Erin Maxwell, 11 years old starved raped and strangled

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More details released about Alan Jones

OSWEGO COUNTY, N.Y. -- There is new information in the death of 11-year-old Erin Maxwell as court papers delve more into the man accused of killing her.

Alan Jones, 27, has been charged with second degree murder. His mother, Lynn Maxwell, and step-father, Lindsay Maxwell, have been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

Alan Jones says Erin accidentally hanged herself, but prosecutors will try to prove otherwise. According to court papers, Alan Jones has a different view of life and death. Police say Jones showed no emotion about Erin's death during their interviews. He told investigators that death does not affect him like it does others. Jones believes that when you die, you are simply recycled.

We also learned that Jones practices paganism, as do both Lindsay and Lynn Maxwell. Jones says he never sacrificed anyone or anything, but did tell investigators he once attended a ritual with other pagans who did.

The religion is sometimes thought to be satanic or sacrificial in nature, but we spoke with an Oswego resident familiar with paganism who says that's not the case at all.

Jones's attorney says his client's religion shouldn't make a difference as to who he is.

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Palermo community petitions against DSS Commissioner

OSWEGO COUNTY, N.Y. -- Community members gathered in Palermo Sunday to sign a petition calling for the commissioner of social services to resign over the department's handling of the Erin Maxwell case.


Erin Maxwell died in August, and police charged her stepbrother with second degree murder. Erin's father and stepmother were also arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

State police said Erin lived in deplorable conditions, and social services has come under fire for not removing her from the house despite visiting Erin three times in four years. People we spoke with say they think that there is more that could've been done for Erin.

"We are getting some justice for Erin, but we need to continue to get justice for Erin and that goes along with holding the people responsible who did not remove her from that home," said Granby resident Colleen Scott.


The department of social services stands by their previous findings in Erin's case and said there is nothing they found that could have predicted Erin's death.

The group says they will present their petition to the legislature at a later date.

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Jones will stay in jail

OSWEGO, N.Y. -- With his arms and legs chained, Alan Jones appeared in Oswego County Court Friday hoping to get his bail reduced. Just as he did at the arraignment, Jones' attorney told the court his client is not a flight risk. But just like the arraignment hearing, the judge denied the request and kept bail at $100,000.

"I’m disappointed. I thought that we'd have a chance maybe getting this reduced somewhat so that we could come up with some bail and the family members are trying to work on it," said defense attorney Sal Lanza.

Jones' family, his mother Lynn and stepfather Lindsey Maxwell, were in court Friday as well, but this time as spectators. The two posted bail last month after being arrested on six counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Neither spoke to reporters.

The court almost didn't hear the bail review on Friday because the court had to find a judge to hear the case after Judge Hafner recused himself due to an ongoing dispute with assistant district attorney Mary Rain. Before recusing himself, Judge Hafner asked Rain if she was going to remit and turn the case over to someone else in the district attorney's office, which she said no to.

"This is a really serious case and if I had to get out of every case that was assigned in county court, that's clearly 20 percent of the cases. I'm a full timer, I'm assigned to felonies and Judge Hafner, for the most part, is the only county court judge we have, unless we have other acting county court judges,” said Rain.

As for the case, Lanza is confident that his client will be found not guilty. So confident he gave copies of the bail review application to the media that outline the case. Lanza says there is nothing to link Jones to Erin's death.

Outside the courtroom, Lanza said the prosecution's whole case rested on conclusions the investigator drew from Jones' polygraph test.

"In his opinion, Alan Jones was deceptive, he spoke in a monotone voice. He was emotionless and he didn't like that. This is their case," Lanza said.

The bail review was heard by Judge James Metcalf, but he indicated he might not preside over the case in the future.

With Judge Hafner also out of the mix, there is uncertainty as to what judge and maybe even what jurisdiction the case will be heard in.

"If we could get a judge in here that is appropriate to do the cases for which I am a participant in, then we can go forward, but that is up to Judge Hafner. That's not a decision I can make," Rain said.

"We need to bury the hatchet and go on with dispensing justice and making sure that constitutional rights are protected in this county," Lanza said.

