Homeschooling’s 

Invisible Children

Nevaeh Miller

Nevaeh Miller, b. 1992 (pictured), was sexually abused by her stepfather, Jason Thomas Rogers (a.k.a. Larry Lemon). Nevaeh was homeschooled. Nevaeh, identified as E.C. in court documents, was removed from her mother’s care as a child due to abuse and neglect. She was returned to her mother at age 7 when her mother married Rogers. […]

2 Children of Timothy Hogan and Patricia Haugstad-Hogan

Two girls, L.H. (age 17) and L.H. (age 16), were neglected by their parents, Timothy Hogan and Patricia Haugstad-Hogan. The girls were homeschooled. The girls were forced to sleep on a mattress in the basement of their family home for five years, while their parents lived in a camper in the driveway. The house was […]

3 Children of Echo Terry

Three girls–V.T. (b. 2004), J.T. (b. 2005), and M.T. (b. 2010)–were starved and imprisoned by their adoptive mother, Echo Marie Terry. Their infant sister, Ma.T., was not reported to be abused. The girls were homeschooled. Terry became the foster mother of the three girls–biological sisters–in 2011 and formally adopted them in 2013. The abuse began […]

5 children by Patrick and Sherry Kelley

Five children, girls aged 15, 14, and 6 and boys aged 13 and 11, were burned, beaten, starved, and imprisoned by their adoptive parents, Patrick (center) and Sherry Kelley. Their grandparents, George and Shirley Long, knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. After the children were withdrawn from school when the family […]

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 […]

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 mountains of New Mexico until 1998, when Hale, who began calling himself Papa Pilgrim, moved his wife and children to Alaska. In 2002 […]

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 […]

3 Children in North Pole, Alaska

Kenneth Rarick sexually molested three children in North Pole, Alaska, while living with their family as a live-in homeschool teacher from 1997 to 1998. During this time Rarick also taught at a nearby private school run by a charismatic church. Rarick was already a known sex offender after sexually molesting a boy in 1982, but […]