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Although Laura’s actual age at the time of her death was 23, she had the mental capacity of an

Laura Cummings around the age of eight.

eight year-old.  She was, therefore, totally dependent on others for her care.  Her mother, however, was not the nurturing type, in fact the abuse that Laura experienced at both the hands of her mother and half-brother, Luke Wright was extensive as well as horrendous.

Police allege that over the last few months of Laura’s life, Eva Cummings and her son Wright, 31, shackled Laura to a metal chair with a sack over her head, brutally sodomized her with a broomstick and at times shoved her face in her own feces.

“Starting in November, there’s a significant escalation of her debasement as a human being,” Senior Trial Counsel Thomas M. Finnerty of the DA’s Office said. “It was happening on a daily or nightly basis.”

“It’s sadistic, and it’s allegedly sustained over a long period of time,” he said.

Mother and son also are accused of unlawfully imprisoning Laura Cummings because of her mental disability — an elevated hate crime charge.

Source

From as far back as 1995, the Cummings family had been investigated before for abuse and Laura was not the only victim.

The Cummings household, in North Collins, N.Y., and prior to that in Olean, both just outside of Buffalo, was well-known to Child Protective Services, Patricia Wright, 27, Laura’s half sister, told the Buffalo News.

She said she reported abuse to Erie County Child Protective Services and Erie County Family Court more than a decade ago. Patricia Wright said she, herself, was physically abused for years, resulting in a broken ankle and cracked vertebrae in her back.

Wright left the household at the age of 13 because of the abuse and was taken in by another family.

“Chaos. Almost like a living hell. No child should ever have to go through what we went through,” Patricia Wright, told CBS affiliate WIBV when asked what the apartment was like.

After charges were filed that her father was  sexually abusing Wright, the children were temporarily removed from the home.  After receiving probation for abusing Laura, David and Eva Cummings divorced and she was given custody.  He has remained estranged from his four children despite receiving counseling and expressed sadness over his youngest daughter’s death.

Laura’s adult brother, Richard Cummings, 22,  advised adult protective services that his sister was being abused but no action was taken on her behalf by the agency.  Members of the community as well as the extended family were aware that Laura was being treated inhumanely.  Guests to the house report that Laura was covered in a blanket during their visits to hide her presence.

Despite statements from both Eva Cummings and Luke Wright regarding the Laura’s death, both have plead not-guilty to the charges leveled against them.

Now law enforcement is reaching out to the public and asking anyone who has knowledge of past incidents of abuse toward Laura to come forward.  What a shame that the same action was not taken before she was strangled by her mother.

Tags: Laura Cummings

When paramedics arrived, they would 22 month-old Blaise lying on his back, covered in blood.  His mother, Jennifer Spoerl sat hysterically crying beside her boyfriend, Justin Hillerby who would come up with several explanations as to how the boy was injured.  He would, however, deny knowing how the twenty-three blows that would later be found during the autopsy.

In one story, Hillerby would state that the toddler had knocked over his beer and he had hit Blaise with his knee, knocking him down.  After the child got up and began stumbling around, Hillerby said he put Blaise in his high chair and later took him to bed, knocking his head on the door frame.  At one point he said that the boy would not open his eyes when he put him to bed.

Hillerby would also say that Blaise receive his injuries from falling in the pool the  previous day.  Witnesses have collaborated this story adding that the boy fell into the pool several times without a life jacket and had to be rescued by onlookers.  Allegations ensued that both Spoerl and her boyfriend were drinking alcohol and arguing at the pool.  Although she was not charged in her son’s death, this report led to Spoerl being charged with unlawful conduct towards a child.

After the swiming incident, Spoerl went out with her friends, leaving Blaise and her eight year-old daughter with her boyfriend.  When roommate Brandi Mihil arrived home later, she saw  the boy was whimpering and Hillerby offered the explanation of the spilled beer.  Spoerl arrived later, drunk, went to bed and didn’t check on her son until almost 11:00 a.m. when she found him unresponsive in his crib.

Spoerl had a previous assault charged following an altercation with Hillerby’s ex-girlfriend, and the mother of his child, Melissa Georgoulis.  Georgoulis also reported that Spoerl had made harrassing phone calls to her following Blaise’s death.  As for her ex-boyfriend, according to her, he was violent when he drank.

In his recent trial, Hillerby was found guilt of the murder of Blaise and sentenced to life in prison.

Tags: Blaise Preston Spoerl

A popular Delaware pediatrician has been indicted by a grand jury that charged him with the molestation of 103 children.

Dr. Earl Bradley, 56, has been held in the Vaughn Correctional Center on a $2.9 million cash bond following his arrest last December. Bradley was initially charged with 33 felony counts, including rape and sexual exploitation of a child, but the number of victims has now more than tripled.

The accusations, in an indictment handed down Monday, stem from incidents that allegedly took place at his Lewes, Del., practice called BayBees Pediatrics where he is accused of videotaping the sex acts while the children’s parents waited in another room.

If convicted, Bradley faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“I cannot say certain things that I am feeling, and I am feeling a great deal. I am determined to see that this defendant will never, ever be in a position again to hurt another child,” Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said in a statement following the indictment.

Tags: Earl Bradley

When nurses at the hospital where Malakai’s mother was being treated saw the two year-old’s red, swollen face, they were concerned with the boy’s injuries. Although they offered him ice for his injuries, what they could not tell was that his injuries were much more serious than they realized and that within hours the toddler would be dead.

The story of Malakai’s injuries would go back to earlier in the day when Kevin Anthony Hunt picked up his girlfriend’s son before going to the hospital where she was being treated for complications due to pregnancy.

Court records say that on Feb. 5, Hunt picked up the child from a local hair salon after family members were unable to supervise the boy during their hair appointments. Hunt had planned on going to Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, where his fiancee and Dean’s mother, Kenesia, was being treated for pregnancy complications. She is 5 months pregnant with Hunt’s child.

But detectives say that during the 30-40 minute window from when he picked up the child, to when they arrived at the hospital, Hunt allegedly caused fatal injuries to Malakai’s abdomen. An autopsy report said the child had lacerations to his spleen, pancreas, intestine and had a contusion on his bladder. He did not suffer from any injuries associated with falling to the ground.

Source

After leaving the hospital with his mother and Hunt, Malakai began to vomit and his mother put him to bed shortly after they returned home.  Within a few minutes, the boy stopped breathing and emergency personnel was called. Malakai died after being rushed to a local hospital.

Autopsy reports indicate that Malakai died of blunt force trauma with specific injuries including lacerations to his spleen, pancreas, intestine and had a contusion on his bladder.  None of the injuries, however, would have been consistent with Hunt’s assertion that the toddler was injured while playing at the park. Law enforcement has not even been able to find witnesses who can place Malakai in the park on the day he was injured.

Hunt has been arrested and charged with murder and child abuse causing substantial bodily harm.

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Tags: Malakai Dayvion "Kai" Dean