Jones' next appearance which will be in January. Lynn and Lindsey Maxwell are due in court in December.

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Jones Remains Jailed, Judge Won’t Change Bail

OSWEGO, NY - The man accused of murdering his 11-year-old stepsister was back in Oswego County Court this morning for a bail hearing.

Alan Jones and his attorney, Sal Lanza, appeared before Oswego County Court Judge Walter Hafner Jr.

State police say Jones strangled Erin Maxwell in their town of Palermo home in August. Last month, Jones was arraigned on second-degree murder charges and remanded to Oswego County Jail.

Today, a judge ruled that Jones will remain in jail on $100,000 cash bail or $250,000 bond.

This morning’s hearing almost didn’t happen.

At the beginning of the session, Hafner asked ADA Mary Rain if she would remit so that he could hear the case. Rain declined.

As reported in Oswego County Today, a pending grievance that Hafner filed against Rain prohibits him from presiding over cases that she is prosecuting.

The attorneys on both sides can agree to waive his disqualification, however, any agreement is supposed to be made independently of the judge and without his input under the state‘s Code of Judicial Conduct.

“She says she will not allow this court to sit here to hear this bail hearing,” Hafner told defense attorney Salvatore Lanza.

“I am not going to get in the middle of this,” Lanza said.

Hafner said that DA Donald Dodd was in his courtroom all morning and informed him, prior to the appearance, that Rain would be in court.

“I don’t know how to schedule this,” Hafner said.

Lanza demanded something be done immediately.

“This violates my client’s Constitutional rights,” Lanza said.

He requested that his client be released on his own recognizance pending a resolution between the judge and the DA’s office.

Hafner questioned Rain about a letter he sent her at the beginning of the week, seeking a resolution of the matter between them.

“Am I going to get the courtesy of a response?” he asked. “You called the press… how come you can’t respond to my letter.”

Rain pointed out that the letter was marked personal and confidential and didn’t discuss details.

Hafner told Lanza that he has no say over who the DA’s office appoints to cases and said he could schedule the matter for another time.

“I’m here, I’m available,” Hafner said. “If you get a DA who can appear before me, I’ll (hear the case).”

“I want my client released,” Lanza answered.

He requested that Hafner place a call to Fifth District Administrative Judge James C. Tormey for a resolution.

Hafner returned after placing the call and said Oswego City Judge and Acting County Court Judge James Metcalf would hear the case.

Shortly before noon Judge Metcalf listened to what lawyers on both sides had to say.

The bail in this case “is reasonable,” he said.

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Alan Jones Failed Lie Detector

The officer who gave Alan Jones a lie detector test after his step sister's murder says Jones failed the examination. We learned about Jones failing the polygraph because it was in documents his attorney gave to us today. He used them in court to try and get his bail lowered, but it didn't work.

In the pages of never before seen documents in the Erin Maxwell murder case, the attorney for the man who faces trial for killing the 11 year old girl says there is no evidence linking 27 year old Alan Jones to the crime, and attorney Sal Lanza rejects the lie detector test.

11 year old Erin Maxwell was found strangled in her Palermo home in late August. Her death touched off a major animal rescue operation in which more than a hundred cats and other animals were taken from what police called deplorable conditions. The new documents reveal her stomach was empty. Her father and stepmother are also charged in the case, accused of endangering the welfare of a child. Both were bailed out weeks ago. Alan Jones, it seems, wont be.

The documents say Jones failed the lie detector because he was deceptive. The investigator who administered the test to Jones says he was emotionless, and remained so after learning of his step-sister's death.

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Erin Maxwell's Western relatives describe Palermo girl's life

Erin Maxwell and her aunt, Jeanette Maxwell-Santiago, celebrate Erin's
graduation from grade school weeks before she died. Courtesy of Erin Maxwell's family

On Aug. 11, Erin Maxwell boarded a plane and came home to Palermo. It was the end of her third summer visiting relatives in Nevada. She'd made a trip to Disneyland and had her first sleepover with friends.

Less than three weeks later, she was dead -- strangled on Aug. 29, police say, by her stepbrother, Alan Jones, who has been charged with murder.

