GA - Suspicion over heat death of Cooper, 22 mo., Cobb County, June 2014, #1

[hopingicanhelp]

Confession...I forward faced my own from day one. ( he was three weeks old when I got him)
I* needed to be able to see him. I was driving a Lincoln Navigator at the time and felt very very safe. Right or wrong, for my own peace of mind, that's the way it had to be. He had reflux and I was terrified he would choke


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There is always an exception to the general rule. Point is, you had him restrained and buckled and you gave a damn.

 

[newone]

I can't get over how bad the coverup seems to be. It is hard for me to think that one/both parents seriously thought this was a good plan for getting away w/ it? It makes me think that he did not intend to kill his son, so the coverup was not well planned at all. I wonder about why he yelled that his son was choking. Why did he want witnesses to hear that?

:scared:

maybe that was the true cause of his death many hours earlier

 

[hopingicanhelp]

BBM My question is... will he request release to attend his son's funeral, because he hasn't yet.

Well... we don't really know what he's requested yet. He may have brought it up to atty who immediately shot it down for one reason or another. Just because it didn't make its way in front of a judge yet doesn't mean he hasn't requested it.

 

[ArianeEmory]

I also don't get the wet hair. Sweat doesn't make sense I guess. Could someone have tried to cool him off with water after he was taken out?

 

[newone]

well I can't find anything online to indicate upcoming press conferences with LE --

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/cops-cobb-toddlers-death-investigation-continues-t/ngRfn/

this link indicates that LE has declined to state whether the investigation has expanded beyond Harris (hmmm)

 

[CHERIE.T]

grey blue skin with saturated wet hair ..... and JH was telling LE baby was choking

80% of the comments towards the eyewitnesses are awful


witnesses all pretty much agree he was scoping out LE to see who they were talking to and not on his son at all

============================================
From uk mail

‘The baby was a grey/blue color, not its natural color. I know he was in the car seat but when the dad placed him on the ground his legs stayed in the same sitting position, as if he was laying on the ground with his knees up in the air stiff. It wasn’t natural.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ake-supporters-think-twice.html#ixzz35dJxnz1O
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[jmcgladr]

Is this going to be Casey Anthony type of shocking info? Reporters claim they're hearing bad info. Will be announced at a presser tomorrow.

If it is, I hope there will be justice this time around! Maybe it's good the police/investigators aren't telling us much in this case, as I think they released TOO MUCH info. in that case and it bit them in the butt.

 

[jmcgladr]

BBM. My youngest is 13 so maybe I'm out of the loop, but would a 22-month old really still be in a rear-facing car seat? I can't imagine it, but maybe it's just because my kids are exceptionally tall, lol. Their knees would have been up by their ears!

Experts now recommend children remain rear facing until a MINIMUM of two years, and some say up to 4 years! Apparently, it's OK if their legs are bent but I personally think 4 years is pretty extreme to keep them rear facing. Would be standard at 22 months though.

 

[Chewy]

I scrolled through and didn't see these details posted so, sorry if it's a repeat. I knew the Daily Mail would get more details.

Hmmm, still just gossip and hearsay but if he said he pulled over because he heard the baby choking and the baby was obviously dead for hours, then it's clear he lied. That may have been what made the police suspicious.

Eyewitness Edward Cockerham, 49, told MailOnline: ‘I was interviewed by the police last night and I told them I thought the guy was acting, he was really over-reacting to the situation.
'I know he had lost his baby but he was acting up more than he should have been. It seemed like acting to me. When he pulled in and people started asking him what had happened, he said that the baby had just started choking.
‘But the baby didn’t look like it had been choking, it looked like it had been sweating, like it had been in a swimming pool, his hair was all wet.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ake-supporters-think-twice.html#ixzz35e8TC100
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Edward is convinced Harris was acting suspiciously. He pointed out that Harris’ work as a web developer at the Home Depot headquarters is just over four miles away, a good ten-minute drive from the shopping center where he eventually pulled over.
‘I can’t believe that when he got back into his car after work he didn’t see the baby, it just doesn’t add up to me,’ said Edward. ‘He had a lot of time to look in his mirror or look round to see the baby.
‘I think he was worried about how it might look and he came up with this story to make it look like an accident.
‘It makes me mad to think that that baby had been dead for hours and the father tried to make out the child had just died. A lot of people have come out to support him but they need to know the whole story.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ake-supporters-think-twice.html#ixzz35e8k6yAl
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Artiyka also believes the baby had been dead for many hours before Harris pulled the child out of the car.
‘The baby was a grey/blue color, not its natural color. I know he was in the car seat but when the dad placed him on the ground his legs stayed in the same sitting position, as if he was laying on the ground with his knees up in the air stiff. It wasn’t natural.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ake-supporters-think-twice.html#ixzz35e94QrAm
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[CCmakes3]

