Found Deceased MI - Venus Stewart, 32, Colon, 28 April 2010 - # 5 *D. Stewart guilty*

[believe09]

Any man who lives in the household with a little girl who doesn't lock the bathroom or bedroom door so she can't walk in and see his penis is not being the gentleman and responsible adult I would want around my little daughter.

Granted, people are raised differently to the point some adults walk around the house naked in front of their children and take them to nude beaches and nudest colonies.

I, myself, would never have a relationship with a man who would be careless enough to allow my little daughter to see his penis! That is just how I am. I never saw a man's penis until I was an appropriate age and in an appropriate situation.

Given that, if my daughter asked me what that thing hanging between my boyfriend's legs was, I would immediately ask her when and where she saw it.

By red flag, I meant something that would immediately get my attention and prompt me to immediately get to the bottom of the matter, not simply avoid discussing it because I didn't want to go there.

I get that this is your yardstick. I get that you would immediately run to the ground the time and place where your child would have seen a private part. That is absolutely your right and your choice.

It is others right and choice to handle issues regarding nudity and sexuality differently. Neither is criminal.

There is no fine line with criminal-you cross a line or you do not.

I dont want the thread to get mired in this topic-I am of the opinion that insufficient evidence does not get DS off the hook only because I am familiar with what that term means in a legal setting-it does not say he did not do it, simply that there was not enough evidence to warrant continuing to investigate or charging him. Maybe it is another damned if you do, damned if you dont situation for this case.

I have seen a lot of valid arguements raised that the grandfather releasing the notes could be construed as an agenda, and that he did not take his grandchild into consideration when he did. I do not know about agenda, but I can believe the second part...I think that it is a fair assessment that he should not have used the notes unless he was prompted to release it by LE as an attempt at causing a reaction in their suspect...like to try and get him to release a statement regarding the allegations....if that makes any sense.

 

[believe09]

I think we have all posted on threads where the presumption of innocence argument has been presented...the glory of a discussion board is that it is not a trial by jury and we are not judges except in our own minds and hearts. We are free to say convict him because I dont like his shoe size...as long as we are willing to support our reasoning!

 

[cluciano63]

I doubt very much LE would want the notes released by the family. They are waiting for physical evidence in order to make an arrest, IMO, and too busy searching for Venus to be playing games with this guy. They know where he is, what he is doing and only need one piece of evidence that provides means and opportunity to back up motive and he will be charged, if the receipt, blood, tire tracks, etc....provide a match. I think the grandfather just did not think this through and let his emotions dictate his decision to have this info go public. His hatred for DS seems to top everything else. JMO

 

[BeanE]

I don't want to get in on the he said she said argument that's going on except to say it sounds like motive for murder to me.

What sounds like motive? Sorry, I'm not sure what you're referring to.

 

[Cubby]

Please link to a claim of molestation made by a child directly to the courts or the public without an adult conveying it.

Respectfully, I think the poster asking the question meant did the child disclose to anyone other than her mother?

We are going to go back and forth here on whether the allegations are founded or not, and whether Venus made these claims because she was truly concerned or vengence. At this point in time we really do not know. Either way, I don't see us arriving at an answer unless LE comes out and states Doug was cleared as a suspect in their investigation into the allegations of sexual abuse against his child, or he is charged with the crime of sexually abusing his child.

However, either of the above scenario's -founded or not- could be motive for murder. (as was previously posted)


JMO

 

[BeanE]

I presume that this alleged motive is why LE was so quick to name DS as POI right from the start, despite the fact that he was supposed to be hundreds of miles away? I don't recall too many cases when a husband was named so quickly, even when he was on scene with a dead wife next to him. I have to think that LE took the info from Venus' parents, leading them to name him the only POI at once, as this happened long before any signs of possible physical evidence turned up.

I just hope they kept or are keeping an open mind, despite saying he is the only POI, otherwise they will have a very cold trail if he is somehow ruled out as having any guilt in this abduction/possible murder.

I'm not sure what motive you mean.

I really don't think LE just listened to the parents and decided that Doug was their POI. I think they probably collected evidence and other information to see if what the parents said was supported, and to see what else they could figure out.

I can't recall when Doug was named POI. Was it before LE collected any evidence or spoke with anyone other Venus' parents? Was it the day Venus disappeared?

You say it was before any physical evidence was collected. When were the tire track and footprint and tarp cover found?

I'm being lazy. I'm sorry. I'll go look it up and update my post.

ETA: April 26 - Okay I believe this is the very first news story on this case. As of that time, Doug wasn't named a POI, but LE was saying they thought he abducted Venus. This was published at about 5pm that day.

