http://www.kfor.com/global/story.asp?s=5337837

Where does it end? Why are these people foster parents??? The money isn't that good!

How sad.
I had already read about this story.
Why be a foster parent if this is your attitude?
That baby surely suffered.
What is happening to this world?

I just read about this and it just broke my heart...how can someone be so cold and do this to a child is beyond me ....i mean this poor child like Kelsey will not be able to grow up this is just wrong wayyyy wrong...

just updating some back stories....

Last Updated: 9:00 am | Sunday, September 3, 2006

Short, sad life of Marcus Little boy's death touched many


Elfish grin.

Ocean-blue eyes.

A carpet of shiny brown hair framing his face.


From the photographs, Marcus Fiesel looked happy, a child full of mischief.

But Marcus' life was anything but idyllic away from the camera's lens.

Six days after the boy's foster parents were hauled off to jail, charged with killing him in a crime so chilling it stunned the region, the clearest picture yet of the 3-year-old is emerging.

At age 1, he lived in a flea-infested home that reeked of mold and feces.

More than once, police had come to the house when Marcus' mother, Donna Trevino, called to complain that her boyfriend was hitting her or threatening to.

On one visit, the house smelled so bad that police asked Trevino where the animals were.

There weren't any, she told them.

Police were so concerned about the mass of flea bites covering the arms and legs of Marcus' 9-year-old brother, Michael, that they strongly suggested the family move.

By the time Marcus was 2, police were still responding to domestic problems at his mother's home. During a visit on Sept. 29, 2005, they found severe bruising on Marcus' left buttock.

Police weren't the only ones worried.

Child welfare workers were investigating complaints from Trevino about physical abuse, too, reports show.

As he approached his third birthday, a foster family in Clermont County offered Marcus a safe, new life away from the turmoil with his mom.

That's not how things turned out.

Last week, Liz and David Carroll Jr. were accused of pinning the small boy's arms behind his back, wrapping him in a blanket and encasing his slight form in tape. They wrapped him like a mummy in a small 5-by-7-foot closet with a fan and took off for a family reunion in Kentucky, police say. The temperature was in the high 80s and low 90s.

He was dead when they returned.

In life, Marcus hardly had a chance.

In death, he captivated the hearts of thousands of strangers.

In death, he's changing the way the state handles foster-care placements.

In death, a park will be named after him.

HIS SMILE IS GONE

The sparkle in Marcus' eyes was extinguished sometime during the first weekend in August, authorities say.

Left alone in the closet over two days, Marcus' cries turned to whimpers, his breathing grew shallow, he closed his eyes and finally died, authorities say.

To look back at the life of Marcus is to look at a life of contrasts.

He was born to a mother who ran away from home as a young teenager.

Born Donna Fiesel, Trevino married young. She's had three children by three different men.

None of the fathers has anything to do with their children.

From South Carolina, it's unclear how or why she ended up in Middletown just a few years ago.

Marcus is the second of the three kids. At the time of his death, he had the developmental skills of a youngster half his age.

Still, he had every bit the spirit of a 3-year-old.

He loved Bob the Builder. He loved bubbles. His favorite pillow had pink and white stripes.

Trevino's friends say Marcus was autistic.

Before living with the Carrolls, he was enrolled in a school for special needs children.

Marcus also loved flowers.

Neighbor Tammy Rosenbaum brought three tulips bulbs to Marcus' Grime Street home this year. The family planted them near the back porch.

Rosenbaum remembered that Marcus would reach his hand through the fence, snake it through the bushes and dutifully pluck the heads off the tulips to give his mother.

Other times he would press his face against the fence so Rosenbaum's miniature pinscher Smokey could cover his face with wet kisses.

"He was just so sweet," said Rosenbaum, who often caught Marcus peering at her from his bedroom window only to duck when their eyes met or she waved to him. "He was just an awesome little guy."

He was also a handful and too much for Trevino, 37, who receives a monthly Social Security disability check. "Marcus had severe learning difficulties," said Latosha Hunt, a friend and former neighbor. "No matter how you scolded him, he would go back and do it."

TROUBLED HOUSEHOLD

Authorities with Butler County Children Services Board have been involved with the Fiesel children since Marcus was at least 1.

When Marcus was 2, police were called to the family's Grimes Street home to investigate a child-abuse complaint by a family caseworker.

Records indicate police were investigating a complaint that Trevino's then live-in boyfriend, Miguel Rivera, spanked Marcus so hard he left severe bruising in his upper left buttock area.

Marcus could not explain how he got the bruise. Rivera was never arrested, but he was ordered to stay away from the kids. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Marcus first made headlines on Jan. 4 this year when he crawled out his second-story window and toppled off the roof. The fall sliced open his chin and required multiple stitches.

Police say Hunt, the neighbor and friend, had opened a window to air out his bedroom because Marcus had soiled himself.

Police say the window's lock was broken, and Marcus must have opened it and crawled out.

Middletown juvenile detective Bobby Reece met Marcus the following morning.

When Reece started heading up the stairs to check out the window, Marcus playfully raced past him.

