Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Social workers sued: Allegedly ignored warnings about Adrian Jones, 'the boy who was fed to pigs'

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Social workers sued: Allegedly ignored warnings about Adrian Jones, 'the boy who was fed to pigs' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: zoom dot com, legal zoom dot com Climb Stories with
1:06
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace on Serious ex M Triumph Channel one thirty two.
1:10
Speaker 1: What Actually News digs deeper and gets the answers about
1:13
Speaker 1: what happens to Adrian Jones. Investigator Jessica McMaster now uncovered
1:16
Speaker 1: exclusive evidence he was just a typical little boy, just
1:20
Speaker 1: full of life. Adrian's dad and step mom abused him
1:23
Speaker 1: for months. He just had the most amazing smile never
1:27
Speaker 1: before seeing. Video takes us inside Adrian's last moment. You
1:30
Speaker 1: can see the look of nothing in his eyes. So
1:33
Speaker 1: you get on the trash. Could you keep on getting
1:35
Speaker 1: cold because you're outside? In this video, you can hear
1:37
Speaker 1: Heather's harsh words towards Adrian and a lack of compassion
1:41
Speaker 1: for a desperate little boy. The last days and hours
1:43
Speaker 1: of Adrian's life spent stripped and confined to a shower stall,
1:46
Speaker 1: left outside overnight to stand in a filthy pool. A
1:50
Speaker 1: new records show with the State of Kansas knew before
1:52
Speaker 1: the death of little seven year old Adrian Jones, a
1:56
Speaker 1: seven year old boy tortured today and fed two pigs.
2:03
Speaker 1: You know, And all my years of investigating homicides, of
2:08
Speaker 1: prosecuting the bad guys, slamming the door, throwing away the key,
2:15
Speaker 1: I never thought I would put those words together in
2:19
Speaker 1: one sentence. A seven year old boy tortured, dead and
2:26
Speaker 1: fed two pigs. You know, when I first started reporting
2:32
Speaker 1: the story of little Adrian Jones, I could hardly even
2:36
Speaker 1: say it. You know, how you whisper bad words like
2:40
Speaker 1: cancer or divorce. That's how we did it, you know,
2:45
Speaker 1: growing up in a small town. I couldn't say fed
2:50
Speaker 1: two pigs. I would lower my voice instinctively. But I
2:55
Speaker 1: am saying it now because these people need to go
2:59
Speaker 1: to jail and never never see the light of day.
3:03
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories, and it's hard
3:07
Speaker 1: to believe these facts are true. I am talking about
3:11
Speaker 1: little Adrian Jones. Who authorities knew. This is what makes
3:17
Speaker 1: it worse. Authorities and neighbors knew. I'm talking about Sheriff's Police,
3:24
Speaker 1: Defects Department, Family Children's Services. They all knew the boy
3:29
Speaker 1: was being tortured. What more does it take. They knew,
3:35
Speaker 1: and they knew for a long time, and they let
3:38
Speaker 1: it happen until the boy is dead. And when I
3:42
Speaker 1: say torture, I mean beating, starving, forced to stand out
3:47
Speaker 1: in water up to his chin overnight a seven year old.
3:55
Speaker 1: I still awake my children up, singing, oh what a
3:57
Speaker 1: beautiful morning, okay, and barely open the curtains for the
4:03
Speaker 1: sun to come in. They had this kid standing seven
4:08
Speaker 1: years old, out in cold water up to his chin overnight.
4:14
Speaker 1: That is just the tip of the iceberg of what
4:17
Speaker 1: little Adrian lived through. And it's short seven years. I
4:24
Speaker 1: want them to stay behind bars for life as just
4:30
Speaker 1: a little pit stop on their way to hell. Joining
4:34
Speaker 1: me right now and all Star lineup with me. Jessica McMaster,
4:39
Speaker 1: reporter with forty one Action News Kansas City who has
4:42
Speaker 1: been on the case from the get go, and Ashley Willcott,
4:47
Speaker 1: child protection advocate and lawyer. Thank you ladies for being
4:54
Speaker 1: with us. Straight out to Jessica McMaster, Jessica, let's try
4:58
Speaker 1: to start this thing at the beginn name because our
5:00
Speaker 1: listeners ay it's hard to listen to, but be we
5:06
Speaker 1: need to know the truth if we turn away from
5:08
Speaker 1: it as it is so easy to do. I don't
5:11
Speaker 1: want to hear this. I don't want to know this
5:13
Speaker 1: because the first time I read this article a long,
5:17
Speaker 1: long time ago, Jessica, I saw the title and I
5:20
Speaker 1: went to the next story because I absolutely just could
5:23
Speaker 1: not take it. Absolutely, Let's start at the beginning, because
5:27
Speaker 1: the only way we can fight it is to confront it,
5:31
Speaker 1: is to know about it, Jessica, start at the beginning.
5:34
Speaker 1: In November two thousand and fifteen, that was right around Thanksgiving,
5:39
Speaker 1: we got wings that authorities has found a child's remains
5:44
Speaker 1: out in my livestock then, and that was really all
5:46
Speaker 1: we knew for a little while, and the time went on,
5:48
Speaker 1: we found out that those were domaine of little Adrian Jones,
5:51
Speaker 1: who was seven years old living with his father, Michael
5:54
Speaker 1: Jones and stepmother, Heather Jones, and initially his father was
5:59
Speaker 1: taken to jail. The words evil step mother completely apply
6:05
Speaker 1: one here, evil evil, because I got to tell you something, uh, Ashley,
6:11
Speaker 1: before I go back to Jessica. Ashley Wilcot is a
6:14
Speaker 1: very well known child protection advocate. You know, people don't
6:19
Speaker 1: like to talk about good in evil. They want to
6:21
Speaker 1: pretend that those forces don't really exist in the world.