Her family out west, speaking at length for the first time, say if the charge is true, Maxwell was killed by the one person in the house she believed was her friend.

Erin didn't tell her relatives in Nevada much about her life in Palermo. When Maxwell spoke about her stepbrother, she indicated he was the only one who took care of her.

"She never said anything bad about Alan," said Maxwell's aunt, Jeanette Maxwell-Santiago, 31. "She said he played video games with her and made her dinner every night."

According to statements given to police, Maxwell's parents often locked the 11-year-old in her room at 5:30 p.m., fed her as little as once a day and dressed her in clothes reeking of cat urine.

Maxwell's father, Lindsey Warren Maxwell, and stepmother, Lynn Maxwell, have each been charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of a child. They have been released on bail. Jones, charged with second-degree murder, remains in the Oswego County jail.

The details of the girl's life in the months before her death have been documented by police through interviews with the Maxwells, Jones, school officials and friends and relatives.

Her relatives watched from afar as these points emerged but waited until after charges were filed before speaking publicly about what they know of her life. Now, they are providing a portrait of the years in which Maxwell and her biological parents lived with them in Nevada, an extended family that included her grandparents and their other children.

Those relatives say they feel guilty about Maxwell's death. But her aunt and uncle -- he was a teen, she in her early 20s when the girl lived with them -- say they did nothing to intervene when signs of neglect began to appear when she was just a baby. Both say the girl was often locked in a room so her parents could spend all night playing the fantasy game "Dungeons and Dragons."

They say the girl's grandparents sensed things weren't right and stepped in to care for her. And they say that when her biological mother left, giving up all rights to her daughter, the grandparents hoped one day to get custody.

They thought that would happen when Lindsey Maxwell -- known in the family by his middle name, Warren -- moved to Palermo and married Lynn Jones. They assumed he would leave Erin, then 5, in Nevada. They were stunned when he took her with him to Central New York.

Erin Maxwell, who loved to paint, was a budding artist, even at 2.
"My mom still has one of those early paintings,"
said Maxwell's aunt, Jeanette Maxwell-Santiago.
Courtesy of Erin Maxwell's family

Locked in a room

In 1996, Warren Maxwell, 23, met Ryann Andress in a coffee shop in Carson City, Nev.

Maxwell-Santiago said Andress was 17 when she got pregnant.

"She quit high school," Maxwell-Santiago said, "and she was living with us."

In the house besides Erin and her parents were her grandparents -- Lindsey Maxwell Sr. and Mary Lou Maxwell -- and their other children, Maxwell-Santiago and Dirk Maxwell.

Neither Erin Maxwell's grandfather nor her grandmother would comment for this article.

Her aunt and uncle spoke for the family, and they said that after Erin was born, her parents continued to live as if they didn't have a child.

They said Maxwell and Andress would play Dungeons and Dragons until 4 a.m., and then sleep until noon. Maxwell-Santiago said Erin was often locked up and left in a room for hours after the grandparents had gone to work.

"My brother and I used to pick the lock so we could get in to see her," she said. "Then, they changed the locks, and we couldn't get in. So I would lie on the floor and make eye contact with her at the bottom of the door to keep her company."

Dirk Maxwell, who is 26, said his sister would touch Erin Maxwell's fingers through the space at the bottom of the door.

"I used to go out a window in my parents' room and go in the window in Erin's room, unlock the door, and bring her out so she could be with the rest of us," he said.

Neither Maxwell-Santiago, then in her early 20s, nor Dirk Maxwell, then about 15 or 16, confronted their older brother about the girl's care. They said they were young and busy with their own lives.

They also say Erin Maxwell's grandparents came to realize she wasn't receiving proper attention from her parents, and that's when they stepped in.

"My mother took care of Erin," Maxwell-Santiago said. "She was like her mother, not her grandma."

In 2001, after Andress gave up her rights to Erin, Warren Maxwell was granted full custody of his daughter. Andress, who lives near Carson City, has not seen or spoken with her daughter since that time. She did not return repeated phone calls to comment for this story.

"I honestly believe, in my heart, that when Ryann gave up Erin, when she did that, she thought that Erin was going to stay with my parents, with us," Maxwell-Santiago said.

