Yes, and the sw hearing Braden crying out thinking he had stubbed his foot again because it was the same sound he made 'last time' or before that when he hurt his foot. The police believe that to be the time Braden was first hit with the axe. The poor little child. Yes, the poor little things so manipulated and fooled by their father (who acted more like a brother if you ask me).
This is the part I don't get. Chuck and Judy said the boys did not want to visit their father that day and, actually, the last couple times they were showing less and less interest in seeing him. So WHEN did Steven make the comment to the SW that he wanted to go live with his daddy and have his own frog pond. Was that lately --- or how long ago was that?
Kids can be conflicted. And they may have not wanted to interrupt play for a visit at that moment. They also may have felt torn between the dad they loved and the new peace they felt at their grandparents, where they were able to speak and think about mommy.
To me, it sounds as if this poor woman wasn't very well-informed about JP. Sure the kids wanted to live with Daddy. They probably had wishes about living with Mommy too, but that wasn't going to happen either.
I understand a social worker wanting to help these kids, but projecting their innocent wish for a family onto JP and trusting him obviously didn't work.
The fact he promised them a "surprise" is just evil, and no amount of wishful thinking can change that. Hello, reality!
Yeah, well DSHS and the psychologist who worked this case weren't well informed either. I heard this lady say that she never thought he would hurt the kids. Psych said he was odd but not a risk to the children. DSHS echoed that.
People involved in the welfare of children need to be better educated and the system needs to pull its head out of you know where. People who commit domestic violence against a spouse are a danger of abusing their kids, even killing them, no matter how sweet they seem to be with those kids. People who MURDER their spouses are at high risk of murdering their kids, too. That's a fact. LE knows it, the family courts in my state seem to know it, now everyone should know it.
Oh, but the coward hadn't been arrested. He hadn't been publicly named a suspect. So, how could safety protocols, custody and visitation decisions be based on violence on his part towards his wife? Give me a break. Family courts and juvenile dependency courts make court orders every day, based on a finding that abuse or some sort of act occurred, in the absence of an arrest.
It was clear that this man murdered his wife two years ago. She disappeared in the middle of the night after he cooked her food and she fell ill and went to bed at 5:30 p.m.. Later that night, a Sunday, he took two toddlers into freezing weather at midnight, to go camping, even though he had work and they had school the next day. He refused to cooperate with his wife's investigation. A giant wet spot was found on the rug with fans drying it when the empty house was broken into after LE could not get a hold of the family and did a welfare check. The coward failed to answer his phone for hours. Before she went missing, Susan had indicated he was controlling and she feared him.
Yeah, it may not be enough for a conviction or even maybe an arrest. But it certainly was enough to indicate he killed his wife or was involved in her death which means he was an extreme danger to the lives of his kids from the get go. CPS and the court could have acted accordingly on those facts alone, no arrest necessary, as they do every day.
Until everyone in our nation who is involved in child welfare understand that people who hurt their intimate partners are just a hop and a skip away from hurting their kids, we will have more such cases. I hope the judge in Michelle Parker's case is taking note.
