In 2012, a 14-year-old girl was sold to Lee Kaplan (pictured left) by her parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus (pictured center and right), in exchange for financial assistance. Kaplan sexually abused the girl and she gave birth to two daughters. The girl and nine other girls lived with Kaplan and were apparently homeschooled; “musical instruments and homework were found in the basement.” It is unknown at this time whether the other nine girls were abused by Kaplan.

The Stoltzfuses were former members of the Amish community and claimed that the nine other girls were their daughters. The abuse came to light in 2016 when a neighbor called police about her concerns that the girls were rarely allowed outside. Kaplan was charged with sexual assault and Daniel Stoltzfus was charged with conspiracy. Both Stoltzfuses were charged with child endangerment.

Date: June 17, 2016
Location: Feasterville, Pennsylvania

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Two 13-year-old girls were sexually assaulted by their basketball coach, Nicholas Frede. The girls were homeschooled.

The assaults occurred at Frede’s home, where he had been privately coaching the girls since May 2016. Frede himself had been homeschooled; he played high school basketball through Southeast Wisconsin Christian Homeschool Athletics and he was on the 2015-2016 roster for the Maranatha Baptist University Sabercats.

Frede was charged with sexual assault of a child.

Date: July 10, 2016
Location: Nashotah, Wisconsin

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At least 11 children (9 girls and 2 boys, born between 1997 and 2008) were physically and sexually abused by their adoptive/foster parents, Daniel Wayne Spurgeon and Jenise Rae Spurgeon. The children were homeschooled (though at least some had attended school as late as 2008). The Spurgeons’ three biological children (two boys and a girl, born between 2001 and 2006) were not reported to be abused.

Daniel worked from home as a programmer and the family were active in their church and community. The Spurgeons became foster parents in 2004 in Alabama. They adopted five girls (born in 2000, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2005) and were fostering-to-adopt five more children (girls born 2003, 2005, and 2006; boys born 2007 and 2008). All ten of these children reported being abused by their parents. An additional girl, born 1997, who no longer lived with the Spurgeons, also reported being abused from 2009 to 2013.

The adopted and foster children reported that they were treated differently from the Spurgeons’ biological children. The house had two refrigerators; one contained varied meals for the biological children, while the other contained bread, rice, and beans for the adopted/foster children. The children were punished by being forced to swim laps, do pushups with a parent’s foot on their back, take cold showers, and sleep outside. They were smacked with spatulas and thrown against the wall. They went years without receiving medical care. At least five girls also reported being sexually abused by Daniel Spurgeon.

The Spurgeons left their Alabama home in August 2015 to move to Florida, although they weren’t licensed as a foster family in Florida until June 2016. The abuse came to light when police found three of the girls highly intoxicated in the parking lot of a restaurant. The girls reported that the alcohol was given to them by their father as part of the sexual assaults. The Spurgeons were arrested and both were charged with aggravated child abuse; Daniel was additionally charged with sexual assault.

Date: July 18, 2016
Location: Cape Coral, Florida; Florence, Alabama

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Kyle Gerhart, age 17, and Emily Gerhart, age 12, were shot to death by their mother, Lisa Gerhart, as part of a murder-suicide. The children had been homeschooled for at least eight years and were active in their local theater community.

Kyle worked at the local ice cream parlor and Emily had been a lead actor in “Annie”. The children’s older sister no longer lived with them and was not harmed. Gerhart had recently separated from her husband, David Gerhart, and friends reported that she was devastated by the loss. The murders came to light when a neighbor noticed a car parked outside the Gerharts’ house with its engine running and a hose leading from the exhaust pipe into the house. Police later discovered the bodies inside the house.

Date: July 25, 2016
Location: Gilbert, Arizona

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Dominique Moceanu, born 1981, was financially, emotionally, and physically abused by her parents, Romanian immigrants Dimitru and Camelia Moceanu, while being homeschooled for part of her high school years. Dominique’s sister Christina (b. 1989), was also emotionally abused. Another sister, Jennifer (b. 1987), was given up for adoption at birth.

