TRUE LIFE IS MUCH SCARIER THAN FICTION

Child Murder In The United States Part Two (Certain Images May Be Disturbing) Updated 5/14

Boy In The Box: Despite the huge publicity at the time and sporadic re-interest throughout the years, the case remains unsolved to this day, and the boy's identity is still unknown. He was approximately 4 to 6 years old, whose naked, battered body was found in a cardboard box in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1957. The boy's body, wrapped in a plaid blanket, was inside a cardboard box that once contained a baby's bassinet from J.C. Penney. He is also commonly called "America's Unknown Child". The story has been profiled on the television series America's Most Wanted. The television series Cold Case, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Law & Order: SVU have all used fictionalized accounts of the story as the basis for episodes.

Although a foster home was under scrutiny, there have been several hypothesis concerning the crime, none ever panning out. From being a child of an unwed mother, a very shameful thing for that time period, to a fantastic story of a child being sold, then abused, tortured and killed by the one who bought him, there still is no credible account or reason as to why this should happen to a small boy.

The second major theory is one brought forward in February 2002 by a woman identified only as "M". She claimed that her abusive mother purchased the unknown boy, named "Jonathan ", from his birth parents in the summer of 1954. Telling a horrific story of extreme abuse that ended in his murder, she claims her mother cut the boy's hair (police had reported that the boy's hair had shown a recent cut with bruises around the head) to conceal his identity and made her own daughter help dump the body - even being seen by a passing motorist who, had testified to witnessing this in 1957.

Police considered the story quite plausible, but were troubled by "M"'s testimony, as she had a history of mental illness. When interviewed, neighbors who had access to the house denied that there had been a young boy living in the house, and said that "M"'s claims were "ridiculous."

The murder continues to be considered unsolved as of 2014.

JonBenet Ramsey: JonBenet Ramsey's story is arguably one of the most well-known stories in the United States. She was killed only a few months after she turned 6 on December 26, 1996.. Her mother discovered the girl was missing and found a ransom note, at which point police were contacted. A search of the house found the girl’s body in a wine cellar, strangled to death.

Mr. Ramsey, Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We do respect your bussiness [sic] but not the country that it serves. At this time we have your daughter in our posession [sic]. She is safe and unharmed and if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter. You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. 

Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank. When you get home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 am tomorrow to instruct you on delivery. The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence a [sic] earlier delivery pick-up of your daughter.

Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them. Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as Police, F.B.I., etc., will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. 

If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies. You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, she dies. You can try to deceive us but be warned that we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics. You stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to out smart [sic] us. Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back.

You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities. Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours. It is up to you now John!

Victory! S.B.T.C

A sick and worthless piece of paper as her body had already been found. Media coverage of the case has often focused on JonBenet's participation in child beauty pageants, her parents' affluence and the unusual evidence in the case. Reports have also questioned the police's overall handling of the case. Several defamation suits have been filed against several media organizations by Ramsey family members and their friends over reporting of the murder. In October 2010, the case was reopened. 

New interviews were conducted following a fresh inquiry by a committee which included state and federal investigators. Police were expected to use the latest DNA technology in their investigation. It was announced January 27, 2013 that a grand jury found sufficient evidence to indict the parents in 1999 on charges of child abuse resulting in death, but the District Attorney refused to sign the indictment, leaving the impression that the grand jury investigation was inconclusive.


In October of 2013, the unsealing of the four-page indictment 14 years after the grand jurors convened revealed that they voted to charge both John and Patsy Ramsey with child abuse resulting in death and being an accessory to a crime, including first-degree murder of their daughter, though never directly accusing them of killing her. Being convicted of "knowingly and recklessly" causing child abuse resulting in death is a Class 2 felony that could have carried a sentence of four to 48 years in prison, though the three-year statute of limitations had long expired by the time the public ever heard about the indictment.

Barbara and Patricia Grimes: The sisters, 15 years old and 13 years old, disappeared December 28, 1956 in Chicago. Their bodies were found the following January. They had left their house to walk to the Theater to see an Elvis Presley movie and were never seen alive again. The hunt for them was one of the biggest in Chicago history but to no avail. A construction worker found them by pure chance. According to the autopsy, they probably died the day they disappeared - guessing (as well as pathologists could in the 50's) that they died of exposure. There were conflicting summaries that due to the appearance that they were probably still warm for some time before dying, possibly being alive as much as ten days later.

