Child Killer On Death Row: James Crummel Hangs Himself

[Dakota Valkyrie]

One of Orange County's most notorious child killers has hanged himself on death row, the California Department of Corrections has reported.

James Lee Crummel, 68, was found hanging in his cell Sunday afternoon at San Quentin State Prison.

The former Newport Beach resident made headlines in the late '90s when neighbors found out he was a child molester. But that was only a fraction of what he had been accused of across the country.

As neighbors were putting the heat on, police were putting together a case against him in the 1979 kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder of a 13-year-old boy named James Wilfred Trotter.

The Costa Mesa boy disappeared in 1979 while on his way to school.

Eleven years later, Crummel called police as a random citizen (in what police later categorized as a twisted game of cat and mouse) to say he found some charred human bones while hiking off the Ortega Highway in Riverside County.

Police were thrown off because experts initially thought the bones belonged to a girl.

It wasn't until 1996 that another expert concluded the bones belonged to a boy. When Riverside looked for unsolved missing-boy cases, they found Trotter. The Trotter family orthodontist recognized the numbers engraved on the braces found among the remains. In April, DNA identified the bones as Trotter's.

By this time, police had also learned that Crummel lived about a mile from Trotter when the boy disappeared.

And a check of Crummel's past showed a string of violent child molestations spanning 30 years and four states.

He has also been questioned about the 1981 murder of an Anaheim Hills boy and the 1995 disappearance of a Big Bear City boy.

Yet Crummel had been living among unsuspecting neighbors until "Megan's Law," which allows police to notify residents of a "high-risk" sex offender.

Neighbors went into picket mode, trying everything to oust him -- from offering to buy his condo to pressuring the owner to evict him. They celebrated his arrest with champagne.
[...]

http://www.ocregister.com/news/crumm...oy-police.html


O.C. child killer's twisted road to death row
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/c...lough-boy.html

[CbabyRKO]

glad he got tired of waiting on the reaper and saved California some much needed money by eliminating the need to feed clothe and house him.

[lyssdexia]

One question: Why was this POS still allowed to roam about the country seeking to devour little boys after "a string of violent child molestations spanning 30 years and 4 states?"

I hope it wasn't suicide. I hope he was viciously and painfully given a helping hand....

Thank you for this. After the face-eating cannibal and the poor, sweet little pug - I REALLY needed a "feel-good" story!

[Dakota Valkyrie]

One of my favorite article headlines: Mom vs. child killer: Guess who won?

Darleen Savoji jokes that someday, now that her kids are grown, she's going to finally get around to doing her baby books.

And when she does, she's going to put together that other scrap book dear to her heart: the one that shows the role she played in the crazy weeks leading up to the arrest of killer James Crummel.

She has the perfect newspaper clipping for the last page: Crummel hangs himself on death row.

That final chapter happened last week.
[...]

It was an ordinary day in 1997. Darleen's son, Anthony, then 12, wiped out on his bike riding through his Newport Crest condo neighborhood.

And suddenly, there was James Crummel.

The man had a Band-Aid for the boy and invited him into his condo to drink soda and watch dirt bike videos.

Well, this time he picked the wrong boy to invite inside.

Because Anthony went home and told mamma bear the story of the nice man and mamma bear went berserk.

Darleen walked out of the garage where she was doing laundry and marched over to Crummel's condo to find out what sort of man invites a kid in to drink soda and watch BMX videos, because it didn't sound like any men she knew.

There was no answer.

The next morning she went out on her doorstep to get the newspaper and found a flier from the Newport Beach Police Department alerting neighbors that a high-risk sex offender was in their midst. It was only the second time in the history of Orange County that the then-new Megan's Law was being tested.

Darleen showed her three kids the flier of the 53-year-old man at the breakfast table.

See, she lectured, this is exactly why when a man invites you in for soda you run the other way. So thank you for coming right home, Anthony, and telling your mom.

Mommy, he said, looking at the flier. That's the man who invited me in.

OK, breakfast is done, she told the kids. Off to school.

Then she marched back to Crummel's, a block down, this time with the flier in her hand and started banging on the door.

Hello? Hello?

As she was leaving, television reporters emerged from the bushes.

Who are you they asked?

I'm a mom, she said.
[...]

Read the rest of her story: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/c...ji-police.html