RIELEE LOVELL - 2 yo/ Accused: Taylor and Laurie Cournoyer - Wagner SD

Two Arrested in Wagner Toddler's Death

Posted: 07/12/2012 6:35 PM

Attorney General Marty Jackley announced Thursday two people have been arrested in the death of a Wagner toddler.

Not all the details on the case have been released, but Taylor Cournoyer, 21, and Laurie Cournoyer, 28, are each charged with one count of felony abuse or cruelty to a minor and failure to notify law enforcement to the death of child.

An anonymous phone call led police to a home south of Wagner, where two-year old RieLee Lovell was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the Charles Mix County State's Attorney, the toddler had been dead for a "significant amount" of time.

The Cournoyers are the first to be charged with failure to report a death or Caylee's law in South Dakota. The law is based on the Florida law named after two-year old Caylee Anthony, who's disappearance went unreported for 31 days in 2008.

The state legislature passed the law this spring, but Attorney General Jackley hoped they would never have to use it.

"We had proposed this legislation, we made it a felony for failing to report a death of a child in six hours and we had hoped we'd never have to utilize that statute but it seems that within days of it going into effect there is a charge. I must say the adults under charges are presumed innocent and I can't talk any further in respect to other juveniles involved in the case." Said Jackley.

An 11-year old boy is also in custody as the suspect in what investigators are calling a homicide. At this time we don't know the cause of death or what exactly happened inside the home on the Fourth of July.

The Cournoyers are expected to make their first appearance on July 17th in Lake Andes.

http://m.ksfy.com/ksfy/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=aHcq3nrr&full=true#display

Dad Remembers Toddler As 'Sweet Little Girl'

By Ben Dunsmoor
Published: July 13, 2012, 5:57 PM

WAGNER, SD - The father of the two-year-old who died last week is speaking about his daughter's death and the charges that were filed in the case this week.

Guy Lovell says Taylor and Laurie Cournoyer were watching his daughter, RieLee Lovell, because he was working through a rough patch with RieLee's mother. The Cournoyers are now charged with abuse and cruelty to a minor and not reporting the child's death in a timely fashion. An 11-year-old boy is also being held in connection with the death.

Two-year-old RieLee was found wrapped in a blanket in the closet of a Wagner home on the Fourth of July, but investigators believe she had died more than 36 hours before she was discovered.

"What we're going through now is just kind of unexplainable right now. All the emotions all at once, and you just can't help but cry sometimes. Even now, I'm trying to hold back tears," RieLee's father, Guy Lovell, said.

Guy didn't want to show his face on camera but did talk about his little girl who would have turned three-years-old at the end of the month.

"She was a sweet little girl all the time she was around. She always smiled played and laughed," Guy said.

RieLee was staying in a home with 21-year-old Taylor Cournoyer and 28-year-old Laurie Cournoyer with five other children while her parents worked through a rough time in their relationship. Guy says Laurie Cournoyer is his cousin.

"She just said she didn't know where she was at for a couple days and it just appeared to me that they really didn't care. They would rather do whatever they were doing at the time than worry about them," Guy said.

Court documents say the Cournoyers admitted to using meth and smoking marijuana in the days leading up to the discovery of RieLee in the closet. They couldn't tell authorities exactly when they last saw the toddler alive, a toddler who Guy still holds close to his heart.

Ben Dunsmoor: What do you want people to remember most about little RieLee?
Guy: Bright little girl; she gave everybody a hug. She wasn't scared of nobody. She always went up to them and greeted them.

And that's why he's still having a tough time coming to grips with his daughter's death.

"Everything that's going on is just so unreal. Still trying to wrap my head around it. My baby girl is gone," Guy said.

Lovell says it will take a while to find forgiveness for the Cournoyers but he's doing his best to work through this sudden tragedy.

The Cournoyers are expected in court on Tuesday.

http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=134417

Court papers reveal neighbor children saw body hours before 911 call

6:17 AM, Jul 13, 2012

RieLee Lovell was dead more than a day and a half before anyone called police, according to court documents filed Thursday in Charles Mix County.

