Jane Devin

I. Children at Risk

Nine year old Rowan Ford was brutally raped and strangled by her stepfather and one of her mother’s male friends. Two year old Riley Sawyers was beaten and killed by both her biological mother and her mother’s boyfriend. Four year old Anthony Buhr was tortured to death by the man his mother chose to live with, even after she lost custody due to his abuse of her children. Six year old Oscar Jimenez, Jr. was punched and kicked to death by his mother’s live-in boyfriend. Oscar’s mother helped bury her son’s body under cement 700 miles away.

In Forest Park, Georgia, an eight month old baby was raped and beaten by her mother’s boyfriend, leaving her paralyzed and brain damaged for life. In Pittsburgh, ten month old Da’Niyah Jackson died of after her mother left her in the care of a boyfriend, who beat and raped the infant.

There is no shortage of strangers, relatives, and biological parents who neglect, abuse, or murder America’s children. State agencies investigated nearly 900,000 abuse incidents in 2005, a year in which 1500 children died of neglect or abuse. The U.S. Bureau of Justice reports that of all children under the age of five, murdered from 1976 through 2005

Recent studies, however, are pointing towards the increased risk of child abuse and fatalities in homes shared with a stepparent or other unrelated adult. A 2005 Missouri study, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, reports that children living with a stepparent or unrelated adult were 50 times more likely to die of inflicted injuries than children living with both of their parents.

Several studies spearheaded by the University of New Hampshire have shown that children living in stepfamilies or with single parents are at higher risk of physical or sexual assault than children living with two biological or adoptive parents.After twenty years of extensive research into child abuse in Canada, the United States and Great Britain, Canadian psychologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, reached the staggering conclusion in 1997 that stepparents were 100 times more likely to fatally abuse their children.

The statistics are alarming, but in perspective the homicide rate comes out at to about 600 per million deaths in stepparent-child families, compared with just a handful for biological parents. Obviously, the vast majority of stepparents are not abusers, and there are thousands of stepparents who embrace their roles as co-parents, and who do an excellent job raising children who are not biologically, or even legally, their own.

It’s also true that the people who would pay the most attention to these types of statistics are those who would naturally consider their children’s welfare when making important life choices. For conscientious parents, the statistics probably only serve to bolster beliefs that are already in place – if not necessarily beliefs in a traditional family structure, than in their roles as the primary protectors and guardians of their children.

Unfortunately for their children, there are many parents who are not as conscientious. In some cases mental illness may be the cause, but in the overwhelming majority of cases there appears to be no sensible or easily understandable reason for mothers and fathers who knowingly, willfully place their children in harm’s way.

II. Dangerous Choices

In each case cited in this story, (with the exception of Da’Niyah Jackson, whose mother’s awareness of the potential for abuse is not yet known), at least one of the children’s biological parents were aware that danger existed but proceeded nonetheless to maintain a relationship with the abuser.

In the case of Anthony Buhr, whose short life was filled with excruciating tortures, both biological parents knowingly put their child at risk – the father when he defied a court order and dropped his son off at the child’s mother’s home to be watched, and the mother, who then left her son in the care of an angry boyfriend whom she knew to be abusive.

Colleen Spears, according to family members, was aware that her male friend Chris Collings had made advances against her teenage daughter. She married David Spears despite the fact that he was unemployed and had a drinking problem. Yet she left her nine year old daughter Rowan in Spears’ care while she worked nights, just as she previously left her in the care of ex-boyfriend Adam Chichawoski, another chronic alcoholic who later committed suicide.

The mothers of Riley Sawyers and Oscar Jimenez, Jr., both witnessed their child’s murder, did not attempt to stop it, did not report it to authorities, and both helped hide their children’s bodies. Sawyers mother, depending on who is to be believed, may have herself contributed to her child’s injuries. The mother of the eight month old baby who was raped is presently serving a five year sentence on one count of child cruelty, while her boyfriend has been sentenced to life plus forty years.

It’s an oversimplification of the statistics on child abuse to state that stepfamilies and non-traditional families, in of themselves, are more prone to acts of child abuse and danger. Clearly, there are issues among the biological parents that are not only about their choices in partners, but about their purposeful blindness or lack of exhibited concern for dangerous, or potentially dangerous, situations.

III. Changes Are Necessary

Empirical research of child abuse has led to many theories about the motivations and mindsets of parents who court disaster for their children through relationships with unstable, neglectful, violent, (and often drug and alcohol addicted) partners. Outside of organic mental illness, psychological traits ranging from narcissism to low self-esteem have been cited as causes, as have poverty, insufficient resources or support, and lack of education. It is also often stated that the parents who place their children in danger were or are victims of abuse themselves.

