A 14-year-old boy, M., and his three adopted siblings, were abused by their adoptive mother, Patricia Hyler. The children’s adoptive father, Tommy Hyler, worked long hours outside the home and was not charged in connection with the abuse. The children were homeschooled.
Hyler adopted M. around 2012. She worked as a teacher at a church daycare center and at a school for disabled children. In April 2018, she began abusing the children and shortly afterwards pulled all four out of school to homeschool them. She beat all four children with various implements. Hyler singled out M. for abuse, reportedly because she didn’t like redheads. She chipped his teeth with pliers, starved him so that his siblings had to sneak him food, strangled him, stabbed him with knives, forced him to sleep on a dirty concrete floor, and wouldn’t let him bathe but forced him to stand naked outside while she sprayed him with a hose. The abuse always took place after her husband had left for work, and Hyler threatened to hunt the children down and kill them if they ever told anyone, including the child services workers who conducted several welfare checks in the home. Two adults who had grown up as adoptees in Hyler’s home also reported similar abuse.
The abuse came to light when one of the other children texted a witness about it, and the witness reported it to the authorities. Hyler was charged with aggravated child abuse and the children were removed from the home.
Date: May 8, 2020
Location: Pace, Florida Read More
A 17-year-old girl, R., was sexually assaulted by her homeschool teacher, Alisa Andrews, over the course of nine months.
Andrews was employed as a homeschool teacher by the Northwest Arkansas Christian Homeschool Education Association. She taught a biology class at Rogers Christian Church; R. took the class in fall 2018. Andrews was also the director of a community theater program in which R. participated. Andrews began sexually assaulting R. in March 2019, assaulting her approximately 20 times. When R. tried to escape the abuse, Andrews threatened to kill herself.
The abuse came to light when a parent told the church pastor about Andrews’s behavior, and he reported it to the authorities. Andrews was charged with sexual assault.
Date: December 2019
Location: Rogers, Arkansas Read More
(from left) Danny, Marissa, Ty, Jesse, and Caleb some time after they were rescued; B. is not pictured
Six children—B. (b. 1988), Danny (b. 1990), Marissa (b. 1992), Tyler “Ty” (b. 1993), Jesse (b. 1995), and Caleb (b. 1996)—were imprisoned, starved, and tortured by their biological mother, Mary Rowles, and her partner Alice “Jamie” Jenkins. The children were homeschooled.
Rowles gave birth to B. when she was in high school; B. and Danny were the only two of the children who had the same biological father. Rowles was reported to child services when B. was three months old; following this, she moved in with her maternal grandmother and the case was closed. Rowles met Jenkins in 1996 when Caleb was two months old. Rowles was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis around the same time and soon became addicted to opioids, giving Jenkins free rein of the children.
Jenkins beat the children with belts and hammers, forced them to eat animal feces and vomit, and kicked their genitals with steel-toed boots. The children were fed only dry cereal and peanut butter sandwiches and suffered from extreme malnutrition that stunted their growth. They were kept locked in dark closets for months at a time. The abuse permanently damaged their eyesight, and Jesse developed trichotillomania. Jenkins singled out the boys for abuse, abusing Marissa less frequently.
Rowles knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it. In 2000, she fled to a friend’s house with the children, but soon returned to Jenkins. The family was reported to child services in November 2002, but authorities didn’t visit until February 2003. According to child services, they received “numerous” reports about the family over several years. However, the abuse did not come to light until B., Ty, and Jesse escaped out a second-floor window in April 2003 and reported it to authorities who found them wandering the streets.
“Rowles and Jenkins pleaded guilty in October 2003 to numerous offenses, including kidnapping, felonious assault and child endangering.” They were sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Date: April 28, 2003
Location: Kenmore, Akron, Ohio Read More
Adam Douglas Franklin, age 7, was abused and murdered by his stepfather, Alan Suliber. Adam’s mother, Elizabeth “Katie” Franklin, knew about the abuse. Adam was homeschooled.
