Last edited by Ava on Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:46 am; edited 6 times in total
Ava Orlando, Florida
Subject: Re: Jonathan Chase (3) & Natalie (5) DeBlase R.I.P. Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:01 am
Skeletal remains of child found
Police hunt for missing Alabama siblings Investigators continue to look at evidence and conduct interviews.
"It's a tough case," Rose said. "It has touched most of us."
The cause of death for both sets of remains has not yet been determined, police said.
Natalie, was last seen in March, when authorities believe she was killed. Jonathan DeBlase had not been seen since June, police said. Investigators believe he was slain around that time.
Police, who did not know the children were missing until November 19, contend that the elder DeBlase allowed Keaton to abuse the children by restraining them with tape, putting socks in their mouths and confining them.
Police believe both children died in Mobile, Levy said.
DeBlase and Keaton blame each other for the siblings' deaths, authorities said.
The investigation kicked off November 18, when Keaton told Louisville, Kentucky, police that she needed protection from DeBlase, who she claimed was holding her against her will.
According to the domestic violence petition, signed "Heather L. Leavell-Keaton," she said, "I feel he may have murdered his children, because he said they were non-responsive. He would not let me check on them."
She said DeBlase had told her "choices were made... and he had to do what he had to do."
According to a police complaint, DeBlase between March 1 and November 19 allowed Keaton to tape Natalie's hands and feet, put a sock in her mouth and place her in a suitcase that was put in a closet for 14 hours.
He also allowed Keaton to tape Jonathan's hands to the side of his legs, tape a broom handle to his back, place a sock in his mouth and then make the child stand in a corner all night when the couple went to bed, according to the complaint.
The complaints were related to aggravated abuse allegations against DeBlase that were dropped and are now part of the murder charges.
DeBlase and Keaton have one infant daughter together, according to Keaton's account in the Kentucky police report. Police said one reason Keaton claimed she needed protection from DeBlase was that she feared for the safety of the infant, who was with her in Kentucky.
Subject: Re: Jonathan Chase (3) & Natalie (5) DeBlase R.I.P. Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:38 pm
Ava Orlando, Florida
Subject: Re: Jonathan Chase (3) & Natalie (5) DeBlase R.I.P. Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:41 pm
Woman extradited to Ala. in child deaths case
Published December 12, 2010 | Associated Press
The woman accused of torturing two young children who were later killed and dumped in rural Mississippi and Alabama was expected to return to Alabama by extradition on Sunday to face charges.
Heather Leavell-Keaton was to return to Mobile a day after search teams uncovered human remains 30 miles away that police believe belong to one of the children.
Search teams found the skeletal remains near a county road in Citronelle, about 30 miles north of Mobile, said Mobile Police Maj. Kara Rose. They had only been searching the site for a half-hour.
Rose said investigators believe the remains belong to Natalie DeBlase, who would have turned 5 in late November. Skeletal remains found Wednesday in the woods of rural Mississippi are believed to belong to her 3-year-old brother, Chase.
John DeBlase, 27, is charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of corpse abuse.
DeBlase's parents have said the last time they saw the children was in February, when they found DeBlase living at a mobile home park in Citronelle with his common-law wife, Leavell-Keaton.
Police have said Leavell-Keaton also is responsible in the killings. She has been charged with child abuse but not murder.
DeBlase's court-appointed attorney, Jim Sears, has said DeBlase maintains that he is innocent and that Leavell-Keaton killed the children. She has blamed DeBlase for the children's deaths.
Attorneys for DeBlase have said he will plead not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Sears said Friday that comments made by friends that called into question DeBlase's mental health are "certainly not without reason."
Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Jo Beth Murphree said Friday that authorities would soon upgrade Leavell-Keaton's charges from child abuse to more serious aggravated child abuse counts. Leavell-Keaton also was to be charged with two counts of corpse abuse.
DeBlase had told police he dumped his daughter Natalie in the woods north of Mobile in March. He said he discarded the boy's body, dressed only in a diaper and stuffed into a plastic garbage bag, in Mississippi in June on or around Father's Day. Police say the children were killed separately, then immediately disposed of.
