0:->
January 20th 07, 10:23 PM
Dragon's Girl wrote:
> 0:-> wrote:
>> spd wrote:
>>> Wisconsin girl locked in attic alone for 2 years, police say
>>> By Meg Jones and Gina Barton
>>>
>>> Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
>>>
>>> (MCT)
>>>
>>> OSHKOSH, Wis. - Icicle lights line the gutters of Clint and Lynn
>>> Engstrom's home on Minnesota Street. The newly remodeled house is among
>>> the nicest on the block, and a silver SUV is parked out back. Beside
>>> the front door hangs a shiny wooden sign; six intertwined hearts
>>> contain the names of the Engstroms and four children who lived there as
>>> a blended family.
>>>
>>> But authorities say one of the children - Clint Engstrom's 13-year-old
>>> daughter from a previous relationship - wasn't treated like the others.
>>> Instead, she was kept in near solitary confinement in a bare attic
>>> bedroom for two years, police say, behind a dead-bolted door and a
>>> video camera, let out only for timed bathroom breaks, meager meals and
>>> chores.
>>>
>>> Her situation ended only after the parents took the girl to a hospital
>>> Friday when they said she began hearing voices.
>>>
>>> "Is this something like a Cinderella syndrome?" Oshkosh police Sgt.
>>> Steve Sagmeister said. "Even in a story book, I don't think Cinderella
>>> was even treated like this. (This is) far worse than imaginable. I
>>> can't even fathom what the parents were even thinking."
>>>
>>> The parents were charged Tuesday in Winnebago County with causing
>>> mental harm to a child, a felony punishable by up to 12 1/2 years in
>>> prison and a $25,000 fine. Clint M. Engstrom, 32, and Lynn M. Engstrom,
>>> 35, are being held in lieu of $25,000 cash bail at the Winnebago County
>>> Jail, a place Sagmeister noted provides them with more than they are
>>> accused of providing the 13-year-old girl: hot meals and a clean bed.
>>>
>>> The criminal complaint outlines a horrible life for the girl who was
>>> only allowed out of her small room for a couple hours a day for
>>> one-minute bathroom breaks and chores that included taking out the
>>> trash and cleaning up after the family's three St. Bernards.
>>>
>>> The other three children, Lynn Engstrom's two sons, ages 12 and 9, and
>>> 8-year-old daughter, were treated differently, authorities say, and had
>>> nice toys, televisions and computers.
>>>
>>> The 13-year-old is now living with her grandmother while the other
>>> children stay with other family members, Sagmeister said. The alleged
>>> abuse came to light Friday, the girl's birthday, when the Engstroms
>>> took her to St. Elizabeth's Hospital because she was hearing voices.
>>>
>>> Police were called to the hospital and listened in shock as the girl,
>>> who had begun to pull large chunks of hair out of her head and pick at
>>> her skin, explained what her life had been like for at least two years.
>>>
>>> Lynn Engstrom, who has worked for a day care and a bowling alley, told
>>> police she and her husband kept up the extreme punishment because the
>>> girl's psychiatrist told her to do so. She told police the couple "were
>>> always questioning what they were doing," but that the doctor "told
>>> them not give in," according to the criminal complaint.
>>>
>>> The Engstroms admitted the girl had been grounded for about two years
>>> and said they planned to end the punishment as soon as she behaved
>>> properly for two straight days. Court records did not indicate what
>>> behavior prompted the punishment or what behavior was required to end
>>> the grounding.
>>>
>>> According to the criminal complaint:
>>>
>>> The girl got a granola bar for breakfast and was not allowed to eat
>>> with the family. Sagmeister said when the rest of the family ate a hot
>>> meal, she was given only a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
>>>
>>> In the girl's room, police found only a urine-stained mattress, pillow,
>>> blanket, empty chest of drawers and a small space heater, which was
>>> controlled from outside the room. A towel was placed over the window.
>>> There was a naked light bulb in the ceiling socket, but Sagmeister said
>>> the string on the pull switch was too short for the girl to work it.
>>>
>>> Clint Engstrom told police that, at a psychiatrist's suggestion, he
>>> installed an alarm on the girl's door after she had been sneaking out
>>> to eat the other children's candy and watch TV.
