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Larry _ Carri Williams _ The Guide to Child Abuse · This is monsters

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: When a young girl was adopted from Ethiopia, it seemed
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: as if she was going to be sent to a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: better life in America. But three years after her adoption,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hannah Grace Rose Williams died of hypothermia, and the investigation
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: into her death uncovered the shocking secrets of Hannah's adoptive parents.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: This is Monsters. Thank you. Hannah Alema was born on
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: June 19, 1998 in Ethiopia. She grew up in poverty
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and was abandoned by her birth parents. Living in a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Catholic orphanage throughout her childhood as a preteen, she was
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: put up for adoption through Washington-based Adoption Advocates International. It
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: was an agency run by Marilee Ripley, a woman who
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: had adopted 17 children from overseas herself. When Larry and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Carrie Williams contacted Adoption Advocates International to inquire about adopting
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: a child, the agency believed they had found adoptive parents
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: who were the perfect match for young Hannah. The couple
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: were both conservative Christians who had elected to homeschool all
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: of their seven biological children. In the mid-2000s, this was
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a trend for a lot of Christian couples, and the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Williamses transformed their lifestyle accordingly. Carrie had married young at
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: only 19 years old, and as their family grew, she
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: began to dress only in long skirts and dresses and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: developed anti-feminist viewpoints. She disagreed with the values of modern society,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: believing that women belonged at home and even believing they
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have the right to vote. The nine Williams siblings
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: were raised in an isolated gated community on a five-acre
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: property where they had extremely limited contact with the outside world.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: To Larry and Carrie, and many other conservative Christians, adopting
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: children was a way to prove their faith by quote-unquote
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: rescuing a child from bad circumstances. Carrie Williams had been
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the one to bring up the idea of adoption after
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: she met several women at a fundamentalist retreat who had
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: adopted children from Liberia. Carrie desperately wanted to add to
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: their already large family, but she had developed health concerns
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: which made her unable to have another healthy pregnancy. After
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: talking to the women at her retreat, Carrie was immediately
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: taken with the idea of adoption. What Carrie didn't know
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: at the time was that many of these trendy adoptions
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: had failed. Some of the children had behavioral issues or
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: trauma from the hardships they had experienced, and a lot
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: of the adoptive parents were poorly prepared for the work
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that adoption required. It wasn't like adopting a cute puppy
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: or kitten. Adoption meant adding a new child to an
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: existing family and putting in the effort to help them thrive.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Many of these conservative Christian families liked the idea of adoption,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: but had no idea how to carry it out successfully.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: By 2008, when the Williamses got in touch with Adoption
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Advocates International, they were serious about adopting, and they were
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: willing to do whatever they had to to be accepted
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: as adoptive parents. For them, this meant omitting certain pieces
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: of information. In particular, the ways in which they disciplined
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: their children. According to the agency's social services director, Gay Knudsen,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: families who admitted to physically disciplining their children would be
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: barred from adoption. Carey and Larry both spanked their biological
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: kids as a punishment, but insisted to Adoption Advocates International
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that they were against physical punishment when they were asked
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: about it during their home studies. The child that the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: adoption agency initially matched Carrie and Larry with wasn't Hannah.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: It was actually a young deaf boy named Emanuel who
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: had also been orphaned. As Carrie was fluent in American
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Sign Language after studying it in college with the hope
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: of becoming an interpreter, the agency thought the young boy
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: would be in good hands with the Williams family. Carrie
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and Larry were immediately attached to Emanuel and agreed that
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: they would adopt him. To the adoption agency, it seemed
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: like the perfect match. Hoping to try their luck, the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: agency showed them a video of another child, a healthy
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: young girl who also needed a home after being abandoned
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: by her parents. It was Hannah. The Williamses were moved
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: by the video and quickly agreed that they would adopt
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: both children as siblings. The process that the Williamses used
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to adopt their two children from Ethiopia is now forbidden
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: because of ethical concerns. But at the time, it was
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: possible for adoptive parents to have their children flown to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: America without ever traveling to Ethiopia to meet them. The
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: first time that Emmanuel and Hannah met their new parents,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: they were already thousands of miles away from home, in
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a new country, without anyone else to advocate for them.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Hannah was initially renamed Hannah Grace Rose Williams, the name
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: she'd be known for the rest of her life. During
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the first year after their adoption, Hannah and Emmanuel were
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: visited by a social worker only three times. The social
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: worker wrote up short reports on how the children were
