Takoda Collins, age 10, was tortured, raped, and murdered by his father, Al-Mutahan McLean. Takoda was homeschooled. McLean’s girlfriend, Amanda Hinze, and her sister Jennifer Ebert, who both lived in the home, knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. McLean also abused Takoda’s 13-year-old brother. A 3-year-old who lived in the home was not reported to be abused.
Takoda’s mother, Robin Collins, struggled with drug use and “spent time in jail after being charged with abusing her son in 2009. [S]he lost custody of [Takoda] while living in Wisconsin in 2013.” McLean then gained primary custody of Takoda, who was allowed to visit his mother four times a year. Takoda attended Horace Mann Elementary School in Dayton, where teachers reported concerns about Takoda and his older brother to social services many times, starting around 2014 when Takoda was in kindergarten. According to his teachers, Takoda often had poor hygiene and injuries, was too thin, and complained of starvation, beatings, and imprisonment by his father. In 2016, Takoda’s older brother ran away from home, citing abuse. On May 11, 2018, a social worker tried to visit Takoda’s home as a result of a teacher’s report of abuse concerns; subsequently, on July 31, 2018, McLean filed paperwork to homeschool Takoda. In November 2018, McLean called 911 to report Takoda was “talking crazy” and took Takoda to the hospital for behavioral analysis. McLean renewed the homeschool paperwork in summer of 2019, after Collins called in a well check for her son over her concerns he was being abused.
In addition to being subjected to sexual assault and associated injuries, Takoda was also locked naked in an attic, forced to eat his own feces, forced to spend long hours in a stress position, and beaten with a belt. Investigators recovered Taser dog collars from the home. The abuse came to light in 2019 when McLean called an ambulance to report Takoda was unresponsive; an investigation showed that Takoda had either been “held underwater or forced to drink excessive amounts of water before his death.” Takoda died in the hospital and McLean was charged with child endangerment, assault, and rape. Hinze and Ebert were charged with child endangerment.
Date: December 13, 2019
Location: Dayton, Ohio
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