GA - Suspicion over heat death of Cooper, 22 mo., Cobb County, June 2014, #2

[Chewy]

I'm really interested. Then, why were the charges downgraded?

If this was truly a planned murder, wouldn't he be charged with murder 1?

From what I see, LE seems to be really struggling with how incredibly forgetful this man was, and calling that serious criminal neglect.

IMO they downgraded the charges to what they can nail him to avoid Casey Anthony part 2

 

[Linda7NJ]

we 've got 67 guests looking through the windows and only 35 members on board...sign up and give us your opinions

Nooooo!!!

I can barely keep up now!



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[newone]

either reporters or petition signers? (guests)

 

[gngr~snap]

Channel 5 sayingLE source says that was the 1st clue the dad was lying. "car smelled to high heavens of a dead body."

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[JeannaT]

I believe it is officially gross negligence

I totally agree with that. That doesn't imply intent to murder.

Gross negligence, imho, would apply to a dad who fed his baby at a restaurant and then driving back through traffic for a few minutes went to work instead of the day care center, as a result of complete absentmindedness.

 

[Linda7NJ]

Yes. Felony murder doesn't require intent.

I feel like we're not communicating, Linda.

I'm saying he didn't intend for this death to happen.

Are you saying he did, and his intent in the beginning was to kill his child that day?

I'm saying it doesn't matter to me. This wasn't just an "accident"...this ...this is something more heinous.

All IMO


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[gogrannypop]

How in the hell can you forget a kid? SMH

 

[Nana46]

I agree - and it's interesting that LE won't comment on when that websearch was done, and what other searches surrounded that search.

Respectfully, I think they are not going to comment on much at this stage of this case and you can't blame them. They are not gonna risk anything.

 

[Judicious1]

That one guy did, that's true.

I'm looking at this in its totality. This is a dad who by all accounts is a wonderful guy, there don't seem to be any issues with him or his family, and it seems clear to me he couldn't have seen the baby in the back seat at lunch.

Shortly after driving off in his car, he clearly noticed something was VERY wrong and pulled off the road into the mall parking lot.

It's surprising to me sometimes what people do not notice. It's surprising to me what people can forget and be unaware of.

But to me, the other scenarios are more implausible. That this loving father purposely killed his child, or that he went to the car and noticed his child was dead and then went back to work for 4 hours and staged that he THEN found him dead (as opposed to finding him dead at noon which would be fully as incriminating - so working for 4 hours and then staging the exact same outcome doesn't make sense).

Those scenarios are MORE implausible than the one where he bizarrely forgot his child (in one of the major scenarios of kidsandcars, adding a stop to his routine) and also didn't see him in the back seat facing backwards at noon, and then it took him short while to smell the smell when he drove away at four.

When I have to consider what seems the most plausible, accidentally forgetting him, not noticing him at noon and then driving off and not noticing a smell for a minute or two is the most plausible.

You have to work too hard - in my opinion - to make the other situations rational.

Yes!! Well said! I 99% agree with all of this!! I do have that nagging 1% in regards to the web search

 

[Linda7NJ]

Also, on the subject of forgetting babies, here's a story of my sister's family with a happy ending as it only lasted about 3 minutes.



They were going on vacation and drove their car to the airport. They have two kids, an almost 3-year-old girl and a 6-month-old boy at the time. They were parking in an off-site lot with shuttle stops, so my brother-in-law dropped off my sister, the 3-year-old girl, and the luggage. Then he went a few aisles away to park.



When he was approaching the shuttle stop, my sister just stared at him and asked: "Where's Leo?"



It was probably 3 minutes he was left in the car, and it was cool outside, so no harm done. My brother-in-law ran back and retrieved him, no harm done. Still, an example in our own family of forgetting about a kid.



P.S. My friend at work has a 2-year-old and is pregnant with twins. Her mind is frazzled, and she is terrified of leaving her daughter in the car like that. She's started taking a timestamped picture of her daughter's empty car seat when she parks at work, and there's a number of us who ask her (at her request) to show us the picture when we first see her. Before the photo idea we would ask, and she would believe she dropped the kid off but not be 100% certain and would go back out to her car to check, every time.

Seems like a combersome safety net. Tell her to put her shoes back there, next to the car seat.

No one walks into work without shoes on their feet. The second feet hit the street...you know you're not wearing them


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[x_files]

Are you aware that the Red Cross teaches you to do that? To say to the crowd, "call 911" while you attempt to deal with the emergency?

I don't know why he didn't notice anything at noon - but it's likely it didn't smell that bad at that time. I think we all remember in the Scott Peterson trial, one cop said the house reeked of bleach and the others didn't notice it. I wonder what the other witnesses would say about how the car smelled. I also remember in the CoralRose Fullwood case some cops described the house as filthy and unlivable, and others didn't agree.

Although sometimes it appears people would have to notice something, that's not always the case.

