An 8-year-old boy was starved and chained to a bed for a year by his parents, Christopher Shawn Pope and Trina Pope. The boy’s grandmother, Wanda Zavala, knew about the abuse but did nothing because she believed he “was possessed with evil spirits.” The boy’s 7 siblings (ages 10, 9, 6, 4, 3, 20 months and 8 months; Trina Pope was pregnant with her 9th child) were not similarly abused. The boy had previously attended school, “but his father had withdrawn him because of what the father contended were discipline problems and he was being home-schooled.”

The boy was not released even to use the bathroom, and by the time he was found chained to the bed rail the soiled mattress had been removed and he was sleeping on the floor. He also “had some injuries on him,” according to police. The boy weighed 51 lbs. when he was rescued after child services received a tip in April 1999. The other children were not removed until July when the Popes were finally arrested—the police had tried for three months to speak with the other children, but “the parents would not let them speak with police.” Social services had previously been called to the house in May 1997 when the Popes left their children at home to go see a movie.

Christopher and Trina Pope were found guilty of child endangerment and sentenced to 18 months and one year in prison, respectively. Zavala was charged with a misdemeanor.

Date: April 12, 1999
Location: Pasadena, Texas

Yahweh Lord (born c. 1983), Rainbow Lord (born c. 1985), and Angel Lord (born c. 1988) were abused by their father, John Lamont Davis (who also went by “Rajohn Lord”), their mother Carrie Lee Davis, and Faye Alice Potts, who lived with the Davises. “The boys were schooled at home, but not under any official home-schooling program. Potts taught them English and math.” In spring 1991, 6-year-old Rainbow ate a piece of drywall and became sick, perhaps due to a beating. As the Davises’ extreme religious beliefs were opposed to medical care, they did not seek treatment for Rainbow. After he died, they burned his body.

Yahweh and Angel grew up isolated from the outside world. They were starved, beaten with a “rod of correction”, and sometimes chained to their beds. When they were rescued, they did not know how to eat an apple and they were severely underdeveloped, with “wasted muscles that [made] it difficult for them to walk.” The boys were not allowed to speak unless they were reading from the Bible, were not allowed to use the bathroom, and were only allowed to shower under a cold hose every few months. They were never seen by a doctor.

The abuse came to light in October 2000 when Yahweh called 911. After the boys’ rescue, Yahweh changed his name to Jerry and Angel changed his name to Michael. Jerry was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sadly was murdered in 2003 not far from the group home where he was living.

The Davises and Potts were charged with “two counts each of torture, felony child abuse involving great bodily harm and false imprisonment.” After Rainbow’s remains were discovered, they were also charged with his murder, and John Davis was also charged with raping a “15- or 16-year-old girl in January 1995.” Following these charges, Davis committed suicide in his cell. Carrie Davis pleaded guilty and was sent to a mental institution, and Potts pleaded no contest and was sent to prison.

Date: October 14, 2000
Location: Twentynine Palms, California

Paul Dane Dunham and Paula Lee Dunham had 9 biological children and adopted 15 others, including 8 from the Philippines who were obtained through disrupted adoptions. The other 7 children were obtained from private adoption agencies—the Dunhams were not licensed foster parents in Stearns County where they resided. In 2002, 9 of the children were homeschooled. The 15 children who were still minors in late 2008 were removed by social services due to rampant sexual abuse among the siblings.

In late 2005, two of the adopted children admitted to having consensual sex with each other. The Dunhams responded by segregating the boys from the girls and putting locks and alarms on the doors. Then in September 2007 the Dunhams adopted a teenage boy who had previously sexually abused his sister and was prohibited from having contact with younger girls. More abuse came to light in December 2008 when one of the Dunhams’ children reported sexual abuse to a neighbor.

Two of the Dunhams’ biological children—Eric Lamar Dunham, 20, left, and another son who was a minor tried as an adult—were found guilty of first degree criminal sexual conduct, and one of their adult adopted sons—Romnick Charael Dunham, 20, right—was found not guilty of the same crime after the victim refused to testify. No charges were filed against the Dunhams, who moved to Florida.

