3 Children of John and Sonja Kluth
John Edward Kluth and Sonja Kay Kluth beat, choked, whipped, and burned their three adopted children, two boys aged 15 and 11, and a 9 year old girl. The Kluths also forced the children to eat pet food, kept the boys padlocked in a storm shelter with a bucket to urinate in each night for […]
Christina Glenn
Eight year old Christina Glenn died of severe food deprivation and medical neglect. At the end of her life, starvation left her bones as brittle as twigs. Christina ultimately died from lack of medical care after her femur shattered, likely on its own. After her death, her two siblings, aged 6 and 7, were taken […]
11 Children of Michael and Sharon Gravelle
Michael and Sharon Gravelle forced their eleven adopted special needs children to sleep in stacked cages rigged with alarms. At night, the children were so afraid of setting off the alarms that they would urinate in their clothes rather than leave their cages to go to the bathroom. The children were also emotionally abused, spanked […]
Makayla Norman
Makayla Norman had cerebral palsy and was unable to walk, talk, or care for herself. Her mother homeschooled her and occasionally hired a nurse to help with her care. Makayla’s condition at the time of her death at age 14 was described by the homicide detective as “horrific.” Makayla’s hair and eyebrows were infested with […]
Hana Grace-Rose Williams
Hana Williams was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008; three years later, at 13 years old, she was dead at the hands of her parents. Hana was denied food by her adoptive parents as a punishment, leaving her too thin to retain sufficient body heat when her parents put her out of the house in the […]
Christian Choate
After abuse concerns were raised at his school, Christian Choate’s parents removed him from school and told neighbors that they were homeschooling him. He was kept inside a locked dog cage and was routinely kicked and beaten by his parents. Sometimes Christian’s parents chained his hands to the top of his cage. As his health […]
Nubia and Victor Barahona
After abuse reports were lodged by teachers, Nubia and Victor Barahona, twins who had been adopted by Jorge and Carmen Barahona, were withdrawn from their Florida school by their parents, who told officials that they were going to homeschool the children. In the months that followed, Jorge and Carmen systematically and horrifically tortured the children, […]
Nathaniel Michael Craver
Nathaniel Craver, who was adopted from Russia along with his twin sister, was hospitalized at age seven for physical injuries suffered at the hands of his parents, Michael J. Craver and Nanette L. Craver. Nathaniel died not long thereafter, having suffered irreparable brain injury. Nathaniel and his sister were homeschooled and the family lived in Pennsylvania. After […]
Valerie Charlene Lucie
Eleven year old Valerie Lucie hung herself after being brutally raped in the shower by her father, Timothy Lucie. Valerie was described as a happy and outgoing girl whose homeschool social calendar was filled with soccer and choir. While the family’s pastor initially defended the father and urged the congregation not to jump to conclusions, […]
Noah, John, Paul, Luke, and Mary Yates
Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke, 2, and Mary, an infant, were drowned in the family’s bathtub by their mother, Andrea Yates, one after another. Yates believed that she had to kill her offspring as children lest they come of age and turn away from God. Yates had long suffered from depression, and was […]