. Robert was leaving things alone at the age of 1 year. You dont know what to think, Donna Marlene said. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. Her features were still attractive, although the years had added a certain hardness and fleshiness. +C $33.27 shipping estimate. 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. Camille Brass knew the blue convertible belonged to Dr. Peterson. 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. Zerwas wouldnt let the rest of his family view the body. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. When Dennis cried, Lois would force his head under the cold water faucet at the kitchen sink. Published Jan 18, 2023. She thought Dennis was sloppy fat. This particularly surprised Rekdahl. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. She thought the postplacement period had been quite successful. So began a painstaking inquiry into the past--an inquiry that in recent months has pulled back the curtains on a decidedly uncomfortable vision. That will make you swallow, Lois had said. In winter, they got the north wind, so the lake froze too rough for ice skating. 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. He does not sound very well behaved, she said. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White . Strange, he thought, that she hadnt called her brother, the police lieutenant. No prosecution was taken at that time. A jury deliberated about five hours Friday before finding Lois Jurgens, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., guilty of third-degree murder, or an unintentional killing. He knew Peterson as a man always willing to help others, as a doctor very much for his patients. We didnt believe it was possible in nice, middle-class suburban families.. He had one great friend, his world's Lois, but she died and now he sees another version of her still alive and pregnant. In addition, Lois took to tying Dennis' limbs to the bedposts to keep him in bed and tied him to the toilet to force a bowel movement. . Now the town is most frequently described as middle class. Dr. 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. Paul Lindholm, the assistant county attorney, considered it. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota. . But how did such an infection occur in the first place? 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. Initial placement was with a licensed, unrelated foster family, but Robert was then moved to his paternal grandparents at his parents' request. Rekdahl, who graduated from St. Pauls Hamline University in 1957 with a bachelors degree in social work, had been in adoption services for less than one year. She remembered the names, the faces--she particularly remembered Dennis. When Dennis Jurgens died at the age of 3 in 1965, authorities here never ruled whether his death was an accident, a homicide or the result of natural causes. 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. From the patio off his living room and the balcony off his bedroom, he could look across the lake to Manitou Island, and beyond, to the town of White Bear. The only witness to Lois's final abuse of Dennis was Robert, who was 5 years old at the time. 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. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. 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. Such stories are not rare. I looked down. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. It would have been difficult at the time to prove that Lois Jurgens had committed murder. PAUL When 3-year-old Dennis Craig Jurgens died on April 11, 1965, there were so many bruises on his body that the coroner said he stopped counting them. . He feared finding himself alone. There are a lot of dead babies in the ground who were killed.. The question of Dennis Jurgens death next fell to the Ramsey County attorneys office. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. Donna Marlene had seen other things. 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. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. The neighbors talked among themselves that afternoon. The rows of neatly kept houses, the modern police station and the shopping strips all reflect a level of modest comfort rather than affluence. The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a cover story about the investigation on Sunday, October 12, 1986. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. No, Lois said, sounding definite. 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. It was just inconceivable to Woodburn that Dennis had been so injured by slipping and falling on a basement floor. 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. No prosecution was taken at that time. 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. Martin fritz obituary. 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. This was the situation that Gerane Rekdahl, a Ramsey County welfare case worker, found when she visited the Jurgens home on March 1, 1962. Its easy today to say, Why didnt they prosecute? but it was a different time, a different time. I thought you might like to see a memorial for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens I found on Findagrave.com. . I tried to assure her that these things happen in any family.. On the night of his death, Lois was in an extremely bad mood due to flooding which was filling up the basement with water. in the third degree and sent to prison. Harold and Lois Jurgensa middle-class, churchgoing couple who had been unable to have children of their ownhad adopted Sherwoods son, Dennis, in 1962. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. The perforation, he judged, had occurred one to two days before the childs death. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. 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. Lois had had a history of mental illnesses including depression and psychosis and was originally deemed . You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. The afflicted look and act very sick for a matter of hours, sometimes days. need your help for this. As it happened, Peterson at the time was deputy coroner in Ramsey County. That isnt an issue at all. VanderWyst and Korolchuk had brought in the file themselves and lobbied for prosecution. 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. Family members immediately begin whispering "she killed him" , referring to his adoptive moth 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. The boy would be gasping and choking for breath until she would fear that he would drown. She knew that Lois had finished only the eighth grade. It is one of a few crimes that FBI agent Kenneth Lanning argues can legitimately be described as "ritual abuse". Mornings there were wonderful, but the dusk was the doctors favorite time, for the sun set each evening over the water and trees, falling behind Manitou Island, leaving behind a fiery orange sky. Many years later, Dr. Peterson would tell a grand jury that he had harbored suspicions about the burns, and also about several bruises that nurses noticed on Dennis while he was in the hospital for a full month. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134346102/lois-germaine_josephine-jurgens. That was not binding on the prosecutor, but the defense attorney would zero in on this. On April 26, Korolchuk drafted an analysis of the information they had gathered. child abuse law. In 1951, some 14 years before Dennis's death, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic entered this assessment in her file: "It is . 
No one here is being punitive, Gingold told the Jurgenses and their attorney from the bench. 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. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . 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. ``I prayed for eight years that shed die in there. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. He had served as a reference when they adopted Robert. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. Dennis Craig Jurgens was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis.
Dr. Peterson said he saw nothing unusual in Dennis life or 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.
She did not want this to influence their decision, but in all truthfulness, that was the reality. 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. The author's ability to set the scene of a tranquil. We have many 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. 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. Certain neighbors and family members knew there were problems with Lois' treatment of Dennis but did nothing to prevent it. Jurgens was one of 16 children.
No one here is being punitive, Gingold told the Jurgenses and their attorney from the bench. 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. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . 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. ``I prayed for eight years that shed die in there. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. He had served as a reference when they adopted Robert. What to make of Dennis Jurgens death now was passed into the hands of the Ramsey County coroner. Dennis Craig Jurgens was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. Those looking back now, those who unraveled the case, tend to shrug and shake their heads when Votels name comes up. How could a little boy not scream out in pain as soon as he was burned? GREAT NEWS! 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. At the funeral, a crown of roses rested on Dennis head. The first few days of the police investigation by VanderWyst and Sgt. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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 that Lois speech betrayed a bit of cynicism. 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. There was also pressure from supervisors to place, especially because there were so few Catholic children. 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. He is able to turn himself over and is extremely strong, almost ready to stand by himself. Petersons house sat precisely on the site of the old Wildwood Amusement Park. . Lois Jurgens (born 1925) is an American convicted murderer. Other testimony and evidence was more troubling. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. . For a time, that appeared to be the end of the story. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. Dennis died that evening of Peritonitis due to a perforation of his small bowel.