Date: December 2008
Location: Sartell, Minnesota and Holdingford, Minnesota

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Andrew Keith Wells, 20, sexually assaulted 8 of his 9 siblings. His parents, Brian and Janelle Wells, knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it. Andrew Wells had been homeschooled and had only a fifth-grade education, as well as “numerous mental issues.” His younger siblings were all being homeschooled at the time of his arrest.

The abuse came to light when Wells walked into the Burlington police station and confessed to having molested his siblings for the past eight or nine years. He also confessed to possessing a large amount of child pornography.

Brian and Janelle Wells were each charged with two counts of child endangerment and accepted a plea agreement to avoid prison time by agreeing not to contact their minor children for five years in exchange for two years’ probation. Andrew Wells pleaded guilty to sexual abuse, lascivious acts with a child, and incest, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Date: February 24, 2014
Location: Burlington, Iowa

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The daughter of Arletha Hopkins was repeatedly raped by her stepfather Rev. Anthony Hopkins, a traveling evangelist, starting in 2001 when she was 11 and continuing until she ran away from home at age 19. When Arletha discovered the abuse, Anthony murdered her and forced her daughter to help him hide her body. Anthony continued to rape his stepdaughter and when she escaped in July 2008 she was pregnant with his child. The girl’s seven siblings (six of whom were Anthony’s biological children) were not abused. The girl had been pulled out of school in fifth grade to be homeschooled by Anthony, and he also homeschooled the other children. When he began raping his stepdaughter, he used Bible stories to convince her it was normal.

The Hopkinses originally lived in Whatley, GA, but moved quickly to Jackson, AL where the girl attended school and the first rape occurred. After she was pulled from school the family moved to Mobile, AL, then New Orleans, Louisiana, then back to Mobile where Arletha was murdered December 4, 2004. Arletha’s body was first buried in Jackson, then Anthony forced the girl to help him move her mother’s body to a freezer in their Mobile home, where it remained until 2008. Arletha had given birth to her eighth child on November 21, 2004; Anthony told people that his wife had died in childbirth. She was never reported missing.

The abuse came to light when the girl reported it first to a minister she knew, then to police. Hopkins was found guilty of murder, sodomy, rape, incest and sexual abuse. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Date: December 4, 2004; July 28, 2008
Location: Jackson, Alabama; Mobile, Alabama; Wadley, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana

Two boys, ages 10 and 9, were removed from the custody of their adoptive mother, Emily Miller, after the younger boy—who had cerebral palsy—was found tied to a urine-filled bucket in the basement. Clad only in a t-shirt and tied by a dog leash, he had been there for at least a day. The older boy, who had learning disabilities, was apparently unharmed. Both were homeschooled and had been pulled from school.

Miller, a longtime foster and adoptive mother of special-needs children, had previously had two of her children die: in January 1993, her 4-month-old adopted daughter Ieisha Dyson had died of a severe birth defect, and in April 1995 Miller’s 2-year-old adopted son DuJuan Miller had died of supposed SIDS. Earlier in 1999, a baby Miller was fostering was found to have injuries consistent with abuse.

Due to lack of evidence of abuse, Miller was not charged.

Date: November 1, 1999
Location: Detroit, Michigan

Tommy Halbesleben, age 10, was starved by his father, August James Halbesleben, and his stepmother Jeanine Marie Halbesleben, from the summer of 1999—when the Halbeslebens began homeschooling him due to “conflicts with his second grade teacher and school officials”—until February 2000. Jeanine had been convicted in 1999 of misdemeanor injury to a child after she hit Tommy’s older brother and ruptured his eardrum.

The Halbeslebens had attended a parenting class where “they were taught that food limitations could be used as a form of discipline.” When Tommy began misbehaving, they limited his food intake to oatmeal, rice, noodles, and beans. The Halbeslebens claimed not to realize their son was starving, believing he was on a healthy diet. After he was rescued, Tommy gained 6 lbs. in the first 24 hours.

