FL - Somer Thompson, 7, Orange Park, 19 Oct 2009 #39

[angelswatchoverthem]

IIRC they first arrested him for the child found on his computer and the disk, then after he was brought back to clay county, they arrested him for child molestation after they found the video of him molesting the 3 year old relative.

This is what i was trying to verify, thanks. So his initial arrest was on the first instance of child in his possession, i guess you could say, then they discovered his video? Was it actually a movie type video, or was it photos he had taken on a camera or both?
My feeling is he was producing this to maybe make some money?? I could be wrong, but if he had his contacts that were into this as well, then from what i have read about it, they can make some big money off of this kind of perversion. And he was unemployed i assume! As sick as it all is, i think it is a possibility.

 

[angelswatchoverthem]

Of course I know there are tons of reasons people murder. Well, reason's in their minds...really no reason to ever murder.

But, I just don't see those other reasons coming into play on this case.

We have wondered and guessed since Oct. if Somer was sexually assaulted or not. I think the fact the only POI ever named in this case is a pedo tells me this crime was sexually driven.

I would have to agree on that score! I think it was a sex crime.

 

[New1]

New1: Can I ask why you think Somer was not molested? I mean I would hope and pray she wasn't, but I think she was.
One of the reasons I think she was is the fact they named a child freak that molested before a POI.

What would have been the reason for someone to kill her and put her in the garbage if it were not a sex crime?

MOO - LE cleared so many RSO's so quickly. This makes me believe they were not LOOKING specifically for a sexual predator.

One reason why I don't think she was molested is because Sheriff Beseler said they tentatively identified her by "clothes she was WEARING" and a birthmark on her leg. I think that statistics show that when a child is sexually molested and then killed, especially by a child molester, he/she does not take the time to re-dress the victim before disposing of the body. Another thing was that she was found wrapped in a rug/carpet. Sexual predators usually just dump their victims body as quickly as they can and not try to dress them and cover them up in something and they usually take them to an isolated area to do the molesting and dumping of the body and just leave it in that isolated area and get the heck out of there immediately.

Reasons to kill her, other than for sexual molestation, could be any number of things including rage, satanic rituals, or her stumbling upon drug activity or something worse, accidental death then killer panicked, just to name a few.

If you will think back to some of the more recent cases like Meredith Emerson, she was killed by a sexual predator, found naked and decapitated, and left in an isolated area. Chelsea King, raped (I assume left naked because they found her panties before they found her) buried in a shallow grave near a lake - easy place to dig because of the moist soil. Amber Dubois also found in an isolated area not too far from where Chelsea King was found, but she had been there for a long time - they only found skeletal remains of her.

Do you know of ANY cases where sexual predators re-dressed their victims, wrapped them up in something, and dumped them in a dumpster or landfill? I don't. I can't think of one single case at the moment. I've heard or read when the body is found clothed or wrapped in something, that indicates that the killer feels remorse or regret over the murder. Sexual predators have no remorse or regret when they kill...just a sense of warped pleasure and satisfaction.

Again, these are MOO. I hope this clears up why I think she was not sexually molested. I hope I am right and that she did not have to endure sexual molestation plus a horribly heinous death. The best I can hope for was that it was quick. I don't want to think about torture before the murder.

I hope whoever did this to Somer pays for a long, long, time. It was such a senseless loss of a young life.

 

[Kimberlyd125]

I would have to agree on that score! I think it was a sex crime.

From the very beginning, I thought this was a snatch/rape/kill/dump crime.

But, to tell you the truth, when months went by without LE saying Somer was sexually assaulted, I kinda thought maybe she wasn't. I thought maybe that's why they were unable or unwilling to rule anybody out.

Then they named JH as a POI. That kinda answered the question for me. I 100% believe she was.

 

[angelswatchoverthem]

I hope you are right for those that think Somer was not sexually molested. But then i think evidence would be much more difficult to pin on any one person alone, considering the nature of the crime, the fact she was dumped at the landfill, with so much else that would have been on her! If she was in fact rolled up in a rug, which we really don't know for a fact at this stage, then maybe there is a strong possibility of some DNA being left on her, if she was still wrapped in that rug? If there was a rug, then maybe they linked that to J.H's home? But then they could argue someone else took it from his home ,perhaps while he was not there?There is so much to just assume here, but not much in the way of facts! If she had not been wrapped in a rug after all, then evidence could be very sketchy.
That is what brings me back to think maybe they really don't have that much to go on anyway, in being really positive they have the right person that did this? L.E. still naming him as a POI, which really doesn't mean anything?
But then why Corey's statement??

 

[New1]

She is a PROSECUTOR! By nature, any POI LE arrests would be deemed by her to be THE ONE. It will be HER job to prosecute him. Is she going to say "well, I don't think LE has the right one"? Prosecutors have thought LE had the right one millions of times, but Juries acquitted them when it went to trial. Some acquitted have indeed been guilty, but others have been convicted who were innocent. Things are not always what they seem to be. Yes, she has years of experience working with LE on cases, but that doesn't mean that statements made by her are the gospel. Humans make mistakes - ALL humans, no matter how much experience they have. So, I don't take her statement as proof they have the right one. I take it as her opinion.

If JH is THE ONE, I hope he is the one who pays. Even if he didn't kill somer, he needs to be off the streets so he cannot view, make, or distribute any more child , or molest any more children, but for her to say that people who have prayed and grieved for somer can be at ease now? I don't think that is true. They should NEVER rest easy with other child predators on the loose, and look how many others are walking the streets of Orange Park.

I wish they were ALL locked up - I wish it was " one and you're done"! One is one too many!

 

[angelswatchoverthem]

She is a PROSECUTOR! By nature, any POI LE arrests would be deemed by her to be THE ONE. It will be HER job to prosecute him. Is she going to say "well, I don't think LE has the right one"? Prosecutors have thought LE had the right one millions of times, but Juries acquitted them when it went to trial. Some acquitted have indeed been guilty, but others have been convicted who were innocent. Things are not always what they seem to be. Yes, she has years of experience working with LE on cases, but that doesn't mean that statements made by her are the gospel. Humans make mistakes - ALL humans, no matter how much experience they have. So, I don't take her statement as proof they have the right one. I take it as her opinion.

If JH is THE ONE, I hope he is the one who pays. Even if he didn't kill somer, he needs to be off the streets so he cannot view, make, or distribute any more child , or molest any more children, but for her to say that people who have prayed and grieved for somer can be at ease now? I don't think that is true. They should NEVER rest easy with other child predators on the loose, and look how many others are walking the streets of Orange Park.

I wish they were ALL locked up - I wish it was " one and you're done"! One is one too many!

Yes, you make some good points. And indeed, things are not always what they seem. This so far, is one opinion only, we haven't heard anything from anyone else working closely on this case yet.
I said exactly the same thing in a post a while back, no one can ever be at ease as far as child predators out there, because for each one that is caught, there are so many more around out there, and quite a few in and around where Somer lived. I definitely feel Corey could have worded that statement a lot better, far as i'm concerned it was a fairly loaded statement, like" here it is, now make of it what you will", kind of a statement.

 

[BeanE]

But 3 mnths. later Caylee's body had still not been found. Didn't they find her remains 6 mnths later? Around Dec.
I think from memory C.A. was in jail a couple of times, before she was finally put in there to stay. Then again i suppose she did get bailed out by L.P. at least once. I guess J.H. doesn't have the bail part of it? Isn't he there with no bail? Initially it was a million dollars, but they then changed that from what i read. I wonder if it was only because of the child /molestation charges alone or something else?
Then look at Haleigh. They are in jail for drug trafficking, caught red handed by L.E., yet Haleigh is still missing, and they still have a bond they can get out of jail with, if they can get the money.

Yes, she was in jail, but on other charges - not homicide related - same as JH. The homicide charges didn't come until the end of October.

 

[eyes4crime]

Just a couple comments:

Do we know for sure who is prosecuting JH regarding the child ? And if there are more charges regarding Somer, do we know for sure Corey will be the prosecuting attorney? How about the Asst. States Attorney?

I can think of a couple reasons Somer may not have been raped:
...The perp was interrupted and short of time - had to get rid of the body
...Murderer used Somer for other purposes

Seems to me that I've read cases where the rapist didn't take ALL the child (victim) clothes off. I remember thinking she could have been partially dressed. Somer may have had on an identifying top with her legs sticking out unclothed, and identified by a tattoo on her leg - could mean she was found 1/2 clothed. MOO

 

[eyes4crime]

A very good explanation of why JH is not charged right away with the murder of Somer:

~~snipped~~
here is a good reason why Harrell is named only as a person of interest for now, he said. "One of the issues is, if there's an arrest in Somer's case, you start a timeclock, and it starts ticking and you can't reset that.