The confrontation of the two hypothesis caused the firing of one of the Coroners. Also, the corpses contained various bruises and marks, including three puncture wounds in Barbara's chest that may have come from an ice pick, which were never fully explained. It was theorized that Barbara Grimes had been sexually molested before she was killed and although the pathologists initially denied the claim, the Chief of Detectives confirmed that the Chicago crime lab had reported finding that while Barbara Grimes did have sexual intercourse around the time of the murders, there was no evidence of violence or sexual molestation.

On January 14, 1957, the parents of Patricia Grimes' classmate Sandra Tollstan received two telephone calls around midnight. When picking up the first phone call, nobody at the other end spoke. On the second phone call, 15 minutes later, a seemingly frightened voice asked "Is that you, Sandra? Is Sandra there?" but before the parents could bring their daughter to the phone, the caller had hung up. Ann Tollstan, the mother of Sandra Tollstan and the one who answered the second phone call, was convinced that the caller's voice belonged to Patricia Grimes.

The suspicion of a drifter eventually didn't pan out. A 17 year old suspect was given a polygraph and failed it, after which he allegedly confessed. However, at the time giving a polygraph to a minor was illegal so he was never formally charged and was let go. A few years later that same young man, Max Fleig, was sent to prison for the unrelated murder of another young woman. A total of four suspects were considered, later one was to be revealed as connected to the murders, however no one went to trial or was convicted of the murder of either sister to this day.

Amber Hagerman: She was only 9 years old when she died January 15, 1996. She was abducted while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas. A neighbor witnessed the abduction and called the police. Her disappearance ignited a huge search that brought in the FBI. Her body was found by a man walking his dog four days after she’d gone missing. Her throat had been cut, and evidence showed that she’d been alive for two days before being killed. Her killer was never found, and her homicide remains unsolved. The high-profile case and ensuing call from Amber’s parents for tougher laws for sex offenders, including a national offender registry, led to the creation of the AMBER Alert, a national bulletin distributed via TV and radio when a child goes missing. The alert’s name is technically “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response,” but it was named after Amber.

Recently, owners of smart phones were startled to find that Amber alerts now were a part of their messaging system. For a while, certain providers did not give customers a way to either adjust the type of warnings (tornadoes and other disasters were included also) or shut them off until July of this year. A California state-wide Amber alert by smartphone scared quite a few people with its loud tone - that was for the abduction of the two Anderson siblings, the older one being rescued safely and now is back at home with her father.

As of 2014, despite many theories and supposed suspects, the case still has not been solved.

The 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders: This refers to the deaths of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas, on December 6, 1991, after which the shop was set aflame. Shortly before midnight on Friday, December 6, 1991, a patrolling Austin police officer noticed a fire coming from an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop and reported it to his dispatcher. After the fire was extinguished, firefighters discovered four bodies with three stacked on top of one another. All were bound and gagged with their own clothes as they were found undressed. Each victim had been shot in the head, thus leading police to determine that they had likely died before the fire was started.

The bodies were of 13 year old Amy Ayers (sometimes spelled Ayres), 17 year old Jennifer Harbison, her 15 year old sister Sarah, and 17 year old Eliza Thomas. The initial investigation spanned nearly eight years with over 50 people, for reasons unknown, confessing to the crime. Two men who confessed to the murders were convicted, but they were released by 2009 due to lack of evidence. No new charges have been filed and local media coverage remains ongoing. As of 2011 the Austin police department has five cold-case detectives working on the case.

The I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop was located in a strip mall at the corner of Anderson Lane and Rockwood Drive. A nail salon currently occupies the space. In the parking lot there is a plaque that reads: 'In loving memory of Amy Ayres, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas. Forever in our hearts.'

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TRUE LIFE IS MUCH SCARIER THAN FICTION

Child Murder In The United States Part One

I've posted at length about the horrors visited on children (and women) the world over. However the US has a very dark history when it comes to the treatment of our small ones, and because of the printed page and the development of better media and especially things such as computers and the internet, crimes in the United States are unfortunately very easy to research and it's quite frightening how often this particular crime happens. 