Franklin and Adam moved to Wyoming in March 1991 and Franklin soon began dating Suliber. In July 1991, Suliber slapped Adam, who fell against the washing machine. Franklin reported the incident to authorities who investigated. Franklin and Suliber married in October 1991; several people noticed various injuries to Adam during their marriage. At some point Adam was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled.
In February 1992, Franklin took Suliber and Adam to a boy scout meeting while she went to work the night shift. The next morning, she found Adam unresponsive in his bed. He was declared dead and investigators determined he had been beaten to death. Suliber was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Date: February 14, 1992
Location: Rock Springs, Wyoming Read More
A boy between ages 9 and 17, identified by the media as Child AB, was starved, imprisoned, and abused by his Stepfather. The boy was homeschooled. The boy’s Mother knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it.
Child AB was the second-oldest child when Stepfather entered the family in 2012. Stepfather’s abuse of Child AB began immediately as he scapegoated the boy. Mother “abdicated her responsibilities and duties as a parent.” Child AB was beaten, “fed stale food and banned from speaking to his siblings,” and Stepfather prevented the boy from seeing a doctor.
Around 2014, social services set up a “child in need” plan for Child AB, but closed the case after three months. Shortly after the case was closed, Stepfather stopped sending Child AB to school, telling social services that he would homeschool him. However, Stepfather never submitted a homeschool application form. Child AB was subsequently not seen by a professional for 14 months. During this time, Child AB was kept naked in a dark room which was locked and alarmed with the blinds nailed shut. The boy was not allowed to use a toilet, so the room was covered with feces.
The abuse came to light in 2016 when Child AB’s sister reported her brother’s imprisonment to her teachers at school. He was removed from the home. In May 2019, Child AB’s parents were convicted of child cruelty. Stepfather was sentenced to 7 years in prison; Mother was sentenced to 3 years.
Date: 2016
Location: Northamptonshire, England, UK Read More
Clockwise from top left: Anthony, Megan, Alek, Zoe, and Tyler Todt
Aleksander “Alek” J. Todt (age 13), Tyler J. Todt (age 11), and Zoe Todt (age 4) were murdered by their father, Anthony Todt. Todt also killed his wife, Megan Todt, and the family dog Breezy. The children were homeschooled.
The Todts lived in Colchester, Connecticut, where Anthony Todt maintained a successful physical therapy business and Megan Todt was an active and respected participant in the local homeschooling community. Alek and Tyler were both musically skilled and in July 2019 they attended the Annie Moses Summer Music Festival. Megan homeschooled her children in both Connecticut and Florida; it appears that Zoe attended a Florida Montessori school.
Around 2016, the family moved to Florida, maintaining the Connecticut business; however, at some point Anthony Todt acquired major debts and began defrauding Medicaid. His physical therapy license expired on September 30, 2019, his Connecticut business closed suddenly around Thanksgiving, and landlords for the Connecticut business and the Florida home began eviction proceedings. In late December 2019 or early January 2020, Connecticut family members became concerned that they had not heard from the Todts for some time; apparently Megan Todt had said “the world was ending on the 28th.” Police visited the Florida home on December 29 and January 9 but were not able to enter. They finally entered the home on January 13, 2020, where they found Anthony Todt and the decomposing bodies of his family members concealed in a bedroom; they were estimated to have been dead for two weeks. Todt was charged with murder and animal cruelty.
Date: December 2019
Location: Celebration, Florida Read More
A 16-year-old boy, P., was starved and medically neglected by his mother, Elizabet Estrada. No charges were filed on behalf of Estrada’s other children, two of whom were 18 or older and one of whom was younger than P. All four children were homeschooled.
P. was born in December 2002 and last saw a doctor at age three, when he weighed 22 lbs. According to statements made by Estrada, who homeschooled them, the children didn’t “have a lot of contact outside the home.” P. was developmentally disabled with limited verbal ability. Estrada claimed that she “wanted to treat him at home.” When he was rescued in 2019, P. weighed only 26 lbs. and was three and a half feet tall; doctors diagnosed him with psychosocial dwarfism due to “extreme deprivation or stress”. His three siblings appeared healthy.
