Lois Jurgens agreed, but seemed scared that she would not be offered another child. Harold's testimony in 1965 showed he was in Wisconsin from the evening of Friday, April 9, until 9 or 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 10.

 

Two husbands and four children later, Sherwood had gone searching for her firstborn, only to learn that he had died years before, in 1965, at age 3. Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965. They were informed they would not be allowed to foster or adopt any additional children. A family friend, Barbara Venney, saw the bruises through the flowers. She was cleared of second-degree . In a town like White Bear Lake, apparently no one thought it problematic that the assistant police chief, Lt. Jerome Zerwas, was Lois Jurgens brother.

I thought you might like to see a memorial for Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens I found on Findagrave.com. Try again later. Lois Germaine Josephine Zerwas Jurgens (August 12, 1925 May 7, 2013) was an American convicted murderer[1] responsible for one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota. She was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison and was paroled in 1995. Then there were the neighbors and relatives who had seen incidents and evidence of abuse. The victim He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). Rekdahl decided to call on the Jurgenses. They covered the face, the head, the arms. They had just buried the body, and that was all. The victim Dennis had thrown up then. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel.

Dennis and Robert Jurgens, 1965.

Pitera would take photos later that day. Opens in a new window or tab. You can always change this later in your Account settings. To him, that was close to frightening. Is it quite customary to see a little boy with so many bruises, he was asked. Aside from the incident when Dennis was hospitalized with burns on his genitals, there were many other incidents of abuse that fell under the category of sexual sadism. To keep creating He liked them. They would not know for two weeks whether Dennis would need skin grafts, he had told Rekdahl. I can recall seeing some, but its not very clear.

[citation needed][3]. A common belief amongst witnesses and neighbors at the time of the murder, and among the investigators who eventually re-opened the case, is that he interfered with the investigation and destroyed incriminating evidence. He was frequently starved, to rid him of "sloppy fat," as Lois called it (she also called him "Sloppy Fat" as a nickname). If I had it to do over again--well, in 1987 I wouldnt approve, but if it were 1965, I dont know what I would do. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. On the other hand, she realized the improbability of being offered another Catholic baby in the near future. Donna Neely wondered, as she studied the Jurgenses now-silent house from her front window. We wanted to tell someone, she said. This is the story of a small boys murder that went undeclared and unprosecuted for 22 years in a community full of people who knew what had happened. Votel could not take the first step. The boys mouth was getting full, he wasnt swallowing, so Lois put horseradish on the fork. It looked to her as if the roses were placed there to cover up the dark blue markings.   She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. I had doubts, and I didnt like Lois, but I felt I couldnt react personally like that, she said. They saw the hearse sitting in the Jurgenses driveway, and a big blue convertible, and the police car parked awkwardly, askew, as if the officer had been in a hurry. As he read, he stiffened in his chair. DC artist Dan Jurgens shares an image of an unused Electric Blue Superman design from 1996, reminiscing about what might have been. When the wind was up, Peterson would take out his sixteen-foot sailboat and glide toward Manitou Island and the town of White Bear. It was full of redwood and log railings, and the lawn and trees ran almost to the waters edge, a good hundred feet of lake frontage in all. Lois thought that would be a good idea. I remember very clearly the pathologist coming in and saying it had to be a blow, not a fall, but I think the prosecutor felt he couldnt prove it, and I was on the same wavelength as the prosecutor. Lois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. The situation had made him uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that he hadnt pulled down the blankets or examined the body further. We thought it would be no use.. When it froze, hed hang lights on the seven surrounding elm trees, put out snow sculptures of bears and seals tinted with food coloring, and invite all the neighborhood kids to join his own two children in skating and hockey games. Donna Mae, about 5 feet away, watched in horror as Lois force-fed that vomit to him, made him eat it. But how did such an infection occur in the first place? On April 26, Korolchuk drafted an analysis of the information they had gathered. angelizdsplace.com/. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. Lois Jurgens was the infamous subject of one of the most unusual child murder cases in history in Minnesota.She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, three-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965.. Jurgens was one of sixteen children. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. No prosecution was taken at that time. At first, that seemed to be the conclusion that the official inquiry would also reach. English The sequel spins out of The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1, which transformed construction worker Lloyd Crayton into a new Doomsday-like villain for Superman: Doombreaker. Notification of death or terminal illness, Office of Revisor of Statues . The neighbors talked among themselves that afternoon. She wanted assurances. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. Please enter your email and password to sign in. . It is one of a few crimes that FBI agent Kenneth Lanning argues can legitimately be described as "ritual abuse". She had not noticed anything was wrong until sometime later, when Dennis began holding himself and saying, Owie! It was then she saw that his genitals were burned and called the doctor. Lois Jurgens served eight years of her sentence and had a quiet life as a widow in Stillwater, Minnesota.   Dr. She thought Dennis too aggressive, his wild behavior quite unlike Roberts. With the advent of highways, White Bear Lake has become a suburb of St. Paul, about 12 miles to the south. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? need your help for this. Do you have a camera in the car, he asked VanderWyst. Officially forbidden to adopt children owing to Lois' history of mental illness, the couple managed to adopt a baby named Robert privately. Rekdahl expressed some concern. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. She was a good dozen years younger than the Jurgenses. Though the specific cause of that fatal blow is not known, it is known that it was Lois who had given it to Dennis. We have many There is some suspicion that Lois Jurgens herself set the fire, given that it occurred while Robert was hospitalized, and that Lois had been known to threaten burning down the homes of several neighbors and family members who had spoken to authorities. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. There he had been loved and well cared for by an experienced foster mother. Beatings and displays of Lois' explosive temper were daily events; especially bad days could include her slamming a child's forehead into a nail protruding from a wall, forcing a child to stand barefoot in snow, and shoving a used sanitary napkin in a child's face. .

