Melissa Alexander, a 26-year-old from Toronto, Canada, had a perfectly beautiful little boy, Miguel Fernandes. Beautiful… with big dark eyes and thick curly hair. Miguel Fernandes lived to the ripe age of 19 months when Melissa Alexander had a bad day in September, 2007.

I don’t know how it happened, if she was distracted, not paying attention, or was mad and murderous, but Melissa Alexander plopped little Miguel into scalding hot water. She left him in that water for up to 10 seconds.

For those who don’t know, tap water at 140°F ( 60°C) can cause a full-thickness burn in 5 seconds. That means that every layer of his scalded skin was burnt through. And Miguel was in that watery hell for 10 seconds before he was pulled out.

Miguel’s hell was just beginning.

The poor little baby suffered (and I mean suffered) serious burns to 40% of his little body, from his little toes to his shoulders.

Scalding causes blistering of course, and swelling, and then the skin splits. The agony little Miguel must have felt I cannot imagine!

And what did the uterus-owner Melissa Alexander do? Did she take him across the street to the walk-in clinic? Nope. Did she take him to a hospital for treatment? Nope. Did she call for an ambulance? Nope, none of these things.

What Melissa Alexander did was apply some ointment, wrap his wounds in gauze, and then dress him in a sleeper! All of those actions must surely have increased Miguel’s agonizing pain as his skin bubbled and split.

And then this incredibly selfish, soulless creature LEFT THE HOUSE! She left her mortally injured baby Miguel with his 29-month-old brother Shawn home alone! So she could do what? Go shopping!

Melissa Alexander probably had a lovely relaxing trip to the stores. She bought gloves, some CDs and some food. And finally she returned home.

Miguel’s father Sergio, who had been at work, came home and was very concerned when told of the “accident.” He wanted to check the injuries but Melissa Alexander told him not to wake the baby.

It wasn’t until 2 a.m., about 12 whole hours after she scalded her baby, that Melissa Alexander finally called 911. Baby Miguel was, by then, needlessly and irrevocably dead.

The autopsy photos of that poor little boy show the third degree “immersion burns” he’d suffered were so frightfully horrid that the first layer of skin on his back side was scalded off from below his shoulders all the way to include the soles of his feet. On his front, his burned skin had peeled right away from his pelvis down to his toes.

“Human skin was located in both the kitchen garbage can and bathroom garbage can – it was tested and was found to be Miguel’s,” Crown attorney Barry Stagg said. “A child sustaining this type of injury would scream and yell and fuss and kick…these burns would have been extremely painful.”

In October, Melissa Alexander was found guilty of manslaughter.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy wrote in her decision, “It is difficult to comprehend how any human being could fail to get help for that poor child.” That is exactly why I consider Melissa Alexander more of a hellbeast than a human being.

Justice Molloy continued, “It is impossible to fathom the depths of self-interest that would permit a mother to betray her own tiny, vulnerable and utterly dependent child in this matter.”

I know I cannot fathom it.

Melissa Alexander’s lawyer, Catherine Currie, asked for a sentence of 18 to 24 months. Miguel’s death was, after all, a “horrible accident” that her client thought she could treat herself.

Really? It was just a “horrible accident” that Melissa Alexander neglected to even cross the street to get her injured baby medical care?

In a note she sent to Justice Anne Molloy, this hell bitch said she was “so overwhelmed and stressed out” and that she thought she could heal her son’s wounds herself.

“To your honour I will do my time whatever you give me and I’m just letting everyone know how truly [I] am sorry for everything that I have done…my stubbornness, carelessness and pride got my lovely son gone from me and this I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” she wrote.

Justice Molloy read this note and after considering she concluded it was proof that Melissa Alexander was consumed with her own “self-absorption and self-interest.” Justice Molloy also had doubts that this creature could be rehabilitated.

“Melissa Alexander shows no remorse,” wrote Justice Molloy. “Her sorrow is only for what she personally has lost. She remains focused only on her own suffering and continues to see her crime… as an “incident” that “happened” to her.”

So Justice Molloy handed this hell bitch female Melissa Alexander an 11-year sentence in prison for her “shocking” indifference to a “literally horrific” crime.

Hopefully Melissa Alexander, hellbeast creature that she is, will spend every day of that sentence in prison. No shopping for her, not for a long time! That probably bothers her far more than the memory of her dying baby boy.

Rot in pieces, Melissa Alexander. And I pray that nobody impregnates you ever again.

Sometimes we can all find ourselves guilty of doing things in the wrong order. Some days we put the cart before the horse. We stop at the grocery store before we go to the bank, and by the time we get to the bank, it’s already closed. Happens to the best of us. These minor errors in judgment don’t make us bad people. They may make us feel like idiots for a minute or two, but we move on.

These two beautiful people are Brian and Shannon Gore. I assumed that they are married, but since a good deal of their facial features appear to be similar then I didn’t assume that there was a name change required after the marriage.

Shannon and Brian hooked up sometime around 2003. Brian, being the thriving entrepreneur that he is, was living in his car at the time. He was 21. Shannon was living at home with her parents, which isn’t that surprising, since that is where most 16 year olds live. Shannon’s parents were fine with this fact though, as proven by the fact that they not only let Brian move in with them, but then gave them a fancy trailer to live in, absolutely free. According to Shannon’s mother, she thought “they were friends and roommates, but nothing more”.

On the 4th of November, 2004, Shannon gave birth to a daughter. In the trailer. With Brian. And no one else. Or at least I assume no one else was there since no one had ever heard of or remembered seeing the girl until 2011. No birth records. No pictures. Nada.

So, why the secrecy? According to Shannon’s mother, “She was 17, and he was five years older. It was young love, and she was trying to protect him from a possible statutory rape charge.”

Sounds so simple. Turning your child into a lie of omission to protect the man you love. I wish that was the end of the story.

On the 3rd of August, 2007, the lovely couple welcomed another bundle of joy into the world. This time, a baby boy. That was about the only difference from the first birth. The baby was born in the same trailer. No one else was there. No pictures. No birth records. Nada.

So, why the secrecy this time? Once again, Karen’s mother came to the rescue. She implied that it was likely because they weren’t married when the baby boy was conceived. The family continued to live in secrecy for another 7 months. The only four people who knew there were 4 people living in that trailer were… well, the four people living in that trailer.

In late 2007, according to court documents, the baby boy decided he’d had enough secrecy and stopped breathing. “What to do?,” thought the couple, “We’d better call 911!” No, I’m kidding. That would have exposed their secrets and lies. They did exactly what you’d expect anyone featured on this site to do. They did nothing and let their child die.

According to her mother, Shannon was so hurt over this that she sat in a chair and rocked the corpse for two to three days. Brian finally found his nerve and two active brain cells and realized they needed to get rid of the body. He took the baby boy outside, and buried him in the ground… a full 10 feet from where he and Shannon slept. Again, I wish this was the end to a sad story.