6:24
Speaker 1: But I don't know of any other word to describe
6:26
Speaker 1: this couple that Jessica is telling us about, the bio
6:31
Speaker 1: dad of Adrian Jones and the evil stepmother. I mean,
6:35
Speaker 1: you know, Nancy, sometimes when we hear these stories, that's
6:39
Speaker 1: a matter of a parent has had a psychotic break
6:42
Speaker 1: or a one time incident. What's most disturbing about this
6:46
Speaker 1: case is four years four years, And Jessica can correct
6:50
Speaker 1: me if I have the timeframe wrong, but four years
6:53
Speaker 1: of documented abuse, neglect, physical torture ending in his murder, starvation,
7:00
Speaker 1: and so yes, this is a case with parents who truly,
7:03
Speaker 1: truly evil is the only word you can think of,
7:06
Speaker 1: because it was a pattern over a long period of
7:09
Speaker 1: time that was horrific to this young child. Back to you,
7:14
Speaker 1: Jessica met Master, I'm sorry. It's just a force of habit.
7:18
Speaker 1: Having been a trial lawyer for so long whenever I
7:21
Speaker 1: hear something objection and I just jump in is so
7:25
Speaker 1: incredibly rude. I'm trying to teach my children to don't
7:28
Speaker 1: talk all at the same time, which we do constantly.
7:31
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just can't help it. I'm just I
7:35
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, I'm just sick about it. I'm sick
7:38
Speaker 1: about what the seven year old boy endured and to
7:41
Speaker 1: know that authorities knew about it and let it happen. Okay,
7:48
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, pick it up, Jessica. So, speaking of know
7:51
Speaker 1: about it, we didn't know who knew what because, as
7:54
Speaker 1: we've talked about before, we couldn't get Adrian filed to
7:57
Speaker 1: the longest time. And remember they lived on the Candid
7:59
Speaker 1: Sty but also would move back and forth over that
8:02
Speaker 1: state line into Missouri. So Adrian heather wa explain that
8:06
Speaker 1: wo woa whoa explain that because that is very critical here,
8:09
Speaker 1: So that Jones has lived on the Kansas side um
8:14
Speaker 1: and during that time, Department for Children and Families would
8:19
Speaker 1: visit the home and at that point they stated that Heather,
8:23
Speaker 1: the stepmother, was almost an immediate threat to these kids.
8:27
Speaker 1: After some abuse allegations came forward, she lost custody of
8:31
Speaker 1: her own child. So the DCF put in a safety
8:37
Speaker 1: plan that Heather Jones was not to be at the house. However,
8:41
Speaker 1: they didn't do anything to keep Adrian away from his father,
8:44
Speaker 1: who Adrian would also say abused him and so forth.
8:48
Speaker 1: So somewhere, you know, during this time when that safety
8:51
Speaker 1: plants land was put in the place, the families crossed
8:54
Speaker 1: the state line and moved to Missouri around two thousand
8:57
Speaker 1: and twelve, and Heather that happened is a lot, right,
9:01
Speaker 1: Ashley Willcott. Because you know, the schools can report if
9:07
Speaker 1: somebody has been abused, which by the way, they I
9:09
Speaker 1: don't know that they did in this case. You can
9:12
Speaker 1: find out that somebody moves and they're out of your jurisdiction.
9:16
Speaker 1: When somebody moves back and forth about over county or
9:19
Speaker 1: state lines, this system loses them. And don't God, Nancy, God,
9:25
Speaker 1: it's your show, and I just interrupted. I'm so sorry.
9:27
Speaker 1: But I know, I don't care. I wanted to scream
9:30
Speaker 1: pick me, pick me, because this is what families do.
9:33
Speaker 1: They know the system, they know, and so by moving
9:36
Speaker 1: back and forth and back and forth and back and forth,
9:38
Speaker 1: they're avoiding getting caught. They're avoiding somebody really being able
9:41
Speaker 1: to identify and know exactly what's happening to this child
9:44
Speaker 1: services being put in place, and for Missouri to actually say, Okay,
9:49
Speaker 1: this child is definitely one whose safety is at risk,
9:53
Speaker 1: we need to remove the child because then if they
9:55
Speaker 1: go to do that, oh guess what, the child is
9:57
Speaker 1: no longer in Missouri. They don't have jurisdiction these being
10:00
Speaker 1: least no and I have no doubt in my mind
10:03
Speaker 1: this Michael Jones and Heather Jones did this on purpose
10:07
Speaker 1: to avoid detection. Back to what we know. I'm sorry,
10:12
Speaker 1: Jessica again, it's no problem. So that makes sense, you know,
10:17
Speaker 1: if they're you know, and that's been what DCF has
10:20
Speaker 1: been claiming all along. It was hard to track his
10:22
Speaker 1: family because they moved back and forth. But there's a
10:23
Speaker 1: couple of things to note. Michael Jones ran a business
10:27
Speaker 1: out of Kansas, a bail bonds business that was always there.
10:30
Speaker 1: You could go there at any time. UH Missouri Social
10:35
Speaker 1: Services had stopped by the home in Missouri on numerous occasions,
10:39
Speaker 1: and the records show that there was contact between DCS
10:42
Speaker 1: and Missouri about things that we're going on. UM And
10:46
Speaker 1: at some point UH Missouri did try to remove Adrian
10:51
Speaker 1: from custody. They had contacted a juvenile officer to remove
10:54
Speaker 1: him from the home. However, that juvenile officer bounced it back. No,
10:59
Speaker 1: keep him in the hall, let's put a safety plan
11:01
Speaker 1: into place. At some point Adrian started attending a mental
11:05
Speaker 1: health facility on the Missouri side, and doctors in and
11:10
Speaker 1: staff they're also had confirmed because his parents dropped him
11:13
Speaker 1: off and left him, they wouldn't call, they wouldn't participate
11:16
Speaker 1: in his care plan, or do any of these things
11:18
Speaker 1: that they were supposed to do. So there was a
11:21
Speaker 1: lot of information UM by a lot of people that
11:25
Speaker 1: knew that Adrian wasn't in the best of care, I think,
11:27
Speaker 1: And after we got the lawsuit which just came down,
11:30
Speaker 1: we found out that his parents had left him at
11:34
Speaker 1: his facility for months. This wasn't just jay, this was
11:36
Speaker 1: months without any contact with him. UM and some emails
11:41
Speaker 1: apparently were obtained by the attorney for adrian mother and
11:45
Speaker 1: grandmother between some workers held on. It's all blurring together
11:49
Speaker 1: from me right now, how do we get to the
11:52
Speaker 1: point of a seven year old boy being fed two pigs? Okay?