The 2-year-old’s body was discovered by law enforcement on the afternoon of July 4.

Another child in the rural Wagner home asked two neighbor girls, ages 4 and 6, to come over and look at the body in a closet.

That was 9:30 p.m. July 3, more than 14 hours before 28-year-old Laurie Cournoyer called 911 to report an unresponsive child.

The court documents say Cournoyer and her husband Taylor Cournoyer, 21, spent the hours between Lovell’s death and the 911 call intoxicated on marijuana, methamphetamine and painkillers.

On July 4, neither of them could tell detectives when they’d last seen RieLee alive. The girl was a relative, but not a daughter, of the Cournoyers.

On Thursday, both of the Cournoyers were charged with cruelty or abuse of a minor and failure to report the death of a child in Charles Mix County, where they are being held on $500,000 warrants.

An 11-year-old boy is being held in the homicide, as well.

The Cournoyers are the first people in the state charged under the failure to report a death statute, which was passed this year to punish those who keep a child’s death concealed for six hours or longer.

An autopsy has been conducted, but no exact time of death has been established. The documents say the incident that took the child’s life probably occurred in the early morning hours of July 3.

'I saw her yesterday'

In a probable cause affidavit filed with the criminal case, Division of Criminal Investigation agent Riley Cook recalled this exchange with Taylor Cournoyer on July 4:

“I asked Taylor if it was possible (RieLee) had been deceased from the late night hours of 7-2-12 or early morning hours of 7-3-12,” Cook wrote. “Taylor responded with ‘I could have swore I saw her yesterday.’ ”

During several interviews with law enforcement, Taylor Cournoyer said he’d been working July 3. He returned home, then went to the Dollar General in Wagner to pick up cleaning supplies with Laurie before sitting in the bedroom to work on tattoo ideas.

He told detectives that four of the six children in the home came into the bedroom and began coloring with him at one point, and that another child was “wandering around the house.” He said he thought he saw RieLee eating in the kitchen, but later said he couldn’t recall for certain.

He told detectives he’d smoked marijuana with Laurie Cournoyer that night, then shot fireworks with the kids until 3 a.m.

On July 4, he opened a closet door in the bedroom to look for something and saw RieLee’s body. He said he told Laurie, who told him to pick her up and put her in the bathroom. She called 911 shortly afterward, he said.

Other reports indicate that RieLee had been dead long before that. At 9:30 p.m. July 3, one of Laurie Cournoyer’s children, who is 6 years old, asked the neighbor girls whether they wanted to come over and “see my dead sister.”

The girls reported the incident to their mother, court papers say, and they later told a Charles County deputy they’d seen RieLee in the closet.

Taylor Cournoyer explained that it had been difficult to keep track of all the children. They didn’t feed the kids because food had been short, he said, so there hadn’t been a daily tracking of their whereabouts in the days leading up to RieLee’s death.

“When asked why no one had checked on (RieLee), Taylor provided that he was gone during the day of 7-3-12 and wanted to relax when he came home from work,” the court papers say. “Taylor stated that it’s sometimes stressful at home because the kids ‘are real a**holes.’ ”

Pills, pot, meth

Laurie Cournoyer was taken into custody on outstanding warrants before Cook arrived on the scene. When she spoke with detectives after 5 p.m. July 4, she initially said that RieLee and another child were fighting as she tried to clean the house at 11:30 that morning.

She’d sent them into the bedroom as a punishment, she said. When she came in to get the toddler for a bath, she said, the girl was unresponsive. She tried to revive her, she said, then called 911.

She also said she’d taken seven prescription pills for her insomnia that morning.

After further questioning, Laurie Cournoyer said she could not recall with certainty when she’d last seen RieLee, either. She said she’d seen the child alive upon her return from the Dollar Store with Taylor Cournoyer on July 3 but couldn’t provide a time. She also admitted to taking three of the sleeping pills July 2 and seven pills July 3 before smoking marijuana with Taylor.

“Laurie consistently had a difficult time providing detailed information regarding dates and times,” the paperwork said.

