lois jurgens' death

The same day that she spoke to the priest--Aug. 30, 1962--Rekdahl informed the Jurgenses that they were going to be approved for a second adoption. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. How could a little boy not scream out in pain as soon as he was burned? Petersburg, ILLois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. While he waited for the coroners investigator to arrive, he asked Lois Jurgens if there was anything he could do--such as take Robert to his own home, to be cared for by his wife. The first came now. Lois thought that would be a good idea. They also caught crappies and smallmouth bass and northern pike, but the sunfish were the best. Jurgens was the only fatal victim of Lois Jurgens, his adoptive mother and a prolific child abuser, who abused a total of six adopted children from 1960 to 1975.The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . Blankets covered him to the waist. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. Such stories are not rare. White Bear Lake, a picturesque American town where kids freely ride bikes, play two-square and parents throw neighborhood BBQsand where 3 year old Dennis Jurgens died on Palm Sunday 1965. To the casual observer, the Jurgens' seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. During this period, Lois was once again placed in a psychiatric facility. .

Dan Jurgens, one of the chief minds at DC who spearheaded the Man of Steel's death and rebirth in the '90s, took to Twitter to share an unused design of Electric Superman -- sometimes called . Lois' remedy for the toddler wetting his diaper too frequently was to place a spring-action clothespin upon the end of his penis. they figured. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Lois Jurgens headed to trial. Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood.

One day, Zerwas walked into the squad room and found the two officers investigating Dennis death. But how did such an infection occur in the first place? The White Bear Lake police log for the morning of April 11, 1965--Palm Sunday--included the sort of events to be expected in such a town. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. Those in the station familiar with the downtown strip joints in nearby St. Paul might have recognized Jerry Ann Sherwood from her earlier tenure at Alarys Club Bar. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. Last week, Judge David Marsden sentenced. HH at the best online prices at eBay! The official cause of death was peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel. Matt McMillan, White Bear Lake true crime page-turner turns 30, White Bear Press Club, June 17, 2020. The afflicted look and act very sick for a matter of hours, sometimes days. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. Learn more about merges. Add to your scrapbook. By this point, Lois' rage and mania had gone beyond her ability to maintain an appearance of normalcy, and she and Harold had relocated to rural Stillwater, Minnesota, possibly to escape the gossip of their former neighborhood where Dennis was killed. Donohue was not inclined to relax such controls. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. At the funeral home, Lois Jurgens brother, Lloyd Zerwas, came to pay his respects. and this case
She had a story to tell. There is a lot to be known about the science of this whole darn subject, he said. Lois had grown up in an impoverished family of sixteen siblings and used her marriage to the middle-class Harold Jurgens as a means to improve her social standing. Nonetheless, when Harold Jurgens called three days later and asked when they could get their boy, Rekdahl and the Scott County officials allowed the Jurgenses to take Dennis for a preplacement visit. . ``There is no justice. You do consider social attitudes. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013.

