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The Church Punishment · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Discretion is it vised ten minute murders. In October of two thousand and three,
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a little boy died in Atlanta. His parents, Sonia and Joseph Smith,
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called nine one one from their family home, telling the operator that their
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son, eight year old Joseph Junior, was unresponsive. According to Joseph Senior,
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he'd gone to pick Joseph Junior up and noticed that the child was extremely
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sweaty and warm and he wasn't waking up. Believing that his son might have
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just gotten to hot, he carried him to the homes car port and laid
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him on the cool concrete floor, hoping that that coldness would revive him.
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When Joseph Junior remained unconscious, Joseph Senor called for the ambulance. Cobb County
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first responders arrived at the scene, where they found Joseph Junior lying flat on
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his back. He was not breathing, and they couldn't find a pulse.
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He was rushed to the children's hospital, where the staff desperately tried to save
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his life, but they were unable to revive him. The following day,
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he was pronounced dead, but it was immediately clear to the medical staff that
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Joseph Junior had not died because of overheating or any other natural cause. He
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had passed away as the result of severe, long term physical abuse. Joseph
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Senor and Sonia admitted that they'd sometimes physically punished Joseph Junior, including locking him
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in a closet alongside a picture of g and forcing him to pray for long
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periods of time, but they denied that they'd ever severely physically abused him.
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The Smith's definition of severe abuse was questionable. Under the guise of discipline,
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they would hit Joseph with belts, glues, sticks, and coat hangers.
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Sonia said that a usual punishment session, the child being punished would receive ten
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blows at a time. Sometimes his older brother would be ordered to hold Joseph
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Junior down to prevent him from running away or shielding himself. They didn't just
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lock him in a closet for a few minutes. They would bind his hands
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together with rope and keep him in there for hours or even days at a
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time. During these periods of imprisonment, Joseph had no food, no water,
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and he was given a bucket to use if he needed to go to
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the toilet. On the day that the nine to one. One call was
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made. Joseph had been disciplined multiple times by his father, who had beaten
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his stomach with a glue stick. Later, Joseph Juran came back a dark
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brown color, and he began complaining about having a sore stomach. When Joseph
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Senior took a break from the discipline to have a shower, Sonia took over,
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beating Joseph Junior with the glue stick hard enough to draw blood even through
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his clothes. Their oldest son then forced Joseph into a small wooden box while
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still beating him, and then Sonia wrapped an extension cord around that box so
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that Joseph could not escape. It was only after Joseph Senior finished his shower
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and tried to let his son out of the box that he realized that he
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was not breathing. One of the police officers who arrived at the crime scene
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later reported that shortly after he arrived, Joseph told him quote, I'm not
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going to lie to you. He's bruised. In December of two thousand and
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three, Sonia and Joseph Senior were arrested for Joseph Junior death, and they
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might have been accused of horrific child abuse and murder, but they still had
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a loyal group of supporters, and none were more loyal than their church.
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For the past three years, the Smiths had been regular members of the Remnant
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Fellowship Church. It was a fairly new church founded by author and dietitian Gwen
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Chamblin in nineteen ninety nine. The Remnant Fellowship's original followers were all people who
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had signed up for way Down Workshop, a popular Christian diet and weight loss
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program that Gwen started in nineteen eighty six. Gwenn's program was highly controversial and
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her book The Way Down Diet, she taught her readers to use Christianity as
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a weight loss method by attempting to transfer their love of food into the love
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of God. She also received a lot of criticism for attaching the label of
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christian to a weight loss business, and the finances behind her business were put
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under inve instigation in two thousand and one. But despite the controversy, the
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Way Down Workshop was incredibly popular. By late nineteen ninety eight, it had
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over two hundred and fifty thousand participants across the United States, Canada, and
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Europe. It meant that By the time Gwynn decided to found the Remnant Fellowship
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Church, she already had a large group of loyal followers. People who have
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since left the Remnant Fellowship Church claimed that corporal punishment of kids was a regular
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discussed topic in church teachings about how to correctly discipline a child. The church's
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website contained a collection of testimonies from those who had been helped by their teachings,
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and one of the testimonies included details of how the church had encouraged them
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to punish their children. Quote I was hesitant and sometimes refused to properly discipline
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my children because I didn't want to hurt them or have them hate me,
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the testimony read, going on to claim that the member was now comfortable disciplining
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their children to save their souls from hell, rather than being concerned about their
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flesh. The leaders of the church did not deny that they approved corporal punishment,
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but insisted that they let parents decide how to discipline their own children,
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and that the church believed that hitting a child should only be a last resort.
