Top row: Tiffanie Irwin, Traci Irwin, Joseph Irwin, Daniel Irwin
Middle row: Bruce Leonard, Deborah Leonard, Sarah Ferguson
Bottom row: Linda Morey, David Morey
Lucas Leonard, age 19, was beaten to death by a gang that included his parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, his half-sister, Sarah Ferguson, and several other members of the Word of Life Church in New Hartford, New York. Lucas’s 17-year-old brother Christopher was also severely beaten by the church members and was subsequently hospitalized. The Leonards homeschooled Lucas, Christopher, and their two younger siblings. The extent of their interaction with the school district was “the parents sending the district curriculum proposals at the beginning of the year”.
Bruce Leonard worked as a special education teaching assistant in Utica School District. The Leonards were very religious, forcing their children to read the Bible two hours each day and forbidding them from participating in sleepovers, Christmas, and Halloween. Ferguson and her four children lived with the Leonards in their Clayville home. Following a church service on the evening of October 11, the boys attended a counseling session with their parents and half-sister; their pastor Tiffanie Irwin, her mother Traci Irwin, and her brothers Joseph and Daniel Irwin; and church member Linda Morey and her son David Morey. The boys were asked to confess their sins and beg for forgiveness; the counseling session turned into a multiple-hour assault involving flogging with an electrical cord, punching, and kicking. Church members found Lucas unresponsive the next morning and took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police later found Christopher injured inside the church.
The Irwins, the Moreys, Bruce Leonard, and Sarah Ferguson were charged with “manslaughter, kidnapping, assault and gang assault.” All except Daniel Irwin were also charged with murder. Deborah Leonard accepted a plea deal to plead guilty to assault in exchange for her testimony against the other eight people. At least seven children ages 2 to 15 were taken into custody by social services.
Date: October 11, 2015
Location: Clayville, New York Read More
Last Updated: February 18, 2016 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
3 Children of Jim and Paige Nachtigal
G.N. (a 15-year-old girl), C.N. (an 11-year-old boy), and E.N. (an 11-year-old girl) were beaten, starved, and tortured by their adoptive parents, Jim and Paige Nachtigal. The children were taken out of public school in 2014 to be homeschooled.
G.N. was adopted in 2011, and E.N. and C.N. were adopted in 2012 (the children were not biologically related). All were adopted from Peru, where the Nachtigals were missionaries. The Nachtigals were “active in business and ministry in the Newton community. Jim Nachtigal serve[d] as the CEO of Kansas Christian Home. Paige Nachtigal [was] a former employee of the Newton Area Chamber of Commerce.” The children described being beaten by the Nachtigals using a board and a cane, and the two 11-year-olds were malnourished and had various broken bones. The children had only seen a doctor once or twice since coming to the United States, and C.N. had a serious heart condition for which he had not received treatment.
The abuse came to light after C.N. was reported missing February 6, 2016. When police found him walking barefoot outside, he reported that he was afraid to go home. A February 9 fundraising post on Paige’s blog announces the Nachtigals’ plan to move permanently to Peru as missionaries. The children were removed from the home February 11. The Nachtigals were arrested February 16 and charged with child abuse, child endangerment, and aggravated battery.
Date: February 8, 2016
Location: North Newton, Kansas Read More
Posted: January 29, 2016 by clmccracken
Dylan Seabridge, and 1 Sibling
Dylan Mungo Seabridge, age 8, died of scurvy as a result of neglect by his parents, Glynn and Julie Seabridge (pictured). Dylan and his brother were homeschooled.
Dylan missed a developmental check in 2006; when officials tried to rearrange the visit, the Seabridges refused. Though Dylan was a registered patient at a local doctor and dentist, he was never seen. In 2010, officials became aware that Dylan and his brother were being homeschooled and tried to visit, but the Seabridges denied them access. In December 2011, Glynn Seabridge called the paramedics because Dylan had collapsed. Dylan had a heart attack and died on the way to the hospital. The medical examiner ruled that his cause of death was scurvy.
