Children Find Naked Child's Body in Suitcase in Australian Park

[MuffyBee]

Children Find Naked Child's Body in Suitcase in Australian Park

Thursday, October 18, 2007
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303238,00.html
SYDNEY, Australia —  A group of children found a boy's naked body jammed into a suitcase floating in a duck pond at a suburban Sydney park, triggering a murder investigation Thursday and a police warning to parents.

There was widespread outrage at the apparent brutality directed toward the unidentified child, who police said did not match the description of anyone on missing-persons lists, though clues indicated the body had been there for days.

"Put simply, it's one of the most monstrous acts imaginable," New South Wales state Premier Morris Iemma told the state legislature.

A group of about 10 children playing in the park in the Sydney suburb of Rosemeadow pulled the dark, tartan-patterned bag of carry-on luggage size ashore on Wednesday evening and reported their gruesome discovery after opening it.

"We were riding on our scooters when a friend came up and said there was a dead pig down at the duck pond, so we went down to see," one of the children said on Australian television. His name was not given and his face was obscured because of his age.

"Me and my friend got sticks and flipped it over and then we saw that there was feet, so we went up to our houses to call the police," he said.
Homicide Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford said the dead boy — who was jammed in a fetal position and wrapped in plastic — was believed to be age 4 to 8, revising downward an earlier estimate of 5 to 10.

Beresford said witnesses told investigators that they had seen the bag floating in the pond for at least two days, and that the body was in the early stages of decomposition.

A post-mortem examination began Thursday to try determining who the boy was and how he died. Beresford said it was too early to say if he had been assaulted.

Police divers scoured the pond Thursday and found items including clothes and a knife, though investigators had not yet linked them to the death.

Beresford also said police were looking into reports of a suspicious white van seen recently in the suburb.

"It's certainly being investigated. Obviously I would certainly be wary if I was a parent," Beresford said.

[MuffyBee]

Body in suitcase sickens ambo

By John Lyons

October 19, 2007 01:00am
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22610661-421,00.html


IT was the way the little boy's body had been packed for death that most disturbed Mario Burzynski, an ambulance officer for 10 years.

In that decade, Mr Burzynski had seen many confronting things but what most affected him this time was the strangely deliberate way this boy had been packed in a suitcase.

The child's legs had been folded back to fit into the suitcase and his naked body had been wrapped in plastic.

"A kid who had drowned and floated would be a tragedy," Mr Burzynski said yesterday.

"But this was very intentional.

"This child had been compacted in to fit the space."
(snipped)
After this I want them to empty the lake out," said Jay, the father of Jayden Atherton, the boy who discovered the body.

On Wednesday, Jayden and two other boys who had been hanging around the duck pond reached for sticks to drag a suitcase they'd seen floating to the side of the shore.

Having succeeded, they unzipped the case, but nobody was prepared for what came next - the boys let out a scream that one of the neighbours down the road heard.
(snipped)
At first, the boys thought it was a pig's body, but on closer inspection, Jayden and his two friends realised it was a child, now believed to be between four and eight.

They ran for the nearest house, over the road, and found Sarah Burzynski and her father, Mario.

"We found a dead baby," they shouted to Sarah through the security door. "Please come!"

Those were the first moments of the discovery of one of the most gruesome crimes for some time.

An extraordinary aspect of this murder is that no one has come forward to report a boy missing - suggesting the possibility of a parent being involved.

The body had been in the pond for about three days, and was beginning to decompose.
(snipped)

[MumInOhio]

DOCS 'did act before two-year-old died' Dean Shillingsworth
Monday Oct 22 11:00 AEST


Child welfare workers say they responded to warnings about the baby boy who was found dead in a suitcase shortly before he was killed.

Action was taken by the Department of Community Services (DOCS) after receiving notification of the family now embroiled in a murder case, NSW Community Services Minister Kevin Greene says.

Over the weekend it emerged DOCS had been notified about the family.

"DOCS did receive a call to its helpline. And the call was assessed and there was some action taken," Mr Greene told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

He said he could not expand on what action had been taken because of the court case and the ongoing police investigation.

