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Subscribe to RSSA six-year-old girl whose father and stepmother were sent to prison for keeping her chained up has been found dead, authorities said.
NBC station KNWA reported that the FBI and police in Bentonville, Arkansas, were investigating the suspected homicide of Jersey Bridgeman.
Her father David Bridgeman was given an 18-year prison sentence in 2011 after pleading guilty to false imprisonment, permitting abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor, The Associated Press reported. Prison records show he has a tattoo that says "Jersey."
The AP said Jersey’s stepmother Jana Bridgeman, also identified as Jana Slinkard in court records, admitted the same charges and was given a 12-year prison sentence, plus three years for a probation revocation, according to online Department of Correction records.
It reported that it was not clear who the girl had recently been living with or who reported her missing.
'Best investigation we can'
KNWA printed a press release from Bentonville Police Department that said Jersey was reported missing at 6:43 a.m. local time (7:43 a.m. ET) Tuesday.
“A neighborhood search resulted in the discovery of the child's body within a vacant house,” just 10 minutes later, the police statement said.
It added that certain details of the case were being withheld “to maintain the integrity of this investigation.”
"It's just a matter of trying to do the best investigation we can and cover all the bases," Bentonville Police Chief Jon Simpson told KNWA.
"I think if you look at any individual, a child included, by the time you add up all the people they know, all the contacts they have, if you did it for yourself, you can see how extensive that might be, and it's really no different with a child. So, that's some of the areas that we're trying to cover,” he added.
Jersey 'such a delight'
More than 100 people gathered to mourn the child at a candlelight vigil Tuesday at the Children's Advocacy Center of Benton County near Bentonville, the center's executive director, Beverly Engle, told the AP.
"There was a unique quality about Jersey," she said. "A little old soul, but such a delight."
Read more from NBC station KNWA
Engle told the AP that Jersey was interviewed last year at the center when the abuse allegations were reported to police in nearby Rogers.
According to a court document, the girl told officers she slept on the floor in the same room as her father and stepmother.
"She said that Jana and David chain her to the dresser because she had gotten up and eaten some pies, cereal, and bread," Rogers Police Detective Larry Taylor wrote in the court affidavit, the AP reported.
He added that the girl "stated that they put a belt around her waist so that she could not get up and get any food."
The case came to light after a woman who was staying with the couple contacted police about possible child abuse, according to court records.
Dog collar
That woman said she found the girl chained to a dresser with a silver chain and what appeared to be a dog collar.
David Bridgeman told an investigator that his daughter got into medication and other things around the house, so he and his wife decided to chain her to the dresser at night so she couldn't wander off, according to court records.
"He said that he thinks she may be sleepwalking and that they discussed buying a child gate, but since he does not have a job, they could not afford to buy one at that time," Taylor, the detective, wrote in the court affidavit.
Read more US stories from NBC News
The father said he cut a belt to make it fit around his daughter's ankle and added a lock on the chain after she pulled it off, according to court records.
At some point, his daughter complained that the collar hurt her leg, so he chained her by the waist instead, court records indicate.
"It should be noted that the chain that David used was approximately one to two feet in length and appeared to be a dog choke collar," Taylor wrote in the affidavit.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Yet another case where the authorities failed to protect a child who was obviously being abused.
Our tax dollars pay for these lazy, incompetent, worthless POSs. Why are there no standards and no consequences? Why aren't investigators who ignore obvious child abuse not charged with complicity?
Apparently, they don't even lose their jobs.
They are complicit in the murder of children, nevertheless. But obviously, it wont interrupt their sleep at night. Sometimes I wish I were a Christian and believed in hell.
patter - breath, dude, breath. Once you calm down, read the article again, she was removed from the abusive parents.
I can see why a parent would try and restrict a child's movements in some cases - my wife's daughter basically ate her self to death. She would sneak into the kitchen starting at about age 7 and when she turned old enough to drive she would sneak the family car out at night in search of any fast food place that was open. She died at age 33yo and was over 300 pounds.
I don't agree with using a chain or the abuses the guest in the house might have witnessed, but when you are poor, you struggle every second of every day...that will screw up most people.
Patches --- breathe has an 'e' at the end of it. It's a verb.
