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Dean Shillingsworth
  February 25, 2005 - October 11, 2007
On October 17, 2007, some children playing near a pond in a park in Mandurama Reserve at Ambarvale, New South Wales, Australia found a suitcase that contained the body of a child.

Rachel Pfitzner had three children in all and each of her children had a different biological father. Dean was in the middle between his older
half sister, who was eight and younger half brother who was six at the time of his death.

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Only four months prior to his death, Rachel Pfitzner had moved into
a new home, a public housing estate in Pindarus Place, Rosemeadow, with her children, including Dean. Calls to The NSW Department of Community Services were made concerning the welfare of Dean and 
that prompted a court order to be made and custody of Dean was
transferred to his grandmother. Dean had been living with his paternal grandparents in Tamworth, up until June when he had gone for a visit with is mother. Rachel had never brought home from that visit. When police went to talk to her about the court order, Rachel said that Dean was already in the custody of the DOCS. That was, of course, a lie.

Between 11am and 11:30am on October 11, 2007, Rachel had shaken Dean and thrown him to the floor. She believed she had killed him so she wrapped his body in plastic, stuff him inside of a suitcase and 
dumped his body into the pond where his body was discovered by the children six days later. Four days later, Rachel, who was on parole,
was arrested and charged with murder. Rachel's father said that he 
had only been able to see his grandson three times since he had been
born. It had been about six weeks since he had last seen him he said:

"I never got the chance to cuddle him once, nor to hear 
him call me poppy"

Neighbors had thought the way Rachel had behaved was odd, though
none of them suspected she would kill her child:

"He was very quiet; we saw him once or twice, but 
never with his mother when she left the house to go to 
the shops. She was always pushing the baby in the pram 
and had the little girl with her. My son said he was obsessive. He woke up one night and was so hungry he 
ate a whole loaf of bread. We had little to do with them. Most times it was through the little girl, when she would 
go around to neighbours' houses with a note asking for cigarettes. Other times she would be playing on her own 
in the street on her bike. We had not seen anyone at 
the house since last Sunday. Then two days ago police 
came to my house asking questions, that's when we 
realized. I'm still pretty numb"
Greg Massey - neighbor

Kevin Greene, a Community Services Minister, defended the way the
case was handled. He said that several calls made to their helping did
not indicated that there was a threat against the life of Dean:

"The reports to the Department of Community Service,
DOCS helpline that in some way involved the young boy, 
I'm clearly advised by the director general of DOCS, that none of these reports could reasonably be assessed that 
the child's life was in danger. "I'm not minimizing the seriousness or the tragedy of this case. I'm not 
suggesting these reports were unimportant"

The town continue to mourn for Dan and the Reverend David Cole 
from the Rosemeadow Anglican Church said that he would leave a
service for Dean with three simple prayers:

"One is for the family who's grieving, so Dean's family, 
simply that they will find the courage and the strength t
o face the future without Dean. We are going to pray for 
the community, that they make sensible choices from 
this point on. And then, just for Dean himself, we are 
going to ask that God treat him with mercy and kindness"

Dean's biological father, Paul Shillingsworth, was in jail at the time of
his death, for breaking parole on a bodily harm sentence. Paul had
applied for a transfer so that he could attend the funeral of his son.
Beverly says that Paul was a violent man and that there had been 
instances of domestic violence in the relationship between Rachel and
Paul.

Paul's family said he was a talented, traditional dancer in a troupe
that included several of his brothers and they had performed at many
events including the opening of the Mount Druitt Medical Center. They did not see the violent man that Beverly saw. Both sides of the family
did agree that Dean was a bright, lively little boy. Beverly said that his
favorite words were food and biderman:

"He loved me, I loved him. I was very, very close to him. 
He was a normal two-year-old. The terrible twos. He 
loved Chicken In a Biskit. I used to go over there every Sunday. I would take enough for all the kids but he always managed to find a box himself. He was very smart."

Donald Shillingsworth said that his nephew loved his toy motorcycle,
jumping castle and jumping on the trampoline:

 "He had everything, he got what he wanted"

When Paul was let out of jail, Rachel's family was disgusted at the
way he was treated, like a hero. Paul had been in jail on charges of
sexual assault, against Rachel. A family member spoke out:

"In the lead-up to his release from jail last week, she had been terrified for her safety. It had been made clear to her 
Shillingsworth would be coming back the moment he was 
out. Psychologically, she had felt tortured" 

The same family member said that they were unable to attend the
memorial service held for Dean, due to threats made against them.
Detective Superintendent, Geoff Beresford said that they were making
rounds, patrolling and that there has been a bad history between the
two families of Dean.

