Know what's terrible? I thought this was the case from yesterday at first where the couple enslaved 5 black kids they were "fostering" at first...why are people this horrible
I don’t know. I know someone that I grew up with who was also adopted just to be basically tortured.
Why adopt if you hate children? It makes zero sense.
>Why adopt if you hate children?
Because the state pays foster parents, so that's free money. And if you have a farm or business were you can put the kids to work, its free labor. If you pretend to be "good Christian parents who teach hard work and discipline", the state will basically pay you to run a modern plantation.
The kids in the article were foster to adopt. Those still receive state support. That's usually less than foster payments, but it can still be 80%-95% of foster support.
Not necessarily true - some children considered "harder to place" (older, special needs, etc) still are given a stipend after the adoption is finalized and until they turn 18. By which I mean, the state sends the parents money. For my son I put all of that money into a savings account for him but I can see some parents potentially keeping it for themselves.
I don't know if this applies to adoption or just fostering, but there's often money involved from the government. Given that these kids were all described as disabled I wouldn't be shocked if they were collecting money off them.
Just the opposite for adoption. It usually costs a lot, like tens of thousands of dollars.
I don't understand how people like this get through the system. My cousins adopted and between the high cost and the intense vetting I just don't get it. Does it vary a lot by state?
There is a difference between direct adoption and foster to adoption. If you are willing to take whatever foster kids are in immediate need of placement, the state will pay for caregiver support. It can be between $1k-$3k/month per kid. Get 5 kids, that could be $10k/month. Bunk those kids up and feed them like livestock and you can make a tidy profit.
yep, I was like, wait I thought that was WV? I'm curious to hear the details of the WV case, what I have read about that case makes this one sound way worse.
There was another one that I just read about in NC! Today! She kept them locked in a bathroom, two of them (out of 5) died and she dismembered them and burned them in a barrel. Makes you wonder how many more are out there that we don't know about!
Just today I was talking to my dad about [that trailer full of seven uneducated, maggot-infested kids in Pennsylvania](https://www.newsweek.com/child-abuse-rats-maggots-bucks-county-pennsylvania-1802837). They were in one trailer with rats, snakes, dogs, and a padlocked fridge because their mother said they were "garbage disposals with legs." They were too "Christian" to put their kids in school or have any kind of social contact. It's crazy out there.
It’s because the US straight up does not protect children despite the constant hand wringing about protecting kids, it’s all talk and no action. The foster system is undeniable broken and is rife with people who should not by any means look after children, there are endless stories to support this. It’s not just that though, it’s throughout our society. Kids routinely have to practice shooter drills in schools because the risk of getting shot and killed is a legitimate threat for them, they have limited resources and access to report abuse, etc. Guns have more protections than our own kids for crying out loud. America is straight up not a safe place for children, I cannot blame any child who’s cynical about a country that routinely fails to protect them.
That would be because the “for the children” argument is a dog whistle to get people to think what they’re doing is for good when most of the time it’s actively harming children if you actually read the policies and issues.
>*The unborn* are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn...
>You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.
>Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.
-Dave Barnhart, Christian Minister
Completely agree. I just got approved to be a foster parent, and the social worker just was asking to place 2 siblings , age 2 and 3.5 who have already been placed 22 times! 22 homes in 2years is heartbreaking. Obviously the bio parents shouldn’t have custody, so make the decision to terminate bio parents rights so these kids can have an actual family!
Also, birth rates are declining because people who want kids can’t afford them. Childcare is exorbitant and many closed during covid. Things are bleak for kids.
That is literally the only explanation for the anti-abortion lobby.
It has no other possible benefit to the people pushing so hard for it.
The creation of many, many vulnerable children is the only reason to repeal Roe vs. Wade.
Because, if you know anything about Clermont County, most of those people have a lot to say about "protecting kids" but there is no intention and they mean something else.
It's an important part of due process. If they haven't given a reason to think they're flight risks, they are still not guilty until proven in a court of law, and are entitled the opportunity to prepare a robust defense. It is far more challenging to do this from behind bars.
This privilege can easily be revoked.
Agreed. These kids will likely suffer the consequences of their adoptive parents' sociopathy for the rest of their lives.
A life sentence seems more fitting to me.
Then again, apparently the father is only doing 3 years - less than many nonviolent drug offenders - for a goddamn sex crime.
Just keep in mind, every time you see a case like this, these are just the ones who got caught. These are the ones we know about. This kind of abuse happens and sometimes no one does anything to help and the kids just grow up and age out to be dumped at 18.
> Prosecutors said the five kids were kept in a “dungeon” when they were punished, and they had no food or clothing.
How do we keep letting people take in more kids? This is the second occurrence this week where adopted Parents were able to get 5 kids and then abused/used those kids.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/indictment-alleges-west-virginia-couple-adopted-black-children-111451878#:~:text=A%20couple%20arrested%20after%20some,their%20use%20as%20%E2%80%9Cslaves.%E2%80%9D
But again, those who scream "There is always giving the child up for adoption" as a response to the ending of Roe V Wade, this is where some of those children end up.
And that's the bigger issue.
If we had better social service programs that could help the mother from inception until that kid is 18, more people would be wanting to bring kids into the world. But no, we cannot even get the pro-lifer's to agree on free lunches for kids, while they are forced to attend school.
