Officials removed four of Anya James’s adopted children from her home after an older child, who had run away from home and was living on her own, reported her adoptive mother’s abuse. Another older adopted child had lodged a child abuse complaint after moving out of the home several years earlier, but when officials had visited the home James had convinced them that all was well and officials did not speak to the children out of her presence. When James’s four remaining children, aged 13, 15, 19, and 20, were removed from her home, three of them were severely malnourished, their bodies covered with soft, downy hair associated with starvation and their growth stunted to the extent that they had not gone through puberty. The abuse, including beatings, food deprivation, and imprisonment, had been taking place for over ten years. The children were confined to basement rooms with concrete floors and were required to use kitty litter buckets as toilets. The doors and windows had alarms on them so that James would know if the children tried to escape, and were monitored with video surveillance cameras. The children were homeschooled and allowed minimal contact with the outside world.
Date: October 2010
Location: Anchorage, Alaska Read More
Posted: May 29, 2013 by rachel
Jaquan Porter
Jaquan Porter was 10 years old when he died from fatal head injuries after being slammed against a wall. His mother, Melissa Sekulski, did not seek immediate medical treatment for the boy. Sekulski had removed her obese son from public school to protect him from bullying, but went on to beat him to death less than a year later. The beatings had begun three years earlier. His mother had filed the proper paperwork to begin homeschooling, but his grieving father blamed the school board for not checking up on him. Neighbors said they couldn’t recall seeing the boy. The boy’s mother admitted to the abuse.
Date: December 26, 2008
Location: Staton Island, New York Read More
Posted: May 27, 2013 by rachel
Alex Pavlis
Irma and Dino Pavlis adopted two children from Russia, Alex, aged 6, and his biological sister, aged 5. Only six weeks after the adoption, the boy died in the hospital of injuries sustained from beatings he suffered at the hands of his adoptive mother. Irma said she beat Alex because the child was difficult and she lost control, but she denied that those injuries could have killed him and insisted that Alex also harmed himself. Irma was charged and convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The children were being homeschooled while a sufficient school was located.
Date: December 18, 2003
Location: Schaumburg, Illinois Read More
Posted: May 25, 2013 by rachel
Child of Stephen Douglas James
The sexual abuse suffered at the hands of her adoptive father, Stephen Douglas James, began when she was 11, the girl reported, but she did not initially tell anyone of the abuse because she was afraid that her father would hurt her or her brothers. She finally told her adoptive mother, who confronted James about it. James admitted to the acts and tried to escape trial by faking his suicide, which included severing his ring finger and leaving it in a hotel room with a divorce decree and suicide note, but was caught, charged, and sentenced to two life terms in prison. The girl was homeschooled along with her three adopted brothers and the couple’s biological children. Before the abuse came to light, James taught science lessons for other homeschooled children in the community.
Date: December 2001
Location: Bastrop County, Texas
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Posted: May 25, 2013 by rachel
Child of Tammy Renea Andrews
Tammy Renea Andrews allegedly tortured her 10 year old adopted son, whom she homeschooled while sending her biological children to school. Andrews is charged with routinely tying the boy up or chaining him, denying him food, and beating him with a baseball bat and a hammer. She also allegedly pinched his tongue with a staple puller and pliers, and shot him with a BB gun and then refused to seek medical care for him (the bullet was found lodged in his abdomen by a doctor who examined him after he was removed from the home). The allegations of abuse came to light after a neighbor called to report that the boy was being stabbed in the hand by his mother. Officers who arrived on the scene found that the boy had blood on his hands and pants and that his body was covered in odd scars.
Date: February 2010
Location: Safford, Arizona
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Posted: May 22, 2013 by christinachez
Eric Cottam
14 year old Eric Cottam died of starvation in January 1989. Eric’s parents, Jay and Leona Cottam, claimed that the Seventh-Day Adventist family of four had been fasting since the previous November, saving their money to be tithed. Four years previously, the Cottams had withdrawn their children from school. School board officials were so concerned about the children’s lack of psychological development that in 1988 they took the Cottam parents to court. Neighbors said the family seldom left the home, and since the “fast” had started in November, they had rarely even seen the children outside of the home. A local reporter had been inside the home soon after the family’s last meal, and failed to report that the children were living in a home without heat or a working refrigerator. Eric’s sister Laura was placed in foster care and the Cottam parents were charged and convicted of 3rd degree murder, reckless endangerment, and endangering the welfare of children. Timothy Potts, the deputy chief of staff of the state’s education department, reported that the boy’s school had a breakfast and lunch program, and that someone would have spotted the problem had he been in school.
Date: January, 1989
Location: Nuangola, Pennsylvania
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Posted: May 18, 2013 by rachel
6 Children of Anya James
Officials removed four of Anya James’s adopted children from her home after an older child, who had run away from home and was living on her own, reported her adoptive mother’s abuse. Another older adopted child had lodged a child abuse complaint after moving out of the home several years earlier, but when officials had visited the home James had convinced them that all was well and officials did not speak to the children out of her presence. When James’s four remaining children, aged 13, 15, 19, and 20, were removed from her home, three of them were severely malnourished, their bodies covered with soft, downy hair associated with starvation and their growth stunted to the extent that they had not gone through puberty. The abuse, including beatings, food deprivation, and imprisonment, had been taking place for over ten years. The children were confined to basement rooms with concrete floors and were required to use kitty litter buckets as toilets. The doors and windows had alarms on them so that James would know if the children tried to escape, and were monitored with video surveillance cameras. The children were homeschooled and allowed minimal contact with the outside world.
Date: October 2010
Location: Anchorage, Alaska Read More
Posted: May 17, 2013 by rachel
2 Children of Earnest and Windie Perry
Windie Perry and her adult adopted daughter, Elizabeth, 20, sexually abused and tortured two adopted girls, aged 11 and 13. They were accused of imprisoning the girls in a dog kennel, tying them to cots, depriving them of food for days at a time, beating them with bats and hammers, torturing them with staple guns, and sexually penetrating them. Earnest and Windie Perry had six adopted children in total. The abuse came to light after one of the girls fled to a neighbor’s house for help after being beaten. Windie homeschooled all of the children, and her pastor and friends from her homeschool co-op responded to the charges with disbelief, asserting that Windie had always been a devoted and kind mother. Windie and Elizabeth were both found guilty of the charges against them; Windie was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Elizabeth was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Date: July 2008
Location: Clarksville, Tennessee Read More
Posted: May 17, 2013 by rachel
2 Children of Shelley Blair
In 2008, Shelley Blair’s two adopted children, a 12 year old boy and a 13 year old girl, ran away from her home and were found wandering at the side of a busy road. The two were severely malnourished and were covered with bruises. Blair pleaded guilty to beating the children, withholding food from them, binding them with duct tape, and locking them in their rooms indefinitely with only buckets to relieve themselves in. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Blair had also pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse in 2003, but was nevertheless allowed to homeschool her two children, who reported that the abuse became worse over time. Blair’s friends and pastor said she was a good caregiver who simply took on too much.
Date: October 2008
Location: Spring Hill, Tennessee
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Posted: May 15, 2013 by rachel
Child of Lee Ann and Troy Miller
On March 12, 2004, law enforcement found Lee Ann Miller’s 17-year-old daughter living in squalor in the basement of the family home. The girl had been withdrawn from public school 3 years prior, supposedly to begin homeschooling. Soon afterwards, Miller and her husband Troy moved the family—they had 3 children together; the abused girl was Lee Ann’s from a previous relationship—several counties away. The other children were enrolled in public school; the community had no idea the 17-year-old (known to the media as N.L.D.) existed. After N.L.D. was withdrawn from public school, and kept isolated within the family’s country home, the abuse she’d suffered the last 7 years severely escalated. N.L.D. was forced to wear a dog’s shock collar, which her mother would use to shock her until the batteries died; drink waste water as punishment; was beaten with sticks, plastic and metal pipes to the point that one of her thumbs was permanently disfigured, and had her teeth knocked out or severely damaged after being repeatedly struck by a hammer. All 4 children were removed from the home after the abuse was discovered. The Millers were charged with multiple counts of various forms of abuse. After an attempt to jump bail, they each pleaded guilty to multiple charges; Lee Ann was sentenced to 18 years in prison, and Troy to 32 years.
Date: March 2004
Location: Juneau County, Wisconsin
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Posted: May 14, 2013 by rachel
6 Grandchildren of Gordon Winrod
In 1995 and 1996, Gordon Winrod, a antisemitic Christian Identity leader, kidnapped six of his grandchildren and held them on his extensive compound. The children did not go to school during this time, or leave the compound; instead, they were homeschooled by a relative. In 2000, police finally broke into the compound and freed the children, who were then aged 9 through 16.
Date: May 2000
Location: Gainesville, Missouri Read More
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