The abuse came to light after an anonymous tip brought officials to the Halbeslebens’ home on a welfare check and declared Tommy in immediate danger. The Halbeslebens were convicted of felony injury to a child on November 3, 2000, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Their conviction was overturned in 2003 and they were re-tried. In a plea agreement to avoid further jail time, August Halbesleben “pleaded guilty to two charges of misdemeanor injury to a child and Jeanine Halbesleben pleaded guilty to one felony charge of injury to a child.”

Date: February 2000
Location: Boise, Idaho

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Two boys, ages 10 and 5, were locked in cages by their parents, Jessica Botzko and John Westover, as punishment for stealing food and whenever Westover was making drugs. The older boy was also sometimes forced to wear a dog’s shock collar; he had previously been “removed from the home in 1998 when Botzko was charged with child endangering.” Westover was wanted on child endangering charges stemming from a report of the family living in a filthy hotel room in Maumee, Ohio in 2004. The older boy had attended school until December 2003 but Botzko then pulled him from school, later telling police she was homeschooling him. “Toledo Public Schools has no record of either boy enrolled in the district or their parents applying for home-schooling.” The family moved frequently to avoid the authorities and the boys were not allowed to leave the house. Westover and Botzko also had a daughter who had died, reportedly of SIDS, several years before.

The abuse came to light in May 2007 when the boys were left alone and escaped to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor alerted police. Westover and Botzko both pleaded no contest to child endangering and were sentenced to four years in prison.

Date: May 1, 2007
Location: Toledo, Ohio

Katherine G. “Kate” Parker had 7 biological children (Megan, 21; Adam, 20; Emily, 14; Sarah and David, 11; Isaac, 9; and Joshua, 7) and 2 adopted children (Bethany, 5; and Hannah, 4; adopted from the Ukraine in 2010). Parker medically abused Joshua, Bethany, and Hannah by lying to doctors and inventing or causing illness or injury. The other children also underwent numerous procedures for medical conditions which were not independently diagnosed. Parker’s husband, Charley Parker, was not aware of the abuse. The children were homeschooled.

Joshua (who had spina bifida) and Bethany and Hannah (who both had Down syndrome) all underwent unnecessary surgeries beginning in 2007 as a result of Parker’s abuse. In late 2012, Hannah was “re-homed.” Parker also capitalized on her lies about the children’s illnesses to fraudulently solicit charitable donations online. When Joshua was hospitalized in September 2013, doctors grew suspicious of Parker’s negative response to news that Joshua’s condition was improving. After Parker’s friend notified social services, Parker coached her other children in how to respond to social workers’ questions. The minor children were removed from Parker’s home.

Parker was arrested on April 1, 2014 for “24 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, four counts of first-degree assault, one count of child abandonment, four counts of computer crime, four counts of identity theft, five counts of witness tampering and one count of recklessly endangering another.”

Date: September 2013
Location: Grants Pass, Oregon

Antonio Rader, age 7, was beaten, starved, and tortured by his mother, Mary Rader (right), and her mother and stepfather, Deana (left) and Dennis Beighley. Antonio’s siblings, 11- and 4-year-old sisters and a 9-year-old brother, were not abused, although his brother was underweight. Antonio had attended public school until fall 2013, “at which time his mother enrolled him in a home-based cyberschool.”

Antonio was pulled from school after teachers reported to social services that the boy was always hungry and that Rader had instructed them not to serve him breakfast. Antonio was beaten with belts for stealing food, forbidden from leaving the house, and forced to sleep on the floor in his own urine. He was not allowed to bathe and had life-threatening abscesses in his teeth. He weighed 24 lbs. when he was rescued.

The abuse came to light when Antonio managed to escape from the house and a neighbor saw him and called the authorities. Rader and the Beighleys were each charged with attempted murder, as well as aggravated assault, false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of a child, and conspiracy to commit murder.

