At least 16 children, but probably many more, were subjected to slavery, educational neglect, and threats of physical violence and starvation by members of a new religious movement known as the McCollum Ranch group, run by minister John C. McCollum. The group claimed to be homeschooling the children, though no education was actually provided.
McCollum has operated the group, previously known as the Holy Tabernacle Church of Fayetteville, since the 1980s. In 1991 he pleaded guilty to child abuse after being charged “with beating children with an automotive fan belt so severely that it left scars;” the same year, two of his followers, Irish Williams and Shirley McNatt, were also convicted of abusing then-9-year-old Shirmitka McNatt. No children were apparently removed. After the group moved to Godwin in the mid-1990s, officials visited their compound to investigate child abuse claims at least four times. In 2008, a mentally disabled 21-year-old man escaped from the compound and claimed to have been kidnapped; no charges were filed.
The children in McCollum’s group were kept in involuntary servitude and forced to perform heavy labor for little to no pay for more than 40 hours per week in McCollum’s fish markets in Fayetteville. The children “often injured themselves while cutting fish for sale in the market.” If the children refused to work, McCallum “would threaten them with physical violence or take away their food.” Tobias Gardner, who lived at McCollum Ranch as a teenager from 1993 to 1997, reported that he was attending school when he first lived there but eventually stopped, instead working in the fish market. Gardner “witnessed McCollum beating children for slight infractions, which could be anything from getting up to go to the bathroom during a worship service to talking back to adults.”
Furthermore, McCallum Ranch member Brenda Joyce Hall operated a fraudulent homeschool, Halls of Knowledge Home School, which provided no education to the compound’s children: many of them “had difficulty reading and writing.” The school did, however, “create fraudulent high school transcripts so young members can get into online degree programs and apply for financial aid, which is then diverted to the group’s operations.”
The abuse finally came to light in February 2017, when a couple living at McCallum Ranch went to police with a complaint about child slavery. On March 2, 2017, a victim of the homeschool financial aid scam came forward to report it. On August 10, 2017, a 15-year-old boy who worked at the Ranch was reported missing by his mother, a member of the group. After police located the boy, he reported “how he and his 13-year-old brother were forced to work in the fish markets for more than 40 hours a week.” Social services went to the compound in October and found that many of the children had been removed to other locations to avoid investigators. On December 12, McCollum and nine of his associates–Hall, Williams, Shirley McNatt, Shirnitka McNatt, Cornelia McDonald, Pamela Puga Luna, Daffene Edge, Kassia Rogers, and Earlene Hayat–were charged with a variety of crimes including human trafficking. Investigators noted that several of those charged, including Shirnitka McNatt, had previously been victims and were now perpetrators.
Date: December 12, 2017
Location: Godwin, North Carolina Read More
Posted: January 23, 2018 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Boy by Melvin Bledsoe and Joy Anderson
A 6-year-old boy was starved, imprisoned, and tortured by his father, Melvin W. Bledsoe, and his stepmother Joy Tamika Anderson. The boy’s three stepsiblings were not reported to be abused. The boy was homeschooled.
Bledsoe and Anderson were half-siblings. In 2012, Bledsoe and the boy were living with Anderson, her husband, and her three children. Bledsoe slapped the boy, then nine months old, and the boy was briefly removed by child services. Bledsoe pleaded guilty to felony injury of a child after Anderson testified against him. A neighbor witnessed the boy being abused in 2015 and alerted child services, but they did not find enough evidence to remove the boy. By 2017, Bledsoe and Anderson were living together as a couple and abusing the boy together. They tied him face-down to a bed with ropes. Bledsoe threw him against a wall and beat him with a belt; Anderson beat him with a coat hanger and stomped on his belly, causing his pancreas to rupture in half. When he was rescued, the boy “had scars and scabs all over his body…several fresh wounds, dried blood on his body, ulcers on his legs and a cauliflower ear.” He had recently eaten a pillow due to hunger.
The abuse came to light in October 2017 after Bledsoe and Anderson brought the boy to the hospital because his “lips were turning blue and his stomach was bloating” due to the ruptured pancreas. Bledsoe and Anderson were charged with felony injury to a child.
Date: October 8, 2017
Location: Post Falls, Idaho Read More
Last Updated: January 15, 2018 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Children by John McCollum and associates
At least 16 children, but probably many more, were subjected to slavery, educational neglect, and threats of physical violence and starvation by members of a new religious movement known as the McCollum Ranch group, run by minister John C. McCollum. The group claimed to be homeschooling the children, though no education was actually provided.
