 year old were stuck in an unlocked car.
More and more people are “forgetting” their kids are in the car and letting them die. Usually no charges are filed by local police. It is looked at as a tragic “accident”.
Two weeks ago a local woman “forgot” her daughter in her minivan. She also died of hyperthermia. It’s a nicer term for heat stroke.
Laws need to change to protect children from dying in a hot car because parents know they will not be charged. Until this is changed, more innocent children will die this horrible death.
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TurtleMania reply on August 31st, 2008:
I don’t know, but I’d think a 5 year old would lay on the horn and wake up the neighborhood.
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Fred reply on September 6th, 2008:
I panic when I forget my cell phone….. And I do know that, as a father, a child is more important; then again I am not her….
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Mazzi reply on September 6th, 2008:
…so how can you judge her?
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Mazzi reply on September 6th, 2008:
*grin*
Belle reply on September 13th, 2008:
That’s my stance. If she so loved her children how did she Forget about them int he first place? Was she High? Mentally Handicapped? Does her brain some how not function properly? Early onset Alzheimer’s? I don’t buy any of it at all! I can only hope the police are playing dumb in order to gather evidence, but I’ve seen enough to know that might not be the case.
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Christina reply on September 11th, 2008:
You hateful ignorant people. Do you KNOW Stacey? OMG I saw this site and I was instantly sickened. This young lady LOVED her children and was rebuilding her life when this tragic accident happened. IF you know her you would KNOW she was ecstatic about each of her pregnancies and ADORED her children. Those who have been friends with her from childhood.. had her as a roomate………..and remained close friends through her marriage, pregnancies etc.. knows this is a loving wonderful mother. Shame on you for such awful posts on someone you know nothing about. The authorities..whom were notified IMMEDIATELY fully investigated and found everything she said to be absolutely true. Stacey herself is the one asking the whys and questioning what happened. She is living a nightmare of losing her children in a freak accident every day. People like you all posting would only realize the pain if you suffer something such as this. God will judge you all for your comments and hateful hearts. I do not know a parent alive who hasn’t fallen asleep for a nap … things happen… sometimes very bad things. You all should keep your hateful comments to yourself unless YOU KNOW THE FACTS. You should be saddened that a new young family’s lives have been destroyed. The pure fact is.. there are sickos out there yes.. but not every tragic death is due to the parent commiting a crime. Shame on you all for judging something and someone..you know NOTHING about!
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Amy reply on September 11th, 2008:
We are saddened. What happened here should never have happened.
Many of us are parents and as such question how she didnt notice that the children were missing and how, in her search, she did not look in the car.
We also wonder how the children managed to get out the front door and into the car, but could not get out again.
Its not that we dont care…we care very much about these children and what happened.
We are just asking questions like everyone else, but instead of doing it over coffee with a neighbour, we do it here at PYSIH.
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Menalipa reply on September 20th, 2008:
“People like you all posting would only realize the pain if you suffer something such as this”
I would never suffer something LIKE THIS because I would never “forget” my kids in the car, period.
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Amy reply on September 21st, 2008:
Whether she killed them deliberately or not, even if this was an “accident,” its an accident that could have been avoided if she had paid attention. Her children are dead because she failed to provide sufficient care for them. I hope she does live with remorse and regret and i hope it tears her apart…anything less would not be just.
Distur8ed reply on October 18th, 2008:
betcha bitch went to Kuwait! kidfree!
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I agree with Lori. How do you lose you two year old for long enough for this to happen? At the very least, shouldn’t that be called neglect?
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the fat bitch killed
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Sounds like she thought she’d make a fresh start sans kids. Sick.
There absolutely should be charges. Even if they can’t prove she did it on purpose. I am sick of hearing about giving sympathy to parents that “misplace” their kids. How incredibly low on your priority list do the kids have to be for you to forget that they are in the car with you? I misplace my keys not my kids. Curious if any of these people have ever forgotten a gallon of milk i their cars? Probably not.