On January 24th, 2009, Brian and Shannon got married. On March 23rd, 2011 Shannon gave birth to their THIRD child or FIRST child depending on who you asked. Another baby boy. This one was creepily named after the first one who died. They were over-joyed. This baby was born in a hospital. This baby had birth records. This baby was perfect in every possible “in-the-right-order” way.

If there is one thing parents know about having children, it is that they are expensive. Especially if you have one kid you’re hiding from the whole world, another kid buried in the back yard, and a third kid that you believe makes your life complete. Okay, ALL parents probably don’t know that. But the Gores did, and they believed that this new baby should be spoiled and if you plan to spoil a child and you’re living in a free trailer, chances are you’re going to have to do more than simply run to the ATM.

On April 17th, 2011 police responded to a robbery at a nearby home. The police report indicates that gold bullion, a vacuum cleaner, a passport, $2,000 in cash and other items had been stolen. Police traced the gold to a pawn shop, where they found out it had been sold by Shannon Gore.

Eleven days later police arrived at the trailer to serve a search warrant in connection with the robbery. Their discovery went far beyond a robbery investigation.

Gloucester Sheriff’s Maj. Darrell Warren:

“I’ve done this for 20 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

“It was horrific. I don’t know what else to say,” said Lt. Scott Little of the Sheriff’s Department.

Locked in a crib which had been converted into a cage they found the 6 year old daughter. She sat in the cage wearing a T-Shirt and a diaper. She was covered in her own feces. Her blonde hair matted to her head and in a tangle of knots. Cops concluded from the condition of her frail form that the child was eating her own skin. I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in and try to distract you away from it at the same time. I prefer to think about kittens, instead of a little starving girl eating her own flesh in an attempt to survive.

Her death was right around the corner, likely within the next week according to doctors, had she not been saved that day. That was her parent’s plan all along now that they had the perfect little family. They intended to starve her to death, dump the body and pretend that their two little lies of omission never existed.

Brian Gore claims she’d been locked in the cage around the start of summer 2010, which if you can do math means it was just about the time that these two monsters found out they were expecting. Sometimes they would feed her Pop-Tarts, because they felt guilty or to ensure that her death was as long and drawn out as possible. I don’t know which.

Brian later admitted to the police where they could find the body of their second child. They have both been arrested and charged with multiple charges including child abuse and first degree murder. They’re both expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. But this wasn’t insanity. This was a cold, calculated plan, and they nearly got away with it. These two are due in court on 8/2/2011.

This is typically the part of the story where the writer passes judgment and adds some wonderfully horrific punishment that they would like to see these two face. I’ll leave that for the comments. Right now, I don’t feel anything but sadness.

Not a damn thing.

This Story Was Written and Submitted By Mike. Mike claims he doesn’t like to do this sort of thing because he’s not a very talented writer. You could have fooled me Mike….

Imagine being stuck outside for 4 hours on a day where the temperature reaches 97. Now imagine being stuck inside a van on a day the outside temperature reaches 97. No air, no water and no one to hear you cry. This is exactly what Bryan Nevins of Bucks County Pennsylvania experienced.

Bryan Nevins was severely autistic and at 20 years old had the mental capacity of a two year old. He could walk and say a few words. He could say “Pizza” “Pasta” and “Cookie”. He loved riding in cars and walking in the woods.

Bryan and his brother Billy (who is also autistic) were staying at “Woods Services” which is a residential facility for adults and children with special needs. On the day Bryan died the plan was to take Bryan, along with three other residents to Sesame Place for the day. Stacey Strauss, 41 and Gerald Douglas were the counselors taking the group to the park that day, but Strauss was personally assigned to look after Bryan.

The trip was cut short because Bryan got upset and tried to bite himself and another resident. Now I am no expert on autistic children or adults but from what I have read most people with autism do not like crowds or loud noises, both of which will be found at Sesame Place so I am not sure why that was the chosen location for this outing.

After leaving the park Strauss and Douglass stopped at McDonald’s to get some food for everyone and then returned to Woods. After dropping Douglass and two of the residents off at one building Strauss claims she parked the van between 1:30 and 2pm and “everyone” got out.

Well, not quite everyone. Apparently Bryan Nevins did not get out and with child safety locks on the doors he was not able to get himself out.

Strauss hung out in the parking lot talking to her boyfriend on her cell phone. She spent 44 minutes on the phone walking around the van while Bryan was sitting in the hot car baking to death. Personal cell phone use is prohibited at Woods Services, but cell phone records show Strauss received or place 34 phone calls and 71 text messages that day.

As a matter of fact, those 34 cell phone calls that Stacey Strauss made ate up 3 hours of her 8 hour shift. Think about that. Strauss spent almost half of the time she was supposed to be doing her job NOT doing it. The longest call, lasting 44 minutes, occurred during the critical first hour that Bryan Nevins sat helpless in the van.

Dying.

At 3pm when her shift was over, Strauss went home and probably turned on her air conditioner and relaxed while Bryan died. Another counselor coming in for the 3-11 shift was told Bryan had not returned from the trip yet. When a nurse came in to give out the medications for the day he asked the counselor assigned to Bryan’s building where Bryan was, and finally it dawned on the counselor that Bryan should have been back by then.

When Strauss received a phone call asking where Bryan is she lied and said that he got out with Douglass around 12:30. Actually her response was:

“I didn’t leave any [expletive] kid in the car!”

Douglass soon joined the search for Bryan and looked in the van at around 5:45pm and found Bryan dead.

After Bryan’s death his mother, Diane Nevins had this to say about her son:

“He was a sweet little boy. He was very, very loving. People don’t think autistic kids are loving, but he really was.”

I can not even imagine how Diane felt upon learning that her sweet baby boy was dead all because of a selfish bitch who cared more about talking to her boyfriend then the care and safety or a person completely dependent on her.

Stacey Strauss plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of neglecting a care-dependent person, involuntary manslaughter, and recklessly endangering another person but continuously claimed that she was not assigned to care for Bryan despite witnesses who saw her being assigned to him. Luckily Judge Albert J. Cepparulo saw what a cold hearted bitch Strauss really is and said this before sentencing her:

“Frankly, Ms. Strauss, I don’t believe I’ve heard . . . a less remorseful statement from someone about to be sentenced.”

Judge Cepparulo also rejected 2 of Stacey Strauss’ guilty pleas and changed them to “no contest” due to her refusal to accept responsibility and her repeated claims that she carefully checked the inside of the van to make sure everyone had gotten off.

But Strauss’ attorneys, Gregory Pagano and Robert Lynch, get the prize for the lamest reason why it isn’t Stacey’s fault. Lynch refused to concede that Strauss made any calls or sent any texts on duty July 24:

“Phone records can show many things. They don’t show who actually made the calls.”

