Marcus Fiesel

Marcus Fiesel was born on June 24, 2003, and spent the first three years of his life in Middletown, Ohio, with his mother Donna Trevino (née Fiesel) and his two siblings, Michael and Peaches.

He was described by a neighbor as "an awesome little guy" who loved flowers, Bob the Builder, and bubbles.

According to friends, Fiesel was autistic and attended a school for special needs children.

Fiesel was a very Active Child, and his mother found it difficult to cope with him, and a neighbor said she occasionally saw Trevino weeping with exhaustion.

Frequent calls to the police were made to the home as Trevino was a regular victim of domestic violence at the hands of her boyfriend, and during these visits police officers noticed that the home was infested with fleas and reeked of feces.

On September 29, 2005, police observed severe bruising on Fiesel's left buttock, and the family was also being investigated by child welfare workers who had received complaints of abuse.

Marcus Fiesel was an American 3-year-old child who was murdered in Clermont County, Ohio, in August 2006.

Fiesel had recently been removed from his mother's care by child protective services, and placed into foster care with David and Liz Carroll in Union Township, where he died from hyperthermia after being restrained and neglected in a closet for a two-day period.

In January 2006, Fiesel crawled out of his second-story window and fell off the roof, resulting in a cut to his chin that required stitches.

In April 2006, Fiesel was found wandering the streets and was almost hit by a car.

Trevino told police that "she didn't know if she could care for her children any more and that it was getting to be too much for her."

Butler County Job and Family Services was granted temporary custody.

Lifeway for Youth, a private agency contracted by the state foster care system, placed Fiesel in the care of foster parents Liz and David Carroll, a couple from Union Township in nearby Clermont County.

At the time, Lifeway for Youth were unaware that David Carroll had a mental health issue that would have disqualified him from foster parenting if known, and that a third adult, Amy Baker, said to be the Carrolls' girlfriend, was living in the home.

In June 2006, David Carroll was arrested on a domestic violence charge that was later dismissed, and did not report the arrest to Lifeway for Youth as required.

Family and friends said that David Carroll did not like Fiesel and was jealous of his "constant" need for attention from Liz Carroll and Baker.

At one point, Carroll left his wife because he was not sure he wanted a life with her raising foster children.

When he moved back in with his wife, he brought Baker with him.

Liz Carroll reported that Fiesel had gone missing on August 15, 2006.

She said that she had blacked out due to low blood pressure at Juilf's Park in neighboring Anderson Township, where she was with four children: a child she had with David Carroll, another foster child, a toddler she was babysitting, and Fiesel.

Carroll said when she regained consciousness, Fiesel was missing.

Hundreds of people, and search dogs, searched the area as part of the official search for Fiesel.

Thousands more searched surrounding neighborhoods independent of the official search.

On August 22, 2006, Liz Carroll held a press conference asking that whoever may have taken Fiesel return him.

She said, "I need help from the public to help my son, Marcus is my son. I know people think foster care is temporary, but please return him to a hospital. [...] Waking up every morning and not having him run to me is very difficult. I am closer than his birth mother to him."

Because no witnesses reported seeing Fiesel in the park with Liz Carroll on August 15, and no trace of him was found, police and the public grew suspicious of Liz and David Carroll's claims.

Fiesel's incinerated remains were discovered on an 88 acre estate owned by Mike Cales in Brown County, Ohio.

Police said that Liz and David Carroll had left Fiesel locked in a closet, bound with a blanket and packing tape, while they attended a family reunion in Williamstown, Kentucky on August 4–6, 2006.

This was confirmed by Liz Carroll in testimony before a grand jury on August 28, 2006; she claimed, "I didn't have any intentions of hurting him."

Fiesel was left without food or water, but authorities believed he was killed by heat rather than dehydration or starvation, as temperatures in the closet may have reached 105 - 110 °F.

They found him dead when they returned home.

Authorities believed it was David Carroll and Amy Baker who incinerated Fiesel's body.

Amy Baker was granted immunity in Ohio in return for testimony, but she faced extradition from Ohio to Kentucky for a tampering with evidence charge brought against her by Mason County.

Amy Baker confessed to helping to dispose of the body in the Ohio River, but charges against her were dropped.

Both Liz and David Carroll were indicted in Clermont County and Hamilton County for playing a part in Fiesel's death and hindering the police investigation into Fiesel's disappearance.

On August 28, 2006, Liz and David Carroll were indicted by a Hamilton County Grand Jury on two counts of child endangerment, and one count of involuntary manslaughter.

David Carroll was charged with an additional count of gross abuse of a corpse.

A day later on August 29, 2006, additional Hamilton County indictments were made against the Carrolls.

On February 21, 2007, Liz Carroll was convicted of murdering him.

On February 26, 2007, it was announced attorneys for David Carroll had reached a plea agreement.