'Breath' is a noun---as in 'bad breath'.
J_P
Did you EVER wonder what was going on to be causing a behavior which was, dare I say, unusual? Oh, and wife's "daughter" which I would describe as my daughter or at the least my stepdaughter. You scare me bubba, you really do.
There is that Annie with the sexy head tilt again, picking on us English challenged people again.
Annie; I get by on my good looks - I don't need no stinking command of some language...lol.
tomcoz; I'm in the final stages of divorce - so I won't be a husband or stepfather in the very near future. My wife's daughter and I got along very well - she referred to me as "Pops"...I was at her bedside when she died, you go ahead and be scared, you have that right. I would prefer to think of Jess as my friend - she wasn't my daughter and stepdaughter just sounds cold....people and their labels...sheesh.
If you want details of what caused her to develope (is there an "e" at the end of develope - Annie will help me I'm sure) an eating disorder - scroll down.
Spell checker says there is no "e", but I'm leaving it anyway - if I become any more perfect I won't have room for improvement.
Pattier,
I know you do and you then would not hate as much. You then could think about correction rather than anger. This is a sad story and may have another twist to it. I am glad that sometimes you think about love.
Keep fighting and some day you may want to give up. Then you will have true Thanks Giving.
It is tragic and sad enough that this young girl was mistreated by her father and step-mother, supposedly saved from that lifestyle when taken from them and they were sent to prison. Now, she's found dead in a vacant house. The police or news report "doesn't know" who the little girl has been living with? Who's custody was she awarded to? A relative or foster family? Who reported her missing, was it anonymous? It sounds like the father or step-mom's family may have given her a little payback as revenge unfortunately. If foul play involved here, I hope the culprit is caught and rots in jail and hell. This young girl is in a better place today with loving arms of God and angels surrounding her.
Poor kid...so much suffering for a kid.
Annie - I get picked on, too, for trying to be helpful and educate people, even though I do it nicely. Sometimes, the errors are so egregious you just can't help it. It's not meant to be offensive or uppity, but people don't understand word purists. We hate for the language to be disrespected. (sigh) It's a curse.
Having a child waking up in the middle of the night, sounds like a cheap excuse for the actions of horrible parents. As a father I could never live with myself if my child came to harm. period .......
Anyone making excuses for this behavior deserves to rot in hell along with these horrible parents.
mozzie-600 -- thanks. I have begun to think there wasn't anyone else out there that gets it. This is great.
‘’Death isn’t the worst thing, the worst thing is what dies within us while still living.”
ANNIE are you here to edit these posts or comment on the horrific story??? OMG! There was a 6 year old girl that endured pure hell in a few years of her little, insignificant (according to her demise) life! This is the biggest tragedy and yet you find time to critique our nouns and verbs. How nice. My heart goes out to the memory of her life and any of those who may be around that truly cared for this angel, though highly unlikely. Annie, how was my spelling????
I wish this girls soul may find peace and those parents burn in the deepest depths of hell right next to Hitler.
Mesro,A very astute post.This story is too much to bear for me.
very simple solution.. have your child sleep in your bedroom with your bedroom door padlocked.. not padlock your child.. if your poor to the point that you cant afford a padlock, slide your dresser in front of the door or sleep on the floor in front of the damn door yourself! i would go to the store for every meal instead of keeping food in the house, if the real case was her munching at night. I bet they got food stamps, or an increase in the amount of stamps they already receive after her birth.. which makes the food rightfully hers anyways!
Mr.Graham are you this stupid or do you actually do that to your children? As for the food stamps thing you must understand (if you can) unless you have a valid form of proof your just making yourself look like a dumbass
CC Cohen; we are continuing to live our lives - sorry we don't get emotionally attached to such stories. We could go back and forth as to what is appropriate....good luck with that at the Vine...lol.
Annie & Mozzie - It is all well and good for you to be a word purist and want to educate the public on the proper usage of English. However, this is not a classroom, we are not your students. People tend to write things out really fast on these boards (and lets face it, a lot are at work doing it) and don't have the time or care to proofread everything. Loving the English language is one thing, trying to force your love and respect for it down other peoples throats in an environment that plays "loosey goosey" with grammar is well......(how about you give me a good word from the English language to fill in the blank).
