This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Denver, Colorado, a missed 2011 case reveals that adoptee Josh Oaks Churchwell, 17, who was supposed to be at an RTC, River View Academy, was found dead in a suitcase on April 1, 2011. His death remains unsolved.
“Two 13-year-old boys said they were searching for scrap metal in a field near Ruby Hill Park when they found the suitcase partially buried in a field and covered with a plastic swimming pool.
An autopsy was performed Saturday, but police spokesman Sonny Jackson said the cause and manner of death are pending additional tests. There were no obvious signs of trauma to the body, he said.
“Right now, we’re waiting for the coroner to determine a cause and manner of death and determine where he might have died, and what led up to him being in that field,” he said.
The case is a death investigation, Jackson said, but that could change when investigators determine how the teen died.
Joshua Churchwell had been attending Ridge View Academy in Watkins, about 15 miles east of Denver.
How Churchwell ended up in Denver, and whether he left the school on his own, is unclear.
The school is operated by a Nevada-based firm, Rites of Passage, described on its website as “a leading national provider of programs and opportunities for troubled and at-risk youth (referred) from social services, welfare agencies and juvenile courts.”
Ridge View Academy Director Bill Wood told 7NEWS that the school contracts with the Colorado Department of Human Services, and he was unable to discuss a student without the state agency’s approval. 7NEWS could not contact a department spokesperson after business hours Monday.
Denver and Burlington police said the teen had not been reported missing.
John Van Nostrand, managing editor of the Burlington Record newspaper, told 7NEWS the grieving Churchwell family said the teen was attending Ridge View, but the family did not discuss how the boy left the school.
The boy’s death is the second tragedy to hit Burlington, a town of 4,000 people, in just over a month.”
Dead Teen In Suitcase Is Son Of Burlington Official
[ABC 7 4/4/11 by Alan Gathright]
” Joshua was the son of Burlington city administrator Bob Churchwell and his wife, Jan Churchwell.
The couple adopted him years ago, after he first spent time with them as a foster child, said Larry Williams, a retired Burlington optometrist who treated the boy.”
” The Churchwell family attends the Evangelical Free Church of Burlington, said Pastor Ron Lee. The congregation was rocked recently when Charles Long, 50, and his wife, Marilyn, 51, longtime members of the church, were shot dead in their home in early march. The Long’s 12 year-old son is suspected of killing them and seriously injuring his two younger sibilings.
Lee wouldn’t talk about Joshua. But he said that Long’s violent end, coupled with the news that Joshua’s body had been found partially buried in a field near Ruby Hill park, has hit his congregation hard.”
” Joshua’s mother, Jan Churchwell is well known as an advocate for adoption and assists families in adopting through her “Jan’s Clan, Adoption Support Group.”
In 2009, she was a finalist in a CVS/pharmacy contest for caregivers called “For All the Ways You Care.” In a video submitted for the contest, Jan Churchwell said the family had fostered more than 100 children since 1986.”
[The Denver Post 4/5/11 by Tom McGhee and Virginia Culver]
“Joshua Churchwell, the 17-year-old Burlington boy found dead in a field near Ruby Hill Park last week, was last seen in early January at a wrestling match at East High School in Denver.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Churchwell, a member of Ridge View Academy’s wrestling squad, had traveled to East for the Colfax Smackdown on Jan. 7.
Robinson said Churchwell walked away from East that morning and was not seen again.
Ridge View, located in Watkins, in western Arapahoe County, is a state- owned, privately managed Denver Public Schools campus for students in the custody of the state Department of Corrections.
“All of the students are in state custody,” state Department of Human Services spokeswoman Liz McDonough said. “So when any one of them leaves, before they are released, an arrest warrant is issued.”
An escape report was filed for Churchwell, and the Arapahoe County sheriff issued an arrest warrant.
McDonough said students — all teenage boys — are moved to Ridge View after their sentencing in juvenile court. She said a DOC assessment of their criminal history and personal needs determines which boys might be a good fit at the school.
McDonough said she could not speak about any Ridge View student because they are juveniles in custody.
Denver police are still looking for information surrounding Churchwell’s death while they wait for autopsy results.
