Latest / This is monsters / She Turned a Closet Into Her Son_s Prison _ Shanda Vander Ark

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She Turned a Closet Into Her Son_s Prison _ Shanda Vander Ark · This is monsters

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: This episode contains graphic details. Viewer discretion is advised. Miss Keegan,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: now one, where's your emergency?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: It's 4788 Marshall Road.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I woke up.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Today to go to work.
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: 4788 Marshall?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and my son's not breathing.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: How old is he?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: He's 15. He's been on a hunger strike. He just
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: wouldn't eat lately. And I've been checking on him all
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: night because he said he wasn't feeling good last night.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: And I woke up to get ready for work this morning.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: And he's not breathing.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, can we get him flat on his back so
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: we can start CPR?
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 0:43
  Speaker 6: He's on his back.
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: Okay, is he on the floor? Yes, he's on the floor.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: I had to get him off his bed. How long
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: has it been since he's eaten?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: He ate yesterday. But he's driving me crazy because he
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: wouldn't eat hardly. And so he got really skinny and
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: he won't eat. And I was just about to call
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the doctor this morning because he's just been horrible.
• 1:05
  Speaker 6: I mean, he's a teenager.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: He's 15, and he did it yesterday, but.
• 1:08
  Speaker 6: Not a lot.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: When was the last contact with him?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I checked on him at 5.30.
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: This morning?
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:11
  Speaker 6: And he is still breathing?
• 1:13
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Shonda VanderR called 911 on July 6, 2022.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: To report that her 15-year-old son, Timothy Ferguson, was not breathing.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: She would go on to tell the operator and then
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: responding officers that Timothy had been on a hunger strike,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: but she didn't realize how thin he was. She also
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: told the operator that she had checked on him at
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: about 5.30 that morning and he was fine. The 911
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: call was around 6.30, so her claim was that she
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: had checked on him only an hour before, which responding
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: officers immediately questioned due to the fact that rigor mortis
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: was already starting to set in when they had arrived.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: It takes between 2 and 6 hours for rigor mortis
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: to start setting in, with full rigor happening between 6
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and 12 hours. When the officers on the scene started
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: noticing a number of red flags around the house, they
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: called in detectives who quickly learned that nothing that Shonda
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: had told them about the night Timothy died was true.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: This is Monsters. Monsters Shonda Ramsey was born on March 13th, 1979,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and not much is on record about her childhood. She
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: would tell people she was from Alabama, but it's unclear
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: if she was born there or just moved there when
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: she was a baby. Her sister, Paige Eaton, would make
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: a statement to investigators explaining that she and Shonda spent
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: about two years in foster care when they were about
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: six and nine. Paige said that they were both abused
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: while in foster care and the abuse consisted of starvation,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: ice baths, and being beaten with clothes hangers or ping
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: pong paddles. Now, Paige has done some other interviews and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: has said a lot of things that can't be confirmed,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: so I don't want to use a lot of her
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: claims here. In my opinion, she seemed too eager to
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: get in front of cameras when she found out her
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: sister had been arrested, and I think some content creators
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: are too eager to exploit that, which just leads to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of unreliable claims. But if her claim about
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the abuse in foster care is true, it would be
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: interesting because it matches what Shonda had done with her
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: own child. And Paige made that statement to the police
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: only a few days after Timothy's death, but she might
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: have heard some of the details on the news and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: made her story match. It's really hard to say. Shonda
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: also claimed that her father and then her stepfather sexually
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: abused her when she was a child, but she didn't
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: mention any abuse while in foster care during that interview.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Shonda moved around quite a bit in her life, but
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in 1996, she was attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: That was where she met Eric Ferguson, who had been
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: born in Yakima, Washington. He had lived in 45 of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: 50 states as well as 8 different countries because his
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: parents were missionaries. Neither Eric or Shonda had completed college
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: when she became pregnant and the couple married, settling down
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: in North Carolina. Now, it seems as though Eric already
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: had at least one child before marrying Shonda around 2000.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I'll get into that a little later. Eric and Shonda's
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: first child, Eric Ferguson Jr., who went by his middle
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: name Nolan, was born on March 27, 2000. Their second son, Paul,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: was born on April 20, 2002. They had a daughter, Millie,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: on June 20, 2004, and their youngest child together was Timothy,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: who was born on August 6, 2006. Timothy would eventually
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: be diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, but he
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was high-functioning and he spent the time that he was
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: in school in regular classes. Not long after Timothy was born,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Eric was transferred to Oklahoma by his employer, Hartford Insurance Company,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: and they found a house in War Acres just northwest
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: of Oklahoma City. It wasn't long before CPS became involved
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: with the family. The first reports came in February of 2008,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: just 18 months after Timothy was born. The Oklahoma Department
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of Human Services received reports of inadequate nutrition, medical neglect,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: exposure to adult sexuality, domestic violence, threat of harm, dirty home,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and dangerous shelter in the home. When a social worker
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: inspected their home, they found food on site and found
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the home to be adequate. The children were underweight and
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: doctors were unable to find an explanation as to why
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the children, especially the baby Timothy, was not thriving. Shonda
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: agreed to take Timothy to the doctor where she described
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: all the food that Timothy was eating and the doctor
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: reported to the social worker that there was no way
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the baby would not be thriving if she was truly
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: giving him the food she claimed she had. Over the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: following investigation, Eric and Shonda's file was marked as failure
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: to cooperate, and eventually Shonda became angry with the social worker,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: claiming her rights were being violated. After that, she refused
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to allow the social workers to complete their investigation. In
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: October of 2009, police got reports of sexual abuse happening
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: in the home, and officers along with social workers went
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: to their home for a welfare check on the children.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Eric and Shonda initially refused the officers or social workers
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: into the home, but the police informed them that checking
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: that the children were okay was not optional. The parents
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: relented and the officers reported that the home was environmentally neglectful.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: The report went on to state, the home was found
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: to have a very strong odor of human feces and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: animal feces and every room in the home was in
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: a filthy condition. Miss Ferguson told the worker,'' I' m a
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: stay-at-home mom with four kids. I homeschool my children and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: do not have time to clean.'' The carpet in the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: entire home was filthy. The worker observed that every room
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: in the home also smelled of urine. The children's bathroom
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: toilet had human feces stains in it that appeared to
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: have been there for a long time. There was old
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: food in every room and dirty diapers were in every room.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Worker did observe plenty of food in the home, but
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the fridge was extremely dirty. All utilities appeared to be working.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: There were three snakes in cages, a hamster, and several
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: dogs that lived in the home. Nolan disclosed that one
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: of the snakes had bit him before. All the children
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: were found to appear dirty and unkempt. Social workers also
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: reported that an electrical outlet in the house had been
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: pulled from the wall and Shonda claimed that Paul had
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: done it because of his ADHD. That will become a
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: common theme in this case. Shonda will be questioned about
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: something that's wrong and she will blame it on one
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: of her kids. The following day, authorities returned to the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: home with an order to remove the children. When the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: older children were interviewed, they described some extremely disturbing behavior
