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14-year old Carnation girl starved to less than 50 pounds
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It's one of those cases you truly wish weren't true. A 14-year old girl in Carnation was starved by her step-mother and father to the point that when detectives found her, she weighed less than 50 pounds. To put how little that is in perspective, she appeared to be about seven years old to detectives.
"It's the worst case this detective has ever seen, and he's been in the Special Assault Unit for 16 years," Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said.
And I'm sure for most of us, it's the worst child-abuse case we've ever even heard of. Details from the investigation include that the girl's stepmother, one truly demented soul, Rebecca A. Long, restricted her stepdaughter's water intake to a half of a dixie cup of water per day and forced her to sleep on the parents bedroom floor so that the girl could not sneak sips of water while she slept.
How this child is still alive after two years of this is truly shocking to me. The depravation was so much that the girl was reportedly punished after being caught trying to sip water out of the toilet and wasn't even allowed to brush her teeth for fear she may have been able to drink some of the water.
Although neighbor's reportedly were not even aware that the couple had a daughter, the state was. And it was also aware that, on more than one occassion, someone thought the girl was being abused. She was removed from the public school system in Carnation after a teacher reported signs of abuse and, although, the state followed up, they apparently didn't find enough.
"One state official questioned whether child welfare workers prematurely ended an investigation in 2005 when a Carnation teacher reported concerns about the girl to Child Protective Services."
Yea, I'm going to go ahead and say they did end it prematurely. I know the state's CPS programs are ridiculously under-staffed and over-extended, and once the girl was taken out of public school, there is only so much you can do. But reading a case like this just makes you wish someone had acted on their gut instinct and put a stop to this before it got to this point.
The girl was so malnourished that, while she has already gained 20 pounds in Foster care, she has been experiencing stomach pain because she is not used to eating.
The worst part of this is that Long and her husband, Jon E. Pomeroy are only facing three-to-four years in prison. When will our country put more importance on sentencing demons like these than petty drug dealers? When you can legitmately say that a child would have been better off living under a bridge than with her parents, those people deserve to suffer.
Here's to hoping this poor girl gets the help she needs. And here's to hoping Rebecca A. Long and Jon E. Pomeroy get what they deserve.
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