Yet, as in almost any wide-sweep that seeks generalized causes, there is plenty of contradictory social evidence that flies in the face of easy analysis. While those who were abused as children do face an inordinate number of difficulties in their adult lives, the vast majority do not grow up to be abusive parents themselves. Low-income parents may be over-represented in the hotline statistics simply because they are more readily suspected of and reported for abuse or neglect than are their middle or upper-class counterparts. Millions of parents with a high school degree or less have raised children successfully, without abuse or neglect.

Regardless of what we may believe or guess the causes to be, children continue to be brutalized, neglected and killed in America in alarming numbers.

At this point, forty-five years after the term Battered Child Syndrome was first introduced into the American lexicon by Dr. Henry Kampe and officially recognized by the medical community as “the malevolent actions perpetrated upon a child by their parent(s) and/or other adults”, the question of cause seems particularly worn and almost pointless, given that the longstanding policies of social services agencies have not much changed to address either the causes or the welfare of children living in dangerous situations.

Insofar as poverty and public resources go, welfare has been out and self-reliance in since Clinton’s 1996 Welfare Reform Act. Subsidized daycare and low-income housing is often very difficult for the working poor to attain, and both often have a waiting list that is years long. In any event, welfare reform has not impacted child abuse statistics, nor did it have the often-touted desired effect of promoting marriage. Financial assistance to the poor, while a noble cause on several levels, does not seem to be a proven preventative measure against child abuse or murder.

It is short-sighted to believe that our government’s role in the well-being of children should be limited to public education and limited social welfare programs. Society, and by extension its government, has always had a vested interest in preventing crime and protecting those who cannot protect themselves. To this end, it is necessary that outdated policies and laws change to meet the needs of children who are at-risk, particularly the social service policies that are managed at the State level.

One of the longest standing tenets of social service workers has been “Keep the Family Together.” Under this dogmatic umbrella, thousands of children have been left in legal limbo, moving from one foster home to another for years on end, or getting caught in the revolving door between foster care and on-again, off-again relationships with their unstable and often abusive biological parents. Children who have been abused and neglected are often returned to parents who perpetrated or allowed the abuse. Perhaps the operative tenet of social services should be less about the rights of the adults involved and more about the long-term “best interests of the child”.

The criteria for removing a child from their home may be overly stringent, in that imminent risk of abuse or danger often has to be successfully argued before the courts will allow social services to remove the child. Ironically, under this standard, “imminent risk” most often means “it’s already happened.” The child already has visible bruises, marks, or other signs of abuse, or neglect is readily apparent by the child’s deteriorating physical condition or unacceptable living circumstances.

Changing the standard of “imminent risk” to “reasonable cause,” would allow trained caseworkers to remove children from at-risk homes based on solid information and belief rather than proof of physical damage. Instead of having to wait for the child to be beaten and for the marks to show, a criteria of reasonable cause would allow social services to be activist preventers of abuse, and not merely after-the-fact rescuers.

Abused children who are questioned by social services realize that when the interview is over, they will most likely return home to be questioned by their abuser/s. They understand, even the youngest among them, the concept of self-preservation. Their choice – to be honest and open with a stranger they may never see again, or to avoid the wrath of their abuser/s – is one many adults, including those in social services, who often take a child’s words of denial at face-value, do not seem to fully understand or appreciate. An interview with a child who denies abuse or neglect but who is known to be at-risk should not signal the end of an investigation; it should, instead, indicate the need for continued, regular checks on the child and his or her living situation.

Further, children who are at an age to understand the consequences that might befall them by their honest participation in such an interview, should be promised a safe harbor prior to their questioning if their answers reveal that they are in danger of being abused. A child who is being hurt is likely to be more open during an interview when they do not have to fear the aftermath of reprisal from their abusers.

Lastly, it is often said there should be a license to parent. Driving a car in our country is a privilege not a right, some point out, and there are more qualifications that must be met in that process than there are for raising children. While that may be true, in reality it would be an impossible and largely undesirable task for a free country to unduly impinge on the reproductive and parental rights of its citizens.

What is possible are changes in policies and laws, as well as cultural mindsets, that will truly put children first – not only changes in social services – but in adoption law, criminal law, education, hotline reporting and public awareness. When parents are incapable of protecting their offspring, or refuse to, their rights and needs should not usurp the rights and needs of the children they have placed in harm’s way. The best interests of the child should be, and must be, the guiding force behind the prevention of child abuse.