JasonFinPhilly24...while you make valid points, as a recent college student, I can assure you these boards are not the only place people are horrible at mastering the English language. On that note, any help that I see I will applaud and to be fair---is knowledge power or not? If you want to go around looking like a moron go ahead...some of us would rather us our mind in the way that it was intended to be used.
Annie and Mozzie...aside from CC Cohen and Mr. Philly above, no one made gave you crap for trying to help someone else. JP even made fun of himself and defended Annie as you can see above.
As for the poor girl, I came to read this story hoping to get more information on the whole situation. I didn't intend to read about grammar but the way you some of you reacted to another person simply sharing some help---you're worse than those who noticed the grammar.
The authorities sent her father and stepmother to prison for abusing her and now it's not clear who the girl had been living with. What's the point of prosecuting her parents if afterwards, no one else is providing her with a safe, secure home?
The article did say that certain details of the case were being withheld "to maintain the integrity of this investigation." To me this sounds like they don't know who was given responsibility to care for the 6 year old girl after the parents were imprisoned! Any good reporter could get that answer by checking court records. That's a very important detail!
I guess just reporting a story before anyone else has more priority to NBC than having all the details and presenting properly written story!
The records are sealed and details are withheld so when the Police get a suspect they can judge what that suspect says against the hard evidence so they know they are charging the correct person with the crime.
This is from an earlier article:
Her biological mother.
Bill T - The statement 'certain details of the case were being withheld “to maintain the integrity of this investigation.” ' was from a statement by the Bentonville Police Department, not from NBC. It is this hysterical distrust of the press, perpetuated by the conservative element in America, that is harming America, not gays, Hispanics or any other group folks tend to disagree with. Withholding evidence is a common police tactic designed to improve their chances of solving a crime. Apparently, coherently reading a news article is no a common tactic of yours when searching for truth.
The authorities and CPS should be investigated in this whole mess also...to try and keep this from happening again. I wouldn't want to be saved in Bentonville, Arkansas...
Excellent question "all she wrote", in my opinion the government killed her when they took her from her parents.
Wonder where her birth mother is? and, by the way...tragic. breaks my heart that her short life was filled with such tragedy.
How disgusting can people be to chain a child like a dog? I hope they like their prison chains and maybe feel just a little of how she felt. With so many social services available it is not believable that they could not find help. They are just disgusting human beings.
Bothers me to read chained like a dog, dogs should not be chained either. Imagaine how hopeful this little one must have been to escape those parents only to be killed later. What a horror for her. Breaks my heart.
Restraint is sometimes necessary to protect people from their own actions.
They won't, why would they? Three meals a day, a bed to sleep in and cable tv to watch and free to walk about EVEN inside their cells. Prison is way to good for them.
expatdownunda: Your kidding...right? I hope you do not have children, or ever will have children. Put a damn padlock on the refrigerator door for pete's sake, not the child!
expatdownunda,Maybe so but it should done in a psychiatric hospital setting by medical professionals.No child should ever be chained,kept in a cage or be kept imprisoned by their parents or care givers.It is abusive and disgusts me that people are so ignorant and cruel.That they would deem this to be an appropriate solution to a wandering child sickens me.
Rest In Peace Jersey.
Incredibly sad.
As someone who has had a rough spot in her past, I can say this girl suffered so much more emotionally than physically, and so many people let her down. She was hungering not for food, but for love.
Ain't that the truth. My wife's daughter started her eating disorder at at 7, she lost her father when she was 3yo. I blame my wife for passing her sorrow for losing her husband on to her daughter. My wife had cheated on her husband (he was electrocuted by a weed whacker) shortly before his death. Her guilt was/is something she still holds on to at age 55. Now that her daughter has passed away from her eating disorder - my wife's guilt and sorrow are beyond anything I can help her with. After three years of watching her suffer, with her having no interest in our relationship, I am moving on.
Hispanics have a very hard time dealing with death, they refuse to let go and find a way to keep living. You can't drive three blocks in Arizona without seeing a cross by the roadside or a memorial in a cars back window. Since I lost my parents, it has been my philosophy that I should keep living to show them they raised a strong son...I have no idea what the philosophy is behind holding on to the departed in such a way that it screws up the rest of your life.
