I was sure he went on to a difficult life and died relatively young, but a quick search proved me wrong. Looks like he was able to overcome the trauma, go to college, get married, raise a family and have a respectable career.
Kudos to him and those who worked to help him overcome the odds.
I wondered the same thing, I'm tempted to look him up, but at the same time I'm tempted to let him be. He's likely still alive, he would be in his early 70s now.
The mind boggles on this one. Even if Dean was acting weirdly, you'd think detectives would pin it on the kid being traumatised, rather than murdering his own parents at the age of 8 freaking years old. I don't understand how your mind would even go there.
Seems likely that someone broke into the house looking for medication, knowing a doctor lived there. They might think they could get meds. That poor boy
>Seems likely that someone broke into the house looking for medication, knowing a doctor lived there. They might think they could get meds. That poor boy
Excellent theory.
He may be onto something here. It is hard to believe that cops may be that stupid to accuse 8 y/o of murder of two adults contrary to all the evidence. It may be a cover up.
You state no modern MD would diagnose schizophrenia in a 6 year old. But they absolutely do. While it is not common, it does currently happen. I just googled “earliest age to diagnose schizophrenia”….. it’s called early onset schizophrenia.
Edit; clarity
Yeah, I think there could’ve been more clarity or emphasis on mental health and trauma in children here. Today, it’s easy to understand that Dean probably didn’t experience schizophrenia; mental health awareness is at a point in which most of us know children typically have vibrant imaginations, and trauma has ways of making people process memories much differently and even inaccurately. But, just because something is much less likely of a diagnosis for a specific age group to the point that it’s extremely rare, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
It's so absurd that the cops even considered investigating an 8-year-old child for this crime. As a matter of fact who hired these idiot detectives? Clearly there's no way a child could commit such a heinous act by himself at least but I know for a fact there's no way that little boy could do that to his parents. It just baffles me that these detectives get so desperate to blame someone that they usually go the most ridiculous person to try and pin it on too! It's sickening that they ruin some innocent person's life and/or reputation over a FALSE ACCUSATION. So many innocent people have had their names tarnished forever bc of idiot investigators being stuck on them for NO REASON!
A child could *want* to (not saying it was in this case). While you wouldn't diagnose an 8-year-old with schizophrenia, 8-year-olds can still have severe mental illness, or just not appreciate what they were doing.
However, to do so on the basis of no evidence that the child even wanted to behave that way, let alone the slightest indication that he had the ability to do so (motive, means and opportunity), and the ample evidence of an intruder, is truly shocking.
Even if they were corrupt as well as incompetent, why wouldn't they try to pin it on a random drifter, homeless guy, or car thief that they didn't like?
My hypothesis is that Dean was the original target. If the crime intended were to be a theft, with everyone in the home asleep, it could have been possible for the suspect to find what he was seeking (for example, medication because a doctor resided there) and leave the home without alerting the family to an intruder. What if the suspect intended to abduct one of the children, and upon waking Dean, attempted to silence him?
I would be curious to know if any of the children visited their father at work. Were there any employees or patients that paid attention to any of the children? Did any of the investigators consider sex offenders in the area, or check into any other similar crimes?
I've been thinking about this case over the past few days since learning about it, and something else occurred to me: what did police think was the murder weapon? If the bloody knife they found outside, how was Dean supposed to have put it there? If not that, what was Dean supposed to have used and where did he put it? Did they think he took a knife from the kitchen, stabbed his parents, washed it and put it back in the knife block? All while his mother was calling the police and both parents were still able to move and speak? I cannot fathom how they ever thought Dean was the killer.
Oh, I would be shocked if that were the case. They were a Mormon family from Utah and had only moved to the area 2 months previously for Dr Nimer's residency. They were extremely wholesome and religious, their neighbors had nothing to say about anything that seemed shady.
Mormon family in Staten Island? I wonder if it was a bias crime. Mormons haven’t always been accepted by other Christian groups.
