Rekdahl decided to call on the Jurgenses. I would question him. Sorry! Years later, Dr. Lynn Solem, the present director of the burn center at St. Paul-Ramsey Hospital, would explain that though this type of burn is now regarded as a sign of child abuse, in 1963 it would have been accepted as accidental. 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. The investigation, trial, and 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. Then there was the coroners report. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Notes [ edit] ^ "ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens". She committed one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. There was testimony from other officers that he impeded the investigation into the child's death. Almost immediately, Lois felt a severe, obsessive dislike of the child, who was a normal, rambunctious, and spirited toddlerunlike Robert, who in Lois' eyes, was the "good son."

It was harder to believe that Dennis had been awake and talking normally an hour and a half before he died. Harold Jurgens, an electrical foreman, made $10,000 in 1962, and this placed his family a cut above many of their friends and neighbors. During her several postplacement visits to the Jurgens home in the following, probationary year, Rekdahl increasingly came to judge the placement a success. Do you have a camera in the car, he asked VanderWyst.

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. There were many fateful moments in Dennis brief life, moments in which his destiny could have been changed. I was not trained in mental illness. He naps both in the forenoon and the afternoon. . Her attorney Doug Thomson (left) follows, and Harold Jurgens is behind him. Lois is survived by her husband, Floyd Jurgens; children Gary Jurgens and Caron Klein (Bruce);. BOOK WORLD - The Washington PostArnold L Jurgens Obituary Visitation Funeral Information Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. I think my son is dying, Harold Jurgens had told the doctor on the phone that morning. Many years later, he explained why: I was quite certain it was a homicide, quite certain, Gingold said recently in an interview. 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. 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. They said it was from a fall down the basement stairs. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. No prosecution was taken at that time. Harold was infertile and the Jurgenses desperately wanted to adopt another child. Nor had his arrival two hours before.

Clayton Robinson Jr., a former prosecutor in the case, said Jurgens should not have been released yet. She died aged 87 on May 7, 2013.

Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965.

He liked them. cemeteries found in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. 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. English Two hours before, sitting in his waterside home on the southeast shore of White Bear Lake, Sunday morning had seemed so promising. 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. Lois Jurgens agreed, but seemed scared that she would not be offered another child. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. True Crime Coven hausoftruecrime: Woman Tortures Adoptive Son To 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.

Lois was born on March 4, 1930, in Iowa the daughter of the late Axel and Lena. Death 7 May 2013 (aged 87) . Pitera would take photos later that day. Rekdahl thought that Lois speech betrayed a bit of cynicism. She was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison and was paroled in 1995. Although Lois was not charged with Dennis's murder, the death caused sufficient suspicion for the authorities to remove Robert from the home; he was placed with various relatives and one foster family for a period of just over five years, during which the Jurgens spent a great deal of effort and money attempting to regain custody. That was why the judge wanted Lois Jurgens to consent to a thorough, inpatient examination by a psychiatrist he knew and trusted. They had a son--a 2-year-old named Robert, whom they had adopted at birth through private channels. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers.