She was the adoptive mother of six children in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutally abused them all, killing one of them, three-year-old Dennis Jurgens, in 1965. Pitera stared at the body. ``May God strike her dead, thats what I have to say to Lois Jurgens, Jerry Sherwood said. Instead, Peterson would build an ice rink on his front lawnhed raise a circular wood wall, lay in six inches of leaves gathered from all the neighbors for mulch, then cover that with sheet plastic, one hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and fill it with water from the hose. Jurgens was the only fatal victim of Lois Jurgens, his adoptive mother and a prolific child abuser, who abused a total of six adopted children from 1960 to 1975. Lois Jurgens reaction to Dennis during the visit was less than enthusiastic. The Jurgenses are not being attacked anywhere along the line. There was also the matter of community attitudes. He naps both in the forenoon and the afternoon. By the second week, the investigation began to encounter obstacles. She said she had set Dennis in the sink to wash him after he had wet his diaper, then had gone into another room to get a clean diaper.   There was something wrong here. He felt that Lois mental breakdown was not extremely serious and that she had completely recovered. As the laws were then interpreted, he believed that he would have to link a specific action taken by Lois Jurgens to the precise cause of death. Lois obsessed about Dennis' weight, which according to medical records was appropriate for a child of his age and build at the point of his adoption. They beat my baby to death, Sherwood told Buzz Harvey. Judge Archie Gingold, in his findings at the close of the hearing, ruled that Dennis had been subjected to many incidences of cruel and severe abuse. Rekdahl did know that Lois had a history of psychiatric problems involving a nervous breakdown in the early 1950s. He would later learn much more, would attend seminars and organize a county task force on the problem, but it cannot be said that Gingold knew nothing in 1965 about the battered-child syndrome. . Such stories are not rare. In 1987, Jurgens was convicted of third-degree murder of Dennis. Throughout the years of frequent abuse, it has been reported that while Harold Jurgens made little effort to curb his wife's abuse of young Dennis, he personally never mistreated the boy. She was born February 25, 1927 to Leslie and Margaret Stowell in Cass County Il. Star Tribune photo by Donald Black. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Lois Jurgens (134346102)? Dennis had been a beautiful baby, Gladys Demars said. At first Bob Brass thought the squad car was Loiss brothers, but then they saw VanderWyst in the driveway. In 1992 A made-for-TV movie was made based on both Jerry's story and this case called, ' A Child Lost Forever ' w/ the remarkable Beverly D'Angelo as Jerry Sherwood and Judith Ivey as Lois Jurgens.