She said her mother, in particular, took on a greater role in caring for the girl.

For a while after Andress left, Warren Maxwell continued to live with his parents. Then he met Lynn Jones in an Internet chat room, and they were married in Volney in 2002.

Maxwell-Santiago said her mother never thought Warren would take Erin with him. The family was stunned when he did.

"My mom cried for weeks," Maxwell-Santiago said.

Cause for concern

Mary Lou Maxwell stayed in touch with her granddaughter and visited her in Palermo at least once a year, usually in April.

"She would go to the house, pick Erin up, take her to the Laundromat and wash all her clothes," Maxwell-Santiago said. "They would go to a hotel, where my mom would stay. Erin would get cleaned up, and then they would go out to dinner."

Maxwell-Santiago said her mother didn't spend much time at the house -- at 1678 state Route 264, Palermo -- during the visits, but she was troubled about things she saw when she did go there.

Dirk Maxwell, who also visited, said that when he was at the home in 2003 he couldn't stand to be there.

"It stank," he recalled. "There was chicken poop on the kitchen floor. All the animal cages were dirty. There was cat poop everywhere."

Their concerns led Maxwell-Santiago to call a Department of Social Services hotline in New York. She said she wasn't "exactly sure" of the year, but that it was before the first time Erin Maxwell came to Nevada to visit, which was in 2006.

According to Maxwell-Santiago, she spoke to a DSS supervisor who said the case, "'certainly seems extreme, but it doesn't constitute abuse.'"

Further, she said, the DSS workers told her that because the family lived out of state, "no matter what happened, we couldn't get her. She would go into the foster care system in New York."

Maxwell-Santiago said the family was afraid the girl would be put "into the system" if they kept calling DSS, "so we just tried to help her when she was here."

Erin Maxwell never talked much about her life in Palermo when she visited Nevada, and her relatives said that if they suspected anything more sinister was going on, they would have taken action.

Still, there were hints.

Maxwell-Santiago said that sometime before the girl visited in 2006, she learned that Warren and Lynn Maxwell were using an alarm system -- similar to a restraint -- to keep the girl in her bed.

Maxwell-Santiago said she confronted her brother about it, and he told her that they used the alarm because the girl got up in the middle of the night and got into things.

Erin Maxwell never complained to her Nevada relatives about Alan Jones, who is accused of killing her. She said her stepbrother played video games with her and fed her.

Maxwell-Santiago and Dirk Maxwell both said when they met Alan Jones, in Palermo, they thought he was odd. Warren Maxwell told his family that Jones was born prematurely and had been on steroids for an extended time when he was a baby.

"Warren said it messed him up, mentally," Maxwell-Santiago said. "I met him. I think he's very smart but socially maladjusted. He has a 27-year-old's body but the emotions of a 12-year-old."

Dirk Maxwell agreed, saying that Jones "acted like he was Erin's age, not in his 20s."

But Maxwell-Santiago said she sensed it was the relationship with Lynn Maxwell, her stepmother, that troubled the girl most.

"I think she wanted, so badly, for Lynn to love her," Maxwell-Santiago said.

'Let me stay here'

During her visit last year, Erin Maxwell began asking her family questions about her biological mother.

"I took out the few pictures I had, and she cried over them and said, 'I just miss her so much,'" Maxwell-Santiago said. "If I had known Ryann was open to it, I would have tracked her down; but I just didn't think she wanted anything to do with her."

They've examined a lot about those weeks and question whether they did everything they could.

"You cannot imagine the guilt we feel," Maxwell-Santiago said. "We believed she was going to be able to choose next year, when she was 12, where she wanted to live. We wanted her."

That, the family said, is what Erin Maxwell wanted, too.

Before she returned to Palermo this summer, the girl asked her grandmother to keep her.

"She said to her, 'Please, don't send me home,'" Dirk Maxwell remembered. "'Let me stay here.'"

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Residents Ask Lawmakers To Remove Social Services Commissioner

OSWEGO COUNTY, NY - Residents in Oswego County are officially calling for Department of Social Service Commissioner Fran Lanigan’s job.

