Until now.
Until the other day when we learned what happened to poor James Hutchinson in Middletown, my own hometown. That he ran behind his mother’s car in a park where she tried to abandon him. That he was likely dragged to death. That he was tossed into a body bag the day after he died and then dumped in a cold, muddy river.
"It's pure evil," said Brandy Slavens, senior executive director of operations for Access Counseling in Middletown. "An innocent child had his life taken by the person who is supposed to love him the most."
People said some of the same things about Marcus Fiesel's case nearly 15 years ago. How could adults do these things to a child? Marcus, who was born in Middletown, was killed by foster parents. He died in a closet after being left there for two days in August 2006, bound with a blanket and packing tape. Eventually, his incinerated body was found on a Clermont County farm.