Man Is Accused of Pushing Daughter to Death Off Cliff (To Avoid Child Support)

Los Angeles Times ^ | 11/18/03 | Allison Hoffman and Monte Morin

[marshmallow]

A prosecutor says the motive for killing the 4-year-old girl was to escape $1,000 monthly child support payments.

A father who said his 4-year-old daughter stumbled and fell 130 feet to her death on the Palos Verdes Peninsula three years ago was charged Monday with pushing her to avoid paying child support.

Authorities said that they had long suspected Cameron John Brown, 42, of Ventura of killing Lauren Key on Nov. 8, 2000, but there were no eyewitnesses. Investigators had to rely on expert witnesses who could debunk Brown's claim that his daughter strayed from a trail along Inspiration Point, one of the highest spots on the peninsula's cliffs. Authorities had said it was astonishing that a parent would bring a young child there and let her roam.

The girl's mother, Sarah Key-Marer, said she was "obviously relieved that there'll be some sort of glimmer of justice, hopefully …"

"I miss her so terribly. I cannot understand any of this. It's tragic. Nothing is going to bring her back."

[CajunConservative]

May they push him off a cliff and injure him just short of death, let him heal and keep pushing him off that cliff.

[eastforker]

A tragic story indeed.FWIW I have a hard time believing a jury would convict him of murder if he had even a half competant lawyer.10-1 he will plea bargain to involuntary manslaughter by child endangerment by not supervising her close enough.Just my 2 cents worth.

[mhking]

Killin's too good for 'im. He needs to suffer. Badly. Painfully, even.

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[pogo101]

My feeling exactly. Surely this story leaves plenty of reasonable doubt, even if one accepts that there is tons of evidence that he hated paying the child support, etc.

[BSunday]

All killers ought to be executed using the same manner by which they killed their victims

[jimkress]

This wouldn't be a problem is the mother had pushed the girl off the cliff. It would have been labelled just another 'later term abortion procedure'. The mother would have been lauded for exercising her 'right to choose'.

[BSunday]

For example, John Allan Muhammed ought to be let free, allowed to start a new life, and have a Marine sniper follow him around. Just when he seems to be enjoying himself, maybe gassing up his new ride, or going out to a nice restaurant, a shot would ring out from a distance.....

[cyborg]

I agree... eye for an eye

You can be sure not many people would drive drunk, if they knew they'd get crushed by a car themselves, and so on.

[It's me]

Can you imagine what was going through that poor child's mind as she was falling?

May God have mercy.

[BSunday]

Not only that, but I don't see as how insanity makes a difference. If a person who kills someone is insane then they still deserve to die just like a sane person who kills someone. Besides, it can be argued that all killers are insane anyway. I just never understood that rationale - "Oh he was insane, so let's just put him in this hospital" Doesn't make sense to me.

[cyborg]

never understood it myself either...

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Looks like another possible justification column by Roger F Gay.

[xp38]

It sure sounds like the child was about to impinge on his lifestyle.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I can see Roger's article headline now - "Child Dies over Child Support Collection Methods".

[Dan from Michigan]

He needs to be in a car with Ted Kennedy for Chappaquitick II.

[Dan from Michigan]

LOL. I shouldn't laugh, but I can see "Jayson Blair" doing that.

[reformed_democrat]

Apparently the guy never wanted the child, never saw the child, and never pursued visitation until the child's mother sought child support payments.

Personally, if a guy I was sleeping with told me to get lost when I was pregnant with his baby, I would not only get lost, I would stay lost. If a man is so callous that he doesn't care what happens to the mother of his child, that tells you something about his mental stability (or lack thereof). Whatever possesed her to seek him out again!

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Hum said Brown and the girl had no contact until she was about 3, when her mother filed a claim for child support. Brown then asked for DNA tests to establish paternity. Those tests showed that he was the father. Brown and Key-Marer were never married, and separated before the girl was born.

Brown was granted visitation with the girl after being ordered to pay about $1,000 a month in child support, according to the prosecutor.

SNIP . . .

Key-Marer, who came to California from England in 1993, met Brown in 1995, when she was 27 and he was 34. About five months after they began dating, she learned that she was pregnant.

"He wasn't really interested in having a child, so we separated," she said. "I raised my daughter as a single mother."

Key-Marer said Brown took no interest in seeing his daughter, and the two fought a bitter, drawn-out battle over child support payments.

During that time, Key-Marer said, she met her current husband, Gregory Marer, with whom she now has a 2-year-old son . . .

[snowstorm12]

I'm surprised Scott Peterson didn't think of this he would've gotten away scott free with no witness and no evidence.

[reformed_democrat]

I just never understood that rationale - "Oh he was insane, so let's just put him in this hospital" Doesn't make sense to me.

Me, either.
If anything, I believe that a plea of insanity should be taken as an admission of guilt, especially in a case like this. If anyone is crazy (sick, insane, disturbed, "emotionally challenged" -- take your pick) enough to take a small, helpless child and throw her off a cliff for whatever reason, that person is beyond all help and needs to be put down like a rabid dog.