Wow Larkin, you are an amazingly gifted writer!! Kudos. This case has always saddened me profusely (for the children) and I thank you for writing it. I didn't realize that Dolan had been released. That really angers me, especially if he's been "sexually attracted" to kids...child molesters don't rehabilitate. Ever.
Soobs | 05.02.08 - 3:10 pm | #

Y'all help pimp Larkin's article -- post links, send to friends. It's a depressing story, but she told it beautifully, and it needs to be read.
Steve Huff | Homepage | 05.02.08 - 3:31 pm | #

Larkin - Very, very well written! I really like the storytelling vibe you gave this piece, unfortunately, this wasn't fiction, it really happened.

Thank you for this update on a truly disturbing case. I remember reading about this when it was initially in the news and always wondered what ever happened to Heather and Doron. I remember thinking back then that Heather DID mean to immolate herself and then changed her mind when she felt the heat, but by then, it was too late. This case left me so confused, I even read everything that the aunt, Batya (Patti), posted. It never left me closer to understanding what really happened.

Your update, as beautifully written as it is, still leaves some important questions unanswered. Very sad, indeed.
Monika | 05.02.08 - 4:09 pm | #

Larkin- A beautifully written piece about such a tragic story. Thank you for bringing it to us.
Kayline | 05.02.08 - 5:08 pm | #

Welcome Larkin!

Thank you for posting such an indepth article on Doron and Heather Silverman. It is a disturbing story, but it is very important to get these stories out there.

Regards,

Tamar
tamar | 05.02.08 - 6:40 pm | #

That was beautifully written.

Larkin, that's the kind of post every writer hopes to achieve. Your ending was powerful.

I am very much looking forward to more.
jolynna | Homepage | 05.02.08 - 8:57 pm | #

Beautifully written, Larkin - very well done.

Right after I read this a friend of mine emailed me an article about a local child who lost his battle to cancer. The article talked about the outpouring of love that he had received from his church, local schools, and a local soccer team as well as from his family. All I kept thinking about is how we as a society and our child care systems have failed Keylee and Mikel and so many others like them. They too deserved an outpouring of love and support - maybe then they would still be alive.

"He (Doron) also offered that he would have to resign his job at Chuck E. Cheese as he was "sexually interested" in the children he observed there." - Why was Doron even given the choice to resign? How the hell was he allowed to even work at a child-oriented business? There was a record from when he was 13 even if he was a minor at the time - right? Pure irresponsibility in the screening process in my opinion. And the arguement that "his job maintaining gaming systems didn't require interaction with children" does not justify his employment to me at all. Sorry - I just find it so troubling how the innocent are so unprotected.

Again, Larkin, very well written. I read this about 7 hours ago at work and your words are still in my head, making me think more than I had planned for a Friday night. But now I am going to go kiss my two kids goodnight again and thank God that I can.
C+C momma | 05.02.08 - 10:29 pm | #

Thanks for relating this story is such a clear and humane voice. It's a tragedy for all concerned, and you do well in presenting that aspect of this sad tale.
Rocklifter | 05.02.08 - 10:36 pm | #

Oh, thank you all for your kind remarks. I am overwhelmed by your response to this story. I struggle to keep a "clear and humane voice," Rocklifter, and I am grateful that you think I succeeded here. It isn't easy to write without judgment. Everyone lost in this story. Certainly Mikel and Keylee lost the most, but no one walked away from this without it exacting a terrible toll. Including Heather & Doron.

C+C Momma... I wasn't able to find any court documents relating to Doron's conviction as a juvenile. They have been either sealed or expunged. We only know about it at all because his family was eager to talk about it. He is still listed as a sexual offender in Ohio, but he is also listed as still incarcerated. Officials just aren't keeping up with the records. No doubt he will be de-listed and well able to be employed by a daycare, Chuck E. Cheese, or school district.

But you know, if Doron Silverman had denied any and all allegations I wonder if this story wouldn't have had a different outcome. The evidence against him was largely circumstantial. He was naieve, and I think he believed that people would try to help him if he told the truth. While I think it's very important to protect children from sexual predators, this case failed on all fronts. And the charges didn't even stick, so no one is protected.