Dennis Craig Jurgens was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. Then there were the neighbors and relatives who had seen incidents and evidence of abuse. That will make you swallow, Lois had said. Child Murder : The Town Confronts Its Past - Los Angeles Times Thirty years after the original Death of Superman storyline, the iconic tale's writer Dan Jurgens has confirmed which alternate Superman villains almost killed the hero. The word homicide remained unspoken. Lois Jurgens at the time that she had custody of Dennis. Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965. She believed that Lois had opened up a great deal and tried to be as truthful as possible. Superman Writer Confirms Which Villains Almost Killed the - ScreenRant To use this feature, use a newer browser. 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. The suspicious death of Dennis Jurgens wasnt properly investigated for 20 years. The case is described in detail in Barry Siegel's true-crime novel, A Death in White Bear Lake. Martin fritz obituary. DC artist Dan Jurgens shares an image of an unused Electric Blue Superman design from 1996, reminiscing about what might have been. The rows of neatly kept houses, the modern police station and the shopping strips all reflect a level of modest comfort rather than affluence. She had talked about this with the whole family, but not with the authorities. At first Bob Brass thought the squad car was Loiss brothers, but then they saw VanderWyst in the driveway. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134346102/lois-germaine_josephine-jurgens. In fact, they remain strangely forgotten. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. 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. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. Lois Jurgens Obituary (1930 - 2012) - Elkhorn, Wi, IA - the Des Moines She also describes him as a clown, always laughing at himself or other people when they are around. Lois E. Jurgens, 82, passed away on Friday, September 7, 2012 at Lakeland Health Care Center Elkhorn, WI. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. The policemen were led to understand that an attorney representing the Jurgenses had visited them and threatened them with civil lawsuits if they spoke out. State v. Jurgens :: 1988 :: Minnesota Court of Appeals Decisions My clients have rights, he said. 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. She was diagnosed as having mixed psychoneurosis and also unable to conceive a child with Harold. Her mother having long ago disappeared, Jerry Puckett had bounced among assorted relatives and county homes for girls. It was just inconceivable to Woodburn that Dennis had been so injured by slipping and falling on a basement floor. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses. He had one great friend, his world's Lois, but she died and now he sees another version of her still alive and pregnant. 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. Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks Break Down Young Jon Kent's Return in Lois He attended Olney Rural Elementary School and graduated from Filley High School in 1959. Dennis had thrown up then. The psychiatrist thought it fortunate that Lois Jurgens could not get pregnant because a child would only compound and complicate her emotional disturbances. The Death of Superman By Jurgens, TPB, DC Comics 1993, New, Sealed. HH 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. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Sherwood also told D'Angelo that Dana Ivey's interpretation of Lois Jurgens is eerily accurate. Votel could not take the first step.

Lois Jurgens headed to trial. The hearing would prove to be a curious affair. There was a deep, ulcerous lesion at the base of the penis and dark bruises on the tip. It is essentially unconceivable to me, without a protruding object above the floor, that he could have been injured in this way, Woodburn said. 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. last If Votel had called it a homicide, at least that prospect would have been removed. From their patio, they could see huge bass jumping in the water. . No one proposed handing the investigation to some other body--to, say, the county sheriffs office. There is a lot to be known about the science of this whole darn subject, he said. Dr. Over the course of several visits to the Jurgens home, Rekdahl saw the matter differently. After Dennis' death, an older adopted son, Robert, was removed from the Jurgens home. The only witness to Lois's final abuse of Dennis was Robert, who was 5 years old at the time. 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 . 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. Jerry Puckett was a Protestant by background, but at the time Dennis was born she was intending to take instruction in the Roman Catholic faith.

Judge calls murder of child 'barbaric' - UPI Archives Only 5% to 10% of the bruises on Dennis could have been caused by such a fall. At the funeral home, Lois Jurgens brother, Lloyd Zerwas, came to pay his respects. To keep creating White Bear Lake, Minnesota. It just made me sick. April 11, 1965. The investigation, trial, and conviction are considered landmarks in the history of child abuse law. Try again later. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (1925-2013) - Find a Grave Lois Jurgens (at left) appeared with her attorney Doug Thomson in Ramsey County Courthouse Monday May 4, 1987. Our kids have fallen down steps and not died. On the other hand, she realized the improbability of being offered another Catholic baby in the near future. The perforation, he judged, had occurred one to two days before the childs death. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? Lois Jurgens, 62, of Stillwater, chewed gum impassively as the jury announced its verdict, finding her guilty of third-degree murder in the 1965 death of her adopted son, Dennis. His intensely angry adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens, know for her short, volatile temper, murdered him. 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. In 1987, testifying 22 years later, Peterson was questioned again about the bruises. The boy was dead by the time the doctor arrived at 9:35. 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. 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). During his short life, Dennis . She grew up and attended school in Malvern, graduating in 1947. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota. Lois Jean (Jones) Jurgens - Peterson Mortuary, Inc. Is it quite customary to see a little boy with so many bruises, he was asked. Now VanderWyst was looking at him, asking a question: What was the cause of death?. A woman was convicted Friday of third-degree murder in
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