Jessica Crank
Jessica Crank, age 15, died of bone cancer which her mother, Jacqueline Crank, and stepfather Ariel Ben Sherman left untreated. When she died, she had a tumor the size of a basketball. Jessica was homeschooled. Sherman, who had been convicted of child abuse in Oregon in 1987, was the leader of the Universal Life Church, […]
2 children of Brenda Frazier
An 11-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl were tortured by their grandparents, LaDonna (right) and Johnny Stilwell, and their mother Brenda Frazier (not pictured), using an electric cattle prod. The boy was also locked in his room with a bucket for a toilet. The children were homeschooled. The abuse came to light when the boy […]
2 Children by Barbara Dean Baldwin and Tommy Lee Baldwin
Two boys, ages 10 and 9, were imprisoned and starved by their great-aunt Barbara Dean Baldwin and her husband Tommy Lee Baldwin. The boys were forced to live in a hot, windowless garage and were not allowed into the house to use the toilet or bathe. They were punished for making errors in their school […]
Children of Samuel Thomas Patrick and Debra Lynn Patrick
Samuel Thomas Patrick fathered 9 children with his sister, Debra Lynn Patrick (pictured), and 4 grandchildren with his adolescent daughters. All 13 children were homebirthed and homeschooled. The abuse came to light when workers at the cemetery where Samuel and Debra’s 8-month-old son Joshua had been buried in 1990 discovered that his coffin had been […]
Dozens of children by Dwight "Malachi" York
Dwight “Malachi” York’s was arrested in 2002 and convicted in 2004 of child molestation in what was the largest prosecution of child molestation by a single individual in U.S. history. York was the leader of a quasi-religious cult, United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, and moved his 100 or so followers from Brooklyn, New York, to a rural property in Putnam […]
Joseph Chaney
Cynthia Guthrie abducted 14-year-old Joseph Chaney from his mobile home in Tennessee and went on the run with him, first to Colorado and then to New Mexico, where she was caught. Guthrie was a friend of the boy’s mother, Susan Smith, who had asked Guthrie to homeschool her two sons. Guthrie’s sexual abuse of Joseph […]
Emily Fritts
Mary Fritts kidnapped her 7-year-old daughter, Emily Fritts, from Staunton, Virginia, in August 1994 to avoid allowing her ex-husband visitation rights. The mother and daughter assumed new identities and moved frequently, living in Tennessee, Oregon, Kansas, Alaska, and Montana. Mary also homeschooled Emily. Emily’s father, Rodney Fritts, hired a private investigator and spent nearly half […]
Gail Perkins
In the late 1990s, 18-month-old Gail Perkins was kidnapped by her father, Adam Lee Perkins, from her Greensboro, North Carolina, home in the midst of a custody dispute. Along with his mother, Ruth Perkins, Adam fled with the girl to Alabama and later Ohio, where he claimed to be homeschooling the now 6-year-old (it is unknown whether he […]
Lisa Gooding
In 1991, Melissa Gooding kidnapped her 2-year-old daughter, Lisa Gooding. Melissa’s parents accompanied the mother and daughter, and Lisa grew up in the company of her mother and grandparents. The family adopted assumed names and moved every few years (they lived in Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Utah before settling in Texas). Lisa was homeschooled […]
Bryant and Alexis Morris
Bryant (age 10), Alexis (age 8), and Johnathan (age 4) Morris were murdered by their father, Edward Morris, who also killed their pregnant mother Renee Lynn Morris. The murders were premeditated—Morris arranged a family trip to the Tillamook State Forest, where he shot Bryant and Johnathan, shot and stabbed Renee, then drove to a more […]