I'd really like to hear if people think there could have been a way to handle this situation that would have saved the lives of these children. Children's services in Ohio doesn't have a great track record (the story of Marcus Fiesel comes to mind) and my personal belief is that their involvement is what made the balance tip. If, as a society, we don't learn from these terrible stories, we are destined to see them repeated over and over. There must have been a better way to handle this, but what was it?

One final note... there is a different Doron Silverman on My Space, and who comes up when you search the internet. A resident of LaJolla, CA, he has nothingto do with any of this, just an unfortunate coincidence. (Let him try to get a job as a second grade teacher. )

Thanks again, everyone.
Larkin | 05.02.08 - 11:38 pm | #

I'm in the U.K. and I had never heard this story.

I've been a visitor to Steve's site for two years and I have never felt compelled to comment before but this story is just so overwhelmingly tragic. It makes me grateful for what I have and makes me sad for the suffering of other's. Like someone else said, I read this some hours ago and it really affected me.

Larkin, you did an amazing job of conveying the emotion involved and Steve, you have the best crime blog on the net bar none.
Busters_mummy | 05.03.08 - 4:28 am | #

Jeezlouise what a story. Thanks for sharing that. There are so many intersecting threads here and what really strikes me is the fact that the law once again fails to save the day. I was reminded of living in Texas when I heard about Andrea Yates drowning her 5 children but that case is less convoluted than this one, certainly.

http://www.courttv.com/trials/ya...ates/ index.html

A common thread seems to be mental illness on the part of everyone involved. FWIW the Yates father vehemently agreed with the insanity verdict in that case.
KingCast | Homepage | 05.03.08 - 9:45 am | #

Well done Larkin. Thank you for sharing this heartbreaking story with us. I like your writing style very much.
Colleen S | 05.03.08 - 4:31 pm | #

Incredible writing. My heart aches for those poor sweet angels.
January | 05.03.08 - 7:37 pm | #

Wow. The writing here is impressive.

I live in Ohio, and I wish to gods I had suggestions for you.

However, there is no system so perfect, no suggestion so valuable, that bureaucracy won't screw it up. And that someone won't slip through the cracks, somewhere, again.
Chris | Homepage | 05.06.08 - 10:43 am | #

I just want to say thank you, again, to everyone for their kind remarks. I really appreciate that you have been so receptive to my first post.
Larkin | 05.06.08 - 12:52 pm | #

An update....

Heather Silverman was sentenced today to two 15 year terms in prison, to run consecutively.

Her husband, an admitted pedophile, is at large and there is no indication that any charges will be brought against him.

And as far as the handling of this case by Children's Services, and the role that may have played in the deaths of two children.... well, no one had to answer for that.
Larkin | 05.08.08 - 2:10 am | #

Sadly, I'm sure we'll hear about Doron Silverman again.
Steve Huff | 05.08.08 - 2:26 am | #

One last thing . . .

In the days since Heather Silverman's sentence was handed down, there have been letters and emails to the local paper expressing the authors' concern that the sentences were too harsh.

This is a fairly unusual turnabout for this community, as generally they are screaming for blood, particularly when children are involved.

It makes you wonder about the efficacy of public defenders, though. I'm not saying that she should not have been punished, but I can't imagine a competent defense attorney not trying to make Heather Silverman more sympathetic to a jury and using the circumstances and her own incompetency to bolster that effect.

There was a terrible situation in SW Ohio a few years ago with a child named Marcus Feisel, age 3. He was taken from his own (admittedly substandard) mother and placed in the foster family where he was murdered by being bound and gagged and left in a closet for three days while the family went to a reunion. Later his body was dismembered and burned. It was the live-in girlfriend of the husband of the foster couple (yep, an in-house threesome) who turned them in.

