Crews searching for 2-year-old boy who went missing from northern AZ campground
2-year-old goes missing from campground
Posted: 07/25/2010
Last Updated: 5 hours and 38 minutes ago
By: Katie Fisher
RIMROCK, AZ - Search and rescue crews looking for a 2-year-old boy who vanished from a northern Arizona campground early Sunday are delving deeper into the mystery of his disappearance.
Yavapai County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn said Syler Newton was last seen around midnight inside a tent while sleeping with family members. The family was reportedly camping at the Beaver Creek Campground southeast of Highway 179 off Interstate 17.
According to D'Evelyn, around 1:45 a.m. the family discovered Syler was missing from his sleeping bag. Family members reportedly searched the area before calling 911 for assistance.
Officials said the woman who reported Syler missing claimed to be the boy’s mother, but it was later discovered she is his adoptive mother and is currently in the process of gaining custody.
Deputies do not believe any of Syler’s biological relatives were in the area at the time of his disappearance, but authorities are trying to contact the boy’s biological family. Officials said there are no signs of foul play.
D'Evelyn said more than 50 personnel have responded to the scene as part of the coordinated search effort. A DPS helicopter was also called in on Sunday to do flyovers in the surrounding area.
Syler is described as a white male, with light brown hair, blue eyes, approximately 3 feet tall and weighing about 20 pounds. He was wearing only a diaper when he disappeared from the campground.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office immediately via 911 or 928-771-3260.
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_northern_az/other/crews-searching-for-2-year-old-boy-who-went-missing-from-northern-az-campground
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Monday, July 26, 2010
PEOPLE CALLING FOR 400 US JUDGES TO BE ARRESTED FOR CORRUPTION-Any NH Judge's included?
US citizens who, like UK Citizens, are suffering from an avalanche of injustice are calling for the judges to be arrested. Judges has recently jailed the one man Richard Fines who stood against them and the People of California are calling for him to be freed. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/24/jailed.lawyer.richard.fine/index.htmlThe people are saying change is Coming. Judges on both sides of the Atlantic are helping Social Services and Police to steal children, they are helping Police and Crown Prosecution Services to steal people's money under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The corruption is spreading throughout the USA and UK and people who grew up in a Democratic Society are rebelling,Activist say "it is time Governments woke up to the serious and pernicious levels of corruption within the Judiciary, the Police, the Prosecuting Authorities and the Social Services. The target and the bonus culture together with plain corruption has seen an unprecedented escalation in injustice, Conversely they are using laws , such as the money laundering laws, to steal money and benefit personally from assets they claim to be money laundering or simply to jail anyone who might expose them""Society , families and western culture is under threat from the growing power of the executive against the people" The USA protesters have started a face book group to free Richard Fine http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=125897030788335
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6382453-people-calling-for-400-us-judges-to-be-arrested-for-corruption
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Boy hanged self after visit from LA County workers
Boy hanged self after visit from LA County workers
The Associated Press
Posted: 07/25/2010 11:08:47 AM PDT
Updated: 07/25/2010 03:20:15 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles County mental health and child abuse investigators looking into an 11-year-old boy's suicide threat said they didn't learn key information about an abusive stepfather who answered the door at his house until after the boy hanged himself, according to a report published Sunday.
The Department of Children and Family Services workers lacked key information on the boy because of communication difficulties at the agency, The Los Angeles Times reported.
On June 11, the workers visited the boy's home in Montebello after he told a school counselor he wanted to kill himself. Los Angeles County records show he hanged himself later that day and died the next day at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
The workers did not learn until after the suicide that the stepfather who answered the door had a history of drug abuse and domestic violence and that a court had barred him from living in the home. That information could have prompted officials to remove the boy from the home.
County workers had noted disheveled conditions, drugs, neglect and violence in the houses the boy had lived in since he was a baby. But the social worker who visited him with police officers did not have all of that information.
"This was a very difficult case, and we're still trying to determine what happened," Supervisor Gloria Molina said.
The death is among several recent incidents that underscore communication problems that have plagued
Advertisement
the department due to lack of funding, unused technology and legal limitations.
The department in 2007 bought 2,400 tablet computers that would have made the information available to the workers by giving them access to the department's entire database, but only 400 wireless cards to make the devices work.
Most of the tablets gather dust desks while workers use only their cell phones to connect with the office.
