GA - Suspicion over heat death of Cooper, 22 mo., Cobb County, June 2014, #5

[ScarlettScarpetta]

The Police are saying HE KNEW THE BABY WAS IN THE CAR! That is why he is charged with murder.

If they thought it was an ACCIDENT and he DIDN'T KNOW they wouldn't charge him with murder.

Just because the police say it does not make it so.
That is a big thing to prove. I don't see it yet.

 

[Davia18]

Heatstroke Deaths of
Children in Vehicles

http://www.ggweather.com/heat/

lots of info

Lots of great info Thank You
And if this was something he researched then he would have done the things it tells you.

 

[Tawny]

They have no way of knowing if he "wasn't going anywhere." We have no way of knowing if it was a "good investigation." He seemed to have a LOT of suspicious things going on, and that justifies probable cause.

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

Have car seats changed that much?

When my son was two (forward facing) the car seat had shoulder straps that snapped into a seatbelt like receptor located between his legs. Straps were connected to the bar type thingy that pulled down...by almost two he could pull the bar down and snap and unsnap it. I taught him how and was thrilled he was able to get in and buckle up by himself.



How are seats made now???


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Good question...

IIRC... The buckle was hard for me to get hitched and unhitched..,so it would have been even harder for DD... So she slid out of the belt straps in some way... But the straps were pretty sturdy, too... IMO

I wonder if the current seats are more difficult to unbuckle?

:waitasec:

 

[MyBelle]

I wondered how the parking lot was configured. Did he have to back out of his parking space? If so, did he not look back? I know with a car seat - it seems it might have blocked his rear view or at lease he would check his blind spots.

It may be one of those parking lots where he could have driven straight out if there was no vehicle in front blocking him....just another thought.

There is no way the father could have avoided seeing or hearing his son. A 22-month-old does not sit in a rear-facing car seat nor do they eat breakfast and then instantly fall asleep. They talk, laugh, chatter, babble to themselves. I just returned from spending a week with one.

There have been cases where the parents switched their routine and the baby did fall asleep in the long commute to work and thus the parent "forgot" them. This isn't one of them, imo.

 

[RANCH]

So he's under the impression that the babysitter delivered the kid to his car just before he got off work? I don't think so.

How does he THINK the boy got into the car and buckled into the seat 7 hours after he THINKS he dropped him off? IMO, as soon as he realized the child was IN THE SEAT, he knew he'd been there all day. Smell notwithstanding.

I have no idea what JRH was thinking. I was talking about what he has admitted to LE.

 

[LisaB]

I went there but did not read it. Some folks read his Reddit account and he had stated something about losing partial hearing in his ear due to a bottle rocket accident....(paraphrased here.) HTH

I read some of his stuff but missed this one.

And yet he has keen enough hearing to detect the sound of a dead boy choking.

 

[Elley Mae]

SPECULATION FOLLOWS

Just from some perspective from what we can gather from what we know at this point. Imagine you are having a conversation with RH after the discovery of Cooper:

You: Okay, so you forgot that Cooper was in the car and went straight to work?
RH: Yes. I just totally forgot.
You: Did you go anywhere between leaving your driveway with Cooper and work.
RH: Yes, Chik Fila
You. Did you go in or use the drive thru?
RH: Cooper and I both went in and ate.
You: So you unstrapped him and carried him into the Chikfila?
RH: Yes.
You: So Cooper was awake and you both ate?
RH: Yes
You: And then what did you do?
RH: I strapped him back into the car seat , and instead of driving to his daycare, I forgot and drove to work.
You: How far is the ChikFila from your work.
RH: Really close .5 miles.
You: So it takes about 2 or 3 minutes to drive there.
RH: Yes.
You: Did Cooper somehow fall asleep and become silent in that 3 minutes?
RH: ?
You. Then what happened? You forgot he was in the car after just eating with him and left him strapped in the backseat on a 90 degree day?
RH: Yes, I just totally forgot he was there.
You: Walk me through the rest of your day.
RH: I went into the office at about 9:30 after having breakfast with Cooper, and worked for close to 2.5 /3 hours. Then I went back into my car in the parking lot around noon to get something and went back inside.
You: You went back into the car? Did you notice Cooper? Did you see the carseat? Did the car smell out of the ordinary?
RH: No. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't smell anything. I didn't see Cooper or the car seat.
You: Was Cooper in Diapers?
RH: Yes, Cooper was still in diapers.
You: How long had Cooper been left in the care sweltering car at this point?
RH: About 3 hours.
You: So you went back into the office and worked for how much longer?
RH: A little more than four hours.
You: Did you the day care call you or your wife?
RH: (??HOLE HERE)
You: Who was supposed to pick him up from daycare and at what time?
RH (??HOLE HERE)
You: So you left work at around 4:00 PM, walk me through it.
RH: I got in my car, and was driving to meet friends for drinks when I heard Cooper choking and then I realized he had been in the car for the past seven hours and he was in trouble. I realized that I had never dropped him off and forgot him.
You: What did you do?
RH: So I drove about one mile and pulled into a restaurant parking lot. I was screaming for help and asked people to call 911 because I thought Cooper was choking.
You: The police stated that the car smelled very badly. You didn't notice that when you got out of work?
RH: No. I didn't smell anything.
You: Did you smell anything at Noon?
RH: No. Nothing. I never smelled anything
You: The police also stated that Cooper was stiff and in the shape of sitting in his car seat when lying on the ground. This would indicate that he was already dead. How could you hear him choking or not smell anything in your car?
RH: I heard him choking even though he was stiff and I didn't smell the odor that others smelled in the car.
You: That makes no sense to me. Also, why didn't you call 911 when you state you did notice that he was in the backseat?
RH: (HOLE HERE)
RH: I also just wanted you to know that I had searched for how long it would take for a child to die in a hot car and what temperature it had to be for death to occur. I made these searches recently. Those searches will be found on my computer.