I'm not talking things such as Sandy Hook - that is a different kind of animal. That was more of a horrid individual who went on a shooting spree where the victims happened to be children (and it's not the first).

This is about the taking of life of those helpless to even begin to defend themselves. Sometimes performed by people they trust, other times by total strangers, with all our advancement we still can't seem to properly protect the most innocent of our population. As the list is, unfortunately, extremely long and growing every day, here are just a few.

Polly Hannah Klaas: On October 1, 1993, Klaas invited two friends for a slumber party. Late in the evening, a man (Richard Allen Davis) entered her bedroom, carrying a knife. He tied the two friends up, pulled pillowcases over their heads and told Klaas' friends to count to 1,000. He then kidnapped the weeping Klaas. Over the next two months, about 4,000 people helped search for her. TV shows such as 20/20 and America's Most Wanted covered the kidnapping. It was discovered that Davis, after being released from a traffic stop as the police officers were unaware that he was wanted at the time, murdered Polly and buried her in a shallow grave. 

Davis was convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and four special circumstances (robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and a lewd act on a child). Davis provoked national outrage by taunting his victim's family by extending his middle finger to TV cameras. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison, in Marin County, California. Having survived an apparent drug overdose while in prison, and attacks on him by several other prisoners, Davis is now in solitary confinement, and continues to assist his attorneys in various appeals over the last 17 years (as of December, 2013) and has more appeals ahead of him before the sentence passed can be carried out.


His attorney has complained that California's seeming inability to implement any executions in a timely manner has forced Davis "to endure the uncertainty and ever-present tension on death row for such an extended time constitutes cruel and unusual punishment". (?!?)

The Klaas family started the Polly Klaas foundation dedicated to finding missing children - it is still active today, with a count of 8,500 children returned to their homes. In the wake of the murder, politicians in California and other U.S. states supported three strikes laws, and California's Three Strikes act was signed into law on March 8, 1994.

Marcy Renee Conrad: This case, although solved, still has a massive amount of 'why's attached to it to this day. Marcy disappeared at the age of 14. Her death was the work of a 16 year old high school student by the name of Anthony Jacques Broussard. The boy was large for his age, and though he’s frequently described as having a gentle demeanor in news reports, Broussard was reportedly troubled ever since finding his mother dead in the shower after coming home from elementary school. 

Conrad reportedly ran with a bad crowd, a group at school who called themselves The Stoners, and she frequently ran away from home. Conrad’s mother had reported that the girl had run-away the day before her death.


After the murder, Broussard loaded Conrad’s body in his pick-up truck and made his way into the hills surrounding town, dumping her remains in the bottom of a ravine. After hiding the body, Broussard told several classmates about his crime–many of whom did not believe him, and to verify his act, Broussard guided groups of kids to the body as proof.

As word of the body spread, at least thirteen kids filed out  into the hills to see Broussard’s grizzly work. Witnesses included Conrad’s former boyfriend, who brought his 8-year-old brother in tow. To Detective Sgt. Garry Meeker of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department, it was not the killing of 14-yearold Marcy Renee Conrad that was so unusual, at least not these days.

''Not the crime itself,'' said the 42-year-old sergeant, who has been a police officer all his working life, like his father before him. ''The unusual aspect was what followed, the kids going up there. That was the unusual aspect.''
At that, he said, it was only the extremity of the crime, the strangulation of a young girl, that made the callousness and silence of the teen-agers so out of the ordinary. For two days they had gone up into the hills by the carload, as if on an outing, to take a look at the body lying half naked in the woods.

"Even the straightest kid in school knows which kid is dealing dope; they don't care or want to get involved," Sergeant Meeker said. "They know all the stuff that's going down. You take the straightest, straight-A, civic-minded student in that school, he's going to know all that, and he's not going to tell. But when it reaches the point of murder, I mean, when you're talking about a 14-year-old girl..."

