I got a great suggestion from one of our readers thus…

Snoopy, how about a post asking your readers to submit what they believe their grandchildren know nothing about. I just found out I have grandchildren that knew nothing about an electric typewriter and when I told them I learned on a manual typewriter they couldn’t believe it. We went from that to the old telephones, radios, tv…..since then I have been thinking about all the things that were common to me as a child that no longer exist and what has replaced them. Just an idea.

Josh Powell’s death certificate states he was cremated last Friday. The certificate, released Tuesday, does not say where his family took his remains. The cause of death is listed as carbon monoxide poisoning resulting from the house fire he started by allegedly igniting canisters of gasoline.

There is a project underway and expected to be finished by October. A bronze statue of Susan Powell holding her two boys in her arms will be erected to memoralize them. Read more here We may also hear of a Charlie and Braden Law emerge in the future.

Chuck Cox, Susan’s father, is considering filing charges against the state of Washington for the deaths of Charlie and Braden. Chuck is claiming that Josh should never have been allowed to visit with the boys in his home even while being supervised by a Case Worker. The courts should have recognized that Josh was dangerous since they ordered a psycho-sexual evaluation and polygraph tests. The Cox’s feel that this helped to push Josh over the edge and as a result, he murdered his boys and then commit suicide. Read about lawsuit here

Steven Powell, Josh’s father is still in jail awaiting his trial. The trial should get underway in March barring any postponements. Steven had refused to cooperate with LE by supplying any information that may lead to the discovery of Susan’s remains.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Here is the latest in Baby Lisa Irwin’s case. Lisa went missing on Oct 03/11. Will the arrest of this man lead in helping to solve the mystery of this case? I am not holding my breath as I feel Lisa’s mother has the answers to what really happened to her child.

Man Associated with Lisa Irwin Case Arrested on Assault Charge

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Other cases that I have followed and are heading for, or already in, the ‘cold case’ files. Haleigh Cummings, Kyron Horman, Sky Metalwala, Alya Reynolds, as well as Amber Kirwan and Michelle Parker. Maybe a miracle will bring these cases back into focus and there will finally be some closure for the families. Investigations are still ongoing in the above cases but have been scaled down for lack of evidence and/or cooperation.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Cases pending….

Steven Powell’s trial due for March if no delays
Zenaida Gonzales vs Casey Anthony, defamation, civil court
Tim Miller vs Casey Anthony, compensation for searches, civil court
Roy Kronk vs the National Enquirer ( I expect this to be settled out of court)
Jodi Arias, first degree murder, trial set for October
Jorge and Carmen Barachona, first degree murder, hearing on Feb 24th, trial date unknown

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Current Events….

Linda Drane Burdick is contending against 22 others to become a judge.

Jeff Ashton is seeking to be the next state attorney but has been busy of late with family affairs.

Amanda Knox just received a 4 million book deal with Harper Collins…Do I see a “I wanna that money” throwing a temper tantrum because she is not getting handsome offers for her book?

José Baez has officially resigned from being Casey Anthony’s counsel.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

That seems to tie up a few loose ends. Feel free to discuss anything. Maybe you are following a particular case. You are more than welcome to discuss it here. I will be keeping a keen eye towards the Barahona case and pray there will be justice for Nubia. I hope to see more changes in the Child Protective Services and a thorough investigation take place re a couple of states especially in Washington- Powell case, and Florida re the Barahona abuse. How about you?

Murder of Nubia Barahona

Nubia Docter Barahona (May 26, 2000 – February 11, 2011) was a ten-year-old girl who was abused and murdered on February 11, 2011. Her body was found February 14, 2011, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag in the bed of her adoptive father’s pickup truck on the side of I-95 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Her body had partially decomposed from being covered in chemicals, possibly pesticides. Her twin brother, Victor Docter Barahona, was in the cab of the truck with his father, suffering seizures from chemical burns and inhalation of toxic gas.

Her adoptive parents Jorge and Carmen Barahona were indicted on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and child neglect on March 23, 2011. They face the death penalty if convicted

The case has sparked outrage from Florida citizens and officials regarding the Florida Department of Children and Families’ handling of previous allegations of abuse by the Barahonas.

Background

Fraternal twins Nubia and Victor Docter were born on May 26, 2000, to a mother with drug and alcohol abuse issues. Their mother had bore four children before them, all of whom had been taken from her by the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Nubia was born with an undisclosed “significant medical problem” (it has been reported she may have been intersexed that would require “significant medication, medical procedures and an undetermined amount of surgeries”. It was recommended she be placed in a medical foster home, but she was instead allowed to stay with her mother, who claimed to be sober.