The Seabridges were charged with child neglect, but the case was not prosecuted because they were deemed too ill to stand trial.
Date: December 6, 2011
Location: Eglwyswrw, Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom Read More
Posted: January 28, 2016 by clmccracken
Simonne Say
Simonne Say, age 17, died as part of a suicide pact with her mother, Elizabeth Genthner (pictured). Simonne, who went by Sammi, was homeschooled.
Genthner “had a history of mental illness, drug-related arrests, and alcohol abuse.” Simonne was removed from Genthner’s home in 2001 due to felony child neglect, but reunited with her in 2002. In the early 2010s, Genthner began to homeschool Simonne, who was being bullied at school. Simonne was removed from Genthner’s home again in December 2014 due to neglect; Genthner spoke at the time of committing suicide with her daughter. Simonne was returned to Genthner’s care in July 2015. Counselors described Genthner as “highly manipulative of…her daughter”, and a neighbor reported that Simonne was afraid of Genthner.
Genthner and Simonne were found shot to death December 4, although they may have died November 27, Simonne’s birthday. A note by Genthner at the scene described Simonne’s death as a suicide; regardless of whose finger pulled the trigger, it is likely that Simonne was coerced by Genthner. Officials have not yet ruled on whether Simonne’s death was a suicide or murder.
Date: December 4, 2015
Location: Largo, Florida Read More
Posted: December 22, 2015 by clmccracken
Shaun Tara and 5 siblings
Shaun Tara, age 6, and his 3-year-old sister Delylah Tara, were murdered by their relative, Tami Joy Huntsman, and 17-year-old Gonzalo Curiel (a statutorily nonconsenting minor who lived with her). Huntsman and Curiel also tortured Shaun’s 9-year-old sister F.T. Huntsman’s 15-year-old son and 12-year-old twins also lived with them. At the time of his death, Shaun was enrolled in Monterey Charter Home School.
F.T., Shaun, and Delylah were the children of Vivian Saucedo, who was killed in a car crash in December 2013. The children’s biological father, Shaun Daniel Tara, cared for them until he went to prison in early 2014. Then he sent them to stay with Huntsman, his cousin. In January 2015, Curiel (then age 16) moved in with Huntsman. Child protective services visited their home four times in 2015 due to reports of child neglect (called in by Huntsman’s 12-year-old daughter and various neighbors), but the investigators did not find any evidence of abuse. Shaun and Delylah were killed around late November or early December 2015, and Huntsman and Curiel concealed their bodies in a storage locker in Redding, California. The family then relocated to Quincy, CA, where the abuse came to light after neighbors noticed F.T. locked in a car outside their home and called the authorities. When F.T. was rescued she had “missing teeth, broken bones, and open sores” and she was immediately hospitalized. Investigators then determined Shaun and Delylah were missing and later discovered their bodies. Huntsman was charged with murder, torture, child abuse, and mayhem. Curiel was charged as an adult with the same crimes.
Date: December 11, 2015
Location: Salinas, California Read More
Posted: December 21, 2015 by clmccracken
2 Children of Bruce and Deborah Leonard
Top row: Tiffanie Irwin, Traci Irwin, Joseph Irwin, Daniel Irwin
Middle row: Bruce Leonard, Deborah Leonard, Sarah Ferguson
Bottom row: Linda Morey, David Morey
Lucas Leonard, age 19, was beaten to death by a gang that included his parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, his half-sister, Sarah Ferguson, and several other members of the Word of Life Church in New Hartford, New York. Lucas’s 17-year-old brother Christopher was also severely beaten by the church members and was subsequently hospitalized. The Leonards homeschooled Lucas, Christopher, and their two younger siblings. The extent of their interaction with the school district was “the parents sending the district curriculum proposals at the beginning of the year”.