The county has worked to expand a database where different agencies can share information like the boy's complete history, but efforts have stalled as state legislators attempt to ease restrictions on what information can be shared.
On the day he hanged himself, the fifth-grader had spent the morning at school crying, telling the school counselor life was "unbearable." He said classmates bullied him and his mother hit him while his stepfather held him down, county records showed.
The boy said he wanted to kill himself "because I'm tired of people hitting me all the time," the records said.
The school counselor called the county Department of Mental Health and filed a child abuse report with the Department of Children and Family Services. He warned that the boy had threatened to shoot himself, and in the past had threatened to hang himself with a rope. The social worker who visited the home later that day was told of the gun warning and looked for one, but did not look for a rope.
When the social worker asked about the last time his mother struck him, the boy shrugged his shoulders, and said "no" when asked if he feared her. Records showed that the mother seemed concerned for the boy's welfare that day, and authorities thought it was safe to leave the boy in the home.
The social worker also did not know that the stepfather had been limited to visits to the house, and did not look into whether he was living there.
The mother and other family members declined comment when contacted by the Times.
As his family gathered to watch the Lakers play in the NBA finals, the boy slipped into his mother's bedroom and closed the door, county records showed.
When his mother went to call the boy for dinner, the stepfather heard a scream, and he walked into the room and found her holding the boy's limp body in her arms.
After hours on life support, the boy died at the hospital the next day.
———
Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15599460?nclick_check=1
The Associated Press
Posted: 07/25/2010 11:08:47 AM PDT
Updated: 07/25/2010 03:20:15 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles County mental health and child abuse investigators looking into an 11-year-old boy's suicide threat said they didn't learn key information about an abusive stepfather who answered the door at his house until after the boy hanged himself, according to a report published Sunday.
The Department of Children and Family Services workers lacked key information on the boy because of communication difficulties at the agency, The Los Angeles Times reported.
On June 11, the workers visited the boy's home in Montebello after he told a school counselor he wanted to kill himself. Los Angeles County records show he hanged himself later that day and died the next day at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
The workers did not learn until after the suicide that the stepfather who answered the door had a history of drug abuse and domestic violence and that a court had barred him from living in the home. That information could have prompted officials to remove the boy from the home.
County workers had noted disheveled conditions, drugs, neglect and violence in the houses the boy had lived in since he was a baby. But the social worker who visited him with police officers did not have all of that information.
"This was a very difficult case, and we're still trying to determine what happened," Supervisor Gloria Molina said.
The death is among several recent incidents that underscore communication problems that have plagued
Advertisement
the department due to lack of funding, unused technology and legal limitations.
The department in 2007 bought 2,400 tablet computers that would have made the information available to the workers by giving them access to the department's entire database, but only 400 wireless cards to make the devices work.
Most of the tablets gather dust desks while workers use only their cell phones to connect with the office.
The county has worked to expand a database where different agencies can share information like the boy's complete history, but efforts have stalled as state legislators attempt to ease restrictions on what information can be shared.
On the day he hanged himself, the fifth-grader had spent the morning at school crying, telling the school counselor life was "unbearable." He said classmates bullied him and his mother hit him while his stepfather held him down, county records showed.
The boy said he wanted to kill himself "because I'm tired of people hitting me all the time," the records said.
The school counselor called the county Department of Mental Health and filed a child abuse report with the Department of Children and Family Services. He warned that the boy had threatened to shoot himself, and in the past had threatened to hang himself with a rope. The social worker who visited the home later that day was told of the gun warning and looked for one, but did not look for a rope.
When the social worker asked about the last time his mother struck him, the boy shrugged his shoulders, and said "no" when asked if he feared her. Records showed that the mother seemed concerned for the boy's welfare that day, and authorities thought it was safe to leave the boy in the home.
The social worker also did not know that the stepfather had been limited to visits to the house, and did not look into whether he was living there.
The mother and other family members declined comment when contacted by the Times.
As his family gathered to watch the Lakers play in the NBA finals, the boy slipped into his mother's bedroom and closed the door, county records showed.
When his mother went to call the boy for dinner, the stepfather heard a scream, and he walked into the room and found her holding the boy's limp body in her arms.
After hours on life support, the boy died at the hospital the next day.
———
Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15599460?nclick_check=1
Gabriel Myers-Foster child who hung himself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6DA1ik4wpE&feature=related
Fixing CPS Corruption and Foster Care
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoUtZCKLOp8&feature=player_embedded#!