Date: June 6, 2014
Location: Greenville, Pennsylvania

A 10-year-old boy was starved by his mother, Kelleen Deon Murray-Auguste. One of the boy’s eight siblings, a 9-year-old girl, was also 20 percent below her normal body weight. The children were homeschooled.

When the boy was rescued, he weighed 35 lbs. and was “extremely dirty, filthy, hair was matted”. The abuse came to light when the boy escaped from his home and went begging for food at a neighbor’s house. Murray-Auguste claimed that the boy had lived with his father in Haiti until about a month prior and that he had been delivered to her in his malnourished condition. She reported that she had tried to feed him but he couldn’t eat, and that she did not have the resources to get him medical attention.

Murray-Auguste was arrested on charges of “aggravated child abuse/torture and child neglect causing great harm” and pleaded no contest in August 2008. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Date: June 9, 2007
Location: Port St. Lucie, Florida

Six children, ages 9 to 17, were abused by their adoptive parents, Martin and Kathleen O’Brien. Some of the children were homeschooled. The O’Briens’ three biological children (an adult daughter, Diane, and two minor sons) were not abused and were sometimes forced to participate in the abuse.

Four of the children were biological siblings from Russia and two of them were from Guatemala. Following the children’s adoption in 2004, they were subjected to 7 years of abuse, including: being stabbed, sprayed with pepper spray, kicked in the groin, strangled, slapped, forced to stand naked outside in the cold while their family ate dinner inside, deprived of food, imprisoned in a room for days, and forced to kneel for hours on sharp rocks.

The abuse came to light when the children reported it to social services in August 2011. The O’Briens were each charged with 10 counts of felony child abuse as well as several misdemeanors.

Date: August 3, 2011
Location: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

A 14-year-old boy was medically neglected and deprived of food by his father, Daniel Ballard, who claimed to be homeschooling him. However, when the boy was rescued, he could reportedly only read “at a fourth-grade level and struggle[d] with basic arithmetic”.

Ballard and the boy’s mother, Kalyn Loe, had lived with the boy in Ohio until they split in 2002. Both had custody of the boy; however, he lived with his mother in Phoenix, Arizona until age 10 when she sent him to New Orleans, Louisiana for a short visit with Ballard in summer 2005. Ballard apparently used the confusion caused by Hurricane Katrina a few months later to abduct the boy, whom he did not allow to contact his mother for four more years. Father and son moved frequently, living in several apartments and RVs and once an abandoned building. Ballard did not take the boy to a doctor during this time: when he was rescued, the boy had several untreated broken bones which had healed improperly and a severe foot infection. The boy also had welts on his back and patches of missing hair. He weighed 60 lbs. when he was found in a feces-filled RV which had no food and no running water.

The abuse came to light in September 2009 when a police officer serving an eviction notice found the boy in the RV. Ballard, who had an outstanding warrant in New Mexico for drugs, was charged with cruelty to a juvenile. The boy was sent back to his mother.

Date: September 9, 2009
Location: Toca, Louisiana

Recardo Wimbush Jr., at age 13 the oldest of Recardo Sr. and Therian Wimbush’s ten children, was locked in a lightless basement room for almost two years with only a bucket for a toilet. His siblings were not abused. All 10 children were homeschooled; however, Recardo Jr. had not received any instruction since he was locked in the basement.

The Wimbushes claimed that the boy had been imprisoned for running away and molesting his younger siblings; however, the boy reported that he was being punished for lying and stealing a DVD. Although the Wimbushes were highly educated—Recardo Sr. had played football for Georgia Tech and later finished his degree; Therian was former military had a degree in mechanical engineering—they were also members of a strict religious movement called the Way of Yah, which forbids members to celebrate holidays.

The abuse came to light when an anonymous tip brought social services to the Wimbushes’ home. The Wimbushes were charged with child cruelty and false imprisonment.

