Missing and Murdered Children

| August 24, 2010 | The New Jersey State Police issued an AMBER Alert this afternoon for Terry Dusseault, Jr., 8 years. He was allegedly abducted by his father, Terry Dusseault, Sr., 38, from the area of 301 Canal Circle in Lumberton, New Jersey.

There are many AMBER Alerts issued when a parent abducts a child and usually it is due to a custody dispute. However, in this case, the parent in question may be feeling more desperate.

Terry Dusseault, Sr. is a registered sex offender. The crimes that earned him the registered sex offender designation were committed in North Carolina in 2005. He was convicted on several counts of Third Degree Sexual Exploitation on June 13, 2007 according to the North Carolina Department Of Correction Offender Public Information site. A story I read stated that Dussealt served a prison term for those convictions and the charges involved possession of child pornography.

The reason he may have decided to take the drastic step of abducting his son and going on the run is that he was charged this morning with sexual assault of three children in Burlington County, New Jersey. None of the charges involve his son.

The AMBER Alert site states the following about outstanding charges:

The suspect is also wanted for 6 counts of Child Sexual Assault & Endangering the Welfare of a Child charges in NJ.¹

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a firm belief that sex offenders cannot be cured, that most remain predators, and that they should be sentenced to long prison terms if not to life without parole. I am in favor of Civil Commitment, if that commitment is for life. But I digress…

I really do not understand why Dussealt, Sr. was allowed to walk out of court after being charged. In my view, given his past convictions and the current charges, which if true shows a progression of his “disease” and warrants no bail or at least a very high bail amount. There is no information at this time that he in fact out on bail.

Anyway you look at this situation, there was an error in judgment made and now an innocent 8-year-old boy is in the company of a most likely desperate father who has nothing to lose.

Terry Dusseault, Jr.

Terry is an 8-year-old white male with brown hair and brown eyes. He is 4’8″ tall and weighs 80lbs.

Terry Dusseault, Sr., suspect

Dusseault, Sr. is a 38-year-old white male with brown hair and brown eyes. He is 5’10″ tall and weighs 210lbs. When last seen he was wearing a tan, short-sleeved shirt and khaki shorts. He has a tattoo of “NY” on his left arm and tattoo of “Schaney” on his upper chest.

Suspect Vehicle

Black 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe with New Jersey license text: LXB61U. According to some reports, this vehicle belongs to the suspect’s girlfriend, Amy White Additional information gives the Vin number of KM8SC 83D81 U125802.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the New Jersey State Police or 9-1-1.

August 25, 2010

The AMBER Alert issued yesterday has been canceled. Terry Dusseault, Jr. was found safe and unharmed in the company of his father, Terry Dusseault, at a market in Medford Township, New Jersey. The elder Dusseault was taken into custody.

More information has been revealed about the family dynamics. Prior to the alleged abduction, Terry Dussealt, Jr., resided with his father and uncle at an apartment building located at 301 Canal Circle in Lumberton, New Jersey. According to news reports, the child’s mother is deceased.

After finding out charges were filed against him yesterday morning for the sexual assault of three children, Terry Dusseault fled with his son before police could take him into custody.

Some news reports state Dusseault’s previous convictions in North Carolina resulted in prison time, other news accounts state he only received probation.

I am glad this AMBER Alert came to a positive conclusion. It is really sad that this little boy has not only lost his mother, but will now most likely lose his father to prison time. Hopefully his uncle is a positive influence in his life.

NC DOC Offender Public Information, Terry Dussealt, Jr., 08.24.10.

Police: Convicted Sex Offender Abducted Son in NJ, CBS3.com, 08.24.10.

Tom Hester, Sr., State Police Issue AMBER Alert for Burlington County Kidnapping, NewJerseyNewsroom.com, 08.24.10.

NJ Boy Found Safe, Dad in Custody, KYW.CBS.LOCAL.com, 08.25.10.

NJ Father Arrested After Abducting Young Son, CBS3.com, 08.25.10.