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: happening in the home. The social workers noted that they
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: were shocked at how much the parents minimized what was
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: going on. They also noted that Eric stated that, when
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: he was 14, he touched his 11- to 12-year-old sister's
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: vagina multiple times and was told the behavior was normal.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Here's a little disclaimer for that. No, it's not. At all.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: It's not even close to being normal. Nolan, being the oldest,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: was able to give the most details that would end
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: up being rather revealing. He talked about how the pastor
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: at their church had caused problems, further explaining that he
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: was supposed to call their parents first about any issues.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: It sounds like Eric and Shonda tried to intercept any
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: reports about their children, but the pastor did the right
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: thing and called the police when one of the children
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: made a claim of sexual abuse happening in the home.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: The pastor would end up telling DHS that the Ferguson
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: children would often show up to Sunday school filthy or
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Timothy would be in a dirty diaper. Nolan would go
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: on to say that they changed churches a lot because
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the pastors caused problems. It seemed that any time anyone
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: brought up the condition of the children to Shonda, she
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: would become angry and lash out. When the children were
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: taken into foster care, the social workers said that they
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: all seemed to be in healthy condition physically, but it
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: was noted that Timothy's speech seemed delayed. That was likely
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: due to his autism, which hadn't seemed to have been
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: diagnosed by then. The court eventually ordered Eric and Shonda
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to enter counseling and complete parenting classes. Eric seemed dead
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: set on doing whatever it took to get his children back. Shonda,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, wasn't really interested in putting in
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the work. Now, the police reports that I got have
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: a confusing detail that I can only speculate about. After
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Timothy's death, a woman named Chelsea Calloway contacted the police
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: and gave them details about the Ferguson-Vander Ark family dynamic.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Chelsea is reported as being Timothy's half-sister as they had
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the same father but different mothers. Chelsea was 30 years
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: old at the time of her statement to the police
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: which means she would have been born in 1992 when
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Eric was about 16. But that's not what's strange. Her
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: mother was Patricia Gillenwater, who would end up marrying Eric
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: after he and Shonda got divorced. So if I'm understanding
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: this correctly, Eric got Patricia, who goes by Trish, pregnant
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: when he was a teen. They stayed in contact while
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: he was married to Shonda, and then they ended up
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: getting married. And it's clear they stayed in contact because
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Chelsea's name is mentioned a few times in the various
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: DHS reports. In her statement to the police, Chelsea described
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: that Eric had gotten a vasectomy after Timothy was born.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: But instead of doing the work to get her kids back,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Shonda begged him to get his vasectomy reversed so they
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: could just have more kids. How fucked up is that?
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Just toss the other kids aside and replace them. That's
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: who Shonda is as a parent. Remember that while she's
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on the stand making excuses for why she's not a
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: terrible parent. At the end of the day, Shonda would
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: never complete the court-ordered counseling to get her kids back
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and she left Eric. Eric began a relationship with Trish
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and Shonda began a relationship with a man she had
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: met online named Adam VanderArk. Adam was disabled and lived
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: in Michigan and eventually moved to Oklahoma to be with her.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: After Eric and Shonda's divorce was finalized in 2011, both
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of them married their respective new partners. Because Eric had
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: completed the required actions outlined by the judge, DHS recommended
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the children be returned to his care. In January of 2012,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Eric was granted full custody of the children with Shonda
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: receiving three hours of supervised visitation each month. She was
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: not allowed to be with her minor children unsupervised. DHS
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: recommended the court terminate her parental rights that same month,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: but Shonda agreed to let Eric have full custody so
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: that order was never completed. Shonda showed less and less
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: interest in her children as the years went on, and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: when she and Adam had a child together in 2014,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: they decided to move to his home state of Michigan.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: They settled in the city of Norton Shores on the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: coast of Lake Michigan. At that point, Shonda had managed
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: to finish her degree at Liberty University and was accepted
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: to Cooley Law School in 2018. She graduated at the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: top of her class in 2021 and went on to
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: pass the bar exam on her first try, which showed
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: that she was highly intelligent. She began working as a
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: law clerk at the 14th Circuit Court in Muskegon. Eric
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: remained in Oklahoma and Trish became the full-time caretaker for Timothy.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Chelsea's statement to the police said, quote, Timothy was unable
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: to understand simple concepts. If you tried to explain to
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: him why he couldn't do something, he wouldn't understand. He
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: would eat excessively, but didn't understand why it would make
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: him sick. To manage these behaviors at home, Timothy was
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: in therapy. His parents received help from psychiatrists and from
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: his school. They also had house rules and a reward system.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: There were never any restrictions on Timothy eating or him
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: getting snacks. Patricia went above and beyond for Timothy, really
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: trying to help him. Eric was not in the picture
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: because he worked all the time and would not help Patricia.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Near the end of Timothy's time with Patricia, she went
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to Eric and said she needed help. She was getting
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: overwhelmed and depressed. Eric's solution was to send Timothy to
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: live with Shonda. Shonda agreed, even though she was not
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: supposed to have unsupervised custody of her children, and Eric
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: pulled Timothy from school just days before he was scheduled
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to graduate from his junior year of high school. Why
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Eric couldn't wait is unknown, as Eric has never agreed
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to any interviews. By then, Paul had already moved to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Michigan to live with his mother and stepfather. That happened
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: when Paul was 18, though, so there was no custody
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: issues as he was no longer a minor. It was
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: speculated in multiple police interviews that Paul didn't want to
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: have to act like an adult, and I guess his
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: father would have expected that of him, so he went
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: to live with his mother so she could take care
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: of him. He eventually got a job at an Applebee's
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in Grand Haven, 8.4 miles or 13.5 kilometers away from
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: their house. He had an e-bike that he would normally
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: ride to work. At first, things were okay. Family members
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: saw Timothy a few months later at a wedding and
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: he appeared healthy. But in January of 2022, Shonda's husband
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Adam had a stroke and he moved in with his
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: parents so they could help in his recovery. They lived
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: about 30 minutes south in West Olive. Shonda worked long
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: hours and she became the sole caretaker for her three sons.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Instead of admitting that she wasn't able to do that
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: properly on her own, she turned the house into a
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: prison for Timothy. She told authorities that she homeschooled Timothy
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: and then gave a bunch of excuses like she wasn't
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: able to enroll him in school since she wasn't listed
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: as his legal guardian, but it didn't seem like she
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: made any effort to fix that. The truth was that
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: she stopped letting people see Timothy so that they wouldn't
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: know how poorly he was being treated. The abuse that
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Timothy suffered over the next six months was unimaginable, but
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Shonda and Paul documented it all through text messages. By
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the time Timothy died on July 6, 2022, he had
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: been starved to the point that he only weighed 69
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: pounds or 31 kilograms. That's the average normal healthy weight
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: for a 10-year-old, but Timothy was 15. After calling 911,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: paramedics and Norton Shore's police officers arrived on the scene
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and started asking Shonda what had happened. Make sure you
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: pay attention to the fact that all of Shonda's crying
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: creates zero tears.