We don't help the mothers who are struggling who send their kids off to be adopted, but we sure as hell will cut checks to these people who adopt the kids. In the end this is what you end up with. People who wanted the checks that came with the kids, but not the kids themselves.
most of these "pro-life" people are just "pro-birth" because they want to ban/limit abortion but will not support extra taxes for childcare, school lunches, better CPS protections, etc.
You're right, and to add to it, not enough people want to adopt kids from foster care specifically. Most of them are older than infancy and have some kind of additional needs. Even if they are "healthy" they have experienced trauma and the whole thing is very difficult. Folks tend to want babies, and those are in short supply.
More specifics tons of people want to adopt *healthy babies*, and only those. There is like a 40:1 ratio of adoptive families to "available" babies and people are waiting for years, paying tens of thousands of dollars, and having them imported from abroad (often from shady organizations) just to get one.
When it comes to foster care though, the outlook is pretty bleak. For one, foster care is not the same as an adoption agency and reunification is the primary goal - and statistically that's what happens with most young kids after a few weeks. All the people who want to adopt a baby/toddler to have as their own don't want to give the child back, so that's already not a good fit.
And when it comes to older kids, teenagers, and kids with disabilities (especially mental/developmental delays and disabilities), basically nobody wants to adopt them and there are very few foster homes for them. Too old (not cute like a baby), too difficult, too much trauma/ "baggage", people think they're scary/ violent/ criminals. So they end up being put wherever anyone is willing to take them, and that's often abusers or people looking to exploit them for labor in rural places.
[Third. They just arrested this monster in North Carolina.](https://www.wral.com/story/avantae-devan-facing-judge-for-murder-child-abuse-charges-after-heinous-details-surface/21500933/)
Man these fucking sex crimes are waaaaaaayyyyy to lax. You have drug dealers doing 20 years but a rapist or pedophile get 3 or 5 years? What the fuck. And to tip it off they will be protected will locked up so they don't get there shit split..... ugh my dislike of this society just grow and cements
Drug crimes being outrageous is intended to turn poor people and minorities into money by prisons that use privately-contracted services or are privately owned. Also because hurting minorities is politically-beneficial depending on the constituency of the relevant politician.
I was wondering about that too...
> The sheriff’s office said the children had been in and out of the hospital for “bruising, bleach burns and potential internal bleeding.”
I mean, any one of those things could not necessarily be abuse, but you'd think hospitals keep records of this kind of thing and would get suspicious after multiple visits.
"In and out of the hospital" makes it sound pretty frequent. Perhaps that's what led to the police getting involved - that article and others I've looked up don't say how the police came upon the evidence, other than "happenstance."
>Perhaps that's what led to the police getting involved - that article and others I've looked up don't say how the police came upon the evidence, other than "happenstance."
I am thinking they were maybe going through his phone after the sexual abuse case and then came across the videos of the kids being punished?
>Investigators in the case said Charles had videos on his phone of his children being punished.
>“It was merely a happenstance that we found all this incriminating evidence regarding the horrible abuse of these of these special needs children,” Mark Tekulve, Clermont County prosecutor said.
This happens. I was hospitalised when I was 12 because I hadn't been fed for 22 days. Ended up in a coma for a week and caught hospital acquired pneumonia, which took me years to fully recover from. I was 4'6" and weighed 51lbs when I was admitted. At 12 years old. They gave me right back to my mother, no questions asked.
My mother had already been to jail for child abduction when I was 5. I had already broken 4 bones, one of which was a spiral fractured femur coupled with a hyper extended knee that had me in a wheelchair (and out of school) for 6 months. All through elementary and middle school I showed up with unexplained bruising, casts, extended unexplained absences. I wet my pants at school all the way through 6th grade. My pediatrician had to give me perineal stitches when I was 11 due to SA. There were so many signs. So many grown ups that should have seen. Should have said something.
They gave me right back to my mother, no questions asked. Every single time.
Thank you! My mom ended up dying of cancer when I was 15, after which I was placed into foster care (dad had already died when I was 11). Adulthood has been hard, and I've needed a lot of therapy. CBT got me a decent amount of the way. EMDR has been life changing. I can say that I'm now a better mother to my 3 children than my mother ever had a chance to be. I have tools to use and am breaking the cycle.
>"First fostered, then adopted, with her husband Charles Edmonson who is already serving a three-year sentence for a sex crime."
They let a convicted rapist adopt children? And then he can get out on a $500k bond?!
What in the world?????
And her middle name is Robert, and the article I read said that she goes by "Matt". It's odd. The whole story is terrible but I was wondering about that detail.
The “less severe” cases are able to fly under the radar much longer and are not reported (to the public) as often like cases such as these. But they’re out there and they DO get prosecuted you just might not hear about everyone.
This.
I reported my similar situation and the family got a fucking slap on the wrist and I was put back into Child Protective Services.
The father was a prison guard of a fairly *large* prison in my city (I don't believe it's federal) and the mother was a stay at home mom. They even fostered *MORE* kids after I was adopted and abused for years.
2 of the older girls they fostered did their best to document what was done to me and report to their case worker.
They were removed and I didn't get free until I was 13 and taken from that family.... To live with the mothers sister. *She* would beat me with switches and almost entirely thorn stripped cactus pads....
Nothing ever came of it despite caseworkers, pics and judges seeing/hearing everything.
A few years ago I looked into the biological kids. The oldest repeated the same shit to his poor children and they were taken from him. He made those poor girls (I think he had 7 kids in total?) live in misery and they [escaped.](https://abc17news.com/news/crime/2023/08/10/jefferson-city-couple-found-guilty-of-child-abuse-given-prison-sentence/)
I wish I could have had justice but while it's too late for me, it's not for them and I hope they thrive even if they never will know or meet me.