Experts now recommend children remain rear facing until a MINIMUM of two years, and some say up to 4 years! Apparently, it's OK if their legs are bent but I personally think 4 years is pretty extreme to keep them rear facing. Would be standard at 22 months though.

Thanks, I had no idea! If it is still optional and not the law, however, I would be very interested in knowing whether this particular child was forward-facing or rear-facing. If he really did go out to his car during the day I think it makes all the difference in the world, as some are still excusing him saying he may not have noticed the child.

 

[CCmakes3]

I have to wonder what all of the people defending this man would do if THEY found a live child unattended in a hot vehicle and called 911, only to have police arrive and hand the child right back to the parent without asking any questions because it was simply an "oversight" that could "happen to anybody."

Surely they wouldn't want to be interviewed or receive any recognition for discovering the child either, since that would only "make the parent feel worse."

 

[Chewy]

What I find really strange about these scenarios is that if a BABY SITTER forgot a child in the back seat of a car and it died, everyone would be out for blood and suggesting that the babysitters job is to mind the child and they are criminally negligent and responsible for the death. It doesn't have to be "murder" it could be "manslaughter."

If a baby sitter did it people would never suggest that they had "suffered enough." But because the child is treated like a possession of the parent, they feel sorry for them.

Or think about the cases where a school bus driver leaves a child in the back of the bus for the day. They have to deal with dozens of children and also run busy lives. But no slack would be cut the school bus driver if they left a child in the back of a school bus and they SURVIVED. Let alone dying.

 

[katydid23]

This type of 'mistake' has always boggled my mind. You walk out of your home in the morning, all ready for work, AND YOU PUT YOUR BABY IN TH CAR SEAT. So how the heck can you totally forget about them as you drive to work?

When your baby is in the car, aren't you aware of them? Keeping one eye on them, as any parent needs to do with the fragile, delicate balance of a baby's life? It blows my mind that anyone can walk out of the door and place their child in their car seat, and then wipe any thought of that child out of their mind for the next 8 hours, until they return to find a dead baby. It is so odd.

I am not perfect, and often forgetful. We left one of our kids at a gas station once---for about 3 minutes. NOT for 8 hours. It still astounds me that he could have overlooked this 'mistake' for that entire time. Something seems a bit hinky, imo.

 

[CCmakes3]

What I find really strange about these scenarios is that if a BABY SITTER forgot a child in the back seat of a car and it died, everyone would be out for blood and suggesting that the babysitters job is to mind the child and they are criminally negligent and responsible for the death. It doesn't have to be "murder" it could be "manslaughter."

If a baby sitter did it people would never suggest that they had "suffered enough." But because the child is treated like a possession of the parent, they feel sorry for them.

Or think about the cases where a school bus driver leaves a child in the back of the bus for the day. They have to deal with dozens of children and also run busy lives. But no slack would be cut the school bus driver if they left a child in the back of a school bus and they SURVIVED. Let alone dying.

Omg, I was just going to edit my post above to include this exact scenario. Thank you! I believe the difference stems from the fact that some people still view children more as "property" than people.

 

[Chewy]

I saw the article that was posted before that said the father knew the child was in the car.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/cops-cobb-toddlers-death-investigation-continues-t/ngRfn/

Just thought of something. What if in the IT office the security cameras were angled to where he parked and he could SEE the car on the camera while he was in the office. What if he didn't normally park in that location but he parked there so he could watch the car and know if someone noticed his son in the car and run down and try to concoct a story?

Just an idea. Perhaps they reviewed the tapes and that's what made them search the office.

