GUILTY OK - Kelsey Briggs, 2, beaten to death, Meeker, 11 Oct 2005

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

She was just an angel wasn't she with that sweet little face. I love the picture of her leaning on the arm of the chair looking up at her daddy with him looking down a him. It's a beautiful picture but so heartbreaking at the same time. How do they stand it?

I can't even begin to imagine. The pictures in the video tribute are heart-wrenching - the ones with her Daddy at her grave. Unbearable.

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

You know what really bugs me about the mother's family - the obvious anger that they feel towards Lance and his mother. After all that's happened, how can that STILL be their focus? Can they not understand that Lance and Kathie have also suffered a tremendous loss and that they should indeed have a chance to vent?

Kathie was obviously devastated by what's happened and she chose to try to funnel that into something good. "Kelsey's purpose". And then this "investigative journalist" has the unbelieveable audacity to place a caption under photos that states "Kelsey Smith-Briggs - a child, not a purpose[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]."[/FONT] What is with these people? Why are they so angry at this woman? Sadly, I don't think they'll ever "get it" as they are obviously busier pointing fingers at everyone else to accept responsibility for what they've done.

Here's a link to that idiot's page, posted earlier on this thread.

US~Observer Oklahoma

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

CASA is a Court Appointed Special Advocate, it is a volunteer position and basically CASA's help CPS in investigating a case. CPS is so overworked the caseworkers generally have very little time to actually interview the child and to do a proper, thorough investigation. The goal is to have one CASA per case but there just are not enough CASA'S. I had never even heard of CASA until recently, they really need to do a better job on getting their name out there. Every single county has one though and most people have not even heard of them.

I never heard of them and after doing a web search just now, they do indeed have them in counties all over my state. I'm glad you all brought this up - I'll be reading up on the volunteer possibilities.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I read the article and quite frankly...I happen to agree with the journalist who wrote it. It sounds like he did his homework and would not be stating such if it weren't backed up by sources.

Everyone knows that abusive relationships begin somewhere. I believe that Kathy has to own up to her own demons in this scenario. Kelsey wasn't the first to be abused in their family circle and not enough was done to protect this child. This is a fact. If the truth is that her son is also an abuser...doesn't it make sense that Kathy set this precedence? I wondered why the father wasn't instrumental in protecting Kelsey and it seems we have the answer.

If Kathy were any kind of a grandparent, this child would be alive today. I would not have tolerated ANY abuse to happen to my grandchild and certainly not more than once! She and I might have been "on the run", but no one would break her collarbone or have the chance to EVER touch her again if DHS failed her!

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

There are two sides to every story. However, regardless of anything that Lance or Kathie may or may not have done, Porter is the convicted murderer of this baby.

This "investigative reporter" is not a journalist, as someone pointed out earlier - he's a paid service provider. And in this case, he was paid to slander the Briggs family. We're supposed to believe what he writes but all we see are references to "witnesses" and "sources". If I'm to believe the garbage I read there, I need to see actual documentation to back it up. Any moron can reference unnamed "witnesses" and "sources" to tell any story they choose. IMO, the author of that nonsense is a moron.

ETA: Many people author things that are not and cannot be backed up by reliable, verifiable sources - especially on the Internet. We have no idea who the author is, what his research methods are, what his credentials are, etc. He could be any random Joe Schmo that decided to lash out at the Briggs for whatever reason - most likely cash. I greatly value your opinion, SS, but honestly think that to believe something just because someone wrote it and to believe that it wouldn't have been written if it can't be backed up by sources is naive. We can't possibly know if he would or wouldn't be stating the things he does if they can't be backed up.

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

I hope some mean women get ahold of this disgusting woman who does not deserve the title mother. Poor little Kelsey, I couldn't finish the tribute, the last picture of her with the bruise on her face, her eye is obviously injured, she looks so sad...

In other videos on YouTube, there are pictures of her that appear to be from around that same time. They may be from the very same time but I don't know. In any case, in those pictures, you can see that there isn't just one bruise on her cheek - there appear to be three or four on the cheek in front of the ear and it looks as if there may even be more bruising behind the ear. Unreal.

It's so odd to me that this happened to her because she really did seem loved. There are SO many pictures of her, including professional looking portraits. I've never known anyone to have so many professional pictures taken. And in most of the pictures, she's wearing beautiful outfits & her hair is fixed, etc. In those pictures, she's not what you would think of when you think of neglected & abused children. I guess it just goes to show that anyone can be a victim, regardless of what we see on the outside.