>>>
>>> When asked why she was singled out for such treatment, the girl told
>>> detectives she thought she was grounded for some sort of misbehavior,
>>> said Sagmeister, though what she had done was unclear to authorities.
>>> He said the girl asked what she had done wrong, and a detective tried
>>> to assure her that the punishment was not her fault.
>>>
>>> Detectives described the girl as intelligent and strong despite her
>>> ordeal. She told police that over the past month or so she tried to cry
>>> but couldn't produce tears.
>>>
>>> The girl was enrolled in Oshkosh public schools until August 2002, when
>>> she was transferred to Grace Lutheran School in Oshkosh, said John
>>> Sprangers, human resources director for the Oshkosh Area School
>>> District, which has about 10,300 students. School records indicate the
>>> girl was re-enrolled on Dec. 11 and is still considered a student at
>>> South Park Middle School.
>>>
>>> Clint and Lynn Engstrom had financial problems for several years,
>>> according to circuit court records that show numerous small claims
>>> judgments for unpaid bills ranging from $2,500 for utilities and $2,300
>>> for medical expenses to a mortgage foreclosure on their previous
>>> Oshkosh home in 2004.
>>>
>>> Court records show that the girl's mother was never married to Clint
>>> Engstrom. She has since married and had four more children, according
>>> to records. The mother, who was 17 when the girl was born, could not be
>>> reached Wednesday.
>>>
>>> Neighbors on Minnesota Street and people who know the couple weren't
>>> answering their doors Wednesday, and two employees who worked with Lynn
>>> Engstrom at Oshkosh Lanes said their boss had ordered them not to talk
>>> about her.
>>>
>>>
>>> I heard of tough love,but this takes the cake.
>>>
>>> spd
>> When I was active in mental health work with children and attending
>> school one of the more interesting points in our lectures was the
>> strange phenomena of the normal looking family that had one child be the
>> scapegoat.
>>
>> The family dynamics theory would have it that there was a serious
>> dysfunction at work. Often mental illness or drugs, that was a threat to
>> the cohesion of the family, and that children would try very hard not to
>> lose their family by playing into the crazy person's scenario to hide,
>> minimize, or deny the element of destruction...themselves.
>>
>> And the "scapegoat" child was a role everyone supported, even the child
>> him or herself without knowing they were.
>>
>> Looks like a very strong healthy child in a very sick family in this case.
>>
>> I can recall consciously having to instruct myself, when I worked with
>> such families, and I did, to maintain strict professionalism. But
>> secretly I wanted to beat the crap out of the family for doing this to
>> an innocent child.
>>
>> Do you think I should see a shrink?
>>
>> Again you spoiled my day LaMar. I should stop reading your posts in the
>> morning.
>>
>> 0;-]
>>
>>
>>> ---
>>>
>
> And did you know that often when the scapegoat child is removed from
> the home for one reason or another, like becoming of age, running away,
> etc, that the parents actually will turn to another child to fill the
> scapegoat void?
Yes, my first college class that discussed the issue of the family
dynamic of out of kilter families, made that point, and when I did my
first field practicum and latter when I was working full time in the
field, we saw proof of that again and again.
A child would come into the therapeutic setting from an abusive
situation, and the family would be fine for a couple of weeks, and this
I remember, the family focus person (usually the nutjob) would call
complaining that, "Now Mary has started the same behaviors Jack was doing."
We'd just open our appointment book and set them up to come in again.
<sigh>
> Chilling.
Yes. And dangerous, because some kids would not knuckle under to being
scape goated so easily and take horrendous injury. I believe sometimes
death itself.
You can only imagine the level that "spanking" escalates to in the
recreation process.
Everyone is frantic to repeat the cycle because it eases up the threat
the family will implode or explode and come apart with the real perp
standing alone and exposed.
Kids will submit to just about anything, including sexual abuse of them,
rather than risk the disintegration of the family. It's painful to watch
a child sacrifice themselves in this way. And KNOW they are being abused
but NOT have proof so it can be reported....for a time.
> Families could run through decades of children that they abuse and
> mistreat this kind of way.
Yep. The cycle of abuse can be within one generation in this very way.
Thank you for pointing out that you've seen and recognized it.
You should think about the field of child rehab if you are ever
interested. Could you handle dealing with families doing this?
They are always totally ignorant about it until sometime late in
therapy. You'd have to be patient.