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system » Latest News » Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas
Posted by Admin | Posted in General | Posted on 25-07-2010-05-2008
With the State of Texas watching over her, Bryant often thinks in response, "Why shouldn't I have made it through?"
But Bryant, a small-business owner, mother of three and civic volunteer, understands why people say that. She understands because the system failed to protect her. And she's heartbroken over the way she believes it failed her brother. She doesn't want it to fail anymore.
As Gov. Rick Perry's recently appointed chairwoman of the Department of Family and Protective Services Council, Bryant hopes to use her experiences to help shape a system that she says struggles with many of the same problems as it did decades ago.
"We're still looking at the same process that breaks children, stopping children from dreaming to be the best they can be," Bryant said. "I never stopped dreaming."
Texas officials think she's the first former foster child to lead the council, which advises the state agency on issues ranging from protecting children and elderly or disabled adults to rules for day cares.
"Her personal journey will really help us to be more in tune, to be more aware, to be more understanding and to just make sure we're always putting in the forefront what we'd want for our own children and families," said Joyce James, deputy commissioner of the department.
Bryant says that through the advisory council, she'll work to address the over-representation in the foster system of African American children, who also stay in the system longer than other children. And Bryant says she wants to see a foster care system in which children make it because of the experience, not in spite of it, as she did.
"When 'foster' is added in front of a child's name, certain things happen that would not happen if it was your own child," Bryant said. "It's not a title a child asks for."
Bryant, 52, is a fifth-generation Austinite. She entered the foster system at age 6 with her three siblings after their mother was arrested for killing a man.
Bryant, her brother and two sisters, still in blood-spattered clothing, were taken from home. Their mother was placed in a state psychiatric hospital, where she received electric shock treatment and was never herself again, according to Bryant. She didn't get her kids back. Bryant never knew her father.
Meanwhile, the children were separated and placed in foster homes.
For Bryant, that was the start of living in some 20 homes, mostly in the Austin and Corsicana areas, by the time she left the system at 18. Her school and church changed every time she moved. She's been Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and a member of the Church of Christ.
"We never completed a thing," she said.
Worse, she said, the system failed to keep her safe. She was sexually abused by foster parents and by other children in various foster homes, she said, until she learned that wasn't supposed to be happening. And though she figured out that she could be moved to another home if she reported the abuse, she never received counseling, she said. She said she is not aware of police ever having been contacted.
Her brother, Charles Rector, disappeared at 14 and resurfaced years later in jail, she said. As an adult, he was convicted of the 1981 kidnap, rape, shooting and drowning death of Carolyn Kay "Katy" Davis, 22, whose naked, bruised body was found in Lady Bird Lake.
Bryant reconnected with her brother and was a witness to his 1999 execution. After the lethal drugs began flowing, the American-Statesman reported at the time, Rector, 44, said softly: "I love you, sister."
Bryant links Rector's fate to his time in the foster system.
Bryant and those who knew her as a teenager say that she was able to endure her time in the system because she was fiercely determined to succeed. Influenced by her biological great-grandmother's focus on prayer, her Christian faith sustained her, she said.
"I just believed there had to be something else," she said.
Along the way, she found people who cared.
Judith Martin was a caseworker to Bryant when, as a teenager, she was pregnant and determined to keep her baby.
"Gigi was definitely a memorable kid on my caseload, oh my, yes," Martin said. "She was clear about who she was and where she wanted to go. She wouldn't just let people make choices for her. And shining through all that was her spirit."
Modean Wilkins, Bryant's last foster mother, said: "I saw her wanting more in life than the average 16-year-old."
Wilkins remembers Bryant taking great care with her allowance and babysitting money. If she got $20, she'd keep $10 and put $10 in the bank, Wilkins said. When she graduated from high school, she had saved enough to buy a Volkswagen.
Today, Gigi Bryant is president of GMSA Management Services Inc., a business development consulting firm. She is on the board of the Austin Community College Foundation and the advisory council of the Assistance League of Austin, and is a member of the Douglas Club, a volunteer organization.
She earned a bachelor's degree from St. Edward's University after a decade of taking classes while working and raising her daughter, now 35, and older son, now 30. She also has an 18-year-old son. She holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.
