Your Scrapbook is currently empty. 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. Verify and try again. Lois considered herself a devout Catholic and believed she was doing "God's work" by making Dennis "perfect" in her eyes. Nor had his arrival two hours before. As he read, he stiffened in his chair. Death 7 May 2013 (aged 87) . I have several children about that age with this same problem. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. The defense attorney was still thinking about a criminal prosecution--even if no one else was. This case was a drop of water in the river.. 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. Want more true crime books? Basically, she thought that Lois was content and happy, especially with Robert. . he told the grand jury last year. 0 cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. He returned to the Jurgens home in time to meet the coroners investigator, Saveiro Pitera. The cause of death was peritonitis, but the autopsy photos showed him covered in bruises with an anguished expression on his face and the coroner had not determined a mode of death, accident, natural causes, or homicide. She remembered the names, the faces--she particularly remembered Dennis. Judge Gingold would not back down either. 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. There was a bluish mark on the right side of the head that started at the temple and extended to behind the right ear. Peritonitis is a horribly painful illness involving shock, collapse of the blood vessel system, high fever and breathing difficulties. Instead the judge agonized, repeatedly expressing from the bench his sense of conflict and uncertainty. Robert fit in well at the Jurgens household, as he learned from a young age not to get in his mother's way or cause an undue mess that would likely send Lois Jurgens into a rage. This had required at least two hospitalizations at the Mayo Clinic and at a small psychiatric hospital called Crestview, where she had received electrical shock treatments. None of this, however, was what had killed Dennis. He was an outgoing child, as happy and adjusted as could be expected under the circumstances. Thirty years after the original Death of Superman storyline, the iconic tale's writer Dan Jurgens has confirmed which alternate Superman villains almost killed the hero. No, Lois said, sounding definite. They had shocked James Nelson. It looked to her as if the roses were placed there to cover up the dark blue markings. If you throw up, you are going to eat it. They would have to find out. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids, Elliott: Kings use their heads over hearts in trading Jonathan Quick, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, 12 reasons why Sycamore Avenue is L.A.s coolest new hangout, Best coffee city in the world? In fact, they remain strangely forgotten. A Death in White Bear Lake: Notorious crime in city history marks 50 Peterson departed soon after. Thirty years later, writer and artist Dan Jurgens is revisiting the storyline that gripped the world. He liked them. My Mother Almost Killed Me. No one cared or stopped her. | by Karen "There are certainly problems," says Jurgens, one of the main architects of . . How could a kid fall down the steps and die? 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. Lois was accused of murdering and beating her adopted son Dennis Jurgens in 1965 but wasn't convicted until 1987 and only spent 8 years of her sentence before being paroled in 1995. I didnt look after that; I couldnt, she said. He feared finding himself alone. They would not know for two weeks whether Dennis would need skin grafts, he had told Rekdahl. Lois jurgens, 93, of arvada, colorado, formerly of malvern and glenwood, iowa, passed away june 13, 2022. lois jean jurgens, the daughter of lawrence a. and marjorie v. (johnson) jones, was born on may 26, 1929 in malvern, iowa. By all accounts, Lois was obsessed with abusing Dennis, and she wanted the world to know he was a "bad child"; she made no apologies about the inappropriate way she was disciplining him. . Thanks for your help! He had one great friend, his world's Lois, but she died and now he sees another version of her still alive and pregnant. 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.
