Australian Blogger's Son Dies- Sparkling Adventures

[princessjo1988]

Autopsy results are taking quite a long time here in Queensland at the moment - apparently there is a 'backlog' (I would say because of funding issues, not that our slash and dice state government likes to admit it!).

Over 2 months ago, there was a disappearance/murder case close by and they still have not established cause of death. (http://www.news.com.au/national/queensl ... 6422152595) . There have been several cases where this has happened - in one high profile case, the remains are yet to be returned to the family, a year after they were found (http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/quee ... 4152001745).

So, we might not even get a definitive cause of death when it goes to court on the 16th.

[luckystone]

Autopsy results are taking quite a long time here in Queensland at the moment - apparently there is a 'backlog' (I would say because of funding issues, not that our slash and dice state government likes to admit it!).

Decimating the public service was a great idea huh? :roll:

[princessjo1988]

Well, I didn't expect that!

My mum has been following the whole saga, and started reading the blog from the start. She found out (that at least for a time) they were attending a church that we also attended, back in the 90's - Grace Bible Church (http://www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=81). Grace Bible Church is an offshoot of John MacArthur's church in California, Grace Community Church. My mother had been very badly treated by this church - in fact, when she separated from my father and begin divorce proceedings (after 20 years of marriage and trying to 'fix' him!), she was widely condemned and they continued contact with my (by then jailed) father - who then used what they were saying to him - to try to persuade my mother to stay. Oh yes, it was crazy. My brother and I ended up turning up to one of their church services, and having some very firm words with them about wise-ness of their choice to even communicate with him. Strangely enough, after our visit the harassment stopped from my father, and the divorce proceeded.

It seems that they also had problems with this church - (http://www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=129). Interestingly, also because of a lack of support, although for David, during his '9 black weeks'. Whatever that may be.

It seems to have become a theme with them, and they ended up discarding church altogether....(http://www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1063)

Also of interest (to me anyway) - they attended a homeschooling conference from the organisation that we used - LEM (Light Educational Ministries) - (http://www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=367).

I must admit, I have found this to be all a little bizarre....and more than a little enlightening. (I swear that church sends people crazy. Just my opinion).

___________________

Edited to add - oh and they used babywise (Growing Kids God's Way, anyone?) for a time as well - (http://www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=235). My parents used to teach it, and were actually introduced to it at Grace Bible Church, if I remember correctly. Well. :O

[Koala]

What is going on with her blog?

[Witsec7]

What is going on with her blog?

Nada, zip, nothing. The silence if frightening.

[Koala]

Nada, zip, nothing. The silence if frightening.

When I go to her site it says something about her exceeding her bandwidth. I agree that the silence is worrisome.

[Witsec7]

When I go to her site it says something about her exceeding her bandwidth. I agree that the silence is worrisome.

I just checked and got the same message. It wasn't there earlier today. I don't know what that means in blogosphere.

[Koala]

I just checked and got the same message. It wasn't there earlier today. I don't know what that means in blogosphere.

Neither do I! I was hoping you would know. :lol: Off to google.

[Koala]

Something to do with data transfer. Possibly all of the extra traffic her site has been having. That's all I got.

[truthseeker]

Hi - new here. Really pleased to find this discussion. I've been a bit obsessed with this story - and it's great to find a bunch of others who are interested too.

Anyway - I noticed that all the posts on her FB page since the baby's death have been removed too (and everything from Sparkling Adventures gets copied there). Wonder if it might have legal implications?

[Witsec7]

I'm still getting the FB page and the latest comment on it was 7 minutes ago.

FWIW there is court on Monday.

[theologygeek]

She exceeded her bandwidth. Her site is probably on a shared server. I doubt that she can afford her own server. Once you go over your bandwidth, you either have to pay more or the site goes down. Too many people have been going to her site.

[truthseeker]

Whoops!

Just checked again, and they're all back on. Sorry :oops:

[Ex 2x2]

PrincessJo, I am sorry for all you've been through. :( I also have a history with the Ezzos (babywise and gkgw). Did you know that they went on to eventually be excommunicated from McArthur's church? They are a serious mess.

