GUILTY CA - Alex Mercado, 4, Mendota, 30 Oct 2009

[songline]

Do we know the COD yet? Perhaps.......... it was an accident and the teen got scared?

So the woman next door was SUPPOSED to have been babysitting him at the time? I'm a little confused............

WHAT ACCIDENT? :waitasec:
How in the world does a 4 year old belong in a dryer????

I realize that it is very hard to digest, or accept that there are bad people out there,
but we can not reduce anything this unacceptable and call it an accident. NO!

 

[ohiogirl]

Songline,He was killed and then put in the dryer.

 

[hoppyfrog]

I attend the church where Alex and his mother Mindy as well as the rest of his family attend. I also used to teach on the town where they live. I don't know Mindy well, but she was in church today. She said the police not only have the 14 yr old boy in custody but the 14 yr old kids dad as well. They think they could both be involved. A lot of family is with Mindy and the kids right now and she is being comforted by a lot of women in our church. A lot of members went out right away to help find Alex and were there the entire time. Everyone in our church is extremely shocked. Explaining it to all of the kids was the hardest thing.

We were all called early saturday morning as a prayer chain to fast and pray that he would be found alive and then most of us found out around 4 that he was found. I had told my 8 and 6 yr old boys why we weren't fasting and praying anymore. I had just told them hours earlier that he had disapeared. We fasted and now pray for comfort for his family. We are all in shock and are hugging our children tighter!

Since you are local and know the people involved in this crime, you MUST contact WS's owner, Tricia, so she can verify your identity before you post any more. Tgrif@xmission.com

Thank you,

Hoppy
mini-mod

 

[Debbie Miller]

What is this world coming to?:furious:

 

[miimaa]

Horrible crimes committed by teens - I would like to know how many of them live in two-parent homes. How many live near the poverty level? I read a book by an anthropologist that pretty said males, if left to their own desires, would become cruel. What was that fiction book.... where boys were stranded on an island and killed the one they called "Piggy"? Lord of the flies.

Children need fathers -- boys especially.

 

[songline]

Songline,He was killed and then put in the dryer.

Thank you for clarification...appreciated.
And think if a 14 year old has the sense to put the boy in the dryer, he knows he did wrong. Scared or not scared he knows he did wrong.
It is not as if he panicked and ran away......

 

[Linda7NJ]

http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/68285237.html

Relatives tell KSEE 24 that the boy was last seen Friday afternoon. His sister was watching him while their father took a shower. The relative said the boy did not have a habit of wandering off.

WARNING VIDEO IS HEART WRENCHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Multimedia

• 
• Watch The Video

In the middle of that interview, a woman nearby started screaming. As she fell to her knees authorities rushed inside and immediately pushed everyone back. Crime scene tape went up as law enforcement began their homicide investigation

 

[Texas Mist]

Family Mourns for Alex Mercado - video & info on memorial fund

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=7093545

 

[Angels_Not_Forgotten]

Single parent families. Revolving partners in and out of the house. Selfishness all around us. No punishment or restrictions. In school allowed to pass to the next grade regardless of whether the student is competent. Empty churches. Loss of extended family. Kids home alone (what used to be called latch key). We are seeing the results.

We're in a world where no one takes responsibility, and then when convicted, murders serve a joke of a sentence. I am a single mom. My son is great. He's not wearing black, killing children, ect. So maybe the broad statement shouldn't be so broad?

Such a sad thing to happen my Half Brothers little brother was murdered by his neighbor, the neighbor helped set up the search, just as this kid (adult, 14 whatever) saw the pictures and knew someone was missing that child. That, not a product of a single parent home. That is a product of a sick individual. IMO anyways.

 

[lizzybeth]

http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/68285237.html

Relatives tell KSEE 24 that the boy was last seen Friday afternoon. His sister was watching him while their father took a shower. The relative said the boy did not have a habit of wandering off.

WARNING VIDEO IS HEART WRENCHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Multimedia

• 
• Watch The Video

In the middle of that interview, a woman nearby started screaming. As she fell to her knees authorities rushed inside and immediately pushed everyone back. Crime scene tape went up as law enforcement began their homicide investigation

The link for the video didn't work for me. My computer says it can't find the server. Could it be that they took the video down once the realized what the lady was screaming for?

 

[ziggy]

Single parent families. Revolving partners in and out of the house. Selfishness all around us. No punishment or restrictions. In school allowed to pass to the next grade regardless of whether the student is competent. Empty churches. Loss of extended family. Kids home alone (what used to be called latch key). We are seeing the results.

Amen to that.

 

[pjop]

We're in a world where no one takes responsibility, and then when convicted, murders serve a joke of a sentence. I am a single mom. My son is great. He's not wearing black, killing children, ect. So maybe the broad statement shouldn't be so broad?

