Kylie Lavelle
51-year-old Phyllis Oser fatally shot her two grandchildren, Kylie Lavelle, 5, and Landon Lavelle, 5 months, before turning the gun on herself. Family members reported that Oser had struggled with depression and had not sought treatment. Oser’s husband had tried to convince her to put Kylie in school and get a job, but Oser resisted this suggestion. […]
Alexander Perkins and 1 Sibling
Alexander Perkins was 5 years old when he died of encopresis, a bowel disorder that develops as a result of children’s refusal to go to the bathroom. His parents, Leon Chad and Krista Perkins, failed to follow the prescribed treatment, leading to his death in their home. Alexander’s older brother, aged 7, suffered from the same […]
Boy by Christina Thomas and Peggy Starr
Christina Thomas and her mother, Peggy Starr, abused Erin Albin, a developmentally-disabled woman under their care, and abused, starved, and imprisoned Albin’s son between 2006 and 2010. When the boy was rescued at age 6-1/2, he weighed 23 lbs. The boy was enrolled in preschool in September 2008, and his teachers and paraprofessionals noticed that […]
Child by David Allen Goddard
David Allen Goddard homeschooled his wife’s adopted stepsister, T.B., who lived with the family, while his wife worked long hours as a nurse. T.B. came to live with the couple when she was 10, and Goddard’s sexual abuse of the girl began immediately. After years of grooming the abuse went from bad to worse, and […]
Child of Todd and Lisa Mortensen
Todd Mortensen is alleged to have sexually abused a 12 year old girl placed in his home. The girl was in the process of being adopted by another family, but when this family began to struggle with caring for her they made private arrangements to place her with the Mortensens. Todd and Lisa Mortensen homeschooled […]
Child of Steven and Mikelann Renwick
A year and a half after Steven and Mikelann Renwick adopted their 6 year old son, he was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries to his head, legs, and body. The boy had been only allowed in the house for meals. He was forced to sleep in the laundry room with the dogs and […]
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 […]
Zahra Baker
Zahra Baker, a ten year old cancer survivor and amputee living in North Carolina, was reported missing in October 2010. When allegations of child abuse had surfaced the previous year, her parents had withdrawn her from public school at the end of the term, telling officials that they were going to homeschool her. They never […]
2 Children of Dwayne and Pamela Hardy
Investigators responding to an anonymous tip found two children, aged 6 and 9, malnourished and scarred from beatings. Dwayne and Pamela Hardy had adopted the two children six months earlier, and homeschooled the two just as they had their four biological children, who were now grown. The couple “disciplined” the children by frequently depriving them […]