An investigation into their disappearance didn't start until late last month after Leavell-Keaton sought a protective order against DeBlase in Kentucky, Levy said. She said in the Nov. 18 filing that DeBlase may have killed his children, and that she feared for her life because he was abusive. The couple had a child together this summer. That child is in state custody in Kentucky.
"I am afraid that he is going to do something to harm our daughter because of what he has done to the other children," she wrote.
Meanwhile, arrest warrants in the case accuse Leavell-Keaton of abusing the boy and girl.
The documents accuse Leavell-Keaton of binding the girl's hands and feet with duct tape, putting a sock in her mouth and stuffing her in a suitcase in a closet for about 14 hours.
The warrants also accuse Leavell-Keaton of duct-taping the boy's hands to the side of his legs, strapping a broom handle to his back and shoving a sock in his mouth, then forcing him to stand in a corner all night while the adults went to bed.
The documents say the abuse happened sometime after March 1.
Subject: Re: Jonathan Chase (3) & Natalie (5) DeBlase R.I.P. Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:43 pm
Murdered Alabama children were tortured. Dec 10, 2010 By Verna Gates
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Chase DeBlase and his sister Natalie endured cruelty and torture before their father John DeBlase allegedly murdered them and dumped their bodies, according to court documents.
The scattered remains of Chase were found in a wooded area of Mississippi near the Alabama state line, Sheriff Mike Byrd, of Jackson County in Mississippi, said on Thursday.
Chase and his sister had been missing for six months before the body was found on Wednesday.
"(John) DeBlase had a shovel and intentions of burying the body, but the ground was too hard, so he shoved the body in a black plastic bag under a thicket and covered it with leaves," said Byrd.
DeBlase, from Mobile, Alabama, is charged with mistreating a corpse, according to court documents, in addition to murder.
Three-year-old Chase had his hands duct-taped to the side of his legs with a broomstick taped to his back by stepmother Heather Leavell-Keaton, the documents say. A sock was shoved in his mouth, which was also closed with duct-tape. The parents went to bed, leaving the boy to stand all night long, according to court documents.
Natalie, whose body is still missing, was allegedly bound by hands and feet with tape, with a sock stuck in her mouth. The 5-year-old was then left in a black suitcase in a closet for 14 hours, according to court documents.
"It was just plain evil. Hell ain't hot enough for anybody who would do something like this to a child," said Byrd.
Police continue to search for Natalie's body near Mobile.
Leavell-Keaton is being held in Louisville, Kentucky, and would be brought to Alabama to face charges, police said.
Thus far she has been charged with child abuse, but further charges will be brought against her and DeBlase if Natalie's body is recovered, according to Major Cara Rose of the Mobile Police Department.
DeBlase and Keaton are blaming each other in the case, police say. A Leavell-Keaton relative started the search for the children's bodies when she tipped off police in Louisville, police said.
David Lohr Contributor (Dec. 6) -- Authorities in Mobile, Ala., are trying to locate the bodies of two children they believe were killed by their father and stepmother, police said.
"Detectives have determined that both John DeBlase and Heather Keaton are responsible for the deaths of 3-year-old Jonathan DeBlase and 4-year-old Natalie DeBlase, and police will continue to search for the children," Mobile Police Department spokesman Christopher Levysaid in a news release. The missing boy's middle name was Chase and that appears to have been was what he was usually called.
Police began investigating the children's disappearance in mid-November, after Keaton, 22, who had been living in Kentucky, went to Louisville police and asked for a restraining order against DeBlase, CNN reported.
Keaton allegedly told police that DeBlase, 27, "may have murdered his children" and that she feared for her own life.
"When she was explaining why she needed this emergency order of protection from him ... it was told to [investigators] that the kids were dead, and it had occurred in Mobile," Levy told Mobile's WKRG-TV.
According to police, the missing children were last seen in May or June.
The children's mother, Corrine Heathcock, told WKRG on Thursday that DeBlase took the children when they divorced and that she has not seen them in more than a year.
"I didn't have a steady place to live. I didn't have a job," Heathcock said.
On Nov. 19, two Mobile detectives traveled to Louisville to speak with Keaton. During the course of the investigation, detectives decided to arrest her on two counts of willful abuse and neglect of a child.
Once Keaton was in police custody, investigators began searching for DeBlase.
