Homeschooling’s 

Invisible Children

Boy by Christina Thomas and Peggy Starr

Content note: Case narratives include descriptions of severe violence inflicted on children, including abuse and neglect, sexual violence, torture, and murder, as well as mentions of suicide and domestic violence. They also include photos of victims and perpetrators of violence.

christina thomas and peggy starr
Christina Thomas and her mother, Peggy Starr, abused Erin Albin, a developmentally-disabled woman under their care, and abused, starved, and imprisoned Albin’s son between 2006 and 2010. When the boy was rescued at age 6-1/2, he weighed 23 lbs.

The boy was enrolled in preschool in September 2008, and his teachers and paraprofessionals noticed that he was always extremely hungry. Though they were instructed by Thomas to withhold food from him (purportedly because of his allergies and medical conditions), they did not do so. Thomas subsequently withdrew him from school to homeschool him, although there is “no evidence the boy was being home-schooled after leaving New Durham School in December 2009.”

Thomas imprisoned Albin’s son in a dog kennel and leashed him to his bed. She punished him for vomiting by placing him into freezing showers and deprived him of medical care for about two years. She starved him and sometimes force-fed him until he vomited. She punished both the boy and Albin if he referred to Albin as his mother. Starr also beat the boy with a spatula, made him sit naked in a snow bank, and put him naked into a stream. Thomas threatened Albin with a knife and withheld food from her, and both Thomas and Starr controlled Albin and manipulated her into abusing her son.

Other members of the household also included Thomas’s husband, her five children, her boyfriend, and her friend Steven Pearson, who reported the abuse to authorities. Though one of the children told social workers that Thomas beat them with a paddle as punishment, Thomas was able to prevent her children from testifying against her.

Court psychologists diagnosed Thomas with a personality disorder. She was found guilty of first-degree assault and sentenced to 10-30 years in prison, which she is serving in a psychiatric unit. Starr was charged with first-degree assault.

Date: 2010
Location:
New Durham, New Hampshire

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Documents: Date:
New Durham women charged with child abuse 02-03-2011
Child abuse charge against New Durham woman dismissed 12-04-2011
Spring trial for New Durham woman accused of starving boy 01-12-2012
Details unfold in case of starving boy allegations 02-06-2013
Teacher suggested giving boy more food, not taking it away 02-14-2013
Witnesses for Thomas refute claims One says boy only placed in outdoor kennel to be kept away from grill 02-20-2013
Defendant Christina Thomas takes the stand, says she didn’t starve boy 02-22-2013
Guilty of starving boy Christina Thomas could get 30 years in prison 02-23-2013
New Durham woman accused of starving boy sentenced 07-01-2013
N.H. woman sentenced to 10 to 30 years in child starvation case 07-02-2013
Charge dropped against mom of New Durham woman convicted of starving boy 10-25-2013
Starr re indicted in child starving case 11-19-2013
New date set for competency hearing for Thomas 05-07-2014