Aspies For Freedom

Police believe \"abducted\" autistic toddler may be dead
State investigators say 2-year-old probably never was abducted
By CURTIS JOHNSON
The Herald-Dispatch
cujohnson@herald-dispatch.com

WINFIELD, W.Va. - West Virginia State Police say they presume a 2-year-old Logan County boy is dead and never was abducted from a Putnam County convenience store Monday morning.

State Police Cpl. T.S. Mills made that announcement Monday night after his fellow troopers had spent an exhaustive day of questioning individuals who may have information about the whereabouts of Hevin Dakota Jenkins.

Mills said police believe as many as five individuals could be involved in Jenkins' disappearance, but he said they have not determined a motive and have no information as to where to locate the toddler or his body.

Jenkins' aunt reported him missing about 8:41 a.m. Monday when she said her car was stolen from the BP convenience store/gasoline station at W.Va. 34 and Hospital Drive in Hurricane.

The vehicle was located in a nearby parking lot about 25 minutes later without the child inside, and Mills said it's likely that the child was never there.

"We pretty much knew right off the bat that things weren't right," he said. "We have reason to believe the child was not in that car today and that this was a concocted story."

Jenkins is described as a 2-year-old white male, 37 inches tall, 34 pounds, with hazel eyes and light brown buzzed cut hair. He was also said to be nonverbal due to autism.

Mills said police believe his body could be anywhere in Cabell, Putnam, Lincoln, Logan or Boone counties.

Mills said state police have three individuals in custody for questioning -- including the boy's aunt and her boyfriend -- but no criminal charges had been filed as of Monday night's news conference.

Mills said the boy's mother had been allowing the child to stay with his aunt in Salt Rock and his grandparents off and on for much of the last month. He added that it is those grandparents who last saw the child alive on Dec. 15.

Since then, Mills said the child's mother has had many questions and even attempted to have state police in Huntington check on the child's well-being last week. He said, however, that the child was not found at the residence, and state police did not have enough information to file a missing persons report.

Anyone with any information about Jenkins' recent whereabouts is asked to call their local West Virginia State Police detachment or the Winfield detachment at (304) 586-2000.

Source: The Herald Dispatch
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.../1001/NEWS

Sounds like a concocted story to cover up serious misdeeds.

Ohio River searched for autistic tot's body

Kris Wise
Charleston Daily Mail
Tuesday December 27, 2005

A Cabell County couple has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the death of a 2-year-old Logan boy.

Tonya Sloan and Anthony Milam, both 27 and of Salt Rock in southern Cabell County, were scheduled to be arraigned this morning in Cabell Magistrate Court.

They were charged Monday with murder as a result of failing to get medical treatment for 31-month old Hevin Dakota Jenkins.

Sloan is Hevin's aunt, and the austic boy had been staying with her for the past several weeks, police said.

The State Police were preparing to drag the Ohio River today to search for Hevin's body.

Police said they believe the boy is dead, but they would not release any details about when or how they think he died.

Sloan called police early Monday morning and claimed she had left Hevin in a running automobile while she and her son stopped at a Teays Valley Road convenience store in Hurricane.

She said when she exited the store, the car was gone with Hevin still inside it.

Police found the empty automobile about 15 minutes later in a nearby parking lot, but the little boy was gone.

They considered issuing an Amber Alert Monday but decided they didn't have enough information to say for certain that the little boy was missing and in danger.

Trooper J.M. Parde of the Huntington detachment of the State Police said today that police believe Hevin died prior to his aunt's phone call to 911 Monday morning.

"Her call to 911 and all the events that led up to yesterday were complete fabrications," Parde said this morning. "Why were they in Putnam County? It was just a complete fabrication to come up with a story."

Parde said police believe the boy died in Cabell County.

Both Sloan and Milam, whom police said was her boyfriend, lived in Salt Rock, a small area in southern Cabell County.

Sloan had been caring for Hevin for the past several weeks.

Parde said police still aren't sure about the details of Hevin's medical condition. They know the little boy was autistic, but they aren't sure if he had any other medical or health problems at the time of his death.

The boy usually lives with his mother, Amy White, at her home in Logan.

Police said Jenkins also has siblings, but they were not with him and his aunt at the time of his death.

State Police, the Coast Guard, the Huntington Fire Department and an underwater search and rescue team planned to start searching the Ohio River in Cabell County early this morning.

"The case is ongoing," Parde said this morning. "We have other leads we need to track down and other people we need to speak to, but the focus today is on recovery (of the body)."

Hevin's mother and other family members could not be reached this morning.

Contact writer Kris Wise at 348-1244.

Source: Charlestone Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2005122719/

Couple Charged with Autistic Toddler Death

WOWK TV
12/27/2005

2-year old Hevin Jenkins aunt and her boyfriend charged with murder
Story by Martina Bills

Two-year old Hevin Dakota Jenkins, who is autistic, was reported missing Monday and now, his aunt and her boyfriend are charged with his murder.

