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Valerie Smelser
At age 12, Valerie Smelser was beaten to death by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. Her emaciated body was dumped in a ditch. Valerie’s mother claimed a religious exemption from public schooling...
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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...
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Faheem Williams and 2 Siblings
A tip led investigators to a Newark apartment where they found two children, aged 7 and 4, cowering under a bed soaked in urine, feces, and vomit. Investigators later found the pair’s 7 year old...
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2 Children of Richard and Christine Dodson
A 6 year old boy and a 5 year old girl were abused by their adoptive parents, Richard and Christine Dodson. The Dodsons severely starved and beat the boy, and broke the girl’s bones multiple times. The...
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Timothy Boss
In July 2000, 10 year old Timothy Boss was beaten to death by his adoptive parents, Donald Boss Jr. and Lisa Boss. He spent the night before his death bound to a chair in the family’s basement....
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Viktor Alexander Matthey
Viktor Matthey was only 6 years old when he died of cardiac arrest due to hypothermia after adoptive parents Robert and Brenda Matthey locked him overnight in a damp unheated pump room. Viktor was...
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Lucas Ciambrone
7 year old Lucas Ciambrone was forced to sleep in a bathroom with neither towels, toilet paper, or light bulbs. He was fed via a bucket, was thrown to the floor, kicked in the genitals, punched, and...
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Dominick J. (Andrew) Diehl
Dominick Diehl, who also went by Andrew, was 13 when he was beaten to death by his adoptive parents, Michael and Karen Diehl. He was regularly tied the floor of the family’s bus and beaten with rods...
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Christopher Forder
Kimberly Ann Forder called 911 after her 8 year old underweight adopted son, Christopher Forder, died on the bedroom floor of untreated pneumonia in circumstances that a local sheriff called “sheer...
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Joseph Beebe
8 year old Joseph Beebe was beaten to death with a bamboo rod by his adoptive mother, Edith Beebe. Joseph was one of six special needs children adopted by Edith and her husband Brian; all were...
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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...
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Child of Samuel and Diana Franklin
Diana and Samuel Franklin confined their 15 year old adopted daughter to a chicken coop, required her to wear a shock collar, and restricted her food and water. The girl was adopted in 2007, five...
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Child of Robert Hohn and Shannon Watterson
A 12 year old boy was allegedly locked in a bare room for three months by his father, Robert Hohn, and his stepmother, Shannon Watterson. The windows were screwed shut and the door handle was...
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Esther Combs
Esther Combs, originally named Elsa Garcia, was taken from Baptist Children’s Home in Valparaiso, Indiana, by Joseph and Evangeline Combs at 4 months old in 1978. Esther was never actually adopted,...
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Children of Earl and Deborah Dinkler
A 13 year old girl and an 11 year old boy were forced by their adoptive parents, Earl and Deborah Dinkler, to run 15 laps around the property before breakfast each day. This had been going on for four...
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2 Children of Ingrid Brewer
Ingrid Brewer adopted two children out of foster care, and reported them missing on January 15 less than a year later. The children, an 8 year old boy and a 7 year old girl, were found laying by a...
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Child of Ardee Verlon Tyler and Penny Sue Tyler
Ardee Verlon Tyler and Penny Sue Tyler adopted five girls from Liberia in 2005. The couple had two older biological children. The second adopted daughter, age 8 when she first arrived in the family...
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15 Children of Robert Hale (Papa Pilgrim)
Robert Hale served as midwife at the births of all fifteen of his children. The family homesteaded, homeschooled (although little education took place), and lived in isolation in the Sangre de Cristo...
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2 Children of Paul and Amanda Lavoe
Paul Lavoe beat his teenage daughter and a teenaged relative adopted from Ghana with electrical cords in what one doctor called an “extremely violent assault.” The two girls were enrolled in a virtual...
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6 Children of Zion and Glenda Lea Dutro
Zion Dutro tortured and molested his four biological daughters and two adopted nieces over the course of two decades, with the assistance of his wife, Glenda Lea Dutro. Glenda would choose one of the...
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