IMPORTANT UPDATE: I've just received a request from Kathleen's father via a good friend of the family (verified: this is the woman who organized the original rally in support of Kathleen last fall), asking that the Facebook page be taken down; apparently Kathleen and her father/stepmother have already left the area, and just want to be left alone, out of the public eye.
Since this was the main purpose of the Facebook page in the first place (to help the family get the hell away from those horrible people), and since the father has requested it, I'll be shutting down the FB page by the end of the day (I'm leaving it up for a few hours in order to give the current members time to hear about this development, with the friends' blessing).
They'd still like donations made to the HDSA, however.
This is a follow-up to Monday's diary, "The Sickest Piece of Sh*t in Michigan Returns". I'm re-posting the follow-up due to some additional information that's come out since then...
As you'll recall, a piece of feces in human form named Jennifer Petkov has been relentlessly tormenting a little girl dying of Huntington's Disease and her family in Trenton, Michigan for a couple of years now.
TRENTON, Mich. - Her family says 7-year-old Kathleen Edward is in the final stages of a degenerative brain disorder diagnosed as Huntington's Disease - the same disease which killed her mother, Laura, when she was only 24.
Neighbors Jennifer and Scott Petkov, who have been feuding with the family, admitted to posting grim depictions of Laura and Kathleen on Facebook. One photo depicts Laura in the arms of the grim reaper, while the other features Kathleen's face above a set of crossbones.
The couple also have a coffin hitched to a pick-up truck in front of the house, which they say is nothing more than a halloween decoration.
I won't repost everything from the previous diary, but the original local news report just has to be seen to be believed; there's no other way of properly encapsulating the rage this story has brought out in me:
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Read the rest of the diary for more details.
Anyway, today I'm writing a follow-up for several reasons: First, because there are some new local news stories which shed some additional light on the latest incidents, and second, because I now have a definitive answer to the "What can we do about it?" question.
First, from the Detroit News, here's some details about the latest crap that Jennifer Petkov has been pulling:
Neighbors: Taunting Trenton mom violating probation
Trenton— Tensions on Detroit Street have not calmed since the woman who was accused of taunting a terminally ill girl and later pleaded guilty to attempting to run over another neighbor was ordered to move out during her 18-month probationary sentence.
Neighbors claim Jennifer Petkov has been sneaking back into the home where her husband and children still live, and that she has continued to taunt her neighbors with Internet postings.
"I'm frustrated. All we asked for was a peaceful summer. It should not be this hard to get," said Rebecca Rose, the grandmother of now 8-year-old Kathleen Edward.
Kathleen was diagnosed with the juvenile form of Huntington's disease, a neurological disorder that claimed the life of her mother, Laura Edward, in June 2009.
Taunts allegedly started in 2008 back and forth across the street and on the Internet with Petkov's admitted postings of altered photos of Laura Edward in the arms of the Grim Reaper and a photo of Kathleen's crying face over crossed bones.
Trenton Police Chief William Lilienthal confirmed Monday that the complaints about Petkov's alleged visits to the home are under investigation as a possible probation violation.
So, what has Petkov allegedly been doing lately?
From the Trenton Patch a few days ago:
Facebook documents Rose gave to Trenton police showed comments allegedly attributed to the neighbors stating:
“Detroit St. Party, When that kid dies, cause boys and girls it’s to happen.”
“Dead and gone, only a few more hours till party time, I’m going to visit a grave and take a piss.”
...
"Doctors say Kathleen might not live another year," Rose said. "She has seizures and is in a wheelchair."
Over on the Facebook page that I set up yesterday, according to someone who appears to be a close friend/neighbor/relative of the family:
"What is actually happening is that Scott [Petkov's husband] is sneaking her in through the side door of their house...violation of probation since she shouldn't be there...also they [the Petkovs] call the police on anything and anyone visiting Becky [Kathleen's grandmother]. We had a candlelight vigil the evening of the 17th to celebrate the beautiful life of Becky's daughter Laura [Kathleen's mother, who also died of Huntington's]...wow, big shocker: After they raced into the driveway, snuck Jennifer [Petkov] into the house, they called the police to say we were impeding traffic, thus stopping our candlelight.
