Ryan and Brittany McConniel made 5-year old Lauren's life living hell until she died

[thehesbomb]

MUNCIE — A five-year-old girl whose parents have been accused of neglect of a dependent died from hypernatremia, extreme malnutrition and had physical trauma to nearly all of her body surfaces, police say.

Given the girl’s overall physical condition, including extreme malnutrition and injuries, the elevated salt levels “most likely” were the result of “administration of some form of salt, possibly as punishment,” medical authorities told police.

By the time of her death, the girl's weight had declined to the average weight for a two-and-a-half-year-old child, according to the probable cause affidavit.

A physician at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where Lauren McConniel died in March, told police the injuries to the child could not have occurred from reasonable discipline or accidental injury, and were considered to be inflicted trauma or child abuse, Muncie police Sgt. Jimmy Gibson said.

The suspects facing class A felony charges are Ryan McConniel, 33, the child’s father, and Brittany McConniel, 24, the stepmother, who lived at 2304 S. Ebright St. at the time. Both were arrested on Friday and held in the Delaware County jail over the weekend.

Ryan McConniel got custody of the girl after a divorce in Arkansas.

After Lauren’s death, the department of child services took custody of the girl’s nine-year-old sister and placed her in foster care. The sister told psychological evaluators that the parents would hit Lauren on the bottom of her feet with a stick, make her do jumping jacks and push-ups and for punishment she was made to hold heavy objects with her arms held out.

The natural mother, Amber Huggins of Knoxville, Tenn., filed an emergency petition for custody of the older daughter in Delaware County, reporting that Lauren died a suspicious death, and that she was emaciated, had elevated salt levels and was significantly bruised when she died.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the defendants told authorities that Lauren had acted bizarrely, climbing the walls like a cat, storing food in her cheeks, mutilating dolls, hearing blue bunnies telling her to do bad things, biting herself, hiding scissors in her diapers, eating her own vomit and feces, rocking, staring at the walls, eating out of trash cans and swearing.

Authorities accuse the defendants of a lack of medical care for the child.

Brittany:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1276382292&v=info&ref=search#!/profile.php?id=1614910048&ref=search

http://www.myspace.com/brittanymcconniel

http://i45.tinypic.com/6zrde0.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/2nlzi2q.jpg

Ryan:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1276382292&v=info&ref=search#!/ryan.mcconniel?ref=sgm

http://i50.tinypic.com/142t25i.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/2emk4uc.jpg


Little Lauren:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2wp5v6w.jpg

[SingleMama]

these ppl are sick... why fight for your child in the divorce just so you can torture her? was this some sick revenge against the mother? or maybe these ppl are just sick, evil s.o.b.'s that deserve to receive every ounce of pain they inflicted on that little girl 100 fold!

[Cholita]

When I hear of stories like this it always makes me think that stepmom is jealous of the little girls! I know it happens to little boys too but for some reason I feel like with a little girl they are especially jealous...just sayin'
Poor little baby girl!

[Southern Sin]

I cant understand what makes people like this?.... Its absolute madness.

They ruined her, they ruined her life and then they took it away from her.....just completely insane. To know that there is a child enduring this kind of suffering in the same house as you, while you are most likely living a relatively "normal" life.... and ignoring it..... Shocking

[carolinablue]

What I would do to these two things can't be put in writing. Suffice it to say that it would take weeks, they would beg for death and they would be reduced to a pile of unrecognizable, shredded flesh.

[thebooblady]

Timeline found at http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100615/NEWS01/6150317



Medical care sought for Lauren McConniel by her father, Ryan, and stepmother Brittany, according to investigators:

August 2009

Medical records and photographs indicate Lauren was happy and healthy while in the care of her natural mother, Amber Huggins, Knoxville, Tenn., who lost custody to Ryan, the natural father. Lauren and her sister are taken by the father to Winchester and, later, Muncie.

November 19, 2009

Lauren is taken to St. Vincent Randolph Hospital in Winchester with a complaint of soap in her eye. None of the behavioral problems the child was reportedly experiencing are reported to hospital doctors. Parents falsely claim Dr. Aaron Shoemaker in Winchester is the child's primary care physician, including caring for malnutrition issues. However, Shoemaker never saw the child.

December 8, 2009

Lauren is taken to Ball Memorial Hospital emergency department for treatment of broken right fingers from jumping on bed. Shoemaker again is listed as primary care physician. The child's bizarre behavior is not reported to BMH doctors.

Feb. 4, 2009

Lauren is taken to Southway Urgent Care in Muncie for burning urination. Nurse says vaginal area does not look normal. Child knocks self in head during exam. Father says child has been hitting and injuring herself hard enough to bruise, and has regressed to wearing diapers. Father falsely claims child had been under natural mother's care until recently. Nurse urges father to take child to Meridian Services for mental evaluation. Father and stepmother again claim Dr. Shoemaker is primary care physician.

Feb. 10, 2009

Parents take child to Meridian Services and finally report bizarre behavior, including hiding a knife and scissors in her diaper and wanting to stab her stepmother. Child blames natural mother for abuse, but those claims were never confirmed by investigators. Child looked exhausted, frail. Father says child is being fed baby food. Therapist says she has never heard of such bizarre behavior and believes child is being seriously sexually abused. Therapist is falsely told Dr. Shoemaker is treating the child's malnutrition.

March 2, 2010

Ambulance called after Lauren fell and hit her head. CT scan at Ball Memorial Hospital is normal. Clinical impression was noted as malnutrition and behavioral problems. Parents say Lauren falls a lot and gets dizzy, walks into things. Parents say Dr. Shoemaker is aware of the child's condition, and was treating her and had weighed her two days earlier.

March 2, 2010

After being released from BMH, Lauren's condition worsened. She bumped into people and apparently couldn't see. Unable to contact Meridian Services, parents take Lauren to Valle Vista Health Systems in Greenwood for psychiatric care. Dr. Shoemaker listed as primary care doctor. Bizarre behavior is reported. Licensed medical health counselor refers Lauren to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis with a diagnosis including medical neglect.

March 3, 2009

A multitude of medical providers at Riley see Lauren. She develops seizures, respiratory failure and shock. She is suffering severe malnutrition with no fat reserves whatsoever. Parents finally admit Dr. Shoemaker has never seen Lauren.

March 9, 2009

Lauren dies in the hospital.

[Jerri Blank]

http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac185/angelchildrenrip/LaurenMcConniel.jpg
5-year-old Lauren Michele McConniel



According to her father, Ryan McConniel, and her stepmother, Brittany, the 5-year-old girl would climb the wall like a cat, store food in her cheeks, mutilate her dolls and bite herself.

She reportedly saw little blue bunnies that told her to do bad things (such as stabbing daddy), rocked and stared at the wall for hours, ate food out of trash cans, armed herself with a butcher knife, had to wear diapers and rarely slept. [...]

[...] A pediatrician, Antoinette Laskey, head of the Indiana State Child Fatality Review Board, assessed the girl as having extremely high levels of salt in her blood, extreme malnutrition, bruises, scrapes and abrasions all over her body, and chewed-off fingers. She was malnourished to the point of weighing as much as the average 30-month-old. [...]

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100615/NEWS02/6150348/-1/living06/Pair-charged-in-neglect-case?source=pn_s


omg! she was so hungry she chewed off her fingers!!

The parents act like they can't understand why their child did these things...like wanting to stab daddy and store food in her cheeks....she was slowly starving to death!!!

I so want to kill these fuckers right now!

[Ravyn1965]

I don't know how anyone could look into those wide, beautiful eyes and deny her the love, care and affection she so rightly deserved. Heartless pieces of trash!

And why is it that with every story of a child being starved to death, either one or both "parents" look like they haven't missed a meal and even went back for seconds? Makes me sick!

R.I.P., sweet Lauren.

[Valasca]

the best thing in the world is being a mommy!! When you look in there eyes and see the love they have for you; that is an amazing thing! I have three amazing kids i wouldnt trade them for the world!!!! They are grow up way to fast you blink your eye and they have changed again! I have two kids of my own and have the chance of rasin my beautiful stepdaughter!! She is the one who has grown and changed the most over the summer!! She is great! kaden is going to pershool! He is already 4! He is a great kid to. Hanny is almost one where did the time go!!!!!

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=460152781&blogId=506239589

Bitch.

[MissKerosene]

I had a look at the vile cunts myspace and it seems she had no problems feeding her bio kids and taking tons of "happy family" pictures of them. This is just sickening these evil putrid pieces of shite slowly tortured and murdered this wee angel!!

I hope true justice is served to these arseholes!! I am in total shock in regards to the details of this story. Wee mite chewed off her own fingers!! The horror of that I can NOT get my head around. Not to mention how badly this child was failed all the times taken to the hospital and not once did Child services get their arses out there??? Did no one call them or check up on the parents story?? Really??

RIP wee angel Lauren you deserved so much more and a love filled life.

[Mystica43229]

Wait, was there some story posted about this child before about her behavior? I remember mentioning that she is probably being abused and that is why she is acting out.

[badfish76]

I have seen other stories on here where the murders use this excuse to explain why a child has injuries in various stages of healing.

Not only is it sick to inflict this on a child but then to try to blame the child for the injuries is beyond wrong.

The part of this that kills me the most is the claim of sharp objects in the diaper and the statement made by a health care provider that the girl's genitals didn't look right! WTF was going on??? I don't think I really wanna know.

[AngelFire]

The only thing I can think of is bringing these two pieces of shit to death's door, all maimed and mangled. Like CB said, have them begging for death to just come and take them. Pour alcohol, and salt on their wounds, and watch them squirm in pain, as I sit and watch....leave them to starve and have their insides eat itself, and all the while a nice, hot, steamy plate of food just feet away from them, but can't reach it.

[KyFyre]

Just curious, I know high levels of salt can cause blood pressure elevations and numerous other health problems, could it also cause hallucinations? I expect the hunger could induce some. But could their "punishments" have also escalated things? The self harming and wanting to stab the sperm donor and his cunt is also understandable, it's likely he was sexually abusing her, add that in with the step-monsters actions and this little girl was a mess. Poor poor baby. Chances are she was self harming because they told her she was worthless, or it was her fault they did such horrible horrible things.

I wish while they are locked up they could be fed only salt, have their bottoms of their feet whacked (that was also a form of torture in the middle ages) and have done to them what pains they inflicted on this little angel. At least now she is safe in the arms of the angels and never has to suffer another day.

[redsaid]

This is so sad. How many doctors does it take....and this is no joke. :argh: Dehydration is no way to go, fuckin jerks. I'm surprised they even TOOK her to the docs. didn't matter anyway. Did it....

[CiaraLuna]

That poor, beautiful, little girl. Poor baby was starving to the point of eating her own fingers off?! What a horrible way to die. Why couldn't they just send her back to Mom if they didn't like her.

Her dad looks like one mean SOB. He just wanted custody to get back at Mom. They both must have had nothing but hatred for Lauren to let her suffer so. :frown2:

[AngelFire]

If children would be considered human beings by these monsters instead of pawns, this shit wouldn't be going on as much as it does now. But sadly, some people procreate out of laziness to use birth control, and not because they are ready to have kids and be a caring and loving parents. Then the kids come, and become burdens to these idiots, and then neglect sets in, and the flood gates open to more potential abuse.

I was one of the lazy asses who didn't seek birth control, and got pregnant with my oldest son at 20. But we made ourselves take responsibility and provided the best home for our little guy. We argued, and we stopped speaking to one another on several occassions, but to use our own child to get at the other one, was NEVER an option.

I don't know, I guess I am rambling. But I am so enraged that these poor babies keep dying,and all to play a game of tug of war with a helpless baby. She was happy with her mom, she was striving before custody was granted to the devil himself. Now she is dead, at the hands of her sperm donor. A perfectly beautiful happy little girl is dead, and I am royally pissed

[Mom2three]

I just don't understand people that starve their children.:dong:

There are times when it has been "one of those days" that my daughter may not eat the healthiest (but she gets 3 meals) and I feel guilty for that. I just don't know how you don't feed your kid at all???

[SingleMama]

I'd like to know how she saw soooo many doctors and no one noticed she was in trouble?! Her fingers were chewed off and the doctors just referred them to someone else?! I don't get it!! If they honestly didn't suspect abuse (which I find really fucking hard to believe) they should've at least suspected some severe mental health issues and in that case, she should've been admitted for observation!! At least then she would've been fed!!!!!!!! So many people failed this little girl. Especially those "parents". Sick fucks.

[HijabiGirl]

There is a genetic disorder called Lesh-Nyhans syndrome which is unique for self mutilization. This is includes but is not limited to chewing off finger tips, bashing head against walls, and other self injurious behavior. It's a pretty devastating disease and often the patient is kept in special care in restraints as well as a padded bed.

