The screaming of children in quiet Portage, Wisconsin.

[bobthedrummer]

This is a cross-post of an active thread in the Wisconsin forum, it has also been posted in the Florida, Colorado and Kentucky forums.

DUer sybylla started this thread one week ago.

"BREAKING: Child abduction, abuse, possible homicide in Portage" 6-15-2007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x21098

[bobthedrummer]

1. .

[sybylla]

2. This involves the torture of an 11-year-old boy and the murder of his mother

Thanks for crossposting, bobthedrummer.

It's a pretty stunning tale and probably far to sad for a Friday, but this little boy could use our good thoughts at the very least.

[bobthedrummer]

3. There is so much to this horrific story, so many aspects to it-and then the questions

arise about why did all of the safeguards of law enforcement, child protective custody, human services, etc. fail in at least four different states over a period of years?

For those that haven't already gone to the link to sybylla's OP in the WI forum here are three links to Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel coverage during the past week.

"Woman in Portage was strangled" by Erin Richards 6-16-2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=620775

"Daughter helped in burial, police say" by Tom Kertscher 6-19-2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=622196

"4 charged in murderous torture spree" by Tom Held and Tom Kertscher 6-20-2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=623035


fair use cited

[seemslikeadream]

14. Michaela Clerc

Candice Clark

Michael S. Sisk

Felicia Mae Garlin

[bobthedrummer]

15. As has been mentioned, they claimed to have worked "from home, online"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x21098#21134

[bobthedrummer]

4. Reports, now that there have been arrests, are coming in from many states,

here is one from the Grand Junction Sentinel (Colorado-where Sisk and Clark once lived and Sisk escaped from his work release jail sentence)

"Former GJ couple suspected in Wisconsin homicide, torture case" by Mike Saccone 6-21-2007
http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2007/06/21/6_21_1A_Wisconsin_murder.html

fair use cited

[bobthedrummer]

5. The sensationalistic parts of this are being emphasized by MSM

regardless of where the reports come from.

The questions I have, based on reading the reports in the links as well as what I've read elsewhere from Florida, Kentucky, Colorado, Maine, Tennessee, Ohio and Wisconsin is why did the safeguards fail?

How could Florida authorities not only put Clark's little daughter in the foster care of Clerc's "parents" (the Martell's) but fail to respond to the abduction for months?

When Tammie Garlin was witnessed being forced into a car in Sanford Fl., why was there no investigation?

Do the Martell's still have other children in their care?

Why did Kentucky authorities fail to arrest Clark after the reports of Porter?

I can only post about this in small doses, it is too much to go into in depth, and yet it has gone worldwide now.

[bobthedrummer]

6. cross-post of sybylla's update, as the links show all alarms to the authorities

failed until last week.

What has happened to accountability?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x21098#21214

[sybylla]

7. Kick once more for a sad tale of a little boy

whipped and scalded and locked in a closet when he should have been out playing little league baseball with his friends.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Child welfare official indicted on child abuse charges

http://www.crimelibrary.com/news/0607/2205_offical_beat_child.html

Child welfare official indicted on child abuse charges



FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A Fulton County child welfare official has been indicted on child abuse charges.

Cylenthia Clark, is due in Fayette County court July 31 for arraignment on a felony charge of first-degree child cruelty. She is assistant director of the Fulton County Department of Family and Children's Services.

The June 5 indictment says Clark beat her oldest child, an 8-year-old girl, 34 times with a leather belt after ordering her to strip to her underwear.

Clark has denied being abusive but said she spanked the girl as punishment for fighting a teacher in an after-school program.

Clark returned to her job after bonding out of the Fayette County jail but DFCS officials said she is doing administrative duties, not working with child protective cases.

[shance]

25. Probably a scapegoat for a larger situation.....

n/t

[sybylla]

9. "Girlfriend blames others in Portage horrors"

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WI_BODY_FOUND_WIOL-?SITE=WIFON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Girlfriend blames others in Portage horrors

>snip<
Others in the group took turns beating and torturing the boy, Clark said, calling him unruly. He would bite, kick and punch, and even Tammie Garlin said he had to be disciplined.

