Children's deaths are sad to begin with but what's worse is when their bodies are buried away as if they never existed. Justin Kowalczik's 17-month-old body was dug up by police in the backyard of his home after child services were called to the Farmingdale, Long Island home in New York to check on the welfare of his brother, 6-year-old Alex.
When asked about Justin, his mom, Heather Kowalczik, lied to the official and said that he was living with relatives in their old upstate Orange county neighborhood. She eventually broke down and shockingly revealed that she never reported Justin's death and that he was buried in the backyard. Police uncovered the body of the child who would now be 3 years old and estimated that he had been buried there for at least a couple of years.
This story is just too horrifying. This child's life was lost and his death was kept a secret for so long. I'm even scared to find out how he died, but the plot gets even more frightening as cops have identified the mom's boyfriend, Robert Rodriguez, as their person of interest.
According to police, Rodriguez was the father of Justin's two half siblings, 9-year-old Robert and Alex, who both lived in the home with Kowalczik. When Rodriguez was asked about Justin's disappearance, he refused to cooperate and tried escaping–even taking Robert out of school, initiating an Amber Alert. To make matters worse, neighbors say that the family had Alex's birthday party this past July on the same grounds where Justin's body was buried. UGH!
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If that wasn't bad enough, Kowalczik's babysitter, Patricia Ruane, said that the mother always smelled of alcohol and that the malnourished eldest child made her want to reach out to child services. It's disturbing to know that there were all these signs and unfortunately a child's life was lost in the hands of bad parenting.
I hope police get to the bottom of this case and that Justin's siblings are in better hands now that we know how inept his mother is as a guardian. As for Rodriguez, things aren't looking too good for him and the best thing for him to do is to cooperate with authorities.
Image courtesy of CBS 2Chopper