With that said, this child obviously was suffering systematic abuse and starvation. Hypernatremia was most likely due to severe dehydration and her bizarre behavior in the end (if she was truly hallucinating, etc.,) was probably due to cerebral edema. If she was in complete health in her mother's care but then deteriorated to this level it's safe to say the new caretakers are the cause. I am stunned that DCF was not contacted as soon as a nurse noted the "abnormal vaginal appearance" and the complete regression of this child's behavior. I am further stunned that NOT ONE HEALTH PROFESSIONAL contact her alleged PMP, that's basic medicine 101.

This poor child died a death that I don't care to comtemplate. They should sterilize her so-called father and that witch of a stepmother. Then slowly kill them in the method they utilized on this poor kid.

[Mystica43229]

Yes! Sterilization to child abusers/molesters/killers! But, the gov won't allow that...

[lisaznola]

When The Star Press visited 2304 S. Ebright St. on Monday, a woman who answered the door along with a pit bull declined comment.

According to investigators, Lauren's household on Ebright Street included her grandparents,Robert and Angie Lee, and her aunt, Samra Lee.

Samra

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=460152781&albumID=1076224&imageID=12685279


Maddox believes the stories about her granddaughter's bizarre behavior were either lies or "something that was trauma-induced."

"How do you develop a mental illness that quickly unless it's caused by abuse?" Maddox asked. "She was happy and well-adjusted" when the father took the child and her sister from the birth mother in Tennessee last summer, Maddox said.

The natural mother now has custody of the surviving sister. Gibson described the natural mother as "a good mother."

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100615/NEWS01/6150317

If you look through the pix on step monster's page you can see the baby get weaker and weaker.

[Silvahalo]

The sister was quoted as saying: "It was scary there. I didn't like they way they hit her. It made me cry." Lauren never received hugs or kisses from her father or stepmother, her sister said.No hugs, no kisses along with no food or mercy.

This stepmother had children of her own, seemingly loving from her FB pic's of them. HOW, could she then turn on an innocent child like this? WHY? How could she allow such torture? in the affidavit, it indicates that with in the household the grandparents and an aunt resided. They saw this child suffer and die slowly and did nothing.

Lauren was said to be rocking for hours chanting, "I hate myself...fucking bitch."...my heart weeps...
What Lauren went thru was a complete and torturous breakdown of spirit, mind, body and soul. A child of 5 yo....A CHILD OF 5 YEARS OLD. Lauren had no father. Only a man who promised and delivered death. I hope death returns to take him in a most vile way.

My heart weeps for you Lauren. Though I know my tears and words cannot change your ending, you will not possibly be forgotten...your face is forever in my heart.

Kisses and hugs little angel....light the heavens!
http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s341/silvahalo68/Fallen%20angels/FallenAngels2/LaurenMcConniel.jpg




Police probable cause affidavit for McConniel case. (http://www.thestarpress.com/assets/pdf/C7159541615.PDF)

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The jumping jacks and pushups that play a key role in the Lauren McConniel child abuse case can be easily explained, a family member claimed Tuesday.
[...]

Brittany McConniel's uncle, Anthony Rice, Farmland, told The Star Press, however, that the exercising was voluntary and that Lauren McConniel was in a wrestling program through the Muncie PAL Club.

"That's where the pushups and sit-ups and jumping jacks come into play," Rice said. "They did it for fun."

Rice was one of about a half dozen relatives who were in attendance Tuesday as the couple appeared in Delaware Circuit Court 5 for separate initial hearings.
[...]

The Star Press was not immediately able to confirm whether Lauren McConniel had been in a PAL Club wrestling program before her death. A man who answered the phone there Tuesday afternoon said he would look into it.

Aside from the pushups and jumping jacks, the McConniels have also been accused of hitting Lauren with a stick and wet towel and forcing her to hold heavy cans of food or books with arms outstretched.

Rice, Brittany McConniel's uncle, denied these allegations.

He said the couple were doing everything they could to get the girl the proper emotional and physical help.

Steve Shreves, Ryan McConniel's cousin, said someone might have been abusing Lauren, but that it wasn't Ryan.

"Ryan's just not that type of person," Shreves said.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100616/NEWS01/6160312

[Dakota Valkyrie]

In the months leading up to her death, 5-year-old Lauren McConniel was treated twice at Ball Memorial Hospital, once at Southway Urgent Care Center, once at St. Vincent Randolph Hospital in Winchester and three times at Merdian Services, a behavioral health care provider.

Despite staff seeing broken fingers, malnutrition, a head injury, weight loss, unusual vaginal appearance and bizarre behavior, only one of these professional caregivers called Child Protective Services (CPS), which was just a 1-800 telephone call away, police say.

Karen Royer -- a counselor at Meridian who reported that in all of her years of dealing with kids she had never heard of such bizarre behavior, and who believed the girl was being seriously sexually abused -- did contact CPS. Lauren looked exhausted, frail and fragile to Royer.

But that was on March 1, and the target of the sexual abuse allegation was not the girl's father, Ryan, or stepmother, Brittany, who had custody of Lauren. The target was Amber Huggins, the girl's natural mother who was living in Knoxville, Tenn. Huggins had last seen her daughter seven months earlier, when Lauren was in good health, and Huggins had been desperately searching for her.

By March 3, Lauren was hospitalized at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where she developed seizures, respiratory failure and shock. She died there six days later.

"Child Protective Services was contacted by Karen Royer over allegations of sexual abuse that Ryan and Brittany made about the natural mother," said Muncie police Sgt. Jimmy Gibson. "The trouble is, Karen Royer believed Ryan and Brittany. They were believable. But I don't suspect the natural mom at all. The natural mom hadn't had contact with the child since August, and here this (allegation) was coming up in February and March. When the natural mom had custody of her, her weight was normal and the pictures showed she was healthy and happy."

And those weren't the only lies the McConniels told to caregivers, Gibson said. They also claimed that Lauren was being treated for malnutrition by a Winchester physician, who had never even seen her once.

Also, at Southway Urgent Care on Feb. 4, the McConniels presented themselves as rescuers of the child, claiming they had just recently obtained custody of the girl. "When questioned about the girl's weight, they acted concerned and blamed the natural mom," Gibson said. "And they were convincing."
[...]

Under Indiana law, anyone who has reason to believe that a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect is required to report it.

Police have not closed their investigation of the hospital's and Southway's failure to report the McConniels to CPS. Failing to report is a misdemeanor, Gibson said.

"Any red flag could be reported to us," said Ann Houseworth, a spokesman for the department of child services. "We would rather assess a situation that was not a case of abuse and neglect than not assess a situation and find that the child was placed in more harm."
[...]

Police also haven't closed their investigation into other family members for failure to report.

Lauren's stepgrandparents Robert and Angie Lee and her stepaunt Samra Lee shared a house at 2304 S. Ebright St. with the McConniels, Lauren and Lauren's older sister.

"There are a whole lot more family members (than the McConniels) who could be held accountable," Gibson said. "But how far do we go? Do we arrest everybody? We're behind on other cases and under-staffed."
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100616/NEWS01/6160321/Red-flags-not-recognized-during-fatal-neglect-of-Lauren-McConniel

[kafka]

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100616/NEWS01/6160321/Red-flags-not-recognized-during-fatal-neglect-of-Lauren-McConniel

Yes! You arrest them all ass hole.

[badfish76]

This just makes me SICK.

The suffering of this poor child is unbelievable and to think she was taken to doctors over and over and only ONE person reported it!

I can not imagine what they were doing to her, what she went thru. The pictures on stepthing's myspace compared to the pic posted here show a total deterioration, and STILL, while she was being starved and abused she has a smile on her face.

My heart is just totally shattered and I know we could take these POS out and skin them alive and it STILL wouldn't be real justice for this child.

[thehesbomb]

MUNCIE, Ind. —
Muncie police are investigating why several medical workers who treated a 5-year-old girl who later died of malnutrition and possible abuse didn't contact child welfare officials as required by law.

Police Sgt. Jimmy Gibson tells The Star Press that Lauren McConniel was taken at least seven times to hospitals or other health providers in the months before her March 9 death, but no report was made to Child Protective Services until two days before her final hospitalization.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-malnutritiondeath,0,5935340.story

[Mystica43229]

I'm trying to find a story posted (I think last month) where this child was out of control. She got knives and ate out of the garbage and the mother said she was at her wit's end. I bring it up because it seems similar and perhaps the child in the story I mentioned is being abused as well.

[Whisper]

More than 100 attend girl's vigil
MUNCIE, Ind. -- More than 100 people turned out for a candlelight vigil Friday in memory of Lauren McConniel, the 5-year-old girl who died from alleged neglect.
Mourners included adults and children, most of whom didn't know the victim. They brought flowers, pink teddy bears, a pink "Princess" balloon, candles, a poem and white T shirts that read, "In Loving Memory of Lauren Michele McConniel, In Jesus's Loving Arms."
Paul Hovis, Hartford City, came to the vigil by his girlfriend, Jody Sorrell.
[...]
"There may be evil, but God is greater," Sorrell said. "More people may speak up now about child abuse. We need to be here. This is important."
Before her death in March, Lauren had dwindled to the weight of a 30-month-old and suffered seizures, respiratory failure and shock. Her father, Ryan, and stepmother, Brittany, were jailed last weekon felony charges of child neglect resulting in death.
Gary and Valerie Huxhold had a sign made displaying Lauren's photograph inside a pink heart. Gary Huxhold hopes the girl's death "opens some eyes."
The Huxholds and others attending the vigil questioned why medical providers who treated Lauren as well as three other adult relatives who lived in the household didn't report the alleged neglect to child protective services.
A cardboard sign hanging between two trees in front of the house where the girl had lived read, "The McConniels and Lees moved out April 1. New tenants moved in May 1st." The Lees are Brittany McConniel's mother, stepfather and sister.
"I don't want the people who live there now to be run in the dirt," said Teanna Clark, a mother and co-organizer of the event who lives a block away. "We don't want people driving by the house to hurt them."
Organizers invited those attending to write messages in a condolence book for Lauren's biological mother, Amber Huggins, and to make donations to help pay travel expenses for Huggins, who now lives in Knoxville, Tenn., to attend the criminal court proceedings in Muncie.
Tina Merryweather, Clark’s mother, read a prayer and then a poem about being thankful for being able to see a beautiful butterfly even though it didn’t stay around long. After 45 minutes, dark clouds and high winds sent the crowd rushing down the middle of the street to the safety of vehicles.http://www.indystar.com/article/20100618/LOCAL/6180419/1001/NEWS

[MadeaBecBec]

Brittany McConniel had bond lowered and is out (on bond)....


MUNCIE -- Six months after convincing a judge to modify her bond, Brittany McConniel has been freed from jail pending trial on charges of neglect resulting in the death of her stepdaughter.


McConniel had testified that her relatives might be able to post a property bond offering title to their property, which would be forfeited if she disappears, or that they might be able to get her out of jail with a surety bond facilitated through a bail bondsman. That would cost her family a 10-percent, nonrefundable premium, or $3,000.
That's how she got out of jail on Friday, after spending $3,000 with a bail bondsman.


She was born in Muncie, and she and her husband have lived in Muncie, Winchester, Farmland, Eaton and Arkansas. She has worked as an aide at a Muncie nursing home, at a Winchester nursing home and at Ball Memorial Hospital.

Ryan recently filed a petition to dissolve the couple's marriage.

http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011102150344

Comments:

Missinghertoo wrote:

Seems messed up to me where would she be if this were Judge Thomas Cannon's grandaughter ?, Why would a bond be modified or set low enough for her to be release before trial.Sopporter's ? What about the people who wernt there in support of her , the ones that loved her , Family ? my mom had 13 kids and my family is to many to count and were all apposed to the way this has been handled . If this would have been you grandaughter and you stayed by her side at rieley not knowing what to feel, think, say and praying for God to take your life instead , Where would she be ? Dont sweep this tragady under the rug my gradaughter deserves much more . If the fact that she lived in Muncie is in play maybe they shoudldnt be tried in muncie , she shouldnt get preferential treatment because she lived or had family in muncie . a crime is a crime

2/15/2011 5:34:29 PM


jerbear77 wrote:
That's the thing HER biological mom wanted her! The courts in Arkansas give her and her sister to the sperm donor,I cannot call him a father,because SHE couldn't afford a lawyer.........(snipped)
2/15/2011 2:00:05 PM


I have worked in the legal field, I am certain that the children were not given to the sperm donor just because Mom didn't have a lawyer, especially here in Arkansas! There is every legal aid available, free to persons that are considered indigent, most certainly free to Mothers. Attorneys volunteer, give legal advice and a mother seeking custody does not have to have a lawyer, she just needs to appear in court. I'm pretty sure she (Ms. Huggins) is feeling guilty enough, so I won't go any further, except to say, it seems she may have left the girls with sperm donor for too long before it was brought to court.

