Co-worker "concerned she appeared pregnant one day & appeared to not be pregnant two days later"

[The Straight Story]

Huxley woman charged with killing her 2 infant children


A Huxley woman has been arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two newborn twin daughters.

Jackie Nichole Burkle, 22, is facing charges of two counts of first degree murder, a class A felony, that is punishable to life in prison for each count if convicted.

Police said Burkle told them she killed the twin girls around 7:30 a.m. Friday.

The investigation began after one of Burkle's co-workers expressed concern to police about noticing Burkle had appeared pregnant one day and then suddenly appeared to not be pregnant two days later. The report said Burkle's co-worker said she was concerned about the location of the child's whereabouts.

According to the complaint and affidavit filed for the case, Burkle admitted to killing the children and later told authorities they could find the bodies in the trunk of her vehicle. Burkle was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_6bb9ddba-3cb4-11e1-9c0b-0019bb2963f4.html

"The investigation began after one of Burkle's co-workers expressed concern to police about noticing Burkle had appeared pregnant one day and then suddenly appeared to not be pregnant two days later. The report said Burkle's co-worker said she was concerned about the location of the child's whereabouts."

So.... someone is pregnant, shows up to work not pregnant, and it sends up red flags? I dunno, that seems a tad odd to me.

[obamanut2012]

2. Of course it would send up red flags

Women in the US don;t tend to have a child and then g to work within the next 12-24 hours. In addition, have you EVER had a coworker who has a newborn child, or who was just made a grandparent??? All they do it talk about their child/grandchild and show you a zillion photos.

I would have been wondering, too, and whispering about it in the ladies' room with my coworkers.

[Ecumenist]

4. Yeah, I would be too and wondering what the deal was.

[jberryhill]

8. Would you consider re-phrasing that?

I completely understand your sentiment, however the method in which you have expressed it might be considered to raise other issues.

[Broderick]

10. yeah.

I understand the emotions some things bring out, but words like that aren't really useful in my opinion.

[jberryhill]

21. Many People Are Simply Psychologically Deranged

There are others who think all women are psychologically deranged, and they tend to use a certain vocabulary to express themselves.

I am certain that your use of that vocabulary is merely an expression of your rightly-held passion which is why I did not and will not alert your post. Others might.

[obamanut2012]

12. Thank you

Regardless of whom it is addressed to, calling ANY woman doesn't make the term any less offensive.

[Ecumenist]

14. I lost two babies because I was unable to carry to term and I mean every word I said.

How could you MURDER two innocent babies? If you don't want them, give them to someone who does.

[musette_sf]

22. Sorry, but on DU we don't consider women to be public baby ovens,

no matter what we may personally think of the woman's actions. NO WOMAN owes anyone else a baby.

You can dislike her actions as much as you want, but again, women are NOT public baby ovens.

[moriah]

23. No, but if the kid is already outside of the woman, a woman's no longer a baby oven! n/t

[Broderick]

24. no kidding

just shaking my head.

[lib_wit_it]

32. Exactly. It's no woman's duty to carry a baby because some other woman wants one and can't have

her own. Though there is more to this case, the inference is there.

[etherealtruth]

39. I agree it is no woman's obligation to carry a fetus to term ....

... however, in this case the fetus' were carried and born ... killing a child after its birth is infanticide.

I support a woman's right to control her body and choose what to do with her body ... I DO NOT support infanticide

[moriah]

41. No, but when the baby isn't being carried anymore... it's no longer her body/life.

There is absolutely no excuse for infanticide.

Don't pull the pro-choice arguments on me -- I'm one of the most radical pro-choicers you'll find on this board, hell, I support a woman's right to elect to deliver their viable, perfectly healthy, baby prematurely if the procedure will try to preserve the child's life, because I don't think she has to carry a child any longer than she actually wants to. If it can survive outside the womb I can't say it should be killed, but that doesn't mean she has to keep carrying it either.

But once it's out of her body, it's an independent being, and killing it is murder. Abandoning it to a place where it will not receive proper care is also murder.

Safe Haven Laws. They are there for a reason.