 

[CCmakes3]

This type of 'mistake' has always boggled my mind. You walk out of your home in the morning, all ready for work, AND YOU PUT YOUR BABY IN TH CAR SEAT. So how the heck can you totally forget about them as you drive to work?

When your baby is in the car, aren't you aware of them? Keeping one eye on them, as any parent needs to do with the fragile, delicate balance of a baby's life? It blows my mind that anyone can walk out of the door and place their child in their car seat, and then wipe any thought of that child out of their mind for the next 8 hours, until they return to find a dead baby. It is so odd.

I am not perfect, and often forgetful. We left one of our kids at a gas station once---for about 3 minutes. NOT for 8 hours. It still astounds me that he could have overlooked this 'mistake' for that entire time. Something seems a bit hinky, imo.

ITA. I am absent-minded to the point of being almost completely dysfunctional at times, but in 20 years of raising kids I have never forgotten a child in a car. I never know where my credit cards are at any given time, I have lost my keys permanently many times, left keys hanging in the front door overnight, left my laptop in an unlocked car, set my cell phone down in the refrigerator, put my planner and iPad on top of my car and driven off; heck, I've even brought the car seat into the house, taken the baby out, and misplaced the damn carseat, but I've never forgotten where one of my babies was for a second. "Distractedness" and "auto-pilot" are my default settings, but it's just different when it's a BABY.

I think people who say "There but for the grace of God go I" aren't giving themselves enough credit.

Eta: And my husband and I have a different drop-off/pick-up routine every day, which often isn't solidified until the night before, because my hours aren't consistent and I work in a different place every day. We still have never come close to forgetting where our kids were.

 

[Chewy]

ITA. I am absent-minded to the point of being almost completely dysfunctional at times, but in 20 years of raising kids I have never forgotten a child in a car. I have lost my keys permanently many times, left keys hanging in the front door overnight, left my laptop in an unlocked car, set my cell phone down in the refrigerator, put my planner and iPad on top of my car and driven off; heck, I've even brought the car seat into the house, taken the baby out, and misplaced the damn carseat, but I've never forgotten where one of my babies was for a second. It's just different when it's a BABY.

I think people who say "There but for the grace of God go I" aren't giving themselves enough credit.

Agreed. I lose things so frequently that for the last 14 years I have not locked the front doors to my own home. I never lock it. In fact at this moment I do not own a set of keys to the front door of my house. When my 20 year old and 18 year old got their own apartment, they had to get used to having door keys. I also don't own a cell phone because I just lose them so frequently I've learned to live without it. I haven't had a cell phone in two years.

I am notoriously forgetful. But a baby? Impossible. At the same time there are a lot of bad parents out there. It's sad but true and this is why making excuses for people is just a NO GO. You can't excuse negligence this way.

A few weeks ago I saw a mother with a newborn baby in a snuggly, she was SMOKING A CIGARETTE with the baby strapped to her chest. She was standing in the middle of the street doing it as well. Everyone just ignored her. :banghead:

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL

Was Toddler Death Accident or More Sinister?

Aired June 24, 2014 - 19:00 ET

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1406/24/ijvm.01.html

 

[Judicious1]

I saw the article that was posted before that said the father knew the child was in the car.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/cops-cobb-toddlers-death-investigation-continues-t/ngRfn/

Just thought of something. What if in the IT office the security cameras were angled to where he parked and he could SEE the car on the camera while he was in the office. What if he didn't normally park in that location but he parked there so he could watch the car and know if someone noticed his son in the car and run down and try to concoct a story?

Just an idea. Perhaps they reviewed the tapes and that's what made them search the office.

That would be a whole new level of diabolical! I hope this wasn't the case....

 

[Melanie]

I'm not sure how it works but do they need a warrant to search a place of business if the owner of the building gives permission?

Someone correct me if I'm way off about that.

You may be correct. His office is not owned by him. When I worked at a large firm, even my e-mails were property of the Company. The chair I sat on, the water I drank, etc. I had NO ownership, unless it was my own personal property (pictures of my family - that sort of thing).

If the owner gave LE permission to see the office, they do not need (IMHO) the fathers permission to do so. In fact, they could take anything that belonged to the company (lap top, documents, etc).

At least this is how I understand it.

MOO

Mel