Why do Americans feel such a need to blame? How about compassion, understanding, and a sincere attempt to aid those with severe problems move beyond those problems. Maybe the death of one can be the salvation of many. And before anyone starts, I am not suggesting just forgetting what people did to this little girl, but maybe it cold be a springboard to stopping this stuff in the future. After blame is assigned, the case is closed for most of us.
Patches, you keep making this out do be an eating disorder. I have seen eating disorders destroy lives...and I am sorry about your step-daughter...But this girl was starving. She wasn't roaming around in the middle of the night looking for food for comfort...she was trying to get something to sustain herself. And, whatever the case, it is NEVER okay to chain a child up. I wouldn't chain my dog up. It's cruel. I get that they are poor. Some of us are! There are certain cases where it is okay to go to child services and say."Know what? I don't have the means to take care of my child." Too bad for this kid that DSS didn't have the wherewithal to realize that cruelty runs in the family. If there is any eating disorder here, it's on the caregivers---I.E. they didn't feed her.
I blame thse who should have done more in the very beginning. When a report is made concerning mistreatment of children, the people should keep a better hold on who they place the child in cutody of. And it isn't just parents, I mean homes in which people other than relatives, have the responsibility to care for these unloved children. I also blame the lawmakers for the type of laws which let these type of people back into civilization. I blame the politicans who act like spoiled brats in not doing their jobs right. I blame we, the people for not demanding those in control do their job honestly and keeping this country as it used to be. We have very few really honest people in the White House and I mean both parties. I cry for what is facing the younger generation. I feel pity for those who do not believe in God. Someday, if they are worth saving, he could do something which would bring them to their knees. I thank Him every day for all he has given me and done for me. God bless all of you M. Correll
Frankly...I'd be surprised if jersey had an eating disorder. I bet in this house there was no structured meal time or bed time...stayed up late, slept in and she was probably ready for some food....I have seen it over and over and over again. Judges tend to grant custody to mothers - this child lived with her father...mom must have been a train wreck. Dad has no job and poor motivation. The kid was something that had to be dealt with - if she requires any effort...chain her up! BUT she was alive....they turn her over to (her mother?) and now she is dead. What is really sad is we dont what personal hell she lived in while she was alive...we know what led up to her father and stepmother's arrest (and must have been bad to end in criminal charges and conviction - in my state, those parents would have been given a "case plan") but we dont know about her tiny life before chains and we dont know about her tiny life after the chains....except that it couldn't have been good. Reminds me of the Rebecca Riley case...a life full of sadness until the bitter end. Little kids longing to be loved, wanted, and treated like the treasure they truly are.
It's sad indeed that there are animals among us disguised as human beings!
Animals? Oh no...this kind of deliberate evil is exclusive to mankind....we own it.
Yeah, I hope she is in a better place.
But, think about how she would have turned out.
This child was marked for a horrible life once the abuse began. It's very unlikely she would have turned out to be anything but an angry, mal-adjusted, bitter, unhappy person collecting government assistance and committing a stray crime here and there. Probably dealing meth out of her house and turning tricks for a little extra income.
Don't get me wrong, I am not glad she died and I don't believe anyone deserves a life such as she had. But she may be better off having died at such a young age; not having to face anymore of life's cruel realities or her own adulthood that would soon have followed.
Anyway, RIP
I disagree. She might well have turned out fine. Some people who live pampered childhoods turn out to be violent criminals while some abused kids learn to have compassion for others. We will never know now how she would have turned out, but it's unfair to put that kind of label on this poor child.
Dave, I was severely abused as a child. Yet somehow I grew up...never did drugs, never turned tricks, college graduate, married, steadily employed, and three kids. Please do not think that a child is "marked for a horrible life once the abuse" begins. I admit that I do suffer from depression, but I take medication for that and have never been in any kind of trouble with the law. What matters is this: who else is in the life of the abused child? Does someone care? If so, they can make a huge difference.