The abuse came to light when Estrada took P. to the hospital in October 2019 and health workers saw his emaciated state. They reported the situation to child services, who got the police involved. Estrada was charged with child endangerment and aggravated assault. P. was hospitalized and he and his younger sibling were removed from Estrada’s custody.
Date: October 2019
Location: Chambersburg, Pennsylvania Read More
Raylee JoLynn Browning, age 8, was murdered by her father, Marty Browning, Browning’s partner Julie Dawn Titchenell, and Julie’s sister Sherie Titchenell. The family also lived with Julie Titchenell’s three children, including a girl, V. Raylee and V. were homeschooled.
Raylee was born in 2010. Her biological mother was not actively involved in her life; Raylee lived with Browning as early as 2011, when the first of her hospitalizations for various injuries occurred. All three of her caregivers alleged that Raylee had a history of self-mutilation starting in 2012 when Sherie Titchenell entered her life, although one of these supposed self-injuries was a broken femur, which is a common injury from child abuse. Raylee was on seven medications, purportedly to treat mood disorders and autism, at the time of her death; authorities think she may have been a victim of medical abuse.
Sherie was the primary caregiver for Raylee and for Julie’s children. She singled out Raylee and V. for abuse. Raylee and V. originally attended school in Nicolas County, WV, where Raylee asked cafeteria workers for extra food because she was starved at home. Teachers at her school made multiple reports to child services about their concerns, although it is unclear if a case was ever opened. Sheri forced the girls to lie to CPS and they were “taken out of school and homeschooled because Sherie allegedly said she could think of no more lies for the two girls to tell to CPS workers.”
Raylee shared a bedroom with Sherie. Raylee was forced to sleep on the floor in a diaper and beaten with various objects. Raylee was punished during homeschooling by being forced to stand and walk in the hallways rather than being educated. Once Sherie punished Raylee by depriving her of water for three days; Raylee drank out of a toilet to stay alive. When Raylee died, “she had bruising, burns and lacerations on her body, and her rectum was torn.” Investigators hypothesized that Raylee’s cause of death was an infection that led to sepsis; drinking from the toilet may have been the cause of the infection.
The abuse came to light when Sherie brought an unconscious Raylee to the hospital; Raylee subsequently died. Raylee’s caregivers gave inconsistent statements about the circumstances of her death. Browning and the Titchenells were charged with Raylee’s death and with child neglect.
Date: December 26, 2018
Location: Oak Hill, West Virginia Read More
Four children—M., an 11-year-old girl; J., age 5; C., age 3; and K., an 18-month-old boy—were starved by their parents, Ryan Patrick O’Leary and Sheila O’Leary. K. died from complications of malnutrition. The children were homeschooled.
M. was Sheila’s child from a previous relationship. She was removed from Sheila’s care as a baby in Virginia in 2009 due to failure to thrive. According to the custody agreement, M. spent a few weeks every two months with her biological father in Virginia. J., C., and K. were all Ryan O’Leary’s biological children; the family moved to Cape Coral, Florida in late 2018. While Ryan worked, Sheila homeschooled the children; “however, law enforcement did not find evidence that the [children] were enrolled in a homeschool program.”
The O’Learys kept the family on a strict raw vegan diet, so the children were only given raw mangoes, rambutans, bananas, and avocados to eat. K. was also homebirthed and had never been seen by a doctor. J. and C. were “pale and yellowish in color” and “weighed under the third percentile for their ages”, and one of them “had blackened teeth indicating dental decay, which required surgery.” At the time of his death, K. had not had anything to eat for a week except breastmilk, and he weighed 17 lbs. M. was malnourished, but not as severely as the younger children because she was allowed to eat normally when she visited her father.
The abuse came to light when Sheila O’Leary called 911 after finding K. unresponsive. He was declared dead at the scene. The O’Learys were charged with manslaughter and child neglect.
Date: September 27, 2019
Location: Cape Coral, Florida Read More
Takoda Collins, age 10, was tortured, raped, and murdered by his father, Al-Mutahan McLean. Takoda was homeschooled. McLean’s girlfriend, Amanda Hinze, and her sister Jennifer Ebert, who both lived in the home, knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. McLean also abused Takoda’s 13-year-old brother. A 3-year-old who lived in the home was not reported to be abused.
