Sunday, October 7, 2012

Toddler's Body Found Two Years Later



A routine child welfare investigation led to the discovery Saturday of a toddler's corpse buried in the backyard of a Long Island home.
State police unearthed the remains in the dead of night at a tidy house in Farmingdale after being told by the boy's mother that he died two years ago. The circumstances of his death remained unclear Saturday.
The boy, Justin Kowalczik, was about 17-months-old when he died in the summer of 2010, police said. Authorities said the family never reported the child's death.

"It is absolutely a suspicious death and it is being investigated as such," said State Police Major Patrick Regan. "We don't have a cause of death, and to our knowledge, there was never a report made of the child being missing."

Investigators were trying to determine how the child died and why the family kept it a secret.
Officials with Suffolk County's Child Protective Services agency initially went to the home Wednesday to check on the health of one of the woman's three children. They grew concerned when the family couldn't account for the whereabouts of a child born in 2009.

That led to a police interview of the mother, Heather Kowalczik, who told them first that the child was with family upstate, but when her story didn’t check out she admitted the child had died shortly after the family moved to Farmingdale from Orange County two years ago.

On Friday, police sought Kowalczik's boyfriend, Robert Rodriguez, who is the father of her two older children, ages 6 and 9, but not of Justin. As of Saturday afternoon, he had refused to answer questions, Regan said.

"He did not come in willingly. He is not cooperating," Regan said.

Note that which is stated in the negative as important.  


Neither Rodriguez nor Kowalczik had been charged with any crimes.
Kowalczik's two surviving children were in the custody of county child welfare agents, police said.
The discovery has shocked the neighborhood, prompting the landlord of the property to think about selling the house.

"I don't even want to come back here," the landlord said.
Neighbors say they thought the family only had two children.

"It's shocking. Hard to believe," Michelle Peavey, a neighbor whose own children played in the yard with the couple's children.

Police say the body was buried around the same time his family moved to the home.
Neighbor Tekiera McCormack told Newsday that she was stunned.
"I can't see this," she told the newspaper. "This is crazy. She was a good mother. Those kids loved her."

People have a very difficult time accepting the unexpected. 

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they were afraid they'd be blamed in the world of blamers that view these situations as needing a million man march on the parents.

I read that one man that had a foster child that fell down the stairs and was in a coma committed suicide after being told that the injury did not match an accident.He lived in a state when at the time hysteria was running the politics.He had been in the military and knew-I think-that there would be no other choice. His wife committed suicide a couple days later...leaving behind 10 children to care for themselves.Fortunately, the state could care for them and diagnose their mental illnesses and get them medicated as soon as possible- Not unusal for a three year old to be schizophrenic.

The media informs others of current trends and social outlooks.

Chipmunk said...

Robert Rosriguez kidnapped the nine year old when he heard the police were looking at him for the disappearance of the two year old.
Why run if you have nothing to hide???

Justin Dipietro I hope you read this, the same applys to you.

Light the Way said...

"Not unusal for a three year old to be schizophrenic."

Ummm...Yes, it IS unusual.
Schizophrenia isn't even a *remotely* plausible diagnosis in a toddler.
In fact, most reputable diagnosticians won't even entertain such a diagnosis in adolescents who are under EIGHTEEN!

As for "the world of blamers"...
Let's take a look at the FACTS known, shall we?:

1.) The youngest child, 17 months old, was the ONLY one of the three kids NOT biological to the husband..
2.) The 17 month old "dies mysteriously" at about the time the family moves to a new town, making a new start amongst strangers..
3.) Rather than REPORT his death, the "parents" unceremoniously bury the now dead 17 month old in their brand new backyard..
4.) They carry on in the new community as if they were always just a family of 4---the neighbors report never having even known of a third child's existence until a murder investigation is launched..
5.) The only reason that little Justin's "mysterious death" is even discovered--2 YEARS later!--is because of a NEW child-welfare investigation regarding one of the couples OTHER children... and an examination of birth records on file by CPS officials!
6.) The father KIDNAPS his 9 year old and tries to make a run for it, once he realizes that Justin's death has been uncovered..and police want a word with him.

What does all of this tell you about the likelihood that Justin's death was accidental or the likelihood of his parents' only crime related to his death being "improper disposal of human remains"???

WD + LD + QD = ______
[Helpful Hint: The Answer ≠ Goose]






Anonymous said...

@ Light the Way

Lol!
Sounds bad for the dude!

Jazzie said...

"Kowalczik declined to describe what happened to Justin or confirm who called the police to her home.