[musette_sf]

59. What I am objecting to is the posts

where a very angry woman expresses entitlement because of her failures to carry to term. These posts are identical to the kinds of posts one finds on message boards where virulent anti-choice sentiment is accepted. I am aware that the news reports state that the woman in the news story killed her newborns, and I agree that that would be murder. However, I simply don't get how some posters on this thread don't care just HOW such a horrible situation got to the point that the woman resorted to such an action. It's a tragedy all around, but I still say, on DU we don't talk about women like they are just baby ovens for someone else's convenience. The post I responded to was dripping with entitlement that SOME other woman, somewhere, unknown to the poster, should be a baby oven because of this poster's own tragedy. I found that to be objectionable.

[moriah]

65. And to my mind, no, it wasn't entitlement or objectifying women after the child is born.

There are some women who I would call "crazy bitches" but aren't legally insane. Like the woman the book "Sleep in Heavenly Peace" was written about, Dianne Odell. She was convicted of killing three of her children as soon as they were born and lugging their bodies around for years.

http://www.policeone.com/investigations/articles/63270-Mother-Charged-in-Cross-Country-Mummified-Babies-Case/

----

After the child is born, there's no friggin' excuse. None. Zip. Nada. Unless you are legally batshit insane -- like Andrea Yates. And it's not objectifying women to say so.

[karynnj]

69. Where is the inference?

Not in the news article. It refers to newborns, who were killed by their mother. That is murder.

[Curmudgeoness]

36. On DU, we do not consider murder acceptable.

That is the issue here. This woman murdered her babies. She DID owe it to the babies to do what was best for them, especially since she chose to take the pregnancy to term and give birth.

[Renew Deal]

53. Wow, your message is actually more offensive than the message that initiated this.

"public baby ovens." She could have found a way out of this pregnancy when it first started. Once she decided to give birth, she should have found a legal way to deal with that (give them up, etc.)

It sure sounds like you're justifying murder.

[musette_sf]

60. I don't think I am.

I made a comment to a post with an attitude of entitlement that was similar to many of the anti-choice screeds in the blogosphere - that somehow, women who have problems conceiving are owed the products of the unwanted pregnancies of complete strangers.

I thought the post I was responding to was highly inappropriate to this tragic story. Anger, hatred, envy, entitlement, and an assortment of (mostly deleted by now) sexist epithets were NOT IMHO appropriate responses to this story.

[moriah]

73. It's not the childless women who are owed anything -- it's the babies.

If you give birth to a child, in my opinion, you owe them at least a walk to the local fire station to drop them off under the Safe Haven law if you can't be bothered to do another thing for them.

I swear I think I'd see more condemnation of someone drowning a litter of kittens instead of having the decency to take them to a shelter.

[musette_sf]

81. I have made it amply clear that the crime that occurred is a tragedy,

and that I am commenting on a poster's attitude of entitlement, and said attitude that is applied to women with unwanted pregnancies as if they are public utilities. Tragedies all around, and the person I made my original comment to was IMHO way out of line with her epithets and attitude. So I'm not exactly sure why you would address these comments to me as if I were being callous about this. Do you NOT think it is possible to be horrified at a crime, but still find an over-the=top reaction to be inappropriate?

[moriah]

85. I don't think anyone would be calling drowning a litter of kittens a "tragedy".

Or saying that a poster who had just lost their beloved cat who said "That bitch! There are plenty of people who would have been willing to adopt those kittens, me included!" would be showing a sense of entitlement that objectified cats.

Edit to clarify: Tragedy implies that the situation was unavoidable or otherwise not anyone's fault. And unless she's legally insane, it's not a tragedy -- it's sick and disgusting, and murder.

[karynnj]

68. This is NOT about abortion - they were newborns

At that point, I don't think anyone considers that the mother has a right to kill them. The poster is right that she could have given the babies up for adoption. That is really not a major imposition after she already carried the babies until they were presumably viable.

We don't know what happened here. Maybe she was in denial that she was pregnant with twins. It sounds like she did not go to hospital to give birth. There is likely a lot not known here, but you can't just kill your children once they are born.

[musette_sf]

83. And NO ONE here is saying that.

What we are doing is objecting to comments that are inappropriate on this issue, that are framed in the assumption that women with unwanted pregnancies OWE the issue to a stranger. Those comments are inappropriate to the issue at hand, and are inappropriate in general.

[karynnj]

89. I read the entire thread

I did not defend her controversial comments. Your response to her comment can be interpreted to say exactly that. She was speaking of the actual situation in the OP where the mother killed two newborns, not some figment of your imagination fetuses whose mothers want to abort them. The woman killed two babies - and you show more outrage against someone saying they could have been put up for adoption.

