At least 11 children (9 girls and 2 boys, born between 1997 and 2008) were physically and sexually abused by their adoptive/foster parents, Daniel Wayne Spurgeon and Jenise Rae Spurgeon. The children were homeschooled (though at least some had attended school as late as 2008). The Spurgeons’ three biological children (two boys and a girl, born between 2001 and 2006) were not reported to be abused.
Daniel worked from home as a programmer and the family were active in their church and community. The Spurgeons became foster parents in 2004 in Alabama. They adopted five girls (born in 2000, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2005) and were fostering-to-adopt five more children (girls born 2003, 2005, and 2006; boys born 2007 and 2008). All ten of these children reported being abused by their parents. An additional girl, born 1997, who no longer lived with the Spurgeons, also reported being abused from 2009 to 2013.
The adopted and foster children reported that they were treated differently from the Spurgeons’ biological children. The house had two refrigerators; one contained varied meals for the biological children, while the other contained bread, rice, and beans for the adopted/foster children. The children were punished by being forced to swim laps, do pushups with a parent’s foot on their back, take cold showers, and sleep outside. They were smacked with spatulas and thrown against the wall. They went years without receiving medical care. At least five girls also reported being sexually abused by Daniel Spurgeon.
The Spurgeons left their Alabama home in August 2015 to move to Florida, although they weren’t licensed as a foster family in Florida until June 2016. The abuse came to light when police found three of the girls highly intoxicated in the parking lot of a restaurant. The girls reported that the alcohol was given to them by their father as part of the sexual assaults. The Spurgeons were arrested and both were charged with aggravated child abuse; Daniel was additionally charged with sexual assault.
Date: July 18, 2016
Location: Cape Coral, Florida; Florence, Alabama Read More
Last Updated: August 9, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
14 Children of Daniel and Jenise Spurgeon
At least 11 children (9 girls and 2 boys, born between 1997 and 2008) were physically and sexually abused by their adoptive/foster parents, Daniel Wayne Spurgeon and Jenise Rae Spurgeon. The children were homeschooled (though at least some had attended school as late as 2008). The Spurgeons’ three biological children (two boys and a girl, born between 2001 and 2006) were not reported to be abused.
Daniel worked from home as a programmer and the family were active in their church and community. The Spurgeons became foster parents in 2004 in Alabama. They adopted five girls (born in 2000, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2005) and were fostering-to-adopt five more children (girls born 2003, 2005, and 2006; boys born 2007 and 2008). All ten of these children reported being abused by their parents. An additional girl, born 1997, who no longer lived with the Spurgeons, also reported being abused from 2009 to 2013.
The adopted and foster children reported that they were treated differently from the Spurgeons’ biological children. The house had two refrigerators; one contained varied meals for the biological children, while the other contained bread, rice, and beans for the adopted/foster children. The children were punished by being forced to swim laps, do pushups with a parent’s foot on their back, take cold showers, and sleep outside. They were smacked with spatulas and thrown against the wall. They went years without receiving medical care. At least five girls also reported being sexually abused by Daniel Spurgeon.
The Spurgeons left their Alabama home in August 2015 to move to Florida, although they weren’t licensed as a foster family in Florida until June 2016. The abuse came to light when police found three of the girls highly intoxicated in the parking lot of a restaurant. The girls reported that the alcohol was given to them by their father as part of the sexual assaults. The Spurgeons were arrested and both were charged with aggravated child abuse; Daniel was additionally charged with sexual assault.
Date: July 18, 2016
Location: Cape Coral, Florida; Florence, Alabama Read More
Posted: July 16, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
2 Girls by Nicholas Frede
Two 13-year-old girls were sexually assaulted by their basketball coach, Nicholas Frede. The girls were homeschooled.
The assaults occurred at Frede’s home, where he had been privately coaching the girls since May 2016. Frede himself had been homeschooled; he played high school basketball through Southeast Wisconsin Christian Homeschool Athletics and he was on the 2015-2016 roster for the Maranatha Baptist University Sabercats.
Frede was charged with sexual assault of a child.
