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Lifetime of trouble ends with a shotgun blast



 
 
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Old August 20th 07, 05:56 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default Lifetime of trouble ends with a shotgun blast

Lifetime of trouble ends with a shotgun blast

Sunday, August 19, 2007
By Michael A. Fuoco and Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Within minutes, the impromptu get-together to welcome the new family on
Pitt Street in Elizabeth Township became uncomfortable.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07231/810605-55.stm

New resident Matthew Booth Sr. interrupted the small talk on that April
2006 day by pointing to his then-12-year-old daughter Rachel and
nonchalantly remarking, "She's been raped."

Neighbors were stunned to silence.

They turned to other topics with the father, daughter and a son, Matthew
Jr., 13 at the time.

And then Rachel held out her arm, revealing healing slashes.

"Look at this, I tried to kill myself," Rachel said matter of factly.

Thus began the Booth residency on the tiny, gravel cul-de-sac with six
houses. It ended July 30 when Rachel, now 13, used a shotgun to shoot
her sleeping father in the head. She told a neighbor and authorities,
who initially charged her as an adult with murder, that she needed to
stop the sexual and physical abuse she had endured from him for six years.

Mr. Booth, 34, also physically abused his son, neighbors and authorities
said.

Since the slaying, Rachel's plight and that of her brother -- in
addition to the abuse, they lived in a house infested with fleas and
littered with animal feces, often appeared to be hungry and wore filthy
clothing -- has come to light.

The Allegheny County district attorney's office joined with Rachel's
defense attorney to have her murder charge transferred to juvenile court
where, at worst, she could be sent to a juvenile facility until she was 21.

After four days in jail followed by a court-ordered stint in Western
Psychiatric Institute & Clinic, Rachel was transferred Thursday to the
Shuman Juvenile Detention Center to await adjudication on the homicide
charge.

Like many others, Pitt Street neighbors are pleased the judicial system
is dealing with Rachel as a juvenile.

"She never had a childhood," said neighbor Gloria Brown. "She's not a
maniac, she just snapped. All they needed was a good home."

Ms. Brown and others who knew her said the girl was bright, motivated
and had great potential.

Another neighbor, Jason Mervosh, said: "Everybody wants Rachel to get
help and for her to be able to live her life. And young Matt too. We
just want to see the kids get help."

Given what Rachel in particular went through, neighbors and others say,
it's amazing she survived at all.

Explaining away the bruises
Matthew Booth ruled his brood with an iron fist and a steely glare while
he and Michelle Fazek raised three children in a small house isolated at
the end of Beale Street in McKeesport, according to neighbors.

The Beale Street home was built by Mr. Booth's paternal grandparents a
half century ago. It was left to him when he was barely 18 and caring
for his grandmother, who subsequently died.

Ms. Fazek was a teenager when she moved in with Mr. Booth on Beale
Street. In fewer than three years, the unmarried couple had three children.

They also began to accumulate pets, including dogs that barked
incessantly, neighbors said. Their cats, never spayed or neutered, had
offspring that still roam the neighborhood.

In time, neighbors said, Mr. Booth began to develop a reputation as the
neighborhood sloth. So bad were conditions in the house that his own
mother wouldn't go inside, said Maryann Styche, 69, a Beale Street
neighbor and Mr. Booth's second cousin.

Anyone standing downwind of the Booths' home was overcome by the stench,
neighbors said.

The young couple's children -- Matthew Jr., Rachel and Elizabeth, a year
younger than her sister -- had few clothes. What they had was threadbare
and dirty. Neighbors said they tried to help by donating clothing; the
children would wear them until they were filthy, worn out and smelly.

Sarah Kraus, 16, said she often acted as a buffer between Rachel and
other children at school who teased her, sometimes leading to angry
outbursts from Rachel and to fights. At the time of the killing, both
Rachel and Matthew Jr. were enrolled in a cyber charter school.

At a New Year's Eve party at the Kraus house, Mr. Booth struck and
ridiculed his son, who has a deformed hand.

"He whacked him and said something like, 'Look at that hand,' " said
Norma Kraus, a neighbor who lives around the corner from the old Booth home.

Melanie Beresford, 30, whose back yard abuts the Booths' former home,
said the children never complained about their father or their plight,
but it was apparent they were always hungry. Initially, she would invite
them to her home for small meals, a practice that became regular
whenever she was cooking on her backyard grill.

Neighbors reported a tumultuous relationship between Mr. Booth, who they
said drank heavily, and his children and their mother. The couple
eventually split up, with Ms. Fazek taking Elizabeth while Matthew and
Rachel remained with their father.

Civil court documents filed over the years by Mr. Booth and Ms. Fazek
indicate that the Allegheny County office of Children and Youth and
Families responded to calls made regarding the family, that Ms. Fazek
sought custody of her other two children, and that the acrimony among
the family members continued.

Rachel often had bruises on her body, Sarah Kraus said. "She was a
tomboy and sometimes she explained the bruises that way. She had a lot
of excuses for [the bruising]."

In time, Mr. Booth lost ownership of his grandparents' home to unpaid
taxes. Mark and Siti Anna Dinkel of Irwin, who bought the house at
sheriff's sale, allowed him to rent the place.

It was then that law enforcement in Westmoreland County investigated
charges that a relative of the Dinkels had raped Rachel -- apparently
the sexual assault Mr. Booth later brought up with the Pitt Street
neighbors. The investigation ended when the suspect hanged himself.

The Dinkels eventually evicted Mr. Booth and his family from Beale
Street because of unpaid bills.

