GUILTY TX - Tamryn Klapheke, 22 mos, dies of severe neglect, Abilene, 28 Aug 2012

[peeples]

I don't feel ANY sympathy for her, I had 5 kids in six years and had 3 of them at her age with no family support with a boyfriend who worked full time and went to school full time, we went days without even laying eyes on each other.....I was stressed, but never let my babies lay in urine for a week, or even a couple hours....

http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=527602


Tiffany Klapheke

Last Friday Klapheke says her 22-month old daughter started taking off her diaper around the house, and Klapheke got tired of it, so she let her daughter stay in the crib... in her own urine.

"It was wet and she was laying in the wet spot for like a week"

Klapheke's husband, Thomas Klapheke, is currently deployed oversees in Oman, which his 22-year-old wife says takes a huge toll on her.

"I'm so just stressed out and depressed all the time and i just need help taking care of them and i don't have any help. I don't have any family around or anything,"

 

[Jan]

What was the cause of death for the child? Did she also not feed her or give her liquids to drink? What shape were her other kids in? She must have heard the child crying, so how could she just ignore it?

 

[TGIRecovered]

I am so sad for the two surviving kids. Babies need love and compassion to thrive. They clearly have been horribly neglected, probably for longer than the mother has admitted. I wonder how often the Dad was able to call or Skype while deployed . It can't be easy to go from warrior to tender hearted Daddy while dealing with the loss of one of his children. He is going to need a lot of support to care for the 3 yr old and 6 month old who have suffered the effects of neglect.

This mom reminds me of Casey Anthony with her poor me poor me! The military provides help for spouses and children of deployed soldiers. I doubt she even asked for help.

MOO

 

[Confusion]

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/08/29/abilene-mother-arrested-in-death-of-child/

"FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Two children are being treated for injuries at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, and their mother faces felony injury to a child charges after a police investigation at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene.

A third child died as a result of the alleged abuse. One of the children being treated in Fort Worth suffered serious injuries"

 

[katydid23]

It is a LIE that she had no help. She was living on the Air Force base. There are lots of places to turn when a husband is deployed and a mom is having issues with her children. There were dozens of other young moms around her who would have helped if she bothered to ask for it.

 

[TGIRecovered]

The youngest baby is six months old. They had free health care since they are military. Babies that young have well baby checkups at three and six mOnths don't they? I wonder if mom reported feeling overwhelmed at those times or if she was even taking the kids to regular doc visits at all?

I can't imagine that not one of her relatives ever called to see how they were doIng while Dad was gone? Not even grandmothers? All Mom had to do is tell someone she needed help, even someone who lived far away could have informed Dad so he could call someone on base to get Mom to the doc and check on the babies. Postpartum depression can be treated if that is the problem!

Maybe someone military can answer... Don't families with children make some kind of official plan to make sure things go smoothly while a parent is away? I thought they met with a counselor or something to be sure there were emergency plans, financial arrangements, etc.

I hope that Dad truly did not know. I hope he has what it takes to love these babies back to good health.

 

[TGIRecovered]

It is a LIE that she had no help. She was living on the Air Force base. There are lots of places to turn when a husband is deployed and a mom is having issues with her children. There were dozens of other young moms around her who would have helped if she bothered to ask for it.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/aug/29/dyess-mom-arrested-charged-in-malnourishment/#comments

According to Tiffany Klapheke's Facebook page, the young mother from Georgetown, Ky., inquired in April to her hometown's television station about the condition of an 11-week-old boy who was hospitalized after apparently being shaken.

"This has weighed heavily on my heart all week," she wrote. "I pray he makes a full recovery."

Klapheke's last post was at 4:24 a.m. Tuesday and read: "What caused the big red moon that rose and fell about 30 mins ago? — Dyess AFB TX"

For the record, I live in the area and I heard nothing about a Big Red Moon that disappeared after 30 minutes. She made the 911 call about 12 hours later.

The comment from Sunnybloom, (about the 5-7th comment) mentions a Key Spouse program which helps families of those deployed. She should have been paired with an experienced mom who checks on her weekly to see if she needs anything. Comments says that some moms don't want to be checked on and avoid their KS. Also mentions Parents Night Out once a week.

 

[Dstevenson_1956]

I vote that young Mothers have Psychological test or at least be evaluated before birthing multiple children whom they can not take care of;even if they are married.

 

[TGIRecovered]

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/08/29/abilene-mother-arrested-in-death-of-child/

"FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Two children are being treated for injuries at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, and their mother faces felony injury to a child charges after a police investigation at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene.

A third child died as a result of the alleged abuse. One of the children being treated in Fort Worth suffered serious injuries"

2nd comment on the dfw cbslocal site from "Family Friend" mentions previous CPS involvement, but alleges the mom always talked her way out of it. ( It is just a comment, no idea if it is true , not to be taken as fact!!!)

