Tylee Ryan and Joshua Vallow
Two children—Tylee Ryan, age 17; and Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, age 7—died under suspicious circumstances while under the care of their mother, Lori Vallow. The children were homeschooled. Tylee was born around 2002. Lori later married Charles Vallow, and the Vallows adopted J.J., who was autistic. The family lived in Chandler, Arizona, where the children attended […]
Boy by Melvin Bledsoe and Joy Anderson
A 6-year-old boy was starved, imprisoned, and tortured by his father, Melvin W. Bledsoe, and his stepmother Joy Tamika Anderson. The boy’s three stepsiblings were not reported to be abused. The boy was homeschooled. Bledsoe and Anderson were half-siblings. In 2012, Bledsoe and the boy were living with Anderson, her husband, and her three children. […]
7 children of JoAnn and Michael McGuckin
Seven children—Erina (age 19, right), Kathryn (16), Benjamin (14), Mary (13), James (11), Frederick (9), and Jane (8)—were starved and neglected by their parents, Michael and JoAnn McGuckin (center). All were homeschooled. Both Michael and JoAnn suffered from mental illness, and the family lived in poverty completely off the grid. The children subsisted mainly on […]
9 boys by Nathan and Tammy Jessop
Nine boys, ages 12 to 17, were beaten, starved, and imprisoned by Nathan Jessop. All were current or former members of the FLDS who had been sent by their parents to live with Jessop due to their supposed disobedience; several of the boys did not know what they had done to be sent there and […]
Child of August and Jeanine Halbesleben
Tommy Halbesleben, age 10, was starved by his father, August James Halbesleben, and his stepmother Jeanine Marie Halbesleben, from the summer of 1999—when the Halbeslebens began homeschooling him due to “conflicts with his second grade teacher and school officials”—until February 2000. Jeanine had been convicted in 1999 of misdemeanor injury to a child after she […]
7 Children of Thomas Halbesleben and Jessica Halbesleben
In 2005, police following up on a report found Thomas and Jessica Halbesleben’s seven children alone in an unsanitary home, several suffering from medical neglect. The children, who ranged in age from 1 to 13, had experienced years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Halbesleben claimed to be homeschooling, but the children were ignorant of […]
Dominick Diehl
Dominick J. Diehl, who also went by Andrew, was 13 when he was beaten to death by his adoptive parents, Michael and Karen Diehl. He was regularly tied to the floor of the family’s bus and beaten with rods and a homemade whip as a form of punishment. The couple homeschooled their brood of 17, […]