It makes me heartsick that this happened to a child, torture and starvation, possible sexual abuse, realizing though that Brittany worked as an aid in a hospital setting, makes the non-reporting a bit easier to understand, she probably knew some of the Doctors and Nurses, plus she knew just what to say to be convincing.....

Lauren, sweet baby, I am convinced you are truly loved and feasting there in heaven, Fly baby fly!

[Tundratot]

Hey, she's out! Road trip!

[Tundratot]

Aww. Now the legal wrangling begins. What should the jury see? Where should the trial be held?


MUNCIE -- Attorneys for Brittany and Ryan McConniel want a "test" jury selected before their upcoming neglect trials to "determine prejudice from pre-trial publicity" stemming from the March 2010 death of his 5-year-old daughter.

When their trials -- set for May 9 and June 6, respectively -- are actually conducted, the McConniels want jurors sequestered, a step rarely taken in Delaware County trials not involving a possible death sentence.

Those and other pre-trial motions -- including asking that jurors not see the child's autopsy photos -- will be considered by Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. at a Thursday afternoon hearing.

. . .

Britanny McConniel's public defender, Zaki Ali, also is requesting that his client's trial be held outside of Delaware County.

Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman has filed written arguments against most of the requests made by Ali and Ryan McConniel's public defender, John Brooke.

In his request that jurors be sequestered -- presumably to be housed at county expense at a local motel while the trials are ongoing -- Brooke said his intent was not to "inconvenience the prospective jurors, nor place an unreasonable financial burden on the taxpayers of Delaware County, but to ensure a fair trial." Of course. But, hey, if the expense and hassle makes it impossible to go forward, that would suit you very much.

Brooke also called media coverage stemming from Lauren McConniel's death "excessive and prejudicial" and that pre-trial publicity "not only has continued, but has increased." Not so I've noticed. . . .

Brooke wrote that if jurors viewed autopsy photos, they might unfairly hold his client "responsible for the cuts, incisions and indignity of the autopsy." I think we can see past the autopsy incisions right to the emaciation and injuries that aren't part of the autopsy. And I'm sure the coroner will point those out.

The defense attorneys proposed that in lieu of autopsy photos, they would agree to stipulate to "the identity of the victim and that she is no longer living." I don't think that the identity is why they show those photos, guys. It's to show the jury what the victim sustained in real images and not just little pencil lines on a body chart. Seeing is believing.

Hoffman responded that prosecutors needed to introduce such evidence to demonstrate "the victim's severe emaciation," including a "complete lack of subcutaneous fat cells." Yeah!

At another pre-trial hearing, Hoffman will seek permission to present the testimony of a mental health professional who interviewed Lauren McConniel's siblings.

Those interviews produced "detailed descriptions of how they observed the ... physical abuse and neglect of the decedent," Hoffman wrote.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110330/NEWS01/103300338

[MadeaBecBec]

On Friday, a judge ruled that jurors in the Muncie woman's upcoming neglect trial can hear accounts of comments two children made about the Muncie woman's treatment of her alleged victim, her stepdaughter, Lauren.


....Brittany McConniel goes on trial on May 9, prosecutors can present the testimony of a New Castle psychologist who examined Lauren McConniel's older sister and Brittany McConniel's young son from a prior relationship.
The mental health professional, Kenneth McCoy, told Cannon on Friday that Lauren McConniel's sister told him she saw their stepmother beat the bottoms of Lauren's feet with sticks.
Brittany McConniel's son, meanwhile, told the psychologist that "Lauren died on the cross" because she had been spanked so frequently.


Also Friday, Cannon ruled prosecutors could present most -- but not all -- of the autospy photographs they had hoped to display to jurors.
Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman had argued the photographs were needed to show Lauren's "severe emaciation" at the time of her death.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110409/BUSTED/104090310/1023/Reba-C-Shorter-82/Judge-McConniel-jurors-can-hear-about-childrens-comments?odyssey=mod_sectionstories
The Judge struck down most of the Defense motions that were ludricous!
AND THEN.....

MUNCIE -- Ryan McConniel has struck a deal with prosecutors and will plead guilty to a charge stemming from his 5-year-old daughter's death that could send him to prison for up to 20 years.
As part of the plea agreement, the Muncie man is expected to testify against his estranged wife, Brittany, who remains charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a Class A felony carrying a maximum 50-year prison term. Her trial is set for May 9.


Also filed Thursday was a 10-page affidavit -- ordered sealed by Judge Cannon -- purported to contain "factual statements (from Ryan McConniel) describing abuse and/or neglect inflicted upon Lauren McConniel by a certain person or persons."
In his request to have the affidavit sealed, Hoffman wrote that "not all of those persons have been formally charged with criminal offenses as they are currently under investigation."

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110408/BUSTED/104080340/McConniel-father-strikes-deal-fatal-neglect-case-testify-against-wife?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFrontpage+Dont Miss

Seems to me, there are others that should be charged with aiding and abetting, in Laurens death!

[princessgrandma]

Yeah, there are definitely others who should be charged.

What this baby had to go through each and every single day of her life.... the pain of a slow death in this way.... it's just too much for my tiny little mind to accept. This baby was failed over and over by a system that was supposed to protect her, by family members that were supposed to protect her.

Yeah, she probably did see little blue bunnies because she was hallucinating. She was hallucinating BECAUSE SHE WAS BEING STARVED TO DEATH.

Sorry for the caps, but I swear I just want to get a hold of these people and just rip their freakin throats out.

And now Daddy is going to save himself some prison time by turning on step-mommy dearest. It's not right. He should get as much time as her, if not more. He was the girl's father, he should have protected her. Adam Baker, anyone?

[Toxic]

Oh my god, how could someone do that to a beautiful little girl? I hope he gets ass-fucked to death in prison and she becomes big berthas "lil lady"

[hidden Angel]

The Trial for Brittany McConniel started today at the Delaware County court house in muncie IN.




http://www.indystar.com/article/20110408/NEWS02/104080369/Man-strikes-deal-daughter-s-death

MUNCIE, Ind. -- A Muncie man has struck a deal with prosecutors and will plead guilty to a charge stemming from his 5-year-old daughter's death that could send him to prison for up to 20 years.

As part of the plea agreement, Ryan McConniel is expected to testify against his estranged wife, Brittany, who is charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a felony carrying a maximum 50-year prison term. Her trial is set for May 9.





-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kathy Sanders

[Momzilla]

Listed as potential targets of investigations stemming from the girl's death are Brittany McConniel -- from whom Ryan McConniel was granted a divorce Feb. 18, pending the payment of related court fees -- and three members of her family who to date have not been charged


Hmmmm.....I would really like to know who these other 3 people are who stood by and watched a little girl be tortured to death- BESIDES little Lauren's own father, of course!



Ryan McConniel would plead guilty to neglect of a dependent, a Class B felony carrying a standard 10-year term. The length of his sentence, which could range from 6 to 20 years, would be left up to Cannon.


That last part just made my eye twitch with stroke-inducing anger!- 6 years for a father who helped torture his own daughter to death!

Come on DA's office...I know you would like to have testimony against the step-monster but can't you flip one of her "3 yet-to-be-charged family members"!!! I really hope his plea deal isn't final yet!

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110408/BUSTED/104080340/McConniel-father-strikes-deal-fatal-neglect-case-testify-against-wife

[hidden Angel]

its just messed up how a father can do that to his own child. Also I would like to see in the new what happens at the trial this just bothers me so much. She was gone before she had a chance to really live.

[Banditbird]

[QUOTE=Momzilla;515386]Hmmmm.....I would really like to know who these other 3 people are who stood by and watched a little girl be tortured to death- BESIDES little Lauren's own father, of course!


The three people are Samra Lee (Brittany's 20 year old sister), Angi Lee (Brittany's mother), and Robert E. Lee (Brittany's step-father, the one she claims molested her when she was a child).

Yes, and Angi never missed a single day on Facebook during the entire six months it took to murder Lauren. Her page was open and readable two weeks ago and it was absolutely sickening.

And when Brittany was out on bail as of February 15, 2011, she was back on Facebook under her maiden name Brittany Lee. Psycho-bitch.:argh:

[Toxic]

Plea agreement....bbargain....these shouldnt ever be things given to anyone who hurts a cchild...im sorry but when you hurt something so innocent and frail, you shouldnt have rights anymore!

[hidden Angel]

[QUOTE=Momzilla;515386]Hmmmm.....I would really like to know who these other 3 people are who stood by and watched a little girl be tortured to death- BESIDES little Lauren's own father, of course!


The three people are Samra Lee (Brittany's 20 year old sister), Angi Lee (Brittany's mother), and Robert E. Lee (Brittany's step-father, the one she claims molested her when she was a child).

Yes, and Angi never missed a single day on Facebook during the entire six months it took to murder Lauren. Her page was open and readable two weeks ago and it was absolutely sickening.

And when Brittany was out on bail as of February 15, 2011, she was back on Facebook under her maiden name Brittany Lee. Psycho-bitch.:argh:

What did Angi Lee's facebook say two weeks ago? I dont know them so I could not read it. This is one sick ass family who all deserve to go through the same thing that little girl did. I wish I knew were they all were so i could start a picket outside there home. Its crazy how people can treat children and expect to go away with it. If I was on that jury that bitch would dead the death sentance, Just like they did to that sweet little girl. Also where the fuck was CPS during this entire time of abuse.

Seriously that whole family that lived in that home during the abuse needs to rott in hell. and if anyone knows anything to help with getting this step monster and fucker (dad) the punishment they deserve should go to the DA's office or the police. Because we cant have people like this running and living out on our streets. its sick twisted and psycho. I hope they all get put on trial and they all serve the max allowed by the law period

[hidden Angel]

MUNCIE -- When Ryan McConniel told his wife he felt she was responsible for the death of his 5-year-old daughter, she reportedly responded, "Prove it."

On Tuesday, prosecutors began an effort to do exactly that.

Testimony is under way in the Delaware Circuit Court 5 trial of Brittany McConniel, 25, charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a Class A felony carrying a maximum 50-year prison term.

Authorities say Lauren McConniel died in March 2010 after her father and stepmother failed to seek medical treatment for the malnourished girl's many health ailments.

Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman's at-times-emotional opening statement to jurors suggested the girl was also the target of extreme abuse from her stepmother, and perhaps others, in their family's South Ebright Street home, which Hoffman said became "a house of horror."

As expected, Ryan McConniel, 34, took the witness stand Tuesday to testify against his now-former-wife.

While most of Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold's questions about specific allegations of abuse and neglect will come when the victim's father returns to the stand at 8:30 a.m. today, McConniel did discuss his decision to strike a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to a neglect charge that could send him to prison for 20 years.

"Looking back on everything now, I could have done something more to stop the abuse," McConniel said. "I believe (Brittany) is guilty. ... I just want the truth to be known. It is what it is."

Under questioning from Arnold, McConniel said his two daughters from a previous marriage were in the care of his wife for up to 14 hours daily while he worked at a local factory and attended classes at Ivy Tech.

Ryan McConniel said his family shared the Ebright Street house with Brittany McConniel's mother, stepfather and sister, but that he was generally the household's only wage-earner.

In his opening remarks Tuesday morning, Hoffman:

• Said Lauren McConniel was a "beautiful, happy, loving 5-year-old girl" when she was removed from her mother's Tennessee home and put in the care of her father and stepmother in August 2009.

Over the next seven months, she transformed into a "pale, fragile, malnourished and exhausted child" who had been "beaten, abused, tortured and neglected."

When she died in Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Lauren's body was "mysteriously full of salt," which was a major factor in her death, he said.

While no one has been formally charged with forcing the child to ingest the mineral, there appeared to be an over-abundance of salt in the McConniel home, Hoffman said, including a large spaghetti sauce jar full of salt.

• Told jurors that witnesses, including Ryan McConniel, would testify about extreme punishments Brittany McConniel inflicted on her stepdaughter, including forcing her to hold up cans of vegetables for extended periods of time, do jumping jacks until she collapsed from exhaustion and beating the bottoms of the girl's feet with sticks.

"The last six months of Lauren's life was a living hell," Hoffman said.

• Said several witnesses would testify that Brittany McConniel told them, falsely, that Lauren was under the care of a Winchester physician during the months her weight was plummeting and the girl's behavior was becoming increasingly disturbing and self-destructive.

• Maintained witnesses at Riley Hospital the day Lauren died saw the victim's stepmother and members of her family "laughing, joking, having a good old time" within minutes of the child's death.

By contrast, Lauren's mother, Amber Huggins, on Tuesday tearfully recalled holding her daughter in her last moments after life-support devices were shut off.

Huggins -- who lost custody of her daughters in an Arkansas court hearing at which she didn't have legal representation -- said Ryan and Brittany McConniel gave her a false address when they took Lauren from her mother's Tennessee home in August 2009.

