taeja71
<font color=deeppink>I'll type real slow...<br><fo
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2004
- Messages
- 20,097
First there's Mary Winkler and then in Franklin Indiana woman was planning on selling her kids to keep up her methadone (Vicodin) addiction.- What is the deal with our society? It just makes me SICK 
Cops: Mom planned to sell kids
Buyer of 3 sons was to pay for addicted woman's methadone, officials say
FRANKLIN, Ind. -- Franklin Police Detective Bryan Burton knocked on the door of a mobile home this week, seeking answers in a forgery investigation.
He found something entirely different, he said: three children, ages 3, 2 and 3 months, wearing dirty diapers and surrounded by spoiled food.
He charged their mother, 32-year-old Autum Skiles, with child neglect.
Then came a shocking discovery: After speaking with Skiles' family, Burton said, he learned she was arranging to trade her three boys to a Columbus man in exchange for money to support her methadone addiction.
Under their deal, for an extended period of time, the man would pay for the methadone she was receiving from a clinic to treat her addiction to the painkiller Vicodin, the detective said. He said Skiles had become addicted to the methadone.
In addition to child neglect, Burton has charged Skiles with child-selling. Each is a felony that carries a penalty of up to six years in prison.
The Columbus man, 30-year-old Christopher Henson, was charged Friday with child-buying, a felony that also has a penalty of up to six years in prison. Henson was being held at the Johnson County Jail.
"I have never seen anything like this before in my life," Burton said Friday. "I had to get the statute book to look it up."
Burton's saga began when, along with the Edinburgh Police Department, he knocked on the door to Skiles' mobile home Tuesday, searching for her roommate Paul Laurence, a suspect in the forgery investigation.
Laurence, 35, later was arrested and was in the Bartholomew County Jail on Friday, accused of writing bad checks to a grocery store near Edinburgh.
Inside the home, Burton found spoiled food all over, sour milk in chunks inside baby bottles and a slow cooker containing an unidentifiable food plugged in on the kitchen counter.
Skiles, who was being treated at an Indianapolis methadone clinic, had been put into contact with Henson by a fellow addict there, Burton said. That woman does not face charges.
According to Burton, Henson and his wife were unable to have children, but the wife was unaware of her husband's plan.
Burton said all three boys had been born addicted to methadone, and that Henson was heavily addicted to the drug.
"They caught a woman in an addicted condition," Burton said. "This woman is desperate. I think these people took advantage of that."
Dr. Alan Schmetzer, addiction psychiatrist at the Midtown Community Mental Health Center in Indianapolis and a professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said he had never heard of someone seeking to sell their children because of methadone addiction.
"It's not a popular drug of abuse," Schmetzer said, adding that a person usually takes methadone to cope with withdrawal from a more powerful drug, such as heroin or Vicodin.
Children, though, can be born addicted to methadone, and abusing the drug can make it hard for an adult to care for them.
"If you're addicted to opiates, they're downers that are going to make you drowsy and less motivated, and would make it hard to keep up with things," Schmetzer said.
The children's father, Jesus Flores, is in the Johnson County Jail, serving time for driving with a suspended license.
Susan Tielking, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Child Services, said confidentiality rules prohibit her from commenting on whether the agency had any previous contact with Skiles or her children.
Burton said the children were placed with responsible family members but remain under the care of Child Protection Services.
"I truly believe that the mother in this case should not be allowed to have those children back unless she can make mountains of progress toward being able to support them," Burton said. "As far as what happens to those children, I hope their lives are changed in a positive direction."
Call Star reporter Jason Thomas at (317)
Copyright 2006 IndyStar.com. All rights reserved
By Jason Thomas
jason.thomas@indystar.com
Cops: Mom planned to sell kids
Buyer of 3 sons was to pay for addicted woman's methadone, officials say
FRANKLIN, Ind. -- Franklin Police Detective Bryan Burton knocked on the door of a mobile home this week, seeking answers in a forgery investigation.
He found something entirely different, he said: three children, ages 3, 2 and 3 months, wearing dirty diapers and surrounded by spoiled food.
He charged their mother, 32-year-old Autum Skiles, with child neglect.
Then came a shocking discovery: After speaking with Skiles' family, Burton said, he learned she was arranging to trade her three boys to a Columbus man in exchange for money to support her methadone addiction.
Under their deal, for an extended period of time, the man would pay for the methadone she was receiving from a clinic to treat her addiction to the painkiller Vicodin, the detective said. He said Skiles had become addicted to the methadone.
In addition to child neglect, Burton has charged Skiles with child-selling. Each is a felony that carries a penalty of up to six years in prison.
The Columbus man, 30-year-old Christopher Henson, was charged Friday with child-buying, a felony that also has a penalty of up to six years in prison. Henson was being held at the Johnson County Jail.
"I have never seen anything like this before in my life," Burton said Friday. "I had to get the statute book to look it up."
Burton's saga began when, along with the Edinburgh Police Department, he knocked on the door to Skiles' mobile home Tuesday, searching for her roommate Paul Laurence, a suspect in the forgery investigation.
Laurence, 35, later was arrested and was in the Bartholomew County Jail on Friday, accused of writing bad checks to a grocery store near Edinburgh.
Inside the home, Burton found spoiled food all over, sour milk in chunks inside baby bottles and a slow cooker containing an unidentifiable food plugged in on the kitchen counter.
Skiles, who was being treated at an Indianapolis methadone clinic, had been put into contact with Henson by a fellow addict there, Burton said. That woman does not face charges.
According to Burton, Henson and his wife were unable to have children, but the wife was unaware of her husband's plan.
Burton said all three boys had been born addicted to methadone, and that Henson was heavily addicted to the drug.
"They caught a woman in an addicted condition," Burton said. "This woman is desperate. I think these people took advantage of that."
Dr. Alan Schmetzer, addiction psychiatrist at the Midtown Community Mental Health Center in Indianapolis and a professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said he had never heard of someone seeking to sell their children because of methadone addiction.
"It's not a popular drug of abuse," Schmetzer said, adding that a person usually takes methadone to cope with withdrawal from a more powerful drug, such as heroin or Vicodin.
Children, though, can be born addicted to methadone, and abusing the drug can make it hard for an adult to care for them.
"If you're addicted to opiates, they're downers that are going to make you drowsy and less motivated, and would make it hard to keep up with things," Schmetzer said.
The children's father, Jesus Flores, is in the Johnson County Jail, serving time for driving with a suspended license.
Susan Tielking, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Child Services, said confidentiality rules prohibit her from commenting on whether the agency had any previous contact with Skiles or her children.
Burton said the children were placed with responsible family members but remain under the care of Child Protection Services.
"I truly believe that the mother in this case should not be allowed to have those children back unless she can make mountains of progress toward being able to support them," Burton said. "As far as what happens to those children, I hope their lives are changed in a positive direction."
Call Star reporter Jason Thomas at (317)
Copyright 2006 IndyStar.com. All rights reserved
By Jason Thomas
jason.thomas@indystar.com
