Malayia Knapp (b. 1998) and her sister (b. 2001) were beaten, starved, and imprisoned by their adoptive parents, Mindy Dawn Knapp and Anthony “Andy” Knapp. Their 7 other siblings were not reported to be abused, although at least one other sibling had tried to run away. All the children were homeschooled.
Malayia was the “oldest of six half-siblings of two parents with drug abuse problems and was placed in foster care at age 7” in 2006. She and two of her siblings, ages 6 and 2 at the time, were adopted by the Knapps, who later adopted the other three children. The Knapps also had three biological children. The biological children were treated differently from the adopted children; they were allowed to attend “The Network Connection, a private Christian organization in Des Moines that helps supplement education provided by home-schooling parents.” Malayia and the other adopted children did not receive similar educational supplements. The Knapps began to abuse Malayia in 2008, shortly after the adoption was finalized, and she and her siblings were abused more harshly as time went on. The Knapps changed their names and their social security numbers so family members could not find them. The children were beaten with belts, forced to exercise (often outside without coats or shoes) as punishment, and were often kept tied up. In 2011, the minister at the Knapps’ church, Heritage Assembly of God in Des Moines, noticed that the children were being mistreated and tried to investigate. The Knapps left the church shortly thereafter. In 2014, after Malayia’s sister tried to run away, the Knapps began to lock Malayia and her sister “inside a small basement room with no windows, no bed and a steel door locked from the outside.” In 2015, Malayia was kept locked in the room for seven days with no food. Also that year, the Knapps allowed Malayia to get a job working at McDonald’s so she could save up for when they kicked her out at age 18. The Knapps “grew upset because Malayia talked to people at work,” however, and forced Malayia to quit her job, stole her debit card and phone, and stole the $1400 Malayia had saved.
The abuse came to light in late 2015 when Mindy Knapp forced Malayia’s brother (b. 1999) to punish Malayia and her sister. The punishments included being doused with water and forced to exercise outside without a coat or shoes. As she was exercising outside, Malayia realized she could run away to seek help. She rode her bike to a local store, asked the clerk to borrow a phone, and called the police. Mindy Knapp was charged with two counts of assault; she pleaded guilty and was given a year’s probation. The Knapps were allowed to keep custody of Malayia’s siblings.
Date: December 1, 2015
Location: Urbandale, Iowa Read More
Posted: March 10, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Wesley Jordan
Adam Wesley Jordan (b. 1980), who went by Wesley, was tortured and imprisoned for 18 months by his stepfather, Steve Maynard, and his mother Bonnie Maynard. Wesley’s two sisters (S., b. 1984; and M., b. 1990) were not reported to be abused. The children were homeschooled.
Wesley’s parents divorced in 1990 and he moved with his mother and sisters to live with Steve Maynard, an EMT and candidate for US Congress, that same year. In 1993, social workers investigated the home in response to a complaint that Wesley was being forced to work in the hot sun without water. Shortly after this investigation, in March 1994, the Maynards withdrew the children from school to homeschool them. Around this time Steve Maynard started to beat Wesley regularly. In July 1994, Steve Maynard chained Wesley to the wall of a bathroom. “Wesley’s nose and finger were broken. His foot got so cold one night that the big toenail fell off.” Though his mother and stepfather were both EMTs, they did not treat him. Wesley was starved, and when he snuck food the Maynards forced him to drink bleach and ammonia to vomit it up. The Maynards also sexually assaulted him with pliers. Though Wesley attempted escape several times, Maynard always caught him.
The abuse came to light in November 1995, when Wesley managed to escape and went to his friends’ house for help. Steve Maynard entered an Alford plea to assault and unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Bonnie Maynard entered an Alford plea to unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Date: November 11, 1995
Location: Inez, Kentucky Read More
Posted: February 20, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Jack Garcia
Jack Kirby Garcia, age 9, was beaten to death by his uncle, Jacob Andrew Barajas, and his mother’s boyfriend, Robert Leroy Wilson. Jack’s mother, Oriana Iris Garcia, knew about and sanctioned the beating. After the beating, she delayed getting medical care for Jack, contributing to his death. Jack was homeschooled.
