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Subscribe to RSSPolice have discovered what they believe to be the remains of Justin Kowalczik, a missing 17-month-old boy in Farmingdale, Long Island.
According to investigators, Kowalczik's remains were found buried in the backyard of the home Justin's mother, Heather Kowalczik, rented with her boyfriend and their two other children.
The search for Justin was ignited Wednesday after police say someone called Child Protective Services out of concern for the health and welfare of Justin's 6-year-old sibling.
Police said when officials inquired into Justin's whereabouts, his mother first said he was with relatives, but then revealed he died in 2010. It was unclear how he died and why he was buried in the family's backyard.
Kowalczik and her boyfriend, Robert Rodriguez, have been questioned by police but have not been charged. An investigation is ongoing.
"It is absolutely a suspicious death and it is being investigated as such," said State Police Maj. Patrick Regan. "We don't have a cause of death, and to our knowledge, there was never a report made of the child being missing."
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On Friday, an Amber Alert was issued when Rodriguez abducted his 9-year-old son, after allegedly learning of the investigation.
The Amber Alert was canceled a short while later when the two were found by police.
A medical examiner is performing an autopsy on Justin, who would have been 3 years old.
Police say Kowalczik and Rodriguez are no longer cooperating with authorities. Their two surviving children were in the custody of county child welfare agents, police said.
Neighbor Tekiera McCormack told Newsday that she was stunned.
"I can't see this," she told the newspaper. "This is crazy. She was a good mother. Those kids loved her."
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Not a good mother obviously, or there would have not been a need to hide the death of the toddler. Second of all, kids the age of those always love and look up to their parents no matter how mean and cruel the parents are. It is all they know at those ages.
How did no one notice a toddler missing since 2010? This woman was NOT a good mother. It is a proven fact even children who are abused by their parents love them.
i bethcha the mother, the boyfriend or both did it
hang them both
You people calling for the death penalty, etc. No one knows what happened yet. "Probably this" and "probably that". Why don't you wait before judging it so completely. I'm sure you are all reasonable folks - let the police do their work before appointing yourselves judge and jury. I'm angry at the loss of a poor little guy. But no one knows what happened yet.
Screw that! Grab your pitch fork and torch, lets form a mob!
YES every good mother buries her 17 month old in the backyard!!!!
I'm all for pro choice. When do you make that choice, ladies? When you take your panties off! There's your choice! Ladies, you are the one with the uterus, not the great guy you hooked up with while drunk and partying. Women, wake up! Your baby daddy will likely be gone! And me, as a tax payer, doesn't want to feed your kids!
Once again why is the woman to blame when there is a hook up? I would think that a male would have the knowledge to know what a condom is. Just a thought. Or are you saying that men can't be responsible about where they put their babymaker.
This discussion has gotten quite a few requests for mandatory medical alterations to prevent un-proven would-be parents from reproducing, as well as mandatory abortion. Not in arguement, but in thought having read these quite extreme suggestions . . . has no quality human ever been produced by lesser parents, be it low/no income (money can be lost after a child is born due to economy/health/employment so screening via income is ridiculous), one parent household, adoption, abusive parents, etc . . . good, and often amazing people come from such tribulation. Is killing the child in the womb an acceptable method to prevent it possibly being killed at 17 months or growing up with less than stellar parents/guardians? . . . .
My thought is humans have existed for thousands of years or much longer depending on you views of creation/evolution - needless to say - quite sometime. Why is there suddenly a problem that needs remedied by selective breeding/forced abortion? Society needs to ween itself off no consequence life styles and responsibility and self-control needs to be re-injected into our culture.That seemed to work for civilized history and has a respectable track record. Why not try that instead of calling for selective breeding and forced abortions just yet?
Please know, this is not a political/religious stance, I am just very blown away by some of the extreme solutions I am reading over and over in these comments and I am wondering if I am really so out of touch with humanity/society.
Extreme indeed - who was it that called for mandatory sterilizations? I think his initials were Adolph Hitler.
That's a bit more than initials..
Far too many women are so needy regarding having a man in their lives, that the welfare of their children become secondary to that need.
