ANNA CELESTE LOWE - 5 yo - Shreveport - LA

A West Monroe mother is blaming the system for failing her in a child custody battle, and now her 5-year-old daughter is dead.The
child's father, an Elm Grove man, and the child's stepmother have been
arrested and face charges in connection with Thursday's death of Anna
Celeste Lowe.Wesley
D. Lowe, 32, and the girl's stepmother, 34-year-old Catherine M. Lowe,
were arrested by Bossier Parish deputies around 2 a.m. Friday after
results from the child's autopsy revealed she died as a result of
internal injuries and bleeding, authorities said."She
received serious injuries to the abdominal cavity," said Bossier Parish
Coroner John Chandler during a news conference. "The child's body did
have multiple bruises of multiple stages."The
child's mother, Jamie Mercer, a West Monroe resident, said she met Lowe
in Arcadia on Sept. 24 to drop off the child with her father for the
weekend."I called
him Sunday (Sept. 26) to find out when I needed to come pick her up,"
Mercer said. "He told me I couldn't and said Celeste couldn't come back
with me."Mercer
learned Lowe had filed a temporary restraining order against her and
said Lowe also contacted Child Protective Services on her. However, she
said Lowe had no basis for his actions."He
has contempt charges in Ouachita Parish," Mercer said. She said every
time she tried to meet with Lowe in court in order to get custody of her
daughter, Lowe would ask to extend the time period of the restraining
order."And the judges just kept signing them," Mercer said. "They didn't even look into it or try to find out, 'Why?'"Investigators
still are trying to determine how the injuries occurred. The couple
gave contradictory statements and said they thought her continuous
vomiting and extreme abdominal pain were the result of a common stomach
virus.Anna
Celeste Lowe was pronounced dead upon arrival at Willis-Knighton
Pierremont hospital in Shreveport. The couple took her to the emergency
room about 9:30 a.m., and the staff determined the child had been dead
about two hours, said Doyle Dempsey, Bossier undersheriff. The hospital
staff noticed rigor mortis present in the victim's face and bruising and
trauma over her entire body.
Read more http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20110115/NEWS01/101150321

The body of 5-year-old Anna Celeste Lowe was released Tuesday into
the custody of her biological mother for burial, according to the
Bossier Parish Coroner’s Office.

The action came after a Bossier judge lifted a restraining order on Jamie
Mercer, who lives in West Monroe, in regards to the child.Anna
Lowe died Thursday from internal injuries and bleeding, and her
stepmother and father, who had temporary custody of the girl, are now
charged with negligent homicide. Bossier coroner’s office is releasing
few details about the extent of child’s injuries as authorities continue
to investigate exactly what happened to her.Wesley D.
Lowe, 32, and his wife, 34-year-old Catherine Lowe, contend his daughter
had symptoms of a stomach virus. Anna had been dead two hours when the
couple took her to the hospital.“We’ve heard several
contradicting statements,” said Ed Baswell, spokesman for the Bossier
sheriff. “We are still looking for new information. We would like to
upgrade the charges at least to second-degree murder if we can get new
evidence.”Catherine Lowe told investigators her husband
took the child into a bedroom supposedly to discipline her for
something, and the girl came from the room doubled over and vomiting,
Baswell said. However, the man denies any involvement, and two children
inside the home told investigators Anna was vomiting before her dad
arrived.“Bossier sheriff’s investigators don’t necessary
buy either of their stories,” Baswell said. “We’ve heard so much. Right
now we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, but hopefully we will
find new evidence or possibly one of them will confess.”Wesley
Lowe gained temporary custody of his daughter when he filed for and was
granted a protective order against Mercer on Sept. 29. According to
documents filed in the 26th Judicial Court, Mercer was accused of
physically and sexually assaulting the girl.In his written
petition, Wesley says he took Anna to the doctor Sept. 24 after the
child told him Mercer punched her in the forehead and that her mother
and the woman’s friend took turns “touching her in her private area.”
Anna Lowe was evaluated at the Children’s Advocate Center in Monroe, and
her father subsequently filed the
petition, according to court documents. The
court approved the order and at some point amended it to include
supervised visitation for Mercer. She could see her daughter every other
Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and was allowed to call her on Wednesdays,
court documents state.Mercer has said Wesley Lowe had no
basis for his actions. She last saw her daughter at Walmart in West
Monroe shortly after Christmas.Due to the child’s death,
Bossier District Judge Ford Stinson Jr. signed the order Friday lifting
the temporary restraining order, according to court documents.Services
for Anna Celeste Lowe are 10 a.m. Thursday at Mulhearn Funeral Home,
West Monroe. Visitation is 4-8 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.
Burial will be in Hasley Cemetery.

http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20110118/NEWS01/110118013

Posters note: It doesn't sound as if Anna was safe in either of her "parents" household.