Jack was enrolled in public school in Galeta, California when his mother moved him to Maryland in February 2015. Garcia told her landlord that she “was unable to get [Jack] into school” in Maryland; according to one news report, she “didn’t enroll [Jack] in public schools and considered home-schooling instead.” Instead of attending school, Jack lived in Wilson’s apartment with the unemployed Barajas, who regularly beat him, supposedly in response to “behavioral problems”. Garcia also “planned and participated” in the abuse, including “making Jack eat until he felt sick and forcing him to exercise.” On June 30, according to Barajas, Jack stole a piece of birthday cake intended for Anita, Wilson’s 2-year-old daughter. Barajas called Garcia and she “agreed that Jack needed to be disciplined and gave Wilson permission to carry out the child’s punishment.” Barajas handcuffed the boy to a chair while Wilson beat Jack until he passed out. That evening, Barajas called an ambulance because Jack was having difficulty breathing; Garcia sent the ambulance away to avoid a child abuse charge. Four hours later Wilson called paramedics again, but by that time Jack’s injuries were too severe. He died in the hospital five days later.
Wilson pleaded guilty to murder and is serving 30 years in prison. Garcia and Barajas pleaded guilty to child abuse.
Date: July 5, 2015
Location: Hagerstown, Maryland Read More
Last Updated: January 8, 2019 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Joseph Bishop
Joseph “Joey” Bishop, age 18, died of Duchenne muscular dystrophy as a result of medical neglect by his mother, Jamie Bishop, and his grandparents Raymond and Sharon Martin. He died of sepsis due to infected bedsores in February, 2017. At his death, he had not been moved from his bed for six months, despite being mobile using a wheelchair when he previously attended school.
Joey stopped attending school in 2011 due to an accident involving his wheelchair. A 2015 child welfare case triggered by a report of educational neglect was closed after Joey’s hospital reported that his mother was following through on recommendations (Joey’s mother may not have filed homeschool paperwork prior to this case). After the case was closed, Joey’s mother discontinued all hospital visits. Kentucky law does not have provisions to ensure that disabled students who are homeschooled are receiving services. Joey’s last hospital visit was in October 2014.
Due to his medical condition, Joey required assistance to bathe, eat, and use the restroom. Instead, his family left him confined to a twin-size bed for two years. They failed to took him to his required doctor visits every six months. They last moved him from the bed six months before his death, and last bathed him six weeks before his death. His death was caused by severe sepsis due to bedsores that covered his back, arms, and legs; he “rotted to death”. Bishop and the Martins reportedly did not seek medical care for him because they feared being charged with neglect. The neighbors did not even know that Joey lived with Bishop and the Martins.
Bishop and the Martins were charged with manslaughter and neglect.
Date: February 11, 2017
Location: Ludlow, Kentucky Read More
Posted: February 16, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Daughter of Jerald Hall
J. (b. 1996) was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her father, Jerald A. Hall. J. was homeschooled.
In 2005, J.’s mother sent her to live with her father in Oklahoma. When J. was in fifth grade, her father began homeschooling her. He began to sexually assault her at this time. He moved her to Arkansas, then Texas when authorities grew suspicious. When she arrived in Texas in 2009 she was pregnant; Hall gave authorities various accounts of J.’s pregnancy, but when J.’s daughter was born in 2010 DNA tests proved that Hall had impregnated her.
Hall pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Date: February 11, 2011
Location: Paris, Texas Read More
Posted: January 23, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Malayia Knapp, and 8 siblings
Malayia Knapp (b. 1998) and her sister (b. 2001) were beaten, starved, and imprisoned by their adoptive parents, Mindy Dawn Knapp and Anthony “Andy” Knapp. Their 7 other siblings were not reported to be abused, although at least one other sibling had tried to run away. All the children were homeschooled.
Malayia was the “oldest of six half-siblings of two parents with drug abuse problems and was placed in foster care at age 7” in 2006. She and two of her siblings, ages 6 and 2 at the time, were adopted by the Knapps, who later adopted the other three children. The Knapps also had three biological children. The biological children were treated differently from the adopted children; they were allowed to attend “The Network Connection, a private Christian organization in Des Moines that helps supplement education provided by home-schooling parents.” Malayia and the other adopted children did not receive similar educational supplements. The Knapps began to abuse Malayia in 2008, shortly after the adoption was finalized, and she and her siblings were abused more harshly as time went on. The Knapps changed their names and their social security numbers so family members could not find them. The children were beaten with belts, forced to exercise (often outside without coats or shoes) as punishment, and were often kept tied up. In 2011, the minister at the Knapps’ church, Heritage Assembly of God in Des Moines, noticed that the children were being mistreated and tried to investigate. The Knapps left the church shortly thereafter. In 2014, after Malayia’s sister tried to run away, the Knapps began to lock Malayia and her sister “inside a small basement room with no windows, no bed and a steel door locked from the outside.” In 2015, Malayia was kept locked in the room for seven days with no food. Also that year, the Knapps allowed Malayia to get a job working at McDonald’s so she could save up for when they kicked her out at age 18. The Knapps “grew upset because Malayia talked to people at work,” however, and forced Malayia to quit her job, stole her debit card and phone, and stole the $1400 Malayia had saved.