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: doing post-adoption, giving minimal detail into their well-being. From the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: brief reports, it seemed as if Hannah and Emmanuel were
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: settling in. Emanuel was learning American Sign Language and bonding
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: with his siblings. Hannah had discovered a love for reading,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and her doctor reported that she was no longer underweight
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: for her age. By June of 2009, Adoption Advocates International
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: had stopped receiving written updates on Hannah and Emanuel. Although
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the agency asked adoptive parents to update them on their
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: adopted children, the process wasn't actually mandated by law. Both
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: children stopped visiting the doctor, and because they were homeschooled
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: by Carrie, there was nobody else who was able to
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: check in on their well-being. In fact, the next time
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Hannah would be checked over by a doctor would be
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: at her autopsy two years later. According to Larry and Carrie,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: 10-year-old Hannah was quote-unquote rebellious, and they punished what they
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: saw as rebellion in a variety of vicious ways. Sometimes,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Hannah would be locked in a closet for hours at
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: a time. Other times, she would be denied food and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: water when her parents thought she had misbehaved. She was
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: also physically punished with spankings and beatings, and sometimes, she
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: would be ordered to go outside and exercise in the
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: cold until she was on the verge of fainting from
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: hunger and exhaustion. Larry and Carrie had done an excellent
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: job of fooling the adoption agency, but as soon as
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Hannah and Emanuel were at home with them, the mask
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: gradually slipped, and the true nature of the couple was revealed.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: They found excuses to punish Hannah and Emanuel for the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: tiniest of errors, such as standing in the wrong place
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: in the room. While her siblings could sleep indoors, Hannah
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was soon forced to sleep in the cold of the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: family's barn. And instead of showering with warm water, her
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: only option to clean herself was washing her body with
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the cold water from the outdoor hose. This treatment carried on,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: escalating for the next three years of Hannah's life. It
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: was midnight on May 11, 2011, when Hannah Williams fell
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: down and didn't get back up. By now, she was
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: 13 but severely underweight for her age. Her chest was
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: as flat as a boy's, her bones were protruding, and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: she was covered with scars and injuries from the physical
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: abuse she had faced at the hands of her adoptive parents.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Her head had also recently been shaved down to the scalp.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: As Hannah lay motionless face down in the mud, the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Williams family watched her from behind a window. Carrie Williams
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: had been occasionally standing by the window for the past
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: few hours, watching as Hannah stumbled around the garden outside,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: repeatedly falling and then staggering back to her feet. She
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: had ordered Hannah to do jumping jacks outdoors as a
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: punishment during the afternoon, and had forbidden her from coming inside.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: At one point in the freezing cold, she had stripped
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: completely naked, a process called paradoxical undressing, which occurs in
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: people suffering from severe hypothermia. In a last-ditch effort for
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the body to survive, warm blood will rush to the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: extremities from the core which will create a sort of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: hot flash, making the person feel like they're burning up,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: so they remove their clothes. Several times during this ordeal, Emmanuel,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: who was watching, frozen in fear, saw Carrie pointing and
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: laughing at Hannah's suffering. The first few times Hannah fell down,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Carrie dismissed it as being attention-seeking, rebellious behavior. At one stage,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Carrie asked two of her sons to go outside and
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: spank Hannah as further punishment. Several of the Williams siblings
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: stood watching, waiting for Hannah to stand back up, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: she didn't. One of Carrie's daughters went to her mother
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  Speaker 1: and told her that Hannah was naked and had stopped moving.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Carrie was more upset by Hannah's nudity than anything else,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: and went to get a sheet from her bed to
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: cover the young girl's body. Then she ordered two of
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: her children to pick Hannah up and carry her inside.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Hannah was unresponsive, but Carrie didn't attempt to resuscitate her. Instead,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: she made a phone call to Larry, who was still
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: at work. Finally, after ending the call with Larry, Carrie
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: reluctantly calls 911. What was your emergency? Yes, um, I
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: think my daughter just killed herself. Why do you say that? Um,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: she's really rebellious and she's been outside refusing to come
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: in and she's been throwing herself all around. The operator
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: noticed that Carrie didn't seem distressed at all. Desperate to
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: save Hannah's life, the operator instructed Carrie to begin CPR.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Carrie didn't follow the instructions, instead telling the operator that
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Hannah's pupils were widely dilated as if, quote, she was
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: in a dark room. She also protested that her daughter's
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: mouth was full of mud and dirt from where she
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: had fallen on the ground. You know, because you wouldn't
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: want to get dirty while saving a child's life. While
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the operator kept instructing her to perform CPR, Carrie complained
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: about Hannah's behavior causing her so much stress, describing her
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: as being quote-unquote passive-aggressive. It was as if, to Carrie,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Hannah's death had been one final act of disobedience. An
