Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / CHILDREN'S BOOK AUTHOR ACCUSED OF HORRIFIC CHILD ABUSE

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CHILDREN'S BOOK AUTHOR ACCUSED OF HORRIFIC CHILD ABUSE · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: Kidney failure, liver failure, sepsis, pneumonia in both lungs, malnutrition,
0:18
Speaker 1: open wounds on the body. It sounds terrible, and it
0:27
Speaker 1: is terrible, But who would imagine all of these horrific
0:33
Speaker 1: afflictions befall a little eight year old girl? A little
0:40
Speaker 1: girl who lives along with a brother and a sister
0:44
Speaker 1: with their adopted mommy and daddy. And as it turns out,
0:49
Speaker 1: mommy is a famous author of children's books. Kidney failure,
1:05
Speaker 1: liver failure, sepsis, pneumonia in both lungs, malnutrition, and open
1:12
Speaker 1: wounds to a little girl's legs. How does this befall
1:19
Speaker 1: little children? Joining me an all star panel to make
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Speaker 1: sense of it all? If we can, first of all,
1:25
Speaker 1: a renowned defense attorney, Atlanta trial lawyer Randy Kessler, Professor
1:31
Speaker 1: Emory Law School, past cheer in the ABA, author of Divorce,
1:35
Speaker 1: Protect Yourselves, Your Kids, Your Future. And you can find
1:40
Speaker 1: Randy Kessler at KS Family Law dot com and on
1:44
Speaker 1: Instagram at Arkessler twenty three. Karen start joining US psychologist
1:50
Speaker 1: out of Manhattan at Karen Stark dot com. Former cop
1:54
Speaker 1: now private investigator, started his own PI firm, Crispin Special
1:59
Speaker 1: Investigations and you can find him at Crispin Investigations dot com.
2:04
Speaker 1: Special guests joining us from child Help National Child Abuse
2:08
Speaker 1: Hotline as well Daphne Young and you can find her
2:12
Speaker 1: at Childhelp dot org. Fornown Pathologists joining us Doctor Michelle Dupree,
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Speaker 1: forensic pathologist and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide and
2:24
Speaker 1: a porter for Today Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide. Alexis
2:29
Speaker 1: terrest Shut to you, first investigative reporter with Crime Online
2:32
Speaker 1: dot com and Lead Stories dot com. Alexis, tell me
2:38
Speaker 1: about the injuries to this little child. What are they? Oh?
2:41
Speaker 1: My goodness, this little girl was taken to the hospital.
2:44
Speaker 1: She had open wounds on her legs. So that means
2:49
Speaker 1: not just you know, scrape when you fall down, he
2:52
Speaker 1: fall off your bike, called your roller seats, but open
2:54
Speaker 1: bleeding wounds that we had not been taken care of.
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Speaker 1: She had a sexist She had pneumonia in both lungs
3:01
Speaker 1: and multiple bruises. In fact, on her neck and on
3:04
Speaker 1: her back there were red marks as if she had
3:06
Speaker 1: been tied up. You know, I'm trying to take in
3:09
Speaker 1: all the ailments to this little girl, all the suffering
3:13
Speaker 1: she was going through. To you, Randy Kessler or Atlanta
3:18
Speaker 1: trial lawyer. Isn't it true that if a teacher notices
3:25
Speaker 1: anything wrong with the child, like bruises or a lot
3:28
Speaker 1: of cuts, or anything to suggest a child has been abused,
3:32
Speaker 1: they have to report it under the law. Yes, they're
3:34
Speaker 1: what we call mandated reporter therapists, physicians, teachers. If you
3:39
Speaker 1: notice something that leads you to think that the child
3:42
Speaker 1: has been abused, it's your job to report it to
3:45
Speaker 1: the authorities. And so this is sort of the whole
3:48
Speaker 1: world upside down that she got reported on instead of
3:51
Speaker 1: being one reported Just incredible. You know what, it reminds
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Speaker 1: me of, Randy. A case I tried not too far
3:58
Speaker 1: from your office in the Folding County Superior Courthouse and
4:03
Speaker 1: the defendants name was Walter Gates, and he at the
4:07
Speaker 1: time owned nearly all the horse drawn carriage and livery
4:13
Speaker 1: trade in the city of Atlanta, bottom line, rolling in money.
4:20
Speaker 1: And he was charged with molesting two little girls aged
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Speaker 1: three and five. I can still remember them so well,
4:30
Speaker 1: just beautiful. Randy, and I got to investigating him, and
4:35
Speaker 1: you know how I love similar transactions. I found out
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Speaker 1: mister Walter Gates's oldest daughter, who I later tracked down.
4:45
Speaker 1: Took me a long time. She was living in a
4:48
Speaker 1: flop house out into Cab County. I found her sitting
4:51
Speaker 1: in a bedroom in her slip, smelling like booze, not
4:58
Speaker 1: her breath, her skin, and the room smelled like cigarettes,
5:02
Speaker 1: old cigarettes. There was a reason for that. Back when
5:06
Speaker 1: she was in the seventh grade. I found a school
5:11
Speaker 1: detective had filled out a report that this little girl
5:16
Speaker 1: thirteen at the time, had come to school with a
5:20
Speaker 1: black eye and a busted open limp. And she said,
5:25
Speaker 1: her father, Walter Gates, did it. You know how many
5:29
Speaker 1: little girls I found out he molested. That's the case.
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Speaker 1: I got held in contempt for that case right there,
5:36
Speaker 1: and all of you and your ill defense attorneys all
5:40
Speaker 1: piled into the courtroom. I don't know. It's just like
5:42
Speaker 1: amazing how they found out so quickly to see me
5:45
Speaker 1: get fingerprinted. Well, what I'm saying is an open wound,
5:52
Speaker 1: and the teacher told a school detective. But guess what,
5:57
Speaker 1: nothing was done. Sound it's like same thing in this case,
6:01
Speaker 1: Randy Kesley. It does. And the worst thing that happened
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Speaker 1: to him, and the best thing to that victim, is
6:05
Speaker 1: that you were assigned to prosecute that can't Nancy. But
6:07
Speaker 1: you know, even worse is that pos is behind bars
6:11
Speaker 1: and let me just tell you that's a technical legal term.