"Sadly, there is no perfect child protection system in the world but we want to do the best we can to continue to improve the child protection system that we have in NSW."

Earlier it was reported the body of the murdered infant, which was stuffed into a suitcase, may have been shaken to death.

It is believed the trauma may have occurred up to 10 days ago.

The disturbing news emerged as Dean's paternal grandmother revealed she made a desperate visit to Campbelltown police station last Thursday to raise concerns about the boy's welfare.

Ann Coffey said she had been Dean's primary carer while living in Tamworth, in north-eastern NSW, until June 7 when she left him with his mother for a pre-arranged visit, News Limited reports.

Ms Coffey said through a family spokeswoman that she sat inside the southwestern Sydney police station worried about Dean's welfare after he failed to return from the visit.

The grandmother even watched the suitcase, which carried Dean's naked body, brought into the police station, the family spokeswoman said.

When a police officer drove Ms Coffey around to the Rosemeadow home occupied by Dean's mother and her boyfriend, a young man answered the door and said Dean had been taken by child welfare authorities, the spokeswoman said.


It is alleged Dean's body was hidden in the house, in Pindarus Way, for six days before being dumped in the duck pond at Mandurama Reserve, in Ambarvale.

Pfitzner has been remanded in custody and is due to face Campbelltown Local Court on December 12.

She was jeered and abused when police took her to the pond where two young boys discovered the toddler's body in a tartan suitcase last Wednesday.

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said it was a scandal that nothing was done after DOCS was contacted.

"Kevin Greene, the Iemma government, need to hang their heads in shame," he said.

Emotional response

Floral tributes, cards, poems and candles continued to amass around the Ambarvale pond and tears flowed from mourners, most of them strangers to the boy's family.

Rosemeadow mother of four boys Sharon Maycock said she had made three visits to the pond every day since the discovery.

"It's just got me. I stood here crying ... it's like part of me is here now," she said.

"Why did she do it? There must be a reason."

Rosemeadow resident Brenda Foreman, 71, said the community would take a long time to recover from the tragedy.

"Police brought her to the scene (Saturday) night and the residents heckling and abusing her," Ms Foreman said.

"They were shouting and threatening her."

The Reverend David Cole from Rosemeadow Anglican church said the main question people were asking him was why she did it.

"I have been telling people sin and evil exist in this world and at times we get to see it very clearly ... but God conquers this," he said.

Mr Cole said one parishioner had offered a burial plot at a cemetery to ensure a proper funeral.

Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said officers worked around the clock on the case.

"This has been a harrowing investigation for them,"he said.

Mr Scipione said police were still talking with a 29-year-old man in relation to the boy's death.

The community surrounding the Ambarvale pond will gather on Wednesday night for a candlelight vigil and memorial service.

 

[MumInOhio]

Father of 'Lake Angel' to be released



Dean Shillingsworth, whose body was found in a suitcase in a pond at Ambarvale.



The father of the murdered Sydney toddler whose body was stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a duck pond will be released from a NSW jail at 8am tomorrow.

Paul Shillingsworth has been in jail in Junee, in the state's south-east, for an unrelated offence and was expected to be released only temporarily to attended his two-year-old son Dean's funeral.

But today the parole board decided to release him on general parole.

It is understood that decision was made in a routine review and had nothing to do with his son's death.

Shillingsworth was in jail for breaching his bail conditions after failing to tell authorities where he was living.

Dean's decomposed body was found stuffed in a suitcase dumped in a pond in Ambarvale, in Sydney's south-west, last Wednesday.

The boy's mother, Rachel Pfitzner, 26, of Rosemeadow, has been charged with his murder and remains in custody.

The NSW government has admitted the Department of Community Services hotline had received a series of calls about the toddler's welfare.

But NSW Community Services Minister Kevin Greene today told parliament that "none of these reports could reasonably be assessed that the child's life was in danger".

Local residents will pay their respects to the toddler by releasing hundreds of balloons and floating candles on the suburban Sydney duckpond where his body was found last week.