Murder of Dennis Jurgens - Wikiwand 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. Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. 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. Murder of Dennis Craig Jurgens | Mystery & Crime Amino Please reset your password. VanderWyst, visiting him after the autopsy the night of Dennis death, told the family physician what Woodburn had found. But how did such an infection occur in the first place? Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. That will require a juvenile hearing on neglect. There were many fateful moments in Dennis brief life, moments in which his destiny could have been changed. updates
She knew that Lois came from a large, poor, Catholic family of 16 children, a family that at times survived on welfare. Lois Jurgens (August 12, 1925 March 7, 2013) | World Biographical . There he had been loved and well cared for by an experienced foster mother. They carried assorted life insurance polices worth $10,000. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. Sadly, the mother-son reunion was not meant to be; Jerry's child had died just before his fourth birthday. One of Lois Jurgens responses was to call Father Riser, the priest who had so warmly recommended them to the county welfare worker. On Nov. 28, 1962, members of the Scott and Ramsey counties welfare departments, including Rekdahl, had a conference in the town of Shakopee. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois' treatment of Dennis but did nothing to prevent it. . 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. Though there was an investigation, society and law enforcement of the mid-1960s did not accept the concept that a child in a middle-class home could be the target of abuse. 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. My deputy reassured me from time to time. Dan Jurgens on how The Death of Superman has "withstood - gamesradar Try again later. The official cause of death was peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel wich even 1965 was treatable if he'd been brought to the hospital . But, at a hearing just one month after Dennis death, Peterson, when asked if there was anything unusual about the burn accident, said: No, not in particular.. Lois Jurgens | Photos | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers This post is sponsored by Open Road Media. Martin fritz obituary. Rekdahl by now had quite a dim outlook on this placement. 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.The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . Failed to remove flower. 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.The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. He was shaken. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head, and scarce chance that he had died from a fall on the flat basement floor. Arnold L Jurgens Obituary Visitation Funeral Information During his short life, Dennis . Learn how and when to remove this template message, "ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lois_Jurgens&oldid=1133446799, Articles lacking in-text citations from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 21:13. Murder of Dennis Jurgens Wiki & Bio - everipedia.org Lois, who abused Dennis constantly, escalated to new levels of rage as the flood waters filled her basement. Failed to delete memorial. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. The doctor did not want to be there. She also describes him as a clown, always laughing at himself or other people when they are around. Searching him out, she discovers he died at 3 1/2, though the death certificate does not show what killed him. They were independent of each other. Eventually, all four of the siblings from Kentucky and Robert escaped the home by running away and getting help from concerned neighbors. . The official cause of death was peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. contact If the doc cant figure this out, hed say, well. Lois Jurgens Obituary Visitation Funeral Information Because they were Catholic and there were very few Catholic babies on the register, it was likely that they would have to wait quite a long time, she explained. Lois Jurgens was disappointed about Dennis age. Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. Robert was leaving things alone at the age of 1 year. Several told of having seen Dennis bruised and battered. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. I was willing to wait. Votel was still waiting about two years later, when he retired from office. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. 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. Other testimony and evidence was more troubling. A parade of neighbors and relatives called to the stand by the Jurgenses attorney, Edward Donohue, all denied seeing any evidence of abuse. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe . She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses. So it was that Dennis Jurgens death resulted not in a murder prosecution but, rather, in a juvenile court hearing over custody of his brother, Robert. There was a time when White Bear Lake was an exclusive watering hole for people from Chicago as well as the Twin Cities. I remember very clearly the pathologist coming in and saying it had to be a blow, not a fall, but I think the prosecutor felt he couldnt prove it, and I was on the same wavelength as the prosecutor. I tried to assure her that these things happen in any family.. 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. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis. Matt McMillan, White Bear Lake true crime page-turner turns 30, White Bear Press Club, June 17, 2020. Try again later. She knew that Lois had finished only the eighth grade. This account has been disabled. 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. When he wet his pants, she said, she put a clothespin on his penis. Though the name of the adoptive family was not given, many suspected that the story was about Lois Jurgens. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. When patrolman Robert VanderWyst arrived at the Jurgens home soon after, he found the doctor, the Jurgenses and 5-year-old Robert in the living room. home He would testify that he had talked to some lady down there. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. The author's ability to set the scene of a tranquil. 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. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. "There was obviously going to be trouble, and he didnt want to get involved.". Read more about this topic: Murder Of Dennis Jurgens, But Ive heard mankind abuse thee;And perhaps its rather strange,But I thought that I would choose theeFor encomium, as a change.Charles Stuart Calverley (18311884), Mily: You must remember me! But in 1962, before the developers and high-speed roads came, this was more truly a small town, inbred and insular, with a population just reaching 15,000.
The autopsy report mentioned bruises head to toe. . ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens Mrs.
In our family you dont dare say much.. 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. They covered the face, the head, the arms. While visiting one Thanksgiving, she saw Lois force-feed Dennis, in a highchair, by shoving a fork full of food into his mouth. Rekdahl, who graduated from St. Pauls Hamline University in 1957 with a bachelors degree in social work, had been in adoption services for less than one year. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter and get terrifying tales delivered straight to your inbox. Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. Lois Jurgens headed to trial. .
She said she had set Dennis in the sink to wash him after he had wet his diaper, then had gone into another room to get a clean diaper. Of course, there was that one bad accident involving third-degree burns to Dennis penis and scrotum. For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. It is fair to say that this finding raised considerable questions. convicted of murder Meanwhile, Dennis was getting whirlpool baths every day. There is a lot to be known about the science of this whole darn subject, he said. Dennis lay in the ground at St. Marys Cemetery, no name given to his death.
You dont know what to think, Donna Marlene said. How in the heck could that happen? Clothing retains the heat. Lois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019.