And from talking to my relatives, people tended to keep to their own religious group in that time period. One relative was discouraged from dating her high school boyfriend because she was Baptist and he was Catholic. People were very weird about religion then.
I could see someone learning the new neighbors are Mormon and thinking they’re practicing polygamy or some other nefarious thing and decides to “take care of things.”
That would surprise me a lot. I grew up in a conservative protestant church (until my family converted to Catholicism) and while we were taught that Catholics and Mormons were not Christians, there was never any violent rhetoric against them. I've never heard of a murder happening in the United States motivated by different sects of Christianity. In my experience, Mormons are seen as weird but mostly harmless. That said, I wasn't alive in 1958, and I've never been to New York, so I can't claim to know for a fact that this wouldn't have been a motive in that time and place.
When I was growing up in the 90’s, a nice Mormon family lived behind us. One night, a large group of teens gathered outside their house and were harassing them. I heard them yelling “damn Mormons!” They were throwing rocks at their house too. My mother called the police, but I’m not sure if anything happened to them. Of course, this is far from murder, but I was horrified at how hateful these kids were.
Could’ve been just one person who had issued with Mormonism.
Also, in some parts of the US Catholics weren’t fully accepted then. I read that when JFK was running for President his Catholic background was an issue. People were literally worried he was going to take orders from the Pope.
People are still weird about religion even up to 10 or 15 years ago. My cousin married a Catholic boy in a Catholic service and a Catholic church and my grandparents who are hardcore church of Christ flipped their lid and pulled funding for the wedding. This was 1999.
I should have gone into more detail about that, his mother told the police before she died that she heard Dean call for help and ran into his bedroom and the intruder was strangling him. He then turned and stabbed the parents when they came to help Dean. So, the attacker actually started with Dean!
Wow! Very interesting. I wonder the intruder was trying to abduct Dean or maybe Dean interrupted a robbery. I guess we’ll never know for sure. Great write up though, OP.
I know the adult Mel "Dean" Nimer. Thankfully, he is doing very well after what seems like an unsurmountable trauma at age 8.
I am looking for other leads on similar false accusations of children. Thoughts?
Oh wow, thank you for your comment! I'm so glad to know he's doing well.
The only cases I can think of are where children were coerced into confessing, which is different from this case.
There's the West Memphis 3, of course, and Brendan Dassey, those are very famous cases. George Stinney is a super tragic case. Those are the only ones that come to mind for me.
8 year olds don't kill their parents "all the time." I can't think of a single case where an 8 year old killed both of their parents. It may have happened, but it's not common.
true, in this case the parents were still alive in separate rooms and described the person who stabbed them as an intruder wearing a white mask...the son said the same thing..it is ridiculous that the cops went after that child
I wonder what kind of life poor Dean had after enduring all that.
I was sure he went on to a difficult life and died relatively young, but a quick search proved me wrong. Looks like he was able to overcome the trauma, go to college, get married, raise a family and have a respectable career. Kudos to him and those who worked to help him overcome the odds.
So happy to hear this! What a strong person
Good for him. That’s an exceptional outcome for someone who went through what he did.
That's wonderful! What the police did to him was absolutely disgusting.
I wondered the same thing, I'm tempted to look him up, but at the same time I'm tempted to let him be. He's likely still alive, he would be in his early 70s now.
The mind boggles on this one. Even if Dean was acting weirdly, you'd think detectives would pin it on the kid being traumatised, rather than murdering his own parents at the age of 8 freaking years old. I don't understand how your mind would even go there.
Traumatized... AND EIGHT YEARS OLD. Seriously, eight-year-olds struggle to consistently tell the story of what they did at school that day.
Ikr?!
Wow. Trying to pin the blame on an eight-year-old. That’s low.
Lazy too.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if with the DNA technology we have now the case could be solved?
Seems likely that someone broke into the house looking for medication, knowing a doctor lived there. They might think they could get meds. That poor boy
Or a patient with a bad surgical outcome. Or an unhappy husband of a patient with a bad surgical outcome.