12:00
Speaker 1: What happened inside that home? With me is forty one
12:04
Speaker 1: Action News reporter investigative reporter Jessica McMasters. What did we
12:10
Speaker 1: learn about what happened inside that home? And how do
12:16
Speaker 1: we know all this? Because we know it beyond not
12:19
Speaker 1: just a reasonable doubt, we know it beyond a shadow
12:23
Speaker 1: of a doubt if we are to believe our own eyes, Jessica,
12:27
Speaker 1: what happened in the home? And how do we know?
12:29
Speaker 1: We were able to get photos and videos? Heather Jones,
12:33
Speaker 1: his stepmother, recorded everything, all of his abuse, and it
12:36
Speaker 1: showed that the last several months of Adrian's life were
12:40
Speaker 1: spent confined to a shower stall. He was stripped, he
12:43
Speaker 1: was starved, He was often standing in the shower stall
12:46
Speaker 1: with his hands over his head for hours, um. And
12:50
Speaker 1: he was isolated from everybody. And as you've mentioned, he
12:52
Speaker 1: also spent a lot of time outdoors. He would have
12:54
Speaker 1: to sleep outside. Um, he'd be handcuffed outside. You have
12:58
Speaker 1: to hold peaky porches all night. That was a form
13:01
Speaker 1: of I guess his abuse where he would have to
13:03
Speaker 1: hit his hands up, um. And he would also have
13:05
Speaker 1: to spend the night out in the filthy family swimming
13:08
Speaker 1: pool that was up to his chin overnight. So that's
13:12
Speaker 1: how he spent the last few months of his life. Um.
13:15
Speaker 1: You know, police believe he eventually starved to death. We
13:18
Speaker 1: don't have the actual video of how his death occurred. Um.
13:23
Speaker 1: And then that's when he was left in that shallow stall,
13:26
Speaker 1: according to police, for two weeks, and when his family
13:29
Speaker 1: could no longer stand the stench, definitely, they set his
13:34
Speaker 1: body to pigs. I'm just trying to absorb everything you
13:40
Speaker 1: just said. It's slight being rolled over by a steam roller.
13:44
Speaker 1: Just not a hit, but just crushing me to hear it.
13:51
Speaker 1: They living in a shower stall, making a seven year
13:58
Speaker 1: old child live and shower stall, beating him, starving him,
14:06
Speaker 1: making him spend the night in a pool of water
14:10
Speaker 1: up to his chin, standing in a shower of soul
14:13
Speaker 1: for hours on end with his arms up, and they
14:19
Speaker 1: would make the other children tell on him if he
14:23
Speaker 1: lowered his arms or if he was caught trying to
14:26
Speaker 1: get food. The other children were so afraid of the
14:31
Speaker 1: same treatment of getting beaten themselves. They would rat out
14:36
Speaker 1: the little brother and now they're going to live with
14:40
Speaker 1: that the rest of their life. That they rated out
14:44
Speaker 1: their brother and he was beaten and tortured until he died. Ashley,
14:50
Speaker 1: it's it's really almost more than I can take in.
14:54
Speaker 1: But have you noticed, Ashley? And I first noticed this
14:59
Speaker 1: anecdote really when I was prosecuting child abuse in childless
15:04
Speaker 1: stations in inner city Atlanta for ten years, and we
15:08
Speaker 1: would go on trial every other week. I remember noticing that,
15:17
Speaker 1: with rare exception, parents would pick out one child and
15:24
Speaker 1: that would be the child that they molested. That would
15:27
Speaker 1: be the child that they beat or starved, and it
15:30
Speaker 1: would be excruciating, like even locking the refrigerator or locking
15:35
Speaker 1: the cabinets so the child couldn't get in the night,
15:39
Speaker 1: and the child rumaging through trash trying to find food.
15:44
Speaker 1: It would be one child, and that child would be
15:48
Speaker 1: deprived of food while the rest of the family ate
15:50
Speaker 1: a full meal at the dinner table, at the supper table.
15:54
Speaker 1: I started noticing it, and I mean, I'm certainly no shrink,
15:58
Speaker 1: but I could see in case after case after case,
16:00
Speaker 1: it would be one child picked out of many to
16:04
Speaker 1: be abused. Have you ever noticed that, Yes, it is
16:09
Speaker 1: very true statistically also that there is a target child
16:14
Speaker 1: and the sadistic behavior against Adrian. He obviously was the
16:20
Speaker 1: targeted child. But as you already pointed out, it is
16:25
Speaker 1: no The abuse that occurred to the other children as
16:31
Speaker 1: a result of witnessing this, watching this, having to tattle,
16:35
Speaker 1: the fear of it happening to them obviously much less abusive,
16:40
Speaker 1: but abuse nonetheless, and so they're also case studies. It's
16:45
Speaker 1: fascinating that when the target child is removed that frequently
16:51
Speaker 1: the other children are not abused in the same manner,
16:56
Speaker 1: are not They don't become the target child. So some
16:59
Speaker 1: now and you have to look at the family dynamics.
17:01
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's because the target child has a different parent
17:06
Speaker 1: or is treated by a favorite, by a school, or
17:09
Speaker 1: by a relative. So it doesn't make sense to a
17:12
Speaker 1: rational person. None of us can understand how you can
17:15
Speaker 1: engage in this sadistic behavior against a child. It doesn't
17:19
Speaker 1: make it. How can you go to bed and sleep
17:22
Speaker 1: and put your head on the pillow at night knowing
17:25
Speaker 1: your baby is standing living in your shower sall beaten
17:31
Speaker 1: and starved, I mean, how can you put your head
17:35
Speaker 1: on the pillow? I want these people to rot in
17:40
Speaker 1: h E double L. And the only way to stop
17:45
Speaker 1: abuse like this is to put it out in the open,
17:50
Speaker 1: to discuss it, to analyze, to figure out how to
17:55
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Speaker 1: slash Nancy Grace. I want you to take a listen
19:27
Speaker 1: to what the bio grandmother says. In this case, this
19:32
Speaker 1: is what she tells me, Judy Conway. Listen. I'm just
19:37
Speaker 1: I'm just stunned by the whole thing. So you find
19:39
Speaker 1: out in November, you get this phone call. Who called you?