McCollum has operated the group, previously known as the Holy Tabernacle Church of Fayetteville, since the 1980s. In 1991 he pleaded guilty to child abuse after being charged “with beating children with an automotive fan belt so severely that it left scars;” the same year, two of his followers, Irish Williams and Shirley McNatt, were also convicted of abusing then-9-year-old Shirmitka McNatt. No children were apparently removed. After the group moved to Godwin in the mid-1990s, officials visited their compound to investigate child abuse claims at least four times. In 2008, a mentally disabled 21-year-old man escaped from the compound and claimed to have been kidnapped; no charges were filed.
The children in McCollum’s group were kept in involuntary servitude and forced to perform heavy labor for little to no pay for more than 40 hours per week in McCollum’s fish markets in Fayetteville. The children “often injured themselves while cutting fish for sale in the market.” If the children refused to work, McCallum “would threaten them with physical violence or take away their food.” Tobias Gardner, who lived at McCollum Ranch as a teenager from 1993 to 1997, reported that he was attending school when he first lived there but eventually stopped, instead working in the fish market. Gardner “witnessed McCollum beating children for slight infractions, which could be anything from getting up to go to the bathroom during a worship service to talking back to adults.”
Furthermore, McCallum Ranch member Brenda Joyce Hall operated a fraudulent homeschool, Halls of Knowledge Home School, which provided no education to the compound’s children: many of them “had difficulty reading and writing.” The school did, however, “create fraudulent high school transcripts so young members can get into online degree programs and apply for financial aid, which is then diverted to the group’s operations.”
The abuse finally came to light in February 2017, when a couple living at McCallum Ranch went to police with a complaint about child slavery. On March 2, 2017, a victim of the homeschool financial aid scam came forward to report it. On August 10, 2017, a 15-year-old boy who worked at the Ranch was reported missing by his mother, a member of the group. After police located the boy, he reported “how he and his 13-year-old brother were forced to work in the fish markets for more than 40 hours a week.” Social services went to the compound in October and found that many of the children had been removed to other locations to avoid investigators. On December 12, McCollum and nine of his associates–Hall, Williams, Shirley McNatt, Shirnitka McNatt, Cornelia McDonald, Pamela Puga Luna, Daffene Edge, Kassia Rogers, and Earlene Hayat–were charged with a variety of crimes including human trafficking. Investigators noted that several of those charged, including Shirnitka McNatt, had previously been victims and were now perpetrators.
Date: December 12, 2017
Location: Godwin, North Carolina Read More
Posted: January 15, 2018 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
13 Children of David and Louise Turpin
Thirteen children–ten girls and three boys, ages 2 to 29–were starved and imprisoned by their parents, David Allen Turpin and Louise Anna Turpin. The children were homeschooled.
The Turpins moved from Texas to California around 2010 and registered their homeschool as Sandcastle Day School in 2011. Neighbors did not know how many children lived there because they rarely saw them. When the children were rescued, only six of them were still minors–Sandcastle listed its enrollment as: “one student in each of the fifth, sixth, eighth, nine, 10th and 12th grades.” However, all of the Turpins’ children, even the adults, were malnourished, and some were “shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings.”
The abuse came to light when the Turpins’ 17-year-old daughter escaped from the home and called 911 on her parents’ cell phone. All thirteen of the Turpins’ children were hospitalized and the Turpins were charged with torture and child endangerment.
Date: January 14, 2018
Location: Perris, California Read More
Last Updated: December 15, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Liam Roberts
Liam Michael Roberts (pictured), age 6, was starved to death by his father, Michael Roberts, and his stepmother Georgena Roberts. Liam’s 7-year-old brother A.P.R. was also starved. Their two siblings and two half-siblings were not reported to be abused. Liam and his siblings were homeschooled, while his older half-siblings attended school.
Neighbors reported that the Robertses kept to themselves and did not play with other neighborhood children. Beginning in December 2015, the Robertses began to use food deprivation as a form of punishment for Liam and A.P.R. In January 2016, social services investigated the family for insufficient food, but a pediatrician “concluded that [Liam’s] low body weight was due to a medical issue” and the case was closed. Liam and his siblings were subsequently withdrawn from school to be homeschooled. Liam weighed 17 pounds when he died in November 2017.
The abuse came to light when Michael Roberts brought Liam’s body to the hospital, where he was declared dead. A.P.R. was subsequently hospitalized. The Robertses were charged with murder and child endangerment.
Date: November 3, 2017
Location: Jerseyville, Illinois Read More
Posted: November 29, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Son of Brandy and Russell Jaynes
A 12-year-old boy was starved, imprisoned, and tortured by his mother, Brandy Kay Jaynes (pictured). The boy’s father, Russell Orin Jaynes, allegedly did not know about the abuse because he was not often at home and was barred by his wife from seeing the boy. The boy’s twin sister and a younger sibling attended school and were not reported to be abused. The boy was homeschooled.