[princessjo1988]

Thanks ex2x2 - it is what is! And yes, I did know that the Ezzos got kicked out of 'Grace' - my mum pretty much completely recanted the whole Ezzo thing once she left, and she has since apologised for it.

As for Lauren, I follow both her blogging & personal facebook page and she has been active on both today - so I am not too worried.

After reading most of her blog - I noted that up until about a year or so ago, they were relatively normal (once you took out the fundie stuff), settled family. For a little while they had been talking about selling up and moving to New Zealand (even put their house on the market) - but that all changed overnight. And at the same time, they also became vegetarians. It was like a complete 360 degree change.

Also, (this is just hypothesises on my behalf), they had been very close to their respective families (lots of visits/contact)in the beginning, to suddenly referring 'family breakup' and problems around the same they started their 'wanderings'. I wonder if their families were worried about them, and expressed that concern - and that caused the 'issues'.

The fact that Elijah drowned (?) is very strange as well - throughout the blog (particularly in the beginning) they had been very proactive about water safety - the girls all had swimming lessons and float suits.

Another hypothesis of mine (but it has no basis in actual fact, and I am sure that it would have been already discounted), is that the baby died due to lack of supervision, or accidentally in the fire tub /other water body, and that David snapped and decided that jumping off the bridge was the answer for some reason.

I guess we will find out more tomorrow....

[So Many Lies]

Where on earth will she live? Surely she isn't planning for them to all live in a car. They can't fly under the radar forever. Someday, someone is going to want to know why those little girls aren't in school.

Also, money has got to be an issue. How will she afford to feed clothe them? I would rest a lot easier if she would drop the "sparkling adventure" bullshit and start looking for ways to establish some normalcy and roots for her daughters. I think it would be wonderful if they could maybe live near family and go to school. They probably need a therapist to talk to as well. Losing their father and brother has to have had a significant impact on them. :(

Centrelink to the rescue!!

[tacky]

PrincessJo, I am sorry for all you've been through. :( I also have a history with the Ezzos (babywise and gkgw). Did you know that they went on to eventually be excommunicated from McArthur's church? They are a serious mess.

I don't want to thread-jack as I've just been reading til now, but this bit of information makes me very happy. I had people try to push the Ezzos on me when my children were babies/toddlers, and just found and trashed my copies of Babywise and GKGW. They're horrible people.

[sassyNoz47]

im still not able to go to her blog and the fb page shows no new updates, well on her sparkling one anyway

[yaright]

I have followed this blog for a while so had to comment. I am a major lurker and have been for a few years. You do realize she is not allowed to be alone with her kids, she posted it on FB so the chances of her driving off are slim. She was driving people around all day,because she wasn't allowed to be around the kids. She posted how they all lay on her and cry at night. I really feel sorry for her. Yes she made some awful mistakes but she lost her child and that is a price no mother should pay. I thought David tried to kill himself and took the baby. He was losing his mind. Here is why. She posted about having to share him with someone else and realizing she needed to grow, which to me said he was cheating on her and she was going to allow it to happen and see if he came back. She started erasing comments of everyone who started to tell her this is a HUGE mistake. Then he came on and posted I am in a loveless marriage, which I interpreted as I am an asshole, and cheating on you, and it is your fault. Suddenly they broke down and where kicked out of Johnny's, David seem to not be doing anything about it or even uncaring. They had no water and where running out of supplies. Not a good environment. So she took off to get the van. She posted on FB how scared she was about it, but she needed to do something. She was stuck in town paying off the van, she could only withdraw so much money at a time out of the ATM is what she posted. So she started visiting friends, who where more than likely saying, hey this is a fucked up situation you need to get the kids and leave. He posted the video of the kids saying where is Lauren running around naked. Because when you wife takes off with the baby you grab a video camera and start taping. She was calling constantly and he was posting video. She FBed alot of this. Next thing you know out of nowhere she is flying home to Australia. Then the baby is dead. See to me I was seeing them heading straight into a train wreck, so did many others, who where posting advice, she started deleting everything. So many of us leghumpers are feeling like we did not do enough. But you have severe marriage problems, more than likely an affair, financial problems. I would not be surprised if she said she was leaving him, and he stormed off with the baby and jumped off the bridge. Her FB and Blog was shouting I feel awful about the whole thing. She was also the one who worked to support the family before they took off. But that has been my theory on the whole thing. Her blog also is more like an online diary so her posting me me me doesn't scream anything to me. She posted "Someone told me the world was going to end in December this year. I said it already has." She is grieving. I can feel it on her FB as for changing everything I think she will change the blog but if she changed the whole layout while this was going on I would be more upset than if she just ignored it. As for it being accidental or that she did it. She seemed very bonded to this little boy. And in the last few post before it, I was thinking she had enough of what was going on. I don't have inside information or anything I just followed the blog.