Date: July 10, 2016
Location: Nashotah, Wisconsin Read More
Last Updated: August 9, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
12 Children by Lee Kaplan
In 2012, a 14-year-old girl was sold to Lee Kaplan (pictured left) by her parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus (pictured center and right), in exchange for financial assistance. Kaplan sexually abused the girl and she gave birth to two daughters. The girl and her nine younger sisters (born between 1999 and 2013) lived with Kaplan and Savilla Stoltzfus and were apparently homeschooled; “musical instruments and homework were found in the basement.” It is unknown at this time whether the girl’s sisters were abused by Kaplan.
The Stoltzfuses were former members of the Amish community. The girl’s children were born at home and there is no evidence she, her sisters, or her children ever received medical care. They also had no identifying documents. The abuse came to light in 2016 when a neighbor called police about her concerns that the girls were rarely allowed outside. Kaplan was charged with sexual assault and Daniel Stoltzfus was charged with conspiracy. Both Stoltzfuses were charged with child endangerment.
Date: June 17, 2016
Location: Feasterville, Pennsylvania Read More
Posted: June 15, 2016 by clmccracken
Children of Lev Tahor
Lev Tahor, a Jewish sect located in Quebec, Canada, came under scrutiny from child welfare officials in 2013 amid concerns of psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, improper education, medical neglect, and underage marriages. The sect’s children were homeschooled, and officials learned that girls were not receiving the same education as boys, that the children were only being taught Yiddish and Hebrew, and that the children were not being taught math, among other subjects.
The sect initially relocated to Ontario in November, 2013, to avoid the probe in Quebec and to avoid Quebec’s homeschooling laws, but began leaving Canada for Guatemala in March, 2014, creating a mess for immigration officials. They were ejected from Guatemala in August 2014. While some children were temporarily removed by child welfare officials in Canada, officials’ requests to remove all of the children en masse were denied.
Location: Quebec, Canada
Date: Investigation spanned 2013 to 2014
Last Updated: January 24, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
3 Children by Timothy and Esten Ciboro
A 13-year-old girl was starved, imprisoned, and sexually abused by her stepfather, Timothy Ciboro, and his son, Esten Ciboro. The girl’s 9-year-old sister was also sexually abused. The girls and their 10-year-old brother were homeschooled.
The children were placed with the Ciboros by child services after their mother moved away. Social workers examined the 13-year-old girl in 2014 after neighbors reported seeing her eating out of the trash, but she was not found to be malnourished. Sometime before May 2015, as punishment for bedwetting, the 13-year-old girl was chained by the ankle to a support beam in the Ciboros’ basement, where she was fed rotten food and forced to use a bucket for a toilet. Timothy Ciboro, a former firefighter, was reportedly religious and the family had strict rules against eating fast food. Timothy raped both the 13-year-old girl and the 9-year-old girl; Esten raped the 13-year-old girl.
The abuse came to light when the 13-year-old girl used a spare key she had hidden to escape while the Ciboros were out of the house. A neighbor spotted her as she was running away and called the police. The Ciboros were arrested shortly thereafter and charged with rape, child endangerment, torture, and kidnapping.
Date: May 19, 2016
Location: Toledo, Ohio Read More
Last Updated: February 16, 2017 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Daughter of Julio Valladares and Linda Richmond
An 8-year-old girl was beaten, starved, and tortured by her father, Julio Valladares, and his partner Linda Richmond. The girl was homeschooled. Richmond also had a son on whose behalf no charges were filed.
In 2013, someone at the girl’s elementary school noticed her bruises and called in a tip. In response, Valladares pulled the girl from school to homeschool her. Beginning in December 2013, Valladares and Richmond forced the girl to take repeated cold showers, beat her with a belt, starved her, made her sit on a chair for hours causing bedsores, made her lie in a soiled bed for extended periods, and forced her “to sit at a table and write ‘corrections’ for hours while claiming to be homeschooling her.” These punishments were reportedly for bedwetting.
The abuse came to light in October 2014 when the girl went to the hospital and social services called the police. Valladares and Richmond were arrested the following day. Valladares pleaded guilty to abuse and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Richmond was tried and convicted of abuse with the jury recommending a 90-year sentence.
Date: October 17, 2014
Location: Berea, Kentucky Read More
Posted: May 6, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
2 Children of Timothy Hogan and Patricia Haugstad-Hogan
Two girls, L.H. (age 17) and L.H. (age 16), were neglected by their parents, Timothy Hogan and Patricia Haugstad-Hogan. The girls were homeschooled.
