Crazy Glendale couple facing murder charges
#1
It takes a special kind of crazy to starve a baby to death...Sad, very sad.

Baby's starvation death rattles Glendale

MELISSA McROBBIE / Daily Courier
Deputies and medics responded to the death of an infant at this home on Willis Avenue in Glendale in January. They determined the baby died of starvation, and on Tuesday arrested the 7-week-old boy's parents.

By Melissa McRobbie of the Daily Courier

GLENDALE — In the quiet town of Glendale, in a small green cottage on a hill near where Willis Avenue dead ends, an infant boy lost consciousness one afternoon in January and never woke up. The baby had starved to death, according to authorities, and his parents are now behind bars facing murder charges.

Neighbors said three adults lived at the small home just up the street from Glendale's city park, including the baby's parents, 21-year-old Amanda Marie Hancock and 26-year-old Stephen Michael Williams, who were arrested on Tuesday. There was also a second man who lived there, several people said. In addition, Hancock and Williams had another son living with them, a 2-year-old boy who has been placed in protective custody.

A neighbor, who didn't want her name used, said she was at home the afternoon of Jan. 22 when Hancock started pounding at her door.

"The girl came running over here banging on the door and started screaming that her baby wasn't breathing," the neighbor said. She accompanied Hancock back to her house, where a 911

dispatcher could be heard on speakerphone. One of the men was giving the 7-week-old boy CPR. The 2-year-old boy was watching, and Hancock was distraught.

"She was hysterical," the neighbor said.

Medics responded but were unable to revive the baby, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The death was considered suspicious, and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and the medical examiner's office launched an investigation, concluding that the boy, who was named Data Toria Hancock, died of starvation.
A court document states that the parents told investigators they worked in the online porn industry and that Hancock would self-lactate on camera for paying viewers. Investigators said the baby's father told them he had noticed the baby appeared to be losing weight but thought it was the mother's job to take the infant to the doctor.

The neighbor said she wasn't aware of any disturbances at the home, other than a couple of fights she overheard around Christmastime. She said she thinks the couple moved in over the summer and that she wasn't aware there was a 2-year-old there until around December. She found the residents — especially the men — offputting and she said she told detectives, "I don't know exactly what's off, but something's off."

Glendale, 25 miles north of Grants Pass, is a small mill town where word travels quickly, and news of the baby's death was initially met with a wave of sympathy. On two occasions, anonymous parties paid the residents' water and sewer bills as a gesture of support. The death is again the talk of the town, but people are now angry.

"It just tears me up to hear about that stuff," said neighbor Dave Anderson.

Anderson said he would sometimes see one of the men walking around with a machete.

The sheriff's office hadn't responded to any problems at the family's home prior to the baby's death. The one-story cottage is owned by a woman who listed a Santa Rosa, Calif., address with the county assessor's office as her mailing address. The Daily Courier was unable to reach her by phone.

At the foot of the small driveway, the home's address is handwritten in black marker on a homemade sign tacked onto a post above a "no trespassing" sign. There was a snowman ornament hanging on the front door on Wednesday, and on the porch there was a stroller and other items, as well as a small sign that read, "Peace to all who enter."

The investigation stretched over several weeks until deputies went to the Willis Avenue home and arrested Hancock and Williams on Tuesday.

"In a case like this there's a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done," Douglas County sheriff's spokesman Dwes Hutson said.

Hancock and Williams were each arraigned in Roseburg on a murder charge Wednesday. Both are being held without bail.
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Crazy Glendale couple facing murder charges - by GPnative - 02-20-2015, 09:16 AM

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