UPDATE 10/7/08 – Alan Jones has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the strangulation death of Erin Maxwell.  Jones is Erin’s adult stepbrother who was home alone with her at the time of her death.  Also arrested were Erin’s father, Lindsey Maxwell, and her stepmother, Lynn Maxwell. They are each charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Alan Jones is being held on $100,000 cash or $250,000 surety bond.  The Maxwells are each being held on $2500 cash or $5000 surety bonds. Warrants were issued Friday after indictments were handed down by a grand jury in the case.

Alan Jones, Lindsey and Lynn Maxwell

Our member RMiles has pics and video at his blog, Shadowscope – thanks, Richard, for the update!

Palermo, NY - Erin Maxwell died on August 29, 2008.  She was eleven years old.  This week her cause of death was ruled a homicide, but her family says that the medical examiner is wrong.  They say that Erin’s death was a tragic accident caused by her roleplay of the opening scene from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.   That movie opens with a young boy singing the pirate’s shanty “Hoist The Colours” with a noose around his neck. At the end of the scene, the child is hanged.  Erin’s family says she must have been playing pirates.

But a child’s game doesn’t explain Erin’s official cause of death:  homicide by asphyxia with sexual trauma as a contributing factor.  I’m pretty sure that Erin Maxwell didn’t rape and strangle herself.

On the evening of August 29, Erin was at home alone with her stepbrother, Alan Jones, 27.  Jones called 911 at about 5:20 p.m., saying that Erin had tried to kill herself.  Jones told police that he had found Erin standing in her room, a green cord tied tightly around her neck.  Jones further said that a rope was tied to the green cord and then attached to a screw on Erin’s window.  Erin was alive, but only just.

Erin was taken to the hospital, where she died later that evening.  She was survived by her father, Lindsey Maxwell, 35; her stepmother, Lynn Maxwell, 53; and her stepbrother Jones.  She may also have had other siblings in the home, although I haven’t confirmed that.  Erin’s mother lives in Nevada.

Almost immediately, Erin’s death was investigated as a homicide.  For one thing, most eleven year olds don’t commit suicide.  But that alone didn’t do it – the evidence of recent rape did.  Erin wasn’t hanged; she was strangled.  So it’s not likely she was singing “Hoist the Colours”.  More likely, the little girl was praying for someone to save her.

When investigators arrived at the family home, they were appalled.  Over 100 cats were in the house.  The master bedroom was, by all appearances, a giant litter box.  No trash removal service was in place, so months of accumulated trash was piled on the porch.  The stench was overwhelming, and there was a three-foot pile of feces on the floor.  Twelve dead kittens were being stored in the home’s freezer.  Also inside the house were two chickens and a snake.  Outside in a shed, police found an emu, a pot-bellied pig, several geese, and more chickens.

Makes you wonder why nobody called the Department of Social Services, right?  Oh, except they did.  Erin’s school hotlined her at least twice.  The last visit, in 2006, was closed out because social workers said that the family was cooperating, and that conditions were not bad enough to remove Erin from the home.

And yet Erin had allegedly been seen eating out of the garbage at school and hiding food.  Teachers have said they were washing Erin’s clothes themselves to help with the smell.  She was terribly thin, and sometimes kids threw soap at her.  But that wasn’t enough to get Erin help?

This poor baby reminds me of Rowan Ford.

The family has lawyered up.  They say Erin’s death was a Johnny Depp-inspired accident.  Their attorney is brushing off the rape findings, saying that the ought to be looking at her maternal family, since Erin visited her mother in Nevada from late June until early August.

But I noticed that the picture I’m using of Erin is the only one I could find that wasn’t a blur – and it was taken by her mother’s family in Nevada.   The house in which Erin is sitting in that picture is clean.  There is no rope around her neck.  In the picture above, Erin looks happy.  I’m wondering why they didn’t just go to court to keep Erin there.  Did they not know things at home were so bad?

Fact of the matter is, Erin got home alive and just fine on August 11.  Three weeks later, she was left alone with her adult stepbrother, was strangled and raped, and died. Johnny Depp didn’t do it.   But maybe, just maybe, someone closer to Erin did.

Alan Jones, Lindsey Maxwell and Lynn Maxwell have all been named persons of interest in Erin’s death.  Their house has been condemned by the city of Palermo.  And their actions – or inactions – are being condemned here.  You hateful bastards.  Couldn’t you care a little bit more for Erin than to let her live like that?  Couldn’t you care a little more than to let Erin DIE like that?

Shame on you, Lindsey and Lynn Maxwell.  Shame on you, Oswego County DSS.  Shame on you, Erin’s mother.  Shame on everyone who thought it was being handled, or didn’t want to get involved.  And shame on you, Alan Jones.  Because I suspect you might have killed Erin to cover up your sins.

Nobody has yet been charged in Erin Maxwell’s murder.

Hippiepoet is using the eff word about this case in our forums with SoUncool – thanks!

Tags: Alan Jones, Erin Maxwell, homicide, Lindsey Maxwell, Lynn Maxwell, Murder, New York, Oswego County, Palermo, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Suspicious Death