Women Sought in Videotaped Beating

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[Texaggie79]

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) - A woman who was angry after leaving a department store was caught on a surveillance tape looking around as she helped her young daughter into a vehicle and then brutally beating the child for about half a minute, authorities said.

Police were searching for the woman and 4-year-old child Friday. The woman's sister, who had been with her in the store, was arrested, said community prosecutor Maggie Jones.

"As far as we know, she tried to exchange some merchandise, was denied that, became angry in the store at the service clerk and left. But I don't know how that could provoke an attack like this on a child," Mishawaka Police Chief Anthony Hazen said Friday on NBC's "Today" show.

The woman could be seen on the tape punching the child and shaking her, and authorities believe the little girl might have serious injuries. A doctor who saw the tape said she could have suffered head, neck and brain injuries, said Mike Samp, a police investigator.

Authorities identified the 25-year-old woman as Madelyne Gorman or Madelyne Toogood and the child as her daughter Martha Toogood.

Hazen said the woman is believed to be from the Dallas area and has a history of misdemeanor charges. He did not elaborate.

"We've spoke with several members of the family; they are not being cooperative right now. They said they disagree with the actions but they don't know where she's at," he said.

Hazen said the sister faces charges of failing to report child abuse, and the child's mother could face felony battery charges in the Sept. 13 beating.

"You can see the woman grab one of the girl's pony tails and forcefully shake her. That right there, not even counting all the blows that we saw the woman make, that right there constitutes battery," Jones told CNN.

The videotape shows the woman and girl walking to a sport utility vehicle along with a boy and the woman's sister.

The two women had tried to return merchandise at a Kohl's department store in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend near the Michigan border, but were refused, police said.

The tape shows the woman placing the girl in the vehicle's back seat and then striking her about the head. The woman also appears to shake, slap and punch the child before getting in the front seat and driving off.

The vehicle shown in the video had Texas license plates, and police eventually found it at a Mishawaka apartment complex. Police said it was not registered to either of the women shown on the tape.

[Conservababe]

Maybe the child mouthed off in the store or something

The persons were asked to leave the store because of an incident with the child. I wonder what it was, really.

Perhaps there was violence displayed toward the child in the store, hence the close security cameras of the woman in the parking lot.

[HairOfTheDog]

You don't see the child being hit because she is in the car? - or because you think the mom was just really beating the seat repeatedly?

The woman was throwing punches "in the vicinity" of the child who was down on the floor in front of the seat. Then the child climbed up into the car seat, (from the floorboard, not the other side of the car) at which point the mom began pummeling "the vicinity" where the kid now was. You don't see a situation that needs to be checked out?

[Ramius]

What do you see that explains this type of rage?

What rage? As she's walking up to the car? She appears to be holding the kid's hand, sure firmly, but hardly a deathgrip. As she's adjusting the car seat? As she's turning around afterward? Sorry... every time you can see her face she appears perfectly calm and collected. Is there reason to ask questions and look into the possiblity of injury to a child? You bet. Is this tape evidence? Not really.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

Legs bouncing because:

She is USED to being beaten?

She was nervous?

She has already suffered nerve damage?

I can't imagine a child would be "happy" after what she went through. Unless the poor child has already suffered brain damage.

This is one of the most brutal things I've ever seen. If she hasn't suffered permanent damage yet, she will. It would only be a matter of time.

I hope they find her FAST!!

[Alissa]

Then let her bring the child to a hospital to prove she didn't beat her!!!!!

[glory]

Yes, I did a little look up on it after having that little epiphany and it refreshed what I remembered of that episode. Not surprising the mother behaves like this if this is the way her own little clan is. Makes one wonder when she was married off, but alas, she's not the victim here. I hope they find this little girl...soon.

[dsutah]

This could be an innocent situation. I sure hope so. I had a funny situation that happened once when my older daughter (age 25 now)was about 8. I was working with a homemaker, or home help service. I had taken her with me, and I had to go back in a lady's house to get her to sign my time card. My kid was complaining about something, I can't remember about what. I kept telling her we had to go, and to get in the car. She was fussing, and didn't want to mind me. I finally put her in the car.

Well, I happened to look around, and there was a couple of ladies looking at me strangely. I didn't think anything of it at first. But on the way home, I started to get worried about what these women must have been thinking. I scolded my daugher a little, and told her that by the way she was hollering and carrying-on, someone might think I was trying to kidnap her or something.