6:14
Speaker 1: Go ahead. And even worse, these parents are adoptive parents.
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Speaker 1: I mean, there's something special we think. Adoptive parents in
6:22
Speaker 1: my world are very special human beings that take in
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Speaker 1: children that don't have a family. To that, I mean,
6:29
Speaker 1: talk about adding insult to injury. It's just unbelievable. The
6:32
Speaker 1: set of facts is I can't comprehend it. But you
6:35
Speaker 1: know what I think. I'm remembering a very critical fact
6:38
Speaker 1: to Alexis Dress Chuck. They weren't reported by school teacher
6:43
Speaker 1: because weren't they homeschooled? Exactly, These three children, all under
6:48
Speaker 1: the age of twelve, are homeschooled. And here's the thing.
6:51
Speaker 1: She was also an elementary school teacher. So of course, wait,
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Speaker 1: I know that the mom is a very well known
6:59
Speaker 1: author of children's books. The big hit for her was
7:02
Speaker 1: called quote a Real Friend by Jennifer Wolfall that is
7:09
Speaker 1: mommy's name. They adopt three children. I'm looking at their home.
7:13
Speaker 1: It looks like, you know, a ranch house. They've got
7:17
Speaker 1: an enclosed backyard, a lot of nice grass, it's landscaped.
7:22
Speaker 1: It looks great. You know what you can treeline neighborhood.
7:26
Speaker 1: What you know? You know what you cannot see in
7:28
Speaker 1: that picture that the police said was a terrifying detail.
7:32
Speaker 1: Inside that house, the children were their bedroom. The handles
7:36
Speaker 1: on the door were reversed, and the lock was outside
7:40
Speaker 1: so the parents could lock them inside this house. That's
7:42
Speaker 1: what you don't see in this house of horrors from
7:44
Speaker 1: the outside. You know, Alexister has Chuck. Do you remember
7:48
Speaker 1: how much I wanted the twins? Yes? And there were
7:52
Speaker 1: a lot of close calls. Can you even imagine someone
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Speaker 1: treating these children this way? No, they adopt, did them too?
8:00
Speaker 1: Even extra extra steps to take care of and love children.
8:04
Speaker 1: And these kids were actually telling the people, we don't
8:08
Speaker 1: want to go back there, we don't want to be there.
8:10
Speaker 1: No one was helping them. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
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Speaker 1: we are talking about a little girl that shows up
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Speaker 1: at the hospital with kidney failure, liver failure, pneumonia in
8:30
Speaker 1: both lungs, open wounds, septs US which I'm going to
8:35
Speaker 1: get doctor Michelle Dupree to describe what that is. How
8:39
Speaker 1: does this all befall little children eight nine and eleven
8:43
Speaker 1: years old take a listen to our friend Jackie Howard
8:47
Speaker 1: at crime online dot com. Growing up in Florida, the
8:51
Speaker 1: now forty one year old woman loved playing teacher. She
8:54
Speaker 1: says she would line up her stuffed animals for students
8:57
Speaker 1: in a class. As an adult, she followed at early trend,
9:01
Speaker 1: graduating from the University of Central Florida with a BA
9:04
Speaker 1: in elementary education and for eight years taught fourth grade
9:08
Speaker 1: in public school. She met and married Joseph Wolfthall. While
9:13
Speaker 1: Jennifer Wolfthall taught school, her now thirty nine year old
9:16
Speaker 1: husband worked as a software analyst head lockeed Martin. In
9:19
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, the couple adopted three children, and the schoolteacher
9:23
Speaker 1: became an author. Jennifer Wolfthall published a children's book entitled
9:27
Speaker 1: A Real Friend. The picture book, intended for ages four
9:31
Speaker 1: and up, is about best friends who get into a
9:33
Speaker 1: fight and how they patch up their quarrel. You know,
9:36
Speaker 1: it's amazing to me. Karen Start, a New York psychologist
9:40
Speaker 1: you can find here at Karenstark dot com. Karen how
9:44
Speaker 1: someone doesn't just get pregnant and have children. It's no accident.
9:48
Speaker 1: They go through so much to adopt these three. She
9:53
Speaker 1: Jennifer Wolfall and the husband Joseph. They go through all
9:56
Speaker 1: that to have these children. Then they turn up at
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Speaker 1: the hospital and in this advanced state of illness, kidney failure,
10:05
Speaker 1: liver failure, Hold on dogor Michelle Dupree. What is exactly
10:10
Speaker 1: kidney failure and liver failure and sepsis? What are those
10:14
Speaker 1: three things? Don't you have a long time lead up
10:20
Speaker 1: to that? Can't you tell something is wrong? Nancy? Yes, exactly.
10:26
Speaker 1: Sepsis actually is a form of blood poisoning or an
10:30
Speaker 1: infection that has gone awry in the body that gets
10:33
Speaker 1: into the bloodstream and basically goes to every organ in
10:37
Speaker 1: the body, including the brain, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys,
10:40
Speaker 1: everything that is supplied by blood. Sepsis can actually be
10:45
Speaker 1: fatal or lethal within twelve hours if it's severe enough.
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Speaker 1: So that's a very serious complication. Renal failure again, the
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Speaker 1: kidneys shut down. They do not then process the waste
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Speaker 1: and the tieuxins in the body, allowing them to build up.
11:03
Speaker 1: Liver failure, the same thing, the liver doesn't work anymore.