Date: June 16, 2014
Location: Buford, Georgia

Fifteen adopted special-needs children of Bill and Debbie Rettew were physically abused, medically neglected, and denied food as punishment. The Rettews had adopted at least nine other special-needs children over the years in addition to their biological daughter Deborah Autumn Rettew (age 24) and Debbie’s biological son from an earlier marriage, Wilbur Beddingfield (age 32). All the children were privately adopted. The Rettews were conservative Christians and homeschooled all their children but one.

The Rettews first came to the attention of social services in November 1998 when one of their adolescent adopted children ran away from home and refused to return, citing physical abuse by Bill Rettew. The court ordered an evaluation of the Rettew children in June 2000; when the evaluation panel returned its review in November 2001, the children were removed. Some of the adult children who no longer lived with the Rettews reported being “slammed into walls, whipped with a belt, and thrown down stairs.” They “did not have their own toothbrushes, [and] were bathed only once a week.” The food storage area was kept locked—when they were rescued, “the children had voracious appetites and commented on the availability of food in the new home”. One of the girls told the authorities that “she was a surrogate mother, waking up at 5 a.m. to feed and clothe the other children.” The children did not receive adequate medical, dental, and mental health care.

In February 2002, as part of a deal to get some of their children back, the Rettews agreed to a court order that found that “they physically and educationally neglected their 15 children.” The court ordered that most of the children be enrolled in public or private school, that they be allowed ample socialization time as decided by the in-home therapy team, and that they be provided with any medical care or therapy advised by social services. At least three of the children asked that they not be returned to the Rettews; it is not clear how many eventually returned.

Date: November 8, 2001
Location: Greer, Greenville County, South Carolina

Sixteen children were physically abused and deprived of food by their father, Richard Jay Swank. The fourth child, a boy born around 1985, was Swank’s scapegoat; he was tortured, imprisoned, and sexually abused for 18 years. The children’s mother, Monita Swank, was “also a victim of physical abuse and possibly spousal rape [and] was not aware of the sexual abuse of her son.” After school officials repeatedly called social services about the children’s bruises, Swank pulled them from school to homeschool them around 1992, although “there were no books or worksheets” and little instruction actually took place. Swank’s daughter Melissa (b. 1982) was put in charge of caring for the younger children; by the time she was 18, she only knew basic addition and subtraction.

Swank was a substitute teacher, public school psychologist, and published author. He referred to the child who was his main victim as an “abomination” and abused him beginning around age 4. Swank forced the boy to spend every day standing in a corner, and the boy was forced to sleep handcuffed to various objects or imprisoned in a box at night. The boy was only allowed to eat table scraps and was not allowed to interact with the other children. Swank constantly beat the boy with a variety of objects and often knocked him unconscious. At one point he broke the boy’s nose, permanently injuring him, and did not seek medical attention for him. Swank also frequently tortured the boy by attaching vice grips to his genitals. When the boy was 10, his father began raping him twice a week.

As each of the children reached the age of 18, they left home and joined the military to escape. In 2005, Joshua Swank (b. 1980) died of an accidental overdose; his father “collected $500,000 on [his] Army life insurance policy and bought a sports car.” The Swanks divorced around this time and Monita took custody of the seven children who remained at home. These events prompted Melissa to persuade her little brother, Swank’s main victim, to report the abuse to the police. He did so in March 2009.

Swank was found guilty of 11 counts of sexual abuse and one count of physical abuse. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Date: March 12, 2009
Location: Victorville, California

Nine children ages 8 and under were abused by their father, Peter Lucas Moses Jr., and his three wives Vania Rae Sisk (second from left), Lavada Quinzetta Harris (far right), and Larhonda Renee Smith (second from right). Four of the children were Sisk’s and five were Harris’. The children were homeschooled and home-churched in the cult-like Black Hebrews church.