"He beat us," Reece recalled with a chuckle last week. "He went to the window and he was looking out it. And at that point, you could tell he was a handful (for Trevino) especially with the other kids (in her care), too.

"He had some stitches in his chin, but he was like a champ. It seemed like it didn't even faze him. Most kids would be like, "Boo-hoo-hoo," underneath their mom's arms and laying on their laps, but not Marcus. He was full of life."

Marcus' energy was too much for Trevino.

Rosenbaum occasionally saw her crying on the front porch, exhausted from trying to keep up with the boy.

"She'd be chasing him up and down the sidewalk. He'd be sitting there with her one second and the next second he'd be gone," Rosenbaum said. "He was as fast as lightning. She was overwhelmed. It would be late in the evening, and she'd say, 'Oh I hope they are asleep.' I think she was trying but I don't think she knew what to do. I just think he was a lot more than she could handle by herself."

GIVING MARCUS UP

Trevino finally admitted defeat in April when Marcus was found wandering along a busy street and narrowly missed being hit by a car.

Police described deplorable living conditions in Marcus' room. The boy slept on a 2-inch foam mat. Feces were on the walls and carpet. A homemade gate was meant to keep him from leaving the room.

Trevino "made statements to the officer that she didn't know if she could care for her children any more and that it was getting to be too much for her," a Middletown police report said.

"'They were our problem now,'" the report quotes her as saying.

Trevino's friends said she thought handing over Marcus and his brother and sister to Butler County was in their best interests. Trevino planned to sign away her parental rights to Marcus later this month. She now sees her son, Michael, 11, and daughter, Peaches, 1, weekly, her friends say. They're in foster care elsewhere. She hopes to be reunited with them soon.

"She done everything, she didn't know what else to do. Even the church was trying to help her. We did everything we knew to do," said Teri Cavolt, Trevino's closest friend.

That's not the view Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters takes.

"If she had paid half as much attention to Marcus before as she is now, we wouldn't be in this situation," Deters said during a press conference Friday when asked about a possible Trevino lawsuit over Marcus' death.

Deters also said he and Clermont County Prosecutor Don White are looking for life sentences against Liz and David Carroll Jr.

In court last week, Trevino rocked and cried as the Carrolls said they were not guilty of the crime.

"That was my kid. What they did to him is what needs to be done to them," she said in court. On Friday, Trevino backed out of an interview with The Enquirer for this story.

The callousness of the crime has sparked outrage and a public clamor for tough sentences.

After Marcus died in the closet, police say David Carroll Jr. brought the body to an old chimney in Brown County, poured gasoline on it and burned it.

Investigators say he did this three times to ensure the remains would be gone forever.

But to the legions of people touched by Marcus, no amount of gasoline can erase the images of his elfish grin, ocean-blue eyes and mop of shiny, brown hair.

It makes me wonder if he had lived how many more times this would be a way to leave him so they could go to a store or where ever! Some people are simply heartless!

Sentencing in the case...


David Carroll Pleads Guilty to Murdering Marcus Fiesel


A Clermont County Judge has accepted a guilty plea from David Carroll in Marcus Fiesel's death.

Carroll is pleading guilty to murder and gross abuse of a corpse in Clermont County with a sentence of 16-years to life in prison. Carroll was to go on trial in March for wrapping Marcus in a blanket, leaving him a closet while the family went to an out-of-town reunion. When the family returned, Marcus was dead. The family then made up a story, saying Marcus disappeared in an Anderson Township park. That lie sparked a massive search by police and residents that lasted several days. David Carroll told the Judge Jerry McBride he was guilty, saying,

"I was present when Marcus was taped and wrapped in blankets. Amy Baker was there. We didn't have any idea any of this would happen."  

"We left him there and he was, we came back, he was gone." That's it. " Judge McBride asked Carroll, "Why did you leave him in that condition?" Carroll answered, "Stupidity."

Carroll also told Judge McBride that after discovering Marcus dead, he failed to call police because Amy Baker threatened to harm his family. He also admitted to burning Marcus's body in a Brown County chimney, put the remains in a pillowcase, and threw them into a Ohio River.


After answering a series of questions from Judge McBride, David Carroll made a statement to the court that read in part: "I'm sorry for the loss of Marcus. I'm sorry for the communtiy for drama and lying over disappearance. Amy Baker was so much more involved than anyone will or could ever imagine or know.  I love my children with all my heart and soul and would never do anything to intentionally harm them. Marcus was a sweet, gentle and loving child who did not deserve this."

After the statement, Judge McBride sentenced Carroll to 15 years on the murder charge and one year on the gross abuse of a corpse charge.

David Carroll's wife, Liz Carroll, was convicted last week of seven charges, including murder.

She was sentenced to 54 years to life in prison and was moved to the Ohio Women's Correctional Facility in Marysville to begin serving her time.

Did I miss something? Who the heck is Amy Baker?

Amy Baker was the girlfriend of David Carroll. ( I know! What a dysfunction mess!) I am sorry but ALL OF THEM need to just go.............