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Speaker 1: All of these things can actually be caused by malnutrition,
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Speaker 1: which we know that this child suffered. How can you
11:15
Speaker 1: look at a child until it's malnutrition? I mean other
11:19
Speaker 1: than obviously we would know that child was thin. But
11:21
Speaker 1: other than that, there are a lot of substancy. One
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Speaker 1: of course, is muscle wasting because the body begins to
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Speaker 1: eat the muscle to have something to survive on. Sunken eyes,
11:32
Speaker 1: retractions in the long or the rib area, and in
11:36
Speaker 1: the neck area as well. The skin becomes very we
11:40
Speaker 1: call it turbid, which is a very sort of pasty
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Speaker 1: look and very dehydrated. Guys, what happened to these three children?
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Speaker 1: And she's eight, nine and eleven. Renal failure, liver failure, sepsis, malnutrition,
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Speaker 1: open wounds. Take a listen to our cut one. This
11:58
Speaker 1: is Amanda A w sh Twosh. Forty one year old
12:03
Speaker 1: Jennifer Wafffall of Castleberry was arrested New Year's Day on
12:08
Speaker 1: charges of aggravated child abuse and neglect after investigators say
12:12
Speaker 1: a child in her care was hospitalized in critical condition.
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Speaker 1: According to the arrest, Affidavid, an eight year old girl
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Speaker 1: was brought to the hospital with a variety of injuries.
12:22
Speaker 1: Seminole County Sheriff's deputies interviewed a relative who told them
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Speaker 1: Waffthall had claimed the child's injuries came from a series
12:30
Speaker 1: of accidents and falls, but the arrest Affidavid says investigators
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Speaker 1: determined the girls bruises and severe cuts were not from injuries.
12:39
Speaker 1: They found a girl to be critically ill and took
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Speaker 1: her to the pediatric intensive care unit at advent Health Accidents.
12:48
Speaker 1: They found the girl was critically ill, but the mom
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Speaker 1: says the bruises and severe cuts were just from accidents
12:57
Speaker 1: and falls. As a matter of take a listen to
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Speaker 1: our cut forward. Dave McDaniel wished to. Forty one year
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Speaker 1: old Jennifer wolf Fall was back in front of a
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Speaker 1: judge at the Summer County Jail Wednesday afternoon, exactly where
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Speaker 1: the children's book author was a few weeks ago. She
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Speaker 1: now has new charge as a false imprisonment. Early January,
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Speaker 1: her rest came after an eight year old allegedly in
13:19
Speaker 1: her care needed to be hospitalized with severe injuries. Injuries
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Speaker 1: wolf Fall said came from slips and falls, an explanation
13:26
Speaker 1: medical staff didn't believe slips and falls. An eight year
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Speaker 1: old slips and falls and gets kidney failure. You know
13:36
Speaker 1: the dichotomy, Randy Kessler, I guess you see it. In
13:39
Speaker 1: court all the time, the public image that someone gives
13:44
Speaker 1: off compared to what's really going on with them. Here,
13:49
Speaker 1: you've actually got a children's author, an elementary school teacher
13:54
Speaker 1: who was clearly beating her children and starving them. But
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Speaker 1: no one would know that. Nobody at the schools, nobody
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Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, obviously, not her publisher or people that
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Speaker 1: buy her books. Incredible, even a degree in elementary education.
14:09
Speaker 1: It's you know, we always hear when you interview the
14:11
Speaker 1: neighbors of the defendants and Parch they always say, oh,
14:15
Speaker 1: he was the nicest guy. They would never have done that,
14:18
Speaker 1: over and over and over. You know, when you're a
14:21
Speaker 1: lawyer like I am, you see behind closed doors people
14:23
Speaker 1: walk in, they look normal, then they start to tell
14:25
Speaker 1: you the facts of their situation. It's incredible. It makes
14:28
Speaker 1: me jaded. I walk around the world sometimes and I
14:30
Speaker 1: look at people and I think I want to do
14:32
Speaker 1: what they're really like, because it is just unbelievable what
14:35
Speaker 1: is behind the facade of so many people. It's a
14:38
Speaker 1: sad thing. It's hard. Have you ever felt that same way.
14:42
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin, former law enforcement now with his own PI firm,
14:46
Speaker 1: Crispin Special investigations. After all, we see all you see.
14:51
Speaker 1: Do you ever have a hard time excepting that anybody's
14:54
Speaker 1: really as they present. Absolutely, it's tough. You know, you're
14:59
Speaker 1: trying to compartmental lives these and put them behind you.
15:01
Speaker 1: But when you work these cases, and I've worked a
15:04
Speaker 1: lot of these cases. I worked a lot of crimes
15:05
Speaker 1: against children in my day, you know, it's tough. And
15:09
Speaker 1: like your last guests just said, you walk around and
15:11
Speaker 1: you kind of look at people and you wonder what's
15:14
Speaker 1: going on behind closed doors. But you know what, that's
15:16
Speaker 1: what we signed up for. That's what we did, and
15:18
Speaker 1: we helped a lot of people. But yeah, it absolutely
15:20
Speaker 1: does change your thought process and you try to compartment
15:23
Speaker 1: a loize it, but it's tough sometimes, guys. I want
15:25
Speaker 1: you to take a list of our cut nine. Dave McDaniel,
15:28
Speaker 1: that wish too, and Meredith McDonald Jennifer wolfall told authorities
15:31
Speaker 1: the injuries to the child were from a series of
15:33
Speaker 1: falls and mishaps, but medical experts didn't agree. We're told
15:38
Speaker 1: that eight year old is still in the hospital and
15:40
Speaker 1: the other children, ages nine and eleven, after battling malnutrition
15:44
Speaker 1: and infections, are in protective care. The arrest report for
15:48
Speaker 1: Joseph Waffall indicates that the doorknobs on the children's bedrooms
15:52
Speaker 1: were installed with the locking mechanism on the outside of
15:55
Speaker 1: the room backwards, and that papers found at the home
15:59
Speaker 1: included some one writing my body stays flat on the
16:02
Speaker 1: bed at all times, nand never given permission to move
16:06
Speaker 1: or say anything. The Sheriff's office isn't commenting at this time,
16:10
Speaker 1: saying the report speak for themselves, and the reported investigators
16:13
Speaker 1: indicate they don't want to have Joseph Wilfall have any
16:15
Speaker 1: contact with Jennifer Willfall if he's released from jail, or
16:18
Speaker 1: any contact with the three children. He's quoted as saying,
16:22
Speaker 1: can I call my attorney? So that's what he's got
16:25
Speaker 1: to say. The dad, Can I call my lawyer? Not
16:27
Speaker 1: how are my children? How's my daughter in intensive care?