Lois is survived by her husband, Floyd Jurgens; children Gary Jurgens and Caron Klein (Bruce);. Though there was an investigation, society and law enforcement of the mid-1960s did not accept the concept that a child in a middle-class home could be the target of abuse. Several told of having seen Dennis bruised and battered. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "ANGELIZD's Place - Child Abuse Pages - Dennis Craig Jurgens", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lois_Jurgens&oldid=1133446799, Articles lacking in-text citations from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 21:13. Thanks for your help! It was harder to believe that Dennis had been awake and talking normally an hour and a half before he died. She grew up and attended school in Malvern, graduating in 1947. Instead, Dorothy Engfer began telling others in the neighborhood what shed seen. They had seen Lois yank Dennis violently by the ears. Retired now for several years, he suffers from angina and does not go out much, but he recalls the 1965 hearing.

 

This is a carousel with slides. According to Rekdahls written log, that was the sum of what Peterson said to her. Dennis struggled with such training and was forced to pray and recite his Rosary kneeling on a broomstick for extended periods, until he did it correctly. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. Lois jurgens, 93, of arvada, colorado, formerly of malvern and glenwood, iowa, passed away june 13, 2022. lois jean jurgens, the daughter of lawrence a. and marjorie v. (johnson) jones, was born on may 26, 1929 in malvern, iowa. This month is the 30th anniversary of the release of "A Death in White Bear Lake," a book by then-Los Angeles Times reporter Barry Siegel. Lois Jurgens was disappointed about Dennis age. +C $33.27 shipping estimate. Jerry Puckett was a Protestant by background, but at the time Dennis was born she was intending to take instruction in the Roman Catholic faith. Petersburg, ILLois A. Jurgens (92) of Petersburg passed away September 25, 2019. During this period, Lois was once again placed in a psychiatric facility. The mother was an unmarried 17-year-old, Jerry Ann Puckett, an attractive blonde of Danish-German extraction. Lois Jurgens, 93, of Arvada, Colorado, formerly of Malvern and Glenwood, Iowa, passed away June 13, 2022. She was 61 when she went to prison and served eight years before being paroled.. Lois Jurgens (born 1925) is an American convicted murderer. Try again later. He assured that it was going on, that this would be his responsibility to get the information, bring it back to me so I could complete the certificate. . harold e bageant obituary visitation funeral information. Rekdahl thought that Lois speech betrayed a bit of cynicism. We didnt believe it was possible in nice, middle-class suburban families.. Our kids have fallen down steps and not died. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Harold Jurgens died in 2000; at the time of his death, there was suspicion that Lois had poisoned him, but this was investigated and ruled out. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. They wanted an infant under a year old, and they wanted a Catholic child. She knew that Lois had finished only the eighth grade. There was a deep, ulcerous lesion at the base of the penis and dark bruises on the tip. When Lois found him gasping and gurgling at 9 a.m., she promptly called Dr. Peterson. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. On Nov. 28, 1962, members of the Scott and Ramsey counties welfare departments, including Rekdahl, had a conference in the town of Shakopee. Family members linked to this person will appear here. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. Lois was mean to DennisCam Brass and Donna Neely and the othersCam Brass and Donna Neely and the others understood that much. Her brother, Jerome Zerwas, was the police lieutenant of the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where she lived at the time. By all accounts, Lois was obsessed with abusing Dennis, and she wanted the world to know he was a "bad child"; she made no apologies about the inappropriate way she was disciplining him. In the early 1980s, Dennis' birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, looked for Dennis, only to find out he had died in 1965. Rekdahl found her judgment confirmed by the Jurgenses priest. The boy was obviously dead. Lois Jurgens had a reputation amongst her extended family and neighbors as an intense, angry woman with a short and volatile temper, but Dennis' arrival in her home provoked sadistic rages that targeted Dennis as he aged from one to three-and-a-half years of age.

Dennis Craig Jurgens, 3.

This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. At 2 p.m. on that Palm Sunday, Dr. Robert Woodburn, the coroners chief pathologist, conducted the autopsy. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. I was willing to wait. Votel was still waiting about two years later, when he retired from office. Jurgens who says he still has the yellow legal pad on which he did his quick sketch was the victor. They were of varying colors--black and blue, yellowish green, reddish--which meant that some were fresh, some old. Only 5% to 10% of the bruises on Dennis could have been caused by such a fall. Dennis Craig Jurgens (December 6, 1961 - April 11, 1965) was an American 3-year-old boy who was murdered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in April 1965. Her secret was revealed after Sherwood began searching for the son she gave up for adoption and learned in 1983 that he had died of a bowel injury.