The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. Lois had talked to them all about her toilet training methods. Our kids have fallen down steps and not died. Free shipping for many products! Please reset your password. It would have been difficult at the time to prove that Lois Jurgens had committed murder. Sherwood's tenacity, along with the tragedy of her personal loss, kept the story in the public eye. On or around the night of April 11, 1965, Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. It was awful. conviction
Deferred, Votel had written. Family members linked to this person will appear here. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Other testimony and evidence was more troubling. Lois attended cosmetology school in Des Moines, Iowa. This post is sponsored by Open Road Media. If hes notified there would be fifty people at her house, and she didnt want that many people around. Lois Jurgens served only eight years of her sentence, released early for good behavior, and lived a secluded life in Stillwater, Minnesota, until her death in 2013. He never wanted to say a bad word about anyone. Verify and try again. Only 5% to 10% of the bruises on Dennis could have been caused by such a fall. cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Others promised that they would do so. I can recall seeing some, but its not very clear. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. He could never forget how Lois Jurgens looked at those photos stoically, showing no emotion. HH at the best online prices at eBay! For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. People were not then inclined to believe that middle-class families in suburban homes killed their children. roger w. tufte sr. was born on march 22, 1945 in lakota, nd the son of clarence and esther (johnson. A Mrs. Charles reported a car blocking a driveway at 823 5th St. A Mrs. Krugger reported that children were damming the street at Elm and Ebba (there had been heavy rain the night before). Donna Neely wondered, as she studied the Jurgenses now-silent house from her front window. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. 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. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. They also caught crappies and smallmouth bass and northern pike, but the sunfish were the best. . 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. . We would like to have done something, but it was none of our business. None of us knew about child abuse. On Nov. 28, 1962, members of the Scott and Ramsey counties welfare departments, including Rekdahl, had a conference in the town of Shakopee. "There was obviously going to be trouble, and he didnt want to get involved.". It was harder to believe that Dennis had been awake and talking normally an hour and a half before he died. No, she explained. He looks like a boy of 10. April 11, 1965. Donna Mae, about 5 feet away, watched in horror as Lois force-fed that vomit to him, made him eat it. . They just buried the body in St.. Top Rated Seller. Sadly, the mother-son reunion was not meant to be; Jerry's child had died just before his fourth birthday. In early December, 1963, Rekdahl paid her last postplacement visit to the Jurgenses. She also describes him as a clown, always laughing at himself or other people when they are around. The case is described in detail in Barry Siegel's true-crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake. They just werent going to get any damaging information from him. 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. From behind their curtains and blinds, the Jurgenses neighbors on Gardenette Drive had been watching the comings and goings all morning with mounting interest. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. They wanted an infant under a year old, and they wanted a Catholic child. The defense attorney was still thinking about a criminal prosecution--even if no one else was. 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 . Jurgens was one of 16 children. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. They felt sad, and also naggingly disturbed. The prosecutor wasnt getting help from the White Bear Lake police--her brother was on the force. After seeing newspaper reports about the death, she was convinced that he had been beaten to death and demanded the case be re-opened. Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. Yes! It had always troubled her, more than any she handled before or since. During the internal autopsy, Woodburn found a quarter-inch hole in the boys small bowel. 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]. 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. Their investments and savings totaled $2,200. cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. What was to be the core of the case against Lois Jurgens 22 years later essentially came out then, albeit in a less detailed, more muted fashion. Man held is death of retarded foster child, Minneapolis Star, May 21, 1971. 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 chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis. A Death in White Bear Lake er en sann krimbok av journalisten Barry Siegel, utgitt i 1990, som forteller om drapet p Dennis Jurgens. Resend Activation Email. . Year should not be greater than current year. When Harold took him to the bathroom at about 7:30 or 8 in the morning, Dennis had seemed fine. 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. At the urging of authorities, Jerry placed Dennis for adoption after being told that he would receive good care.[1]. 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. 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. . Such stories are not rare. 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. Homicide was not the issue at the hearing. She talked about it all the time, in fact. I dont know how to describe it, she said. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois' treatment of Dennis but did nothing to prevent it. That was why the judge wanted Lois Jurgens to consent to a thorough, inpatient examination by a psychiatrist he knew and trusted. Lt. Clarence (Buzz) Harvey at first did not know what to make of the blonde 42-year-old woman who appeared at the front desk of this towns solitary police station on the morning of Sept. 18, 1986. 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. 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. To the casual observer, the Jurgens' seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. Petersons house sat precisely on the site of the old Wildwood Amusement Park. 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. He has had all his baby shots. You see, Gingold said, I didnt have to go that far. In 1984, Jurgens was the artist for the Sun Devils limited series (July 1984 - June 1985), with writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. He would testify that he had talked to some lady down there.