Once an arrest is made and a charge formally filed, authorities must go to trial within 175 days, unless the time restriction is waived. "Once you charge somebody, you are obligated to turn over to defense attorneys all the information you have."

Carson said in a case like Somer's, you don't want to do that too quickly.

"If I was the investigator, I'd be stalling that as long as we could to make sure we got (all the) information we could out of the evidence that we have," said Carson.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/topstories/news-article.aspx?storyid=152277&catid=3

 

[Kimberlyd125]

MOO - LE cleared so many RSO's so quickly. This makes me believe they were not LOOKING specifically for a sexual predator.

One reason why I don't think she was molested is because Sheriff Beseler said they tentatively identified her by "clothes she was WEARING" and a birthmark on her leg. I think that statistics show that when a child is sexually molested and then killed, especially by a child molester, he/she does not take the time to re-dress the victim before disposing of the body. Another thing was that she was found wrapped in a rug/carpet. Sexual predators usually just dump their victims body as quickly as they can and not try to dress them and cover them up in something and they usually take them to an isolated area to do the molesting and dumping of the body and just leave it in that isolated area and get the heck out of there immediately.

Reasons to kill her, other than for sexual molestation, could be any number of things including rage, satanic rituals, or her stumbling upon drug activity or something worse, accidental death then killer panicked, just to name a few.

If you will think back to some of the more recent cases like Meredith Emerson, she was killed by a sexual predator, found naked and decapitated, and left in an isolated area. Chelsea King, raped (I assume left naked because they found her panties before they found her) buried in a shallow grave near a lake - easy place to dig because of the moist soil. Amber Dubois also found in an isolated area not too far from where Chelsea King was found, but she had been there for a long time - they only found skeletal remains of her.

Do you know of ANY cases where sexual predators re-dressed their victims, wrapped them up in something, and dumped them in a dumpster or landfill? I don't. I can't think of one single case at the moment. I've heard or read when the body is found clothed or wrapped in something, that indicates that the killer feels remorse or regret over the murder. Sexual predators have no remorse or regret when they kill...just a sense of warped pleasure and satisfaction.
Again, these are MOO. I hope this clears up why I think she was not sexually molested. I hope I am right and that she did not have to endure sexual molestation plus a horribly heinous death. The best I can hope for was that it was quick. I don't want to think about torture before the murder.

I hope whoever did this to Somer pays for a long, long, time. It was such a senseless loss of a young life.

BBM

I understand what you are saying and why you feel the way you do.

But, the BBM part above I disagree with. If JH is indeed the killer I think about it like this...
If it were his 1st kill and he didn't really "mean" to kill her...he just got overly excited *at 200 something pounds* the act alone could have killed her. If this was his 1st rape, he may have freaked out and realized that a 7 year old could tell...anyway, after the fact, he's got a deceased 7 year old. He may have felt sad for her. He may have felt ashamed for what he did.
As far as wrapping her in a rug, they may have been the only way he thought he could get her out the house and into the car or dump that people would not think was hinky.

KWIM

 

[Dr.Fessel]

MOO - LE cleared so many RSO's so quickly. This makes me believe they were not LOOKING specifically for a sexual predator.

One reason why I don't think she was molested is because Sheriff Beseler said they tentatively identified her by "clothes she was WEARING" and a birthmark on her leg. I think that statistics show that when a child is sexually molested and then killed, especially by a child molester, he/she does not take the time to re-dress the victim before disposing of the body. Another thing was that she was found wrapped in a rug/carpet. Sexual predators usually just dump their victims body as quickly as they can and not try to dress them and cover them up in something and they usually take them to an isolated area to do the molesting and dumping of the body and just leave it in that isolated area and get the heck out of there immediately.

Reasons to kill her, other than for sexual molestation, could be any number of things including rage, satanic rituals, or her stumbling upon drug activity or something worse, accidental death then killer panicked, just to name a few.