I don't know who killed this poor girl, but it was not the father and stepmother. They are in prison. And for all I know they were actually trying to prevent this child from causing injury to herself while they slept. I'm not saying that what they did was right, but it's certainly not what caused her ultimate death. That was someone else, and I hope that they find the perp and put him/her away for life. Poor kid....RIP:(
Dave, I don't think it's right for you to post the "if" here. You are talking about probability in a negative light for an innocent victim. There is no probability, she is dead. She deserves all the outpouring.
By the way, I accidentally gave your comment a like.
You never know who will be a fighter and who will become a victim - just like we don't know why some people make posts like Dave's.
Dave there have been numerous cases where people were abused ,they survived and went on to a happy prosperous life.I will tell you the two scum that abused this child are now in jail ,there life is over.
Utter nonsense. Many very fine and substantial adults have suffered as children. Your theory ends life at the first sign of trouble.
Dave, did you not read the comment of a neighbor who knew Jersey? Far from being a malcontent, she was described as being "a little old soul but such a delight".
I know you think that you're just being practical but don't write off a 6 year old as being too damaged to ever recover.
Dave,
While my first response to your statement was offense, I took a moment and realized that, sadly, you are just terribly uneducated on the subject matter. I survived extensive and prolonged abuse as a child. Many, many years later, I have earned a doctoral degree and have devoted my adult life to advocacy for abuse survivors. I have two adult children of my own and they are well-adjusted, intelligent, productive members of society.
While it is true that great emotional damage can be wrought by abuse, it is also true that each survivor deals differently with that pain. The end result varies widely, dependent on numerous factors, including the availability of treatment and personal characteristics of resilience, and whether or not that individual has even a single supportive person in their life offering love and encouragement. Frankly, to stereotype survivors as you have done above is cruel, misguided, and even has the potential to be harmful. There is a plethora of resource material on the subject and I suggest you avail yourself to develop a more educated understanding on this topic, which affects so many.
I guess Dave doesn't read the news or biographies. Two men who rose to the very top after rough, impoverished childhoods, complete with step-parents and name changes, are US Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Bill Clinton. Dave Thomas, who started "Wendys" and Tom Monaghan, who started "Domino's Pizza", also had very difficult childhoods. No kid is disposable or a lost cause, ever.
Amazing that the newspaper in Britain knows who had custody but MSN could not even bother to get the basic facts. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236668/Girl-6-father-chained-dresser-dead.html
Her natural mother and stepfather had custody after the dad and stepmom were jailed but mom was not home at the time of the call. Typical MSN sloppy news. They paste half an article. This newspaper had photos also.
Thanks! What a beautiful child!
Humanity has its Sins, and it always seems to create NEW ONES! They say theres only Seven, but we're LIARS!
There are Seven Deadly sins - Pride being the worst. Pride spawns several other sins. This is why I don't get overly patriotic - all humans have the same right to exist.
I read about wars and murders in the news everyday, and I have to keep a distance emotionally so I don't go nuts, but I can't turn away from this story. It just tears me up. This is a 6-year old girl. We were all 6-years old once. This story just makes all my complaints about everyday happenings seem so trivial.
There appears to be a great deal of incompetence regarding the proper care and protection of children who may have behavioral problems not easily controlled either in the home or in institutions. I grieve for the child in this case, but also recommend looking at the harsh sentences doled out last year to the two foster parents who may have had the best intentions, though not the wit or resource to do right by the child. The child protective services should have been more involved from the start, and stronger guidance and support should have been given to the adults caring for her. The entire community should be indicted in this case.
Ah, yes. A voice of reason in the darkness. Find the truth, let blame lay itself. We need to do our best to use situations like these to improve the human condition. Once blame is assigned, most humans consider the case to be closed, forgetting the future and not realizing that events still to happen are not halted by punishing the present.
Who said she had a behavior problem? I am all for helping parents if they simply don't know how to parent, but you are making a lot of assumptions here. Where did you get that this child had such behavior problems "not easily controlled either in the home or in institutions"? True for some, but why assume that in this case? It sounds to me as if she was hungry, so why punish her for that? If she got into medication put it up away so she couldn't...help them if they need it, but chaining her wasn't okay. And we don't know all the details here...there may have been other factors that were enough to get her removed.
prof. annselm morpurgo
Well said! I agree with you completely. It's good to read comments by people with common sense!
http://adc.arkansas.gov/inmate_info/search.php
That is the link where you can see these two scumbags pictures and parole eligibility dates. The male is eligible for parole in about 2 1/2 years and the "female" in about 1 1/2 years. The "female" has sort of a football shaped head. I'd be mad too if that was my old lady. Daaammnn booyyy. She ugly!!