Lynch also blamed blamed Brian’s death on “a systemwide failure” shared by all Woods workers that day.

If you say so Bob, but since all the Woods workers weren’t the last person to leave the van, and weren’t assigned the responsibility of keeping Brian Nevins safe, I’m having a difficult time following your logic.

Stacey Strauss was sentenced to 2 to 5 years, six months short of the maximum sentence. I wish she could be put away for life but seeing as how she does not seem to have remorse for her actions I don’t doubt that we will be seeing her again on this website.

Strauss not only hurt Bryan that day, she hurt everyone who loved Bryan, including his twin brother Billy. Billy cried a lot after Bryan died and asked for him constantly. Bryan’s parents had to find a way to tell Billy, who has the mental capacity of a five year old, that his best friend and brother had died. According to his mom:

“Billy cries for Bryan and asks for him all the time. Billy’s psychiatrist says he is grieving and he cannot help him get past it, nor does he know if he will ever get past it.”

This Story Was Written And Submitted By Sublime12926

Now everyone I tell this to asks me why I would ever get a rat as a pet and I tell them how I was at the pet store getting cat food and was looking at the small animals when I heard a man, who was buying a large reptile cage, talking to an employee of the store about the feeder rodents they have.

The employee said they have one more baby rat, and as soon as he said that I went to the other employee in that section and said I wanted to buy the baby rat. I ended up liking him so much I got another one! The point of that story is that I didn’t want a rat at the time but I couldn’t let him get killed.

Now let’s talk about Kisha Curtis of Newark, New Jersey (Click Here for a peek at her FaceBook page). If Kisha was in my shoes at the pet store that day she probably would have smiled while hearing that an animal will be taken home to be killed.

You see, Kisha was given a beautiful one year old pit bull. She decided that she didn’t want to take care of the dog so instead of giving the dog to a shelter she threw him down the garbage shoot in her apartment building and went on a little vacation for a week.

Yes, that’s right. The poor little doggy was wasting away in that trash chute while Kisha was out of state without a care in the world.

A week later, on March 16th 2011, the dog was found in that trash chute – dehydrated, emaciated and unable to walk. He was covered in sores and he was basically knocking on death’s door.

When he was brought into the animal hospital he weighed 20 lbs (about 30 lbs. under what he should have weighed). No one thought he would survive, but instead of putting him down, they decided to gave him a chance at life. And by the Grace of God, and a lot of doggy luck, the pup made it.

They hospital named him Patrick because he was found the day before St. Patrick’s Day and because of his red hair. There is a picture online of Patrick right after he was found but it is very disturbing so I’m not including it in this post but if you want to see how bad he looked when first found just Google “Patrick the pit bull” and click images and you will see.

I, however, believe that the only way to convey a victim’s suffering to the reader is to be as graphic as possible, without becoming obscenely so. For that reason, I chose to include a picture of Patrick the moment he was brought into the emergency veterinary hospital.

-editor

Patrick is a fighter. He took that second chance at life and ran with it. He is getting stronger every day and there have been thousands of requests to adopt him The staff caring for Patrick say he is a sweetheart and very trusting despite how horribly he was treated by people in the past.

As for Kisha, she was charged with four counts of animal abuse and faces a whopping six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or community service. That makes me sick to my stomach, and I can’t help but wishing we could tie her to a fence with a sign next to her reading “don’t feed the animal abuser!” until SHE wastes away.

Editor’s Notes: There’s been some positive news to come out of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On March 30th, 2011, the charges against Kisha Curtis were upgraded to “torturing and tormenting a living creature”. If I understand it correctly, this is a fourth degree felony in the State of New Jersey, punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a $3000 fine.

This Story Was Written and Submitted By Sublime12926, Another One Of Our Readers Making Her First Foray Into Creative Writing.

I wouldn’t imagine Jessica Blackham is very happy at all considering she can possibly spend the next 30 years of her life rotting in jail (she’s 25 now, do the math). Can you imagine a woman in her 20s being very happy that she may spend her last young years in the slammer?

What for, you probably wonder? Well, it depends on who you ask. If you ask Jessica Blackham herself, she’ll claim she has no idea and doesn’t remember.

Yeah, Jessica Blackham is one of THOSE criminals.

On Friday night, February 5, 2011, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bally Circus was being held at the Bi-Lo Center in downtown Greenville, SC. It was rather late, around 11:30 p.m., when the cleaning crew for the center entered one of the women’s restrooms to begin cleanup.

One of the crew members heard whimpering from the stall at the end of the bathroom. Inside the stall, Eder Serrano and Marco Calle found bloody paper towels strewn about. When they looked in the toilet they found a placenta, and umbilical cord and 6 pound baby boy at the end of it, no more than 2 hours old.

Luckily the baby’s head was resting on the rim of the toilet. Eder Serrano called 911 and the operator on the other end coached him on what to do to save the newborn until paramedics arrived.

Dispatcher: EMS fire, what’s the address of the emergency?

Caller: We found a newborn baby in a toilet. Can you please send an ambulance or something?

Dispatcher: Is the baby breathing?

Caller: It’s breathing. It’s newborn. My supervisor take it off from the toilet already. We tried to clean the nose, but not much, we don’t anything about it. You know?

Dispatcher: Do you have a blanket or anything like that on the baby?

Caller: We put a blanket already on the top

Dispatcher: OK. Make sure you keep the baby warm.

Dispatcher: Just make sure that they can gently wipe off the baby’s mouth and nose. Dry the baby off with a clean towel, OK, or a cloth. Just keep the baby wrapped in a clean, dry cloth or towel.

Caller: OK. We’re doing that right now.

Dispatcher: Make sure that you cover the baby’s head, but not its face, OK.

Marco Calle whispered “vas a estar bien, bebe” (you’re going to be OK, baby) as he used his finger to wipe some mucus from boy’s mouth.

The infant was taken to a hospital where his condition was critical.

Fast forward a few days later. It didn’t take officials very long to find the mother of the abandoned baby boy, even though it’s estimated that about 10,000 people were at the circus.

Police were somehow led to Jessica Blackham, who is married and already has a four-year-old child. She was arrested and faces jail time for one count of felony child abuse and one count of unlawful neglect toward a child.

If convicted on BOTH counts, Jessica Blackham could face up to 30 years in prison – FAR TOO SHORT of a time if you ask me. I’m honestly baffled as to why she’s not being charged with attempted murder because, well, what are the chances of a newborn baby surviving in a fucking toilet?

Anyone with common sense knows the chances are very slim, and it was only by the grace of God that this child survived those grueling hours in freezing toilet water. Of course, the infant was found to have hypothermia, a condition which is extremely dangerous for newborns.