19:43
Speaker 1: Actually it was my granddaughter who called me. Like I said,
19:49
Speaker 1: when she first mentioned it to me, I was just
19:54
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. And my first reaction was, is
19:58
Speaker 1: I have to find out if this is even true,
20:01
Speaker 1: you know. And I just knew at that moment that
20:04
Speaker 1: nothing else that could ever happen to me and my
20:08
Speaker 1: whole lifetime would ever compare, you know, to losing him.
20:12
Speaker 1: I just I was I was shocked. I mean, I
20:15
Speaker 1: just at that moment, I had no words to describe
20:18
Speaker 1: how I was feeling. I felt totally lost, and all
20:23
Speaker 1: I knew was is my heart was saying, please do
20:26
Speaker 1: not let's just be true. Did you have any idea
20:30
Speaker 1: he was being abused because people in the neighborhood knew
20:35
Speaker 1: that he had been taken to the hospital, that he
20:38
Speaker 1: had been spotted. They saw him eating out of trash
20:42
Speaker 1: cans for years. Years. This seven year old boy, which
20:48
Speaker 1: means he was doing this at age five, eating out
20:52
Speaker 1: of trash cans just to live, would be taken to
20:57
Speaker 1: the hospital covered in black and blues, black eyes, the works.
21:03
Speaker 1: What I don't understand is how this child could sit
21:06
Speaker 1: on a hospital seat in the doctor's office and they
21:10
Speaker 1: could look at him and not insist he'd be taken
21:14
Speaker 1: away from his parents that minute. I don't understand that. Now,
21:19
Speaker 1: what did they hide? Did his parents hide it from
21:22
Speaker 1: you that they were beating him and abusing him? Yes,
21:27
Speaker 1: they did. I had tried for the longest time, through
21:31
Speaker 1: phone calls and texts to be able to see my
21:34
Speaker 1: grandchildren because they mean the world to me. Mike and
21:39
Speaker 1: Heather would never even pick up the phone. I did
21:43
Speaker 1: get one call from Mike during this whole situation. At
21:49
Speaker 1: one point he did allow me to speak to the
21:52
Speaker 1: kids and they all sound sounded fine. So after that
21:56
Speaker 1: I kept on hoping that he was going to continue
21:59
Speaker 1: to let me speak to the kids and see them.
22:02
Speaker 1: And I continue calling and calling and you know, leaving
22:07
Speaker 1: text messages and so forth. Then one day I called
22:11
Speaker 1: in out the blue. Heather answered the phone. She told
22:15
Speaker 1: me that they were just trying to basically, you know,
22:18
Speaker 1: get their lives together and so forth, and that I
22:21
Speaker 1: would eventually be able to see the kids, but at
22:24
Speaker 1: this time I wasn't going to be able to see them.
22:26
Speaker 1: That they won't allowing anybody to see the kids. But
22:29
Speaker 1: I never thought in a million years, Nancy, that it
22:32
Speaker 1: had absolutely no idea that Mike would ever allow anyone
22:37
Speaker 1: to hurt his children, or that he would hurt his children. Well,
22:42
Speaker 1: I don't understand. Let me go back, let me track,
22:44
Speaker 1: back track. Why wouldn't they let you see them to
22:47
Speaker 1: start with? And remember this, this is not about you, right,
22:52
Speaker 1: whatever they were doing, they are clearly in the wrong.
22:57
Speaker 1: Or whatever pretense they made up. We're trying to get
23:00
Speaker 1: our lives together. We're this, we're that, we're cleaning the house,
23:03
Speaker 1: we're on vacation, blah blah blah. They were just lying
23:06
Speaker 1: so you couldn't see the children. That that's it. They
23:09
Speaker 1: kept you away because you would know something was wrong.
23:13
Speaker 1: They were intentionally keeping you away. It had nothing to
23:16
Speaker 1: do with you. They may have made up some argument
23:19
Speaker 1: that happened five years ago or something, but that's bs.
23:23
Speaker 1: They did not want you to know, just like they
23:25
Speaker 1: didn't want the doctors to know. So did you ever
23:29
Speaker 1: have any clue duty that anything was wrong? No, I
23:33
Speaker 1: had absolutely no clue that anything was going on. All
23:38
Speaker 1: I knew was is I wanted to see my grandchildren.