Clark said the kidnapping accusations are overblown.

She said the foster parents dropped the 2-year-old off at her home in Sanford, Fla., last July and told her they couldn't afford her any longer. She tried calling a caseworker, but never heard from the woman.

Sisk and Clark are both wanted in Colorado, Sisk for walking away from jail while out on work release and Clark for failing to show up in court for allegedly writing bad checks and stealing a car, prosecutors say.

The foster mother, Cindy Martell, told the Daily Register in Portage Clerc is her daughter. Clerc met Tammie Garlin in an online lesbian chatroom and had been seeing her since she was 13 and Tammie Garlin was 29.
>snip<

[bobthedrummer]

10. "Daughter tells police she helped bury her mother; she is charged with being party to the murder"

by Matthew Call Portage Daily Register 6-22-2007
http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/197970

fair use cited

[bobthedrummer]

11. "Portage defendant blames boyfriend: Florida to scrutinize lapse in reporting child gone"

by Tom Held and Tom Kertscher Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 6-22-2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=623792

fair use cited

[bobthedrummer]

12. "Florida probes communication breakdown over Clark's 2-year-old"

AP via Portage Daily Register
http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/198616

fair use cited

[bobthedrummer]

13. "Those who knew Candace Clark said she left a trail of crime in her wake"

compilation from Portage Daily Register 6-23-2007
http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/198211

This group did use the Internet to commit crimes, and based on what has been reported so far I can't help but wonder if some of the posters on this site
http://witches.meetup.com/cities/us/wi/madison/
could have been victimized, unwitting accomplices or even from the group.

fair use cited

[bobthedrummer]

16. There is so much encapsulated in these reports, so many serious questions

as to how all the safeguards failed to prevent these truly evil acts of an "alternative family".

There's got to be accountability.

[seemslikeadream]

17. “ACG (the boy) said he was also hog-tied by the others

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/21/6_21_1A_Wisconsin_murder.html

His body, according to doctors at the University of Wisconsin Hospital, was covered in burns, cuts and bruises so extensive the boy could not walk.

“ACG (the boy) said he was also hog-tied by the others. … He would then be put in the bathtub, and they would run scalding hot water over him,” the criminal complaint said. “At times the others would also heat water on the stove and then bring that into the bathroom and throw it on ACG.”

[Judi Lynn]

27. None so blind..... Sisk's grandmother, quoted in your article, takes the prize:

Bennie Jean Loveless, Sisk’s grandmother, said during an interview Wednesday she blamed his head-over-heels love of Clark for his troubles.

“Steven was such a tender-hearted, loving person,” Loveless said. “To picture him torturing another human being, unless he was forced, I cannot comprehend.”
(snip)

I think she got some of this right: "I cannot comprehend.”"

[seemslikeadream]

18. This is going on EVERYWHERE

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=6d3c60a0-60a8-4bd4-9a74-26dffcc781f8&k=29338

While the handcuffs seemed to amuse Mr. Bannert, (the child) seemed to view the use of the handcuffs as a torment."

During the trial, witnesses testified the little girl was routinely handcuffed to heavy objects, deprived of liquids and locked in a wooden box. At the dinner table, court heard Bannert would spray the girl in the face with a spray bottle if her mouth wasn't full. If it was full, she would be sprayed if she wasn't chewing.

One of two women who lived with the couple told the court she once saw Bannert take the girl to the basement, handcuff her ankle to a milk crate and surround her with heavy marijuana planters so she couldn't escape.

The little girl's first foster mother testified the child routinely made graphic comments about sex acts. At bath time, the child would beg her to undress and join her in the bathtub so they could have sex, the foster mother said.

The woman also said the little girl was terrified of basements and repeatedly told her, "no more foot locks, no more soap in my mouth, no more sex."

In her closing arguments, Crown prosecutor Shelley Bykewich said the child lived in a "house of horror."