His body was found in a field in the 1700 block of West Atlantic Place by boys who said they were looking for scrap metal in the area.
Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson on Thursday confirmed witness accounts that claimed the partially buried body was in a suitcase.
“We are still dealing with a death investigation and trying to build a background of where the young man was before he died, and waiting on cause and manner of death to come back from the coroner’s office,” Jackson said.”
Boy whose body was found in suitcase last seen at Jan. 7 wrestling match [The Denver Post 4/8/11 by Yesenia Robles and Jordan Steffen]
”
Four months later, investigators are still looking for clues to find out how 17-year-old runaway Joshua Churchwell wound up dead in a partially buried suitcase near Ruby Hill Park.
Since the initial investigation after two boys made the discovery on April 1, there’s been little new information, police said today.
Investigators “have gotten to the point where they need to ask the public these questions,” said Lt. Matt Murray, spokesman for the Denver police spokesman.
Churchwell’s decomposed body yielded few clues. There were no signs of trauma that could have caused his death, and an initial autopsy was inconclusive.
The case is still being investigated as a suspicious death, not a homicide.
“Obviously there are suspicious circumstances,” Murray said. “But talking generally, a lot of things could have happened other than someone causing his death. He could have died and someone panicked and was trying to dispose of the body.”
The boys were looking for scrap metal when they found the suitcase hidden under a deflated plastic swimming pool near the park a Friday afternoon this spring. Their attention was commanded by a leg sticking out from the bag, they told authorities.
Three months earlier, Churchwell had slipped away from the Colfax Smackdown, a wrestling tournament at East High School, about 8 miles north of where he was found.
He was a member of the wrestling team at Ridge View Academy in Watkins, a campus for young people who have had problems in more traditional schools.
Because the school is part of a teen correctional program, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office had a arrest warrant charging Churchwell with escape.
Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,000 reward, including for anonymous tips that lead to an arrest and conviction. Anyone with information can call 720-913-7867.”
Police seek clues in death of runaway found in suitcase
[The Denver Post 8/4/11 by Joey Bunch]
” It was January 2011, and mystery enveloped the whereabouts of the 16-year-old — described by his adoptive parents as giving and loving, troubled and mercurial.
He told his girlfriend that he was safe and warm, that he was staying on high ground where he could see all of Denver. At night, the city blazed with light. It was beautiful.
The day he had left, he slipped out a side door at Denver’s East High, leaving a wrestling match he was attending with a private school for children in the correctional system. Ten days later, he called his biological mother, Tammy Fernandez. Why, she asked, did he run away?
“He said he didn’t like nobody’s rules,” she said. “He wouldn’t tell me where he was at. He only told me that he was fine and that he loved me.”
It was the last time anyone would hear from him.
Twelve weeks later, boys searching for scrap metal in a weed-choked lot near Denver’s Ruby Hill Park found Josh’s body, partially buried beneath the remnants of a plastic kiddie pool. He was clothed in boxer briefs and socks, his 5-foot-7 frame curled in a fetal position inside a 20-by-29-inch black suitcase only 11 inches deep.
How he got there is the subject of an “active and ongoing” criminal investigation, said Denver police Capt. Ron Saunier.
The body was badly decomposed, and an autopsy found no definitive sign that he was murdered. Toxicology tests seemed to rule out overdose. Aside from traces of nicotine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, a party drug that is also naturally produced in the body, his system was clean of harmful substances.
“Could he have been killed? Yes. He didn’t put himself in the suitcase,” said Michelle Weiss-Samaras, chief deputy Denver coroner. “Could he have died and somebody panicked and put him in the suitcase? Yes.”
Josh, whose 17th birthday came and went while he was missing, was an adopted child whose search for identity may have led to the shallow grave where his remains were discovered.”
” She and her husband, Bob, took in the boy after he was removed from his mother’s home. The Churchwells raised him in a house full of children, some their own, others foster kids.
But a quick temper, a difficulty following rules and thoughts of suicide led him to a series of group homes for troubled kids and, finally, to the state’s Division of Youth Corrections. The agency placed him in Ridge View Academy, a school in Watkins for juveniles who have run afoul of the law.
