Dumpster, Author Eion-Ray Patterson, Source https://www.dumpsterrentalscolga.com/ (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)
WARNING: Graphic Images
A South Carolina woman, Alyssa Dayvault, 32 y.o., was convicted of two counts of homicide by child abuse for having killed her infant children – a girl and boy, born in 2017 and 2018, respectively [1A].
The Public Defender claimed that Dayvault had intended to give the children up for adoption. Instead, Dayvault hid both pregnancies from her mother and boyfriend, ultimately disposing of the children in trash bags.
Dayvault apologized in court to her two remaining children, but seemed oblivious to the harm to her dead infants. She was sentenced to 40 years.
Numb
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jer. 17: 9).
We have, it seems, grown numb to the needs of our children. With 9 months to decide the fate of each of her children, this woman committed infanticide. Then did it again, a year later. The children were simply trash to her.
And Alyssa Dayvault is not alone. A Michigan woman, Antoinette Briley, 41 y.o., was charged with the murder of her twin sons in 2003 [2]. Evidence suggests she, too, discarded her newborns in the trash.
Reproductive Rights
Can we by any stretch of the imagination classify such callous and reprehensible indifference as the exercise of reproductive rights? The answer should be a resounding “No”. But we abort thousands of children daily, using the same rationale.
What must God think of us? How can we live with ourselves?
Abortion and God’s Forgiveness
A priest in Project Rachel, the post-abortion ministry of the Catholic Church, described the anguish experienced by many post-abortive women this way:
“Many feel they have committed ‘the unforgivable sin’ and are destined for hell, or that they deserve to be on death row. Most suffer this spiritual desolation in silence, too ashamed and feeling unworthy to seek reconciliation from God [3].”
Yet God stands ready to forgive, if we will only repent [4]. We may view ourselves as trash, for the lives we have led and the choices we have made. But God sees things differently. We remain His children.
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 4: 17).
What He wants is to restore us to spiritual life.
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[1A and 1B] People Magazine, “SC Woman Who Killed 2 Newborns, Dumped Bodies in Trash, Then Said She Was ‘Scared’ Gets 40 Years” by Steve Helling, 11/6/20, https://people.com/crime/south-carolina-woman-killed-2-newborns-gets-40-years-prison/.
[2] CNN, “Michigan woman charged with murder in 2003 deaths of newborn twins” by Kelly McCleary, 12/5/20, https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/05/us/illinois-newborn-twins-murder-woman-charged/index.html.
[3] US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), “Life Matters: Forgiveness and Healing after Abortion” by Susan Wills, Esq., https://www.usccb.org/prolife/life-matters-forgiveness-and-healing-after-abortion.
[4] Hope After Abortion, https://hopeafterabortion.com/.
Twin baby boys less than 12 hours old have been found dead of blunt force trauma to the skull in an alleyway in the Bronx. A $10,000 reward is being offered for credible information about the deaths.
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ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse 
Oh! My lord
That is such a disturbing news.
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”
Trash: perfect title for this difficult topic that you have handled so well to keep us pondering all day.
Thank you, Marilee.
This is so very tragic. We are designed by God to bond with our children, to love and protect them. It makes me wonder what happened to this woman to take her to this place where she was willing to kill her own children – on more than one occasion. It’s very, very sad.
Confronted w/ evil outcomes like those here, we are often left to wonder.
Can’t imagine the pain many of these women must suffer. Still God is so merciful, beyond our comprehension.
Yes, He is, Brian.
One cannot help but wonder what would possess the mind and heart of this woman, to discard two precious lives as pieces of trash. And yet, even this can be forgiven, when confessed as sin, to Christ as Lord. Such is the difference between the mind and nature of fallen humanity and our Creator God. And if that doesn’t stop and make one think, heaven only knows what would. The grace that God our Father offers us through His Son reaches to the very depths of our nature and lifts us to His. Blessings to you and yours Anna.
You are so right, Bruce. Thank you for commenting. Blessings, A. ❤
Things like this make me certain that there is a God. Surely to such depths of depravity there is a corresponding depth of the love of God. In fact He has revealed it. Calvary.
You are so right, Allan. But despicable crimes like these are exactly why some people decide there is no God. Many blame Him for the evils of this world.
That flawed reasoning is what I applied to the child abuse which scarred my own life. God “had” to be the one responsible, not my father. Pain and anger cloud victims’ judgment. We lose faith, and we lose hope.
But God does not give up on us, even when we have given up on Him. I can attest to that.
You put a disturbing story into words, I struggle with what to say about the horrific acts throwing their babies in the trash. I cannot understand the mentality of these people.
I am truly sorry to have distressed you, Nanette.
It does not distress but I find it incomprehensible
One has to wonder, for those whose hearts have not been regenerated upon submission to Christ, do you suppose that our society has “taught” them that human life is of such little value as to be relegated to the trash heap?
Consider: we permit the wholesale slaughter of the most innocent to the tune of some 60 million since 1973. What are the takeaways from this?
Consider: when seniors become unable to care for themselves, what typically happens to them? They are placed in a “facility” of some type so that they do not infringe upon the rest of us. What are the takeaways from this?
Consider: our streets run red with the blood of citizens caught up in drug deals, murders, prostitution, sex trafficking, and every imaginable evil. What are the takeaways from this?
