lois jurgens' death

It would have been difficult at the time to prove that Lois Jurgens had committed murder. The topic under consideration was the possible placement of Dennis Puckett with the Jurgens family. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens to show support. Do I think this happened just here, just this one? .

She was 61 when she went to prison and served eight years before being paroled.. . 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. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Only 5% to 10% of the bruises on Dennis could have been caused by such a fall. When he wouldnt have a bowel movement, she said, she pulled the feces from his rectum with her hands. Her mother having long ago disappeared, Jerry Puckett had bounced among assorted relatives and county homes for girls. Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. There was something wrong here. Retired now for several years, he suffers from angina and does not go out much, but he recalls the 1965 hearing. The investigation, trial, and The policemen were led to understand that an attorney representing the Jurgenses had visited them and threatened them with civil lawsuits if they spoke out. I dont think this case is an aberration at all, said Michael McGee, the current Ramsey County medical examiner who finally ruled Dennis death a homicide. She thought the postplacement period had been quite successful. Lois had a question: Would Father Riser write a letter in support of their present effort to adopt another child, a third child? It was just inconceivable to Woodburn that Dennis had been so injured by slipping and falling on a basement floor. They had only two requests. On January 13, 2000, she was initially suspected of poisoning her husband, Harold. And it was not my position to do anything other than to pronounce him dead..

The victim

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota. she grew up and attended school in malvern, graduating in 1947. lois attended cosmetology school in des moines, iowa. The boy was obviously dead. Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. After Dennis' death, an older adopted son, Robert, was removed from the Jurgens home. That was not binding on the prosecutor, but the defense attorney would zero in on this. That was all Gingold had to concern himself with. . In her effort to make Dennis "right" in her eyes, Lois embarked on a series of sadistic and corporal punishments: Angered at Dennis for rejecting certain foods, she responded by placing horseradish on the food and then force-fed it to him. VanderWyst, visiting him after the autopsy the night of Dennis death, told the family physician what Woodburn had found. Jerry took her case to the White Bear Lake police department and then to the local media. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota More Alchetron Topics References Lois Jurgens Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA Topics The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Toz (film) Steve McAnespie When Harold Jurgens called 10 days later to say they wanted to keep Dennis, the two agencies allowed that as well.
Paul Lindholm, the assistant county attorney, considered it. Though the specific cause of that fatal blow is not known, it is known that it was Lois who had given it to Dennis. Vachss uttalte at boken ikke forklarer begrunnelsen for at Harold er passiv, mens den har tilstrekkelig informasjon om Lois Jurgens. Searching him out, she discovers he died at 3 1/2, though the death certificate does not show what killed him. Murder of Dennis Jurgens - After The Murder called, 'A Child Lost 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. Opens in a new window or tab. Soon the word spread from house to housethered been a death, the younger Jurgens boy had died. Harold was infertile and the Jurgenses desperately wanted to adopt another child. She was born February 25, 1927 to Leslie and Margaret Stowell in Cass County IL. In 2005, playwright Brian Vinero wrote a theatre piece, The Jurgens File, which was developed at New York City's 78th Street Theatre Lab; it told the story from the perspective of the community. When Dennis cried, Lois would force his head under the cold water faucet at the kitchen sink. Free shipping for many products! He had read the early articles that by then had been published. She talked about it all the time, in fact. Lois Jurgens (at left) appeared with her attorney Doug Thomson in Ramsey County Courthouse Monday May 4, 1987. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title.
Now the town is most frequently described as middle class. . Harvey had been a rookie cop here in 1965, but Sherwoods story triggered no memories. 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. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White . Years later, the attorney representing Roberts interests at the 1965 custody hearing would still remember those photos. English ``She did a lot more than she should have.. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. If the doc cant figure this out, hed say, well. He is able to turn himself over and is extremely strong, almost ready to stand by himself.

 

Is it quite customary to see a little boy with so many bruises, he was asked. . 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. Lois Jurgens, 62, of Stillwater, chewed gum impassively as the jury announced its verdict, finding her guilty of third-degree murder in the 1965 death of her adopted son, Dennis. They had checked on him throughout the night. . Lois and Harold Jurgens lived in a comfortable, meticulously maintained three-bedroom house with a big, fenced backyard on a large corner lot on Gardenette Drive. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis. 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. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? . Dennis Craig Jurgens - Wikipedia Article | Pound Pup Legacy The volume of business coming down the pipeline doesnt allow for regrets. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. 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. VanderWyst didnt push the matter. Eventually, all four of the siblings from Kentucky and Robert escaped the home by running away and getting help from concerned neighbors.

Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. She thought they had a lovely home. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. The policeman did not, so they carried the body to the coroners van. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. She was predeceased by : her parents, Leslie Stowell and Margaret Stowell. . They would have to find out. Lois Jurgens, know for her short, volatile temper, murdered him. 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. 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. . Zerwas wouldnt let the rest of his family view the body. But this death didnt look as though it was from natural causes. During his short life, Dennis . Nbc Night at the Movies a Child Lost Forever - Variety You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. This woman was no crank. All I could do was shake my head.. There was a bluish mark on the right side of the head that started at the temple and extended to behind the right ear. They saw the hearse sitting in the Jurgenses driveway, and a big blue convertible, and the police car parked awkwardly, askew, as if the officer had been in a hurry. . To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. 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 1950 to 1970. When it froze, hed hang lights on the seven surrounding elm trees, put out snow sculptures of bears and seals tinted with food coloring, and invite all the neighborhood kids to join his own two children in skating and hockey games. He found bruises running the length of the body--50 to 100 of them, he would say later, the exact number hard to judge because many were overlapped.

Lois considered herself a devout Catholic and believed she was doing "God's work" by making Dennis "perfect" in her eyes. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. By this point, Lois' rage and mania had gone beyond her ability to maintain an appearance of normalcy, and she and Harold had relocated to rural Stillwater, Minnesota, possibly to escape the gossip of their former neighborhood where Dennis was killed. You can always change this later in your Account settings. J. was a little nervous today and I felt was probably upset for fear of what we would think of such a thing happening to Dennis, she wrote in her log.

When he arrived at the Jurgens home, though, hed realized all that was pointless. Failed to remove flower. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. . They just buried the body in St.. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. When they cleared land for his basement, theyd found old rolls of amusement park ticketsthree rides for a nickel. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. This treatment, along with the exertion as he struggled, sickened Dennis to the point of vomiting, which further enraged Jurgens, who then forced him to eat his vomit.

The next day, Dennis brother, Robert, was picked up and taken to a local hospital, on order of Juvenile Court Judge Archie Gingold. The mother was an unmarried 17-year-old, Jerry Ann Puckett, an attractive blonde of Danish-German extraction. View Obituary & Service Information The first came now. In the 1960s, the term child abuse had not yet been coined[citation needed][2] and no one, not even medical professionals and teachers, was required to report suspicions. they figured. Child Murder : The Town Confronts Its Past - Los Angeles Times For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. Harold's testimony in 1965 showed he was in Wisconsin from the evening of Friday, April 9, until 9 or 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 10. It was harder to believe that Dennis had been awake and talking normally an hour and a half before he died. I would question him. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lois Jurgens, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. Deferred, Votel had written. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. It would be no use.

 

On the other hand, he could not bring himself to embrace the notion that Lois Jurgens was a murderer. There are a lot of dead babies in the ground who were killed.. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe abuse, the medical examiner did not classify the death under any of the standard classifications of accident, suicide or murder; he simply marked it "deferred". Although Lois was not charged with Dennis's murder, the death caused sufficient suspicion for the authorities to remove Robert from the home; he was placed with various relatives and one foster family for a period of just over five years, during which the Jurgens spent a great deal of effort and money attempting to regain custody. contact You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. Youve got to worry about tomorrow. He couldnt push Votel on this. You do consider social attitudes. The boy was dead by the time the doctor arrived at 9:35. Jurgens' other adopted son, Robert, testified at the trial, at which Lois Jurgens (then in her 60s) was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to prison.[4]. Matt McMillan, White Bear Lake true crime page-turner turns 30, White Bear Press Club, June 17, 2020. Along with the aforementioned evidence of starvation and the scarring and bite-marks on his genitalia, the coroner discovered multiple lacerations and multiple generations of bruises covering most of his body. They were of varying colors--black and blue, yellowish green, reddish--which meant that some were fresh, some old. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. On bare skin, the heat just flashes off. To this end, she forced religious training on her young sons; reports had young Robert flawlessly reciting the Rosary at two. From the bench, he said he hoped that they could find something to explain the mistreatment of Dennis. In summer, Peterson caught little sunfish off his dock or from his motorboatthey had the loveliest taste, the fillet just the size of a half dollar, two good bites each. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. . From the patio off his living room and the balcony off his bedroom, he could look across the lake to Manitou Island, and beyond, to the town of White Bear. If Votel had called it a homicide, at least that prospect would have been removed. . Jurgens, now 69, was convicted of third-degree murder in 1987 in what at the time was the oldest homicide to go to trial in Minnesota. Sherwood's tenacity, along with the tragedy of her personal loss, kept the story in the public eye. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . We thought it would be no use.. Its kind of hard to believe., ``How can you take a babys life like that and beat it for two years and then walk free? she said. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota.

Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965.