Hevin's aunt, 27-year old Tonya Sloan and her boyfriend, 27-year old Anothony Milam were both arriagned on murder charged.

A criminal complaint filed in Cabell County Magistrate court states the toddler died in the couples care.

The complaint states that Hevin Jenkins died on December 15 and days later the body was placed in a trash bag, along with a tire rim and discarded into the Guyandotte or the Ohio River near Huntington.

Cabell County Magistrate Patty Spence arraigned the couple individually. Both Sloan and Milam are charged with murder of a charge, and refusing medical treatment.

The complaint states that Hevin Jenkins had a seizure or some other type of medical emergency, at Tonya Sloans home in Salt Rock, Cabell County, on December 15.

Before the arraignment, 13NEWS spoke with Anthony Milam's father. Jeff James says Tonya Sloan admitted to him Tuesdasy morning over the phone that Hevin died in her care.

"She took him to the bathroom and was undressing him, runing water in bathtub, he hit his head and she said he died like that and I knew that wasn't right," said Jeff James, suspect's father.

Both suspects asked the judge for a public defender. Sloan and Milam are being held at the Western Regional jail without bond.

A preliminary hearing is set for January 6, 2006, for both suspects.

Monday, Sloan reported to police that she left her nephew in her car at a BP gas station in Hurricane while she went inside.

When she came out of the store, she said her car was gone.

A short time later police found the empty, black Chevy Cavalier in a parking lot, two doors down from the BP.

The toddler was nowhere to be found. Now police say the entire story was false.

Source: West Virginia Media..
http://www.wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=vie...oryid=7625

They just put the little lad in a rubbish bag and threw him away. It's just too terrible.  :cry:

Stella

This all feels incredibly tragic and sad. I wonder if the couple totally freaked out and panicked--and did what they did out of fear. Maybe I'm in denial--I don't want to believe that anyone would maliciously enact the series of events described.

The collection of today's posts on this board and another one I participate in are weighing on my mind--I'm here at work but can't concentrate.  So much pain that people are experiencing.

This is not an isolated event - an anomaly of some kind. If you look back through the news posts for the month of December you will find a dreadful catalogue of murder, torture, neglect and abuse. And it is a history with no end in sight. The New Year will bring in a new harvest of death and destruction of autistic people.

This is what the "Freedom" in "Aspies For Freedom" means. Freedom from fear of brutality, torture, alienation and death.

Stella

Search continues for body of autistic boy
Aunt, boyfriend charged with murder


By Charles Shumaker
Charlestone Gazette
December 28, 2005

HUNTINGTON — Searchers will return this morning to the Ohio River in Cabell County and continue looking for the body of a 2-year-old Logan County boy that police say was thrown into the water earlier this month by his aunt and her boyfriend.

Tonya T. Sloan, 27, and Anthony Milam, 27, both of Salt Rock, were charged with murdering Hevin Dakota Jenkins on Dec. 15 by failing to provide him aid during a medical emergency, according to criminal complaints filed in Cabell County Magistrate Court.

Sloan and Milan told State Police investigators that Jenkins had a “seizure or some other type of medical emergency” at Sloan’s home along Smith Creek Road in Salt Rock. The couple did not seek medical treatment for the boy and he died, according to the complaint.

The couple told police that days after the boy died, they put his body in a garbage bag along with a tire rim, then threw him over the side of the 17th Street West bridge between Huntington and Chesapeake, Ohio.

That story is radically different from the one Sloan told authorities Monday. She called 911 in Putnam County and told emergency dispatchers that her car, with her sleeping nephew inside, had been stolen while she went inside a BP gas station in Teays Valley.

Police found the car a short distance away from the gas station. They soon concluded that it had not been stolen and that Jenkins, who was autistic, had not been inside the car.

State Police, U.S. Coast Guard, Cabell County and Huntington Fire Department rescuers spent most of Tuesday trying to recover Jenkins’ body. The search was suspended just before 3 p.m. It will continue daily until the boy’s body is found or State Police call the search off, according to authorities.

The first day of the recovery failed despite multiple dives by rescue divers and the use of sonar and underwater video equipment, according to Cabell County Emergency Services Director Gordon Merry.

Merry said the search was complicated by a large number of items resting on the river bottom. The current in the center of the nearly 26-foot-deep river also challenged divers.

At one point, authorities threw a tire rim off the bridge in an attempt to determine where such an object might go in the river.

It’s extremely difficult,” said Steve Murray, coordinator of Cabell County’s disaster response team.

Today, Murray said, the river bottom will be dragged using a mechanism that should give the location of anything resting on the river’s bottom.

