This was a bad one.
I really need my brains right now. I have an intellectual property legal ethics seminar to write, and an aggravating commentary on the ridiculous stand-off over gay marriage in Alabama. And yet there are my brains, scattered all over the ceiling and walls after the first KABOOM! of 2015.
That’s one more reason to be furious at Elizabeth Hupp, Rose Brewer, and Denise Kroutil, otherwise known (here) as the Cretin Family. That, and the fact that they are brutal, child abusing idiots. You see, Auntie Denise was concerned that Hupp’s six-year-old son wasn’t sufficiently wary of strangers. Grandma Rose agreed, so with Mom’s approval, they arranged to have a stranger kidnap the child, imprison him, and terrorize him.
Followed by a stern lecture.
Let me know when your head blows up as I relate this ridiculous/horrible/unbelievable but true story.The Lincoln County (Missouri ) Sheriff’s Office determined that the aunt, Kroutil, asked goonish co-worker and honorary Cretin Nathan Wynn Firoved, to lure the too-trusting child into his truck after the boy was dropped off by his school bus. Firoved, skillfully playing the role of a cruel kidnapper, told the boy that he would never “see his mommy again” and (Ready?) that he would be “nailed to the wall of a shed.” His victim started to cry for some reason, so Firoved threatened the first-grader with a handgun and said that he better stop crying, or else. Firoved then drove around the neighborhood for effect. [You know, like in “The Godfather” when Solozzo and Capt. McCluskey drive Michael Corleone around New York on the way to the restaurant where Michael shoots them both in the face. Unfortunately, this poor boy didn’t have access to a handgun.] To punish his victim for crying, Firoved tied the six-year-old’s hands and feet with plastic bags and covered his face with Fireoved’s jacket, so he couldn’t see.
Has your head erupted?
Because the worst is yet to come.
Police say Firoved then took the now hooded boy into the basement of his family’s house, though since he couldn’t see, he didn’t know that. There, Aunt Denise took over. She took off the boy’s pants, and harshly told him that he might be sold into sex slavery.
Eventually, the brutalized child was released and told to go upstairs, where his loving family gave him a lecture about talking to strangers. Happy ending!
The whole idiotic plot came to light when the boy mentioned his experience in school. School officials contacted child services, which called in the police. “The family members felt like they did nothing wrong, and continue to feel like they have done nothing wrong,” a representative of the sheriff’s office told reporters.
Of course they don’t.
Granny, Auntie, Mommy and the Goon have all been charged with felony kidnapping, felonious restraint, and felony abuse, and are being held on $250,000 bonds. Mom gets a bonus charge of child neglect.
This poor kid is currently in protective custody. Once he trusted too easily. Now he’ll probably never trust anyone again, especially, I hope, his family.
___________________________
Pointer: Alexander Cheezem
Facts:Res Ipsa, Loquitur Slate
Ethics Alarms attempts to give proper attribution and credit to all sources of facts, analysis and other assistance that go into its blog posts, and seek written permission when appropriate. If you are aware of one I missed, or believe your own work or property was used in any way without proper attribution, credit or permission, please contact me, Jack Marshall, at jamproethics@verizon.net.
Ethics Alarms 
I think I am going to be sick — but first I am going to go hug my 6-year old.
I’m sorry Beth, I know you hate posts like that, as do I.
If there’s anything left in the head post-KABOOM, I think it’s the brainmush trying to expel the insoluble ethics shrapnel. Such an abused six-year old, especially one who was “too nice,” — who is attached to and dependent upon mommy emotionally and physiologically, if not to auntie and grandmama as well, if to a lesser extent — is likely to feel more uprooted, more fearful of his new stranger custodians than of his insane relatives. Trust is only part of what this child has lost, possibly permanently.
Assuming the story is even remotely accurate….I recommend teaching the adult family members that what they did was wrong.
After first investigating what else they might have done in the past.
How to go about such education in a civilised manner is beyond me. (that means no “aversion therapy”, no boiling oil, no hot pincers etc). So locking them up in perpetuity is probably the only practical solution.
Meanwhile, our efforts should be concentrated on helping the child.
You know, I’m pretty sure I saw this a week ago.
(Checks his outbox) Yep. Even sent you the CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/us/missouri-fake-kidnapping/index.html .
Given that I just sent you an (admittedly dated, but still noteworthy) article about a start-up owner who sent a female journalist a “gender-neutral” gift-basket which included oysters, tequila, a vibrator, and KY jelly… well, I feel obligated to ask whether you got it or if there’s an issue with our e-mail.
Anyway, I need to get to sleep… and work on a response to that awareness post whenever I get a chance.
https://ethicsalarms.com/2015/02/04/the-demon-barber-of-snelville/comment-page-1/#comment-309058
Just checked as well, and you sent me the story (I just added your name as the pointer.) Got the gift basket one too. I’m really behind…never have I had so many issues and stories that I want to write about: if I froze time, like in that Twilight Zone episode, it would still take me a week yo catch up. I apologize, that was sloppy. But keep the links coming, if you can. It helps so much.
Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m not the only one who sent it to you (see above), and you did find out somewhere else. I was more concerned about the possibility of an issue with my e-mail.
Horrible, horrible story; that poor kid. I blogged about this a couple of days ago; yours is better; I didn’t have my head blowing up, although it did.
When I first heard about this I had no comment. I don’t even know how people can think this makes sense to do…
“Let me know when your head blows up as I relate this.”
You had me with the preceding paragraph.
Just when you think people couldn’t be more imbecilic….
I saw the story on CNN and reread it, I couldn’t believe what I was reading…the kid was ‘too nice to strangers’, and it was his family that brutalized him. I still can’t get over it. It’s just horrible.
Yeah, that’s a kaboom. I am all for stern discipline, even painful or humiliating discipline, but the staging of a terrifying crime to make a kid fear strangers? Uh, no. This kid’s going to fear the whole world now.
Can’t wait to read your commentary on Alabama and the thread that will follow. $10 says we get to 400 posts.
Jack,
Would it be possible to obtain a copy of your IP ethcis seminar following it’s completion and presentation? I only ask because I currently work for an IP firm and would find it of great interest. That said, if it’s proprietary or otherwise inconvenient, I completely understand.
Great article, by the way! Cheers.
-Neil
Is there any possibility that this is a hoax? I read some articles critical of principals who are hiring actors to stage fake ‘school shooting’ scenarios complete with fake guns, exploding blood packs on the victims, etc. This looks like it could be a ‘spoof’ article trying to one-up or ‘raise awareness’ of this issue.
I am probably just hoping in vain and looking for some reasonable explanation for this. I guess I am just naive in hoping that no one would ever do this to their child.
I feel obligated to comment here because I have been commenting so much lately. I would not want my lack of comment to be construed as having any tolerance for, or agreement with, what the adults in this case did to the child.
I would be fascinated to obtain, were it possible, candid and honest answers from each of the conspiring adults to the questions: In what ways do you feel your parents failed to raise you? What should they not have done in raising you that they did? And what should they have done that they did not do?
Let’s just hope for the boy’s further sake that this insanity was not genetic.