Unfortunately, Jessica Blackham won’t be waiting in jail until her trial begins because Mommy, Anita McAuliffe, came up with $30,000 to bail her daughter out of jail. Wait, it gets worse; she explained to the judge that her daughter had no symptoms or knowledge of pregnancy in addition to- ready for this?- AMNESIA!

It’s okay everyone, relax! CLEARLY Jessica Blackham is not at fault because she got amnesia conveniently during and after giving birth in a public restroom and leaving her newborn son to die in a toilet. It’s not her fault!

What a downright abomination to think for a single second that the woman who birthed and abandoned this baby is responsible! How dare anyone spread such cruel slander!

Jessica Blackheart, oops, I mean, Blackham said nothing as mommy dearest held her close and rambled some bullshit to the judge about how poor Jessica felt ill during the circus performance and went to the bathroom.

SPOILER ALERT: This is where the amnesia part comes in.

Poor Jessie doesn’t remember her unusually long and painful bathroom break during which she birthed a healthy 6 pound, some-odd ounce baby boy WITHOUT an epidural or any pain meds. Mom says:

“She had amnesia, couldn’t remember what happened. She went there (to the hospital) of her own accord because she knew she was bleeding and something was wrong,”

Apparently Jessica Blackham can’t recall any of the bathroom break; not the horrendous contractions, not the pushing, not the feeling of her vagina slightly tearing as a full-term baby came out, and not even the cries and whimpers of a newborn baby as he was cruelly left in cold, dirty toilet water, wondering why his mommy wasn’t holding and comforting him. Nope, Jessica is the victim here and didn’t even KNOW she was pregnant!

Anita the Hun also claims that Jennifer showed no signs of being pregnant, going so far as to tell the judge:

“She’s had periods. There’s been no sign whatsoever of her pregnancy,”

Well, that’s not exactly true, it seems, even though her and her mommy vehemently deny claims of any other explanation. A man, Jason Jones, has come forward saying he believes he is the father of the baby boy. He also said that according to Jessica Blackham’s wall posts made on her Facebook page, she knew she was pregnant as she publicly posted about morning sickness and headaches (common side effects of, you guessed it, pregnancy!).

Whoops! And that “I didn’t know I was pregnant” thing was working out SO well for you and your mother, huh Jess? Damn today’s popular trend of posting about every private aspect of one’s life!

Thomas Blackham, who separated from his wife, 24-year-old Jessica Blackman last May, said that he thinks something is “mentally wrong” with her.

Blackham said he doesn’t believe that his wife was unaware she was pregnant. He also doesn’t believe her claim that she blacked out and had amnesia during the baby’s birth.

“She’s been pulling this crap for years.”

Jason Jones has said he wants a paternity test to prove he is the father. The baby boy, currently still named John Doe, is with a foster family as he recovers. I somehow don’t think Maury Povich will welcome Jessica Blackham on his show via Skype from jail for a free DNA test, do you?

On a positive note, the cleaning crew members who saved the baby’s life, Eder Serrano and Marco Calle, are anxious to finally see the baby as soon as possible. At least some human beings still have some decency in this world.

Now, for personal ranting. What fucking prick judge would even ALLOW a bail to be set for this worthless piece of trash?! And what the hell is her mother thinking? I understand this is her daughter but Christ! She fucking left her baby (YOUR GRANDSON, Anita McAuliffe!) for DEAD in a toilet! How can anyone stand by her?

And to keep up the charade of, “I didn’t even know she was pregnant and I’m her mother! Jessica Blackham didn’t look pregnant, she didn’t act pregnant. And we already told you, she doesn’t remember her baby-birthing bathroom break.” I also can’t, for the life of me, understand why this is not an attempted murder charge and why this bitch won’t be able to rot in prison for the rest of her life.

Seriously, what did Jessica Blackham THINK would happen to a defenseless newborn baby after she leaves it in a toilet right after birth? Oh, that’s right, she “doesn’t remember”!

This Story Was Written and Submitted By Our Good Friend Leasha – Thanks For a Great Story.

Editor’s Notes: The Blackham family is a class act, let me tell you. Check out this raw video from a local TV news crew as they tried to get some footage When Jessica Blackham was arrested.

Wow! Doesn’t it make you want to believe everything they have to say? Is that banjos I’m hearing in the background?

You might be a redneck if…..

Perhaps stemming from the grievances their mother and I were subjected to when we were children makes us a little overly cautious with these two. But I’d rather be overly cautious now than sad and sorry later. So we are careful. We watch them constantly, who their friends are and who those friends’ parents are. They don’t go with anyone we don’t trust implicitly, and there are few that fall into that category.

Through my readings on this site and many others, I have come to realize that we are becoming more of the minorities in the parent/guardian department. Too many parents don’t pay attention to who their kids are hanging out with, where they are going and what they are doing. The parents neglect their children’s academic work and extracurricular activities.

And then, every once in a while, you get a parent that actively participates in the abuse of their child at the hands of their so called boyfriends, step-fathers, or live in penis.

That is where this story picks up. Mrs. Jessica Thompson is a fairly young mother to 4 fairly young girls ranging in age from 6 to 10 years old. She is married to a Mr. Gary Thompson, who at 41 is 12 years her senior. This happy couple was wed back in 2007, and surprise, the abuse started quickly after and lasted for almost two years.

For two years that waste of breath, so called mother, allowed her ‘husband’ to abuse her children. He repeatedly raped and sexually abused the two older girls and forced them to watch pornographic movies and view pornographic images on his computes. He beat the two younger girls on an almost daily basis with a hickory switch. Quite often he would make them take down their pants and panties so he could beat their bare skin until it was red and in some instances bleeding.

Now you may ask where their mother was. Was she at work while this was happening? Perhaps at the grocery store or visiting with friends? The answer to that question is simply, she was right there watching.

For two years this complete waste of life sat by and watched this disgusting excuse for a human being repeatedly rape, beat and other wise torture her four young, innocent little girls. Not once did she lift a finger to fend him off. Not one time did she tell him to stop and never once did she attempt to leave with her children to find shelter and a safe haven.

In fact, more often than not, Jessica was an eye witness to the torture. And her excuse is that she was a victim herself. Reportedly, the children confirmed that their mother was subject to beatings and often choked by the man she called her husband.

I don’t have any problem believing that she suffered at the hands of this overgrown monster. What I can not comprehend is her failure to do anything about it.

How could she possibly cohabitate with a man who not only beat her, but raped and tortured her girls? How does the instinct to protect your children get so suppressed that you not only let it happen but stand by and watch?

I don’t care if he was holding a knife to her throat, there is no excuse good enough. I would gladly put myself in harms way to protect my niece and nephew, and for that matter, any other child that needed it.