The girls were forced to sleep on a mattress in the basement of their family home for five years, while their parents lived in a camper in the driveway. The house was filled with garbage, human waste, rotting food, and mold, and had had no heat, power, or water since May 2015. The girls “told police they hadn’t been to a doctor or dentist in years and had never been to public school. They also told authorities that any homeschooling they’d received had been sporadic.” The neglect came to light when the girls ran away from home on Christmas Eve, 2015, and walked five miles to Covenant House, a homeless shelter in downtown Anchorage.
Hogan and Haugstad-Hogan were charged with misdemeanor counts of child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Date: December 24, 2015
Location: Anchorage, Alaska Read More
Posted: May 5, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
10 Children of Odalis Sharp
Caleb Vasquez (b. 1996) and seven of his nine younger half-siblings were starved and beaten by their mother, Odalis Sharp. All the children were homeschooled.
In 2011, Caleb was removed from the home of Odalis Sharp and her husband Tim Sharp after Caleb ran away following a punishment where he was fed only bread and water for two weeks. In 2012 the couple divorced. In January 2016 Odalis drove seven of the children, whom she marketed as the Sharp Family Singers, to perform for and support the 41-day occupation by armed militants at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. They were met there by her 18-year-old daughter Victoria Sharp, who had recently left home, and who witnessed the death of one of the militants. Following these events, social services received three reports that the Sharp children left at home were being abused. In April 2016, five of the children hid Odalis’s guns and ran away from home, where they were met by a neighbor who drove them to the sheriff’s office. They reported emotional and physical abuse involving intense beatings with an implement that caused bruising and bleeding, as well as being forced to eat soap and called names. These five children, plus an infant and a 17-year-old girl who had recently left home to move in with her father, were taken into state custody. (Caleb, Victoria, and one other sibling were legal adults by this point.)
Odalis Sharp was arrested for assaulting an officer and is being held until further charges can be filed.
Date: April 29, 2016
Location: Auburn, Kansas Read More
Posted: April 20, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Colt Clark
Colton Levi Clark, who went by “Colt”, was 9 years old when he went missing in April 2006. Officials believe he was murdered by his aunt and uncle, James “Rex” Clark and Rebecca Faith Clark. Colt and his older brother Austin “Homer” Clark were homeschooled.
Colt and Homer were taken in by the Clarks in 2003 after being abused by their biological parents, who had substance abuse problems. After the Clarks began fostering the boys, they pulled them out of school to homeschool them. The boys endured physical abuse from the Clarks, including having their genitals shocked with an electric cattle prod and being beaten with extension cords and broomsticks. In early March 2006, the Clarks accused Colt of stealing a ring and beat him for 45 minutes while Homer watched. Homer went to sleep, and when he woke up Colt was gone. The Clarks told Homer Colt’s biological father had come to pick him up and beat and threatened him when he asked questions.
The boys’ supervising social worker had made multiple attempts to see them but was repeatedly rebuffed by the Clarks. When DHS finally informed them that the social worker was coming to the house on April 20, 2006, Rebecca Clark called 911 and reported Colt missing, saying he had run away. Officials searched for Colt but could not find him. Homer was soon removed from the home, left the state, and changed his name.
The case was re-opened in September 2015. The Clarks were arrested April 8, 2016 and charged with murder, conspiracy, child abuse, and child neglect.
Date: April 20, 2006
Location: Wewoka, Oklahoma Read More
Posted: April 13, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
3 Children of Echo Terry
Three girls–V.T. (b. 2004), J.T. (b. 2005), and M.T. (b. 2010)–were starved and imprisoned by their adoptive mother, Echo Marie Terry. Their infant sister, Ma.T., was not reported to be abused. The girls were homeschooled.
Terry became the foster mother of the three girls–biological sisters–in 2011 and formally adopted them in 2013. The abuse began shortly after their adoption, in August 2013, when Terry changed their names and withdrew them from school to homeschool them. Terry imprisoned the girls in their rooms and denied them food for long periods of time. She also forbade them from eating dairy, gluten, corn, or soy, despite the lack of a medical reason for doing so. When they were rescued, the girls were suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration and had bruises and lacerations. The abuse came to light when V.T. escaped in September 2014 and reported it to authorities.
Terry was arrested April 12, 2016, after being indicted on charges of assault and child endangerment.
Date: September 2014
Location: Anchorage, Alaska Read More
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