Donna Marlene had seen other things. During the internal autopsy, Woodburn found a quarter-inch hole in the boys small bowel. of Lois Jurgens are considered landmarks in the history of 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. He had read the early articles that by then had been published. As the laws were then interpreted, he believed that he would have to link a specific action taken by Lois Jurgens to the precise cause of death. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. 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. Robert was leaving things alone at the age of 1 year.
There was also pressure from supervisors to place, especially because there were so few Catholic children. She grew up and attended school in Malvern, graduating in 1947. He found bruises running the length of the body--50 to 100 of them, he would say later, the exact number hard to judge because many were overlapped. He never wanted to say a bad word about anyone. Add to your scrapbook. They felt sad, and also naggingly disturbed. . They were informed they would not be allowed to foster or adopt any additional children. Thank you very much in advance. Lois walks past the TV cameras on her way to the courtroom on January 30, 1987, to plead not guilty to three counts of murder. The mother was an unmarried 17-year-old, Jerry Ann Puckett, an attractive blonde of Danish-German extraction. . . 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. 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. White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Searching him out, she discovers he died at 3 1/2, though the death certificate does not show what killed him. He would wait until the police investigation could resolve the matter. Her attorney Doug Thomson (left) follows, and Harold Jurgens is behind him. She is buried at the Union Cemetery, in Maplewood, Ramsey County, Minnesota . Their investments and savings totaled $2,200. Notes References A Death in White Bear Lakeby Barry Siegel. Lois Jurgens served only eight years of her sentence, released early for good behavior, and lived a secluded life in Stillwater, Minnesota, until her death in 2013. The chief one involved the nature of the malady that killed Dennis. 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. Ive been doing this job too long. Even with half the body obscured, VanderWyst noticed the bruises--an awful lot of them he would say later. . Lets not build up some fiction that now we have done everything we should do.. On bare skin, the heat just flashes off. There was also the matter of community attitudes. SHAKOPEE, Minn. (AP) _ A mother who beat her adopted son to death and then covered up the crime for two decades was released from prison today after serving eight years. Petersburg, ILLois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. When he arrived at the Jurgens home, though, hed realized all that was pointless. Theres nothing worse, Peterson had thought, than seeing a dead child. 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. When Harold Jurgens called 10 days later to say they wanted to keep Dennis, the two agencies allowed that as well. Their flight, coupled with the lingering suspicions surrounding Dennis' death, resulted in the termination of Lois and Harold Jurgens' parental rights. . She knew that Lois came from a large, poor, Catholic family of 16 children, a family that at times survived on welfare. Tragically, just a few years after the adoption, Dennis died from peritonitis. The afflicted look and act very sick for a matter of hours, sometimes days. 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. Robert fit in well at the Jurgens household, as he learned from a young age not to get in his mother's way or cause an undue mess that would likely send Lois Jurgens into a rage. Paul Lindholm, the assistant county attorney, considered it. When Dennis messed his bed, she said, she forced the boy to eat his feces. She believed that Lois had opened up a great deal and tried to be as truthful as possible. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Why was there no disposition of this case? Several told of having seen Dennis bruised and battered. Please reset your password. He doesnt look like a tiny little kid, he thought. I was not trained in mental illness. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. 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 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. They had been able to discuss Lois weaknesses, even her past mental depression, without Lois becoming too nervous or upset or defensive. 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. But neither the judge nor anyone else was willing to face the implications of such findings. 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 spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe . Retired now for several years, he suffers from angina and does not go out much, but he recalls the 1965 hearing. 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. On Nov. 28, 1962, members of the Scott and Ramsey counties welfare departments, including Rekdahl, had a conference in the town of Shakopee.