This brought into question California statutes regarding juvenile sentencing for violent crimes, as Broussard's actions were particularly heinous. After kidnapping her, he raped and strangled her, leaving her body in a ravine. If that was all, this story would not have been so shocking in this day and age. But Broussard, evidently extremely proud of what he had done, invited friends from Milpitas High School to view Conrad's corpse. 

Reactions varied. Some poked at the body with sticks like curious children, others thought it was a mannequin, a bad joke. They goaded each other into touching the body. They removed patches from her half-removed jeans, and one–16-year-old covered her body in plastic bags and leaves to give Broussard 'a head start' on the police. Most simply went about their day and pretended that nothing was wrong.
When the story finally broke, and Broussard went into police custody, Milptas became the center of a media firestorm with reporters from across the country swarming into town to get a scoop on Broussard’s crime, and on the decayed moral fiber of those who stayed quiet. A 1981 article from the Sarasota Herald Tribune records many of the teens’ reactions, most of them echoing the same chilly reserve. Even homicide detectives put on the case were shaken by the teens’ apparent apathy, claiming that the kids “must have ice water in their veins.”

He was only caught after two students finally went to the police about it. The others said they 'did not want to get in trouble'. Broussard pled guilty and was sentenced to 25 years to life. A report said that Mr. Broussard had no remorse... Dr. Howard H. Lee, a staff psychiatrist, characterized Mr. Broussard’s many complaints of mental problems as "overkill." He said Mr. Broussard appeared to be without feelings about human life and was without emotion, as if nothing touched him.

He was denied a new trial in 1985, and has repeatedly been denied parole. As of April 2013 Broussard is still incarcerated at California's Folsom State Prison.

Adam Walsh: Probably one of the best known (and most tragic) unsolved child murder case in the United States. He disappeared from a Sears store on July 27, 1981. Adam's severed head was found by two fishermen in a Vero Beach, Florida, canal on August 10, 1981. The rest of his body was not recovered. John Walsh himself was considered by authorities as a prime suspect as the police investigation started to become exhausted. After about a week, he was later absolved of any foul play following a highly emotional press statement that was televised nationally. A drifter named Ottis Toole was commonly believed to be the abductor and murderer although evidence was not able to support this and his confession was later recanted. 

Toole died in prison, aged 49, of cirrhosis of the liver while serving a life sentence for other crimes. Afterwards, Toole's confession has been viewed as reliable, since he accurately described details only the culprit would know. Adam's kidnapping and murder prompted John Walsh to become an advocate for victims rights. 

Adam Walsh's murder was among those that helped to spur the formation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). As a result of his advocacy, he was approached to host the television program America's Most Wanted. The Code Adam program for helping lost children in department stores is named in Walsh's memory. The U.S. Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act on July 25, 2006, and President Bush signed it into law on July 27, 2006. 

The signing ceremony took place on the South Lawn of the White House, attended by John and Revé Walsh. The bill institutes a national database of convicted child molesters, and increases penalties for sexual and violent offenses against children. It also creates a RICO cause of action for child predators and those who conspire with them.

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TRUE LIFE IS MUCH SCARIER THAN FICTION

Things Done To Women You Wouldn't Do To Your Worst Enemy

There are a lot of pages devoted to horror on Facebook, some concentrate on gory pictures, some on gory stories. Some actually show a little effort and will research things like fairy tales that are not quite what you were told as a child. And then there are pages who really try to investigate the good, the bad and the ugly of the world and present it to those who are interested.

Bride Kidnapping: Bride kidnapping is a common practice in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. When it is time to get married in Kyrgyzstan, a man or his family will pick a woman and she will be kidnapped. The prospective groom and his male relatives or friends or both abduct the girl (in the old nomadic days, on horseback; now often by car) and take her to the family home, where the older women of the family tries to get her to accept the marriage. 

Some families will keep the girl hostage for several days to break her will. Others will let her go if she remains defiant. The kidnapped woman’s family may also become involved in the process, either urging the woman to stay if the marriage is believed to be socially acceptable or advantageous for the prospective bride and her family, or opposing the marriage on various grounds and helping liberate the woman. In Ethiopia and Rwanda it is quite brutal, where the man kidnaps the woman and rapes her. The family of the woman either then feels obliged to consent to the union, or is forced to when the kidnapper impregnates her, as no one else would marry a pregnant woman...