She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a cover story about the investigation on Sunday, October 12, 1986. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. I would also like to receive the Early Bird Books newsletter which features great deals on FREE and discounted ebooks. Rekdahl thought that Lois speech betrayed a bit of cynicism. But, at a hearing just one month after Dennis death, Peterson, when asked if there was anything unusual about the burn accident, said: No, not in particular.. A Mrs. Hansen called to report a lost wallet, which resulted in an officers checking a phone booth at Fourth and Washington streets, next to the Avalon Jewelers. Though there was an investigation, society and law enforcement of the mid-1960s did not accept the concept that a child in a middle-class home could be the target of abuse. Thank you very much in advance. The foster mother thinks him a little wild one, but she means this appreciatively and derives pleasure from his antics. . To the casual observer, the Jurgens seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. Opens in a new window or tab. Buy It Now. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134346102/lois-germaine_josephine-jurgens. How in the heck could that happen? To this end, she forced religious training on her young sons; reports had young Robert flawlessly reciting the Rosary at 2. They covered the legs, the arms, the hands, the head, the shoulders, the back of the head, the buttocks, the small of the back, the middle of the back, the back of the left leg. Several told of having seen Dennis bruised and battered. Petersons house sat precisely on the site of the old Wildwood Amusement Park. In the decade preceding the adoption of Dennis, Lois Jurgens had suffered bouts of depression and psychosis, including an extended stay at a psychiatric institution where electroconvulsive therapy was administered. By all accounts, Lois was obsessed with abusing Dennis, and she wanted the world to know he was a "bad child," and made no apologies about the inappropriate way she was disciplining him. We reached a point where we could not find any new leads or pick up any new information . Jurgens and Weeks joined CBR to discuss launching Lois & Clark 2 and spoilers for its first installment. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. She would be a poor candidate for adopting a child at this time, the psychiatrist in 1955 had advised St. Pauls Bureau of Catholic Charities, where the Jurgenses for years had vainly sought children. Sherwood also told D'Angelo that Dana Ivey's interpretation of Lois Jurgens is eerily accurate. Harold and Lois Jurgensa middle-class, churchgoing couple who had been unable to have children of their ownhad adopted Sherwoods son, Dennis, in 1962.

Harold Jurgens died in 2000; at the time of his death, there was suspicion that Lois had poisoned him, but this was investigated and ruled out. Along with the aforementioned evidence of starvation and the scarring and bite-marks on his genitalia, the coroner discovered multiple lacerations and multiple generations of bruises covering most of his body.

The house at 2148 South Gardenette Drive, White Bear Lake, where the Jurgenses lived from 1957 to 1967. The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. Rekdahl was a little concerned, since the accident actually had happened seven days before the phone call, but her main inclination was to soothe Lois Jurgens. Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. As the new adopted children were older, there were many first-hand histories (recounted to the media during the 1987 trial of Lois Jurgens) describing the severe abuse they suffered at their adoptive mother's hands. On April 26, Korolchuk drafted an analysis of the information they had gathered. If I had it to do over again--well, in 1987 I wouldnt approve, but if it were 1965, I dont know what I would do. Harold Jurgens died in 2000; at the time of his death, there was suspicion that Lois had poisoned him, but this was investigated and ruled out. That doctor (Peterson) also presented problems--he was a typical doctor, couldnt believe his patient was killed.. One of Lois Jurgens responses was to call Father Riser, the priest who had so warmly recommended them to the county welfare worker. Lois and Harold Jurgens lived in a comfortable, meticulously maintained three-bedroom house with a big, fenced backyard on a large corner lot on Gardenette Drive. Father Riser told her he definitely would. Failed to remove flower. There was also the matter of community attitudes. There appeared to be a number of discrepancies in the Jurgenses story, he noted. Only 5% to 10% of the bruises on Dennis could have been caused by such a fall. After all, Dorothy Engfer more than once had seen Lois smack Dennis so hard the blood flowed from his nose, and Gladys DeMars had watched Dennis over two summers wither from a husky, jolly baby to a wan little boy covered with bruises and black eyes and split lips. They had cited the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, three-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. In 1965, Votel said, he thought this was certainly a battered-child case, but the reports indicated that the child had fallen down some stairs. The investigation, trial, and Nine months earlier, on Dec. 6, 1961, Dennis Craig Puckett, 8 1/2 pounds, had been born at St. Michaels Hospital in Sauk Centre, in nearby Scott County. The only witness to Lois's final abuse of Dennis was Robert, who was 5 years old at the time. Verify and try again. It began one month after Dennis death and continued for two days, May 10 and 11, 1965. There was a television movie broadcast in 1992 on NBC en*led A Child Lost Forever that told the story from the perspective of Jerry Sherwood (played by Beverly D'Angelo). new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help Two husbands and four children later, Sherwood had gone searching for her firstborn, only to learn that he had died years before, in 1965, at age 3. Peritonitis is a horribly painful illness involving shock, collapse of the blood vessel system, high fever and breathing difficulties. Free shipping for many products!

Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens Obituary We are sad to announce that on June 13, 2022 we had to say goodbye to Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens of Arvada, Colorado. Aside from the incident when Dennis was hospitalized with burns on his genitals, there were many other incidents of abuse that fell under the category of sexual sadism.

Lois Jurgens had a reputation amongst her extended family and neighbors as an intense, angry woman with a short and volatile temper, but Dennis' arrival in her home provoked sadistic rages that targeted Dennis as he aged from one to three-and-a-half years of age. When the wind was up, Peterson would take out his sixteen-foot sailboat and glide toward Manitou Island and the town of White Bear. Brand New. So it was that Dennis Jurgens death resulted not in a murder prosecution but, rather, in a juvenile court hearing over custody of his brother, Robert. Try again. Sherwood eventually located Dennis's death certificate; because the death was categorized as "deferred", the case was still technically open. His intensely angry adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens, know for her short, volatile temper, murdered him. ``May God strike her dead, thats what I have to say to Lois Jurgens, Jerry Sherwood said. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. . Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? In summer, Peterson caught little sunfish off his dock or from his motorboatthey had the loveliest taste, the fillet just the size of a half dollar, two good bites each. Los Angeles, ICE detainees allege retaliation for speaking about medical conditions at Otay Mesa center, Downtown L.A stabbing sends six to hospital; 1 arrested, San Diego Roman Catholic diocese facing yet another lawsuit from its insurance company, K-Pop isnt the only hot ticket in Koreatown how trot is captivating immigrants, Los Angeles is suddenly awash in waterfalls. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. His vision was a hulking humanoid creature with massive muscles and chunks of bone . She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. Because they were Catholic and there were very few Catholic babies on the register, it was likely that they would have to wait quite a long time, she explained. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois' treatment of Dennis but did nothing to prevent it. For that reason, Dennis, a week after his birth, was baptized a Catholic. Many years later, asked in court how this placement was approved, Rekdahl--by then a psychotherapist and psychiatric social worker in Napa, Calif., remarried and using the name Gerane Wharton-Park--said: We finally had really no exacting reasons why we could turn this family down. No one proposed handing the investigation to some other body--to, say, the county sheriffs office. I was willing to wait. Votel was still waiting about two years later, when he retired from office. Just past one year of age, Dennis was placed in the Jurgens' home in 1962, in anticipation of an adoption after spending much of his first year in foster care. Rekdahl thought Lois Jurgens, then almost 37, to be a rather attractive woman, although she was short and a trifle on the chubby side. Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently.

