Sometimes I think about college...
Jun. 26th, 2024 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWhen I was in college, I studied English literature. Yeah, yeah, not a dollar degree, not gonna get a job doing that, etc. And, sure, 100% correct on that front. Not gonna lie.
But it does, sometimes, connect to my life in unexpected ways, even (how/wow has it been that long?!) thirty some years after I graduated phi beta kappa and cum laude and jobless. Yesterday was one of those days.
In mid-March, the news reported the finding of a deceased male infant on a street corner in McConnellsburg. Like, a newborn infant. Just... there on the sidewalk, found early one morning. This is not a great start to the story and from here on out it just goes downhill.
First off you should know that McConnellsburg is not a large town. County seat of Fulton County, PA, it holds some 1,150 people as of the 2020 census. It's pretty hard to stay invisible with a little over a thousand people in the town. Someone knew who did this. Someone knew who was preggo and then ... wasn't preggo and didn't have any baby to show for it nor any funeral or even any Fly High My Angel Baby posts on Facebook. The truth will out, the guilty parties had absolutely no chance of getting away with this.
However, the wheels of rural police work grind along and thus, three months since the dead infant on the sidewalk, we now have this meal to consume. It's dry and powdery and you're gonna have to choke it down, being careful it doesn't choke you first.
I got this news from our local... redneck muckraker who is not really a journalist with ethics and stuff but does sometimes go to the police station and the courthouse and take pictures of actual documents and stuff and then just... posts that shit raw on facebook. Ethical? Nah, bro. Informative? You betcha.
19 YEAR OLD JOSHUA COLEMAN WOOTERS AND 20 YEAR OLD EMILY JANE DICKINSON OF MCCONNELLSBURG CHARGED WITH CRIMINAL HOMICIDE, CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT CRIMINAL HOMICIDE, CONCEAL DEATH OF A CHILD, ABUSE OF A CORPSE, OBSTRUCTING ADMINISTRATION OF LAW.
The following is images because I can't... retype all of it. It's incoherent and horrifying and wow.
I can't even. There's "real news" reporting on this as well, if you'd like a more coherent narrative. You probably don't. You're probably, right now, wishing I handed you the TLDR of Murderous idiots living in denial defenestrated an exsanguinated infant following a disastrous home birth that absolutely everyone wishes didn't happen. But instead you got that shitshow of an affidavit of probable cause because if I had summarized it, you might not have believed me.
Who would do such a thing? Emily Jane Dickinson, apparently.
For what it's worth, Pennsylvania has a Safe Haven law. You can dispose of unwanted infants at hospital ERs, police stations, and any Emergency Services provider. Since 2001 (the start of the law) 51 unwanted infants have been surrendered. You have 28 days from the birth of the infant to get rid of it per the Safe Haven law. No criminal prosecution, you can just hand over the baby and leave as long as you're not a wanted criminal and the baby is OK.
But anyway, where does this sad and ... depressing incident connect to the Useless but Entertaining degree in English Literature? Well, if you're ever reading, like, Southern Gothic literature and you're all "Wow, author is limning some pretty horrific, stupid, evil caricatures that do terrible things, incompetently... real people aren't like that!" just remember that... sometimes they are, indeed, like that.
Not always. But sometimes.
But it does, sometimes, connect to my life in unexpected ways, even (how/wow has it been that long?!) thirty some years after I graduated phi beta kappa and cum laude and jobless. Yesterday was one of those days.
In mid-March, the news reported the finding of a deceased male infant on a street corner in McConnellsburg. Like, a newborn infant. Just... there on the sidewalk, found early one morning. This is not a great start to the story and from here on out it just goes downhill.
First off you should know that McConnellsburg is not a large town. County seat of Fulton County, PA, it holds some 1,150 people as of the 2020 census. It's pretty hard to stay invisible with a little over a thousand people in the town. Someone knew who did this. Someone knew who was preggo and then ... wasn't preggo and didn't have any baby to show for it nor any funeral or even any Fly High My Angel Baby posts on Facebook. The truth will out, the guilty parties had absolutely no chance of getting away with this.
However, the wheels of rural police work grind along and thus, three months since the dead infant on the sidewalk, we now have this meal to consume. It's dry and powdery and you're gonna have to choke it down, being careful it doesn't choke you first.
I got this news from our local... redneck muckraker who is not really a journalist with ethics and stuff but does sometimes go to the police station and the courthouse and take pictures of actual documents and stuff and then just... posts that shit raw on facebook. Ethical? Nah, bro. Informative? You betcha.
19 YEAR OLD JOSHUA COLEMAN WOOTERS AND 20 YEAR OLD EMILY JANE DICKINSON OF MCCONNELLSBURG CHARGED WITH CRIMINAL HOMICIDE, CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT CRIMINAL HOMICIDE, CONCEAL DEATH OF A CHILD, ABUSE OF A CORPSE, OBSTRUCTING ADMINISTRATION OF LAW.
The following is images because I can't... retype all of it. It's incoherent and horrifying and wow.
I can't even. There's "real news" reporting on this as well, if you'd like a more coherent narrative. You probably don't. You're probably, right now, wishing I handed you the TLDR of Murderous idiots living in denial defenestrated an exsanguinated infant following a disastrous home birth that absolutely everyone wishes didn't happen. But instead you got that shitshow of an affidavit of probable cause because if I had summarized it, you might not have believed me.
Who would do such a thing? Emily Jane Dickinson, apparently.
For what it's worth, Pennsylvania has a Safe Haven law. You can dispose of unwanted infants at hospital ERs, police stations, and any Emergency Services provider. Since 2001 (the start of the law) 51 unwanted infants have been surrendered. You have 28 days from the birth of the infant to get rid of it per the Safe Haven law. No criminal prosecution, you can just hand over the baby and leave as long as you're not a wanted criminal and the baby is OK.
But anyway, where does this sad and ... depressing incident connect to the Useless but Entertaining degree in English Literature? Well, if you're ever reading, like, Southern Gothic literature and you're all "Wow, author is limning some pretty horrific, stupid, evil caricatures that do terrible things, incompetently... real people aren't like that!" just remember that... sometimes they are, indeed, like that.
Not always. But sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-27 05:16 am (UTC)Unfortunately, sometimes people are just that horrible.