It's the truly shocking narrative of a three year old disabled little boy, bound with tape and covered in a blanket and left alone in a hot closet without food and water, just an electric fan blowing, for almost 2 days while his foster parents, their four kids, and a house mate, drove off to the next state about fifty miles away, to enjoy a family reunion.
When they returned, he was dead. The foster parents concocted a story about a missing kid, and went on television to ask for help so that the police and thousands of their neighbors in the community diligently searched for him. Days went by. Meanwhile, they took his body and burned it to cover up their deed.
This is the coverage I found on the Cincinnati Enquirer website:
The crime
The search
On Butler County Children's Services
How the case unfolded
The Warrant
The Agency
The Family Reunion
Background, "Be Outraged"
Readers' thoughts
Coroner: Little of Marcus Remains
On that last thread of thoughts, I found this poem posted by someone called Sharon, imagining what might have been the last words of the toddler. Read the above first, then the poem. Tears may flow.
Attention must be paid.
One last thought. Although a little late, something should be done to remember Marcus and what he stands for. Let his name ring out and be preserved, a memorial in a park, perhaps a label on a piece of national legislation. It will help to give his senseless death some meaning.
LATER
Many people seem to feel that the child's natural mother should not be able to sue, and should not "make any money" out of this tragedy, since she seemed to be unable to take care of Marcus in the first place.
From a legal perspective, she needs to be the one to sue. Yes, "the people" can and will sue for a crime, perhaps even murder, perceived to have been committed.
But the natural mother was the "real party in interest", she had not lost her parental rights. And she can go after any and all defendants, not just the foster family, but the agency and the social worker employees and maybe even the State of Ohio. Defendants they all are not in a criminal suit. And they all have to answer, if justice and a better system is to be achieved. And remember, she might have won back her child if her circumstances improved. I hope she sues the pants off of everybody she can. Remember, she's not the fist mother you know to lose her children to the system. Many people do and many more get them back again. This doesn't mean that they were all deserving, it doesn't mean that Marcus' Mom ever deserved to have him back - I don't know what she'd been doing to help herself if anything. I do know that DHHS has been known to go after parents unfairly (I've personally seen way worse things done to kids than what she did and the kids were left with the parents.). I dunno, I hope the parents get some money, I hope it helps them. I hope they do something good with it - set up a charitable trust or a whole charity in memory of their little boy.
Every child is such a precious gift.
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Comments: 26
I also think that one of the bigger problems with the US is the sue-happy mentality.
However, there are valid cases in which a suit is warranted. Based on what little knowledge I have on this case, I'd say take everything everyone freakin owns, or will own in the future. heh.
This is so sad.
This makes me sick!
May God bless that child and all children. I can sit here and picture that poor child in the closet! Dispicable!!!!!!!!
I believe the people who harmed this child should go to jail for life, but I think suing is not a good plan. Money will not bring the child back, and any settlement would come out of the taxpayers pockets.
Rather, this case should be incentive to better fund social service agencies, so that children do not 'fall between the cracks'. Taxpayers money would be better spent returning social service funding to a reasonable level.
Our current government has stripped social service programs of staff and funding, leaving skeleton crews to do a monstrous job. Most of them do the best they can.
I thought this was the same story. Didn't Number 1 mom publish it a couple of times, and then her friend published it again after that? I think that's an important point also, so people don't mistake the reappearance of this one case as a flood of stories about children being treated this way. One is horrible enough ;-(
Unfortunately, sometimes simple clues that should raise red flags often end up getting overlooked.
I believe that being a social worker is one of the hardest jobs in the world. You are handed a small piece of everyone's tragedy.
Why does any of this matter? It's simple.
I have believed for a long time that social workers should have a psychiatrist available at all times, and at least one mandatory meeting per year.
Homicide detectives and certain other memebers of law enforcement have benefited from something akin to this.
The system does need restructured.
Although I am sure horrendous acts will still happen, maybe not as consistently. Maybe it wouldn't have happened to him.
"How did these people become foster parents? What idiot let them have a child to care for? Are they going to take away the natural children?" Yes, their natural children have been taken away and are now in foster care. They became foster parents thru a child placement service that DHHS uses. The placement service didn't do a very good background check to say the least. Also, apparently the child had a history of wandering off, not just from his mom. http://www.middletownjournal.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/09/07/mj09xx06fieseltimeline.html
Again, I can only go by what has been reported. I can't say I think very highly of the mother for I've seen in the newspapers, but then again, who am I to judge?
"You say the mother had not lost her parental rights, and then later "she might have won back her child if her circumstances improved." Can you explain this? If she had not lost her parental rights, why was her child living in the other home? " A: The child was placed in foster care because the mother wasn't taking care of her child properly. (He was found wandering the streets and was malnourished. He'd also fallen out of a window before that! Ahem!) Usually, parent(s) have to meet certain criteria before getting their child(ren) back - whether it be better living conditions, parenting classes, mental health help/counseling, etc. Just because a child was taken away and placed in foster care doesn't mean the child is gone forever from it's parents. It also doesn't mean that just because a person meets the criteria to get their child(ren) back that this makes everything ok either!
