FL - Confessed Child Murderer Staying in Local Park

Wise Old Owl

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A sign of the times?????


Confessed child murderer spends days in downtown Lauderdale park
City grapples with growing homeless problem downtown


By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

9:47 a.m. EST, February 25, 2010

FORT LAUDERDALE - Gary Kerpan confessed years ago to snatching a 12-year-old girl, raping her, stabbing her and killing her. Now that he's out of prison, he hangs out in Fort Lauderdale's Stranahan Park.

He is one of Fort Lauderdale's homeless.

The city's warm temperatures attract vagabonds from all over. So much free food is available in this town, you could gain weight eating it, one homeless advocate said. City officials say most of their downtrodden are addicts, mentally ill or in economic crisis. But some, they acknowledge, are criminals, ex-cons like Kerpan.

Twelve-year-old Lisa Slusser was in the woods on Aug. 24, 1977, near her Waukegan, Ill., home when she disappeared. Kerpan was 27, married, with a son.

The community was horrified when two days later, after an intensive manhunt, Lisa's broken body was found along a riverbed. She'd been stabbed 19 times, her head bludgeoned. She'd been sexually assaulted.


The case went cold. Fourteen years later, in 1990, Kerpan called federal agents and confessed.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/br...l-homeless-criminals-20100224,0,2730691.story

BBM

Does anyone else find this very very very disturbing? I know we had a big to-do deal with a large number of RSO's living under bridges and overpasses down in Miami back in Nov or Dec. They had no place to go.

But this, this park is literally 5 minutes from my house. It is smack dab in the middle of downtown - skyscrapers full of suits working for Wall Street or the banks (I think at least 3 of the buildings are owned by various nationwide banks). The public library is connected to this "park" - in fact, from the children's section of the library you can "see" into the park.

I'm sure this is NOT an isolated incident and many many more of "these guys" are living in parks around the the country - whether its a small town or even bigger than South Florida metro areas.
 
i find it very disturbing that a guy who brutally murdered a 12 year old didnt even serve 20 years :(
 
This story just goes to show that not all homeless people are benign and non-threatening to the rest of society, that includes other homeless people.
 
Wanted to bump this as there is now an updated article:

Police crawling all over downtown looking for confessed girl-killer

Posted by Brittany Wallman on February 25, 2010 04:27 PM

If you need a police officer, go to Stranahan Park downtown. They've been crawling all over the park for the past two days, looking for Gary D. Kerpan.

This afternoon, even the police chief cruised by the park, which is outside Broward County's Main Library in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Chief Frank Adderley said he wants to make contact with Kerpan, to talk to him. He wants to try to help him.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/new...g/2010/02/police_crawling_all_over_downt.html


As we all have said - this "thing" doesn't deserve to even be breathing the same air - just so we are on the same page......

But, I do have to point out what this might have caused here. You see, if you clicked on my link - not only did the local newspaper post this story - they posted quite a large picture of this guy - so everyone knows what he looks like.

What happens when they find this guy's body? This isn't good. I hope they do find him.....and soon. We are expecting freezing temperatures tonight so the shelters are open - you know all of LE will have the BOLO for this guy.

I know the world won't "miss this subhuman" but is another family's lives going to be destroyed (meaning someone taking out some vigilante justice)?

I'll try to keep this updated as much as I can.
 
well this guy isnt just your average homless guy, or whino, or homeless vet let down by our country.........hes a darn child murderer, not only convicted, but CONFESSED. if someone killed him, I wont lose any sleep over it.
 
I'm just not sure how I feel about the large photo being splashed on the front page. The man confessed, he did his time, he's obviously following the letter of the law. But he needs to be in a halfway house.

I'm sorry I can't call for his murder through vigilantism. I won't celebrate a body being found. He was tried by a jury of his peers. We might not like the outcome but we don't serve society by stooping to his level and hunting people down to kill them. JMO.
 
i didnt say i condone it. i just say i wont lose sleep over it.

if he hadnt klled that girl, she might be a mom, or even a gradnma by now, might have won an olympic medal in lake placid, or been elected president. but she wasnt, she's not. cause he snuffed her out while she was still a child. and he shouldnt be walking the streets. i dont care what sentence he got.
 
I need to re-state what I was trying to get at above. I have re-read it and it doesn't really say what I was trying to say.

IF this guy is found - deceased, I don't think any of else will loose any sleep. That's not was I was trying to say. IF that happens - that means someone else killed him. IF they catch who did it - then it will be just one more family ruined (and by this guy). IF the person has children - what a shame. That was what I was trying to get at. Once again, this guy COULD cause yet another family to be destroyed due to his actions. And that ain't right.

