Finding out how boy in father's custody was murdered and buried in shed (Gary, Indiana)

Notice that out of all the handwringing in this case, there isn't ONE concern raised about how dad RILEY CHOATE was able to obtain custody despite a history of domestic abuse, and how he was shut the boy's mother off from all contact. And yes, we have shown here that the mother took this matter to court (see previous posts). Maybe we need to start asking questions about the Indiana fathers rights people and their influence on  and/or infiltration of the family court system.

Notice that the reporter even fails to mention that Choate had custody, and this boy was beaten for wanting to return to his mother.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-05-26/news/chi-how-we-reported-the-death-of-christian-choate-20110526_1_trailer-park-school-districts-dcs

Finding out how this boy died and was buried in this shed
May 26, 2011|By Andy Grimm

Our reporting began with the grisly discovery of the body of a 13-year-old boy buried beneath a layer of quicklime and concrete behind a mobile home in Gary, and the announcement of charges against his father, Riley Choate, and step-mother, Kimberly Kubina.

From there, the details released by investigators only got more shocking: Before he died, Christian Choate had spent his final years enduring daily beatings at the hands of his father, step-mother and older sister. And confined to a wire cage or bound, spread-eagle, to a metal bedframe. Worse still, no one seemed to notice the boy had been missing for two years.

The abuse was shockingly brutal, but beyond it was the question: How could this go on for years and no one know anything about it?

We sought answers from police investigators, child welfare authorities, former neighbors and relatives. So far, that reporting has raised questions -- authorities clearly were familiar with the Choate household.


He wasn't going to school. Why didn't truancy officers come calling? Calls to the school districts serving the neighborhood near the trailer found Christian was never enrolled. Records at the district where he had lived before moving to the trailer park showed Christian had been withdrawn from school when his parents notified administrators he was going to be home-schooled. Under Indiana law, school officials have essentially no contact with a child after his parents have announced their intention to home-school them.

Meanwhile, sources said they believed Indiana’s Department of Child Services had been in contact with the Choates prior to Christian’s death, though apparently not regarding Christian. DCS officials, citing state privacy laws, would not reveal anything other than that they weren’t investigating the family at the time Christian died -- detectives were going to have to subpoena the records to get them.

A visit to the trailer park confirmed rumors that neighbors had made complaints. But each resident we talked to who lived in the trailer park during the period the Choates were there said they had never laid eyes on the boy.