His stay there ended Jan. 7, 2011, the day Ridge View’s wrestling squad went to East High to compete in the Colfax Smackdown. Sometime during the evening, Josh and another boy walked out, meeting a third teen, who drove them away, Bob Churchwell said.
Taken from home at age 3Josh was the biological son of Luis Rivera and Tammy Fernandez. Adams County Human Services took him out of the home when he was 3 years old for reasons Fernandez would not discuss.
“He was my little Bucky Beaver; when he smiled he showed all his teeth,” said Fernandez, 47.
A couple that took Josh and two of his siblings decided to keep his brother and sister but found him difficult. They asked Adams County to find another home.
At that point, the Churchwells, who had provided emergency foster care for Adams and Kit Carson counties, opened their home to Josh.
Bob Churchwell, now 59, is city administrator for Burlington, a dot on the plains about 10 miles from Kansas. Jan Churchwell, 57, assists families in adopting through her “Jan’s Clan, Adoption Support Group.” The couple has fostered more than 100 children since 1986.
Josh moved into a bustling home with eight children ranging in age from 1 to 18. He was an engaging boy, a prankster who loved to be around people and melted hearts with his toothy grin. But anger festered in him — he was defiant and stubborn, prone to sudden outbursts of temper, quick to do the opposite of what his new parents asked, said Bob Churchwell.
Jan Churchwell recalled stopping short outside a room in her home when she heard the boy chattering inside. The then-fourth-grader was standing alone in front of a mirror.
“I am not a Churchwell,” he said to his reflection. “I am a Rivera, I want my real family.”
She spoke with him, and it was clear he believed the rest of Fernandez’s seven children remained with their mother, that he was the only one separated from the family.
“It was terrible because I hadn’t realized for all those years that he was internalizing that loss. That explained why he was so angry,” she said.
Jan contacted Fernandez’s sister, who knew where all but two of his siblings had been placed. She came to visit and told him that the other children didn’t stay with Fernandez, either.
The aunt also put him in touch with his biological mother.
Hearing from her son, Fernandez said, “was awesome.”
“I knew one day he would come back and I would be able to talk to him again,” she said. “(Jan Churchwell) was a blessing because she could have waited until he was 18.”
Searching for identityAs he grew, Josh took up wrestling, following in the footsteps of Isaiah, one of the Churchwells’ older children. And he played drums and tuba, earning spots on the Burlington middle and high school bands.
He was fascinated with his Hispanic heritage and spent time in Burlington’s Mexican-American community.
He attended quinceañera balls — coming-out parties for girls when they turn 15. He ate at the homes of Hispanic friends, where he learned to tell authentic Mexican dishes from more pedestrian fare made to American tastes.
But as his circle of friends widened, he fell in with some troubled teens.
“He started to reconnect with his nationality,” Bob Churchwell said. “We didn’t have a problem with that, but by doing so he connected with the wrong sort of people. He started running with a wild crowd.”
He and other boys broke into the home of a woman who lived nearby and had tutored Josh in middle school.
Never a good student, he was struggling through his freshman year in high school in 2009 when he wrote on his Facebook page that he was considering suicide. One of his teachers saw the threat and contacted the school psychologist. Josh said he was kidding, but Kit Carson Human Services suggested he undergo a psychological evaluation.
The Churchwells welcomed the suggestion.
That led to his placement in a group home, where staffers accused him of having “caused a riotous atmosphere.” He later ran away. At another group home, run by the Emily Griffith Centers for Children, he assaulted a staff member, inflicting a serious knee injury.
A judge in his assault case gave him probation and recommended Ridge View, a privately managed Denver Public Schools campus for students in the custody of the state Department of Corrections. The judge made a deal: Do well at Ridge View, and the charges would be dropped.
Josh enrolled in the culinary-arts program. Staff members told the Churchwells that if he could make it into his early 20s without getting into trouble, he might be one of the school’s most successful graduates, Bob Churchwell said.
But Josh’s three roommates were trouble. They fashioned crude knives and practiced with the shanks, thrusting them into the undersides of their mattresses, Bob Churchwell said.
Josh told them to get rid of the blades within a week or he would turn them in, Bob Churchwell said.
When they refused, he made good on his word.