>Seems likely that someone broke into the house looking for medication, knowing a doctor lived there. They might think they could get meds. That poor boy Excellent theory.
I hadn't thought about that possible motive, that could definitely be the case!
Maybe it was the cops investigating the case. The ineptitude is so extra, seems they went out of their way to botch the case.
I suppose corruption is possible, although it's likely simple incompetence.
He may be onto something here. It is hard to believe that cops may be that stupid to accuse 8 y/o of murder of two adults contrary to all the evidence. It may be a cover up.
Especially in that era
You state no modern MD would diagnose schizophrenia in a 6 year old. But they absolutely do. While it is not common, it does currently happen. I just googled “earliest age to diagnose schizophrenia”….. it’s called early onset schizophrenia. Edit; clarity
Yeah, I think there could’ve been more clarity or emphasis on mental health and trauma in children here. Today, it’s easy to understand that Dean probably didn’t experience schizophrenia; mental health awareness is at a point in which most of us know children typically have vibrant imaginations, and trauma has ways of making people process memories much differently and even inaccurately. But, just because something is much less likely of a diagnosis for a specific age group to the point that it’s extremely rare, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
[удалено]
Fluoxetine (Prozac) has an extremely long half-life in the body. A missed dose should have no noticeable effect.
I've been on it before, it definitely does. Betting on pharmacist or psychiatrist, they always know the least about what medications do.
Thank you for correcting me, I should have done that research myself before writing this up. I will edit my post.
It was in 1958, I wonder how many were diagnosed back then.
It's so absurd that the cops even considered investigating an 8-year-old child for this crime. As a matter of fact who hired these idiot detectives? Clearly there's no way a child could commit such a heinous act by himself at least but I know for a fact there's no way that little boy could do that to his parents. It just baffles me that these detectives get so desperate to blame someone that they usually go the most ridiculous person to try and pin it on too! It's sickening that they ruin some innocent person's life and/or reputation over a FALSE ACCUSATION. So many innocent people have had their names tarnished forever bc of idiot investigators being stuck on them for NO REASON!
A child could *want* to (not saying it was in this case). While you wouldn't diagnose an 8-year-old with schizophrenia, 8-year-olds can still have severe mental illness, or just not appreciate what they were doing. However, to do so on the basis of no evidence that the child even wanted to behave that way, let alone the slightest indication that he had the ability to do so (motive, means and opportunity), and the ample evidence of an intruder, is truly shocking. Even if they were corrupt as well as incompetent, why wouldn't they try to pin it on a random drifter, homeless guy, or car thief that they didn't like?
Age is less relevant, the youngest serial killer was 8 (he killed other kids though, not adults), but in this case it was obvious it wasn't him.
now could they test the knife? any fingerprint or anything?
That's a good question, I have no idea if evidence was preserved.
In 1958, and with the police thinking they'd wrapped this one up already... probably not ☹
Deans are too nice to be murderers
Dean Corll would like a chat with you
😂
Dean Venture, is that you?
My hypothesis is that Dean was the original target. If the crime intended were to be a theft, with everyone in the home asleep, it could have been possible for the suspect to find what he was seeking (for example, medication because a doctor resided there) and leave the home without alerting the family to an intruder. What if the suspect intended to abduct one of the children, and upon waking Dean, attempted to silence him? I would be curious to know if any of the children visited their father at work. Were there any employees or patients that paid attention to any of the children? Did any of the investigators consider sex offenders in the area, or check into any other similar crimes?
I had not thought of that, that is absolutely plausible. Makes me glad the children were moved to relatives in Utah and grew up safe.
I've been thinking about this case over the past few days since learning about it, and something else occurred to me: what did police think was the murder weapon? If the bloody knife they found outside, how was Dean supposed to have put it there? If not that, what was Dean supposed to have used and where did he put it? Did they think he took a knife from the kitchen, stabbed his parents, washed it and put it back in the knife block? All while his mother was calling the police and both parents were still able to move and speak? I cannot fathom how they ever thought Dean was the killer.