Donna Mae Zerwas, Lois sister-in-law, had seen all that and more. It was highly unlikely that a fall on a flat surface could have caused this. As he viewed the body, he thought: This boy has been murdered. the prosecution saw Lois Jurgens
To him, that was close to frightening. Lois Jurgens was the infamous subject of one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota.She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, three-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965.. Jurgens was one of sixteen children. During the internal autopsy, Woodburn found a quarter-inch hole in the boys small bowel. Her attorney Doug Thomson (left) follows, and Harold Jurgens is behind him. Murder Shelf Book Club: Ep 50 A Death in White Bear Lake by Barry If I had it to do over again--well, in 1987 I wouldnt approve, but if it were 1965, I dont know what I would do. Thank you for supporting our partners, who make it possible for The Lineup to continue publishing the terrifying stories you love. On the stand, the Jurgenses had refused to answer questions about Dennis. Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast | a podcast by murdershelfbookclub Testimony from neighbors and family members told of young Dennis showing up to public events wearing sunglasses at the age of two to hide his frequent black eyes. . He naps both in the forenoon and the afternoon. Innhold.
Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. Search above to list available cemeteries. She wanted assurances. Her secret was revealed after Sherwood began searching for the son she gave up for adoption and learned in 1983 that he had died of a bowel injury. So began a painstaking inquiry into the past--an inquiry that in recent months has pulled back the curtains on a decidedly uncomfortable vision. Of course, there was that one bad accident involving third-degree burns to Dennis penis and scrotum. To the casual observer, the Jurgens' seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. I thought the burn accident was a weird story when she told it, but again, there just was not that level of awareness, things didnt get referred. Due to this frequent starvation, Dennis gained only three pounds in a two and a half-year period as he aged from one year old to three and a half years old. The next day, Rekdahl phoned the Jurgenses family physician, Dr. Roy Peterson, who was treating Dennis. ``If she had been convicted of this in 1965 she probably would have done about three years, Thomson said. Murder of Dennis Craig Jurgens | Mystery & Crime Amino In the decade preceding the adoption of Dennis, Lois Jurgens had suffered bouts of depression and psychosis, including an extended stay at a psychiatric institution where electroconvulsive therapy was administered. Martin fritz obituary. Rekdahl thought that Lois speech betrayed a bit of cynicism. White Bear Lake true crime page-turner turns 30 Lois Jurgens had a reputation amongst her extended family and neighbors as an intense, angry woman with a short and volatile temper, but Dennis' arrival in her home provoked sadistic rages that targeted Dennis as he aged from one to three-and-a-half years of age. Clothing retains the heat. Robert would remain in county custody for the time being. 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. Father Riser told her he definitely would. . It was hard to believe that the Jurgenses had noticed nothing. At that time, the battered-child syndrome was just beginning to be recognized. Dennis nose was blood-red--VanderWyst thought it looked as if you just wiped it once more youd probably take the rest of the skin away. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois' treatment of Dennis but did nothing to prevent it. At this time there are a number of persons yet to be contacted who supposedly have information and are relatives of the family, Korolchuk wrote on Thursday, April 15, four days after the death.
While visiting one Thanksgiving, she saw Lois force-feed Dennis, in a highchair, by shoving a fork full of food into his mouth. Lois Jean Jurgens, the daughter of Lawrence A. and Marjorie V. (Johnson) Jones, was born on May 26, 1929 in Malvern, Iowa. Harold (Harry) Jurgens Obituary - Tribute Archive If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. This was the first child-abuse case he had handled. With Lois's mental health deteriorating, a hearing explores the question, should Lois and Harold Jurgens keep custody of their 5 year old adopted son, Robert after the death of this brother, Dennis. There is in the Scott County records a description of Dennis in the foster home where he lived his first year: He is solidly built, with blue eyes and blond hair. Add to your scrapbook. 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. The foster mother thinks him a little wild one, but she means this appreciatively and derives pleasure from his antics. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. A Mrs. Hansen called to report a lost wallet, which resulted in an officers checking a phone booth at Fourth and Washington streets, next to the Avalon Jewelers. They carried assorted life insurance polices worth $10,000. Initial placement was with a licensed, unrelated foster family, but Robert was then moved to his paternal grandparents at his parents' request. His intensely angry adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens, know for her short, volatile temper, murdered him. On April 26, Korolchuk drafted an analysis of the information they had gathered. He has had all his baby shots. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. . Its not unusual, the doctor said. This account has been disabled. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? No, nothing struck me, the doctor replied, except for these bruises. . This is a story about respectable men and women of the middle class--doctors, lawyers, priests, social workers, policemen, neighbors and relatives--whose behavior, taken as a whole, led not to that milieus promised decency and justice but to a moral outrage, dark and hard to understand. Ivey's Lois Jurgens is a woman so proud and righteous, her sense of morality . 'Convergence' makes Superman a super-dad - USA TODAY My deputy reassured me from time to time. Prosecutors contended little Dennis died after numerous beatings and abuse, which including making the child eat food covered with horseradish and tying him spread-eagle in his crib. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. In winter, they got the north wind, so the lake froze too rough for ice skating.

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