Female child/baby found in a bag in the Passaic River 7/5/09 Clifton NJ

[Nut44x4]

Body of girl found in NJ river

CLIFTON — A body of a girl who was about 2 years old was found in the Passaic River near the Ackerman Avenue Bridge on Sunday, authorities said.
uthorities say two men fishing in the river Sunday afternoon found a bag in the water at the shoreline and found the body inside the bag.

Firefighters and a police detective searched by boat along the wooded shoreline for evidence. Investigators are trying to determine the girl's identity.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090706/UPDATES01/90706001/1005/NEWS01/Body+of+girl+found+in+NJ+river+

[Nut44x4]

Body of 2-year-old girl found in Passaic River

Last updated: Monday July 6, 2009, 2:11 PM
CLIFTON — A body of a girl who was about 2 years old was found in the Passaic River near the Ackerman Avenue Bridge on Sunday, authorities said.

They said they don’t know the identity of the body, and are investigating the discovery.

Two men fishing in the Passaic River discovered the body in a bag at about 3 p.m. The men were interviewed by investigators.

The fishermen found the bag in the water at the shore line. Police escorted the fishermen from the scene. They were carrying their poles and one carried a tackle box. They put their gear in their Jeep.

Firefighters and a police detective traveled along the wooded shoreline in a boat to search for evidence.

As a Crime Scene Unit from the Passaic County Sheriff Department also went over the scene, which is located in an industrial area, several homeless men and fishermen emerged from the woods to watch the investigation.

Late Sunday, Clifton authorities released few details of the investigation, citing the sensitivity of the case.

http://www.northjersey.com/breakingnews/Body_of_2-year-old_girl_found_in_Passaic_River.html

[Tracygirl]

Omg...poor little girl, thrown away like last nights garbage. I hope they find out who she is

[Nut44x4]

Body found in NJ river was stolen from Conn. grave

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — A body found in a New Jersey river this week belonged to a 2-year-old girl whose remains were apparently stolen from a grave in Connecticut, police said Tuesday.

Two men fishing in the Passaic River on Sunday afternoon in Clifton, N.J., found a girl's body in a bag at the shoreline. An investigation led authorities to the grave of a girl who was buried in Stamford in 2007.

Authorities exhumed the grave and found an empty coffin.

Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin would not release the child's identity Tuesday but said authorities believe she was properly buried.

Police do not consider the girl's family suspects and said they appeared shocked to hear that their child's body was not in the grave, Conklin said.

"The Stamford Police Department's heartfelt condolences go to the family, who are reliving the grief of the loss of their child," he said.

The grave appeared undisturbed, but the coffin was damaged, an indication that the theft wasn't recent, he said.

He said police have no suspects and no clear motive. The body was in "remarkably good" condition, he said, and police were looking for any signs that it might have been used in a ritual.

"We have speculation and theories as to why something took place," he said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQ0eAkG2rEkRT40NLdqUdCry5xUgD999QOSG0

[Nut44x4]

 

[Nut44x4]

This world just keeps getting sicker and sicker..... 

UPDATE: Child's body stolen from Stamford cemetery ends up in New Jersey river

STAMFORD -- Police say the body of a 2-year-old Stamford child was stolen from its grave in Woodland Cemetery in the South End and somehow turned up in a New Jersey river this weekend.

The body of an unnamed 2-year-old child who had died in 2007 from a pre-existing medical condition was found Sunday in a sealed plastic bag by fishermen at the bank of the Passaic River in Clifton, N.J., authorities said. Clifton police investigators and the state medical examiner identified the child and on Monday went to Stamford.

Police investigators from Stamford, Passaic County and Clifton exhumed the child's coffin this Monday and found it empty. Police are not identifying the child out of respect to the grief-striken Connecticut family,

Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said, describing the case as bizarre and disturbing.

When police dug up the coffin it was damaged, but the ground around the grave was not disturbed, Conklin said. That led investigators to believe the theft did not happen recently, he said.

Conklin would not say how New Jersey authorities identified the child. He did say the body's good condition made it easy for investigators to identify the child and interview family, who lived in Stamford when the 2-year-old died, he said.