 

[not_my_kids]

I vote that young Mothers have Psychological test or at least be evaluated before birthing multiple children whom they can not take care of;even if they are married.

Why just the young ones, and who would be the judge, prior to the birth of a child, of whether a mother can take care of her children? This type of blanket comment is the type that does absolutely nothing to address the issue, as it makes no sense. MOO.

 

[mazajo]

So very sad. I saw on facebook that today is the dad's birthday

I too had three babies in three years when I was that age, plus an alcoholic worthless husband, and little outside help. There is no excuse.

Fly with the angels, little one!

 

[peeples]

http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=527842


Preliminary autopsy results indicate that Tamryn Klapheke, the youngest child, was suffering from dehydration and malnutrition consistent with a prolonged lack of basic care. Physical injuries, including chemical burns, appear to be postmortem and possibly related to the conditions in which the child was exposed (human waste).

There is no indication of injuries from trauma.

The physical health of the two surviving children, ages three and six months, is improving at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth.

It is expected that they will be moved out of the Intensive Care Unit in the near future. Unless there is a downturn in their improving physical health, no further updates on their conditions will be released.

As with Tamryn, the two surviving children appear to have suffered from severe neglect.

 

[Paul]

About the moon comment, when the moon is up in the sky it's just white and boring and not noticeable (except to astronomers). And it's more likely to be obscured by clouds, or a roof if you're indoors.

But when the moon gets down to the horizon, that's when it looks bigger. And in Texas it can look mega-big. And when the sun is still completely hidden you get some dramatic moon colors.

The moonset time for Abilene TX was 4:10 AM on August 28, 2012. So when she posted at 4:24 AM and said "about half an hour ago", well, that matches up perfectly with when it would have suddenly been very noticeable.

Source: timeanddate dot com

 

[FrayedKnot]

So I am trying to sort this out.

Did the child die of starvation by lying in her crib for a week in her own waste?

Isn't a 22-month-old capable of movement? Couldn't/wouldn't she have climbed out of the crib? Was she restrained or perhaps in a coma after a shaking or beating?

I am just not feeling the "passive toddler lying in her crib and quietly dying" scenario. Something else is going on here.

 

[pistolina]

So I am trying to sort this out.

Did the child die of starvation by lying in her crib for a week in her own waste?

Isn't a 22-month-old capable of movement? Couldn't/wouldn't she have climbed out of the crib? Was she restrained or perhaps in a coma after a shaking or beating?

I am just not feeling the "passive toddler lying in her crib and quietly dying" scenario. Something else is going on here.

I agree FrayedKnot. My youngest is 15 months and there is NO way I could leave her in her bed for the day much less a week. And in a bed covered in waste at that. Poor girl. My heart breaks for her.

 

[not_my_kids]

"She was doing it all the time and I just got tired of always changing the sheets so it was on there a little bit longer than it should have been," she said about her deceased daughter's exposure to human waste. "And so, it was wet and she was laying in the wet spot for like a week."
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/aug/30/early-autopsy-for-neglected-dyess-toddler-shows/

A little longer than it should have been...like a week.:maddening:

 

[Reader]

http://www.centurylink.net/news/read.php?rip_id=<DA1UNQHO0@news.ap.org>&ps=931

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Police have launched a rare investigation of the Texas child protection agency after a 22-month-old girl died and her mother claimed her military husband's deployment overseas left her too stressed to care for their three children.

Abilene police Chief Stan Standridge said the department is investigating the local Child Protective Services office after a new supervisor closed the case six days before the child's death on Aug. 28................

Tamryn Klapheke suffered dehydration and malnutrition from a lack of basic care over a period of time, according to the preliminary autopsy report from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office in Fort Worth.............

Klapheke faces three felony charges of injury to child.

She remained jailed Tuesday in lieu of $500,000 bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for her.

Tamryn Klapheke died at an Abilene hospital after being found unresponsive at her home at Dyess Air Force Base. She weighed only 17.5 pounds and her body had chemical burns, indicating she had been exposed to human waste, the medical examiner's report said...............

Klapheke's two other daughters, ages 6 months and 3 years at the time, were treated for severe neglect at a children's hospital in Fort Worth, about 150 miles east of Abilene. They are now in foster care, Crimmins said.................more at link......

The agency was apparently at fault, but I thought on a military base there would be all kinds of support services for a mother in this situation?

 

[peeples]

we have a thread on the mom already

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183271&highlight=Tiffany+Klapheke

 

[Reader]

Thanks...it was too late for me to delete the thread and I did do a search by name and title and no matches came up.....I noticed there are no tags on the original thread and am finding that matches usually don't come up without tags.....

Maybe this thread can be combined.....sorry...

 

[peeples]

Ohh no worries, just thought you might wanna read it

It's rare that CPS officials get charged, so i kinda think it deserves it's own thread anyway