Does that make sense now?
 
I need to re-state what I was trying to get at above. I have re-read it and it doesn't really say what I was trying to say.

IF this guy is found - deceased, I don't think any of else will loose any sleep. That's not was I was trying to say. IF that happens - that means someone else killed him. IF they catch who did it - then it will be just one more family ruined (and by this guy). IF the person has children - what a shame. That was what I was trying to get at. Once again, this guy COULD cause yet another family to be destroyed due to his actions. And that ain't right.

Does that make sense now?

perfect sense :)
 
It is absolutely tragic that he isn't still in prison or dead by the order of the state.
It is absoultely tragic that he snuffed out a human life. Especially a young one.

But, we all know that we aren't locking people up to fix them, we are keeping them away from the rest of us and we are punishing them. Some people just don't get enough punishment, this guy being one of them. But his time was up. And when it was up, the prison likely gave him back the stuff he had when he came in and a cab voucher. That didn't exactly help society.
We can't kill all the monsters. The ones we don't put to death go right on being monsters. Those that take it upon themselves to kill monsters, become monsters. So, what do we do with the monsters that aren't locked up anymore? They have to go somewhere, and sadly, they do go everywhere. Vigilante justice isn't going to help anything, it just perpetuates the cycle. This is one of those things that should really be addressed by the higher ups, but I genuinely like the idea of civil commitment following a prison sentence in certain crimes.
 
well i hate to say it, but i'd rather it be this guy then another 12 year old. or a 40 year old. or a 70 year old, maybe he kills them cause they look at him funny........this guy killed that girl in 1972.......then he was free for 18 years to do god knows what else before he suddenly confessed. then we rward him by not even giving him 20 years in prison for it.
someone who has it in them to brutally stab a child like that is pure utter evil, and i dont think she was his first victim, and she probably wont be his last now.
 
It is absolutely tragic that he isn't still in prison or dead by the order of the state.
It is absoultely tragic that he snuffed out a human life. Especially a young one.

But, we all know that we aren't locking people up to fix them, we are keeping them away from the rest of us and we are punishing them. Some people just don't get enough punishment, this guy being one of them. But his time was up. And when it was up, the prison likely gave him back the stuff he had when he came in and a cab voucher. That didn't exactly help society.

We can't kill all the monsters. The ones we don't put to death go right on being monsters. Those that take it upon themselves to kill monsters, become monsters. So, what do we do with the monsters that aren't locked up anymore? They have to go somewhere, and sadly, they do go everywhere. Vigilante justice isn't going to help anything, it just perpetuates the cycle. This is one of those things that should really be addressed by the higher ups, but I genuinely like the idea of civil commitment following a prison sentence in certain crimes.


bbm- why can't we?

If we all agree some crimes are beyond rehab and jail doesn't rehab violent sadistic criminals why in the world is it an acceptable answer to us that you can stab and rape a child and be put back in the population.

I know killing them is an issue for some morally, and I get the arguement to lock them up forever, at least that is logical to me, but walking among the rest of us absolutely unacceptable.
 
Daily "updated" but kinda new article:

Police chief: Homeless killer will be given notice to appear in court
>
Posted by Brittany Wallman on February 26, 2010 10:07 AM

Fort Lauderdale police will issue a "notice to appear'' in court to homeless confessed child-killer Gary D. Kerpan, Police Chief Frank Adderley said. But first, they have to find him.

Police officers have been looking for Kerpan for days, since news of his presence in Fort Lauderdale's parks was made public in the Sun Sentinel. Kerpan served half of his 30 year plea-deal sentence in the murder of 12-year-old Lisa Slusser of Waukegan, Ill. Then he served a few years in South Florida for not registering as a sex offender.

>>>>more at link: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/new...g/2010/02/police_chief_homeless_killer_w.html


Notice at the end of the article it says that he didn't attend the "usual Thursday night" free feeding that he normally does. Plus, he was not found at any shelters - but I don't think RSO's can go to the shelters, not sure.

The newspaper (and reporter) has to really be in some very hot water right about now. She put a HUGE RED TARGET on this guy's head. I believe it to be an honest mistake and no one even thought about "hey if we post his picture then everybody will know what he looks like". It would have been fine had they just posted the article and his name. Remember it was us, here in Broward county, that had those awful beatings/death of the homeless men - and the ones responsible were young teenagers!

There has to be a better way of handling these people. I have thought for years that we should take an area in some state - somewhere - fence it off and send them all there. Hahahahahahaha - yea right - like that's gonna work. What else is left? There are so many of them now and the numbers grow higher everyday.

History says this was done before with the British empire and Australia.