16:30
Speaker 1: But can I call my lawyer? One child in intensive care,
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Speaker 1: the other two starving, the one in intensive care, kidney
16:39
Speaker 1: liver failure, SEPs his staff infection, open infected wounds on
16:43
Speaker 1: both legs, pneumonia in both lungs, a long list of ailments, malnutritions, bruises,
16:50
Speaker 1: skin infections that require weeks and weeks of treatment. Crime
17:05
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys were talking about a renowned
17:11
Speaker 1: book author who writes children's books. Her name Jennifer Walthall
17:17
Speaker 1: and her husband Joseph Walthall. Straight to you, Alexis Terescha,
17:20
Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, What can you tell
17:23
Speaker 1: me about a device called the quote whacker? So the
17:27
Speaker 1: children have told the police that they were abused. They
17:30
Speaker 1: were beaten with something called the whacker, and it's described
17:33
Speaker 1: as like an oblong object, a wooden object that was
17:36
Speaker 1: covered with a thin piece of material and they were
17:38
Speaker 1: just hit over and over and over again in the
17:41
Speaker 1: exact same spot, which is how there were open wounds
17:45
Speaker 1: that we cause them to bleed. And this is what
17:47
Speaker 1: these children were beaten with. My understanding that when finally interviewed,
17:52
Speaker 1: the other two siblings stated that they would have cold
17:56
Speaker 1: water poured over them while they lay in big as punishment.
18:01
Speaker 1: Every night. They said this would happen they were in
18:04
Speaker 1: summer trouble, that the parents would come in and they
18:06
Speaker 1: would throw the cold water when they had no blankets.
18:08
Speaker 1: They were not allowed to get up and clean up
18:11
Speaker 1: or do anything like this. These kids were tortured and
18:15
Speaker 1: the mom told them that the children told the investigators
18:19
Speaker 1: that what they were told is that they were sinners.
18:22
Speaker 1: They kept spinning and that's why they had to be punished.
18:24
Speaker 1: Joining you right now, the National chief communications Officer with
18:27
Speaker 1: Childhelp dot Org our friend Daphne Young. Daphne, you know,
18:33
Speaker 1: sometimes I agree with Robert Crispin and Randy Kessler. It's
18:39
Speaker 1: hard to look at the world and see good when
18:42
Speaker 1: you find out about people like Jennifer Walthall and Joseph Walthall.
18:46
Speaker 1: Another thing I found out, Daphne, as the children were
18:50
Speaker 1: so afraid to leave their rooms at night, they would
18:52
Speaker 1: be forced to wet the bed or urinate in their
18:57
Speaker 1: own clothing and would be forced to sleep in it
18:59
Speaker 1: all through the next day that have to wear it.
19:02
Speaker 1: This is so upsetting because the viciousness and the premeditation
19:07
Speaker 1: of so much of this abuse is It's familiar to
19:11
Speaker 1: me in many ways, but oftentimes the parents that do
19:13
Speaker 1: this deep personalize their children right. They look at them
19:16
Speaker 1: as things that they can act upon. And one shocking
19:20
Speaker 1: window into this woman's psyche comes from reading a real
19:24
Speaker 1: best friend. I reviewed her book. I looked through it
19:27
Speaker 1: and little kids get in a fight one goes away,
19:30
Speaker 1: another builds a robot version of that kid, and it
19:34
Speaker 1: doesn't bring him joy because that thing doesn't respond. So
19:38
Speaker 1: she understood depersonalizing a child, turning a child into a thing,
19:42
Speaker 1: and that a real child is a joy. And so
19:45
Speaker 1: the fact that she literally wrote the Book of Right
19:48
Speaker 1: and Wrong on depersonalization is a disturbing look at a
19:52
Speaker 1: certain kind of person living a double life. Here you
19:55
Speaker 1: see me on Twitter, and I've got butterflies and flowers
19:59
Speaker 1: in my hair, and here I am behind the door.
20:01
Speaker 1: And that face of the mugshot is probably what those
20:04
Speaker 1: kids saw over their beds. I'm looking at the photo
20:07
Speaker 1: you're talking about. It was a bio posted on Amazon
20:11
Speaker 1: dot com that Walthall had a degree in elementary ed
20:15
Speaker 1: and spent eight years teaching the fourth grade. And she's
20:18
Speaker 1: pictured in a pale, pinkish purple outfit kind of lavender,
20:22
Speaker 1: and all around her are Azalia's purple bright Fucia looking
20:28
Speaker 1: Azalias and she's wearing one in her hair, and she
20:32
Speaker 1: looks like the penultimate earth mother. And you think she'd
20:35
Speaker 1: be a great mom as a child's author. Do you
20:41
Speaker 1: remember other cases to Daphne Young with Childhelp dot org
20:49
Speaker 1: where the children suffered prolonged abuse that resulted in pneumonia
20:56
Speaker 1: in both lungs, were basically waterboarded in their beds at
21:00
Speaker 1: night with cold water to the point they had kidney
21:03
Speaker 1: and liver failure. I don't remember a case with those specifics,
21:08
Speaker 1: but I do remember a lot of cases where you
21:11
Speaker 1: had a parent that showed one face to the world,
21:14
Speaker 1: an educator or somebody that looked like a kind person
21:17
Speaker 1: teaching CPR in the community. And we got a little
21:20
Speaker 1: boy exactly as your medical examiner described that or your
21:23
Speaker 1: doctor described that was so malnourished, his hair was falling out,
21:27
Speaker 1: his belly was distended, and he was close to death,
21:30
Speaker 1: and all those organs were shutting down. So we have
21:33
Speaker 1: seen that right in our Child Health Children's Center. And
21:35
Speaker 1: if we didn't have a doctor who had been doing
21:37
Speaker 1: this for twenty three years, immediately take that child to
21:40
Speaker 1: the hospital, he would have died within forty eight hours.
