For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. In the minute she was gone, she said, he turned on the hot water. Failed to delete memorial. She committed one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. There is a problem with your email/password. He was the son of teenage Jerry Sherwood (who was herself a ward of the state) and her teenage boyfriend. And her release from the states prison for women in Shakopee only angered the biological mother whose search for her child led to the discovery of the crime. conviction
They had seen Lois yank Dennis violently by the ears. That was all Gingold had to concern himself with. I was advised that the information was being obtained, that there was an ongoing investigation, Votel said recently. 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 1960 to 1975.
Strange, he thought, that she hadnt called her brother, the police lieutenant. He would wait until the police investigation could resolve the matter. She was 61 when she went to prison and served eight years before being paroled.. Lois Jurgens released after serving eight years, The Winona Daily News, June, 7, 1995. When she was 17 and living in a juvenile home, she said, she gave birth to a boy, Dennis, who was quickly taken from her and eventually adopted by a family named Jurgens who lived in White Bear Lake. 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. For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. Active children that bruise easily . Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. In 1965, Votel said, he thought this was certainly a battered-child case, but the reports indicated that the child had fallen down some stairs.
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. .. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently. 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. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). 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. Sherwood eventually located Dennis's death certificate; because the death was categorized as "deferred", the case was still technically open. During the early morning hours of April 11, 1965, Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. Is it quite customary to see a little boy with so many bruises, he was asked. 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. She was born February 25, 1927 to Leslie and Margaret Stowell in Cass County IL. Eventually, all four of the siblings from Kentucky and Robert escaped the home by running away and getting help from concerned neighbors. VanderWyst didnt push the matter. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. As the new adopted children were older, there were many first-hand histories (recounted to the media during the 1987 trial of Lois Jurgens) describing the severe abuse they suffered at their adoptive mother's hands. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. Woman Tortures Adoptive Son To Death Lois Jurgens (40) was variously described as both short-tempered and vindictive by her neighbours and others who encountered her in the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and it was well known that she experienced bouts of severe depression and psychosis. Even so, doctors do not usually see third-degree burns in an area that isnt covered by clothing. Just past one year of age, Dennis was placed in the Jurgens' home in 1962, in anticipation of an adoption after spending much of his first year in foster care. Top Rated Seller. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Death of Superman By Jurgens, TPB, DC Comics 1993, New, Sealed. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. Matt McMillan, White Bear Lake true crime page-turner turns 30, White Bear Press Club, June 17, 2020. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). She thought they had a lovely home. According to sworn testimony by both Korolchuk and VanderWyst before a grand jury last year, Zerwas at the time warned the investigating officers that he would do everything in his power to keep his sisters name clear. and this case
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 wanted to do something, but felt it was none of their business. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. There is no evidence we are dealing with any people here who have any demon-like motives. This, coupled with the lack of a statute of limitations for a murder charge, could lead the way to a prosecution of Lois Jurgens. In our family you dont dare say much.. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. roger w. tufte sr. was born on march 22, 1945 in lakota, nd the son of clarence and esther (johnson. The just announced 80-page Death of Superman 30 th Anniversary Special will find Superman, his friends and his family revisiting his death, while dealing with a destructive new threat known as Doombreaker. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe . . Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. Though autopsy photos showed Dennis body was covered in bruises at the time of his death, the coroner never declared it an accidentor rather, what it really was: murder. Lois, who abused Dennis constantly, escalated to new levels of rage as the flood waters filled her basement. Weve updated the security on the site. Moments later, VanderWyst, rising to leave, asked Lois if there was anything else he could do, such as call her brother Jerome. 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. Lois attended cosmetology school in Des Moines, Iowa. I felt we actually checked out the concerns quite carefully.. | 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. 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. She saw Harold, then 40, as a tall, rather swarthy man of German and Norwegian extraction, with dark brown hair and eyes. She did not want this to influence their decision, but in all truthfulness, that was the reality. But how did such an infection occur in the first place? The process of adopting Dennis was completed. The victim They talked with more than a dozen relatives and neighbors of the Jurgenses. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national headlines and was the top news story of the . Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. Notes [ edit] ^ "ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens". He was an outgoing child, as happy and adjusted as could be expected under the circumstances.
Pitera would take photos later that day. She talked about it all the time, in fact. On the other hand, she realized the improbability of being offered another Catholic baby in the near future. Within months of Dennis' arrival, he was rushed to the hospital with first and second-degree burns on his genitalia, which were reported and accepted as accidental. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Sorry! 0 cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. No prosecution was taken at that time. We have many This woman was no crank. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. 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. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. The hole had allowed a fifth of a quart of infectious, purulent fecal material to flow into the abdominal cavity. Donna Marlene had seen other things. VanderWyst climbed into his patrol car and backed down the Jurgens driveway at 11:48 A.M. VanderWysts departure did not go unnoticed. It did not occur to him to question Robert. She grew up and attended school in Malvern, graduating in 1947. [citation needed][3]. Some had seen or heard Dennis being beaten. ``If she had been convicted of this in 1965 she probably would have done about three years, Thomson said. Lois is survived by her. He pulled the file on the ancient case and began leafing through the yellowing pages. DEATH OF SUPERMAN 30TH ANNIVERARY SPECIAL- 1:100 JURGENS & BREEDING FOIL VARIANT. He would later learn much more, would attend seminars and organize a county task force on the problem, but it cannot be said that Gingold knew nothing in 1965 about the battered-child syndrome. in the third degree and sent to prison. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White . The perforation, he judged, had occurred one to two days before the childs death. A Death in White Bear Lake er en sann krimbok av journalisten Barry Siegel, utgitt i 1990, som forteller om drapet p Dennis Jurgens. She would be a poor candidate for adopting a child at this time, the psychiatrist in 1955 had advised St. Pauls Bureau of Catholic Charities, where the Jurgenses for years had vainly sought children. The autopsy report mentioned bruises head to toe. You see, Gingold said, I didnt have to go that far.