Huggins said she repeatedly tried to track down Lauren and the McConniels over the next seven months, but didn't see her daughter again until she was near death at Riley Hospital.

"I couldn't find her," the mother testified.

When he took the witness stand, Ryan McConniel maintained Brittany McConniel was the driving force in seizing custody of Lauren from her mother.

Defense attorney Zaki Ali -- who didn't make an opening statement to jurors -- objected when Arnold asked a question that seemed to imply the defendant had been motivated by a pursuit of weekly child support payments from Huggins.

A mental health professional also testified Tuesday that Lauren's older sister described the punishment -- including foot beatings and jumping jacks -- inflicted on the victim, and said she and her sister had received "the hardest whipping a kid can ever get."

Psychologist Kenneth McCoy also said Brittany McConniel's 4-year-old son told him Lauren had died "because she got too many spankings."

Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. has said the trial could last as long as two weeks.





http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110511/NEWS01/105110315/Ryan-McConniel-believe-she-s-guilty-

[Tundratot]

The dick of the year father is testifying and, in typical fashion, busy claiming his own innocence and throwing the former love/cunt of his life under the bus:


As expected, Ryan McConniel, 34, took the witness stand Tuesday to testify against his now-former-wife. . . . "Looking back on everything now, I could have done something more to stop the abuse," McConniel said. "I believe (Brittany) is guilty. ... I just want the truth to be known. It is what it is."

Under questioning from Arnold, McConniel said his two daughters from a previous marriage were in the care of his wife for up to 14 hours daily while he worked at a local factory and attended classes at Ivy Tech.

Ryan McConniel said his family shared the Ebright Street house with Brittany McConniel's mother, stepfather and sister, but that he was generally the household's only wage-earner. . . .

Ryan McConniel maintained Brittany McConniel was the driving force in seizing custody of Lauren from her mother.

Other witnesses will testify:


Lauren McConniel was a "beautiful, happy, loving 5-year-old girl" when she was removed from her mother's Tennessee home and put in the care of her father and stepmother in August 2009.

Over the next seven months, she transformed into a "pale, fragile, malnourished and exhausted child" who had been "beaten, abused, tortured and neglected."

. . . Lauren's body was "mysteriously full of salt," which was a major factor in her death. . .

. . . extreme punishments Brittany McConniel inflicted on her stepdaughter, including forcing her to hold up cans of vegetables for extended periods of time, do jumping jacks until she collapsed from exhaustion and beating the bottoms of the girl's feet with sticks. . . .

. . . [At] Riley Hospital the day Lauren died saw the victim's stepmother and members of her family "laughing, joking, having a good old time" within minutes of the child's death.

By contrast, Lauren's mother, Amber Huggins, on Tuesday tearfully recalled holding her daughter in her last moments after life-support devices were shut off.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110511/NEWS01/105110315

[Banditbird]

[QUOTE=Banditbird;515424]

What did Angi Lee's facebook say two weeks ago? I dont know them so I could not read it. This is one sick ass family who all deserve to go through the same thing that little girl did. I wish I knew were they all were so i could start a picket outside there home. Its crazy how people can treat children and expect to go away with it. If I was on that jury that bitch would dead the death sentance, Just like they did to that sweet little girl. Also where the fuck was CPS during this entire time of abuse.

Seriously that whole family that lived in that home during the abuse needs to rott in hell. and if anyone knows anything to help with getting this step monster and fucker (dad) the punishment they deserve should go to the DA's office or the police. Because we cant have people like this running and living out on our streets. its sick twisted and psycho. I hope they all get put on trial and they all serve the max allowed by the law period

Totally agree with you on all points.

Turns out Angi's wall is still up and open at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1448973343&sk=wall

I don't know why, but it's still open for everyone to see. She mentioned Lauren once, the day Lauren died. Witnesses from the hospital have testified that Angi and her kin were laughing and having a grand ol'time just minutes after Lauren died.

Sick and twisted and heartless.

[radi0ph0nic]

By contrast, Lauren's mother, Amber Huggins, on Tuesday tearfully recalled holding her daughter in her last moments after life-support devices were shut off.

I cannot even imagine the torture of being in this mother's shoes, holding her dying child in her arms.

[DamagedGoods]

Turns out Angi's wall is still up and open at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1448973343&sk=wall



JFC Isn't she a tad old to be doing the "sexy" profile pics? *gag*

[Toxic]

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h104/lissaida/148165_1681037832993_1448973343_1705301_5127703_n. jpg

Someone should starve this bitch and punish her with salt..

Disgusting!

[Tundratot]

The witness also said McConniel and her stepfather, Robert E. Lee, 44, used posts from a crib to beat Lauren's hands and the soles of her feet, and also used wet rags to beat her legs.

Lee suggested the latter punishment after seeing it inflicted on a character on a television crime drama, Ryan McConniel said.

Brittany McConniel told authorities investigating Lauren's death that while growing up, she was repeatedly molested by Robert Lee. He has not been charged in connection with those allegations, or his purported abuse of Lauren McConniel. . . .

Ryan McConniel also said Wednesday that Brittany at one point told him "Lauren needs to start being good or I'm going to break her." . . .

The victim's father said he removed Lauren from the custody of her mother, who lived in Tennessee, in the summer of 2009 at the insistence of his then-wife, Lee and other household members, who thought the girl's presence in their home would result in child support payments.

"We just needed the money," he said. . . .

The 34-year-old father -- who said he was physically intimidated by the larger Lee -- said the attacks on his daughter also came after "she would smart off or leave a toy out."

During the forced exercise, Ryan McConniel said, Lauren "would cry and ask if she could stop," only to have her stepmother then extend the period of activity by 10 minutes. . . .

Linda Smith, a Gaston woman who is both Ryan McConniel's aunt and Brittany McConniel's stepgrandmother, testified Wednesday that she found Lauren to be "a delightful child, a pleasure to be around," soon after she was placed in her father's custody, but later saw a marked deterioration in her health and spirits.

"The child could light up a room with her smile," Smith recalled of her earliest dealings with the girl.

About a month before Lauren's death, Smith visited the McConniel home and said she was startled to find Lauren shivering in a shower, under the spray of "ice-cold" water.

Smith said she then confronted Brittany McConniel, who claimed Lauren was "used to cold showers."

The witness said the girl "looked terrible ... like she had lost 20 pounds when she couldn't afford to lose one."http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110512/NEWS01/105120345

I'm sure Lee was big and intimidating, but if that asshole father McConniel had showed the least bit of spine and defended his little girl, stopped the punishments being increased or given her any cuddles and hugs, Lee and Brittany would probably back off. Instead, he condoned it by failing to do a damned thing.

[Toxic]

Double post

[Toxic]

"We just needed the money," he said. . . .

Yeah cus thats all kids are huh? Fucking ATM machines

I am hating them more and more as I read on

[TrailerQueen]

Not that it was ever my business to do so, But after learning of the death little Lauren. I looked through anyone from the family's facebook I coud get into, and the step sister Samra had her wall open at the time. She had some short video clips of the kids and family posted on her wall from months before laurens death. and in One of the video you see Lauren singing ( so precious ) and in the other video Lauren is dancing her her Daddy. I just didn't know what to think =( the whole situation is so heartbreaking. The monther of Brittany had posted a few times that her "grandbaby" was sick and they didn't know what was wrong with her asking for prayers from family and friends.
I agree with one of the posters here I am sure her evil step monster knew exactly what to say and how to get around child abuse charges. The fact is they moved from that house and from what I have heard a few other times since the death of the little girl. they all have different parts of the state listed as their homes, and the step father "still" says he's in Ohio. I don't believe this wanting Lauren for child support payments, because other wise they would not have been HIDING form her birth mother. I feel they took that little girl and abused her just to hurt her mother. and if you read the first reports EACH time they took her to the dr / er they always claimed they "JUST" got her from her birth mother, making it appear that her abuse came from her birth mother and not them.
and on another note..... last year when I came across her birth mother's myspace profile the adress was "pyscho mom" now of course I see its been changed...... again I just don't know what to think....

[Tundratot]

Mary Verghese, an emergency room physician at Riley Hospital for Children, testified Thursday that Lauren was emaciated and dehydrated when her father and stepmother brought her to the Indianapolis hospital on March 3, 2010.

The girl weighed about 28 pounds, the typical weight for a child half her age, another Riley physician said.

"It was something you'd see in a third-world country," said Laura Pachloski, a primary care physician in Riley's pediatric intensive care unit.

Verghese said Lauren was so dehydrated when she arrived at the hospital, when the girl cried -- in response to painful stimuli -- "she had no tears."

"She appeared cachectic and malnourished with her bones sticking out on her cheeks and ribs," the doctor said. . . .

Witnesses in the trial have provided grim accounts of Lauren's behavior in the final weeks of her life, with episodes that saw her running into walls, biting the tips of her fingers and toes, making herself vomit, trying to eat vomit and feces, and having hallucinations with "little blue bunnies" telling her to be violent.

A juror submitted a written question to Pachloski, asking if hallucinations could be a result or side effect of high sodium levels.

"Yes," the doctor responded.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110513/NEWS01/105130344

I bet the bitch was forcing Lauren to drink salt water when she let her have anything.

[Toxic]

Witnesses in the trial have provided grim accounts of Lauren's behavior in the final weeks of her life, with episodes that saw her running into walls, biting the tips of her fingers and toes, making herself vomit, trying to eat vomit and feces, and having hallucinations with "little blue bunnies" telling her to be violent.

This could be due to bleeding on the brain from being beaten...


An accountant who died from bleeding on his brain would have had a good chance at survival if a scan had been carried out within a few hours of his admission to hospital rather than two days later, an inquest heard. John Bailey, aged 37, suffered a head injury in a fight six weeks before he went to Barnsley General Hospital complaining of severe headache, vomiting and hallucinations.

Source:http://www.braininjuryforum.com/wordpress/?tag=vomiting-and-hallucinations

That poor little baby

[badfish76]

The witness also said McConniel and her stepfather, Robert E. Lee, 44, used posts from a crib to beat Lauren's hands and the soles of her feet, and also used wet rags to beat her legs.

Lee suggested the latter punishment after seeing it inflicted on a character on a television crime drama, Ryan McConniel said.

Here is what I suggest for the baby beating fuckers.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=komvFIGYBYM

[Tundratot]

The medical director of Riley Hospital for Children's pediatric intensive care unit testified Friday that a team of physicians "all believed" Lauren McConniel had been subjected to "forcible salt intake," leading to her March 2010 death.

The apparent consumption of "a very large amount" of salt by the 5-year-old Muncie girl, described by witnesses as malnourished and emaciated in the final weeks of her life, raised her sodium level to potentially lethal heights, and her weakened body was unable to recover from the resulting shock and brain seizures, physician Andrea Weist told Delaware Circuit Court 5 jurors.

"Her body just could not handle it any more," Weist said, adding that she believed that Lauren had also been subjected to "active" physical abuse. . . .

Ryan McConniel . . . also described incidents of forced feeding.

Weist testified Friday that she alerted Riley's chid abuse team within hours of the girl's arrival at the Indianapolis hospital.

"She was malnourished to the point of near-death and (had) a lot of bruising," the physician said. "(Her father and stepmother) had a story that didn't fit the circumstances."

When they mentioned the purported treatment by the Winchester doctor to Weist, she told the McConniels that she happened to know that physician and would call him.

"They told me (then) they had not actually seen him," she said. . . .

A therapist for Meridian Services who interviewed Lauren in February 2010, said the girl told her she had earlier been abused by her mother, from whose Tennessee home she was removed by the McConniels seven months before her death.

The witness said because Brittany McConniel used nearly identical wording in referring the Tennessee allegations during a separate conversation, it raised suspicions Lauren's comments had been "prompted" by her stepmother.

. . . Weist testified those claims were "obviously not true," based on photographs of a seemingly happy and healthy Lauren taken while in her mother's care that contrasted sharply with her later condition.

Defense attorney Zaki Ali asked Weist why others -- including medical professionals at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, who examined Lauren for a possible head injury hours before she was taken to Riley -- didn't recognize the dire state of the girl's health.

"Anyone who saw that child should have known," Weist said. "I would have thought anyone on the street would have known something was wrong."

Earlier witnesses noted that after they had been assured by the McConniels that the Winchester physician was treating Lauren for her weight-loss woes, they limited their focus to other problems.

The Meridian Services therapist said she had called Child Protective Services authorities with her concerns about Lauren's condition, and also tried, without success, to arrange for the McConniels to take the child to a pediatrician.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110514/NEWS01/105140312/Physician-Lauren-McConniel-s-body-just-could-not-handle-any-more-?odyssey=nav|head

So, most of the professionals who saw Lauren before she died, when there was perhaps time to save her, either generally accepted their excuses about her being under treatment by a reputable doctor, that her mother did the damage, or did not follow up with the family or police or CPS.