• 17:54
  Speaker 7: Now you said the last time you saw him was 5.30
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: this morning?
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Did he say anything?
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: He had fallen out of bed.
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: At 5.30?
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: You sure it wasn't earlier?
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: I mean, it's possible.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: I thought it was 5.30, but.
• 18:12
  Speaker 7: I wasn't super awake.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: I heard a thump, and I came down, and he's
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: kind of laying on his side, kind of like, what
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: the heck? And I picked, I reached out, and he.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: That's all right.
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: Sorry.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: Oh, my.
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: God.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. And I reached out and he pulled
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: himself up and I asked if he was okay and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I just asked if he hit his head.
• 18:40
  Speaker 7: He said, no, I think I hit my knees on
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: my chest.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: I think he couldn't, obviously he couldn't tell me how
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: he fell.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Oh my God.
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: No, I didn't know what to do.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: He said, okay.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: The way she talks to the officer is really suspicious.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: She makes a lot of subtle statements that don't relate
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: to the situation but makes her seem more sympathetic. She
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: told the officer that Timothy's father couldn't handle him because
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: he was always lying, which is unconfirmed by anyone that
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: was interviewed about him. At one point, she just said, quote,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I love my kids, which to me seems like a
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: weird thing to volunteer in that situation. Also, when they
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: go up into the house, it's filthy. There's just garbage
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: all over the floors. When the officer questioned Paul, he
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: said he barely even talked to Timothy and he had
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: no idea he had supposedly been on a hunger strike.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: Have you been talking to him at all recently?
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: I talked to him yesterday morning to get him up.
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: That was very busy when you started it. to get
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: him up.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Did you know that he was in this hunger strike?
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Did I tell you or not? I don't know if
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: I did or not.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: I don't think you did. Because he's skin and bone.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: He's really.
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: Well, he doesn't communicate with him hardly at all.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Like, they say hi and they don't, yeah, he's... Shonda
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: would go on to tell officers that Timothy had been
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: fine up until about a month ago when Adam had
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: a seizure while recovering from his stroke. Shonda would also
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: say that Timothy's father, Eric, had just divorced Trish and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: was moving to Florida and Timothy was unhappy about that.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: The evening of July 5th, she had returned home from
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: work about 6pm and then gave Paul a ride to
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: work because his e-bike had a flat tire. On her
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: way back, she stopped at Qdoba to pick up dinner
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and back at home, Timothy wouldn't eat. He finally agreed
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to eat a few pieces of toast and she saw
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: him take two bites, but didn't know if he ate
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the rest. To be clear, she explained that she was
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: worried enough about his weight at that time to tell
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Timothy if he didn't eat she was going to take
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: him to the hospital, but she did nothing to verify
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: that he actually ate more than two bites of toast.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: She went on to say that at 10 p.m. Timothy
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: got ready for bed, which consisted of him putting on pajamas,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: using the bathroom, and brushing his teeth. His bed was
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: in the open area of the downstairs half of the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: split-level home. He slept on a loft bed, which is
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: like a bunk bed without a lower bunk. Instead, there's
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a top bunk and then something else underneath, like a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: desk or storage. She went to bed at about midnight
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and heard a loud noise at 5.30. She went downstairs
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: where she found Timothy on the floor and she asked
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: him if he was okay, to which he responded yes.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: She helped him back into bed and went back to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: bed herself. She got up for work at 6.15 and
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: at about 6.30 she went downstairs to check on Timothy
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and he wasn't moving. She said she pulled him out
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: of the top bunk to the floor so they could
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: attempt CPR. When first responders arrived, Timothy was on the
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: floor in a very loose-fitting sweatshirt and a pair of
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: jeans with a belt cinched down so they would stay
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: on his thin body. The question of why he wasn't
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: in pajamas wouldn't be answered until later when it was
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: revealed that most of this story was a complete fabrication.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: While at the scene, officers took note of several things
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: they found odd. On top of the house being filthy,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: with dirty diapers on the floor and feces on door handles,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: they found a webcam that was pointed right at Timothy's
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: bed and a set of handcuffs in an open drawer
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: under the bed. There was a walk-in closet near Timothy's
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: bed and inside was a blue tarp and a small
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: cardboard box. The officer stated that the closet reeked of urine.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: They also noticed that the closet door had a sensor
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: on it so an alarm would sound if it was
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: opened and the handle was set to lock from the outside.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Then they started noticing cameras on other parts of the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: house and that there was a lock on the refrigerator
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: door and the food pantry. When a child dies in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: that condition and the food is locked away from them,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: alarm bells start going off for authorities. Shonda refused to
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: consent to the house being searched when detectives arrived on
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the scene, so they secured a search warrant and returned
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to the house. A search of the house turned up
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the handcuffs in the drawer under Timothy's bed that turned
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: out to be leg shackles. They found multiple cameras which
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: were no longer active and didn't have any footage saved
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to them, except for one. One of the cameras had
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: a microSD card still in it that contained videos from
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the days leading up to, including the last night of
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Timothy's life. Investigators found zip ties as well as a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: bottle of Elijah's Extreme Regret hot sauce, which was not
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: in the kitchen, but in the downstairs bathroom. The medical
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: examiner determined that Timothy had died of starvation and that
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: his internal organs showed signs of hypothermia. The reason for
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: that would be uncovered when investigators read months of text
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: messages between Shonda and Paul. When they reviewed the SD
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: card from the camera, what they found was horrific. The
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: videos took place from July 3rd to July 6th and
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: showed Timothy sleeping in the closet every night. They show
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Shonda dragging Timothy into the closet and laying him on
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a tarp, sometimes covering him with a sheet. They show
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: both Shonda and Paul yelling at Timothy. Here, Timothy can
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: be seen completely emaciated with Paul yelling at him to
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: get up.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Timothy, get up!
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: Come on, I've got, it's food time, get up!
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Now!
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: Get up!
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: You heard me!
• 24:56
  Speaker 6: I've been shouting at you for the past five daggum minutes!
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Get up!
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: My word!
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Up!
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: Come on!
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: Come on!
• 25:14
  Speaker 7: No, you're not.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: You're being slow.
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: Get up! Stop it!