Dominique, a professional gymnast, attended public schools in various states as a child and was a straight-A student. She was enrolled at Northland Christian School in Houston in November 1995 when she ceased attending to prepare for the summer Olympics of 1996 (where she would go on to win a gold medal). While being homeschooled, she had “several hours of academic instruction [each day], conducted by her mother with the help of a home-schooling TV channel.” During this time, her father slapped her across the face as punishment for eating food unsanctioned by her gymnastics coaches, Bela and Marta Karolyi. After the Olympics, she embarked on a 7-month tour around the US. It is unclear when she returned to school. On October 17, 1998, Dominique ran away from home due to continued abuse. Shortly thereafter she filed a lawsuit against her parents for stealing her earnings and was granted legal emancipation from them by the courts. In December 1998 she was granted a temporary restraining order against her parents who were stalking and harassing her; Dimitru was apparently plotting to have two of Dominique’s friends murdered. She went back to Northland Christian School in spring 1999.

Date: 1996-1998
Location: Houston, Texas

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Gypsy Rose Blancharde, born in 1991, was starved and medically abused by her mother, Clauddine ‘Dee Dee’ Blanchard (aka Clauddinnea Blancharde), who is believed to have had Munchausen by proxy syndrome. Gypsy was homeschooled.

Blanchard kept Gypsy’s head shaved to make her appear sick. She forced Gypsy to take seizure medications which made her teeth fall out. She kept her confined to a wheelchair and allowed her to eat only through a feeding tube for several years. Blanchard subjected Gypsy to several unnecessary surgeries, such as having her eye muscles operated on, tubes inserted in her ears, and her salivary glands removed. Blanchard lied about Gypsy’s age, saying she was four years younger than she was. In February 2011, when Gypsy was 19, she tried to escape with a man she had met at a science fiction convention. Blanchard responded by destroying the family computer and supervising Gypsy’s later internet use.

The abuse came to light in 2015 when Gypsy and her online boyfriend, Nick Godejohn, murdered Blanchard. After Gypsy’s arrest it became evident that she was not sick and she gained 14 pounds in prison. In a plea deal, Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving 10 years in prison.

Date: June 14, 2015
Location: Slidell, Louisiana; Springfield, Missouri

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Two girls, S.T. (born Jan. 2007) and a younger girl (born Dec. 2007), were beaten by their father, Jessie Tribby, and their stepmother Anna Mae Patterson. The girls were homeschooled. The couple’s biological child (born Jan. 2016) was not reported to be abused.

Tribby and Patterson married in July 2015. Between July and December, Patterson homeschooled the girls. During that time, their parents beat them with a wooden paddle as punishment. “Tribby told a social worker that he and Patterson are religious people, and the Bible says to spank with a rod and not their hand.” The girls were also forced to sit in hard chairs for long periods of time, which caused blisters from the beatings to break. When the girls urinated on themselves, they were forced to take cold showers as punishment.

The abuse came to light when the girls went to live with their biological mother Gina Tribby in December 2015. She noticed the bruises and blisters and reported the abuse to social services. She was granted full custody. Patterson and Jessie Tribby were charged with physical abuse.

Date: January 2016
Location: Cheyenne, Wyoming

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A 15-year-old girl was sexually abused by her homeschool teacher, Harold L. Stone.

Stone, a prominent entrepreneur and former university professor, began sexually assaulting the girl in his home in August or September 2014 at the same time as he began homeschooling her. Stone made the girl “take home pregnancy tests and threatened to make her have an abortion if she conceived a child.” He also threatened to kill her parents if she told anyone about the abuse.

The girl reported the abuse to authorities in May 2015 and Stone was arrested shortly thereafter. He was found guilty of sexual assault and child abuse.

Date: June 2015
Location: Davenport, Nebraska

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Five children (a 16-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy, two younger girls, and a 2-year-old girl) were tortured by their father, dubbed the ‘Springs Monster’. Their mother was also charged with child abuse, although she claimed that she was a victim of her husband. The children were homeschooled.

The children were “shocked with electric wires and burnt with a blow torch.” The 11-year-old boy “was made to stand naked on the porch one night as punishment,” was strung up by the wrists for two days, and was tortured with teargas. The 16-year-old girl was raped by her father. The father did not allow any of the children to receive medical care.

The abuse came to light when the 11-year-old boy escaped from the home and went to the neighbors for help. Before the parents could be arrested, the father beat the boy severely in retaliation for his outcry. The ‘Springs Monster’ was charged with 22 counts including rape and child abuse; his wife was charged with 20 similar counts.

Date: May 23, 2014
Location: Springs, Gauteng province, South Africa

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A girl (b. 2002) was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her pastor, Robert Duane “Bob” Wyatt, who was also her homeschool teacher.