Given the climate created by that poor child's death, (it was all over the news at the time of the Silverman fire) you think an attorney could have created enough sympathy for Heather Silverman that she might have received a more humane sentence. Just my ten cents' worth.
Larkin | 05.14.08 - 12:20 pm | #

Larkin I wash to contact you directly about you story there are some errs in it that should be corrected and I also want to thank you for the way it is written and portrayed and I agree with you that every one lost in this story Mikel & Keylee lost the most but Heather & Doron also lost more then any person should have to bear! and no mater what her sentence she has to live with the memory of what happened that day for the rest of her life and there cant be any punishment worse then that!!
Lost Angels | 05.15.08 - 6:35 pm | #

larkinvonalt@earthlink.net

Most of the information came first hand from court documents. I'll be interested in where the errors were.
Larkin | 05.15.08 - 8:27 pm | #

This is an absolutely ridiculous and horrible rendtion and misinterpretation of the facts. The father admitted to molesting his son and being attracted to children. The mother admitted to taking the batteries out of all the smoke alarms, dipping rags in gasoline, wrapping them around candles, putting the whole set up in the bathroom with the kids, tipping the candles over and then locking the door behind her. she sat on the couch and waited until the screams were too loud and then walked, calmly, to the neighbors across the street to tell them her house was on fire. the neighbor is the one that tried to get in, not heather. and somehow in this article the aunt is portrayed as the animal being "on their heels" and "making accusations". Larkin, do you know the family? Are you friends with Heather to have such a biased and skewed stance? Congratulations to you on getting "published" by skewing facts with biases and twisted ideas. The fact that so many are lauding this "story" as well-written and factual is disgusting. 30 years for murdering your children is not enough, especially when you set about a whole plan to make it happen. The aunt is a hero for notifying CPS that the father was molesting Mikel. The father admitted to it. If she had not done that then Doron would have gone on fondling and fellating his four year old son for who knows how long. This is tripe.
ed | 05.26.08 - 4:09 pm | #

moreover, why on earth would you even consider that wreck of a woman would be considering self-immolation? don't you think she would have taken enough drugs to have herself pass out in the bathroom with the kids if that was her intent instead of sitting on the couch patiently waiting for just enough time to go by for saving the children to become an impossibility? Nor did she kill her children to "save her husband". How does that even make sense? He had already admitted to fondling the boy and putting the child's penis in his mouth and having the child climb on his own naked body like a jungle gym and that he would have to reconsider his employment at Chuck E. Cheese as he was attracted to the children there. Reference the Dayton Daily News if you need to back check some of your facts. How would murdering those babies suddenly save him? What a leap of judgment. Again, this is tripe. I think I'll go listen to Brenda Lee and hope everything can suddenly be romanticized in to trashy "creative non-fiction" to make a tragedy more interesting and garner an amateur some publishing space. I hope it isn't the case that only the glowing "Larkin is so creative and great" comments get posted.
ed | 05.26.08 - 4:42 pm | #

My research for this piece came from reading the court files, along with every newspaper article written on this case, not just in Dayton papers, but also Indianapolis, Kokomo and Cincinnati; along with accounts of the fire that appeared on a fire-house website account honoring the firefighters at the scene.

Additionally, there was considerable ancillary research done on infanticide, murder-suicide, untreated clinical depression and the role of child welfare services in episodes that resulted in the child's death. (There are literally thousands of those, by the way.)

I don't know anyone involved in this case, but I have seen many instances where Child Protective Services run amok to the ruination of many lives. (Gee, just look at Texas! But I suppose you think all those people must be guilty too.) As for the police, I have seen cops lie through their teeth. (And plenty worse. And have testified in court to the same.)

What's really unfortunate is that you can't read a piece that presumes neither innocence nor guilt (and sorry, the Dayton Daily News as a "fact" source is laughable) without resorting to personal attack. Your assessment of me is way off-base, so I suppose it might be logical to assume that your assessment of the facts of this case might be similarly skewed.

Is Doron Silverman guilty? I don't know. But I do know that there are many people involved with this case that have blood on their hands and will never have to answer for that.
Larkin | 06.04.08 - 1:29 am | #

There are only a few people with blood on their hands...Heather, Doron and Cindy. Shame on you Cindy for taking the children BACK to the abusive home. Shame
Knows the truth | 06.17.08 - 6:31 pm | #

I had no clue who Doron was until he became my roomate
Chris | 06.22.08 - 9:20 am | #

After 2 month living here he had told me what had gone on in his life, i felt sorry for him and thought can it be true??
But then as time went by, I see how he is, slowly he took over my house, so i ended up hidding in my room, he started driving my car, and the worse he could have done, he is/was getting to my daughter 19y of age, so that she feels sorry for him. Well needless to say when i realized yesterday what he is up to...i told him he had to move out right then and there. I am so ashamed to let him in my house..he ruined my small house without blinking an eye...He claims that he has his own buisness, but yet he never workds, his friends pay for everything, he told me he cant live with them due them having small children...thats when a light in me went off and i knew he had to go, i will never forgive him for what he did.
Chris | 06.22.08 - 9:29 am | #

This is in response to Larkin from 06.04.2008.

