Yes! April 11, 1965. On the stand, the Jurgenses had refused to answer questions about Dennis. Well, I do, he replied.

The official cause of death was peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel. None of us knew about child abuse. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids, Elliott: Kings use their heads over hearts in trading Jonathan Quick, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, 12 reasons why Sycamore Avenue is L.A.s coolest new hangout, Best coffee city in the world? Innhold. . Try again later. The boy would be gasping and choking for breath until she would fear that he would drown.

 

In addition, Lois took to tying Dennis' limbs to the bedposts to keep him in bed and tied him to the toilet to force a bowel movement. She thought Dennis was sloppy fat. This particularly surprised Rekdahl. Thanks for your help! As it happened, Peterson at the time was deputy coroner in Ramsey County. Lois obsessed about Dennis' weight, which according to medical records was appropriate for a child of his age and build at the point of his adoption. Two husbands and four children later, Sherwood had gone searching for her firstborn, only to learn that he had died years before, in 1965, at age 3. No one here is being punitive, Gingold told the Jurgenses and their attorney from the bench. cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens to show support. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. . Jurgens was the only fatal victim of Lois Jurgens, his adoptive mother and a prolific child abuser, who abused a total of six adopted children from 1960 to 1975.The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . Resend Activation Email. The investigation, trial, and Lois had a question: Would Father Riser write a letter in support of their present effort to adopt another child, a third child? There was also talk years earlier of her having started the fire at her in-laws' home which killed her mother-in-law, with whom she never got along. The policeman did not, so they carried the body to the coroners van. Harold (Harry) Jurgens, 76 of Filley passed away at Gold Crest Retirement Center in Adams on January 7, 2018. Rekdahl, who graduated from St. Pauls Hamline University in 1957 with a bachelors degree in social work, had been in adoption services for less than one year. Dan Jurgens, one of the chief minds at DC who spearheaded the Man of Steel's death and rebirth in the '90s, took to Twitter to share an unused design of Electric Superman -- sometimes called . I felt we actually checked out the concerns quite carefully.. She said she had set Dennis in the sink to wash him after he had wet his diaper, then had gone into another room to get a clean diaper. Harold Jurgens suggested that perhaps they should not go forward with the adoption of Dennis, but Lois refused out of concern that it would discourage the authorities from allowing them to adopt further children. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. ``May God strike her dead, thats what I have to say to Lois Jurgens, Jerry Sherwood said. The prosecutor wasnt getting help from the White Bear Lake police--her brother was on the force. Harold Jurgens died in 2000; at the time of his death, there was suspicion that Lois had poisoned him, but this was investigated and ruled out. Please enter your email and password to sign in. A vivid portrait of an all-American town that harbored a killer, A Death in White Bear Lake is also the absorbing story of two detectives who refused to give up until they had the killer cold. I tried to assure her that these things happen in any family.. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Lois Jurgens served only eight years of her sentence, released early for good behavior, and lived a secluded life in Stillwater, Minnesota, until her death in 2013. The afflicted look and act very sick for a matter of hours, sometimes days. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). they figured. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Death of Superman By Jurgens, TPB, DC Comics 1993, New, Sealed. But how did such an infection occur in the first place?

 

