Police: Man kills his 5 year old daughter by tossing her off a bridge

[davidn3600]

ST. PETERSBURG — A 5-year old girl died early Thursday morning, police said, when her father threw her from the southbound approach to the Sunshine Skyway.

The incident reportedly began just after midnight when a St. Petersburg Police officer was driving home, headed south toward the Sunshine Skyway, and he was passed by a Chrysler PT Cruiser going an estimated 100 mph.

The officer turned on his flashing lights to stop the car, but when it was near the top of the Dick Misener Bridge on the Skyway approach, the officer saw the driver stop, and leave the car. He lifted the girl under her arms, held her over the railing and dropped her to the water 62 feet below.

The officer saw the man get back in the car and continue southward. John Nicholas Jonchuck Jr., 25, of 3604 W Beach St. in Tampa was eventually stopped by Manatee County authorities after entering Interstate 75 heading the wrong way. He was taken to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office for questioning.

A search for the girl began immediately, as southbound lanes of Interstate 275 were closed. The Coast Guard assisted.

She was found by an Eckerd College Search and Rescue team about a half-mile east of where she was thrown into the water, police said. They tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead after she was taken to the hospital sometime before 3:20 a.m.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/police-girl-5-dies-after-father-throws-her-from-sunshine-skyway-approach/2212878

WTF?

[djean111]

1. I would not be surprised if it did not turn out to be a custody thing, and that the father is

mentally ill, but there are/were no actual ways to help him or stop him or protect others from him.

[jtuck004]

5. "...but there are/were no actual ways to help him or stop him or protect others..." > We did not

used to say that before they took the money we invested to pay people to try and now invest it in keeping the assets of the wealthy intact.

There are services we could offer, concrete things trained people could do, but there are choices made not to.

[djean111]

8. Exactly what I meant. Thank you.

These days, mentally ill people are just thrown out into the street, unless there is money to be had.
How many 911 calls are from families who can no longer manage with a mentally ill and angry family member, and then what happens next seems both horrible and inevitable.
Here in Florida, you can "Baker Act" someone into custody for three days, if you can convince the authorities that they are a danger to you or themselves, but I think they just sedate the person for three days and then turn them loose. Maybe with some meds and follow-up instructions, which some mentally ill or emotionally disturbed folks are not going to act on.

I don't know what the answer is, but it is not what we do at present.

If the grandfather had custody, then it looks like there were problems.

[jtuck004]

17. I remind people of things like this when they tell me how great it is that the deficit is down.

This is an example of the real deficit. Among others.

We can't stop all of them, but we have done more. Seems like we are losing what used to help us protect each other.

[Omaha Steve]

6. x 2

[bettyellen]

16. he had custody of the kid. and maybe he had it because he's a selfish vindictive asshole, or

maybe it appeared to the courts that the mom was more of a mess than he was. When ever I hear something like this, I wonder about meth, etc. and money troubles too. Money always seems to be an issue along with the divorce and child custody thing. So incredibly fucked up. Hope he rots in jail.

[REP]

28. The mother has debilitating multiple sclerosis

He had arrests for DV and forgery against the child's mother and his mother, but the child's mother is so physically disabled by MS, she allowed him to have custody. She didn't think he would hurt his own child, as he'd never been violent with her.

[bettyellen]

30. Wow, that is incredibly sad. He obviously hates women and was too

Last edited Thu Jan 8, 2015, 09:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Proud to give up that poor little girl. Tragic.

[REP]

31. His family and friends say he is bipolar

In court, he made some bizarre statements (in the story at the link).

[LisaL]

40. Family friend says that father was into drugs such as meth.

"Dishman said Jonchuck was into doing drugs like methamphetamine and synthetic marijuana, along with prescription drugs she was concerned about."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/08/child-dies-thrown-off-bridge/21430711/

[bettyellen]

44. somehow auto correct changes women to some, ooops. Loads of bipolar people are non-violent...

but any man with a multi-generational history of physically abusing women has obvious issues respecting them. Poor little girl did not stand a chance in that house. I tend to believe the meth story, and eother way- he is a total piece of shit.

[liberalhistorian]

35. If that's the case and it was also

known he was bipolar, then what the fuck was the judge thinking giving him custody? Then again, being married to an attorney and having once been in the legal support field I know firsthand that, just as there are crazy clueless evil parents, so are there crazy, evil clueless judges and you truly never really do know what they're going to do. I once saw a case where a judge gave full custody to the father, who had DV and child abuse convictions against him, because the mother had the nerve to date after their divorce and he thought that was evidence of her "immoral instability". Seriously. It's one of the reasons why I'm glad I'm out of the legal field, though hubby is still stuck within it.

[LisaL]

39. Doesn't sound like mother asked for custody.

Mother says she has MS and couldn't care for the girl.
In that case judge should have put the poor child in foster care.

[BlueJazz]

2. Oh No. I go on that bridge nearly every day. My heart goes out to the family.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

3. Oh, no! Poor baby.

May those that love her be comforted.

[aikoaiko]

4. For crimes like this I still want the death penalty option

Unless there is clear and compelling mitigating circumstances.

But when we are certain that someone did something as heinous as this the DP is reasonable.

