Difficult Days in Boise, Idaho

By Jill Kuraitis, 8-19-09

These are emotional days for a lot of people in Idaho.

In one afternoon, a serial killer was sentenced to two life terms for murdering two young Idaho men, and two horrifying arrests were made for the murder of a little Boise boy.

When the news of Tuesday afternoon’s arrests in the murder of eight-year-old Robert Manwill of Boise hit the internet and airwaves, it was nothing Boiseans didn’t expect, but still very painful for not only the thousands of sorrowful volunteers who spent days searching for Robert, but his father, his extended family and thousands of others, including me.

That the prime suspects are Robert’s own mother and her boyfriend is sickening. Wednesday, both were charged with first-degree murder and the repeated violent torture of the little boy.

Patrick Orr at the Idaho Statesman reports:

[The grand jury indictment says that] Ehrlick Jr., 36, inflicted repeated acts of blunt-force trauma to the abdomen and/or the head of Manwill with his hands, knees, fists and/or feet and/or by other means of physical force, physical abuse or emotional abuse, according to the indictment. The beatings caused bruises, abdominal bleeding and injuries and head injuries that prompted Manwill’s death on or about July 24.

The indictment alleges that Ehrlick Jr. intentionally tortured Manwill “with the intent to cause suffering, to execute vengeance or to satisfy some sadistic inclination by inflicting on Robert G. Manwill extreme or prolonged acts of brutality with the intent to cause suffering.”

Jenkins, 30, a mother of three, had knowledge of the beatings and repeatedly hid her son from authorities and others who might have intervened. She also failed in her duty to seek medical attention for her son’s injuries, despite knowing Manwill “was being subjected to escalating physical violence” by Erhlick, according to the indictment.

Little boys of eight are dear and charming and funny. At eight, our son was riding his bike, playing with his dog and thinking up messy projects. My best friend’s son at eight was busy building miniature empires of string, cardboard and junk and making us laugh until we dropped. Eight can be a bundle of lovable trouble.

Neighbors told news crews that Robert at eight was a sunny, yet somehow sad figure who was often treated unreasonably by his mother and her boyfriend.

It twists my heart to think that he wasn’t valued and treasured the way all little boys should be. And the idea of him actually being tortured, in pain, frightened and suffering at the end of his life - and being thrown away like rubbish in a public canal - is so heartbreaking there are no adequate words.

Robert, I wish you had been mine.

Also Tuesday, the sentencing of the profoundly mentally ill John Delling for the murders of Bradley Morse, 25, in Boise and David Boss, 21, in Moscow hit home in a different, yet no less important way, than the Manwill arrests.

David Boss, who attended Timberline High School at the same time as our son, had played with some of the neighbor boys who messed around in our backyard.

Delling, who was referred to as “Crazy John” by the other boys, had once rung our doorbell asking to play with our (much younger) daughter.

When Boss’ body was found, the various telephones and computers at our house screamed with activity – kids checking with other kids to see what had happened and to share thoughts. I shook all day with the idea that Delling had sat at our kitchen table, especially because it wasn’t the first time one of our children had known a killer before he killed. Daughter had danced in classes at Ballet Idaho taught by Benjamin Kuzmichev, a Ukrainian émigré who later killed his American wife Thelma, dismembered her body and left her in a plastic bag across from famous Idahoans J.R. and Esther Simplot’s lawn. Mrs. Simplot had hired Kuzmichez to lead Ballet Idaho. The case was so notorious that the TV show “City Confidential” devoted a whole episode to the crime.

Little Robert Manwill’s mother and her boyfriend are innocent until proven guilty, so my thoughts are about how any mother or caregiver could possibly harm a child. No answer of any kind comes to me.

The Morse and Boss families are also in my thoughts today as they once again must grapple with the loss of their children and the senselessness of their murders. No answer there, either.

Is there ever?

The last 18 months in Idaho have brought news of other murdered children. It was just last August that the serial killer and sex offender Joseph Duncan was convicted of kidnapping, raping and torturing eight-year-old Shasta Groene and her brother Dylan, killing Dylan in front of Shasta. He had killed their mother, her fiancé and their older brother before taking the children.

Duncan had molested, tortured and murdered other children before he was finally caught. He was sentenced to death in federal court.

Reporter Betsy Russell of the Spokane Spokesman-Review told me last year that covering the trial was horrifying. The stories of exactly how Duncan had committed his crimes had shaken her deeply.

I couldn’t watch the news reports and see the endearing faces of Shasta and Dylan over and over, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. And I got off the fence about the death penalty for the evil, monstrous Duncan.

Then this January, Robert Aragon and Kenneth Quintana were arrested for murder and felony injury to a child for allowing 11-year-old Sage Aragon and her brother Bear to walk 10 miles in the snow to their mother’s house – on Christmas Day. Sage died of hypothermia and was found in a snowdrift. Aragon, who says it was all a mixup with the children’s mother, has pleaded guilty and his trial is set for October 5.

Dad didn’t even call Mom to find out if the kids had arrived.

Ten miles. In the snow. 11 years old. WTF?

Naturally, there are other crimes not listed here which are also tragic; these are just the most infamous which involve children.

Idaho’s murder rate of 3.3 per 100,000 people compares to the national average of 5.6, ranking Idaho 32 out of 50.  (Highest – Louisiana at 14.2; lowest – New Hampshire at 1.1 Montana is 1.5, #48.) 2007 numbers from the Death Penalty Information Center. So we by no means have more tragedies than many other states.

Which doesn’t help at all.

My late father and political hero firmly believed that all – and he meant ALL - political decisions should be made after asking one question:  How does this affect children?  He believed in as little government interference as possible, except when it came to protecting people from harm, especially children. Then, he felt, it was the proper role of government to step in.

I agree, and wonder why Idaho has no agency with adequate funds to have carefully overseen the safety of Robert Manwill. How was it that his mother’s boyfriend, who along with her had a history of harming children, was allowed to live with and care for little Robert?

Where is Idaho’s mental health system with the money and jurisdiction to commit the paranoid schizophrenic John Delling to a decent locked mental illness facility before he could kill, which, knowing he was dangerous, was what his family wanted?

Could Sage Aragon’s death have been prevented by not allowing her to be in the custody of her father, who committed drug crimes in the 1990s and 2008?

The people to blame for the deaths of these children are not the state and privately funded agencies. But the commitment of citizens and legislators with the will to run top-drawer rescue and oversight agencies for children could have helped. Would Robert, David, Bradley, Sage and Dylan still be alive if Idaho had such a system? 

It’s possible. Rather than throw up our hands and say “forget it” because these systems couldn’t guarantee anything, which is true, and there will always be monsters, which is also true, we should say: it’s possible to save some children who could become victims, so we should try.

Other people’s children ARE our concern. To me, other people’s children in trouble are also our responsibility.

We shouldn’t just use the villagers to search for a dead child, we should be the village - made up of all of us - to protect and serve the living children of Idaho.