Did you RTFA subby? They found her over 3 years ago.

Two Dogs Farking: Did you RTFA subby? They found her over 3 years ago.

Yeah, but this story was just published today. With the story of what has happened to the girl since they found her.

Thanks for linking subby.

They should have steralized the mother.

Jesus! This is the saddest thing I have read in a long time. The mother (?) needs to be euthanized.

JoeBagadonutz: Jesus! This is the saddest thing I have read in a long time. The mother (?) needs to be euthanized.

If her IQ wasn't 77, I would want her to be executed.

We really need to sterilize people incapable of taking care of children. Not trying to troll here. If you can't meet basic standards of living, than you have no right to procreate.

One hell of a read, thanks subby.

great read. Very well written.

What a farked up situation. That mother is the scum of the farking earth.

Why on Earth isn't this greenlit? This is Pulitzer-level reporting.

Bernie and Diane already thought of Danielle as their daughter, but legally she wasn't. Danielle's birth mother did not want to give her up even though she had been charged with child abuse and faced 20 years in prison. So prosecutors offered a deal: If she waived her parental rights, they wouldn't send her to jail.

She took the plea. She was given two years of house arrest, plus probation. And 100 hours of community service.

Urge to kill rising.

"The mother's statement was: 'I'm doing the best I can,' " the detective said. "I told her, 'The best you can sucks!' "

OH SNAP!!

No Florida tag?

The floor, walls, even the ceiling seemed to sway beneath legions of scuttling roaches.

that line is all win, baby.

Bad subby. Unless she has a razor edged boomerang, she's not a feral child, she's just white trash.

Two Dogs Farking: Did you RTFA subby? They found her over 3 years ago.

Yeah so .. The headline is still accurate.

/not subby

Wow. Just...wow. There are no words.

I'm glad they forced the mom to give up parental rights, not glad the mom got to avoid jail time. Then again, jail was cleaner and nicer than her house.

Florida tag was not used why?

FTFA:
"William was used to living like an only child, but since Dani has moved in, she gets most of their parents' attention. "She needs them more than me," he says simply."

Wow. Great brother.

Damn you, subby. I come to Fark to be snarky and make fun of the many stupid people and their amusing foibles.

This story just made me cry.

Side note: it's nice to see that there are still some journalists out there that write this well. Damn.

I think there's ...something in my eyes.

/howls

Good God, I treat the neighborhood wild cats better than this child was treated. I'm all for the sterilization plan that MrSinister mentioned. Eugenics had its downfalls, but the underlying theory that we oughtn't breed ourselves into complete idiocy is a good one. 77 IQ? Cripes, tie off the tubes and let her play.

I hope that child will end up ok. But somehow, reality being what it is, I somewhat doubt that she'll have anything approximating a normal life.

..um.. wow..

I think the sad tag trumps the florida tag here

Shows what neglect can do though.

After Danielle was taken away, Michelle says, she tripped over a box at Wal-Mart and got in a car accident and couldn't work anymore. In February, she went back to court and a judge waived her community service hours.

That's about as white trash as it gets.

MrSinister: JoeBagadonutz: Jesus! This is the saddest thing I have read in a long time. The mother (?) needs to be euthanized.

If her IQ wasn't 77, I would want her to be executed.

We really need to sterilize people incapable of taking care of children. Not trying to troll here. If you can't meet basic standards of living, than you have no right to procreate.

Whatever you do, don't ever go to a homeless shelter in a city of any decent size in the US. You really, really won't like what you see.

Jesus. Now I'm sad. Shocking, absolutely shocking. I cried for her.

MrSinister: They should have steralized the mother.

Eugenics for the win?

I'm guessing after reading the article the Florida tag lost its lunch and stormed out muttering, "Not this...not me...uh uh...no way."

I'm not sure what's more shocking and unbelievable: the story, or the evidence of real journalism in a newspaper.

/The story
//God damn

"No one has any way of telling what lies behind Dani's big brown eyes and vacant stare."

Murdering you in your tub or bubble-bath feral-girl is watching you masturbate.

I have to applaud the detective's self-control. If it had been me, I would have been hard-pressed not to shoot the "mother" as I left with Dani.
Poor little kitten is never gonna be anything approaching normal.