I have personally known women more than capable of ditching their kids in favor of a new man. When I left my ex, an ex-friend told me to let him have the kids because no man would want me if I already had someone else’s kids. My reaction? Well it sure as hell wasn’t lock them in a car and let them die. I said if someone wouldn’t date me because of my kids, then I wanted nothing to do with him.
Sadly, I know someone else who recently tried to give her kids up for adoption so she could get her BF back. What the hell? I just don’t follow that logic.
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Her myspace makes her seem like a pretty happy person for having just lost her kids..
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*sigh*
That’s OK, wait until Stacey darlin’ gets a load of the Muslim version of women’s rights. Sometimes my faith in Karma is the only thing that keeps me sane.
What goes around, comes around……
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Lindsay's Personal Human Toilet reply on September 1st, 2008:
There is no such thing as Karma.Easter bunny?Fake too,like Jesus.
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Max The Cat reply on September 1st, 2008:
Huh? What was that?
*laugh*
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There is definetely something fishy… however I propose that it’s still too early put all the blame on her shoulders. Remember.. they couldn’t find the kid’s dad. He may be in Honduras, or he may have been waiting in the bushes for his kids to get home, then get some revenge on mom for finding a new man. It wouldn’t be too surprising. Anyway, I think we’ve all seen our kids fall asleep in the car. Have they ever ended up on the floor as opposed to laying in the seat? I know mine haven’t. Makes this even stranger.
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Too few deaths this year? You don’t know what you are talking about. There have been 33 deaths of children left in hot cars this year. ONE IS TOO MANY!!!!
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You can purchase child monitor car seat safety products from http://www.2SAV1.com, http://www.babyalert.com, http://www.forgetmenotusa.com and http://www.carsnkids.com to name a few.
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Consider this: A 5 year old gets into an unlocked car to play “driving like Daddy”. The temperature outside is 89 degrees. After 10 minutes the temp in the car is now 108 deg. In 20 minutes the temp in the car will climb to 118 deg. The child wants out but is now overcome by heatstroke and is unable to open the door and save herself. The lesson here is LOCK YOU CAR DOORS AT ALL TIMES, EVEN AT HOME!
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Belle reply on September 13th, 2008:
They died from HYPOTHERMIA, not Heatstroke!
admin - No. Hyperthermia.
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Amy reply on September 13th, 2008:
Ok i did pick up on that at first and thought it was odd that the cause of death was hypothermia. So i got out the dictionary and looked it up. Hypothermia is ; subnormal body temperature.
Subnormal means less than normal.That indicates that they froze to death.
But you look at the picture at the top of the page and there is no snow etc. It looks like a sunny place.
Either way, i too wonder how she didnt notice they were gone.
I have five kids, and yes, there have been times when i have lay down for a nanna nap during the day. ( five kids under 7 is tiring) But i always made sure that the house was secure and they could not do any damage. It was usually a fifteen minute nap that i would set my alarm for.( 15 mins can do wonders) and all mums have an inbuilt sensor, when the kids are too quiet, something is up. The worse my kids ever did while i had a nap was pour tomato sauce into the rice bubbles. Usually they just watched The Wiggles for fifteen mins.
I just dont see how she slept so soundly and for long enough for her kids to get out the door and die in the car of hypothermia. Wouldnt it take a while for a child to either freeze or boil to death?
admin - Hyperthermia. We even gave you a link to the wikipedia entry for hyperthermia. It’s the opposite of hypothermia.
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Amy reply on September 17th, 2008:
Thankyou admin for setting me straight. I really need to wear my glasses when reading…:)
admin - That’s why we’re here.
Well Andrea, since Daddy is back in the Honduras, or wherever deadbeat Daddies go, I doubt the 5 year old was pretending to “drive like Daddy”.
I don’t get how you could lose track of two children under the age of 5 long enough for them to get outside and get in the car. She should be charged with murder, but she won’t even be charged with neglect. As another poster commented, if she isn’t charged, I hope she goes to Kuwait to live. I hear it’s really nice there for women.
