Two boys (b. 2004 and 2008) were starved and physically abused by their stepmother, Sara Anne Woody. Their father, Jonathan Woody, knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. The boys’ siblings–a younger girl and boy who were Sara Anne’s children from a previous relationship, and two younger children who were both the Woodys’ biological children–witnessed the abuse… Read more »
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…. Read more »
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…. Read more »
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… Read more »
Raysate Chain Knight, age 6, was starved, imprisoned, and beaten to death by her stepfather, Raymond Jefferson, and her mother Connie Knight. Knight’s four other children, girls ages 16, 13, and 8 and a 4-year-old boy, were not abused. Raysate was homeschooled. Raysate was born addicted to cocaine and removed from her mother’s custody. She lived with her grandmother, aunt… Read more »
A 13-year-old boy was neglected and deprived of food by his mother, Jennifer Yanke, and his stepfather Stephan Alcox. The boy had been pulled out of school and was reportedly homeschooling himself. The boy was left alone in a feces-strewn vacant house for a month while his parents lived in a nearby hotel. The boy slept on an air mattress… Read more »
Ten special-needs children—six boys ages 14, 14, 12, 8, 8 and 3; and four girls ages 12, 10, 5 and 5—were physically abused by their adoptive parents, Dave and Wonda Dixon. They were beaten with paddles, switches, and a water hose. The 12-year-old girl was singled out for abuse and was starved and deprived of medical care; her parents urged… Read more »
Four children—Sheryl* (age 16), Harlan* (13), and Callie* (10), along with their 16-year-old uncle—were emotionally and physically abused by their foster parents, John and Margaret “Margie” Cantrell. The children were frequently “homeschooled”—that is, kept home from school as a form of punishment while Margie claimed to be homeschooling them. The children had been removed from the home of Shauntel Mayo,… Read more »
C.H., a 12-year-old boy, was groomed and forced to appear in pornography by Michael Alvin Krause, his homeschool teacher. Krause befriended the boy’s mother, Misty Hebert, and grandmother Nancy Hunt, claiming that he had been “a Pentecostal preacher and had helped ‘problem teens’ by home-schooling them.” Hebert pulled C.H. from school after he experienced problems and engaged Krause to be… Read more »
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… Read more »
