Brian Edgar and 2 Siblings

Content note: Case narratives include descriptions of severe violence inflicted on children, including abuse and neglect, sexual violence, torture, and murder, as well as mentions of suicide and domestic violence. They also include photos of victims and perpetrators of violence.

Case narrative

Brian Edgar, aged 9 years, died of asphyxiation after a sock was put in his mouth and he was covered from head to toe in duct tape as a punishment for stealing cookies. Doctors found that the boy had been bound extremely tightly around the chest and that he had vomited after being bound. Brian’s parents, Neil and Christy Edgar, who served as leaders of God’s Creation Outreach Ministry, had adopted him two years before. An autopsy revealed that the boy had been dead for several hours before being brought to the hospital, and that wounds on his wrists and ankles suggested he had been bound with a rope in the past. Neil and Christy Edgar and babysitter Chastity Boyd were each sentenced to life in prison, convicted of the first degree murder of Brian and abuse of two other adopted children. It was reported that Christy Edgar, who refers to herself as a prophet, claimed that God told her to tie up her children as a method of punishment. The family homeschooled.

Date: December 31, 2002
Location: Overland Park, Kansas

Documents:	Date:
Church leaders charged in death; Abuse killed son, prosecutors think	2003-01-01
Church leaders make court appearance in child-abuse murder case	2003-01-02
KCK church members support parents charged in boy’s death	2003-01-02
Authorities search Overland Park house in Edgar investigation	2003-01-03
Pastors charged in death of son appear in court	2003-01-03
‘He was a very loving little guy’; Third person charged in death of KCK boy, 9	2003-01-03
Services held for boy who died of abuse	2003-01-10
Edgars, baby sitter charged in Johnson County	2003-01-10
Case against parents, baby sitter of Brian Edgar moves to Johnson County	2003-01-11
Seven charged with child abuse in Edgar case	2003-01-16
Bond reduced for couple accused of abusing, killing son	2003-01-18
Edgars’ finances, taxes are scrutinized	2003-01-19
Judge increase Edgars’ bonds to $1 million	2003-01-21
Judge Declines To Lower Bond In Boy’s Death	2003-01-24
Church members wanted in abuse case turn themselves in	2003-01-27
Prosecutors present evidence in Brian Edgar’s death	2003-04-17
Two defendants to seek separate trials in Edgar case	2003-04-18
Three charged with hogtying, killing boy are bound over for trial	2003-04-18
Christy Edgar requests separate trial in death of 9-year-old son	2003-04-26
June trial date set in Edgar case	2003-04-30
Prosecutors oppose separate trials in death of 9-year-old	2003-04-30
Parents, baby sitter of Brian Edgar to be tried together	2003-05-05
Lawyers Argue About Evidence in Edgar Case	2003-07-24
Five women from church ordered to stand trial on child-abuse charges	2003-07-30
Kansas woman pleads guilty in adopted son’s death	2003-09-18
Father told police he tied, gagged son before child died	2003-09-19
Edgar children refused to implicate parents	2003-09-20
Testimony: Mother said God directed children’s punishment	2003-09-23
Victim’s siblings testify in Edgar trial	2003-09-23
Father begins testimony in Edgar murder trial	2003-09-24
Former member of Edgars’ church testifies she saw all three children bound	2003-09-24
Father, Sitter Guilty in Boy’s Murder	2003-09-25
‘You must love discipline,’ Edgar children were taught	2003-09-27
No Contest Plea in Kansas Church Abuse	2003-11-14
Church members sentenced on abuse charges	2004-01-07
Woman Gets Life in Prison for Son’s Death	2004-01-21
Church member sentenced	2004-02-06
Kansas man loses appeal for new trial in death of 9-year-old son	2012-07-27

Brian Edgar and 2 Siblings

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