Identified! NJ - Clifton, Toddler's body found in Passaic River, Jul'09 - Imani Joyner

[WhyaDuck?]

Charley Project Blog posts that first drew this case to my attention:

Okay, file this in the WTF category
By Meaghan

The police in Stamford, Connecticut reported that someone stole a toddler’s body from its grave. The dead child, a two-year-old girl, was later found in the Passaic River in New Jersey, wrapped in a plastic bag. (Both of those headlines are wrong, btw. The toddler was a girl, not a boy. And it was a CT cemetery and a NJ river, not the other way around.) Nobody seems to know who did this or why they did it. If this is someone’s idea of a joke, it is Seriously Not Funny.

http://charleyross.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/okay-file-this-in-the-wtf-category/

Update on little girl stolen from Connecticut grave
By Meaghan

ABC News says her name was Imani Joiner. She was born with a birth defect where her brain didn’t develop into two hemispheres like it’s supposed to. Wikipedia says some cases are mild, but most babies with this condition die before birth or shortly after. Imani survived two years and was locally kind of famous for that. I’ve read up a bit on a similar condition, anencephaly, where the brain basically doesn’t develop at all. Anencephaly is a rare, tragic and totally unpreventable event; I’m guessing holoprosencephaly is the same.

http://charleyross.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/update-on-little-girl-stolen-from-connecticut-grave/

 

[WhyaDuck?]

Note: Some sources list the name as "Joyner" - I had heard "Joiner" first, so that's the one I used. No offence is meant if I made an error.

 

[BeanE]

Thank you so much for the information, Bogeygal. This poor baby has been weighing heavily on my mind.

 

[BeanE]

Additional thread here:

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86077&highlight=imani+joyner

 

[WhyaDuck?]

Additional thread here:

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86077&highlight=imani+joyner

Ah - I did my search under the wrong spelling of "Joyner"/"Joiner." You would think "Imani" would have come up, though. That search engine is not my friend.

Please feel free to delete.

 

[passionflower]

How horrible for someone to did up remains of a baby!
Then throw her in a river..........what's up with that???
who did it should be charged big time with cruelity of a corpse.

 

[bogeygal]

Article about Imani:

WHO STEALS THE BODY OF A CHILD? By: Mike Kelly

http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/kelly_mike/Who_steals_the_body_of_a_child.html

Two pages long, but a must-read if you are following this tragic tale.

 

[Kat]

Thank you bogeygal. I'm very glad that the author that wrote that article did his research and has tenatively identified the religion as more than likely being Palo Mayombe. Which is completely different from santeria or even voodoo.

I'm very sorry for her family. May they find peace.