1. Court is now in session for the trial of Mr. Hausen Tannuel who claims that he doesn’t remember killing his wife and son after allegedly ingesting a toxic mixture of methamphetamine, codeine, and alcohol. The substance is known as a “thunderbird”, or “lightning in a bottle”. Unfortunately for him, he is facing capital murder charges and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted. But is it true that we can’t remember killing our own kids?
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3. How “Not Injuries” Can Leads to Innocent Death
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5. Our human brains were not designed to remember exact pain. The “pain matrix” is an array of neurons that respond to a complex number of stimuli. The signal is detected by the thalamus and sent to the medial and dorsal subregions of the prefrontal cortex. Depending on the strength of the signal and the frequency with which it is generated, the nerve cells will either initiate a motor or a sensory response. Depending on the stimulus, the brain can decide to initiate a response that will elicit a specific reaction, or it can ignore a signal that is “incongruent”.
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7. We are not alone in ignoring discrepancies. We have to either pass on information that is “incongruent” to our physical experience or ignore it. Just because a person has the mental capacity to remember a traumatic incident such as a murder doesn’t mean that the individual actually did it. After being held in jail for days after the murders, Tannuel says that he only recalls one thing. The police began interrogating him with a video camera and as it moved up and down his body, Tannuel claimed that he couldn’t tell the difference between a leg and a torso.
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9. Perhaps Tannuel wasn’t the only victim of a misdiagnosed brain injury.
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11. Our brains can trigger many responses when we experience a stimulus. During pain, the brain takes these clues and decides what response it will be to the signal. If the brain determines that it needs a muscular response, for example, it triggers an initial contraction of muscles in the body. The overall result is often so intense that the brain ends up acting on reflexes rather than conscious thoughts. It’s likely that Mr. Tannuel did not feel any pain during the prolonged interrogation. The brutal abdominal trauma likely made him completely oblivious to the fact that his abdomen had been sliced open multiple times with a large machete, his mother’s head hit the ground at least two times, and his infant son died in his arms. The autopsy of Mrs. Tannuel shows deep lacerations to her abdomen that were visible under her skin, indicating that she was under attack and certainly in pain.
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13. Cannibalism is a very unusual form of murder.
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15. While involuntary muscle reflexes are rarely the cause of death, sometimes it is a close second. Especially when the assailant has intimate knowledge of how the victim’s body is constructed.
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17. Eric Tazewell is believed to have killed his wife, Cindy Tazewell, after her partially eaten corpse was discovered in the family’s barbecue pit. Her arms and legs were removed, her genitals were removed, her ribs had been broken and her skull crushed. After days of surveillance by the police, Mr. Tazewell was finally caught and in a gruesome display, admitted to the crime. He also admitted to eating most of his wife’s flesh and said he planned to eat her brain and hide it in his refrigerator. He had smeared parts of the flesh from the left leg on his chest. He admitted that he probably would have eaten her heart, lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas, and intestines if he had the chance.
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19. But Mr. Tazewell didn’t eat any of his victim’s organs. He had never worked in the medical field and most likely only saw Mrs. Tazewell’s body once or twice before he dug her up and butchered her. In fact, when police were searching the property they found that only pieces of the victim’s body had been eaten. It had all been removed. Her skull was crushed and the teeth extracted. Her head was placed in a plastic bag and her abdomen cut open. The spine was removed, and her genital area had been cut open. The head had been removed and the fingers were placed back inside her arms. To make it appear as though the man had followed a ritual, the penis and some of the vaginal tissue was preserved. In actuality, the victim’s head had been removed by the dentist, not the perpetrator. The parts that were found on the rest of her body had been intentionally smeared on the torso with an antiseptic such as rubbing alcohol or charcoal, using a knife.
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21. Incest is one of the most devastating crimes to any family.
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23. This is only one of the instances where incest has been used to cover up a murder.
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25. In many cases, perpetrators of sexual abuse (whether they be parents, lovers, or complete strangers) will have a tendency to bring a child into the family home in the hopes of furthering their power and control over the victim. They will also use this child to humiliate, exploit, and abuse other family members. In the case of Amanda Berry’s mother, Gina DeJesus’ grandmother, Ann Overton, is currently on trial for kidnapping and sexual battery of the girl. Mr. Overton was Gina DeJesus’ grandmother. Overton has been charged with kidnapping, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, felonious assault, and causing a child to be in distress. He is facing a maximum of life in prison if convicted.
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27. Ann Overton has been accused of taking her granddaughter from her own daughter in a plot to get more “money and attention.” She faces up to 99 years in prison if convicted.
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29. According to court records, when police interviewed Overton in her home on May 17, 2006, “she admitted to them that she took Gina out of her home on May 6, 2004, and that she put her in a taxi cab.” She later added that “she knew Gina was being molested and took her to live with her because she didn’t want her to suffer anymore.” Overton then explained that she was saving her granddaughter from a life of sexual abuse and that she was providing her with love and guidance.
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31. Children have been known to be the linchpin to the perpetration of incest.
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33. Before I share the case of Jaycee Dugard I have to say something about the case of Amanda Berry’s mother, Gina DeJesus’ grandmother.
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35. Jaycee Dugard was 11 years old when she was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido in 1991. She was sold into sexual slavery for 18 years. Garrido, who was a registered sex offender, fathered four children with his victims. He is currently on death row for his crimes.
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37. Phillip Garrido was never prosecuted for his crimes because his daughters had the courage to come forward to police in 2009. They eventually told police that Phillip was raping his victims up until that point. As a result, Garrido has now been charged with 4 counts of kidnapping, 4 counts of rape, 4 counts of sexual assault, and 1 count of child endangerment. Garrido’s bail has been set at $1.15 million dollars.
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39. I would like to take this time to note that no children were harmed during the filming of Beyond Scared Straight. No one forced the children to be filmed. It was all a matter of safety. I have no doubt that if these children were forced to appear in a film that they would have been exposed to a horrible act that could have scarred them for life.
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41. When this video was being filmed, Garrido was in prison, so the girls were made to do everything on their own, including teaching the sex offender a lesson in manners. In the video, Garrido and the girls (along with a “coach”) eat food, watch tv, and are generally “normal” children. This is actually a unique part of this story. The girls were allowed to enjoy some of the basic things that children of their age enjoy. This was filmed before Garrido’s life as a sex offender came to light.
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45. The sick behavior of Phillip Garrido and his daughters, Michelle Knight and Nancy Garrido, who became known as the “Garrido Girls,” is a perfect example of how psychopathic criminals use children as pawns in their schemes.
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47. This case is tragic. As of September 15, 2013, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight have been missing for over 10 years. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the women’s return.
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49. Here are the links to the story on Lynn Toler’s blog.
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51. Lynn Toler
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53. Strangeworld News
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55. Lynn Toler’s