Police investigate suspicious infant death
JANESVILLE—Detectives are investigating the “suspicious death” of a 1-year-old baby Saturday night. Janesville police were called to 171 Linn St. at 8:55 p.m. Saturday because of the death of Israel S. Gordon.
The cause of death was not natural, detective Erik Goth said.
He declined to give further details because of the ongoing investigation.
Rock County Coroner Jenifer Keach described the baby’s death as suspicious.
An autopsy was performed Sunday, and authorities are awaiting final results.
“We haven’t determined the cause or manner of death conclusively,” Keach said. “It doesn’t appear to be a natural death. We are looking at all the options—accidental versus homicide.”
Gordon’s living arrangements were split between foster care and living with his father, Charles R. Rivers, 34, of 171 Linn St., Goth said.
Rivers’ girlfriend—April S. Peabody, 26, same address—called 911, Goth said.
Dec 10, 2007 at 9:55 p.m.
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wow it s amazing so many people were ready to point fingers at cps and the father even though no where in the article did it say the child was put in foster care because of the father , the only clear fact i can read out of this article is a child has died,and the reason is still unknown,
Dec 10, 2007 at 9:25 p.m.
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To evansvillehousewife & tibetrin: Live in the life of a CPS employee. These people do the jobs they do because they want to help the children. Do you think it's because of the money? OPEN YOUR EYES. You should be banned from making comments because you are so judgmental and naive. You just want to cast blame before knowing the truth. I'm sure you think you could have done a better job. I'm sure CPS would love to hire people as intelligent as you.
Dec 10, 2007 at 8:01 p.m.
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First of all no one knows the story of this so I will give you just a little of it to shut all of you up.... the father just found out about 4 or 5 months ago at he had a son the mother is no good and didn't know who the father was, so the state had to a lot of test and hunt down some guys and when he found out he was he tired to take full responsibility for his son. He has to go through all of the legal bull crap that they put people through. He was getting full custody this friday from the courts finally!!!! So like I said there is alittle insight now back off!!!!!!!!!!!
Dec 10, 2007 at 6:33 p.m.
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People who pass judgment without all the facts cause more harm than the thing they are judging.
Dec 10, 2007 at 6:14 p.m.
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WOW, all these perfect people throwing stones. Yes it is a sad and tragic story, but CPS are not miracle workers. What about the hundreds of kids that day each year who are never in the foster system? Who is responsible for them? Until the facts are in, there should be no judgements made. If in fact, it does show neglect on the part of CPS as well as the parents, therein lies the blame. Until then, put down the stones, people.
Dec 10, 2007 at 4:10 p.m.
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Hey, evansvillehousewife...IDIOT... Nowhere in the article does it say the child was in need of protective services. Not all children who are receiving foster care services are there for "protection". Foster care is for temporary placement of a child. In my experience, many, many parents with children in temporary foster care work very hard to reunite with their child--and it sounds like this parent WAS, the living arrangements were split between foster care and the father. Perhaps we should color you ignorant and judgemental, instead of "surprised".
Dec 10, 2007 at 4:06 p.m.
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This is definately a sad and tragic turn of events, however, I don't know the whole story. Therefore I don't think it is fair to cast blame on CPS without knowing that they actually did something wrong. There are many different reasons that a child could be in protective custody.
Dec 10, 2007 at 4:05 p.m.
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This is terribly, terribly sad. I realize that CPS is extremely busy...but instead of just setting some things aside and ignoring some families and/or children in need, they should really work harder on helping the families...arent there parenting classes, etc that families can be put through, monitored, etc? This is definitely a black mark on the counties record.
Dec 10, 2007 at 3:14 p.m.
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Wow. A child in need of protective services dies while in the care of the parent he needed protection from.
Color me surprised.
Way to go, CPS.
I wonder if this child had a CASA.
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