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: ambulance arrived at the Williams' home and rushed a still-unresponsive
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Hannah to the hospital. Attempts were made to revive her,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: but it was too late. She was pronounced dead at
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: the hospital. Immediately, an investigation into what had caused the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: death of this severely malnutritioned and beaten young girl began. Ultimately,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Hannah's death was determined to be due to hypothermia, as
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: well as chronic gastritis and severe malnutrition. Hospital staff made
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: an urgent call to Child Protective Services who arrived at
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the Williams house the next day to check on the
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: well-being of the other eight siblings. Larry Williams met them
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: at the door and didn't allow them inside the house.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: CPS contacted the local police, who arrived not long after.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: One of the officers noted that the entire family was
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: behaving as if Hannah's death was nothing more than a
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: minor inconvenience. Police officers carried out interviews with the eight
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: remaining Williams children, but they weren't able to get any
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: further information. It was as if the eight siblings were
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: reciting from the same script. One by one, they all
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: insisted that Hannah had been disobedient. Emanuel told investigators that, quote,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: people like her got spankings for lying and go into
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the fires of hell. Another one of the brothers earnestly
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: insisted that he thought Hannah had been possessed by the devil. Somehow,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: after none of the interviews revealed any new information, the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Williams family were allowed to carry on as normal. Larry
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and Carrie posted an online statement in Hannah's memory listing
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: her hobbies as knitting and crocheting, reading, drawing, various crafts,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: playing soccer, and riding her bicycle. It was as if
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: they were describing a different child, a version of Hannah
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: that had never been tortured or abused. Two months passed
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and then an anonymous tip was phoned in to Child
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Protective Services. The caller told them that Carey had begun
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to abuse Emanuel just like she had abused Hannah. With
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: that new information, CPS officially launched an investigation into Larry
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: and Carey, placing the remaining Williams siblings into the care
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: of the state. After a two-month investigation, Larry and Carey
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Williams were placed under arrest for causing the death of Hannah.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: When police carried out searches of the family home, they
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: noted that it was bizarrely tidy. Looking through the house,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: it was impossible to believe that it was the home
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: to a family of ten. One of the most disturbing
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: things found during these searches was a highly controversial book
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: titled To Train Up a Child. The book has previously
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: made headlines for giving quote-unquote parenting tips that are ultimately
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: child abuse, including denying food to children if they've misbehaved,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: hitting children with a switch, and using outdoor exercise in
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: cold weather as punishment. The book even advocated that physical
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: punishment in the form of spanking should begin in infancy.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Not only had Larry and Carrie used all of these
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: techniques on Hannah, they had even recommended the book to
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a friend of theirs and gifted them a copy. The
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: book's author, Michael Pearl, responded to the publicity that he
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: had started receiving after reports that Hannah's parents owned a
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: copy of his book. It wasn't the only death of
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: a child that Michael's book had been associated with either,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: as two other cases where young children had been beaten
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: to death had been connected to his horrible account of
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: how to raise a child. His statement was, at best, ignorant,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: at worst, malicious. He said, quote, I laugh at my
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: caustic critics, for our properly spanked and trained children grow
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: to maturity in great peace and love. He also wrote
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: that he shared in the sadness over the tragic death
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of Hannah Williams, but didn't seem to recognize that the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: dangerous techniques he had listed in his book could cause
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: death if taken to extremes. And in Hannah's case, they had.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: During the investigation, Carrie and Larry were legally forbidden from
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: contacting their children or their foster families. Larry managed to
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: reach out to the kids, sending them coded messages in
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the form of highlighted Bible verses. He was ultimately caught
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and forced to spend the remaining time waiting for trial
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: behind bars so that he could have no further contact
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: with the rest of his family. In his foster home,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: it became clear that Hannah's brother, Emmanuel, had also been
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: severely abused, but was petrified to say anything bad about
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the family. The Williamses took advantage of his hearing impairment
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and would stomp on the ground to try to get
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: his attention. If he didn't notice their stomping, he would
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: be beaten. Sometimes, Carrie socially isolated Emanuel by forbidding the
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: rest of the family from using sign language to communicate
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: with him. On several occasions, the soles of his feet
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: were whipped and he remembered being hit in the head
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: so hard that it drew blood. He was convinced that,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: if he returned to Carrie and Larry's care, he would
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: meet the same fate as his sister. Even in the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: safety of his foster home, he was constantly distressed, even