The boy was pulled out of second grade to be homeschooled in 2012. Jaynes claimed this was due to the boy’s special needs, but state investigators dispute this claim, stating that “he had been caught stealing and was falling behind in classwork because of excessive absences.” Instead of receiving instruction at home, the boy was imprisoned and tortured for four to eight years. At first the boy was imprisoned in a bare bedroom and tortured by having ice water poured on him during the winter. Then he was imprisoned in a stand-up shower, and eventually in a tiny locked bathroom where the light switches and shower drain were covered with duct tape. Jaynes also kept a live video feed of the boy’s condition in the bathroom, where the only place not covered in feces was the place where he lay on a blanket. The boy only received “one meal of a couple of hot dogs every other day for months.” The boy weighed 30 pounds when he was rescued and had, as a result of the abuse, “emotional/developmental delays and the protracted loss of use of his limbs.”
The abuse came to light when the boy’s father “picked the lock on the bathroom door when his wife was gone” and discovered the boy’s condition. Russell Jaynes “drove around for hours, checking into a hotel and bathing his son, and then went to his father’s house in Cedar City asking what he should do before taking the boy to the hospital.” Brandy Jaynes was found guilty of child abuse and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Russell Jaynes was also charged with child abuse.
Date: January 8, 2017
Location: Toquerville, Utah Read More
Last Updated: October 17, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Daughter of Alan and Aimee Friz
A 14-year-old girl was imprisoned, starved, and sexually abused by her adoptive parents, Alan and Aimee Friz (pictured). The girl and her siblings were homeschooled.
The girl and one of her siblings were adopted from the Ukraine; the Frizes later had eight additional biological children and Aimee Friz was pregnant when she was arrested. Alan Friz was a dentist and the Frizes were “respected and well-loved” members of Covenant Reformed Church in Evansville, Indiana; according to their minister they had “a very definite 19th century value system”. The girl allegedly had developmental disabilities, although the Frizes “diagnosed her online without ever seeking the advice of a doctor”. Beginning at least a year before his arrest, Alan Friz sexually molested the girl, apparently with the knowledge of Aimee Friz. In September 2017, after the girl allegedly made threats of violence against Aimee, the Frizes began locking the girl in a closet at night without access to food, water, or bathroom facilities. The closet “was fastened with a padlock and chain” and had a sign labeling it as the girl’s “cage”.
The abuse came to light after the girl and her grandfather got into an altercation and the police were called. The girl reported the abuse during a subsequent interview with child services and Alan Friz was immediately arrested. Aimee Friz fled the state with her children but was arrested shortly thereafter. The Frizes’ boarder Kenneth Le Fevre was also arrested. The Frizes were charged with criminal confinement, neglect, and sexual misconduct.
Date: October 4, 2017
Location: Huntingburg, Indiana Read More
Last Updated: September 22, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
6 Children of Sara Anne and Jonathan Woody
Two boys (b. 2004 and 2008) were starved and physically abused by their stepmother, Sara Anne Woody. Their father, Jonathan Woody, knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. The boys’ siblings–a younger girl and boy who were Sara Anne’s children from a previous relationship, and two younger children who were both the Woodys’ biological children–witnessed the abuse although they were not reported to be targets of it. The children were homeschooled.
The abuse began soon after Sara Anne and Jonathan moved in together around 2014. Sara Anne burned the boys’ tongues with a lighter, beat their genitals with a belt, forced them to go naked as punishment (“because it was the worst thing a Christian fanatic could think of,” according to the prosecution), forced them to lick feces off of a toilet, forced them to vomit up food they had “stolen”, forced them to exercise and beat them when they stopped, and locked them in a closet overnight with a bucket for a toilet. After the boys’ grandparents noticed the abuse, visits to the grandparents ceased, and prosecutors later noted that “the defense never called any…other mothers from their homeschool group to testify, showing an increased isolation of the children.” According to the boys’ grandparents, after they were rescued, “the older boy scored in the sixth percentile in reading and 15th percentile in math…His younger brother has also had to repeat the first grade.”
The abuse came to light after Sara Anne beat one of the boys’ faces with a metal spoon and Jonathan took the boy to the hospital, where his injuries were recognized as caused by abuse. The boys quickly gained weight when they were placed in a different home, and they and Sara Anne’s two children were diagnosed with PTSD. Sara Anne was found guilty on 16 counts of injury to a child and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Jonathan Woody was charged with child endangerment.