21:44
Speaker 1: That's how close this little girl was likely to death.
21:46
Speaker 1: Oh should take a listen to our cut eight. This
21:49
Speaker 1: is Jeff lef colluc At WFT Joseph Wolffall. He has
21:55
Speaker 1: posted bond, but he has not walked out of the
21:57
Speaker 1: jail at this time. I'm told that the abuse described
22:00
Speaker 1: in the arrest report just scratches the surface of what
22:03
Speaker 1: happened to the children inside that home. It's not known
22:06
Speaker 1: how long the alleged abuse was going on. Are you
22:10
Speaker 1: aware of yes, And those charges Joseph Wolfhall faces are
22:16
Speaker 1: aggravated child abuse, child neglect with great bodily harm, and
22:20
Speaker 1: false imprisonment of his three adopted children. His wife, Jennifer,
22:24
Speaker 1: the author of children's books, is also accused of abuse.
22:28
Speaker 1: Two of the children told investigators that they were punished
22:31
Speaker 1: every night because they couldn't stop sinning. They would spank
22:34
Speaker 1: the children, utilizing a specific item called a whacker, drawing
22:38
Speaker 1: blood by hitting the same spot each time. The food
22:42
Speaker 1: was a mixture of brand flake, cereal, water, and vegetable puree.
22:46
Speaker 1: One of the children told investigators there were days she
22:49
Speaker 1: was fed twice and sometimes she didn't eat her first
22:52
Speaker 1: meal until three o'clock in the afternoon. She also described
22:56
Speaker 1: being locked in her room for weeks and months. She
22:59
Speaker 1: spent the entire our day writing sentences at the desk
23:02
Speaker 1: in her room. That just hurts me so much to
23:05
Speaker 1: hear it. So I guess alexis terreschut climb online dot com.
23:10
Speaker 1: She or her siblings were the ones writing I have
23:13
Speaker 1: to stay flat on my bed. I can't speak without
23:16
Speaker 1: permission to remember all those pages and pages of handwriting
23:20
Speaker 1: and all said the same thing, yes, And this was
23:22
Speaker 1: their form of punishment. The mom would the parents would
23:26
Speaker 1: make them write out with thousands of sentences the same
23:29
Speaker 1: one over and over again as part of their punishment.
23:31
Speaker 1: On top of their punishments that were they were this
23:35
Speaker 1: is the strangest thing. They were forced to do squats.
23:38
Speaker 1: And this is you know where you're standing, and you
23:40
Speaker 1: just bend your legs benjurnees down and you don't hit
23:44
Speaker 1: the ground, you don't sit on a chair anything. You
23:46
Speaker 1: didn't up and down over and over and over again.
23:48
Speaker 1: This is the torture that these children were subjected to,
23:51
Speaker 1: forced to do squats as exercise. You know, I'm looking
23:55
Speaker 1: at additional evidence. Apparently, according to all three children who
23:59
Speaker 1: are questions separately, they had not taken baths in months,
24:04
Speaker 1: and they would be denied bandages for the open wounds
24:09
Speaker 1: caused by the quote whacker a device. I guess the
24:14
Speaker 1: parents made up to spank the children, drawing blood by
24:17
Speaker 1: hitting the same spot every time. Doctor Michelle Duprey, do
24:23
Speaker 1: you think that is how the child got sepsis absolutely, Nancy,
24:28
Speaker 1: It certainly could be. Not taking a bath for months
24:31
Speaker 1: is going to allow bacteria to build up on your skin.
24:34
Speaker 1: It's going to enter the body through the nose, the mouth,
24:36
Speaker 1: the eyes. Absolutely, that could cause the beginning of spisode
24:40
Speaker 1: trying to understand what this quote whacker would be to
24:45
Speaker 1: Daphne Young with childhelp dot Org would it was specifically
24:50
Speaker 1: designed to hit the child at the same spot to
24:54
Speaker 1: ultimately draw blood over and over again, and then they'd
24:58
Speaker 1: be doused with the water and then these giant fans,
25:00
Speaker 1: which probably made them freeze as they lay on plastic
25:04
Speaker 1: covers with no blankets, a plastic cover over the mattresses.
25:09
Speaker 1: And I remember the little girl saying that she counted
25:13
Speaker 1: days and weeks, just trying to get her head straight
25:16
Speaker 1: as to what day of the week it was, what
25:18
Speaker 1: month it was. This is like a prisoner would do
25:21
Speaker 1: on the side of a prison wall, trying to remember
25:24
Speaker 1: where am I, what day of the week is, So
25:26
Speaker 1: you know, she was trapped in that room in pain,
25:30
Speaker 1: but also just trying to maintain some sanity. A whacker
25:34
Speaker 1: device you know Randy Kessler, Atlanta trial lawyer, that device
25:40
Speaker 1: shows clear intent not to discipline, but to torture the children.
