Caleb Vasquez (b. 1996) and seven of his nine younger half-siblings were starved and beaten by their mother, Odalis Sharp. All the children were homeschooled.
In 2011, Caleb was removed from the home of Odalis Sharp and her husband Tim Sharp after Caleb ran away following a punishment where he was fed only bread and water for two weeks. In 2012 the couple divorced. In January 2016 Odalis drove seven of the children, whom she marketed as the Sharp Family Singers, to perform for and support the 41-day occupation by armed militants at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. They were met there by her 18-year-old daughter Victoria Sharp, who had recently left home, and who witnessed the death of one of the militants. Following these events, social services received three reports that the Sharp children left at home were being abused. In April 2016, five of the children hid Odalis’s guns and ran away from home, where they were met by a neighbor who drove them to the sheriff’s office. They reported emotional and physical abuse involving intense beatings with an implement that caused bruising and bleeding, as well as being forced to eat soap and called names. These five children, plus an infant and a 17-year-old girl who had recently left home to move in with her father, were taken into state custody. (Caleb, Victoria, and one other sibling were legal adults by this point.)
Odalis Sharp was arrested for assaulting an officer and is being held until further charges can be filed.
Date: April 29, 2016
Location: Auburn, Kansas
>