NOTE:

* The U.S. Department of Justice does not differentiate stepparents from biological parents in their report.

OTHER SOURCES:

Effects of Welfare Reform

CNN Update on Riley Sawyers’ Story

The Anthony Buhr Case

Da’Niyah Jackson

Eight Month Old Baby Paralyzed

Oscar Jimenez, Jr.

U.S. Department of Justice Statistics on Infanticide

The Dark Underbelly of Cohabitation

Relative Danger (Martin & Daly Research)

 

Colleen Spears told investigators that she last saw her daughter at 8:30 p.m. on November 2.  Rowan, she said, was getting ready for bed as Colleen headed off to her night shift job at Walmart in Jane, MO, approximately 25 miles away.

Colleen, investigators report, returned home 12.5 hours later, at approximately 9:00 a.m. to discover Rowan missing.  The Joplin Globe’s report on November 4th includes the following information from Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland: 

The mother then woke up the stepfather, and he told her he did not know where the girl was, the sheriff said. The stepfather later told the mother that Rowan might have half-awakened him during the night and mentioned something about going to a friend’s place, but he could not be certain because he is a sound sleeper, the sheriff said.
Copeland said the house apparently was left unlocked throughout the night. He said the Spearses spent the better part of Saturday looking for Rowan at various acquaintances’ places in the Stella area before reporting her missing to the Sheriff’s Department at 6:50 p.m.

On November 5th, the Neosha Daily News reported:

Colleen started calling Rowan’s friends around 10 a.m. Colleen said Rowan likes to ride her bike, but the bike was still at the house. Not finding her daughter, Colleen started searching around 4:30 or 5 p.m. Saturday.

“I drove up here and then down, then I walked around to see if she was playing with anyone,” said Colleen. “I already had torn the house apart.”

Yet, somewhere between discovering that Rowan was missing, tearing “the house apart”, and finally calling police, Colleen Spears sat down at her computer and logged onto her MySpace page, where she listed her mood as “mellow”, complete with a happy, yawning smiley. She may have also written a post entitled “Daughters” on that day, although that can’t be verified because the post is set to private and its date is not listed.

What is not private are the friends on Colleen Spear’s MySpace page. Her oldest daughter Ariane is listed, Ariane’s half-sister *Brittany is not.   There are several paranormal entities listed, such as the “Joplin Paranormal Research Society” and “Ghost Hunters of the Ozarks.” However, the first two friends occupying Spear’s list are none other than Chris Collings and husband David Spears** — the two men who have now admitted to the torture and killing of Spear’s nine year-old daughter Rowan Ford.

While David Spears MySpace page is not accessible to the public***, showing only that the 370 pound, 24-25 year old (Spears lists his age as 25; press reports say he’s 24), man last logged into his account on November 1, the 6′8″, 32 year-old Collings profile is available +, showing a proclivity towards pentagram-wearing demons, pornography, and drugs.  Collings last logged into his account on November 2, the day before he brutally raped Rowan Ford.  Disturbingly, Collings list his mood on that day as “horny.” 

There are many rumors floating around the internet, some of them appearing to have started on a blog called The Dreamin’ Demon, by commenters who claim to have detailed knowledge of the family outside of what has been reported in the press.  One of the most disturbing allegations being made is that Colleen Spear’s older daughter had previously informed her mother of being sexually abused by Collings, and left home when Spear’s did not believe her.

Whether that accusation is founded in fact remains to be seen as this tragic story unfolds, but it is clear through her listed Mississippi location and a message left by Ariane on her mother’s MySpace page that she did not live with Colleen.  “hey mommy,” Ariane’s October 4, 2007 message says, “i love you and miss you soo much i tried to call but the phone is turned off i hope i can talk to u very soon give my love too u guys ttyl bye bye kiss kiss tell rowan i love her and i miss her very much as well”.  

Ariane is, according to her MySpace page, an eighteen year-old high school student, with a (now seems to be ex) Mississippi boyfriend who goes by the screen name Kage, with whom she publicly shared a lover’s dialogue.  Ariane lists her primary goal as “getting the fuck out” of her parent’s house, however that goal seemed to have been arrived at when she still lived in Stella, MO with her mother.

The comments section of Ariane’s page also contains a snarling wolf graphic left by Colleen on September 5, 2007 and a blatantly sexual message from her 17 year old sister Brittany left a couple of weeks earlier:

hey sexy thing, how is it going down there, between your legs.. uh oh I see cum…

Ariane logged into her MySpace page yesterday, dedicating her page to her deceased sister Rowan, and listing her mood, appropriately, as “crappy.” She also removed a previous message left for her by Chris Collings, which was a graphic of a skull with fire coming out of its eye sockets.

