Alisa and Andrew, residents of Utah and the parents of four children (known in court documents as A.S., C.S., L.S., and J.S.) divorced in 2008. Alisa was granted sole custody. After a substantiated child welfare referral regarding child neglect in February 2009, a voluntary services case was opened, but Alisa was uncooperative and moved to Montana. In May, it was reported that Alisa’s children were alone and unsupervised and that the children were very late to school. A slew of child welfare referrals from September through November related to both Alisa’s neglect of the children and the domestic violence of her new husband, Evan, toward both Alisa and the children. A family preservation case was opened jointly in Montana and Utah. In November of 2010, Alisa removed her children from school to homeschool them, but did not provide them with academic instruction. Alisa temporarily left Evan and took the children to Utah and spent some time with relatives there. She then convinced child protective authorities that she was being protective, stating that she was moving to California without Evan and was going to keep her new address from him. Alisa was told that the children must not have contact with Evan. However, Evan accompanied Alisa and the children to California, as had been Alisa’s plan. Alisa worked while the children, who were still homeschooled, stayed home with Evan. When a neighbor called the police in May 2011 after hearing Alisa screaming, charges of domestic violence against both Alisa and the children surfaced once again. The children were removed from Alisa’s custody and placed in foster care. Alisa claimed that she was leaving Evan, but was repeatedly seen with him or with fresh bruises. In July 2011, custody was granted to Andrew, the children’s father, who was living with a new wife and young children in Utah.
Date: May, 2011
Location: San Diego, California
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Posted: September 21, 2013 by rachel
Christina Corrigan
On November 19, 1996, Marlene Corrigan called 911 to report that she could not wake her 13 year old daughter, Christina. Investigators found the girl dead, covered in bedsores, and surrounded by filthy conditions. In response to her daughter’s growing weight, Marlene had withdrawn her from school to homeschool her over a year earlier. Marlene had sought help for Christina when the girl was younger, but had not found an answer to controlling the girl’s weight gain. Christina eventually became so overweight that she lost the ability to stand and spent her days on the living room floor. Before her death, Christina had reached a weight of 680 pounds and become completely immobile, but her mother did not seek medical help. Christina died of heart failure. Marlene was sentenced to probation.
Date: November 19, 1996
Location: El Cerrito, California
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Posted: September 21, 2013 by rachel
Child of Jacole Prince
On June 22, 2012, child welfare workers responding to a child abuse tip found a child locked in a small closet. At ten years old the girl, called LP in court records and news reports, weighed only 32 pounds. While her younger sister attended school and was well fed, LP was kept home and spent her days in darkness. If she soiled herself, she was beaten by her mother or her mother’s boyfriend. Neighbors reported that they did not even know LP existed. In 2005 and 2006, state child welfare workers had been involved in the family as a result of Prince’s neglect of LP. At one point LP had been hospitalized for malnutrition, and she and her younger sister spent time in foster care. Prince took parenting classes, received her GED, and found new housing. She was determined competent and in March 2007 she was given custody of both girls. A month later LP stopped attending school and was removed from the school’s enrollment records. While news reports do not mention whether Prince told the school she would be homeschooling LP, the state’s homeschooling law is so lax that parents are not required to provide notification to a child’s school when withdrawing a child to homeschool.
Date: June 22, 2012
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted: September 21, 2013 by rachel
Child of David and Pamela Martin
Police responding to a child abuse tip in early February 2013 found a mentally challenged 17 year old left emaciated, filthy, and chained to a pole in his family’s basement. The teen’s father, David Martin, had withdrawn him from school to homeschool him the previous September, and with the assistance of the boy’s stepmother, Pamela Martin, had locked him in the basement and systematically starved him. The teen was chained to the pole after making several attempts to break out of the basement to find food.
Date: February, 2013
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted: September 11, 2013 by rachel
4 Children of Alisa S.
Alisa and Andrew, residents of Utah and the parents of four children (known in court documents as A.S., C.S., L.S., and J.S.) divorced in 2008. Alisa was granted sole custody. After a substantiated child welfare referral regarding child neglect in February 2009, a voluntary services case was opened, but Alisa was uncooperative and moved to Montana. In May, it was reported that Alisa’s children were alone and unsupervised and that the children were very late to school. A slew of child welfare referrals from September through November related to both Alisa’s neglect of the children and the domestic violence of her new husband, Evan, toward both Alisa and the children. A family preservation case was opened jointly in Montana and Utah. In November of 2010, Alisa removed her children from school to homeschool them, but did not provide them with academic instruction. Alisa temporarily left Evan and took the children to Utah and spent some time with relatives there. She then convinced child protective authorities that she was being protective, stating that she was moving to California without Evan and was going to keep her new address from him. Alisa was told that the children must not have contact with Evan. However, Evan accompanied Alisa and the children to California, as had been Alisa’s plan. Alisa worked while the children, who were still homeschooled, stayed home with Evan. When a neighbor called the police in May 2011 after hearing Alisa screaming, charges of domestic violence against both Alisa and the children surfaced once again. The children were removed from Alisa’s custody and placed in foster care. Alisa claimed that she was leaving Evan, but was repeatedly seen with him or with fresh bruises. In July 2011, custody was granted to Andrew, the children’s father, who was living with a new wife and young children in Utah.
Date: May, 2011
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Location: San Diego, California
Posted: September 11, 2013 by rachel
Two Children of Mother and J.S.