Police have no suspects and did not have any firm reasons why the 2-year-old's body was stolen from its grave, Conklin said.

http://www.connpost.com/ci_12768238?source=most_viewed

[MuffyBee]

Nut~  There is a thread in Unsolved Crimes at SM, Skelton of infant "Baby Locke".  The grave was found disturbed, the coffin damaged and the baby boys remains removed:

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=3886.0

What is going on? 

[Nut44x4]

I am clueless...      Too sick for words. 

[MuffyBee]

http://wcbstv.com/local/passaic.river.baby.2.1075810.html
 Jul 7, 2009 7:01 pm US/Eastern
Child Found In N.J. River Stolen From Conn. Grave
Coffin Exhumed Monday After Investigators Link Body To Connecticut Family; 2-Year-Old Found In Plastic Bag
Cops: Dumping May Be Part Of Some Bizarre Grave-Digging Ritual

discovered in the Passaic River on Sunday may have been removed from a grave at a Connecticut cemetery.

The body was discovered by a fisherman on the river's bank and was wrapped in a plastic bag.

Officer Richard Conklin said a coffin at Stamford Cemetery was exhumed after New Jersey medical examiners linked the body to a Connecticut family.

"On Monday, July 6, 2009, Stamford Police investigators with the Passaic county CSI unit and Clifton Police Department exhumed the coffin in Stamford and found it to be empty," Conklin said. "Additionally, the casket was damaged."

The toddler, who has not been identified, died of a pre-existing condition and was buried in 2007.

"The parents were shocked," Conklin said. "(They) had no reason to believe the child was not in the ground, and seemed to be quite shocked when we delivered the news."

Conklin added that police have yet to identify any suspects in the dumping. They are also looking into the possibility that the child may have been stolen as part of some ritual.

"We're looking into that," Conklin said. "At this point the body is being examined but the body was in remarkable condition."

The cemetery's caretaker, who has been working with investigators, declined to comment.

"I thank you for your cooperation and I need to refer you to the Stamford Police Department," he said.

Grave-digging was a common practice in the 18th century, but Connecticut police said it is also a problem in their state. Two skulls were recently found on top of a grave at another cemetery.

If convicted, the person responsible for dumping the body would face up to five years in prison.

[cookie]

this is really sickening!  a baby laid to rest for it's final sleep and some idiot disturbs that! sick!

[2NJSons_Mom]

Child's body found in Passaic River was stolen from Connecticut grave
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Last updated: Wednesday July 8, 2009, 8:15 AM
BY JAMES YOO AND ELIZABETH LLORENTE
NorthJersey.com
A 2-year-old child whose body was found in the Passaic River on Sunday was illegally removed from a cemetery in Connecticut, Stamford police said.

The child, whom a pair of fishermen spotted in a sealed plastic bag floating on the water’s edge, died in 2007, police say.

It is not known how the child — who was thought to be properly buried — ended up in New Jersey. The child’s family, who did not want the baby identified by name, had no known connections to New Jersey, authorities say.

The toddler was identified by New Jersey authorities through an armband that bore a name, said Clifton police, who have assisted in the investigation.

“But just because the band was there doesn’t mean it necessarily belonged to the baby, so we had to investigate,” said Clifton Detective Lt. Richard Berdnik. “We don’t know how the body got there; we are following some leads, but I’m not at liberty to say.”

Stamford police said that the child died of a preexisting medical condition and was properly prepared for burial and embalmed. The body, which is being held at the New Jersey State Medical Examiner’s Office, was prepared by Downer Funeral Home in Stamford and buried at the Woodland Cemetery there, police said.

“The parents were surprised and shocked,” said Berdnik, who added that he was present with other authorities when the parents were informed of what had happened to their child’s body. The parents evidently had not noticed anything unusual in the area around the grave, authorities said, and had assumed the child was in the coffin.

“It’s very odd,” said Capt. Richard Conklin of the Stamford Police Department, after a press conference Tuesday. “I’ve been with the department just shy of 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Authorities say they do not have a possible motive that could explain what occurred.

“We have speculation and theories, but at this time it is only speculation and theories,” Conklin said.

Police said that although the coffin was damaged, the grave itself appeared undisturbed, suggesting that the theft of the body was not recent.