Kane
> 0:-> wrote:
>> spd wrote:
>>> Wisconsin girl locked in attic alone for 2 years, police say
>>> By Meg Jones and Gina Barton
>>>
>>> Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
>>>
>>> (MCT)
>>>
>>> OSHKOSH, Wis. - Icicle lights line the gutters of Clint and Lynn
>>> Engstrom's home on Minnesota Street. The newly remodeled house is among
>>> the nicest on the block, and a silver SUV is parked out back. Beside
>>> the front door hangs a shiny wooden sign; six intertwined hearts
>>> contain the names of the Engstroms and four children who lived there as
>>> a blended family.
>>>
>>> But authorities say one of the children - Clint Engstrom's 13-year-old
>>> daughter from a previous relationship - wasn't treated like the others.
>>> Instead, she was kept in near solitary confinement in a bare attic
>>> bedroom for two years, police say, behind a dead-bolted door and a
>>> video camera, let out only for timed bathroom breaks, meager meals and
>>> chores.
>>>
>>> Her situation ended only after the parents took the girl to a hospital
>>> Friday when they said she began hearing voices.
>>>
>>> "Is this something like a Cinderella syndrome?" Oshkosh police Sgt.
>>> Steve Sagmeister said. "Even in a story book, I don't think Cinderella
>>> was even treated like this. (This is) far worse than imaginable. I
>>> can't even fathom what the parents were even thinking."
>>>
>>> The parents were charged Tuesday in Winnebago County with causing
>>> mental harm to a child, a felony punishable by up to 12 1/2 years in
>>> prison and a $25,000 fine. Clint M. Engstrom, 32, and Lynn M. Engstrom,
>>> 35, are being held in lieu of $25,000 cash bail at the Winnebago County
>>> Jail, a place Sagmeister noted provides them with more than they are
>>> accused of providing the 13-year-old girl: hot meals and a clean bed.
>>>
>>> The criminal complaint outlines a horrible life for the girl who was
>>> only allowed out of her small room for a couple hours a day for
>>> one-minute bathroom breaks and chores that included taking out the
>>> trash and cleaning up after the family's three St. Bernards.
>>>
>>> The other three children, Lynn Engstrom's two sons, ages 12 and 9, and
>>> 8-year-old daughter, were treated differently, authorities say, and had
>>> nice toys, televisions and computers.
>>>
>>> The 13-year-old is now living with her grandmother while the other
>>> children stay with other family members, Sagmeister said. The alleged
>>> abuse came to light Friday, the girl's birthday, when the Engstroms
>>> took her to St. Elizabeth's Hospital because she was hearing voices.
>>>
>>> Police were called to the hospital and listened in shock as the girl,
>>> who had begun to pull large chunks of hair out of her head and pick at
>>> her skin, explained what her life had been like for at least two years.
>>>
>>> Lynn Engstrom, who has worked for a day care and a bowling alley, told
>>> police she and her husband kept up the extreme punishment because the
>>> girl's psychiatrist told her to do so. She told police the couple "were
>>> always questioning what they were doing," but that the doctor "told
>>> them not give in," according to the criminal complaint.
>>>
>>> The Engstroms admitted the girl had been grounded for about two years
>>> and said they planned to end the punishment as soon as she behaved
>>> properly for two straight days. Court records did not indicate what
>>> behavior prompted the punishment or what behavior was required to end
>>> the grounding.
>>>
>>> According to the criminal complaint:
>>>
>>> The girl got a granola bar for breakfast and was not allowed to eat
>>> with the family. Sagmeister said when the rest of the family ate a hot
>>> meal, she was given only a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
>>>
>>> In the girl's room, police found only a urine-stained mattress, pillow,
>>> blanket, empty chest of drawers and a small space heater, which was
>>> controlled from outside the room. A towel was placed over the window.
>>> There was a naked light bulb in the ceiling socket, but Sagmeister said
>>> the string on the pull switch was too short for the girl to work it.
>>>
>>> Clint Engstrom told police that, at a psychiatrist's suggestion, he
>>> installed an alarm on the girl's door after she had been sneaking out
>>> to eat the other children's candy and watch TV.
>>>
>>> When asked why she was singled out for such treatment, the girl told
>>> detectives she thought she was grounded for some sort of misbehavior,
>>> said Sagmeister, though what she had done was unclear to authorities.