Savannah and Selena, both adopted, were subjected to horrific sexual abuse at the hands of their adult brother, Michael, who was also adopted. The couple, described only as Mother and J.S. in court documents, had three additional young adopted children and four additional older biological children. When Selena told their mother about her abuse at the hands of her older brother, her mother responded by disciplining her. Selena then went to school officials about the abuse, and her mother responded by withdrawing both Selena and Savannah from school to homeschool them so that they would not “spread lies.” Fortunately, the school officials had already involved the Department of Child Services, and the children were subsequently removed from the home. As the trial continued, allegations surfaced that both J.S. and Mother had sexually abused the children and that J.S. had beaten the children with a belt. After a trial, the court terminated parental rights.
Date: August, 2005
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Read More
Posted: September 11, 2013 by rachel
Child by David Allen Goddard
David Allen Goddard homeschooled his wife’s adopted stepsister, T.B., who lived with the family, while his wife worked long hours as a nurse. T.B. came to live with the couple when she was 10, and Goddard’s sexual abuse of the girl began immediately. After years of grooming the abuse went from bad to worse, and by the time T.B. was 15 Goddard was raping her regularly. After T.B. reached out to a family friend via facebook, the abuse was reported and Goddard was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Date: May, 2010
Location: Santa Ana, California
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Last Updated: October 4, 2016 by rachel
Erica Lynn Parsons
Erica Lynn Parsons was reported missing in August 2013, when her 19 year old step-brother went to the authorities to say he had not seen her since late 2011. Erica’s adoptive parents, Casey and Sandy Parsons, claimed that they left her with a biological relative, but their story did not add up and neither Erica nor the biological relative were anywhere to be found. Relatives who knew the family said that the Parsons household was often violent, and that Erica frequently bore suspicious bruises. There was also a previous child abuse case that had been closed. Erica was not reported missing by her school because she was homeschooled from 2005, when she was seven, until her disappearance. When they began homeschooling Erica, Casey and Sandy filed the required North Carolina homeschool paperwork, establishing “Parsons Christian School.” Authorities did not know that Erica did not participate in the required standardized testing in the two years since her disappearance because the state does not check up on homeschools or require them to submit their test scores. As the adoptive parents of a special needs child, Casey and Sandy continued collecting state checks until she was reported missing; they are currently serving prison sentences for fraud. In August 2016, Sandy Parsons told police that Erica was dead and led them to her body, which had been buried in a shallow grave.
Date: August, 2013
Location: Salisbury, North Carolina Read More
Posted: September 9, 2013 by rachel
9 Children of Robyn and Graydon Drown
Graydon Drown beat his children with fiberglass rods tipped with a knotted cords while his wife, Robyn Drown, stood by and watched. Both parents beat their children with two by fours and neither did much in the way of actual parenting. When an anonymous tip regarding a bruise brought the abuse to light, the couple’s nine minor biological children, ages sixteen to six weeks, were removed from the home. Robyn was raised in a cult in Alaska, and she and Graydon claimed to have converted to Judaism as adults. The couple did not believe in vaccines and practiced home birthing; none of the children had ever seen a doctor. The couple had three older children, but they were removed from the home in the early 1990s and raised by extended family. The couple said they were homeschooling the children, but few of the children could read when they were removed from their parents’ custody. After their arrest, Robyn and Graydon Drown were charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment and 14 counts of second-degree assault and were found guilty and sentenced to 20 and 29 years in prison, respectively.
Date: June 19, 2008
Location: Turner, Oregon
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Posted: July 17, 2013 by rachel
Child of Wilson and Brenda Sullivan
Wilson and Brenda Sullivan’s 17 year old mentally handicapped adopted son was found caged in a crib by investigators responding to an anonymous tip. He was severely malnourished and weighed only 49 pounds, less than what he weighed when the couple had adopted him at age 7 ten years prior. Two other adopted children, aged 10, were kept in similar cages. The family homeschooled. The couple had been praised for their willingness to adopt special needs children by the governor himself in 1995. Wilson died before the trial was completed, and Brenda was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Date: March 8, 2005
Location: Jacksonville, Ohio
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Posted: July 17, 2013 by rachel
6 Children of Zion and Glenda Lea Dutro
Zion Dutro tortured and molested his four biological daughters and two adopted nieces over the course of two decades, with the assistance of his wife, Glenda Lea Dutro. Glenda would choose one of the girls and tell her it was her turn to “cuddle” with Zion. The abuse involved sodomy in addition to other sexual acts. The abuse began in 1982 and continued until 2003. Collectively, the girls were raped over a thousand times and lived in abject fear of their parents. The couple, who homeschooled the children, were known as friendly churchgoers, but their squeaky-clean public appearance masked what was actually going on in the home. The girls were homeschooled, and in 1995 they told the pastor of their Pentecostal church about their abuse in a desperate cry for help. He responded by telling the Dutros of their daughters’ accusations and then discussing the matter with a church member who was also a police officer. This police officer then spoke with the girls, violating common procedure in a multitude of ways in an effort to protect his fellow church member. After both the church and the city failed to take action, the torture worsened. The girls were “isolated, starved, tortured, sleep-deprived and beaten.” The abuse only came to light in 2009, when the girls, now grown, once again reported their childhood abuse after learning that the Dutros were looking at adopting children from Mexico. The young women then sued the city for failing to protect them.
Date: January 1, 2009
Location: Antioch, California
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