GA - Carlene Rigby, 4, strangled, March 2015

[midstateMind]

read more at: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article40937472.html


video of Cooke: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article41020839.html

​

When I read last night's article and posted the link here, my main thought was just how tragic this is. I do believe it was accidental. I even can see how the Rigbys are questioning whether their son was involved. I don't doubt the kids played the game, but it COULD be that Carly was trying to replicate it on her own and jumped off the bed with a cord tied to some part of her -- either with a loop and knot left from earlier sessions of the game or self-tied -- and it somehow tightened around her neck. We may never know. Very sad, for all, IMO.

The other thing that struck me last night, very strongly, is how the situation has SOME elements (obviously not all) of one set of theories about the JonBenet Ramsey case.

It appears that Jodi spreads herself a bit thin, imo. Here, there, everywhere, PLUS a lot of kids at home to raise.
Her mother is a Doctor of some kind?

Like an M.D. or other kind? I only wonder at her own upbringing. When did she marry first time around? Her son who died would have been 15 this year past, so it must have been quite young as she herself appears to be very young still.

https://www.military1.com/all/press...-impact-of-the-wreaths-across-america-program

She got married very young the first time. I don't think she's in school. That bio may be a bit of a stretch. She seems to be an LPN who is intermittently employed. Her mom has a Ph.D. that she earned online. Rigby's current marriage appears to be her 3rd and there are divorce filings from 2014 that come up on the county court website as a matter of public record. (Anyone can search) The husband's FB & Twitter suggest he is retired from Air Force and a current tech school student.

Idk. My "hinky" meter just can't let go.

 

[BlaserBrown]

Let me get this straight, LE believes that the mother did this but were unsuccessful at getting the father to turn on his wife even though they have serious issues. 3 months later in June they clear the parents but keep the kids. That same month they receive a tip saying its the brother and run a search warrant. 4 months pass and the DA blames the 9 year old by name with out mentioning any new evidence collected in the raid.
Sounds like LE and the DA had nothing but needed to justify keeping the kids for 7 months.

 

[midstateMind]

Let me get this straight, LE believes that the mother did this but were unsuccessful at getting the father to turn on his wife even though they have serious issues. 3 months later in June they clear the parents but keep the kids. That same month they receive a tip saying its the brother and run a search warrant. 4 months pass and the DA blames the 9 year old by name with out mentioning any new evidence collected in the raid.
Sounds like LE and the DA had nothing but needed to justify keeping the kids for 7 months.

I don't think that's necessarily a fair assessment. The DA said that the father was a POI and the mother was initially a suspect because they were lying and obstructing LE procedure. Her main lies appear to be regarding her whereabouts since early reports/her FB status indicated she was saying she was at work. The latest report indicates that she was with a boyfriend in the next town over. The DA indicated that she was hostile toward LE efforts to investigate and coached her children to not speak or cooperate with investigative efforts.

The "deliberate" knot spoken about by DA Cooke and feeling by LE that this was not an accident was why the children were removed from the home. The DA did never say a time at which the parents were cleared by LE. The search warrant for the home was executed at the end of May 2015. Findings from that search have not been disclosed.

Fast forward: October press conference, DA contends that they received this tip 3 months ago from the Sunday School Teacher saying that it's a game that she heard the then 9 yo talk about playing with his Carly. His chief complaint is that she "always gets away." DA Cooke says that the witness is "credible" but they decline to re-interview the previously uncooperative child. ---What sticks with me is that they have this amazing credible witness but fail to do a forensic interview of the child to confirm what she is saying. They then formulate this theory that it must have been the game again and declare that they believe said child is responsible for the death.

I'm not sure that I agree that LE/DA had nothing to justify keeping the kids. The mother's lies coupled with her behavior and general obstruction have caused problems. If DFCS has any reason to believe that the household is unsafe they'd be criminally negligent in remanding them to the home. In any case, they were with their grandparents where the parents had constant contact with them. It was the best case scenario given the heinous situation, IMO.

But, getting down to brass tacks, let's just all face the fact that this sham of a press conference only made LE & the DA's office look incompetent. The truth is out there, but if the entire family colludes to be uncooperative with LE then it looks like another murder will go unsolved. Local LE, the DA, and the FBI need to keep digging.

 

[U2forever]

Ugh, that poor child.

Godspeed Carlene :angel:

Speaking of Hinky Meters...
Mine is at maximum overdrive and about to stroke out!