John A. - I really don't care if you take 'exception' to what I wrote or not. Children may not be 'property', but to the State they are - the more children the county DHS gets a hold of every year the more money they can get the next year in funding - and parents are legally reponsible for their children until age 18 (in some cases until 21 - go figure!). Even though the county (and ultimately the state) had custody of her child, it doesn't mean it was permanent. If she was really wanting her child back & doing everything the DHS wanted her to do and really MEAN it (again, I can't say for sure and I don't believe everything I see & read!) then, yeah........ I'd say sue the hell outta everybody.........
Sandy, Dawne & Nancy - I understand what you're saying & agree for the most part. Tragedies like this will happen again though. The State should have put it upon itself to know exactly how these child placement service providers screen possible foster parents............. of course, there should not have to be reason to even worry about this! The placement people should be sooooo very thorough in their screening!!! Sadly, this wasn't the case.........and made even worse because the county didn't know what a poor job "Lifeway for Youth" was doing in screening potential foster parents. I don't think it would matter how much funding they'd ever get - there would still be mistakes that happen........... and they happen all too often!
All I can say is I wouldn't want to be a social worker for any amount of money - it's not enough. You know they have to be beating their heads against the walls because many times they can't do what they know ought to be done........they have many rules to follow too and aren't supposed to make waves..........
I have two "normal" children and one daughter, Elise, who has ADHD/Asperger's. She's more trouble by herself than a set of octuplets. Except, of course, if she'd been octuplets, people would have come out of the woodwork with offers of help. With Elise, all I ever heard was, "But she's such a sweetie!" and "She's so smart!" (I taught her to read at age 4) and "She's so beautiful!" Elise is all of these things, and she's also the biggest pain in the butt I've ever had to deal with. She never stops moving or making noise; she never looks at anyone when they speak to her; she demands sweets every few minutes from dusk 'til dawn and becomes enraged when you try to curb her sugar-lust; she doesn't seem to recognize that I have any authority over her and disobeys my every request. She makes big messes, apparently intentionally, and says that cleaning up "is for idiots." She screams loudly, and often, over nothing. She can be violent with her baby brother and refuses to be reprimanded for it. She doesn't understand why she needs to be quiet when I'm on the phone or why she shouldn't lie on the floor in a high-traffic area. It's as though she's completely unaware that other people have needs at all. (typical autism-spectrum behavior)
It's easy for outsiders to say, "Well, she can't help it," but that doesn't make her any easier to deal with.
I'd like to think that I would have been able to handle Elise with no problem if there hadn't been such horrible things going on simultaneously. When she was four and the autistic behaviors were just emerging, I was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor and had to have emergency brain surgery (and a c-section too, as I was pregnant with my son.) I woke up from the surgery paralyzed on my left side and spent a month in a hospital trying to rehabilitate my arm and leg enough to go home. When I got home, I had a month-old son I couldn't even dress because my left hand didn't work, a filthy house, a pile of bills, and a daughter who suddenly acted like she was trying to make everyone's lives miserable. Is it any wonder I used to dream of wrapping duct tape over her mouth and tying her to a chair? I needed rest and time to recover, and I had this wild thing spinning around my house making crazy noises and making my difficult time much more difficult. I don't have a sadistic streak, but I did feel a strong need to defend myself and my injured brain from her destructive influence. I begged everyone I knew to just get her away from me, but there was no one who wanted to take her for big chunks of time, except my parents, who probably saved her life and mine too by taking her for weekends once or twice a month. (My husband works long hours and his parents live in Australia, so they couldn't give me a break.) At one point, I guess I expressed my frustration to Elise's teacher, because DSS accused me of neglect even though all three kids were well-fed, dressed and on the bus every day for school (well, the baby didn't go to school), and none of them were in any immediate physical danger. Eventually, a worker came to meet us and decided to close the case, realizing that even if sometimes I felt like strangling Elise, I wasn't actually going to do it, because unlike poor Marcus' foster parents, I have ethics and I understand that even the most rotten kid needs taking care of, not abuse and neglect.
The stress of the brain damage/new baby/autistic daughter combo took its toll on me...two years later I was diagnosed with lymph cancer and had to endure horrendous chemo to survive. I'm convinced the high stress of 2003/4/5 caused my cancer. But at least I didn't react to those toxic levels of stress by murdering my little girl (those ethics sure come in handy!)
The good news is: now, three years later, I'm somewhat more able to handle my pretty little monster, and she's in a class for autistic kids where they're trying to teach her to act more human. She's still brilliant, beautiful, sweet, talented, and a colossal pain in the butt, but with time, I'll teach her to live like a normal woman. I'm determined to see that she has a happy life, because I really love my daughter, even if it still sometimes feels like she's trying to kill me.
