Without getting into the "whodunnit" or any other matter pertaining to the legal aspect of the case, I have to say that reporting child abuse and, even worse, child abuse deaths absolutely turns my stomach.

In fact, I have to say it tops my list of least-favorite things in my job. It used to be that I absolutely abhorred knocking on doors belonging to victims' relatives -- that's never fun, although about 70 percent of the time, the relatives do want to talk. I guess in some ways, it might cathartic for them. Anyway, I still don't like it, but I have to say I dislike the topic of child abuse even more.

Problem is, we have to report it.

A good deal of what we call 'news' is what is NOT normal in our community. That's good news, if you worry that local news outlets spend too much time on 'bad' news. I guess it's mostly a mix of what's important and what's interesting and what is out of the ordinary. And it's good to think that child abuse and the such is out of the ordinary.

It doesn't make spitting the words out any easier for me. I feel a real knot in my stomach. What was once intellectual has now gone visceral for me and not only can I not concieve of how anyone could hurt a child, it hurts me to think too much about it. I've heard from other mothers that it is hard for them to hear those stories on the news.

I hope it helps them to know that it is hard for me to report it, too.

I've got a number of reason why I continue to do it: a.) it's my job, b.) again, it's out of the ordinary, c.) I hope getting the information out there will help another child, somewhere, somehow and d.) I hope in telling the facts of what happened to this 13 month old baby girl, I somehow help her get justice.

She didn't deserve this. No child does.