[Tundratot]

Brittany McConniel's trial, likely to conclude this week, might end up being a beginning, not the end, in terms of related prosecutions. I sure as hell hope so.

My prime candidate for prosecution:

Most of the speculation focuses on 44-year-old Robert E. Lee, Brittany McConniel's stepfather. Witnesses, particularly Ryan McConniel, have described Lee as an active participant in the abuse of the 5-year-old victim, both suggesting and participating in forms of corporal punishment -- acts that many would label torture -- that targeted Lauren. . . .

The Star Press last week reviewed court documents in Wabash County stemming from Robert E. Lee's 2002 prosecution on a misdemeanor battery charge.

Included was a transcript, exceeding 30 pages, of an interview Wabash County police did with a then-16-year-old girl who said that Lee had been sexually abusing her for as long as a decade.

The victim in that 2002 case is today known as Brittany McConniel, defendant in the ongoing trial, and one of two girls at the time claiming to have been fondled by Lee.

The teenager said Lee had been abusing her since she was between the ages of five and seven, "too many times to count, almost every day." . . .
Her description of his abuse makes me wonder why she stayed in that house, or allowed him to, a moment longer than she had to. Why would she subject herself, her children, her spouse, his children to this monster? I'll answer that. Because she became one herself.


However, police reports indicate officers apparently believed the intellectual abilities of Lee, who lived on a Social Security disability income, were so limited that he could barely participate in an understandable conversation.
So, he's a moron. How then does he continue to strike fear into the household, and if he's a danger, why is he still there?!!!!


Testimony during her trial has indicated Brittany McConniel last year told Muncie police investigating her stepdaughter's death of her own victimization by her stepfather.

Ryan McConniel confirmed that he also was aware of the Lee family's dark secrets when he agreed to share homes, in Winchester, Farmland and Muncie -- with his wife and their combined four children, including his two daughters from a previous marriage -- that were also occupied by Lee, his wife, Angela, and their other adult daughter.No spine, no sense, no responsibility . . . Another moron.


"I had nowhere else to go," McConniel responded. "It was easier to go along with what (Brittany) wanted then pay the consequences later."

McConniel's description of his then-father-in-law contrasted sharply with the meek, mentally challenged suspect portrayed in Wabash County police reports.

McConniel said Lee warned him he "would hurt me" if he complained about the treatment of Lauren, primarily by her stepmother and Lee. FFS!!!!!


"They weren't hitting her, so I really didn't make a big deal out of the (exercises)," Ryan McConniel told jurors. He also said Brittany McConniel vowed "she would divorce me and I would never see my children again" if he told anyone about her treatment of Lauren


While no one has specifically said that Lauren McConniel was sexually assaulted in her final months, medical witnesses have suggested her increasingly self-destructive behaviors were consistent with those of young victims of such crimes.

One of the most haunting episodes described last week came late in Lauren's life, when her father and stepmother took her to a Muncie urgent care clinic, not to seek treatment for her dramatic weight loss, but to resolve an argument over Brittany's bizarre and unfounded claim that her young stepdaughter was a hermaphrodite.

Nurse-practitioner William Gosnell, falsely told that the couple thought the child had a urinary tract infection, reported Lauren initially did not want to submit to an examination, but later cooperated after he briefly left the McConniel family alone.

Gosnell -- who quickly determined there was nothing abnormal about Lauren's reproductive organs -- said after he examined her, the girl pulled herself into a corner of the examining table and began punching herself in the forehead.

Again. And again and again.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110515/NEWS01/105150345

Shit on a shingle. Monsters! Who the fuck subjects their child to that and all because of some pittance in child support? Who the fuck is the sole wage earner in the household and is afraid of the other monsters there? Being a wage earner and a college student, that defense is specious. He had hours a day to get help, knew there was help. If nothing else, he could have planned an attack or an escape. How the hell could he believe that Britney could ever take his children from him? He might, yes, lose them, but not to her. And did he really care what became of them, as demonstrated by his refusal to save Lauren's life? No.

[Hannahs Faith]

Having first hand knowledge of this case, I disagree.... Unfortunately, in most states legal aid cannot be used in domestic cases i.e. divorce, child custody. I also know first-hand that when an individual goes in to one of those courtrooms without an attorney, the opposing attorney uses every loop-hole he/she can find in order to impress the judge with his argument. In this particular case, the sperm-donor took the two girls and moved, leaving no contact information for the Mother. It was not until she was notified of Lauren's critical condition did she find the area in which they resided. Suffice it to say that Lauren was in perfect health when she left her Mother's home; when she was found, she was starving to death, abused, neglected, and tortured. Discipline included 'pouring salt down her throat' which ultimately led to an over-dose that damaged her organs and brain. She was braindead on March 4th and on life-support. Her Mother has no reason to feel guilt over Lauren's death, however the five adults that lived in the home should be placed on death-row.

[Tundratot]

You disagree about what? That there was help available or that Britney could take his kids away? The help I was referring to was police help, to stop the abuse perpetrated by Britney and Robert on Lauren. He could have asked CPS or LE or even just taken her at any time to medical people and told them what was happening instead of lying or expecting them to just know. He could have packed her and her sister up and driven off into the sunset. He could have taken them back to their real mother, or told her where to find them. There are many things he could have done if he had a spine or wasn't a monster himself. Britney had no legal hold on those kids.

[navsec]

[QUOTE=Banditbird;515424][QUOTE=Momzilla;515386]Hmmmm.....I would really like to know who these other 3 people are who stood by and watched a little girl be tortured to death- BESIDES little Lauren's own father, of course!


The three people are Samra Lee (Brittany's 20 year old sister)

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1448973343&sk=wall#!/samra.lee

Angi Lee (Brittany's mother)

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1448973343&sk=wallQUOTE]

Robert Lee

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1448973343&sk=wall#!/profile.php?id=1371144245

[Tundratot]

I knew her sister was older, but not an adult. And she also stood by and allowed this to happen! Nuke them all. I'm so mad I could nuke the whole town!

[Claire Shaw Duncan]

What they did to this baby is nothing but absolute evil beyond evilness! there are all very sick and twisted, by the sounds of it i would be scared to be alone in a house with them!! never mind a bloody baby. How the fuck do you become that evil and bitter inside that you have no consious what so ever or any compassion for a baby! They sound like something out of the texas chain saw massacare!

Shoot them all! when it comes to baby abuser and killers no mercy should be shown as they have shown none!

[Tundratot]

. . . Brittany McConniel and her stepfather, Robert E. Lee, used wooden sticks to beat Lauren on the hands and feet.

Other bruises also appear to have been inflicted elsewhere on her body with a similar object.

[Forensic pediatrician] Laskey also said that contrary to claims by the McConniels that Lauren had been treated for a broken finger suffered in a fall, X-rays showed healing fractures of bones in her hand, consistent with similar abuse. . . .

While the McConniels said Lauren's significant weight loss came during her final weeks, Laskey testified Tuesday that the girl's extreme emaciation would have been the result of malnutrition suffered over an extended period.

The pediatrician called forced exercise -- which witnesses have said Brittany McConniel and Lee used as another method to punish Lauren -- a form of "torture."

She also said she suspected "punishment" might have been a factor in the events that led to Lauren's ingestion of a fatal amount of salt.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110518/NEWS01/105180339


City police sergeants Jimmy Gibson and Linda Cook repeatedly asked McConniel if she believed that Lee might have subjected Lauren McConniel to the same type of abuse during the final months of her life.

. . . Lauren at times exhibited self-destructive behavior associated with young victims of sexual abuse.

In the hours before she was hospitalized, Lauren somehow ingested enough salt to cause seizures and brain injuries her weakened body could not recover from.

The same day, a phone call to the McConniel-Lee household -- answered by Robert E. Lee's wife, Angela -- brought word that officer Cook would later that week interview Lauren about possible abuse allegations. . . .

During the 2010 interview, the police officers revealed that when they were scheduled to interview Lee that week in the wake of Lauren's hospitalization, he checked himself into a Winchester hospital, purporting to be ill.

His wife, meanwhile, at first told police she didn't remember her husband's 2002 arrest and prosecution, which resulted in her daughter spending more than two years in foster care.

Less than 12 hours later, the girl was on a respirator in Riley Hospital's intensive care unit. She would never regain consciousnesshttp://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110518/NEWS01/105180332


Brittany McConniel took the witness stand Wednesday, but only to say that she had decided not to testify in her soon-to-be concluded neglect trial. . . .

As a result, Ali's entire defense consisted of the brief testimony of only one witness: Samra "Jo-Jo" Lee, the defendant's half-sister.

And all Lee did was provide Ali with 24 photographs she had taken of Lauren McConniel and other family members between August 2009 and January 2010.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110519/BUSTED/105190343

Shit what a fucked up family. The stepfather raping his stepdaughter for years. The mother unable to remember anything about the arrest and trial, apparently also blocked out the entire problem and stayed with him. The stepdaughter inexplicably stays in the home with her own children and brings in more children. Allows the stepfather to commit more offenses on at least one of them. The mother continues to have her head in the sand and ignores the whole thing. The stepdaughter's new husband, apparently there to bring in a paycheck, is just so grateful for a roof and a regular lay (even if he's the one paying for it), just allows the sick fucks to abuse his tiny defenseless daughter to death without a murmur. And what can be said about the stepdaughter's sister and the victim's older sister? Just too inured to the abusive situation to know it's wrong? Too grateful it wasn't them doing the suffering to risk bringing the heat down on themselves?

[redsaid]

Too grateful it wasn't them doing the suffering to risk bringing the heat down on themselves?

Been there, but only as a defensless child - not a defensless adult.
(tounge-in-cheek)

[navsec]

Sentencing is set for next month

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/27956266/detail.html

[badfish76]

This is like some Deliverance shit!

I have a hard time keeping track of all of it but all these fucking people need to burn.

[Tundratot]

Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! If I could post the Hallelujah chorus right here, I would! Maybe I'll save that for the sentencing if I figure it out. Other things I'd like to see in this case: Robert E Lee charged with torture and abuse, interfering with an investigation, and obstruction of justice (for acting like he's a drooling retard). Mrs Lee charged with sheer willful idiocy and accessory to any crimes her beloved Bobby committed, and child abuse and torture.

Rest in peace, Lauren.http://i56.tinypic.com/jpcwg1.jpg

[Nell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76RrdwElnTU

[Tundratot]

Attorneys who represented Lauren's mother last year in her successful efforts to regain custody of an older daughter sat in on much of the trial of Brittany McConniel, who faces up to 50 years in prison after being found guilty of a neglect charge stemming from Lauren's death. She actually got her own daughter back?!! Was this before or after she killed Lauren?

Any litigation would likely focus on Lauren's visits -- during the seven months she lived in Muncie with her father, Ryan, and her stepmother -- to St. Vincent Randolph Hospital in Winchester and three Muncie health facilities: A southside urgent care clinic, a Meridian Services office and Ball Memorial Hospital. . . .
Brittany McConniel's public defender, Zaki Ali, went so far during his closing argument to jurors on Thursday as to suggest that some health-care providers should be facing criminal prosecution, alongside the McConniels, for not alerting authorities to Lauren's condition.

(A nurse-practitioner at the urgent care center did refer Lauren to Meridian Services, saying she was displaying possible signs of sexual abuse. And a Meridian counselor tried to bring her concerns to the attention of welfare authorities, and to set up an appointment with a pediatrician for the ailing child.) . . .
One of the jurors who last Thursday convicted Brittany McConniel commented on that part of Lauren's saga in an e-mail exchange with The Walker/Roysdon Report.

"We hope no other child will face the same lack of action exhibited by so many in the health care field," wrote juror Jim Schenkel. "Lies or truth from care-givers not withstanding, they should always follow up when presented with signs of abuse as they were with Lauren.

"We need to expect better from the professionals we entrust with the care of our children." . . .

Brittany McConniel, meanwhile, has a connection to three members of that extended family, who are all first cousins of one another.

She is the stepdaughter of one of those cousins, whom she had accused of sexually abusing her during her childhood; bore a child to a second, and married a third in Ryan McConniel.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110523/NEWS01/105230309

The article is suggesting that someone (Britney or Ryan or ?) is likely to pursue a civil suit against the medical personnel who saw Lauren during the time before she was killed for not following up on her apparent abuse. While I think there is good reason to put their feet to the fire for either not recognizing abuse when they see it, or not following up on the lies that the family was feeding them -- I don't think that the McConniels should be allowed to profit from this situation in any way.

[Bohring]

She actually got her own daughter back?!! Was this before or after she killed Lauren?

