Toddlers Sleeping With Window Open At -30° Results In Death/Hyporthermia

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A 3-year-old girl from America's northernmost community died and her younger sister suffered hypothermia after their mother and the mother's boyfriend left them in a locked bedroom with a window open to a temperature of minus 30 degrees to air out the room because the girls wet their beds, authorities said.

The mother, 28-year-old elementary teacher Esther G. Edwards-Gust, was apparently on the lam Saturday, a day after she and 29-year-old Richard Tilden Jr. were indicted in the child's death. Tilden was in custody.

The couple shared a home with Edwards-Gust's 1- and 3-year-old daughters in the Inupiat Eskimo community of Barrow.
[...]

A grand jury on Friday indicted Tilden and Edwards-Gust on charges including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Tilden also faces second-degree murder and assault charges. He was arrested last month.
[...]

Edwards-Gust, who teaches in Barrow, was briefly in custody after traveling to Anchorage to be with her surviving daughter.

Anchorage Police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said Saturday that Edwards-Gust was initially arrested on assault charges, then set free at the request of the Barrow district attorney. Parker said he believed Edwards-Gust returned to Barrow.

http://www.adn.com/2012/03/03/234991...-indicted.html

February 9th:

Doctors there couldn't save the older child, who died Saturday. Charging documents said the 1-year-old was in better shape than her sister; a relative said Wednesday she was awake and eating.
[...]

The bedroom window was opened to outside air of 30 degrees below zero. Anyone in that room with the door closed would have been stuck there because the latch was missing, the affidavit said. Even Police Chief Leon Boyea couldn't get out of the bedroom by himself -- the door had to be opened from the other side, the affidavit said. Boyea said the bedroom lacked bedding and blankets.
[...]

Two police officers were the first to arrive. They saw Tilden on the stairs, holding the 3-year-old. Sgt. James Michels checked the naked toddler for a pulse, but could find none and started CPR, assisted by another sergeant, Travis Welch, who arrived a short time later, the affidavit said.

The 1-year-old was also naked and in the arms of Tilden.
[...]

Tilden's eyes were watery, he smelled of booze, and two bottles of whiskey were on the floor of the apartment. In a statement to officers, Tilden said he bought the booze from an alleged bootlegger and started drinking Wednesday night, going to bed around 2 a.m. At 7 p.m. Thursday, after spending the afternoon with police, his blood-alcohol level was .164, twice the legal limit for driving.

Edwards-Gust, in a statement to officers, said she had known Tilden all her life. According to public records, Edwards-Gust was in the middle of a divorce, and Tilden's wife died last summer. She told police he moved to Barrow from Dillingham in November with his three sons, and took care of her daughters when she worked at school.

The five children are normally sleeping when she leaves for work, she told police. When she left the house Thursday morning, the girls were sleeping and wearing clothing, she told police.

Tilden told police he opened the window Wednesday to air out the room because the girls regularly wet their bed. He told officers he didn't close it, according to the affidavit.

Tilden said he woke up Thursday about 12:30 p.m., checked the girls, and noticed that the older child had defecated in bed and that both had urinated on themselves, the affidavit said.

"The defendant stated he stripped the clothing off the girls and carried them downstairs to change them," the police said. "He said once he got them downstairs, he noticed (the 3-year-old) was not breathing and he called 911."

The police affidavit said nothing about the condition of Tilden's three sons, or what happened to them.

http://www.adn.com/2012/02/08/230736...room-open.html


I would love to visit Barrow. About 4,200 people live in there. There are no roads connecting it to the rest of Alaska. In early May, the sun rises and does not set for nearly 3 months. In November, it sets and does not rise above the horizon for about 2 months. Barrow is a "damp village" which does not allow selling of alcohol but allows for possesion and consumption.

[malq]

I would love to visit Barrow as well. It is the start of the Alaska pipeline. I have been that high on the water. it's pretty weird to look up at the sun like it is high noon at 1 am. In Valdez it's kinda cool to go into a bar at midnight and sunny, come back out at 3am and the sun is already up. It never really sets, just tries to get dusk and then brightens again.

This is too bad for the kids. There is a high rate of alcoholism there for the natives especially. People that are working on the pipeline don't have time to stay drunk.

ETA

Comment from poster who seems to know him.

Your right!!! Both need to serve life sentence. They really need to open the case of the death of Richard Tilden's wife. Who died suddenly last summer. Looks like she was beaten to death. Black and blue under all the make up. The so called big daddy is a wife beater!!!! And now this!!! He needs to be tied to a tree butt naked in the hot summer and fed to the bugs. The End!!!!!!!!!

!!

http://www.adn.com/2012/02/08/230736...#storylink=cpy

Tilden has a long list of prior charges and convictions for alcohol-related crimes, including domestic assault against his late wife.

http://www.thearcticsounder.com/arti...inst_boyfriend

[Tundratot]

Sounds like Edwards-Gust is pinning it on Tilden. But Tilden has three live children, that he's managed to keep alive, and he didn't run. Edwards-Gust ran. She seems pretty guilty to me.

[malq]

She is native, not that it makes a huge difference. The alcohol consumption tipped me off.


her myspace
http://www.myspace.com/estherg

[TheMorningStar]

This shit is cold blooded.

[Uneasy Varlot]

Another potty training tragedy. One is too young to fully control your bowels. It sounds like it would have been a whole lot easier to put them in diapers during the night.

[AngelFire]

So not only did they leave the window open but they were also naked? Ugh soak them in water and leave them naked on some glacier. Assholes

[Dakota Valkyrie]

So not only did they leave the window open but they were also naked? Ugh soak them in water and leave them naked on some glacier. Assholes

They were naked because he stripped them down when he discovered them "messy". I guess he didn't want to get piss on his drinkin' clothes. Nevermind that they were still asleep past noon (after going to bed 15+ hours earlier), non-responsive and without bedding in a freezing room. SAVE THE CLOTHES!!!

