Remember Peter Watts' boy in the cooler?

[seesthru]

Remember when Watts told Frank about the baby boy int he cooler, and how he'd vowed to god to not have a son until the killer was caught? That's why Watts stopped at 3 daughters...

You know that cases there are at times based on real world cases. This is not the only baby in a cooler case I don't think, but this case happened in 1991 and was just solved this year.

Baby hope, about 3 years old, was found in a cooler. No missing child reports, she'd decomposed a bit, no clues. She was dubbed baby Hope, given a burial, and her case was unsolved from 1991 to this year.

Recently someone came forward, because someone they know told about a sister that had been killed. The sister and her dad had gone to mexico, the Mom thought the dad had killed baby Hope, maybe the Dad thought the mom had. It was neither. A male relative, ( cousin or uncle), had sexually assaulted and killed the child who was in his care at the time. The relatives sister actually helped him put the body in a cooler and get rid of it. Unimaginable! THey never spoke of it again.

Anyway, Watts' "baby Boy" I think was based on this event.

https://nypost.com/2013/10/12/suspect-charged-in-two-decade-old-baby-hope-death/

[wolvesevolve]

:( that's so very sad. Horrible things are done, family's keep secrets to the point even the parents, who have issues of their own (undocumented, poor, unmarried?, abusive relationship, contested custody?), did not know what happened and kept the disappearance a secret due to fear of deportation.

[Libby]

There was a very recent case in the UK which I think made a lot of people think about the effect on police officers and others when cases like this are discovered.

This is a case that concluded earlier this month. The family history involved domestic violence (the father had at an earlier time been legally banned from the house), an alcoholic mother, and (at best) neglect of children. The mother is 43, her eldest child is 24, there were a total of eight children, all of whom had the same father.

One of the children, a little boy, apparently died when he was 4 years old. Although social services and other authorities had been aware of/involved with the family for years, it wasn't until a PCSO (Police Community Support Officer – a civilian) managed to get the mother to open the front door, and realised that the house was filthy and fly-infested, and persuaded the mother to let her in. She saw the state of the house, and the official police became involved because there were young children at risk.

One police officer was searching in the mother's bedroom. There was a cot/crib there, piled high with clothing/debris. It might have been standard procedure, it might have been a suspicion of drugs, but that police officer started removing the debris and discovered ... well, he said in court that it took him a little while to recognise what he was looking at. He had to leave the house and go outside, because he couldn't stop his hands shaking.

The search took place in September 2011. The mother admitted that her son had died in December 2009. His body had been there for almost two years. His 4-year-old mummified body was clothed in a babygro designed for a 6 to 9 month old.

I really can't imagine what that support officer and that police officer went through that day. And will do for the days and years to come.

[seesthru]

For as long as he lives no doubt. So many cases like this. The boy in the box, all the little jane and john doe babies out there unidentified.. The case of the lady that had babies in her closet in suitcases, mummified too. Those are only the ones we find. Thousands upon thousands of little angels never get found.

[Libby]

You're right, seesthru, that there could be very many cases of lost children who we never get to hear about.

I guess the problem I have is exemplified by the cases already mentioned here, in terms of what is evil. To put a child's body into a cooler or whatever, seems to be a deliberate act of concealment; but to leave a child's body in its cot seems a lesser offence. But, to fail to seek medical advice, to fail to engage with official support services, all allegedly because of mistrust - I can't but help feeling that's just as evil. Evil is often characterised as a deliberate and vicious act, but I think sometimes evil can also be small, repeated, little acts of neglect or abuse. The child might well survive, but be forever damaged.

[seesthru]

Harming others, is evil. Be it neglect or abuse or murder, it's evil. I am glad they gave this little one her name back, saddened at the circumstances of her death though.

[IHaveGoodInstincts]

Millennium drew a lot of its material from real life situaitons, so I'm not suprised if this was as well.