She saw Harold, then 40, as a tall, rather swarthy man of German and Norwegian extraction, with dark brown hair and eyes. During his short life, Dennis . He pulled the file on the ancient case and began leafing through the yellowing pages. The specter of homicide hovered, but would not land in this hearing room in 1965. . To him, that was close to frightening. Many years later, at his mother's trial, by then 27-year-old Robert recounted the events of that evening, testifying that his mother had beaten Dennis extensively and had thrown him down the stairs. 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. . Active children that bruise easily . Many years later, Dr. Peterson would tell a grand jury that he had harbored suspicions about the burns, and also about several bruises that nurses noticed on Dennis while he was in the hospital for a full month. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. 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. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. I dont know how to describe it, she said. Lois E. Jurgens, 82, passed away on Friday, September 7, 2012 at Lakeland Health Care Center Elkhorn, WI. There is a lot to be known about the science of this whole darn subject, he said. Ive been doing this job too long. Dan Jurgens, one of the chief minds at DC who spearheaded the Man of Steel's death and rebirth in the '90s, took to Twitter to share an unused design of Electric Superman -- sometimes called . When he wouldnt have a bowel movement, she said, she pulled the feces from his rectum with her hands. But neither the judge nor anyone else was willing to face the implications of such findings. He is extremely alert. Donna Marlene Norton, Lois sister, was there that day and saw the same thing. They had seen Lois pull Dennis ears so hard that blood flowed. [citation needed], Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Failed to report flower. Peterson departed soon after. There was enough evidence to sustain child abuse and neglect charges. Harold (Harry) Jurgens, 76 of Filley passed away at Gold Crest Retirement Center in Adams on January 7, 2018. Stanley Wiatros was one of them. Harold and Lois Jurgens, on the advice of their attorney, no longer would make themselves available for questioning. We did not have enough evidence of any kind to deny them. You consider how well you can sell this to 12 people in the jury box. Camille Brass knew the blue convertible belonged to Dr. Peterson. Two hours before, sitting in his waterside home on the southeast shore of White Bear Lake, Sunday morning had seemed so promising. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses. The first came now. You couldnt get action from the prosecutor and police.
In 1951, some 14 years before Dennis's death, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic entered this assessment in her file: "It is . You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. Dennis struggled with such training and was forced to pray and recite his Rosary kneeling on a broomstick for extended periods, until he did it correctly. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Harold Jurgens had converted a breezeway off the kitchen into a large, open family, dining and cooking area. Jerry Puckett was a Protestant by background, but at the time Dennis was born she was intending to take instruction in the Roman Catholic faith. 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 obsessed about Dennis' weight, which according to medical records was appropriate for a child of his age and build at the point of his adoption. 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. 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. She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. Together they went into Dennis room to inspect the body. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis. Lois Jurgens (born 1925) is an American convicted murderer. Robert was returned to the Jurgens home and, going through new channels, the couple was eventually able to adopt four school-aged siblings from Kentucky. Throughout the years of frequent abuse, it has been reported that while Harold Jurgens made little effort to curb his wife's abuse of young Dennis, he personally never mistreated the boy. Zerwas wouldnt let the rest of his family view the body. In early December, 1963, Rekdahl paid her last postplacement visit to the Jurgenses.
The situation had made him uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that he hadnt pulled down the blankets or examined the body further. They attempted to mind their own business and feared retribution from Lois, who was not above threatening the lives of her family members. The perforation, he judged, had occurred one to two days before the childs death. ). I tried to assure her that these things happen in any family.. Peritonitis is a horribly painful illness involving shock, collapse of the blood vessel system, high fever and breathing difficulties. 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. Its not unusual, the doctor said. By the second week, the investigation began to encounter obstacles. He knew Peterson as a man always willing to help others, as a doctor very much for his patients. last Why werent his hands burned--wouldnt he have instinctively reached down to protect himself? Vachss uttalte at boken ikke forklarer begrunnelsen for at Harold er passiv, mens den har tilstrekkelig informasjon om Lois Jurgens. She committed one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. Her attorney Doug Thomson (left) follows, and Harold Jurgens is behind him. The Jurgenses had wanted a younger child and Dennis was almost a year old. Jurgens was one of 16 children. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . She knew that Lois had finished only the eighth grade. The afflicted look and act very sick for a matter of hours, sometimes days. The next morning, six coroners jurors were asked to view the body of a dead boy, and to remember everything they saw. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. That will require a juvenile hearing on neglect. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe . But how did such an infection occur in the first place? . During this period, Lois was once again placed in a psychiatric facility. White Bear Lake, a picturesque American town where kids freely ride bikes, play two-square and parents throw neighborhood BBQsand where 3 year old Dennis Jurgens died on Palm Sunday 1965. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. They beat my baby to death. No.
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Sherwood's tenacity, along with the tragedy of her personal loss, kept the story in the public eye. Lets not build up some fiction that now we have done everything we should do.. She thought Dennis too aggressive, his wild behavior quite unlike Roberts. Three-year-old Dennis Jurgens is murdered by his adoptive mother. You see, Gingold said, I didnt have to go that far. He had served as a reference when they adopted Robert. This is the story of a small boys murder that went undeclared and unprosecuted for 22 years in a community full of people who knew what had happened.
Rekdahl thought that Lois speech betrayed a bit of cynicism. Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. Only 5% to 10% of the bruises on Dennis could have been caused by such a fall. Then he began to look terrible--his face so old, like a little old man. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? Votel could not take the first step. Our kids have fallen down steps and not died. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. This browser does not support getting your location. Meanwhile, Dennis was getting whirlpool baths every day. A Death in White Bear Lake is a true crime book by journalist Barry Siegel, published in 1990, which recounts the murder of Dennis Jurgens. As Peterson followed Wildwood Avenue west along the lakes shore toward Gardenette Park, hed rehearsed in his mind the resuscitation techniques he knew from the rescue squad. Search above to list available cemeteries. It was not his job to do anything other than pronounce the boy dead. In the 1960s, the term child abuse had not yet been coined and no one, not even medical professionals and teachers, was required to report suspicions. The suspicious death of Dennis Jurgens wasnt properly investigated for 20 years. What had happened--and how--and why?