Then about a half-hour or so after we got home, a cop was at the door! He asked me about what looked like a little girl being taken from a mobile home park by a person in a car fitting my car's description, and tag no. I was dumbfounded for a minute, and then I understood. I felt really silly, but I told the cop what I believed happened. I told him the story about how my daughter behaved, and that I was taking her home, and some ladies were looking at me oddly.

The cop was real nice, and since my daughter came to the door also,(calm and smiling now)he could see that she was mine. But these women had watched all this, and gotten the wrong impression, obviously. The cop believed me (I think he was relieved), and said he just wanted to follow up, to make sure. I told him I understood, and was glad that someone noticed, especially if it had truly been a kidnapping!

But it goes to show you what can be in the eye of the beholder. Like I said, I hope this situation is innocent also, but it sure looks bad, according to the film.

[HairOfTheDog]

Why is she beating the seat if you don't see rage? - I agree it isn't in her face, but it is in her actions isn't it? At least you agree that the child seems cooperative... I am not understanding your position... Did you watch the same video?

[glory]

I watched this thing on the television(much better than the streams online) and I saw the hair pulling and shaking this time. YOu really can't miss it if you are watching it on a large tv.

[FreedomPoster]

FYI, this was just replayed on Fox News Channel, and is being discussed on The O'Reilly Factor (with Cavuto tonight). Ramius, you really need to get out and buy something bigger than a 12" TV.

[Conservababe]

This woman was not out of control, no. She very coldly beat her child...pausing two times...and continuing the attack.

[glory]

Yeah me too. I finally got another good look on tv tonight after leaving this thread earlier and I could see the child being picked up by her pony tails and shaken. I think if some of the others could see this, they could probably put the rest together.
Anyway, in light of everything that went on, her mother throwing her in the seat would have been the least of this child's problems if she had thrown her in there. shaking head:-(

[twyn1]

I just watched the tape one more time (on FOX) and the only clarification I can make is that what I thought was a stuffed animal is the armrest (??) of the car seat (looks like it goes across the front of the seat to hold the kid in) -- the Mom opens it and then closes it once the kid climbs in -- I thought it was some sort of toy that she was picking up -- which seemed sort of "weird" -- this makes more sense

[Nataku X]

Had the same doubts, but... Look VERY closely at the video when she starts to put the kid in the car. The kid starts climbing in, but then she clearly throws the kid to the floor of the car and then whacks the kid violently. Keep your eye very closely on the kid when she starts climbing in--it is indeed a severe beating!

[glory]

AGREED and on that last line, even more so.

[dsutah]

This is like something being in the "eye of the beholder", isn't it? I can't get anything out of this film conclusively, either. I'm not an expert, so I'm not seeing any nuances. I hope for the sake of this child, and the mother,(if she didn't beat her)that it is entirely an innocent situation.

[Ramius]

The woman was throwing punches "in the vicinity" of the child who was down on the floor in front of the seat.

The kid isn't on the floor in front of her. The kid is on the other side of the car.

After she tilts the seat forward, the kid bounces up and hops over into the back. If that kid were being beaten as feircely as you all are trying to see-- that kid would be unconscious or dead.

[glory]

You know, I think you have a point on the honing in on someone. I have been very careful about how and with whom we discuss homeschooling for just the reasons you have mentioned in this post. Hell, with whom we discuss any of our political views with because of that.

[Ramius]

So let's find the kid. That will clear it up one way or the other... and they will. Sometime in the next day or so the kid will turn up.

So how many of you all are now insisting that she must now prove a negative, that she did not beat the child? That would be an interesting poll.

If the child is uninjured will that be enough?

[glory]

You know, I have a 4 yr old daughter and she is very outspoken. I wonder, if this child was much the same way, if she spoke right up and said, my mommy put those in her jacket or Mommy didn't get those here or mommy said taking things is ok. This child is right at the age, bless her heart, where they are brutally honest, even when something is to be kept a secret. I could see how that forthright, honest behavior would incite a "Traveller" to teach her daughter a lesson in "betraying kin". SICK, but one has to wonder how they stay so close knit in their families to the extent they do when criminal activity is going on unless they are intimidated early and isolated all their lives from outsiders.