TX - Autistic boy, 8, throws twin sisters down stairs, killing one

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White Rain

White Rain

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NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — Police say an eight-year-old suburban Fort Worth boy threw his infant twin sisters down the stairs of their home — killing one and injuring the other.
The incident happened in North Richland Hills before dawn Monday — hours after the boy's family had settled into their new home after moving from Florida.
Police say the boy has a "diminished mental capacity" but is too young to be detained. Under Texas law, a child must be at least ten years old to be in the juvenile court system.
Police say the parents discovered the injuries when they were awakened by one baby's cries.
An autopsy report shows one nine-month-old girl died from blunt force trauma of the head and brain. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office ruled her death a homicide.
Her twin sister suffered head injuries and was taken to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, but her condition isn't available.
Authorities said the boy is in the care of his family.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281853,00.html
 
This is so sad. I guess this kid didn't know right from wrong? I wonder if his parents had any idea that he was such a danger to his little sisters? So many questions.
 
This is so sad. My prayers for this family. I hope that the 8-year-old boy can get some counseling.

I wonder what is going on with the family dynamic here? Does the article mean the 8-year-old is of diminished capacity because of his age or does that mean something else is going on?
 
I hope the baby girl who lived doesn't suffer permanent brain damage.
 
I just hope that is the "true" story and it wasnt an over tired sleep deprived parent that really did it. In my experience it is always hard to get 8 year olds to bed and equally hard to get them up in the morning. Seems funny that he would be up just before dawn. Especially since they had just gotten settled in "hours" before and he perhaps went to bed later than usual.

If the story is as it appears, then I wonder if the move to a new state and a new house was a stressor for this little boy that contributed to what he did.
 
lizzybeth said:
This is so sad. I guess this kid didn't know right from wrong? I wonder if his parents had any idea that he was such a danger to his little sisters? So many questions.
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You are so right. Because of the age of everyone involved, I can't help but think there will not be much information about this.

My son is almost 7 and I feel like he does know right from wrong about many things. He knows not to push anyone down the stairs and he also knows to be extra gentle with babies.

Obviously this child was having a lot of feelings about these two new children in the house. I wonder if he had other behavioral issues before their arrival. I suspect he did.
 
Glow said:
I just hope that is the "true" story and it wasnt an over tired sleep deprived parent that really did it. In my experience it is always hard to get 8 year olds to bed and equally hard to get them up in the morning. Seems funny that he would be up just before dawn. Especially since they had just gotten settled in "hours" before and he perhaps went to bed later than usual.

If the story is as it appears, then I wonder if the move to a new state and a new house was a stressor for this little boy that contributed to what he did.
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oh my goodness, I din't even think of it from this point of view! that view being the parent who did it & blamed it on the kid.
 
Glow said:
I just hope that is the "true" story and it wasnt an over tired sleep deprived parent that really did it. In my experience it is always hard to get 8 year olds to bed and equally hard to get them up in the morning. Seems funny that he would be up just before dawn. Especially since they had just gotten settled in "hours" before and he perhaps went to bed later than usual.

If the story is as it appears, then I wonder if the move to a new state and a new house was a stressor for this little boy that contributed to what he did.
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I think it might depend on the kid...I was an up-before-the-dawn kid until I became a preteen. My sister - just the opposite.

My own children have always been early risers and they still are at 5 and 7! They wake me up in the morning. And it doesn't matter is they go to bed at 8 or if they go to bed at 10 - they are up at 6 a.m. regardless.
 
Such a sad storey. I hope that the second baby is okay. I wonder what made him do that? Prayers for him, the surviving baby and the family.
 
UMMMM they say the boy has diminished capcity ...
But what I am really wondering is how they KNOW he threw them???
Could he have just simply let them out of their cribs?
And down they tumbled?
 
Amraann said:
UMMMM they say the boy has diminished capcity ...
But what I am really wondering is how they KNOW he threw them???
Could he have just simply let them out of their cribs?
And down they tumbled?
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He might have been really upset and saying, "baby cry, baby cry" over and over.

Diminished ability and low language skills can still get a message across.

Also, the severity of injuries might have indicated the force of a throw...a tumble down the stairs doesn't always result in severe head injuries.

I know, because at nine months, my older daughter pushed open a door I thought was shut securely, and she fell down the stairs, with me tumbling right after her to catch her. She basically rolled down the stairs, and came to a stop right before the last three steps, and the marble foyer.

She was fine, but even if she hit the foyer she wouldn't have hit with enough force to cause a life-threatening injury (although at the time I sure thought so.)

On a lighter note--we were so freaked by this--the child was well over two before we realized that she might be able to get up the stairs and down on her own (with help and supervision.)
 
The family was settling into a new home, in a new town, in a new state. I have one question-where were the parents when this happened? :banghead:
The family was in a new home,the children were not used to sleeping in their new and strange bedrooms so again, where were the parents? They didn't hear their son get up or hear either of the babies crying?

I have another question, why didn't the parents use baby monitors in both the boys room and the twins room?

The baby died of blunt force trauma. Would falling down the stairs cause such an injury? Dropping the babies from a 2 stories up may have caused such injuries but I'm thinking GLOW may have hit on something.
I'm not much buying the story that the 8 year old did this.
 