Such a sad thing to happen my Half Brothers little brother was murdered by his neighbor, the neighbor helped set up the search, just as this kid (adult, 14 whatever) saw the pictures and knew someone was missing that child. That, not a product of a single parent home. That is a product of a sick individual. IMO anyways.

Thank you for saying that. I have been raising my 3 girls for the last 10 years on my own. I really resent that many people think that all single mothers are interested in is only partying and having men in and out of the house. I have NEVER, not ONCE, had any man in my home since leaving my ex (their father). My children are excellent students, good kids, they go to church, and they volunteer in their community. They have a very stable environment because I've made sure of that.
Not all single parents have an endless parade of sexual partners in and out of the house. My kids have MUCH more of a stable living environment than many of their friends whose parents are together.

 

[lizzybeth]

Thank you for saying that. I have been raising my 3 girls for the last 10 years on my own. I really resent that many people think that all single mothers are interested in is only partying and having men in and out of the house. I have NEVER, not ONCE, had any man in my home since leaving my ex (their father). My children are excellent students, good kids, they go to church, and they volunteer in their community. They have a very stable environment because I've made sure of that.
Not all single parents have an endless parade of sexual partners in and out of the house. My kids have MUCH more of a stable living environment than many of their friends whose parents are together.

pjop, I agree with you. Many of my children's friends (who came from two parent homes; weren't latch key kids) would come to our house for peace. I'm a single mom but always put my children first, when I was married and after my divorce. No men coming and going; we went to church (not every Sunday). My two are grown now and are law abiding, responsible adults.

 

[AmandaBrown23]

Single parent families. Revolving partners in and out of the house. Selfishness all around us. No punishment or restrictions. In school allowed to pass to the next grade regardless of whether the student is competent. Empty churches. Loss of extended family. Kids home alone (what used to be called latch key). We are seeing the results.

I have to agree that in some situations that these might be factors but I think it depends on the kid. I think people are just born the way they are and factors help influence it later. I was a latch key child who practically raised myself with an absent father, several step fathers and a mother who worked two or three jobs. I grew up and I am doing great and I condsider myself to be a good person.

 

[PeteyGirl]

I have to agree that in some situations that these might be factors but I think it depends on the kid. I think people are just born the way they are and factors help influence it later. I was a latch key child who practically raised myself with an absent father, several step fathers and a mother who worked two or three jobs. I grew up and I am doing great and I condsider myself to be a good person.

I think psychopaths are born, not made. And they show their colors early on. This 14 year old has a string of sociopathic behavior -- I am predicting, and do not doubt it . . .

Where "nurture" comes in to influence them is important but not, IMO, causal.

I believe the birth of psychopaths is just part of the human condition, they've been part of mankind since beyond time. We just didn't hear about them one hundred years ago, or even fifty or twenty five years ago. The speed of information and the growing population of human beings is more a factor of their visibility than lack of morals in society.

 

[PeteyGirl]

Oh, and SHEESH prayers for the poor family who lost their little boy, and for the people who found him, and the pain they will endure from this senseless loss

 

[Linda7NJ]

The link for the video didn't work for me. My computer says it can't find the server. Could it be that they took the video down once the realized what the lady was screaming for?

Hmmm the first link works... you can get there by going about halfway down the on the left and clicking the link on the article site

 

[LadyL]

little alex was so adorable

Rest in peace little boy

 

[Texas Mist]

<snip>

Fresno County sheriff Margaret Mims revealed late Monday afternoon that the 4-year-old Mendota boy who was found inside a dryer in a neighbor's home on Saturday had been drowned.

....

Mims would not comment on a possible motive for the slaying.

more here

http://www.kmjnow.com/pages/landing...ota-Boy-Was-Drown=1&blockID=86194&feedID=806&

bless his little heart.

ETA: another article referencing drowning here

http://www.kmph.com/Global/story.asp?S=11430243

 

[Texas Mist]

<snip>
4:10 p.m.: The 4-year-old Mendota boy who disappeared Friday was drowned and placed in a neighbor's dryer before a search for the child had even begun, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said today.

Sheriff Margaret Mims said Alex Christopher Mercado was playing outside his Tuft Street home Friday when a 14-year-old neighbor boy brought him into the neighbor's home and killed him. The teenager placed the child in the dryer, which was screened by a door, Mims said. The teenager, whose name has not been released, has been arrested in connection with the child's death.

Mims declined to say why the child was killed. She said investigators have suspicions about motives, and those suspicions will be spelled out when charges are filed. Mims said investigators will present their case to the Fresno County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday. She declined to release the results of an autopsy.

http://www.fresnobee.com/1100/story/1695874.html