The girl in the window

Bad^Hat

Bad^Hat

The Freeman
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Jesus Christ...

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article750838.ece

The family had lived in the rundown rental house for almost three years when someone first saw a child's face in the window.

A little girl, pale, with dark eyes, lifted a dirty blanket above the broken glass and peered out, one neighbor remembered.

Everyone knew a woman lived in the house with her boyfriend and two adult sons. But they had never seen a child there, had never noticed anyone playing in the overgrown yard.

The girl looked young, 5 or 6, and thin. Too thin. Her cheeks seemed sunken; her eyes were lost.

The child stared into the square of sunlight, then slipped away.

Months went by. The face never reappeared.
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I cried. ;(

The Austrian incest dungeon guy was awful, but that was intentional. This is just neglect, in the extreme. How does this ****ing happen, in this day and age?

Edit - Videos and stuff here, too. http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2008/reports/danielle/
 
It's sad but it's nothing to really burst into tears about.
 
Mellish said:
It's sad but it's nothing to really burst into tears about.
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Imagine sitting in a room with no light, laying on the floor with cockroaches and other bugs. most likely she would of been normal if it wasn't for the extreme neglect.
 
It's sad but it's nothing to really burst into tears about.
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Well, you should read the article then.

This makes me want to do something to help children like this girl. I might volunteer somewhere or adopt a child. I know I wouldn't make the greatest parent, but I can do a much better job than that crazy mother who ruined that girls life.
 
I just couldn't read it after a little while, it got me to emotional.
 
Mellish said:
It's sad but it's nothing to really burst into tears about.
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It was more like a combination of sadness, disgust and loathing, but I don't think I said as much as "bursting into tears." Although you're right in the sense that it probably wasn't necessary to mention the fact. The awfulness of the article hardly needs emphasizing...

I'm not normally that vindictive towards criminals when something like this happens, but it sickens me a little that the mother hasn't seen any jail time over this, and probably never will. She even managed to avoid her community service. I'm at a loss as to why they weren't legally able to deny her guardianship, but I guess plain neglect isn't quite as damning as actual physical abuse or rape. Not that I'm trying to compare them, but to have a young girl this utterly broken and traumatized, you'd think that someone would be made responsible. She's not even sorry for it...
 
makes me sick that i can look down the street i live on and never know if any of the homes i'm looking at are like that on the inside.
 
I agree child neglect is awful and should be stopped but I'm not really that sensitive. The funny thing is when I watched a dog neglect advert once I was at the verge of crying.
 
Mellish said:
I agree child neglect is awful and should be stopped but I'm not really that sensitive. The funny thing is when I watched a dog neglect advert once I was at the verge of crying.
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well, thats understandable...but still, when you picture a little girl living in her own shit in a dark room with cockroaches, it brings it back into context.
 
Abuse cases like this are truly horrifying. The concept of someone abusing a child to the point where it lacks basic motor and survival skills is really scary. I remember learning about feral children in Social Psychology, the last case like this was indeed a girl who was strapped to a toilet until she was 13, her case was absolutely hopeless. (they mention it in this article)

Scary business =/
 
"Like walking on eggshells, ...." in regards to the cockroaches... seriously skeevy as all hell.

I think the most telling piece in the entire story (if you made to the end) was that the mother has an IQ of 50--severely mentally retarded. She should never have been able to breed. I know, I know.. that's harsh.. but.. c'mon.. seriously. You must realize that this isn't an isolated event. This happens everywhere.

Being adopted, I know how bad I could have had it in life.. and I'm thankful for all the opportunity I've been given. It's very sad that there are millions (maybe?) of kids available for adoption due to neglect, bad circumstances, etc. in this country, yet, celebrities are praised and honored for bringing kids from foreign countries here to have the best that life has to offer. Why aren't they picking through the American proverbial Cabbage Patch for trophy kids? Because, nobody wants to talk about our kids.. it's not "cool".
 
firenbrimstone said:
"Like walking on eggshells, ...." in regards to the cockroaches... seriously skeevy as all hell.

I think the most telling piece in the entire story (if you made to the end) was that the mother has an IQ of 50--severely mentally retarded.
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Indeed. Unbelievable living conditions, if the word 'living' even applies here.


If I remember correctly, I thought the mother's IQ was 75 - 'borderline able to interact with people.', or something.

I think the neglected daughter had an IQ of 50.

cba to double check though.
 
Shoot the ****ing parents and brothers.
 
VirusType2 said:
Indeed. Unbelievable living conditions, if the word 'living' even applies here.


If I remember correctly, I thought the mother's IQ was 75 - 'borderline able to interact with people.', or something.