Will she grow up to be hot?

Just kidding, Jesus that article made me mad. Here I am waiting untill I am financially and situationally perfect to have a child, and asshats like this chick are out there reproducing. There really should be strict rules in place for having children, and forced birth control untill you can obtain a license.

They can find plenty more kids just like this one if they visit a Chuck E. Cheese on Friday night.

Just for once... can we appreciate an excellent piece of writting and hope for a better life for this child and her new family without stooping to the usual snarky comments about masturbation and loaded diapers? There are dozens of other greenlights for that today.

Just once?

What wonderful foster parents. That's what I prefer to take away from this painful story.

To those of you asking about the use of the sad tag instead of the Florida tag . . . did you RTFA? Nothing but sad works here....

If you folks would excuse me for a moment, i think i got something in my eyes...

MrSinister:

They should have steralized the mother.

Sterilized? Sterilized? going a bit easy on her dont you think?
perhaps she could be forced to live in the exact conditions as her "baby", for the same amount of time? Oh wouldn't want to do that that would be cruel and unusual punishment. Very sad. I agree with the earlier post Euthanasia, slip her the pink juice.

Thunderpipes: Here I am waiting untill I am financially and situationally perfect to have a child

Won't happen. Ever. Unless there's a trust fund waiting to fire off in a few years.

Trust me, just have a child now, and the pieces will fall in to place. And, you won't be a 40yr old first-time parent gasping for breath chasing your toddler.

/just sayin'
//I waited until my late 20s, and I'm STILL no match for child energy

Very well written, like a movie that I'd never want to watch alone =\

Jesus that's a sad story... but I'm glad she's doing better.

Snakeophelia:
Wow. Just...wow. There are no words.

I'm glad they forced the mom to give up parental rights, not glad the mom got to avoid jail time. Then again, jail was cleaner and nicer than her house.

Whatever it took to keep her from ruining the child's life any more, and terrorizing the foster parents, I guess. You just know what type of person this woman is: she WOULD show up at their house every week, she would sue them constantly, she would threaten them and accuse them.

IAmSteveDownes: Just for once... can we appreciate an excellent piece of writting and hope for a better life for this child and her new family without stooping to the usual snarky comments about masturbation and loaded diapers? There are dozens of other greenlights for that today.

Just once?

Too late, but nice thought.

IAmSteveDownes 2008-08-03 12:05:28 PM
Just for once... can we appreciate an excellent piece of writting and hope for a better life for this child and her new family without stooping to the usual snarky comments about masturbation and loaded diapers? There are dozens of other greenlights for that today.

Just once?

This.

/something in my eye

For a linguistics class I was presented stories of feral children to demonstrate critical period for language acquisition.
Anyways, feral children happen enough and are so interesting to study there is even a website, feralchildren.com

It is sad, because "jungle book" type situations are rare, but criminal neglect way to common.

z_gringo: great read. Very well written.

What a farked up situation. That mother is the scum of the farking earth.

I wonder what her mother was like.

Trainwrecks of this magnitude are usually generations in the making. There are a lot of family trees that need to be pulled like weeds.

I'd hit it in a few years.

CowboyUpCowgirlDown: They can find plenty more kids just like this one if they visit a Chuck E. Cheese on Friday night.

Huh?

I understand hyperbole, but I think that's a smidgen far.

drew is pedal: I'd hit it in a few years.

DrDude: To those of you asking about the use of the sad tag instead of the Florida tag . . . did you RTFA? Nothing but sad works here....

After reading the lack of intervention of the Florida authorities when the kid was still remotely salvageable as a normal human... no, the Florida tag is pretty damned apropos too.

This kind of shiat goes on WAY too much in Florida. I spent enough time in the Panhandle (Niceville, Panama City) to realize that I could've spent all my waking hours reporting the abuse cases to the apathetic, corrupt authorities.

The whole damned state needs a "sad" tag.

Seriously, I'd love to go all medieval on that "mother" and lock her in the stocks, pelt her with filth.... etc. etc.

Absolutely pathetic.

Those are the coolest cops I've ever seen. They should name the kid McLovin and adopt her. And thats so awful, poor kid. Not having any parents can seriously fark you up.

That's a lot of exclamation points.