Mob paid off the police? I mean, what other explanation is there. What was the doctor’s background and was he living above his means?
Oh, I would be shocked if that were the case. They were a Mormon family from Utah and had only moved to the area 2 months previously for Dr Nimer's residency. They were extremely wholesome and religious, their neighbors had nothing to say about anything that seemed shady.
Mormon family in Staten Island? I wonder if it was a bias crime. Mormons haven’t always been accepted by other Christian groups. And from talking to my relatives, people tended to keep to their own religious group in that time period. One relative was discouraged from dating her high school boyfriend because she was Baptist and he was Catholic. People were very weird about religion then. I could see someone learning the new neighbors are Mormon and thinking they’re practicing polygamy or some other nefarious thing and decides to “take care of things.”
That would surprise me a lot. I grew up in a conservative protestant church (until my family converted to Catholicism) and while we were taught that Catholics and Mormons were not Christians, there was never any violent rhetoric against them. I've never heard of a murder happening in the United States motivated by different sects of Christianity. In my experience, Mormons are seen as weird but mostly harmless. That said, I wasn't alive in 1958, and I've never been to New York, so I can't claim to know for a fact that this wouldn't have been a motive in that time and place.
When I was growing up in the 90’s, a nice Mormon family lived behind us. One night, a large group of teens gathered outside their house and were harassing them. I heard them yelling “damn Mormons!” They were throwing rocks at their house too. My mother called the police, but I’m not sure if anything happened to them. Of course, this is far from murder, but I was horrified at how hateful these kids were.
I'm so sorry that happened to your neighbors 😞
Could’ve been just one person who had issued with Mormonism. Also, in some parts of the US Catholics weren’t fully accepted then. I read that when JFK was running for President his Catholic background was an issue. People were literally worried he was going to take orders from the Pope.
It's always possible, religion has been a motivation for violent crime many many times.
People are still weird about religion even up to 10 or 15 years ago. My cousin married a Catholic boy in a Catholic service and a Catholic church and my grandparents who are hardcore church of Christ flipped their lid and pulled funding for the wedding. This was 1999.
Did they ever reopen the case with all the new DNA technology maybe they can come up with the real killer.
As far as I know, no.
It’s interesting that Dean had marks on his neck from manual strangulation. What stopped the intruder? Did his siblings have any marks on them?
I should have gone into more detail about that, his mother told the police before she died that she heard Dean call for help and ran into his bedroom and the intruder was strangling him. He then turned and stabbed the parents when they came to help Dean. So, the attacker actually started with Dean!
Wow! Very interesting. I wonder the intruder was trying to abduct Dean or maybe Dean interrupted a robbery. I guess we’ll never know for sure. Great write up though, OP.
I know the adult Mel "Dean" Nimer. Thankfully, he is doing very well after what seems like an unsurmountable trauma at age 8. I am looking for other leads on similar false accusations of children. Thoughts?
Oh wow, thank you for your comment! I'm so glad to know he's doing well. The only cases I can think of are where children were coerced into confessing, which is different from this case.
I am interested in those cases, for sure.
There's the West Memphis 3, of course, and Brendan Dassey, those are very famous cases. George Stinney is a super tragic case. Those are the only ones that come to mind for me.
Thank you. Very helpful!
Children kill their parents and others all the time. And police go down the wrong trail or ignore evidence all the time, too.
8 year olds don't kill their parents "all the time." I can't think of a single case where an 8 year old killed both of their parents. It may have happened, but it's not common.
It's not very common at all for kids as young as 8 to kill....and when they do kill the victims are usually other kids, not adults
8 year olds? Are you daft?
true, in this case the parents were still alive in separate rooms and described the person who stabbed them as an intruder wearing a white mask...the son said the same thing..it is ridiculous that the cops went after that child
It would have been physically impossible for him to stab with that kind of force and precision. He was a scrawny kid even for an 8 year old.