The twins were removed from their mother’s care in 2003 and placed with their father, but they did not stay with him long. In 2004 he was charged with sexual battery of a child not in his care. The twins were placed in foster care, and eventually ended up in the home of Jorge and Carmen Barahona in Miami, Florida. The couple had already adopted a boy with autism. Jorge owned a pest control business; Carmen worked as a nurse.

Further complaints were filed in 2007: School authorities reported that Nubia was extremely thin, always hungry, and had an unpleasant odor. DCF investigated the claims, but were met with insistence from the Barahonas that Nubia’s condition was not from hygiene problems or neglect, but caused by her medical condition. The investigation was dropped.

The Barahonas began the adoption process of the twins in 2008, but were met with resistance from the twins’ guardian ad litem, Paul Neumann. They claimed Neumann was operating “behind [their] backs”, unfairly interfering with their adoption attempt. They claimed they had a “personality conflict” with Neumann and cited that as the reason he was accusing them of neglect. To override him, the Barahonas wrote letters appealing to people as high up as then-governor Charlie Crist. Neumann was removed as the twins’ guardian without explanation shortly before the adoption was finalized.

The twins were formally adopted in May 2009. In 2010, complaints similar to the ones in 2007 were again raised by school authorities, this time adding that Nubia was losing her hair. DCF was met with the same reasoning from the Barahonas—that it was cause by her endocrine condition and medication she was taking for it—and the investigation was dropped again.

“Toxic Truck”

At 5:00 am on Monday, February 14, 2011, a Road Ranger noticed a red Toyota pickup truck on the shoulder of northbound I-95 between Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and 45th Street in West Palm Beach. When the truck was still there two and a half hours later, he called police.

Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue responded to the call and found 53-year-old Jorge Barahona on the ground and 10-year-old Victor Barahona in the cab of the truck. Both were conscious by the time rescuers arrived, but Victor was convulsing with seizures. One fireman was overcome by a strong smell when approaching the truck, and decontamination procedures were started. The bed of the truck was full of plastic containers of chemicals; some unlabeled. The truck was branded with the name of Jorge’s pest extermination business, CJ Pest Control, causing investigators to believe the chemicals were pesticides. One unlabeled container held some form of acid, causing firefighters to wonder why an exterminator would have such a chemical. State Troopers were sent to the address of CJ Pest Control, but were unable to contact anyone.

Further investigation revealed that Victor was covered in acid, and there was so much of it in the car that it soaked the carpet and seats, making the air around the truck poisonous. Victor and Jorge were taken to separate hospitals for their injuries. A city hazmat team and the state Department of Environmental Protection arrived by the afternoon to decontaminate the area. At about 3:45 pm, a DEP contractor sorting through tubs of chemicals in the bed of the truck found a black garbage bag. Inside were human remains.

FBI investigators joined the effort to decontaminate the site to clear the way for county forensics investigators to examine the body. At about 8:30 pm Tuesday the body was taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy. The identity of the body was withheld from the public for two days after its discovery, then revealed to be that of Nubia Barahona, Victor’s twin sister. Her body was badly decomposed and difficult to identify, as it had been covered with acid and other hazardous chemicals.

Investigation

Victor was initially taken to nearby St. Mary’s Medical Center, then transferred two days later to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s burn center in Miami. He had suffered “severe internal reactions” to the inhalation of toxic fumes in the truck, and had chemical burns over large portions of his body. Doctors also found several previous injuries to the boy, including a broken collarbone, broken arm, scars on his buttocks and lower abdomen, and rope marks on both wrists. Victor was finally released on March 2, 2011, and placed in a therapeutic foster home.

Jorge was arrested on child abuse charges against Victor and moved from Colombia Hospital to the Palm Beach County jail on February 16. While in custody, he confessed to police that he had been upset by the death of his daughter and had driven to Palm Beach County with the plan to commit suicide by setting himself on fire. He said the shoulder of I-95 was chosen so that he would be “easily found”. He claimed he gave Victor a handful of sleeping pills, then, with the boy’s head in his lap, poured gasoline over his own head. He then attempted to ignite a lighter, but could not do it, as he did not want to take Victor with him. Investigators found a red gasoline container in the truck filled with acid. When asked by police why he did not have as many obvious burns as Victor, Jorge said that some of the gas must have splashed the boy. The police concluded that Jorge’s version of events was inconsistent with the boy’s injuries.

Autopsy results concluded that Nubia was beaten to death on February 11; the day a DCF official came to investigate a call to their abuse hotline. According to the police report, Jorge allegedly “repeatedly punched and beat Nubia” who “screamed and cried until she was dead”.