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: asking his foster parents why they didn't hit him and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: woke up several times every night due to nightmares about
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Carrie and Larry. One of the most gruesome parts of
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the preparations for the Williams' trial was the need to
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: exhume Hannah's body from her final resting place. Even in death,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Hannah was violated by her adoptive parents. In this case,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: because they insisted that she was actually 16 years old
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: instead of 13. Her actual age was extremely important because
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Larry and Carrie were facing charges of homicide by abuse,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: an age-dependent crime that only applies to child victims under
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: 16 years of age. In response to the charges, the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: couple claimed that Hannah's age had been incorrectly recorded as 13,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: when in reality she was much older. Examination and examination
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: of the girl's body revealed the truth. Hannah Williams was,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: in fact, only 13. In 2013, Larry and Carrie went
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to trial for Hannah's murder. The jury was weeded down
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: from more than 150 potential jurors, because many of the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: selected people on the jury had seen news articles or
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: reports about the case. In the months after Hannah died,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: her abuse at the hands of her adoptive parents had
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: been featured in the New York Times, and the story
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: tugged at the heartstrings of parents around the world. When
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: it was reported that her body would be exhumed, there
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: was a reaction of public outrage. With the jury finalized,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the accused couple faced the courtroom. Carrie Williams, who was
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: described as being, quote, the most despised woman in the
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: county on the local news, looked frail and distraught, repeatedly
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: fanning her face while her eyes welled up with tears.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Larry sat nearby, stone-faced. The courtroom documents, evidence, and the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: testimonies by several of Carrie and Larry's biological children revealed
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the true extent of how much Hannah had suffered during
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the years she spent living in the Williams home. Over time,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the punishments and abuse she suffered had escalated from bad
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: to worse. While initially she was ordered to sleep alone
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: in an outdoor barn, this soon changed to a shower
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: room that she would be locked inside with the lights off,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and then to a closet that only measured 4 feet
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: by 2 feet, or 1.2 meters by 0.6 meters. The
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: tiny closet, which locked from the outside, imprisoned Hannah more
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and more often as the end of her life approached.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: On multiple occasions, her siblings reported Hannah was locked in
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the closet for almost 24 hours at a time without
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: food or water. Larry and Carrie would stand outside the closet,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: making Hannah listen to them as they read sermons or
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: played Christian music. During her testimony, Carrie insisted that Hannah
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: had never been locked in the closet for more than
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: 10 consecutive hours, as if that was vastly different to
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: 24 hours. According to transcripts from the Williams siblings' interviews
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: with police, none of the members of the family liked Hannah,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: but they rarely had to see her as she was
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: always in the closet. In the last year of her life,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the siblings noted that Hannah no longer cried when she
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: was being beaten. She was brutally punished in complete silence.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Although the Williamses had very limited contact with the outside world,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: their neighbors and the few friends they had were willing
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to testify against them. Family friends told the jury about how,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: when the family went out for walks, Hannah was made
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: to walk several feet behind the rest of the siblings.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Neighbors had noticed that, while the rest of the Williams
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: siblings played games outside, Hannah was only allowed to stand
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: nearby and watch while they had fun. For the entire
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: year before Hannah's death, she hadn't eaten a single meal
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: with the other members of the family, and she had
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: been banned from taking part in homeschool lessons. When she
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and Emmanuel were allowed to eat, Carrie and Larry made
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the food as unappetizing and unnutritious as possible. soaking their
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: sandwiches in cold water before serving them and making them
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: eat frozen vegetables. These meals were always eaten outside, even
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: when it was snowing. If Hannah or Emmanuel tried to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: sneak food from the cupboard, they would be punished by
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: being struck with a piece of plastic tubing that Carrie
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: carried with her at all times. A detective's affidavit revealed
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: details that Carrie Williams had shared with members of her
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: knitting group before Hannah's death. The members of the group
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: recalled Carrie frequently complaining about Hannah's behavior, calling her rebellious
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and disobedient. According to the group, Carrie had also been
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: mortified that Hannah had begun menstruating, telling them that, quote,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: she had expected to adopt a little girl, not a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: half-grown woman. However, Carrie turned down advice that she should
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: contact her adoption agency about Hannah, saying that she wouldn't
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: give Hannah up because she, quote, didn't wish her on anyone.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Carrie told the knitting group that she had a different
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: plan for getting rid of Hannah. Her plan was to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: legally change her age so that she was older and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: could be disowned as soon as she became an adult.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: She hoped that she would be able to do that because,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: according to Carrie, it gave her a better chance to