The abuse came to light in late 2015 when Mindy Knapp forced Malayia’s brother (b. 1999) to punish Malayia and her sister. The punishments included being doused with water and forced to exercise outside without a coat or shoes. As she was exercising outside, Malayia realized she could run away to seek help. She rode her bike to a local store, asked the clerk to borrow a phone, and called the police. Mindy Knapp was charged with two counts of assault; she pleaded guilty and was given a year’s probation. The Knapps were allowed to keep custody of Malayia’s siblings.
Date: December 1, 2015
Location: Urbandale, Iowa Read More
Posted: January 4, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Seth Johnson, and 6 siblings
Seth Johnson, age 7, died of acute pancreatitis and possible sepsis because his parents, Timothy David Johnson and Sarah Nicole Johnson, did not take him to a doctor. Seth’s six siblings, including a 16-year-old brother, were not reported to be abused. Seth was homeschooled.
Seth came to live with the Johnsons as a foster child in 2011. In 2012 the Johnsons adopted him and began homeschooling him. His last medical exam occurred in 2013 and was unremarkable. The Johnsons subsequently claimed that Seth had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome and reactive attachment disorder, but that they had rejected this diagnosis and self-diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury. There was no record of any such diagnosis for Seth. According to his parents, several weeks before his death in March 2015, Seth “stopped sleeping, would shake on occasion” and began hurting himself. According to a criminal complaint, when he was found, Seth was underweight and “had bruising on his cheek, forearms, chest, buttocks, and lower abdomen. [He] also had two large lesions on the back of each heel that were consistent with pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcers would not typically be present if a child is mobile.” The Johnsons did not take Seth to a doctor, instead treating him with prayer, Neosporin, and “medical honey”. While the Johnsons were out of town for a wedding, Seth’s 16-year-old brother cared for him and reported that “Seth stopped talking and couldn’t get out of bed.” When the Johnsons arrived home, Seth was unresponsive; they still did not take him to a doctor. The next morning he was dead.
The Johnsons were charged with child neglect after a yearlong investigation in which authorities were unable to find evidence of a more serious crime.
Date: March 30, 2015
Location: Plymouth, Minnesota Read More
Posted: January 1, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Natalie Finn, and 4 siblings
Natalie Jasmine Finn, age 16, was imprisoned, tortured, and starved to death by her parents, Nicole Marie Finn and Joseph Michael Finn II. Natalie’s 15-year-old brother and 14-year-old sister were also starved, imprisoned, and tortured. An older brother, Alexander Kendal Finn (age 23), and another 15-year-old sibling were not reported to be abused. Natalie was homeschooled.
The Finns divorced in 2011 and were living separately but had joint custody of the children. At least one of the minor children was adopted and Natalie and her sister and brother were reported to have disabilities. Natalie attended an alternative school, Walnut Creek Campus, in the 2014-2015 school year, but was subsequently homeschooled. Natalie often wore the same clothes to school and asked other students for food or money. Once she told a friend she did not have shoes and her feet were blistered. In May 2016, the mother of one of Natalie’s school friends reported to child protective services that Natalie asked her for extra food for herself and her siblings; police went to the home but no one answered the door. Other neighbors reported that they rarely saw the children, and that Natalie had asked them for money, food, and clothes on multiple occasions. According to court documents, Natalie and her siblings were locked in the house and subjected to “unreasonable force, torture or cruelty”.
The abuse came to light when emergency services were dispatched to Natalie’s home after she had a heart attack from starvation. She later died at the hospital. Nicole Finn was charged with first-degree murder; both Finns were also charged with kidnapping, child endangerment, and neglect.