Date: March 30, 2016
Location: Burkburnett, Texas Read More
Last Updated: August 23, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Savannah Leckie
Savannah Leckie, age 16, was tortured and murdered by her mother, Rebecca Ruud. Ruud’s partner, Robert E. Peat Jr., has not been charged in conjunction with her murder. Savannah was homeschooled.
Savannah was given up for adoption at birth in 2001 and raised by adoptive parents Tamile Montague and David Leckie in Minnesota. She had “a mild form of autism as well as depression and ADHD.” In 2016, after Savannah’s adoptive parents divorced, Montague’s new boyfriend, Cary Steeves, did not get along with Savannah, so Montague sent Savannah back to live with Ruud, her biological mother. After Savannah moved in with Ruud, she was homeschooled and “had almost no social contacts.” Ruud abused Savannah, smashing her phone to isolate her, forcing her to roll in the pig pen and bathe in muddy pond water, and pouring alcohol and salt into a wound on Savannah’s arm to punish her.
Sometime in mid-July, Ruud murdered Savannah and attempted to dispose of her body using a meat grinder and lye from her soap making business. On July 18 firefighters were called to her property to put out a brush fire and treat Ruud for burns. Ruud claimed Savannah was also burned in the fire but would not allow firefighters to see her. Two days later, Ruud reported that Savannah had run away. Police searched for Savannah for several weeks before bringing cadaver dogs to Ruud’s property on August 4 and discovering Savannah’s remains at the site of the fire. Ruud was charged with murder.
Date: July 18, 2017
Location: Ozark County, Missouri Read More
Last Updated: July 31, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Peter Kema, Jr., and 3 siblings
Peter J. Kema, Jr., age 6, often called Peter Boy, was abused and murdered by his parents, Peter Kema, Sr. and Jaylin Kema. Peter Boy was homeschooled. His older half-siblings, Chauntelle and Allan Acol, and younger sister Devalynn ‘Lina’ Acol, were also abused.
In August 1991, when Peter Boy was only a few months old, he and his siblings were removed from their parents’ care after authorities discovered signs of abuse; Peter Boy had broken bones and Allan reported that his parents beat him and his siblings. The children were raised by their grandparents, James and Yolanda Acol, until 1995 when they were returned to the Kemas. According to Allan, the Kemas soon resumed physically abusing their children. Peter Boy’s abuse included being shot with a pellet gun, locked in the trunk of a car, and forced to eat dog feces. Though Peter Boy was enrolled in preschool, he was soon withdrawn from school to be homeschooled. In June 1997, Lina witnessed Peter Boy’s death and the Kemas’ attempts to hide the body.
The Kemas did not report Peter Boy missing until January 1998; the other children were interviewed at this time, reported abuse, and were permanently removed from the home. Peter Kema, Sr., insisted that he had left Peter Boy with a relative who is believed not to have existed. No charges were filed against the Kemas until 2014 because Peter Boy’s body was never found. Jaylin Kema pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2016 and was sentenced to time served. Peter Kema, Sr., pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2017 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Date: June 1997
Location: Keaau, Hawaii Read More
Last Updated: July 31, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Girl by Hyacinth Poouahi
A.C., a 10-year-old girl, was starved and tortured with the knowledge of her caregiver, Hyacinth Poouahi (pictured left). A.C. was homeschooled.
A.C., then age 9, was dropped off at Poouahi’s home in November 2004 by her biological mother, Crystal McGrath, who was a friend of Poouahi. Three education professionals at A.C.’s school, Keonepoko Elementary School, all reported suspicions of abuse to the school principal Kathleen Romero, who did not report the abuse to the authorities. After winter break, A.C. did not return to school as Poouahi claimed to be homeschooling her for medical reasons. Instead, Poouahi, her husband Jaime Soares, her 13-year-old son Hans Poouahi Jr. (pictured right), and possibly other people in the home, subjected A.C. to torture. She was starved and deprived of water, “forced to eat cockroaches and Froot Loops mixed with chili peppers,” bound until she developed bedsores, burned with a cigarette lighter, stabbed in the ankle with a steak knife, had her hand broken and her lip and head cut open.
The abuse came to light when Poouahi called paramedics to report A.C.’s injuries. A.C. spent six weeks in a coma and, 5 years later, was “severely speech- and hearing-impaired, blind in one eye, walks with a limp and has facial disfigurement.” Hans Poouahi Jr. “was convicted as a juvenile and housed at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility until he turned 19 years-old.” Hyacinth Poouahi pleaded guilty to assault, unlawful imprisonment, and child endangerment; she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Date: February 7, 2005
Location: ‘Ainaloa, Hawaii Read More
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