Katelyn Colbie Pendleton
In 2006, when Katelyn Colbie Pendleton was 9, her mother, Velma Hare, gave her away to a friend, Kizza Monika Lopez. Lopez soon began intermittently starving and force feeding the girl, and having her sleep in a closet. Lopez whipped Katelyn with plastic coat hangers, threw scalding water at her while she was in the […]
3 Children of Leslie Tiesler and Brad Thill
Leslie Tiesler is accused of starving three adopted sons, aged 13 and 14, shooting them with a BB gun, beating them with a spoon, and confining them to a tool chest for days. There were two other two children in the home, one biological. Leslie’s ex-husband, Brad Thills, adopted the four children in 2008, but […]
2 Children of David and Glenda Kinghorn
David and Glenda Kinghorn had 2 biological children and four adopted children, and took in as many as 8 additional children from disrupted adoptions. David was charged and convicted of raping one of these children, a girl aged 13. There were also allegations that the Kinghorns punched a 10 year old boy, Sasha Bignell (one […]
3 Children of Kenneth H. Brandt
Kenneth H. Brandt pleaded guilty to raping his three sons, ages 9 to 12; two were adopted and the other was in the process of being adopted. Brandt also pleaded guilty to prostituting one of the boys, aged 10, out to two other men. Not long before the sexual abuse was discovered, Brandt had removed […]
5 Children of John and Linda Dollar
John and Linda Dollar are accused of abusing their 5 adopted children, ages 12, 13, 14, 14, and 16, by branding them with a cattle prod, striking their feet with hammers, pulling out their toenails with pliers, and binding them with chains. The Dollars also deprived the children of food to the extent that the […]
Zahra Baker
Zahra Baker, a ten year old cancer survivor and amputee living in North Carolina, was reported missing in October 2010. When allegations of child abuse had surfaced the previous year, her parents had withdrawn her from public school at the end of the term, telling officials that they were going to homeschool her. They never […]
2 Children of Dwayne and Pamela Hardy
Investigators responding to an anonymous tip found two children, aged 6 and 9, malnourished and scarred from beatings. Dwayne and Pamela Hardy had adopted the two children six months earlier, and homeschooled the two just as they had their four biological children, who were now grown. The couple “disciplined” the children by frequently depriving them […]
Austin and Edward Bryant
In 2000, Edward and Linda Bryant adopted two foster children, Austin and Edward Bryant. Both children were classified as special needs and the Bryants received government subsidies for their care. Over the years, the Bryants took additional foster children and adopted seven other children. In 2011, a young man who had know the Bryant children […]
Andrew Burd
Andrew Burd was 4 years old when he died of salt poisoning. Exactly what happened the day of his death and why he was overdosed on salt remain a question. In her trial, the prosecution argues that Andrew’s foster mother, Hannah Overton, forced him to drink a mixture of water and Cajun spices as a […]
Sadie Plum, Luke Hayden, and Jessica Gutweiler
Amanda Gutweiler Hypes (later Kelley) left her three homeschooled children, Sadie, 10, Luke, 6, and Jessica, 3, home alone while she ran an errand. When she returned, the three had perished in a house fire. Kelley was originally accused of arson and was convicted in 2002 of three counts of first-degree murder. However, this conviction […]