 

[MsFacetious]

What motivation would LE have to frame a 9 year old for this?
If they really thought one of the parents did it, why wouldn't they keep the case open?
I don't understand, it doesn't make any sense to me. :twocents:

 

[eileenhawkeye]

This is what I think happened:

Carlene's father finds her dead, with the blinds tied around her neck. He calls 911, and an autospy is performed that shows that Carlene did not strangle herself. Someone else tied the knot. Now LE is suspicious---it had to be someone in the family. This causes major tension between the parents and LE. The parents believe their daughter died in a tragic accident, but now you have LE who wants to question them for hours. I cannot blame the parents for lawyering up.

Later on, LE recieves a tip from a woman who says that Carlene and her brother would play a game where they would tie the blinds around each other. It's the missing puzzle piece. I know people say that it isn't enough to close the case, but what other evidence could there possibly be?

Another thing is...LE went as far as to take their son away and put him in foster care for months. Either LE thought the brother was in danger or they were trying to put major stress/pressure on the parents. I don't think LE was looking for any excuse to drop/close the case.

 

[midstateMind]

This is what I think happened:

Carlene's father finds her dead, with the blinds tied around her neck. He calls 911, and an autospy is performed that shows that Carlene did not strangle herself. Someone else tied the knot. Now LE is suspicious---it had to be someone in the family. This causes major tension between the parents and LE. The parents believe their daughter died in a tragic accident, but now you have LE who wants to question them for hours. I cannot blame the parents for lawyering up.

Later on, LE recieves a tip from a woman who says that Carlene and her brother would play a game where they would tie the blinds around each other. It's the missing puzzle piece. I know people say that it isn't enough to close the case, but what other evidence could there possibly be?

Another thing is...LE went as far as to take their son away and put him in foster care for months. Either LE thought the brother was in danger or they were trying to put major stress/pressure on the parents. I don't think LE was looking for any excuse to drop/close the case.

I think there's a lot of merit to what you're saying, but my personal belief is that it's a lot more nefarious than what appears on the surface. That's totally JMO, but since I live within 5 minutes of these people maybe I'm feeling things a little more deeply. I've seen them, been in the same room with them, and I'm not vibing that things are real great.

To go back to your first sentence: who finds their child or ANYONE tied up and doesn't disturb the body or try to untangle a person??? Obviously, with no sign of forced entry and a knot visibly tied LE would have to look within the family. They probably can't exclude anyone but the 2 year old.

My next question is: Do the parents REALLY believe their child died in a tragic accident or is that the story they're going with? You can't very well go bananas for blind cord safety when a knot is deliberately tied. The logical extension would be that if the blinds cord weren't used, something else would have been.

Not throwing shade at anyone for getting a lawyer. Hell, I would've set up a legal defense fund for myself. And why wouldn't LE want to question them? There's an obvious homicide and nobody is cooperating with them--this only sets the scene for more suspicion.

DFCS took all three of their kids for and placed them with Jodi's mother and stepfather. If they thought the 9 year old was dangerous, they would have never placed them together. That makes no sense. I think they were trying to put pressure on the obviously troubled couple of parents, but it didn't work. The DA released the information to DFCS in a letter of finding because they knew the kids were scheduled to return. It seems obvious that the intention would be to alert DFCS to a potentially dangerous child or troubling games between siblings.

No person is framing the child. BUT----it is noteworthy that although the DA has stated that a tragic accident of game play has caused this death, the parents refuse to concede that the older child had anything to do with it. I have heard speculation on why this is, and it's despicable. Also, the DA has not formally closed this case. They have just said this is the most reasonable conclusion that they can come to.

It's my :twocents: that everyone should stay tuned. But what do I know?

 

[Indy Anna]

This is what I think happened:

Carlene's father finds her dead, with the blinds tied around her neck. He calls 911, and an autospy is performed that shows that Carlene did not strangle herself. Someone else tied the knot. Now LE is suspicious---it had to be someone in the family. This causes major tension between the parents and LE. The parents believe their daughter died in a tragic accident, but now you have LE who wants to question them for hours. I cannot blame the parents for lawyering up.

Later on, LE recieves a tip from a woman who says that Carlene and her brother would play a game where they would tie the blinds around each other. It's the missing puzzle piece. I know people say that it isn't enough to close the case, but what other evidence could there possibly be?

Another thing is...LE went as far as to take their son away and put him in foster care for months. Either LE thought the brother was in danger or they were trying to put major stress/pressure on the parents. I don't think LE was looking for any excuse to drop/close the case.

