Killing of child near Hollister defies rational explanation

Updated 2019 01 23: Added links to related articles.

Mercury News; San Jose, Cal
Posted: 11/20/2008

By Scott Herhold

In the killing of a child, it is the details that haunt us, boring into us like slivers deep in the skin. The more we strive to make sense of what cannot be explained rationally, the more our wound festers. No iodine works for this grief.

Here is what we know – just the facts, ma’am – about the death of Donna May Busch. She was killed about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in her playpen in her rural home north of Hollister. She was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the head, with a Smith & Wesson .357 magnum with a six-inch stainless steel barrel.

Her mother, Cheryl Lean Busch, a 39-year-old dog groomer, has been booked on suspicion of murder and is being held in a padded cell at the San Benito County Jail. Her father, John Dean Busch, 52, was taken in for questioning and released with thanks for his cooperation.

Donna May Busch was one day short of 19 months old.

It is the last detail that wounds most deeply, that leaves us most bewildered. In our silent abacus of judgment, it takes the tragedy across the line that divides rationality from mental illness.

If Cheryl Busch had shot her husband, we might understand. If she had tried to strangle a teenager, we might nod grimly. But our first instinct is to say that no mother in her right mind executes her baby in a playpen. For our own sanity, we search for a way to comprehend that booking charge of 187 of the penal code….(Full Story)

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