The Churchwells, who visited Josh once a month, heard the story from a counselor at his monthly review and worried that he had become a target, especially after another boy stabbed him in the side with a pencil. Administrators told them not to worry, Bob Churchwell said.
Not a ‘missing’ person
It was 11 p.m. on a Friday when Josh’s probation officer called and told the Churchwells their son had disappeared from East High.
“I said, ‘Would this have anything to do with the shank business, could this be something he is being set up for?’ ” Bob Churchwell said.
“We don’t think so. The kids just decided they were going to run,” Bob Churchwell said he was told.
The couple asked whether they should file a missing-person report. The answer, Bob Churchwell said, was “No,” that “he ran on his own volition, so he is a convicted felon escapee.”
After those early days, Josh went silent. Around the time the calls from Josh stopped, his probation officer called Jan Churchwell and told her that the boy he ran away with was in custody, that his parents had turned him in.
But Josh’s whereabouts remained a mystery.
When March 1, 2011 — his 17th birthday — came and went and Jan Churchwell didn’t hear from him, she became more convinced than ever that something bad had happened to him.
More than a year after he vanished, questions remain.
Raised in Burlington, Josh was a country boy, said Jan Churchwell. He was naive and unfamiliar with the dangers lurking on city streets.
“He had no concept that there are bad people out there,” she said.
The suicidal line he wrote on Facebook — a confession that he thought life might not be worth living — put him on a path toward his death, she said. From there, things “snowballed” as he was shuttled from one program to another.
The system failed Josh twice, the Churchwells believe — first when social services separated him from all of his siblings and again when his disappearance was treated as an escape.
Donald Cassata, head of Adams County social services, said his agency tries to keep siblings together, but under some circumstances it isn’t possible. And the Division of Youth Corrections follows state statutes in such situations, said director John Gomez.
“We are bound by state statute to file a warrant for the arrest, and that goes through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and goes out to all police agencies,” he said.
Today, the lot on West Atlantic Place where Josh’s body was found is a desolate stretch of bare ground, dry weeds and scattered trash not far from the manicured grass of Ruby Hill Park. Faded-yellow crime-scene tape dangles limply from trees, and an upturned red shopping cart containing plastic flowers, a stuffed animal and a tiny aluminum Christmas tree stand as a memorial to Josh.
The spot offers a panoramic view of Denver, with downtown office buildings towering in the distance and much of the city’s low-slung profile spilling out around them.
Bob Churchwell sometimes worried that investigators consider Josh just another troublesome kid who was destined for a bad end.
“Somebody knows more than what they’re sharing with investigating officers,” he said, “and I just wish they would find it within themselves to share that information with authorities so he could rest in peace.”
Colorado family wrestles with mystery of teen son’s disappearance, death [The Denver Post 2/13/12 by Tom McGhee]
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
Thank you for posting this to the REFORM site. As of date, no resolve has brought Josh’s death to closure. As his father, I wonder if his case has been given the same amount of passionate detective work and investigating as other cases, or because he was a child in the “system” and tagged as a “troubled teen” his case is on a shelf collecting dust until, by coincidence, other information might come to light. Twelve and a half months later, the suitcase still has not come back with results of DNA testing results!!
Bob I wanted to speak with you and let you know that I know who killed your son on Joshua also my friend found your son’s identification card in the house your son was at when he left that highschool and went to s house in southeast Denver were people gather and do street drugs and especially the drug that was in Joshua’s system after the toxicology report the guy that killed your son is Dave laumeyer 1540 s Ash st Denver Colorado 80222 you can reach me for more details and info at 7208295485
Bob, we are so very sorry for your loss and share your frustration with the investigating. I am shocked that the DNA testing results are still not available. We care about the results and hope that justice is served in this case.
Joshua Churchwell, was my brother-in-law. I know the family is still trying to get answers as to what happened. As I know those DNA results hasn’t came back yet and it as been almost two years after. My father-in-law wrote that response. I would like to know why my brother-in-laws case is still sitting on a self in some police station with no new leads as to what happened to him. My family needs answers will somebody in the police station get off the duff and do something. For all the police department cares he was just another runaway teenager that ended badly. Some how I feel that wasn’t the case. Is there some way that this case can be giving a kick in the butt to give it a jump start.