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What happened to the good old days of mothers putting babies in microwaves or ovens……….
…..and least it was quick
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This case has alarm bells going off in my head. After reading Andrea’s post i agree that it doesnt take long for tradegy to strike and kids can be overwhelmed by heat very fast. At the same time i think, this was not one child in the car, it was two. When my five year old is in the car the first thing he does is blast the horn..and keeps blasting it until he is ramoved from the car or restrained in his chair. Im also wondering how a two year old managed to get out and into the car without help. The minute my front screen door slams im heading out the frontdoor calling my kids back in. Where was the mum when the kids were climbing into the car?
Kids make noise, and most parents know that when the kids are quiet they are usually into mischief. Why didnt she notice?
This needs to be investigated more thoroughly.
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Not buying this. I’ve got 4 kids. Can’t say that any of them over the age of 2 wouldn’t have been able to let themselves out.
I’d like to be able to give the benefit of some doubt, but I can’t.
Somehow this one just makes me sad.
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When I was two my mom accidentally locked me in her Civic. I was in a carseat in the back and she tapped on the window and said “Let Mommy in please.” It took me all of five minutes to get off my seatbelt (the carseat IS designed to keep kids in after all), climb to the front and pop the lock for my mom. A FIVE year old and a two year old can’t put their heads together and figure out how to open the door of an unlocked vehicle??? Yeahhhhh….I’m going to have to be a cynical bastard and be all suspicious. 0_o
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Hell, i have a 4×4 WITH child saftey locks. Im always growling at my 5 year old because he winds down the window, reaches out and opens the door from the outside instead of waiting for me to open the door for him. Now while i think he is a very clever child ( mothers are biased ) he is not a genius.
This story gives us good reason to be cynical, suspicious bastards!
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i’m not voting on this one, no idea what went on there. i can’t imagine a “loving mother” forgetting to get the kids out of the car, but if there’s so many people stating she was a loving mother, i don’t want to guess either way.
be it murder or an accident, this is a fucking tragedy!
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When I read this story, I was formulating what to say about it. And I was happy to see that my thoughts had already been covered, right from the beginning.
This woman WAS at minimum, negligent. Period. There is no other explanation for how those children were out of her sight long enough to DIE (unless she killed them deliberately).
I have no sympathy for parents who “lose” their children. It doesn’t take that much to keep little ones with you or near you at all times. A modicum of responsibility is all it takes.
I was at the Smithsonion A&S museum on Saturday and I saw a little girl alone and crying. I walked over to her and asked if she was lost and she nodded. I told her we would go to the help desk and find her parents. (I never touched her, BTW - just pointed and walked along side her as we walked). This man at the desk GRABBED her arm, and I told him DON’T TOUCH HER! and he backed off and we all walked over to security. I asked the child if she wanted me to stay with her, and she nodded.
Then the security guard told me to leave - said I couldn’t stand there blocking the desk. She told me - “we handle lost kids “umpteen times” a week”. I said “but THIS child is terrified” and I refused to move.
Finally, my family told me to move before I got arrested (no lie). and we walked out. As we were leaving a pre-recorded message when over the PA system “We have a lost child at the security area..”.
My daughter was in shock. She said she could not believe that there are so many lost kids that they have a pre-recorded message for it. I was ANGRY!
How the HELL can a parent lose their child like that? It is unbelievable! There were thousands of people milling around that museum.. HOLD YOUR KIDS HAND!! Put them in a stroller. Put them on a wrist leash. Whatever. But my God! Statistically there were probably at least a few pedophiles in that group, and possibly worse.
Sorry - it really pissed me off, and I am still angry all around. At the parent (Daddy, I think) who didn’t care enough to keep track of his kid, at the help-desk man who grabbed a lost child, and at the security guard who treated it like it was “no big deal”. I know this - it was a big deal to that little girl!