The article is suggesting that someone (Britney or Ryan or ?) is likely to pursue a civil suit against the medical personnel who saw Lauren during the time before she was killed for not following up on her apparent abuse.

OMG, I'm gone for five days and have lost my ability to follow lunacy. Between this post and the other with your magnificent summary beginning with
Shit what a fucked up family., I think my brain just blew a circuit. Nearly like trying to follow Jacob's Ladder while high, drunk, and tripping with sleep deprivation tossed in for fun - or maybe it'd actually be easier to follow that way.

I am not referring to Tundratot's summarization. Just the twists and turns in this dispicable case.

[Momzilla]

She actually got her own daughter back?!! Was this before or after she killed Lauren?

I think you are mixing up Lauren's BIRTH MOTHER with Lauren's STEP-MOTHER:

AMBER HUGGINS is Lauren's birth mother. She did NOT murder Lauren

BRITTANY MCCONNIEL is Lauren's step-mother. She DID murder Lauren!

After Lauren was killed, Amber went to court to regain custody of another child.



BTW...did anyone else find this as hysterical as I did?




His wife (Angela-Brittany's mom), meanwhile, at first told police she didn't remember her husband's 2002 arrest and prosecution, which resulted in her daughter spending more than two years in foster care.


How fucked up is your life that you can 'forget' your husband being prosecuted for sexual abuse and your daughter going to foster care for 2 years!!!

[Tundratot]

Thank you for that, Momzilla. I really didn't see that interpretation. I hope you are right about that, but I have to wonder, since later on the trial we found out that Lauren's sister (who would, I suppose, be the one that her mother Amber regained) was an adult in the house that might get charged for allowing this to happen.

You're right, it's hard to keep up with the twists in this case.

I'm amused to find that the McConniels are cousins and that Britney has a history of consorting with cousins.

Yes, I did see the business about her mother's memory loss. I don't find it amusing. I find it inexcusable and all the more reason to have her put in prison. Allowing that to happen to her own daughter; overlooking her husband's misdeeds; staying with him; allowing or overlooking his abuse of another little girl. This woman is like an ostrich with her head in the sand and her rear in the air. It would make little difference to her to be in prison, and would save other children from her "care".

[Tundratot]

I've never commented on the reporters before, but in this case there has been a very consistent reporter, Douglas Walker, whose articles have always been informative. Today, he wrote a very touching article about this case, but since it's more of an editorial than a news piece, I won't quote it here. http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110524/OPINION/105240307

[scrappy]

Man, you said it all. It's amazing what folks can glean from carefully reading the news reports.

This sick tragedy happened in my hometown and it's been eating at me for months. Particularly since I have a darling baby girl of my own of very near the same age...and I had Samra as a student years ago and much of her difficult behavior can now be understood by me as the twisted sickness of this family (no, scratch that, a small sliver of the twisted, sickness of this family) comes to public view.

This is as heartbreaking as any other story we can pick up here in DD, but it really gets you when you live in a community, a pretty small one at that, and you know that a child suffered while you had no way to help or alleviate that suffering.

Thoe nly up side of little Lauren's death, the community is outraged and the Lee's will get some small piece of what they are due. Ryan is a cowardly piece of shit as far as I can see, but he plead and testified for a 20 year sentence. At the very least he'll have a good chunck of time to feel regret for his pathetic and epic failure as a parent.

Many many times I have asked myself, if they were so hard on her (and who can imagine striking a four year old on the hands with a wooden dowel as a punishment for ANYTHING?) why didn't he just call her mom up and let her know where she was so she could come get her? Ignorant pussy.

[Kindly One]

Thank you for that, Momzilla. I really didn't see that interpretation. I hope you are right about that, but I have to wonder, since later on the trial we found out that Lauren's sister (who would, I suppose, be the one that her mother Amber regained) was an adult in the house that might get charged for allowing this to happen.

You're right, it's hard to keep up with the twists in this case.

I'm amused to find that the McConniels are cousins and that Britney has a history of consorting with cousins.

Yes, I did see the business about her mother's memory loss. I don't find it amusing. I find it inexcusable and all the more reason to have her put in prison. Allowing that to happen to her own daughter; overlooking her husband's misdeeds; staying with him; allowing or overlooking his abuse of another little girl. This woman is like an ostrich with her head in the sand and her rear in the air. It would make little difference to her to be in prison, and would save other children from her "care".

I'm pretty sure the adult sister you're referring to is Samra Lee, who is Brittany's sister, not Lauren's. It looks like a lot of the original news items are gone, but a lot of blogs link to a missing starpress.com article that gives Lauren's sister's age as 9 years old.

http://ncmbts.blogspot.com/2010/06/amber-huggins-lauren-mcconniel-mother.html

[MadeaBecBec]

DARN! The Judge didn't sentence Brittany, today, it's been continued......

McConniel, 25, was scheduled to be sentenced Monday, but Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. this week granted a continuance at the request of her public defender, Zaki Ali. The attorney asked that his client be examined by a psychiatrist or psychologist before being sentenced.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110611/NEWS01/106110333/Brittany-McConniel-s-sentencing-hearing-postponed

Shouldn't the psych. eval. been done before trial? Wasn't it? Did Brittany suddenly become 'retarded', oops, sorry, 'mentally challenged'? There is no death penalty, here, so why?
I think the tax payers of Indiana need to petition the Attorney General/Department of Justice and get her sent to the Big House as quickly as possible or be allowed to kick her ass, at least once, for every dollar spent on her, after the guilty verdict!
And get on with charging the other adults in that household......

[misfirefly]

I cries while i read this. The idea of a bright shining soul being destroyed so systematically and SLOWLY. The prolonged torture. God, i hope these sick fucks get what they deserve.

[VXIII]

In the end, it was a child's crude sketch of a rabbit, drawn with a blue marker, that got to me.

The trial, concluded last Thursday, of a Muncie woman accused of sadistically abusing her 5-year-old stepdaughter likely took an emotional toll on all those who participated in or witnessed the two weeks of proceedings.
A couple of major players in the investigation and prosecution of Brittany McConniel told me they would never be the same, not after more than a year of unraveling the unthinkable events that led to the March 2010 death of young Lauren McConniel.
Dealing with the reality of a child being tortured and starved can have that effect on decent people.
So, too, can photographs taken of a dying child in her hospital bed, bringing to mind horrific images of emaciated concentration camp survivors. Those pictures of Lauren in her final hours brought jurors to tears.
As for me, after covering the local criminal justice system for most of the past quarter-century, I've become fairly adept of maintaining an emotional distance from what's unfolding before me in a courtroom.
But that wall crumbled, at least briefly, during the testimony of a counselor who interviewed Lauren a few weeks before her death.
Starvation takes a cruel toll on the minds of its victims, and Lauren had been experiencing hallucinations, having visions of a blue bunny that she said had been urging her to do things like stab her stepmother with a knife.
Knowing how this story would end, one almost wishes the imaginary bunny had given the little girl more detailed instructions on how to accomplish this, had such an incident led to Lauren's removal from the home of her abusers.
"I don't blame the blue bunny for telling Lauren to stab Brittany," Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman told jurors last week.
As the counselor testified, prosecutors presented as evidence a sketch of the rabbit that the witness had asked Lauren to draw for her.
And for a second, the sight of that drawing brought Lauren back to life, at least for me.
(Page 2 of 2)
As the father of two daughters, born 20 years apart, I've been the recipient of dozens, maybe hundreds, of such drawings made by little girls, many very close in style to Lauren's sketch of the blue bunny.
After the trial was over, Lauren's grandmother told me that seeing that drawing, in that setting, had jarred her as well. Under normal circumstances, such artwork belongs on the recipient's refrigerator, she said, not as evidence in criminal court proceedings.
On Saturday, I drove north, accompanied by my wife and our 3-year-old daughter, on an hourlong trip that ended at Lauren McConniel's grave, in a rural cemetery not especially close to the nearest city or interstate.
It's a quiet, peaceful place, bordered on two sides by as-yet unplanted cornfields, in that part of the state where Central Indiana starts to become Northern Indiana.
Lauren's resting place was easy to find with directions provided by her mother; her grave was marked by a container of yellow daffodils and a multi-colored pinwheel that was spinning in the wind. Her marker identifies Lauren as "Mom's baby."
The grass covering her grave is still of a somewhat different texture, reflecting that Lauren hasn't been there nearly so as long most of her neighbors. Most of the other nearby markers reflect, not surprisingly, the people buried there lived considerably longer lives than did Lauren, perhaps 80 years on average.
Also nearby is a large granite marker with an image of a stern-looking bearded man, presumably Moses of Biblical fame, along with the 10 Commandments. Under the circumstances, it's difficult not to pause on No. 6, the one about killing.
We actually went to Lauren's grave twice, returning to the car but then retracing our steps so my daughter could leave a gift -- a small, plastic pink pony -- for "the little girl whose daddy didn't take care of her."
Apparently she was more aware of the motivation behind our trip than I had realized.
Lauren's resting place seems a world away from the southside Muncie basement where she was subjected to most of the horrific indignities we learned about this month -- and almost certainly others we didn't hear about. Those she was forced to spend her final weeks in the company of would be decidedly out of place here.
Their boorish behavior, according to stunned onlookers at an Indianapolis hospital, included hooting and laughing only a few minutes after Lauren had drawn her last breath.
The McConniel case has upset a good many people in the Muncie area, and it's likely advisable for certain individuals to keep a low profile in coming months.
They might find that some people are considerably more capable of standing up to them than a malnourished 5-year-old girl, or her cowardly father, for that matter.


As the father of two daughters, born 20 years apart, I've been the recipient of dozens, maybe hundreds, of such drawings made by little girls, many very close in style to Lauren's sketch of the blue bunny.

After the trial was over, Lauren's grandmother told me that seeing that drawing, in that setting, had jarred her as well. Under normal circumstances, such artwork belongs on the recipient's refrigerator, she said, not as evidence in criminal court proceedings.
On Saturday, I drove north, accompanied by my wife and our 3-year-old daughter, on an hourlong trip that ended at Lauren McConniel's grave, in a rural cemetery not especially close to the nearest city or interstate.
It's a quiet, peaceful place, bordered on two sides by as-yet unplanted cornfields, in that part of the state where Central Indiana starts to become Northern Indiana.
Lauren's resting place was easy to find with directions provided by her mother; her grave was marked by a container of yellow daffodils and a multi-colored pinwheel that was spinning in the wind. Her marker identifies Lauren as "Mom's baby."
The grass covering her grave is still of a somewhat different texture, reflecting that Lauren hasn't been there nearly so as long most of her neighbors. Most of the other nearby markers reflect, not surprisingly, the people buried there lived considerably longer lives than did Lauren, perhaps 80 years on average.
Also nearby is a large granite marker with an image of a stern-looking bearded man, presumably Moses of Biblical fame, along with the 10 Commandments. Under the circumstances, it's difficult not to pause on No. 6, the one about killing.
We actually went to Lauren's grave twice, returning to the car but then retracing our steps so my daughter could leave a gift -- a small, plastic pink pony -- for "the little girl whose daddy didn't take care of her."
Apparently she was more aware of the motivation behind our trip than I had realized.
Lauren's resting place seems a world away from the southside Muncie basement where she was subjected to most of the horrific indignities we learned about this month -- and almost certainly others we didn't hear about. Those she was forced to spend her final weeks in the company of would be decidedly out of place here.
Their boorish behavior, according to stunned onlookers at an Indianapolis hospital, included hooting and laughing only a few minutes after Lauren had drawn her last breath.The McConniel case has upset a good many people, and it's likely advisable for certain individuals to keep a low profile in coming months.
They might find that some people are considerably more capable of standing up to them than a malnourished 5-year-old girl, or her cowardly father, for that matter.


Thank you Mr. Walker and thank you little Miss Walker for caring...

[Mega Ultra]

I'm pretty sure this story was already posted in the forums...I remember reading it a while ago

Edit: Nevermind. I thought the date was from 2011, and was posted today. I now see it was posted a year ago.

[MadeaBecBec]

Kudos to the Prosecutors and the State of Indiana on this one......

On Tuesday, a third adult who lived in the South Ebright Street house where 5-year-old Lauren spent her final months was arrested on charges stemming from her mistreatment and death.
Robert E. Lee, 44 — the stepfather of Brittany McConniel, Lauren’s stepmother — is charged with aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent, three counts of battery, and failure to immediately report child abuse. The most serious charge is a Class A felony carrying a standard 30-year prison term.


Lee was arrested late Tuesday afternoon, and was being held without bond in the Delaware County jail.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110621/NEWS01/110621028
http://cmsimg.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Avis=C7&Dato=20110622&Kategori=BUSTED&Lopenr=106220321&Ref=AR&MaxH=150&Border=0&q=30
Robert E. Lee, 44

Get to reaping your horror harvest!

Praying his bride is next......