I could see a LE officer ignoring the smell of bleach sometimes pools smell of bleach/chlorine (didn't The Peterson's have a spa or pool). My house almost always smells of bleach. I am a clean freak.
I think a deceased child however would reek and stand out as not normal like an everyday cleaning product.

 

[JeannaT]

Channel 5 sayingLE source says that was the 1st clue the dad was lying. "car smelled to high heavens of a dead body."

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I would be interested in the medical examiner's opinion on that, or any reliable medical scientific website that would agree that a human body starts to smell to "high heavens" of decomposition after about 4 hours.

Despite this one cop's statement.

This is why it's hard to find remains, even if they are in baking heat. I think we've all read stories of remains stuffed in between walls or in sheds outside in baking heat, and although the area is searched thoroughly the smell isn't apparent for days.

I can't be the only one who reads all these awful cases on this forum, and notice that although a house or field have been THOROUGHLY searched for a missing person, it isn't until days later that the odor is detectable. It's not hours. Otherwise it wouldn't be a long southern tradition in the 1800's and early 1900's to have a visitation while a body lies in "state" in a home (unairconditioned) so loved ones can come by and pay their respects.

 

[Threeplus1]

IMO they downgraded the charges to what they can nail him to avoid Casey Anthony part 2

And the charges could always change again if they find more evidence. The PIO said it was still a fluid and ongoing investigation.

 

[newone]

Seems like a combersome safety net. Tell her to put her shoes back there, next to the car seat.

No one walks into work without shoes on their feet. The second feet hit the street...you know you're not wearing them


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excellent idea!!

or even wearing ''driving shoes ((real ugly of course)) and putting the good work shoes next to the baby -- keep the fuglies in the car all times

 

[tlcya]

I doubt very much the ME is interested or willing to make a statement on that til trial when asked by the prosecution.

MOO

 

[Judicious1]

Respectfully, I think they are not going to comment on much at this stage of this case and you can't blame them. They are not gonna risk anything.

Risk it in what way? They either know or will know soon. If the know now what does it hurt to confirm it was before or after the ME stated as the official time of death? Its not like they are keeping it from Ross. They have to disclose all the evidence before trial anyways so I would think letting him know they are closing in on the truth might break him into a plea or confession. I never understood the "keeping things close to the vest" unless a suspect was still at large and they didn't want to ID them just yet etc.

 

[who knew?]

Responses in italics. Sorry to have had the same response for every question, but there has been no indication of any of the things you have concerns about. The opposite, actually, if lifelong friends are to be believed.

You are showing a lot of support for Harris - Even with so many disagreeing with you. You should be commended for sticking by him.

However -
I am one who believes he is guilty of murder. Planned, unplanned - I don't know. The facts are that he was the person in charge of a 22 month old. 22 month olds can't protect themselves. They are at the whim of their caretakers. Whether he meant to kill his child or not - it is because of him the baby is dead. People accidentally kill people in cars all the time. They don't get in the car and plan to mow someone down. It just happens, and they are charged with vehicular homicide. It's kind of, sort of, the same thing. An innocent person is killed by someone who intentionally, or unintentionally, made some really bad, irreversible mistakes.

There will be more that will come out as time goes on. Right now, we all know enough to be dangerous! Lol But until I see something proving otherwise, I really think he murdered his (?) child, that he planned it to some extent, and that there were problems at home - either financial or marital. JMO I have no more info the the rest of you.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

If he wanted to know about how long it takes a child to die in a hot car, why look up animal hot car deaths? Some might say so it would be less suspicious, but it wouldn't bring up the info he was looking for.

 

[gngr~snap]

I live about 10 miles from this place, a nice apartment building or leased home with 2-3 bedrooms would probably rent for around $1500/month at a rough guess, with cheaper available. So an $80K salary seems solidly middle class to me, definitely not destitute or anything.

As for web searches, most large companies have people access the Internet through a proxy server, which records timestamped logs of what IP addresses (which can be used to identify specific computers and presumably, specific people using them) were accessing what sites. These records are stored on a server machine somewhere else in the company. So just scrubbing his computer, or using 'incognito' mode, wouldn't get around that. I'd think someone in IT would know these things, but maybe not. (Source: I've worked as a computer developer for 20+ years.)

A little less. (I was surprised too!)
There are 2, 2 bed 2 bath rental units available at Wynne's Ridge. $1075/mo
http://m.realtor.com/#intercept?vie...oc=Wynne's+Ridge%2CMarietta%2CGA&rentals=true

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[Judicious1]

I doubt very much the ME is interested or willing to make a statement on that til trial when asked by the prosecution.

MOO

This ME will be lucky if he still has a job with the county by the time the trial happens if one happens. This man apparently doesn't have a great reputation for getting things right. You would have to research that yourself. This was news to me but I did read that his job is under review and will be until July sometime when the county decides if they keep him on. I don't think these are part of the audit they conducted but he has had 3 cases (that i read on a link provided in tread 1) where he got the cause of death wrong which in turn affected the manner of death declaration resulting in 3 guilty people walking free and all 3 accused going on to kill an additional person each. So ..... Not good