She said that the police have moved her to a “safety area” to protect her from Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was abusive and “was pretty much keeping watch of me,” Kowalczik claimed. “He [had] barricaded me in the house, [was] preventing me from making calls,” Kowalczik maintained. “He was pretty much keeping watch of me, he hit me in the head, smacked me in the face if I’d say anything.”

Alex is currently hospitalized, awaiting an operation for a feeding tube. Authorities have taken custody of Robert Jr."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/buried_baby_horror_xKmQCYilLyDq4LLCO9SEYM

I'm afraid to even ask why "Rodriguez’s autistic son, Alex, 6" is "awaiting an operation for a feeding tube".

Photos shows Virgin Mary in the front yard, burial ground of Baby Justin Kowalczik in the backyard. A homemade cemetery of tragedy.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/body-17-month-old-found-buried-long-island-backyard-article-1.1176705

Anonymous said...

I confused, what is the story your telling ..have to do with this article? The horrific crime in the story you told..is a 3 yr old diagnosed with schizo....I'm a nurse and that is something that CANNOT be diagnoses until a person is at least 18 yrs of age... It is also anything but fortunate that the state now cares for 10 additional children..because their parents were too cowardly to stick around and explain what happened. If these parents (I use the term loosely) were really not at fault, then it would have come out.
Nobody buries a 17 month old child in the back yard, and continues with life like nothing happened. I lost 2 children..and after 22+ yrs..it still brings me tears. I could never live with the thought that I buried my child in the back yard like a freaking pet gerbil! Wtf.

Anonymous said...

Many autistic children are orally defensive. Depending on the severity of his autism he might not accept food well by mouth. This problem would be compounded if the parents were not raising him in a therapeutic environment.

As for the parents committing suicide, calling them cowards is pretty infantile. Most suicidal people are not in a logical frame of mind and believe their suicide would be a gift. Someone else could care for the children better and the best thing they could do is remove themselves. Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean you are right.

SELLA35 said...

“I just broke down. I had to tell them whatRobert did,” Kowalczik, 29, claimed to The Post.

She is not going to take any blame. Which is wrong, because she was not going to tell a soul about it, until she was CAUGHT.
___________________________________
Rodriguez was abusive and “was pretty much keeping watch of me,” Kowalczik claimed. “He [had] barricaded me in the house, [was] preventing me from making calls,” Kowalczik maintained. “He was pretty much keeping watch of me, he hit me in the head, smacked me in the face if I’d say anything.”

"Pretty much" weakens what she is saying. She also says he would smack her IF she said anything. I take this as he didn't hit her, but she thought he would IF she said anything. And what is ANYTHING? She would say hello to him and he would smack her? This entire story reeks of evil.
“He [had] barricaded me in the house,...
He wasn't even living in the house! She could have gotten authorities involved at any time. I hope that both these adult breeders are charged with murder.

I wonder where the father of the 17 month old is?

The old babysitter says alcohol was involved in the family, at least with the mom (if she can be called a mom).

From the two articles-
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/body-17-month-old-found-buried-long-island-backyard-article-1.1176705

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/buried_baby_horror_xKmQCYilLyDq4LLCO9SEYM

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't put it past either one of these two to have murdered the baby. If this mother could live with her dead baby buried in the backyard, she could just as easily have killed him herself. Yes, it appears that her b/f is the culprit and very well could be, but so could she.

She was not married to this man, was not being forced to live with him, and perhaps she needed him to contribute to their support, but she had plenty of opportunities to get away from him and plenty of chances to report him for killing her baby. Since when does support overrule the death of your baby if you aren't the one who killed him?

How could she know he wouldn't kill one or both of her remaining children, perhaps killing her as well? She would have been free of him and his abuse had she turned him in; also would have been able to obtain state assistance for herself and the two sons she had with him. She could have made it without him, and even better. She has no excuse not to have called LE when the baby first died or in the ensuing two years that the baby laid buried in the back yard, other than looking out for herself.

Nope. Not necessarily buying her story that the baby's death is all on him. She needs to be investigated too. IMO there's more to this story.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Sella35. This woman is telling lies to protect herself and magnify the situation she claims she was living in with the children's daddy, when she wasn't even living with him and could have turned him in at any time. See my post just above @ 5:29 a.m., 10/8.

He wasn't the only one involved in this, so is she. In fact, he may not be the one who killed the baby but may have helped hide the child's death and burial in the backyard.

They are both guilty.

SELLA35 said...

I did miss your post, thanks for pointing me too it. I agree! She is guilty of something and maybe everything. I really like this and agree, "Nope. Not necessarily buying her story that the baby's death is all on him. She needs to be investigated too. IMO there's more to this story."

