TRAMELLE STURGIS - 10 yo (11/2011) - South Bend IN

SOUTH BEND, Ind. The investigation continued Saturday into the death of Tramelle Sturgis, 10.

Sturgis was found unresponsive and displaying no signs of life early Friday morning.

Officers were called to the home on the 1100 block of West Washington
Street on the city's west side, court documents say who made the call
for help.

According to court documents, Tramelle had suffered numerous
injuries, both new ad old. He had a broken arm and broken leg. He had
numerous bruises over his entire body. Some of them appeared to be
fresh, while some appeared to be healing. An autopsy is still pending to
determine the exact cause of death.

Police told ABC 57 News that Tramelle's father, Terry Sturgis admitted to beating Tramelle and his 14-year-old brother.

Originally Sturgis told officers that Tramelle had fallen down the stairs.

Tramelle's brother told investigators that he and Tramelle were
beaten by their father for hours Friday night and into the early
morning. He said that his father used a club or a stick, along with his
hands. He said they were duct taped at the wrists.

Tramelle was beaten until he collapsed and lost consciousness and never woke up.

Saturday ABC 57 News caught up with family members to get their
reaction and a better understanding of what could lead up to such a
horrific crime.

Denise Ervin, cousin to Terry Sturgis said that Sturgis had been
placed on dialysis for a bad liver and poor kidneys. She said that he
has been stressed out lately.

"The signs were there, but it just didn't add up," Ervin said off camera.

Denise said that she had noticed once in a while knots on Tramelle's
head but was always told by his dad that he had been fighting again at
school.

Denise and her son Theodore, who live right across the street from where Tramell died said they never suspected child abuse.

"You can see the signs now," Denise said.

"Never saw it coming, nope," Theodore added.

"I feel angry, angry, oppressed. Every night I cry. I wake up and cry. Last night I cried," said Theodore.

Nine kids were in the home at the time of the beatings, they ranged
in age from 4 to 17. As of Saturday night the children were in
protective custody.

Tramelle's 14-year-old brother, who we are not going to identify
because he is a victim of crime remains hospitalized according to the
family, listed in stable condition.

"The kids have been told what happened, they know," Denise said.

Tramelle was described by family members as outgoing, who was a
talented artist and as a kid who enjoyed playing with his siblings.

"I miss you, I wish you were here and I love you. I know you're up
there with God. God called you to be up there with him, but I really
love you," Theodore said, fighting back tears.
http://www.abc57.com/home/top-stories/Cops-say-Child-duct-taped-and-beaten-unconcious-at-the-hands-of-his-father-133309313.html

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- What went on inside the
Sturgis’ home was more than just abuse, it was torture. Tramelle
Sturgis was bound with duct tape, beaten with a wooden club, a belt and
his father’s fists for hours.

According to court documents after a long and violent night, someone inside the
home on West Washington called 9-1-1 early Friday morning, the boy was not breathing.

When police arrived Tramelle showed no signs of life, he was pronounced dead
at the hospital. The boy’s father, 35-year-old Terry Sturgis was arrested for murder.

Tramelle suffered numerous injuries, two broken bones and bruises over his
entire body. Investigators said some of the injuries looked fresh; but
he also had old wounds, ones that appeared to be healing as well as a
number of scars on his back.

“Somebody who had contact with that child on a regular basis had to
know that he was being beaten,” said Captain Phil Trent, South Bend police spokesperson.

“It does take a community to keep kids safe,” Ann Houseworth said. Director
of Communications for the Indiana Department of Child Services,
Houseworth said all citizens of the state are mandatory reporters of neglect and abuse.

With increased insight and added interaction, Houseworth said teachers,
doctors, and neighbors have even more a responsibility to protect children from abusive parents.

Jen VanderZanden commented on ABC-57’s Facebook page on Sunday. She wrote
use to be Tramelle’s teacher, he was in class last year, “A sweet, sweet
boy! Wish someone would have spoken up.”

Tramelle’s school, Greene Elementary directed all questions and inquiries to the
South Bend Community School Corporation. The spokesperson there also
declined an interview but the SBCSC released a written statement on
Monday on behalf of Greene Elementary. It listed comments from teachers
about Tramelle such as; “He had a big, beautiful smile,” and “He made friends easily.”

There was no mention of signs or reports of abuse in the statement. SBCSC
told ABC-57 News over the phone that it would not comment on those
matters because of the ongoing police investigation.

Friends who went to school with Tramelle say they saw the signs of abuse; it
started about a year ago. One of Tramelle’s classmates said he came to
school with a broken arm this year, the 10-year-old told people he had
slept on it funny and it broke. When asked about the bruises, the boy
said he had fallen down.