Whether this guy is found alive or dead - I just want him found. He is unstable and now he knows his face has been plastered all over the world - he's got to be "agitated" and with that who knows what will happen next!
 
He's been found and arrested!!!!!

Homeless ex-con arrested by Fort Lauderdale police

Posted by Brittany Wallman on February 26, 2010 01:08 PM

Fort Lauderdale police found and arrested Gary D. Kerpan a few minutes ago. He's on his way to the Broward County Main Jail, Chief Frank Adderley said.
Adderley said Kerpan was hiding in the bushes at First Baptist Church downtown, (where Adderley attends), and cooperated with police who found him.

Kerpan violated a state requirement to update his address on his official identification, and was arrested on those grounds. He properly registered with the state as a sex offender, giving the address "transient,'' but Adderley said he also had been notified and had agreed to get an official identification/driver license with a current address. He didn't; his identification still lists his mother's address in Lake Placid. Adderley said the violation is a third degree felony.

>>>more at link

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/new...g/2010/02/homeless_excon_arrested_by_for.html


Well thank the Lord! But - yet again - they (the newspaper) posts yet another picture of this guy.

I'm just glad he is off the streets. Makes me rest a little easier for our kids.
 
Wonder what made him confess in the first place and if he will confess any other crimes now? Sheesh! I think he will be kept in jail, at taxpayers expense for his safety, not to protect the citizens of Florida unfortunately.
 
bbm- why can't we?

If we all agree some crimes are beyond rehab and jail doesn't rehab violent sadistic criminals why in the world is it an acceptable answer to us that you can stab and rape a child and be put back in the population.

I know killing them is an issue for some morally, and I get the arguement to lock them up forever, at least that is logical to me, but walking among the rest of us absolutely unacceptable.

It isn't acceptable, but it's more than one problem. They shouldn't be walking the streets, especially after something as downright horrific as what this guy did. But, with the way the system is set up, it has to be addressed right off the bat, before sentencing. Once they serve their time, no one is going to be protecting society from them or vice versa. That's what I was getting at, not that he served his time and he should be allowed to live in the city park now.

My clarity goes to crap after midnight.
As to why we can't kill them, for me personally, it's the fear of living the rest of my life in a cell. As to why why it's illegal to kill someone after they have committed a crime like this, why they aren't sentenced to death when they are convicted...I have no clue.
 
He's only ONE out of how many more out there across the States?

It's our duty to protect our children. I have complete faith in our police. I have especially faith in the good LE in Fort Lauderdale. The parole system? Nope. Judges? Nope.

This may sound bonkers, but I always went on the summation that within a mile of my home or a mile within anywhere I took my DD when she was a little girl there was a freak. A child murderer. Maybe one hadn't offended yet. Better to be cautious.

Swag, I got your point absolutely. It made sense the first time. Then again I saw first hand the horror on my own mother's face when we were kids as the man that murdered her father moved in across the street from my mom's friend. Heck, he had kids that came out to play. Although there was never a hint of vigilantiesm I can tell you it has affected generations of my family.

Hiding in bushes? The dude knows how to survive in prison. Good thing he's back in this . I feel for Florida I really do.
 
New update folks.... and ..... well prepare yourself (I'm just seething over this)

Homeless ex-con may get bed in Vet hospital, public defender says

> Posted by Brittany Wallman on February 28, 2010 12:59 PM

The homeless man who served a prison sentence for the rape, stabbing and murder of 12-year-old Lisa Slusser of Waukegan, Ill., is in the main county jail but will be getting help from the Veteran's Administration, the public defender's office said. He might be transferred to a bed in the V.A. "crisis unit'' as early as Tuesday.

Gary D. Kerpan was arrested Friday by Fort Lauderdale police as he hid in the bushes downtown. His crime, police say: a third degree felony, failing to report his "transient'' address on his official state identification. Bond was set at $1,000 by Judge Jay Hurley on Saturday.

Doug Brawley, chief assistant public defender in charge of mental health, said Sunday that he'd talked to the Veteran's hospital and they're willing to help. He also talked to Kerpan.

"This guy really wanted help. I think this is going to be one of those rare stories that really will have a good outcome,'' Brawley said. " ...This is a guy crying out for help.''

>>>more at link http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/new...g/2010/02/homeless_excon_getting_help_pu.html


This is a guy crying out for help? Kinda like his 12 yr old victim must have cried for help while being raped and stabbed?

I'm just sick - really sick. Now my tax dollars will go to give this guy three hots and a cot and not even in a jail. Wonder how long it will be before he "cons" all his doctors that he's better and he's allowed to walk through the doors and live free again?

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What are we as a civilization coming to?
 

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