lois jurgens' death

You dont know what to think, Donna Marlene said. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

If you throw up, you are going to eat it. 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. Prosecutors contended little Dennis died after numerous beatings and abuse, which including making the child eat food covered with horseradish and tying him spread-eagle in his crib. Lois Jurgens was at home alone with the children much of the weekend of Dennis' death. One of Lois Jurgens responses was to call Father Riser, the priest who had so warmly recommended them to the county welfare worker. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. The official cause of death was peritonitis due to perforation of the small bowel wich even 1965 was treatable if he'd been brought to the hospital . My clients have rights, he said. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . Do you have a camera in the car, he asked VanderWyst. The boys mouth was getting full, he wasnt swallowing, so Lois put horseradish on the fork. They would not know for two weeks whether Dennis would need skin grafts, he had told Rekdahl. For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. He wanted others to go first. He knew Peterson as a man always willing to help others, as a doctor very much for his patients. We reached a point where we could not find any new leads or pick up any new information . Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. It was just inconceivable to Woodburn that Dennis had been so injured by slipping and falling on a basement floor. Thirty years later, writer and artist Dan Jurgens is revisiting the storyline that gripped the world. He couldnt comprehend anyone torturing a kid, Peterson would explain many years later. Then there was the coroners report. It was as if the authorities had found a way to try Lois Jurgens for Dennis death without calling it a murder. It is not known specifically what caused the fatal blow, though the injury was later found to have been, beyond a reasonable doubt, inflicted by Lois Jurgens owing to evidence of her constant physical abuse. 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. 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. No, nothing struck me, the doctor replied, except for these bruises. Lois obsessed about Dennis' weight, which according to medical records was appropriate for a child of his age and build at the point of his adoption. It would have been difficult at the time to prove that Lois Jurgens had committed murder. I can recall seeing some, but its not very clear. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. She wanted assurances. They saw the hearse sitting in the Jurgenses driveway, and a big blue convertible, and the police car parked awkwardly, askew, as if the officer had been in a hurry. There was also talk years earlier of her having started the fire at her in-laws' home which killed her mother-in-law, with whom she never got along. Dennis had been a beautiful baby, Gladys Demars said. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. called, 'A Child Lost Donna Mae, about 5 feet away, watched in horror as Lois force-fed that vomit to him, made him eat it. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. You can second-guess yourself until you get an ulcer, Lindholm said recently. Woman Tortures Adoptive Son To Death Lois Jurgens (40) was variously described as both short-tempered and vindictive by her neighbours and others who encountered her in the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and it was well known that she experienced bouts of severe depression and psychosis. Dennis died that evening of Peritonitis due to a perforation of his small bowel. Opens in a new window or tab. With the exception of the severe burns, his health remained quite good. 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). The lawyers danced around the matter, leaving much unspoken. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Innhold. It looked to her as if the roses were placed there to cover up the dark blue markings. Lois is survived by her husband, Floyd Jurgens; children Gary Jurgens and Caron Klein (Bruce);. By the second week, the investigation began to encounter obstacles. Jurgens, now 69, was convicted of third-degree murder in 1987 in what at the time was the oldest homicide to go to trial in Minnesota. As Peterson followed Wildwood Avenue west along the lakes shore toward Gardenette Park, hed rehearsed in his mind the resuscitation techniques he knew from the rescue squad. There was something wrong here. They owned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup and a 1960 Falcon station wagon. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. 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. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Problems arose within the police department as well. It just made me sick. The sequel spins out of The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1, which transformed construction worker Lloyd Crayton into a new Doomsday-like villain for Superman: Doombreaker. 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. The topic under consideration was the possible placement of Dennis Puckett with the Jurgens family. Brand New. She thought Dennis was sloppy fat. This particularly surprised Rekdahl. In 1987, testifying 22 years later, Peterson was questioned again about the bruises. On bare skin, the heat just flashes off. +C $33.27 shipping estimate. Sherwood eventually located Dennis's death certificate; because the death was categorized as "deferred", the case was still technically open. 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. He couldnt push Votel on this. She remembered the names, the faces--she particularly remembered Dennis. . Why was there no disposition of this case? Rekdahl suggested that if she had negative feelings, it would be best for them not to take the child. Dr. My God, he thought, looking at the body. . She had a pathological need for control over her environment and obsessively cleaned and tended to her home and garden, desperate to appear the picture of the perfect housewife. Thanks for your help! He looks like a boy of 10. While visiting one Thanksgiving, she saw Lois force-feed Dennis, in a highchair, by shoving a fork full of food into his mouth. During the internal autopsy, Woodburn found a quarter-inch hole in the boys small bowel. Sherwood also told D'Angelo that Dana Ivey's interpretation of Lois Jurgens is eerily accurate. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. The body was severely undernourished, nearly emaciated.
Lois thought that would be a good idea. The county had filed a custody petition, alleging neglect. She had a story to tell. DC artist Dan Jurgens shares an image of an unused Electric Blue Superman design from 1996, reminiscing about what might have been. She was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison and was paroled in 1995. We are sad to announce that on September 25, 2019, at the age of 92, Lois Jurgens (Petersburg, Illinois) passed away. The policeman did not, so they carried the body to the coroners van. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers. to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really They were of varying colors--black and blue, yellowish green, reddish--which meant that some were fresh, some old. 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. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. Retrieved 12 February 2015. and Judith Ivey as Lois Jurgens (born 1925) is an American convicted murderer. There appeared to be a number of discrepancies in the Jurgenses story, he noted. 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. There was a time when White Bear Lake was an exclusive watering hole for people from Chicago as well as the Twin Cities. 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. However, he was in failing health and his autopsy results did not indicate poisoning. based on information from your browser. Donna Marlene Norton, Lois sister, was there that day and saw the same thing. She thought the postplacement period had been quite successful. When she was 17 and living in a juvenile home, she said, she gave birth to a boy, Dennis, who was quickly taken from her and eventually adopted by a family named Jurgens who lived in White Bear Lake. Rekdahl did not know that a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic had diagnosed Lois Jurgens as having a longstanding psychoneurosis dating to her childhood--a childhood spent in a tension-filled home with an alcoholic, abusive father. . #dennisjurgens #jerrysherwood #truecrime Jerry Puckett's mother abandoned her when she was three, she was raised by her father and abused by two stepmothers.. Published Jan 18, 2023.
The first came now. When the wind was up, Peterson would take out his sixteen-foot sailboat and glide toward Manitou Island and the town of White Bear. He pulled the file on the ancient case and began leafing through the yellowing pages. 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. 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. 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. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lois_Jurgens&oldid=1133446799, Articles lacking in-text citations from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 21:13. There is in the Scott County records a description of Dennis in the foster home where he lived his first year: He is solidly built, with blue eyes and blond hair. The prosecutor had a different attitude back then, Votel said recently.