1. NCMEC AMBER Alert, Terry Dusseault, Jr., 08.24.10 [↩]

Original Post: June 17, 2009Last Updated: 06.21.2010View Sources

This story is eerily similar to the October 2008 disappearance of two-year-old Tangena Hussain in Michigan. She has never been found.

Last night Gary, Indiana police received a call about a missing two-year-old female. According to the babysitter, Angelica Castillo, 18, she left the toddler in her car while she ran into a the Glen Park Gas Station, at 1401 E. Ridge Rd. in Gary, Indiana to purchase a gallon of milk and cigarettes. According to the babysitter, when she returned to the vehicle the child was gone. She called police at 9:30p.m.

According to the child’s mother, the babysitter is her cousin and her daughter has been staying with the cousin for about eight days. She says the last time she spoke to her daughter it was either Thursday or Friday.

I don’t know. If I had left my two-year-old with relatives for a planned two-week summer stay I think I would be calling my child each night to say good-night and to see how she was adjusting to the visit. I watched the video of the interview with the mother and she seems sort of detached about the whole thing. I could not see if she was crying real tears or not because of the sunglasses she was wearing during the interview. The father seems more concerned and has made statement that he does not believe the babysitter’s account of what happened.

“I think it was more like, ‘I made a mistake, I did something,’” said Jada’s father Clarence Justice. “To me, that’s the vibes I got is like, ‘I did something.’ I don’t want to speak on it, I don’t want to speak on the worst.’”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what to feel. There are so many different speculations,” said Jada’s mother Melissa Swiontek. “I feel like I’m going to find her. I mean, I do feel like she can’t be gone, like it’s not even happening.”¹

As in the Hussain disappearance, there is no video to show what went on at the vehicle.

However, in this disappearance witnesses have come forward stating they did not see a child in the car. The storekeeper stated the babysitter was only in the store a little over a minute and search dogs have not picked up Jada’s scent at the gas station. I don’t know how search dogs work but maybe they can’t pick up a scent because it was raining that night.

Other concerns involve fresh burns on the boyfriend’s arms and face for which he has not given a reasonable explanation. The boyfriend and babysitter are still being questioned by Gary, Indiana police.

Strangely enough as of this evening an AMBER Alert has not been issued for the this child. Michigan authorities issued an AMBER Alert for Tangena when she was reported missing under similar circumstances. I don’t suppose an AMBER Alert will help in this situation anyway. It didn’t help find Tangena.

If you know the whereabouts of Jada Justice or the circumstances surrounding her disappearance you are asked to call either the Hobart, Indiana Police Department at 1-219-942-1125 or the F.B.I. hotline at 317-639-3301.

Jada is a 2-year-old black female. She is 2’2″ tall and weighs 35lbs. Jada has brown eyes and black hair. Her date of birth is August 3, 2006. When last seen Jada was wearing an orange skirt and striped shirt.

The FBI has entered the case as of this evening. They are treating the case as a possible abduction. Law enforcement, the FBI, and family members converged on the convenience store property this evening. They were searching the area and handing out Jada’s picture.

Law enforcement are trying to put together a time line. They are asking people to come forward and tell them the last time they saw Jada, where she was, and who she was with at the time.

Police plan to charge the 18-year-old babysitter with felony child neglect for leaving Jada in the car unattended. Police also served a search warrant on the babysitter’s home. The took away some articles of clothing.

Updates

Sunday June 21, 2009

There really isn’t much to write about regarding Jada’s disappearance. By that I mean she is still ‘missing’. Police do not buy into the claim the babysitter, Angelica Castillo, of how Jada disappeared. The home the 18-year-old former gang member shares with her boyfriend was searched. Investigators did some digging in the backyard of the home; however, they determined the child was not buried there.

Angelica Castillo was arrested on charges of felony child neglect, but the charges were later dropped.