Residents of Ambarvale and surrounding suburbs in south-west Sydney are planning the memorial ceremony after Dean's tiny, decomposing body was found in a suitcase dumped in the local pond last Wednesday.

His mother, Rachel Pfitzner, 26, of nearby Rosemeadow, has been charged with his murder and remains in custody.

Everyone, from the area's many pram-pushing mothers to its burly workmen and truckies, has been touched by Dean's tragic end.

They have dubbed him the "Lake Angel".

The residents are calling for donations to establish a trust fund to honour the toddler.

Local man Jason Robbins, of St Helens Park, said the money would be used to put a plaque remembering the child near the pond where his body was found.

"The money left over will stay into the trust find and go to Dean's brother and sister," he said.

In a bid to bring some closure for the grieving community, Mr Robbins has organised a lakeside service for Friday evening, starting at 5pm (AEST).

The Reverend David Cole, of Rosemeadow Anglican Church, will lead the service with three simple prayers.

"One is for the family who's grieving, so Dean's family, simply that they will find the courage and the strength to face the future without Dean," Mr Cole said.

"We are going to pray for the community, that they make sensible choices from this point on.

"And then, just for Dean himself, we are going to ask that God treat him with mercy and kindness."

During the short service, 500 balloons will be released into the air and candles floated onto the pond.

Mr Robbins said he had been moved to organise the service by the community reaction to Dean's grim fate.

"I went to the pond the night after it happened, when they found young Dean, or 'Lake Angel' as we like to call him now," he said.

"I was touched by everyone from the community getting involved, watching young kids, teenagers coming down and sitting there hour after hour, just observing silence.

"I thought, well, the community needed closure to have their own farewell for the young boy."

Mr Robbins said it was "mind-blowing" to see how much the local people had opened their hearts to the toddler.

Mr Cole said he would use the service to tell the community that nothing had really changed with Dean's death.

"People are scared that our community has changed, that the pond has somehow been tainted by this," he said.

"The reality is nothing has changed, the world is exactly as it was a week and a half ago.

"There is no predator prowling around after the kids, so we don't need to fear more than we did a week ago.

"We just need to get on a treat each other with respect and kindness."

Calls didn't show baby at risk: minister

At no time did phone calls to a government helpline indicate that the toddler's life was at risk, the NSW Government says.

Community Services Minister Kevin Greene has moved to defend his department's handling of the case, telling NSW Parliament that several calls to a helpline did not indicate an imminent threat.

"The reports to the [Department of Community Service] helpline that in some way involved the young boy, I'm clearly advised by the director general of DOCS, that none of these reports could reasonably be assessed that the child's life was in danger," Mr Greene told Parliament.

"I'm not minimising the seriousness or the tragedy of this case. I'm not suggesting these reports were unimportant."

Mr Greene said he could not comment in a more detailed way on the case as it was before the courts.

Further charges also could be laid, he said.

"Without discussing the particulars of this particular case, I can advise the house that one in every 15 children is reported to DoCS ... it's a shocking figure," Mr Greene said.

"Of all those hundreds of thousands of calls there is no foolproof way of identifying which case could sadly end in death.

"This is not tick-a-box stuff ... there are no flashing neon lights telling us that a certain child, the subject of a report, will die."

Mr Greene said his department must "continually work harder and improve its procedures and hone its efforts" but he also said it was impossible to guarantee there would be no child deaths.

"The unpalatable truth is that DOCS case workers can no more prevent all child deaths than police can prevent all murders, and that doctors and nurses and paramedics can prevent all trauma fatalities," he said.

Health Minister Reba Meagher, who was community services minister when the boy's case was first reported in February, said neither she nor her office had prior knowledge of the case.

"I can say that as soon as this matter was brought to my attention I undertook a thorough search of my records to see if there had been any contact made in relation to this family," she told Parliament.

"There is no record of this case."

Ms Meagher said she would not go into commentary on the matter and stood by her record in the portfolio.

■ Donations to the Lake Angel Trust Fund can be made to any National Australia Bank branch. The fund is being managed by the Rosemeadow Anglican Church.
           