Jackie Siver and Colleen Scott each approached the Oswego County Legislature Thursday to present petitions asking to have Lanigan removed from her position in response to the death of 11-year-old Erin Maxwell.

Erin died during the early morning hours of Aug. 30 from injuries she sustained in her Palermo home Aug. 29. The Onondaga County Medical Examiner ruled Erin’s death a homicide; the result of asphyxia with sexual trauma listed as a contributing factor.

Erin’s step-brother, 27-year-old Alan Jones was charged with second-degree murder in her death. Her father, Lindsey Maxwell, and step-mother, Lynn Maxwell, were also arrested and each charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

The petition started to circulate around the county last month. It reads:

“To The Legislature of Oswego County,
“We the residents of Oswego County, want to inform you that, we no longer feel, that Frances Lanigan, is fulfilling her duties as Commissioner of the Oswego County Department of Social Services. Instead of her saying that her department did not handle the Erin Maxwell case effectively, she continues to state that DSS, did everything they could to ensure the safety and well being of Erin. This is contrary to overwhelming evidence that has been released to the public by credible witnesses.
“We the undersigned, are demanding her resignation or removal immediately.”

Siver explained how she came to know Erin and how much she was affected by the conditions of the child’s home two years ago.

“I was horrified by the things I saw. … I saw nothing but filth,” she said.

Siver said that Erin made a lasting impression on her and that she was devastated when she heard of her death. She said that she is looking for accountability from DSS.

“Tell me that what I saw two years ago what not what they found her in two months ago,” she said. “Somebody tell me that it is okay to dig in the garbage for food. … In this instance, we didn’t do enough.”

Siver said that she was asked to help put together Erin’s Law in an effort to protect other children from the conditions that Erin lived in.

“It’s a start,” she said. “It’s a place to jump off. … We need to be accountable. Everybody needs to be.

“When my leaders don’t show accountability, I’m going to ask for new leaders,” Siver added. “If we didn’t do what was right, then we failed. There are thousands of Erin Maxwells out there. … We need to save them.”

Siver presented petitions with 277 signatures to Legislature Chairman Barry Leemann. Scott later presented another stack of petitions.

“We need to make sure this never happens to another child,” Scott said. “When the DSS report came out, I was looking for answers. I found none.”

Scott said while she doesn’t hold DSS responsible for Erin’s death, she is unhappy with Lanigan’s response to the incident.

“Fran Lanigan has never once said something went wrong. … She said they did everything right,” Scott said. “No you did not.”

Scott said that she believes the case workers who were involved with Erin in the past should be named and disciplined. She added that DSS should undergo a complete overhaul.

“(DSS workers) are public employees,” Scott said. “Our tax dollars pay their salaries.”

After the session, Leemann said that the petitions will be reviewed by the county’s legal office.

“I can’t tell you what we will do about it because I don’t know yet,” Leemann said. “I do know that we won’t ignore them.”

The county is also waiting for the results of the state’s review of the Maxwell case. When complete, the county will make that document public, as well.

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Erin, 11, told her relatives in Nevada that her stepbrother, Alan Jones 27, was the only one in her family who took care of her. Police, however, have charged Jones with the strangulation death of Erin.

Her family out west, speaking at length for the first time, say if the charge is true, Maxwell was killed by the one person in the house she believed was her friend.

“She never said anything bad about Alan,” said Maxwell’s aunt, Jeanette Maxwell-Santiago, 31. “She said he played video games with her and made her dinner every night.”

According to statements given to police, Maxwell’s parents often locked the 11-year-old in her room at 5:30 p.m., fed her as little as once a day and dressed her in clothes reeking of cat urine.

Maxwell’s father, Lindsey Warren Maxwell, and stepmother, Lynn Maxwell, have each been charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of a child. They have been released on bail. Jones, charged with second-degree murder, remains in the Oswego County jail.

Abuse began early in Erin’s life. When she was just a baby, her father and mother would leave her unattended while they went and played Dungeons and Dragons. Eventually, her mother would leave her entirely and give up parental rights and her father took her to New York where he married Jones’s mother, Lynn. But Erin longed to return to her family in Nevada.

Before she returned to Palermo this summer, the girl asked her grandmother to keep her.