BBM1 This explanation makes sense.

BBM2 I don't believe LE thought the brother was a danger to anyone. All of the children were removed from the home and placed with their grandparents. The children were not separated from each other - they were separated from their parents. IMO, it was the parents who were considered a potential danger to the children because LE believed one of them to be responsible for Carlene's death since they were uncooperative with the investigation.

The mother particularly drew suspicion to herself when she lied about her whereabouts that night. Usually when someone lies about their whereabouts during the commission of a crime, it's because they were involved in and are concealing information about the crime. So, I understand why LE focused on the parents. Even after learning the truth of the mother's whereabouts the night her daughter died and the reason she lied, IMO she is guilty of obstruction of justice at the least for hindering the investigation of her own daughter's death with her lies.

I also don't understand how neither of the parents could be aware of the game their children were playing. While parents can't be expected to know what each of their 4 children are doing every moment of the day, this game their children were playing, according to the SS teacher, was an ongoing thing. I wonder if the SS teacher had brought it to the parents' attention.

JMO

 

[BlaserBrown]

The timeline has been discussed in this thread. Carlene was found by her father in the morning and the 911 call came in at 8:36 am. Meaning she died after bed time. 9 year old boys generally don't share rooms with 4 year old girls. The story from the Sunday school teacher of jumping off the bed into laundry then tying each other up in blind cords doesn't fit that time frame. The DA claims that game was unsupervised, but what 9 year old does their own laundry?

They spent 3 months looking at the mother and found nothing and followed that with 4 months secretly blaming the brother but leaving him with the other 2.

I can't be the only one who thinks LE screwed this whole thing up.

Is there a transcript or video of the questions the DA took?

 

[Rayemonde]

Do we know for sure that the brother was with the other children the whole time they were removed from the parents? If so, LE may have thought the situation was safe at the grandparents because the kids were better supervised there, and they may have warned the grandparents about the game and told them to keep a very close eye on the kids.

If the parents did it, why would they deny that their son did it? He would make the perfect scapegoat for them.

Maybe the mother was so uncooperative because she was protecting her son. After all, she wasn't even there that night so she can't have had anything to do with Carly's death.

The incident may have happened after bedtime, but kids sneak into each other's bedrooms after bedtime to play all the time. The boy could have gone back to his own room and gone to bed without the father even knowing he had been in Carly's room. I bet he confessed to his parents afterwards and they vowed to lie to protect him... If he did it, I really can't imagine him keeping quiet all this time and no one suspecting anything. It must have been eating him up alive.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I think it's extremely likely that one or both of the parents knew that the game had caused Carlene's death before the 911 call was even placed. I could definitely see Carlene and her brother playing this game after everyone goes to bed too. I also think that if the brother saw that Carlene was struggling or no longer breathing, he would be freaking out and would get his father. I wouldn't be surprised if the 911 call was placed hours after the parents found out that Carlene was dead.

 

[midstateMind]

I think it's extremely likely that one or both of the parents knew that the game had caused Carlene's death before the 911 call was even placed. I could definitely see Carlene and her brother playing this game after everyone goes to bed too. I also think that if the brother saw that Carlene was struggling or no longer breathing, he would be freaking out and would get his father. I wouldn't be surprised if the 911 call was placed hours after the parents found out that Carlene was dead.

Agreed. I think some of the conjecture is getting a little bit far afield. I'd recommend people new to the thread go look at old news articles as it all appeared in the press. The press conference is probably also still available via 13wmaz.com or macon.com

Nobody is asserting that kids did their own laundry. It sounded (to me) like the kids were jumping into piles of dirty laundry in their rooms (if any of that is even true).

The thing I still have trouble with the most is the father not trying to free Carly. Something happened that night or early that Sunday morning. At a minimum, the father has to be aware of some of it. We know the mother is a liar, so it's really impossible for me to believe any of her stories. She lied about her whereabouts (at least) to the police, if not her husband as well. Who's to say that she didn't kill her daughter, close the door to her room, say she was going to work & leave the body to be found by the dad? Perhaps he saw the obviously deceased child and made a decision not to tamper with the crime scene knowing what he does about his wife.

Frankly, there are infinite possibilities, and just because one Sunday school teacher makes a statement, it doesn't clear the case or change a thing unless LE definitively corroborates her story. If the parents deny what the teacher is saying and coach their kids to be uncooperative with LE, how can this witness be validated? IMO, we are back to square one: not knowing who or what killed Carly Jane.