Wyatt, an assistant pastor at Agape Bible Church, began assaulting the girl in 2014, when she was 12. He told her he loved her and planned to leave the country with her when she turned 18. The assaults continued for two years. In July 2016, Wyatt reported the assaults to the head pastor, Darrell Ferguson, and the girl’s adoptive parents, but all three chose not to report the abuse to the authorities in order to protect the church.

The abuse came to light in September 2016 when a parishioner within the church reported it to authorities. Wyatt was arrested and charged with sexual assault.

Date: September 19, 2016
Location: Thornton, Colorado

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Two children, a 17-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, were endangered by their mother, Trisha Meyer. Additional children may have been endangered as well. The children were homeschooled.

Meyer allowed “three tigers, a cougar, a skunk and a fox,” as well as several monkeys, to roam freely in her home with the children. The endangerment came to light on Sept. 26, when police investigating Meyer for theft found the 14-year-old girl at home with the animals. Ordered to appear in court, Meyer instead fled the state with her children and animals. She was later arrested in Pahrump, Nevada on Nov. 7 and her animals were confiscated. Meyer was charged with child endangerment.

Date: November 7, 2016
Location: Cypress, Texas

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Four girls (Helen, b. 1946; Dorothy ‘Dot’, b. 1949; Betty, b. 1951; and Rachel, b. 1954) and three boys (Rick Tenney; Austin Wiggin III; and Robert Wiggin), were isolated and abused by their father, Austin Wiggin Jr. The girls were homeschooled through “a Chicago mail-order outfit called American Home School.” It is unclear whether the boys were allowed to attend school.

Based on a prophecy made by his mother, Austin Wiggin Jr. pulled his daughters from school and forced them to form a rock band known as The Shaggs. When they were not practicing, they were forced to do calisthenics. Wiggin forbade his daughters from dating and “discouraged most other friendships.” Helen also reported that Wiggin sexually abused her on one occasion. In 1974 (when Helen was 28) she secretly married her boyfriend while continuing to live at home, fearing her father’s reaction. “On the night that she finally screwed up the courage to give him the news, he got out a shotgun and went after her husband. The police joined in and told Helen to choose one man or the other. She left with her husband, and it was months before Austin spoke to her.”

Wiggin died in 1975 and the Shaggs immediately broke up. In 1999, Helen was unable to work due to serious depression; she died in 2006. The other sisters have recently begun to make music together again.

Date: 1975
Location: Fremont, New Hampshire

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A boy (b. 2002) was imprisoned, starved, and medically neglected by his adoptive parents, Richard and Cynthia Kelly. His older sister (b. 1997), who was also adopted, was not reported to be abused. The children were homeschooled.

The boy, who was reported to have special needs, was kept locked in the basement by the Kellys for two years (from age 12 to 14), where he was denied food, water, and medical care. Authorities described the isolation as “disciplinary in nature.”

The abuse came to light when the Kellys brought the boy to the hospital. He weighed 55 lbs. and was described as “severely and chronically malnourished, dehydrated, suffering from acute respiratory distress, shock, hypothermia, hypothyroid and close to death.” The Kellys were charged with aggravated child abuse.

Date: November 13, 2016
Location: Helena, Alabama

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A boy (b. 2002) was imprisoned, starved, and physically and sexually abused by his father, an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and his stepmother. The boy’s two siblings were not reported to be abused. The boy was homeschooled.

The boy last attended school in June 2012; his parents began homeschooling him in September 2012, reportedly due to behavior problems. The abuse took place over six months. The Mountie kept the boy chained in the basement, deprived him of food and water, beat him with a stick, and burned him with a barbecue lighter. Some of the punishments were reportedly because the boy did not do his homework. In videos the Mountie made of the abuse, the emaciated boy is tied up while his father taunts him and insists that he “renounce Satan.”

The abuse came to light in February 2013 when the boy escaped and went to a neighbor for help. The Mountie was convicted of assault, sexual assault, and unlawful confinement, among other charges. His wife was convicted of assault and neglect.

Date: February 2013
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

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Five children, ages 14, 8, 6, 5, and 4, were starved and neglected by their parents, Donell Barron and Rikki Hart. The children were homeschooled.

