Ricky Holland
Lisa Holland struck her 7 year old adopted son Ricky in the head with a hammer and didn’t seek medical help while he slowly died. Lisa and her husband Tim dumped Ricky’s body in a swamp and said he had disappeared. Police found the body six months later, and Lisa and Tim were charged in […]
Matthew Degner and 4 Siblings
After 14 year old Matthew Degner died, his mother dragged his dead body outside in hopes that officials would not look inside her home and see its squalid condition—or the 200 animals, riddled with disease, she kept there in cages. Matthew’s mother had isolated him and his four siblings, telling officials that they were being […]
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 […]
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 […]
Eric Cottam
14 year old Eric Cottam died of starvation in January 1989. Eric’s parents, Jay and Leona Cottam, claimed that the Seventh-Day Adventist family of four had been fasting since the previous November, saving their money to be tithed. Four years previously, the Cottams had withdrawn their children from school. School board officials were so concerned […]
Rachel L., Jonathan L., and Mary Grace L.
At age 14, Rachel contacted police saying she had run away from home. When questioned by the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), she said her father beat her with a stick, hanger, or shoe, that she suffered from depression but was not allowed to get help, and that she had been sexually abused […]
Children of Tom and Debra Schmitz
All 18 of the children living with Tom and Debra Schmitz, some adopted and some biological, were removed from their home after a nurse in their employ reported abuse and neglect. Many of the children had been placed with them illegally, but the Schmitzes insisted that they felt called by God to care for needy […]
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 […]
Child of Roberto Fortin II
A 7-year-old boy, son of Roberto Fortin II, was brought to the hospital severely malnourished, in diapers, and covered with infected wounds. His stepmother said the boy was being homeschooled. The family lived in Florida. Date: August 2010 Location: Miami, Florida
6 Children of Maj. John and Carolyn Jackson
John and Carolyn Jackson homeschooled their three biological children and their three foster or adopted children through their local church. One foster or adopted daughter died in 2008. The Jacksons are not being charged in that death. The five living Jackson children were removed from the home in 2010 after one child was hospitalized with […]
