Child’s Murder in Minnesota

I am, like anyone who has followed your two-part series, stunned and cold with fury over the fate of 3-year-old Dennis Jurgens. I, too, am a victim of child abuse, but the torture he endured in his few years made what I endured over many years seem like child’s play by comparison.

The main thrust of the case was the damage caused by child abuse and the ability of a town to dehumanize what had gone on in that house by ignoring the overwhelming evidence of murder. I am appalled, therefore, that Clayton Robinson Jr., the assistant county attorney who prosecuted this case, could have said: “This case was not harmed by the passage of time.” Although it may be true the case was not harmed, what about the five children who were allowed to remain with these people?

Robert Jurgens, the first adoptive child of the couple, is by all outward appearances unique in his capacity to deal with his past. He has been able to become a functioning member of society whose scars of the past are hidden deep inside. What, I wonder, has become of the other four children who had to endure the abuse of the Jurgens because this case took 21 years to come to prosecution? What rippling effect has it had on their lives, the lives of their spouses and even on their own children?

Robinson should take care not to dehumanize the monstrosity of these acts by referring to them as the case. The Jurgens had more than one victim--the number will probably never be known. Many lives would have been spared the residue of the Jurgens’ madness if this would have come to trial 21 years ago. Don’t make the mistake of minimizing the damage these people continued to inflict on others because this system failed so long ago.

KIM HANFT

Agoura Hills