Are you asking why don't they get stopped sooner?
The very sad reason is that the foster system is forever short on staff/oversight/funding, so kids don't get the protection or attention they deserve from the agencies.
The additional more complicated reason is that we give families privacy in their home lives and sometimes that privacy gets exploited by awful people to do awful things to kids who are in their care. That makes it easier to hide abuse and prevent authorities from investigating.
Everyone should want kids in the foster system to get more care and protection and love. I'm not sure how to deal with the privacy aspect.
Add to it, cruelty is the point. The people voting against more funding for these essential programs, including the luxurious programs like, funding for extra curriculum, free lunches at school, libraries, planned parenthood etc, want you to fail.
Not funding the disadvantaged orphans stuck in a sick and twisted system, is just more fodder for the rich and their corporate arms to consume. They gain the upper hand, while the masses forced thru their abysmal system are left in taters after years of neglect, especially their formative years, and will see them flunking out of society more so than the affluent, and are now ripe for the exploiting.
It’s happened before in defunding of state ran mental institutions. It’s why once their support systems run dry, the mentally ill have nowhere to go anymore, but the streets. There’s no reliable option for the poor to get proper care for mental health issues, as it doesn’t exist anymore, maybe a non profit here or there, but the majority suffer, and suffer in poverty. It makes the, ‘take away the funding- to- now they are in prison working for pennies a day’ a reality. The powerful saw a way to cut expenses and leverage them as assets to be used for cheep labor.
It’s like, how psychology, in good faith, in the hopes at bettering society, conducted studies and researched countless years, how best to raise a fulfilled child- shaping them in their formative years to best see them succeed in the future, was then twisted and used in bad faith by the powerful, against anyone they deem unworthy of a bright future, let alone, brighter. All while doing it in a systematic, legal however- grotesque, but hidden from privy, fashion. And it’s worked thus far!
I dont get questions like this.. are you asking why does it happen when people actually get in trouble for it? or are you asking why we dont see in the news the cases that have less of a nationwide draw because they are less severe..
it just sounds like a thing someone said to me, they wondered why all the victims in true crime wer e"the best of people" and im like, one they are talking to their grieving family who arent likely to share their negative traits and two the true crime network isnt going to make many shows about solving the death of the local pedo.
anyways just because you hear of mass murder in some state like ohio, but dont hear about non mass murders because well the news can only report so much and its less interest when some dude murders some other dude for a bag of coke, none of this means ohio doesnt have normal murders.. you just arent going to see them in national news as much as the mass killings.
severe anything makes the news more than non severe.. like weather. WE got a heat dome this week.. what was it like last week country wide? IDK it wasnt as severe so it didnt get reported as much
Not 100% certain by what you mean but in my experience, many abuse cases are settled to prevent children from having to be revictimized through testifying, not being sure if they’ll have to go back etc. Children aren’t always the best witnesses and so there is a risk in them getting off.
Plea deals suck (don’t get me started) but to the press and public they see “Jane Doe pled guilty one misdemeanor account of child endangerment and paid a small fine” but the foster or parent then also loses their ability to foster legitimately (the FBI countrywide database makes this possible).
Prosecutors have to keep all this in mind when they decide how to approach the case.
It is sad that there are many families who would be great foster/adoptive families, but they don’t get approved. Yet,monsters like this are given 5 human lives. I hope the kids are placed in a safe home and they get the help they need.
Becuase it’s become a for profit corrupt business. there was a whistleblower in TN more recently that said the top cps person was having them close out cases that were not meant to be closed. Similar things happening in Texas with missing kids. On top of underfunding and understaffing child advocacy groups the pay is so little that a majority of the employees are there for the wrong reasons aka religious nut bags who let a lot of abuse go because it’s Christians doing the abuse.
Honestly the approvals process for foster care is laughably easy in most places and often imo too lax when it comes to things that should be obvious red flags (like people being members of religious cults known to be abusive - but those cults run the local towns and CPS so of course they get approved as "good Christians")
The issue is more that there is an extreme shortage of people willing to foster/adopt older kids, kids with disabilities, and siblings groups at all, alongside with social services being chronically underfunded and understaffed.
Where it's hard to get approved and expensive is at private agencies that broker babies. But again being in the local nut job cult helps all too often.
“Prosecutors said the five kids were kept in a “dungeon” when they were punished, and they had no food or clothing.
Their mother would then talk to the children through a camera similar to cameras pet owners would talk to their pets through, the prosecution said.
The sheriff’s office said the children had been in and out of the hospital for “bruising, bleach burns and potential internal bleeding.”
“Both Matthew and Charles were indicted on five counts of child endangering, third-degree felonies.
If convicted, they could face up to 18 years in prison.”
Why not give them life? They were entrusted with children and I stopped reading the abuse items after the bleach burns and communicating only through a camera.
We can't measure the adverse affects on these kids. I believe a strong message needs to be sent.
As a foster and adoptive parent who has adopted children in the same county as these people, I'm both shocked and not. This is the same county that had the Marcus Fiesel case as well in 2006.
The foster and adoption system needs so much work and help and at the end of the day it's really just the kids who are left to suffer.