If you will think back to some of the more recent cases like Meredith Emerson, she was killed by a sexual predator, found naked and decapitated, and left in an isolated area. Chelsea King, raped (I assume left naked because they found her panties before they found her) buried in a shallow grave near a lake - easy place to dig because of the moist soil. Amber Dubois also found in an isolated area not too far from where Chelsea King was found, but she had been there for a long time - they only found skeletal remains of her.

Do you know of ANY cases where sexual predators re-dressed their victims, wrapped them up in something, and dumped them in a dumpster or landfill? I don't. I can't think of one single case at the moment. I've heard or read when the body is found clothed or wrapped in something, that indicates that the killer feels remorse or regret over the murder. Sexual predators have no remorse or regret when they kill...just a sense of warped pleasure and satisfaction.

Again, these are MOO. I hope this clears up why I think she was not sexually molested. I hope I am right and that she did not have to endure sexual molestation plus a horribly heinous death. The best I can hope for was that it was quick. I don't want to think about torture before the murder.

I hope whoever did this to Somer pays for a long, long, time. It was such a senseless loss of a young life.

That could simply mean her clothes were with the body when they found it. WEARING meaning the clothes she was wearing when she went missing.

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Clothes she was wearing could also mean shirt she was wearing or jacket she was wearing. I don't think we heard the sheriff say she was FULLY clothed did we?

ETA: And also, kinda like what doc was saying...He could have laid her on the rug/carpet and threw her clothes into it and rolled it up to dump it. I'm sure he would not want the clothes at his house right. Even if he didn't take the time to dress her, I would think he would have disposed of her belongings with her.

 

[krowdkat]

Do you know of ANY cases where sexual predators re-dressed their victims, wrapped them up in something, and dumped them in a dumpster or landfill? I don't.

respectfully snipped...The Oakland County Michigan Child Killer molested, the boys he took. No evidence on the girls. However, they were all groomed, well-fed, and redressed. DNA wasn't available back then.

http://www.michigandoes.com/ColdSerial/occk.html

 

[Noway]

Just a couple comments:

Do we know for sure who is prosecuting JH regarding the child ? And if there are more charges regarding Somer, do we know for sure Corey will be the prosecuting attorney? How about the Asst. States Attorney?

I can think of a couple reasons Somer may not have been raped:
...The perp was interrupted and short of time - had to get rid of the body
...Murderer used Somer for other purposes

Seems to me that I've read cases where the rapist didn't take ALL the child (victim) clothes off. I remember thinking she could have been partially dressed. Somer may have had on an identifying top with her legs sticking out unclothed, and identified by a tattoo on her leg - could mean she was found 1/2 clothed. MOO

Steve Nelson?

His name was at the bottom of the warrant documents. I saw mention of him in article too.

ETA

BBM above

snipped
Corey is in regular communication with Clay County Sheriff Rick Beesler, while Steve Nelson is the "hands on, minute to minute" State Attorney working with the Sheriff's office.

http://wokv.com/event_guide/movies.html


snipped
Clay County prosecutor Steve Nelson said the new charges are related to the same victim, a 3-year-old girl who Harrell's accused of molesting, and the child images and video that deputies said they found on Harrell's computer last month.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/22794869/detail.html

 

[Dr.Fessel]

art of the killer's ritual included re-dressing his victims just prior or just after their deaths. While there was no evidence of sexual assault on the female victims, both male victims had been sodomized. As a result of the killer apparently taking care of the children prior to murdering them, his moniker grimly became "The Babysitter".

 

[Dr.Fessel]

It is so high profile I would think Corey would be the one to prosecute.

 

[BeanE]

Shaniya Davis's body was found in her tshirt and, I believe, her panties. She had been raped.

 

[krowdkat]

art of the killer's ritual included re-dressing his victims just prior or just after their deaths. While there was no evidence of sexual assault on the female victims, both male victims had been sodomized. As a result of the killer apparently taking care of the children prior to murdering them, his moniker grimly became "The Babysitter".

Jill Robinson's father was actually my English professor in the early 90's. He dated my neighbor. And, believe it or not, a good friend of mine and his friend found her body along I-75 in Troy, MI, while walking around with their bb guns just after Christmas. This scary case has been with me for years. Sadly enough.

 

[Dr.Fessel]

Krowdkat, I swear I read a book that was loosely based on those murders. Can't remember the name of it but there was a serial killer leaving kids bodies along the roads outside of detroit. Had some stuff in it about crooked DA's. It was a pretty good book.