Date: October 24, 2016
Location: West Des Moines, Iowa Read More
Posted: December 29, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
3 Children of Joshua and Brandi Weyant
Three children (JTW, a 6-year-old boy; SRB, a 5-year-old girl; and HRW, a 4-year-old girl) were imprisoned, starved, and beaten by their adoptive parents, Joshua Ross Weyant and Brandi Jene Weyant. The children were homeschooled. Five other children who lived in the home, including a 17-year-old girl, were not reported to be abused.
JTW and HRW are the biological children of Jess David, who lost custody of them due to her heroin addiction. They went to live with Joshua Weyant because he was dating their mother at the time of their birth. SRB was reportedly not the biological child of either Weyant. Joshua Weyant served one month in prison in 2015 for the rape of a child (an incident which occurred in 2013) and returned to live with the children in March 2016. No one outside the home saw the children after summer 2016. According to the school superintendent, “the Weyants were sent a kindergarten registration packet, but because none of the children were of the legal school age of 8-years-old, they did not have to report the lack of response.” Though Joshua claimed to have completed homeschool paperwork, the school district had no record of this. The children had not been seen by a doctor since May 2014.
Beginning in September 2016, when Brandi Weyant fell ill, the children were kept locked in an unheated bedroom while the Weyants slept in a heated room; when they were rescued, the children had hypothermia. The children were found with “dirt, animal hair, urine, and feces in their clothing” and severe cases of lice. JTW had an eye wound caused by Joshua Weyant throwing him across the room. SRB reported that Brandi Weyant had punched her in the face as punishment for drinking tea. Both JTW and SRB were dangerously underweight and doctors reported that they would have died of starvation within a week if they were not rescued. All three children suffered from refeeding syndrome. HRW was also starved and beaten but her abuse was less severe than that of her siblings; Joshua Weyant reportedly favored her over the other two and investigators found a locked room in their house with numerous photos of her but no photos of other family members. Brandi Weyant told police she had asked her husband to “get rid of the children.”
The abuse came to light when police and social services visited the house in response to a tip. The children were hospitalized and the Weyants were charged with assault, false imprisonment, and child endangerment.
Date: December 16, 2016
Location: Halifax Township, Pennsylvania Read More
Last Updated: December 23, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
5 Children of Donell Barron and Rikki Hart
Five children, ages 14, 8, 6, 5, and 4, were starved and neglected by their parents, Donell Barron and Rikki Hart. The children were homeschooled.
According to their website, both Barron and Hart have college degrees and they run investment and healthy eating businesses; Hart works as a birth doula. Based on Barron’s statements to police, he and Hart are most likely members of the sovereign citizen movement, whose adherents reject the US government’s jurisdiction. The family had been evicted twice between 2011 and 2016 from homes in Port St. Lucie, Florida for failure to pay rent. It is unknown whether the children attended school during this time. Since their last eviction in February 2016 the family had been living in motels; however, in October 2016, their money ran out and they began living in their car in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The children were fed only bread and salad once a day while the parents appeared well-fed. The children used a bucket for a bathroom and bathed at a local park. They had not seen a doctor in years. When they were rescued, the 14-year-old boy weighed only 50 lbs. (5 lbs. more than the 8-year-old) and his bones were visibly protruding under his skin. He also had untreated high blood pressure.
The abuse came to light when the children were found by a patrolling officer. Barron and Hart were charged with child neglect.
Date: December 17, 2016
Location: Greenacres, Florida Read More
Posted: November 28, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Boy by RCMP officer
A boy (b. 2002) was imprisoned, starved, and physically and sexually abused by his father, an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and his stepmother. The boy’s two siblings were not reported to be abused. The boy was homeschooled.
The boy last attended school in June 2012; his parents began homeschooling him in September 2012, reportedly due to behavior problems. The abuse took place over six months. The Mountie kept the boy chained in the basement, deprived him of food and water, beat him with a stick, and burned him with a barbecue lighter. Some of the punishments were reportedly because the boy did not do his homework. In videos the Mountie made of the abuse, the emaciated boy is tied up while his father taunts him and insists that he “renounce Satan.”
The abuse came to light in February 2013 when the boy escaped and went to a neighbor for help. The Mountie was convicted of assault, sexual assault, and unlawful confinement, among other charges. His wife was convicted of assault and neglect.
Date: February 2013
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Read More
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