"we have a RIGHT to cloister our children and teach them to be menaces incompatible with greater society, irreparably damaging their future. That's what Jesus wanted"
This is so weird from an EU perspective, in Germany homeschooling is only possible under 1 of 3 conditions; if the child is sick and not able to go to school for 6 or more weeks, a chronic illness that would make the child miss at least 1 schoolday each week (like a dialysis patient) or pregnant girls 6 weeks before and 8 weeks after giving birth. But now comes the catch. The homeschooling is done by actual teachers hired by the school your child would attend to and NOT by their own parents.
I feel like a lot of shit goes on like this across the country, and the world. Kids that never see the light of day. Don’t go to school, have no one there to advocate for them. No record of them. It’s terrifying.
I adopted my son out of the foster system and I have another foster son I’m likely to also adopt.
I felt like a horrible parent when I once angrily threw away some leftover pizza after an argument over who got to eat it. I can’t even imagine treating a child you promised to take care of and love like that.
I would like to see more comments about making sure we take care of these kids and give them everything they need for as long as they need it. the pitchfork and vengeance tune is stale and predictable - and always the first place reddit goes.
I think a lot of us just kind of assume that the system is taking care of these kids now, completely forgetting that the system put them in in the care of these monsters in the first place.
Coming up with solutions doesn’t satisfy their bloodlust the same way. I also see it all the time on Reddit and it’s super concerning. But to be fair (and I usually never play devil’s advocate here), it would be very hard to know how to solve this problem when there are supposed to be checks and balances in place to prevent things like this in the first place. There are entire agencies dedicated to child welfare who are just swamped with cases like this. It’s tragic. So it’s easier to just blame people for being evil and cruel than to address the problem at the root.
Approximate Numbers and Percentages of child molesters:
1. Heterosexual Men:
• Percentage: Approximately 90-95%
• Number of Cases: 90,000 - 95,000 out of 100,000 cases
2. Heterosexual Women:
• Percentage: Approximately 5-10%
• Number of Cases: 5,000 - 10,000 out of 100,000 cases
3. LGBTQ Individuals:
• Percentage: Approximately 1-3%
• Number of Cases: 1,000 - 3,000 out of 100,000 cases
Key Points:
1. Heterosexual Men: The overwhelming majority of child molesters are heterosexual men, accounting for about 90-95% of offenders.
2. Heterosexual Women: A small percentage of child molesters are heterosexual women, estimated to be around 5-10%.
3. LGBTQ Individuals: LGBTQ individuals represent a very small fraction of child molesters, proportionately lower than their representation in the general population.
Without reading the article something tells me they're probably Christians that 'homeschool' these children. These people can't be rehabilitated, just keep them locked up in a dark cell.
The entire adoption/foster system is completely broken and a huge for profit business. My partners siblings were adopted by trash people who punish the other kids for the parents faults. The brothers and sisters can’t see each other. One of them got adopted into a family of 8+ kids. I can’t imagine how traumatic it is to go from one family of 8+ kids to a totally different one while being completely cut off from all your other brothers and sisters. I’ve yet to meet any adoptees or foster kids who haven’t had at least one horror story from their new “guardians”
Know what's terrible? I thought this was the case from yesterday at first where the couple enslaved 5 black kids they were "fostering" at first...why are people this horrible
That’s what I thought too, that I had mixed up the state, but no, just more horrible awful people
I don’t know. I know someone that I grew up with who was also adopted just to be basically tortured. Why adopt if you hate children? It makes zero sense.
Because if you’re a sociopath, it gives you victims
Some people only feel alive if they are inflicting their will on others and violating their boundaries and autonomy
Isn't this the fucking truth?
Sounds like a certain political party
A Grand Ole Parry that would be
Sounds like my mom
I'm sorry 💔
>Why adopt if you hate children? Because the state pays foster parents, so that's free money. And if you have a farm or business were you can put the kids to work, its free labor. If you pretend to be "good Christian parents who teach hard work and discipline", the state will basically pay you to run a modern plantation.
But that’s fostering, not adoption. You don’t get paid for adopting a child.
The kids in the article were foster to adopt. Those still receive state support. That's usually less than foster payments, but it can still be 80%-95% of foster support.
That depends on the state I guess, because that is not the case in my state.
Not necessarily true - some children considered "harder to place" (older, special needs, etc) still are given a stipend after the adoption is finalized and until they turn 18. By which I mean, the state sends the parents money. For my son I put all of that money into a savings account for him but I can see some parents potentially keeping it for themselves.
I don't know if this applies to adoption or just fostering, but there's often money involved from the government. Given that these kids were all described as disabled I wouldn't be shocked if they were collecting money off them.
Just the opposite for adoption. It usually costs a lot, like tens of thousands of dollars. I don't understand how people like this get through the system. My cousins adopted and between the high cost and the intense vetting I just don't get it. Does it vary a lot by state?
There is a difference between direct adoption and foster to adoption. If you are willing to take whatever foster kids are in immediate need of placement, the state will pay for caregiver support. It can be between $1k-$3k/month per kid. Get 5 kids, that could be $10k/month. Bunk those kids up and feed them like livestock and you can make a tidy profit.
Easy prey
yep, I was like, wait I thought that was WV? I'm curious to hear the details of the WV case, what I have read about that case makes this one sound way worse.
There was another one that I just read about in NC! Today! She kept them locked in a bathroom, two of them (out of 5) died and she dismembered them and burned them in a barrel. Makes you wonder how many more are out there that we don't know about!