He would wait until the police investigation could resolve the matter. The body was severely undernourished, nearly emaciated. Stanley Wiatros was one of them. from United States. In winter, they got the north wind, so the lake froze too rough for ice skating. We came very close to trying to do something. They had a son--a 2-year-old named Robert, whom they had adopted at birth through private channels. On January 13, 2000, she was initially suspected of poisoning her husband, Harold. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. . Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. Try again later. Robert lived with other relatives, ultimately settling for two years with a distant cousin before he returned home. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Rekdahl expressed some concern. In fact, it appalled and amazed her because she herself thought the baby extremely appealing, very friendly, with very beautiful blue eyes and a very nice smile. During the internal autopsy, Woodburn found a quarter-inch hole in the boys small bowel. roger w. tufte sr, 76, resident of lakota, nd died saturday, february 26, 2022 at the lakota good samaritan center. Beatings and displays of Lois' explosive temper were daily events; especially bad days could include her slamming a child's forehead into a nail protruding from a wall, forcing a child to stand barefoot in snow, and shoving a used sanitary napkin in a child's face. When Dennis messed his bed, she said, she forced the boy to eat his feces. She was right. The electric streetcar with overhead power lines, running as a spur off the main railroad tracks along Highway 61, would stop just three doors down. Death 7 May 2013 (aged 87) . When she was 17 and living in a juvenile home, she said, she gave birth to a boy, Dennis, who was quickly taken from her and eventually adopted by a family named Jurgens who lived in White Bear Lake. Dan Jurgens on how The Death of Superman has "withstood that test of time" By Grant DeArmitt published 27 July 2022 The creator best known for The Death of Superman explains its impact 30. Pitera stared at the body. Her mother having long ago disappeared, Jerry Puckett had bounced among assorted relatives and county homes for girls. Dennis struggled with such training and was forced to pray and recite his Rosary kneeling on a broomstick for extended periods, until he did it correctly. By the second week, the investigation began to encounter obstacles. She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. The word homicide remained unspoken. conviction
The boys mouth was getting full, he wasnt swallowing, so Lois put horseradish on the fork. On the other hand, she realized the improbability of being offered another Catholic baby in the near future. When you judge a case, you dont do so in a vacuum, Lindholm would explain years later in an interview. He was shaken. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national headlines and was the top news story of the state of Minnesota in 1987. Jurgens was the only fatal victim of Lois Jurgens, his adoptive mother and a prolific child abuser, who abused a total of six adopted children from 1960 to 1975. Lois also was not pleased to learn how active Dennis was. . That was why the judge wanted Lois Jurgens to consent to a thorough, inpatient examination by a psychiatrist he knew and trusted. Robert was returned to the Jurgens home and, going through new channels, the couple was eventually able to adopt four school-aged siblings from Kentucky. Father Riser told her he definitely would. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. A Mrs. Charles reported a car blocking a driveway at 823 5th St. A Mrs. Krugger reported that children were damming the street at Elm and Ebba (there had been heavy rain the night before). He was the son of teenage Jerry Sherwood (who was herself a ward of the state) and her teenage boyfriend. I just examined him to see that he was in fact dead. Retrieved 12 February 2015. With the advent of highways, White Bear Lake has become a suburb of St. Paul, about 12 miles to the south. Published by Bantam Books, 1990. ``I prayed for eight years that shed die in there. That doctor (Peterson) also presented problems--he was a typical doctor, couldnt believe his patient was killed.. Fittingly for a major anniversary like . When patrolman Robert VanderWyst arrived at the Jurgens home soon after, he found the doctor, the Jurgenses and 5-year-old Robert in the living room. . He felt that she needed psychiatric help very badly and, without it, might become psychotic. The process of adopting Dennis was completed. She thought they had a lovely home. This was the first child-abuse case he had handled. In our family you dont dare say much.. At the urging of authorities, Jerry placed Dennis for adoption after being told that he would receive good care.[1]. Other than that, nothing remarkable.. In 1992 A made-for-TV movie was made based on both Jerry's story and this case called, ' A Child Lost Forever ' w/ the remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood and Judith Ivey as Lois Jurgens. The roller coaster had been just to the west of his lot, the water slide just to the east, and the dance pavilion exactly where his house now stood, the old foundation still there below his lawn and patio. They had seen Lois yank Dennis violently by the ears. . A jury deliberated about five hours Friday before finding Lois Jurgens, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., guilty of third-degree murder, or an unintentional killing. Late in August, Lois had called Rekdahl to report the matter. Lois jurgens, 93, of arvada, colorado, formerly of malvern and glenwood, iowa, passed away june 13, 2022. lois jean jurgens, the daughter of lawrence a. and marjorie v. (johnson) jones, was born on may 26, 1929 in malvern, iowa. He would testify that he had been suspicious enough to call the welfare department. . She saw Harold, then 40, as