25:47
Speaker 1: Intence not really going to be hard to prove and
25:49
Speaker 1: reckless disregard the bottom minded. These people can't go before
25:53
Speaker 1: a jury, right, can you imagine any jury giving him
25:56
Speaker 1: anything but the harshest penalty charge with harsh is trying
26:01
Speaker 1: to charge with the intent. You know, you're right, and
26:05
Speaker 1: especially they can't claim maybe they can't claim they didn't know,
26:08
Speaker 1: they didn't understand that there was just a mistake. I mean,
26:11
Speaker 1: considering the combination of what they did and who they are,
26:15
Speaker 1: you know, the fact that they have she has a
26:17
Speaker 1: degree in education, she teaches, she writes children's books. Oh
26:21
Speaker 1: my god, there is obvious intent all over the place.
26:24
Speaker 1: It's um, I'm almost prosed. It's not an insanity defense coming.
26:27
Speaker 1: But there's no way, right, there's no way. I don't
26:30
Speaker 1: think that they can both be declared in saying that's
26:32
Speaker 1: just a little bit too much of a coincidence and
26:35
Speaker 1: a very interesting thing. The husband in this case, Joseph Walthall,
26:39
Speaker 1: is an engineer. They're both highly highly educated. Crime stories
26:55
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace Guys a children's book author. Could she
27:02
Speaker 1: possibly be the marshal in charge of extended and repeated
27:08
Speaker 1: child abuse that lands the children in hospital? The littlest
27:12
Speaker 1: girl eight years old, kidney failure, liver failure, double pneumonia,
27:17
Speaker 1: and sepsis, open wounds, all three malnutrition, waterboarding in the home.
27:24
Speaker 1: They all three separately tell the same story, and it
27:27
Speaker 1: reminds me very much of a case that we just covered.
27:32
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut eleven. This is tiggert
27:36
Speaker 1: Huck at WYFF News four. Ariel Robinson sat down with
27:41
Speaker 1: the WYF News four in August after winning the Food
27:44
Speaker 1: Network show Worst Cooks in America. She told us then
27:47
Speaker 1: the winnings from the show would go a long way
27:49
Speaker 1: to help her and her husband, who recently adopted three
27:52
Speaker 1: more children. I just know that the Lord had his
27:57
Speaker 1: hands on me and he had a purpose for me
27:59
Speaker 1: to go on. The former middle school teacher was an
28:02
Speaker 1: aspiring comedian booked by Justin Williams to perform at a
28:05
Speaker 1: Pickens County barbecue event back in November. She was hilarious,
28:08
Speaker 1: She was super sweet to everybody around her, and she
28:10
Speaker 1: expressed a passion for working with children and working, you
28:16
Speaker 1: know with just the community in general. The reality star
28:19
Speaker 1: Ariel Robinson One Worst Cook in America got twenty five
28:24
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and bragged about her blended family and using
28:29
Speaker 1: the money to help raise her adopted children. Well, Tory
28:32
Speaker 1: Rose is dead. The three year old little girl was
28:35
Speaker 1: found covered in bruises and they actually tried to tell
28:39
Speaker 1: nine one one it's because she drank too much water
28:42
Speaker 1: and the bruises were from CPR. She's charged with martyr
28:47
Speaker 1: by child abuse and there she is a reality star
28:52
Speaker 1: on TV. Of course, the husband said he could hear
28:55
Speaker 1: the beatings and he finally told his wife, you've gone
28:58
Speaker 1: too far. Well, the child is dead, and according to
29:02
Speaker 1: Facebook photos of the little girl that they posted, she
29:05
Speaker 1: had been covered with bruises many times before. She's not
29:09
Speaker 1: the only one where what you see as not what
29:12
Speaker 1: you're getting. Take a listen to our cut fourteen Jessica
29:15
Speaker 1: Stone acgt and knees so she'll say. When they entered
29:19
Speaker 1: the Turpin home, they found a modern day horror foul smell,
29:23
Speaker 1: extremely dirty conditions and they say it was immediately clear
29:26
Speaker 1: that the siblings were malnourished. Authorities say they found three
29:30
Speaker 1: of the children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks,
29:34
Speaker 1: kept in dark and unclean conditions inside this Riverside County,
29:37
Speaker 1: California home, Deputies located twelve children inside the house as
29:42
Speaker 1: young as two years old. While the family kept this
29:45
Speaker 1: active Facebook page, which appears to show a happy group trips, vacations,
29:50
Speaker 1: smiling faces. Authorities discovered that seven of the children pictured
29:54
Speaker 1: appeared so malnourished that they did look like children. They
29:57
Speaker 1: were actually adults. The old it's just twenty nine years old.
30:01
Speaker 1: Those children's chained to their beds. But if you look
30:04
Speaker 1: at their Facebook, they're all dressed in matching red Disney shirts.
30:09
Speaker 1: The you know thing number one, thing number two. They
30:14
Speaker 1: had all matching outfits on various trips. They were all
30:19
Speaker 1: there at a revival of the vows ceremony with the parents.
30:24
Speaker 1: I mean, it goes on and on. Who would have
30:26
Speaker 1: ever thought these children were being so horribly treated. One
30:32
Speaker 1: finally escaped, called out a window and called nine one
30:36
Speaker 1: one to save her sister's horrible, horrible conditions. Inside one
30:42
Speaker 1: of the closets and the Turpin home, there were scratches
30:46
Speaker 1: on the wall where the children had tried to get out.
30:49
Speaker 1: Straight back to Daphne Young with Childhelp dot Org one
30:53
Speaker 1: of our favorite organizations. I know you remember the Turpin
30:58
Speaker 1: case in the House of Horrors, absolutely, and a lot
31:02
Speaker 1: of the kids fit to you know, while we have
31:04
Speaker 1: to protect the anonymity of all of our children, a
31:07
Speaker 1: lot of the kids that we see in these headlines
31:09
Speaker 1: come through child health. And it's horrible enough to deal
31:14
Speaker 1: with the child abuse that comes from drug addicts, the
31:16
Speaker 1: child abuse that comes from mental health cases, the child
31:19
Speaker 1: abuse that comes from people that are you know, completely
31:22
Speaker 1: sort of out of it in terms of finances and otherwise.