Spot on, Dr. Griffin!
It is clear that both of these fools are guilty. That poor child. To have his life cut short due to these animals is horrible. The term should be monsters as some else noted. Animals don't do this as a rule. This reminds me of the Susan Smith case in South Carolina several years ago.
The child could have died naturally, the parents knew they would lose the welfare $$ if they reported the death. The child was already dead so the parents decided to make everyone pay for it. Now it's their turn to pay.
Some have done the same thing with the Elderly that have past. Keep collecting Social Security etc.
ohhkayyyy!!!!! something happened to this child ....something not natural and to buried in what the backyard
for two years!!! these people ( term used loosely) should be in my opinion be charged with every charge that can be brought against them!!..from possible murder to desecration of a human body all of it!!!!
WHAT SAY YOU PEOPLE???????
COME ON PEOPLE......WHAT SAT YOU ??????????
ok! it`s after 1am mst time! everybodys shyte faced LOLOLOL!!!!!
I'd bet anything the boyfriend killed him and she was protecting the boyfriend. That's usually how it goes.
that`s entirely posssible JEN OWEN i would not put that thought in any other way!!!!!
Don't worry people. Even if they killed that baby, another 12 uneducated moron will find them not guilty, just like in the case of Casey Anthony in Fl.
Here again dumb woman has to screw someone in relationship w/hothead Mr I here for easy sex your kid makes me mad. So was the sex good enough? hang em high!
I would like to know the economic status of this family. They may have buried the child themselves, after a natural death, because it was too expensive to pay for a proper one.
A dead child doesn't automatically mean a crime was the cause.
More than likely, the boyfriend unintentionally killed the child, and the mother helped cover it up. That has been the history of such cases.
I've never heard of a girlfriend murdering her boyfriend's child from a previous relationship. This fact makes me wonder why Child Protective Services - a misnomer - and the family-court system tend to automatically give custody of children to mothers. Doing so is not necessarily in the best interests of the children.
I'm at a lost to understand why nobody was arrested in this case. Usually, when police find a dead body in your backyard, somebody is going to be locked-up.
Are we ever going to wake up in this country and start shooting these low life scum. No - we have to support them the rest of their lives - thats BS. Shot the scum. They harmed the child - they should pay - not enjoy the rest of their lives supported by us.
Hypocrisy........calling women who do these things scum, and at the same time telling them it's okay to have an unborn CHILD sucked out of their womb(abortion). Murder is murder, in the womb or outside of it. It's all the same.
Mike277 I do beleive Casey A. case has already been tried. So move on guy and stay with the case at hand. Casey is living in her own world of hell. I would say more so than if she was setting in a prison. Don,t forget, there was more to her case than you may think. Do you really think she acted alone ?
@Al Holmes she couldn't have acted alone. That is where the reasonable doubt came in. It was proving that the child's body was moved while Casey was in lock up. Therefore being that someone else had to have moved the body then someone else was involved it allowed for reasonable doubt and they couldn't convict her.
Well there is Caylee's Law in some states, Brought on as a result of The Casey Anthony trial, Which makes it a felony not to report a missing child. However, It is unfortunate that this law isn't applicable in all states. It is being adopted by some states but not by New York as yet.
From the mother's Lawyer:
If the grave doesn't fit you must acquit -
Accident - the mother was giving a dirt bath and forgot -
The mother is an Atheist and was returning the molecules to the primordial mud puddle -
Darwin came to her in a vision and told her only the strong should survive -
This is a legal retroactive abortion under ObamaCare -
The mother was under the influence of her Charles Mansion tee shirt -
I've read through a lot of the posts made so far and let me say before I go too far that I am appauled by the actions of these two "parents" they should be locked up and put to death, no ifs or buts. But some of the people posting have gotten way out there saying that we should start to control people having children like China does and fertilization control until people can prove they can take care of a child... who are you people??? This is still America and NOT a communist society! The things you people are proposing are so radically communist and/or totalitarian that you should really consider you're American citizenship. This is an awful tragedy and no child should be subject to or have to live through this kind of abuse and murder... but people get real with your solutions.