I think the neglected daughter had an IQ of 50.

cba to double check though.
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I stand corrected, I had them backwards... :|
 
Only marginally higher than her mute, socially inept daughter... still pretty bottom of the barrel if you ask me. Referring to cockroaches carpeting the floor with shit smeared on the walls as "a bit of a mess" was somewhat telling.

firenbrimstone said:
<stuff>
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I was already pretty set on the idea beforehand, but this article has just further convinced me that I'm going to try and adopt if I'm ever in a relationship where we want kids. Y'know, probably not American kids obviously, but it's all good. :p
 
Read this at SA a few days before. And yeah holy shit what a read.

Also to those wondering how the mother could've done this I think the article mentions her having an IQ of like 77 making her borderline mentally handicapped.
 
Made me get teary eyed watching that. :(
 
i think it should be a requirement that all children under the age of 10 or so should have to see a doctor. Funded by the sate, we should have people go door to door to observe the child and make sure everything is ok. Would of been a better investment than, oh i dont know...the war?
 
Choking back rage, he approached the mother. How could you let this happen?
"The mother's statement was: 'I'm doing the best I can,' " the detective said. "I told her, 'The best you can sucks!' "
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WOW, I was expecting him to left-hook her or something
 
dude, how can you expect the mother to take care of the daughter when heraldo is on followed by the jerry springer show!?!?
 
Atrochous but unfortunately it happens all over the world, people have kids and then just neglect them, and their lives get ****ed up because of some other parasite cant be bothered. I hope she does get better and goes on to lead a normal life, but even if that happens, she will always be haunted by her past, have severe mood swings or just breakdown for no reason. And for what?
 
Atrochous? lol. Sorry, that's just a hilarious misspelling to me, I'm not being an ass.

Anyways... I thought this thread was going to be a ghost thread.
 
That story is so heart-breaking, I hope her life gets into the right track after this.

I'm actually kind of glad the media didn't find out about this. The attention would probably only make things worse for the girl.
 
She has a real sophisticated look about her that makes her appear much older than 7.
 
Your point reminds me of the Blood Brothers song, "Midnight at the Apocalypse Cabaret":

And Scarecrow, did you hear
about the man who locked his daughter in the basement for twelve years?
They dragged her out of the house...
to the hungry audience!
 
If I ever encountered someone like this mother, I think I'd have to re-read what I said in this thread, because it would then be relevant.
 
What I don't get (as well as how anyone could actually let a child get into this state) is how, whilst children like Danielle get rescued from the situation, other children like Kelsey Briggs (I hope some of you will remember her) were sent back home to their abusive parents/carers. Because of this happening Kelsey died after living just three years. At least Danielle's lucky in the fact that she was sent to another home. But why the hell don't the authorities realise that no matter how bad a child abuse situation THEY DON'T SEND THE CHILDREN BACK. It makes me sick to think about it.
 
This seems possibly worse than Jeanie the Wild Child. At least they found this girl at a younger age.
 
Iron Kat said:
What I don't get (as well as how anyone could actually let a child get into this state) is how, whilst children like Danielle get rescued from the situation, other children like Kelsey Briggs (I hope some of you will remember her) were sent back home to their abusive parents/carers. Because of this happening Kelsey died after living just three years. At least Danielle's lucky in the fact that she was sent to another home. But why the hell don't the authorities realise that no matter how bad a child abuse situation THEY DON'T SEND THE CHILDREN BACK. It makes me sick to think about it.
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There was a point in the article where a DSS officer was quoted as saying that they always try as hard as possible to keep the children with their parents, and I think that's what's at fault here. Call me wrong, but I'm pretty sure their first priority should be the child's health and safety, not the parents' happiness :|
 
Good article. Gives you a good view as to why some people just aren't fit for parenting. Good to know she's got a home now. :)
 
rant on

Tragic and scary. The fact of the matter is right now, there are probably hundreds of children world wide in similar situations, many of whom will never be discovered. Without sounding like a complete fascist, stuff like this makes me think that there actually needs to be some form of preventive scientific regulation going on these days as to who can actually have children based around an assessment as to financial security and mental competence, and only when the those two criteria are met do you get breeding rights. In the wild being unable to sustain yourself and being stupid generally result in you dropping out of the breeding circle. We need to somehow artificially bring that survival element back.

/rant off
 
Bernie and Diane already thought of Danielle as their daughter, but legally she wasn't. Danielle's birth mother did not want to give her up even though she had been charged with child abuse and faced 20 years in prison. So prosecutors offered a deal: If she waived her parental rights, they wouldn't send her to jail.
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The ****? Seriously, what the ****?


The detective should have, and been fully in his right, to shoot the "mother".
 
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