There is a problem with your email/password. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). The autopsy report mentioned bruises head to toe. I was not trained in mental illness. If the doc cant figure this out, hed say, well. It was awful. My biggest feeling was that it was a sad situation and I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could. In talking to the county attorney and the chief of police, we had gone as far as we could and we were told that was it, wed have to terminate the investigation.. Blankets covered him to the waist. Resend Activation Email. He liked them. GREAT NEWS! 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. They beat my baby to death. Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently. I would question him. Together they went into Dennis room to inspect the body. To the casual observer, the Jurgens' seemed to be a normal, church-going family with a perfectly maintained house and yard. With the advent of highways, White Bear Lake has become a suburb of St. Paul, about 12 miles to the south. VanderWyst was not close social friends with the Jurgenses, but he knew them well enough to greet them on the street. . She was diagnosed as having mixed psychoneurosis and also unable to conceive a child with Harold. He had one great friend, his world's Lois, but she died and now he sees another version of her still alive and pregnant. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). Harold Jurgens suggested that perhaps they should not go forward with the adoption of Dennis, but Lois refused out of concern that it would discourage the authorities from allowing them to adopt further children. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. To him, that was close to frightening. At this time there are a number of persons yet to be contacted who supposedly have information and are relatives of the family, Korolchuk wrote on Thursday, April 15, four days after the death. He naps both in the forenoon and the afternoon. ``If she had been convicted of this in 1965 she probably would have done about three years, Thomson said. Lois Jurgens agreed, but seemed scared that she would not be offered another child. Try again later. . he told the grand jury last year. Some had seen or heard Dennis being beaten. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? In the minute she was gone, she said, he turned on the hot water. No, Lois said, sounding definite.