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: I know it's fake.
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: Stop!
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: Get up! Come on!
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: Hurry it up!
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: So Paul is yelling at Timothy to hurry up and
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: that he knows his behavior is fake and that will
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: come up with Shonda as well. She'll mention that Timothy
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: was faking his condition, but he's clearly too weak to
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: move at any reasonable pace. This video is the day
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: before he starves to death, so no, he's not faking anything.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: His body is shutting down because of how his mother
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and his brother are treating him. He's being starved and
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: locked in a closet for hours at a time. Shonda
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: eventually drags Timothy back into the closet.
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: Don't move your hips on that spot.
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: I don't know.
• 26:24
  Speaker 6: If you did. And I'll know you did it intentionally.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: There, Shonda called her son an idiot for moaning. You know,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: as his body shuts down due to starvation. She eventually
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: came back in because Timothy had committed the crime of
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: moving his head and you could hear the door alarm
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: in the background. She repositioned him and then called him
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: an idiot again.
• 27:10
  Speaker 7: You don't need to open.
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: Your mouth like that if you're breathing.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: See?
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: I know how stupid you're being.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Come on, Charlie, get out of.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: Here.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: She held his mouth shut and told him he was
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: stupid for breathing through his mouth. Those are the things
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: he's being punished for. not getting up fast enough while
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: emaciated and breathing with his mouth open. It's also interesting
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: that she's able to move the camera around remotely, so
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Shonda is watching her 15-year-old son while he's locked in
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: a closet starving. But this is her reaction in front
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: of the police.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Hello, ma'am.
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: I'm Officer Stepanich.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: No!
• 28:07
  Speaker 7: Right now we got some people coming over to talk
• 28:09
  Speaker 7: to you, okay?
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I don't think so. She claimed multiple times that she
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: never knew how skinny Timothy was because he wore baggy
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: clothes and she would tell other officers that he always
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: wore his hood up. You can clearly see in the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: previous videos that Shonda not only has full view of
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Timothy's face but holds her hand over his mouth which
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: would have clearly felt as thin as it looked. She
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: also manhandled him multiple times in the video, so she
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: knew 100% how skinny her son was. She just didn't care.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Then the investigators looked through Shonda and Paul's text messages.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: If you think the video shows how terrible they treated Timothy,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you better buckle up. In March, months before the supposed
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: hunger strike that Timothy was on, Shonda and Paul exchanged
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: these text messages. Shonda So how has he been disobedient? Paul,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: he just won't listen or does something I didn't tell
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: him he could. He just tried claiming his zip cuffs
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: were too tight when I didn't even tighten them to
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: where there's no room for his wrists. What an asshole.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: A 15-year-old complaining that his zip cuffs are too tight?
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Wah wah, am I right? Jesus Christ. On the 19th,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Paul sent a confusing text about Timothy having gotten some food,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: because allowing your child to eat is clearly unthinkable. Shonda responded, Paul, Shonda,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: This one is wild because he was obviously already being
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: punished by them withholding food, which is why he was
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: sneaking food. Shonda would state in court that she didn't
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: have a problem with him eating, she just didn't like
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: him sneaking food. But she created a situation where Timothy
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: would need to sneak food. So what's the punishment for
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: sneaking food while he's starving? By withholding food for longer.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: It's just continual torture. The day before that, Shonda sent
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Paul a text that read, You didn't set the motion
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: sensors this morning like you thought you did and Timothy
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: stole some more food. Yeah, because he was fucking starving, bitch.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: How do you pass the bar but not understand hunger?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: After a while, the text started making it clear where
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the hot sauce came into play. On May 17th, Paul
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: sent a text to Shonda that said Timothy had gotten
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: into food again. Surprise, surprise. They just can't seem to
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: grasp why this starving teenager keeps getting into the food.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: But since one of the items Timothy had eaten was
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: raw pancake mix, Shonda responded by saying, That could make
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: him sick, the dummy. Then she sent Paul these instructions.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Tabasco in the mouth and make him swallow. But that
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough, so she followed that up with, And lots
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: of it, and do it every 30 minutes until you leave.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Then on July 2nd, Paul sent a text to Shonda
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: asking what he should do if Timothy didn't finish his
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: assigned task in time, and she simply responded, hot sauce.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: It seems that they were using Tabasco sauce at one point,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: but Shonda would explain in court that Timothy liked spicy food,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: so they went online and purchased the spiciest hot sauce
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: they could find. That was Elijah's extreme regret. It was
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: made with scorpion and Carolina reaper peppers, which are some
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of the spiciest peppers in the world. Spiciness is measured
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: on the Scoville scale, and it's based on how much
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: capsaicin is in the product. Capsaicin is actually a toxin
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: that makes a plant spicy to warn off animals from
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: eating it. The Scoville scale is a number that represents
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: how much the product needs to be diluted in order
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: to neutralize the spiciness. A bell pepper sits at zero.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: They don't contain capsaicin and shouldn't be spicy to anyone.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Pure capsaicin is at 15 million on the Scoville scale,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: and no pepper has ever been rated that high. The
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: most familiar pepper is the jalapeno, which is rated at 2,500
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: to 8,000. Tabasco sauce, which is what Shonda had started
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: punishing Timothy with, rates at a paltry 30 to 50,000.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: The two peppers used in the Extreme Regret hot sauce
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: were the Trinidad Scorpion, which is rated at 1.2 to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: 2 million, and the Carolina Reaper, which is rated at 1.4
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: to 2.2 million on the Scoville scale. The Elijah's Extreme
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: website rates Extreme Regret at 800,000 Scoville units, so it
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: would definitely be painful for most people, even someone who
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: likes spicy food. Then, on July 5th, the day before
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Timothy's death, Shonda sent a text to Paul that read,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: I wonder how it would feel to have that hot
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: sauce on your private parts. I'm not saying touch him there,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: not at all, but dripping a little bit there, is
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: that horrible? Yes, Shonda, it's very horrible. You're a horrible,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: horrible person. That very text would be brought up at
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Shonda's trial, where she would pretend to have no recollection
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: of suggesting it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: In direction of page 6011. On text.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: I wonder how it would feel to have that hot
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: sauce on your private parts. I'm not saying touching there,
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: not at all, but dripping a little.
• 33:51
  Speaker 7: Bit there, is that horrible?
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: Did you not have to ask that question?
• 33:57
  Speaker 7: I wouldn't think so. I don't remember that. I can't
• 34:01
  Speaker 7: even imagine saying that.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: But you did.
• 34:04
  Speaker 7: I know, but I can't even imagine it. About your child.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: Who at that point was in the middle of an
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: ice bath and it lasted at least two and a
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: half hours at that point.
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 34:18
  Speaker 7: Are you asking if I said that?