According to the Greenville county Sheriff’s office Gary Thompson was arrested and charged last week after an investigation revealed his horrifying hobbies. Low and behold, it turns out that Gary has a previous record, including prior sexual misconduct charges stemming from incidents in 1993 and 1998. Sounds like husband material to me.

He is being charged with three counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct with a child younger than 11, four counts of unlawful neglect of a child, and two counts of disseminating obscene material to a minor younger than 12. He is being held without bail. As for Jessica, she was also arrested and is being charged with four counts of unlawful neglect of a child. Her bond is set at $40,000. The children are in the custody and care of family members at this time.

I hate, no detest, men like Gary Thompson. He deserves every bit of whatever it is they do to a baby rapist in prison. Not a tear will be shed if someone accidentally plants a shiv in his heart. But there is a special place in hell for women like Jessica Thompson, who actively offer up their children to these animals like snacks at a party.

She took these 4 beautiful, innocent little girls and moved them into a nightmare that has scarred them for life. She deserves the most despicable, horrible punishment anyone can come up with, and even then it might not be enough.

Hopefully one day and with lots of therapy these girls can grow to be well adjusted adults who don’t cringe every time someone gets close to them. That will be a long and painful road and they will forever be in my prayers.

Editor’s Notes: This story was written and submitted by Sonomal, another new addition to the PYSIH writing staff. I must have done something really right recently, because I’ve had several people volunteer to write for the site over the past month, especially over the past two weeks. Sonomal is a great example of what our new writers are all about – She’s surprisingly talented, dedicated to our mission and eager to help keep PYSIH up and running.

Also, this was a very local story – in fact, I found hardly a mention of it outside of South Carolina. Because of that, I was unable to find any video, and the only photographs available were the mugshots of Gary and Jessica Thompson. Fortunately, the story is so well written that it doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles to keep it interesting.

I’m quite pleased that Sonomal chose to write up this pair of sexual deviants. Before today, the story of what Gary Thompson did to Jessica Thompson’s little children with her knowledge and approval would have remained just a local story. Now people all over the world will get to read about this pair of degenerate parents.

When two people take their marriage vows, the traditional promises are “for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.” These days, the promises are kept half the time. Still, most people have love for one another, at least in the beginning, and it is in these “long married” couples one expects to see embodiment of the marital vows.

If one partner hits the financial skids, then the other is likely to stick around and try to help him or her get back to financial solvency. If one partner gets sick, then again, one expects that the healthy partner will stay by the side of the ailing spouse and nurse him or her back to heath.

It is evident from his actions that Darrel White must have skipped the part of the learning module that dealt with what the marriage vows mean.

According to retired foundry worker Darrel White’s stalwart friend, Troy Drennan, we know that Jorene and Darrel White had been happily married for 34 years. She and Darrel have two sons, Brian and Andrew, who are still living at home, and the boys are now in their early thirties.

Darrel White and his bride, Jorene, were living a comfortable existence at 4420 Plainville Road in Madisonville, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. The single family dwelling must have been mighty cosey, what with so many people living there. In addition to the couple, and sons Brian and Andrew, the house was also a home to Darrel’s 61-year-old brother, Leonard.

This property has five rooms, two bedrooms, over 1200 square feet, and a disability ramp on the front porch, a nice little rental unit and the Whites were long-term tenants. Their lives were running smoothly until Jorene White developed arthritis. Arthritis is one thoroughly debilitating affliction, especially severe forms which entail coping with chronic pain. In this respect, crippling arthritis does just that – it cripples the body and sometimes the soul.

In 2003, Jorene White had an attack of just this type of arthritis. It ended up with her in the care of the medical professionals at Drake Hospital. When she was discharged, the doctors at Drake instructed Darrel that Jorene would need follow-up care and assumed that her husband, Darrel White, would make the appropriate arrangements for her.

Despite Jorene White’s aversion to staying in the hospital, and it was the notion of staying at the hospital for full-time care that she minded, it is unlikely visiting the doctor’s office or using medication and/or rehabilitation therapy was included in her notion. There was never a statement made by Jorene where she said she did not want to have a physician check her state of health or prescribe medications to alleviate the pain or perhaps just help with the bed sores that she developed – the ones that wouldn’t heal.

Hospitals look to return people to independent living in every case where it is possible. Many arthritis sufferers do live quite well on their own. Their arthritis is dealt with through various treatment options involving medication and rehabilitation therapies. The doctors at Drake were as blunt as they could be about Jorene White’s arthritis. She needed followup treatment, medication, testing and perhaps even rehabilitation to accommodate the restrictions she would face with her arthritis.

Who knows what was said in order to remove Jorene from the hospital, but it was done and Jorene White was taken home by Darrel. The woman, a bed-ridden victim of severe crippling arthritis, was back in the family home and her bed was set up in the living room. Jorene was put to bed and there she stayed. For seven years. With a sheet pulled up to her neck. Day after day, week in and week out, month after month, from 2003 to 2010.

Apparently, Jorene White had no friends who visited nor any family relations other than her two adult sons, Andrew and Brian White, her brother-in-law, Leonard, and, of course, her husband, Darrel. Men do not naturally find the role of caregiver an easy one to adopt, and so, Darrel White, legally responsible for Jorene’s care, was left to fulfill this duty to the best of his ability. The two sons apparently did not bother helping out and they later told the officers that their father kept their mother completely covered with a sheet, so they didn’t know she was sick, or that she had bed sores that wouldn’t heal, or had any idea she was covered with maggots feasting on her flesh whilst she was still alive.

*:puke:*

Now, I remember reading a while ago the non-fiction recollections of a CSI-type and her various escapades in dealing with crime scenes and dead bodies. One story which sticks out involved the call answered to an old gentleman’s home. He hadn’t been seen in the area for weeks, and finally someone put in a call to the local police to do a welfare check. The man had died of natural causes inside his home, but no one knew. By the time they discovered him, he was already in the stage of decomposition where the maggots had been fairly active.

The crime team was drawn to the back bedroom where his remains were by the SOUND of the very active little critters. The author said that it was her first experience with the sound of maggots consuming flesh and that it initially bothered her. She talked of the very distinctive sound, almost a popping and humming type of noise. Having seen maggots at work on farm animals, it can be a squeamish undertaking to consider a human body being reduced to the bare necessities by nature.

Having said that, one can imagine the sound involved. You have to wonder, then, why the White family claimed to have zero knowledge that dear old Mom was covered with these maggots happily munching away on her flesh. As if there isn’t enough involved to make one sick, there have been those scientific types who have pointed out that the maggots may have actually extended Jorene White’s life as they would be destroying the rotten flesh. It was noted that the flies burrowed into her wounds, laid their eggs there, and the larvae actually hatched and ate their way out.