Honor Killing: Honor Killing is a punitive murder, committed by members of a family against a female member of their family whom the family and/or wider community believes to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman is usually targeted for: refusing an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce (even from an abusive husband), or committing adultery or fornication. 

These killings result from the perception that any behavior of a woman that “dishonors” her family is justification of a killing that would otherwise be deemed murder. UNICEF has reported that in India, more than 5,000 brides are killed annually because their marriage dowries are considered insufficient. As of 2004, honor killings have occurred within parts of various countries, such as Albania, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States...

Bride Burning: Bride Burning is a form of domestic violence practiced in parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries located on or around the Indian subcontinent. In bride burning cases, it is alleged that a man, or his family, douses his wife with kerosene, gasoline, or other flammable liquid, and sets the woman alight, leading to death by fire...

Acid Attacks: Acid Attacks are a violent phenomena that primarily occur in Afghanistan. Perpetrators of these attacks throw acid at their victims (usually at their faces), burning them. The consequences include permanent scarring of the face and body as well as potential blindness. Acid attacks are sometimes referred to as vitriolage...

Sexual Mutilation: Female genital mutilation refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons. FGM is practiced throughout the world, with the practice concentrated most heavily in Africa. 


There have been many concerted efforts by the WHO (World Health Organization) to end the practice. Among practicing cultures, FGM is most commonly performed between the ages of four and eight, but can take place at any age from infancy to adolescence. The procedure, when performed without anesthetic, can lead to death through shock from immense pain or excessive bleeding...

Human Trafficking: Since the fall of the iron curtain, the impoverished former Eastern bloc countries such as Albania, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have been identified as major trafficking source countries for women and children. Young women and girls are often lured to wealthier countries by the promise of money and work and then reduced to sexual slavery. 

It is estimated that 2/3 of women trafficked for prostitution worldwide annually come from Eastern Europe, three-quarters have never worked as prostitutes before. The major destinations are Western Europe (Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK and Greece), the Middle East (Turkey, Israel, the United Arab Emirates), Asia, Russia and the United States. An estimated 500,000 women from Central and Eastern Europe are working in prostitution in the EU alone...

Ritual Servitude: In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family. In this system of slavery of ritual servitude, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor...

Not me.

Me again. Are you beginning to understand why horror movies seem so... non-horrific to me? How can a slasher movie or creature feature give me nightmares when the world is this brutal? Thank you Dana for a look at a world we tend to turn our backs to. And for those in the US feeling superior, consider this:

NOW (National Organization For Women) had these statistics for crimes against women by people they know. These numbers do NOT include violence done by strangers.


Murder: Of all the women murdered in the U.S., about one-third were killed by an intimate partner.


Domestic Violence: Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes every year.  Less than 20 percent of battered women sought medical treatment following an injury.


Sexual Violence: According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which includes crimes that were not reported to the police, 232,960 women in the U.S. were raped or sexually assaulted in 2006. That's more than 600 women every day. Other estimates, such as those generated by the FBI, are much lower because they rely on data from law enforcement agencies. A significant number of crimes are never even reported for reasons that include the victim's feeling that nothing can/will be done and the personal nature of the incident.



Violence Between Same-Sex Couples: According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, "domestic violence affecting LGBT individuals continues to be grossly under-reported . . . there is a lack of awareness and denial about the existence of this type of violence and its impact, both by LGBT people and non-LGBT people alike." Myths regarding gender roles perpetuate the silence surrounding these abusive relationships; for example, the belief that there aren't abusive lesbian relationships because women don't abuse each other. 

Shelters are often unequipped to handle the needs of lesbians (as a women-only shelter isn't much defense against a female abuser), and transgendered individuals. Statistics regarding domestic violence against LGBT people are unavailable at the national level, but as regional studies demonstrate, domestic violence is as much as a problem within LGBT communities as it is among heterosexual ones.

I'm reminded of a line from Cabin In The Woods where the surviving 'sacrifices' find out that such sacrifices have been carried out every year to appease the Old Ones. They muse that perhaps 'it's time for someone else to have a chance'. I would be inclined to agree with that.