[bobthedrummer]

22. "The Center For Missing And Exploited Children Board Of Directors"

archived from 10-1-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2280827

[seemslikeadream]

19. 700 arrested in Internet child sex operation

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/NEWS07/70618009&&imw=Y

31 kids rescued, 700 arrested in Internet child sex operation
June 18, 2007

ASSOCIATED PRESS


UPDATED AT 11 A.M.: British police, with aid from U.S. investigators, have shattered a global Internet pedophile ring, rescuing 31 children and rounding up more than 700 suspects worldwide, authorities said today.

Some 200 suspects are based in Britain, said the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center. Authorities would not say where other suspects came from.

Advertisement

The ring was traced to an Internet chat room called “Kids the Light of Our Lives” that featured images of children being subjected to sexual abuse — including on streaming live videos.


Police rescued 31 children, some of them only a few months old. More than 15 of the children were in Britain, the child protection center said, declining to elaborate. Authorities would not say where the other children were from.



Officials did say the United States, Canada and Australia were Britain’s main partners in the investigation, which involved agencies from 35 countries and lasted more than 10 months.

Authorities said they used surveillance tactics normally used against terrorism suspects and drug traffickers to infiltrate the pedophile ring at its highest level.

The host of the Web site, Timothy Cox, 27, of Buxhall, who used the online identity “Son of God,” admitted to nine counts of possessing and distributing indecent images, authorities said. He was given an indeterminate jail sentence today at a court in eastern England. That means he will remain in prison until authorities determine he is no longer a threat to children.


Forensic teams examining Cox’s computer found 75,960 indecent and explicit images in addition to evidence that he had supplied 11,491 images to other site users.


After his arrest in September, authorities were able to infiltrate the chat room and collect evidence on the other members.

"Today’s verdict serves as a powerful warning to those using the Internet to facilitate the sexual exploitation of children,” said Jim Gamble, the child protection center’s chief executive.

[nam78_two]

20. Good God-what a horrifying thread

Someone stop this planet-I want to get off..
Those poor poor kids man. What the hell is wrong with all these people?

There are so many of these reports like this breaking nowadays. Maybe it is just that it is getting more attention now and things were always this bad, but God it is a sick world out there....

[bobthedrummer]

21. .

[Octafish]

23. This is heartbreaking. Is there a connection to Bush and his nutjob korps?

Suddenly, the idea that people like Scooter Libby could write a novel about using bears to turn little girls into servile prostitutes makes more sense.

[bobthedrummer]

24. Perhaps it's related to why the False Memory Syndrome gang exists

but what happened could and should have been prevented by the many safeguards that failed in Florida, in Colorado, in Kentucky, in Wisconsin, in Maine, in Tennessee everywhere this alternative family group went for years.

It's profoundly disturbing in so many ways.

:cry:

[Judi Lynn]