According to their website, both Barron and Hart have college degrees and they run investment and healthy eating businesses; Hart works as a birth doula. Based on Barron’s statements to police, he and Hart are most likely members of the sovereign citizen movement, whose adherents reject the US government’s jurisdiction. The family had been evicted twice between 2011 and 2016 from homes in Port St. Lucie, Florida for failure to pay rent. It is unknown whether the children attended school during this time. Since their last eviction in February 2016 the family had been living in motels; however, in October 2016, their money ran out and they began living in their car in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The children were fed only bread and salad once a day while the parents appeared well-fed. The children used a bucket for a bathroom and bathed at a local park. They had not seen a doctor in years. When they were rescued, the 14-year-old boy weighed only 50 lbs. (5 lbs. more than the 8-year-old) and his bones were visibly protruding under his skin. He also had untreated high blood pressure.

The abuse came to light when the children were found by a patrolling officer. Barron and Hart were charged with child neglect.

Date: December 17, 2016
Location: Greenacres, Florida

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Three children (JTW, a 6-year-old boy; SRB, a 5-year-old girl; and HRW, a 4-year-old girl) were imprisoned, starved, and beaten by their adoptive parents, Joshua Ross Weyant and Brandi Jene Weyant. The children were homeschooled. Five other children who lived in the home, including a 17-year-old girl, were not reported to be abused.

JTW and HRW are the biological children of Jess David, who lost custody of them due to her heroin addiction. They went to live with Joshua Weyant because he was dating their mother at the time of their birth. SRB was reportedly not the biological child of either Weyant. Joshua Weyant served one month in prison in 2015 for the rape of a child (an incident which occurred in 2013) and returned to live with the children in March 2016. No one outside the home saw the children after summer 2016. According to the school superintendent, “the Weyants were sent a kindergarten registration packet, but because none of the children were of the legal school age of 8-years-old, they did not have to report the lack of response.” Though Joshua claimed to have completed homeschool paperwork, the school district had no record of this. The children had not been seen by a doctor since May 2014.

Beginning in September 2016, when Brandi Weyant fell ill, the children were kept locked in an unheated bedroom while the Weyants slept in a heated room; when they were rescued, the children had hypothermia. The children were found with “dirt, animal hair, urine, and feces in their clothing” and severe cases of lice. JTW had an eye wound caused by Joshua Weyant throwing him across the room. SRB reported that Brandi Weyant had punched her in the face as punishment for drinking tea. Both JTW and SRB were dangerously underweight and doctors reported that they would have died of starvation within a week if they were not rescued. All three children suffered from refeeding syndrome. HRW was also starved and beaten but her abuse was less severe than that of her siblings; Joshua Weyant reportedly favored her over the other two and investigators found a locked room in their house with numerous photos of her but no photos of other family members. Brandi Weyant told police she had asked her husband to “get rid of the children.”

The abuse came to light when police and social services visited the house in response to a tip. The children were hospitalized and the Weyants were charged with assault, false imprisonment, and child endangerment.

Date: December 16, 2016
Location: Halifax Township, Pennsylvania

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Natalie Jasmine Finn, age 16, was imprisoned, tortured, and starved to death by her parents, Nicole Marie Finn and Joseph Michael Finn II. Natalie’s 15-year-old brother and 14-year-old sister were also starved, imprisoned, and tortured. An older brother, Alexander Kendal Finn (age 23), and another 15-year-old sibling were not reported to be abused. Natalie was homeschooled.

The Finns divorced in 2011 and were living separately but had joint custody of the children. At least one of the minor children was adopted and Natalie and her sister and brother were reported to have disabilities. Natalie attended an alternative school, Walnut Creek Campus, in the 2014-2015 school year, but was subsequently homeschooled. Natalie often wore the same clothes to school and asked other students for food or money. Once she told a friend she did not have shoes and her feet were blistered. In May 2016, the mother of one of Natalie’s school friends reported to child protective services that Natalie asked her for extra food for herself and her siblings; police went to the home but no one answered the door. Other neighbors reported that they rarely saw the children, and that Natalie had asked them for money, food, and clothes on multiple occasions. According to court documents, Natalie and her siblings were locked in the house and subjected to “unreasonable force, torture or cruelty”.

The abuse came to light when emergency services were dispatched to Natalie’s home after she had a heart attack from starvation. She later died at the hospital. Nicole Finn was charged with first-degree murder; both Finns were also charged with kidnapping, child endangerment, and neglect.

