WTF?

I went to Einstein's bagels for lunch today. One of the things I like about eating there is that I can usually read a copy of the newspapers since they're often left lying around and I am a big one for reading when I eat.

Today I saw an article in the Rocky Mountain News about a 7 year old kid who was taken to the hospital and died from cardiac arrest, which was probably related to the fact he weighed 30 pounds.

It turns out the kid lived in my building and the guardians were taken into custody/arrested because the kid had been kept in a closet. (In the picture you can just make out my apartment on the first floor.)

That was the gist of the article as I recall.

I remember the police coming by last Sunday. It was a cool, rainy day. I was messing around with my plants on the patio, enjoying the rain - it was very soothing, pleasant. I was really appreciating it.

There was a police car in the middle of the parking lot for hours, as I recall. Later, I saw another car come up, park pretty much right in front of me, and the officer came out and walked into the building. I said 'Hello' to him and he said 'How are you doing?' He was walking in slowly. At no point did I really catch siren's flashing or drama at all, at this point or earlier.

The first cop car stayed there for several hours. I wondered what was going on. I had assumed something along the lines of drugs, domestic abuse, theft, petty bullshit. So I was thinking that the police were being just really thorough.

There were still cop cars there the next day, Monday.

On Tuesday, I went to the liquor store in the strip mall across Tamarac from my place. There were a couple of TV news vans parked in the lot. (The lot is sizeable and mostly empty most of the time.) I asked the younger guy who worked there what was going on. He didn't know, but he speculated that it might involve a robbery at Applebee's from a couple weeks before. 'Apparently', he said, 'some guys have been robbing Applebee's around town for the past couple of months or something. The guy who works at that one was robbed, hogtied and pistol whipped.'

When I got home yesterday there was a note taped above where our mail boxes are. It said that someone in our 'community' had been arrested or taken in for questioning regarding a homicide that had taken place in our 'community'. The note said that if we had any information that might be relevant, to call the police (they gave a specific name and number) and suggestions on how to avoid crime (like making sure doors are locked, windows closed, etc).

I didn't think anything of that at the time. I don't know what I supposed, maybe there was some lovers quarrel or something. I hadn't noticed any gunfights or screaming or anything around the 'community' or my building at all, so I just kind of put it on the back burner. Actually, I was focusing on the hours I have been putting in at work and that the sub-project I am on is having multiple problems. I was wondering how that's going to turn out....

After thinking about the crime though, I have been wondering about that. Supposedly they kept the kid in the closet. That was in the papers, supposedly coming from the police. How do they know that? Was the kid in the closet when the police showed up? From what I understand, the police showed up as an aide, so to speak, when an ambulance was called when the kid went into cardiac arrest. So how do they know this? There were 2 guardian's there, the guy who may have been the biological father and his girlfriend or 'common law wife' (as the Denver Post says). Did they say 'We keep him in the closet.' ?

In other articles, family members of the woman said that the kids had been sick. How do they know this? Did they come over to visit? Did other people see the living arrangement at all and what did they think? Did they know/hear about the kid being kept in the closet? The kid was 7 was he in school?

Don't really know what happened. As far as I can tell everything has been normal in my building. Wonder what happened and how...