I am so saddened and heartbroken that someone could abuse an innocent child who did not ask to be born. I have 2 children age 6 yrs and 2 yrs and my 2 yr old was colic, I barely slept, then at one she had back after back ear infections, never slept until she had the tubes put in her ears....not ONCE would I ever think to hurt my child because of her crying, I felt so bad for her, I wanted to have her pain so she wouldn't....yet these people purposely inflict pain on the innocence....I cry everyday for Kelsey, I will now think of Marcus too.......

Will this ever stop?

How in all the world do people like that become foster parents?! Living in the house with your wife and a boatload of kids, with your wife AND your girlfriend helping you murder a developmentally challenged little boy?!

I just can't believe that there are so many loving couples out there who can't have babies and wait for YEARS AND YEARS to adopt babies, and then there are psychos like this who get to be responsible for and eventually KILL little ones that don't belong to them.

Amy helped dispose of poor Marcus, and had a plea deal in Ohio for immunity for testifying against the carolls’". Then Kentucky stepped in to charge her because the body was disposed of in the Ohio River, which is Kentucky jurisdiction.
   Here are some previous stories on Amy Baker:


http://www.wlwt.com/news/13767580/detail.html

Well, at least she got charged with something and isn't just off scott free. Although murder should have been on her rap sheet too.

But he only got a total of 16 years!!!! For killing a baby, burning his dead body and then disposing of it in a river!!! 16 years?!

Apparently Oklahoma is not the only state in need of a minimum sentence for any crime committed against a child!!!

it said that it wasn't there

I think Amy Baker was the girl who got immunity for testifying. She was there when it happened and had participation in it. She blew the whistle on them.

I just saw the news clip. I hope they give her the max sentence when she is found guilty.
Thanks for posting that latest news clip Dadto6.

the dang thing won't work!

Here is the latest on the case of Marcus Fiesel. I am outraged and beside myself on the fact that this woman, Amy Baker, who ADMITED she had helped dispose of this little boys remains, is able to get away with what she did based on some stupid laws and immunity deal!!! COME ON PEOPLE!!! I hope she invests in some security because someone will get her if they get the chance......




The live-in girlfriend of Liz and David Carroll no longer faces prosecution for her role in the death of their foster son, Marcus Fiesel.

A judge in Kentucky dismissed the charges against Amy Baker Friday, ruling she was covered by a no-prosecution agreement in Ohio.


Baker was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against the Carrolls, who left Marcus in a closet for two days in August of 2006.


Baker admitted helping David Carroll dispose of the remains from the Maysville Bridge.


Mason County Attorney John Estill wanted to prosecute Baker for tampering with evidence, but Ohio prosecutors objected.


The judge says the confusion over Baker's immunity was caused on both sides. He faulted Estill for giving an ambiguous answer about their intent to prosecute.


He also faults the Ohio prosecutors for waiting too long to notify Kentucky that the crime may have crossed its border.

These laws have got to change!!!!

This is something we need to address!!

Left alone in the closet over two days, Marcus' cries turned to whimpers, his breathing grew shallow, he closed his eyes and finally died, authorities say




I would give anything to have heard his cries, I wonder if they even thought of how he was suffering once........oh this poor baby! 2 days, my God how he must have suffered.....I can't get his terror or agony out of my mind!

you know stephanie I think that everytime I read a story only if I lived next to that person and heard the child crys I would be there in a heartbeat...this child didn't deserve this he came from a home of abuse and neglect only to be put in another one where he should of been safe don't they check these people's background ?

Yes this is something we need to address. That poor child, taken from an abusive home and put in a foster home to keep him safe and protected from his own parents, then this is done to him and he loses his life.

On Saturday, April 21, 2007, the chimney which was used to burn Fiesel's remains was demolished and turned into a memorial to him in a peaceful setting.

Hanlon Park-Georgetown, OH, a Bench was dedicated to his memory on what would have been his 4th birthday, June 24, 2007.

Effects on foster care in Ohio
The case of Fiesel's death has led to many questions over the placement of foster children within the state of Ohio and elsewhere. Already, Lifeway, the agency that placed Fiesel with the Carrolls, has had its license revoked.[8] Several bills have been put before the United States Congress and investigations continue into why Fiesel was placed with the Carrolls. Many placement organizations have since modified their procedures and intensified their background screening for potential foster parents. In all, state legislators, foster care workers, and child advocates have recommended 55 changes to Ohio's foster care system.



There is a picture of this little angel here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Fies...ith_mother

As a former fosterparent I can't begin to imagine how these people thought for a second to do such a thing. I think fosterparents need to be held to a higher standard. These children are put into our care for a reason.

I know many wonderful fosterparents who give their lives for the children. A good fosterparent gives up much to benefit the children. As with anything there is always someone who makes a bad name for all. There are great workers but there are also horrible workers. There are good CASA's but there are also horrible ones. the bad always make it harder on the good ones.
I am also in favor of more ACCOUNTABILITY for fosterparents. The good ones won't mind just like the good workers won't mind the ACCOUNTABILITY on their part.
Everything needs to go back to the children. What is in their best interest?

This so sad. That poor baby. Why in the world would someone do something like that?

I don't understand why people become fosterparents if they can't handle children or know there is a chance that they will hurt the child.

I don't understand it either. The only answer at the moment that makes sense is.....selfishness