On Thursday, a friend of DeBlase's contacted police and told them that he was in Milton, Fla. Officers there located him at the intersection of West Spencerfield and Gibbens roads. When approached by police, DeBlase "made a spontaneous statement of 'I didn't do it,' " says a copy a Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office offense report obtained by WKRG.
The day after DeBlase was located, authorities in Mobile charged him with two counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of abuse of a corpse. Following his arrest, DeBlase was returned to Mobile.
During a Friday media briefing, Mobile Police Chief Micheal T. Williams said that DeBlase had made statements to police that suggest the children are no longer alive.
"He's given us an indication of a location where they may be, where he remembers burying the children," Williams said.
Williams declined to comment on where authorities believe the bodies were buried and would say only that the location is within "100 miles of Mobile."
When asked by a reporter why DeBlase has been charged with abuse of a corpse, Williams replied, "It certainly means that there has to be a dead body, so that body was treated in a manner that wasn't consistent with the way that we normally treat our deceased."
Williams said police are not sure who killed the children. On Saturday, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd told the Press-Register that Keaton and DeBlase have accused each other of killing the children, CNN reported.
Over the weekend, Mobile police, with assistance from Gulf Coast Search and Rescue and authorities in Mississippi, conducted several searches for the missing children in an area north of Vancleave, Miss., but were unable to find any trace of them. Local media outlets said searches were being conducted in that area today.
Subject: Re: Jonathan Chase (3) & Natalie (5) DeBlase R.I.P. Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:58 am
DeBlase Stepmother To Be Charged With Capital Murder
MOBILE, Alabama - The woman charged with torturing Natalie and Chase DeBlase told police the children were poisoned by their father, according to the lead investigator, who testified during a preliminary hearing Friday morning.
Heather Leavell-Keaton, 22, went to investigators in Louisville, Kentucky in November, more than eight months after Natalie, 5, was killed.
Keaton, who said she smelled a "toxic odor" on both Natalie and 3 year old Chase's breath just before their deaths, told police that Natalie died on March 4 and Chase died on June 20, Father's Day. Keaton also told police Natalie was sick for about a week and threw up "black stuff" before she died.
Subject: Re: Jonathan Chase (3) & Natalie (5) DeBlase R.I.P. Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:02 am
Ala. man says woman tortured, killed his 2 kids (Updated)
By MELISSA NELSON - Associated Press
MOBILE, Ala. -- Two young children were called "demon spawns from hell" by a woman who beat them during hours of torture while bound with duct-tape and let them die, according to testimony at a hearing Friday. But in other testimony the children's father, 27-year-old John DeBlase, was accused of killing his children with rat poison and dumping their bodies in woods of south Mississippi and Alabama. The conflicting testimony was given at a preliminary hearing for DeBlase and his common-law wife, 22-year-old Heather Leavell-Keaton. The judge ruled there was probable cause to send the case to a grand jury.
DeBlase is charged with murder in the deaths of 3-year-old Chase and 4-year-old Natalie DeBlase. Leavell-Keaton, who is not the biological mother, is charged with aggravated child abuse and abuse of a corpse. Testimony related by Angela Prine of the Mobile Police Department included the claims by DeBlase that Natalie died last March 4 after Leavell-Keaton duct-taped her hands, feet and mouth and put her in a suitcase. DeBlase said he went to school and returned about 10 p.m., finding Natalie still in the suitcase and dead. According to the testimony, the girl's body was buried after DeBlase stopped at a store to buy a shovel and drove to a rural site, with Leavell-Keaton and his son in the car. He said Chase died last June 20 after Leavell-Keaton got angry during potty training and the child urinated on himself. She duct-taped his hands and legs, bound a broomstick behind his back, and later stuffed a sock in his mouth, according to the father's testimony. DeBlase went to bed, saying he was still stressed out about Natalie's death and wanted Chase freed by the time he got up, but the boy was dead in the morning. According to the testimony, he put the body in a garbage bag and drove to Mississippi to bury it. The police department's Prine related other testimony in which Leavell-Keaton said that DeBlase killed the children and described how each had vomited a black substance before dying. Prine also related testimony from various witnesses interviewed by detectives who described abuse by Leavell-Keaton of the children. Prine said Dana Mullins told detectives the family lived nearby for three weeks in December 2008 and that Leavell-Keaton beat Natalie, forced her to sit for lengthy periods in a chair and called her "evil brat" and "whore." Creighton Hobbs, an acquaintance of DeBlase's, said he saw Leavell-Keaton shake the children, call them "demon spawns from hell" and put them in a corner. The bodies were found in December when Leavell-Keaton, seeking a protective order after moving to Kentucky, disclosed they were dead. Authorities said DeBlase took them to the sites. According to testimony, the biological mother, Corrine Heathcock, had not seen the children in more than a year when they died.
