Brogan Duhon (b. 2009) was deprived of food by his adoptive parents, Adam and Jennifer Duhon, and died of malnourishment on October 17, 2022. He enjoyed word puzzles and reading, and he wanted to be a chef when he grew up. He lived at home with his siblings. He was homeschooled.
Brogan was adopted by the Duhons in 2012, and by 2015 the Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services began to receive reports of child abuse. They launched a “substantiated child welfare investigation” and found at least one of the allegations to be validated. Though the DCFS reportedly provided the family with services such as counseling, their monitoring only lasted until March 2016, and they never reported the allegations to the police. The DCFS has not released how many abuse allegations they have received.
Though at least two of his siblings attended public school, the Duhons homeschooled and isolated Brogan. Some neighbors interviewed by KPLC-TV said they wondered why Brogan was the only one of his siblings not boarding the bus every morning, and other neighbors did not even know that he existed. Because of his small size, most neighbors who did see Brogan assumed he was only around 5 or 6 years old. KSLA News interviewed Roxanne Zaunbrecher, a neighbor who said that Brogan would knock on her door and ask her for food. He also told her that Adam and Jennifer Duhon would starve him and lock him up. Jennifer Duhon showed up to Zaunbrecher’s house the following day to ask if she had called the cops, but Zaunbrecher had not.
Brogan died on October 17, 2022, two months after Jeff Davis Parish deputies conducted a welfare check after receiving a call from a concerned neighbor. Brogan was 28 pounds and 42 inches at the time of his death, and the homicide was only uncovered three months after his death when the police received the results of his autopsy. Police arrested Adam and Jennifer Duhon on February 16, 2023. They have been indicted on second-degree murder charges for starving Brogan to death.
Date: October 17, 2022
Location: Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana
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