[Marv]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...om-Alaska.html


Sisters Miley, left, and Macey


Edwards-Gust with her three daughters Macy, Miley and Sasha

The three-year-old who died is believed to be called Miley, while her younger sister is Macy.
They also have an older sister, Sasha, whose whereabouts is currently unknown.

[kniption]

Can you imagine the fear of those kids? I bet they were huddled together trying to figure out WTF was going on. This is the horrible shit that drunk dumbasses do when they should be playing russian roulette.

[Obsolete]

I really don't understand why they weren't wearing diapers. The 3 yr old may have been potty trained and just had an accident during the night but there is no way someone should expect a 1 yr old to be able to sleep through the night without needing a diaper.

No blankets, no clothes, an open window and -30 degree weather. That's exactly how these assholes should serve their jail sentence.

[cubby]

I really don't understand why they weren't wearing diapers. The 3 yr old may have been potty trained and just had an accident during the night but there is no way someone should expect a 1 yr old to be able to sleep through the night without needing a diaper.

No blankets, no clothes, an open window and 30 degree weather. That's exactly how these assholes should serve their jail sentence.

I read the temperature as MINUS 30 degrees. Pretty Freaking cold.

[Obsolete]

I read the temperature as MINUS 30 degrees. Pretty Freaking cold.

You're right...I forgot my lil minus symbol. Thanks!

[JGo555]

Isn't it obvious!? Being cold WILL NOT MAKE YOU PEE!?

*Looks around muttering curses for that damned Sarcasm button*

Fucking retard!

[cubby]

You're right...I forgot my lil minus symbol. Thanks!

Yeah it's pretty important LOL, it rarely gets much colder than 30 degrees here in Georgia and you can die from hypothermia and such here but not with as much FLAIR as at Minus 30 degrees.

I'm guessing the old man had so much antifreeze (alcohol) on board and was sleeping in his nice warm bedroom that the -30 didn't bother him so much.

[CbabyRKO]

Oh Em Gee I just wanna bite on their chubby little cheeks they are SO FREAKIN ADORABLE! Too bad their mom is a worthless ding bat! A room with no exit? Wtf would they have done had a fire broken out and no one could get the babies? I guess it doesn't matter now. One sweet Eskimo baby is gone and another has to forever live with the memory that she lay there with her big sis as she took her final breaths.

God I wanna execute both wastes of skin for this preventable tragedy. Where the hell are his 3 boys? Why didnt he clean the girls up and put them in another room of the house? I'm sure had he explained to them that becoz they had wet the bed they would have to sleep somewhere else they would have been just fine.He could have put some blankets on the floor of the living room and had them sleep there....wait nevermind he was shit faced so I doubt he had the patience for that.

I'm guessin his drunk ass was just like "fuck it they'll be fine" with the window open and no blankets.Then again this is Alaska afterall where the women are 50% more manly than the average man.

I know from experience that dealing with a pissy 3y/o and 1y/o while drunk blows hard! But so do a lot of things in life.

[Rockin Ma]

They also have an older sister, Sasha, whose whereabouts is currently unknown.

Oh no.

[AngelFire]

Those kids are simply adorable. I would have slept with all 3 of them just hugging on them. Ugh fucking useless lush of a mother that is only good for spreading her legs and bringing kids in this world to suffer.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A man who left an infant and 3-year-old girl overnight in a freezing Barrow bedroom, killing the older girl, was sentenced this month to seven years in prison.

Several Barrow residents staged a protest Friday saying they were outraged at what they considered to be a light sentence for 30-year-old Richard Tilden Jr., who had been drinking while babysitting. Tilden pleaded guilty on April 11 to criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault.

"People that have caught a walrus or a polar bear off-season or inappropriately, they get more time than this guy did," said protester Stefanie Lozano.
[...]

The mother, 29-year-old Esther Edwards-Gust, is awaiting trial this summer on charges of manslaughter, assault and criminally negligent homicide.

Lozano, a 28-year-old who grew up in Barrow, said she was drawn to the case because the children made her think of her own young nieces and nephews. She joined other Barrow residents in tying more than 100 purple ribbons to light posts, stop signs and car antennas decrying violence against children, she said.

On Friday, Lozano said she was one of half a dozen people who held signs reading "Miley's life was worth more than seven years" and "A walrus and nanuq gets more justice than our children."

Fairbanks District Attorney Mike Gray defended the sentence.

"It's not the message that a child's life in Barrow or in Fairbanks or in Anchorage or anywhere else is only worth seven years. That's not the question. The question is what was a fair resolution?" said Gray, whose office handled the case. "It was something that was not done in anger," he said.
[...]

Sentencing guidelines called for Tilden to serve up to 10 years for criminally negligent homicide and up to five years for third-degree assault against the younger girl, he said. The sentence approved in state Superior Court called for Tilden to serve 14 years with seven years suspended, plus 10 years probation.

Marjorie Solomon, social services director for the Native Village of Barrow, said she spoke at the sentencing, arguing that too many local drug and alcohol offenders are being offered plea agreements.

"A little girl died because there was drinking going on. And not just her, there's a lot of other kids suffering," Solomon said.

Barrow is a "damp" community, meaning it's illegal to buy alcohol in town but people with permits can have booze shipped to a city-run distribution center.

Tilden may not drink, may not enter the home of any bootlegger and is forbidden from baby-sitting children under the age of 11, under the plea agreement.

He must not make contact with the surviving child.

"It looks like the younger child will be fine," Gray said.

http://www.adn.com/2013/04/19/287194...ers-death.html