Lucy said...

This is the second time that old case has been brought up on this site in a matter of days. By you also, I assume? ("Anonymous" gets so confusing, doesn't it?) I'm going to c&p my reply to the first comment about it. The foster parents to whom you refer were abusive. They killed themselves to avoid prison. The children were not mentally ill. Just abused. First by their bio-family and then by their foster family.

The case to which you are referring from the early 90s took place in Gilmer, Texas. The foster parents were James and Marie Lappe, and the little boy was Bobby Vernon Jr. He was forced by his "theraputic" foster parents to run up and down stairs until exhausted, as a prelude to his "therapy." On the day he was injured, he refused to run the stairs anymore. "According to siblings who witnessed the assault, either one or both of the adults had smashed his head on a wooden floor until the back of his head 'was mushy'."1 The other children in the home described being isolated, starved, and repeatedly beaten. Bobby was left in an irreversible coma. The foster parents committed suicide, rather than face prosecution.

There was no Satanic cult of ritualistic child abuse. This has been thoroughly and completely debunked. There was sexual abuse occurring in the Vernon household. However, the CPS worker assigned to the Vernon case, and the Lappes, Fundamentalist Christians all, had recently attended a seminar on Satanic Ritual Abuse (again, SRA has since been thoroughly debunked) and were eager to find and fight it. The Vernon children were given "holding therapy". The children were forced to run stairs until exhausted, and were then held down by several adult holders, "one assigned to immobilize the child's head, while the others held down their limbs and dug their knuckles into the child's ribcage, moving the knuckles back and forth. This was supposed to be done with enough force to cause bruising... Holding therapy was supposed to go on for hours with no breaks to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, the adults were supposed to verbally taunt the child to enrage him, as if the torture being performed on his tiny body wasn't enough."2 After hours of this painful and exhausting "therapy," the children were told that they needed to "remember" and disclose the abuse they had suffered and witnessed. And they were told exactly what this abuse was, and by whom.

In a farce which would put the Salem Witch Trials to shame, the Vernon children were fed false memories of ritualistic Satanic abuse, and were encouraged to accuse others in the town. The children of those parents were in turn tortured into accusing others. Anyone who spoke out against this witch hunt became the next accused. Before it was over, sixteen children were removed from their homes, none of which, with the exception of the Vernon home, were ever shown to have any evidence at all of child abuse.

Split in half for length, part 2 to follow.

Lucy said...

Part 2:

It should be noted here that the two lead "investigators" on this case were a Baptist minister and a gym instuctor for the Texas Dept of Public Safety. Neither had any police training, nor any experience whatsoever in police investigations.

The accused police officer was Sergeant James Brown, who was investigating the disappearance of a local teen girl. The Satanic Panic investigators seized on the girl's disappearance as proof of cult activity, and fed the children stories of her ritualistic murder, which they of course repeated. When Sergeant Brown insisted that there was no evidence of this and that the childrens' statements were unreliable, he was told by the special prosecutor, "If you get into my investigation in any way, I will ruin you personally, professionally, financially, and in every other way."3 Sergeant Brown did not back down, and so he became the next one accused. And yes, although he was never formally prosecuted, he was ruined. All the indictments of ritualistic abuse were eventually dropped after the Texas Attorney General's office decided that the town of Gilmer was full of sh*t, but the damage was done. And sixteen children were force-fed memories of their parents, all but one set completely innocent, raping, murdering, and eating the dead bodies of countless babies (althouth no babies were missing during that time.)

The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog
By Bruice M Perry MD, PhD
2006 Basic Books
Chapter 7, Satanic Panic
Pgs 155-178
1)pg 157
2)pg 163
3)pg 170

Typos fixed this time.

Lucy said...

Those foster parents committed suicide because there were multiple witnesses ready and willing to testify that the foster parents had smashed the little boy's head against the floor with force enough to leave him in an irreversible coma. The back of his head was mush. It was impossible that an injury that severe be caused by a fall down the stairs as they tried to claim. The other children in their care had also been abused. They killed themselves to avoid prosecution and prison.

Jazzie said...

SELLA35:

Thanks for your SA input. I read both news articles. I hope LE will be able to determine how Justin died and get to the truth.

Anonymous said...

These people committed suicide not because they felt someone else could raise their children "better". They committed suicide so they didn't have to go to jail for MURDERING a foster child! That makes them at the very least cowards!

Anonymous said...

"I can't see this," she told the newspaper. "This is crazy. She was a good mother. Those kids loved her."...... I bet her 17 month old son loved her as well. He paid the ultimate price for his love.