TRUE LIFE IS MUCH SCARIER THAN FICTION

The Illegal Baby Adoption Racket

Just when China thought they had a handle on all the fetus-eating rumors, an article out of the LA Times shows that they still need some polishing when it comes to the sanctity of human life. Either that or get rid of the restrictions in family size that are causing a whole lot of these problems in the first place. 

In Fuping a 55 year old obstetrician has been arrested for collecting babies, lying to the parents telling them it is either deformed, diseased or dead (China still has, behind closed doors, an euthanasia policy for less-than-perfect babies). She then took the baby and sold it for quite a tidy profit.

For years, as far back as 2006 she had been doing this. No doctor ever checked on her, and although some parents resisted quite strongly, she was so respected and even called 'Auntie' by most families that no one questioned her. But, like every criminal, she screwed up. 

Telling one couple their baby had syphilis and therefore would not have a 'normal' life, she took the baby and sold it. After some argument over who was unfaithful to who they both went to a different doctor, who determined that neither had the disease. That's when the police were called in. Happily, they were given back their baby.

Baby trafficker is on the left in the front row.

Others won't be as lucky. Although the police are investigating as best they can, and DNA can prove parentage, tracking down where the children went will be problematic. This was heartbreaking for one family. The 24 year old father was trusting and when 'Auntie' told him his newborn was neither completely male or female, she offered to 'take care of it'. Now they have no doubt the child was fine, but that was in 2006 - tracking that child will be very difficult at best.

As many as 55 possible baby thefts from the hospital are under investigation, with Zhang a principal suspect in half of them, according to police statements. Child trafficking is a huge problem in rural China, where babies are sometimes snatched from their parents' arms and sold to couples unable to conceive or who desperately want a boy. In December, the Public Security Ministry said it had rescued 54,000 children since April 2009, when a nationwide campaign against trafficking began.

Child trafficking (for the purpose of selling for adoption - not slavery or the sex trade) is more common than you may think. And China is far from the only offender. A small city less than two hours from where I live arrested a mother for attempting to sell her baby at a certain fast food restaurant. And I can recall at least two reports of people attempting to sell their babies on sites such as eBay or Craigslist. And now we have another social site in the crosshairs.

On April 16, 2013, Digital Trends reported that a parent of newborn attempted to sell it on Facebook. In Punjab this poor little one was sold not once, but THREE times - first it was kidnapped by the grandfather, sold for $850 to a nurse, who turned around and sold it to a lab assistant for $5,500.00. He then did the natural thing <heavy sarcasm> - decided to turn a tidy profit, selling it on Facebook for roughly $14,750.00. 

NOT child in story...

Obviously they were all caught and the baby returned. How was the investigation started? Well this 'grandfather' had told his granddaughter that her child was stillborn, but she became suspicious when suddenly 'he was much wealthier than he had been previously'. Nice. The person who purchased the baby was not arrested because he 'hadn't arrived to the meeting to collect his purchase'. 

This is not the first attempt to sell babies through Facebook  - right here in the US (Oklahoma in fact) a woman was arrested when she tried to sell her baby - in fact she attempted to sell BOTH of her children. One, a two year old was 'tagged' for $1,000.00, but upped the price to $4,000.00 when she included her 10 month old for a 'package deal'. According to Oklahoma investigators, she offered this price to an unnamed woman living in Fort Smith, Arkansas through a standard Facebook message.

Specifically, she wrote 'Just come to Sallisaw. It’s only 30 minutes away and I give you all her stuff and let y’all have her forever for $1,000. But I have to have it before next week.' She claimed to have needed a quick influx of $1,000 in order to bail her boyfriend out of jail. After the Facebook message was sent, an acquaintance of hers notified the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and she was quickly arrested.

When asked about VanHorn’s attempt to sell her own children, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward stated “It’s very disturbing to hear of a case like this, and certainly very tragic that somebody would treat their own children like a commodity.” When asked about this type of crime, Woodward continued “A lot of the deals, interaction, conversations will take place on social network sites where people can basically hide behind a computer screen, and they can hide their identity.”

This is certainly not a new thing, only the method of 'advertising' the sale is upgrading in our internet soaked society. But countries the world over have been doing this sort of thing for a very long time - now like I said this is those abducted for the purpose of being sold for adoption.