Trent said, “Whether or not they come up with some sort of explanation that
should be looked into, that’s a classic sign that something is going wrong.”

But someone did take notice of the abuse and he or she tried to get the police look into it.

On Monday, ABC-57 got a hold of the incident report from the South Bend Police Department.

An anonymous caller dialed 9-1-1 just after midnight o n May 28^th, 2011, four months and one week before Tramelle’s death.

The call was short and vague, according to the report, “Refused caller
states that there are about 10 children there…Possibly being abused.”

Two officers went to the Sturgis’ home to perform a wellness check.

“We were at a complete disadvantage when we got that call we didn’t know
what we were looking for or who we were looking for, so when we got
there and the kids were all right….” Trent said the officers left
without making a recommendation to CPS or filing an official police report.

An officer wrote in the incident report, “Children are with adult, and all
appear to be fine. I saw and spoke with the kids and everything appeared fine.”

Trent said, “Nobody looked injured, nobody looked malnourished, no one looked like they were being unkempt.”

“There was no sign of abuse,” was the final note to complete the wellness check.

Houseworth said, “I’m certain that if the police were there and if they did a
thorough investigation that they would have taken appropriate action.”

But the question is, was the investigation thorough, did officers miss something?

“Yea, yea, I can honestly tell you that that officer may have never even seen
this, the child that was murdered.” Trent said without knowing an exact
number of children inside the home, the officer could have seen eight
children who do not show signs of abuse and concluded the investigation.

Trent suggested maybe the abused child was kept out of sight while officers
were at the there and because the caller did not specify the name or age
of the child being abused and the exact number of kids inside officers
did not have much to work with and did all they could without a warrant.

When asked if it was possible the call was made from one of the children at
the home Trent said he wasn’t sure. “That’s a good question, if it was
it should have been noted in the report and I don’t see anything.”

The caller refused to give his or her name and dialed from a blocked number.

According to police nine kids (ages 4-14) and their grandma, Terry’s mother were
at the home while the brutal beating went on in the basement.

All of the children, except the oldest have been placed in foster homes.
The 14-year-old, Tramelle’s brother was also beaten that night and remains in the hospital.

At the time of the murder, Houseworth said CPS was not investigating the
Sturgis family, but state law prevents her from commenting on if the
agency has ever been called to or visited their home.

Child Protective Services is now reviewing the case, Houseworth said they are
conducting interviews with the police at the school and in the neighborhood.

Trent admitted somewhere, the system failed 10-year-old Tramelle.

Terry Sturgis is in the St. Joseph County Jail charged with murder and two counts of battery.

Houseworth said if it failed, the investigation will shed light on where and how Tramelle fell through the cracks.

"The man who killed that child, that ‘s where the blame needs to go," Trent said.

http://www.abc57.com/home/top-stories/Police-133412848.html

The grandmother of the 10-year-old South Bend boy who was beaten to death earlier this month
has been arrested for child neglect.
53-year-old Dellia Castile was arrested yesterday.

Her grandson, Tramelle Sturgis, was killed on
November 4. Tramelle's father, and Castile's son, Terry Sturgis has been
arrested for the murder.
Tramelle lived with both his father and grandmother on W. Washington in South Bend.
Police say the beating that lead to Tramelle's death
lasted hours and this was the worst case of child abuse they had ever
seen. Tramelle had old wounds in addition to the wounds from the beating that killed him.
Tramelle's 14-year-old brother was also beaten. Both boys were tied up with duct tape during the assault.

http://www.wndu.com/hometop/headlines/Grandmother_of_murdered_boy_arrested_for_child_neglect_133968168.html

Good! I'm glad to hear they are charging the grandmother with something. She had to know about the abuse and did nothing. Such a shame.

Money didn’t stop boy’s fatal beating

Updated: November 18, 2011 2:05AM

INDIANAPOLIS — A South Bend grandmother who knew her son habitually beat and burned some of his children and had bargained with him to decrease the severity of the attacks faced neglect charges Thursday after prosecutors said the father pummeled one of his sons to death.

The grandmother, Dellia Castille, 53, was being held on $15,000 cash bond pending a court appearance Thursday.

Her 35-year-old son, Terry Sturgis, who has been charged in the Nov. 4 beating death of his 10-year-old son Tramelle, was being held without bond on charges of murder and battery. He has pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled for March 19. If convicted of murder, he could face 45 to 65 years in prison.