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whiteiris reply on September 3rd, 2008:
That rocks Mazzi. You kick ass for that. It is tough though. There is not much you can do to help. Like you said your family had to drag you away so you would not get in trouble. I see people abusing their kids at Wal-Mart (it’s so ghetto) all the time and you are the one that ends up looking confrontational if you try to help. I pulled that once. This lady was being really mean to her 2 yr old at Wal-Mart, I was fuming the whole time. Then she reached over and grabbed his toy and through it on the ground with force to teach him a lesson. That was the final straw. When I saw the look on his face. He wanted to cry but looked to scared to cry. I uttered to my to the person I was with “That is child abuse!” and the crazy bitch heard me. It started this riot. She ended up yelling at me. And telling me “I did not understand because I probably had a husband but hers was dead! And if I wanted her son I could take him! (that was tough).” I looked at her and said there are alot of reasons and circumstance that trigger child abuse but it is still abuse.” She started crying. It was weird I think I really got to her. Not the normal situation at Wal-Mart (just one of things I picked up on). Anyway, we walked away fast in the heat of the moment (I did not know what else to do), and lost our place in line. The other people in line were totally on my side.
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Amy reply on September 3rd, 2008:
I took my kids to Perth Zoo last year and on a trip to the toilet with the kids i overheard this mum screaming at her son that he HAD to use the toilet NOW! He was crying and telling her he could not do it so she started slapping him. This went on for the duration that we were in the bathrooms and i could not keep quiet. ( She must have smacked him about 10 times.) I called out over the top of the stall,” Gee…i wish i could shit on cue.”
You would have thought that i had called her whore or something the way she reacted.
She charged out of the stall, screaming at me and telling me i had no clue what it was like dragging a child around the zoo. I looked at my five kids and started laughing. She was so mad and her kid was crying and she started screaming at him to shut up. I told her its hard to stop crying when you have been slapped so much and screamed at.
She acted like the whole thing was her little boys fault, and told him that he was a bad boy and to look at what he had done.
It was crazy shit. They get angry because they dont like being seen for what they are. They blame the kids for their lack of self control. We need to keep confronting parents like this and calling them up when we see them being abusive. If we did, less parents would cross that line.
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whiteiris reply on September 3rd, 2008:
It is really cool to hear someone else feel the same way. I feel it is almost as if you were put there at that moment. Not thinking like a crazy vigelante just saying. Some moments are meant to happen. You get the instinct of when and when not to react. I have seen shit go down in that Wal-Mart for years and that was the only time I ever reacted. And like your crazed mom, I really got to her. Good stuff.
Julie reply on September 5th, 2008:
Good job Amy!
You should’ve pushed that bitch on the toilet, slapped her around a few times and demanded that she apologize to her kid!
but since that would’ve gotten you arrested, what you did was cool, too. ;)
Belle reply on September 13th, 2008:
While I agree with what you did I can not help but wonder about that poor little boy. If a parent does that in public imagine what she did to the poor child when they got OUT of public view…Perhaps reporting this person to security, sticking around to get her name, and reporting her to Child Custody services, or something like that would probably be more beneficial for the child. JMT.
Max The Cat reply on September 4th, 2008:
*grin* Have I told you that I love you lately Maz?
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Amy reply on September 4th, 2008:
We all love Mazz…she kicks ass.
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whiteiris reply on September 5th, 2008:
I don’t think I am cool enough to do the whole “Mazz I love you thing around here…. However I also think Mazz is pretty kick ass!!! Is it your B-Day soon? (vibe pics up it could be your B-Day) Just saying.. I drop it when it’s thought.
Amy reply on September 5th, 2008:
Oh go on whiteiris, i think your pretty cool…ok, ok, thats my ass kissing done for the week;P
Max The Cat reply on September 5th, 2008:
Sure you’re cool enough whiteiris. I’d have to say you qualify to be one of “us”. Pretty much everybody who comments regularly here is important to me and keeps me coming back to this Blog.