That may seem unusual, but I see it all the time. I search every day for cases to post in the Missing forum as well as the Crimes in the News forum, and I read a LOT of news stories. It's frequent that LE is immediately looking for the significant other, although I haven't put together any stats on it.


April 27 - Found news stories from this date that footprint found. That doesn't seem like a long time to me for physical evidence. I didn't find anything yet on when they found them. I just would think they had their CSI guys out there on April 26 looking around for stuff like that. And as of April 29th, see below.


April 29 - LE says that nothing they'd found to this date changed their minds to think Venus had left voluntarily.

“We do not believe she left of her own free will and so far nothing that we’ve turned up has changed that opinion

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/04/michigan_state_police_remain_h.html

 

[PickieChickie]

In my opinion: DS gets totally pissed off. Of all the nerve for Venus, who he's had full control over, humiliated and controlled by filing for a divorce several times, threatened, manipulated, issolated from friends and family, had arrested for domestic violence, broken down and humiliated, has the nerve to file for a protective order, accuse him of molestation, actually musters up the strength to file for and wins temporary custody of the girls and a protective order and moves away leaving everything he thought was important to her behind.

I can just hear him: "You leave me? Where are you going to go? I'm not letting you take the truck! You can't make the payments! You can't afford to support the kids! You can't even get a damn job! Look at you! You're pathetic! You are NOTHING without me! You leave me? Yah right! You'll never leave me! How will you survive!"

I can hear Venus say: "I don't need anything! I don't need my clothes, my truck, nothing! And I do have a place to go and I will go! You just watch!"

Now he's going to have to pay child support up the butt. That was NOT the plan. He wanted to get the children away from Venus and make her pay child support up the butt, make her miserable.

His plan didn't work. Venus suddenly has all the power. DS is NOT used to that. He stews and stews and gets madder and madder and the plot starts to unfold. He embraces it fully. It takes control over him and he is driven to follow through with his plan. And he did.

That is just my opinion, of course!

 

[SuziQ]

What sounds like motive? Sorry, I'm not sure what you're referring to.

Either way you cut it, false accusations or not could be motive for murder.

 

[Amster]

What proof is there that Venus was isolated from friends and family?

Never mind....

 

[BeanE]

Either way you cut it, false accusations or not could be motive for murder.

OH! Okay lol. Sorry I should have realized that's what you were referring to. I'm getting to my "I'm so sleepy I've entered the 'can't think' zone" stage of the evening.

 

[cluciano63]

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/04/missing_st_joseph_county_woman_1.html

this is dated April 28 and already police suspect DS...this was before anything was found..."police initially said that...they believed her husband had abducted her..."

 

[Natal]

In my opinion: DS gets totally pissed off. Of all the nerve for Venus, who he's had full control over, humiliated and controlled by filing for a divorce several times, threatened, manipulated, issolated from friends and family, had arrested for domestic violence, broken down and humiliated, has the nerve to file for a protective order, accuse him of molestation, actually musters up the strength to file for and wins temporary custody of the girls and a protective order and moves away leaving everything he thought was important to her behind.

I can just hear him: "You leave me? Where are you going to go? I'm not letting you take the truck! You can't make the payments! You can't afford to support the kids! You can't even get a damn job! Look at you! You're pathetic! You are NOTHING without me! You leave me? Yah right! You'll never leave me! How will you survive!"

I can hear Venus say: "I don't need anything! I don't need my clothes, my truck, nothing! And I do have a place to go and I will go! You just watch!"

Now he's going to have to pay child support up the butt. That was NOT the plan. He wanted to get the children away from Venus and make her pay child support up the butt, make her miserable.

His plan didn't work. Venus suddenly has all the power. DS is NOT used to that. He stews and stews and gets madder and madder and the plot starts to unfold. He embraces it fully. It takes control over him and he is driven to follow through with his plan. And he did.

That is just my opinion, of course!

I don't agree. These people have been hurting each other for a long time, and if DS did drive all the way over there and do it then it must have been something recent that caused it. The only recent thing we know about is the temporary custody arrangement, where DS is supposed to get nightly phone calls to the kids. My guess is that the folk at Colon were being as unhelpful as they possibly could in that regard and the frustration is what put DS over the edge.

I am also thinking that if he did do this, he didn't ambush her, but called her when he got there and she came out to speak to him. It is possible that all this accusation/PPO stuff was largely for show and she didn't really fear him, so came out alone without telling her father, not realizing that this time was different and it was for real.

