Poor babies! Poor parents! I can't even begin to imagine.

[GreenPartyVoter]

"Jonah Payne, 3, and his 2-year-old sister, Nicole, were reported missing Saturday by their mother, who said they vanished after she went into another room. She said she found the front door open and the children gone.

Their bodies were found Monday in an algae-covered pond a few hundred yards down the road."

<snip>

"The parents are still very much in shock and mourning," said family spokesman Jaye Jones. "They are only able to speak for a couple minutes at a time before being overcome with tears and sobbing."

Earlier on the day of the youngsters' disappearance, Nicole figured out how to unlock the front door and gate and left with Jonah, police said. A neighbor returned the children a half-hour later.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20050426/D89NA2H01.html

[ComerPerro]

1. I saw that last night and just felt sick

[Zuni]

2. I am not going to make false accusations

but the mother is the most likely suspect.

The liklihood of a stranger coming into the house while mom was home, taking the children without being noticed, and then brutally killing them and dumping their bodies is bizarre. But it has happened. So has a mother killing her kids.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. The kids wandered off on their own. Granted there are negligence

issues here, but for all we know the mom tried to find another way to keep the door shut and the toddler got around that too.

[Zuni]

5. any detective will be looking at mom right now

This happens FAR more than we would like to admit.

Read 'Small Sacrifices' by Anne Rule.

[LeftyMom]

22. It's certainly possible

My doors all have more locks and alarms than a stereotypical New York apartment and LeftyKid still manages to get out. He can almost get over our tall back fence, too.

I live in mortal terror that the kid is going to get loose at the wrong moment and get hurt.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. I'm going to withhold judgement. Little brothers always follow their big

sisters...and when their big sisters are only three...anything can happen. Our next door neighbor when I was a child almost lost her two toddlers in the very same manner at the beach. It only takes a minute, or in this case, a trip to the bathroom for things to go terribly wrong. :(

[Zuni]

6. I am not accusing the mother

but if I was a detective, she would be the first person I would look at.

For all we know, she is terribly heartbroken and she deserves our support. But stranger to stranger crimes are rare, but they do happen.

If this is a murder, so far the coroner has been fooled.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. I admit...the thought crossed my mind as well, Zuni.

:hi:

[Zuni]

21. Hi Mrs G!!!!!

are you playing poker tonight?
I'll probably be around the tables later on, so PM me! :hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

8. The sister was younger..and according to the article, she was the one who

figured out how to unlock the door.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Guess I am a cynic as well. What is the Mother doing that a two year old

and a three year old can be gone TWICE for long periods of time, and the mother does not notice??? I would be happy to be totally wrong...but this looks like a very bad case of negligence at the the very least.

EDIT: Remember the Susan Smith story? She accused someone else, and it turned out to be she who killed her children.

[Zuni]

9. 2 kids drowning in a sewer?

and these kids just escaping from the house and no one notices while they walk down the road to the sewer?
A 2 year old would be stumbling the whole way. If she did manage to walk all the way to the sewer, she would be cut and bruised

[auntAgonist]

13. Where in that article does it say "sewer" I read "pond" nt

[Zuni]

14. in the whole article it says it is a sewage draining pond or something

[LeftyMom]

23. Not all 2 y/os are clumsy

At that age LeftyKid had been past the tripping over his own feet stage for a year. My neighbor's 2 year old, who isn't nearly as athletic as LK, doesn't fall much either.

Except for really late walkers, most kids have moved past the tripping over air phase and got to the knocking your head into something unforgiving daily phase.

[grace0418]

17. My brother and sister climbed out a window

when they were supposed to be taking naps. They were 4 and 2.5. My mom didn't know until a neighbor brought them home 45 minutes later (when they should've still been napping) after finding them crossing a busy street. She had no idea my brother could even figure out HOW to climb out the window.

[auntAgonist]

10. I feel terrible for the loss of such babies, my heart

goes out to the parents, this is just horrible.

We should note however:

"Autopsies found no significant injuries to the children's bodies, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead. Warren County Coroner Paul Lowe said there appeared to be no foul play"

Children get into things, this is just very tragic all round. I couldn't keep my son away from the creek running behind my in-laws home. Ponds attract little people, they were probably having the time of their short lives.

[dolo amber]

11. Really weird segment about this on the "Today" show...

(don't ask me why I watch that, it's just habit from my parents...)

Anyway...

They made a big point of mentioning a couple times that "thus far" the parents (specifically the mother) wasn't a suspect...then they showed the gran (dad's mom) and she says "I asked (mom's name) point blank, 'Did you have anything to do with this?'...she said she didn't, and I believe her."

I dunno, it just seemed weird to me. They don't normally report things with that slant unless there's been some mention of suspicion, which as far as I've heard there hasn't been in this case. :shrug:

But yeah...my sympathies to all involved. I can't imagine... :(

[Zuni]

16. I bet there is a large investigation going on right now

remember, when Susan Smith killed her kids, cops all over the South were looking for a suspicious black male

[FourStarDemocrat]

12. I'd guess that there was no foul play. Small children may have been

fooled by the algeae in the pond, and wandered in without realizing how deep it might have been, then drowned. It sounds like a horrible tragedy, an accident that is all too common when parents turn their backs even for a few minutes.

[Burma Jones]

15. This stuff happens.....

I live in a pretty nice neighborhood outside DC. Last week, I was going to the Post Office and had to stop my car, get out, and return the very young toddlers sitting in the middle of the street to their Grandmother, I don't know what she was doing. They are from China, and the kids as well as the Grandparents know no English.

Remember Eric Clapton's kid? I mean, life's a crapshoot. I have kids, 7 and 5 (ages, not their names) and we have installed all the safety devices and keep them in sight. When the 7 year old was born, we had a lakefront lot. When the 5 year old was born, we had moved to a house with a swimming pool. We took extraordinary measures to protect the kids from these dangers, but you never know whether you have reduced every risk down to zero....

[Zuni]

18. but a two year old walking hundreds of yards to a sewage drain?

why did both of them end up in it? How did no one see a 2 and 3 yr old walking a relatively long way to the pond?

A 2 year old would be quite wobbly walking

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. My 2 year olds were pretty zippy. It is amazing how fast they can get

somewhere they want to go.

My guess is little sister took off and big brother chased her down. She probably fell into the water and he may have tried to save her and drowned as well.

[redqueen]

20. I *feel* very bad for the family.

But I *think* the parent should have realized the danger after the first instance of the children getting out, and prevented it from happening again.

Heartbreaking... :(