31:26
Speaker 1: But the scariest ones, the ones that I'm still trying
31:28
Speaker 1: to figure out, how do we detect these folks are
31:32
Speaker 1: those that have this great facade, those that have good educations,
31:36
Speaker 1: those that have resources, They live among us. These are
31:41
Speaker 1: people that are our neighbors and people that we interact
31:44
Speaker 1: with potentially and don't recognize. And those are the scariest abusers,
31:49
Speaker 1: and they create houses of horrors and the children. It
31:54
Speaker 1: takes years for these kids to recover and be put
31:58
Speaker 1: on a path of hope and healing abizas you would
32:00
Speaker 1: never expect. Take a listen to our friends over at
32:05
Speaker 1: the New York Times, hundreds of women say Larry Nasa
32:08
Speaker 1: has sexually abused them. It's one of the worst sexual
32:11
Speaker 1: abuse scandals in the history of sports, and it went
32:14
Speaker 1: on for more than two decades. NASA's patients felt honored
32:18
Speaker 1: to be treated by the best of the best. NASA
32:21
Speaker 1: typically carried out his abuse under the guise of a
32:23
Speaker 1: medical treatment. He hijacked a rare pelvic therapy that involves
32:27
Speaker 1: vaginal penetration and used it to treat all sorts of ailments.
32:32
Speaker 1: He ignored protocols such as using a glove, asking consent,
32:35
Speaker 1: or having a medical chaperone present. And when I was
32:39
Speaker 1: fourteen years old, I tore my hamstring in my right leg.
32:42
Speaker 1: This was when he started performing the procedure that we're
32:44
Speaker 1: all now familiar with. The next visit was from my shoulder,
32:48
Speaker 1: which I then found out my hips for red alignment,
32:52
Speaker 1: which then made my spine in my pelvic phone out
32:54
Speaker 1: of alignment as well. And this is when Larry decided
32:58
Speaker 1: that it was medically sceptable to violate a sixteen year
33:02
Speaker 1: old girl. So from a well respected couple in the
33:07
Speaker 1: community that had a house of horrors going on homeskilling
33:12
Speaker 1: their children in order to abuse them to now a
33:18
Speaker 1: well known book author to an Olympic coach abusing dozens
33:25
Speaker 1: of young girls with me, Dafty Young with the childhelp
33:29
Speaker 1: dot org organization, Daphne, you have actually worked with some
33:34
Speaker 1: of Nasser's victims. Absolutely. Olympic consultants Foundation for Global Sports
33:40
Speaker 1: connected us with some of these brave what they call themselves,
33:43
Speaker 1: sister survivors. And when we talked a little bit earlier
33:47
Speaker 1: with law enforcement and others about being jaded, this is
33:50
Speaker 1: the piece of childhelp that's kept me here well over
33:53
Speaker 1: eleven twelve years, which is these women are working with
33:57
Speaker 1: us and CHILDHOLP Speak Up, Be Safe for apple Leads
34:00
Speaker 1: and a courage First hotline that is both a prevention
34:04
Speaker 1: education for youth sports, which we've reached well over one
34:07
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty thousand children in families and a hotline
34:11
Speaker 1: for youth athletes. So these gals are using very difficult
34:15
Speaker 1: experiences to create safety nets for kids and youth sports.
34:20
Speaker 1: And so that's the kind of stuff that allows us
34:22
Speaker 1: to keep doing this work because for every awful family
34:26
Speaker 1: like the ones we're discussing today, and for every creep
34:30
Speaker 1: like Nasser who hurts these kids, they're amazing women and
34:33
Speaker 1: survivors and young boys that come out of these circumstances
34:37
Speaker 1: and change lives and use their voice for good. You know,
34:40
Speaker 1: Alexa's terrestat crime online dot Commonist to get a reporter.
34:43
Speaker 1: We know a little bit about what these parents the
34:46
Speaker 1: wolf Fall said at the hospital. They didn't just blame
34:50
Speaker 1: it on slip and falls all the injuries. What else
34:53
Speaker 1: did they say? So when Joseph Wolfal took his daughter
34:55
Speaker 1: to the hospital, he told the doctors that were there
34:58
Speaker 1: because this child had such huge with obvious women, he
35:02
Speaker 1: said that she was hurt because she brushed her teeth
35:04
Speaker 1: too hard. Did you just say the excuse was she
35:07
Speaker 1: brushed her teeth too hard? Yep, she brushed her teeth
35:10
Speaker 1: too hard. That's the excuse that he tried to use.
35:13
Speaker 1: And he's also blaming his wife. It was also the whacker.
35:17
Speaker 1: Doctor Michelle Dupree, a forensic pathologist from her Medical Examiner,
35:21
Speaker 1: author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide and Investigating Child Abuse
35:26
Speaker 1: Field Guide. How do you perceive the so called whacker?
35:30
Speaker 1: And can you imagine the sense of dread these children
35:33
Speaker 1: felt when they saw the whacker pulled out? And see
35:35
Speaker 1: I've had a couple of cases like this and I've
35:37
Speaker 1: seen things such as the end of a broom handle
35:40
Speaker 1: or the broom handle itself, which can cause significant injury
35:45
Speaker 1: being used over and over and over again to cause this.
35:48
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin, I prosecuted a lot of child abuse child
35:52
Speaker 1: molestation cases, as have you in your investigations. What do
35:57
Speaker 1: you make of child witnesses? Are the best witnesses to
36:02
Speaker 1: law enforcement? They're the best witnesses to prosecutors. They're so innocent.
36:07
Speaker 1: They tell you things that they shouldn't know at their age.