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: I'm asking you if you said that when your child
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: was in an ice bath for two and a half
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: hours at that point in time, because this is 425
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: in the afternoon and you're watching on the camera from
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: work and texting with Paul about what he's supposed to
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: be doing with him in the tub. Right.
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, if that's what was, I don't remember. If
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: that's what it says, I'm not arguing that. I'm not
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: trying to argue that. I'm just saying, I don't know.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: It just popped in your head today? Yeah, I wonder
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: what hot sauce on your private parts would be like.
• 34:47
  Speaker 7: I have no idea where it came from.
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: I have no idea.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: She claimed she didn't remember writing that, but you can
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: see on her face, as soon as she saw what
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the message was, she knew it was bad. She knew
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: there was a record of her instructing Paul to torture Timothy.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: I honestly don't know what she thought she would accomplish
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: by testifying. But that wasn't all the texts revealed. Investigators
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: also learned that Shonda and Paul had been giving Timothy
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: ice baths as a form of punishment, and not quick
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: dunks in the tub either. They would force him to
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: stay in ice water for hours. That was why the
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: medical examiner found signs of hypothermia on his organs. The
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: night before his death, the entire evening was a series
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: of ice baths for Timothy. Shonda texted, If you're going
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: to be there, why don't you go ahead and run
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: another cold bath and stick him in? When Paul asked,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: How's that gonna help? Shonda answered, It's gonna make him miserable.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: That was her goal, to make her 15-year-old autistic son miserable,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: because he didn't want to starve to death. Paul was
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: in no way kind to Timothy even before they lived
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: together with Shonda. Their half-sister Chelsea would make a statement
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: to police explaining that Paul was extremely violent towards Timothy
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: while they still lived in Oklahoma with their father. He
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: did express some concern that Timothy was not well in
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: the texts, though. On June 13th, he sent a picture
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: to Shonda with a message that read, He's bone-thin, Mama.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I think, honestly, we need to actually feed him. Shonda
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: responded by instructing Paul to give him some bread. These
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: texts completely contradict everything Shonda said about Timothy's condition. She
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: said he had started a hunger strike about a month
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: before his death, but the picture showed Timothy at around
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: that date and he was already extremely emaciated. Shonda claimed
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: she had no idea how thin Timothy was, but beside
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the webcam video proving otherwise, she had been sent a
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: picture that clearly showed how thin he was. Then the
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: way the text is written shows that they knew they
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: were actively withholding more food than was healthy. Paul specifically
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: said they On July 5th, Paul sent another picture of
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Timothy to Shonda and expressed concern that his eyes were
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: glazed over. Shonda shrugged it off by saying he smirked
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: and that a person can make their eyes glaze over
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: if they stare too long. The dynamic between Shonda and
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Paul is that they need to be harsh with Timothy
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: because otherwise he's going to get away with a bunch
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: of wrongdoing. There's this delusion that he's pulling a fast
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: one over on them and they can't let him win,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: when in reality they're killing him and he's just trying
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: to not die. With this evidence, Shonda was placed under arrest,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: first for child abuse and then they added simple murder.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Simple murder is just when someone is being charged with murder,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: but the prosecutor doesn't know yet what specific kind of murder.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: First degree, manslaughter, etc. Of course, once Shonda learned she
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: was being arrested, she became the most fragile person on
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: the planet.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: Okay, I'm lightheaded.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: That's fine.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Take these on.
• 38:10
  Speaker 7: You said so. Huh? You said all you said.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: I'm trying not to.
• 38:21
  Speaker 7: I haven't been able to keep anything down since yesterday.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: She does have, she says, allergy-induced asthma, so she can't
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: wear masks.
• 38:31
  Speaker 7: I had a doctor's note. I didn't bring it with me.
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: I didn't know. I hate to tell you this. This
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: is not school.
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: Dr.
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: Nelson, we have our own doctors, and they will deal
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: with you on that.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: And then she does have asthma, so she might need
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: a butyrol as an emergency, you know.
• 38:46
  Speaker 7: Do you have a prescription for albuterol?
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: Ventolin albuterol.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: All right. Go ahead, follow her.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not in the habit of questioning someone else's medical
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: conditions because I've never been in a situation where it's
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: any of my business. In this situation, though, Shonda seems
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: to be one of those people who tells people she
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: has a laundry list of medical conditions, but based on
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: the information I've been provided, doesn't have an actual diagnosis
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: from a doctor. I believe most of her medical conditions
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: are self-diagnosed and they get used throughout her life to
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: get sympathy from people. She was a hard-ass who believed
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: that a teenager deserved harsh punishments in response to some
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: fairly minor wrongdoings. but as soon as she's the one
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: getting punished, every medical condition and every sob story flies
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: out of her mouth. Before she was booked, she told
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: the officer that her husband had recently had a stroke
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and she retched into a garbage can and told him
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: she needed her orange juice because she was hypoglycemic. She
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: can dish out the punishment, but she clearly can't handle it.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Paul was not arrested at that time. It wasn't until
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: the following day that he was brought into the station
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: for questioning about his involvement in Timothy's death.
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: I mean, there's clearly a lot of messages about stuff
• 40:03
  Speaker 5: that you guys are doing, about what he's eating, about
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: restricting his food. How did that all work? What was
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: he allowed to eat? We stopped the food restrictions recently
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: because we had notices then. We wanted to get that
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: back on. We didn't want any of this. We never
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: wanted him to be injured or hurt. I loved him
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: so much. Yeah, I can tell that. I can certainly
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: tell that. When you say we, you're talking about your mother. Yes,
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: she loved him. We wanted what's best.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: The thing is, he was stuck in the past.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: You mean back when he was allowed to eat? That
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: seems understandable. Based on Paul's interview, you can tell how
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: thoroughly his mother manipulated him. He told the investigators that
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: his father had told him a bunch of lies about Shonda,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: including that she didn't care about him and the other children.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: After having lived with his mother for less than a year,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: he was convinced that everything his father told him were lies.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Even though, based on the records of Shonda's actions, his
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: father was absolutely correct. And based on his family history
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: as a whole, I'm not going to say that Eric
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Ferguson was a great father. But he was absolutely truthful
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: about Shonda not caring about her kids. Shonda made no
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: effort to get her children out of foster care and
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: then moved away after she had replaced them with a
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: new child. It's easy to see why Paul was so
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: attached to her, though. She gave him a position of
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: power over Timothy. She gave him permission to continue bullying
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: and abusing his younger brother. Paul very calmly explained all
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: of the rules and punishments that he and his mother
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: carried out with Timothy. Paul does seem to be more
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: forthcoming about how Timothy was really treated, though he does
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: try to minimize it, at one point claiming they didn't
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: neglect him.