“She said to her, ‘Please, don’t send me home,’” Dirk Maxwell remembered. “‘Let me stay here.’”

Many people thought Erin was being abused and some tried to help.

Her school nurse told state police “her clothes smelled so bad that I asked her to change her clothes when she got to school.”

She says “this had been an issue since she was in kindergarten.”

At
one point the nurse told investigators “she would come in the morning
and change in to clean clothes and the she would change back in to her
dirty clothes to go home.”

Then there was her habit of stealing
food from other students. Her fifth grade teacher says that one day she
“asked her why… Erin broke down and cried then told us she was
hungry.”

So the principal got involved, and called the Maxwells
to offer them an application for free or reduced price school lunches.
When the Maxwells refused, “I ended up personally paying for erin’s
food,” the principal said.

In those statements, different staff
members from the school say they did contact Social Services, and did
tell the family about services that could be available to them, but the
family refused.

Social Services did investigate Erin’s case but did not act to remove her from her home.

Jackie Siver’s daughter told her three years ago about that little
girl — she ate out of the garbage, Vanessa said — and smelled bad.

Siver
contacted Child Protective Services; case workers made three visits to
the house, ending in 2006. They also talked to Erin at school. They
determined the family was meeting the minimum standards.

The signs of abuse and neglect were evident and those signs should have been enough to have Erin removed and possibly she would not have been killed by the person she thought treated her the best in her family.

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Erin Maxwell’s parents reject plea deal at court appearance

Palermo, New York (WSYR-TV) - The stepmother and father accused of forcing 11-year-old Erin Maxwell to live in deplorable conditions made a court appearance Monday night. Each of them face six counts of endangering the welfare of a child -- a misdemeanor.

Maxwell family attorney Sal Lanza says a plea deal was discussed behind closed doors, but he says his clients, Lindsey and Lynn Maxwell, rejected the offer. It would have had them plead guilty to one count each, and face prison time.

Although this was discussed beforehand, inside the courtroom Lanza made it clear his intention was to have a trial.

Erin Maxwell lived inside a home on Route 264 in Palermo -- a home described by police as deplorable.

The family told police they couldn't afford to get dumpster stickers to get their trash picked up and so, it just piled up.

“They tried to keep the house as clean as they can, but garbage mounts up, we don't have trash pickup like the cities,” says Lanza.

Lanza filed a motion to drop the charges, saying they're not guilty of their lifestyle.

Both Lindsey and Lynn Maxwell are set to appear in court on February 16 at 7:00 p.m. That's when the district attorney is expected to respond to the motion to drop those charges.

Erin Maxwell's stepbrother, Alan Jones, is charged with second degree murder in her death; he's still behind bars, and is expected to appear in court on January 6.

Watch newscast HERE

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Jones may testify if case goes to trial

In handcuffs and with his mother and stepfather in attendance, Alan Jones appeared in court Tuesday for the third time since being charged with second degree murder. State Police say Jones strangled his 11-year-old stepsister, Erin Maxwell, back in August.

But Jones' defense attorney says his client is innocent and in court stated that if his case goes to trial, he would put him on the stand

"I think people want to hear defendants. If you're charged with a crime people want to hear what's your version of the story. That's just my opinion. I certainly don't have to put him on the stand," said defense attorney Sal Lanza.

The court heard motion arguments from both sides about evidence as it relates to the case. The defense is seeking to look at a few pieces of evidence, such as the window frame Erin was allegedly found hanging from. It got heated when the autopsy report was discussed, since it hasn't been completed.

"It's been three months, almost going on four months, without an autopsy report. We know that medical examiner Jumbelic has indicated I think in the newspaper that she's leaving the office. Where is this report?" said Lanza.

"I'm not going to comment on what it is that was said in court. That speaks for itself. I'll talk to you about procedure involving any case, but I'm really not going to at all talk about the specifics of this case," said District Attorney Donald Dodd.

Jones will next be in court January 22nd for a hearing. The judge is expected to rule on the motions made during Tuesday's court appearance after that hearing. As for Lynn and Lindsey Maxwell, their next court date is February 16th in Palermo.