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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 20152
[Crime]
Date Posted:
10/25/2008
1:45:12 pm EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 4,027
RSS: 13,618
Comments: 21
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Suspect Denies Killing Stepsister
Author: Kathy Coffta Sims Source: syracuse.com (NY)
Title: SUSPECT DENIES KILLING STEPSISTER
Murder suspect Alan Jones repeatedly denied killing his stepsister, Erin Maxwell, in statements to investigators about her death.
Jones did tell state police that he and his stepfather, Lindsey Warren Maxwell were "getting along better than ever" after Erin died.
Jones, 27, is charged with second-degree murder. He is accused of strangling Erin Maxwell with a rope Aug. 29 at their home at 1678 state Route 264 in Palermo. The 11-year-old died at 4:20 a.m. Aug. 30 at University Hospital in Syracuse. Her father, Lindsey Maxwell and stepmother, Lynn Maxwell, have been charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
In statements released this week, Jones told state police investigators that he and the elder Maxwells had ridiculed Erin for showing an interest in Christianity on at least one occasion. He said he and his parents are pagans.
Additional Article Link: [Click HERE]
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Community Thoughts: There are 21 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Interesting Note.. | Oct 27th. at 4:53:01 pm EDT
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witch jenny (College Station, Texas) - Email Me
I decided to search for this story on msnbc and found several articles and interestingly enough none of them mention the religion of the family or the dead kittens in the freezer. They stick to the facts of the case as far as police have released them.
[Web LINK]
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| Just Too Sad... | Oct 27th. at 3:39:08 pm EDT
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witch jenny (College Station, Texas) - Email Me
I have to agree with several of you that it wasn't neccessary to bring up religion but in a case like this that is what the press does they harp on the "weird" aspects and often drop the ball on some of the more important ones. Like was she sexually assaulted? Did it appear that she had commited suicide or that she was murdered? Was there some sort of motive for the crime? And if life was so awful for her as was pointed out by the school nurse and her step aunt.....why did no one report this to child protective services?
Now I know one person posted that they don't want the government involved in helping to raise their children and on several points I would agree with that. But seriously, if the child is having to change into clean clothes at school and change back into her dirty clothes before she goes home and all in the nurse's office....there is a problem.
I just find it really sad that somehow this child slipped through everyone's notice, regardless of what religion her family practices.
Is her step-brother guilty? I don't know but I don't feel the need to jump on his support bandwagon just because he calls himself pagan. But then that is probably the mom coming out in me and what I saw more than anything in this article was a child who was lost and even though people seemed to notice this no one stepped into to help her not even the "xians" in her life.
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| They Need To Ask More Witches | Oct 26th. at 7:45:02 pm EDT
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Ahr-Ohn (Bridgeport, Connecticut) - Email Me
At least a dozen, if they want a score of answers.
""I'm not sure how our investigation two years ago, over two years ago would have predicted the kind of situation that Erin was found to be in at the time of her death. I wish we did have a crystal ball. We don't have a crystal ball," said Lanigan."
And they should have asked sooner. They're insisting that an unemployed high-brow, who simply couldn't find a job to fit, is somehow a Sociopath. They can't tell a sociopath from an Aspie.
I suppose there's a simple explanation, as to how the girl could die of strangulation at the hospital.
Multiple cat households to that degree, might have a dyscontrol of some aspect of existence.
Obviously, the police haven't drawn the connection to the name of James Clerk Maxwell, the most famous Demonologist in Numerology, but... [Web LINK]
Arawn
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| Bad Article About A Horrible Tragedy | Oct 26th. at 7:32:47 pm EDT
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parallax (Utica, New York) - Email Me
This article is a very poor report of the sad tragedy that occurred.
I live very close to the county where the family lives and have heard the news reports and reading this article today was the first time anyone mentioned the family's religion.
If you are truly interested in the case, you can find a good record of the articles and information here: [Web LINK]
Notice how they never mention Paganism or Christianity.
It isn't about religion - it's about a messed up family and a poor little girl, let's not blow the pagan comment out of proportion here.
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| Depressing Case | Oct 26th. at 5:23:23 pm EDT
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Strix (Duanesburg, New York) - Email Me
There's no copyright on the word "pagan", no central authority to say whether these people are "real" pagans. In fairness neither the media nor the police seem to be focusing on the pagan aspect of the case; after all there's only one brief mention of it in a couple of the various articles posted (google news lists quite a few more links) .
One aspect of minority religious (and other) movements is that they attract people whose only connection with the movement is not fitting in with the rest of society. Sometimes this gives people support in positive, creative misfitness, and sometimes it just gives them an excuse to continue destructive paths. Certainly there's no shortage of fringe "Christian" or "Muslim" folks in both categories, and once in a while a "Pagan" while provide an undesirable example too.
