Mom, Roommate Accused of Starving Girl

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060803/D8J95LEG1.html

Mom, Roommate Accused of Starving Girl
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Aug 3, 4:20 PM (ET)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A woman and her roommate were charged with starving the woman's 9-year-old daughter, who weighed just 42 pounds when she was found, was locked up all day and was forced to wear a filthy diaper, authorities said.

Melissa Samoraj, 27, and Raymond LaFountain, 31, were arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated child abuse. The girl was so emaciated that her spine and ribcage were showing when state child welfare officials took her June 30, police said.


In this Aug. 2, 2006, booking photo released by the Pinellas County Sheriff Dept., Melissa Samoraj is shown. Samoraj was charged with starving her 9-year-old daughter, who weighed less than 42 pounds when she was removed from their St. Petersburg, Fla., apartment. Samoraj, 27, and her roommate, Raymond LaFountain, 31, were arrested Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006, and charged with aggravated child abuse, police said. (AP Photo/Pinellas County Sheriff Dept.)


The girl also had her hands bound behind her, was locked in a bedroom all day and wore a diaper that went unchanged for hours, officials said. She told police it was punishment for bad behavior.

"It's a very disturbing case," police Detective Joe DeLuca said. "You see very few like this."

The girl now lives with her grandparents and has gained about 25 pounds in a month.

"She's doing well now," DeLuca said.

[NMMNG]

1. I hope the two of them get put away for a very long time

There is no excuse for that sort of maltreatment. :grr:

[Critters2]

2. Why do people do these things?

I never understand these cases. I treat my dog better than this....no matter what she says.

[Fridays Child]

3. Here are photographs of the perps, from a different source.

Pinellas County Sheriff's Office booking photos
of Melissa Samoraj and Raymond LaFountain

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. meth users, maybe?

It would've been better for them to put the poor child up for adoption than to treat her like this... :cry:

[LostinVA]

5. They look like meth heads to me n/t

[Fridays Child]

6. Maybe so. They look fairly wrung out, don't they?

No excuse, of course, for how they abused that poor child. It was deadly assault, actually, and should be regarded that way by the law so that there's no chance she'll ever have to go back to her mother.

[XemaSab]

7. One of them is a transgendered individual

LaFountain was originally described by police as Samoraj's live-in boyfriend, but the gender classification at the jail was changed from male to female following a routine strip search, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said.

[reprobate]

8. Children trying to raise children.

[Omaha Steve]

9. Why was this moved while this story was BN with 120 replies?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2432610&mesg_id=2432610