GA - Carlene Rigby, 4, strangled, March 2015

[eileenhawkeye]

I haven't seen any updates on the criminal aspect of the case.
However Carly's parents are advocating for window blind safety. #gocordless

That's the only new thing I've seen anywhere.
FYI Home Depot allegedly doesn't sell them but can order them.
While Lowe's has them in the store and can order them in any color.

I hope we hear something else on this case... so very strange.

Do you have a link for where the parents are advocating for blind safety? I don't see anything when I search. Considering that the parents were named POI in their daughter's homicide, I am not impressed with them taking up this cause. The coroner ruled Carly's death was a homicide---she did not accidentally strangle herself with the blinds.

 

[midstateMind]

Hawkeye, they've periodically made posts on social media with the go cordless hashtag. It's really relatively meaningless as you say, given the death was ruled a homicide. There are no local developments issued via the media. I frequently confuse what I've heard through the grapevine and what I know to be true simply because it's all grown so surreal. I just don't want to make the error of talking out of turn on a public forum. Hope everyone is well...this case is maddening.

 

[MsFacetious]

After string of Bibb County slayings, coroner asks, ‘Where’s the outcry?”

---------------------------------

Victor Robert Carroll, a 17-month-old, was shot in the face as Ronnie William Howard allegedly was cleaning a gun. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Carlene Rigby, 4, was found strangled by a cord from window blinds in her bed, but no one has been charged in her death.

http://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article34400673.html#storylink=cpy

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I don't understand why there's no media interest in this case. The investigators are saying Carlene's death was a homicide and her parents are POI. A 4-year-old middle-class adorable little girl was strangled in her bedroom. The parents are suspected. No arrests. I think it is extremely unusual for a child to be killed in their home, and no one be arrested. Why is local interest at a "0" for this case? Even the coroner doesn't understand it.

It could be that LE has asked the media to not report on the case. However, I think that LE would just have to keep their mouths shut, and the media would stay away. A lot of times, if they aren't forcefed information, they don't report. There was another case---Grace Ford---where a little girl was killed in her home, no arrests. Very little media coverage. Some might have thought that LE asked the media to stay away, and perhaps they did, but even after Grace's killer was arrested and went on trial, it still wasn't that big of a story.

 

[Rayemonde]

It's sickening to know that whoever murdered this 4 year old girl is still walking around scot free!

 

[Rayemonde]

Bumping for Carly.

 

[theirmommy]

I was thinking of Car today. I came here expecting a huge update; so sad there is no new news.

 

[midstateMind]

Disappointing to feel like nothing is happening in the case that has been made available for public knowledge. The only thing of note that I can think of is that the mother's facebook profile has finally vanished. She was so erratic in her postings that perhaps she was advised to shut it down or just got smart. Who knows? As discussed before, nothing can change the autopsy ruling that this was a homicide. IMO, there is no peace for her until someone is charged.

 

[Backwoods]

DA's office: Macon girl strangled in blinds likely died in game with sibling

A 4-year-old Macon girl found dead in her bedroom in March with her neck tangled in a window blind cord appears to have died playing a game with her 9-year-old brother, authorities now believe....

...after getting a tip from a member of the Rigby family's church, officials have since decided the circumstances of Carly's asphyxiation were in all likelihood not criminal. No charges are expected....

...District Attorney David Cooke said Wednesday he would have a news conference to discuss the case at 10 a.m. Thursday. He declined any comment until then....

​

much more at: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article40795419.html

​

 

[midstateMind]

Shocking. I'm not even sure what to believe.

 

[cocomod]

much more at: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article40795419.html

​

I just listened to the press conference. I am concerned that the "Sunday School" teacher's testimony seems to be the only evidence taken in to account. Not one of the journalists asked if a forensic interview was done with the 9 year old brother. He refused to talk about it when he was interviewed to begin with. He should have been interviewed again to verify this story IMHO. I think that this needed to be done in a very sensitive manner to be certain that this "game" was truth. They took this teacher's word. Why couldn't this teacher have been trying to help the parent's cover up something?

Wow, and the mom lied about her whereabouts. When she "told the truth" (that she was with her boyfriend), they verified her story.

Such as sad, sad tale here.

 

[Rayemonde]

Cooke says her brother's Sunday school teacher came forward in June. She told authorities he and Carlene liked to play a game where they jumped in large piles of laundry and he would tie Carlene up with blind cords. Cooke says the witness told investigators the four-year-old was “always able to get herself free from the blind cords.”

Cooke tells 41NBC the parents were not aware of this game their children used to play.

http://www.41nbc.com/story/d/story/...b-toddlers-death/12694/u_v_6lalnkqVSgTryzdf7Q

 

[Rayemonde]

DFCS plans to return the other Rigby children to the parents' home in the near future and “given that there are two children in the home who are younger than [the brother] and possibly at risk of being harmed by him, I wanted to make sure you [are] aware of the findings of the investigation.”

http://www.41nbc.com/story/d/story/...b-toddlers-death/12694/u_v_6lalnkqVSgTryzdf7Q

 

[Rayemonde]

Early in the investigation, he and Carly's 34-year-old mother, Jodi Rigby, were considered "persons of interest."

The DFACS letter says Jodi Rigby was "initially a suspect," in part, "because she lied to investigators regarding her whereabouts during the evening of March 21st and early morning hours of the 22nd. However, she eventually disclosed that she had spent the night in Warner Robins with a boyfriend, ... (who) has provided an alibi for her, and other evidence confirms that she was not at the home during the time of Carly's tragic death."