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Soon after Joseph Junior's death, the church purchased two web domains related to
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the case. The Smiths are Guilty dot com and the Smiths Are Innocent dot
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com. If anybody googled the case and clicked onto the Smiths Areguilty dot com,
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they were instantly redirected to the Smiths Are Innocent dot com, a website
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which the Remnant Fellowship dedicated to proving that Joseph Senior and Sonia had never abused
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their son. The website's intro currently reads, Joseph Smith Senior and Sonia Smith
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have been accused by the police as abusers within four minutes of a nine on
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one call placed frantically in October two thousand and three, as their son lay
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dying of a fast acting infection and septic shock as the child abuse seeds were
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planted. Throughout the investigation that followed Young Joseph Smith's untimely death, the media
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frenzy began after Young Joseph's autopsy. The Cobb County Medical examiners concluded that the
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child had died because of a combination of acute and chronic abuse, but they
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were unable to tell whether the cause of the death had been asphyxiation or blunt
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force trauma. But there was no evidence to support the church's argument that Joseph
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had actually died from a septic infection, which was caused by him scratching his
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exema. According to the medical examiners, there was absolutely no chance that Joseph's
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death had been accidental or natural death in any way. The state of the
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boy's body, which witnesses later called one of the worst child abuse cases they
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had ever seen, proved that the death was a homicide. The Remnant Fellowship
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Church was raided by the police in two thousand and four, but they were
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unable to find any evidence that linked the church's teachings to Joseph's murder. During
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Joseph Senior and Sonia's trial, their older son, Michael Smith, testified about
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the events that led to Joseph Junior's death. He said that the punishment began
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when Joseph Junior had behaved disruptively while the rest of the family had been watching
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a broadcast from the Remnant Fellowship Church. According to Michael, his brother had
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been screaming, cursing, and carrying on as well as bothering his younger brother,
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two year old James, causing his parents to begin to beat him with
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the glue stick. And by the way, I've mentioned these glue sticks a
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number of times. They're not the small ones that go into these small craft
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glue guns. These are large glue sticks, like industrial sized glue sticks that
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they were using as a weapon. Afterwards, Joseph Sor and Sonia had ordered
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Michael to force Joseph Junior into the wooden chest. When Joseph Junior kept struggling
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to get free, Michael tied the chest shut to prevent him from escaping.
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For about the first ten minutes that Joseph Junior had been trapped inside the chest,
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Michael said that his brother was yelling and swearing, saying, quote,
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I'm going to kill all U mfors when I get out, James is the
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first one on my list. I'm going to slit his throat. After that,
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Joseph Junior was silent. On February sixteenth, two thousand and seven,
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all twelve jury members were in agreement. The Smiths were both guilty of felony
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murder, false imprisonment, reckless conduct, and multiple counts of cruelty to children
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and aggravated assault. In court on the day that the jury eventually reached their
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verdict, the prosecutors dimmed the lights during their closing arguments and brought out a
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birthday cake. They lit the candles and began to sing Happy Birthday to a
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young boy who would never grow older. It was the sixteenth of February two
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thousand and seven, the day that Joseph Smith Junior would have turned twelve.
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Both Sonia and Joseph received the maximum sentence of life in prison plus thirty years,
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and despite the unanimous verdict from the jury, the support from the church
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did not falter. To this day, the remnant Fellowship Church still stands by
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the Smith's innocence, collecting online donations on their behalf and paying for their legal
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fees, and throughout their incarceration, Joseph Sor and Sonya have remained loyal members.
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That is ten Minute Murder for Today, Brief and bingeable true Crime.
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My name is Joe. I'm the host, and thank you for taking the
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a listener email today. Good evening, Joe. I've seen some of the
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videos that you were talking about last week where the people don't know that they're
11:52
in a restaurant meant to harass the customers. That's like Dick's Last Resort is
11:58
what they're talking about. It's fun and I laughed, but have you seen
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the video of the war happening right now between the otters and the Orangutanes at
12:07
a zoo. It's hilarious. Here's the link, and then they put the
12:11
link in there. And let me tell you, I've clicked this link.
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It's a link to TikTok video. I laughed so hard I cried watching this,
12:20
didn't I had no idea there was a secret war going on with the
12:22
zoo between the orangutans and the otters. It's so funny. I'll try to
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remember to post the link, but in case I don't, someone reach out
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and let me know to post the link. I've got it right here.
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And by the way, that email is from Maria in Lansing, and Maria,
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thank you so much for your email. If you'd like to send me
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an email, you can do that. Joe at ten Minute Murder dot com.
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Joe at ten Minute Murder dot com. Okay, that's gonna do it.
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That's the episode for today. Thank you so much for listening to ten
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Minute Murder.