javapride

those are SICK poeple doing this !!!!!!1 DAMN!

KITTANNING, Pa. (Aug. 8) - A man and woman have been charged with killing a 4-year-old girl whose malnourished body was found in a picnic cooler behind their western Pennsylvania home, authorities said.

Kristen Tatar's 11 1/2-pound body was found in the cooler Thursday, after police were alerted by social workers who hadn't seen the child since at least June.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but Armstrong County Coroner Robert Bower said at a news conference Friday that the girl suffered from malnutrition, dehydration and neglect. The body had been put in the cooler, wrapped in garbage bags and then placed in a trash can near a shed in the back yard, authorities said.

State police filed homicide charges late Thursday against James Tatar, 41, and Janet Crawford, 35, both of Vandergrift, a town about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Police said the couple was caring for Kristen, but authorities didn't know if either was her biological parent.

Officials said they believed the girl had been dead for weeks.

The defendants, who did not have attorneys as of Friday afternoon, were being held in the Armstrong County jail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Thursday.

Authorities said there is some indication the girl was kept in a bedroom away from the rest of the family. Armstrong County District Attorney Scott Andreassi said the many family photos in the home did not include Kristen.

``They were living as a family of three, but they really were a family of four,'' Bower said.

The last time a relative saw Kristen alive was six months ago, Andreassi said.

A social worker visited the home in June and was introduced to a child presented as Kristen, Andreassi said. Officials now are unsure if the child was actually Kristen, because the worker was unfamiliar with the case, and the child was healthy, unlike the body found in the cooler, he said.

Social workers had been trying to contact the child on and off since June, and were told by the couple that Kristen was at a Catholic Charities hospice.

When they couldn't find the child at the hospice, the county alerted police.

The child's care was being supervised by the Children and Youth Services agency because Kristen had suffered from malnourishment in the past, and a condition known as failure to thrive.

08/08/03 18:50 EDT

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Deafness

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Fly Free

poor child

VamPyroX

Jeez... another kid? These parents should be executed on sight for doing these things!

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SilenceGold

I propose for a license to have the rights to bear children! :p

Steel X

They put a child in the cooler so it won't smell and rot so fast that way...and would lower the child's body temperture too and then just freeze to death.

If it was put in a bag instead, then it would smell and rot and can be easily suspenced.

So they were already busted by the cops when they found the body in a cooler and it wasn't really smart to hide a body like that...anyone can ALWAYS find the cooler and see what's inside.

so they were definetly stupid and foolish and I believe they would proably recieve a death sentence someday.

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CatoCooper13

I heard about that and was so sad to hear how it happened. Why does this happen like that? It's a sad, sad world sometimes.

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Til I hold my bub in my arms.