 

Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood.

Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Lois E. Jurgens, 82, passed away on Friday, September 7, 2012 at Lakeland Health Care Center Elkhorn, WI. They had a son--a 2-year-old named Robert, whom they had adopted at birth through private channels. . Retrieved 12 February 2015. There was also a great deal of suspicion surrounding Jerome Zerwas, the brother of Lois Jurgens, who was a police lieutenant in the city of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. 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. Notes References A Death in White Bear Lakeby Barry Siegel. In 1992 A made-for-TV movie was made based on both Jerry's story and this case called, ' A Child Lost Forever ' w/ the remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood and Judith Ivey as Lois Jurgens. The psychiatrist also observed that Lois had an obsession about order and cleanliness. A system error has occurred. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. Due to this frequent starvation, Dennis gained only three pounds in a 2+12-year period as he aged from one year old to 3+12 years old. Jurgens was one of 16 children. There was no possibility that Dennis had died from a blow to the head. There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. Lois Jurgens, 61, was convicted of third-degree murder of her adopted son Dennis in the first phase of her trial a week ago and the jury, after deliberating five hours, rejected her insanity. [citation needed], Dennis Jurgens was born Dennis Craig Puckett in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Jurgens and Weeks joined CBR to discuss launching Lois & Clark 2 and spoilers for its first installment. ``You have to understand this child is only 3 1/2 years old and virtually every day Lois Jurgens had him he was a victim of some kind of physical or mental abuse, and I dont think eight years was quite enough to compensate society for the act she committed, Robinson said. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? Pitera would take photos later that day. Lois considered herself a devout Catholic and believed she was doing "God's work" by making Dennis "perfect" in her eyes. Vachss uttalte at boken ikke forklarer begrunnelsen for at Harold er passiv, mens den har tilstrekkelig informasjon om Lois Jurgens.

 

The Jurgenses returned to their house on Gardenette Drive, childless but free of any charge. Rekdahl thought Lois Jurgens, then almost 37, to be a rather attractive woman, although she was short and a trifle on the chubby side. She was predeceased by : her parents, Leslie Stowell and Margaret Stowell. Try again. 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 . the prosecution saw Lois Jurgens
He was the son of teenage Jerry Sherwood (who was herself a ward of the state) and her teenage boyfriend. I had doubts, and I didnt like Lois, but I felt I couldnt react personally like that, she said. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe . 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. . Pitera stared at the body. need your help for this. Lois Jurgens was disappointed about Dennis age. Initial placement was with a licensed, unrelated foster family, but Robert was then moved to his paternal grandparents at his parents' request. It began one month after Dennis death and continued for two days, May 10 and 11, 1965. In early December, 1963, Rekdahl paid her last postplacement visit to the Jurgenses. He would testify that he had talked to some lady down there. Active children that bruise easily . 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. . After seeing newspaper reports about the death, she was convinced that he had been beaten to death and demanded the case be re-opened. Soon after, Jerry Puckett dropped her plan to convert--but by then Dennis was already registered as Catholic on the adoption rolls. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments.

