A special place in hell

Crime buffs all over America were riveted to the story of the missing pregnant Marine Lance Corporal and the fellow Marine she accused of raping her.

Maria Lauterbach, 8 months pregnant, had been missing for three weeks and her rapist/lover/colleague, Corporal Cesar Laurea, was on the lam after having left a note explaining that Maria had come to his house (the one he shared with his wife) and committed suicide.

The cable news channels went wall to wall with the story and with North Carolina law enforcement’s news conferences on all the latest developments.

When police in Onslow County, North Carolina finally dug up the backyard fire pit at Cpl. Laurean’s home they found the burnt remains of both Lauterbach and her unborn child. They said she had been dead “for quite a while.”

“The fetus was developed enough that the little hand was about the size of my thumb,” said Sheriff Ed Brown – a bear of a man whose folksy manner and genuine angst over the case captivated America during the search for the missing woman.

At this writing there is still a nationwide manhunt going on for Cpl. Laurean who got an eight hour head start on the cops. His wife was apparently the one who finally came to her senses and went to the police with the note her cowardly husband left behind.

The very weekend they found that tiny baby’s body several other children in the United States also lost their lives to criminals who walk among us.

Dateline: Mobile, Alabama. A father was charged with capitol murder in the deaths of FOUR of his children. Police said Lam Luong tossed his children, aged 3, 2, 1 and four months old off a tall Mobile bridge after an argument with his wife. Luong later recanted his confession but he also, reportedly, told his family he did it because he wanted to be more famous than the 9-11 hijackers. He may have been a drug abuser. If Luong is found guilty at trial the punishment could be life in prison or even death. But that doesn’t bring back those four innocent souls.

Dateline: Mason, Ohio. Another father, another four children found dead, this time in their own home. Michael Veillette was charged with murdering his wife and four small children – and with aggravated arson after setting fire to his two story house. His wife was 33 years old. His children were 8 year old Marguarite, 4 year old Vincent and three year old twins Jacob and Mia. What caused the massacre was not clear. The father will surely be punished but that won’t bring back those four innocent souls.

Dateline: Piscataway, New Jersey. It’s not only fathers who murder. A mother was charged with murdering her infant daughter by drowning her in the family home. The baby was only nine months old. Her 7 year old brother was found unharmed but police revealed the mother, Wella Eng, had been freed recently on ten thousand dollars bail after being charged with child endangerment for leaving her tiny daughter unattended in a car. The justice system in New Jersey will figure out how to penalize the mother but that won’t bring back that innocent soul who lost her life at the hands of the person she should have been able to trust the most.

Dateline: Staten Island, New York. Police said a 36 year old man, Anthony Reardon, was arrested for killing his three week-old daughter. May I repeat the baby’s age – Three weeks old! Rosemary Reardon never had a chance. After her own father shook her and beat her she laid in a coma for 10 days before finally dying of her massive brain injuries. Mr. Reardon has been arraigned on murder charges and is already in prison. Nothing can ever be done to repair the innocent soul lost that day.

Shall I go on? Because there were lots of other children who died the awful weekend baby Lauterbach was discovered. The Luong and Veillette children and the baby Eng girl in New Jersey were not the only ones murdered during that three day span.

What is the matter us?

If you have ever watched Animal Planet you know how animals sometimes kill their offspring. If the spawn has any sort of birth defect or if there are too many for the mother to suckle one of the birth parents may commit infanticide. Sometimes it is the female’s new mate who cannot condone another male’s offspring living among the new family. They feel threatened and they kill. But these are animals!

As a nation it seems we can do a better job of protecting our children. But how? We already have an infrastructure to help children in need and their anguished parents. We have social workers, cops and courts. We have shelters, rehab facilities and work programs. We have judges and jailers and parole officers. Over the decades we have spent billions of dollars on this system.

I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter how much money we dedicate to trying to rooting out unspeakable crimes against children they will still happen. There was probably no way to predict that Anthony Reardon of Staten Island would turn on his own three week old daughter. And even though the police in Piscataway, New Jersey had their eye on Wella Eng after she’d left her infant in the car alone who would have imagined it would end in murder? Even if Lam Luong abused drugs why would anyone ever predict that he would take his children to the top of a bridge and force them to their deaths?

There is a special place in hell for these parents-turned-killers … but it will take better minds than mine to try to figure out how to stop such tragedies.

Maybe there is no way.