Amy White of Logan, Jenkins’ mother, had allowed him to stay periodically with Sloan and his grandparents for the last month. The grandparents last saw the child on Dec. 15 and the mother had asked the State Police detachment in Huntington to check on the boy last week. Police did not find the child, but there was not enough information at the time to file a missing person report, Trooper T.S. Mills said.

He said White and other family members had tried to contact Sloan for more than a week to check on the boy, going to her house and to places she was known to frequent.

“The aunt was avoiding them,” Mills said Tuesday.

According to court records, Sloan has two children of her own, a 6-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. It was not immediately clear where those children live.

Sloan claimed to financially support Milam and he claimed to support her as his wife, according to their separate court filings requesting a court-appointed attorney. Their official relationship was not immediately clear.

Milam’s father, Jeff James, told a radio reporter Tuesday that his son was not home when Jenkins died. James also said his son was not aware the child was dead, because Sloan said she had returned him to his mother in Logan County.

Sloan and Milam are being held without bond at Western Regional Jail. Cabell County Magistrate Patty Verbage Spence will arraign them Jan. 6.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. To contact staff writer Charles Shumaker, use e-mail or call 348-1240.

Source: Charlestone Gazette
http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2005122714

Makes you wonder about the mentality (or lack of) shown by some people.

follow-up

Magistrate continues hearings in toddler's death
High water, swift currents have halted search for body in river

By Bob Withers
The Herald-Dispatch


HUNTINGTON -- Cabell County Magistrate Patty Verbage-Spence continued preliminary hearings Friday for Tonya T. Sloan and her boyfriend, Anthony Milam, both 27, of Salt Rock, who have been charged in the death of Hevin Dakota Jenkins, Sloan's 2-year-old nephew.

Defense attorney Kerry A. Nessel asked for the continuance because he had recently been appointed as Sloan's defense attorney. He said he needed more time to confer with his client and witnesses in the case.

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R. David Brown, Milam's attorney, made the same request because the toddler's mother, Amy White of Logan, who is considered a material witness, said she had no transportation and was not present at the hearing.

Law enforcement officers and divers looked for the boy's body in the Ohio River near the Nick J. Rahall II Bridge for three days last week, but work was suspended because of high water and swift currents -- and that's still a problem.

"We don't know when we'll be able to resume the search," West Virginia State Police Trooper J.M. Parde said Friday afternoon.

Investigators believe the child's body was thrown into the river several days after he died at Sloan's residence. Parde said leads in the case still are being investigated, but there is nothing new to report.

The defendants were arrested after Sloan told police that her car -- with her nephew inside -- was stolen on Dec. 26 from the BP convenience store/gasoline station at W.Va. 34 and Hospital Drive in Hurricane, W.Va. The car was found about a block away, but the boy was gone, and police said her entire story was fabricated.

Representatives from several agencies -- including the State Police, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard, Cabell County Emergency Medical Services and firefighters from several departments -- helped with the river search, using high-tech equipment provided by the FBI and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and heaters from A to Z Rental and Sales. The Salvation Army fed the crews, and officials at the Byrd and Greenup locks and dams agreed to maintain water levels to ease the currents -- until the heavy rains forced them to reopen the structures.

State Police say White had been allowing her son to stay with Sloan and her grandparents during at times during the past month, but she had become concerned about her son's whereabouts and tried to have the State Police in Huntington check on his well-being.

Troopers have not released the name of the child's father.

Sloan and Milam are being held without bond on felony charges of first-degree murder of a child by a parent, custodian or guardian at the Western Regional Jail. If convicted, they could face life in prison.

Criminal complaints state that Milam and Sloan said the boy -- who is said to be nonverbal because of autism -- had a seizure or some other medical emergency Dec. 15 at Sloan's residence, 5388 Smith Creek Road in Salt Rock.

"Both Milam and Sloan advised the child died on (Dec. 15) without either party attempting to provide medical attention, thus contributing to the death of the victim," the criminal complaints state.

No date has been set for further proceedings.

What is with the northern US & the muders of Autistic people?

Two years old is too young to die. Much too young. It's not fair.

Nonverbal at two years old is just late, not permanently "retarded"... for all they know they have killed the genius who cures cancer. It is sure that they have killed a valuable human being who did not deserve this.

Anyone else notice how if an Autistic murders someone the NT's all get their backs up and assume all Autistics are a danger to them.

But when an NT kills an autistic (Which happens rather more often than visa versa) it's just another killing... maybe we all need to get our backs up that all NT's are "out to get us" to rub the point in ^^ (They're not, but you know, highlights the hypocrasies)

One of my brothers really didn't talk until he was 4 yrs old.  He works as a computer technician in an university.  He does talk.  

I just wonder what happened.  I think maybe they hit the kid or he had an accident and died, then they panicked.

They could have called 911 if he had a seizure or fell.