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  • 2000-12-13 (xsd:date)
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  • The Microwaved Baby (en)
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  • A couple leaves their infant in the charge of a teenage, hippie-type girl while they go out on the town for the evening. When the mother phones home a few hours later to check up on things, the babysitter informs her that everything is fine and that she has put the turkey in the oven. A few moments later the couple recalls that they left no turkey at home; they rush home and find that the babysitter, high on LSD, has cooked their baby in the oven. Variations: The urban legend probably circulated as a cautionary tale about the dangers of leaving children in the care of strangers before incorporating an additional warning against drug use in the 1960s. Brunvand, for example, cites a version collected by folklorist Lydia Fish in which drugs play no part: This tale was widely cited in the 1960s and 1970s as a true story illustrating the dangers of illicit drug use. As with the legend of Blue Star Acid, it contrasts evil drug users and innocent children, with the latter suffering harm due to the depredations of the former. Other cooked to death legends include: Update: On Sept. 23, 1999, aspects of this chilling legend played out in real life when the body of 1-month-old Joseph Lewis Martinez was discovered in the microwave of his parents' home. His mother, Elizabeth Renee Otte (19) was arrested for his murder, but her representatives claimed she had been in a state of confusion at the time she folded her son in half, loaded him into the microwave, and powered it on. She'd had epileptic seizures before, and they speculated that while in the throes of one she mistook her child for a bottle of milk she was attempting to warm. Some believed the scenario as described by Otte's representatives to be plausible, but others saw the tragedy as yet another teenage mother murdering her baby, then claiming diminished capacity on whatever grounds she could come up with. After psychological and neurological exams undertaken to determine Otte's competency to stand trial were completed, she pled no contest to involuntary manslaughter charges on September 25, 2000 and was sentenced to five years in prison on December 13, 2000. In November 2006, Ohio resident China Arnold was charged with the Aug. 30, 2005 murder of her one-month-old daughter, Paris Talley. The death was ruled a homicide caused by hyperthermia (high body temperature). The child was believed to have been microwaved to death because of the absence of external burns, that lack precluding the deadly rise in temperature having been caused open flame, scalding water, or a heating pad. In August 2008, China Arnold was found guilty of aggravated murder in the death of her child. In November 2010, the conviction was overturned. In May 2011, China Arnold was again convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. (en)
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