It really does shake one's faith in everything and everyone, seeing so many of these stories of late.
These things have happened since the beginning of the human race. Herod proclaiming the death of all Hebrew male babies and Charles Dickens stories are just two examples. The number of events like this have been fairly constant when adjusted by population size, we just have more of them reported. Come on! America is not as bad off nor declining as substantively as some politicians would have you believe.
my first thought upon reading this is that there was someone else involved with her abuse and they didn't want her telling, or perhaps who she was staying with hopefully wasn't a parent of those imprisoned who killed her for revenge... poor little baby, what a life of such suffering she had, there should be a special sentence of death for this kind of thing done to the most innocent of our society.
Such as sad story..a tragic and violent end to an innocent life..wtf is wrong with people..I become more and more angry when I see stories like this..these people are not parents..parents are people who love..care..and nurture their children and want nothing but the best for them..and would protect them with all their being..
I'd say both her parents were victims. They were doing what was role modeled for them.
Prove that statement... just because they did it to their daughter does NOT mean it was done to them or they were taught to behave this way by their parents. What a nutty statement that is. When our kids grow up and move out of our home they do what they choose to do, not necessarily what they have been taught by us parents. Put the blame on them and them alone, their parents were not there to make them do such stupid, ignorant and abusive things to a young child.
Well said just me-3905469..the only victim here was little Jersey..if they were victims at one time this does not give them license to do it to others..people cannot continue to say it was done to me..they know the difference between right and wrong..good and bad..society has to stop making excuses for such people and the cruelty they inflict on others..
If the parents were never identified and received counseling I'd bet my guess is right on. Abuse tends to run in families, just like respect and kindness runs in families from generation to generation.
Just because the parents were abusive doesn't automatically mean they will mistreat their children, but I would think counseling would be a key factor.
Goldfish, the point is.... the article did not say anything that you are assuming.
Tragedy. I hope she is finally at peace, it sounds like death may be better than the life she had.
Poor child. One life to live... and this was her life. Its really very sad. And being poor exacerbates her situation...
>.< How could you sleep at night?
What a horrible story. That poor child probably could count the times she had a happy day on one hand in her 6 years of life.
I just don't understand how people can get this way. The older I get, the more I just can't understand it.
Horrible reporting - "unclear who she was living with" - why not dig deeper and find out who was ordered to take care of her AFTER the trail of her parents and then say it's unclear - put it in chronological order or at leat have some flow to the story - when comments indicate a lot of people who read it think the parents were still involved somehow thats a sign of poor reporting
As far as the "parents", I understand they didn't cause the girl's death, at least not directly, but they put the wheels in motion for if they hadn't abused her and been sent to prison, the girl would probably be alive.
But I digress, look at the 1/4 ton mother, WOW!!! And she was trying to keep her 6 year old from sneaking a piece of pie?? Yeah, the heffer just didn't want to share and would do anything to keep the pie and cake and potato chips all to herself.
I for one am glad this pig will be spending Thanksgiving in prison where her disgusting self belongs.
Article was confusing to me. What I am not confused about is why child was not taken from these scumbags before she became a statistic. So sad.
RIP little one.
Considering that is the entire point of the story once again NBCnews is on the ball.
You need a license to drive a car or own a gun. The most uneducated, unstable, youngest, unqualified, can father and give birth to a child at anytime. So-called conservatives pound their chest about the sanctitity of life and evils of gay marriage. But, there are thousands of children in this country being abused by parents like this poor little girl who shouldn't even own a dog. They don't have a voice or political power. Only unti they die do they get candles and tears. What a country.
THANK YOU, herkyhawk! I agree with everything you say. I could hug your neck!
The government killed this little girl, not her parents. The government took away her protector and put her in the hands of people who did not care enough to keep her safe. And your answer is to murder innocent unborn children?
That's ridiculous expatdownunda!