[Tundratot]

I hope his head meets a lot of walls. It won't hurt him much, since he has brain damage already.

[Tundratot]

SFB Robert E. Lee appeared in court and is busy posing/exposing himself for the brain impaired cretin that he aspires to be.
At Wednesday's hearing:

• Lee twice told the judge he lived in a house in the 700 block of West Memorial Drive. Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman, however, said the owner of that property maintains he recently evicted Lee's family from the property for failure to pay rent.

Hoffman said in part because of that alleged duplicity, he was concerned that Lee was a flight risk. Judge Cannon said that for the time being Lee would remain held under a $50,000 cash bond.

• Asked how long it had been since he worked, Lee said it had been "about a year" since he was employed "just cleaning stuff up."

He then said, however, "I can't work," adding it was "too hard for me to concentrate."

Lee said he received a monthly Social Security disability check. Asked how much he received, he said, "I'm not for sure on that," but he later estimated his monthly stipend at $900.

He said his wife -- who also doesn't work, he reported -- handled most of their finances. And we all know she's no genius either.

Asked whether his family had other "financial resources," Lee said, "I don't know what that means." . . .


• Lee said he was 43 years old, but gave a birthdate reflecting he is 44. He said he thought he had remained in school through the 10th grade.

He acknowledged he had been given a copy of the formal charges against him, but told the judge, "I can't read."

Cannon then instructed Hoffman to read the charges aloud. "Don't read too fast," the judge said.

After the hearing, Hoffman said he was aware that Lee has an online Facebook page that he has communicated with friends and relatives on. It also features a photo of Lee and lists some of his favorite things -- the Bible among them, along with a blog featuring religious-themed commentary -- and his favorite TV programs and celebrities.

Asked about Lee's claims of being illiterate, Hoffman said, "I don't believe that."Pretty obvious that his literacy is selective.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110623/BUSTED/106230327

I want to burn this guy in effigy of all that is evil in this world.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

McConniel gets 50 years in fatal neglect case

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/20110810-03.jpg http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/20110810-05.jpg
Two key players in Lauren McConniel's brief life -- the mother who brought her into the world, and the stepmother who helped set in motion the events causing the 5-year-old girl's death -- had their say Tuesday in Delaware Circuit Court 5.

Getting in the last word, though, was Judge Thomas Cannon Jr., who handed 25-year-old Brittany McConniel -- convicted in May of neglect of a dependent causing death -- a 50-year maximum prison term.

The judge cited "the brutal and horrible nature" of McConniel's crime, and referred to the months Lauren lived with the McConniels and the defendant's stepfather, Robert E. Lee , on Muncie's south side as "the nightmare on Ebright Street."
[...]

Amber Huggins, holding a plastic pink pony that was one of her daughter's favorite toys, read a 10-minute statement during Tuesday's hearing, saying there were no words to adequately explain the "gaping hole" Lauren's death had left in her life.
[...]

She urged the judge to impose the maximum 50-year sentence.

"Fifty years is not enough for what (McConniel) put my daughter through," Huggins said.

McConniel, meanwhile, told Judge Cannon she was unhappy with the case presented by her public defender, Zaki Ali, suggesting he should have called more witnesses to testify on her behalf.

"I did let Lauren down," said the defendant. "(But) I didn't do most of the things Ryan said I did. ... Nothing I could do or say would bring Lauren back."

McConniel, who shed tears as she spoke, said her conviction was based largely on "lies," adding she would appeal her conviction and sentence.
[...]

Ali asked the judge to consider a mental health professional's assessment that McConniel became "detached" and lacks empathy because she had been sexually abused during her childhood by Lee.

Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman noted, however, that despite her accounts of being victimized by Lee, McConniel allowed her stepdaughter to live under the same roof with him, "knowing full well that he's a sexual predator."

Recalling testimony that Lauren was forced to exercise to the point of collapse, and to hold heavy objects, Hoffman said, "It shows you the depth of the depravity of this defendant," inflicting "torture on a helpless, malnourished 5-year-old girl."

Hoffman said McConniel "has lied and lied and lied again."

"It's always about Brittany, poor, pitiful Brittany," he said.

Prosecutor Arnold said he had never seen a criminal defendant more lacking in remorse, or a crime that had more "devastated" a community.

In Lee, Arnold said, McConniel "willingly put Lauren back in the jaws of a monster."

The prosecutor noted that in post-conviction interviews, McConniel continued to refer to the assaults on Lauren -- which included beating the child's hands and the soles of her feet with wooden sticks -- as "discipline."

"No normal human being, with any conscience, would call it anything but torture," he said.

Arnold said while there was "no punishment available to fit the facts of this crime," McConniel deserved to serve "every minute of 50 years."

Ryan McConniel has struck a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to a neglect charge that carries up to 20 years in prison -- and to testify against his ex-wife and any other co-defendants.

Lee's trial on five related charges is set for Oct. 11, also in Cannon's court.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110810/BUSTED/108100315

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/20110810-04.jpg

[Tundratot]

I'm just sorry it is a maximum 50 year sentence, and not a minimum 50 year sentence. I pray she serves the maximum, unless by some fortunate quirk of fate, she dies before she completes the sentence.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The father of Lauren McConniel on Tuesday took legal responsibility for failing to protect his daughter from those he maintains caused her 2010 death.

Ryan Neal McConniel, 34, pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent, a Class B felony carrying a maximum 20-year prison term. Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. took the guilty plea under advisement and tentatively set sentencing for Jan. 9.

McConniel has been in custody since June 2010, three months after 5-year-old Lauren died in an Indianapolis hospital, her malnourished body unable to survive what proved to be a lethal dose of table salt
[...]

After his arrest, Ryan McConniel struck a deal with prosecutors -- which saw the neglect charge against him reduced from a Class A felony, carrying a maximum 50-year sentence, to a Class B felony -- and he provided details of abuse he said Lauren had suffered at the hands of Brittany McConniel and Brittany's stepfather, Robert E. Lee.
[...]

During Brittany McConniel's trial in May, Ryan McConniel testified, at times tearfully, about his failure to protect Lauren. He said he was physically intimidated by Lee, who is also Ryan McConniel's first cousin.

There was no such testimony during Tuesday's hearing.

In establishing grounds for his client's guilty plea, public defender John Brooke asked McConniel whether statements he gave in a sworn affidavit were true. McConniel agreed that they were.

The defendant's voice cracked once with emotion, when Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman asked him to confirm his late daughter's date of birth.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20111012/BUSTED/110120329/Ryan-McConniel-pleads-guilty-neglect

Robert E. Lee goes on trial early next year.

[Ozzy]

Thanks so much DV! This case really got to me and I cried for this poor little girl and what she endured. This kind of shit makes me wish for 'Eye for an Eye' justice.

[Momzilla]

Lauren's story is one that I will never forget. I got chills when I just read her name today. I'm glad that her 'father' kept with his guilty plea and didn't force those who love Lauren to endure another trial.

I don't know how her birth mom & grandmother managed to sit through step-monster's trial. I don't think I would have made it past the first photograph. And they still have Robert Lee's trial to make it through.

There will never be any real 'justice' for Lauren, not in this world anyway. No amount of jail time could ever atone for what that baby went through.
RIP little Lauren.
http://image.blingee.com/images18/content/output/000/000/000/786/742832707_947388.gif?4 (http://www.dreamindemon.com/blingee/view/126256349-lauren-mcconniel)

[TheZeitgeist]

During Brittany McConniel's trial in May, Ryan McConniel testified, at times tearfully, about his failure to protect Lauren. He said he was physically intimidated by Lee, who is also Ryan McConniel's first cousin.

Physically intimidated? If that's the case then what other natural reaction can there be than 'What the hell is my tiny little girl going through with somebody who I'M FUCKING SCARED OF!?'

That's when you augment apparent physiological insignificance with a tool or team-work of some kind to take care of business. Humans didn't overcome sabre-tooths and the like with fists one-vs-one after all (well, some Darwin awards were deserved thousands of years ago I'm sure but still...).

But just wow what a way to give up to a bully. Over the most important thing in your life if you've got your head on straight. Another case of real Dad punching out on his kids, until its too late; a common plot element in the stories told around here.

[Tundratot]

Physically intimidated? If that's the case then what other natural reaction can there be than 'What the hell is my tiny little girl going through with somebody who I'M FUCKING SCARED OF!?'

The man was supposedly the sole breadwinner. If that was not a bargaining chip, then I don't know what is. How many women are afraid to leave men because the man is their sole support? This guy had to make it clear that he, his daughter, and his paycheck were going away. If he was really afraid, why the hell did he not pack up his tiny child and LEAVE?!!!! I never have understood how women, in this situation, didn't just leave when the bastard was asleep or out or after they hit him while his back was turned, and I don't understand how a man who should have felt at least somewhat empowered did not do so.

[princessgrandma]

Poor little Lauren was failed all around by people who were supposed to love and protect her. I cannot even imagine, wouldn't want to, the pain and emotional damage that little one endured. As for "stepmommy dearest" and her "poor me" act, I truly hope there is some prison justice doled out in those long years she's sitting in prison. I really do. Nothing will ever bring Lauren back, but damn, I want this woman to HURT..... badly.

[HeatherHabilatory]

Jesus christ. I think I need therapy after this.

What the hell good could come of naming your child Robert E. Lee? Fucking redneck hillbilly inbred fucking trash.

And they're all fucking related somehow. And how many adults in that house and no one did anything!? Fuck.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/20120124-01.jpg
Angela Lee
Nearly two years after the death of 5-year-old Lauren McConniel, two more arrests were made Monday in connection with the abuse and neglect of the Muncie girl.

Angela Rice Lee, 45, is charged with aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent, a Class A felony carrying a standard 30-month prison term, and failure to immediately report child abuse or neglect, a misdemeanor.

Lee -- the mother of Brittany Lee McConniel, Lauren's stepmother -- was being held without bond in the Delaware County jail.

Also arrested was Angela Lee's other daughter, Samra Lee, 21.

The younger Lee faces the same charges as her mother, although the aiding and inducing charge is a Class D felony with a standard 18-month sentence.

Samra Lee was apparently in police custody on Monday night, but she had not been booked into the Delaware County jail as of 8 p.m.

Court documents related to the charges had been sealed, and details of the allegations against the women were not immediately available.

With Monday's arrests, all five adults who lived in the South Ebright House where Lauren McConniel spent her final months have now been charged in connection with her death. :congrats:
[...]
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120124/BUSTED/201240347

Robert Lee stands trial in April. Ryan McConniel is scheduled to be sentenced May 14.

[LeaveMeBe]

I am glad they finally rounded up and charged everyone involved in the neglect, abuse and death of this precious little girl and I hope they pay fully through our justice system (which in my eyes will never be to the extent it should be). With that being said, my wish for each of them is that karma stalk them hand-in-hand with the Grim Reaper and make their days torturous and miserable until death collects them.

[princessgrandma]

That poor baby was failed by EVERYONE in her life so it's only right that EVERYONE be held responsible for her death. With these new arrests, it seems we are well on the way to making that happen.

[Tundratot]

God! I am soooo glad they finally decided to do this. They are a sick, sick bunch of junk yard dogs.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/20120131-03.jpg
A Muncie mother and daughter had a reunion of sorts on Monday, but it was under the worst of circumstances.
[...]

Angela and Samra Lee sat next to one another in the jury box of Delaware Circuit Court 5 on Monday afternoon, when Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. conducted initial hearings in their cases.

Both women were clad in blue jail uniforms, with their hands cuffed and chained to a waist belt, and their ankles shackled. The elder Lee stumbled and nearly fell to the courtroom floor while making her way from the witness stand back to the jury box.

Angela Lee -- charged with aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a Class A felony carrying a standard 30-year prison term, and failure to report child abuse or neglect, a misdemeanor -- received a May 15 trial date and saw her bond set at $31,000.

Samra Lee -- charged with aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent, a Class D felony with a standard 18-month sentence, and the same failure-to-report count -- received a May 24 trial date. Her bond had already been set at $6,000.

Judge Cannon agreed to appoint public defenders to represent both women.

Angela Lee told the judge she hadn't held a job since 1994.

Asked if she had a source of income, she responded, "Not now. ... My husband's Social Security check stopped."

Robert E. Lee, 45, was arrested last June after being charged with five crimes stemming from Lauren's abuse and neglect. He remains in jail under a $50,000 bond, awaiting a trial that is now set for April 30.

Samra Lee told the judge she had never held a job and didn't know her Social Security number.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120131/BUSTED/201310322

[Ozzy]

Thanks Dakota. I hope they all fry and burn in hell. This case is so close to my heart, so heart breaking. I have to go directly to the last comment, for fear of losing it. RIP Lauren, praying justice will be yours.