Both things I've mentioned can be noticed in the following video:

YouTube - Kelsey Briggs 2002-2005

 

[imthemom]

I read the article and quite frankly...I happen to agree with the journalist who wrote it. It sounds like he did his homework and would not be stating such if it weren't backed up by sources.

Everyone knows that abusive relationships begin somewhere. I believe that Kathy has to own up to her own demons in this scenario. Kelsey wasn't the first to be abused in their family circle and not enough was done to protect this child. This is a fact. If the truth is that her son is also an abuser...doesn't it make sense that Kathy set this precedence? I wondered why the father wasn't instrumental in protecting Kelsey and it seems we have the answer.

If Kathy were any kind of a grandparent, this child would be alive today. I would not have tolerated ANY abuse to happen to my grandchild and certainly not more than once! She and I might have been "on the run", but no one would break her collarbone or have the chance to EVER touch her again if DHS failed her!

I think that both Porter and now Kelsey's mom are in prison proves that they were at fault and no one else besides CPS. Kathy had to follow the rules, in order to possibly get Kelsey back. She was fighting to clear her sons name who was fighting for our country. I am sure if he was here, he would have done everything he could to get Kelsey. I would run too but if you are caught, you go to jail for kidnapping and then wear does that leave the child, back to the family to abuse her and you will have no chance to see her again. I think if Kathy new what would happen she would have run but noone knows the future sadly it was too late for Kelsey.

 

[Mygirlsadie]

God how could anyone hurt that beautiful child? She went through so much & I just can't understand how nobody was able to step in and get her out of that situation? I mean it don't take a blind person to see the changes in her. Two broken legs bruises on the face obvious weight loss etc etc...this makes no sense. The sadness in that little girls face right before she was murdered by the scumbags just tears my heart to shreds.

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

She did look like she lost a lot of weight. I agree - how did no one see the signs?

 

[sherri79]

I read the article and quite frankly...I happen to agree with the journalist who wrote it. It sounds like he did his homework and would not be stating such if it weren't backed up by sources.

Everyone knows that abusive relationships begin somewhere. I believe that Kathy has to own up to her own demons in this scenario. Kelsey wasn't the first to be abused in their family circle and not enough was done to protect this child. This is a fact. If the truth is that her son is also an abuser...doesn't it make sense that Kathy set this precedence? I wondered why the father wasn't instrumental in protecting Kelsey and it seems we have the answer.

If Kathy were any kind of a grandparent, this child would be alive today. I would not have tolerated ANY abuse to happen to my grandchild and certainly not more than once! She and I might have been "on the run", but no one would break her collarbone or have the chance to EVER touch her again if DHS failed her!

please read post 110 that i did before you put any faith in this "journalist". he is not a independent investigative journalist but a paid advocate for people convicted of crimes.

 

[philamena]

God how could anyone hurt that beautiful child? She went through so much & I just can't understand how nobody was able to step in and get her out of that situation? I mean it don't take a blind person to see the changes in her. Two broken legs bruises on the face obvious weight loss etc etc...this makes no sense. The sadness in that little girls face right before she was murdered by the scumbags just tears my heart to shreds.

I agree.
I still can't talk about this case.

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

If you read the statement next to this one, it says that the song was written specifically for Lance and Kelsey, at Grandmom Kathie's request:

YouTube - A Soldier's Child (Lance and Kelsey's Song)

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

One last link for now - an interview with Kelsey's mom that was done on a news program.

YouTube - Fox25 - Raye Dawn Smith

 

[Bobbisangel]

When you read that article it is so obvious that Raye Dawn's family is behind it. I read about three fourths of it and had to shut it down. The whole thing is so one sided and he doesn't name his sources and so nothing as far as I'm concerned is fact. He says that he got a lot of his info from LE and DHS but I highly doubt that. I doubt that either agency is going to sit down with this guy and openly talk about the case and who said what, etc. The whole article just stinks. The only thing that I know for a FACT is that beautiful little Kelsey is dead and her mother and stepfather are both in prison for causing her death. I don't think the creepy pervert of a stepfather was even charged with child rape or molestation but it is a fact that he had sexually abused little Kelsey.

It makes me shudder to think that this family is probably raising that baby boy. And shame on them for keeping this horrible tragedy in the spotlight like they are instead of moving on with their lives and allowing everyone else to try and do the same thing.

