The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Jocelyn Germain. Last Thursday Mr. Germain killed his wife Madeleine Beaufrere, then set fire to their Delray Beach home before taking his own life. This is all bad enough, but the worst part(to me) about Germain's actions was he left the couple's two year old son Jimmy in the burning house. The boy died of smoke inhalation.

Stories like this just hit a nerve with me. My wife and I having lost two children of our own. Jimmy had his whole life ahead of him and his father out of carelessness or maliciousness(and it don't matter which) snuffed it out. For that Jocelyn Germain is today's Knucklehead of the day.

Open Post- Don Surber, Point Five, Political Teen, Stuck on Stupid, Stop the ACLU

DELRAY BEACH — Madeleine Beaufrere had just bought a new brown pantsuit and planned to wear it next week to a family barbecue marking her 37th birthday.

On Friday afternoon, her grieving relatives searched her fire-gutted home for the outfit.

They wanted to bury her in it.

Beaufrere was murdered Thursday morning by her estranged husband, Jocelyn Germain, in the front bedroom of their modest beige home at 1325 S.W. 21st Way, police said Friday.

Germain stabbed his wife of 12 years in the neck above the collarbone and strangled her, Detective Gene Sapino said. He then set fire to the bedroom, killing himself and their 2-year-old son, Jimmy, who was found in a nearby bedroom, Sapino said.

Germain's death has been ruled a suicide. Jimmy Germain, who would have turned 3 next month, died from smoke inhalation, Sapino said.

The couple's two other children, Joel, 12, and Berlline, 10, were at school when the fire started around 9:40 a.m. Thursday.

Firefighters found Beaufrere's body on the floor near the door of the charred bedroom, Sapino said. Germain was lying next to her.

An arson dog from the state fire marshal's office discovered an accelerant that was used to start the fire, though investigators have not yet determined what type.

"We found what we believe to be a (spout) from a gas can in the hallway," Sapino said.

Strangled with belt

Beaufrere's family doesn't believe Germain meant to kill his youngest child. The 44-year-old, however, had previously threatened his wife, relatives said.

"He was always trying to kill her," Fritz Beaufrere, 30, said of his brother-in-law. Even before police announced the killings, he had sensed it wasn't an accident.

"I guess today he finally came back and did what he had to do," Fritz Beaufrere said Thursday.

His older sister was strangled with a belt, he learned Friday. As he listened to the detective's graphic details of his sister's and Jimmy's death, Fritz Beaufrere felt pain.

And so did their mother. Of her 11 grandchildren, Jimmy was the only one who called her "Grandma," Françoise Beaufrere, 57, said.