Clifton police say there is no waterway from Connecticut to the Passaic River in Clifton. “So someone,” Berdnik said, “had to place the body there.”

The child’s body, which was embalmed and sealed in the plastic bag, was well preserved, Conklin said.

“It is in remarkable condition for someone who died in 2007 and was found in the river,” he said.

A Connecticut couple whose son died in 2007 went to Woodlawn Cemetery on Tuesday evening out of concern that the news about the toddler found in the Passaic River might be their child. It was not their son, Jordan Michael, but the parents, Daryl Spearman, 37, of Bridgeport and Jennifer Luning, 32, of Stamford, claimed it was the child, a girl, whose grave site was next to their son’s.

Authorities would not say whether the child was a girl or boy.

Instead of the plaque, stuffed animals and flowers they saw last week at the girl’s grave site, Spearman and Luning saw an empty patch of dirt without a marker. “Their parents had their closure and now that chapter’s reopened,” Spearman said.

On the same day the child’s body was discovered, the body of a Waldwick woman, Beverly T. Spano, who had been missing since Thursday, also was recovered in the Passaic River.

James Minchin, funeral director of Paterson’s Minchin Funeral Home, said in the 47 years he’s worked in his family’s business, he’s never heard of a body being placed into a plastic bag before burial. Minchin said that a body’s arteries are usually injected with a formaldehyde-based fluid to preserve it.

“I see no reason why after the body is embalmed to place it in a plastic bag,” he said.

Minchin said the armband on the toddler’s body could have been left over from a medical examiner or a hospital. But funeral homes normally do not put tags on bodies, he said.

Lt. Timothy Shaw of the Stamford police said the offender could face a class C felony for interference with a cemetery or burial grounds. That carries a five-year maximum prison sentence, he said.

Responsible parties would also face similar charges in New Jersey.

As for the next steps, Conklin said there would be a number of interviews, follow-ups and forensic testing. Examinations are also being conducted by the medical examiner’s office in New Jersey. Conklin praised the Clifton Police Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office for their assistance.

Detectives and members of the crime scene investigation unit of the Passaic County Sheriff's Department assisted in the investigation. The officers helped process the crime scene, assisted in identifying the body and followed up leads, said Bill Maer, Passaic County Sheriff’s Department spokes¬man. Maer also said sheriff's officers were with Stamford police when the grave was exhumed, along with Clifton police.

Staff Writers Meredith Mandell and Albina Sportelli contributed to this article.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/crimeandcourts/Baby_found_in_river_stolen_ffrom_Connecticut_grave.html

[Nut44x4]

Stamford Capt. Richard Conklin said based on evidence found at the scene and information from authorities in New Jersey, investigators are looking at the crime "as a ritualistic sort of thing." He would not disclose details, citing an ongoing investigation.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/connecticut_police_say_body_fo.html

[Nut44x4]

Body identified in Stamford grave theft
2-year-old suffered from rare brain condition

STAMFORD -- The identity of the 2-year-old child whose body was stolen from a Stamford grave and found in a New Jersey river has been confirmed as Imani Joyner.

Stamford Town Clerk Donna Loglisci said she signed disinterment papers permitting authorities to exhume Joyner's coffin Monday in Woodland Cemetery in the city's South End.

Joyner died in April 2007 and was born in 2004 with semilobar holoprosencephaly, a condition that kept her brain from developing fully. It affects one in 5,000 to 10,000 live births. She wasn't expected to live; the condition causes babies to die before birth or shortly after.

Joyner survived until she was 2 and a half. Doctors called her a miracle baby.

The disinterment permit signed by Loglisci was handed over to police in Clifton, N.J., where the body was found this weekend.

A Stamford police captain said evidence found at the crime scenes in Woodland Cemetery in Stamford and New Jersey point toward some kind of ritual. He would not say what the evidence was.

"When we say ritualistic, we're looking at an off-shoot of Santeria and Palo Mayombe," Capt. Richard Conklin said, citing two syncretic religions originated among Caribbean descendants of Africans who brought the beliefs from their home continent to the West Indies.

Conklin said the child being dubbed as a "miracle baby" may have led some to believe it had mystical powers.