Rachel's mother, Beverly,  said that she had called the DOCS to get some help for her to raise Dean properly, she said she was told that there were not enough resources to help her daughter. Beverly said 
she had been having trouble bonding with Dean because he had been
living with his grandmother, Ann Coffey, who had custody of him for
the last year:

"What can we do about it? We haven't got the 
kind of resources for that"
DOCS worker

Rachel had visited the DOCS office earlier in the year and was asking 
for help and advice on how she could regain custody of her son. With
no help available, Rachel decided to just keep Dean after a scheduled
visit on June 7. From the start, Rachel had trouble raising him. Dean's
grandfather, Edmund Capan said that at least three checks were made
concerning Dean, in the month of July after they contacted police to
say that Rachel had not returned him from her visit. Edmund told
police that he was concerned for Dean's well being:

"We knew she couldn't handle him" 

Edmund also said that something more should have been done to 
help his grandson:

"They DOCS should have done something. They could 
have went out there and could have helped in some way"

Beverly disagreed with what Edmund had said:

"I wouldn't say she wasn't coping, she was struggling. 
She was able to cook meals for them every night. 
She fed them and clothed them."

Kevin Greene said that action was taken, though he wouldn't say what
type of action it was:

"DOCS did receive a call to its helpline and the call 
was assessed and there was some action taken. Sadly, 
there is no perfect child protection system in the world 
but we want to do the best we can to continue to 
improve the child protection system."

On October 29, 2008, Rachel was in court where she said that she
though Dean was dead when she stuck him into the suitcase and put
it into the pond. Belinda Rigg, Rachel's attorney asked Diane little, the
Forensic Pathologist if his death happened the way his mother said it
had and then she told Rachel's account of what happened. Rachel
cried while she listened to her attorney say that she had shaken her
son, thrown him to the ground and he had wet himself, become
unresponsive, made gurgling sounds and had foam coming from his
mouth. Belinda then said that Dean's hand had frozen into a claw and
when she checked, Rachel thought he had no heartbeat. Rachel then
attempted to do CPR on Dean. 

Diane Little said there was a possibility that Dean had been alive when he was stuffed into the suitcase, however, since he had been dead for
at least a week, his body was badly decomposed and the actual cause
of his death could not be determined. Diane also said that a lack of
bleeding in his brain suggests that he had not been shaken to death.
She said that he could possibly have suffocated.

"Is one of the possibilities in this case, as you see it, that death could have been caused by the placing of the child, who appeared to be deceased but wasn't, into the plastic bag and then into the suitcase" 
Belinda Rigg

"If he was completely unconscious but not yet dead, 
that's a possibility" 
Diane Little 

Edmund Caban was outside the courtroom and said that he and his 
family were relieved that this case was finally going to go to trial. He
also said they were all looking forward to the truth coming out. 

"That's the one thing I hope for" 

Edmund said that it had been a long, troubling struggle for him and 
his family:

 "but, we are getting there"

Rachel did not enter a plea and was held without bail for trail. Her
trial date was set for December 5, 2008 where she would face the 
NSW Supreme Court.

Rachel was in court on December 12, 2008. Rachel appeared in court
though a video, instead of in person and only answered questions, 
such as "Can you see'' with a short "Yep", from the Silverwater prison
for women. Ugo Parente, her attorney was pleading for compassion
for his client. Dean's fathers family was pleading for justice:

"I just ask that she be shown a bit of compassion at 
this time. It is a sensitive matter and it has to be 
dealt with fairly"
Ugo Parente

 "We just want justice for the family"
Rita Wright - Dean's Aunt

Rachel is held in a protection cell in the Silverwater Woman's prison,
at her own request. She contacts her mother on a regular basis. Paul
Shillingsworth is also in prison, once again, after being release on
parole that was revoked after new charges were filed against him.
Rachel was due to appear in court, once again through video link, on
February 6, 2009. 

Read about a memorial and Dean's funeral

UPDATE:

Dean Shillingsworth mum pleads guilty to murder

August 18, 2009 10:13am
 

A WOMAN has pleaded guilty to the murder of her two-year-old son, whose body was found in a suitcase dumped in a Sydney pond.

Rachel Pfitzner, 27, pleaded guilty today in the NSW Supreme Court to the murder of Dean Shillingsworth on October 11, 2007 at Rosemeadow.

His body was found in a suitcase pulled from a duck pond at Ambarvale, in Sydney's south-west.

In June, Pfitzner had pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

But the Crown representative then told the judge he was not in a position to say whether that plea would be accepted.

When the murder charge was read out today, Pfitzner admitted the more serious offence.

Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told Justice Robert Allan Hulme a statement of agreed facts would be forwarded to him before the sentencing hearing.

That hearing has been listed for October 8.

The Herald Sun

Thank you to Emma for alerting me to this update. I am so glad that
so many people are willing to help me keep these pages up to date
with the latest news about the cases of these children.

For information about preventing child abuse in Australia click below. If they can't help you, ask for someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help for an abused child!







Call this number to report child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child  1-800-422-4453





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