23:41
Speaker 1: And one of the things that Heather did tell one
23:45
Speaker 1: of the detective is he asked her why she hated,
23:50
Speaker 1: you know, Adrian so much, And at that time, Heather
23:52
Speaker 1: started crying, and she pointed at Hadrian Adrian's picture that
23:56
Speaker 1: she had in the home and stated that boy is
23:59
Speaker 1: the reason I lost my son. And Heather went on
24:02
Speaker 1: to explain Nancy that Adrian had lied to DCF during
24:08
Speaker 1: a I think it was two thousand and eleven investigation,
24:13
Speaker 1: and as a result, her own biological son was taken
24:17
Speaker 1: away from her and that was the excuse that she
24:21
Speaker 1: used and is still using this. Well, he probably he
24:25
Speaker 1: Adrian probably told the truth that she was beating and
24:28
Speaker 1: starving him, and so they take away her bio kid
24:31
Speaker 1: and leave him there to die. Exactly exactly what is
24:37
Speaker 1: so bizarre about this horrible abuse case A Little Adrian,
24:41
Speaker 1: which has now become a national movement, the movement of
24:45
Speaker 1: Adrian Jones and protecting Children, is that these idiots. And
24:50
Speaker 1: I very rarely say that, because so often I find
24:53
Speaker 1: myself doing something idiotic, you know, the pots calling the
24:56
Speaker 1: kettle block. But these two were truly idiots because, Jessica McMaster,
25:01
Speaker 1: for some bizarre reason, they took photos and videos of
25:08
Speaker 1: Adrian being abused. I mean, there are pictures of him healthy,
25:13
Speaker 1: and then the picture of him near the end of
25:15
Speaker 1: his little life at age seven, and he is so
25:20
Speaker 1: emaciated and bruised and pitiful. They took pictures in video. Jessica,
25:27
Speaker 1: what did we learn and how that they, like you
25:30
Speaker 1: just said, you know, they abused him right up until
25:32
Speaker 1: he took his last breath, and they would, like you said,
25:36
Speaker 1: used the siblings to help torture him, and they would
25:38
Speaker 1: have them eat in front of him because he wasn't
25:41
Speaker 1: allowed to eat. Heather, actually there was one There was
25:45
Speaker 1: some footage of Heather recording herself watching Adrian unsurveillance, watching
25:51
Speaker 1: his abuse, and you could hear the children there with her,
25:54
Speaker 1: so she would not only records she would sit there
25:57
Speaker 1: and watch it. Hold on, hold on. We actually have
26:00
Speaker 1: we have obtained some of that surveillance video where they
26:03
Speaker 1: would watch on surveillance cameras watch Adrian's almost like watching TV,
26:10
Speaker 1: watching Adrian outside in chin deep water, watching him begging
26:17
Speaker 1: to come in out of that water, begging for food,
26:20
Speaker 1: begging for them to stop beating him and listen to me.
26:24
Speaker 1: They had thirty one cameras hooked up thirty one cameras,
26:29
Speaker 1: and he would go to doctors. He reported his own meetings,
26:34
Speaker 1: He reported it to authorities, and nobody did anything. God
26:39
Speaker 1: help me if I only knew, if I could only
26:42
Speaker 1: reverse time and try to say this boy, explain to me,
26:46
Speaker 1: Ashley Willcott, you're the child protection advocate. You've gone in
26:49
Speaker 1: courts all over protecting children. What was the point of
26:54
Speaker 1: this the recordings. I've never seen anything like that. I mean,
26:59
Speaker 1: this is a little unusual. But thank God for you
27:03
Speaker 1: and raising public awareness, because that's what needs to happen
27:07
Speaker 1: for people to realize children are actually abused and neglected
27:11
Speaker 1: in the United States. This is the perfect case because
27:16
Speaker 1: they've chosen to take photos and videos and that can
27:20
Speaker 1: be some of the most compelling information for people to
27:23
Speaker 1: get and understand what really happens, Nancy, and all of
27:27
Speaker 1: my very lengthy career, I've never seen a parent not
27:31
Speaker 1: only record and and and take pictures of every part
27:35
Speaker 1: of it, but also to to get off, quite frankly,
27:38
Speaker 1: and the sadistic nature of actually watching the child on
27:43
Speaker 1: the videos. It's really unbelievable. I've I've never seen anything
27:47
Speaker 1: quite like several occasions. On several occasions, seven year old
27:52
Speaker 1: Adrian was actually shown in video and pictures wrapped to
28:00
Speaker 1: a table and blindfolded. He's caught on the surveillance video
28:06
Speaker 1: standing neck deep in water and the family's dirty swimming
28:10
Speaker 1: pool overnight and other photos. It just hurts me to
28:16
Speaker 1: even say it. And other photos Adrian's mouth is bloody
28:21
Speaker 1: and bruised, his teeth are rotting, the little boy's hands
28:27
Speaker 1: are swollen from being tied up. And another picture, this
28:34
Speaker 1: child is tied up with a plate of food in
28:40
Speaker 1: front of him and a bar of soap in his mouth.
28:48
Speaker 1: You know, Jessica, when I report on this story, I
28:53
Speaker 1: go through the facts and I don't want myself think
28:56
Speaker 1: about it because I can't keep reporting on it. When
29:01
Speaker 1: I stopped to think about it, but it just came
29:05
Speaker 1: over me like it would in closing statements. You know,
29:07
Speaker 1: I would be work, work, work, all hours of the day,
29:11
Speaker 1: all hours of the night on a case, trying to
29:15
Speaker 1: present the evidence, trying to find the witnesses and build
29:18
Speaker 1: my case and do it correctly. But it would always
29:23
Speaker 1: be in closing statements when I finished putting the case up,
29:30
Speaker 1: and I would be going back through the facts to
29:32
Speaker 1: the jury, and I would hear them as I said them,
29:37
Speaker 1: and it would take everything I have not to cry
29:44
Speaker 1: or just break down, because I knew I had to
29:46
Speaker 1: finish the closing and be strong. What jury can respect
29:51
Speaker 1: a lawyer crying in front of them or blubbering. When
29:56
Speaker 1: I think about this, photos, photos that show this child
30:04
Speaker 1: tied up, starving, with a plate of food in front
30:10
Speaker 1: of him and a bar of soap stuck in his mouth.
30:16
Speaker 1: Who are these people, Jessica, Who who are they? How
30:21
Speaker 1: did they get to keep the children? It doesn't make
30:24
Speaker 1: sense that to anybody answering. I mean, that's the question
30:26
Speaker 1: the whole community is asking. Everybody is still outraged. You
30:30
Speaker 1: mentioned his name once and and everybody tunes in and
30:33
Speaker 1: they want to know more. They want those answers, But
30:36
Speaker 1: neither agency in Missouri or Kansas. We'll talk about it
30:40
Speaker 1: that they're not willing to answer the questions. I guess
30:43
Speaker 1: they want because they're human, they're embarrassed. How do we
30:48
Speaker 1: know that people within law enforcement knew, because we do know,
30:53
Speaker 1: we know that they knew. It was on the records.