Takoda’s mother, Robin Collins, struggled with drug use and “spent time in jail after being charged with abusing her son in 2009. [S]he lost custody of [Takoda] while living in Wisconsin in 2013.” McLean then gained primary custody of Takoda, who was allowed to visit his mother four times a year. Takoda attended Horace Mann Elementary School in Dayton, where teachers reported concerns about Takoda and his older brother to social services many times, starting around 2014 when Takoda was in kindergarten. According to his teachers, Takoda often had poor hygiene and injuries, was too thin, and complained of starvation, beatings, and imprisonment by his father. In 2016, Takoda’s older brother ran away from home, citing abuse. On May 11, 2018, a social worker tried to visit Takoda’s home as a result of a teacher’s report of abuse concerns; subsequently, on July 31, 2018, McLean filed paperwork to homeschool Takoda. In November 2018, McLean called 911 to report Takoda was “talking crazy” and took Takoda to the hospital for behavioral analysis. McLean renewed the homeschool paperwork in summer of 2019, after Collins called in a well check for her son over her concerns he was being abused.
In addition to being subjected to sexual assault and associated injuries, Takoda was also locked naked in an attic, forced to eat his own feces, forced to spend long hours in a stress position, and beaten with a belt. Investigators recovered Taser dog collars from the home. The abuse came to light in 2019 when McLean called an ambulance to report Takoda was unresponsive; an investigation showed that Takoda had either been “held underwater or forced to drink excessive amounts of water before his death.” Takoda died in the hospital and McLean was charged with child endangerment, assault, and rape. Hinze and Ebert were charged with child endangerment.
Date: December 13, 2019
Location: Dayton, Ohio Read More
Posted: May 15, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
4 Children of Patricia Hyler
A 14-year-old boy, M., and his three adopted siblings, were abused by their adoptive mother, Patricia Hyler. The children’s adoptive father, Tommy Hyler, worked long hours outside the home and was not charged in connection with the abuse. The children were homeschooled.
Hyler adopted M. around 2012. She worked as a teacher at a church daycare center and at a school for disabled children. In April 2018, she began abusing the children and shortly afterwards pulled all four out of school to homeschool them. She beat all four children with various implements. Hyler singled out M. for abuse, reportedly because she didn’t like redheads. She chipped his teeth with pliers, starved him so that his siblings had to sneak him food, strangled him, stabbed him with knives, forced him to sleep on a dirty concrete floor, and wouldn’t let him bathe but forced him to stand naked outside while she sprayed him with a hose. The abuse always took place after her husband had left for work, and Hyler threatened to hunt the children down and kill them if they ever told anyone, including the child services workers who conducted several welfare checks in the home. Two adults who had grown up as adoptees in Hyler’s home also reported similar abuse.
The abuse came to light when one of the other children texted a witness about it, and the witness reported it to the authorities. Hyler was charged with aggravated child abuse and the children were removed from the home.
Date: May 8, 2020
Location: Pace, Florida Read More
Last Updated: April 21, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Girl by Alisa Andrews
A 17-year-old girl, R., was sexually assaulted by her homeschool teacher, Alisa Andrews, over the course of nine months.
Andrews was employed as a homeschool teacher by the Northwest Arkansas Christian Homeschool Education Association. She taught a biology class at Rogers Christian Church; R. took the class in fall 2018. Andrews was also the director of a community theater program in which R. participated. Andrews began sexually assaulting R. in March 2019, assaulting her approximately 20 times. When R. tried to escape the abuse, Andrews threatened to kill herself.
The abuse came to light when a parent told the church pastor about Andrews’s behavior, and he reported it to the authorities. Andrews was charged with sexual assault.
Date: December 2019
Location: Rogers, Arkansas Read More
Posted: March 30, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
6 Children of Mary Rowles and Alice Jenkins
Six children—B. (b. 1988), Danny (b. 1990), Marissa (b. 1992), Tyler “Ty” (b. 1993), Jesse (b. 1995), and Caleb (b. 1996)—were imprisoned, starved, and tortured by their biological mother, Mary Rowles, and her partner Alice “Jamie” Jenkins. The children were homeschooled.