"However, the celebration did continue! Becky is an amazing person! She doesn't deserve the things these people are doing; in fact, the evening they [the Petkovs] were posting a countdown to the anniversary of Laura's death, Becky was at a fundraiser to raise money for Juvenile Huntington's!"
And finally, from another Facebook page:
“He [Petkov’s husband] got fired from his old job last Oct...He got a job with a school district, despite the fact that one of the personal protection orders against him is due to the fact he exposed himself to a couple of little girls across the street. He doesn't work with kids in the the school district, but still, you'd think they'd check this kind of stuff out before they hire people...
“He's as bad as she is. It was him who posted those things about p*ssing and sh*tting on Ms. Rose's dead daughter's grave last week...Then he created a fake profile the day after to taunt Ms.Rose, with a very recent picture of the grave...just to show he'd actually been there.”
Now, I obviously can't verify the Facebook post claims above, but it sure as hell sounds like par for the course for these scumbags.
The story has now gone international, with the U.K.'s Daily Mail running a story about the "Devil of Detroit Street" (a fitting moniker, thus used in this diary's title), which actually includes more pertinent details than some of the local coverage, including the original sickening photos that the Petkovs posted to Facebook.
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Meanwhile, the outpouring of support for Kathleen, her grandmother and the rest of the Rose/Edward family has been tremendous, not just here but over at Facebook and in the local community:
Readers Share Wishes, Prayers for Grandmother, Dying Girl from Trenton
Someone may be taunting them on Facebook, but many Patch readers poured out kindness and support for a little girl from Trenton, MI, with Huntington's disease and her grandmother.
News came out Friday of a police report filed by a Trenton, MI, woman whose dying granddaughter was taunted on Facebook, claiming the activity has allegedly continued.
Since then, Patch readers from California to Texas to and as far away as the United Kingdom have chimed in with well wishes and offers of support for the girl.
...which brings me, finally, to the "What Can I Do?" part of the diary.
Well, money has already been raised to help out with the girl's medical bills and the like, and there's not much that can be done to rid them of the Petkovs outside of the police/legal/court system that's slowly grinding it's way through the system.
Yesterday I was thinking that it might even make sense to raise money to buy the Edward/Rose family a new friggin' house outside of the area (Trenton isn't a high-rent district; $60K would do it) just to give them some distance from their tormentors and some peace of mind.
However, Rebecca Rose, Kathleen's grandmother, has stated that they don't want anyone to raise any more money for their personal expenses; instead, they just want people to donate to the Huntington's Disease Society of America to help fund research for the cause and treatment of the disease.
To that end, we've set up a Causes project over at Facebook. All donations go to the HDSA.
So, I'm asking you to donate generously. We can't stop the Jennifer Petkovs of the world from being disgusting, evil pieces of filth--but we can try to prevent any more Laura or Kathleen Edwards' from being victims of the disease that Petkov seems to revel in.
(Note: If you'd prefer to donate directly, here's the HDSA link, although to be honest their donation page is a bit annoying--it requires you to include a "recipient notification" even if you want your donation to be anonymous. I don't think the family needs to be flooded with 10,000 "someone has donated in your name!" postcards, so this irritates me)
IMPORTANT UPDATE: I've just received a request from Kathleen's father via a good friend of the family (verified: this is the woman who organized the original rally in support of Kathleen last fall), asking that the Facebook page be taken down; apparently Kathleen and her father/stepmother have already left the area, and just want to be left alone, out of the public eye.
Since this was the main purpose of the Facebook page in the first place (to help the family get the hell away from those horrible people), and since the father has requested it, I'll be shutting down the FB page by the end of the day (I'm leaving it up for a few hours in order to give the current members time to hear about this development, with the friends' blessing).
They'd still like donations made to the HDSA, however.