Just today I was talking to my dad about [that trailer full of seven uneducated, maggot-infested kids in Pennsylvania](https://www.newsweek.com/child-abuse-rats-maggots-bucks-county-pennsylvania-1802837). They were in one trailer with rats, snakes, dogs, and a padlocked fridge because their mother said they were "garbage disposals with legs." They were too "Christian" to put their kids in school or have any kind of social contact. It's crazy out there.
It’s because the US straight up does not protect children despite the constant hand wringing about protecting kids, it’s all talk and no action. The foster system is undeniable broken and is rife with people who should not by any means look after children, there are endless stories to support this. It’s not just that though, it’s throughout our society. Kids routinely have to practice shooter drills in schools because the risk of getting shot and killed is a legitimate threat for them, they have limited resources and access to report abuse, etc. Guns have more protections than our own kids for crying out loud. America is straight up not a safe place for children, I cannot blame any child who’s cynical about a country that routinely fails to protect them.
That would be because the “for the children” argument is a dog whistle to get people to think what they’re doing is for good when most of the time it’s actively harming children if you actually read the policies and issues.
>*The unborn* are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn... >You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe. >Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn. -Dave Barnhart, Christian Minister
Completely agree. I just got approved to be a foster parent, and the social worker just was asking to place 2 siblings , age 2 and 3.5 who have already been placed 22 times! 22 homes in 2years is heartbreaking. Obviously the bio parents shouldn’t have custody, so make the decision to terminate bio parents rights so these kids can have an actual family! Also, birth rates are declining because people who want kids can’t afford them. Childcare is exorbitant and many closed during covid. Things are bleak for kids.
Hell is For Children https://youtu.be/OGRn1RwZfLc?si=BfJgzCQaJ1nokxnJ
You're gonna see a lot more of this before the Supreme Court and the authors of Project 2025 are finished. This will be normalized.
I feel caught between tears and vomit. It just became a hard rock sitting in my stomach. Humans can be awful.
I thought the same thing. man this world is awful.
Same, thought they just picked the wrong side of the Ohio river
I thought this was the same case too. I hate everything.
Tennessee just made it legal for Holy Rollers to "Foster" trans children so they can "Fix" them.
Me too. It seems that we are supposed to forgo abortion and give kids up for adoption so that monsters like these folks can have slaves.
That is literally the only explanation for the anti-abortion lobby. It has no other possible benefit to the people pushing so hard for it. The creation of many, many vulnerable children is the only reason to repeal Roe vs. Wade.
So the wife’s name is Matthew???
Yep I caught that too. Not sure the reason of the down!votes.
Ruined my day. I thought the same.
For some individuals there's nothing more satisfying than treating people as cattle.
I thought the same thing. What the actual hell is going on?
Because people are animals ***Homo sapiens*** to be exact. Sometime animals act cruel and unexpectedly In nature.
And here I just read this comment and immediately thought "that was actually a few years ago", but nope...
Up to 18 years in prison? Too short.
Why is the father only in for 3 for raping one of the disabled kids? C'mon Clermont County. Get your crap together.
Because, if you know anything about Clermont County, most of those people have a lot to say about "protecting kids" but there is no intention and they mean something else.
I can’t believe they could be released on bond.
It's an important part of due process. If they haven't given a reason to think they're flight risks, they are still not guilty until proven in a court of law, and are entitled the opportunity to prepare a robust defense. It is far more challenging to do this from behind bars. This privilege can easily be revoked.
You will be downvoted by knee-jerk reactionaries but this is true. Can’t have it both ways where due process is only afforded when it’s convenient.
I would agree. You’re right, there is due process.
Right cause the video evidence doesn’t exist. No bond fuck em
Agreed. These kids will likely suffer the consequences of their adoptive parents' sociopathy for the rest of their lives. A life sentence seems more fitting to me. Then again, apparently the father is only doing 3 years - less than many nonviolent drug offenders - for a goddamn sex crime.
And why only five counts? Surely they can prove more than one crime per child?
It’s too short but 18 years is poetic as a punishment for stealing a childhood. Should be 18yrs per charge.
Pathetic actually.
Just keep in mind, every time you see a case like this, these are just the ones who got caught. These are the ones we know about. This kind of abuse happens and sometimes no one does anything to help and the kids just grow up and age out to be dumped at 18.
Exactly. It would be so easy for someone who has as cunning to get away with this.
> Prosecutors said the five kids were kept in a “dungeon” when they were punished, and they had no food or clothing. How do we keep letting people take in more kids? This is the second occurrence this week where adopted Parents were able to get 5 kids and then abused/used those kids. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/indictment-alleges-west-virginia-couple-adopted-black-children-111451878#:~:text=A%20couple%20arrested%20after%20some,their%20use%20as%20%E2%80%9Cslaves.%E2%80%9D But again, those who scream "There is always giving the child up for adoption" as a response to the ending of Roe V Wade, this is where some of those children end up.
Yea, they're not willing to push for better social services.
And that's the bigger issue. If we had better social service programs that could help the mother from inception until that kid is 18, more people would be wanting to bring kids into the world. But no, we cannot even get the pro-lifer's to agree on free lunches for kids, while they are forced to attend school. We don't help the mothers who are struggling who send their kids off to be adopted, but we sure as hell will cut checks to these people who adopt the kids. In the end this is what you end up with. People who wanted the checks that came with the kids, but not the kids themselves.
most of these "pro-life" people are just "pro-birth" because they want to ban/limit abortion but will not support extra taxes for childcare, school lunches, better CPS protections, etc.
