GUILTY IA - Sterling Koehn, 4 mos, starved to death, Alta Vista, 30 Aug 2017

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I wonder if Sterling was a fussy baby, perhaps from in-utero exposure to drugs.
From this article https://drugabuse.com/library/meth-pregnancy/
"One study found that only 4% of babies exposed to meth were treated for withdrawal after birth. However, the study was unable to control for a mother’s use of drugs other than meth 7." Only 4%? That blows my mind.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110501183651.htm "Results showed that newborns whose mothers used methamphetamine while pregnant were hard to arouse, but once awakened, they could not be calmed easily, said Dr. Lester, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and director of the Center for the Study of Children at Risk at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital."
 
I wondered about other cases like Sterling's, if they would provide any clues. So I went digging. Wish I hadn't, because the amount of drug-induced horror out there is just too much to bear. Please skip over this post if you don't want to know.

This one, from California, of a woman who, in a drug fueled paranoid psychosis of jealousy, she took her newborn out into a slough (muddy wattery marshy place) to find her boyfriend/baby's father who she suspected was out there in a love tryst with another woman (he wasn't, but he was as horrid person). 2 weeks old,, born with meth in his system but his parents tested clean so they took him home... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ns-death-during-meth-fueled-search-for-lover/

Warning, this article has more horrible tragedy in one paragraph than I can imagine. So beware and don't read if you don't want to take it in. Basically a catalog of the hundreds of deaths that happen to children in the first few months of life, when they go home with addicted parents. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ing-home-moms-fighting-drug-addiction-n475531

These folks actually gave their 4 month old meth because he wouldn't stop fussing and crying. :( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ain-dead-giving-crystal-meth-stop-crying.html

These folks gave birth out of a hospital because their last two children had been taken away at birth (Oregon is a state that takes children away if they are born drug dependent). The child only lived 12 hours. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/09/meth-addicted_husband_and_wife.html
 
georgiajean said:
Two parts really stood out to me from this article http://www.ktiv.com/story/36685380/2017/10/25/parents-charged-in-death-of-baby-in-chickasaw-county
Leave your children with a stranger for 16 hours? What? Even the babysitter thought it was odd.

Would like to know WHEN this was. How long ago? And I bet they never asked her help again because they suspected she suspected. Why didn't she say anything? i bet she sure wishes she had, now..... The lesson I am learning from all these horrible cases is how important it is to notice things and report them. That and how quickly things can go bad when the parents are on drugs.
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I know I am prob the exception, but I have called CPS to do wellness checks on friends who don't even live near me, based on things they have said, or a lot of photos with bruising and such. CPS never gets back to me as per their privacy, and they do not tell the people that I was the one who had shown concern. In one case CPS was already involved (Which i did not know) and the mother was not supposed to be having unsupervised contact (which i also didn't know), but because of my worries CPS intervened and while they didn't take the kids, they made darned sure to let the guardian know that if it happened again the children would be removed...

It boggles my mind that people will actually pick up a child they have held previously and think that the child has lost weight when clearly they should be growing, and wouldn't in the very least speak with CPS and see about a wellness check... if the people have nothing to hide and the kids are being taken care of and so on, CPS will be in and out, if your concerns are warranted and CPS sees issues they will do their best to correct the situation without removing the children unless they have no option but to remove them. Either way, you are not "causing trouble" if trouble isn't there. If this one sitter who sounds like she had little contact with these children noticed oddities, what about family/friends who saw them more often? How many people in those 4 months didn't call CPS but felt that something may be wrong? :( Poor little Sterling... and his sister... I really hope she didn't see him in that condition...
 
georgiajean said:
Two parts really stood out to me from this article http://www.ktiv.com/story/36685380/2017/10/25/parents-charged-in-death-of-baby-in-chickasaw-county
Leave your children with a stranger for 16 hours? What? Even the babysitter thought it was odd.

Would like to know WHEN this was. How long ago? And I bet they never asked her help again because they suspected she suspected. Why didn't she say anything? i bet she sure wishes she had, now..... The lesson I am learning from all these horrible cases is how important it is to notice things and report them. That and how quickly things can go bad when the parents are on drugs.
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This is terrible. What was the babysitter given to feed him? Didnt she notice how hungry he was?
 
georgiajean said:
Two parts really stood out to me from this article http://www.ktiv.com/story/36685380/2017/10/25/parents-charged-in-death-of-baby-in-chickasaw-county
Leave your children with a stranger for 16 hours? What? Even the babysitter thought it was odd.

