“It’s going to be a rough Christmas,” Leonard Belitz said after a court hearing today. “It won’t stop being rough until it’s done and over with, and I can relax.”

Belitz came a step closer today to the closure he is hoping for. He found out that a doctor has determined that the woman charged with killing Michael is competent to stand trial.
[...]

Her attorney, Assistant Douglas County Public Defender Gary Olson, said he wants to examine the doctor’s report and have another doctor review it.

Olson had an Omaha doctor, Dr. Bruce Gutnik, evaluate Manns this summer. Olson declined to say what that doctor found.

Douglas County District Judge Mark Ashford today scheduled a competency hearing for Nov. 12.

If Manns is found to be competent, she will have her preliminary hearing on the same date, bringing her a step closer to trial.
[...]

Kleine said a diary or day planner belonging to Manns had an entry June 22 reading, “Michael’s gone.”

A later entry referred to “Michael clean-up.”

After her arrest, Manns told investigators that her son was in Tennessee with an uncle, Kleine said.

Source

Michael had so much potential to overcome his childhood and become something greater, to possibly see after his addicted bio-donor as she got older! Senseless, just senseless!
Rest in Heavens Peace, Michael….

An Omaha woman charged in the death of her 12-year-old son had called a child-abuse caseworker in March to ask about placing the boy in foster care.
[...]

Health and Human Services said Manns left a message at the end of March asking about foster care and other options. The agency says a caseworker called back and left a message but didn’t hear back from Manns.

Source

So sad. I would have just walked in and dropped my kid off. The hell with phone calls.

Thanks to you and DV for the updates.

In court Thursday, the court-appointed defense attorney stated that Manns herself had contacted Child Protective Services, saying, “She’s afraid something bad would happen to her or her child if she didn’t receive help.”

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/50969992.html

This story pisses me off. I like my made up version better. I was hoping that mom found her son dead and couldn’t stand the thought of him being taken away so she tried to keep him home with her. Not that I think that kind of behavior is normal or anything but it’s a better alternative to what actually happened. The one time I left myself think optimistically (is that a word?)and I turn out to be wrong… I hate her even more now.

Twelve-year-old Michael Belitz’s wrists were bound together, tightly, with duct tape.

His legs, too — just below the knees.

Those details, along with allegations of a cover-up of the death, were part of the reason that Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine filed first-degree murder charges.
[...]

In the bathroom of the home, investigators found a short-handled hatchet, a knife, goggles and two buckets with plastic liners. However, it did not appear that the body had been dismembered, Kleine said.

While Kleine released some information on the ongoing investigation, he said he didn’t have an answer for two major aspects of the case — the reason for Angela Manns’ alleged actions and Michael’s cause of death. Kleine said coroner’s physicians are awaiting toxicology reports and other test results.

Kleine said the body was so far decomposed that it might not yield evidence of a specific cause of death.
[...]

Decomposition experts determined that Michael had been dead for at least two weeks, Kleine said.

Friends said they had not heard from, or seen, Michael since mid-June.

On Sunday, Omaha police responded to a 911 call and found a severely decomposed body in the tub of the family’s first-floor bathroom, located between the bedrooms of Michael and his mother.

There, Kleine said, investigators found evidence of a planned cover-up.

Kitty litter had been spread over the child’s body to try to mask the smell.

A garbage bag covered part of the body, and other garbage bags were in the bathroom. A shower curtain was found on the floor in front of the bathtub.

“There was evidence that she was going to try do something with the body — move it or hide it,” Kleine said.

Manns pulled up to the house Sunday to find police there, Kleine said.

She then tried to drive away, but Omaha police caught up to her and took her into custody.

Full Article

I might “snap” if I find my kid dead, but I doubt he’d be duct taped up and doubt I would try to get rid of the body myself.

Continuing an effort she started last year, Angela Manns’ oldest daughter e-mailed a state caseworker on June 23rd to beg for help for her 12-year-old half-brother.

“I know that mom did want to put Michael (our youngest brother) in foster care,” she wrote. “And I still feel that there should be someone to look into how the home life is.”

Family members said in interviews this week that they tried to alert HHS officials about their concerns for Michael Belitz’s well-being. Manns’ alcohol abuse, erratic behavior and temper had the family worried that Michael wasn’t safe.

But, family members said, they received no substantial response from state child services officials.
[...]

Read the Full Article

How do we know she killed her son? He might have died accidentally and mom could have snapped when she found him.

welcome obsolete!!!
you’ve obviously just gotten here =)

I know that we should give ole bug eyes the benefit of the doubt… but I know better.

If you read the article in CNN correctly….the 3rd best city is PAPILLION, NE. Not OMAHA, NE. PAPILLION is not the same as OMAHA. Yes NEBRASKA does have more than 1 city!

Are you serious? You read THIS article and THAT is what stood out enough for you to comment on?

Fuuuuuck. If you get pissy about a city in Nebraska not being acknowledged when there is a dead kid rotting in a house, you have become way too desensitized. Take a break.