Zane Earles Left Unattended; Mauled By Puppy
UPDATE 11/5/08 - Linzy Earles, 18, was charged on Friday with second-degree manslaughter in the mauling death of her two-month-old son, Zane Earles, on July 28. Because Linzy Earles was 17 at the time of her son’s death, she is being tried in juvenile court. Court records indicate that Linzy had come off juvenile probation on June 2 for drug-related charges.
Zane Earles was left alone in his swing for over two hours and was killed by the family Labrador retriever puppy, who ate parts of the baby. Linzy Earles is due in Tulsa juvenile court on December 3.
News report from http://www.newson6.com
Tulsa, OK - 2-month old Zane Allen Earles was let unattended in the home he shared with his parents, 18-year-old Tyler Craig, and mother, 17-year-old Linzy Earles and grandparents. At around 8 a.m. Monday morning, Tyler Craig left the residence. The baby’s grandfather then left the home around 8:30 in the morning after putting Zane in an elevated, wind-up child swing. The only two people left in the house aside from the baby were the baby’s grandmother and Linzy. Oh, and a 2 to 3-month old black Labrador.
At around 10:19 Monday morning, someone in the home called 911. When the paramedics arrived, they found 2-month old Zane Allen Earles dead. He had been mauled to death by the dog. While the death was an accident, investigators are now trying to determine how long the child had been dead, and how this happened without any of the family members noticing. The mother stated that they were at the opposite end of the house when the attack must have occurred.
“We’re looking at it as possibly just a tragic accident that occurred. We’re not looking to blame anyone or anything like that, but the detectives will investigate this case,” said Tulsa Police Officer Leland Ashley.
The dog was euthanized and examined at the Tulsa Animal Shelter and a pug and two cats were also removed from the home.
Now, if you see the video or the pictures, this does just seem like a tragic accident. The parents are going to be emotionally damaged for a long, long time. I am just conflicted on exactly what to think about this as I know my spawn was left unattended for an hour or more at that age, usually when I got his screaming ass down for a nap. However, we had a spawn monitor and I can honestly say, even back then, I would NEVER leave a dog, or any animal for that manner, access to my kid without me present. But I guess that is the lesson learned in this story and also why I am posting it. But what do the rest of you think? Should the people in the house be held responsible for this baby’s death?
I think she should def. take responsibility for leaving her baby unattended. When you have a new born — you don’t “sleep in.” This situation could have been avoided. I don’t by any means think it was intentional, but I really think they should be charged with negligence at the very least.
This is a tragic story but I am left wondering why the Grandpa wasn’t charged as well. He is the one who put the baby into the swing with full knowledge that the mom and grandma were still sleeping. Then without waking either of them up before he left the house , he continued on his way. I also don’t understand why no one heard the baby crying , or why he wasn’t placed in the same room with his mother.
I can’t imagine what this family is going through. I don’t know that charging the young mom is the solution, with the grandmother being at home as well. I am having a hard time trying to justify in my mind why just the young mom was singled out.
I think that given the circumstances as we know them the entire family is at fault. If they charge one, the others should be charged as well.
I think this may be the “unpopular” thing to say but I think the young mom has suffered enough and it is a tragic accident . It was bad judgement on the Grandfather’s part.
That’s okay, I say unpopular things all the time. It’s probably why I have to laugh at my own jokes. So I agree with you. These were poor, stupid and benignly neglectful parents all the way around. But one of the key words being benign. I really don’t think anyone remotely forsaw that the baby was in danger from the puppy. It may not have even occurred to them that the baby was accessible to the puppy while swinging away. Puppies are seen broadly as… cuddly warm happiness. Not baby death dealers. But it’s surely dumb to trust them unobserved. And, of course, I don’t think you should leave a baby unattended for hours. But I know other parents do that all the time - all night long, even, while the baby screams away, and call it a cry-it-out parenting method, and their babies aren’t dead (mostly.) I think manslaughter charges should involve a sort of neglect that one can reasonably conclude may end in death or serious injury, and I just don’t think this rose to that circumstance, so I hope there are additional incriminating details we simply don’t know.
I don’t know, but I could be at the other end of my yard, outside my house…and when my daughter screamed, I would HEAR IT.,… Especially if she was being ripped apart by a damn dog. Additionally, who leaves a baby that is only 2 months old, alone for more than the time it takes to run to the bathroom?
Again, when my daughter was a tot, I even took her into the bathroom with me so I could get a shower….
Manslaughter, I don’t think so… Neglect, HELL YEA! It may have been an accident, but it was an accident due to neglect. You don’t leave a baby unattended for ANY period of time…
I have reread all posts. That said I have an opinion. Imagine that! This was NOT intentional. Seems to me that the family had a routine! Why would grandpa get up and do what he did? There was a routine to let mama and grandma sleep a little later. Put baby in the swing, the ladies then get up and start there day!!!!! Bright eyed and bushy tailed. I don’t care. I have said two previous times in this post. Others have said it! I will now reiterate. DO NOT LEAVE your kids with animals un-attended EVER, EVER! I don’t care if you have done it 100 times with no results. DO NOT DO IT.