Joyner died from pneumonia on April 22, 2007 in Branford at a Hospice residence, her death records and obituary show. She had pneumonia for 10 days.

Two men fishing in the Passaic River on Sunday afternoon in Clifton, N.J., found the body of 2-year-old girl in a garbage bag at the shoreline, police said. An investigation led authorities to the grave of Joyner, who was buried in Woodland Cemetery in 2007.

Authorities exhumed the grave on Monday and found an empty coffin that looked broken into. The ground around the grave, however, was not disturbed, and that let police to believe the theft of the body was not recent.

Phone messages left with relatives of Joyner's parents have not been returned.

http://www.connpost.com/breakingnews/ci_12783242 

[MuffyBee]

Little baby girl     Her parents are having to bury their child all over again.   

[Tracygirl]

OMGosh...this poor baby and the poor family. What a horrible thing to have happen. Who the hell thinks of of doing this type of thing?

[Nut44x4]

Dead chickens found near missing baby's Stamford grave
Sacrificed remains located a quarter-mile from 2-year-old's corpse 

STAMFORD -- New Jersey police investigators say sacrificed chicken remains were found a quarter-mile from the body of a two-year-old girl taken from her Stamford grave. Sgt. Robert Bracken, a juvenile detective with the Clifton Police Department, said there is still no direct link between a possible ritual and the discovery of 2-year-old Imani Joyner, who died in 2007. Two fishermen found her body Sunday in a sealed garbage bag in the Passaic River, and an investigation led Clifton police to Stamford.

Up river in Elmwood Park, authorities also found a bag containing chicken parts and believe them to be part of a sacrificial ritual, Bracken said.

"Other towns around us have found sacrificed animals," Bracken said. "I wouldn't say it happens every day, but it's not uncommon either."

New Jersey authorities identified the body and along with Stamford Police and Passaic County police investigators exhumed Joyner's coffin on Monday, finding it broken into and her body missing.

Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said evidence found near Joyner's grave site in Woodland Cemetery in the South End points to the theft being part of some kind of possible ritual, citing off-shoots of Santeria and Palo Mayombe.

Conklin said the grave robbers may have targeted Joyner because doctors dubbed her a miracle baby. She had a rare and terminal brain disorder yet survived well past doctors' expectations.

Santeria is a Caribbean blend of West African beliefs and Catholicism. Palo Mayombe is a religion originally from the Congo region of Africa; it was brought to the Americas by slaves.

"From all the signs and info we have gathered, that's where it's pointed right now," Conklin said. "If we get other information that points somewhere else, we'll go that way."

In Clifton, Bracken said police are not narrowly focused on the body theft as a being part of a ritual, but investigators are seeing whether there's a connection between the obscure beliefs and a motive behind the theft.

Imani, who died April 22, 2007, was born in 2004 with semilobar holoprosencephaly, a condition that kept her brain from developing fully. It affects one in 5,000 to 10,000 births. It causes babies to die before birth or shortly after.

Joyner survived until she was two years old. Doctors and nurses called her a miracle baby.

She died from pneumonia at the Connecticut Hospice facility in Branford, death records show. Connecticut Hospice spokesman Marcel Blanchet said Joyner came into the residence's intensive care unit as terminal patient.

Hospice staff grew fond of her and volunteers took her our on strolls and rocked her crib, he said.

"The whole organization has been affected by it because this case was so unique," Blanchet said. "This baby touched everybody's lives who worked with her."

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_12805983?source=most_emailed

[2NJSons_Mom]

Police now say they are unsure of ritual link in baby grave-robbing
Friday, July 10, 2009
Last updated: Friday July 10, 2009, 10:38 AM
BY JAMES YOO
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
  CLIFTON — A day after authorities announced suspicions that a religious tradition may have had something to do with the theft of a girl's body from a Connecticut grave, city police are urging caution.

Detective Sgt. Robert Bracken said chicken parts found upstream along the Passaic River from where the body of 2-year-old Imani Joyner was discovered could or could not be related. He said no evidence of a ritual was found near her body.

"This is not the first time animal sacrifices have taken place on the riverside," he said. "To automatically assume that it's related to our job is premature."