Bruce Leonard worked as a special education teaching assistant in Utica School District. The Leonards were very religious, forcing their children to read the Bible two hours each day and forbidding them from participating in sleepovers, Christmas, and Halloween. Ferguson and her four children lived with the Leonards in their Clayville home. Following a church service on the evening of October 11, the boys attended a counseling session with their parents and half-sister; their pastor Tiffanie Irwin, her mother Traci Irwin, and her brothers Joseph and Daniel Irwin; and church member Linda Morey and her son David Morey. The boys were asked to confess their sins and beg for forgiveness; the counseling session turned into a multiple-hour assault involving flogging with an electrical cord, punching, and kicking. Church members found Lucas unresponsive the next morning and took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police later found Christopher injured inside the church.
The Irwins, the Moreys, Bruce Leonard, and Sarah Ferguson were charged with “manslaughter, kidnapping, assault and gang assault.” All except Daniel Irwin were also charged with murder. Deborah Leonard accepted a plea deal to plead guilty to assault in exchange for her testimony against the other eight people. At least seven children ages 2 to 15 were taken into custody by social services.
Date: October 11, 2015
Location: Clayville, New York Read More
Posted: December 7, 2015 by clmccracken
Daughter of Aravindan Balakrishnan and Sian Davies
A girl (identified in the media by various pseudonyms including Rose Davies and Fran) was born in 1983 to Sian Davies (pictured at right), one of the followers of Aravindan Balakrishnan (pictured at left) and a member of his insular left-wing group, the Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. The girl was kept prisoner inside the group members’ house until her escape at age 30. She was beaten by other members of the group and denied medical care. She was homeschooled by Balakrishnan, who told her she was an orphan and forbade her from singing nursery rhymes or looking out the window.
Balakrishnan regularly beat group members Aishah Wahab and Josephine Herivel in front of the girl, and he sexually assaulted two other group members whose identities have not been released. Davies died in 1997 after a fall from a window, which police are now viewing as suspicious. The abuse came to light in 2013 when Herivel helped the girl escape so that she could seek treatment for her diabetes. Balakrishnan was found guilty of indecent assault, rape, assault, cruelty to a child, and false imprisonment. His wife, Chanda Pattni, was also arrested but was released without charge.
Date: October 25, 2013
Location: Brixton, borough of Lambeth, London, United Kingdom Read More
Posted: December 3, 2015 by clmccracken
Janiya Thomas
Janiya Thomas, age 10, was imprisoned, starved, tortured, and murdered by her mother, Keishanna Thomas, in January or February 2015. Janiya last attended school in May 2013; Thomas subsequently pulled her out of school to homeschool her. When Janiya missed her yearly evaluation, Thomas told the school Janiya was staying with relatives out of state. Thomas’s other school-age children, ages 15, 12, and 9, attended public school. She also had a 2-year-old.
Janiya had a medical condition “that affected her digestion and bowel movements”, a condition which had killed her father. Thomas kept Janiya imprisoned naked in a bathroom without food; she weighed only 44 pounds at the time of her death. Thomas also immersed Janiya in bleach, beat her bloody with an extension cord, dunked her head in water, tied her hands and feet, and broke her leg several weeks before her death. After the murder, Thomas placed Janiya’s body in a standalone freezer in her home.
On September 23, Janiya’s 12-year-old brother was caught shoplifting. As punishment, Thomas punched and slapped him; he climbed out a window and reported the abuse to the authorities. When child protective services arrived to investigate, they determined that Janiya was missing. Thomas refused to disclose Janiya’s whereabouts and, on October 15, moved the freezer with Janiya’s body to the home of her aunt and grandmother. She was arrested October 16 and Janiya’s body was located on October 18. Thomas was charged with murder, abuse of a dead body, and child abuse.
Date: January 2015
Location: Bradenton, Florida Read More
Posted: December 3, 2015 by clmccracken
Adrian Jones, and 7 siblings
Authorities believe Adrian Jones, age 7, was murdered by his father, Michael A. Jones, and his stepmother Heather Jones. Heather Jones homeschooled Adrian and his 7 sisters (ages 11 to 1). Adrian and two girls were Michael’s children from previous relationships, while the other four girls were Michael and Heather’s biological children together.