Apparently, there are two types of insects here, and maggots are not strict in their adherence to which form of human flesh they will eat: healthy versus rotted flesh. It is a case of being raised on necrotic flesh that makes the medical maggots we hear about the workers of choice. And there have been those weighing in on just what Jorene White would or would not have been feeling. The consensus: she would have definitely felt the activity of the maggots. Jorene also would have smelled, the odor of her own flesh, rotting away, a strong and unpleasant stench.

*:puke:puke:*

Jorene White’s final cause of death? Sepsis, blood poisoning. The massive bed sores had turned septic and her blood was poisoned as a result. The authorities found that the maggots had been eating her while she was still alive, and that the flies found on and in her had also feasted on her.

Darrel White? Well, Darrel’s claim is that because Jorene vowed never to go back to the hospital, he never bothered to see that she was cared for. That’s right. This man let his severely disabled wife rot to death and in the end, Darrel blamed her for it.

The clearest indication that Jorene White was not being sufficiently cared for at home are the bed sores. The sheer number and size of the bed sores were tremendous. Jorene reached the state she did because she had to rely solely on her husband for her care, and Darrel White was obviously not able to step up to the plate. Jorene was at home and legally Darrel was supposed to look after her. So recognizing that someone had to care for his wife, or should be, what did Darrel do? Nothing. Jack shit. Nada. Buttkiss. Darrel let her die slowly right there in the family home, little by little, day after day.

Authorities were notified of Jorene White’s exit from this earthly plane via a telephone call which was placed to 911 on July 23, 2010. Officers arrived and entered the home. Quickly exiting the home, the responders donned protective gear, haz-mat suits and face masks and re-entered the residence. The place was thick with the stench of rotting flesh and the odor was overwhelming. Jorene had been on a bed in the living room and the smell in this area was absolutely overpowering. All of the inhabitants lived with this smell, day in and day out.

When authorities discovered Jorene White, she was dead. Darrel helpfully told the responding officers that she had died of a heart attack on July 22, 2010. Perhaps he waited a day to make sure she was dead. The state of Jorene’s body lead the investigators to discount his statements as it was obvious to them that she had to have been dead for at least a week given the state of decomposition they witnessed. There were plans to interview the family and one question sure to be asked was why they had delayed in contacting authorities after she died. It turns out that they had not delayed more than a day and that Darrel White was telling them the truth.

Unfortunately, the coroner discovered that Jorene White had died of sepsis on July 22, 2010. This 57-year-old bedridden woman was slowly being eaten by maggots and dying by degrees while those who supposedly loved her and were responsible for her care went about their daily business.

On September 2, 2010, Darrel White was indicted by a grand jury for his crime of gross neglect and faces a potential sentence of 11.5 years in prison for the charges of involuntary manslaughter and failure to provide for a functionally impaired person. The prosecutor, Joe Deters (and yes, it is the same prosecutor who had to deal with the necrophile morgue attendant Kenneth Douglas) decided on the charges based on the evidence, but involuntary manslaughter? Darrel’s actions – or rather his inactions – seem rather deliberate, with a fair degree of evil intent behind his motives.

The notion that the other people in the home were completely unaware of the state of Jorene White’s health is suspicious at best. The bottom line, however, and as far as the prosecutor’s office is concerned the only salient legal point, is that the person responsible for the care of Jorene White was none other than her husband, Darrel White. And so, dear devoted hubby was the only one who had the legal responsibility to care for Jorene – her sons? Just a moral responsibility, at which they totally failed.

The discussion on most forums dealing with this news item usually gets bogged down in a discussion and debate about the various species of maggots and flies and whatnot. The bottom line is that Darrel White had a legal responsibility to see that Jorene White received proper medical care. He did not. Jorene developed bed sores and this alone indicates inadequate care. The sores would not heal and it is unlikely he was even attempting to treat them. The sores became septic. Flies laid eggs in her sores and when they hatched, they burrowed through her skin to emerge and feast upon the flesh.

The autopsy was extremely thorough and various tests were run to verify all findings. Jorene White was not “eaten to death” by killer maggots; she was, however, extremely ill, bed-ridden, and totally dependent on others for her health care. The flies and maggots were just an added agony of her slowly fading life.

The debate rages on but I’ve managed to do a bit of research and it seems that July isn’t a good month especially for older people and maggots. In Melbourne, Australia, 72-year-old Kateryna Pyrczak was found in liters of her own filth, being eaten by maggots (read article here); her 49-year-old daughter, Mary Eve, didn’t call the ambulance sooner due to the $800 charge. This was on May 2, 2009. Kateryna died of septicemia and multiple organ failure a few months later in a hospital.

On July 28th, 2010, a 61-year-old Austrian pensioner, known only as Peter G., died en route to the hospital (read article here). His 34-year-old partner called emergency services as he was having trouble breathing. She slept next to him, night after night, while he was being eaten by maggots. The skin covering his back was gone. She said he had not wanted to be bathed for quite some time. The man had been paralyzed years earlier by a stroke. The couple had been together for ten years.

On July 25, 2005, 63-year-old Michael Link, of Yonkers, New York, was discovered by emergency workers called to the scene by his brother, 66-year-old Adam Link. Michael died a day later in hospital. He too had been eaten alive by the maggots (read article here).

So yes, the maggots CAN eat away, munching quite happily on flesh, be it necrotic or healthy. Flies will lay their eggs wherever they find suitable conditions and an open wound will suffice quite nicely.

Troy Drennan, Darrel’s neighbor and friend, had opined that the charges were bogus and Darrel and Jorene were a happily married couple. Right. Nothing says love like leaving your spouse to rot to death in the living room, in pain and agony, being eaten by maggots and flies.

With grand jury indictment in hand, police went to the family residence on Friday, September 3, 2010, to pick up Darrel, but the man was not at home. Darrel was busy chatting with good buddy, Troy Drennan. Darrel was discussing this whole mess, which was all Jorene’s fault, and what he was fixing to do. Troy told him that the whole thing would probably be dismissed when it came time to set a trial date.

Darrel was driving home when a local television crew stopped him to ask him about his wife, her death and the police investigation. Once more for the cameras and sticking true to form, Darrel said that it was all Jorene’s fault, really, because she did say she never wanted to go back to the hospital. The interviewer then asked Darrel what he thought now that the police investigation resulted in grand jury charges. Darrel said he was unaware of any indictment.

Darrel’s an awful puzzler. His statement makes you wonder what planet he thinks the rest of us are on when we know that Troy is busy telling everyone with a microphone or reporter’s pad that Darrel was iffy about “turning himself in.” Of course, Troy isn’t the one sitting in the Hamilton County Jail – Darrel is. And, at $50,000 bond, it is likely he will be there a wee while.