The house now is occupied by Chrissy Walker, her children and her
fiance, Danny McKee, a construction worker hired by the Dinkels. Before
the couple moved in, however, the dwelling had to be disinfected,
cleaned, and refurbished from top to basement.

The Booths moved about two miles away to Pitt Street.

Rachel finds a friend
About a year ago, unknown, unannounced and unsolicited, Rachel walked
into the Boston Stitchery store and entered Deborah Sherer's life.

"God sent her to me," said Ms. Sherer, 56, the mother of three and
grandmother of eight.

Rachel had walked to the store from her Pitt Street home about a half
mile away looking for sewing lessons, something Ms. Sherer didn't
normally offer at her 8-year-old business. But she was so struck by
Rachel's demeanor that she agreed to take her under her wing about two
months ago.

"She had all of this enthusiasm, a natural instinct, all of this talent
that was dying to come out," said Ms. Sherer, who initially thought
Rachel was 16 or 17. "She was very proud she had found some scraps and
was piecing together a quilt.

"She's a very natural, pretty girl. She's naturally full of a sweet
personality. She's very caring, she's assertive, she's opinionated,
she's very thoughtful, very analytical and she's funny. This little girl
had good life skills."

Rachel would come to the store daily, learning from Ms. Sherer and
performing small tasks, taking upon herself the renovation of a powder
room that was being used for storage. She loved waiting on customers and
answering the phone. She referred to herself as Ms. Sherer's assistant
and told the owner that in a few years she'd be able to run the store
for her.

Rachel was clean but her clothes badly needed to be laundered. Ms.
Sherer gave her clothing and showed Rachel how to make peasant blouses,
an accomplishment that gave her immense pride. Ms. Sherer said she
regularly gave Rachel money but Mr. Booth would take it from her.

Just the other day, Ms. Sherer said, she found sketches Rachel had drawn
for her planned fairy costume for Halloween. That reminded Ms. Sherer
that Rachel once asked to borrow her book "Grimm's Fairy Tales," which
she devoured while curled up in the store.

"This isn't a little girl with any kind of criminal mind," Ms. Sherer
said referring to the shooting. "She was saving her own life, that's an
absolute truth. We never talked about her home life. She told me she
pretty much was her own person. She portrayed to me the person she is,
not the person she was forced to be."

But there were hints of her hidden problems.

"I was starting to pick up on it. She was showing me signs. She'd come
in telling me her shoulder hurt and she was in pain, she would show me
marks on her back. Of course she'd have some reason. She fell or whatever.

"She'd be tired in the morning but we'd go eat and she'd be OK. I could
tell she was reaching ... but you'd have to know Rachel's personality,
she's a proud girl."

Knowing what she now knows, Ms. Sherer is amazed that "she rose above
it. A lot of times, kids in situations like this express their
frustration and anger out on the street doing things they shouldn't be
doing. In Rachel's case, she'd rather read a book, she'd rather sew,
she'd look at more wholesome ways to release herself from all of that.

"I often wonder what was going through her head when she was at the
sewing machine. What went through that poor little girl's mind?"

Neighborhood support
On Pitt Street, the home the Booths rented is boarded up, condemned and
soon will be demolished. And that can't happen soon enough for the
tight-knit group of residents there.

The house, they say, seems cursed. In addition to the squalor and
horrors purportedly visited there during the Booth residency, its
rumored history also includes two unrelated suicides, a hanging and a
shooting.

Even from the outside, the house is an eyesore -- much of the aluminum
siding is missing, stripped by the hard-drinking Mr. Booth, who sold it
for scrap to get money to buy beer and cigarettes, according to
neighbors. And, neighbors are upset that it has become a macabre tourist
attraction, luring motorists who pull up, stare and point at the scene
of the crimes.

Neighbors are also riled that, in their estimation, their neighborhood
has been portrayed in the news media as uncaring about the Booth children.

Ms. Brown said she and other women on the street had a feeling all was
not right in the Booth household, particularly because Rachel always had
bruises.

"As a mother you have a gut feeling there's something going on behind
closed doors," she said last week. "She'd always say she bumped
something. We'd say, 'You seem upset,' and she would change the subject.
We'd say, 'If he's hurting you, you can come to one of houses and he
won't get to you.' But she was afraid to break away."

Additionally, she said, neighbors would see police there and they knew
county Children Youth and Families officials visited the house three or
four times.

Elizabeth Township police records show officers responded six times last
year to check on the children's welfare at the request of Ms. Fazek, who
was estranged from Mr. Booth and the two older children. Officers found
nothing amiss. Similarly, CYF apparently found nothing that precipitated
taking the children out of the house. CYF is prohibited by state law
from discussing cases.

Mr. Mervosh said Rachel has been calling the neighbors, many of whom
have attended her hearings and have visited her at Western Psych. Pitt
Street residents also sent Rachel a large basket with clothing and
personal care items.

"She says she misses everyone on the street. She seems happy. She
sounded in good spirits," Mr. Mervosh said.

Ms. Brown said Rachel told her by phone that "the only family she has is
on Pitt Street and she wants to come back."

Rachel also called Ms. Sherer, who said she may be among those seeking
guardianship of her at a hearing later this month.

"Rachel is a child with aspirations, with potential, an intelligent girl
who has her whole life ahead of her," Ms. Sherer said. "Rachel is a
strong girl and she needs to be in an environment where she's nurtured
and channeled because she has something to offer the world. She really
does."

Michael A. Fuoco can be reached at or
412-263-1968. Jim McKinnon can be reached at

or 412-263-1939.





CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

 




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