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: When did that kind of start happening? Or had he
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: always been standing there? No, he had a noise.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: But the thing was, the loft bed, if you've noticed,
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: just grew and stuff.
• 42:19
  Speaker 7: That was his doing.
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: Okay. And we couldn't get it safely back.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: So, he sleep in the closet? Yes.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: We made sure that it was cleaned. He had a
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: mattress in there, but then he decided to rip off
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: the cover, like a.
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: Sort of.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, so much of what both Paul and Shonda say
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: in this case is them blaming Timothy for their decisions.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Timothy messed with the screws on his bed so they
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: had to make him sleep in a closet. Timothy kept
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: getting food so they had to starve him. Paul's statement
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: includes him saying they wanted what's best for him, and
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: that they didn't neglect him, and it sounds like he's
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: trying to convince himself of that more than anyone else.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: When you want the best for someone, the thought of
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: locking them in a closet or dripping hot sauce on
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: their balls never even crosses your mind. Paul said that
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Timothy didn't sneak food because he was hungry, but it
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: feels like the whole dying of starvation thing proves that
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: to be untrue. He would be the first to admit
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: that the entire story of the evening that was told
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: by Shonda was a lie.
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: So you guys pull him out. Does he have pants
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: on or no pants on?
• 43:42
  Speaker 7: None, no.
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: And when we get there, he has pants on? Yeah,
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: she had me put them on. She asked you to
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: put pants on? Yeah. What was that for? I... I
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: don't know.
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: I just.
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: And so you guys... At that time, she decides that
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: she's going to lie to him and say that he
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: was in the wrong bed? I don't understand. I... I
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: don't know. She just doesn't want to seem like she's bad.
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: We weren't neglecting him. And even if it somehow ended
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: up like that, it was never intentional. Well, what you're saying,
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: I mean, if we talk, right, there's all these things
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: where you're like, she didn't want to seem like this.
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: She didn't want to seem like this. She didn't want
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: to seem like this. Did you know that it all
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: seems like that, right?
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: It does. And he clearly was neglected because he died
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: from it, right? The reality is that he was. That's
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: why we're here talking today. So he was very much neglected.
• 44:39
  Speaker 5: And the fact that, you know, she had asked you
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: to put hot sauce on his private parts. Did she
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: do that? She asked, but I never did. I never
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: did that. No. Okay. And she had asked you to
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: put hot sauce directly into his mouth. Did you do that?
• 44:56
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: Is that on the 5th, the date leading up to
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: all this? Yeah. How much hot sauce did you put
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: in there? Um.
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: I don't know. Whose idea was that to put that
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: hot sauce in there? Hers. What was the purpose of that? Again,
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: she thought the whole unresponsive was an act. She thought
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: it was an act. Which clearly, very clearly it wasn't, right? Yeah.
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: I have a hard time considering what they did as neglect. Neglect,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: to me, is sort of unintentional. A parent who's not
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: present due to drugs or just doesn't care about the
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: child so they fail to provide proper care. But Shonda
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: was actively taking actions to cause her child suffering. That's
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: not child neglect. That's child abuse. She tortured him, stating
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: in one text message that the purpose was to quote-unquote
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: make him miserable, and Paul was 100% a willing participant.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Paul ended up pleading guilty to one count of first-degree
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: child abuse and was sentenced to 30 to 100 years
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: in prison. In exchange, he agreed to testify against his
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: mother at trials. She, of course, pleaded not guilty and
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: chose to testify in her own defense, which is crazy
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: when you see how much the prosecutor has that makes
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: her look like a monster. There are videos of the
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: days leading up to his death in that closet. One
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: of those videos shows Timothy die. At about 4.30am on
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: July 6th, you can see him take his last breath.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: I saw the video. I'm not going to play it
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: here because I don't make snuff films. After a few hours,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Shonda tried to get him up.
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: Come here.
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: Yeah? What's wrong?
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: I don't feel a breathing or anything.
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: Timothy? Move the camera.
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 47:04
  Speaker 6: Move the camera. You've got to move. Am I wrong?
• 47:12
  Speaker 7: No.
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: Oh, my God. Timothy.
• 47:15
  Speaker 7: Come on, buddy.
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: Timothy.
• 47:17
  Speaker 7: No, no, no, no, no.
• 47:18
  Speaker 6: This can't happen.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: Timothy.
• 47:21
  Speaker 6: Hey. Is he okay? I don't know yet. Keep pushing.
• 47:28
  Speaker 6: I don't feel anything, Paul. He's resisting. Is he resisting?
• 47:36
  Speaker 6: He's resisting stiff.
• 47:38
  Speaker 7: Is he okay?
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: He feels cold, Mom. Yeah, I know he's cold, but
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: he's not.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: In the video, you can hear Paul claim that Timothy
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: is resisting when Paul turns his head. Except that he's
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: not resisting, he's going into rigor. Then Shonda had Paul
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: take Timothy's body down near his bed, dress him, and
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: lied to the police about what had happened the night
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: before leading up to the death. You don't immediately make
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: up a story about how your child died if you
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: think there's no problem with the way they were treated
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: up until their death. On top of that, they documented
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: all of the abuse they committed against Timothy. Shonda was
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: at work all day, so she texted Paul with instructions
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: on how to punish him.
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: Have you ever given hot sauce to the dogs, to
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: train the dogs?
• 48:33
  Speaker 7: I have put it on a couple of objects to
• 48:35
  Speaker 7: keep them off of objects, yes.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: Gives them away from it, right?
• 48:38
  Speaker 7: Yes, it does.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: Because they don't want to eat the hot sauce. So
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: you never actually grabbed a dog, forced its mouth open,
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: and poured hot sauce down its throat, have you?
• 48:48
  Speaker 5: No.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: Never put hot sauce on a piece of food and
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: then fed it to them, make them eat it, have you?
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: No, because I don't give my dogs human food. You
• 48:56
  Speaker 7: can't do that with service animals.
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: No, but you did put it on dog food, didn't you?
• 49:00
  Speaker 7: I guess. I've never even thought about that, honestly.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: So it never occurred to you to use hot sauce,
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: enforcing the use of hot sauce on a dog, but
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: it occurred to you to use that as a form
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: of punishment for your 14-year-old child?
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: It was Paul's idea, but yes, I was at my
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: wit's end at that time.
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: It was Paul's idea, and you thought, yep, that sounds
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: like a good idea. I think we'll do that. Is
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: that what you're saying?
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: I don't remember the exact conversation, but like I said,
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: at that point, I was willing to try anything.
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: We'll get into the text, but there's dozens of texts
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: in here, and this is just a small section of
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: text where you tell Paul, put more hot sauce on
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: the bread. Give him four slices of hot sauce. Don't...
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: Do you remember those text messages?
• 49:41
  Speaker 7: Some of them, not very many, but some of them.