I think the reason she mentioned her own situation, was to put in perspective her over the top earlier comments. For most of us, it would be hard to put what likely is the most private, personal heartbreak in a public post. You responded by kicking her in the teeth. Nothing in what she wrote suggested that she believed anyone should be required to carry a baby to term for he - just that infanticide is completely wrong and there was easy alternative - giving the babies up. It was YOU who made that jump in logic. Not to mention, who is the "WE" here - all but one person responding to your harangue disagreed with you.

She had a post removed and hidden and it was hidden because of the language used. I would have agreed with that jury - especially as it seems that the murderess was very troubled. However, I would have alerted YOUR comment if there were not already several people capably refuting it. The article was NOT about abortion, it was about a woman who killed two children after they were born.

I think that you tend to go overboard to defend abortion when (in this case and in another) the story had nothing to do with abortion because neither mother chose to have one. In that one, you attacked a dying mother for choosing to have a baby and in this one you attack someone criticizing infanticide. You may think this makes you a capable advocate for abortion, but it doesn't as you will offend most people, including many who are your allies in keeping it legal.

[Yo_Mama]

70. No woman owes it to anyone else to carry a baby for the other person

But it wasn't a question of that. It was a question of killing the infants once they were born. I doubt very many 22 year-olds could handle raising two twins, but she could have just called the ambulance and surrendered them at the hospital.

Maybe there was a mental disorder involved. Without knowing all the circumstances it is impossible to really judge what she did.

[Dorian Gray]

82. If she didn't want to be an oven

she could have had a legal and safe abortion.

After the birth, it's about her not wanting to be a mom and thinking murder is an appropriate way to prevent that "inconvenience."

[moriah]

26. Or drop them off at a fire station. They're already born.

There's a REASON we have infant safe haven laws.

[Critters2]

67. Yes. Iowa has a Safe Haven Law. No one has to keep a baby they don't want.

But they can provide for the child to be cared for.

[REP]

38. Women aren't vending machines for the desires of others

There are many reasons for neonatocide. One of the most common is postpartum psychosis; there are others.

No matter what, though, an unwanted pregnancy does not obligate any woman to undergo a pregnancy simply because someone wants something.

[moriah]

45. If you can name a GOOD reason, go ahead.

By definition, psychosis is not a good reason. It's the lack of the ability to reason.

[Broderick]

48. sigh

[REP]

52. No kidding.

[REP]

51. You're the only one who thinks there's a good reason for neonatocide

I know that, many times, there are severe mental health issues as a factor.

[moriah]

61. So why are you trying to defend it and use pro-choice arguments in that defense?

"You'd have to be crazy!" is not a defense, it's a condemnation. Or at least it should be.

Once the child is alive, outside of the womb, and an independent being, YES, the fact that other people are more than happy to take care of that child if they don't want them is a valid point.

That's not making women slaves, baby ovens, or any other object. Those arguments don't apply and I don't get why the HELL anyone would try to argue them when discussing infanticide. Or even mention them. There's no fucking point, there's no choice to make anymore. All it does is make whoever argues it sound like an idiot.

[Cherchez la Femme]

63. I lost 4 & am childless

via 3 ectopic pregnancies, almost lost my life, lost so much blood nothing registered on the blood-pressure cuff

--and it hurts terribly, every day

but I still would never use that kind of language.

Oh, & I do cuss.

& I've always been pro-choice too, no reason for my personal tribulations to encroach upon others rights; so that's no excuse to ameliorate this.

[kiranon]

77. Very sorry for your losses and I agree completely with your comments. n/t

[Cherchez la Femme]

80. Thank you

and just last week I vividly dreamed I was pregnant with twins, girls.
Even within that lucid dream I came up with legitimate reasons why it was impossible (like no {hetero} sex : )
but it didn't stop the dream's premise!

but I still woke up disappointed.

Ah well, nm
...but thanks for the kindness!

[boston bean]

27. I did alert on this and Jury 3-3 decided to leave it.

I think that word is such a derogatory term and should never be used.

I understand your sentiment, but you could have put this some other way.

That word is off limits.

[etherealtruth]

35. The choice of words is offensive to many (I am one that prefers to never use it)

Perhaps the post and the use of the offensive word was weighted against the posters quite obvious pain ... and anger at such a horrendous act.