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Mazzi reply on September 5th, 2008:
Uhhhhhh…. thanks?
I think you guys are pretty awesome too =)
/Big PYSIH Group hug
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Mazzi, when my kids were smaller i never let them walk around in public without wearing a wrist leash. I always got dirty looks and comments because as far as some were concerned, i was walking my child, not a dog!
But you know, i never LOST my kids.
As for the pre recorded message…thats fucked up!
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Mazzi reply on September 1st, 2008:
I never lost mine either, and I didn’t use the wrist leash. I just rarely took her places that there were huge crowds (I don’t believe that is appropriate for kids) and she either held my hand or stood right beside me in shops. I would have used a leash had it been necessary, but it never was.
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Miwist reply on September 1st, 2008:
Had one we had to use the wrist leash on, we had no choice. Even then, she learned how to quietly remove it and would make a break for it.
I still believe that one of these 2 kids would have opened the door as soon as they started to get uncomfortable. I don’t know the how or the why, but mom did it.
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Liz Sanchez reply on September 2nd, 2008:
I too used a harness with a “leash” on it with my little ones. One busy Christmas at the mall, some lady had the nerve to look down her boney ass nose and sneer at me with a “how dare you treat your child like some common dog” I looked at her and politely, in a whisper, said “umm, thanks and fuck you, at least I know where my child IS and that he WILL be leaving here with ME today, not with some child molester in a van to be taken off to the mountains and killd” she looked at me with such shock, I wanted to smack her smug ass.
Anyway, I used to work at a rather large furniture store here in Colorado and one Sunday, one of our busiest, tons of people milling around, a lady came up casually to the front desk and asked for the manager very calmly. I came out and asked her what I could help her with, picture this, she is nonchalantly putting on her chapstick and as she is she says “welp, I can’t find my son” I said “okay well how old is he?” “five” she says, I said “what was he wearing?” “jeans and a green tee-shirt with a dinosaur on it.” “Okay, well where did you see him last?” as I am calling the entrances to have them locked down she says “well, he was in the car, he was napping and I didn’t want to wake him up” MY JAW HIT THE FLOOR “you left your five year old in the car asleep in a extremely busy parking lot full of strangers in the heat, are you kidding me?” she looked at me like I just stole her lunch money. I sent every available person out in the parking lot and throughout the store to look for this child AND called the police…..guess what? When they found him, which thank god they did, he wasn’t wearing anything close to what she said he was AND she had the nerve to yell at this poor baby about wandering off. I tell you right now if I was who I am today (I was 19 and a little soft spoken then) I would have taken her by the back of the neck and rammed her head into a hope chest. I say it here all the time…..ANYONE can have a child and it’s not right!!!
Mazzi reply on September 5th, 2008:
It’s kind of crazy. I was the same at 19. If I saw a kid being treated bad, even back then, it made me nutso. So how did WE have more motherly concern at those young ages than some of these women have at twice as old?
When I was about 18 or 19, I told this woman- who was like 35 with 3-4 kids, that she should not give her baby Coke in it’s baby bottle. This was back in the days when bottles were glass, and there had been a bunch of news stories about it. I was nice (I SWEAR!!!) and tactful about it, but I was really worried for the kid.
Needless to say, Mama started yelling at me, telling me to shut up and she would do whatever the fuck she wanted and who the hell was I blah blah blah. And damned if that baby didnt drop the bottle during the tirade. And damned if the bottle didn’t explode.
As much as I wanted to laugh at the bitch, I didn’t. I was really scared for the kids. The rage in this womans face was terrifying, and I was worried that they were gonna get it later.
That is a real fear. All these stories - the boy in the bathroom, the walmart wench, the selfish neglectful mom - is the kid gonna get the wrath of Mom being called out later on?