You say it's "laughable" that i referred to the dayton daily news for facts. However, in the first paragraph of your haughty, emotional response, you stated that you read every article written on this case, and not just the daily news, as a place for gathering facts. shall we find your entire story laughable, then? i think so. Moreover, you say that I am unable to read a piece that presumes neither innocence nor guilt without resorting to personal attack. However, i am positive that you are intelligent enough to be aware that your piece puts people in to character roles that are based on sensationalism and opinion rather than on fact. The way you portrayed the Aunt in contrast to other participating members was intended to villainize her and that is plainly obvious. Don't play coy. Your use of italics insinuates that I made you upset. Well, you should be...but not because of what I said. Also, before I move on, please note that you tried to indicate that i was biased or unreasonable in a manner that was personal. You are not a good reporter, madame. You can't get pissy with somebody for supposedly doing something (based on your own misconceptions) and then turn around and do it. In this case you did both. If the Dayton Daily is not fact for me, then it's not fact for you. If "personal attacks" are wrong for me, then to turn around and use them is ignorant of you. Back to what I was saying. You should be upset because what you said was inaccurate, misleading, and sensationalized. You wrote what you wrote to attract hits and garner attention. You paid no respect to the fact that most of the people involved in this case are living and are actually real people. I hope beyond hope that no horrendous tragedy similar to this one ever falls upon your family and that to top it all off, some hack is writing about it to further their own reputation or glory. I certainly hope you're not in the aunt's shoes...left to deal with loss and pain in many ways and then to have your character slandered in "creative non-fiction". As for this quote from you "Additionally, there was considerable ancillary research done on infanticide, murder-suicide, untreated clinical depression and the role of child welfare services in episodes that resulted in the child's death. (There are literally thousands of those, by the way.) " All I can say is, so what? So? There's thousands of those? Ok, great. That doesn't explain why you think spreading so much opinion as fact and leaving out details is ok. Also, based on what I read, and then based on your response to mine, I'd say my assessment of you is pretty dead on. Morevoer, the question of whether Doron is guilty or not is a joke. Sure. The court documents say he let his son play on him like a jungle gym, sometimes touching his genitalia while he was naked and that he put his sons penis in his mouth, but that doesn't mean any thing! we can't prove guilt here, people! the courts upheld the appeal! give.me.a.break. And you've seen cops lie through their teeth? Oh, please. The histrionic rantings of the impotent, that's what I am hearing. I've also seen amateur writers seeking attentions turn horror and despair in to their personal playground.
ed | 07.03.08 - 4:33 pm | #

Though this is a bit embarrasing to say, I was in jail with heather for about a month, this woman showed no remorse what so ever about what she had done. She never showed any emotion at all about what she had done to her kids. She had a box that she kept her mail in and had her kids' names written on it. That was it as far as her kids. When she was asked why she would do such a thing to her own kids her response was "Me and my husband were swingers and they got in the way". Does that sound like a woman who cared about her kids at all? Or does her punishment sound to harsh? Not in my book..She should be serving life sentences for what she done..
lisa | 07.25.08 - 9:22 am | #