Subject: Re: Jonathan Chase (3) & Natalie (5) DeBlase R.I.P. Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:10 am
Ala Man Claims 2 Kids Died During Hours of Torture January 07, 2011 Associated Press MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - A man accused of killing his two young children in Alabama has claimed they died during hours of torture after being bound with duct-tape by a woman living with him.
But the woman claimed the father, 27-year-old John DeBlase, killed the children and dumped their bodies in woods of south Mississippi and Alabama.
The conflicting testimony was given Friday at a preliminary hearing for DeBlase and his common-law wife, 22-year-old Heather Leavell-Keaton. The judge ruled there was probable cause to send the case to a grand jury.
DeBlase is charged with murder in the deaths of 3-year-old Chase and 4-year-old Natalie DeBlase. Leavell-Keaton, who is not the biological mother, is charged with aggravated child abuse and abuse of a corpse.
The hearing included grisly testimony and claims that Leavell-Keaton called the children "demon spawns from hell."
DA approves capital murder charges for Keaton Jan. 7, 2011
MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) - Chilling testimony on Friday about the deaths of Chase and Natalie Deblase.
John Deblase and Heather Keaton each face charges in connection to the childrens' deaths.
John Deblase faces two counts of felony murder and abuse of a corpse. Heather Keaton was charged with 2 counts of aggravated child abuse and 2 charges of abuse of a corpse but on Friday afternoon, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, Jr. approved upgrading Heather Keaton's charges to capital murder.
Tyson says new evidence developed Friday afternoon that gave the DA's office enough grounds to upgrade the charges.
Tyson says the charges are expected to be upgraded on Friday evening.
However, each of them blames each other for the deaths.
Keaton told investigators that the children died because Deblase poisoned them while Deblase said the children died because Keaton mistreated them.
Inside Judge Charles Mcknight's courtroom the prosecution called on the lead investigator in the case to testify.
Detective Angela Prine, with Mobile police had interviewed both John Deblase and Heather Keaton.
Prine says both of them agree that four-year-old Natalie died on March 4th, 2010 and three-year-old Jonathan died on June 20th, but the couple disagree over how the children died.
Heather Keaton told investigators that in the time prior to each of the childrens' deaths she smelled a "toxic odor" from their mouths.
Keaton also said both of the children were vomiting some "black stuff." She believes that Deblase poisoned them with some sort of chemical.
Keaton describes how Natalie died
Keaton says on March 4th, John Deblase told Heather to "make a big dinner" before he went off to school for the day.
At this time, Keaton said Natalie enjoyed calling herself 'Princess Natalie Alexis Deblase', but Keaton told the little girl, "This is the real world, you're not a princess."
After hearing this, Natalie was angry and on March 4th, Natalie stayed in her room all day in frustration.
When Deblase returned from school, he went to the bedroom to get Natalie and returned to tell Keaton that Natalie was unresponsive.
Deblase returned to the room and after a little while he came back, and Natalie was dead.
Keaton describes how Chase died.
Heather Keaton also described to the investigator what happened on June 20th.
The investigator said that morning, Deblase asked Keaton to "make a big breakfast."
Keaton cooked the meal and when Deblase went to go get Chase, he told Keaton the boy was unresponsive.
Keaton said Deblase went to the room for a little while then returned to tell Keaton that Chase was dead.
Keaton told police that in both cases the couple drove a van to the woods and dumped the bodies.
"Whenever you're talking about children, it's difficult to hear a case like this," said Jim Sears.
But the detective told the judge that Deblase told a different story.
Deblase describes how Natalie died.