Former babysitters of the family have reported that the Joneses’ home was filthy, that they witnessed Michael Jones abusing Adrian and his siblings, and that Heather Jones hated Adrian and wanted him dead, depriving of food and forcing him to stand in a stress position for long periods of time. Adrian went missing in September, but the authorities were not alerted until police were called to the home on November 25 for a domestic dispute. When the police returned the following day, they discovered Adrian’s decomposed body in a barn on the property; his body had apparently been fed to the family’s pigs, which Heather purchased in September.
The Joneses were both charged with first-degree murder and child abuse. Michael was also charged with aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon; this charge stems from his abuse of Heather. The other children were removed from the home.
Date: November 25, 2015
Location: Kansas City, Kansas Read More
Posted: November 30, 2015 by clmccracken
Gianna and Samantha Rucki
Samantha Rucki (right, b. 1998) and Gianna Rucki (left, b. 1999) ran away from their Lakeville, Minnesota home on April 19, 2013 during a custody dispute. Their mother, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, then abducted them and took them to White Horse Ranch in Herman, Minnesota, where they were hidden by an underground network of family court critics until their rescue in November 2015. While being hidden, the girls were homeschooled and denied medical care.
Grazzini-Rucki divorced the girls’ father, David Rucki, in May 2011 and was granted full custody of their five children. In September 2011, a judge vacated the divorce due to evidence that Grazzini-Rucki had committed fraud. In late 2012, both parents were barred from contacting the children after a psychologist reported that Grazzini-Rucki had brainwashed the children and alienated them from their father, whom Grazzini-Rucki accused of abusing the girls. Shortly after the girls’ disappearance, they gave a televised interview where they stated that they did not want to live with their father as they were afraid of him. David Rucki was granted full custody of the children in November 2013, after the court found no evidence of abuse.
While the girls were being hidden at the ranch, Grazzini-Rucki denied any knowledge of their whereabouts as she and her boyfriend traveled to various locations around the world. She was eventually arrested in Florida on October 18, 2015 and charged with three counts of felony deprivation of parental rights. While investigating the girls’ disappearance, police searched the home of DeDe Evavold, a political aide of Michelle MacDonald (Grazzini-Rucki’s attorney who ran unsuccessfully for the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2014). There they found evidence which led them to White Horse Ranch, where they were serving a search warrant when they discovered the girls.
Date: November 18, 2015
Location: Herman, Minnesota Read More
Posted: November 21, 2015 by clmccracken
16 Children of Jonathan and Allison Schumm
Five children between the ages of 5 and 16 were physically abused by Jonathan Robert Schumm and Allison Nicole Schumm. Jonathan Schumm was a Topeka Councilman, Allison Schumm blogged extensively about their lives, and the Schumms had received an Angels in Adoption award in 2013. They had 4 biological children and 10 adopted children (two sibling groups of 5, adopted in 2008 and 2013), and were fostering 2 additional children when they were arrested. The Schumms’ biological children were homeschooled, and the adopted children were removed from public schools to be homeschooled as soon as their adoptions were finalized.
Between October 7 and October 11, 2015, Jonathan Schumm beat his 12-year-old adopted son, lacerating his eye, then choked him and threatened to kill him. The family had been previously investigated by child protective services in 2013 during their second adoption proceedings after the same boy’s foster family reported bruising on him and abuse of the other children. In her blog, Allison Schumm describes placing her other children with a relative during the CPS investigation so that they could not be questioned. The reports were ruled unfounded. Schumm also describes forcing some of the adopted children (younger than 10 years) to carry heavy burdens across the yard as punishment.
Jonathan Schumm was charged with one count of aggravated battery or child abuse for the 12-year-old and four counts of child endangerment for an incident that took place on October 31. Allison Schumm was charged with the same crimes, though as an accomplice. The children were removed from their home by child protective services.
Date: November 19, 2015
Location: Topeka, Kansas Read More
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
Website Menu
Post Categories