I do not mean to suggest that there is any legitimate reason to discard or harm innocent children. It is inexcusable by any standard. Yet in homes devoid of God’s love and presence, the door is wide open for the enemy to “steal, kill, and destroy”(John 10:10). What we are witnessing by the aforementioned acts of cruelty is the depths of depravity that man apart from his Creator will stoop to.
You paint an all too accurate picture, my dear friend. This is the brutal world in which we live, the world man has fashioned for himself. The ugliness has no bounds. It is God’s love alone which sustains us. But until the scales fall from our eyes, we cannot see that.
Yes, you are correct dear Anna. Until we experience our own “Damascus Road”, we are led about by forces determined to impose their will upon us. All the more reason to rejoice in the freedom Christ offers to all who will receive it.
Anna, you have my admiration and respect. Your publications are current and very interesting. I congratulate you. The world needs people like you, with the ability to speak out on these issues.
You are too kind, Santiago. Mine is a very small ministry. Health issues these days limit my efforts. I am no longer able to practice law. But I try to do my part.
It is a blessing for me to meet people like you. I highly recommend your blog santiagogaliciarojonserrallonga.wordpress.com to readers. You find the beauty in the world.
I am reminded of the Bible verse: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things” (Phil. 4: 8).
A psychologically sound as well as a physically healthy future should be all children’s foremost right, especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter.
It angers me that society continues to erroneously perceive thus practice our reproductive ‘rights’ as though we’ll somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture our children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
_________
“It’s only after children have been discovered to be severely battered that their parents are forced to take a childrearing course as a condition of regaining custody. That’s much like requiring no license or driver’s ed[ucation] to drive a car, then waiting until drivers injure or kill someone before demanding that they learn how to drive.” Myriam Miedzian, Ph.D.
You make an excellent point.
I’ve long wondered whether high school child development education might help put a figurative foot in the door of domestic violence by diminishing, and even eventually stopping, the descendant cycle of abuse.
After all, dysfunctional and/or abusive parents, for example, may not have had the chance to be anything else due to their own parents.
Also, our various news, entertainment and social media need to consistently tell boys, implicitly and explicitly, they don’t need to be aggressive, the stereotypical ‘real man’, nor that they should conform to potential mates’ attraction to the strong, silent type.
Even in our ‘enlightened’ contemporary times, there remains a mentality out there, albeit perhaps subconscious: Men can take care of themselves against sexual perpetrators, and boys are basically little men.
The Gospel is for those who have committed abortion too
I truly think the only way to begin to end these horrible crimes is to reach out and be more conscious of obvious behaviours and signs of aberrant or unacceptable behaviours long before they mature to criminal acts. The amount of ignorance, uneducated, marginalised and forgotten people that exist in the US, end up being the God-less criminals that commit these horrific acts against humanity and against God. Punishment is of course given but punishment is not a solution, it is an after-fact action that doesn’t stop others from acting in the same manner. The only prevention is education.
Yes. And love, I think, Francisco. So often, it seems to me, these disturbed individuals were rejected as children. Only love can repair that damage which is why the prison animal programs are so effective.
Absolutely Anna. With love comes respect and possibly even trust. Love is all you need, like John Lennon said all those years ago…
What you say has merit Francisco, but there will never be enough “experts” who are trained and educated in this type of behavior to be able to stem the tide. The problem is simply too large, I believe.
While I am a firm believer in showing mercy and compassion to those who have never had the privileges most of us have enjoyed, I am just as resolute in my convictions that those convicted of such heinous acts should never walk free again. The risk to others is far too great, IMO.
Unless I am completely misunderstanding the attributes all of us are endowed with from our Creator, there exists within all of us a conscious, and with that convictions. In short, we know the difference between right and wrong, or at least we are pricked in our conscious when we contemplate doing the unthinkable.
Of course, there is a tiny minority that cannot distinguish between the two due to impairments in the brain, etc. That does not however excuse the majority of offenders who at some point in their life made a conscious decision to cross the line into unacceptable behavior.
I’m quite sure that there are a host of reasons why a person would make such a choice. As Anna has commented, perhaps they were raised in a home where love was non-existent. Perhaps they saw abuse occurring so regularly that it became acceptable behavior, at least in their minds. And lets not forget how Hollywood glorifies violence and sexual perversion. Video game makers too are well known for producing some of the most violent and gory “games” that somehow or another become addictive to those who play them.
In American society we have developed an insatiable appetite for things that the Bible strictly admonishes us to stay away from. Perhaps the root cause of the things that Anna has written about is so simple that it’s been right in front of us all along and we’ve failed to see it: mankind loves darkness instead of Light.
You have identified the root cause of all evil, Ron. God alone can change hearts on that fundamental level. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36: 26).
I am not an expert but based upon life experience and a little knowledge gained here and there, I can only say that the current approach is not working so it is time to consider other ways. Reactions are not solutions and while I do agree with you that those convicted should not be set free, it’s important to prevent others from crossing that line you’ve mentioned. There may not be too many experts but that’s the challenge, to adapt, improvise and overcome was what I was taught. One must not place obstacles in the way, one must remove them or circumvent them my friend. Thank you and all the best,
FBC
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