Dennis lay in the ground at St. Marys Cemetery, no name given to his death. This woman was no crank. . he told the grand jury last year. In the 1960s, the term child abuse had not yet been coined[citation needed][2] and no one, not even medical professionals and teachers, was required to report suspicions.
C $186.13. Maybe we can get more evidence from there. roger w. tufte sr. was born on march 22, 1945 in lakota, nd the son of clarence and esther (johnson. Peterson, a slender 6-footer, was a respected local doctor, a University of Minnesota medical graduate who had served in the Marines before opening a private practice in White Bear Lake in 1951. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. This was the first child-abuse case he had handled. Aside from the incident when Dennis was hospitalized with burns on his genitals, there were many other incidents of abuse which fell under the category of sexual sadism. Dennis struggled with such training and was forced to pray and recite his Rosary kneeling on a broomstick for extended periods, until he did it correctly. The boys mouth was getting full, he wasnt swallowing, so Lois put horseradish on the fork. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White . This treatment, along with the exertion as he struggled, sickened Dennis to the point of vomiting, which further enraged Jurgens, who then forced him to eat his vomit. I would question him. Dennis had fallen and hit his head on the wet basement floor the day before, the Jurgenses said, and he also had been suffering from a bad cold. Do I think this happened just here, just this one? The night of his death, a great flood had hit the Saint Paul area and the Mississippi River's waters were rising to record levels, causing flooding in the region and inside the Jurgens' home. "There are certainly problems," says Jurgens, one of the main architects of . Even with half the body obscured, VanderWyst noticed the bruises--an awful lot of them he would say later. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. Throughout the years of frequent abuse, it has been reported that while Harold Jurgens made little effort to curb his wife's abuse of young Dennis, he personally never mistreated the boy. She knew the agencys policy was not to place children with couples who were over 40, an age they were approaching. Placement with the paternal grandparents ended due to a house fire that occurred at a time when Robert was hospitalized with pneumonia, and his grandmother burned to death. Deferred, Votel had written. Lois also was not pleased to learn how active Dennis was. The doctors eyes slid to a corner of the room. So began a painstaking inquiry into the past--an inquiry that in recent months has pulled back the curtains on a decidedly uncomfortable vision. Yes! I have several children about that age with this same problem. Please reset your password. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. This treatment, along with the exertion as he struggled, sickened Dennis to the point of vomiting, which further enraged Jurgens, who then forced him to eat his vomit. He pulled the file on the ancient case and began leafing through the yellowing pages. He naps both in the forenoon and the afternoon. He wanted others to go first. The case is described in detail in Barry Siegel's true-crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake. . Please try again later. The testimony from Dr. Woodburn, the pathologist who did the autopsy on Dennis, was unequivocal. They had checked on him throughout the night. The coroner noted there was evidence of adult human bite marks on his penis, and scarring all over his scrotum; he was also found to be wearing two diapers and a pair of rubber pants at the age of 3+12 years. Novel and Adaptations: Barry Siegel's true-crime novel A Death in White Bear Lake recounts the story via extensive research and oral history. It had always troubled her, more than any she handled before or since. Lt. Clarence (Buzz) Harvey at first did not know what to make of the blonde 42-year-old woman who appeared at the front desk of this towns solitary police station on the morning of Sept. 18, 1986. I dont think this case is an aberration at all, said Michael McGee, the current Ramsey County medical examiner who finally ruled Dennis death a homicide. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial.

She wanted assurances. You couldnt get action from the prosecutor and police. Father Bernard Riser of the St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church had known the Jurgenses for years and considered them to be among his parishs best families.
Dennis Craig Jurgens, 3.

Sadly, the mother-son reunion was not meant to be; Jerry's child had died just before his fourth birthday. Thirty years later, writer and artist Dan Jurgens is revisiting the storyline that gripped the world. There is some suspicion that Lois Jurgens herself set the fire, given that it occurred while Robert was hospitalized, and that Lois had been known to threaten burning down the homes of several neighbors and family members who had spoken to authorities. Lois Jurgens (born 1925) is an American convicted murderer. Harold and Lois Jurgensa middle-class, churchgoing couple who had been unable to have children of their ownhad adopted Sherwood's son, Dennis, in 1962. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . We came very close to trying to do something. This case was a drop of water in the river.. Retrieved 12 February 2015.

Did the doctor remember his thoughts on why this child died, his inner feelings that day? to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really The next morning, six coroners jurors were asked to view the body of a dead boy, and to remember everything they saw. There was also pressure from supervisors to place, especially because there were so few Catholic children. When he wet his pants, she said, she put a clothespin on his penis. The cause of death was peritonitis, but the autopsy photos showed him covered in bruises with an anguished expression on his face and the coroner had not determined a mode of death, accident, natural causes, or homicide. Rekdahl suggested that if she had negative feelings, it would be best for them not to take the child. so its not unusual.. What had happened--and how--and why? Jurgens was the only fatal victim of Lois Jurgens, his adoptive mother and a prolific child abuser, who abused a total of six adopted children from 1960 to 1975. Dennis Craig Jurgens (December 6, 1961 - April 11, 1965) was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. . memorial page for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (12 Aug 1925-7 May 2013), Find a Grave Memorial ID 134346102, citing Union Cemetery, Maplewood, Ramsey County . There was a bluish mark on the right side of the head that started at the temple and extended to behind the right ear. Those looking back now, those who unraveled the case, tend to shrug and shake their heads when Votels name comes up.

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