Rowles gave birth to B. when she was in high school; B. and Danny were the only two of the children who had the same biological father. Rowles was reported to child services when B. was three months old; following this, she moved in with her maternal grandmother and the case was closed. Rowles met Jenkins in 1996 when Caleb was two months old. Rowles was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis around the same time and soon became addicted to opioids, giving Jenkins free rein of the children.
Jenkins beat the children with belts and hammers, forced them to eat animal feces and vomit, and kicked their genitals with steel-toed boots. The children were fed only dry cereal and peanut butter sandwiches and suffered from extreme malnutrition that stunted their growth. They were kept locked in dark closets for months at a time. The abuse permanently damaged their eyesight, and Jesse developed trichotillomania. Jenkins singled out the boys for abuse, abusing Marissa less frequently.
Rowles knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it. In 2000, she fled to a friend’s house with the children, but soon returned to Jenkins. The family was reported to child services in November 2002, but authorities didn’t visit until February 2003. According to child services, they received “numerous” reports about the family over several years. However, the abuse did not come to light until B., Ty, and Jesse escaped out a second-floor window in April 2003 and reported it to authorities who found them wandering the streets.
“Rowles and Jenkins pleaded guilty in October 2003 to numerous offenses, including kidnapping, felonious assault and child endangering.” They were sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Date: April 28, 2003
Location: Kenmore, Akron, Ohio Read More
Posted: February 12, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Adam Franklin
Adam Douglas Franklin, age 7, was abused and murdered by his stepfather, Alan Suliber. Adam’s mother, Elizabeth “Katie” Franklin, knew about the abuse. Adam was homeschooled.
Franklin and Adam moved to Wyoming in March 1991 and Franklin soon began dating Suliber. In July 1991, Suliber slapped Adam, who fell against the washing machine. Franklin reported the incident to authorities who investigated. Franklin and Suliber married in October 1991; several people noticed various injuries to Adam during their marriage. At some point Adam was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled.
In February 1992, Franklin took Suliber and Adam to a boy scout meeting while she went to work the night shift. The next morning, she found Adam unresponsive in his bed. He was declared dead and investigators determined he had been beaten to death. Suliber was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Date: February 14, 1992
Location: Rock Springs, Wyoming Read More
Posted: February 3, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Boy in Northamptonshire
A boy between ages 9 and 17, identified by the media as Child AB, was starved, imprisoned, and abused by his Stepfather. The boy was homeschooled. The boy’s Mother knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it.
Child AB was the second-oldest child when Stepfather entered the family in 2012. Stepfather’s abuse of Child AB began immediately as he scapegoated the boy. Mother “abdicated her responsibilities and duties as a parent.” Child AB was beaten, “fed stale food and banned from speaking to his siblings,” and Stepfather prevented the boy from seeing a doctor.
Around 2014, social services set up a “child in need” plan for Child AB, but closed the case after three months. Shortly after the case was closed, Stepfather stopped sending Child AB to school, telling social services that he would homeschool him. However, Stepfather never submitted a homeschool application form. Child AB was subsequently not seen by a professional for 14 months. During this time, Child AB was kept naked in a dark room which was locked and alarmed with the blinds nailed shut. The boy was not allowed to use a toilet, so the room was covered with feces.
The abuse came to light in 2016 when Child AB’s sister reported her brother’s imprisonment to her teachers at school. He was removed from the home. In May 2019, Child AB’s parents were convicted of child cruelty. Stepfather was sentenced to 7 years in prison; Mother was sentenced to 3 years.
Date: 2016
Location: Northamptonshire, England, UK Read More
Posted: February 3, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Alek, Tyler, and Zoe Todt
Aleksander “Alek” J. Todt (age 13), Tyler J. Todt (age 11), and Zoe Todt (age 4) were murdered by their father, Anthony Todt. Todt also killed his wife, Megan Todt, and the family dog Breezy. The children were homeschooled.