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. View Obituary & Service Information 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. 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. 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. updates 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. The prosecutor had a different attitude back then, Votel said recently. based on information from your browser. Lois Jurgens.

Lois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. 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. As he read, he stiffened in his chair. There was a television movie broadcast in 1992 on NBC entitled A Child Lost Forever that told the story from the perspective of Jerry Sherwood (played by Beverly D'Angelo). Dennis was adopted by the Jurgens, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, a suburb of Saint Paul: Harold Robert Jurgens, a former bandleader turned electrician, and Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens, a homemaker. 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 author's ability to set the scene of a tranquil. She remembered the names, the faces--she particularly remembered Dennis. so its not unusual.. And a Dr. Peterson called at 10:09 a.m. to report a DOA--dead on arrival--at 2148 Gardenette Drive. ``May God strike her dead, thats what I have to say to Lois Jurgens, Jerry Sherwood said. They would not know for two weeks whether Dennis would need skin grafts, he had told Rekdahl. I just examined him to see that he was in fact dead. need your help for this. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers. She knew that Lois came from a large, poor, Catholic family of 16 children, a family that at times survived on welfare. Though the specific cause of that fatal blow is not known, it is known that it was Lois who had given it to Dennis. There he had been loved and well cared for by an experienced foster mother. Years later, Peterson would say much the same to the police who were reopening the case, but he did not do so in 1965. The mother was an unmarried 17-year-old, Jerry Ann Puckett, an attractive blonde of Danish-German extraction. He liked them. Lois had a question: Would Father Riser write a letter in support of their present effort to adopt another child, a third child? 0 cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. Robert was leaving things alone at the age of 1 year. 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. Nine months earlier, on Dec. 6, 1961, Dennis Craig Puckett, 8 1/2 pounds, had been born at St. Michaels Hospital in Sauk Centre, in nearby Scott County. I didnt examine him further.. The Jurgenses returned to their house on Gardenette Drive, childless but free of any charge. #dennisjurgens #jerrysherwood #truecrime Jerry Puckett's mother abandoned her when she was three, she was raised by her father and abused by two stepmothers.. Sorry! There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. 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. Lois Jurgens was convicted in May 1987 of murder (by abuse) in the death 22 years earlier of her adopted son, Dennis. Sherwood eventually located Dennis's death certificate; because the death was categorized as "deferred", the case was still technically open. 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. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. So began a painstaking inquiry into the past--an inquiry that in recent months has pulled back the curtains on a decidedly uncomfortable vision.

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. To the casual observer, the Jurgens seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. Oops, something didn't work. 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. Martin fritz obituary. There was enough evidence to sustain child abuse and neglect charges. 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. He eats well. new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help He wanted others to go first. The lawyers danced around the matter, leaving much unspoken.   Aided by the testimony of the Jurgens' other adopted son, Robert, . The adoption should be approved. She thought they had a lovely home. A few wondered how the Jurgenses had ever been allowed to adopt children. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. She was cleared of second-degree . Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option.

 

I have several children about that age with this same problem. 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. I did my best.. +C $33.27 shipping estimate. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. 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.