Rowan’s body was discovered just after daybreak on November 9th in a sink hole, estimated to be about forty feet deep. It took rescuers approximately seven hours to extricate her tiny 3′11″ body.

Sometime during the same day Rowan’s body was discovered, her sister * Brittany logged onto her almost empty, pink MySpace page decorated with black skulls, listing her mood as “happy.” There are only two comments on Brittany’s blog, both from her sister Ariane. The latest one, in September, reads: “hey my sexy thing how r ya well i will see u and talk to you tommorrow at school love ya sis”.

Many teenagers, especially on the internet, play with sexuality and innuendo. At least, it’s not uncommon. However, the comments left by Brittany and Ariane seem to stretch even the wide boundaries afforded to teenagers on the internet, and further begs the question of past sexual abuse. Promiscuity, lack of boundaries, and inappropriate sexuality are listed as among the symptoms some victims of childhood molestation and rape may carry.

Other questions that linger in the aftermath of young Rowan’s murder include the time frame that Colleen Spear’s gave investigators. How long was her shift at Walmart? How involved was her search for Rowan, when after she discovered her child missing she jumped online to post on MySpace? Why did it take Colleen nine hours after she arrived home to report Rowan missing? Why was it not until “4:30 or 5 p.m.” that Colleen initiated a search outside the home?

As for David Spears, I would like to ask why his mother agreed, at 1:00 a.m., to drive over to Spear’s residence and hand her supposedly drunk son the keys to her SUV. I would like to ask why, not even once, she didn’t peak into Rowan’s room.

I would also like to ask whether other rumors coming out of Stella, MO are true. Did Rowan often go to sleep in the back of her mother’s car instead of in her bed? Did she arrive at church and school early to avoid Spears in the morning, as some are claiming?  What is the story behind Colleen saying Rowan often slept on the floor with a heating pad because her “knees hurt”, as an explanation for the fact that Rowan’s bed did not look slept in?  Was Rowan sexually abused by Spears, Collings, and others prior to the night of her murder?  Collings is divorced and has two daughters living in another state.  Did Collings abuse them?

In a chilling probable cause affadivit, Chief Deputy Chris Jennings, after interviewing David Spears, states:

David Spears provided that he arrived at the above-listed location and observed Collings sexually assaulting the child in the home. Spears decribed how he pulled his pants down, got on top of Rowan Ford, and sexually penetrated the child. David Spears continued to state that after he sexually assaulted Rowan Ford, he took a cord and wrapped it around the child’s neck. David Spears provided that he stood directly over the child, facing her, and wrapped the curtain cord around her neck, choking her.

David Spears, according to reports, was introduced into Rowan’s life when she was six years old. Twenty years younger than Colleen, he is reported to have a biological daughter from a previous relationship. It is not known at this time whether he had contact with that child.

The full probable cause affadavit can be read here, at the Joplin Globe.

I am confident that the Missouri justice system will ensure that neither Spears nor Collings see freedom again.  Even though a lifetime spent behind bars or a decade or more on death row is a justice that seems to fall short, I have no doubt that these two confessed child rapists and killers will never be given the opportunity to end the life of another child.

The larger question now is what can we, as a society and as individuals, learn from this tragedy?  And if there are lessons, have we learned them before?  Are acts as depraved as those perpetrated against Rowan Ford preventable?  If they are, how and why did the concept of prevention fail?  Who, besides the perpetrators, failed to protect Rowan Ford’s life, and why? 

As more details about this family and the crime against Rowan become known, I hope that society will not only lament the tragic loss of an innocent child, but also make further attempts, with strengthened resolved, to find methods and solutions to prevent crimes like this in the future.   

Beyond mourning and outrage, the greatest gift we can give in honor of Rowan Ford, and other child victims, is our active and steadfast interest in education and prevention, no matter what it costs or what it takes.    

OTHER LINKS:

Social Services reports on Rowan Ford Family

UPDATE 11/19:

*While Ariane and Brittany appear to be sisters, Brittany is not listed as a relative in Rowan Ford’s obituary, and is therefore probably not blood-related to Colleen.

**Colleen Spears logged into MySpace again on 11/19, and removed both Collings and Spears from her page.

***Although David Spears is in jail, someone has deleted his MySpace account since this article was originally written.

UPDATE 11-20

+ The MySpace page for Chris Collings has now been deleted.