Police believe there are witnesses out there who know what happened to Jada. They may have witnessed something that they don’t realize is important to the investigation. They are asking for the public’s help. They want to know the following information:

Police are looking for anyone who may have seen her (Angelica Castillo) or her boyfriend, Tim Tkachik, between Sunday June 14 and Tuesday June 16. They may have been driving either a 1991 maroon Cadillac Fleetwood or a 1999 Chevy Tahoe…
…”We believe there are individuals who have information important to this investigation who have not yet come forward because they did not feel their information was important, they thought someone else may have reported it, or they believe it was not relevant,” said Deputy Chief Jeff White, Hobart Police.²

(The bold text in the quote above was added by me for clarification purposes).

Police announced there would be no search conducted for Jada today. They did not give a reason for halting the search; however, they did say the search would resume tomorrow. I don’t know, maybe the search was put on hold because it is Father’s Day.

Jada’s mother, Melissa Swiontek, issued a plea in the media on Friday night.

“I have no idea. I just want her home. I have no idea. She just needs to come home. Somebody has an idea. Somebody knows something and they need to talk,” said Melissa Swiontek, Jada’s (sic) mothe.³

Rewards & Contacts

The family is offering a $6,000 reward for information leading to Jada’s recovery.

• FBI: 1-800-FBI
• Gary Police Commander Anthony Titus: (219) 881-1237, (219) 881-1229, (219) 881-1209 or (219) 881-1210.

The FBI is treating Jada’s disappearance as a possible abduction. Gary and Hobart Police contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to see if an AMBER Alert could now be issued for Jada. The answer was no, that Jada’s disappearance does not meet their criteria for an AMBER Alert. OK, I am scratching my head once again regarding the decision of who qualifies for an AMBER Alert.

Gary police contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, but learned the case involving Jada did not meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert because investigators do not have detailed information on a suspect.⁴

I say BULL***.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has recently issued AMBER Alerts in the following cases on their AMBER Alert site:

1. Haleigh Cummings – Florida No longer active: Still Missing
   She was discovered missing from her Florida home in the middle of the night in February 2009. There were no witnesses to her alleged abduction and no suspects or suspect vehicle. The AMBER Alert is still in effect.
2. Daisja Weaver – Texas No longer active: Daisja’s father was tried and found guilty of Daisja’s murder. Her body still has not been found.
   Daisjai’s mother reported that her child was abducted in the middle of the night from her apartment by an unknown Hispanic male wearing a hoodie type sweatshirt. He allegedly tried to sexually assault the woman and when she fought him off the suspect grabbed her baby and escaped over the balcony.
   During the investigation the mother came forward and told authorities that she and the baby’s father threw the child’s body in the local river after the father killed the child. Both parents are in jail. The body has not been found. Why is the AMBER Alert still in effect?
3. Emanuel Guzman – Colorado No longer active: Still Missing
   In the Guzman case, the non-custodial parents are the suspects and they are wanted for child abuse. At the time the child was reported missing CPS had just been given jurisdiction over the child because the parents failed to make a court appearance. In my opinion, the NCMEC has issued this AMBER Alert to help CPS in Colorado clean up their mess. Emmanuel had gone to the hospital with severe burns on his hands. For whatever reason he was allowed to go home with his parents. The burns happened in April of this year and the court date that was missed was in May. In my opinion, CPS should have been given at least temporary custody of Emmanuel and placed in a foster home at least so he could get care for his burns. Burns caused by child abuse have patterns indicating intentional or deliberate injury to the child.
4. Gabriela Patricia Velazquez – North Carolina Located safe on June 22, 2009
   Police think Gabriela, 14, was maybe taken from the Monroe County National Guard Armory by Ciro Alonso Salina, 20. They don’t have a description of a vehicle or direction of travel. They also do not have a picture of Salina. Gabriela is described as a Hispanic girl, 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds. She has black hair, brown eyes and a birthmark on her right calf. She was last seen wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and high heels. Salina is described as a Hispanic man, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 140 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black shirt, black dress pants and black shoes. Police ask if you see them or recognize their names making purchases call 9-1-1.

