Dozens of children by Dwight "Malachi" York
Dwight “Malachi” York’s was arrested in 2002 and convicted in 2004 of child molestation in what was the largest prosecution of child molestation by a single individual in U.S. history. York was the leader of a quasi-religious cult, United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, and moved his 100 or so followers from Brooklyn, New York, to a rural property in Putnam […]
3 children of Lev Dzyuba
Three of Lev Dzyuba’s children, ages 15, 10, and 8, were starved and imprisoned for months by their father and his sisters Alina Dzyuba and Natalia Mellon. The children were adopted from Ukraine in 2012. According to the children’s maternal aunt, their mother Larisa died shortly after the adoption, and they were subsequently homeschooled by […]
Jaelen Edge
13-year-old Jaelen Edge and his sister, 9-year-old Faith Edge, were found dead in a Santa Ana, California, hotel room the day before their mother, Marilyn Edge, was to turn over custody of the two children to their father, Mark Edge. Around a week earlier, a judge had settled the couple’s long custody dispute. Rather than […]
Lisa Gooding
In 1991, Melissa Gooding kidnapped her 2-year-old daughter, Lisa Gooding. Melissa’s parents accompanied the mother and daughter, and Lisa grew up in the company of her mother and grandparents. The family adopted assumed names and moved every few years (they lived in Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Utah before settling in Texas). Lisa was homeschooled […]
Josef Smith
8-year-old Josef Smith was found dead when paramedics responded to a call from his home. Medical examiners concluded that the boy died of “acute and chronic” abuse. The boy’s parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith, were members of Remnant Fellowship Church, and followed discipline methods that included beating children with twelve-inch glue sticks and locking children in […]
Colin David Jones
Paramedics responding to a 911 call on Christmas Eve about an “unresponsive” child found that 6-year-old child had physical injuries that suggested foul play. The child was taken to the regional hospital and then airlifted elsewhere for care, where he died four days later in spite of efforts to save his life, and the five […]
Mitch Comer
Mitch Comer was removed from school after the eighth grade to be homeschooled by his mother and stepfather, Sheila and Paul Comer, who proceeded to imprison in his room and abuse him. On his eighteenth birthday, his parents bought him a one-way bus ticket to Los Angeles, gave him pamphlets for homeless shelters there, and […]
Emani Moss
Police found 10-year-old Emani Moss’s burned body in a trash can several days after she was starved to death at the hands of her father and stepmother, Eman and Tiffany Moss. After a tip from a school employee, social services had intervened in Emani’s family three years earlier, removing her from her parents’ home for […]
Children of Earl and Deborah Dinkler
A 13 year old girl and an 11 year old boy were forced by their adoptive parents, Earl and Deborah Dinkler, to run 15 laps around the property before breakfast each day. This had been going on for four years when the abuse came to light. If Earl and Deborah were not satisfied with the […]
Child of Samuel and Diana Franklin
Diana and Samuel Franklin confined their 15 year old adopted daughter to a chicken coop, required her to wear a shock collar, and restricted her food and water. The girl was adopted in 2007, five years before the abuse was discovered, and was homeschooled. She reported that her long stints in the chicken coop (up […]