Again NOT one of the babies...

Looking around, I found that reports of children being abducted and sold, a lot out of hospitals, has been reported in the US as far back as 1924. In Cambodia, between 1997 to 2001 there were at least 800 illegal adoptions by just one person who made millions. One of her clients? Angelina Jolie. When caught did she get an appropriate sentence? If you think that a 36 month prison sentence is fair, we have differences in opinion.

Britain has a checkered history also - sale of children have been reported as far back as 1763. Procedures for selling children were often like those for selling wives when they relied on the contractual method, even if the contract was not legally enforceable.

In Ireland the earliest is in 964, and the reason usually was the family was suffering from famine and needed food.

Malaysia reports (as of 2005), baby-selling rings were 'thriving' although criminal.

In Greece, 'Babies of young women are sometimes sold to adoptive parents before their mothers even leave the hospital.' In 2007, brokering was being investigated by Interpol in Greece. Worldwide, in modern years, according to reporter Barbara Bisantz Raymond, brokers steal and sell children. In France, Italy, and Portugal, in 2007, brokering was being investigated by Interpol.

I'm not touching the subject of children sold for other reasons. This is depressing enough.

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TRUTH LIFE IS MUCH SCARIER (AND YUCKIER) THAN FICTION - THE WAKING DEAD



People Waking Up After Being Declared Dead

We had a motto when, back in another lifetime I worked with Emergency Services on a rural ambulance. No one was dead unless they were warm and dead. Apparently that rule isn't followed by everyone. All around the world there have been instances where people, having been declared dead sometimes for hours, have 'woken up' when moved to, say, either their coffin (no embalming done of course) or when held. Too often these same poor people soon die 'again' - some from the reason they died in the first place, others from shock. Why are people 'waking up' from being so-called 'dead'?

Well, most of these stories happen in countries that have inferior medical care. The doctors are either severely understaffed or untrained. In a lot of cases, it's the family of the sick or injured person that 'declares' them dead, a doctor never seeing them at all. And, as I said, some were just plain in shock and cold and 'come back to life' when warmed up.

Is this why some people have what are called Wakes before the funeral? They used to be in the house of the deceased, now mostly they happen at funeral homes. A wake (Irish: faire) is a ceremony associated with death. It is often a social rite which highlights the idea that the loss is one of a social group and affects that group as a whole. The English word 'wake' originated from Middle English wakien, waken, from Old English wacan, to wake up and wacian, to be awake, keep watch. So the whole 'watch 'em and see if they wake up' thing is mostly an urban legend (but I'm sure a close eye is kept on 'em anyway).

And you've probably heard of other things to assure the dead are really dead - the bells attached to the tombstone, a string to the dead one's hand - if you heard the tinkle of the bell - run. Just kidding. There's even been some things as elaborate as a TV monitor both in the coffin and on the tombstone. However, the burial sites that have 'cages' over them were not made to keep the dead in, rather, at that time body snatching was very common and the families wanted to make sure their loved ones were undisturbed.

Okay, so has anybody 'woken' in the US? Most bodies are turned over to morgues and embalming happens soon after so that pretty much slims down the chances but in New York... A woman who was an organ donor was declared brain dead but moments before they began to 'harvest', she woke up. This was in July of this year people, according to lifesitenews.com. 

This person wanted to be buried in their bedroom so...

Another was about to have her organs harvested when it was noticed that she responded to pain (brain dead patients cannot do that) and her lips and tongue were moving. Was the hospital slammed hard for this? Nope. Health Department investigators found that staff committed a series of mistakes and miscommunications and was fined $6,000.00. Hell you can't even WALK into a hospital for that amount. Did the family sue? Well, uh, you see the reason she was in a coma in the first place was because of a suicide attempt - which she tried again, successfully this time a year later so it was all dropped.

I wish I could say this was the only incident, but patients waking before organs being harvested happens often enough that if I am ever in that position, they better be damn sure to do every test they can think of to make sure I AM dead before they take anything.

So what about other countries? Well, as often as it happens I am inclined to believe more in the failings of medicine than believing in miracles.