After years of what she says were abusive relationships, Bryant is now married to her "best friend," Sam Bryant, who is the father of two children of his own. Together, the Bryants have four grandchildren.
Gigi Bryant's daughter, Shantel Wilkins (no relation to Modean Wilkins), said her mother kept her and brother Marcus Wilkins "on the straight and narrow," encouraging academic achievement to the point that summers were spent reading and handing in book reports to their mom. "We weren't watching TV and hanging out," said Shantel Wilkins, whose brother Marcus played football for the University of Texas and the NFL.
Bryant had been on the Department of Family and Protective Services Council for four years when the governor tapped her in March as chairwoman. She said she made sure Perry's aides knew about her experiences in the foster system, telling them that "if they wanted me to hide that, I'm not the right person."
James, the department deputy commissioner, said Bryant has long volunteered to share her experiences with child welfare workers.
Bryant has "always encouraged us to listen to the young people," James said. "Part of her experience was we did not listen to her when she outcried about what was happening to her. It was like no one heard her."
Scott McCown, a former state district judge who is executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said the advisory council holds less sway now than it did years ago, when it was a policymaking board.
But the council, which meets quarterly, does review rule changes, such as this year's proposed tweaks for day care centers (the council expects to make recommendations later this year on whether to lower adult-child ratios). And Audrey Deckinga, Department of Family and Protective Services assistant commissioner for Child Protective Services, said of council members: "We take their advice very seriously."
Bryant says she'll work to discourage the department from separating siblings in the foster system. "Why are we still talking about kids needing to be with siblings?" she asked. She said of her brother and sisters: "We could have been together and known each other." She is not in touch with her sisters.
Bryant frequently gives speeches about foster care. She talks about the horrors she endured in the system but also of her optimism for the future and desire to make improvements. She says she doesn't want people who hear her story to feel sorry for her — rather, she wants them to do something to improve the life of a child.
"Would I have chosen this life for myself and my siblings?" she asked during a speech at a Central Texas Council of Child Protection Boards event in May. "No, but it makes me who I am."
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com
Click here to "Soundoff" on this story
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system »
Latest News »
Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas
http://bit-news.com/texas-leader-hopes-to-change-foster-care-system-latest-news-corsicana-daily-sun-corsicana-texas/
Posted by Admin | Posted in General | Posted on 25-07-2010-05-2008
With the State of Texas watching over her, Bryant often thinks in response, "Why shouldn't I have made it through?"
But Bryant, a small-business owner, mother of three and civic volunteer, understands why people say that. She understands because the system failed to protect her. And she's heartbroken over the way she believes it failed her brother. She doesn't want it to fail anymore.
As Gov. Rick Perry's recently appointed chairwoman of the Department of Family and Protective Services Council, Bryant hopes to use her experiences to help shape a system that she says struggles with many of the same problems as it did decades ago.
"We're still looking at the same process that breaks children, stopping children from dreaming to be the best they can be," Bryant said. "I never stopped dreaming."
Texas officials think she's the first former foster child to lead the council, which advises the state agency on issues ranging from protecting children and elderly or disabled adults to rules for day cares.
"Her personal journey will really help us to be more in tune, to be more aware, to be more understanding and to just make sure we're always putting in the forefront what we'd want for our own children and families," said Joyce James, deputy commissioner of the department.
Bryant says that through the advisory council, she'll work to address the over-representation in the foster system of African American children, who also stay in the system longer than other children. And Bryant says she wants to see a foster care system in which children make it because of the experience, not in spite of it, as she did.
"When 'foster' is added in front of a child's name, certain things happen that would not happen if it was your own child," Bryant said. "It's not a title a child asks for."
Bryant, 52, is a fifth-generation Austinite. She entered the foster system at age 6 with her three siblings after their mother was arrested for killing a man.
Bryant, her brother and two sisters, still in blood-spattered clothing, were taken from home. Their mother was placed in a state psychiatric hospital, where she received electric shock treatment and was never herself again, according to Bryant. She didn't get her kids back. Bryant never knew her father.
Meanwhile, the children were separated and placed in foster homes.
For Bryant, that was the start of living in some 20 homes, mostly in the Austin and Corsicana areas, by the time she left the system at 18. Her school and church changed every time she moved. She's been Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and a member of the Church of Christ.
"We never completed a thing," she said.