Regardless of who actually killed this poor girl it looks like her life was pretty horrible.
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| Hrm... | Oct 26th. at 3:49:35 pm EDT
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RavenLight (Arlington, Virginia) - Email Me
Animal hoarding. Not wanting to deal with one's own kid.
And yay, it's because they're pagans.
I wouldn't be investigating the stepbrother. I'd be investigating the obviously effed up -parents-. I mean, wow, who was this girl? Cinderella?
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| Social Services Failed Erin And Shouldn't Have | Oct 26th. at 2:47:12 pm EDT
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karrie9 (Kenosha, Wisconsin) - Email Me - Web
Just goes to show you that you have to shop around as far as news quality goes.
The state police and autopsy findings showed that she was strangulated and that sexual trauma was a contributing factor in her death. [Web LINK]
News Videos:
[Web LINK]
[Web LINK]
[Web LINK]
There are many more videos.
Note that according one of the above videos there supposedly was no DNA match to material found on/in Erin and that of her step-brother (who was supposedly the only adult present when she was injured ... Erin died of the injuries later in a hospital) .
I'd caution that it's hard to find all the pertinent information in one article or video so there may be other evidence they are matching up? I just haven't dug far enough to find out what it is.
The child weighed 60 lbs. at age 11 and was locked in her room after 5:30 pm each night. Although her door was supposedly locked to keep out the cats, heh, Erin smelled so badly of cat urine that a teacher notified Social Services, who went at least twice to the home. This is what that agency is for but somehow the case fell through the cracks?
The home was not just sloppy but had something like 100 cats and live poultry in it and since the feces weren't cleaned up along with much else, yes, the child endangerment and neglect charges were warranted.
If anything, action should have already been taking regarding the habits and conditions that the young girl had to endure for how long before her life was so tragically ended. May there be an "Erin's Law" if it can be an effective future consideration.
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| It's Sad | Oct 26th. at 2:40:29 pm EDT
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Moonlight Wolf (Bradford, England) - Email Me
It's sad that a little girl died and it's sad that journalists are bringing up the accuseds' religion.
If he is guilty then he deserves no sympathy. Not only would that mean he is a killer, it would mean he would be using his religion as justification for killing her.
There are some wierd bits but they still detract from the fact a little girl died.
If this family were Christian I do not think the press would have brought it up.
All I can say now is that we have one very sick mess.
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| Disturbing Thoughts | Oct 26th. at 2:27:26 pm EDT
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Mysteries Child (Garfield, Arkansas) - Email Me
I, too, find the lack of actual useful information in the article depressing and disturbing.
It seems that the paper, at least, is trying to paint these people up as guilty by association for being "other than Good Old White Bread American." With the assumption being that Those Who Are Different, Must Be Bad.
I, too, am one of those people who do not react "appropriately" to deaths. I shut down emotionally, usually for a couple weeks, and Get Things Done. I do my grieving in private, once the funeral is over, the leftovers are eaten, the grieving relatives have been waved back to Where-Ever They Came From, and the linens have been washed and put back. For this, many relatives have called me uncaring, and I'm sure I'd be Number One Suspect if anyone within 30 miles of me died under suspicious circumstances.
I suspect that guilt or innocence is going to be irrelevant. They're going to be found guilty, if perhaps on nothing more than the grounds that Someone Must Be Convicted, and You'll Do.
On the other hand...
I really wonder why anyone would find it necessary to send an 11-year-old to bed at 6 o'clock (I don't think any school starts early enough to necessitate getting up at 3 AM) , or confine an 11-year-old to her room because the adults were going to the store, unless they simply found dealing with her at any time to be intolerable. All issues of religion aside, I find myself inclined to wonder if parenting classes (or behavioral counseling for the child, or family therapy, depending on the circumstances) might have been in order.
There are many evangelists in the world who I'd like to send to their rooms; the zeal of the budding evangelist is usually matched only by his/her complete lack of discretion. I note, however, that it is part of the job description of A Parent to overcome aggravation, annoyance, and irritation at least well enough to work out sustainable solutions to long-term problems.
There are many people in the world, of all religions, who could find it easy to be cruel to someone simply on the grounds that You Ain't Like Us. Some could find it easy to be cruel enough to committ a murder...
...or cause a suicide. I trust we all remember Tempest Smith???
Living in the Bible Belt, surrounded by Pentecostals in sheeps' clothing, I often find myself wondering how I'm going to cope with the situation when (not if) my daughter, now 7, ends up pushing KoolAid from the tailgate of the Salvation Wagon.