Carmen Barahona, Jorge’s wife, told investigators when questioned that she and her husband had been separated for six months, when in fact they had never been apart. The couple’s other two children were taken from the home and placed with Carmen’s parents, then placed in foster care.

A “family secret”

On February 10, 2011, four days before Jorge Barahona’s truck was found on the side of the road, the therapist of Carmen Barahona’s granddaughter, Alessandra, placed a call to child welfare officials. Alessandra had alleged to her therapist that while visiting her grandmother’s house, twins Nubia and Victor were bound by their hands and feet and made to stand for hours in a bathtub. Their hands were unbound only when it was time to eat, she claimed, and she also alleged that she was not permitted to speak to them when she used the bathroom. The therapist told the operator that Alessandra felt threatened by her grandmother to keep quiet. Carmen allegedly told Alessandra not to tell people about how the twins were treated because it was a “family secret”.

The couple’s 11-year-old autistic son, Jorge, also tried to tell a DCF investigator visiting the home shortly before Nubia’s death about a “secret”, but the investigator claimed Carmen dismissed him as “low-functioning” and told him to watch TV in another room.

After the discovery of Nubia’s body, Alessandra was removed from the care of her mother, Jennifer Perez, and placed with her father, Yovani Perez. In addition, a judge ordered that neither the girl’s mother nor any member of her family have any contact with the girl. A DCF official stated that Alessandra should no longer be with her mother because “the mother, Jennifer Perez, not only psychologically abused the child by exposing her to the torture of the twins, but also by threatening the child over and over to keep quiet and encourage [sic] her to be complicit in the deception, that is including a calculated effort by the mother to keep the child from disclosing it to DCF officials.”

Role of DCF

The Florida Department of Children and Families has been heavily criticized for their handling of the Barahona case. Judge Cindy Lederman expressed outrage at the actions of Andrea Fleary, a DCF worker assigned to the case. On Thursday, February 10, Fleary visited the Barahona home to investigate an abuse hotline call, but despite not making contact with the children, she reported they were safe. When Fleary told the judge about 11-year-old Jorge’s attempts to alert her to abuse on Friday, she said the conversations had taken place late in the evening. Judge Lederman responded “So we don’t do investigations on weekends? Is that what you are telling me?” Fleary responded that she had stopped her investigation at 9 pm because “we don’t do investigations on weekends.”

DCF Secretary David Wilkins defended Fleary, claiming she was rattled during the hearing and that “[w]e do investigations 24/7. We have employees who work weekends. We have employees who work nights.”Fleary was first placed on paid administrative leave, then fired. When asked how they could have ignored signs of Nubia’s abuse, such as her hair loss and constant hunger, Wilkins stated that “[t]he medical conditions of the children complicated the decision-making of our investigators”.Wilkins also reminded critics that “these people have been deceiving the system for quite a long time”.

In response to the Docter twins being adopted despite objections from their guardian ad litem Paul Neumann, head of Miami-Dade County’s guardian ad litem program Sonia Ferrer said the program did everything it could at the time despite admitting Neumann had concerns. She said that the judge overseeing the adoption had heard other evidence and decided to place them with the Barahonas.

Wilkins called upon David Lawrence Jr., former publisher of The Miami Herald and current president of the Children’s Movement of Florida, Coral Gables attorney Bobby Martinez, a former U.S. Attorney in South Florida, and James Sewell, former assistant commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and chair of the task force that investigated the 2009 death of Broward County foster child Gabriel Myers, to look into the handling of the Barahona case. The panel subsequently called DCF’s handling of the case “inept” and a “failure of common sense and listening”.

Wilkins, who had only been DCF secretary for a few months at the time of Nubia’s death, has also criticized the organization’s abuse hotline, comparing it to a “low-cost call center”. Regarding a call reporting the Barahonas, Wilkins said “[t]hey have a low-cost call center mentality … You don’t want to get off the phone in this situation you could tell the operator wanted to get off the phone because he’s measured by how long his call is.” Employees are rated by how quickly they handle calls because in the past they had been criticized for taking too long to answer calls, causing callers to hang up. Wilkins also claims the technology is outdated, making it difficult to piece together different parts of a case from separate calls. He has said he plans to remedy these situations.

Charges and trial

After being informed he needed to attend a hearing on a felony child abuse charge, Jorge Barahona tried twice to injure himself. He first jumped backward off of a sink in his cell, landing on his head. He was examined and declared competent to stand before a judge, but refused to cooperate with deputies and did not show up for the hearing. At the hearing, his bail was set for $1 million. He later attempted again to injure himself and was taken to a hospital for a CT scan, then returned to jail and placed in the mental health unit.