[Tundratot]

MUNCIE . . .
[Robert E.] Lee, 45, of Muncie, pleaded guilty to aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent, a Class A felony carrying a standard 30-year prison term.

Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. took under advisement a plea bargain that places a 40-year cap on the prison term Lee could receive, and tentatively set sentencing for June 4.

. . .

In court on Monday, Robert Lee admitted he had made suggestions to Brittany McConniel about what his public defender, Doug Mawhorr, called "different forms of punishment" she could inflict on Lauren.

Those punishments, Lee acknowledged, included forcing the little girl to do jumping jacks until she collapsed from exhaustion; to hold heavy produce cans, with her arms extended, for long periods of times; and beatings, some inflicted with wooden slats on the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet, and others inflicted with wet towels on her legs.

Lee also said he had done nothing to seek help for Lauren when she was "wasting away," not being fed regularly and not eating.

"She looked like skins and bones before she went to the hospital, didn't she?" Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold asked Lee.

"Yes, sir," the defendant responded.

And Lee admitted he didn't contact police or welfare officials about the abusive acts he had suggested his stepdaughter inflict on her own stepdaughter.

While being questioned by Arnold, Lee said his wife -- also charged with a Class A felony in Lauren's death -- was aware of the child being abused and the decline of her health, and did nothing on Lauren's behalf.

. . .

Robert Lee maintained his daughter, Samra -- who faces less severe charges -- was not present when most of the abuse took place.

The plea agreement calls for four lesser charges pending against Robert Lee to be dismissed. He would waive all rights to appeal his conviction and whatever sentence would be imposed by Cannon.

After the hearing, Prosecutor Arnold maintained the state had forfeited little in the plea agreement, noting that Lee likely would have faced no more than 50 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

. . .

During his now-ex-wife's trial last year, Ryan McConniel testified he didn't do more to protect his daughter in part because he was physically intimidated by Robert Lee, who is his first cousin.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120410/BUSTED/204100331

Inbred monsters!

[HeatherHabilatory]

Ugh! It gets more twisted with every update!

[Jerri Blank]

40-year sentence for malnutrition death

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) -- A Muncie man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in the malnutrition death of his 5-year-old step-granddaughter.

A Delaware County judge told 45-year-old Robert Lee that he must have been a monster "manifested in the flesh" to 5-year-old Lauren McConniel before she died in 2010 after living in Lee's home for seven months.

The Star Press reports (http://tspne.ws/KJvhmG ) Lee was sentenced Monday on child neglect charges.

Lauren died after weighing 28 pounds when she was hospitalized with lethal salt levels.

Lee admitted in court he had discussed with his stepdaughter, Brittany McConniel, punishments for the girl that included exercising to collapse and beatings.

McConniel is serving a 50-year sentence. Ryan McConniel is awaiting sentencing on neglect charges in his daughter's death.

http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/40-year-sentence-for-malnutrition-death

[Tundratot]

Public defender Doug Mawhorr asked the judge to impose a 20-year sentence, with time years suspended, urging Cannon to consider Lee’s “very poor health.”

Mawhorr also read aloud a letter he said his client had written that was addressed to Lauren McConniel, apologizing for failing to protect her.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120618/NEWS01/306180030/Lee-gets-45-year-sentence-McConniel-case?odyssey=nav|head

I take from that the happy news could be Lee might not live through his sentence.


Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman scoffed at some of Lee’s purported ailments, which range from diabetes and gout to obesity and nicotine dependence.

“The irony stinks up the courtroom,” said Hoffman, suggesting Lee had chosen to “smoke and feed his face” while a child in his home was starving. . . .

Before Cannon imposed that sentence, Mawhorr read aloud a letter he said his client had written, addressed to Lauren McConniel.

“I’m so sorry that I didn’t protect you and I helped Ryan and Brittany hurt you,” the letter read. “I feel so guilty for what happened ... I’ll forever be in pain.”http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120619/NEWS01/306190006/Robert-E-Lee-sentenced-40-years-prison?odyssey=nav|head

Yeah, sure, you bastard.

http://i47.tinypic.com/fzchlt.jpg

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Witness to Lauren's abuse pleads guilty

Samra Lee on Tuesday recalled looking on as her sister’s 5-year-old stepdaughter, Lauren McConniel, was forced to hold aloft large cans of tomato juice as a form of punishment.

Lee, now 21, said she did nothing to help Lauren in that instance, or as the child became dangerously emaciated — showing numerous signs of physical and emotional deterioration — before she died in an Indianapolis hospital on March 9, 2010.

Lee on Tuesday pleaded guilty to aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent, a Class D felony carrying a standard 18-month prison term. Under the terms of a plea agreement — taken under advisement by Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. — the Muncie woman could receive up to two years of incarceration.

The judge tentatively set sentencing for Oct. 15.
[...]

At Tuesday’s hearing, public defender Sam Beasley detailed various aspects of Lauren McConniel’s deterioration, and then asked his client, “Did you ever contact the Department of Child Services, or the police, or anyone?”

“No,” Samra Lee responded.

The defendant said Lauren appeared to be healthy when she came to live with the McConniels and Lees in August 2009.

Asked by Beasley what she believed would happen if her case went to trial, Lee responded, “I would lose.”

The defendant did not appear eager to respond to questions from Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman about a statement she gave to police that reportedly recounted incidents that saw Robert Lee beating Lauren with a wooden bed slat.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120905/BUSTED/309050021/Witness-Lauren-s-abuse-pleads-guilty

[Jerri Blank]

Woman loses appeal in child death case

MUNCIE, Ind. (WISH) - A woman who appealed her conviction and sentence for the neglect of a dependent which resulted in the death of a 5-year-old has lost her appeal.

Brittany McConniel, 26, was sentenced to 50 years in prison in the death of her step-daughter, Lauren McConniel.

An autopsy showed the child died of malnourishment and salt poisoning.

McConniel had raised three issues - whether the court abused its discretion in denying McConniel’s motion for funds for expert witness, whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain McConniel’s conviction, and whether McConniel’s sentence is inappropriate in light of the nation of the offense and her character.

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s conviction and sentence.

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/crime/woman-loses-appeal-in-child-death-case

[Tundratot]

I see that Jerri Blank beat me to it, so I'll just post a couple of quotes that make my little bleeding heart feel warmer.
“McConniel’s extremely abusive behavior toward and neglect of Lauren over a period of months is beyond shocking,” Brown wrote in the 3-0 ruling. . . .

In Tuesday’s ruling, the appeals court also rejected McConniel’s contention that Judge Cannon should have provided her with public funds to hire an “expert witness” for her defense.

The court also ruled a “reasonable trier of fact” could have determined from the evidence that “McConniel knowingly deprived Lauren of necessary support and that the deprivation resulted in Lauren’s death. . . .

Brittany McConniel is incarcerated at the Rockville Correctional Facility in western Indiana. According to a state Department of Correction website, with credit for good behavior she would be eligible for release in September 2035.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120912/NEWS01/309120002/Muncie-McConniel-Lauren?nclick_check=1

So now you know where to write and when to look for a defunct salt mine.

[AngelFire]

Brittany McConniel, 26, was sentenced to 50 years in prison in the death of her step-daughter, Lauren McConniel.

Bring on the lifetime supply of Morton's salt for this bitch.

[Tundratot]

MUNCIE – The fifth and final defendant charged in the 2010 death of 5-year-old Lauren McConniel faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty on Tuesday.

Angela Lee, 46, was charged with aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent, a Class A felony that normally carries a maximum 50-year sentence.

Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. took the plea agreement that placed the 30-year limit of Lee’s prison term under advisement, and tentatively set sentencing March 4. . . .
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20130122/BUSTED/130122008/Final-defendant-pleads-guilty-McConniel-case?nclick_check=1
The Muncie woman acknowledged Lauren was subjected to physical abuse — including being forced to exercise to the point of exhaustion, and being beaten, with wooden slats, on the soles of her feet and palms of her hands — and was clearly suffering from malnutrition in the final weeks of her life.

“You were aware of this?” Bryan asked.

“Yes,” said Lee, also agreeing she had failed to alert police or welfare authorities of the child’s plight.http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20130123/BUSTED/301230016?nclick_check=1

[Tundratot]

MUNCIE — Five days shy of the third anniversary of their daughter’s death, Lauren McConniel’s parents had a showdown Monday afternoon in Delaware Circuit Court 5.

Ryan McConniel, now 36, spent most of a 90-minute hearing weeping — before and after he received a 20-year prison term for his role in the abuse, neglect and death of his daughter, who was 5 when she died on March 9, 2010.

His ex-wife, Amber Huggins, recalled that she once loved McConniel, but said in the wake of their daughter’s death, she felt nothing but “pure disdain, disgust and hatred” for her former spouse, who sat sobbing about 10 feet from her, his face for several minutes planted on top of his left arm.

“Daddies are supposed to be a little girl’s king, her protector,” Huggins said. “Ryan, however, was Lauren’s nightmare.” . . .

Ryan McConniel struck a deal with prosecutors in 2011, pleading guilty to a neglect charge that carried a maximum 20-year sentence, and giving authorities the statements needed to convict his wife, her mother and stepfather and their other daughter in Lauren’s death.

Calling her ex-husband “cowardly pathetic,” Amber Huggins said her surviving children “are the only reason Ryan and his family of monsters are alive.”

“I will love her until my last breath,” Huggins tearfully said of Lauren. She lost custody of her daughter in an Arkansas court hearing in which she didn’t have legal representation. During the girl’s months in Muncie, Huggins made futile attempts to find her daughter for visits, not seeing her again until she lay dying in the hospital.

Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold called McConniel “the most gutless, empty father and human being that I’ve ever seen.”

He also said he would “go to my grave wondering if I did the right thing” in negotiating a plea bargain with McConniel in order to secure the other convictions.

Arnold’s chief trial deputy, Eric Hoffman, called McConniel a “spineless wimp,” noting his claims he failed to protect Lauren from his wife and her family because he was physically intimidated by them.

“It’s truly pathetic that all of us in the courtroom have more compassion for a child that we never met than her own father,” Hoffman said.

Public defender John Brooke said he couldn’t argue his client wasn’t “the person most responsible” for Lauren’s fate. He asked the judge to impose a “fair and appropriate sentence,” saying McConniel’s fear of his co-defendants was “not an excuse” but a “fact of life.”

For his part, a sobbing McConniel offered his apologies to “my children, and the Lord, and to Amber and her family.”

“I guess I am just a worthless father like they said,” he told the judge. “But I did try to protect her and help her. But I didn’t do enough.”

At the earlier sentencing hearing for Angela Lee, Huggins said her daughter’s months with the McConniels and Lees were spent “in terror, in fear, in pain, in horror, in hunger.”

Hoffman noted it was Lee’s idea for Ryan McConniel to take custody of Lauren in pursuit of child support to help finance their household.

“God forbid she get a job!” Hoffman said. “She hasn’t worked since 1996.”

He also noted Lee had indicated she hadn’t interceded on Lauren’s behalf because she was “too busy on the computer talking to men on the Internet.”

Arnold called Lee and her co-defendants “truly worthless.” . . .

Defense attorney Kelly Bryan asked the judge to consider his client’s troubled childhood, alleged abuse inflicted by her husband and a psychologist’s diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome. . . .

The 30-year sentence she received was also the maximum allowed under the terms of a plea agreement. . . .
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20130305/BUSTED/303050014?nclick_check=1

Now they've all gone down. Another one bites the dust. Yeah.

[CbabyRKO]

Just pure evil. And lazy at that. Didn't even want the girl just the money they could get from her mama. Daddy dearest should just fucking kill himself coz he aint no kinda man.

[TKaz]

I'm surprised i never commented on this thread, but maybe I was too deeply affected by it to write anything - that happens on here sometimes.
I have a few questions.

WHY did the state give Ryan custody? He & his wife saw Lauren only for financial gain...but what did they say/do to get custody? I understand that they incriminated Amber but this was AFTER Lauren had been seen my doctors, yes?

IF Ryan & Brittany told them that Amber was the one who had sexually abused Lauren, where was that follow up?

Third, I had suspected sexual abuse when I read that Lauren was harming herself in biting, etc. Is it established that she WAS indeed harming herself and that there WAS sexual abuse.....or has that simply been insinuated because of Robert Lee & the fact that Brittany had claimed he had abused her?

[UnlimitedPower]

I had read on one site that Ryan got custody from Amber because he did the divorce in Arkansas where it's more about who has the money. If it was in Indianapolis, we might not be talking about this at all as apparently the mother is favoured there. Also, Amber had represented herself, he had a lawyer.

Amber got custody of Lauren's older sister who was also trapped in that horrid place only after Lauren died and the state tried to put her in foster care. She had provided some of the evidence against Ryan and Brittany.

State laws can really screw you over when it comes to custody and if you know where to divorce, it seems that you can win easily.