Would like to know WHEN this was. How long ago? And I bet they never asked her help again because they suspected she suspected. Why didn't she say anything? i bet she sure wishes she had, now..... The lesson I am learning from all these horrible cases is how important it is to notice things and report them. That and how quickly things can go bad when the parents are on drugs.
Click to expand...
I have never regretted calling the police or CPS when I have noticed something of concern. I called the police once to have them notify CPS once, and afterwards, the father went up and down the street to all the neighbors asking angrily if any of them had been the one who reported them. He seemed so violent even in how he did this and I remember thinking that if CPS had been called on me, I surely would not want to announce that to the world. It actually made me feel even more like I had done the right thing.

They moved shortly after and I worried about the child. But I at least knew that their record with CPS would follow them in case things continued to go down hill.

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vmmking said:
I have never regretted calling the police or CPS when I have noticed something of concern. I called the police once to have them notify CPS once, and afterwards, the father went up and down the street to all the neighbors asking angrily if any of them had been the one who reported them. He seemed so violent even in how he did this and I remember thinking that if CPS had been called on me, I surely would not want to announce that to the world. It actually made me feel even more like I had done the right thing.

They moved shortly after and I worried about the child. But I at least knew that their record with CPS would follow them in case things continued to go down hill.

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I absolutely feel the same.

I have made reports to police, CPS or other services - not often but when I personally had valid concerns.

I have never done it out of malice, only the the rare occasions I do believe other organisations should be involved and I have no regrets on doing so because it has resulted in the relevant organisations stepping in, offering assistance and preventing bad situations getting worse.

I would urge others with serious concerns to do the same. I believe there is a policy with these organisations of keeping the person reporting anonymous, there will be no personal comeback.

I do feel we, as caring human beings, have a duty. Not to step in personally, but to never ignore and do what we can to act for those in need, especially if those others have no voice. :hug: :rose:
.
.
 
i8mypaint said:
I would find it very odd to babysit an infant for 16 hours let alone an infant and a toddler. What?!?

I don’t know what to think of the babysitters account. She watched them twice. She said parents seemed like they had it together? I’m sorry but meth and parenting do NOT go together and little little babies aren’t the easiest. (My 8 month old still doesn’t sleep through the night) who is this “babysitter”?


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She only saw them twice and can only talk about things based on her own experiences. She didn’t have a full picture. She sounds like a decent person who had no idea what was going on.
 
When I read that he was left a week I am still struggling to understand if he was dead a week before LE called.... Babies tissue breaks down super fast and decomp can offen look different in someone so small... The forensic entomologist didn't say in what we saw that the maggots had been on a deceased baby for a week just that he hadn't been moved from his swing or had a diaper change in a week... Does that mean he had a diaper on with a weeks worth of waste? Someone posted up thread about how fast their diapers in the trash get bugs and even maggots... If sterling had been losing weight and had whithered away for four months, could it be that between the filthy diaper and the fact he was likely I organ failure from starvation, and prob covered in sores from not being moved, attracted flies before death, namely to his diaper and continued? The reports I've seen say that they initially said he was fed an hour before then changed it to they last checked him the day before. I know this is morbid, but is it possible he was alive for that past week, but so weak and maybe even unconscious and near death that he was attracting flies and thus maggots but his TOD isn't far off from what the parents said?


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MarisaS1985 said:
When I read that he was left a week I am still struggling to understand if he was dead a week before LE called.... Babies tissue breaks down super fast and decomp can offen look different in someone so small... The forensic entomologist didn't say in what we saw that the maggots had been on a deceased baby for a week just that he hadn't been moved from his swing or had a diaper change in a week... Does that mean he had a diaper on with a weeks worth of waste? Someone posted up thread about how fast their diapers in the trash get bugs and even maggots... If sterling had been losing weight and had whithered away for four months, could it be that between the filthy diaper and the fact he was likely I organ failure from starvation, and prob covered in sores from not being moved, attracted flies before death, namely to his diaper and continued? The reports I've seen say that they initially said he was fed an hour before then changed it to they last checked him the day before. I know this is morbid, but is it possible he was alive for that past week, but so weak and maybe even unconscious and near death that he was attracting flies and thus maggots but his TOD isn't far off from what the parents said?


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I understood that he had been in the swing for a week, not dead for a week. And yes, maggots can be in just the waste, and as the waste and maggots are against the skin, create sores and then maggots burrow. (This is called fly strike when it happens to animals, and this in itself can kill.)