Carmen Barahona filed for divorce from Jorge in late February, but was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on March 5. She is being held without bond.

Jorge and Carmen Barahona together have been indicted on eighteen charges: one count of first-degree murder, eight counts of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, one count of child neglect resulting in great harm, six counts of child neglect (no great harm), one count of child neglect (no great bodily harm), and one count of mutilating a dead body. They face the death penalty if convicted.

The Barahonas have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and child abuse charges. Trial dates have not yet been set.

Source

More on Nubia

The Nubia Report

Slain girl was twin’s selfless protector

Now will someone please tell me what in HELL is going on with CPS.

Ashton to defend son

I am sure we can do a double up in here (sorry Jeff) and include something else of interest…

Police pay a visit to father who shot daughter’s laptop in viral video over Facebook complaint – to THANK him

Source

Hotel guests stunned

Whitney Houston, musical superstar, dies

this will be updated as more info comes in…

Some of us who are blog owners incorporate a lot of our own beliefs in the posts we write. This is fine if we stress that other opinions are welcome if they do not agree with our own. I do not believe in writing lengthy posts. I like to give a short summary of what we are about to discuss and include a few highlights of the subject matter. In this way the commenters will be the ones who are actually contributing by feeding in the information that they find on the topic. This also puts me on a par with my contributors instead of being the one everyone has to agree with just because I own the blog.

I have been fortunate to have some of the best sleuths in the business helping to make this blog (theirs and mine) successful.

So, my fellow sleuths, this post is going to be open for you to discuss anything your little hearts desire. ( Hearts is fitting with Valentine’s Day just around the corner).

Anything on the past, present or future… the podium is all yours~~ Mainstreamfair~ but I really prefer Snoopysleuth.. Enjoy!

Will Steven Powell talk now to save his sorry ass and try to cop a plea in exchange for information?

Procecutors have not made a proposal to Powell but at present, they said they will listen if he wants to talk. You can rest assured that Steven will not divulge any knowledge of Susan’s death unless it benefits him. He showed little emotion when he was told that Josh had commit suicide after murdering his two grandsons in a heinous way. Instead, Steven Powell cursed at law enforcement.

Susan’s parents want to know where her remains are so they can give her a proper burial and finally have some closure.

Steven Powell’s wife left him because she could not tolerate that her husband was exposing their young children to porn.

Powell was arrested in September 2011 after a search of his Puyallup home turned up “thousands of images of females being photographed without their knowledge, including Susan Powell and many minors.” He has been held at the Pierce County Jail in lieu of bail since his arrest. His trial date is scheduled for March 20.

Source

Here is Steven Powell talking about his sexual relationship with Susan. Be sure and watch second video. The first one is very short.

Video

I would love to hear some discussion on the following…which I stole from my bestest friend, Vicky. It deserves to be right up here…thanks Vick

I am praying that this case will finally serve as a wake up call to our legislators across that child protective services in our country are in serious need of a complete overhaul. To much time and resources have been spent on family reunification, and not enough on child protection. In a perfect world, children should be with their parents. However, we do not live in a perfect world. There are those who would have us believe that a child needs its parents to mature into a healthy, productive member of society. That might very well be true if all people who procreate were fit to fulfill the role of parent. Children are far more damaged by insecurity, instability, neglect, abuse, exposure to drugs and violence, fear, manipulation, growing up too fast out of necessity, reversed roles, etc. then by being removed from the custody of their parents and placed in a stable and caring environment.
If we are lucky, all children reach the age of majority. When that happens, there is no reason children who have been taken from the people who exchanged sperm and egg, can’t reunite with them and establish a relationship. It happens all the time with children who have been adopted.
What I do know for certain, society needs to stop focusing on the rights of adults, and begin focusing on the rights of children to grow up in a safe and secure environment. The government seems to feel comfortable imposing regulations on who can drive, who can vote, who can teach, who can practice law, who can practice medicine…Why the he*l don’t they step up and establish regulations on who can parent!?!?
I’m really pissed right now on many levels. One being that I sound like some right wing extremist. pfft.

[Don't you just love Vicky's last line. I love to see true emotion so it stayed-SS]

Remember Trenton Duckett…. He was never found and no one was ever charged in his disappearance. Just a month before Trenton’s first birthday Melinda and Joshua split up and a custody battle ensued on who would keep Trenton.

On August 27, 2006 two-year-old Trenton Duckett was reported missing by his 21-year-old mother, Melinda Duckett.

