Posted on 09/28/2002 10:27:57 AM PDT by Sunshine55
Abused and starving, Chester Lee Miller, 18, was forced sometime this month to make a desperate 1,000-mile bus journey from the home of his mother and stepfather in Hazleton, Pa., to the Florida Panhandle, a place from which his natural father had earlier sent him packing.
Aboard the bus, in terminal after terminal, town after town, Miller said, he cried and begged strangers for help.
No one listened.
Weighing little more than 60 pounds, the famished teenager with sunken eyes finally arrived in Milton, Fla., about 20 miles north of Pensacola, only to be rejected again. There, authorities said, his relatives shut him out of their trailer home on Saturday and literally dumped him at an apartment complex.
"He looked like a Holocaust victim," said Janice Goodman, at whose door Miller knocked, pleading again for help. "I never would have thought something like this would be in Florida or the United States."
Goodman tried to help Miller, but he was by then beyond help.
Severely malnourished and succumbing to extensive organ failure, the youth died alone yesterday in a Florida hospital room.
His mother and stepfather, Lyda Miller, 37, and Paul Hoffman Sr., 38, who were charged earlier this week with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, face additional charges, police said last night: homicide.
And in Milton, population 7,400, the stranger who took in the dying boy nobody wanted said her family is trying to raise money for a funeral.
"We're trying to at least let him have a decent burial," Goodman said. "It's the least we can do." A relative of her family has donated a burial plot.
Though still hazy, the picture emerging of Chester Lee Miller's life is one of suffering and torture.
Before he died, Miller was able to tell authorities that his father, Robert Lee Miller, dispatched him to Pennsylvania last year to live with his mother and stepfather in Hazleton, about 120 miles north of Philadelphia. He told of being kept mostly in one room, often forced to stand for hours in a corner, being beaten every day, fed only scraps of food, and not allowed out of the house to go to school or see friends.
Charged earlier this week, the mother and stepfather remained jailed last night under $500,000 bond each. Hazleton Police Chief Edward Harry said that within a week, investigators would upgrade the charges against them to homicide.
Angry and sickened, Luzerne County District Justice Joseph Zola reacted with outrage at the couple in his courtroom on Tuesday. According to a report in a local newspaper, Zola looked at photographs of the emaciated, 5-foot, 3-inch teenager and said: "Did you see these? Do you believe this? This is so bad. How can people do this?"
Hoffman told the judge that he was on disability for mental illness and was "deeply sorry" for his actions. "I have no idea why I did it," he said.
In court papers, the couple admitted forcing the teenager to stand in a corner of their house for as long as 12 hours at a time. If he moved, Hoffman would hit him, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
Zola made the defendants stand in a corner of his courtroom throughout Tuesday's hearing.
In Florida, Janice Goodman's brother, Charles Blanchard, said Miller told them that his mother and stepfather had made him sign a paper saying they had not starved or abused him.
"It's a shame that something like this could happen in this country. I've never seen anybody who looked like that - never seen anybody in that condition.
"Somebody begs for help, nobody helps him, and lets him starve like that," Blanchard said, incredulously. "He begs for help and nobody helps."
Blanchard and Goodman said that when young Miller went to his uncle's house on Saturday, the uncle told him he couldn't stay. A friend of the uncle's drove the youth to Goodman's apartment complex.
"He just happened to knock on her door," Blanchard said.
Goodman said Miller, who could barely stand, asked if he could come in, have a shower and get some sleep. "I said, 'Come on in.' There was no way you could turn your back on him."
Goodman then called her mother, who called police. Officers took one look at Miller and called for an ambulance.
He was taken to the Santa Rosa (County) Medical Center. Goodman and other members of her family visited him daily. Miller underwent intestinal surgery and had to be revived Monday after his heart stopped beating.
Goodman and her family said they had expected him to survive and were shocked to learn of his death yesterday morning.
Police in Hazleton and Milton are trying to put together the details of Miller's life and death.
According to Milton Police Detective Mike Daughtery, Miller said "he'd been here about a week and a half. But right now, we're thinking he wasn't in his right mind. We don't think he was here nearly that long."
Investigators believe that the Pennsylvania neglect started in May, Harry said.
Two other children living with the couple in Hazleton were turned over to a state social-service agency Tuesday, police said. They were in good health.
Investigators said they had located Miller's birth father and planned to interview him.
An autopsy will be conducted in Florida tomorrow. Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas said yesterday that he was sending investigators to Milton to be on hand when the postmortem is conducted.
"It's awful," Lupas said. "It's one of the most horrible cases of abuse I've ever seen."
Why didn't someone on that long bus trip at least point him out to a cop?
What the flip is going on???
Are you kidding?
I'm sure the RINO's in charge and their brother Dim's wojuld be more than happy to blame this on Newt or any other conservative, if they could only find a way.
I'm sure the RINO's in charge and their brother Dim's wojuld be more than happy to blame this on Newt or any other conservative, if they could only find a way.
I agree. People who don't understand this have never lived in or near the rougher parts of a big city. The one thing I don't understand is why he didn't just walk up to a cop and tell them he was hungry and sick. He would have been taken to a hospital,and most likely would have been alive today.
I WAS questioning why he didn't steal food to eat if he were starving,but now that we know he was being given speed by the (most likely) school doctors,we know that he wasn't really hungry,even if he was starving.
I don't know. Could be he knew they wouldn't feed or house him. On the other hand,if he could have found somebody there,they would have most likely called the police or the dept of social services to come get him. Once he was enrolled in the proper program so the church could get paid by the gooberment for taking care of him,they would help him then.
It seems to me that helping someone like this is a big part of the reason churches exist
No. Nowadays,they exist so people who go there can feel better about themselves,and so they don't think they will go to hell.
They were originally a branch of the fuedal systems that worked hand in hand with their royal relatives and friends to keep the poor in their place,scared and obedient.
I wonder who's going to pay the preacher? I know damn good and well he isn't going to do this for free. When my father died,his one request was he wanted his brother to preach at his funeral. The younger brother he worked and put through school. The one who rented us one of his houses for a minimum profit when we lived in the same state he does.The brother who told me he "would give me a discount,seeing as we are family." I made him a offer he couldn't refuse,and he preached for free.
I agree,but that only makes it worse.
And sadly, the kid was probably thrown out because he turned 18, and the AFDC payments for him (another sham) were terminated.
Yes ---it's a little strange that he only lived with them for about a year and all this happened. A normal 16 or 17 year old kid would find a job if they weren't being fed by their parents or being given other things. He must have been mentally deficient or was abused his entire life.
For later reading
YES!!!
This also speaks of the decay of the neighborhood. In the past, people knew their neighbors and were willing to help out if something went wrong. Today, people don't get to know those living around them (I am guilty of this myself).
We had a guy who lives accross the street who would hold a party every summer and invite everyone on the street. He invited me just after I moved in even though he didn't know me. He was a true (and rare) pillar of the area.
Sadly, his wife left him, he was laid off, and had to move. Maybe I need to follow his example and fill in the void he left.
As far as the parents of this kid, I would fully endorse their lynching and be glad to help.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.