A Call to Judges to Better Protect Children

There is way too much killing in America. Murders, accidental shootings, executions, deadly domestic abuse, despondent people who kill themselves and then there is filicide. That’s when parents kill their own child. We would like to think this sort of heinous crime doesn’t happen, but it happens way too often.

A study published in the journal Forensic Science International combed through more than 30 years of FBI filicide cases and found parent-on-child murder happen in the United States about 500 times each year. More than two-thirds of the victims are six years old or younger. It might surprise you to learn that mothers kill their children almost as frequently as fathers.

Mothers Kill Their Children Nearly as Often as Fathers

Experts believe parents kill for one of five reasons. They think the child would be better off dead, psychosis convinces them that their child is possessed by the devil, the child is seen as too much of a burden, death comes accidentally as an off-shot of physical abuse or the child is killed as revenge against the other parent.

Can you imagine killing a child to get back at the person you once professed to love?

Ana Estevez and Her Son Piqui – Photo Courtesy of Estevez family

Last Spring, Ana Estevez, an elementary school principal in California, handed over her 5-year-old son, nicknamed Piqui, to his father just as a judge’s shared custody order said she must. Ana had repeatedly told the judge her ex-husband was an unemployed gambler and pill popper with a bad temper. Her pleas for sole custody fell on deaf ears. So, on that April day in 2017 the boy and his father went off to spend the day at Disneyland along with Piqui’s paternal grandmother and aunt.

As the father, Armazd Andressian, drove the child to his home in Santa Barbara County for a court ordered overnight stay he must have been thinking through his diabolical plot. Within a matter of hours the boy was smothered to death with his own jacket in the backseat of his father’s BMW.

Andressian would later explain that his plan was to kill the boy and then himself and make it look as though it was his ex-wife’s work. Andressian had even set the stage by telling people he had become afraid of Ana following their contentious divorce and worried that she would kill him.

Ana was frantic when her son was not returned the next day at the appointed time. She called police and they found Andressian in a public park, unconscious from an overdose of prescription pills, his car doused in gasoline. But where was Piqui? The father said he had no idea.

Piqui Andressian and His Father – Photo Courtesy of Family

Police immediately suspected foul play and jailed Andressian for child endangerment. But he insisted he didn’t know where his son might be. Massive air and land searches for little Piqui turned up nothing. Andressian was set free for lack of evidence.

For months Ana agonized over the fate of her little boy. In the meantime, her ex-husband traveled to Las Vegas to see shows and buy prostitutes, living off the court-ordered child and spousal support payments Ana was forced to pay him. Police trailing Andressian came to believe he was about to flee the country and they finally arrested him on suspicion of murder in late June 2017. Only then did Andressian ‘fess up and lead authorities to a wilderness area in Santa Barbara County where he had dumped Piqui’s body.

I relate this story because too many filicide cases stem from tumultuous divorce cases and you’d think the warning flags would be evident. But too many family court judges dismiss protective parent’s complaints about their former spouse’s mental stability as posturing or sour grapes and routinely award joint custody.

According to the Center For Judicial Excellence, since 2008 more than 620 children have been murdered in the United States by a parent going through a contested divorce, separation, child support or custody case. More than 30 of those filicides occurred since little Pique’s death last Spring.

House Concurrent Resolution 72 is currently pending in the U.S. Congress which declares that since child safety should be the first priority State courts should

“improve adjudications of custody where family violence is alleged.” Fairly wishy-washy language if you ask me. And realize that a Resolution lacks the force of law. Congress could do better if it tried but it doesn’t.

So, we’re back to the judges who hear these cases. Insuring the safety of children caught in the middle of warring parents is the judge’s responsibility. Yes, our family court system is often overwhelmed. Judges don’t have the financial resources to check on the parental fitness of every parent with a suspected defect. But judges are awarded the bench for their insight and wisdom and not for their ability to fast-track the daily docket.

This is a call to every person who wears the black robe to take their life-and-death responsibility seriously – every day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Comments

  1. Diane Dimond on February 13, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    Facebook Friend David Marks writes:

    Riveting and disturbing, Diane. What a powerful and upsetting column.

  2. Diane Dimond on February 13, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    Facebook Friend Sonia Fortin-Simon writes:

    Unreal, what a loser of a father and human-being! I feel bad and pray for that poor little boy and his mom. The judge was wrong in not giving her full custody. He/She has to live with that decision.

  3. Diane Dimond on February 13, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    Facebook Friend Ginnie Oleskewicz Schwartz writes:

    So sad, I was a Foster Parent in CT for twenty years, and it is unbelievable the amount of children that are returned to Parents who are not ready to parent. These children end up back in the system or worse. Judges need to really listen to all of the parties in my opinion!!! Excellent reporting Diane Dimond!!!

  4. Diane Dimond on February 13, 2018 at 6:32 pm

    Facebook Friend Jennifer McCarter McKelvey writes:

    Terrible. People get put in court faster for having small amounts of weed. Why is domestic violence a situation where something terrible has to happen for any action? Geez. I am so sad seeing so many children killed when the red flags were flapping in the wind for so long, only to be ignored.

  5. Diane Dimond on February 16, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    Rockland County Times Reader Stephen Boone writes:

    Hello Diane,

    This article really had an effect for me. I knew a young man who murdered his two young children. I am a special education teacher, and this man had been a former student of mine.

    Making matters worse, the mother was a student of mine the time it happened. I was working in a young adult program, and I was helping her prepare for a high school equivalency test. Her little girl was two years old when she died. Her son was a six month old infant.

    Some counselors and I attended the viewing. Seeing such small children in coffins devastated me. The mother was in shock. I begged her to please come back to the program when she was ready, but I never saw her again.

    The parents were not married. The father, much like the one in your story, tried to commit suicide but failed. There were indications heavy drugs were involved.

    A very disquieting topic. Thank you for your great effort.

    Stephen Boone,
    Suffern, NY

  6. Diane Dimond on February 19, 2018 at 10:05 am

    Twitter Pal Cynthia Reynolds@CindyReynolds writes:

    Texas just executed a man who killed his 2 children while his wife listened on the phone.

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