   Does this case rise to the AMBER Alert criteria? We don’t know if Gabriela left of her own accord. There is no picture of the suspect. Many Hispanic males could fit Salina’s physical description.

5. Tangena Hussain – Michigan No longer active: Still Missing, Tangena’s mother left the United States and returned to her country of Bangladesh. The boyfriend was tried and found guilty of a sex offense against a teenager. He is currently serving time on that conviction.
   The circumstances of Tangena’s disappearance are almost identical to Jada’s disappearance. The mother’s boyfriend stopped at a gas station convenience store to purchase juice and gum. He left 2-year-old Tangena in the car parked on the side of the convenience store. He claims the doors to the car were locked. When he returned a few minutes later to the car Tangena was no longer in the vehicle. Instead of calling authorities right away, the boyfriend drove to a mall to pick up the girl’s mother from work. They then drove to back to the gas station and notified authorities. Tangena has not been found. Her AMBER Alert no longer appears on the NCMEC site.

Out of the five cases listed above with AMBER Alert status only two cases had suspect information. The other three cases, Weaver, Cummings and Hussain had no suspect information.

Somebody is not telling the truth regarding the AMBER Alert issue as far as Jada’s case is concerned. Here is the answer to the question from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on who issues AMBER Alerts:

Does NCMEC issue AMBER Alerts?
NCMEC releases AMBER Alerts to secondary distributors, once we are notified by law enforcement that an Alert has been released for a specific geographical area. Once NCMEC validates the AMBER Alert, it is entered into a secure system and transmitted to authorized secondary distributors for dissemination to customers within the geographic areas specified.
Secondary distributors are defined as companies, businesses, or organizations that have the capability to deliver geographically targeted messages to their customers; and have a signed Memorandum of Understanding with NCMEC. Internet service providers (ISPs) are an example of secondary distributors.
Only law enforcement can initiate and release AMBER Alerts for primary distribution.⁵

The emphasis is mine in the above quote. Who is telling the truth or misleading the public?

Thursday June 25, 2009

Police received a tip this afternoon that led them to a field in LaPorte county, Indiana. The location is approximately thirty miles from the gas station where Jada was reportedly last seen. A body was found there this afternoon – it is believed to be the body of missing Jada Justice. A coroner was called to the scene. Authorities say they have two people in custody. If the investigation goes as planned may come as soon as Friday.

June 28, 2009

No matter how long I write about missing and murdered children I don’t think I will ever get over how utterly cruel people can be, especially when the children murdered are related to the accused.

Engelica Castillo and her boyfriend were arrested last Friday morning and charged with murder among other lesser charges in connection with the death of 2-year-old Jada Justice. Engelica is or was Jada’s older cousin. Jada was left in her care for what was supposed to be a six week stay while Jada’s mother went out-of-town.

According to the interview with police Engelica’s boyfriend, Timothy Tkachik, claims Engelica is the one who administered the series of blows to Jada’s body and head that took her life, the last blow sending her head into contact with a nearby table.

Tkachik claims that one morning in June, Engelica became upset with Jada because of an issue with potty training and she began to spank Jada. When Jada refused to cry from the spanking this upset Engelica and she proceeded to strike the child about the head and pull her hair. At some point Jada fell striking her head on a table. Still not happy with Jada’s behavior, Engelica stood Jada in a corner for a ‘time out’. Jada was not complying so Engelica proceeded to rap the child in the head with her knuckles.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention, this was happening the morning after Engelica and Tkachik did several lines of heroin the night before.

At some point that afternoon it was time for the couple to go out a score some more heroin so they put Jada in her car seat and left to run that little errand. According to Tkachik while driving to the connection’s house they realized Jada was no longer breathing. They drove back to the house and went inside with the child and tried to administer CPR but it did not work. Doing what any normal person would do, Tkachik, noticing the bumps and bruises all over Jada’s body, decided to place Jada inside three garbage bags and put her body in the basement. They then went out to continue with their heroin purchase, returned home and went to bed for the night.