30:55
Speaker 1: There is one occasion where you know, I think it
30:59
Speaker 1: was when a marine was three years old. It was
31:01
Speaker 1: still on the cancers side. They had gone over there
31:03
Speaker 1: and taken a photograph of his black eye, and he
31:06
Speaker 1: had mentioned that Mommy, being Heather, his stepmother, hit him,
31:11
Speaker 1: and he had also mentioned that Daddy also hit him.
31:14
Speaker 1: He had mentioned that Daddy would hit him on the
31:15
Speaker 1: back of the head and a little bone would pop out.
31:18
Speaker 1: Um so Adrian and she mentioned reported to everybody, everybody.
31:24
Speaker 1: He was not shy about it. He told social workers,
31:26
Speaker 1: he told police when they came over. He told his
31:29
Speaker 1: doctors and therapists at the mental health hospitals he was
31:32
Speaker 1: taking to that these things were happening to him. And
31:36
Speaker 1: so how he stayed with these people makes absolutely no sense.
31:40
Speaker 1: And and keep in mind too, when you think about it,
31:42
Speaker 1: he was removed from his biological mother's care for neglect.
31:47
Speaker 1: It was not obviously anywhere near this degree. But if
31:52
Speaker 1: you can be removed because mom's going out late at night,
31:54
Speaker 1: she's not really attentive to the kids, then how can
31:58
Speaker 1: you stay in a home or something like this happened.
32:01
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense. His father, Michael Jones, told
32:05
Speaker 1: authorities he purchased the pigs after keeping the baby's body.
32:13
Speaker 1: The child's body in the home nearly two weeks. A
32:17
Speaker 1: child told investigators he heard Adrian screaming I'm going to
32:23
Speaker 1: die through a vent and his stepmother, Heather Jones, would
32:29
Speaker 1: tell him suck it up. To a seven year old child,
32:36
Speaker 1: he was yelling through the vent to his stepmother, I'm
32:42
Speaker 1: going to die. During the final days of this child's life,
32:49
Speaker 1: he was trapped in a white tiled shower stall and
32:53
Speaker 1: left to starve. He starved to death and his body
32:59
Speaker 1: fed two pigs. Jessica McMaster joining us from forty one
33:04
Speaker 1: Action News in Kansas City, which law enforcement agencies knew
33:11
Speaker 1: about the abuse? I mean agent told them they're baiting me,
33:16
Speaker 1: they're starving me. He told them what police, what law
33:22
Speaker 1: enforcement agencies new? I believe on the Kansas side, the
33:26
Speaker 1: photograph that was taken and I'll have to double check this,
33:28
Speaker 1: but the photograph that was taken of his black eye
33:30
Speaker 1: I believe would by Topeka police officers in Topeka on
33:34
Speaker 1: the Missouri side. I'm not sure that he specifically told
33:39
Speaker 1: law enforcement, and i'd have to be As you've mentioned,
33:42
Speaker 1: there's thousands and thousands of records and it's all kind
33:44
Speaker 1: of running together, and I don't think that there was
33:47
Speaker 1: specific law enforcements. I know that they had gone out
33:50
Speaker 1: to the house on the Missouri side because they had
33:53
Speaker 1: to go along with a social worker because it was
33:57
Speaker 1: too dangerous for that social worker to go alone. The
34:00
Speaker 1: little boy actually tried to chew through the plywood over
34:06
Speaker 1: the shower to get out and eat to live. He
34:10
Speaker 1: tried to chew through the plywood. You know, I think,
34:14
Speaker 1: Ashley Walcott, I think about my twins and John David
34:20
Speaker 1: just told me that a piece of his braces had
34:23
Speaker 1: come unhooked in it was bothering him. He couldn't eat.
34:28
Speaker 1: That's all I've been able to think about is to
34:30
Speaker 1: get him to the orthodonis so his mouth won't hurt.
34:33
Speaker 1: This little boy tried to chew through the plywood. Ashley
34:39
Speaker 1: and the reports, the reports The evidence of this is endless.
34:48
Speaker 1: Records in both Missouri and Kansas show an endless series
34:53
Speaker 1: of reports and hotline calls to inform social services and
34:58
Speaker 1: child well fied fair of what was happening to Adrian.
35:01
Speaker 1: I just don't understand it. The boys trying to chew
35:04
Speaker 1: through plywood to get out, Well, I don't understand it.
35:09
Speaker 1: What in the hey is happening at de facts? What
35:13
Speaker 1: is wrong with them? In this case? The ball was
35:17
Speaker 1: dropped and you even heard, oh, man, man, how can
35:21
Speaker 1: you say that, Ashley? I always agree with everything you say.
35:23
Speaker 1: The ball was dropped then to have their rear ends
35:26
Speaker 1: and died it for this? Ashley for just said, how
35:29
Speaker 1: can they go to work every day and sip their
35:32
Speaker 1: coffee with this boys trying to chew through plywood to live? No,
35:35
Speaker 1: I agree with you, Nancy. And this here's the eerie thing.
35:39
Speaker 1: This is very similar to a Georgia case. I don't
35:42
Speaker 1: know if you remember. It was the child's name and
35:45
Speaker 1: it's all public information was Terrell Peterson, and at five
35:49
Speaker 1: it was so similar. He was tortured, beaten, starved to
35:53
Speaker 1: death with an open defects case and the result of
35:56
Speaker 1: that was a lawsuit against Georgia defects. And what I'm
36:00
Speaker 1: suggesting is they did drop the ball, but in such
36:03
Speaker 1: a way that they need to be held responsible because
36:07
Speaker 1: they both say, oh, well, the child was in the
36:09
Speaker 1: other state, moved back and forth. Bottom line, this is
36:13
Speaker 1: a perfect storm of a case where de Facts should
36:17
Speaker 1: have protected this child. This child should have been removed
36:22
Speaker 1: from the home. This might cause the system to change
36:25
Speaker 1: in a positive way. That's the only positive outcome. There's
36:28
Speaker 1: no positive outcome. This child was tortured to death deliberately,
36:31
Speaker 1: with well thought out plans by a father and a stepmother.
