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A long marriage, tested by absence and responsibility, now stands before the courts in St. Charles County. On September 22, 2025, Jennifer L. Zgiet-Burtelow petitioned to dissolve her marriage to Thomas A. Burtelow Jr., with attorney Rick D. Massey of Missouri Legal Solutions, LLC, representing her. Married on May 17, 1998, in St. Charles, their separation earlier this year has hardened into a declaration that the marriage is irretrievably broken.
The story of this union does not end in simple estrangement. At its center is a child who is not theirs by birth but by guardianship: Jennifer’s granddaughter, entrusted to Jennifer and Thomas through a 2011 court order. The petition describes how Thomas abandoned both the marital home and the child without notice in March, leaving Jennifer with full responsibility for daily care and financial support. In addition to the dissolution of marriage, she now seeks legal and physical custody of her granddaughter, citing the child’s special needs and the inability of the biological mother, Lona Marie Flanigan, to provide consistent care.
Jennifer asks the court not only for custody but also for maintenance and attorney’s fees, noting her lack of resources compared to Thomas’s stable income. She further requests restoration of her maiden name, Jennifer Lea Zgiet, and an equitable division of marital property and debts.
The filing underscores both an ending and a reaffirmation: the dissolution of a marriage that began more than 27 years ago, and the insistence that the bonds of care and duty to a child remain unbroken, even as others fracture.
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