 

DENNIS JURGENS WAS ONLY 3-YEARS-0LD WHEN HIS LIFE ENDED AT THE CRUEL HANDS OF HIS MOTHER LOIS JURGENS AND SHE WOULD HAVE GOT AWAY WITH IT, BUT HIS BIOLOGICAL MOTHER JERRY SHERWOOD STARTED. They had only two requests. C $186.13. Want more true crime books? Though autopsy photos showed Dennis body was covered in bruises at the time of his death, the coroner never declared it an accidentor rather, what it really was: murder. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. . Harold and Lois Jurgens, on the advice of their attorney, no longer would make themselves available for questioning. The prosecutor wasnt getting help from the White Bear Lake police--her brother was on the force. Dr. Peterson said he saw nothing unusual in Dennis life or death. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. A jury deliberated about five hours Friday before finding Lois Jurgens, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., guilty of third-degree murder, or an unintentional killing. 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. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis. He felt that Lois mental breakdown was not extremely serious and that she had completely recovered. He would testify that he had been suspicious enough to call the welfare department. It had always troubled her, more than any she handled before or since. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. There was also pressure from supervisors to place, especially because there were so few Catholic children. Within months of Dennis' arrival, he was rushed to the hospital with first and second-degree burns on his genitalia, which were reported and accepted as accidental. This had required at least two hospitalizations at the Mayo Clinic and at a small psychiatric hospital called Crestview, where she had received electrical shock treatments. Zerwas wouldnt let the rest of his family view the body. When he wet his pants, she said, she put a clothespin on his penis. None.. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. A piano and bass fiddle occupied the living room. new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help The situation had made him uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that he hadnt pulled down the blankets or examined the body further. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White . Last week, Judge David Marsden sentenced. She believed that Lois had opened up a great deal and tried to be as truthful as possible.
When he wouldnt have a bowel movement, she said, she pulled the feces from his rectum with her hands. That was all Gingold had to concern himself with. undefined Notes ^ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/ http://www.angelizdsplace.com/child43.htm. The investigation, trial, and conviction are considered landmarks in the history of child abuse law.
There were, to begin with, the same photos of Dennis battered body on the coroners table. In 1992 A made-for-TV movie was made based on both Jerry's story and this case called, ' A Child Lost Forever ' w/ the remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood and Judith Ivey as Lois Jurgens. No, she explained. Forever' w/ the I was willing to wait. Votel was still waiting about two years later, when he retired from office. 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.

Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. Lois, who abused Dennis constantly, escalated to new levels of rage as the flood waters filled her basement. Lois Jurgens headed to trial. On the stand, the Jurgenses had refused to answer questions about Dennis. You couldnt get action from the prosecutor and police. We did not have enough evidence of any kind to deny them. April 11, 1965. He wrote deferred in the box where he was to specify the manner of death, and put the certificate aside. 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.

. The trial of Lois Jurgens for the murder of 3-year-old Dennis made national headlines and was the top news story of the state of Minnesota in 1987. Peter Korolchuk yielded a good deal of information. Published by Bantam Books, 1990. 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. 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 At the funeral, a crown of roses rested on Dennis head. She knew he had high school and one year of college behind him, and that he was an only child with strong bonds to his mother. At first, that seemed to be the conclusion that the official inquiry would also reach. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review.
 
To perforate a bowel, the doctors agreed, there had to be severe, concentrated trauma applied to the abdomen--the sort of injury that could be expected in a high-speed automobile accident. He would wait until the police investigation could resolve the matter. 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. Even with half the body obscured, VanderWyst noticed the bruises--an awful lot of them he would say later.

 

None of this, however, was what had killed Dennis. Lois Jurgens was the infamous subject of one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota.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.. Jurgens was one of sixteen children. Such stories are not rare. Notes [ edit] ^ "ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens". She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. From behind their curtains and blinds, the Jurgenses neighbors on Gardenette Drive had been watching the comings and goings all morning with mounting interest. He doesnt look like a tiny little kid, he thought. Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. The next day, Rekdahl phoned the Jurgenses family physician, Dr. Roy Peterson, who was treating Dennis. I was advised that the information was being obtained, that there was an ongoing investigation, Votel said recently.

Fremont, Nebraska Mugshots, Articles L