The surviving boys, aged 8 and 14, told police that they suffered repeated beatings and torture at the hands of their father, who they said hit them over and over with a wooden club wrapped in duct tape and a broken table leg the night that Tramelle died. Sturgis had two other children, but they weren’t included in the allegations.

Sturgis’ 14-year-old son told police that his father had burned all of the boys on their legs and stomachs with an iron and used a lighter to heat a screwdriver with which he burned the two older boys’ torsos and genitals. The teen also said Sturgis had burned him with a torch made from a can of roach spray and a lighter.

Emergency workers who responded to a call at the home Castille and Sturgis shared with several children found Tramelle unconscious, with multiple bruises and burns and a severely broken arm, along with other injuries both old and new. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Sturgis told investigators that the boy had fallen down the stairs, but later acknowledged that he had beaten Tramelle and his two brothers with a wooden club during a nightlong torrent of abuse.

The boys told police that Castille was aware of the beatings and had applied cocoa butter to their burns, except for the ones on their genitals. The 14-year-old said that she offered to do laundry for Sturgis if he would stop beating the boys, according to the probable cause affidavit. The teen said Sturgis would ask Castille which child she wanted to save, and instead of choosing she would pay him to stop beating them.

The affidavit said Sturgis’ 8-year-old son told police that Castille often would have one of the boy’s cousins take over when Sturgis was beating them with a belt because she knew that Sturgis “whooped” them too hard.

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak said Castille endangered the children by leaving them in an abusive situation.

“She could have extricated those kids from that situation simply by making a phone call,” Dvorak said.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Kimmel couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Court documents said Castille didn’t tell Department of Child Services workers about the abuse when they visited the home. She eventually acknowledged to police that she had heard Sturgis threaten to “whoop” the kids and had paid him to stop the beatings, the affidavit said.

Even though Castille wasn’t formally charged with failing to report child abuse, Dvorak said she had a clear legal duty to tell authorities because she was a part-time caretaker for the children. Department of Child Services spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said Indiana law requires anyone who reasonably suspects abuse to report it.

“We all have a moral responsibility to report what we see,” Dvorak said.

http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/8903356-418/money-didnt-stop-boys-fatal-beating.html

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Terry Sturgis, who is accused of beating his son to death last month, was back in a South Bend court Thursday.
Prosecutors hit Sturgis with 11 new counts of child abuse and neglect.
Sturgis' attorney also filed some new paperwork claiming Sturgis was insane when he beat 10-year-old Tramelle Sturgis to death.

Last
month Sturgis was charged with the murder of his 10-year-old son
Tramelle after he admitted to the cops he had tortured the boy for hours
before he finally died from the brutal beating.

Sturgis
claims that because he is on kidney dialysis twice a week, his mental
state changed, which lead to the beatings of all three of his boys.

ABC
57 sat down with a doctor to talk about the symptoms patients with
renal or kidney failure may have during the course of their treatment
and found that in severe cases people's mental state can change.

"They can become confused, very fatigued, tired and sometimes what we call delirious," says Dr. Matthew Teters, MD.

Kidney
dialysis cleans the blood of toxins and it is when those toxins build
up in the blood that someone can start experiencing symptoms.

Teters says in most cases people function normally if being treated on a regular basis like Sturgis has been.

Police
date the child abuse back almost two years and the new battery charges
filed today are for all three of his boys, not just Tramelle Strugis.

We asked the question, is confusion and delusion enough to cause someone to brutally torture their kids?

"It's possible for a patient to become violent, although that is not the common presentation of renal failure...Yes, I would say it's unlikely," says Teters.

Terry Sturgis will be back in court on December 20^Th. That is when a judge will appoint three different doctors to evaluate his mental and physical state.
http://www.abc57.com/home/top-stories/Terry-Sturgis-back-in-court-pleads-insanity-drove-him-to-beat-son-to-death-134883483.html

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/crime/grandmother-charged-in-kids-abuse

A northern Indiana judge has ruled a South Bend grandmother should stand trial on three counts of felony child neglect.

St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jane Woodward Miller rejected a motion by Dellia Castile's court-appointed public defender arguing the state hadn't established sufficient probable cause for the charges.

The South Bend Tribune reports Miller also rejected a motion by attorney Anthony Luber that the charges against the 53-year-old Castile lack specificity. Miller also denied Luber's motion seeking to lower the $15,000 bond for Castile on grounds it's excessive and unreasonable.



Castile is charged in connection with the alleged abuse her son, 35-year-old Terry Sturgis, inflicted on his children. He faces several charges including a murder count in connection with the beating death last month of 10-year-old Tramelle Sturgis.