A newborn baby named Luz Milagros has astonished doctors and police as she recovers in an Argentinean hospital. Her name, which translates to "Miracle Light," is rather fitting, considering the baby girl was pronounced dead 20 minutes after she was born, only to be discovered alive in a coffin in the morgue 12 hours later. Five medical professionals involved have been suspended pending an official investigation. Oh, and all who touched the baby after it started to move said it felt like ice. Remember they're not dead until...

A South African man reportedly woke up in a refrigerated morgue 21 hours after being declared dead from an asthma attack. Months later, news broke that a 60-year-old Brazilian woman woke up after two hours in a refrigerated body bag. Cold, cold, cold.

Sometimes the shock of being 'dead' is enough to kill you. Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, was wrongly declared dead by doctors, but she actually died after hearing people pray for her soul in Kazan, Russia. She was taken back to a hospital where she was declared dead, this time for good. A premature baby declared dead woke up before his own funeral before dying shortly after in Paraguay.

The famous 'KISS' coffin, dubbed by Gene Simmons as 'a
very expensive cooler'. The only one in 'use' was
donated to Dimebag Darrell, who was killed in 2004.

A two year-old toddler who was pronounced dead, sat up on his coffin during his funeral and asked his father for a drink of water before laying lifeless in the coffin once again, according to Brazilian news sources Kelvin Santos was declared deceased after he stopped breathing due to complications from bronchial pneumonia at Aberlardo Santos Hospital in the northern Brazilian city of Belem. SBT, one of Brazil's leading TV networks, reported that while awaiting for the body to be released into family custody, the infant was placed in an airtight body bag for three hours. 

The family gathered for an open-casket wake later that day, where, according to the two year-old's aunt, during which the infant repeatedly "appeared to move", before apparently sitting at up and asking his father for a drink of water. But a few seconds later, the little boy's body fell back in the casket and the family couldn't revive him again. He was pronounced dead a second time.

One almost died as she found herself in a locked morgue after she was pronounced dead following a Caesarean section. She was there for two hours in the cold morgue until someone heard her and let her out. Besides this rude awakening (sorry) she also claims the doctors treated her cruelly (surprise, surprise). Although she has demanded an investigation, no doctors have been questioned, the one who let her out of the morgue has disappeared, and she is getting absolutely no cooperation.

A similar case in South Africa saw a man put on ice in a morgue for 24 hours, when his family thought he was dead as they couldn’t wake him. However, doctors were not called to pronounce the victim, Mr. Kupelo, dead. When he awoke in the morgue and screamed for help, Gawker said he recounted that the attendants 'ran for their lives'.

A 65-year-old heart attack victim in Yemen had been washed and wrapped in special cloth, according to Muslim tradition. Mourners had placed him in his grave, and were preparing to cover him with dirt, when the man suddenly came to. He was not amused. "You want to kill me and bury me alive," he shouted, according to the Alettejah news website. After the shock wore off, mourners gave the no-longer-dead man fresh clothes, and turned the funeral into a party.

Two weeks after falling and suffering a head injury, Li Xiufeng, 95, was found lying motionless in her home by a neighbor. The friend couldn't wake her up. She was placed in a coffin and, according to local custom, was supposed to rest there for several days before the funeral. A day before the burial, her neighbor went to check on the coffin, and Li was gone. "I slept for a long time," she reportedly told her fellow villagers. "After waking up, I felt so hungry, and wanted to cook something to eat." Apparently, a doctor said, the tradition of waiting days before burial saved her. Another custom - the ritual burning all of a dead person's possessions -did not work in her favor.

Coffin of the future?

A Venezuelan man, Carlos Camejo, was declared dead after a highway accident in 2007. Before his wife could arrive to identify the body, medical examiners began an autopsy. Camejo who had been declared dead woke up in the morgue in excruciating pain after medical examiners began an autopsy. They cut into his face, and were surprised as fresh blood poured out. They quickly started sewing the incision, and Camejo regained consciousness. "I woke up because the pain was unbearable," Camejo told a local newspaper. When his wife arrived to identify him, she found Camejo waiting for her in the corridor.

So young ones remember - you're not dead until you're warm and dead - and hopefully fully tested as to whether you have actually expired or not.

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