36:35
Speaker 1: And the only only only consolation to me is that
36:39
Speaker 1: perhaps it will cause system reform for those two states
36:43
Speaker 1: to ensure no other child goes through it. You know,
36:46
Speaker 1: de Facts Department, Family Children's Services, cpsh Opertative Services. They
36:51
Speaker 1: stood by, sip in their coffee out of their jetty
36:56
Speaker 1: and writing it all down. You know why they're gonna
37:01
Speaker 1: They're gonna burn in hell for this, for standing by
37:06
Speaker 1: and letting it happen. In my mind, these case workers
37:11
Speaker 1: and these police need to be first of all fired
37:14
Speaker 1: and second of all indicted in guided charged with aiding
37:21
Speaker 1: and abetting and letting this happen. I mean they go
37:24
Speaker 1: over there and they make the father and stepmother sign
37:29
Speaker 1: a piece of paper agreeing to stop beating the boy.
37:33
Speaker 1: That's like having them pinky swear I want to do
37:37
Speaker 1: it again. Really, it's just I can hardly even report
37:44
Speaker 1: on it. It's so upsetting to know that child protective
37:49
Speaker 1: Services and police law enforcement let it happen. In fact,
37:55
Speaker 1: cops would go with social workers to the house because
37:59
Speaker 1: they thought it was too dangerous to let the social
38:02
Speaker 1: workers go by themselves. But they left the children there.
38:05
Speaker 1: And Nancy, that's the part that doesn't make sense, because
38:09
Speaker 1: a child should be removed from a home by a
38:13
Speaker 1: court if the child is not safe, and so in
38:17
Speaker 1: any instance where there's any physical abuse of a child
38:21
Speaker 1: that's been documented or confirmed, which in this case was
38:24
Speaker 1: multiple times, the child should be removed. So that right there,
38:27
Speaker 1: to me, is the crux of the matter. Why was
38:29
Speaker 1: that child not removed? There were missed times when the
38:33
Speaker 1: child clearly should have been removed from the home. So
38:35
Speaker 1: it's not one person. It says, if you could indict
38:38
Speaker 1: ten twenty different people, it doesn't make sense. Which needs
38:42
Speaker 1: to happen. But I don't understand how that many individuals
38:46
Speaker 1: failed this child. I am looking right now at the
38:49
Speaker 1: photos of the father, Michael Jones and the stepmother, Heather Jones.
38:57
Speaker 1: I can truly say, and this is the H word
39:00
Speaker 1: we don't use in our home, I hate them. I
39:03
Speaker 1: hate them so much for what they did. And you
39:07
Speaker 1: know what else, I hate that law enforcement and child
39:11
Speaker 1: protective services let it happen. As a matter of fact,
39:16
Speaker 1: within three months of little Adrian moving in Kansas, child
39:21
Speaker 1: welfare workers found out about the problems. Hotline calls began
39:26
Speaker 1: pouring in. The father had guns, the stepmother was high
39:31
Speaker 1: on drugs. They were being beaten, weight loss, physical injuries,
39:37
Speaker 1: call after call, Adrian's being beaten, Adrian's being choked. Adrian
39:43
Speaker 1: had been spanked to the point where his little rear
39:45
Speaker 1: end was bleeding. They did nothing with me. Is investigative
39:55
Speaker 1: reporter Jessica McMaster. She is an investigative reporter with forty
39:59
Speaker 1: one Action using Kansas City, and she has exposed the
40:04
Speaker 1: pain this child lived through before his horrible death and
40:09
Speaker 1: the fact that law enforcement and that pains me to
40:12
Speaker 1: say it because I consider myself part of law enforcement.
40:16
Speaker 1: How they dropped the ball and let this boy die
40:20
Speaker 1: and child protective services. May they all go to jail
40:25
Speaker 1: and give them plenty of time to think about it.
40:28
Speaker 1: Now a new lawsuit has been filed. Jessica Master with
40:32
Speaker 1: me Ashley Willcott, a very well known child protection advocate. Jessica,
40:38
Speaker 1: what did you learn from the filings, the most recent
40:41
Speaker 1: court filings. Yeah, so reading through those um we actually
40:45
Speaker 1: got some surprises that, you know, we were not expecting.
40:48
Speaker 1: When you get almost to the end of that lawsuit,
40:51
Speaker 1: we found that the attorneys for the family collected callogs
40:55
Speaker 1: from Kansas DCS that show somebody hotlined the agency at
40:59
Speaker 1: the end of two thousand fourteen or the beginning of
41:03
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, stating that Heather Jones, adrian stepmother, uploaded
41:09
Speaker 1: some of those photos of his abuse to her Facebook
41:11
Speaker 1: page and that the department did not follow up on
41:15
Speaker 1: those calls. And this was just months before he died.
41:19
Speaker 1: And it really makes you wonder what wait, can you
41:22
Speaker 1: slow it down? Sorry, Jessica McMaster, what what did you what? Now?
41:26
Speaker 1: We were just learning this what just learning that the
41:30
Speaker 1: attorneys got callogs from Kansas Department for Children and Families
41:34
Speaker 1: that show at the end of two thousand fourteen, beginning
41:39
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, there were hotline calls placed to the
41:42
Speaker 1: agency that Heather Jones, the stepmother, had uploaded photos of
41:47
Speaker 1: Adrian's abuse to her Facebook page, and that those calls
41:51
Speaker 1: that they gave the agency didn't even follow up on
41:54
Speaker 1: those calls. Ashley Willcott, what more do you have to
41:57
Speaker 1: do to get caught? She up loaded under a Facebook
42:02
Speaker 1: then torturing the little boy and actually listen to this,
42:07
Speaker 1: listen to this, Adrian. According to Jessica McMaster's actually said
42:13
Speaker 1: records show, Adrian himself opened up about his torture to
42:18
Speaker 1: welfare workers as far back as July two thousand thirteen,
42:23
Speaker 1: in an interview with Missouri Children Division workers and a
42:27
Speaker 1: police officer. He was just five years old, and he
42:31
Speaker 1: says his father would kick him so violently into the
42:35
Speaker 1: back of his head. Quote a little bone come out.
