Clearwater girl, 11, and teen boyfriend tried to set mom on fire

[FLAprogressive]

CLEARWATER — As the gasoline-addled flames tore through Nancy Broadhead's home early Tuesday, she collapsed in the front yard, soot-blackened and burned.

Neighbors said they heard her screaming, shouting into the cold night a mother's darkest fear.

"My baby! Where's my baby! Where's my baby!" she called. Broadhead thought her 11-year-old daughter was inside, that she had stumbled out of the burning house without her.

But, police say, it was the child and her boyfriend who had wanted the house to burn — mother and all.

On Tuesday, Clearwater police arrested the girl and her boyfriend, Jack Ault, on charges of attempted murder and arson. Police said the two doused the mother's bed with gasoline, then set it ablaze as she slept.

"The 11-year-old girl and her 15-year-old boyfriend plotted to basically set the mom on fire and leave her to die," said Clearwater police spokeswoman Beth Watts.

On the day before Broadhead's 48th birthday, she had survived an attempt to burn her alive, her home was gutted, and her daughter institutionalized.

The motive, police say, was "teenage angst."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/fire/article1061792.ece

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Why is an ELEVEN YEAR OLD (a fifth grader) dating a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD (a high schooler) in the first place.

Second of all, WTF is wrong with people?

[Not Me]

1. It's a Florida thing, you wouldn't get it.

(I can say that, I live here.)

[FLAprogressive]

2. LOL you're talking to someone who's born, raised, and lives in FL.

:P

[EmeraldCityGrl]

33. There really is something about Florida.

Wish I understood it. I just returned after a couple weeks there and still can't put my finger on it.

[sakabatou]

34. On the radio show with Adam Corolla

They had a game where they read a news story and you had to guess if it was from Florida or Germany.

[WI_DEM]

3. Maybe she didn't want her 11 year old daughter to date a 15 year old?

If so I can't blame her.

[redwitch]

4. I wish we had a separate category on DU for stories like this.

It could be the "Jesus how depressing category". I get upset even reading the titles of threads like this. Ditto the animal abuse threads. What a world we live in. :-(

[Echo In Light]

8. I've suggested a "Tabloid" forum

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I agree. We need a Bad Story forum

:thumbsup:

[redwitch]

31. Don't read this it will break your heart forum.

It is discouraging some days.

[seabeyond]

5. i look at my 12 yr old and hear this story of an 11 yr old and huge WTF,.

day and night in difference. truly amazing

[asdjrocky]

6. An 11 year old with a boyfriend?

A fucking boyfriend. People, they are only young for a little while, we got all our lives to be old and jaded.

[FLAprogressive]

9. a fifteen year old boyfriend no less. she could be in ELEMENTARY school while he's in High School.

[asdjrocky]

15. Yeah, because God knows at 15 he's only got pure unselfish thoughts.

[seabeyond]

10. fuck. we have grown men on du stating once girl hits puberty, she is free game

that could easily be ten.

[FLAprogressive]

11. We do?!!?!?!

[seabeyond]

12. yes. it has been said more than once. and by more than one man. nt

[FLAprogressive]

13. that's sort of scary.

[seabeyond]

16. the world wide web is an awfully big net... i agree. nt

[asdjrocky]

14. Not this man.

I have daughters, we must honor our women.

[seabeyond]

17. an you can just imagine yours at that age being preyed on.... as i said

in a post above. i look at my 12 yr old son, and just a year ago at 11, all the difference in the world from an 11 yr old behaving this way. blows me away

[asdjrocky]

30. I hear ya.

I'm not one of those crazy strict parents or anything, I just wanted them to stay young as long as they could. My second daughter it worked out really well because he mom understood and we agreed, my first daughter was a different story. (Different mom.)

I just always knew more happy kids than adults so I never saw a reason to rush growing up.

[conspirator]

23. Teenage girls always have and always will have sex

Now your only problem seems to be the age with whom they have sex with

[Ozymanithrax]

7. If they were cousins it would just be a southern thing...

"Give me a bit of that Southern fried Mama leg, peach fuzz."

Clearly, there was a breakdown in an entire village that allows a 15 year old boy to date an 11 year old girl.

[gratuitous]

18. Good acolytes in the High Church

We practice a peculiar religion in the United States, that violence is the solution for any problem. Our culture is saturated with it, from our elected officials to our popular entertainments. Everyone advocates for violence as the preferred method for dealing with any of life's difficulties. Negotiation and compromise are for the weak, and we are not weak - we are the strongest, most well-armed nation ever seen on the face of the planet! I have it on reliable authority here at DU that ours is not a please and thank you kind of world, and the only sure thing is that if you don't throw the first punch, someone else most assuredly will, so get your licks in while you can: first, last and always.