 

[Nocgirl]

It really doesn't matter if Lance supposedly abused Rae Dawn or not. Her evil husband is the one that killed the little girl. It is not surprising many men are not excited about an unplannd pregnancy, I do not hold it against them at all and it should not be held against Lance.

 

[pjop]

Hi everyone,
I don't come here all that often and the reason is cases like this. It sickens me. It's hard to deal with that there are monsters like these in the world. I can't take but so much of it.....I come here and catch up and then I have to stay away for a while. Same thing w/ watching those Forensic Files type TV shows. Anyway, that's not what I came here to say....someone posted earlier how in Kelsey's pictures it appears lots of them were professionally done....and she appeared well taken care of. That is what struck me, too. In so many of the pictures she looked so sweet, pretty, healthy, and taken care of. I try to imagine why something like this happened to this child.....try to make sense of the senseless. Did it ever come out that she got addicted to drugs or anything like that? How could this have happened? The only thing I can come up with is that she got involved in drugs or something. How could you go from that sweet little family they had (or appeared to have) to what she became? How did she end up w/ this abusive ? How on earth does that happen? Just wondering if anyone knew if drugs were in any way involved in this.

 

[Lilybug1]

Hi Pjop,

I haven't heard of any drug involvement in this case. Sadly, I think what happened here is that a mother chose her new boyfriend over your child, plain and simple. The professional pictures and such were mostly pre-boyfriend. There has been some rumor that Lance Briggs (Kelsey's bio-dad) was abusive towards Raye-Dawn. We will never know if that's true, because the Smith family has just spread too many unbelievable lies and rumors and have lost all credibility. Even so, it's possible that Raye Dawn had a habit of falling prety for abusive men...in this particular instance, the man directed his abuse, both physcially and sexually, at her this beautiful baby girl! Too sad...and it is so sad that some women don't love themselves and their children enough to walk away from the men that hurt them. I don't think any drugs...I just think she wanted to be the new guy so badly that she either chose to look the other way or participate in the abuse.

 

[Bobbisangel]

Hi Pjop,

I haven't heard of any drug involvement in this case. Sadly, I think what happened here is that a mother chose her new boyfriend over your child, plain and simple. The professional pictures and such were mostly pre-boyfriend. There has been some rumor that Lance Briggs (Kelsey's bio-dad) was abusive towards Raye-Dawn. We will never know if that's true, because the Smith family has just spread too many unbelievable lies and rumors and have lost all credibility. Even so, it's possible that Raye Dawn had a habit of falling prety for abusive men...in this particular instance, the man directed his abuse, both physcially and sexually, at her this beautiful baby girl! Too sad...and it is so sad that some women don't love themselves and their children enough to walk away from the men that hurt them. I don't think any drugs...I just think she wanted to be the new guy so badly that she either chose to look the other way or participate in the abuse.

And that is exactly why Rae Dawn is where she is today....she refused to do anything about the abuse and just turned her head while her beautiful little girl was being battered and abused both physically and sexually. What kind of a mother allows that to go on :furious: No matter how deseperate some women are to have a man they should always put their children first.

Rae Dawn's family and friends can hold up for her until the Lord comes but she is going to stay right where she is. She took part in little Kelsey's murder even if she didn't touch her. I doubt that it will ever sink into her thick head though. I hope the other women in prison just ride her all of the time about being a baby killer. They will make her life miserable.

 

[Lilybug1]

I agree! Raye Dawn failed her daughter in every way. The very least she could have done was give her up to the parternal grandmother so that she would be spared her abuse...while Raye Dawn could keep her precious new husband. What's even more disgusting is the fact that Raye Dawn and her family continue to blame everyone else...including the father and the paternal grandmother...when it was her who brought the monster who killed her daughter into her home and fought for her daughter to stay there and continue to live with the abuse. It's digusting! She may say she didn't know and that it looked like the new hubby would be a great dad...despite the eery appearances of new bruises and broken legs once he got in the picture...but there is NO doubt in my mind that Raye Dawn suspected her daughter was being abused. She chose to blame it on anyone else or to believe that her daughter was suddently so active and clumsy that she broke bones just being a "kid" but ultimately her child is dead because she ignored all the signs staring her in the face...all because she wanted to keep a man.

 

[pjop]

Dang it, have tried posting and lost 2 of them and they were long-ish. So, I'll just say thank for your responses!