J.L.L. a Child Under 17 Years Age

In this statutory proceeding under our Juvenile Act [Sections 211.011 to 211.431], the adoptive parents of J L L, a girl six years of age, appeal from the judgment of the juvenile court entered on June 28, 1965, which found that the girl was a neglected child ""in need of care and treatment"" [Section 211.031] and committed her to the care and custody of the division of welfare under the continuing supervision of the juvenile court. Section 207.020(17). (All statutory references are to RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., and all references to rules are to the Rules of Civil Procedure, V.A.M.R.) The petition filed by the juvenile officer in the juvenile court [Section 211.091] specifically charged physical abuse of the girl, and the evidence at the hearing was directed toward that charge. No complaint is made concerning the form, substance or sufficiency of the petition, but the principal contention of the adoptive parents is that the evidence was ""wholly insufficient"" to permit the court's finding that the girl was a neglected child. Before discussing the event which precipitated the institution of the neglect proceeding, it may be helpful to note certain background information. The adoptive mother, forty-four years of age at the time of hearing, is the natural maternal grandmother (hereinafter referred to as the grandmother) of the girl. The record leaves us in doubt concerning the here unimportant detail as to whether the adoptive father, whose age is not given, is the natural grandfather or the stepgrandfather. The only revealed fact pertaining to the girl's early years was contained in the grandmother's statement that ""I've had her practically since birth,"" inferentially for undisclosed reasons arising out of the natural mother's ""past"" - a subject which the court charitably curtained from view when the natural mother made a fleeting appearance on the witness stand. However, the feeling of the grandmother toward the natural mother was made manifest at the hearing (a) by the natural mother's undisputed statement that ""my mother had wrote and told me that I wasn't welcome there at the house to see my little girl; she told me that before I left the last time"" and (b) by the grandmother's query to the court, when informed of his finding at the close of the hearing, ""you ain't going to turn her [the girl] back over to the mother?""