42:40
Speaker 1: The little boy, aged five set a little bone come
42:43
Speaker 1: out when he was beaten, He says, my daddy Quote
42:46
Speaker 1: my daddy keeps hitting me in the head and punches
42:49
Speaker 1: me in the stomach, and my mom keeps pulling on
42:52
Speaker 1: my ears and it hurts. Mommy and daddy locked me
42:55
Speaker 1: in my room by myself, and mommy and daddy can't
42:58
Speaker 1: feed me. Another occasion, he tells a social services worker
43:05
Speaker 1: he's forced to stand in the corner into jumping jack's
43:09
Speaker 1: and push ups all day. What else? What else do
43:15
Speaker 1: you have to do? What take out a billboard on
43:18
Speaker 1: Madison Avenue. I'm starving my children, she uploaded on Facebook,
43:23
Speaker 1: according to Jessica mc masters, and nobody did a darn.
43:27
Speaker 1: That's the same. They've got to be punished, they've got
43:31
Speaker 1: to be brought to justice for ignoring Adrian. Yeah, there's
43:34
Speaker 1: no excuse. There's no excuse. Accountability and system change are
43:41
Speaker 1: the two things that have to happen in this case.
43:43
Speaker 1: And the good news is the lawsuit has been filed,
43:46
Speaker 1: because that's step one to drive those two things. But
43:49
Speaker 1: those two things are the only justice, and it's not
43:52
Speaker 1: justice for the child, but are the only two positive
43:56
Speaker 1: things to come out of what can never be deemed
43:59
Speaker 1: up positive thing. So horrific. There's no excuse. It's unfathomable
44:05
Speaker 1: that you have those kind of reports. The second a
44:07
Speaker 1: child discloses, and I can tell you this is true
44:10
Speaker 1: nationwide from all of my work and experience. When a
44:14
Speaker 1: child discloses physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse. When the
44:20
Speaker 1: child discloses, it is believed. You have a forensic and
44:24
Speaker 1: the child's removed from the home. No exceptions that didn't
44:28
Speaker 1: happen here. In fact, on Christmas Day two thousand fourteen,
44:33
Speaker 1: this evil stepmother makes a reference to wanting to simulate
44:38
Speaker 1: an episode of The Walking Dead where a character shoots
44:42
Speaker 1: a child in the back of the head. Just three
44:45
Speaker 1: days later, stepmother Heather Jones posts, she quote, might be
44:50
Speaker 1: the next and have to fade some pigs a body.
44:55
Speaker 1: I don't understand why they don't get the death penalty.
44:58
Speaker 1: That's the thing I don't understand and Adrian. One detective
45:05
Speaker 1: breaks down in tears, saying the torture Adrian went through
45:10
Speaker 1: was unlike anything he had ever seen in over twenty
45:14
Speaker 1: years and law enforcement. It was detected Stewart Littlefield, and
45:18
Speaker 1: he recalled how Adrian was shocked with a stunned gun
45:23
Speaker 1: by the stepmother. Shocked by a stun gun. So. Jessica
45:29
Speaker 1: McMaster has been on this case from the beginning and
45:33
Speaker 1: has brought so much of it to light. She's an
45:36
Speaker 1: investigative reporter with forty one Action News in Kansas City.
45:40
Speaker 1: Jessica McMaster, what can be done now? What can be
45:47
Speaker 1: done about child welfare? And the police that let this happen.
45:53
Speaker 1: I think it's obvious that something has to change. And
45:57
Speaker 1: you know, they mentioned the lawsuit that that's the first
45:59
Speaker 1: step in, but the accountability there really needs to be
46:02
Speaker 1: a discussion about how this happened, because without that, how
46:06
Speaker 1: do we move forward? You know, when the agencies won't
46:08
Speaker 1: even talk about it, how do we even get to
46:11
Speaker 1: improving if you're not even gonna acknowledge the failures that
46:14
Speaker 1: were made in this case? I don't know. Um, you know,
46:17
Speaker 1: this has happened to other children in the past in
46:20
Speaker 1: these areas. UM lawsuits have been filed, millions of dollars
46:24
Speaker 1: has been built out, and still Little Adrian happened. So
46:28
Speaker 1: what we do to get over that? We've got to
46:30
Speaker 1: have to have some accountability. These calls need to be
46:33
Speaker 1: followed up on and when they are as in his case,
46:36
Speaker 1: they were several times people were at the home. This
46:38
Speaker 1: isn't a matter of or we didn't have the resources
46:40
Speaker 1: even go to the home. No, they were there. There
46:42
Speaker 1: were several people there. They need to be taken out
46:46
Speaker 1: of that well. First of all, the Kansas Attorney General,
46:50
Speaker 1: because there is no way that the police or child
46:53
Speaker 1: services are going to investigate and prosecute themselves if you
46:58
Speaker 1: care about this case. The attorney general in Kansas is
47:03
Speaker 1: Kansas A G. Jerrek Schmidt phone number seven eight five
47:09
Speaker 1: two nine six two to one five repeat Kansas Attorney
47:14
Speaker 1: General Derek Schmidt, s C H M I D T
47:20
Speaker 1: seven eight five two nine six two two one five.
47:28
Speaker 1: He's not the only one. There's Missouri as well. Now
47:32
Speaker 1: aren't those the state lines that they would cross, Jessica, Yes,
47:36
Speaker 1: they were in Kansas, Missouri. The Missouri Attorney General Josh
47:41
Speaker 1: Hawley H A W l e Y H A W
47:49
Speaker 1: L e y to contact them five seven three seven
47:55
Speaker 1: five one three three to one five seven three seven
47:59
Speaker 1: five one three three two one. Let your voice be heard.
48:06
Speaker 1: Don't let Adrian Jones have died in vain. Jessica McMaster
48:12
Speaker 1: is trying, Ashley Willcot is trying. I'm trying. Please join us,
48:22
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Stories, signing off, goodbye friend,