I am the neighbor who tried to get into that burning house on Maplehill that SAD AND TRAGIC Thursday afternoon. That day stays with me always, haunting my dreams, playing games with my thoughts and emotions, and has scared my heart beyond repair. To this day when I smell a fire burning I still see Mikel laying in my lawn, clothes smoldering, his little socks melted into his skin, replaying like a clip from a movie that you want to forget, but it's been burned into the fibers of my brain.
It is just now that I have found this article, it is just now that I am starting to try to make a mends with what happened to those children. What I witnessed that day no one should ever have to bare. Nobody should have to see a child in that condition, no one in their right mind should be able to do that to a child, especially their MOTHER! She was supposed to protect them, she was supposed to be the one person in this world who would do ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING possiable to keep them safe, and SHE MADE THE CHOICE to set them on fire instead! As far as I'm concerned I don't believe she should EVER see the light of day again. Death is too easy for her, but what's left of her life should be NO BETTER! I don't think 30 years is enough, I hope that EVERYDAY she sees her sons face the way i do, I hope she remembers him holding out his little burnt hand, pointing his finger at her, I hope she's pained even half as much as i am by the look that was in his eyes while he was worked on by LeAnn Nash. Her eyes were empty that day, but i pray that God opens them with the pain that she inflicted on HER OWN children that day. And i hate to sound so selfish, but the pain that she has left in my heart and the scars she burned in my life will never be forgiven. That day changed my life, and NOT for the better. Until that day I loved that neighborhood, until that day I wanted to buy a house on that block, until that day my life still made sense. I've been told i may not be able to have children, and to see what she did to hers...well to say it feels unfair is an understatement! And for anyone who thinks that she doesn't deserve what she got I say this, you weren't there, you didn't see Mikel, you weren't the one trying to get in a burning house to save a baby that was already gone, I heard no cries, I saw only thick black smoke, I, a women Heather's age, choked on the smoke upon opening the screen door, so imagine a newborns lungs trying to handle that...they couldn't. There's not a doubt in my mind that she waited until she could no longer hear her baby girl anymore before she WALKED, yes people she walked to our door, not ran, NO PANIC, she even remembered that our doorbell didn't work, and she knocked! She simply said "My house is on fire." I asked her where her kids were and she replied "in the house" so i took off. As i ran across the street without shoes or socks on I asked her where the baby was and she said "by the bathroom", since our houses had the same layout i knew where i was headed, but it dawned on me as i choked on the smoke that she was BEHIND me, i didn't understand why i was trying to save her baby and she was lagging behind spinning in circles. She wouldn't even look at Mikel. When i saw him on the porch i was afraid to touch him, i could hear the sirens by this time and started back across the street to my house when that red moving truck came past and asked if we needed help. There were two men in the truck, they both got out, and one of them scooped Mikel up by the sides of the yellow coat he was laying on and brought him over to our lawn. Still Heather wouldn't look at her son, she never tried to follow him when they put him in the ambulance, she was just nonresponsive to his needs. i remember when my mom asked her why didn't she just scoop up the pumpkin seat and run with her daughter, she simply said "it was hot" in such a matter of fact way that made my stomach turn. It was then that i went to one of the officers and asked that she be watched closer and asked if she was going to be questioned because she wasn't acting like a mother who was loosing her kids.
I've tried to make some kind of sense out of what i witnessed that day, i've tried to understand why, i've spent the last over two years now trying to "get over it" with no luck. So i guess i'm hoping this will help me find some kind of closure by sharing this with you. Until the trial was over i couldn't discuss the details of the case, and even now, i wasn't even LOOKING to share this in this way, I only found this article because i decided to google myself, and thanks to Heather Silverman, this is what my name comes up in relation to! Not exactly what i aspired...and until i read all of the comments that were posted i wasn't going to share anything, but due to the wide range of comments I felt what I had to say was MORE than valid, and I hope something good can come from me sharing my feelings and letting people in on what i was subjected to due to the choices and actions of my neighbors...and that was all they were, there was no friendship, there were no weekend game nights shared, just a few smiles and waves from across the street. We let their dog in our backyard once when he had got out in the street while they were out shopping. I remember Mikel played catch with a tennis ball with him in our yard for a few minutes when they came to pick the dog up. That's the way i try to remember him, smiling, and playing catch with his dog, but unfortunately, that's not the image that remains.
I will NEVER forget or forgive her for what she has done, and the fact that Doron is a free man angers me beyond what words can relate!!! I lost so much faith in our so-called justice system when i found out that the supreme court overturned his conviction. The "safety plan" that was put in place was a joke, and yes i really feel that this was a prime example of a severly flawed child protective system, and of our falwed justice system in general. Above all, children should be safe in their own homes and sadly that's just not the case anymore.
Sarah | 10.08.08 - 6:08 am | #