Bless your sweet heart, baby girl. You didn't deserve this.

 

[midstateMind]

Do we know for sure that the brother was with the other children the whole time they were removed from the parents? If so, LE may have thought the situation was safe at the grandparents because the kids were better supervised there, and they may have warned the grandparents about the game and told them to keep a very close eye on the kids.

If the parents did it, why would they deny that their son did it? He would make the perfect scapegoat for them.

Maybe the mother was so uncooperative because she was protecting her son. After all, she wasn't even there that night so she can't have had anything to do with Carly's death.

The incident may have happened after bedtime, but kids sneak into each other's bedrooms after bedtime to play all the time. The boy could have gone back to his own room and gone to bed without the father even knowing he had been in Carly's room. I bet he confessed to his parents afterwards and they vowed to lie to protect him... If he did it, I really can't imagine him keeping quiet all this time and no one suspecting anything. It must have been eating him up alive.

Yes. It has been substantiated through the grandmother's blog and via social media of the mother that all three kids were with Mrs. Rigby's mom and stepfather.

I think the parents have clung to the idea of this being an accident. It may be a classic case of "that's my story and I'm sticking to it."

I think we all have to entertain the truth that just because LE finds people to alibi suspects doesn't mean that those others are not in collusion with the suspects. If my child died overnight in my absence and I was a suspect potentially facing jail time, I do believe I'd confess that I was in an extramarital affair because PRISON or potential divorce (of which was already filed in May 2014)????

You are right----just because you put kids to bed doesn't mean they stay there. I just can't get past the "coincidence" that Carly died on what would have been the 15th birthday of Mrs. Rigby's first child who died in 2005. Out of the children, the oldest (now alleged responsible for the death) is the only one who ever knew that brother.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

Agreed. I think some of the conjecture is getting a little bit far afield. I'd recommend people new to the thread go look at old news articles as it all appeared in the press. The press conference is probably also still available via 13wmaz.com or macon.com

Nobody is asserting that kids did their own laundry. It sounded (to me) like the kids were jumping into piles of dirty laundry in their rooms (if any of that is even true).

The thing I still have trouble with the most is the father not trying to free Carly. Something happened that night or early that Sunday morning. At a minimum, the father has to be aware of some of it. We know the mother is a liar, so it's really impossible for me to believe any of her stories. She lied about her whereabouts (at least) to the police, if not her husband as well. Who's to say that she didn't kill her daughter, close the door to her room, say she was going to work & leave the body to be found by the dad? Perhaps he saw the obviously deceased child and made a decision not to tamper with the crime scene knowing what he does about his wife.

Frankly, there are infinite possibilities, and just because one Sunday school teacher makes a statement, it doesn't clear the case or change a thing unless LE definitively corroborates her story. If the parents deny what the teacher is saying and coach their kids to be uncooperative with LE, how can this witness be validated? IMO, we are back to square one: not knowing who or what killed Carly Jane.

Bless your sweet heart, baby girl. You didn't deserve this.

What if....The brother comes into the father's room, freaking out because Carlene is not breathing. The father (and possibly the mother too since I think he would have called her) decide that it is best to not untie Carlene because they want it to be very apparent to LE when they come to the house what happened. I also wonder if he did something to the body/the blinds that they think would've helped in their accident coverup, but LE was able to see through it? If your mindset is "Okay we need to protect our son...we need to make this look like a complete accident", you are going to behave differently than someone whose mindset is "Call 911---maybe we can save our daughter".

I also think it is likely that phone records show that there were calls made between Carlene's father and mother shortly after the autopsy showed that Carlene passed away.

One thing I don't get is....Why the coverup for the son? Apparently, Carlene died in a game. It was just a tragic accident. And to even attempt to continue the coverup after LE has announced to the public what happened--why? One possibility could be that they didn't want Carlene's brother to be known as the kid who killed his sister at school.

ETA: I also wonder if the parents had told LE from the beginning that it was a game, and that they didn't want it to be made public that the son was involved, I wonder if LE would have agreed to just announce that Carlene had died in an accident w/ the blinds? If the parents had let the son talk to LE, tell them what happened, they could close the case shortly after Carlene died. But because LE spent resources on the case, the parents wouldn't cooperate, and the case hit the media, they said "oh well"?

