Victoria Evans (left, b. 1986), Alloma Gilbert (center, b. 1986), and Christopher Spry (right, b. 1989) were tortured, starved, and imprisoned by their adoptive mother, Eunice Spry. All three were homeschooled starting in 1994. Spry’s other children—two older biological daughters; two adopted daughters, Charlotte and Sarah; and others—were not abused.
Spry took Victoria in as a baby, later officially adopting her, while she took in Alloma and Christopher as foster children in 1992. After Spry moved them to an isolated farm in Eckington, Worcestershire, removed them from school, and changed their names, the abuse began in earnest. Spry beat them, strangled them, and prevented them from getting medical care for their injuries. Sometimes she starved them; at other times she forced them to eat cat food, vomit, and feces. She punished them with extreme physical labor and made them sleep in the barn or locked them in the attic for months. When Victoria was injured after a car accident, Spry forced her to remain wheelchair-bound for years despite her recovery. Spry, a devout Jehovah’s Witness, was convinced that Victoria, Alloma, and Christopher were “Devil children”.
The abuse came to light in December 2004 when Victoria reported it to a friend at church, who helped her escape and tell the police. Spry was arrested in February 2005 and convicted of child abuse in 2007. She was released from prison in 2014.
Date: December 2004
Location: Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK Read More
Posted: April 6, 2015 by clmccracken
Victoria Evans, Alloma Gilbert, and Christopher Spry
Victoria Evans (left, b. 1986), Alloma Gilbert (center, b. 1986), and Christopher Spry (right, b. 1989) were tortured, starved, and imprisoned by their adoptive mother, Eunice Spry. All three were homeschooled starting in 1994. Spry’s other children—two older biological daughters; two adopted daughters, Charlotte and Sarah; and others—were not abused.
Spry took Victoria in as a baby, later officially adopting her, while she took in Alloma and Christopher as foster children in 1992. After Spry moved them to an isolated farm in Eckington, Worcestershire, removed them from school, and changed their names, the abuse began in earnest. Spry beat them, strangled them, and prevented them from getting medical care for their injuries. Sometimes she starved them; at other times she forced them to eat cat food, vomit, and feces. She punished them with extreme physical labor and made them sleep in the barn or locked them in the attic for months. When Victoria was injured after a car accident, Spry forced her to remain wheelchair-bound for years despite her recovery. Spry, a devout Jehovah’s Witness, was convinced that Victoria, Alloma, and Christopher were “Devil children”.
The abuse came to light in December 2004 when Victoria reported it to a friend at church, who helped her escape and tell the police. Spry was arrested in February 2005 and convicted of child abuse in 2007. She was released from prison in 2014.
Date: December 2004
Location: Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK Read More
Posted: April 6, 2015 by clmccracken
Austin, Luke, and Cecilia Riggi
Twins Augustino “Austin” and Gianluca “Luke” Riggi, age 8, and their 5-year-old sister Cecilia, were murdered by their mother, Theresa Riggi. The children were homeschooled.
The children’s father, Pasquale Riggi, was an oil company employee; the Riggis, though American, had lived in Scotland for 13 years. The children were born through IVF and Theresa was extremely possessive of them, insisting that they wear electronic locator tags. In July 2010 she took them and fled their Skene, Aberdeenshire home as part of a custody dispute. Believing that Pasquale would gain custody of the children, Theresa stabbed each of them eight times, then set the house on fire. She attempted suicide but did not succeed. Initially charged with murder, she was diagnosed with numerous personality disorders and arranged a plea deal to plead guilty to culpable homicide. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison but committed suicide in prison in 2014.
Date: August 4, 2010
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Read More
Posted: April 4, 2015 by clmccracken
3 Children of Chianna and LaTrecia Hendrix
A 10-year-old boy, D.E., was starved, imprisoned, physically abused, and deprived of medical care by his biological mother, Chianna Hendrix, and her wife LaTrecia L. Hendrix. LaTrecia Hendrix’s two biological children, girls ages 12 and 5, were not similarly abused. One of the boy’s relatives reported that he had “been in and out of different schools for various behavioral problems for years before being homeschooled.”
D.E. was kept locked in the basement, where investigators found urine and feces in his bed. His younger sister reported that he was often beaten and locked in the basement as punishment for stealing food. When he was found he was covered with bruises and scratches and was hospitalized for malnourishment. The Hendrixes reported that they deliberately did not seek medical care for the boy for two years. Chianna Hendrix ran a home day care and LaTrecia Hendrix was a public school teaching assistant.
The abuse came to light when the boy ran away from home in March 2015 and was found by the police. The Hendrixes were both charged with child abuse.
Date: March 23, 2015
Location: Independence, Missouri Read More
Last Updated: October 12, 2017 by clmccracken
Cassandra and Moira B.
Cassandra B. (b. 1998) and Moira B. (b. 2008) were imprisoned and physically abused by their mother, Angel B., and their uncle. Cassandra was homeschooled.
In May 2012, Angel punished 13-year-old Cassandra by forcing her “to sleep outside in a tent when the temperature was 55 degrees. When Cassandra attempted to reenter the house, she was forced back into the tent and her uncle ‘zip tied’ the tent shut. Cassandra escaped, and Angel then turned on a water hose, which Cassandra’s uncle used to spray Cassandra with water. Angel also gave the uncle a rope, which he attempted to tie around Cassandra’s wrists.”
The court found that Cassandra had “severe mental and behavioral health needs” and removed her from Angel’s care. The state maintained legal custody of Moira while Angel maintained physical custody of her. However, in September and October 2013, Angel “locked Moira in her bedroom as a form of discipline.” When she then expressed interest in homeschooling Moira, the state prevented her from doing so, stating that it was not in Moira’s best interests.
