This month is the 30th anniversary of the release of "A Death in White Bear Lake," a book by then-Los Angeles Times reporter Barry Siegel. Active children that bruise easily . Still, she had never forgotten the case. In the early 1980s, Jerry Sherwood went looking for the newborn son she gave up for adoption 20 years prior. From the death certificate she had learned that the coroner never ruled whether the death was an accident, a homicide or the result of natural causes. Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965. Though the specific cause of that fatal blow is not known, it is known that it was Lois who had given it to Dennis. She thought Dennis was sloppy fat. This particularly surprised Rekdahl. She had talked about this with the whole family, but not with the authorities. When he wouldnt have a bowel movement, she said, she pulled the feces from his rectum with her hands. Lois jurgens, 93, of arvada, colorado, formerly of malvern and glenwood, iowa, passed away june 13, 2022. lois jean jurgens, the daughter of lawrence a. and marjorie v. (johnson) jones, was born on may 26, 1929 in malvern, iowa. It would have been difficult at the time to prove that Lois Jurgens had committed murder. When Harold took him to the bathroom at about 7:30 or 8 in the morning, Dennis had seemed fine. A Death in White Bear Lake is a true crime book by journalist Barry Siegel, published in 1990, which recounts the murder of Dennis Jurgens. Try again. There was something wrong here. undefined Notes ^ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/child43.htm. The county had filed a custody petition, alleging neglect. 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. He felt that she needed psychiatric help very badly and, without it, might become psychotic.
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. When you judge a case, you dont do so in a vacuum, Lindholm would explain years later in an interview. From the bench, he said he hoped that they could find something to explain the mistreatment of Dennis. They covered the face, the head, the arms. Zerwas wouldnt let the rest of his family view the body. When patrolman Robert VanderWyst arrived at the Jurgens home soon after, he found the doctor, the Jurgenses and 5-year-old Robert in the living room. During the early morning hours of April 11, 1965, Dennis Jurgens died at the hands of Lois Jurgens. I was not trained in mental illness. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis.
Include gps location with grave photos where possible. I have several children about that age with this same problem. The mother was an unmarried 17-year-old, Jerry Ann Puckett, an attractive blonde of Danish-German extraction. At first Bob Brass thought the squad car was Loiss brothers, but then they saw VanderWyst in the driveway. Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. C $186.13. Well, I do, he replied. . They attempted to mind their own business and feared retribution from Lois, who was not above threatening the lives of her family members. My God, he thought, looking at the body. They beat my baby to death. 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. For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. 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. She talked about it all the time, in fact. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. 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. Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently. No. Her secret was revealed after Sherwood began searching for the son she gave up for adoption and learned in 1983 that he had died of a bowel injury. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota More Alchetron Topics References Lois Jurgens Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA Topics The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Toz (film) Steve McAnespie Sorry! The coroner noted in his report that Dennis had almost zero subcutaneous fat, at the level of a person who had died of starvation. . Lois Jurgens headed to trial. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. . This post is sponsored by Open Road Media. Together they went into Dennis room to inspect the body. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Its so expensive.My friend, after twenty thousand years murder is still a business thats mainly in the hands of amateurs.Orson Welles (19151985), Its almost as if they were saying, You live your life, and well live ours.Richard Fielding, and Lee Sholem. Clayton Robinson Jr., a former prosecutor in the case, said Jurgens should not have been released yet. You consider how well you can sell this to 12 people in the jury box. Lois considered herself a devout Catholic and believed she was doing "God's work" by making Dennis "perfect" in her eyes. And a Dr. Peterson called at 10:09 a.m. to report a DOA--dead on arrival--at 2148 Gardenette Drive. They wanted an infant under a year old, and they wanted a Catholic child. It is essentially unconceivable to me, without a protruding object above the floor, that he could have been injured in this way, Woodburn said. Lois Jean Jurgens, the daughter of Lawrence A. and Marjorie V. (Johnson) Jones, was born on May 26, 1929 in Malvern, Iowa.
Petersburg, ILLois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. View Obituary & Service Information Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. There was a time when White Bear Lake was an exclusive watering hole for people from Chicago as well as the Twin Cities. Donohue was not inclined to relax such controls. Pitera stared at the body. The childs death occurred before there were state-mandated sentencing guidelines, and Thomson argued that she should have served less time. J. was a little nervous today and I felt was probably upset for fear of what we would think of such a thing happening to Dennis, she wrote in her log. I thought the burn accident was a weird story when she told it, but again, there just was not that level of awareness, things didnt get referred. She thought Dennis too aggressive, his wild behavior quite unlike Roberts. I remember very clearly the pathologist coming in and saying it had to be a blow, not a fall, but I think the prosecutor felt he couldnt prove it, and I was on the same wavelength as the prosecutor. There was enough evidence to sustain child abuse and neglect charges. They had seen Lois yank Dennis violently by the ears. In 2005, playwright Brian Vinero wrote a theatre piece, The Jurgens File, which was developed at New York City's 78th Street Theatre Lab; it told the story from the perspective of the community. To him, that was close to frightening. She believed that Lois had opened up a great deal and tried to be as truthful as possible. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. It looked to her as if the roses were placed there to cover up the dark blue markings. Lois Jurgens, it turns out, was from the start a poor parental bet. Lois Jurgens had not one good thing to say about Dennis. 
VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. In fact, it appalled and amazed her because she herself thought the baby extremely appealing, very friendly, with very beautiful blue eyes and a very nice smile. He wrote deferred in the box where he was to specify the manner of death, and put the certificate aside. 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. They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. 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. 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 1950 to 1970.The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . Rekdahl suggested that if she had negative feelings, it would be best for them not to take the child. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Donna Neely wondered, as she studied the Jurgenses now-silent house from her front window. It was full of redwood and log railings, and the lawn and trees ran almost to the waters edge, a good hundred feet of lake frontage in all. A vivid portrait of an all-American town that harbored a killer, A Death in White Bear Lake is also the absorbing story of two detectives who refused to give up until they had the killer cold. Statements in the police logs were riddled with discrepancies. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death. . This is a story about respectable men and women of the middle class--doctors, lawyers, priests, social workers, policemen, neighbors and relatives--whose behavior, taken as a whole, led not to that milieus promised decency and justice but to a moral outrage, dark and hard to understand. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. But in 1962, before the developers and high-speed roads came, this was more truly a small town, inbred and insular, with a population just reaching 15,000. Still it is fair to say that the story Lois Jurgens told required a considerable imagination to embrace. the Murderpedia project stay alive. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . 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. Rekdahl thought Lois Jurgens, then almost 37, to be a rather attractive woman, although she was short and a trifle on the chubby side. and this case
This site uses cookies to improve user experience. She was born February 25, 1927 to Leslie and Margaret Stowell in Cass County IL. The suspicious death of Dennis Jurgens wasnt properly investigated for 20 years.
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| She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. Doug Thomson, who defended Jurgens, said his client did not get out early. The Jurgens' adoption of Robert seemed successful in the eyes of authorities, who began to consider the possibility that they might adopt more children through official channels. Sadly, the mother-son reunion was not meant to be; Jerry's child had died just before his fourth birthday. Jurgens who says he still has the yellow legal pad on which he did his quick sketch was the victor. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? Sherwood became suspicious and persuaded authorities to investigate. 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. He very strongly favored the Jurgenses getting another child. Years later, Peterson would say much the same to the police who were reopening the case, but he did not do so in 1965. The prosecutor had a different attitude back then, Votel said recently. How could a little boy not scream out in pain as soon as he was burned? |
It is fair to say that this finding raised considerable questions. The threat of a criminal prosecution is way by the boards now. Dennis Craig Jurgens was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. Lois was mean to DennisCam Brass and Donna Neely and the othersCam Brass and Donna Neely and the others understood that much.
Dennis Craig Jurgens, 3.
They wanted to do something, but felt it was none of their business. Try again later. Dennis & Robert Opens in a new window or tab. Its easy today to say, Why didnt they prosecute? but it was a different time, a different time. This was a murder. One of Lois Jurgens responses was to call Father Riser, the priest who had so warmly recommended them to the county welfare worker. . VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. In fact, it appalled and amazed her because she herself thought the baby extremely appealing, very friendly, with very beautiful blue eyes and a very nice smile. He wrote deferred in the box where he was to specify the manner of death, and put the certificate aside. 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. They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. 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. 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 1950 to 1970.The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national . Rekdahl suggested that if she had negative feelings, it would be best for them not to take the child. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Donna Neely wondered, as she studied the Jurgenses now-silent house from her front window. It was full of redwood and log railings, and the lawn and trees ran almost to the waters edge, a good hundred feet of lake frontage in all. A vivid portrait of an all-American town that harbored a killer, A Death in White Bear Lake is also the absorbing story of two detectives who refused to give up until they had the killer cold. Statements in the police logs were riddled with discrepancies. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death. . This is a story about respectable men and women of the middle class--doctors, lawyers, priests, social workers, policemen, neighbors and relatives--whose behavior, taken as a whole, led not to that milieus promised decency and justice but to a moral outrage, dark and hard to understand. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. But in 1962, before the developers and high-speed roads came, this was more truly a small town, inbred and insular, with a population just reaching 15,000. Still it is fair to say that the story Lois Jurgens told required a considerable imagination to embrace. Prentiss Benjamin Wedding, Aws Nested Virtualization, Robert Lucas Depression Prevention, St John's Jv Football Schedule, Wolf Of Wall Street Pick Up Lines, Articles L