[MuffyBee]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,27574,25594692-5006009,00.html
Suitcase toddler Dean Shillingsworth's mother pleads guilty
By Angela Kamper
June 06, 2009 12:00am
THE discovery of toddler Dean Shillingsworth's body stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a southern Sydney duck pond triggered a wave of raw emotion across the state.

Eighteen months after the gruesome find by children who retrieved the case from the pond in Sydney's southwest, his mother Rachel Pfitzner pleaded guilty to his manslaughter.

"I plead not guilty to the murder but guilty to manslaughter," the puffy-eyed 27-year-old in prison greens told the NSW Supreme Court yesterday. The Crown may not accept Pfitzner's plea.

Until now the Department of Public Prosecution has strongly opposed her story that she tried to revive the boy after shaking him to death.

Pfitzner's lawyers allege Dean lost consciousness after she shook him twice and threw him to the ground.

She has said her efforts to resuscitate him failed before she put him in the foetal position in a suitcase and then dumped him in the water.

Dean's body was found in the Ambarvale pond on October 17, 2007.

He was never reported missing and Pfitzner was arrested four days after the find. First police had to identify the boy then raid her home to track her down.

Forensic pathologist Dianne Little who gave evidence at Pfitzner's committal hearing last year said that Dean may possibly have been alive when he was dumped in the pond.

Dr Little said that if Dean had been shaken to death she would have expected to find haemorrhaging in the brain and the eyes but neither of these signs was present in Dean.

She also believed the child may possibly have been suffocated.

The autopsy which was performed on Dean showed that he had 35 injuries including bruising to his head, trunk and limbs and five to eight cuts on his scalp and a cut to his anus.

The doctor also cast doubts on the prisoner's version of events, particularly her ability to pick up Dean one-handed and to hold him in the air for 12 minutes as she had claimed.

Pfitzner alleges she did not know CPR but had tried to resuscitate her child by tilting back his head, pinching his nose and blowing into his mouth while pumping his chest and that this botched attempt at resuscitation may be the explanation for the unusual finger-like bruising on Dean's left cheek.

Justice Roderick Howie yesterday set the murder trial date for September 7.

The court will now wait to hear from the Crown on whether it will proceed.

 

[cookie]

what is it with people putting children's bodies in suitcases??? ghastly if you ask me.
and how horrible for the children who found this little child's body..that is something that no child should have to see...Let alone something that no child should have to suffer...being murdered and by your very own parent...awful...

[Nut44x4]

(Left) Dean Shillingworth and (right) a cross opposite the crowd gathered at the pond in Ambervale where the memorial service was conducted for him.

Family questions why more wasn’t done for murdered toddler

20/08/2009 4:00:00 AM

This week the grandparents of little Dean have questioned why DoCS didn’t investigate Pfitzner’s drug problems better and take her three children away from her, which yesterday was echoed by Dean’s father’s cousin and Dubbo resident, Doris Shillingsworth.

Ms Shillingsworth said yesterday that she was happy to hear that Pfitzner had owned up to the heinous crime of killing her son, but questioned why Dean had been left in her care before his death.

“It is a very sad and emotional time for us because he was such a beautiful little boy, he could have been anything when he grew up,” Ms Shillingsworth said.

“Its hard to understand what mind set she (Pfitzner) must have been in to do what she did, and why Dean was allowed to be with her unattended.

“DoCS should have monitored her visits with Dean.”

Ms Shillingsworth said she held no hate or anger toward Pfitzner for what she did because she knew that she would be living with the truth of what happened for the rest of her life.

She said that for Pfitzner to own up for what she did to Dean was the best thing she could have done.

“She (Pfitzner) is going to have to live with what she has done now for the rest of her life,” Ms Shillingsworth said.

“You can say your angry or want to bash someone, but the fact is she is going to be left with the feeling of knowing what she did now forever.”

http://www.dailyliberal.com.au/news/local/news/general/family-questions-why-more-wasnt-done-for-murdered-toddler/1600871.aspx