An 11-year-old has grown up knowing nothing but her country at "war" as the main tool of our foreign policy. Law enforcement officers use lethal force to subdue 5-year-olds, with the endorsement of their bosses. So what's a girl to do when her mother doesn't see reason? You set her on fire, that's what you do! The youngster has learned very well what she has been taught so thoroughly.

[seabeyond]

21. i am around kids this age all day, everyday, and no... that is not how most kids develop

kids that are given what they deserve end up seeing the waste of this attitude and are exactly the opposite of what you are suggesting

talked to 20 yr old niece yesterday, (this kinda confirms what you say, but is in the raising) and her hubby gave two weeks. he was fired three days out from the two weeks. they wanted holiday pay and needed the money for his last three days of work. her conclusion,

so we arent suppose to do the right thing cause we are gonna be fucked anyway, might as well fuck them first.

(she doesnt cuss, that was my interpretation)

i told her, no, dont do that. that is the wrong kind of thinking, regardless of what they did. dont like it at all

so yes, and no to what you say

[gratuitous]

26. No, not most kids

But given the saturation of violence and its application in our society, it's inevitable that there are going to be some kids who internalize those lessons, and we ought not to be shocked (shocked, I say!) that they carry out those teachings, because they hear and see them every day in myriad ways from the aforementioned elected officials to the popular entertainments. It requires a conscious effort to overcome the training, and while your 20-year-old niece had the benefit of being able to talk to you (and good for you for dissuading her), a lot of people don't have those resources or don't feel the need to consult them. After all, what is the point of checking yourself when you're doing what you're convinced is the right thing?

I'm not looking to absolve this 11-year-old and her 15-year-old boyfriend of their actions, but the surprise evinced by some observers is almost too precious for words. Will these sorts of incidents continue to happen if we fashion a different society not so steeped in violence? Almost certainly. But at least an expression of surprise would be warranted in that case. And I'd be willing to bet that the frequency of this kind of thing would drop significantly. But we have to dump our current love affair with violence first, and we're very much into that relationship.

[seabeyond]

27. i agree. and you are so right on.

this one... i look at my child the same age though, ..... and night and day difference.

on the other hand, the family of that niece, there are two nephews my boys age and they are making the choices that will fuck up the whole of their life. they dont have a foundation, or environment conducive to good choice making and it is society and culture that has been allowed to shape them

i see and know what you are saying.

[Gwendolyn]

20. Sounds like two kindred spirits growing up in very dysfunctional families.

It's never good when they find each other.

[Edweird]

22. Uh, as someone who is 'dyfunctional', I can tell you

that the 'normal'women I have been in relationships with regret it immensely. I find them boring as well. I only enjoy women that are roughly as screwed up as I am. Tying to explain who I am to someone with no frame of reference is a miserable experience. I would rather deal with the issues of someone that 'gets' me. Just my .02

[Gwendolyn]

25. I get what you're saying, and am no stranger to dysfunction and kookiness myself..

But here, clearly the dysfunction was of the escalating, violent kind and when these kinds of kindred spirits get together, it's disaster. Reminds me of Charles Starkweather and Carol Fugate. Or even Bonnie and Clyde.

[TwilightGardener]

24. Trashy family, full of problems. Mom arrested for driving drunk with

same daughter in car, for abuse, etc. You reap what you sow.

[EOTE]

28. "The St. Petersburg Times is not identifying the girl because of her age."

But they'll identify her mom which could very easily lead to identifying the girl? And they'll also identify her 15 year old boyfriend? Doesn't that seem a bit off?

[mstinamotorcity]

29. This is a story that is

playing out far too often with these children. How does an eleven year old child have a fifteen year old boyfriend. Matter of fact boyfriend period. Look i realize that you can't monitor everything your child does at all times. But a fifteen year old boyfriend is pretty hard to miss. And the thought of her taking some gasoline to her mother and home is even more ridiculous. There was a story here in the motor city where a mother found a nineteen year old hiding in her daughter's closet. Her daughter had met the young man on the internet through my space. The young man had started showing up to the girls elementary school. The school professionals warned the mother of this man. She in turn got with her daughter who thought her mother was a joke. When the mother caught him in her closet she tied him up and beat his ass and her daughters ass then called her family and they got some of that ass. It took Detroit Police five hours to show up.Now this may not be the right way to handle things but i think that parents should stop trying to be their children's friend and be a parent and lay down some sort of guidelines.And when they are not met there will be consequences.As for the mother with the eleven year old your daughter is playing like grown folks maybe you should ask her us she prepared to do the time for arson and attempted murder like grown folks who get caught doing what she did. Mom get some counseling because it must be hard knowing that your child wanted you dead.

[dysfunctional press]

32. it's florida- she didn't want to be seen as an old maid.

:evilgrin: