In 2006, when Katelyn Colbie Pendleton was 9, her mother, Velma Hare, gave her away to a friend, Kizza Monika Lopez. Lopez soon began intermittently starving and force feeding the girl, and having her sleep in a closet. Lopez whipped Katelyn with plastic coat hangers, threw scalding water at her while she was in the bathtub, burned her with a pan, and punched her in the face. In December 2007, Lopez withdrew Katelyn from the Christian school she had been attending to homeschool her, and the abuse worsened. In April Lopez plunged Katelyn’s hand in a pot of boiling water and held it there. A short time after this incident, a neighbor lodged an anonymous tip with child protective services. The investigator found Katelyn “lying on the floor, starved, dehydrated, beaten and ill from untreated wounds.” At the hospital, her clothing had to be cut from her bloody body. Lopez was charged with aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm and received 20 years in prison. Katelyn survived the abuse and was taken in by loving adoptive parents. She shared her story in an effort to raise awareness for abuse survivors.
Date: April 2008
Location: Fort Walton Beach, Florida
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Posted: May 11, 2013 by rachel
3 Children of Mark and Susan Hooper
Mark Hooper, 42, and his wife, Susan Hooper, 20, have been charged with starving their 9, 10, and 11 year old adopted children. Mark is the pastor of a local Baptist church and Susan homeschooled the children. In February of 2013 the 9 year old girl ran away to seek help. The girl was taken into protective custody and told officials she ran away because she “was tired of not getting dinner because of my math” and because she was “afraid of mom.” She weighed only 31 pounds, less than half of the average for her age. She was examined at a hospital and found to be the size of a five year old, and to have signs of long-term starvation and severe growth retardation. The two remaining children were then also taken into protective custody. Together, the three told of being denied meals by their parents for not completing their homeschool lessons perfectly, being denied permission to use the bathroom until they wet themselves (and then being punished for doing so), and being beaten with a paddle, belt, and pots. The three children were adopted by the Hoopers in 2007, six years prior to their discovery. The couple is being charged with three counts of child endangerment.
Date: February 2013
Location: Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania Read More
Posted: May 11, 2013 by rachel
Jeanette Marie Maples
Jeannette Marie Maples was 16 when paramedics arrived at her home to find her dead. A Department of Human Services worker described the girl’s death as “horrific” and her mother, Angela Darlene McAnulty, and stepfather, Richard Anthony, were both subsequently charged with aggravated murder. Jeannette had attended school until she graduated from 8th grade in June 2008. Her teachers had been concerned by her thin and withdrawn appearance, and had reported their suspicions to child protective services, who visited the family but were convinced by Angela that all was fine. After Jeannette finished 8th grade, Angela opted to homeschool her in order to limit her contact with those outside the home. Court documents said the girl’s death was caused by “neglect and maltreatment” and occurred “in the course of, or as a result of, intentional maiming and torture.” The family lived in Oregon.
Date: December 9, 2009
Location: Lane County, Oregon Read More
Posted: May 11, 2013 by rachel
Raijon Daniels
8 year old Raijon Daniels was unresponsive in his bedroom when police and paramedics reached him, his body covered with chemical and rope burns, sores, and other injuries. The vomit around his mouth suggested that he may have died from swallowing household cleaner or another poison. Raijon’s school had become suspicious when his mother, Teresa Moses, told them to stop giving the boy food at school, alleging that he was on a special diet. Moses pulled the boy out of school and registered with the state as “Teresa’s Home School.” Moses told police she disciplined him by pouring chemicals on him as a punishment for wetting his bed. She kept him locked in his bedroom, watching him over a surveillance camera and fed him only a special diet mixed in a blender. Raijon did not recover from his injuries.
Date: October 26, 2006
Location: Richmond, California Read More
Posted: May 11, 2013 by rachel
Child of Kathryn and Kenneth Kreier
Kathryn Kreier punished her 14 year old adopted daughter by depriving her of food, forcing her to sleep outside naked, and fracturing her fingers. Her husband Kenneth Kreier, the girl’s biological father, did nothing to stop the abuse. The abuse took place between September 2007 and December 2008, during which the girl’s weight fell from 91 pounds to 70 pounds. Kathryn Kreier locked the refrigerator and cupboards to keep the girl from stealing food. Kathryn told school staff to not allow the girl to eat breakfast or lunch at the school, insisting that she had an eating disorder and was hoarding food, and after school staff fed her anyway (because of her starved appearance) Kathryn withdrew the girl from school to homeschool her. The abuse came to light in late 2008 after a woman who boarded with the family reported the couple. After a hospital stay, the girl was released to live with her grandparents, who she had lived before her stint living with her father and adoptive mother. Kathryn Kreier was charged with child abuse and Kenneth Kreier was charged with failing to prevent abuse. The family lived in Wisconsin.
Date: December 2008
Location: Juneau, Wisconsin
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Posted: May 11, 2013 by rachel
2 Children of Keith and Susan Ludwig
Investigators responding to an anonymous tip in 1997 found that Keith and Susan Ludwig forced their two daughters, aged 13 and 15, to sleep in make-shift cages with a brick-and-string alarm system and whipped them with leather straps, sticks, and rubber hoses. Authorities had investigated the Florida couple for child abuse in 1993, but while the father had told them that he requires the girls to follow rules and spanks them if need it, the investigators said they found no substantiating evidence of abuse. The family was investigated again in 1994, and again the allegations were not substantiated. When the investigators visited the home in 1997 after another tip to a child abuse hotline, they were finally able to substantiate the abuse, finding severe bruising on the girls’ backs and buttocks. Authorities said the girls were homeschooled.
Date: March 1997
Locationa: Myakka City, Florida
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Posted: May 11, 2013 by rachel
Katelyn Colbie Pendleton
In 2006, when Katelyn Colbie Pendleton was 9, her mother, Velma Hare, gave her away to a friend, Kizza Monika Lopez. Lopez soon began intermittently starving and force feeding the girl, and having her sleep in a closet. Lopez whipped Katelyn with plastic coat hangers, threw scalding water at her while she was in the bathtub, burned her with a pan, and punched her in the face. In December 2007, Lopez withdrew Katelyn from the Christian school she had been attending to homeschool her, and the abuse worsened. In April Lopez plunged Katelyn’s hand in a pot of boiling water and held it there. A short time after this incident, a neighbor lodged an anonymous tip with child protective services. The investigator found Katelyn “lying on the floor, starved, dehydrated, beaten and ill from untreated wounds.” At the hospital, her clothing had to be cut from her bloody body. Lopez was charged with aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm and received 20 years in prison. Katelyn survived the abuse and was taken in by loving adoptive parents. She shared her story in an effort to raise awareness for abuse survivors.
Date: April 2008
Location: Fort Walton Beach, Florida
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Posted: May 11, 2013 by rachel
3 Children of Leslie Tiesler and Brad Thill
Leslie Tiesler is accused of starving three adopted sons, aged 13 and 14, shooting them with a BB gun, beating them with a spoon, and confining them to a tool chest for days. The other two children in the home, one biological, were not abused. Leslie’s ex-husband, Brad Thills, adopted the four children in 2008, but the children continued to live with Leslie while Brad was deployed, and it was in her care that the alleged abuse took place. The children are now in foster care and Brad has been charged as an accomplice in the abuse; he maintains that he had no idea how the children were treated while he was deployed and that he returned home to find them in miserable conditions. The children’s plight was not noticed because Leslie was homeschooling them. A month and a half after removal from the home, the 3 abused boys, who had been systematically starved for at least 14 months and were emaciated when removed from the home, had gained 27, 20 and 10 pounds.
Date: May 2012
Location: Cameron, North Carolina
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Posted: May 10, 2013 by rachel
2 Children of David and Glenda Kinghorn
David and Glenda Kinghorn had 2 biological children and four adopted children, and took in as many as 8 additional children from disrupted adoptions. David was charged and convicted of raping one of these children, a girl aged 13. There were also allegations that the Kinghorns punched a 10 year old boy, Sasha Bignell (one of the children obtained from a disrupted adoption), tied him to a pole, and scalded him with boiling water, though charges were not pressed and the allegations were made after the couple had given him up, stating that he was a troubled child, and they were unable to care for him. After the rape charges, Glenda, who had stayed home and homeschooled the children for years, divorced her husband so that she could retain custody.
Date: October 2005
Location: Mena, Arkansas Read More
Posted: May 9, 2013 by rachel
3 Children of Kenneth H. Brandt
Kenneth H. Brandt pleaded guilty to raping his three sons, ages 9 to 12; two were adopted and the other was in the process of being adopted. Brandt also pleaded guilty to prostituting one of the boys, aged 10, out to two other men. Not long before the sexual abuse was discovered, Brandt had removed the three boys from their school to homeschool them, removing their access to anyone they could ask for help. The abuse was discovered in a sting operation when an undercover detective posing as interested in sex with underage boys and communicated with Brandt online. Brandt had also adopted a girl, but she was not subject to abuse. Brandt was found guilty and sentenced to sixty years in prison.
Date: February 2012
Location: Troy, Ohio Read More
Posted: May 9, 2013 by rachel
5 Children of John and Linda Dollar
John and Linda Dollar are accused of abusing their 5 adopted children, ages 12, 13, 14, 14, and 16, by branding them with a cattle prod, striking their feet with hammers, pulling out their toenails with pliers, and binding them with chains. The Dollars also deprived the children of food to the extent that the twins, aged 14, weighed only 36 and 38 pounds. The abuse was discovered when John Dollar called 911 to report that there was blood gushing from his 16 year old son’s head. There were three other children in the home who were not abused. The Dollars homeschooled their children through a private umbrella school.
Date: January 21, 2005
Location: Beverly Hills, Florida Read More
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