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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDavid Rothenberg, burned by father as a boy in 1983, has died.
LAS VEGAS (AP) Dave Dave, a respected Las Vegas artist who was badly scarred as a boy when his father tried to burn him to death in Southern California, has died. He was 42.
Dave, who was born David Rothenberg, died on July 15 at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said Wednesday.
The cause of his death awaited results of toxicology and other tests and a police investigation, the coroner said.
Dave was a close friend of Michael Jackson, who met him after the boy survived a 1983 attack that left him with burns over 90 percent of his body.
Dave was 6 years old when his father, Charles Rothenberg, gave him a sleeping pill, doused his bed with kerosene and lit it in a Buena Park motel room near Disneyland during a bitter custody fight. The father fled.
The boy underwent numerous skin grafts and was left disfigured but refused to define himself as a victim.
"There is a lot that happens in people's lives, but that doesn't define them as a human being, it makes them stronger," Dave told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2016.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/28bef6e3-7714-31fb-a4db-933d304b9dbd/ss_dave-dave%2C-whose-father-set.html
I remember this incident from back then.
RIP
hlthe2b
(102,283 posts)Reading the article, his father only got 13 years for that and served only 7 before eventually being returned to jail 25 to life for a series of robberies. What the hell? Heavens.
But the focus rightfully is on commemorating this man and his successful life.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,627 posts)I remember when this story came out. I could not believe how cruel his father was to his son! Awful, horrifying time.
May this gentle soul rest in peace.
oasis
(49,388 posts)a cruel and senseless childhood incident.
Rest in Peace.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,492 posts)Link: http://davedavehq.com/
One can review some of his art there and see the disfigurement he suffered in the "Photos" section, or read more about events in his life in the "Press" section.
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LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)RIP Dave. I hope you are at peace.
sinkingfeeling
(51,457 posts)Catherine Vincent
(34,490 posts)What an evil father he had.
Raine
(30,540 posts)it was so awful, so sad. I'm glad that he didn't let it define him ... R-I-P David
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)I seem to recall reading David suffered from skin cancer because of the burns. If that is what took his life then his father committed murder and should never be let out of jail.
mountain grammy
(26,622 posts)The most brave child and honorable man.