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: be able to train Emmanuel into being a better child
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: than Hannah. One of the knitters expressed concern about how
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Hannah would survive if she was kicked out of her
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: home in her teens. Carrie responded that she didn't care. Well,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: how Christian of you. Like many children adopted from poverty,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Hannah came to the Williamses with existing health conditions, including
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: being a carrier of the hepatitis virus. Carrie believed that
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Hannah had been putting the rest of the family at
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: risk of catching hepatitis by reportedly wiping her menstrual blood
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: on the door of the family's bathroom. After that accusation,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Carrie began forcing Hannah to use an abandoned outdoor porta-potty,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Hannah used the porta-potty for an entire year, during which
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: it was only cleaned once. Instead of being allowed to
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: wash herself in the same bathroom as the rest of
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the family, Hannah had to hose herself down outside with
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: cold water, while the rest of the family stood and
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: watched in disapproval. Carrie noticed that Hannah was proud of
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: her curly hair, which she kept in braids, and began
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: punishing Hannah by shaving her head. It was just another
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: small source of happiness that the Williamses didn't hesitate to
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: take from her. Both of the Williams' parents took the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: stand to speak in their own defense, but neither of
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: them took any ownership of their actions. Instead, both Carrie
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and Larry tried to place as much blame as possible
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: on each other, minimizing their own involvement in the abuse
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: of the children and Hannah's eventual death. Larry claimed that
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: he didn't know how badly Carrie was abusing the children,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: because he spent most of his time at work and
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the worst of the abuse took place while he was
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: out of the house. Carrie claimed that, with their patriarchal
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: misogynistic values, Larry was the one who was calling the shots,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: while she just did his bidding. How convenient. The evidence
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: was damning, and Larry and Carrie's lack of ownership for
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: their actions turned the jury further against them. It didn't
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: take the jury long to reach a verdict. Carrie Williams,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: because of her more severe abuse of Hannah and the
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: fact that her actions had ultimately led to the girl's death,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: was handed the more severe sentence of 36 years in
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: prison for first-degree assault of a child as well as
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: causing homicide by abuse. Larry Williams received a 27-year sentence
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and was convicted of first-degree assault of a child and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: first-degree manslaughter. They were also both charged with assaulting Emanuel,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: who bravely testified against them. Because of his traumatized mental
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: state and difficulties communicating, Emanuel had to testify in front
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: of the court in short stints. He did his best
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to convey his story in sign language while three different
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: interpreters worked to translate for the jury. While Emanuel struggled
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: through his testimony, several of the members of the gallery
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: burst into tears. The sight of a 12-year-old boy in
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: such distress, looking much younger than his real age, was heartbreaking.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: During his testimony, Emanuel signed that he wasn't sure exactly
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: what had happened to Hannah. He signed, quote, With the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: trial finally over and Carrie and Larry behind bars, Emanuel
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: was fostered by an African-American woman who was also hearing impaired.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Members of the public who were invested in the trial
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: celebrated publicly condemning the Williamses on social media and calling
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: for changes to the adoption system to prevent such a
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: tragedy from happening again. Meanwhile, the community center from Hannah's
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: original home in Ethiopia tried to erect a headstone in
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the girl's memory, but instead, the extended Williams family paid
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: to have their own memorial headstone installed. What could have
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: been a remorseful gesture was actually one more insult to
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Hannah's memory. The birth date that was placed on this
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: gravestone was three years earlier than Hannah's actual birthday, fitting
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: with Carrie and Larry's insistence that Hannah was actually a
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: rebellious teenager, and not an abused and traumatized child. With
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the headstone, the Williams family took control of Hannah one
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: final time, making their entire extended family monsters just like
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Larry and Carrie are. If you're the victim of domestic abuse,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: please reach out to someone for help. Please talk to
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: your local shelter or call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. Or you can go to thehotline.org
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: to chat with someone online. This website is set up
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: so that, at any time, hitting the escape key twice
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: will take you to a Google search page. That way,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: if your abuser is nearby, you won't get caught seeking help.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: If you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: or even just need someone to talk to, please contact
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: your local mental health facility. Call 911 or call the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing 988 in the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: United States. They're available 24 hours a day, 7 days
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a week, and will talk to you about any mental
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: health issue you may be facing. If you are a
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: or are in need of any support, please contact the
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564 or go to lgbthotline.org. Thanks again,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: and be safe.