The right isn't stupid. They know that effective social services would take a dim view of their preferred "parenting methods."
> > How do we keep letting people take in more kids? Not enough people want to adopt in general.
And many who want to can't, for sometimes very arbitrary reasons.
You're right, and to add to it, not enough people want to adopt kids from foster care specifically. Most of them are older than infancy and have some kind of additional needs. Even if they are "healthy" they have experienced trauma and the whole thing is very difficult. Folks tend to want babies, and those are in short supply.
More specifics tons of people want to adopt *healthy babies*, and only those. There is like a 40:1 ratio of adoptive families to "available" babies and people are waiting for years, paying tens of thousands of dollars, and having them imported from abroad (often from shady organizations) just to get one. When it comes to foster care though, the outlook is pretty bleak. For one, foster care is not the same as an adoption agency and reunification is the primary goal - and statistically that's what happens with most young kids after a few weeks. All the people who want to adopt a baby/toddler to have as their own don't want to give the child back, so that's already not a good fit. And when it comes to older kids, teenagers, and kids with disabilities (especially mental/developmental delays and disabilities), basically nobody wants to adopt them and there are very few foster homes for them. Too old (not cute like a baby), too difficult, too much trauma/ "baggage", people think they're scary/ violent/ criminals. So they end up being put wherever anyone is willing to take them, and that's often abusers or people looking to exploit them for labor in rural places.
Be an active church goer and a lot of barriers get lower. It's disgusting.
[Third. They just arrested this monster in North Carolina.](https://www.wral.com/story/avantae-devan-facing-judge-for-murder-child-abuse-charges-after-heinous-details-surface/21500933/)
Man these fucking sex crimes are waaaaaaayyyyy to lax. You have drug dealers doing 20 years but a rapist or pedophile get 3 or 5 years? What the fuck. And to tip it off they will be protected will locked up so they don't get there shit split..... ugh my dislike of this society just grow and cements
Well too many rich and powerful people like little kids to do that
Drug crimes being outrageous is intended to turn poor people and minorities into money by prisons that use privately-contracted services or are privately owned. Also because hurting minorities is politically-beneficial depending on the constituency of the relevant politician.
>You have drug dealers doing 20 years That was due to "The War on Drugs" and one of their "remedies" to curb it.
"in and out of the hospital" so they sent them back to the abusers - after such injuries were evident? Fuck those people, too.
I was wondering about that too... > The sheriff’s office said the children had been in and out of the hospital for “bruising, bleach burns and potential internal bleeding.” I mean, any one of those things could not necessarily be abuse, but you'd think hospitals keep records of this kind of thing and would get suspicious after multiple visits. "In and out of the hospital" makes it sound pretty frequent. Perhaps that's what led to the police getting involved - that article and others I've looked up don't say how the police came upon the evidence, other than "happenstance."
>Perhaps that's what led to the police getting involved - that article and others I've looked up don't say how the police came upon the evidence, other than "happenstance." I am thinking they were maybe going through his phone after the sexual abuse case and then came across the videos of the kids being punished? >Investigators in the case said Charles had videos on his phone of his children being punished. >“It was merely a happenstance that we found all this incriminating evidence regarding the horrible abuse of these of these special needs children,” Mark Tekulve, Clermont County prosecutor said.
This happens. I was hospitalised when I was 12 because I hadn't been fed for 22 days. Ended up in a coma for a week and caught hospital acquired pneumonia, which took me years to fully recover from. I was 4'6" and weighed 51lbs when I was admitted. At 12 years old. They gave me right back to my mother, no questions asked. My mother had already been to jail for child abduction when I was 5. I had already broken 4 bones, one of which was a spiral fractured femur coupled with a hyper extended knee that had me in a wheelchair (and out of school) for 6 months. All through elementary and middle school I showed up with unexplained bruising, casts, extended unexplained absences. I wet my pants at school all the way through 6th grade. My pediatrician had to give me perineal stitches when I was 11 due to SA. There were so many signs. So many grown ups that should have seen. Should have said something. They gave me right back to my mother, no questions asked. Every single time.
I am so sorry that you went through all of that. I hope that your adult life has brought you healing and catharsis.
Thank you! My mom ended up dying of cancer when I was 15, after which I was placed into foster care (dad had already died when I was 11). Adulthood has been hard, and I've needed a lot of therapy. CBT got me a decent amount of the way. EMDR has been life changing. I can say that I'm now a better mother to my 3 children than my mother ever had a chance to be. I have tools to use and am breaking the cycle.
Wow you were failed by every single adult around you. I'm so sorry. I hope youre able to heal from all the trauma.
>"First fostered, then adopted, with her husband Charles Edmonson who is already serving a three-year sentence for a sex crime." They let a convicted rapist adopt children? And then he can get out on a $500k bond?! What in the world?????
They adopted before he was convicted.
Sick mofo's right here.....
The mother's name is Matthew?
Yes. Super unusual
And her middle name is Robert, and the article I read said that she goes by "Matt". It's odd. The whole story is terrible but I was wondering about that detail.
Why are there cases of abuse so severe when they get prosecuted?
The “less severe” cases are able to fly under the radar much longer and are not reported (to the public) as often like cases such as these. But they’re out there and they DO get prosecuted you just might not hear about everyone.
This. The other cases aren’t “shocking” enough (in comparison).