The upshot is this: families with disabled children need more help, in the form of respite care, social security, home helpers funded by medical insurance or state assistance plans, and closer monitoring by social workers. And of course there needs to be a better system for determining whether foster-parent candidates are emotionally stable enough to be entrusted with children, although I have no specific suggestions for making such a determination. I'd also love to see ethics courses taught beginning in middle school, although I don't expect that to ever happen.
As Nancy alluded, the "government" we have now cares more for big business than small children, so the lives of special-needs families are getting worse and worse. Let's vote for all Democrats in November and maybe we'll start to see some light at the end of that tunnel!
Karen
(Actually a very good mom when I'm healthy)
My son had a child in his class the past 2 years that had Asperger's Syndrome and for some reason he chose my son to use as his "punching bag". While I worried about my son I also wanted to know more about the syndrome but the school did not want to explain the syndrome to me so I could help my son cope. I did extensive research on my own and tried (somewhat successfully, I hope) to try to explain this situation to my son....however I wish I had read your article beforehand....it was concise, honest and to the point and explains so much when it comes to the situation you must face each and every day. Once again I think we need to be better "educators" when it comes to autism/Aspergers and help everyone involved...parents, teachers and students to understand and maybe by doing that, we can make inroads....take care and know you ARE making a difference with your daughter, it just takes "baby steps" but she will survive and so will you!
'Nuff said.
Lisa, do you have any idea why your comments are not fitting in the box?
"How did these people become foster parents? What idiot let them have a child to care for? Are they going to take away the natural children?" Yes, their natural children have been taken away and are now in foster care. They became foster parents thru a child placement service that DHHS uses. The placement service didn't do a very good background check to say the least. Also, apparently the child had a history of wandering off, not just from his mom.
http://www.middletownjournal.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/
2006/09/07/mj09xx06fieseltimeline.html
Again, I can only go by what has been reported. I can't say I think very highly of the mother for I've seen in the newspapers, but then again, who am I to judge?
"You say the mother had not lost her parental rights, and then later "she might have won back her child if her circumstances improved." Can you explain this? If she had not lost her parental rights, why was her child living in the other home? " A: The child was placed in foster care because the mother wasn't taking care of her child properly. (He was found wandering the streets and was malnourished. He'd also fallen out of a window before that! Ahem!) Usually, parent(s) have to meet certain criteria before getting their child(ren) back - whether it be better living conditions, parenting classes, mental health help/counseling, etc. Just because a child was taken away and placed in foster care doesn't mean the child is gone forever from it's parents. It also doesn't mean that just because a person meets the criteria to get their child(ren) back that this makes everything ok either!
John A. - I really don't care if you take 'exception' to what I wrote or not. Children may not be 'property', but to the State they are - the more children the county DHS gets a hold of every year the more money they can get the next year in funding - and parents are legally reponsible for their children until age 18 (in some cases until 21 - go figure!). Even though the county (and ultimately the state) had custody of her child, it doesn't mean it was permanent. If she was really wanting her child back & doing everything the DHS wanted her to do and really MEAN it (again, I can't say for sure and I don't believe everything I see & read!) then, yeah........ I'd say sue the hell outta everybody.........
Sandy, Dawne & Nancy - I understand what you're saying & agree for the most part. Tragedies like this will happen again though. The State should have put it upon itself to know exactly how these child placement service providers screen possible foster parents............. of course, there should not have to be reason to even worry about this! The placement people should be sooooo very thorough in their screening!!! Sadly, this wasn't the case.........and made even worse because the county didn't know what a poor job "Lifeway for Youth" was doing in screening potential foster parents. I don't think it would matter how much funding they'd ever get - there would still be mistakes that happen........... and they happen all too often!
All I can say is I wouldn't want to be a social worker for any amount of money - it's not enough. You know they have to be beating their heads against the walls because many times they can't do what they know ought to be done........they have many rules to follow too and aren't supposed to make waves..........
I read that he said that he's heard the 'other' side of the story and there will be suprises...........OK whatever that means. It has bothered me too that there's never been anything much in the news about the Caroll's side of the story.
What also bugs me is that this attorney paid for his law schooling with money from working in his Dad's (I think) tattoo parlor. Fine........ nothing wrong with that really. But then he goes on to to say that after this case is finished he'll probably give up his law career and go back to tattooing. Now that's odd......... If I'm not mistaken, I think he's a rather new lawyer. I"ll have to find the link where I read all that........
Paste the two parts of the link together in your browser.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060917/NEWS01/609170350
Also, Ian's at work on his next book, a memoir about living with Asperger's. No idea of publish date yet. You bet I'll let you know!
Karen
My dad just got fired for his autism. Poor dad.
PS - Elise turned ten today, and in all that time, I've never locker her in a closet. Marcus' foster parents may have been at the end of their ropes, but there's never any excuse for abusing a child to death. And I'm sure they seemed like wonderful parents to the DSS workers.