Date: October 24, 2016
Location: West Des Moines, Iowa

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Seth Johnson, age 7, died of acute pancreatitis and possible sepsis because his parents, Timothy David Johnson and Sarah Nicole Johnson, did not take him to a doctor. Seth’s six siblings, including a 16-year-old brother, were not reported to be abused. Seth was homeschooled.

Seth came to live with the Johnsons as a foster child in 2011. In 2012 the Johnsons adopted him and began homeschooling him. His last medical exam occurred in 2013 and was unremarkable. The Johnsons subsequently claimed that Seth had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome and reactive attachment disorder, but that they had rejected this diagnosis and self-diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury. There was no record of any such diagnosis for Seth. According to his parents, several weeks before his death in March 2015, Seth “stopped sleeping, would shake on occasion” and began hurting himself. According to a criminal complaint, when he was found, Seth was underweight and “had bruising on his cheek, forearms, chest, buttocks, and lower abdomen. [He] also had two large lesions on the back of each heel that were consistent with pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcers would not typically be present if a child is mobile.” The Johnsons did not take Seth to a doctor, instead treating him with prayer, Neosporin, and “medical honey”. While the Johnsons were out of town for a wedding, Seth’s 16-year-old brother cared for him and reported that “Seth stopped talking and couldn’t get out of bed.” When the Johnsons arrived home, Seth was unresponsive; they still did not take him to a doctor. The next morning he was dead.

The Johnsons were charged with child neglect after a yearlong investigation in which authorities were unable to find evidence of a more serious crime.

Date: March 30, 2015
Location: Plymouth, Minnesota

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Malayia Knapp (b. 1998) and her sister (b. 2001) were beaten, starved, and imprisoned by their adoptive parents, Mindy Dawn Knapp and Anthony “Andy” Knapp. Their 7 other siblings were not reported to be abused, although at least one other sibling had tried to run away. All the children were homeschooled.

Malayia was the “oldest of six half-siblings of two parents with drug abuse problems and was placed in foster care at age 7” in 2006. She and two of her siblings, ages 6 and 2 at the time, were adopted by the Knapps, who later adopted the other three children. The Knapps also had three biological children. The biological children were treated differently from the adopted children; they were allowed to attend “The Network Connection, a private Christian organization in Des Moines that helps supplement education provided by home-schooling parents.” Malayia and the other adopted children did not receive similar educational supplements. The Knapps began to abuse Malayia in 2008, shortly after the adoption was finalized, and she and her siblings were abused more harshly as time went on. The Knapps changed their names and their social security numbers so family members could not find them. The children were beaten with belts, forced to exercise (often outside without coats or shoes) as punishment, and were often kept tied up. In 2011, the minister at the Knapps’ church, Heritage Assembly of God in Des Moines, noticed that the children were being mistreated and tried to investigate. The Knapps left the church shortly thereafter. In 2014, after Malayia’s sister tried to run away, the Knapps began to lock Malayia and her sister “inside a small basement room with no windows, no bed and a steel door locked from the outside.” In 2015, Malayia was kept locked in the room for seven days with no food. Also that year, the Knapps allowed Malayia to get a job working at McDonald’s so she could save up for when they kicked her out at age 18. The Knapps “grew upset because Malayia talked to people at work,” however, and forced Malayia to quit her job, stole her debit card and phone, and stole the $1400 Malayia had saved.

The abuse came to light in late 2015 when Mindy Knapp forced Malayia’s brother (b. 1999) to punish Malayia and her sister. The punishments included being doused with water and forced to exercise outside without a coat or shoes. As she was exercising outside, Malayia realized she could run away to seek help. She rode her bike to a local store, asked the clerk to borrow a phone, and called the police. Mindy Knapp was charged with two counts of assault; she pleaded guilty and was given a year’s probation. The Knapps were allowed to keep custody of Malayia’s siblings.

Date: December 1, 2015
Location: Urbandale, Iowa

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J. (b. 1996) was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her father, Jerald A. Hall. J. was homeschooled.

In 2005, J.’s mother sent her to live with her father in Oklahoma. When J. was in fifth grade, her father began homeschooling her. He began to sexually assault her at this time. He moved her to Arkansas, then Texas when authorities grew suspicious. When she arrived in Texas in 2009 she was pregnant; Hall gave authorities various accounts of J.’s pregnancy, but when J.’s daughter was born in 2010 DNA tests proved that Hall had impregnated her.

Hall pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Date: February 11, 2011
Location: Paris, Texas

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