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: So you wouldn't punish a dog with hot sauce, but
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: it's okay to punish a.
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: Child with it.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: The thing that pushed my anger over the edge with
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: this case is the way Shonda acts on the stand.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Her stubbornly trying to convince anyone that she didn't do
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: anything wrong is shitty enough, but her cold, emotionless answers
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: are just awful. And she does this thing that happens
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: a lot with narcissists, where they focus on a detail
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: in the question that's incorrect, but not important to the question. Like,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: would you put hot sauce on a piece of bread
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: and give it to a dog as punishment? She responds,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: I don't give my dogs human food. It's a way
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: to not answer the question. She does it again here.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: Would you stick a dog in an ice bath as punishment?
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: That would never occur to me, but Then having big dogs,
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: I don't bathe them at home anyway.
• 50:36
  Speaker 7: I use dry shampoo or I take them somewhere else.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: I'm not talking about giving them a bath. I'm talking
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: about using as a form of punishment, putting a dog
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: in an ice bath.
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: I don't have space to do that, so I wouldn't
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: think of that because I don't have space with that
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: size dog.
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: You're saying if you had a large enough tub to
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: punish one of the dogs, you'd put them in.
• 50:54
  Speaker 7: An ice bath? I can't imagine doing that.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: You can't imagine doing that, right? You can't imagine punishing
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: an animal by putting him in.
• 51:04
  Speaker 7: An ice bath.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: Would you stick your dog in an ice bath? I
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: don't bathe them at home. This woman is supposed to
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: be extremely smart and she can't understand what a hypothetical
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: question is?
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: No.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: She's deliberately finding ways to not answer the question. And
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: to be clear, she absolutely did give Timothy ice baths.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: She sent Paul a text message on the evening before
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: Timothy's death that she was pulling him out of the
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: bath and putting him in the closet. She minimizes the
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: ice bath, saying it wasn't a lot of ice, as
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: if that makes it better. Adding any ice and forcing
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: a child to stay in there for hours is still abuse.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: She mentions how small their ice maker is multiple times
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: to try and reiterate that they weren't able to give
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: him an ice bath with a lot of ice. But
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: then the prosecutor introduced these texts.
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: Let him know that if he tries to sleep at all.
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: Let's start there. This is at 3 o'clock in the morning.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: You're saying he is not allowed to go to sleep, right?
• 52:07
  Speaker 7: Yes, sir.
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: So 3 o'clock in the morning, your 15-year-old child is
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: not allowed to be sleeping. And if he does, he
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: gets an ice bath, right?
• 52:13
  Speaker 7: Yes, sir.
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: And he'll get another ice bath, i.e. there's already been
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: an ice bath prior to this text being sent, correct?
• 52:23
  Speaker 7: No, sir. It would be one and then another is
• 52:26
  Speaker 7: what it says.
• 52:26
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: Well, let me read it again and make sure maybe
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: I misread it. Let him know that if he tries
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: to sleep at all, he'll get another ice bath sometime
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: before you leave for work and another when I get home.
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: There's two anothers in there, isn't there?
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir.
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: The first another refers to the first ice bath. In
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: other words, there's already been an ice bath, right?
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know. I'm not questioning what's in
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: the text, but.
• 52:52
  Speaker 7: I don't know.
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: And then sometime before Paul leaves work, he'll get another
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: ice bath, and then another one when you get one.
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: So two ice baths, in addition to the one he's
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: already had, right?
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: If that's what it says.
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: And that's for the crime of sleeping.
• 53:08
  Speaker 7: I don't know what the original, whatever happened before that.
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: But you know what it was to get him to
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: not do another one, right?
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir.
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: Let him know that if he tries.
• 53:16
  Speaker 5: To sleep at all.
• 53:17
  Speaker 7: That's what it says, yes, sir.
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: Might want to toss the ice that is made into
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: some Ziploc bags in the freezer tomorrow for if we
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: need a bunch more. I think that kind of speaks
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: for itself.
• 53:28
  Speaker 5: We'll move on.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, snap. So she mentioned putting the ice in a
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: bag and saving it in the freezer. Now, some of
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: you may not know this, but I own an almost
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: identical ice maker to theirs. Mine is a different brand
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: and it's not covered in filth, but that does segue
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: into my point. I clean the ice maker about once
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: a month. Not so much on the outside because I
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: don't live in squalor, but minerals in the water like
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: calcium will build up on the inside and you need
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: to run some vinegar water through it to keep it clean.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: I like my drinks ice cold. I drink iced coffee
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: in the morning and then I have an insulated metal
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: water bottle that I keep filled with ice water throughout
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the day. So the day before I clean the ice maker,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: I take a big Ziploc bag and I fill it
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: with ice. In one day, I can collect quite a
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: bit of ice. And if you fill a bathtub with
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: cold water, then put that ice in, you get freezing
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: cold water, hence the hypothermia to Timothy's organs. She can
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: say they didn't use much ice. She can say their
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: ice maker doesn't make that much ice, but the autopsy
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: showed it was cold enough to cause hypothermia. It was
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: after that that the prosecutor showed her pictures of Paul
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: at the time of his death, to which Shonda vomited
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: or pretended to vomit into a garbage can. Curiously, the
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: only time she ever felt so sick by her actions
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: that she threw up was when she had an audience
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: she wanted sympathy from. A lot of attention has been
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: given to Shonda's moments of vomiting, passing out, and other theatrics.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: But what I think is more important is her answers
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: to exactly what happened to Timothy the night before he died.
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: Those three photographs depict your son hours after you supposedly
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: put him in a warm bath. Did he look like
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: that when you put him in the warm bath, but
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: for the fact that he was alive?
• 55:14
  Speaker 7: I did not look at him, sir.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: He was 15.
• 55:16
  Speaker 7: I tried to give him his privacy.
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: It may sound lame, but I intentionally look away. That's
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: why Paul did most of his baths, because he's 15,
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: and I didn't think that was appropriate.
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: So you didn't put him in the bathtub? No, he
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: was already in the tub. Did you get him out
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: of the tub?
• 55:34
  Speaker 5: Um.
• 55:35
  Speaker 7: I don't remember. I think so later that night. I
• 55:38
  Speaker 7: would assume so.
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: Later that night? How long was he in the tub?
• 55:41
  Speaker 7: Well, night to me is any time after work, so... Okay.
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: How long was he in the tub?
• 55:50
  Speaker 7: I don't, I mean, I don't think it was long
• 55:52
  Speaker 7: after I got home, but I don't know.
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: And again, you didn't tell the police officers this when
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: they talked to you about what had happened the night before,
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: did you?
• 56:00
  Speaker 7: I don't remember. Apparently I didn't.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: So you don't remember what you told the police officers?