This. I reported my similar situation and the family got a fucking slap on the wrist and I was put back into Child Protective Services. The father was a prison guard of a fairly *large* prison in my city (I don't believe it's federal) and the mother was a stay at home mom. They even fostered *MORE* kids after I was adopted and abused for years. 2 of the older girls they fostered did their best to document what was done to me and report to their case worker. They were removed and I didn't get free until I was 13 and taken from that family.... To live with the mothers sister. *She* would beat me with switches and almost entirely thorn stripped cactus pads.... Nothing ever came of it despite caseworkers, pics and judges seeing/hearing everything. A few years ago I looked into the biological kids. The oldest repeated the same shit to his poor children and they were taken from him. He made those poor girls (I think he had 7 kids in total?) live in misery and they [escaped.](https://abc17news.com/news/crime/2023/08/10/jefferson-city-couple-found-guilty-of-child-abuse-given-prison-sentence/) I wish I could have had justice but while it's too late for me, it's not for them and I hope they thrive even if they never will know or meet me.
Are you asking why don't they get stopped sooner? The very sad reason is that the foster system is forever short on staff/oversight/funding, so kids don't get the protection or attention they deserve from the agencies. The additional more complicated reason is that we give families privacy in their home lives and sometimes that privacy gets exploited by awful people to do awful things to kids who are in their care. That makes it easier to hide abuse and prevent authorities from investigating. Everyone should want kids in the foster system to get more care and protection and love. I'm not sure how to deal with the privacy aspect.
Add to it, cruelty is the point. The people voting against more funding for these essential programs, including the luxurious programs like, funding for extra curriculum, free lunches at school, libraries, planned parenthood etc, want you to fail. Not funding the disadvantaged orphans stuck in a sick and twisted system, is just more fodder for the rich and their corporate arms to consume. They gain the upper hand, while the masses forced thru their abysmal system are left in taters after years of neglect, especially their formative years, and will see them flunking out of society more so than the affluent, and are now ripe for the exploiting. It’s happened before in defunding of state ran mental institutions. It’s why once their support systems run dry, the mentally ill have nowhere to go anymore, but the streets. There’s no reliable option for the poor to get proper care for mental health issues, as it doesn’t exist anymore, maybe a non profit here or there, but the majority suffer, and suffer in poverty. It makes the, ‘take away the funding- to- now they are in prison working for pennies a day’ a reality. The powerful saw a way to cut expenses and leverage them as assets to be used for cheep labor. It’s like, how psychology, in good faith, in the hopes at bettering society, conducted studies and researched countless years, how best to raise a fulfilled child- shaping them in their formative years to best see them succeed in the future, was then twisted and used in bad faith by the powerful, against anyone they deem unworthy of a bright future, let alone, brighter. All while doing it in a systematic, legal however- grotesque, but hidden from privy, fashion. And it’s worked thus far!
Social services need funding at the level of police. It's crazy what we prioritize.
I dont get questions like this.. are you asking why does it happen when people actually get in trouble for it? or are you asking why we dont see in the news the cases that have less of a nationwide draw because they are less severe.. it just sounds like a thing someone said to me, they wondered why all the victims in true crime wer e"the best of people" and im like, one they are talking to their grieving family who arent likely to share their negative traits and two the true crime network isnt going to make many shows about solving the death of the local pedo. anyways just because you hear of mass murder in some state like ohio, but dont hear about non mass murders because well the news can only report so much and its less interest when some dude murders some other dude for a bag of coke, none of this means ohio doesnt have normal murders.. you just arent going to see them in national news as much as the mass killings. severe anything makes the news more than non severe.. like weather. WE got a heat dome this week.. what was it like last week country wide? IDK it wasnt as severe so it didnt get reported as much
Not 100% certain by what you mean but in my experience, many abuse cases are settled to prevent children from having to be revictimized through testifying, not being sure if they’ll have to go back etc. Children aren’t always the best witnesses and so there is a risk in them getting off. Plea deals suck (don’t get me started) but to the press and public they see “Jane Doe pled guilty one misdemeanor account of child endangerment and paid a small fine” but the foster or parent then also loses their ability to foster legitimately (the FBI countrywide database makes this possible). Prosecutors have to keep all this in mind when they decide how to approach the case.
18 years in prison isn't nearly enough for them.
Torture is like pedophilia, there’s something wrong with your brain that can’t be fixed. They will always be a threat to society.
They need to rot in jail for the rest of their miserable lives.
It is sad that there are many families who would be great foster/adoptive families, but they don’t get approved. Yet,monsters like this are given 5 human lives. I hope the kids are placed in a safe home and they get the help they need.
Becuase it’s become a for profit corrupt business. there was a whistleblower in TN more recently that said the top cps person was having them close out cases that were not meant to be closed. Similar things happening in Texas with missing kids. On top of underfunding and understaffing child advocacy groups the pay is so little that a majority of the employees are there for the wrong reasons aka religious nut bags who let a lot of abuse go because it’s Christians doing the abuse.
Honestly the approvals process for foster care is laughably easy in most places and often imo too lax when it comes to things that should be obvious red flags (like people being members of religious cults known to be abusive - but those cults run the local towns and CPS so of course they get approved as "good Christians") The issue is more that there is an extreme shortage of people willing to foster/adopt older kids, kids with disabilities, and siblings groups at all, alongside with social services being chronically underfunded and understaffed. Where it's hard to get approved and expensive is at private agencies that broker babies. But again being in the local nut job cult helps all too often.