 

[BlaserBrown]

Lots of speculation, not a lot of discussion of facts in this thread. I'll try this one last time.
During the summer a bunch of teenagers stormed into Wal-Mart and this DA tried to place gang charges on them. He ended up looking like a fool.
Now this DA is telling us an unlikely story of a child sneaking out of his room to play a game with his sister after bedtime.
This comes from Barbara Burns who was interviewed 3 months after Carlene's death, and the story was told 3 months before. So 6 months.
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=1176687433&tsid=0.776638648705557&source=typeahead
There was no evidence from the search warrant issued to collaborate the story, so 4 months passed with out movement in the case.
What I'm saying is the DA is in over his head. And he might not be the only one.
Unlike all the other threads I've read on here this cases only evidence is the autopsy report. There has never been another child case involving window blinds ruled a homicide, and the FBI cleared the parents of prior knowledge of window blinds by searching all their electronics.

 

[midstateMind]

Lots of speculation, not a lot of discussion of facts in this thread. I'll try this one last time.
During the summer a bunch of teenagers stormed into Wal-Mart and this DA tried to place gang charges on them. He ended up looking like a fool.
Now this DA is telling us an unlikely story of a child sneaking out of his room to play a game with his sister after bedtime.
This comes from Barbara Burns who was interviewed 3 months after Carlene's death, and the story was told 3 months before. So 6 months.
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=1176687433&tsid=0.776638648705557&source=typeahead
There was no evidence from the search warrant issued to collaborate the story, so 4 months passed with out movement in the case.
What I'm saying is the DA is in over his head. And he might not be the only one.
Unlike all the other threads I've read on here this cases only evidence is the autopsy report. There has never been another child case involving window blinds ruled a homicide, and the FBI cleared the parents of prior knowledge of window blinds by searching all their electronics.

Not really sure what you're aiming at or what you're going to "try...one last time."

The DA may be a fool. I doubt he'll get elected again. BUT, the DA has not told ANY "story of a child sneaking out of his room to play a game with his sister after bedtime." If he has, I'd like the link to this suspicion. The timeline has not been disclosed to my knowledge---nor a time of death. We need to be careful of what we are speaking about as it seems to be in several different categories on this thread:

1) facts or stories presented by the DA/LE/Media
2) rumors we've heard locally
3) pure conjecture
4) firsthand knowledge that we should not repeat on this forum

Was there no evidence from the search warrant? Where is that link? I'm assuming you meant "corroborate" and not "collaborate." (This seems to be pure conjecture---I'm sure something was collected. Whether it helped the case is another question.)

The DA is likely in over his head---on that we can agree. I'm sure there are a lot of cases in which horrendous things happen and cases can't easily be solved. I read somewhere that cases involving deaths of children often take 2-3 years to resolve.

The evidence is based on the scene of the death, autopsy, and witness. It may be true that there have not been other cases of window blind cord deaths being ruled homicides, but I also haven't heard of a window blind cord death involving a deliberate knot tied. In typical tragic cases, it seems a child has become tangled in the cords or strangled by the loop.

Has "the FBI cleared the parents of knowledge of window blinds by searching all their electronics"??? Because I haven't seen that report. Please link to the forum.

Just putting this out there: http://www.41nbc.com/media/lib/171/...ter_to_DFCS_in_Homicide_of_Carlene_Rigby.pdfr

 

[eileenhawkeye]

"Possibly at risk of being harmed by him"

Disturbing...I gues LE thinks it wasn't a completely innocent game. Or they think the parents cannot control their son to tell him to stop playing it. You would think that if a 9-year-old was playing a game that killed his sibling, he would knock it off but LE doesn't sound super confident about that.

 

[the seeker]

"Possibly at risk of being harmed by him"

Disturbing...I gues LE thinks it wasn't a completely innocent game. Or they think the parents cannot control their son to tell him to stop playing it. You would think that if a 9-year-old was playing a game that killed his sibling, he would knock it off but LE doesn't sound super confident about that.

Yeah...9 years old or not, Im not sure how "innocent" this was.

 

[BlaserBrown]

Let me correct something I said. GbI searches the electronics of all major crimes. They cannot wire tap so they needed the FBI for that and it takes some justification for it.

 

[midstateMind]

Hmmmm...so three months after her daughter died while she was allegedly having an affair one town over from her residence, it comes out now that she was sexually assaulting prison inmates and abusing her power as a contract employee nurse. This sickness has to go waaaaaay back, imho.

http://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article137387038.html
http://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article137502123.html
http://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article137811713.html
http://www.macon.com/news/state/georgia/article137672868.html