Even though a firm trial date has yet to be set, Darrel’s been going through the legal process. On September 10, 2010, a trial attorney was designated for the state and a public defender was assigned to Darrel and his case. Darrel’s new legal eagle, Herbert E. Freeman, wasted no time in submitting a motion to have an independent forensic pathologist assigned for Darrel White on September 13, 2010, as well as several other usual motions. And, just when you think you have heard it all, on September 20, 2010, Freeman made a motion for competency evaluation and a written plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was submitted.

On October 22, 2010, there will be a continuance hearing, whereby Darrel’s not guilty by reason of insanity plea will be formally put before the court and the results of the competency hearing will also be explored, but, since a court clinic forensic services for examination has been appointed, it is likely that we may see Darrel exchange a room with iron bars for a room with padded walls.

At least Darrel won’t have to worry if he becomes bedridden in the jail or the psychiatric ward. I am sure both places have kept up their budget for pest control.

So considering the horrendous exit Jorene was given by the man who pledged to care for her “in sickness and in health”, the question remains: Is Darrel crazy? Was Darrel that way for seven years? Wouldn’t Darrel’s treatment of Jorene have been noticed by family or friends?

Jorene would have been pretty much out of it towards the end as the sepsis ravaged her organs, slowly shutting down her body, but she would undoubtedly have been bothered by the sensations she still could feel. How deliberate would the decision be to allow your loved one to simply be eaten by maggots rather than perform the basics of care that would have prevented the bed sores from forming in the first place? How little do you have to care to reach that mindset?

While others may be left to ponder, I think Darrel is responsible in every sense of the word.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon back in April, 2006 Calgary paramedics and police found themselves in a basement suite in a southwest Calgary fourplex. The suite was decidedly in a poor state according to Detective Theresa Garagan. There were numerous cats and kittens running around (which to some people is good), some cat feces on the floor (which is not so good), and one naked little dead girl (indisputably bad).

She was a pretty little thing, was Summer Hope, with red hair, cherubic face and two front teeth, laying there on her Winnie the Pooh blanket. She looked too healthy to be dead, but dead she was. Strange. And stranger yet, the baby’s father, Jonathan Hope, told paramedics that he tried to revive the girl with CPR for five hours (yes, FIVE hours). He said he didn’t call 911 because his phone wasn’t working.

Let’s just think about it. Wouldn’t you, wouldn’t everybody run up the stairs and outside yelling for help, carrying Summer’s little 23 pound body? Even I, with my bad back and bad knee, using a cane, would have scrambled up those stairs and taken her to a neighbor’s, screaming for help the whole way.

But what did Jonathan Hope do? He told the paramedics that besides performing CPR he managed to devise a homemade makeshift defibrillator using the wires of a lamp. Did you get that? A defibrillator out of a lamp! I guess the big idea was to jumpstart his baby daughter’s little heart.

Now I don’t know about you, but when confronted by a medical emergency such as an unresponsive child, my instinct would always be to get professional help and never to disassemble home appliances to cobble together a defibrillator, even if I were a trained designer of defibrillators.

Jonathan Hope is not a trained designer of anything. He’s an addict. And his whole Dr. Frankenstein-ish attempts to restart his daughter with electricity were a panicky last ditch effort to conceal what had really happened to Summer.

See, Summer Hope did not die of natural causes. Her 16-month-old body stopped working because it was contaminated with methadone. For those who don’t know, a lethal dose of the drug causes the brain to shut down and breathing to stop. Methadone is so dangerous that ingesting even a small amount could put a child in a coma in 30 minutes.

So who would be stupid and irresponsible enough have methadone around children? Why, that would be f*tards Jonathan Hope and Lisa Guerin.

Bet you were wondering when we’d mention the mother.

Dr. Ian Postnikoff, who worked at a methadone treatment clinic, testified at trial that Jonathan the drug addict had once been allowed to take home daily doses of methadone BUT the privilege to take doses home was revoked in January 2006 because of Jonathan Hope’s criminal record.

Jonathan Hope was receiving about 260 milligrams of methadone, one of the highest doses of the drug that the clinic was dispensing, said Dr. Postnikoff.

Now if Jonathan Hope was not allowed to take doses home, HOW did it wind up in Summer’s system? It seems that the f*tard drank his dose of methadone mixed with orange juice at the downtown clinic, but spit some of it into a coffee cup, which he took home.

WHY the hell would he sneak methadone to his home? Who knows, but for me the testimony of the witness Amanda MacDonald makes sense. She was a friend of Lisa, and she testified that Lisa Guerin asked Jonathan Hope to sneak some home from his treatment clinic in a coffee cup so that she could see what it would do to her. Believable, right? If the methadone was meant for Jonathan, all he had to do was swallow it at the clinic.

Regardless, the methadone was in a cup in the home and obviously within reach of the toddler. Here the story gets all he said-she said.

Jonathan Hope testified Lisa Guerin was looking after Summer while he went to a gas station and when he got back the cup was on the floor. Supposedly Lisa then told him Summer hadn’t swallowed it, and she’d rinsed the baby’s mouth out anyway. He suggested taking Summer to the hospital but Lisa nixed that and then left home. All of this transpired at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. He didn’t notice anything wrong with his daughter until the morning after, which is the day he did his heroic CPR/defibrillating thing in the hours before the paramedics were summoned.

That’s his story.

Lisa Guerin merely denied knowing anything at all about it. She saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing about the methadone. Completely ignorant. She believed her daughter had pizza sauce on her face, but there was no stain on her shirt to indicate she’d had anything to drink. Choking back tears on the stand, Lisa said she thought Summer had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and didn’t find out about the methadone until much later.

That’s her story.

Her former friend and drinking buddy Amanda MacDonald testified that on that Saturday Jonathan Hope and Lisa Guerin were packing the car so Lisa and Amanda could drive to Rocky Mountain House to perform as exotic dancers. She was in the living room with the couple’s son when she saw Summer wander towards the master bedroom. She then returned, her chin damp and her shirt stained with reddish-orange liquid.

“Oh my God, Jonathan, she just drank your methadone!” Amanda told the court Lisa had exclaimed.

As Summer sat between them on the hide-a-bed in the living room, Lisa asked Amanda what would happen to her daughter. Good idea — asking the professional medical opinion of a non-professional, non-medical stripper.

“She just drank watered down heroin,” Amanda said she replied. “She’s going to get sick but I don’t think she’s going to die.”

She also said she told Lisa they should not go to Rocky Mountain House because Summer needed medical treatment, but Lisa Guerin was adamant. Besides the stripping gig, there was a lover waiting for her there. She had her priorities!

The couple then fought with each other for a bit but neither sought medical attention for the little girl. The women hopped in the car and drove off without looking back.

Remember how methadone would have rendered the sweet little toddler comatose within 30 minutes? It boggles the mind that in less than half an hour after ingesting methadone Summer Hope was out of sight and out of mind for that pair of f*tards. Lisa was long gone, and heaven only knows what Jonathan Hope was doing but it sure wasn’t bothering with Summer.

