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Old Fri, Jan-21-05, 19:25
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doreen T doreen T is offline
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Plan: LC paleo/ancestral
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Here's an article from the Miami Herald, published in 2003 ...

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Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2003

Raw-food vegetarian ate steaks, report says

BY TERE FIGUERAS


tfigueras~herald.com

A Homestead couple whose infant daughter died of malnutrition subjected the girl to ''cleansing'' enemas and punished their other children for straying from a raw-food diet -- even as the father smoked cigarettes and indulged in the occasional steak, according to documents released Monday by the county medical examiner's office.

Lamoy, 27, and Joseph Andressohn, 34, are charged with aggravated manslaughter for the May death of their 5-month-old daughter, Woyah. Prosecutors contend that the girl, who weighed seven pounds, died from malnutrition brought on by her family diet of uncooked fruits, grains and vegetables.

The couple's remaining children, who were also suffering from malnutrition, have been taken into custody by Florida's Department of Children & Families and are in a foster home.

The doctor in charge of Woyah's autopsy wrote that the Andressohns did not intentionally starve Woyah -- noting that her parents gave her a bottle when she cried.

But the diet was severely lacking in nutrients for a baby: The bottle she drank from shortly before her death contained a mixture of wheat grass, spinach, tomato and avocado.

Her stomach held nothing but air and eight ounces of a ''grassy'' smelling liquid and even her body and stool had the same grassy odor, according to the documents.

Lynne Pochurek, the assistant public defender representing the Andressohns, did not return calls for comment Monday.

In trying to piece together the diet and habits of a family whose youngest child died weighing less than she did at birth, Dr. Reinhard W. Motte of the county medical examiner's office spoke with police and the medical director of the Child Protection Team, reviewed interviews with two of the Andressohns' surviving children and requested samples of the family's recipes.

CASE FILE

According to the medical examiner's case file, Lamoy and Joseph Andressohn gave Woyah wheat grass enemas -- and allowed her 6-year-old brother and 4-year-old sister to assist -- because they thought the child was toxic.

The other children also received enemas as well, according to the 6-year-old, who was interviewed by the state attorney's office.

''When children ate cooked food, they were given enemas as punishment,'' wrote Motte.

Friends and neighbors have described Joseph and Lamoy Andressohn as loving but eccentric, devoted to a raw-foods system that required lengthy preparation and strict adherence.

But according to notes of the 6-year-old's interview, Joseph's clean-living philosophy stopped short of cigarettes.

STEAK, POTATOES

Motte also wrote: "The parents are vegetarians, though the father smoked and occasionally ate a steak and potatoes meal which annoyed his wife.''

The Andressohns have been following a vegetarian diet while in jail -- unable to make $100,000 bond -- by bartering their meals in exchange for raw vegetables and salad, according to correction officials.

If convicted, they face up tp 30 years in prison. Woyah's body is being preserved as her parents seek an independent autopsy.

Herald staff writer Justin Willett contributed to this report.


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