The Todts lived in Colchester, Connecticut, where Anthony Todt maintained a successful physical therapy business and Megan Todt was an active and respected participant in the local homeschooling community. Alek and Tyler were both musically skilled and in July 2019 they attended the Annie Moses Summer Music Festival. Megan homeschooled her children in both Connecticut and Florida; it appears that Zoe attended a Florida Montessori school.
Around 2016, the family moved to Florida, maintaining the Connecticut business; however, at some point Anthony Todt acquired major debts and began defrauding Medicaid. His physical therapy license expired on September 30, 2019, his Connecticut business closed suddenly around Thanksgiving, and landlords for the Connecticut business and the Florida home began eviction proceedings. In late December 2019 or early January 2020, Connecticut family members became concerned that they had not heard from the Todts for some time; apparently Megan Todt had said “the world was ending on the 28th.” Police visited the Florida home on December 29 and January 9 but were not able to enter. They finally entered the home on January 13, 2020, where they found Anthony Todt and the decomposing bodies of his family members concealed in a bedroom; they were estimated to have been dead for two weeks. Todt was charged with murder and animal cruelty.
Date: December 2019
Location: Celebration, Florida Read More
Last Updated: January 29, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
4 Children of Elizabet Estrada
A 16-year-old boy, P., was starved and medically neglected by his mother, Elizabet Estrada. No charges were filed on behalf of Estrada’s other children, two of whom were 18 or older and one of whom was younger than P. All four children were homeschooled.
P. was born in December 2002 and last saw a doctor at age three, when he weighed 22 lbs. According to statements made by Estrada, who homeschooled them, the children didn’t “have a lot of contact outside the home.” P. was developmentally disabled with limited verbal ability. Estrada claimed that she “wanted to treat him at home.” When he was rescued in 2019, P. weighed only 26 lbs. and was three and a half feet tall; doctors diagnosed him with psychosocial dwarfism due to “extreme deprivation or stress”. His three siblings appeared healthy.
The abuse came to light when Estrada took P. to the hospital in October 2019 and health workers saw his emaciated state. They reported the situation to child services, who got the police involved. Estrada was charged with child endangerment and aggravated assault. P. was hospitalized and he and his younger sibling were removed from Estrada’s custody.
Date: October 2019
Location: Chambersburg, Pennsylvania Read More
Last Updated: August 12, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Raylee Browning
Raylee JoLynn Browning, age 8, was murdered by her father, Marty Browning, Browning’s partner Julie Dawn Titchenell, and Julie’s sister Sherie Titchenell. The family also lived with Julie Titchenell’s three children, including a girl, V. Raylee and V. were homeschooled.
Raylee was born in 2010. Her biological mother was not actively involved in her life; Raylee lived with Browning as early as 2011, when the first of her hospitalizations for various injuries occurred. All three of her caregivers alleged that Raylee had a history of self-mutilation starting in 2012 when Sherie Titchenell entered her life, although one of these supposed self-injuries was a broken femur, which is a common injury from child abuse. Raylee was on seven medications, purportedly to treat mood disorders and autism, at the time of her death; authorities think she may have been a victim of medical abuse.
Sherie was the primary caregiver for Raylee and for Julie’s children. She singled out Raylee and V. for abuse. Raylee and V. originally attended school in Nicolas County, WV, where Raylee asked cafeteria workers for extra food because she was starved at home. Teachers at her school made multiple reports to child services about their concerns, although it is unclear if a case was ever opened. Sheri forced the girls to lie to CPS and they were “taken out of school and homeschooled because Sherie allegedly said she could think of no more lies for the two girls to tell to CPS workers.”
Raylee shared a bedroom with Sherie. Raylee was forced to sleep on the floor in a diaper and beaten with various objects. Raylee was punished during homeschooling by being forced to stand and walk in the hallways rather than being educated. Once Sherie punished Raylee by depriving her of water for three days; Raylee drank out of a toilet to stay alive. When Raylee died, “she had bruising, burns and lacerations on her body, and her rectum was torn.” Investigators hypothesized that Raylee’s cause of death was an infection that led to sepsis; drinking from the toilet may have been the cause of the infection.
