Dad charged with killing toddler son (New London, Wisconsin)

Sounds like a "stay-at-home" father situation. Too often fathers who are at home are merely thugs who can't/won't get a job.

Dad is identified as LANCE S. VANDENBUSCH.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20140328/APC0101/303280188/New-London-father-charged-toddler-s-death?nclick_check=1

Police quickly focused on New London father in toddler's abuse death

Mar. 28, 2014 2:18 PM

Written by Holly Meyer
Post-Crescent Media

WAUPACA — The little boy prosecutors say was killed by his father was playful and cuddly the morning he suffered traumatic brain injuries, his mother told investigators.

New London police found their No. 1 suspect once they discovered the toddler's ultimately fatal injuries were inflicted after his mother left him home in his father's care.

The Waupaca County District Attorney’s Office filed a first-degree reckless homicide charge March 21 against 36-year-old Lance S. Vandenbusch. The boy’s father is now in the Waupaca County Jail on a $200,000 cash bond after making his initial court appearance Tuesday, court documents state.

The criminal complaint says the toddler died Dec. 9 — just weeks before his third birthday — at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee after a massive brain injury that was consistent with child abuse.

The criminal complaint details the events leading up to his death. Emergency room staff at New London Family Medical Center suspected child abuse soon after Vandenbusch and the boy’s mother brought him to the hospital on Dec. 3. The New London Police Department was called and an emergency room doctor showed the investigating officer images of the child’s brain and said the injuries did not match the parents’ stories.

The child’s mother told police her son was in good health on the morning of Dec. 3. They had eaten breakfast and he crawled into her lap to watch cartoons at their New London home before she left him in Vandenbusch’s care while she went to work. The mother left work early after Vandenbusch sent her text messages about the toddler throwing up.

The boy was sleeping in his bed when she arrived, but started making noises. When his parents checked on him, he was in his bed with clenched fists and stiffened body, and they couldn’t wake him. They took him to the New London emergency room, he was transfered to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah for emergency surgery, and then to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee for post-operative care.

A doctor from Children’s Hospital told police the primary diagnosis was child abuse because his injuries were consistent with being shaken, thrown or slammed. She said his injuries were so severe that their effects would have been immediately obvious. The doctor looked at a photograph and said the marks on the left side of the boy’s face were from a slap. The doctor who performed surgery on the boy at Theda Clark said even if the boy survived, he would have had permanent severe brain damage.

Vandenbusch told police he had no idea where his son’s injuries came from and that maybe the boy slapped himself during his seizure.

A preliminary hearing is set for 1 p.m. on April 17 in Waupaca County Circuit Court.