Trust me!
I’m wondering if no one fed the dog and that’s why it did what it did. It seems to me like everyone thought someone else would be watching the baby, so maybe everyone thought someone else would feed the dogs. We all do careless shit sometimes, but something about this case doesn’t sit right with me.
Apparently that’s exactly what happened Princess. Here’s the new article today. **Warning** It goes into graphic detail about the injuries.:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20081105_11_Tuls000521
Wow….I was 18 when I had my son …and the craziest thing oddly enough I guess for an 18y.o SINGLE MOM at the time was that where I was, HE was. If I was sleeping my son wasn’t sleeping on the other side of the house, he wasn’t even sleeping across my room from me …oh no not my baby he slept in my bed with me where I knew he would be safe ..and I didn’t even have any animals in my house ( I had a little dog but she got booted outside when he came home )…I couldn’t even shower with out him being in the bathroom until I finally felt secure enough to buy those contraptions they call BABY MONITERS so I could leave him in a safe place for a few minutes to get what I needed done, but not sleep for hours on end because wah wah wah I had a baby and he kept me up till 4 in the morning …. It just goes to show (and pardon my language) that sadly enough any bitch can open her legs and create a baby but only a true woman can mother her child and that bitch is anything but and I wish more than anything that it would be mandatory for anyone who ‘forgot or didnt realize her child was in the smoldering hot car in the summer time’ or even ‘left her child alone with an animal’ or ‘partied and joined a hot body contest but was really “searching” for her missing child’ or leaves children alone with ‘boyfriends’ and just everyone in general who abuses children in way shape or form become sterilized , it’s obvious they cant handle children they’re too selfish and want their fun. Well people alls I gotta say is you had fun makin those babies now have fun raising them FOR THE NEXT 18-20 years atleast …sorry I just had to let it out Im so sick of people like this and even sadder that your troops *I’m canadian btw :)* are even losing theirs lives for goofs like this
OH MY GOD !
April - when I was 40 this actually happened to me
We had a deaf cat. She was pregnant when we took her in. She had a litter of 6 and all were spoken for. However, after this birth “Nina” changed. She was paranoid and just plain mean. One night, she went down to eat and I was playing with the kittens thru the door (didn’t want to go in and disturb anything) Well, next thing I knew, here comes Nina up the stairs and latches on to my ankle! Once I got her to let go, I put her in the room with her kittens and chalked it up to over protectiveness.
About a week or so later (Mother’s Day) I was alone in the house. My oldest son was out front doing yard work. I knew that Nina and the babies needed to be fed, so I went in to feed them. I was happy to see Nina was sleeping, thinking I could get in and out without being noticed. No such luck. As I had my hand down by the bowl, pouring food, she suddenly came from behind me and bit my hand! I mean BIT. Blood was squirting across the room! I stood up to get out and she attacked my leg. Claws and teeth! I pulled her off — and she jumped back on. I was screaming by now, blood everywhere… and her between me and the door. I again pulled her off, found a comforter nearby and threw it over her…. and ran like the devil himself was chasing me!
I left a trail of blood all the way to the bathroom. My son came in and ran up to help me. All in all, he bandaged 35 wounds on my legs and one on my hand. That one became infected the next day. I went to the ER and they rushed me to a room. They hooked me up to an I.V. line and ran it thru twice. Come to find out, I could have died had I not come in. Cat bites can be fatal. They carry a very, very nasty bacteria.
2 days later, Animal Control came and took Nina, and they had to take the kittens too, due to their age. Never again. I have cats now (females) but wouldn’t breed them. I also wouldn’t trust them 100%. (Never have trusted dogs)
Just thought that was interesting to point out. Cats CAN kill, too.
80 feet is the length of a standard mobile home. Doubt that is too far to hear a baby screaming as it’s being mauled to death - unless you aren’t just sleeping, but damn near comatose. What parents don’t use monitors these days?? They just didn’t want to be bothered with a crying baby and a hyper puppy… and now both are dead.
No more kids for these Einstein’s. That’s a defective baby factory or a contaminated gene pool… nothing good to offer.
So………….. She heard her mother screaming — but not her baby???
That poor kid! How excruciating that must have been! RIP
This just makes me so sick inside-the very vision is nauseating. Horrifying to think how that little baby suffered while these fucking bitches got their rest.
Bitchass excuse about being up all night with the baby…
But you know, when parents get angry and frustrated and injure their babies - we always say the right thing to do is put them someplace safe and walk away. After being up til 4am with a crying baby, this may be exactly where she was at. Dad had the baby, she assumed he placed the baby someplace safe, and maybe she needed to just be away from the baby until she could be sane with him again. It’s a shame no one noticed the difference in his cries. But some babies scream at full throttle when they’re just left alone like that.
Kudos, Castille, for being so damn reasonable.