STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I met this family through a volunteer position just a few weeks ago. I feel absolutely sick about it.

Mother charged with 2nd-degree murder boy's death:
The father of a 22-month-old boy who died in what has been ruled a homicide said he saw the child's mother beat the boy in the past and has expressed concern about the mother's mental health status.

Gatluak Kuan Jerweng, who lives and attends school in Iowa, told investigators Nyachuol Lungdicok Poch had beaten Duach Makuach on numerous occasions, according to a child-protection petition filed after the April 12 death of Makuach. Jerweng told investigators he was unable to stop Poch from beating Makuach and he "compared her to Andrea Yates," the Texas woman who killed her five children by drowning them in a bathtub.

Poch is charged with one count of second-degree murder in the death of her son. Stearns County District Court Judge Thomas Knapp ordered Poch held in lieu of $1 million bail at her first court hearing Monday. Poch is next due in court April 26.

A court complaint charging Poch indicates Makuach suffered a lacerated liver and other soft tissue injuries that were consistent with blows to the stomach. That complaint says that Poch admitted beating her son with a shoe because he was crying.

Rescue personnel found Makuach unresponsive and not breathing the afternoon of April 12 when they arrived at Poch's south St. Cloud apartment at 1538 Sixth Ave. S. The boy was pronounced dead at St. Cloud Hospital, and an autopsy revealed numerous injuries to the child's head and face. He had two broken ribs, one of which had calcified, indicating it was an old injury that was healing.

There were soft tissue injuries to the boy's back, shoulder area and buttocks, according to the child-protection petition. That petition was filed to protect two other children living with Poch, a 2-year-old girl and a 3-year-old girl. Those children are in protective custody.

Jerweng said he last visited Poch and their children in early April and had to take all three children to the doctor for treatment of ear infections. He expressed concern that Poch hadn't adequately fed the children and that she hated the boy because he looked and acted like Jerweng, according to the child-protection petition. Poch's daughters underwent full skeletal X-rays, which revealed no signs of injury.

Jerweng told investigators Poch had threatened him in the past and "he has been concerned about Ms. Poch's mental health for a long time," according to the petition.

Iowa Human Services intervened at least twice after reports that Poch had left the children alone when she went to a friend's apartment to use the phone and after she and Jerweng were involved in a domestic dispute with the children present. Poch, who is Sudanese, has been in St. Cloud since December, said Assistant Stearns County Attorney Shan Wang, who is prosecuting the case. She moved to a residence at 1538 Sixth Ave. S in February, Wang said. Before coming to St. Cloud, she had lived in various locations in and out of Minnesota, Wang said.

The child-protection petition indicates Poch is eight months pregnant, and that Jerweng has expressed concern that she isn't eating enough.
Source: http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010104190052