[Witsec7]

I...I don't have inside information or anything I just followed the blog.

Many of us have read the blog, and like you don't have 'inside' information. Posters here can and do have differing opinions. It is my opinion, regardless of the tragedy at hand, this woman is self centered, and both she and her husband were in some respects piss poor parents.

[Koala]

I agree. Whatever was going on in her marriage, those children were being neglected.

[Koala]

I agree. Whatever was going on in her marriage, those children were being neglected.

[yaright]

oh I completely agree those kids where being terribly neglected, they where filthy, with lice. I worry about their diets and everything. She didn't seem to have a kitchen in the truck. Plus where did the kids sit while they where driving? All the issues you guys brought up. And who puts their baby to bed in a box? And the fire bath was awful that was a regular bathtub with Mom in the room. Also with marriage issues were they fighting infront of the kids, was he bringing the other woman around? Just was saying she has unsupervised contact which is a good thing, she needs help. And my theory on what happened;) If I came across another way sorry. I was not trying to come across as a know it all either, which is why I put I don't have inside information. If I did sorry. Just what has happened the last few months on the blog.

[Witsec7]

Yaright, I'd love to quote some of your initial post but without paragraphs it's a bothersome task. I will raise a bit of a contradiction that you presented in your post. You said she was working and supporting the family while the husband wasn't. She made a big deal about quitting her real world job and then later about some brief temp pt webwork she did. All the while the blog recorded her husbands flooring work (the first purpose for the horse truck). Then there are all the repeated times (after each pregnancy) when she was in bed for days suffering from PPD leaving all the work to be done by the husband. Both these folks were on the tracks to tragedy long before the boy died.

I found it appalling that she would leave her husbands post up about the sexual problems in their relationship. I do understand that she, mentioned long before her son's death, that she wanted her blog to be read by her children later. I find that just another case of these two wanting to live in a world without considering any type of consequences. She let one of her kids go off for a day with a virtual stranger, and portrayed it as a very ok event on her blog. I was going WTF is this woman crazy. Well yea, I figured that out by the time I finished reading the entire blog.

[theologygeek]

oh I completely agree those kids where being terribly neglected, they where filthy, with lice. I worry about their diets and everything. She didn't seem to have a kitchen in the truck. Plus where did the kids sit while they where driving? All the issues you guys brought up. And who puts their baby to bed in a box? And the fire bath was awful that was a regular bathtub with Mom in the room. Also with marriage issues were they fighting infront of the kids, was he bringing the other woman around? Just was saying she has unsupervised contact which is a good thing, she needs help. And my theory on what happened;) If I came across another way sorry. I was not trying to come across as a know it all either, which is why I put I don't have inside information. If I did sorry. Just what has happened the last few months on the blog.

I find it odd that her daughter said she wouldn't see her father until she was grown. She had to have gotten that from her mother. Also right after he got arrested, Lauren declared herself a single parent, and asked for advice on what to tell the family about homeschooling as a single parent. It's strange that someone who is supposedly so positive and sees everything as sparkling declared her husband guilty and sentenced so soon. If a person thinks that their loved one is innocent, it's human nature to hold onto hope that everything will be okay and their loved one will be free when the truth comes out. She has the power of the internet at her fingertips. Why is she not being vocal that a terrible injustice was done to her husband? Supposedly she misses her husband and "best friend." It's like half of her thinks he's guilty and the other half of her thinks he's innocent. You know what I mean?