Just like any addict’s worst nightmare, when they awoke they realized the nightmare was really their life and they still had to figure out what to do with Jada’s body. Of course, the only thing to do was to burn her body. So they set off to purchase a metal trash can, propane and charcoal. After making their purchase they set off to a remote area where they found a hole. Tkachik placed Jada’s body inside the hole still encased in the garbage bags. Something happened with the fire when he threw the lit charcoal bag in the hole and the fire exploded in his face. That is where he got those burns he had so much trouble explaining. After still failing to rid themselves of Jada’s body, they decided to leave her there and go do some more heroin to help them think better.

Tkachik went back out and retrieved Jada’s partially burned body and placed it in the back of his truck. He then went to purchase a plastic container and cement and went back to the house. He took Jada’s body back down to the basement and there he encased her body in cement inside of the plastic container, using a space heater to speed up the hardening of the cement. When the cement had hardened enough he and Engelica went to a former haunt of Tkachik’s father. I use this term loosely. Many years ago when the Tkachik was still a child his father took his mother and his aunt to the same spot and shot them dead. He then turned the gun on himself. This is the area Tkachik chose for Jada’s final resting place. He brought along a power saw of some sort so he could cut away the plastic from the cement. (He did not want to leave any fingerprints behind). Then he and Engelica shoved Jada’s cement encased body into the swamp. With the dirty deed accomplished they decided it was time for Engelica to give her Camille-like performance at the Gary, Indiana gas station feigning Jada’s abduction.

It not only makes me weary to relate this story, it sickens me as well.

Trial Dates

Engelica Castillo will be the first of two co-defendants to stand trial for Jada Justice’s murder. Her trial date is set for December 7, 2009. Castillo is charged with murder, neglect of a dependent, battery and false informing for the June 2009 death of 2-year-old Jada Justice.

October 26, 2009

Castillo’s trial date has been pushed back to March 2010 because prosecutors have decided to pursue a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for her. The defense claims it will take more time and money now to prepare for the defense. They will have to hire experts regarding mitigating circumstances. This means experts who will look into Castillo’s childhood to see if there were problems in her childhood that could have caused her to murder Jada. Yep.

June 21, 2010

Timothy Tkachik, the co-defendant in Jada’s murder entered a plea of guilty today to two counts of neglect of a dependent. In exchange for the plea arrangement, the prosecution has dropped charges of murder, battery, and false reporting. Tkchik has also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors by testifying against his girlfriend, Engelica Castillo in her murder trial later this summer.

There is no honor among thieves or murderers.

Sources

Guilty Plea in Death of NW Indiana Toddler, WLS-TV Chicago, Illinois, Last Accessed: 06.21.2010.

1. Mai Martinez, 2-Year-Old Vanishes from Car in Gary, CBS2Chicago.com, Last Accessed: June 17, 2009. [↩]
2. John Garcia, Police Ask for Tips in Search for Missing Girl, WLS-TV Chicago, Last Accessed: June 21, 2009. [↩]
3. Ibid. [↩]
4. Mai Martinez, 2-Year-Old Vanishes from Car in Gary, CBS2Chicago.com, Last Accessed: June 17, 2009. [↩]
5. NCMEC [↩]

Original Post: May 11, 2010 | I read the story this morning about little Ethan going missing in the middle of the night from his mother’s and step-father’s home. According to his mother, Ethan had just arrived ten days ago to visit for the summer. He normally resides with his father in Virginia. His mother also told police that Ethan had a habit of “running off” and had done so at least five times in the last ten nights. She had gone after him on those prior occasions and had been able to locate her 4-year-old, but not last night.