In October 2010, Moses murdered Sisk’s 4-year-old son Jadon Higganbothan—the only one of the children who was not biologically his. In December 2010, Moses ordered Sisk to murder Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy, another of his wives, because she could not have children. In February 2011, another of Moses’ wives (who was not publicly identified) escaped and reported the murders to the police. She also reported witnessing “horrific” abuse of the children. Moses and his family immediately fled the state to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Teller County social services found them and removed the children February 23.

Moses and his wives then moved back to Durham, North Carolina, where he was arrested on unrelated charges until the police could find evidence of the murders. They finally located Higganbothan’s and McKoy’s remains in June 2011 and charged Moses with first-degree murder. His wives were also charged. Moses pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty; as a result, he was not tried, so the specific nature of the abuse of the other children was never made public. However, neighbors reported that the children were “rarely seen” and, according to police, they were required to call their father “Lord” and were afraid of him, fearing that he would do to them “what he did to Jadon”.

Moses was sentenced to life in prison. Sisk was sentenced to 30 years, Smith to 24, and Harris to 12.

Date: February 23, 2011
Location: Durham, North Carolina

A 16-year-old girl was raped daily by her stepfather, karate instructor Leonard Pratt, who sometimes filmed the assaults. The abuse started when she was 13, about two weeks after her mother, Lorena Pratt, married him in April 2001. Lorena Pratt was emotionally abused by her husband and did not know about the girl’s sexual abuse. Pratt repeatedly forced the girl to miss school so that he could assault her; after she failed ninth grade, she was homeschooled.

Social services received six reports of abuse, including one from the girl’s biological father, but the girl always denied the allegations out of fear of her stepfather. Social services had also received reports of Pratt abusing his biological children, but they could not find evidence to substantiate them.

In September 2003, the girl fatally shot her father in the head while he slept. She was “charged as a juvenile with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon”; however, “a grand jury decided not to indict” her and she was removed to the custody of her biological father.

Date: September 23, 2003
Location: Elgin, Texas

Justin Gerard Carlos, age 14, was starved and medically neglected by his parents, Mark S. Carlos and Julie L. Carlos. Justin died of pneumonia and sepsis complicated by malnutrition; when he died he was emaciated, covered with bedsores, and showed signs of traumatic brain injury. Justin’s 16-year-old brother was also medically neglected during a similar illness. Justin and his six siblings (Shannon; Michael, 22; Therese, 19; Matthew, 16; Colette, 12; and Maura, 11) were all homeschooled and “cut off from the world”; police reported that they “all appeared thin and not properly cared for…with messy hair and disheveled clothes.”

Michael Carlos called 911 when Justin lost consciousness. He and Matthew were taken to the hospital while the two youngest girls were taken into social services’ custody. The Carloses pleaded not guilty to “negligent cruelty and risk of injury to a minor”. Prosecutions are still ongoing.

Date: May 2, 2013
Location: Norwich, Connecticut

Charlie Bothuell V, age 12, was physically and emotionally abused by his father, Charlie Bothuell IV, and his stepmother, Monique Dillard-Bothuell. Dillard-Bothuell also imprisoned Charlie in the basement for eleven days without food. Dillard-Bothuell’s other two children, 4-year-old Charles Luc Bothuell and 10-month-old Lillian Monique Bothuell, were also neglected. Charlie was homeschooled.

Charlie had lived with his father since 2012. Bothuell forced Charlie to complete an extreme daily exercise regimen and beat him regularly with a PVC pipe. When he was rescued, Charlie had a large scar on his chest from the beatings. Dillard-Bothuell also punched Charlie and threatened to kill him. On June 14, as punishment for Charlie’s failure to complete his exercise routine, Dillard-Bothuell forced him to hide behind a barricade in the basement without food or water, threatening to harm him if he came out. The boy’s father reported him missing and police searched for Charlie until he was found in the basement on June 25.

On June 26, Dillard-Bothuell was arrested on an unrelated charge until police could gather enough evidence to file charges of child abuse against the couple. All three children were removed from the home by social services.

Date: June 25, 2014
Location: Detroit, Michigan