And the saddest thing of all, a drug called naloxone could have reversed the effect of her overdose if she’d gotten it in time. She needn’t have died at all! Her parents hadn’t intended to kill her — the overdose was accidental after all, but undoubtedly their callous disregard and stupendous stupidity following the overdose did kill her. And for that may they suffer in hell.

Jonathan Hope and his now former partner, Lisa Guerin, were brought to trial in March 2010.

Jonathan Hope really impressed the court when he showed up drunk on the opening day of his trial. Way to go, idiot!

Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Earl Wilson found them guilty of failing to provide the necessities of life in the death of their 16-month-old daughter. He acquitted them of two other, more serious, charges of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death. The Crown failed to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, said Justice Wilson. Testimony from Amanda MacDonald, the prosecution’s star witness, was not entirely believable, he said.

Defense lawyers had argued Amanda was not credible because she admitted to using cocaine daily for many years.

In handing down the conviction, Justice Earl Wilson said that regardless of whether or not the couple knew for certain that their child had ingested methadone, a responsible parent would have sought medical assurances that she was OK.

“Common sense exercised by the prudent parent is to take no chance when there’s even a possibility that a child’s been poisoned,” said Justice Wilson. “No real willingness was shown by either parent to do that.”

“”[Hope] couldn’t even get off his hindquarters and go down the street. An abandonment of parental responsibility is perhaps the understatement of the year,” said Justice Wilson.

Failure to provide the necessities of life carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. So they got five years, right? Wrong! Jonathan Hope was sentenced to a whopping 2½ years in prison. He got credit for the months he spent in pre-sentence custody so that reduced his time remaining to two years. He gets out in March 2012.

Hope will serve his sentence in a federal penitentiary so he can have better access to addictions programs.

Lisa Guerin, now 30, read a written statement from the prisoner’s dock before sentencing:

“There is not a day goes by that I don’t think about Summer. Every day, I think about that day four years ago. Knowing what I know now I could have stopped this tragedy from ever happening. The pain never goes away and never gets easier to manage. It hurts and never stops hurting. Losing my baby caused wounds that will never heal. I wish I could trade places with her.”

As to Lisa Guerin, Justice Wilson said her “callous and cavalier attitude” to her daughter swallowing the opiate was “stunning, and that it was “unfathomable” that she then left. “But such is the narcissistic character in the nature of Lisa Guerin,” the judge said. While her moral culpability was high, he thought the sentencing range of three to four years sought by the Crown prosecutor was excessive.

Lisa Guerin was sentenced to 2½ years in prison, and with DOUBLE credit for her pre-trial detention (2 days credit for every day served), she had six months left to serve. So as of September, 2010, Lisa is free to carry on with her life.

And Summer is still dead. She’d had 16 months on this earth and was entitled to decades more. It’s a crying shame that she had such a hopeless father in Jonathan Hope, a pathetic addict who wouldn’t get his daughter real medical help to save her life. And it’s downright criminal she was dependent on a mother who purposely chose a stripping gig and a lover over her own baby’s welfare. Maybe as Lisa Guerin ages, wrinkles and sags, and the stripping gigs and lovers dwindle, she’ll finally realize that she’d thrown away the most precious thing of all.

Editor’s Notes: I always find it amusing when a judge reams out a convicted criminal from the bench prior to sentencing, knowing full well that the sentence he plans to impose doesn’t come close to providing justice for the victim and the victim’s loved ones. It’s especially ludicrous when, as in this case, the defendants escaped conviction on the more serious, and of course, most appropriate charges they faced.

Take our two friends here, Jonathan Hope And Lisa Guerin. Now I don’t blame them so much for allowing little Summer to get into the cup of Methadone. Anyone who’s had children go through the toddler stage knows that Murphy’s Law was thought up by just such a parent. Whatever can go wrong WILL go wrong, and whatever you leave in a place that’s accessible to a toddler will be found and (eaten, drank, played with) by that toddler.

In this case, it would have been called accidental ingestion.

But when they chose not to get immediate medical treatment for Summer Hope, They should have known they were putting their daughter in grave danger. It doesn’t matter how stupid or how high they were, what matters is what a reasonable person would do in this situation.

There may be lawyers out there who can correct me is I get the details incorrect, but technically speaking Jonathan Hope And Lisa Guerin committed manslaughter by just not caring. Lisa didn’t want to miss out on a chance to get laid by her new boyfriend, and Jonathan just didn’t want to be bothered. The term for that is “depraved indifference”, and there are lots of people in prison because of it.

But somehow Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Earl Wilson, applying the law in a way I can’t wrap my mind around, ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that Jonathan Hope And Lisa Guerin knew how dangerous methadone was.

Lemme tell you something about my experience with methadone. Back before I got clean, one of the ways I controlled my chronic migraine headaches was with hardcore prescription narcotics from a pain management clinic. One month the doctor decided to try methadone on me. I took a 40 mg dose, which is not a lot for someone who had as high a tolerance as I did. I then went to lay down.

When I awoke two hours later, I was soaked from my knees to my neck in urine – that’s right, I had pissed myself, something I hadn’t done since I was a 4-year-old. I cleaned up myself and the bed, and after 8 hours had passed, I took my next dose of methadone. This time I didn’t go to bed, but that didn’t stop me from falling asleep while watching TV. Again, when I awoke, I was drenched in my own piss.

After this episode, it never happened again, but no drug I’d ever taken before or since – even LSD and PCP – had ever caused me to lose control of my bodily functions like that. THAT’S how powerful methadone is. And if Jonathan hope was experienced user of it, he knew how dangerous it was for a little baby to take it.

Look, if I walked into a room, and I found my 16-month-old daughter sitting in front of an open bottle of fucking baby aspirin, that would have been enough for me to take that child to the emergency room IMMEDIATELY. It’s just common sense to assume the worse in cases like that, especially since the baby can’t tell you how it’s feeling. You absolutely MUST err on the side of caution.

Whatever happened to common sense? Why aren’t people like Jonathan Hope And Lisa Guerin at least held to a minimum standard of behavior? Why was Justice Wilson more interested in making excuses for these two imbeciles than holding them accountable for the death of their child, 16-month-old Summer Hope?

I think I have a good grasp of what is right and what is wrong, but cases like this one shake that foundation every time I hear about one. I believe people who cause the death of their own child simply because they just didn’t care enough should have to suffer for a long time, but since Justice Earl Wilson believes otherwise, Jonathan Hope And Lisa Guerin will get back to their shitty lives in less than two years.

Summer Hope will still be dead in two years, likely forgotten by her “parents”. But I won’t forget her. I’ll carry a little bit of pain for her, in the place where I keep the memory of all the dead and murdered children I’ve read and heard about. And life will go on…