The child's body was dug up and stolen from her grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in Stamford, Conn. She had died in April 2007. Police speculate robbers may have snatched her within a few months of her burial.

Stamford police Capt. Richard Conklin said tests were being conducted to determine when the theft happened.

The child's body was found Sunday by two fishermen on the Passaic River, one of them from Clifton and another from Bergen County.

The New Jersey Medical Examiner's Office, which has the child's body, is making arrangements with its counterpart in Connecticut to return the remains, Bracken said.

Authorities on Wednesday said they had found evidence at the gravesite and near where the body was found in the river that may have linked the case to rituals of the Palo Mayombe religious tradition.

Conklin, the Stamford police captain, would not describe what was found at Joyner's grave, citing the investigation.

He said experts told the department it is a busy time of the year for practitioners of that religious tradition.

But Bracken said investigators still were trying to determine if the chicken parts found a quarter-mile upstream of Joyner's body were related to the discovery in Stamford.

"Everyone does it in their own way," he said. "It's nothing unusual to find animal parts in areas like a river or in wooded areas. It's been going on for years."

Staff Writer Albina Sportelli contributed to this article. E-mail: yoo@northjersey.com


http://www.northjersey.com/news/crimeandcourts/Police_unsure_of_ritual_link_in_babt_grave-robbing.html

[Nut44x4]

Are religious rituals linked to recent grisly findings?Skull findings raise questions about religions

Updated: 07/12/2009 12:35:04 AM EDT

3 photos at link
Red candles illuminated the path to a frightening scene in a Madison Avenue basement near Bridgeport's Columbus School. There, a freshly butchered chicken's blood dripped into a bowl. The skull of an alligator sat atop a human skull on a goat's head. There were animal horns, colorful beads and strange writings.

But that June 9 discovery by Bridgeport police's Tactical Narcotics Team was only the beginning.

On July 3, the children of a recently deceased Milford man arrived at his Mountain Grove Cemetery grave to plant flowers. What they found stunned them. Underneath a circular blanket of loose dirt were two human skulls. Stuffed inside were eight strips of blood-stained paper each containing a name.

Four days later Stamford police arrived at Woodland Cemetery, where the remains of a two-and-a-half year old girl dubbed "the Miracle Baby" (for surviving so long despite a brain deformity) were stolen. The remains were pulled from New Jersey's Passaic River, not far from a site where butchered chickens were found.

Coincidences? Maybe. Religious rituals? Probably.

Now Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin and Bridgeport Police Capt. James Viadero said detectives from both departments are consulting each other.

"We haven't established any connections yet," Conklin said. "But happenings here, in Bridgeport and in New Jersey certainly gives the feel something is going on."

Viadero said Bridgeport detectives "are making good progress"  on the Mountain Grove incident.

As for the Madison Avenue skull, Viadero said it's undergoing DNA testing to determine if it belongs to a headless body found on Seaview Avenue in 1996.

"It's highly uncommon to find three skulls in ritualistic settings in six weeks," said Viadero. "We don't believe the incidents are connected. "

Both departments contacted experts in ritualistic practices. They can't say for certain what religion or practice is involved. What Conklin has learned is this is an active period for rituals because of the phases of the moon with a new moon forming July 21.

"A lot of sects believe magic becomes more powerful around the time of a lunar eclipse and the new moon," said Amy Blackthorn, who has a Ph.D. in theology and lectures on various religions.

Conklin also believes Stamford's "Miracle Baby" was targeted for its supposedly "mystical powers" allowing it too live so long.

A number of experts, including practitioners, priests and professors, were contacted to discuss whether religious rituals were behind the three recent grisly incidents.

"If it was Voodoo," said Jerry Gandolfo, a historian at the New Orleans Historical Voodoo Museum of the Madison Avenue scene, "they would have cooked the butchered chicken into a gumbo and eaten it to absorb the power."

So strike Voodoo, a religion with its roots in West Africa and Haiti.

How about Hoodoo -- its first cousin and a form of Americanized African folk magic?

While Voodoo is a religion based on placating ancestral spirits, Hoodoo is a form of magic using herbs, flowers and more to cast spells helping oneself, explained Blackthorn, a Delaware resident and wiccan high priestess. But the use of skulls quickly caused her to dismiss it.