The abuse came to light when Sherie brought an unconscious Raylee to the hospital; Raylee subsequently died. Raylee’s caregivers gave inconsistent statements about the circumstances of her death. Browning and the Titchenells were charged with Raylee’s death and with child neglect.
Date: December 26, 2018
Location: Oak Hill, West Virginia Read More
Posted: January 7, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
4 Children by Ryan and Sheila O’Leary
Four children—M., an 11-year-old girl; J., age 5; C., age 3; and K., an 18-month-old boy—were starved by their parents, Ryan Patrick O’Leary and Sheila O’Leary. K. died from complications of malnutrition. The children were homeschooled.
M. was Sheila’s child from a previous relationship. She was removed from Sheila’s care as a baby in Virginia in 2009 due to failure to thrive. According to the custody agreement, M. spent a few weeks every two months with her biological father in Virginia. J., C., and K. were all Ryan O’Leary’s biological children; the family moved to Cape Coral, Florida in late 2018. While Ryan worked, Sheila homeschooled the children; “however, law enforcement did not find evidence that the [children] were enrolled in a homeschool program.”
The O’Learys kept the family on a strict raw vegan diet, so the children were only given raw mangoes, rambutans, bananas, and avocados to eat. K. was also homebirthed and had never been seen by a doctor. J. and C. were “pale and yellowish in color” and “weighed under the third percentile for their ages”, and one of them “had blackened teeth indicating dental decay, which required surgery.” At the time of his death, K. had not had anything to eat for a week except breastmilk, and he weighed 17 lbs. M. was malnourished, but not as severely as the younger children because she was allowed to eat normally when she visited her father.
The abuse came to light when Sheila O’Leary called 911 after finding K. unresponsive. He was declared dead at the scene. The O’Learys were charged with manslaughter and child neglect.
Date: September 27, 2019
Location: Cape Coral, Florida Read More
Posted: January 6, 2020 by clmccracken Leave a Comment
Takoda Collins
Takoda Collins, age 10, was tortured, raped, and murdered by his father, Al-Mutahan McLean. Takoda was homeschooled. McLean’s girlfriend, Amanda Hinze, and her sister Jennifer Ebert, who both lived in the home, knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. McLean also abused Takoda’s 13-year-old brother. A 3-year-old who lived in the home was not reported to be abused.
Takoda’s mother, Robin Collins, struggled with drug use and “spent time in jail after being charged with abusing her son in 2009. [S]he lost custody of [Takoda] while living in Wisconsin in 2013.” McLean then gained primary custody of Takoda, who was allowed to visit his mother four times a year. Takoda attended Horace Mann Elementary School in Dayton, where teachers reported concerns about Takoda and his older brother to social services many times, starting around 2014 when Takoda was in kindergarten. According to his teachers, Takoda often had poor hygiene and injuries, was too thin, and complained of starvation, beatings, and imprisonment by his father. In 2016, Takoda’s older brother ran away from home, citing abuse. On May 11, 2018, a social worker tried to visit Takoda’s home as a result of a teacher’s report of abuse concerns; subsequently, on July 31, 2018, McLean filed paperwork to homeschool Takoda. In November 2018, McLean called 911 to report Takoda was “talking crazy” and took Takoda to the hospital for behavioral analysis. McLean renewed the homeschool paperwork in summer of 2019, after Collins called in a well check for her son over her concerns he was being abused.
In addition to being subjected to sexual assault and associated injuries, Takoda was also locked naked in an attic, forced to eat his own feces, forced to spend long hours in a stress position, and beaten with a belt. Investigators recovered Taser dog collars from the home. The abuse came to light in 2019 when McLean called an ambulance to report Takoda was unresponsive; an investigation showed that Takoda had either been “held underwater or forced to drink excessive amounts of water before his death.” Takoda died in the hospital and McLean was charged with child endangerment, assault, and rape. Hinze and Ebert were charged with child endangerment.
Date: December 13, 2019
Location: Dayton, Ohio Read More
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