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: I remember part of it, but, I mean, if you
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: say I didn't tell them, then I trust your word there.
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: If you told the police officers that you noticed he
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: was skinny, so you made him some bread and put
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: some butter on it and watched him eat three-quarters of
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: it and then sent him to bed, does that refresh
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: your recollection about what you told the officers?
• 56:23
  Speaker 7: I mean, I hear what you're saying. I don't remember
• 56:25
  Speaker 7: saying it, but.
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: So you don't remember saying those things to the police officer?
• 56:29
  Speaker 5: No, sir.
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: And those things clearly didn't happen, did they?
• 56:31
  Speaker 7: No, sir.
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: How did he get into his room that night?
• 56:35
  Speaker 7: I don't remember, sir.
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: Last page of the text messages. You can go ahead
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: and read that very top text message, please.
• 56:46
  Speaker 7: Please set your alarm for 6 a.m.
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: I ended up dragging him back to his small room
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: because I wasn't going to risk him having access to
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: the tub or other things overnight.
• 56:53
  Speaker 7: He's still trying to be stupid, but I will tell
• 56:55
  Speaker 7: you more tomorrow while I take you to work describing
• 56:57
  Speaker 7: how many different ways I proved that he's still faking.
• 56:59
  Speaker 7: He's still doing it, though. It's beyond ridiculous.
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: I ended up dragging him back to his small room
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: because I wasn't going to risk him having access to
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: the tub or other things overnight. The plan was for
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: him to sleep in the bathroom, wasn't it?
• 57:18
  Speaker 7: I don't remember, sir. I mean, I know that in
• 57:22
  Speaker 7: the text message, but that's what the text message says.
• 57:24
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: And you had to drag him back to the small room. Again,
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: the small room being the closet, right?
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 57:32
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir.
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: Supposedly that he wanted to sleep in.
• 57:34
  Speaker 7: Yes, sir.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: But you had to drag him there.
• 57:36
  Speaker 5: Why was that?
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: Dragging, I mean, that could be anywhere from grabbing hold
• 57:40
  Speaker 4: of an arm because someone's not being cooperative.
• 57:45
  Speaker 7: That can be a range of things, sir, so I
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: don't know what I was referring to there.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Her answer to everything is to acknowledge the evidence that
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: shows she did it, but has no memory of doing it.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: You cannot be this nonchalantly absent-minded about what happened in
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: the hours before your child's death. You texted that you
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: dragged him, but that word could have meant a number
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: of things, and you don't remember what you meant by
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: dragged when you took your child to the closet where
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: he died a few hours later? Fuck you, lady. Her
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: memory is a blank for everything that shows she's a
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: horrible person, but when the prosecutor accidentally said Timothy was
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: 108 pounds on a certain date, she immediately corrected him
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: that Timothy was 104 pounds. Her memory is fine. She's
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: doing everything she can to not take any accountability for
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: her actions despite the evidence against her. Any decent person
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: who sees this amount of documentation about the long-term abuse
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: of their child would show some regret and apologize for
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: their actions. Shonda either blames Paul or claims she can't
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: remember doing it. She's one of the most horrible people
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: I've ever covered. I think that I received some documents
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: that would have normally been redacted, and I think the
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: coverage of this case minus those details has made people
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: underestimate Shonda and Paul's actions. There are some documents that
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: came from Oklahoma DHS that I didn't use in this
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: video because I don't think it would have been right
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: to publish that information, but I can guarantee you that
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: Shonda is much worse than I've ever seen the media
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: portray her. I'm going to make a video where I
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: read all of Shonda and Paul's text messages to each
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: other while displaying the printouts as I read, so you
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: can expect that within the next few days. The rest
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: of her testimony is just her making excuses for her
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: actions and lying. When the prosecutor brought up a text
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: message where Shonda called Timothy a dummy, she claimed she
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: was just upset and would never say that to his face.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: But remember this? Yeah, she said it to his face. Fortunately,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: the jury didn't believe her nonsense and relied on the
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: clear documentation that she and her son made while they
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: were abusing Timothy to death. Shonda Vander Ark was sentenced
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: her sentencing, the judge said, quote, I'm not going to
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: let you hide in the darkness anymore. People know what
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: you are now. I can't wrap my mind of how
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: someone could do something so horrific, not just to another
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: human being, but their own child. Before we reach the
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: exciting conclusion of this episode, I just want to remind
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: you that we're trying to hit a million subscribers this year.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: So before you go, take a moment to subscribe to
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: the channel. Even better, tell someone else about the channel
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: so they can subscribe too. Then make sure you both
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: turn on notifications so you always know when a new
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: episode airs. You can also support the channel by checking
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: out our merch at thisismonsters.com. A link is in the description.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: Your support is appreciated, and be kind to each other.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: The following day, Shonda's parental rights of her youngest son, Gabriel,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: were removed and he's now being raised by his paternal grandparents.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Shonda has been back in court in an attempt to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: get a new trial. There hasn't been a decision due
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: to delays because Shonda constantly claims she's sick. You know,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: because she self-diagnosed every ailment she could possibly think of
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: in order to get sympathy and special treatment behind bars.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Her complaint is that her lawyer said something to the
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: jury she didn't agree with, but unless it changed the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: outcome of the verdict, it's not likely she'll be granted
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: a new trial. It's been reported that both her and
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Paul have complained that the food in prison is not good,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: and Shonda has complained that her cell is cold.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 5: Uh-huh.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Isn't that awful? At the end of the day, a
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: lot of people failed Timothy. His father, Eric, sent him
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: to live with someone who was not supposed to have
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: custody of him. The state of Oklahoma didn't follow up
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: with his whereabouts after he was sent to Michigan. He
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: was just pulled out of school and disappeared and nobody
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: questioned it. Nobody that knew the family in Michigan ever
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: checked on the teen after Adam had a stroke. Those
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: things would have helped, but the most important thing is
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: that Shonda Vander Ark and her 20-year-old son Paul Ferguson
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: actively abused Timothy so severely that he died. He starved
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: to death, not because they neglected to take care of him,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: but because they actively tortured him. They documented months of
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: physical and mental torture where they refused to let him eat,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: locked him in a closet, punished him with the hottest
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: hot sauce they could find on the internet, and made
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: him sit in ice baths for hours. They both knew
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: exactly what they were doing while they were doing it,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: and it's an insult to the rest of society that
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: they want us to believe they loved him and they
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: were doing what they thought was best for him. Things
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: that Shonda admits she would never even consider doing to
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: her dogs. Timothy was said to have been a loving
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: child who enjoyed many things in his life. He deserved
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: better than the monsters that he got. You can always
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: follow the channel on Instagram at thisismonsters and purchase merch
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: at thisismonsters.com. Thanks so much, and be safe.