- they say
"in america your life will be better"
"give us your children
we will give them everything that they never had"
unsuspecting mother's
give up their children
believing their lives will be
just that
BETTER
... and where was god
was god too busy in iraq
or too swamped that day with the pious prayers
of white men in their steepled sepulchers?
who will give account?
and will any agency accept their
hand in this?
they were sold
on pretenses
and
promises
of golden shores
from sea to
shining
sea
... god loves america
and america loves god
she was 3
who takes a bat to a 3 year old?
... and will their mothers
ever know
the truth?
that they were swindled into
giving away
their offspring
that the sacrifice of mothers
would be so blasphemed
that
god
would be too busy
with other things
to stop his bat
from swinging.
-----------
Autopsy reports indicate Iowa City family members were beaten to death
DAVID PITT , Star Tribune
DES MOINES, Iowa - A mother and her four children found dead in their Iowa City home were beaten to death, apparently by the father, authorities said Wednesday after autopsy results were released.
Sheryl Sueppel, 42, and the children died of injuries to their upper torsos and heads, Iowa City police said. Two baseball bats found in the home appear to have been used, police said.
Police believe the woman's husband, former bank executive Steven Sueppel, killed her and the children Sunday night or Monday. He had been charged with embezzlement, and his body was found in the wreckage of a car crash Monday.
Investigators say they believe he killed his wife, then tried to kill himself and the children by asphyxiating them with carbon monoxide in the garage. When that failed, he killed the children one by one.
Before he died, Steven Sueppel left a hand-written four-page note in which he detailed the killings. The note was left in the kitchen and apparently was written for! surviving family members.
The note, clearly completed after he had killed the entire family, includes details that match evidence found at the scene and the medical examiner's findings, Kelsay said.
"It becomes kind of a moot point whether it was actually a ball bat or some other item," Sgt. Troy Kelsay said. "We're confident we know what happened, and we're not going to talk any more specifics."
The note also reveals some detail about Sueppel's frame of mind and what may have driven the former Hills Bank & Trust vice president and controller to the killings.
Sueppel mentioned in the note the embarrassment and other fallout from criminal charges he faced. A federal grand jury indicted him in February on charges that he stole nearly $560,000 between 2000 and 2007 from the bank.
Although he had pleaded not guilty, court documents indicate Sueppel had told investigators that he had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars and placed it in an accoun! t he held at another bank.
Sueppel was free on bond and awaiting trial next month.
In his note, Steve Sueppel discussed his life and the criminal charges, noting that his expected absence from home would leave his wife alone to raise and support Ethan, 10; Seth, 8; Mira, 5; and Eleanor, 3.
The U.S. attorney's office will request that the case against Sueppel be dismissed after it receives a copy of his death certificate, a spokesman said.
---------
a collage of somethings:
something in
my heart
aches today
with the tragedy of young life snatched away
of the
... unknowing
that weighs (me) down
each and every day
... broken hearts
we come equipped to
recover
from
... but loss like this
... holes like this
i am so
ill equipped to begin to handle
... each morning waking with the same thought
in some new form
and everything that mattered before
december
has now lost its
taste
i see nothing succulent
i see nothing
to desire
only this one thing
that i carry deeply
... you said youd be there
and you werent
... and something in me
can never get over that
making you now unknowable
... or worth the energy
or something
harsher sounding
than i mean it
... looking at that photo...
something in me breaks
weeps for mothers’
and their loss
leaves me
without words
so i scramble in the lexicon
stringing bits together
into
quasi sentences
and still
all i want to know
is
would i make her
proud
would i make her
regret lost time?
would i make her
run towards?
or
stay hidden
beneath
postage stamps.
