The price you pay for letting 22-year-old Mark Strickler live in your house is a high one if you’re a kind hearted single mother who expects nothing more from her house guests than some light babysitting:
NEW CASTLE — New Castle police charged 23-year-old Mark Strickler in connection with the death of a toddler on Wednesday.
They said Strickler beat his girlfriend’s 18-month-old son inside his house so badly that it put him in a coma.
The boy was on life support for 11 days, but died Tuesday night.
New Castle Police Chief Tom Sansone said there were injuries all over the baby’s body, including the face and chest.
Officials said the mother left for work at 2 o’clock and 45 minutes later Strickler called 911.
Sansone said the baby was found unresponsive with injuries throughout the body.
It only took 45 minutes for Strickler to inflict grave injuries on a baby. Something tells me that the mother didn’t pay attention to some warning signs. He must have begun beating that kid as soon as the mother left.
He must have been angry that the kid was keeping him from his busy life. Oh, wait, he’s unemployed. I wonder what he used to do all day? I wonder if it smelled pungent and altered his mood?
Lilo weighs in on this one too, and she ain’t happy. Also on Lilo’s s%$# list: Fat Kids. It needed to be said, but you’re braver than me Lilo.
h/t News of Doom
Update: Dreamin’ Demon has more detail on the killing:
Strickler told police that Michael was sleeping in his bedroom when his mother left for work. After Michael woke up, Strickler said he decided to give the toddler a bath. During the bath, the phone rang and Strickler left Michael alone “for a few secondsâ€. Strickler insisted he got back, and baby Michael was under the water, not breathing.
Michael Peterson was in the tub all right, but he wasn’t wet. The assistant fire chief who responded to the scene found baby Michael in the bathtub naked and dry, covered with bruises. Michael was bruised on the right side of his face from the forehead to the chin, the left wrist, trunk, abdomen, back and genital area and scrapes were seen on the right shoulder. The genital bruising was severe, the frie chief said, and it looked like a door had been slammed on Michael’s fingers. The fire chief called in police and transported the baby to the hospital.
Little Michael never woke up. After eleven days ina coma – the last week on a ventilator – Michael Peters died on Tuesday. Doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury and non-accidental trauma. Simply put, Mark Strickler beat that baby to death.
Take that Strickler defenders! Looks like things aren’t shaping up to well for the “innocent” man who tried to stage a bathtub accident to deflect blame. Tell me again how he’s not involved in the death of that poor little boy.
Maybe they should look into the crackhead mother. Since she already lost a fetus due to her crack habits, instead of jumping to conclusions that he did it, instead of that it was him trying to save the baby after she beat it!
The “crackhead” mother was the one holdig down a job and supporting Strickler. Seems to me that isn’t typical “crackhead” behavior. Beating a baby to death is more what I expect from a drug addict.
But if you have some information that has evidence behind it feel free to share.
Holding down a job and supporting him?
She moved into HIS house with those kids, first of all. Not the other way around. He was not the fucking houseguest.
She is a known thief, a habitual liar, an alcoholic (by her own admission) and is “responsible” enough to move in with someone she met online with her FUCKING KIDS, when she lived over 100 miles away.
Give me a fucking break.
So that means her kid had it coming?
The facts of the story are they he was home (not going to work) while she was going to work. Maybe he pays his rent with welfare but it seems to me he likely lives with his parents, since he was home and not at work in the early afternoon.
But you tell me, what he did for a living. Then repeat your point that her bad mothering excuses his beating a baby to death.
I didn’t say it excused it. If it came off that way, I apologize.
I meant he was ARRESTED, which as you should know does not mean CONVICTED. The woman has a sordid past, to say the least. That was meant to say “Look at the mother too”.
Mark does not live with his parents, either.
Again, sorry it came across that way. It is an awful thing to have happen. Just don’t be surprised if the person that was arrested is not the one that goes to jail.
They definitely need to look into the mother, as she is a known drug-addict!
He was arrested because of evidence. Look, if Mark didn’t live with his parents and had his own house and wasn’t at work what kind of person are we talking about? A dealer? A man on welfare? What?
Those things are equally sordid, a man taking in a woman he met on the Web and her kids is equally sodid and odd as the woman moving in. You can decide that the woman did it based largely on some sort of animosity ( I reckon you know these people) but you’re going to be disappointed.
Tell me what Mark does for a living? Tell me why he’s allowing a woman you claim is a crack addicted, alcoholic thief live with him?
I didn’t defend the mother and I frankly think she is morally responsible for the child dying, because she hooked up with a person who you are portraying as shady to say the least. But I’m betting Mark will be proved to be the one who killed that kid.
Umm.. It was a saturday..maybe he had a job that didnt work on a saturday? Hello…there are jobs like that out there… you dont work 24/7 just because you own a house…
His old lady was working. But O.K., so tell me what he did for a living.
Mark could’nt even hurt a flea. You have to know Mark to know he is not able to hurt a baby. He did everything for those boys. Mark is NOT GUILTY of this horrific crime. The mother has been PROVEN to be a habitual liar on the stand in this case!! Mark had a great life growing up with a huge family and lots of love. He cared for both those boys as if they were his own. You have to be in that family and or the circle of friends Mark is in. By NO MEANS did he hurt this baby. There is not one shred of evidence in this case to even support the states theory, NOT ONE.
Are you joking JDog?
Stickler was caught in a lie, but let me turn this around. What evidence do you have that he didn’t do it? He claimed the baby drowned but responders say the baby was dry when they arrived and basically looked like someone beat the crap out of it.
Why didn’t Strickler go to the hospital when he saw the extensive bruising, mangled hand and sever damage to the genitalia? Why give a baby that looked like he went through a meat grinder a bath, and then leave the battered child in this mythical bath alone?
You answer that for me and I’ll give mark the benefit of the doubt.
But Mark Strickler murdered that kid and deserves to die for it. In my opinion people who think what he did was o.k. should be hung too.
Fuck this guy!!!I really hope he never gets out of jail..this was my baby cousin so..if he makes it out of jail he will not make it far past me!!!
it’s been two years mark was convicted with the death of my son and i want to set some things straight that i’m the mother of michael and i have never done drugs in my life. and i was the working and paying all the bills. come on he claimed mental retard and trust me he wasn’t. this man is a demon and by the way there was no signs that he would do this or i would have never left my kids there my kids are my baby and no i didn’t lose the baby i was pregnate with it is actully about to turn two and very heathly and free so people need to shut the fuck up if you don’t know what the fuck your talking about and one day he will rot in hell for what he did to my son