Murder of Dennis Jurgens - After The Murder

After The Murder

Though there was an investigation, society and law enforcement of the mid-1960s did not accept the concept that a child in a middle-class home could be the target of abuse. It would have been difficult at the time to prove that Lois Jurgens had committed murder. In spite of extensive physical evidence pointing towards severe abuse, the medical examiner did not classify the death under any of standard classifications of accident, suicide or murder; he simply marked it "deferred."

There was also a great deal of suspicion surrounding Jerome Zerwas, the brother of Lois Jurgens, who was a police lieutenant in the town of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. A common belief amongst witnesses and neighbors at the time of the murder, and among the investigators who eventually re-opened the case, is that he interfered with the investigation and destroyed incriminating evidence.

Although Lois was not charged with Dennis' murder, the death caused sufficient suspicion for the authorities to remove Robert from the home; he was placed with his paternal grandmother for a period of just over five years, during which the Jurgens' spent a great deal of effort and money attempting to regain custody. Eventually, while Robert was hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia, his grandmother burned to death in a house fire. There is some suspicion that Lois Jurgens herself set the fire, as it not only was it coincident with Robert's hospitalization, but Lois had also made threats of arson regarding the homes of several neighbors and family members who had spoken to authorities.

Robert was returned to the Jurgens home and, going through new channels, the couple was eventually able to adopt four school-aged siblings from Kentucky. By this point, Lois' rage and mania had gone beyond her ability to maintain an appearance of normalcy, and she and Harold had relocated to rural Stillwater, Minnesota, possibly to escape the gossip of their former neighborhood where Dennis was killed.

As the new adopted children were older, there were many firsthand histories (recounted to the media during the 1987 trial of Lois Jurgens) describing the severe abuse they suffered at their adoptive mother's hands. Beatings and displays of Lois' explosive temper were daily events; especially bad days could include her slamming a child's forehead into a nail protruding from a wall, forcing a child to stand barefoot in snow, and shoving a used sanitary napkin in a child's face. During this period, Lois was once again placed in a psychiatric facility.

Eventually, all four of the siblings from Kentucky and Robert escaped the home by running away and getting help from concerned neighbors. Their flight, coupled with the lingering suspicions surrounding Dennis' death, resulted in the termination of Lois and Harold Jurgens' parental rights. They were informed they would not be allowed to foster or adopt any additional children.