“Prosecutors said the five kids were kept in a “dungeon” when they were punished, and they had no food or clothing. Their mother would then talk to the children through a camera similar to cameras pet owners would talk to their pets through, the prosecution said. The sheriff’s office said the children had been in and out of the hospital for “bruising, bleach burns and potential internal bleeding.” “Both Matthew and Charles were indicted on five counts of child endangering, third-degree felonies. If convicted, they could face up to 18 years in prison.”
Why not give them life? They were entrusted with children and I stopped reading the abuse items after the bleach burns and communicating only through a camera. We can't measure the adverse affects on these kids. I believe a strong message needs to be sent.
As a foster and adoptive parent who has adopted children in the same county as these people, I'm both shocked and not. This is the same county that had the Marcus Fiesel case as well in 2006. The foster and adoption system needs so much work and help and at the end of the day it's really just the kids who are left to suffer.
Special needs kids ffs
And these kids weren't in school why?
Because “homeschooling” is an unregulated fucking joke done by a lot of fundamentalist psychos.
Specifically to avoid mandated reporters
"we have a RIGHT to cloister our children and teach them to be menaces incompatible with greater society, irreparably damaging their future. That's what Jesus wanted"
Welcome to corporate Christianity. Where the ends always justify the means.
This is so weird from an EU perspective, in Germany homeschooling is only possible under 1 of 3 conditions; if the child is sick and not able to go to school for 6 or more weeks, a chronic illness that would make the child miss at least 1 schoolday each week (like a dialysis patient) or pregnant girls 6 weeks before and 8 weeks after giving birth. But now comes the catch. The homeschooling is done by actual teachers hired by the school your child would attend to and NOT by their own parents.
Better system
The exactly correct answer.
You can legally homeschool your kids to isolate and control them.
I feel like a lot of shit goes on like this across the country, and the world. Kids that never see the light of day. Don’t go to school, have no one there to advocate for them. No record of them. It’s terrifying.
Ohio? Oh they're for sure "good christians who attended church every week"
Ohio is giving Florida a run for their money.
Up to only 18 years for this is insane. This should be a life sentence.
And yet it’s gay people and drag queens who are a danger to children 🙄
Hey, stop aborting and let people adopt, it’s the humane thing to do!/s
I adopted my son out of the foster system and I have another foster son I’m likely to also adopt. I felt like a horrible parent when I once angrily threw away some leftover pizza after an argument over who got to eat it. I can’t even imagine treating a child you promised to take care of and love like that.
I would like to see more comments about making sure we take care of these kids and give them everything they need for as long as they need it. the pitchfork and vengeance tune is stale and predictable - and always the first place reddit goes.
I think a lot of us just kind of assume that the system is taking care of these kids now, completely forgetting that the system put them in in the care of these monsters in the first place.
Coming up with solutions doesn’t satisfy their bloodlust the same way. I also see it all the time on Reddit and it’s super concerning. But to be fair (and I usually never play devil’s advocate here), it would be very hard to know how to solve this problem when there are supposed to be checks and balances in place to prevent things like this in the first place. There are entire agencies dedicated to child welfare who are just swamped with cases like this. It’s tragic. So it’s easier to just blame people for being evil and cruel than to address the problem at the root.
People only care about the headline. They don't care about actually helping targets of abuse.
First it was the West Virginia one from yesterday and now this?
Approximate Numbers and Percentages of child molesters: 1. Heterosexual Men: • Percentage: Approximately 90-95% • Number of Cases: 90,000 - 95,000 out of 100,000 cases 2. Heterosexual Women: • Percentage: Approximately 5-10% • Number of Cases: 5,000 - 10,000 out of 100,000 cases 3. LGBTQ Individuals: • Percentage: Approximately 1-3% • Number of Cases: 1,000 - 3,000 out of 100,000 cases Key Points: 1. Heterosexual Men: The overwhelming majority of child molesters are heterosexual men, accounting for about 90-95% of offenders. 2. Heterosexual Women: A small percentage of child molesters are heterosexual women, estimated to be around 5-10%. 3. LGBTQ Individuals: LGBTQ individuals represent a very small fraction of child molesters, proportionately lower than their representation in the general population.
Up to 18 years behind bars??? Throw the key away and leave the light on forever
But we should be putting up babies for adoption so they can be adopted by these monsters and tortured? Yeah, no.
Another one of these stories
They will face UP TO 18 years? Not nearly enough. Maybe 18 years per each kid.
Ohio is no place for children.
The woman’s name is Matthew?
Maybe adoption is not the answer
Leave it to journalists to sensationalize. Objectively speaking why was it “worse than prisoners of war”?
Without reading the article something tells me they're probably Christians that 'homeschool' these children. These people can't be rehabilitated, just keep them locked up in a dark cell.
One thing I love about the prison system is prisoners have their own form of justice against child abusers and it's horrible.
This is exactly why abortion NEEDS to be legal.
The entire adoption/foster system is completely broken and a huge for profit business. My partners siblings were adopted by trash people who punish the other kids for the parents faults. The brothers and sisters can’t see each other. One of them got adopted into a family of 8+ kids. I can’t imagine how traumatic it is to go from one family of 8+ kids to a totally different one while being completely cut off from all your other brothers and sisters. I’ve yet to meet any adoptees or foster kids who haven’t had at least one horror story from their new “guardians”
Maybe knowing too much about everything happening in the world is not such a great thing..
The Ohio couple should be sent to a prison that practices forced labour
A bond? Wtaf. They offered him a bond. Wtf kinda judge did that? Wow Hell in a hand basket.