Payton Ettinger -- Deceased 5/17/10

Prosecutors charge southeastern Indiana woman with starving her 4-year-old son to death

First Posted: August 20, 2010 - 11:28 am
Last Updated: August 20, 2010 - 11:28 am

GREENSBURG, Ind. — Prosecutors have charged a southeastern Indiana woman with starving to death her 4-year-old son who was physically and mentally disabled because of abuse by his father.

Decatur County prosecutors filed felony child neglect and reckless homicide charges against 25-year-old Courtney Tressler of Greensburg for the May 17 death of Payton Ettinger. Court documents say Tressler told officers she found Payton dead in his crib a few hours after feeding him.

Read more: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/1fdf8b2388fa4c13b0f84a8534c30bb0/IN--Starving_Death/

Greensburg mother accused in death of special needs child
A Greensburg woman faces charges of child neglect and reckless homicide after her four-year-old son was found dead inside her home.

By Kara Brooks Fox59
3:25 p.m. EDT, August 19, 2010

Greensburg, Ind. — UPDATE: Four-year-old Payton Ettinger had a hard life. He had mental and physical disabilities because his father abused him when he was just two months old. Now, his biological father is in prison serving time for hurting his little boy.

Now it's possible the mother could be sentenced to prison, too. She is accused of killing her own son. After a three-month long investigation officers found the evidence they needed to charge Courtney Tressler.

Detectives said she starved her child and that led to his death last May. Payton weighed only 12 lbs. when he died. He was 4-years-old.

Video at link **
Read more: http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-greensburg-mom-arrested-for-sons-death-081910,0,7790942.story

Payton Ettinger: Murder by numbers

Posted on August 20th, 2010 by Valhall

Payton Ettinger died on May 17, 2010. He was 4 years, 8 months old. And it appears that Payton was murdered. He was murdered by the numbers, the critical numbers in his life – that and he appears to have been slowly starved to death.

Two and Five

These are the first two numbers that led to Payton’s almost five years of dying. Payton was 2 months old when his biological father, Martin Ettinger, battered him so badly he was left with severe disabling brain damage. These brain injuries from abuse at the hands of his biological father left Payton with no verbal skills, and the inability to walk or control physical movements. He was crib-ridden for the rest of his short life – completely dependent on his mother for his care. Martin Ettinger, for this abuse and the first step toward the murder of Payton Ettinger, was sentenced to 5 years.

One and Seventeen

The next important number in Payton’s life is one. Payton was 1 year 1 month old in 2006 which is the last time this severely disabled, brain damaged child was taken to see a doctor, or as far as any records have shown to date, taken for any medical care whatsoever by his mother, Courtney Tressler. On this last doctor visit of record Payton weighed 17 pounds.

Four and Twelve

On May 17, 2010 Courtney Tressler called the Greensburg, Indiana police and reported her son, Payton Ettinger, was dead. When police arrived Courtney told them she had fed him that morning and then later went to check on him to find him dead in his crib. Problem is, when little Payton’s emaciated body was autopsied, no food or water was present in his stomach or intestines. Payton was 4 years 8 months old and he weighed 12 pounds. (That is in the 3 percentile for expected weight of a 4 year old boy.) The autopsy concluded he died of severe malnutrition and dehydration – having no body fat whatsoever.

Two and Fifteen-thousand

But not feeding Payton for God only knows how long isn’t the only thing Courtney Tressler lied to police about after reporting her son dead. She claimed she had last taken him to a clinic for a check up in 2009. The investigation discovered that Payton had had NO medical care recorded since that last doctor visit in 2006 when he was 1 year old. Apparently investigators wanted to know, and rightfully so, with the obviously signs of severe distress for the starving little boy, why Courtney had not sought medical attention for Payton before he died. Her response was that she wanted to, but they were financially unable to get him medical attention.

Two days after Payton died Courtney Tressler sought medical attention for HERSELF. By the way, Courtney is out on bail for which she had to put up $15,000 bond.

Courtney is being charged with reckless homicide and neglect of a dependent due to her failure to provide basic care for Payton. Her current husband, Greg Tressler, in a front porch interview with local media in which he came off looking like a chicken-headed rednecked, meth addict, said this is all a misunderstanding. He says they live in a little town and someone’s trying to make a big name for themselves. I suggest Greg shake his scrawny ass back in the house and shut the door before that SOMEONE comes for him and demands to know how he didn’t know a child was starving to death in his own home.

Rest in peace Payton.


Payton Ettinger (Courtesy of WTHR.com)

Valhall.

http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/08/20/payton-ettinger-murder-by-numbers/

This story is another heartbreak among the thousands of other heartbreaks we hear about every year.

God bless little Payton. He is out of pain now and sleeping in the arms of our Lord.

What a gut wrenching story...People that abuse children only take up space on this overcrowded planet....Is there a redeeming quality in their lives??? When Christ said "suffer the little children to come unto me" I'm sure he didn't mean it as physically or mentally let them suffer abuse...

Tressler pleads guilty to neglect
Posted: Thursday, September 29, 2011 11:12 am

In Decatur County Circuit Court Wednesday, Courtney G. Tressler, 26, pled guilty to amended charges in the death of her son, Payton Wesley Ettinger.

Tressler was originally charged in August 2010 after Ettinger passed away May 17, 2010. The charging information had included two separate counts; one for C Felony reckless homicide and another for A Felony neglect of a dependent. These two charges were amended into a single B Felony charge of neglect of a dependent Wednesday.

The amended charging information alleges that Tressler "failed to obtain medical treatment for the diarrhea of Payton Wesley Ettinger and failed to obtain medical examination of the child's condition, and such neglect resulted in the child's malnutrition and extreme dehydration, serious bodily injuries that create substantial risk of death."

Read more:  http://www.greensburgdailynews.com/news/local_news/tressler-pleads-guilty-to-neglect/article_ca310b61-0033-5711-a6f3-df58dd01913f.html

10-year sentence in case involving neglect of dependent
11/4/2011

27-year old Courtney Tressler of Greensburg was sentenced to 10-years in jail by Decatur Circuit Court Judge John Westhafer Friday afternoon.

Read more:  http://www.ask4direct.com/InfoRead.asp?id=WTRE&InfoID=754634

Moving to Closed.