After the initial interview, DCI agents served a search warrant on the home and found a prescription pill bottle with no label, a marijuana pipe and two hypodermic needles, which detectives said could have been used for insulin.

Laurie Cournoyer was interviewed a second time after the search warrant was served, court papers say, and she admitted to using more pills than she’d been prescribed, to smoking marijuana and to using methamphetamine with her husband July 3.

Next court date

The Cournoyers are being held on $500,000 cash bond until their next court appearance, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Charles Mix County Courthouse.

For Eileen Fox, RieLee’s mother, the news of felony charges is welcome. Fox said she still is in shock over her daughter’s death.

“I want them all in jail for a really, really long time,” Fox said.

Information on juvenile criminal proceedings are closed under South Dakota law, meaning the details of RieLee’s death will not come to light unless the boy is charged as an adult.

The remaining children in the home where RieLee was found are in protective custody.

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20120713/NEWS/307130010/Court-papers-reveal-neighbor-children-saw-body-hours-before-911-call?odyssey=nav|head

This is why some people should be sterilized. These asshats put themselves and drugs before kids. They can't even recollect the last time they saw the BABY!!! They need to serve life in prison and if they do get out, they should never be allowed around children again.

And I hope they find out who killed that baby. I hope it wasn't the 11 year old boy. But with no supervision, I guess we shouldn't be surprised. These kids were treated worse than dogs.

since when do ppl need to send their own children away to get over a rough patch with each other? especially when its more than one? i feel the parents should b charged with neglect. i dont understand this need to uproot the children. if only i could b in charge for a short period of time. the things that would change.....

Flash I agree... there is no way they didn't know what these people were like. My kids stay with my parents occasionally (a matter of fact my oldest stays 1 night at my parents almost every weekend and sometimes the entire weekend because she wants to). I make contact with my kids every day and I trust my parents. They aren't drug users or abusers. I don't understand the parents in this case. And sending your kid away for a period of time can be traumatic to the kid. At that age there is so much with attachment going on. It can create major trust issues. That's actually why CPS often tries to continue visitation even with abusive parents. If that's all the kid knows just jerking them away from it simply because logically it seems like the best thing can actually be very bad for the kid.

Why do people like this breed?

ive asked that question many times. they dont want the children and they dont take care of them. using birth control would surely save alot of heartache for everyone.

Twinkletoes, I miscarried earlier this year and when I see stories like this it breaks my heart. I take good care of my kids, that baby was very much wanted and it was one of the most heartbreaking experiences I've been through. Why do people like this get to have all the babies they want, but good, loving people have infertility issues and miscarriages?

I think there should be a law that if you are convicted of child abuse that you should be sterilized. So many have baby after baby each year only to neglect and abuse them. They should sterilize them while they are in prison before the are released to breed again.

ginger, i am so sorry for ur loss. i can't even imagine ur pain. i agree with babyj about sterilization of certain ppl, but it seems their rights reign superior to the victims they leave in their wake.

Gingernlw wrote:Twinkletoes, I miscarried earlier this year and when I see stories like this it breaks my heart. I take good care of my kids, that baby was very much wanted and it was one of the most heartbreaking experiences I've been through. Why do people like this get to have all the babies they want, but good, loving people have infertility issues and miscarriages?

I agree with you!!

I too have had miscarriages and many people don't understand the heartbreak involved, the disappointment, the emotions. I am sorry for your loss and pray for success next time.

Then all these POS who shouldn't have an animal spit babies out and mistreat, neglect, abuse, torture and murder their precious babies.

Flash and Twinkletoes, thanks for your kind words and twinkletoes, I too, am sorry for your losses.

My bff's sister in law got pregnant for the 3rd time and she actually had the nerve to say to my bff, who also miscarried earlier this year, that she didn't want this baby, she might abort it, if it has downsyndrome she will definately abort it (older mother)... how do you say such heartless things to A. the aunt of your kids and B. Someone who had a miscarriage and C. Someone you know is pro-life?
Makes me sick!