An anonymous caller to the centralized Department of Child Services hot line spent 20 minutes on May 27, 2011, detailing horrific abuse to 10 children at 1130 W. Washington St. -- nearly six months before police found 10-year-old Tramelle Sturgis tortured and beaten to death in that home.
In the course of describing another child's injuries that day that left the boy limping and bleeding in his abdomen, the caller urges a visit to the home that night to witness the abuse.

"Please go tonight. Please go," the caller repeats. "I'm not saying this just to be saying this. Please go. Something got to be done."

And in the recording of the call that was placed at 9:54 p.m., the caller says, "If they go there right now, they'll see how them kids is beat if they go there right now because I don't want it to get on the news and the boy died and then everybody come forward and they gonna say, 'Well, why did nobody come forward from before?'"

A local judge ruled in The Tribune's favor in a public records request opposed by DCS attorneys for copies of the hot line recordings and transcripts involving the Nov. 4 death of Tramelle Sturgis. The files were released to The Tribune last week.

To protect the confidentiality of the caller and the children, The Tribune is not identifying the caller's age or gender, nor certain details in the call that allegedly describe the actions of other adults in the home.

Anonymous call to police

The call raises fresh questions, however, about what happened that May night and how much detail the intake specialist who took the call relayed to either local DCS workers or police.
The Tribune asked a DCS spokeswoman on Wednesday to clarify policies on when the agency decides to investigate a call immediately, and how urgent hot line calls are communicated to local offices and made a second request for information Friday. The Department responded with this statement:
"If circumstances warrant, an immediate response will be initiated. Family case managers are available 24/7 to go to homes, if required."
DCS records The Tribune obtained earlier under state public records law indicate that the call center contacted an on-call family case manager that night, but the records do not indicate any actions taken then.
According to South Bend police spokesman Capt. Phil Trent, police took a report from an anonymous caller just after midnight. After listening to the call this week, Trent said the caller began with, "The is an anonymous call. I'm anonymous," and then hurriedly provided a few details to police. The caller referred to the earlier call to an 800 number.
Trent said no records show that DCS contacted police about the call and that it is unlikely that DCS knew of the police visit between the time the DCS hot line call was made and when a case manager finally was able to make contact with anyone at the Sturgis home five days later.
Police records show that two officers went to the house, having been told merely that 10 children were possibly being abused.
"We are met with an adult, and everyone who the officers can see appears to be fine," Trent said. The officers went back into service seven minutes later and did not file a report.
Trent said that unless police have more details to provide probable cause, they cannot enter a house after midnight, pull children aside and ask to look under their shirts for injuries, for example. If an officer saw an injury or blood on a shirt, he would have probable cause.
"If you suspect that (abuse), you can seize the child, but you'd better be able to articulate why you did that," he said.

'Them kids so scared'
But the caller to the hot line spoke in detail about injuries that night to one of the boys in the Sturgis home, including one person seeing the boy limping and another person telling the caller the boy was beaten so badly in the abdomen that he was bleeding.
"They say he was just begging for his life talking about 'Y'all gonna kill me. Y'all gonna kill me,'" the caller says on the recording.
"Do any of the children have any marks or bruises right now?" the DCS worker asks.
"Oh, I bet you they do if you go down there right now. All you got to do is just raise them shirts up," the caller replies with concern.
"And I think them kids would tell it because them kids so scared."
The caller says that the week before, some of the children were beaten so badly that their visible injuries kept them from being sent to school. Five of the children lived in the basement with Terry Sturgis, the caller says in the recording.
Terry Sturgis is Tramelle's father, who has since been charged with beating the boy to death and abusing two other children.
After the boy's death, authorities confirmed much of the caller's claims about horrid living conditions in the basement, where Tramelle was found dead and blood was found on the floor.
The caller to the DCS hot line said all of the kids had been beaten for years.
"Something need to be done because we called before, at least I did, last year when they was being beat real bad in December, but then nobody come out. And this boy is beat to death," the caller said in a determined voice. "Beating them kids in the basement, beating them upstairs. Oh my God. Somebody just need to go there. That's why I said 'Enough is enough' and I'm calling."

http://www.petoskeynews.com/news/nationworld/sbt-caller-in-may-pleads-10-times-for-immediate-intervention-at-sturgis-home-20120309,0,7277755.story

This is horrible. it's bad enough when this type of torture happens and the authorities don't know.

When they know it is inexcusable. I hope they file criminal charges against everyone involved in allowing this boy to be beaten to death and the others to be systematically tortured and beaten.

This makes me sad and angry.