Homeschooling’s 

Invisible Children

Joseph Chaney

Cynthia Guthrie abducted 14-year-old Joseph Chaney from his mobile home in Tennessee and went on the run with him, first to Colorado and then to New Mexico, where she was caught. Guthrie was a friend of the boy’s mother, Susan Smith, who had asked Guthrie to homeschool her two sons. Guthrie’s sexual abuse of Joseph […]

Lauren Kavanaugh, and 5 siblings

Lauren Kavanaugh, also known as Lauren Calhoun, was freed at age 8 from a six-year imprisonment in a closet where she was systematically tortured, raped, and starved by her mother and stepfather, Barbara and Kenneth Atkinson. The Atkinsons’ other children, who ranged in age from 22 months to 10 years, were also neglected; they did […]

Shenna Grimm

Shenna Grimm was 16 in 1998 when her mother and stepfather, Narda and John Goff, inseminated her with a syringe full of John’s sperm. Shenna had been withdrawn from school in fourth grade to be homeschooled, but instead she was forced to work as a servant for the Goffs. John Goff had also repeatedly raped […]

Conrad and Ricky Morales

On December 25, 2005, Raul and Cathy Sarinana stomped, kicked, and tortured their 11-year-old nephew, Ricky Morales, resulting in his death. Police found the body of Ricky’s 13-year-old brother, Conrad Morales, encased in concrete in a trashcan outside the home. Raul admitted to causing his death as well. In 2004, with their mother in and […]

Boy by Merideth Johnson Vincent

A 14-year-old boy was molested by his homeschool teacher, Merideth Johnson Vincent, over the course of a four-week period between September and October 2007. Vincent, a married mother of three, was a main teacher for a private homeschooling group and is suspected of also molesting other children. Vincent was charged with 14 counts of felony […]

Girl by James Monson

A 16-year-old girl was raped approximately 10 times by her homeschooling teacher, pastor James Monson of Gaining Ground Community Church. Pregnant with her boyfriend’s child, the girl ran away from her home in Texas in December 2011 to live with Monson, a family friend. Monson raped her in the bed they shared; she was afraid […]

Child by Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser, assistant pastor of a Sound Doctrine Church in Enumclaw, Washington, ordered a family in his church to allow him to move in with them. He lived with the family until they moved to a smaller house and then left the church entirely. During his time living in the home, Fraser raped and molested the family’s […]

3 Children by William Flynn Walker

William Flynn Walker was charged with transporting three children out of Alabama and engaged in sex acts with them. Walker was a well-known member of the Shelby County homeschool community, and was involved in founding a prominent homeschool umbrella school, Evangel Christian School, a ministry of Evangel Church, PCA. Walker was also charged for sexual […]

Boy by Joseph Maddock

A 10-year-old boy was sexually molested by his homeschool teacher, Joseph Maddock, 34. The boy’s family had met Maddock in early 2012 while Maddock was teaching at Andrews Academy, a local private school. Maddock convinced the parents to pull the boy out of school and let him homeschool the boy. Maddock homeschooled the boy daily […]

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 […]