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BTW, I don't want to go into detail about how fly strike itself can kill just because I don't want to further imagine what this child may have gone through. But if you want to look it up, it can happen to any animal but is most common in rabbits. I had it happen to a chicken recently who had a poopy bottom I did not catch in time. I've seen and dealt with some terrible things in animal rescue, but this, even in its early stages, had me a little messed up in the head after seeing and treating it. And this was very, very early stages, or she would not have made it.

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vmmking said:
BTW, I don't want to go into detail about how fly strike itself can kill just because I don't want to further imagine what this child may have gone through. But if you want to look it up, it can happen to any animal but is most common in rabbits. I had it happen to a chicken recently who had a poopy bottom I did not catch in time. I've seen and dealt with some terrible things in animal rescue, but this, even in its early stages, had me a little messed up in the head after seeing and treating it. And this was very, very early stages, or she would not have made it.

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Thanks, I've heard they can do this, just feel the report insinuates that Sterling was dead for a week before they called 911 but looking closely it actually doesn't say either way...

Ps, sorry you've had to deal with this in animals... I'm currently watching my fish die. I think he had a stroke. Debating ending it for him but he's always been a fighter and comes back. He is still responsive and conscious or the decision wouldn't be so hard... I just can't imagine how I'd feel with a human, when I'm sitting beside a fish, watching every movement... I don't want the snails to get him if he passes... My brain literally looks at this fish and wants to get him help, if it was a human or one of my pets the vet can see there is no way on earth I'd be sitting in the next room doing god knows what thinking it's fine my baby won't wake up and is also covered in bugs


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I seriously do not understand how this sweet baby could have only been 7 lbs at 4 months.

Did they starve him for his entire life?

Were there no other relatives, grandparents, family friends, that ever saw this poor child during that time?
 
vmmking said:
BTW, I don't want to go into detail about how fly strike itself can kill just because I don't want to further imagine what this child may have gone through. But if you want to look it up, it can happen to any animal but is most common in rabbits. I had it happen to a chicken recently who had a poopy bottom I did not catch in time. I've seen and dealt with some terrible things in animal rescue, but this, even in its early stages, had me a little messed up in the head after seeing and treating it. And this was very, very early stages, or she would not have made it.

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Click to expand...

We have a free roaming house rabbit. He uses a litter box and I clean it diligently, but still check his bunny bum daily because fly strike scares me so much. I wasn't going to post this because I did not want to take the thread further off topic, but then it hit me just how horribly these two 'took care' of their innocent baby. Obviously I knew it was bad, but realizing how often I check my rabbit made it really sink in. They just didn't give a ****. Poor, poor baby boy... rest in peace, Sterling. :rose:
 
Oh he is so sweet and smooshy looking. Why?????


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Posting this story of a 5 month old girl who died after her parents died from fentanyl overdoses.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/infant-died-of-starvation-after-parents-overdose-deaths/
"Lees says the parents died on or about Dec. 15 and the child probably on Dec. 19 or Dec. 20. The bodies were found Dec. 22."
This gives us an approximate number of days that it would take a 4 or 5 month old to die from starvation/dehydration. (4 to 5)

I have also (very sadly) found multiple cases of infants of 4-7 months of age brought in to hospitals or found by LE or EMTs weighing 5-8 pounds. All were children of drug addicted parents, all suffered severe neglect and malnutrition. What we do not know is how long Sterling was maltreated. In the picture posted above, he looks to be a chunky infant with appropriately chubby arms.
 
georgiajean said:
Posting this story of a 5 month old girl who died after her parents died from fentanyl overdoses.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/infant-died-of-starvation-after-parents-overdose-deaths/
"Lees says the parents died on or about Dec. 15 and the child probably on Dec. 19 or Dec. 20. The bodies were found Dec. 22."
This gives us an approximate number of days that it would take a 4 or 5 month old to die from starvation/dehydration. (4 to 5)

I have also (very sadly) found multiple cases of infants of 4-7 months of age brought in to hospitals or found by LE or EMTs weighing 5-8 pounds. All were children of drug addicted parents, all suffered severe neglect and malnutrition. What we do not know is how long Sterling was maltreated. In the picture posted above, he looks to be a chunky infant with appropriately chubby arms.
Click to expand...
He may not have been starved for 4 to 5 days straight. Being chronically malnourished can take a toll on the organs - heart, kidneys, all that, could have been slowly failing for months from neglect.

It's also possible that, as week as he was from being malnourished, an infection from the diaper area and the maggots are what ultimately got him.

But it could be so many things, including dehydration. I expect we will find out it was a combination of these things.

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