Homeschooling’s 

Invisible Children

3 Children of Fernando and Sophia Richter

Two girls, ages 12 and 13, escaped through a window in their room and ran to alert a neighbor to their plight after their stepfather threatened them with a knife. Police found a third girl, aged 17, locked in a separate bedroom. The girls’ mother reported that they were being homeschooled. All three girls were […]

1 Child of Rene Tibucio Valenzuela

A 14-year-old girl was physically and sexually abused by her father, Rene Tibucio Valenzuela, and locked in a small, dark empty bedroom for 15 months. The girl was only let out of the room for brief bathroom and meal breaks, and was occasionally allowed to shower. The girl escaped in 2005 by kicking in the bedroom […]

3 Grandchildren of John Pierre Baker and Betty Jo Miller

In 1997, two children, a boy and a girl, clawed a hole in the room of their trailer home prison and escaped into the Arizona desert. Their story began ten years before, when their mother went to prison for theft and forgery and they were placed in the custody of their grandfather, John Pierre Baker. […]

Elizabeth Smart

14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City on June 5, 2002. Elizabeth was held captive by Brian David Mitchell, who considered himself a prophet, and his wife Wanda Ileen Barzee. Mitchell threatened, bound, and raped Elizabeth daily, treating her as his second wife and sex slave. The three traveled from […]

Jaycee Dugard and 2 Daughters

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped from her home town of Lake Tahoe, on June 10, 1991. She was held captive by previously convicted kidnapper Phillip Garrido at his home in Antioch, California. Jaycee was kept handcuffed, locked in a bolted room, and then confined to a backyard surrounded by an 8 foot fence. Garrido sexually assaulted […]

Jessyca Mullenberg

13-year-old Jessyca Mullenberg was kidnapped from her father’s home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, by her writing teacher, Steven Oliver, on September 16, 1995. Oliver and Jessyca drove to Kansas City, Missouri, and then flew to Houston, Texas. Oliver took Jessyca from motel to motel, presenting himself as her father and physically, sexually, and mentally abusing […]

5 Children of Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Harper

Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Harper were arrested on child abuse charges after they handcuffed their 11-year-old foster son to the porch in November in his underwear with a dead chicken tied around his neck. The foster child and four other adopted children, aged 8, 9, 13, and 14, were removed from the home, which […]

Michaela Watkins

Michaela Watkins, aged 10, was found dead in her family’s apartment on March 11, 2007. Her body was severely bruised and burned. Michaela’s father, Patrick Watkins, and her stepmother, Joy Watkins, claimed that Michaela’s death was an accident—that she had burned herself in hot water in a bathtub and then fallen down the stairs. Michaela […]

Child of Jacole Prince

On June 22, 2012, child welfare workers responding to a child abuse tip found a child locked in a small closet. At ten years old the girl, called LP in court records and news reports, weighed only 32 pounds. While her younger sister attended school and was well fed, LP was kept home and spent […]

Child of Wilson and Brenda Sullivan

Wilson and Brenda Sullivan’s 17 year old mentally handicapped adopted son was found caged in a crib by investigators responding to an anonymous tip. He was severely malnourished and weighed only 49 pounds, less than what he weighed when the couple had adopted him at age 7 ten years prior. Two other adopted children, aged […]