There was just something not right about the story. I knew he was already dead. I didn’t write about Ethan’s disappearance. I checked the news this evening to see if Ethan had been located, and was met by the following headline:

4-Year-Old Layton Boy was Murdered, Police say

According to the article police believe Ethan was murdered by his new stepfather and then of course, he and Ethan’s mother tried to cover up the crime by burying Ethan’s body in a remote area thirty miles away. The happy couple just tied the knot May 1. *note sarcasm*

Nathan Sloop, 31, was arrested for investigation of aggravated murder, child abuse, obstruction of justice and desecration of a corpse. Stephanie Sloop, 27, was arrested for investigation of child abuse, obstruction of justice and desecration of a corpse.¹

Now, instead of Ethan’s father looking forward to welcoming him home at the end of the summer, he has to plan for his son’s funeral. I just wonder what Ethan could have done to deserve what he got.

Updates 

May 12, 2010

The preliminary information released today regarding what happened to Ethan Stacy at the hands of his stepfather and mother is horrifying to say the least. I will never understand the absolutely heartless and truly barbaric ways people can treat their another person’s child let alone their own child or allow someone else to harm their child.

According to the new accounts I have read, the stepfather, Nathan Sloop, began abusing Ethan almost as soon as he arrived to stay the summer in Utah. Police confiscated pictures from the cell phone of Ethan’s mother, Stephanie Sloop. Those photographs show the progression of Ethan’s injuries over a period of a week. Why she was taking pictures of her son’s injuries instead of taking him the hell out of harm’s way is something I just can’t understand. According to police reports all of this abuse was done in the name of discipline.

The injuries resulted from the stepfather, Nathanael Sloop, “engaging in a systematic and progressively more violent pattern of abuse toward Ethan,” detectives wrote in interview summaries. The documents say Sloop was angry with the child and “tried everything” to discipline him; however, they don’t say why the boy was being disciplined.²

Sloop told police that he had hit Ethan and caused his face to swell. One would think that at that point Stephanie would have done something to save Ethan. No, what she did on May 6 was to lock Ethan in a bedroom for a few hours so they could take a 10 mile trip to get married. Yep, she locked her injured little boy in a room and left him alone to go get married to the brute who was beating her son. She said she didn’t take Ethan with them to get married because she was afraid people at the courthouse might ask questions about Ethan’s injuries. Can you imagine how badly beaten he must have been to make her worry about what people would say if they saw his little face all swollen and bruised? It gets worse.

Ethan died on Saturday night, they found him dead in his bed Sunday morning. According to Stephanie Sloop, Ethan had been vomiting, laying around and refusing food three days before he died. So that would have been starting on Wednesday or Thursday. On Friday she found Ethan badly burned from his feet to his buttocks apparently from being scalded in the tub – she told police she thought Nathan was responsible. I don’t understand this part. They forced Ethan to drink two 16-ounce bottles of water, a 16-ounce bottle of Kool-Aid, and a glass of orange juice over a two hour period of time. They did try to treat his pain and swelling with Motrin and Benedryl.

It wasn’t enough for Nathan Sloop that he had killed Ethan. Of course he did not want to pay for his actions so he had to hide the body and then make up some sort of story. So this is what they did:

…used a hammer to disfigure his face and teeth before burying his body in the mountains…to delay, prevent identification…wrapped his body in plastic…
Stephanie Sloop told investigators she bought two cans of lighter fluid for Nathanael Sloop to burn the body before it was buried. The reports didn’t say whether that was actually done. ³

What a horrific ending for this little boy’s short life. The saddest thing of all is he didn’t want to go visit his mom. According to family members he never even wanted to talk to her on the phone when she called. At least Utah has the death penalty, I hope it is sought for both of these monsters. Of course there will probably be a plea arrangement where she will agree to testify against him in exchange for a punishment which will amount to a slap on the wrist.

Sources 

Pat Reavy, Layton Police Search for Missing 4-Year-Old Boy, Deseret News, Last Accessed: 05.11.10

1. Pat Reavy, 4-Year-Old Layton Boy was Murdered, Police Say, Deseret News, Last Accessed: 05.11.10 [↩]
2. Utah Man Beat Boy to Death, Disfigured Him, ABC3340.com, Last Accessed: 05.13.10. [↩]
3. Ibid. [↩]