You: So you were scared that this would happen, so you researched it online?
RH: Yes.
You: Did you take any precautions from the information that you found to ensure that you would not accidentally leave Cooper in the car?
RH: No.


This. is. ludicrous.

If you had this conversation with a family member or friend what would you be thinking?

I am sorry but I would have to suspend ALL reality and common sense to see this conversation or information in any other way other than premeditated murder of his baby.

It is illogical and makes zero sense and all points to the purposeful "forgetting"
of his son to stage an accidental death so that he could get away with it and garner sympathy from his family, friends, and the public.

If the police did not arrest and charge him after all of these events and information, they would be inept.

bbm Oh my.

 

[Karmady]

I'm aware of that, and still scratching my head.

I'm also aware that in the State of Florida if you deliver a bottle of prescription pills to someone who doesn't have a prescription you serve more prison time than someone who beats a child to death.

Scratching my head over that one, too.

Yep. It's really ridiculous in a lot of instances. And it makes the administration of actual justice pretty much the same crap shoot that people complain about in other circumstances of apparently disparate treatment.

all jmo

 

[Baznme]

Can someone point me in the direction of a map that shows RH's route that day between home and work?

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

Sorry folks, I just can't find it by searching.........but I am almost positive that I read somewhere on this thread or the one before, some reference by the Mom to "Job" in the bible. Anyone recall this? Perhaps even a particular verse from the book of Job. Now isn't Job the one in the Bible whose faith was tested such that he was willing to sacrifice one of his sons to prove his faith and trust in God?

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

And there we have it.

That fact alone could change the charges from negligent homicide to premeditated murder.

Another poster mentioned the possibility of sedation being involved. Sedation in young children can be very tricky. The first line, garden variety Gravol or Benadryl often cause paradoxical effects (the opposite of what is intended). Benzodiazepines are notorious for this as well. Chloral hydrate is a little more reliable but will lead to significant stomach irritation if used repeatedly. If this was a
preplanned event, the choice of sedative would have to be one with a proven record of reliability for this particular child. Most likely something delivered via injection as absorption via oral administration varies widely and is dependent on many factors.

My son is medically fragile and routinely requires deep sedation for blood draws and urine aspiration.

I wonder if JRH was "unlucky" enough to have accidentally "forgotten" a sedative container in the car?
(which LE witnessed and confiscated)

If not a "garden variety" type....this may have alerted LE, too...

all... JMO

 

[believe09]

I agree he may not have been going anywhere, but I'll bet they had good reason to arrest -- and they could have had good reason to separate Ross from Leanna AND separate him from all electronics or any other evidence as quickly as possible. Perhaps they could have waited to have "a smoking gun" but after the altercation in the parking lot were concerned that some of the evidence might be disposed of and/or it would give him more time to straighten out his story.

Completely agree. I think there was likely something about the condition of little man that set them off as well.

 

[Figuring]

You know how the mother said he child had been sick for 2 days?

What if the father had been making him sick for 2 days, and it didn't "work"?
What if that's when he looked up "what temperature it takes to die in a hot car"?

I keep thinking, didn't the parents talk on the phone or by email at ALL on the day of June 18? If the child had been sick for two days, wouldn't mom maybe wonder how their son fared after eating, or how he seemed about going to daycare in general? From my experience, lots of couples check-in throughout the day, esp. about their kids. Even if they didn't do that regularly, wouldn't they possibly have done so since the son had been sick? Sometimes kids don't want to go the first day back after not feeling well. I keep thinking the mom would want to ask about this.

I think, talking to mom, even IF they didn't talk about the son, would jog his memory. I really wonder if we'll see that he didn't call her or answer her calls or emails all day (and answered others?), to avoid the topic and bolster his alibi. "I was so busy with meetings, I couldn't answer her calls," or something to that effect.

 

[Linda7NJ]

Yesterday my 8 year old nephew passed away in his sleep. He is now free from the life long suffering he endured having cp. He was never able to talk, walk, turn himself over or even swallow food. The only thing he could do was smile and that smile never left his lips. My brother and sister in law are devastated as am I. I hope Cooper is up there teaching him how to run.

(((((Hugs))))))) I am so so sorry


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[ScarlettScarpetta]

I agree he may not have been going anywhere, but I'll bet they had good reason to arrest -- and they could have had good reason to separate Ross from Leanna AND separate him from all electronics or any other evidence as quickly as possible. Perhaps they could have waited to have "a smoking gun" but after the altercation in the parking lot were concerned that some of the evidence might be disposed of and/or it would give him more time to straighten out his story.

If he planned it, Then he would have already taken care of the searches. He also would not have searched on his own computer.

I just don't but this guy premeditated this.

 

[believe09]

TBH, still waiting for a life insurance policy to pop up. Something...anything linear. Anything but a random act of destruction. :banghead:

jmo.

 

[believe09]

Thank you to those who have shared their losses on the threads here-there is nothing I can say other than you are so kind and brave to share your stories.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

Sorry folks, I just can't find it by searching.........but I am almost positive that I read somewhere on this thread or the one before, some reference by the Mom to "Job" in the bible. Anyone recall this? Perhaps even a particular verse from the book of Job. Now isn't Job the one in the Bible whose faith was tested such that he was willing to sacrifice one of his sons to prove his faith and trust in God?

No. Job is the one who was met with loss and pestilence and all kinds of heart ache and never cursed God. Not the same thing.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, If God wanted him too.

 

[RANCH]

TBH, still waiting for a life insurance policy to pop up. Something...anything linear. Anything but a random act of destruction. :banghead:

jmo.

A clear motive would make a big difference in how I see this case.