36:10
Speaker 1: They're very specific. They're not old enough to learn how
36:14
Speaker 1: to manipulate law enforcement, to manipulate a prosecutor. I have
36:19
Speaker 1: found in interviewing so many child victims that you get
36:24
Speaker 1: goosebumps and shills when you sit there and listen to
36:26
Speaker 1: the details and the horror that this kid went through, Like,
36:30
Speaker 1: how do you know this at eleven years old? How
36:32
Speaker 1: do you know that at eight years old? The best
36:34
Speaker 1: witnesses ever? You know, we're talking about a child's book
36:40
Speaker 1: author Houser Books on Amazon dot com, very well established,
36:45
Speaker 1: a husband, very educated and engineer. So how do you
36:49
Speaker 1: take a child witness like Robert Christmas talking about and
36:53
Speaker 1: stacking them up against a defendant? What about a defendant
36:59
Speaker 1: that nobody would suspect? Take a Listen to Tiffany Taylor
37:04
Speaker 1: and Hollywood reporter Christina's tell All memoir that inspired the
37:08
Speaker 1: film of the same name, painted Joan Crawford is abusive
37:10
Speaker 1: and an alcoholic. While her adopted brother Christopher always supported
37:14
Speaker 1: her claims, their twin siblings Kathy and Sidney did not.
37:18
Speaker 1: According to the book, Joan often went on what Christina
37:20
Speaker 1: called night raids, where she would wake her up and
37:23
Speaker 1: make her clean messes she hadn't made for hours on end.
37:26
Speaker 1: Christina also said Joan hated wire hangers. She reportedly once
37:31
Speaker 1: woke her up in the middle of the night for
37:32
Speaker 1: using them. In a scene that's infamously depicted in the
37:35
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one movie, she is said to have dragged
37:38
Speaker 1: her daughter by the hair, yelling Noah wire hangers while
37:41
Speaker 1: beating her. Christina also claims she was once starved for
37:44
Speaker 1: days when she refused to eat an undercooked, bloody steak,
37:47
Speaker 1: all in a bid for her mother to further control her.
37:50
Speaker 1: According to the memoir, Joan allegedly kept Christopher constricted in
37:53
Speaker 1: bed in a sleep safe device and tied Christina up
37:56
Speaker 1: in the shower at night, and when Christina was thirteen
37:59
Speaker 1: years old, but she supposedly suffered one final brutal beating
38:02
Speaker 1: from her mother and which she thought she was going
38:04
Speaker 1: to be choked out. You know what is that, Daphne Young?
38:08
Speaker 1: Where the children are restricted, tied up. We hear it
38:11
Speaker 1: over and over again, like in this case where they're
38:14
Speaker 1: forced to lay flat on the bed in turpin. They
38:16
Speaker 1: were chained to the bed or put into a closet
38:20
Speaker 1: and locked in the constriction of the child. I find
38:25
Speaker 1: that to be a common thing. It's a complete lack
38:28
Speaker 1: of control in the parent. It starts off sometimes small,
38:32
Speaker 1: a little discipline. I'm going to put you in your room.
38:34
Speaker 1: You need to stay away from this or that, and
38:38
Speaker 1: becomes a torture chamber. Essentially, it's like the torturing of prisoners.
38:44
Speaker 1: And so much of this repetition and cruelty then becomes
38:48
Speaker 1: status quo. So every little breach of a boundary can
38:53
Speaker 1: open up a new boundary. That's why I say, you know,
38:57
Speaker 1: I don't even like people spanking children, because every breach
39:00
Speaker 1: of being a little out of control can make you
39:03
Speaker 1: much much further out of control, and then you know,
39:07
Speaker 1: not everybody, obviously is going to end up like this.
39:10
Speaker 1: But we see, you know, kids will tell us how
39:13
Speaker 1: it started and it seems so small and then it
39:15
Speaker 1: turns into something that is a true night Jrandy Kestler
39:19
Speaker 1: joining us at the Atlanta Jurisdiction. This is all going
39:21
Speaker 1: down in Castleberry, Florida. What penalty would they face once convicted?
39:28
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it depends on what they're convicted of.
39:31
Speaker 1: They're not going to get the death penalty because nobody died,
39:33
Speaker 1: but they could be there for the rest of their
39:35
Speaker 1: natural lives. This is going to be a you know
39:38
Speaker 1: whatever sentence twenty five years to life. It's going to
39:41
Speaker 1: be the rest of their life, and God knows, nobody
39:44
Speaker 1: wants them to get out to I don't think it's
39:45
Speaker 1: going to be the possibility of parol. Do you want
39:47
Speaker 1: to be the judge that authorizes them to be back
39:49
Speaker 1: on the street. It looks like they're going to be
39:52
Speaker 1: there for the rest of their days now, But I'd
39:53
Speaker 1: like to be the prosecutor, Randy. What about consecutive sentencing? Yeah,
39:57
Speaker 1: I think that's the possibility that even if they haven't
40:00
Speaker 1: let them out, possibly before their eightieth birthday, the next
40:04
Speaker 1: sentence will they're right into place. They'll be convicted of
40:06
Speaker 1: all those different charges, cruelty to children, false imprisonment. It's
40:10
Speaker 1: going to be one after another year, exactly right, Nat.
40:13
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if they don't go with an
40:15
Speaker 1: attempted murtyr. Actually, they probably won't be that bold. I'm
40:19
Speaker 1: also curious if her books are still selling. Apparently not.
40:23
Speaker 1: Apparently the publishers said they're separating themselves from from any
40:27
Speaker 1: connection right now. So guys, if you know of or
40:30
Speaker 1: think you know of a child being abused, please call
40:34
Speaker 1: the Child Help National Child Abuse Hotline. It's toll free.
40:39
Speaker 1: Eight hundred four Child eight hundred four two four four
40:45
Speaker 1: five three. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off, Goodbye friend