Anyway, that is another potential scenario for the mix.

 

[BeanE]

Respectfully, I think the poster asking the question meant did the child disclose to anyone other than her mother?

We are going to go back and forth here on whether the allegations are founded or not, and whether Venus made these claims because she was truly concerned or vengence. At this point in time we really do not know. Either way, I don't see us arriving at an answer unless LE comes out and states Doug was cleared as a suspect in their investigation into the allegations of sexual abuse against his child, or he is charged with the crime of sexually abusing his child.

However, either of the above scenario's -founded or not- could be motive for murder. (as was previously posted)


JMO

I think the poster asked specifically for support for the daughter claiming herself she was molested versus Venus claiming it - no other persons were mentioned or alluded to.

Yes, I keep trying to point out that we simply don't know whether or not the allegations are founded. I don't think we're going to know any time soon. I'm not sure people will stop going back and forth on it even if Doug is cleared by LE or charged. In fact, if he's charged, I think people may well go back and forth even more.

I just don't want it to be lost that there may be a little girl who was molested. The child always has to come first, because it is the child who is defenseless. If there is a child who is in need, there is no political agenda that is of greater need.

Yes, I agree, founded or not, allegations of that sort could be motive for murder. I don't think much in terms of motive for murder myself any more. I've seen too many cases where there is seemingly no motive. These days I tend to just look more at the circumstances of the event, what happened, what's the evidence, what are the indications, what are the probabilities, etc. I guess when it comes down to it, I don't much care usually what the motive is. I've been emotionally worn down to the point of just they either did it or they didn't.

 

[BeanE]

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/04/missing_st_joseph_county_woman_1.html

this is dated April 28 and already police suspect DS...this was before anything was found..."police initially said that...they believed her husband had abducted her..."

I updated my post. I found articles saying the footprint had been found April 27. That is, the articles were April 27. I didn't find anything saying when they'd been found. I just think they probably had the CSI guys out there April 26 and found the signs of a struggle, footprint on the tank, tire track, etc right away. Just IMO - I don't have a supporting link yet.

 

[pufnstuf]

For AmandaReckonwith...

I just saw that you asked for the video from which I made the transcription...sorry to just get this link to you.

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/sw_mich/Dad-finds-handwritten-letter-from-Venus

 

[PickieChickie]

I don't agree. These people have been hurting each other for a long time, and if DS did drive all the way over there and do it then it must have been something recent that caused it. The only recent thing we know about is the temporary custody arrangement, where DS is supposed to get nightly phone calls to the kids. My guess is that the folk at Colon were being as unhelpful as they possibly could in that regard and the frustration is what put DS over the edge.

I am also thinking that if he did do this, he didn't ambush her, but called her when he got there and she came out to speak to him. It is possible that all this accusation/PPO stuff was largely for show and she didn't really fear him, so came out alone without telling her father, not realizing that this time was different and it was for real.

Anyway, that is another potential scenario for the mix.

I have thought it was very likely that Doug somehow contacted Venus at the last minute to let her know he was outside with the truck, that he'd driven it all the way to Michigan as a surprise for her so she'd have transportation of her own or that he'd brought some of her belongings and some money for her.

It just seems to be too much of a coincidence that the guy crouching behind the truck, if that was indeed Doug or whomever abducted Venus, was so lucky that Venus just happened to come out of the house at the right time.

However, if Venus was NOT allowed to smoke in the house and Doug knew that, he knew she'd be coming out every 15 minutes or so to have a smoke. But, why take her in broad daylight? That's what is so strange to me.

 

[pufnstuf]

Doug's father said on Nancy Grace that it was the fingerprint tech who found the footprint on the tank, while he was dusting. I believe that it was found on the day she went missing, and, like you Bean, I don't have a link.

 

[BeanE]

I don't agree. These people have been hurting each other for a long time, and if DS did drive all the way over there and do it then it must have been something recent that caused it. The only recent thing we know about is the temporary custody arrangement, where DS is supposed to get nightly phone calls to the kids. My guess is that the folk at Colon were being as unhelpful as they possibly could in that regard and the frustration is what put DS over the edge.

Has something come out supporting that there was a problem with the nightly phone calls?

 

[cluciano63]

I was thinking she may have received a call at 7:10 AM (the earliest time they believe she was abducted) that led her outside, but if she had, surely they would be able to trace the number it came from and then the source of the call?

 

[blackdog]

How could he possibly talk someone else into killing his wife: just drive fourteen yours; wait behind the wood pile, with a tarp; and maybe she will put the mail out.