The parents were asleep in their beds - as they should be. Baby monitors shouldn't be needed - I don't have one running at night, as my room is near enough to hear any cries if they wake up. The monitor is downstairs, for naps when I'm further away. There's just no way I can see for the parents to expect this to happen, to anticpate that he'd do that. It's a tragedy, nothing more, and parents are not gods to anticipate every possible problem.

It takes little enough to kill a baby. Rolling down the stairs should easily be able to do that.
 
Details said:
The parents were asleep in their beds - as they should be. Baby monitors shouldn't be needed - I don't have one running at night, as my room is near enough to hear any cries if they wake up. The monitor is downstairs, for naps when I'm further away. There's just no way I can see for the parents to expect this to happen, to anticpate that he'd do that. It's a tragedy, nothing more, and parents are not gods to anticipate every possible problem.

It takes little enough to kill a baby. Rolling down the stairs should easily be able to do that.
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I know the parents were in their bed, that was written in the article. My question was rhetorical.
Sorry, but I highly disagree with you about the baby monitors. The parents should have been watching and listening for their kids, especially in a new home. Not anticipate this happening? Maybe not but you can pretty much bet the farm that this wasn't the first time the mentally diminished older boy tried to hurt the babies. It would be interesting to hear other facts about this case but that won't happen. The 8 year old, IF he did this will never be punished for murder...accident or not.
 
Details said:
The parents were asleep in their beds - as they should be. Baby monitors shouldn't be needed - I don't have one running at night, as my room is near enough to hear any cries if they wake up. The monitor is downstairs, for naps when I'm further away. There's just no way I can see for the parents to expect this to happen, to anticpate that he'd do that. It's a tragedy, nothing more, and parents are not gods to anticipate every possible problem.

It takes little enough to kill a baby. Rolling down the stairs should easily be able to do that.
Click to expand...


I have to disagree, if only for the fact that in a one-story house, a trailer to be honest, only 2 doors away and we STILL had a monitor for my baby (10 years ago)...lots of people (including and especially me) need noise at night, such as from a fan or air conditioner, I currently use BOTH although my oldest is 10 years old.............in this case a baby monitor WOULD be needed....
 
I think we used the baby monitor with both kids well after they were one year old...

My brother used to joke they would just keep it in their daughter's room so she would never notice, and she'd be a teen and at dating age and they could keep an eye on her that way.

Even so, I think that by the time a parent woke from an exhausted sleep, with a child who perhaps didn't sleep much to begin with (my friend's autistic child slept maybe 5 hours a night for many years) taking a baby from their crib--

I can see it happening all too easily.
 
Speaking of baby monitors, here is a story for you...

We had a baby monitor in the nursery. One night we were standing in the room and I was changing the sheets on the crib. My husband was standing there talking to me (just generalities) and the phone rang. It was our next door neighbor and they had a newborn.They called to tell us they were picking up our conversation on THEIR baby monitor. They said "We are so glad you weren't talking about US we might have been too embarrassed to call you!" LOL
 
Texana the last sentence about realizing that she could do the stairs made me laugh..
"On a lighter note--we were so freaked by this--the child was well over two before we realized that she might be able to get up the stairs and down on her own (with help and supervision.)"

Hubby has a cousin and her little girl was like 3 and could easily navigate stairs (very well coordinated and normally zoomed through the house)
but her mom was soooo scared she would fall that everytime this child got to stairs even the 3 leading to my house she would stop cold! and v-e-r-y-v-e-r-y s l o w l y go up the steps all the while saying to herself .... (because her mom drilled it in) "careful careful slow slow"


back to topic :) I agree with Whiterain many need the monitor also in the second article it mentions 2 other older sybs 11 and 14 I think so with that many moving about I think a monitor would be needed.
I don't think a diminished capacity 8 yo is capable of truly meaning or understanding the harm he could do.

ETA Texana if your friends autistic child slept 5 hours she is soooooooo lucky!! Richie hardly at all and when he does its usually in the day.
Glow that is a cute story! I have heard of that happening before!
 
Glow said:
Speaking of baby monitors, here is a story for you...

We had a baby monitor in the nursery. One night we were standing in the room and I was changing the sheets on the crib. My husband was standing there talking to me (just generalities) and the phone rang. It was our next door neighbor and they had a newborn.They called to tell us they were picking up our conversation on THEIR baby monitor. They said "We are so glad you weren't talking about US we might have been too embarrassed to call you!" LOL
Click to expand...



I agree with you here, am terribly embarrased to say, but my ex-husband was a fan of the 1-900 sex numbers...one morning after he got up for work I heard weird noises on the baby monitor, for no reason whatsoever I picked up the phone and heard a 1-900 recording...went nuts of course...my ex-hubby tried to say he'd called his employer but got the wrong number...YEAH RIGHT (thank God I am rid of him!)....anyway just meaning to say that monitors pick up stuff you wouldn't believe it interefered with it ....and as I said before, even just a few feet away I still needed a monitor, due to my need for noise, fans and/or an air conditioner.
 
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