Friday, April 3, 2009

Mother of Guardian Lied

Diane Merrifield, the mother of a man convicted of sexually molesting and murdering his girlfriend's 2-year-old child, lied to a Child Protective Services investigator who was trying to locate Logan Goodall days before his 2005 death.

The revelation came during a pretrial hearing in the civil lawsuit filed by Jeremy Goodall, Logan's father, against the state Department of Health and Human Resources and Diane Merrifield. Dr. John Merrifield, Diane's husband and father of Michael Merrifield, was also named in the lawsuit, but he settled with Logan's estate for $775,000 in November 2007.

A Putnam County jury in January 2008 convicted Michael Merrifield of first-degree murder, child neglect resulting in death, and sexual abuse by a guardian. He is serving a life sentence without the chance of parole at Mount Olive.

Logan Goodall died on Sept. 6, 2005, of injuries that were consistent with repeated physical and sexual assaults, the state medical examiner's autopsy concluded.

In April 2008, John Merrifield pleaded no contest to gross neglect creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death and was sentenced to five years on home confinement.

Full Article and Source:
Merrifield's mother lied to CPS just days before Logan's death

5 comments:

  1. It's a terrible shame. The mother lied to protect her no good son and now she will live with the knowledge that the lie may have added to the child's death.

    Again, the vulnerable are the victims of deceit.

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  2. Another loss of innocent life - it's devestating.

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  3. People, young and old, who can't fight back are prey for the sickies of the world.

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  4. This is heartbreaking and shows the evil side of society.

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