BENTON -- Murder charges have been
filed against a Bossier Parish woman, accusing her of inflicting the
injuries that caused the death of 5-year-old Celeste Lowe week before
last and then failing to get medical care until it was too late. Catherine Lowe and her husband, Wesley, have been jailed on negligent homicide charges since Celeste died.
Charges against the 34-year-old Mrs. Lowe, who is Celeste's
step-mother, were upgraded to first-degree murder on Tuesday. Charges
against her husband remain the same. Mrs. Lowe injured the child
in a bathroom of the family home week before last, Bossier sheriff's
investigators said. She got no help for the child until the next
morning, when co-workers at the day care where she worked insisted she
do so, Undersheriff Doyle Dempsey said. "During the long trip
home, Catherine Murray (Lowe) stopped at a grocery store in Bossier
City, leaving the dying child alone in the vehicle as she went inside to
purchase (a sport drink)," Dempsey said at a news conference. "(She)
passed several hospitals on the way and made absolutely no attempt to
obtain necessary and critical medical attention for the dying child." Celeste, a kindergarten student in Elm Grove, was dead when she was taken to a hospital week before last.
Investigators have believed from the beginning that Celeste might have
survived severe trauma to her abdomen had she gotten medical attention
sooner. That's why they arrested her father and step-mother on negligent
homicide charges early on.What they weren't sure of was how those injuries were inflicted and by whom.Investigators
have been keying on Catherine Lowe, who was with Celeste most of the
time after she got home from kindergarten on Wednesday, Jan. 12, until
she was taken to the hospital well into the next morning. Dempsey
said Mrs. Lowe's two children were home when Celeste was injured.
Dempsey said the children told investigators they saw their mother
follow Celeste into the bathroom, heard "a very loud thump" and then
found Celeste lying on the floor and vomiting. District Attorney
Schuyler Marvin said authorities have confirmed the child's father,
Wesley Lowe, was at work in the gas fields at the time. "The
father and mother gave contradictory statements regarding the child's
injuries and discounted her continuous vomiting and extreme abdominal
pain as something caused by a common stomach virus," Dempsey said.Authorities
say Celeste had started vomiting and was sick when her father came home
from work. He went back to work that night and she was still ill when
he got home about three o'clock the next morning, authorities said.
Later that morning, Mrs. Lowe took Celeste to the day care where she
worked, authorities said.Workers there saw the child was desperately ill and immediately told Mrs. Lowe to take her to the doctor, investigators said.Celeste
was taken home, where her father saw her and she went to the hospital.
She had been dead two hours by then, Undersheriff Doyle Dempsey said.Authorities
said they had never received any complaints against Lowe or the day
care, which is cooperating with their investigation.They are held in the Bossier Parish jail awaiting arraignment.
http://www.ktbs.com/news/26610676/detail.html

Stepmother may face the death penalty
Her children are key witnesses

January 26, 2011

Using statements provided by her own children, Catherine Murray Lowe, of Elm
Grove, the stepmother of Anna Celeste Lowe, has been charged with
first-degree murder in the death of the 5-year-old child.
Bossier District Attorney Schuyler Martin has not yet determined if his office will seek the death penalty for Catherine Lowe.Investigators have also revealed new insight into what led to the Jan. 13 death of Anna Celeste.According
to the coroner's report, Anna Celeste died as a result of internal
bleeding after her stomach was severed from her intestines and her liver
was lacerated in two places."We
do know that Catherine Lowe was the only parent home at the time the
injury occurred to Anna Celeste," Bossier Undersheriff Doyle Dempsey
said Tuesday. "We do know that this isn't a normal injury by any means.
It's something normally seen after a major car wreck, not a slap or from
a belt. It was a significant kind of impact to produce the injuries
Anna Celeste had."Catherine
Lowe and Anna Celeste's father, Wesley Dwayne Lowe, were arrested Jan.
14 on charges of negligent homicide. Wesley Lowe will continue to be
held at Bossier Maximum Security Facility on the negligent homicide
charge. He had gained temporary custody of the girl from her biological
mother, Jamie Mercer, who lives in West Monroe."We
know that the father was home between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. the night of
the incident and he could have easily seen that his daughter was in
serious need of medical attention," Dempsey said. "Because he failed to
provide his daughter with the medical care she needed, we are continuing
to charge Wesley Lowe with negligent homicide."Anna
Celeste was pronounced dead at WK Pierremont Health Center on Jan. 13.
Emergency room staff told Bossier sheriff's investigators that the child
was brought to the hospital about 9:30 a.m. Jan. 13 by Catherine and
Wesley Lowe and that the time of death was determined to be
approximately two hours prior to the child's arrival.Catherine
Lowe has given contradictory statements to investigators on the events
that transpired, and Dempsey said she has remained uncooperative with
investigators.

