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Girl's killing described

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NewsTribune (La Salle, IL)

By Tom Collins

NewsTribune Senior Reporter

HENNEPIN -- Matthew Archer told investigators that 3-year-old Jordan Cain was fussing when he tried to put her to bed Oct. 24, and that the girl fell in the living room area as he grappled with her.

But why Jordan Cain sustained fatal abdominal injuries remained unclear Thursday, even after a child abuse investigator recounted the statement Archer gave police after Jordan died Oct. 25.

One of Archer's attorneys, Kevin Sullivan, asked Gerald Gibson if he also heard Archer tell police that he lost his footing and accidentally struck his foster daughter with his knee.

"I don't recall him saying anything of that nature," replied Gibson, child protection investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Archer, 28, of 1132 E. Main St., Granville appeared Thursday in Putnam County Circuit Court for a hearing on what to do with his 4-year-old daughter, whom Gibson placed into foster care along with Jordan's two brothers.

Lawyers for Archer and the 4-year-old's mother, Janice Schryer, did not challenge the emergency placement of the two boys, ages 8 and 6, but did ask to have their own daughter returned home.

Circuit Judge Stuart Borden ruled there were signs of abuse in the Archer household, but also agreed that Archer's own daughter was not mistreated and ruled there was no urgent need to keep her in protective care. Borden permitted the girl to return to Schryer, who embraced the girl tearfully outside Borden's courtroom.

"I'm going home," the child announced happily.

Archer, however, is going nowhere. He remains jailed in lieu of $5 million and faces 20-60 years if convicted of first-degree murder. One condition of his daughter returning home is that Archer cannot contact her by telephone or by mail. In the unlikely event he posts $500,000 to be released from jail, he cannot come near the 4-year-old.

Archer's more pressing concern is showing that he did not intentionally kill Jordan, despite a body of evidence showing that he allegedly beat and mistreated her and her two brothers, each of whom was entrusted to Archer and Schryer after a La Salle County judge ordered them taken from their biological parents.

Gibson took the stand Thursday and recounted statements that Jordan's surviving brothers gave to investigators after Jordan died in St. Francis Medical Center, Peoria.

Gibson testified he watched the boys' interviews via closed circuit TV and heard them describe how Archer struck them on various parts of their bodies with his hand or with a belt or spatula. The boys also reported that Archer kicked them in the legs from behind, causing the boys to stumble.

Jordan was subjected to similar treatment, Gibson said. The boys told police that Jordan was force fed to the point of vomiting, and was suspended over a trash can while she regurgitated her food.

Gibson said there were no indications Schryer physically abused the children, but said the boys accused her and Archer of locking them in a closet, which they nicknamed "The Alligator Room."

"(One of the boys) was led to believe there was some form of alligator in the closet that would do him harm if he wasn't being good," Gibson said.

To drive home the illusion, Gibson said, Archer and Schryer would yell, "Get him, get him," as if cheering on the imaginary beast.

Gibson also testified that there was a double standard in the Archer home, as Archer's 4-year-old daughter was never physically abused (save for an occasional spanking, and then only on the buttocks), and that the girl was never locked in the closet.

Hoping to distance Schryer from her boyfriend, Schryer's attorney Tom McClintock asked Gibson if the statements indicated that Schryer was present during any of the beatings or when Jordan sustained her fatal injuries.

Gibson said the investigation showed Schryer was asleep when Jordan was fatally injured -- Archer took Jordan from where Schryer was sleeping to put the girl in her own bed -- but said Schryer was present at other times when the foster children were struck and locked in the closet.

Sullivan also asked if Gibson had spoken to the physician who examined Jordan in early October. Gibson said he hadn't, but also acknowledged that Schryer took Jordan to the doctor and expressed concern about the girl's tendency to bruise easily, at first thought to be the result of anemia.

Borden postponed a follow-up hearing until Jan. 22, by which time Archer's criminal case may have been settled.

Tom Collins can be reached at 223-3206 Ext. 130 or courtreporter@newstrib.com

2003 Oct 31