Melinda refused to take a polygraph and …On Friday, September 8, Melinda Duckett shot and killed herself while at her grandparents’ home.

Did you know….

Joshua Duckett dealt with a history of family violence. His father, James Duckett, was a Macotte, Florida police officer when in 1987, he was arrested and later convicted for the rape, strangulation and drowning of an 11-year-old girl. He is currently on death row in Florida.
Reportedly, Joshua and his mother also have a past speckled with fighting. In 2005, Joshua was denied a request for a court injunction against his mother for making repeated harassing calls to his home and threatening to kidnap Trenton.

Remember Kyron Horman….Missing since June 4, 2010. Kyron was never found and no one has ever been charged in his disappearance.

Police say cell phone records show that on June 4, the day Kyron was last seen, Terri Moulton Horman was on Sauvie Island, five miles from Kyron’s school. Divers and rescue teams have been combing that island for any signs of the second-grader since June 10th.

Source

Remember Sky Metalwala…..Sky Metalwala, 2, went missing on November 6, 2011. His mother, Julia Biryukova said she ran of out of gas and left Sky in an unlocked car and walked a mile to a gas station. When she returned to the car, Sky was gone. Julia refused to take a polygraph.

Source

Remember Baby Lisa Irwin….Baby Lisa went missing on Oct 3, 2011. Deborah Bradley, Lisa’s mother, said she got drunk and passed out while Lisa was in her care. Deborah took a polygraph and said she did not pass it. Baby Lisa has never been found and no one has been charged in her disappearance.

Dr Phil will be interviewing Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin tomorrow, Feb 3rd.

Source-Video

Remember Susan Cox Powell….Susan Powell disappeared in December 2009 at age 28. Her husband is the sole person of interest in the case, but maintains his innocence.

The woman was last seen on the same night her husband claimed he went camping in freezing temperatures with the couple’s two young boys at around 12:30 a.m.

Josh Powell is trying once again to get custody of his boys who are in temporary custody of Susan’s parents. A Washington judge ruled Wednesday that the children of missing Utah mother Susan Powell must remain in the custody of her parents. The judge further said she won’t consider returning the two boys to their father, Josh Powell, until he undergoes a psycho-sexual evaluation.

Source

Steve Powell, Josh’s father’s trial on porn, voyeurism charges set for March.

Source

Baby Ayla Reynolds… Waterville, Maine…reported missing Dec 17, 2011…Ayla’s blood found in basement…child has not been located and no one has been charged in her disappearance. The investigation is ongoing….Ayla’s bio father is Justin DiPietro. Justin refused to take a polygraph but after being pressured, he took the test and did not pass.

Cops Accuse Baby’s Dad Of Withholding Information

And last but not least..

Casey Anthony found not guilty of murdering her daughter, Caylee Marie, who was reported missing on July 15, 2008.

A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem,[1] especially one in five-line anapestic or amphibrachic meter with a strict rhyme scheme (AABBA), which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The form can be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century.[2] It was popularized by Edward Lear in the 19th century, although he did not use the term.

The following example of a limerick is of unknown origin:
The limerick packs laughs anatomical
In space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Gershon Legman, who compiled the largest and most scholarly anthology, held that the true limerick as a folk form is always obscene, and cites similar opinions by Arnold Bennett and George Bernard Shaw,[3] describing the clean limerick as a periodic fad and object of magazine contests, rarely rising above mediocrity. From a folkloric point of view, the form is essentially transgressive; violation of taboo is part of its function.

Source

I was chatting with my daughter this evening and she asked me if I knew that January 23, 2012 is supposed to be the most depressing day of this year. I did not know that and I was skeptical so I googled it and sure enough, there it was. I expect some of us have been getting a little practice in these long winter days in the depression department. So why not join me and have some fun today and let tomorrow take care of itself.

There was a young girl from St Paul
Who wore a newspaper dress to a ball
The dress caught on fire
And burned her entire
Front page, sport’s section and all.

There was a young woman from Mass.
Who had a magnificent ass
Not round and pink
As you probably think
But gray, had long ears and ate grass.

Please do not take the limericks seriously. It is all in jest. Mainstreamfair.

I was doing some sleuthing this evening and I do not know what to make of the following. It is hard to decipher fact from fiction anymore when it comes to Casey Anthony and some of the people who want their five minutes of fame. I am going to reserve my opinions on what I have viewed and read. I will post the links so you can have a peek at what it going on in cyberspace. There is a picture of Casey and a little dog at one of the links. All I can say is, “the plot is thickening.” You may need to wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from one certain pic. If you click on different links within Link Three, there are more pictures to see.

Link One

Link Two

Link Three