Page 2 here: http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20110126/NEWS01/101260327

OMG! Do you know the kind of pain this child had to endure? These "parents" don't even deserve bread & water, they deserve to experience the pain this precious child did, sever their stomachs/livers--NOW!!!!! LE knows all they need to know.
Dammit--when are we going to start protecting & standing up for these little ones, when??? How can anybody read this story and not say these "parents" deserve to die a horrible-extremely painful death??

."And the judges just kept signing them," Mercer said. "They didn't even look into it or try to find out, 'Why?'"

Maybe a judge should be held responsible also--these damn people need to do their job and guess what?, some times it involves getting off your ass and doing some research. DCF needs to be called on the carpet also, there are bloody hands all over the place in this case.

Could Anna Celeste Lowe have been saved?


Soon after interviewing Jamie Mercer and consulting with the Louisiana Department of Social Services, the Ouachita sheriff's office concluded the accusations she was sexually and physically abusing her 5-year-old daughter, Celeste, were unfounded.
Even so, a Bossier Parish hearing officer wanted to see the results of a Social Services investigation before deciding whether Celeste should return to her mother in West Monroe. Until then, Celeste would remain with her father, Wesley Lowe and his then-girlfriend, Catherine "Cat" Murray.
Accordingly, the hearing officer — who recommended granting Lowe's original Sept. 29 application for a temporary restraining order — also endorsed extending the order another four more times, court records show. In all, four Bossier district judges signed five orders between September and December giving Lowe temporary custody of Celeste.
Mercer's attorney, Katy Balsamo, tried to get the order canceled and the case moved to Ouachita Parish, but that effort ultimately fell short. Yet, Mercer was granted supervised visitation with her daughter every other Saturday. She saw Celeste for the only time Oct. 30 at the Louisiana Boardwalk.
Despite a court order, Lowe — who married Murray on Oct. 16 — never let Celeste visit with her mother again.
Finally, Social Services completed their investigation in December and validated the reported abuse. The news was a crushing blow to the 32-year-old Mercer, who never saw the report but was told that the agency had found against her because of consistent statements made by Celeste.
A previous complaint involving her other two children, who lived with their father, hadn't helped. That complaint, the result of a bitter custody battle, was judged unfounded, Mercer said.
"I just sunk," Mercer said about learning of the Social Services decision.
Opportunity lost


That same month, one of Celeste's teachers at the Elm Grove school she attended noticed a bruise on her neck. The teacher reported the injury, and on Dec. 9 the Bossier sheriff's office investigated.

read more>
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20110207/NEWS01/102070320/Could-Anna-Celeste-Lowe-have-been-saved-

Anna Celeste Lowe's mother reacts to father's release from jail
Updated: Apr 28, 2011 1:20 PM PDT
BOSSIER PARISH, LA (KSLA) - A Bossier Parish man charged with negligent homicide in the death of his daughter, Anna Celeste Lowe, bonded out of jail this week. Jamie Mercer, the girl's biological mother said she sat in court when Catherine and Wesley Lowe were arraigned on Tuesday. Now that Wesley Lowe is out on bail, she prays she doesn't run into him.

"A little bit of anger, sickness, I just couldn't eat anything Tuesday night," said Mercer.

Wesley Lowe is charged with negligent homicide in the young girl's death. Officers charged his wife, Catherine Lowe, with 1st degree murder after she brought the 5 year old unresponsive to a Bossier City emergency room on January 13. Investigators say Anna Celeste Lowe died at least 2 hours before her hospital visit as the result of a violent blow to her stomach.

Mercer says since he bonded out, Wesley Lowe returned to West Monroe where she and his family live. Her greatest hope now is she doesn't have to see him.

"I get this fear of me, just anger, and I have so many questions, and I would end up cornering him and asking him everything that I've had running through my mind," said Mercer.

KSLA News 12 also contacted Wesley Lowe. He said he had no comment.

Wesley and Catherine Lowe are due back in court on June 3rd for a status conference, but a trial date has not been set.

http://www.ksla.com/story/14448645/anna-celeste-lowes-mother-reacts-to-fathers-release-from-jail

Justice for Celeste facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Celeste/184632068235205?sk=wall