So what is it? Santeria? Regla de Palo? Palo Cristiano? Palo Mayombe? Or any of the countless other African, Caribbean, Cuban or Creole religions? Perhaps even bits or pieces from several.

"They're all variations on one common theme -- Yoruba, a religion established in Nigeria," said Frank A. Salamone, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Iona College in Ithaca, N.Y. "Even Voodoo comes from a Yoruba word meaning hierarchy."

Both he and Blackthorn explained religions adapted as slaves were traded and picked up traditions and practices from others.

"I can tell you this," said Leslie G. Desmangles, a professor of religion at Trinity College in Hartford, about the incidents. "It is not Santeria."

He bases his decision on the absence of flowers and pictures of saints.

"It doesn't sound like Santeria at all," adds Margarite Fernandez Olmos, a Brooklyn College professor who co-authored "Creole Religions of the Caribbean." She suspects Regla de Palo (which also goes by many different names), a religion which works with spirits.

"While this is not the usual practice, some may search for skulls of persons they believe can help them in their quest," she said.

As for the Stamford incident, her research uncovered no religion that involves transporting a whole body to a river.

The use of human skulls in Bridgeport leads Blackthorn to believe these were Palo Cristiano rituals.

Human skulls, many coming from Third World countries, are available on the internet and through other sources.

"Grave robberies happen a lot down here," said Gandolfo, the New Orleans Voodoo historian.

Blackthorn said Palo Cristiano practitioners believe the spirit remains in the skull. During rituals, they seek its help by offering favorite foods, liquors (particularly rum) and cigars.

She said every item and every color found at a ritual site has a meaning. For instance the specific colors of beads determine the deity being consulted, which in turn could determine the religion being practiced.

The type of skulls are important. The alligator skull found in the drug raid symbolizes good luck, she said. Placing it near a human skull brings more power.

She suspects the practitioners were seeking luck to bring in new business as well as to keep away police and rival gangs.

As for the discovery at Mountain Grove cemetery, Blackthorn said the practitioner is looking to drive the eight named people away.

"They are asking for something to happen to these people, either bad or good, that will keep them away," she said.

A new grave was chosen because its dirt is believed to possess energy, Blackthorn said. The circle drawn in the dirt locks the energy in place. The blood on the paper is the tag of the person seeking the help.

A HISTORY OF RITUALS

These are not the first ritualistic discoveries in the Bridgeport area.

Frankie Estrada, once Bridgeport's biggest, baddest and richest drug dealer, kept an altar adorned with pictures of saints, police officers and judges. The spirits protected him for as long as it took a federal judge to allow federal agents to wiretap his phones. Estrada is now doing 26 years in prison.

On March 14, 1986, Fairfield police consulted experts before determining that a body of a suffocated newborn baby found lying on blue-and-white cloths placed atop burlap at Lake Mohegan was being given a Santeria funeral.

The burlap, representing poverty, was pinned with crosses bearing the image of St. Lazarus, the patron saint of the poor. Scattered around the body were coins and pieces of fruit. Experts told police the baby's body was placed near water because African slaves were brought here by boat and near trees because trees symbolize life.

"This is a learning experience for us," said Viadero.

That's why Blackthorn said, "Every police department should have reference material. My choice would be 'A Cop's Guide to Occult Investigations: Understanding Satanism, Santeria, Wicca, and Other Alternative Religions' by Tony M. Kail. Police are too quick to attribute everything to Voodoo, Satanism or Santeria."

Understanding the different religions Voodoo: Believers contend nature is controlled by spiritual forces that must be honored through offerings and animal sacrifice. Originally from West Africa, Voodoo is recognized as an official religion in Haiti and Benin. Santeria: Also originiating from West Africa, Santeria blends African beliefs with those of Roman Catholicism. Rites are led by a priest or priestess, and involve animal sacrifice. Practicioners believe in reincarnation. Hoodoo: Believers in this religion, an Americanized version of West African beliefs, practice magic using herbs, flowers and more to cast spells designed to help themselves.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_12818271?source=most_emailed

[pink angel]

That poor family. Imagine the horror. ::shakes head::