a tall, rather swarthy man of German and Norwegian extraction, with dark brown hair and eyes. A system error has occurred. The specter of homicide hovered, but would not land in this hearing room in 1965. . The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . Weve updated the security on the site. Its easy today to say, Why didnt they prosecute? but it was a different time, a different time. They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. Youve got to worry about tomorrow. In 1951, some 14 years before Dennis's death, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic entered this assessment in her file: "It is . After seeing newspaper reports about the death, she was convinced that he had been beaten to death and demanded the case be re-opened. Rekdahl was a little concerned, since the accident actually had happened seven days before the phone call, but her main inclination was to soothe Lois Jurgens. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. Pitera would take photos later that day. She thought the postplacement period had been quite successful. Harold was infertile and the Jurgenses desperately wanted to adopt another child. The volume of business coming down the pipeline doesnt allow for regrets. He has had all his baby shots. It just made me sick. Homicide was not the issue at the hearing. . This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Lois attended cosmetology school in Des Moines, Iowa. Notes References A Death in White Bear Lakeby Barry Siegel. harold e bageant obituary visitation funeral information. At that time, the battered-child syndrome was just beginning to be recognized. Rekdahl could not so assure her. Instead, Peterson would build an ice rink on his front lawnhed raise a circular wood wall, lay in six inches of leaves gathered from all the neighbors for mulch, then cover that with sheet plastic, one hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and fill it with water from the hose. Buy It Now. Peterson, a slender 6-footer, was a respected local doctor, a University of Minnesota medical graduate who had served in the Marines before opening a private practice in White Bear Lake in 1951. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. We have set your language to The Jurgenses had wanted a younger child and Dennis was almost a year old. Verify and try again. ?Tadeusz: I never remember pretty women. Still it is fair to say that the story Lois Jurgens told required a considerable imagination to embrace. He was born on September 29, 1941 in rural Adams, and was later baptized and confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church of rural Pickrell. She committed one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. When Dennis Jurgens died at the age of 3 in 1965, authorities here never ruled whether his death was an accident, a homicide or the result of natural causes. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. In 1965, it was a private general practitioner, Dr. Thomas Votel, who handled the coroners duties on a part-time basis for $6,300 a year. As Peterson followed Wildwood Avenue west along the lakes shore toward Gardenette Park, hed rehearsed in his mind the resuscitation techniques he knew from the rescue squad. From the bench, he said he hoped that they could find something to explain the mistreatment of Dennis. Dennis was now fully accepted and loved in the family, she decided. Harold and Lois Jurgensa middle-class, churchgoing couple who had been unable to have children of their ownhad adopted Sherwood's son, Dennis, in 1962. I did my best.. Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. Sherwood's tenacity, along with the tragedy of her personal loss, kept the story in the public eye. Dennis Craig Jurgens was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. Try again later. Failed to remove flower. The night of his death, a great flood had hit the Saint Paul area and the Mississippi River's waters were rising to record levels, causing flooding in the region and inside the Jurgens' home. The defense attorney was still thinking about a criminal prosecution--even if no one else was. They felt sad, and also naggingly disturbed. Dennis lay in the ground at St. Marys Cemetery, no name given to his death. This is the story of a small boys murder that went undeclared and unprosecuted for 22 years in a community full of people who knew what had happened. Lois had had a history of mental illnesses including depression and psychosis and was originally deemed . Almost immediately, Lois felt a severe, obsessive dislike of the child, who was a normal, rambunctious, and spirited toddlerunlike Robert, who in Lois' eyes, was the "good son." Learn more about merges. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. He wanted others to go first. She would be a poor candidate for adopting a child at this time, the psychiatrist in 1955 had advised St. Pauls Bureau of Catholic Charities, where the Jurgenses for years had vainly sought children.

Though there was an investigation, society and law enforcement of the mid-1960s did not accept the concept that a child in a middle-class home could be the target of abuse. Donna Neely wondered, as she studied the Jurgenses now-silent house from her front window. She had not noticed anything was wrong until sometime later, when Dennis began holding himself and saying, Owie! It was then she saw that his genitals were burned and called the doctor. undefined Notes ^ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/child43.htm. Problems arose within the police department as well. He could be a battered child, Votel said he reasoned, and still his death could have been caused by a fall, an accident. She was diagnosed as having mixed psychoneurosis and also unable to conceive a child with Harold. Adopted just after his first birthday, Dennis suffered years of abuse at the hands of his adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens.