The Parents of the Sexually Assaulted Infant

The parents of the 10-month-old girl that was sexually assaulted on June 26 have e-mailed The Sheboygan Press, asking for the public's help in finding the abusers.

From The Sheboygan Press:

The parents of a 10-month-old sexual assault victim issued a plea Saturday for the public’s help in catching those responsible for injuring their daughter.

In what the mother and father described as “every parent’s nightmare,” the infant was sexually assaulted June 26 around the time she was being cared for at Our Lady of the Lakes Child Care Center in Random Lake.

“Our concerns right now are ensuring that our daughter is healing from her injuries and making sure that whoever hurt our child is brought to justice,” the parents wrote in an e-mail to The Sheboygan Press. “Not knowing who did this to our baby is keeping us up at night.”

However, the child is “recovering from her injuries and doing well,” the statement said.

Why would the parents e-mail their plea for help to The Sheboygan Press a full month after the assault took place?

That seems very strange to me.

Why wait such an incredibly long time?

If my child had been injured like that, I would have done everything in my power to make sure that the guilty parties were held accountable for their crimes. I would have acted immediately to enlist the public's assistance.

If I thought making a public plea for help made sense, I wouldn't have waited over a month to do it.

...Investigators have so far focused their investigation on the child-care center, serving search warrants Thursday at the center, 429 Third St., along with the Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church office at 230 Butler St., and the Fond du Lac County home of the day-care center supervisor, officials said. Seized in the searches were computers and documents showing who worked at the center that day and when, court records show.

...Doctors said the injuries, which required reconstructive surgery, were consistent with sexual penetration within the last 24 hours, records show.

“No parent should need to sign off to have a rape kit done on their 10-month-old,” the statement said. “ No parent should need to have their 10-month-old tested for sexually transmitted diseases.”

A church representative on Friday expressed confidence the day-care was not to blame for the incident, saying the parish has “no evidence that anything happened to that child at our child-care center," but the parents contested that claim.

“What we know to be true is that our daughter was in good health when she was dropped off at day-care, and when she was picked up, she was in a condition that required hospitalization,” the statement said. “We entrusted our daughter to their care and feel betrayed.”

The supervisor, who court records say initially mislead investigators about who worked that day, has been placed on administrative lead during the investigation, said Ed Ritger, an attorney who is a member at the parish. He said the suspension is a step required by state child-care licensing protocol.

In the statement, the parents thanked the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department for its work in the ongoing investigation and praised the doctors and nurses who cared for the child at St. Joseph’s Hospital in West Bend and Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee.

The assault of this little girl is absolutely horrific. Her recovery is what matters. What's important is that she is cared for by loving, responsible people.

Beyond the positively depraved act, there are other things that bother me about this case.

As I said, I do think it's odd that the parents stayed silent about how horribly their daughter was violated.

Also, it doesn't make any sense to me that the doors of this child-care center remain open.

How could authorities allow it to continue to operate after such serious allegations have been made?

By permitting the center to stay open, aren't the authorities possibly putting other children at risk?

Even stranger, why are parents continuing to take their children to this alleged den of torture?

According to Ed Ritger, "no parents have pulled their children out of the child-care center during the investigation. Parents were notified of the situation in a July 3 letter."

None? None of the parents are uneasy about dropping off their children there?

That doesn't add up.

I wouldn't let my child anywhere near a place that was allegedly the site of such a despicable crime. My child would never return there.

Apparently, the parents still trust the center to properly care for their children.

I don't get it.