Amy reply on September 5th, 2008:
Yeah Mazzi i do worry about that too. I know when i was a kid the school rang home to ask about a bruise on my face. My dad did the whole charm thing and told them how id smacked my head on a door knob while half asleep trying to put on my slippers before i went to the bathroom….it was bullshit and all that happened was dad got a pat on the back for being father of the year and if i ever had bruises after a hiding i was kept home from school until they faded away.
So yeah, confronting someone always has its risks. But i just CANT physically stop my mouth from opening when i see a child being mistreated.
I also think it’s weird that she apparently couldn’t find her kids when they were right outside her door in the car. Come on - the thought never once occurred to her to check OUTSIDE including in the car? Just sounds incredibly wrong to me. Sorry - but not buying into her story.
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Yeah, you look at that picyure of her house. If the car was out on the driveway as reported then surely she would have walked past the car when she was searching for them. At least glanced in the window. And just because to all outward appearances she looked to be the ‘loving mother’ doesnt mean she was.
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No charges, no conviction …. no different than Casey Anthony and her string of never ending lies…..yet, Stacey Mendieta deserves a story here?
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Miwist reply on September 2nd, 2008:
Been following Casey Anthony for weeks - that one sickens me also. But in PYSIH’s defense, Casey is getting way more press than she deserves, it’s being overplayed. I don’t blame Admin for not wanting to deal with that mess.
Casey Anthony has my vote for hell, mostly for being a puke.
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How long would it take for a 5 year old kid to die from hyperthermia? I’m sure it takes more than an hour and no healthy, rambunctious 5 & 2 year old kid can sit still for a whole hour, especially in the heat!
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Amy reply on September 2nd, 2008:
Im not sure how long it would take,but my dad had a dog a long time ago that he drove everywhere with. Anyways, the car broke down one day and rather than walk the dog in the stinking heat ( the dog was rather old ) he would down a window, left a container of water in the car and made the 20 min walk home. It took another 15 mins to find a tow rope and get back to his care, and by that time the dog was dead. Now it was a big dog, a Staffy.
So i think iT really wouldnt take a kid long to be overwhelmed by heat in a closed car. They wouldnt have died right away…maybe lapsed into unconsiousness first…either way, they were in that car for a long time. And the question remains, JUST HOW LONG DID SHE LOOK FOR THEM? and HOW DID SHE NOT NOTICE THEY WERE MISSING?
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This was no accident . Bitch was hard up for a man! An illegal immigrant and a Kuwait native?? Over her kids? Gross.
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TurtleMania reply on September 3rd, 2008:
She likes it up the ass. She wants a Bukkake with many sweaty, fat bellied, hairy guys aiming to cream-pie her afterwards.
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I think if we spent a few hundred thousand dollars apiece on these fine individuals, they could be fixed and then be welcome additions to our perfect society.
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Amy reply on September 9th, 2008:
But why would we WANT to? Id rather give my $ to the victims of crimes. Obviously not the victims of THIS crime, as they are dead…but i honestly think abused and neglected kids could use the assistance more than idiots like Stacey.
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I did some research using google on this person. It seems that she really cared about her children. I don’t think she would have done it on purpose. The rest of her life, she’ll have to live with herself for her act of neglect– that is punishment enough for her. I hope she never has kids again.
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Bullcrap!
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I posted a copy of the link to this story on a dating website’s forum and an interesting question was asked by one of the readers over there:
Is Stacey still dating the guy from Kuwait?
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Stacey Mendieta faces two counts of child abuse resulting in death, according to the Douglas County District Attorney’s office.
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Amy reply on October 17th, 2008:
Anyone got more info on this?
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Max The Cat reply on October 17th, 2008:
Yeah Amy, here’s a link to the mug shot:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/photos/2008/oct/17/78598/
Here’s the story:
“Mother of kids who died in car charged with abuse
By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published October 17, 2008 at 4:53 p.m.
Updated October 17, 2008 at 4:53 p.m.
The mother of two children who died from heat exposure in a car in Castle Pines North in August was charged with child abuse today.