I can't imagine how terrifying that was for that little girl.

[safeinOhio]

13. I'm against the death penalty and here is why

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates

That is one of the main reason. For me it is all about reason.

Also for me, I'd rather be put to death than spend years in prison. I use to visit prison and it is no place I'd want to be. To sit, without any freedom and think about your crime is enough.

I see the DP as revenge, as the article above shows it does not lower crime. It does, in a way makes killing alright.

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Confucius

[aikoaiko]

19. and yet almost no one asks for the DP instead of life during sentencing hearings.

The DP may not be a deterrent, but is any criminal sentence?

Revenge is a part of any punitive sentence. I'm ok with my grave if people in the OP get the DP. Small price to pay.

[safeinOhio]

21. If you look at the chart of FBI

murders in state with DP you can see an almost 2% fewer murders in states without the DP. So, in a state with 10 million people you could possibly save 100 people from being murdered. Perhaps you could dig another 99 graves to go with yours.

I do understand your point of view.

[aikoaiko]

22. And I understand yours.

But I'm not willing to confuse correlation with causation either.

[safeinOhio]

23. Problem with correlation is direction.

Does high murder rate lead to DP
or
Does DP lead to higher murder rate

To control direction, one could look at the results in states that got rid of the DP 10 years ago and see if rates went up or down. Also look at the rate in states that began the DP 10 years ago.

I don't know if we have that kind of information, but it would be interesting to see.

[aikoaiko]

24. Direction is one problem, but other coinciding variables are another.

[drynberg]

18. Yeah, kill the killer and bring relief to all W R O N G , but thanks for playing.

[NCTraveler]

33. What benefit would you recieve from the state murdering this man? nt.

[aikoaiko]

36. No justice, no peace.

Although I reject your premise that state executions are murder because by definition they are lawful events.

[NCTraveler]

37. You didn't address my point at all.

What benefit would you receive from the state killing this man?

For what you said to truly be an answer, you feel killing is the only justice. What peace will be brought about by the state killing this man?

[aikoaiko]

38. You understood my answer, mostly

I won't say that an execution after a trial is the only justice possible, but in some cases it is the best that can be done.

It is not unreasonable to not feel at peace when a heinous criminal gets to live and find enjoyment in life while his victim(s) cannot.

[blackspade]

7. Asshole.

Poor little kid.

[LittleGirl]

9. 5 yrs old...omg. horrified. eom

[Thespian2]

10. What disease

causes a person to kill a child?

[Blue_Tires]

34. I'm reminded of the little shit who smothered his toddler

because his crying kept interrupting daddy's all-night Xbox 360 binge...

[giftedgirl77]

11. Poor little one, how terrifying that must have been for her...

[KinMd]

12. If the cop said he thought the guy reached for a gun and shot him dead..

I'd be good with it.

[FiveGoodMen]

41. If the cop had known the guy was about to throw the girl off the bridge

I think he could have shot the guy without any feared-for-my-life excuses.

He could have just said he was saving the girl.

And he'd have been right.

[KinMd]

45. or if he shoot him afterwards

[FiveGoodMen]

46. That might be fun, but wouldn't save the victim

[raccoon]

14. Sometimes parents are so hateful and vindictive toward the ex that they do terrible things to their

own kids--just to get at the ex.

Collateral damage.

[packman]

15. Bastard

I hate to read things like this. I'm a liberal and proud of it , but burn his ass or throw him off the same bridge with some chains and cinderblocks attached to him. Old Testament style, eye for an eye. Poor angel.

[pink-o]

25. With ya!

That's a good question for a thread: As liberals, what would it take for us to throw our Peace-Love principles out the window and go full-on rageful? For me, it's also anyone who hurts a child--especially molesters. Although I don't wish the death penalty on them, I just want them imprisoned in General Population where they get raped and beat up every night while the guards turn a blind eye. I can tell you I would probably beat the crap out of anyone I caught hurting a little child.

Yep. I'm a vegetarian peacenik, but I can live with that lizard part of my brain.

[L0oniX]

20. Kills??? It's murder!

[elias49]

26. I'm crying. Seriously.

So fucking sad

[Tab]

27. This is just an effed up crime

Every once in a while you get these WTF crimes (e.g.: Jeffrey Dahmer). What the hell was that guy thinking? He (hopefully) was either on drugs or delusional, because I can't fathom a sane person doing this. How horrible an event, and to have been the police officer who witnessed it - if I were he, I wouldn't be sleeping well (understandably, and I'm certainly not saying it's his fault, but watching something like this unfold would likely haunt me until my dying days). It's just horrifying. Your regular "white collar" jobs you don't have to deal with this stuff.

[Liberal_in_LA]

29. so sad

[LiberalAndProud]

32. Leaving it in the hands of God

sounds like a good plan, don't you think?

[FiveGoodMen]

42. God should have intervened while there was time!

[LiberalAndProud]

43. Mysterious ways or

That's not the way God works. You choose.

It's not ours to understand why a deity worthy of worship left a five-year-old to suffer at the whim of her mentally disturbed, religiously misled father. She's neither the first or the last, still we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, and that's a comforting thought.

Not for the little girl though. Unfortunately, she won't be needing comforting no more.