Worse, she said, the system failed to keep her safe. She was sexually abused by foster parents and by other children in various foster homes, she said, until she learned that wasn't supposed to be happening. And though she figured out that she could be moved to another home if she reported the abuse, she never received counseling, she said. She said she is not aware of police ever having been contacted.
Her brother, Charles Rector, disappeared at 14 and resurfaced years later in jail, she said. As an adult, he was convicted of the 1981 kidnap, rape, shooting and drowning death of Carolyn Kay "Katy" Davis, 22, whose naked, bruised body was found in Lady Bird Lake.
Bryant reconnected with her brother and was a witness to his 1999 execution. After the lethal drugs began flowing, the American-Statesman reported at the time, Rector, 44, said softly: "I love you, sister."
Bryant links Rector's fate to his time in the foster system.
Bryant and those who knew her as a teenager say that she was able to endure her time in the system because she was fiercely determined to succeed. Influenced by her biological great-grandmother's focus on prayer, her Christian faith sustained her, she said.
"I just believed there had to be something else," she said.
Along the way, she found people who cared.
Judith Martin was a caseworker to Bryant when, as a teenager, she was pregnant and determined to keep her baby.
"Gigi was definitely a memorable kid on my caseload, oh my, yes," Martin said. "She was clear about who she was and where she wanted to go. She wouldn't just let people make choices for her. And shining through all that was her spirit."
Modean Wilkins, Bryant's last foster mother, said: "I saw her wanting more in life than the average 16-year-old."
Wilkins remembers Bryant taking great care with her allowance and babysitting money. If she got $20, she'd keep $10 and put $10 in the bank, Wilkins said. When she graduated from high school, she had saved enough to buy a Volkswagen.
Today, Gigi Bryant is president of GMSA Management Services Inc., a business development consulting firm. She is on the board of the Austin Community College Foundation and the advisory council of the Assistance League of Austin, and is a member of the Douglas Club, a volunteer organization.
She earned a bachelor's degree from St. Edward's University after a decade of taking classes while working and raising her daughter, now 35, and older son, now 30. She also has an 18-year-old son. She holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.
After years of what she says were abusive relationships, Bryant is now married to her "best friend," Sam Bryant, who is the father of two children of his own. Together, the Bryants have four grandchildren.
Gigi Bryant's daughter, Shantel Wilkins (no relation to Modean Wilkins), said her mother kept her and brother Marcus Wilkins "on the straight and narrow," encouraging academic achievement to the point that summers were spent reading and handing in book reports to their mom. "We weren't watching TV and hanging out," said Shantel Wilkins, whose brother Marcus played football for the University of Texas and the NFL.
Bryant had been on the Department of Family and Protective Services Council for four years when the governor tapped her in March as chairwoman. She said she made sure Perry's aides knew about her experiences in the foster system, telling them that "if they wanted me to hide that, I'm not the right person."
James, the department deputy commissioner, said Bryant has long volunteered to share her experiences with child welfare workers.
Bryant has "always encouraged us to listen to the young people," James said. "Part of her experience was we did not listen to her when she outcried about what was happening to her. It was like no one heard her."
Scott McCown, a former state district judge who is executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said the advisory council holds less sway now than it did years ago, when it was a policymaking board.
But the council, which meets quarterly, does review rule changes, such as this year's proposed tweaks for day care centers (the council expects to make recommendations later this year on whether to lower adult-child ratios). And Audrey Deckinga, Department of Family and Protective Services assistant commissioner for Child Protective Services, said of council members: "We take their advice very seriously."
Bryant says she'll work to discourage the department from separating siblings in the foster system. "Why are we still talking about kids needing to be with siblings?" she asked. She said of her brother and sisters: "We could have been together and known each other." She is not in touch with her sisters.
Bryant frequently gives speeches about foster care. She talks about the horrors she endured in the system but also of her optimism for the future and desire to make improvements. She says she doesn't want people who hear her story to feel sorry for her — rather, she wants them to do something to improve the life of a child.
"Would I have chosen this life for myself and my siblings?" she asked during a speech at a Central Texas Council of Child Protection Boards event in May. "No, but it makes me who I am."
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com
Click here to "Soundoff" on this story
Texas leader hopes to change foster care system »
Latest News »
Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas
http://bit-news.com/texas-leader-hopes-to-change-foster-care-system-latest-news-corsicana-daily-sun-corsicana-texas/
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