Right now, I find myself intensely grateful that the father of her favorite playmate has a giant Baphomet tattooed on his calf.
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| Maybe... | Oct 26th. at 12:38:20 pm EDT
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BlackFlame (Suitland, Maryland) - Email Me
Maybe there's all this hype and little information that could actually be seen as RELEVANT because there IS NO relevant information. Maybe it was all just an accident and no one is really to blame.
If this is the case, the media decides to start finding (or MAKING UP) things to put these people into a bad light. It's good for sales when you don't have any REAL evidence to base your work on.
It wouldn't be the first time the newspapers made up information to sell stories. Trust me on that. Years ago, my family won a $75,000 lawsuit against the paper here for trying to smear my mother's name after she passed away. (The funny thing is their key witness adamantly said "No! She never did drugs or anything like that! In fact, she was always trying to get me to stop!" HA!)
So yeah... Let's just say I have little faith in newspapers and their portrayal of "truth".
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| The Directional Force Of Focus ... | Oct 26th. at 12:17:20 pm EDT
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karrie9 (Kenosha, Wisconsin) - Email Me - Web
It’s shocking that the news involved so far didn't seem to show any emotion over this girl's death or demonstrate any deep informative (!) concern as to the real contributing factors in her death.
Instead, reporting seen so far seems short on relative facts and haphazard by design in a way that feeds off of fear, ignorance, and hype. I'd rather that members of the profession get down to the root of it and then offer something useful to teach us about abuse, neglect, and/or depression or whatever was related to the girls death -- things that indeed cross all cultural, financial, and religious boundaries. Were there signs of depression/neglect/abuse that could have been heeded but that had been overlooked? What are the signs of depression, neglect, and/or abuse? Knowing such things could increasingly have a beneficial society-wide preventative effect.
The kid accidentally hung herself or no? Why was the hanging seen as accidental but...? What are the**relevant** factors that lead prosecutors to arrest that relative for murder of his step-sister? The focus should be kept on the relevant facts of the tragedy, none of which have been presented to either the reader or viewer so far?
Instead their focus seemed to feed off of a Paganism vs. Christianity vein with (1) some Pagans unrelated to the case once sacrificed an animal, (2) the girl was once ridiculed by family members for an interest in Christianity, (3) Pagans portrayed as unsanitary, (4) Pagans as those who send routinely an eleven-year-old kid in their room for the night at 4:30 or 6 pm, (5) a Pagan as someone who is not prone to emotional display regarding his step-sister's death.
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| More Wrongs | Oct 26th. at 3:51:43 am EDT
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Hadriana (Rome, Georgia) - Email Me
They are using this case to further the nanny state - all children to be housed in warm sanitary homes. Ok, fine, that IS ideal, but what of all the folks losing their homes right now? Do they lose their kids too?
I hate the little girl died, especially as I think only bad will follow. I can't see this guy getting a fair trial at all and I hate to see the public clamoring to increase the rights of the state over parents when it comes to children.
All around sad.
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| What Did This Article Really Say Anyway | Oct 26th. at 3:08:17 am EDT
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Shadowbear (Hillsboro, Oregon) - Email Me
Ok, this guy, his mother and stepfather are pagan - but his 11 year old stepsister is not. Why not? She was obviously mostly raised by her father who is a pagan - or did she just recently come to their home?
Then there is a totally unrelated bit about kittens in the freezer (which is weird) and too many animals buried in the back yard - but no mention if it was 30 years of ded pets and just no room for the most recent natural deaths - or if it was torture and sacrifice.
The death of a child is bad enough, they don't need to add the extra shockers of "pagans" and dead kittens, both of which are unrelated to the murder of the girl.
Nasty bit of bad journalism.
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| Can We Say 'twist?' | Oct 26th. at 3:01:44 am EDT
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Greymentality (Kernersville, North Carolina) - Email Me
Twist, spin. Whatever name you give it. That's what happened on the article. You could say the same about me the part about me knowing people who sacrifice animals. I know people who practice Santeria. It's covered by the constitution people! Now, if they said "It has been confirmed and reconfirmed that he has been seen by his neighbors abusing his children" I could see a correlation with his actions and her death.
But, journalists like their fame. Pagan is a hot button word, and people like connecting it with other hot button words like murder or kill. It is sad that people who read that article don't research what Paganism is while they read it and only move on to the next site.
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| ... | Oct 25th. at 7:30:58 pm EDT
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
There are a LOT of holes in this tragic event. I only have one other thing to say in this one: "Love the xian, hate the xianity." I'd tell people I wish them luck in xianity but that xianity itself is full of sh*t.
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