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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
6 Children of Patrick McMullen
Patrick McMullen raped his daughters, beat his wife and sons, and isolated his family in a converted nightclub with an eight-foot double fence from 1995 to 2001. Patrick, who was active in the John Birch Society, covered the windows with dark cloth and held his family hostage, confining them in what media described as a […]