Deblase said on the morning of March 4th, Keaton punished little Natalie by duct taping her hands and feet together, putting her inside of a suitcase and then placing her in the closet.
Deblase went off to school and told Keaton that Natalie better be out of the suitcase when he gets back.
He said when he returned he found Natalie dead in the suitcase.
In reaction, Deblase said he took Natalie out of the suitcase, and asked Keaton to dress her in pajamas.
Deblase said he put Natalie in a van and the family drove to Citronelle and dumped her remains in the woods.
He purchased a shovel at Wal-Mart in Saraland with the hopes of burying her, but he said the ground was too hard.
DeBlase describes how Chase died.
As for Chase, Deblase said on June 19th, Jonathan had wet himself. The family was trying to potty train him.
Deblase said Keaton was angry, so she duct taped his hands to his legs, duct taped a sock to his mouth, put a broomstick behind his back, and had him stand erect in a corner.
Deblase told Keaton that he was going to bed. He said he was still stressed over what had happened to Natalie.
"He better be un-taped and out of the corner when I wake up," Deblase told Keaton.
Deblase said when he woke up, Chase was still duct-taped, and he was dead.
In reaction, Deblase said he put Chase in a garbage bag, and the family got in a van and dumped Chase in the woods near Vancleave, Mississippi.
What was found in the woods.
The detective told the judge that in Citronelle, search crews found a skull, bones and little girl pajamas.
The detective is confident the remains belong to Natalie.
The investigator says in Vancleave, Mississippi, search crews found a skull, bones, trash bags, duct-tape with hair on it, and little rubber pull up pants.
The detective is confident the remains belong to Chase. Prine said DNA results have not returned yet.
Deblase's attorney says his client is in shock and that more information will surface as this case goes forward.
"He's not enjoying this, these were his children," says attorney Jim Sears.
But Keaton's attorney,
Darryl Bender, doesn't buy it.
Bender says, "The facts that are heard today, if they are true, are bad. But that's sort of the question- are they true?"
The detective told the judge that a number of witnesses gave statements that Keaton mistreated the children.
The people told police that they saw Keaton beat the children with a belt or a hairbrush. Some witnesses described seeing the children with bandages covering what appeared to be burns on their arms.
But in cross examination, the investigator told Bender that the outside witnesses were all friends of Deblase. She couldn't get in touch with people close to Keaton.
"None of them, not a single one, of seven or eight witnesses, not a single one called the sheriff department, called the police department, called the department of human resources. None of them did that and I think that is sort of really strange."
But Assistant D.A. Jo Beth Murphree says it's common that family and friends don't report this sort of abuse.
"I think that sometimes unfortunately, you will find not only in this case but in many other cases, that's what happens. That's why we end up with dead children. That's why we end up with children who have been abused," said Murphree.
Judge McKnight said in all his years on the bench, he's never a case of such acts. It's now been turned over to a grand jury.
The children's biological mother, Corrine Heathcock, released a statement through a spokesman:
"We at this time would like to tell everyone that our two precious angels, Natalie and Chase, have been taken from us by this horrific tragedy. We are waiting for the grand jury and the trial date to be set and everyone hopes that John and Heather will both be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and that we want to thank everyone across the nation for their thoughts and prayers during this time of tragedy."
A memorial will be held for Natalie and Chase on Saturday at the Mobile Memorial Gardens Funeral home on Three Notch Road.
The service starts at 10 a.m. and family say the public is invited.
Little Natalie and Chase DeBlase were laid to rest Saturday. Jan.8, 2011 MOBILE, Alabama - Little Natalie and Chase DeBlase were laid to rest Saturday.
Family, friends, and even some who didn't know the children packed Mobile Memorial Gardens to say their last goodbyes. Their grandfather, Richard DeBlase, says his place in Mobile, was the only real stable home the children knew, "as a result of this tragedy I would like to see a grandparents bill of rights, people should not have to jump through loops to be able to see their grandkids and to be able to do what's right," said DeBlase.
The childrens' father, John DeBlase, and their stepmother, Heather Keaton, are both charged with their murders. 5-year-old Natalie's body was found December 8th near Citronelle, Alabama. Her little brother, 3-year-old Chase, was found 3 days later in Vancleave, Mississippi.
Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:01 am