Stacey Mendieta, 28, is being held at Douglas County Jail on $50,000 bond, after she turned herself in today. Her next hearing date has not been set.
She is facing two counts of child abuse resulting in death. If convicted, she could face 16 to 48 years in prison.
“Parents have a legal responsibility to make sure their children are in a safe environment and appropriately supervised at all time,” said Douglas County district attorney Carol Chambers.
On Aug. 20, Mendieta’s two children, Jasmine Mendieta-Van Herpen, 5, and Nathan Mendieta, 2 were found dead in a red Honda parked in front of their Castle Pines North home.
They had been reported missing earlier by their mother.
Autopsies showed that the two children died from complications of hyperthermia, or exposure to extreme heat, from being inside the vehicle.”
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Max The Cat reply on October 17th, 2008:
Yeah, I just posted the Rocky Mountain News story, complete with mugshot. For some reason it didn’t show up in the Recent Comments.
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gee she does look rather upset. this must have been recent as well.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/17/mother-kids-who-died-car-charged-abuse/?partner=RSS
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This poor mother and family are already in HELL…..There is truely no evidence that this mother did anything wrong to harm her children on purpose,,,it was a terrible terrible accident that this mother will have to live with the rest of her life..Get over it,,,And Carole Chamber and her the District Attorney office is a bunch of ever changing newby attornies starving for this type of bureauracy this is just BS hunting for a media story…There is no Child Abuse in this case….STacey I support you anyway I can …..An Accident is Accident, and unfortunately it ended in two terrible tragedies….Get over it people, and make sure it doesn’t happen to your children, friends or neighbors.
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The Danger Zone reply on October 18th, 2008:
Nothing wrong to harm her children?
So it’s okay to lay down in the middle of the day while little ones are up running around? It’s okay to go off and do things and ignore them so they end up dead?
You come on here, touting that you support her. What the fuck gives you the right to devalue these children in such a horrid manner? Your not going to convince a single person this was an accident. This tampon applicator spends her time cruising online looking for a new guy and finds one from the middle east.
She then plans to meet up with him, move to Kuwait. But wait, we got a problem, he only wants this cunt lesion if she doesn’t have kids. Don’t even try to tell me he would take these kids. If you think that then you know nothing of the customs over there.
So, just before she’s set to leave the kids end up dead. Now you want to tell us the 5 & Dime Sperm Bank had nothing to do with it. These kids are dead because she killed them. Plain and simple.
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Chances are pretty good , the best she will get is probation of some kind. Colorado has tried quite a few simular cases , were most of them, the parent / baby sitter accually left the child in the car. Yvonne Mabry, the childs grandmother, she was drunk and high on pain killers. She got five years of probation.
Diana Maria Rodriguez was given probation after she pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the death of her son, Jovan Rodriguez, a 13-month-old boy, who died after being left locked in a car for eight hours while his mother worked at McDonald’s.
These are all clear cut and dry cases of child neglect, Its going to be a hell of allot harder to go after Stacey Mendieta.
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The Danger Zone reply on October 18th, 2008:
It’s time Colorado grows some balls and deals with this. Nothing like the present to bring back the Arkansas Fence Post.
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Max The Cat reply on October 18th, 2008:
Yeah, that’s what I figure too. There’s been just way too much public outcry for LE to ignore it. Probation seems the logical outcome, even though it wouldn’t be my first choice. I think some jail time is in order.
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Lemme see. A 5 year old and a 2 year old? well i have a 4 year old and a 2 year, close enough, so let me say what would happen in this situation here. Even if they were in their car seats, the 4 year old can and will unlock her car seat, free the 2 year old from that torture device we call a car seat, get into the front seat with the 2 year old in tow and while she was busy turning on the headlights, the four year old would be laying on the horn to the tune of happy birthday to you. Not to mention switching on the radio, interior light, moving the seat AND checking for old french fries all in the time it takes me to RUN to the house to unlock the door in the rain….. im not judging anyone…. i’m just sayin’
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