26. Here's one from Sunday: Girlfriend says sexual fantasies sparked violence

On edit: Looks like this is the same story Sybylla posted, after all.
Sorry for the dupe.

~~~~~~~~~~

Published - Sunday, June 24, 2007

Girlfriend says sexual fantasies sparked violence

By The Associated Press
.
PORTAGE, Wis. — A member of a band of drifters accused of killing one of their own and torturing an 11-year-old boy said the violence was sparked when the murdered woman admitted she had sexual fantasies about another member of the group.

Candace Clark told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Saturday that tensions among group members rose after Easter, when Tammie Garlin admitted to having sexual fantasies about Clark.

“It all went downhill,” Clark said at the Columbia County Jail. “All the violence started.”

Clark said her boyfriend, Michael Sisk, was angry and felt betrayed, as was Michaela Clerc, a 20-year-old woman who was having an affair with Garlin, 36.
(snip/...)

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2007/06/24/wi/00wis0624.txt

[bobthedrummer]

28. I don't put much credence to what Clark is saying-she has three children

and other reports paint a totally different picture.

This story is now being presented by Wisconsin media with the cult theme being emphasized.

The horrifying truths coming out are staggering, this is a story that most people don't want to hear-just like the screams of children.

[bobthedrummer]

29. Prayers and healing to all God's children everywhere that have ever screamed.

Romans 8:2

[seemslikeadream]

30. Terror, torture – abetted by a negligent agency

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/94680.html

Sometimes what is done to a child is so cruel and brutal that just thinking about it is hardly bearable.
Such is the case with a South King County foster girl, now 16, whose foster “parent” – that word is far too kind – inflicted torture upon her for as long as 10 years. The word bears repeating: Torture – as in “intentionally inflicted injury amounting to torture” – is the exact term used by a physician who examined her after her years-long ordeal.

The News Tribune’s Sean Robinson documents her shocking abuse on today’s Page One; we won’t detail it here. Suffice it to say that the girl, after her rescue, was found to have multiple scars and bruises, burns and blunt-force injuries, a bruised face and a chipped tooth.

That’s not the worst of it. Her “caregiver” – Chornice Lewis, now jailed on charges of child assault – apparently liked to go after the girl’s eyes, sometimes with needles. Her eyes were often blackened, swollen or inflamed when she came to school. The examinations turned up a broken eye socket and puncture wounds to both eyes. Her right eye is now functionally blind.

But no, maybe that’s not the worst of it. The worst may be the fact that public agencies charged with protecting children, the Children’s Administration of the Department of Social and Health Services and the King County Juvenile Court, overlooked the girl’s torture over all those years.

It wasn’t because they weren’t told. Time after time, as Robinson recounts, teachers, neighbors, school counselors or police officers alerted Children’s Administration social workers to the girl’s injuries and signs of her suffering.

Time after time, the social workers “investigated” and accepted Lewis’ version of the truth: that the girl was a liar, a thief, difficult and out of control. This despite the lack of evidence of any such tendencies when she was at school – where she was quiet, poorly clothed and friendless.

[bobthedrummer]

31. There should be the release of more news from some of the other states

as to why all the safeguards failed. We can demand an explanation-and accountability and investigations, because if anyone thinks that this is an isolated event (in as much as the failure of safeguards for children and other vulnerable people) you are living in your own reality, and you can't hear the screams.

[bobthedrummer]

32. How can Florida Department of Children and Families/DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth

make statements about how the safeguard system "worked" in regards to one of Candace Clark's children?
http://cbs2chicago.com/wisconsinwire/WI--BodyFound-Florida/resources_news_html

There are so many failures of safeguards-this developing case involved just about most of them in several states.

There are so many missing endangered people, especially children and youths.

Here's a few websites that turned up on a search about people missing from Wisconsin
Shannon Fischer (she has 2 children in foster care, her father's name is Bouzek)
http://www.missingpersons.doj.wi.gov/missingkids/shannon2_post.htm

Becky Kraemer
http://findbeckykraemer.com/BeckyKraemerVigil-JoelKleefisch.htm

UK, El Salvador, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma missing
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/400410


My question is how and why did all the safeguards fail in the Portage case when people did report on members of that group (ie Ruth Porter in Kentucky, the witnesses that reported Tammie Garlin being forced into a vehicle in Florida, etc) and what about real accountability instead of cover-ups and CYA lies and red herrings???



fair use cited on all linked pages

[bobthedrummer]

33. upthread update kick

[bobthedrummer]

34. Not one DUer response in the Florida, Colorado or Kentucky forums. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

35. .

[bobthedrummer]

36. Silence does not denote consent. Kick.

[bobthedrummer]

37. A 22 year old woman, Kelly K. Nolan, has gone missing from Madison

for a week and like Shannon Fischer's family there are many requests for any information.

"Kelly Nolan still missing" by Bill Novak 6-29-07
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/199492

"Missing Wisconsin woman, Other cases Canada and Malta"
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/409917

fair use cited

Meanwhile, there hasn't been much local media from Portage.

How and why did all the safeguards fail in the Portage case??? There must be accountibility.

Portage citizens have raised some funds for the Garlin boy, and Clark's children-yet there are now many, many very serious questions about that case.

Yet there aren't any responses in the Florida, Kentucky or Colorado forums one week after the story broke.

Kelly Nolan's family are using billboards and fliers in their attempts to locate her.

No news about Shannon Fischer yet.