>>> He said the girl asked what she had done wrong, and a detective tried
>>> to assure her that the punishment was not her fault.
>>>
>>> Detectives described the girl as intelligent and strong despite her
>>> ordeal. She told police that over the past month or so she tried to cry
>>> but couldn't produce tears.
>>>
>>> The girl was enrolled in Oshkosh public schools until August 2002, when
>>> she was transferred to Grace Lutheran School in Oshkosh, said John
>>> Sprangers, human resources director for the Oshkosh Area School
>>> District, which has about 10,300 students. School records indicate the
>>> girl was re-enrolled on Dec. 11 and is still considered a student at
>>> South Park Middle School.
>>>
>>> Clint and Lynn Engstrom had financial problems for several years,
>>> according to circuit court records that show numerous small claims
>>> judgments for unpaid bills ranging from $2,500 for utilities and $2,300
>>> for medical expenses to a mortgage foreclosure on their previous
>>> Oshkosh home in 2004.
>>>
>>> Court records show that the girl's mother was never married to Clint
>>> Engstrom. She has since married and had four more children, according
>>> to records. The mother, who was 17 when the girl was born, could not be
>>> reached Wednesday.
>>>
>>> Neighbors on Minnesota Street and people who know the couple weren't
>>> answering their doors Wednesday, and two employees who worked with Lynn
>>> Engstrom at Oshkosh Lanes said their boss had ordered them not to talk
>>> about her.
>>>
>>>
>>> I heard of tough love,but this takes the cake.
>>>
>>> spd
>> When I was active in mental health work with children and attending
>> school one of the more interesting points in our lectures was the
>> strange phenomena of the normal looking family that had one child be the
>> scapegoat.
>>
>> The family dynamics theory would have it that there was a serious
>> dysfunction at work. Often mental illness or drugs, that was a threat to
>> the cohesion of the family, and that children would try very hard not to
>> lose their family by playing into the crazy person's scenario to hide,
>> minimize, or deny the element of destruction...themselves.
>>
>> And the "scapegoat" child was a role everyone supported, even the child
>> him or herself without knowing they were.
>>
>> Looks like a very strong healthy child in a very sick family in this case.
>>
>> I can recall consciously having to instruct myself, when I worked with
>> such families, and I did, to maintain strict professionalism. But
>> secretly I wanted to beat the crap out of the family for doing this to
>> an innocent child.
>>
>> Do you think I should see a shrink?
>>
>> Again you spoiled my day LaMar. I should stop reading your posts in the
>> morning.
>>
>> 0;-]
>>
>>
>>> ---
>>>
>
> And did you know that often when the scapegoat child is removed from
> the home for one reason or another, like becoming of age, running away,
> etc, that the parents actually will turn to another child to fill the
> scapegoat void?
Yes, my first college class that discussed the issue of the family
dynamic of out of kilter families, made that point, and when I did my
first field practicum and latter when I was working full time in the
field, we saw proof of that again and again.
A child would come into the therapeutic setting from an abusive
situation, and the family would be fine for a couple of weeks, and this
I remember, the family focus person (usually the nutjob) would call
complaining that, "Now Mary has started the same behaviors Jack was doing."
We'd just open our appointment book and set them up to come in again.
<sigh>
> Chilling.
Yes. And dangerous, because some kids would not knuckle under to being
scape goated so easily and take horrendous injury. I believe sometimes
death itself.
You can only imagine the level that "spanking" escalates to in the
recreation process.
Everyone is frantic to repeat the cycle because it eases up the threat
the family will implode or explode and come apart with the real perp
standing alone and exposed.
Kids will submit to just about anything, including sexual abuse of them,
rather than risk the disintegration of the family. It's painful to watch
a child sacrifice themselves in this way. And KNOW they are being abused
but NOT have proof so it can be reported....for a time.
> Families could run through decades of children that they abuse and
> mistreat this kind of way.
Yep. The cycle of abuse can be within one generation in this very way.
Thank you for pointing out that you've seen and recognized it.
You should think about the field of child rehab if you are ever
interested. Could you handle dealing with families doing this?
They are always totally ignorant about it until sometime late in
therapy. You'd have to be patient.
Kane