Date: May 11, 2012
Location: Lancaster County, Nebraska Read More
Posted: March 30, 2015 by clmccracken
Khyra Ishaq
Khyra Ishaq, age 7, was starved to death by her mother, Angela Gordon, and stepfather Junaid Abuhamza. Khyra and her five siblings were homeschooled.
The children were subjected to regular beatings with a cane and punished by being forced to stand outside in the cold. The kitchen was kept locked and the children were starved and forced to vomit. Khyra was withdrawn from school in December 2007 and imprisoned in her bedroom. When she died in May 2008, two of her sisters were also hospitalized for starvation. She weighed only 37 pounds at the time of her death.
Gordon and Abuhamza pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Gordon was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Abuhamza was sentenced to life.
Date: May 17, 2008
Location: Handsworth, Birmingham, West Midlands, UK Read More
Posted: March 26, 2015 by clmccracken
Stoni Blair and Stephen Berry
Stoni Ann Blair (b. 2000) and Stephen Gage Berry (b. 2004) were murdered by their mother, Mitchelle Blair. The children, along with their older sister (b. 1998) and younger brother (b. 2007), were homeschooled.
Both of the surviving children reported severe physical abuse, including beatings with wooden planks and extension cords. Blair told police she beat and scalded Stephen for two weeks before his death in August 2012. She also told police she starved and tortured Stoni for a week before strangling her to death in May 2013. Blair placed Stephen and Stoni’s bodies in a freezer inside the home, where they were discovered in March 2015 by an eviction crew. Blair was charged with child abuse, torture, and murder.
Date: March 24, 2015
Location: Detroit, Michigan Read More
Posted: March 22, 2015 by clmccracken
K.B. by Robert Sanders
A 13-year-old girl known as K.B. was sexually abused by her stepfather, Robert E. Sanders. Sanders forced her to agree to a “covenant” where he assaulted her in exchange for giving her “rewards” such as being allowed to attend social events at church. The girl and her siblings were homeschooled due to the family’s religious convictions.
Sanders, a New Jersey correctional officer, married the girl’s mother, J.S., in 2002. The abuse began in 2009 when K.B. was 11 and continued until she told her mother about it in March 2010. Sanders was arrested shortly thereafter. He was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Date: March 8, 2010
Location: Quinton Township, New Jersey Read More
Posted: March 17, 2015 by clmccracken
Christi and Bobby Baskin
Katharine Christine “Christi” Baskin (b. 1980) and Robert Maple “Bobby” Baskin (b. 1981) were abducted from their Murfreesboro, Tennessee home by their grandparents, Marvin L. Maple and Sandra K. Maple, on March 1, 1989. The Maples had been granted temporary custody of the children by Tennessee officials while charges of Satanic ritual abuse against their parents, Mark and Debbie Baskin, were investigated. After the charges were determined to be unfounded, the Maples refused to return the children and escaped to California, where they homeschooled the children to avoid detection. The Maples, who went by the aliases of John and Frances Bunting, also changed the children’s names to Jennifer and Jonathan Bunting.
The children were discovered twenty years later after Marvin Maple, unhappy with how he was represented in a newspaper article commemorating the kidnapping, confessed to a friend, who reported him to the police. Maple was originally charged with kidnapping but arranged a plea deal to plead to custodial interference and receive only four years of probation. Sandra Maple had died in March 2006.
Date: February 2, 2009
Location: San Jose, California Read More
Posted: March 9, 2015 by clmccracken
4 Children of David and ReJeana Moss
Two girls, ages 11 and 13, and a mentally disabled 17-year-old boy were imprisoned, starved, and physically and sexually abused by their adoptive parents, David V. Moss and ReJeana Moss. Their 9-year-old adopted brother was not abused. The children were homeschooled.
The children were adopted around 2004, but the abuse did not begin until 2011 shortly after the Mosses’ two biological sons, who also report being abused, left the home. The three older adopted children were kept locked in their rooms with a bucket for a bathroom. The windows were boarded up and they were not given enough to eat. They were beaten so frequently with a paddle that it had bloodstains on it. The two girls were also sexually abused by David Moss.
The abuse came to light in August 2013, when the two girls managed to escape from their room, took their parents’ car, and crashed it. They reported the abuse to the police during the investigation of the crash, and the four children were removed from the home in September 2013. The Mosses were indicted on several counts including kidnapping, assault, child endangerment, and sexual battery.
Date: August 26, 2013
Location: Dorset Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio Read More
Posted: March 2, 2015 by clmccracken
6 Children of John and Carolyn Caminiti
Six children—four boys (CM, b. 1993; JC, b. 1995; LK, b. 1998; and KD, b. 2005) and two girls (RJ, b. 2000; and TR, b. 2007)—were abused by their father, John Caminiti (right). Their mother, Carolyn Caminiti, was both a victim and a perpetrator of the abuse. All six children had been homeschooled since the Caminitis moved to Wisconsin from Michigan in 2005 to join the Aleitheia Bible Church. ABC, which is led by John’s brother Phil Caminiti (left), teaches strict corporal punishment of its children.
The four youngest children (LK, RJ, KD and TR) were beaten often with a wooden dowel for disobedience. The children were rarely allowed to play with other children or to leave the house. The four oldest children (CM, JC, LK, and RJ) were often confined to their rooms and prevented from eating with the rest of the family as punishment for disobedience and for expressing their feelings. In January 2010, 14-year-old CM was confined to his room for a period of three weeks.
Eight people in the ABC, including Phil and John Caminiti and two of Phil’s adult children, were charged with child abuse of children in the church. John Caminiti was sentenced to one year in prison followed by eight years of probation where he would not be permitted to see his children.
Date: November 19, 2010
Location: Black Earth, Wisconsin Read More
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
Website Menu
Post Categories