I dunno ... I wasn't on the jury

[REP]

44. I'm far more offended by the sentiment than the word

Words don't bother me that much, especially "that" one; after all, it shares the same root word as "keen" and "cunning."

What I find offensive is the idea that women should be vending machines to provide babies for those who want them. A vile and selfish idea that is far more offensive than a word. And yes, I have one of the words in question.

[jberryhill]

54. The soda was already out of the vending machine

[REP]

56. In this case, yes

In this case, good mental health care is a better answer, I think, long before delivery (or pregnancy, but this is the US).

[BlueIris]

57. So my alert will probably have the same effect (if it's even addressed.)

I can't believe juries find the use of misogynist slurs, as well as the advocation of violence, to be acceptable here. Disgusting.

[boston bean]

28. and now I have sent a TOS alert since the jury decided that this was AOK as

community standards for DU.

[Broderick]

31. makes you feel better huh.

I understand the feelings and sentiment from the personal experience. Doesn't make the word choice the best, but you seem to relish in piling on.

[boston bean]

55. hell no, it doesn't make me feel better.

what would have made me feel better was if the jury had decided to hide the post.

They did not.

That word has no place on DU, so a TOS violation is the recourse.

[polmaven]

49. As have I..

The words should NEVER be accpetable here.

[uppityperson]

58. Thank you. TOS will go to MIRT if post hidden, admin if not. Shame on that jury as those words are

not acceptable here. I understand the poster's sentiment, but there are other ways of expressing it.

[ellisonz]

34. What are you thinking?

You've been here long enough to know that language such as this isn't acceptable.

[undeterred]

43. That kind of language just keeps up the hatred for women.

[Drahthaardogs]

64. It is an ugly, vile, word.

Of course the posts where they equate actively killing two live babies fully carried to term by their mother as some sort of "pro-choice, I am not a baby incubator, so I can kill my children even after they are already born" is just as ugly, in fact, maybe even uglier. I could have gone a lifetime without seeing that South Park episode become reality.

[moriah]

79. Glad I wasn't the only one who thought of that episode.

And agreed 100%.

[elehhhhna]

46. nice talk

[Texasgal]

78. Screw you

for the nasty words "bitch" and "cunt" That is sexist and disgusting!

Now, let's see if a jury votes my comment off.

[jberryhill]

5. Depends on how far along we are talking, really

If someone appears to have come right up to the end, then reappearing after a two day absence might seem a little unusual, since an event of that kind most likely comes around as a consequence of a medical situation that would keep one out for more than two days.

And there is always a social context in which facts, when put in black and white outside of that context, do not suggest the same sorts of conclusions. What's unusual for one person might not be unusual for another.

Or maybe the person reporting was a Nancy Grace addict, fresh off of a big dose of "tom mom" crack.

[Broderick]

11. huh?

According to the complaint and affidavit filed for the case, Burkle admitted to killing the children and later told authorities they could find the bodies in the trunk of her vehicle. Burkle was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

[jberryhill]

20. I was commenting on the question of "is this suspicious"

The initial report, at least the way I read the story, came from the suspicious co-worker, and the question seemed to be whether one would go to police with these observations, or whether one might say to one's co-worker, "You seem to have lost some weight, do you have any good diet tips for me?"

[Broderick]

25. ok

[hughee99]

6. It seems to me that if someone close to giving birth shows

up 2 days later at work no longer pregnant and without a million pictures of the children, then it's a red flag.

[Gormy Cuss]

71. Some women who put their babies up for adoption act like that.

They don't necessarily want to talk about it with coworkers either.

[hughee99]

72. I guess it might depend on what she may have said to her coworkers before about her pregnancy.

[patrice]

7. Obviously, there was more to the co-worker's perception of the situation than just that, so

what's odd about it?

[mattvermont]

9. Grew up 5 miles fro Huxley...

I can only imagine what she was going through. Perhaps there was to partner in the picture and she could not miss any work.
Or perhaps a partner was abusive and she, in her mind, was protecting them.
Or maybe they were stillborn.
Or the economic times are such that 2 more mouths to feed on one minimum wage income was too much to bear.
She may also be bat-shit insane.

Tragic no matter the reasons.

[joshcryer]

13. Agree with the other posters, it's not "just" the "2 days not pregnant" thing.

It's because she showed up not pregnant in so short a time period, no real drama about the birth, etc. That's a life changing experience, it doesn't tend to end in infanticide.