Jason Rigby was the only parent at home the night Carly died, investigators believe.

http://www.macon.com/news/local/article40795419.html

 

[midstateMind]

http://www.41nbc.com/story/d/story/...b-toddlers-death/12694/u_v_6lalnkqVSgTryzdf7Q

The children are all back in the parents' custody. IMHO, it's irresponsible to place the younger two in the older's company. This info courtesy of the grandmother's public Twitter profile. Twitter.com/drsuzannem

 

[Indy Anna]

IMO, none of the children should have been returned to the parents. I'm sure the little boy feels terrible for his sister's death and likely feels responsible - a big burden for a child who was only playing what he thought of as a game. I think the problem is that the parents weren't even aware of the "game" Carly and her brother had been playing. The children should not be expected to parent themselves; it is the responsibility of parents to supervise their children so that they are aware of what their children are doing and intervene in any potentially harmful behavior.

 

[MsFacetious]

Glad to see my gut instincts haven't failed me yet. :twocents:

 

[Backwoods]

'Tragedy is the right word,' Bibb DA says of Rigby girl's death

"I think tragedy is the right word," District Attorney David Cooke said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Rigby family."...

...The Rigbys, though, aren't buying the DA's explanation.

Their lawyer said Thursday afternoon that while Carly's mother and father, Jodi and Jason "Hod" Rigby, were happy to have been cleared of wrongdoing in the matter, they were "disappointed that law enforcement has made the determination that their 10-year-old son is responsible for Carly's accidental death."

...Cooke said Carly's brother had never been questioned by authorities about the game. Cooke said investigators tried to speak to him early on and got nowhere.

And by the time the Sunday School teacher came forward and informed officials of the supposed tie-up game, the family wasn't talking, the DA said.

The DA said the parents' lack of cooperation "with the police after your child dies does not necessarily mean that you caused the child to die. ... I'm not gonna try to get inside their heads."...

read more at: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article40937472.html


video of Cooke: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article41020839.html

​

When I read last night's article and posted the link here, my main thought was just how tragic this is. I do believe it was accidental. I even can see how the Rigbys are questioning whether their son was involved. I don't doubt the kids played the game, but it COULD be that Carly was trying to replicate it on her own and jumped off the bed with a cord tied to some part of her -- either with a loop and knot left from earlier sessions of the game or self-tied -- and it somehow tightened around her neck. We may never know. Very sad, for all, IMO.

The other thing that struck me last night, very strongly, is how the situation has SOME elements (obviously not all) of one set of theories about the JonBenet Ramsey case.

 

[midstateMind]

read more at: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article40937472.html


video of Cooke: http://www.macon.com/news/local/article41020839.html

​

When I read last night's article and posted the link here, my main thought was just how tragic this is. I do believe it was accidental. I even can see how the Rigbys are questioning whether their son was involved. I don't doubt the kids played the game, but it COULD be that Carly was trying to replicate it on her own and jumped off the bed with a cord tied to some part of her -- either with a loop and knot left from earlier sessions of the game or self-tied -- and it somehow tightened around her neck. We may never know. Very sad, for all, IMO.

The other thing that struck me last night, very strongly, is how the situation has SOME elements (obviously not all) of one set of theories about the JonBenet Ramsey case.

The whole thing still sickens me. Granted, I've researched far too much, but the answers still don't satisfy me. In listening to the presser, I was not impressed with DA's statement that they found the Sunday school teacher credible & didn't even attempt to speak to the child again. The bottom line, IMO, is that the married mother of four was off cavorting with a boyfriend while her child died on what would have been her other dead child's birthday.

No answer here is satisfying...they're not charging anyone? No negligence? No obstruction? The child hasn't been referred to psych? The kids are back in their care? There are actually no real answers. There's just a lack of evidence to go to trial.

The grandmother has complained about "the system" repeatedly via Twitter & her blog. Why complain when this has all been dragged out by the fact the parents (specifically your OWN DAUGHTER) have lied to law enforcement?

Maybe none of it really matters. This precious child is dead. Asserting who is right or wrong seems immaterial. Nothing will change the fact that Carly is gone. A community is rocked and there's still someone (possibly very disturbed) responsible for the death on the loose.

I personally don't think any truth has been delivered today. Not one local I've spoken to has been impressed with the DA. My gut tells me there's still something rotten in that house.

 

[Leomoon80]

Yes.

https://www.military1.com/all/press...-impact-of-the-wreaths-across-america-program

Jodi Rigby is a military spouse and mother to James, Jacob, Carly and Sarah Katherine, and a student at AMU whose major is still undecided. She is also a nurse and is the founder of the Heart of Georgia Chapter of Bereaved Parents of the USA. She is active in her church and community, and is a volunteer with Wreaths Across America at Historic Riverside Cemetery.

It appears that Jodi spreads herself a bit thin, imo. Here, there, everywhere, PLUS a lot of kids at home to raise.
Her mother is a Doctor of some kind?

Like an M.D. or other kind? I only wonder at her own upbringing. When did she marry first time around? Her son who died would have been 15 this year past, so it must have been quite young as she herself appears to be very young still.

https://www.military1.com/all/press...-impact-of-the-wreaths-across-america-program