New Castle, PA – It happened on April 12 between 2:00 and 2:45 p.m. Loraine Peters had just left for work. Watching her two sons was her fiance’, Mark Strickler. Less than an hour after Loraine had left, Strickler, 22, called for help. Michael Peters, 18 months, wasn’t breathing. He’d left him in the bathtub for a few seconds, Strickler said. He wouldn’t wake up. Something was wrong.
Something was wrong, all right. Strickler told police that Michael was sleeping in his bedroom when his mother left for work. After Michael woke up, Strickler said he decided to give the toddler a bath. During the bath, the phone rang and Strickler left Michael alone “for a few seconds”. Strickler insisted he got back, and baby Michael was under the water, not breathing.
Michael Peterson was in the tub all right, but he wasn’t wet. The assistant fire chief who responded to the scene found baby Michael in the bathtub naked and dry, covered with bruises. Michael was bruised on the right side of his face from the forehead to the chin, the left wrist, trunk, abdomen, back and genital area and scrapes were seen on the right shoulder. The genital bruising was severe, the frie chief said, and it looked like a door had been slammed on Michael’s fingers. The fire chief called in police and transported the baby to the hospital.
Little Michael never woke up. After eleven days ina coma – the last week on a ventilator – Michael Peters died on Tuesday. Doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury and non-accidental trauma. Simply put, Mark Strickler beat that baby to death.
Loraine Peters is a devout Christian according to her Myspace, a young mother who is pregnant with Mark Strickler’s baby. She is due in October and before this, was planning her wedding. It does not appear that she had any reason to think Strickler would hurt her son. Her older son, Brian, 4, was not hurt.
Mark Strickler’s Myspace doesn’t really give us a clue that he would be dangerous. Redneck, perhaps, but not dangerous. He talks of the miracle of Loraine’s pregnancy. He seems excited about being a father. People who know him say this isn’t like him at all. So what happened? Did he snap at a toileting accident? Flip out over a wet bed? Did the lion-instinct of killing another man’s young just take over? I’ve no idea. All I know is a beautiful little boy is gone, and Mark Strickler killed him. In light of that, the whys don’t seem to matter that much.
Mark Strickler is being held without bail in the Lawrence County Jail. He is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment and child endangerment. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Tags: Child Abuse, Murder
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