[Cerridwen]

15. More information from another article...

She is 22, makes $8/hour, lives at home with her mom and step-dad, and "further admitted that she intended to end their lives and was not at any time intending that they would live.”

http://amestrib.com/sections/news/ames-and-story-county/casey%E2%80%99s-says-co-workers-didn%E2%80%99t-know-huxley-woman-was-pregnant

Her co-workers were at first concerned because she seemed ill.

[Broderick]

16. cold in my opinion

[Cerridwen]

18. I currently have more questions than opinion. n/t

[uppityperson]

29. Indeed. It would be good to get more information to be able to have an opinion beyond those

poor newborns, tragic.

[uppityperson]

62. What do you mean "smirk"? Thank you.

[Broderick]

66. I misread the sub

deleted

[Cerridwen]

33. A little more info and a video of the

young woman accused.

Motsinger said that hopefully lab work being done on the bodies will determine when the two children were actually born. According to court documents, the murder is believed to have occurred at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 6 at Burkle’s residence.

In further interviews, Burkle reportedly admitted that she’d “acted or committed certain acts” to kill both of the newborns, and that she’d done so with the intent of ending their lives.

Sources with the case have thus far declined to comment on what that act might have been.

A bit more 'new' information at link: http://amestrib.com/sections/news/ames-and-story-county/dead-twins%E2%80%99-mom-faces-life-prison.html

There's a video at the link. I'm not getting any sound with the video. Anyone else have that issue?

[Broderick]

37. I have sound

[Cerridwen]

40. Thanks.

Mine has been on and off all day so I wasn't sure if it was soundless or my set up. Time to adjust some settings.

Thanks again.

[joshcryer]

74. It's on YouTube so you can embedd it here:

Maybe that will help, I don't know. I sometimes have conflicts with flash advertizing on some sites.

[Cerridwen]

76. Thanks, josh.

I've been 'playing' with my computer settings off and on today. Trying to get a driver-less web cam to work on a Linux box. I keep 'losing' my audio. LOL

Oh well, at least I haven't 'ignored' myself or hidden any of my own posts today.

[LadyHawkAZ]

86. Wow. I was thinking possible postpartum psychosis

but the way the article is worded, it almost sounds like she'd been planning it from the beginning. That could of course just be a matter of phrasing.

[undeterred]

47. Well, if someone came back to work and said nothing it could also be the case

that the child was stillborn or died shortly after birth and she was still too much in shock to talk about it. I know someone who had a perfectly healthy pregnancy and 24 hours before her due date the umbilical cord got wrapped around the baby's neck... there was nothing they could do. She had to deliver it a couple of days later.

It was her first child and the hardest part was telling everyone that there was no baby.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

50. Why isn't this thread in the crime forum?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

75. Some do not appreciate the value of a healthy child.

I have a healthy grown child, but if it was up to my ex-husband, I would have had an abortion. I refused. He said "We can't afford it". He had good insurance and a good salary. I told him that millions of couples would give everything they own to have a healthy child. He just glared at me. He was a control freak. He decided he was going to punish me for having a healthy, beautiful child.

Then he said that I "tricked him into marriage". That was BS as well.

You never hear about women who want babies and men who want them to abort, because they only see dollar signs. Some people you cannot be nice to.

I can see why Ecumenist and others are enraged that this woman killed two healthy newborn infants. If I had been through the hell they had been through, and was childless, I might well feel the same way.

C-word? Yeah I can understand that. Murder? Yeah, they were newborns.

[Lil Missy]

84. Of course it would send up a red flag. Where's the baby(s)?

Normally when a woman is pregnant one day and not the next, she has had a baby. I'm just sayin'

And more importantly, the co-worker was right!

[barbtries]

87. so this is in Iowa.

how easy is it to get an abortion in Iowa? i make no excuses for what the woman did. but i will say that if the republicans have their way we'll be seeing a hell of a lot more of it.

[Marrah_G]

88. This is what happens when abortion is not easily accessible

[LeftinOH]

90. It's called "Safe Haven": Virtual 'drop boxes' for abandoned or unwanted babies...

no questions asked. As awful as it may seem, it's the best alernative for scared or confused pregnant women. It's the best scenario for the infants, as well.
http://www.nationalsafehavenalliance.org/