Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Breaking News! Missing Colorado mom's fiance' arrested on murder charge; Little boy locked under stairs & starved

Episode Date: December 21, 2018

Just as Nancy Grace goes to air, Colorado authorities arrest the fiance of missing Colorado mom Kelsey Berreth. Nancy shares this news and gives her reaction. Also, the step-siblings of a 5-year-old boy, who was starved and forced to wear a diaper while locked in a "Harry Potter room" under the stairs reveal they sneaked bread to him to keep him alive before finally calling police. Grace's guests include forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan,  Los Angeles psychoanalyst Dr Bethany Marshall, Seattle lawyer Anne Bremner, former federal prosecutor and child protection advocate Francey Hakes, and Crime Stories reporter Nicole Partin. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. No, it's not Santa. It's Nancy Grace. Are you trying to find the perfect gift for a parent or an expecting parent? Please do not give them another onesie. Don't do it. And not another plastic toy that's going to end up in the trash bin or the garage or sent

to Goodwill this holiday season. Give them something that really matters. And what matters more than protecting their child? I sat down with the smartest people in the world that I know when it comes to child safety, finding missing children, and fighting back against predators. And what I learned is so critical and the information so powerful and important. I want you to have it. I want them as parents to have it. Go to crimestopshere.com for a five-part series with action information that you can use to change your life and protect your child because I have done it myself based on what

they have told me. Give that as a gift, not another onesie, please. Find out how to protect your child out and about at the mall, at the store, at the grocery store, in parking lots, in parking decks, at your home, in your neighborhood. Find out about protection regarding babysitters, nannies, daycare, even protection online. It's the very best gift you can give any parent. Go to crimestopshere.com and join the Justice Nation. Crimestopshere.com. God willing. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. But first, this breaking news update from CrimeOnline.com.

I'm Alan Duke. An arrest in the disappearance of Colorado mom Kelsey Barrett. Her fiancé, Patrick Frazee, has been taken into custody by Woodland Park, Colorado investigators Friday morning. He is the father of Barrett's young daughter. This is a case Nancy Grace has followed closely. Nancy. That's right, Alan. In the last hours, the fiance missing mom, Kelsey Barrett, has been arrested in connection with her death, according to reports. This is what we know right now. Patrick Frazee, the fiance of missing mom of a one-year-old talk girl, Kelsey, has been arrested, hauled away in handcuffs from his home, his sprawling 35-acre ranch.

Now, Barrett, as you know, just 29, flight instructor, mother of a little girl, has been missing since Thanksgiving. Now, according to sources, everything unfolded very rapidly in just the last hours. Police are now saying, Alan, that they no longer believe Kelsey is alive. And I've got to tell you, this is hitting me and so many other moms across the country really hard as we all are getting ready for the holiday season and i'm thinking about kelsey's little girl who will not have mommy or daddy at christmas now on the afternoon of november 22 frazie claimed he picked up the daughter kelly from bereth and police say after that the only signs of bereth were text messages from her cell phone that pinged off a cell phone tower all the way, 800 miles away in Gooding, Idaho.

And coincidentally, those two texts were only the contents of the text to the mom, excuse me, the boss, but not to the fiance. And the text to the boss was saying, I won't be in for a week. So I'm guessing, Alan, if I were to give an educated guess, that police managed to get ping evidence that we have been discussing at CrimeOnline.com and Crime Stories for the past week. Ping evidence possibly placing Frazee's phone at the same location as that mystery ping 800 miles away. That's the best and most educated investigative guess I could give right now. But we wait for this all to unfold, and we also are trying to find out who has baby Kelly.

It's just a big disappointment. The search for Kelsey Barrett has ended. Police now say they are on a mission to find her remains, Alan. Frazee was taken into custody at his Teller County, Colorado home Friday morning and court documents reveal he's charged with first-degree murder. Investigators say they don't believe that Kelsey Berreth is alive. Missing since Thanksgiving Day, Kelsey was seen on security camera video with her one-year-old daughter shopping at a Safeway grocery store in Woodland Park that day. Her cell phone pinged about 800 miles away in Idaho on November 25th. The arrest comes hours after investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Woodland Park Police Department, and FBI returned to

Barrett's home Thursday night. They were seen bringing large brown bags out of the home, but it's unclear what was inside. They searched Frazee's 35-acre ranch last weekend, but they didn't find any signs of the missing woman. This was Woodland Park Police Chief Miles DeYoung a week ago telling reporters about their suspicions then. Based on information developed during the course of this investigation, and because of the length of time, it's been 23 days, that has passed since Kelsey was last seen, our investigators believe that Kelsey's disappearance is more suspicious and that she is not intentionally avoiding efforts to find her. We are looking at all avenues and our focus is on finding Kelsey.

Investigators obtained a search warrant today, correction yesterday, on a property nearby in Teller County, Colorado. That search is currently being conducted. This property is where Patrick Frazee is known to reside. Authorities say the one-year-old daughter who was in Frazee's custody until his arrest is safe, and they're saying very little about that arrest. The arrest warrant is sealed, and Frazee's first appearance in court has not been set. A big question now, if Frazee is guilty, will he do what Colorado dad Chris Watts did recently? Will he reveal where his victim's body is hidden? Watts, who finally admitted to murdering his pregnant wife Shanon and their two

young daughters in August, is serving several life prison sentences, but he avoided the death penalty prosecution by ultimately cooperating with investigators and taking a plea from prosecutors. For the latest on the search for Kelsey Barrett and the evidence against her fiance, go to Nancy Grace's crime and justice website, crimeonline.com. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. CPS insists the boy was just fine when they visited five weeks ago. But you have information about prior abuse. This boy has suffered for a long, long time. Tell us. Well, the abuse that we have seen, of course, is the starvation. We don't know exactly when, but we do know that the child was tasered by the father. There was obviously verbal abuse, physical abuse. He pushed the child. He punished the child by putting the child in the corner.

And when the child acted up, slammed the child's head against the wall, causing bruises. The prior abuse six months ago during the summer in Texas, he left the child in a hot car. The two front windows were rolled down but one inch. It was 98 degrees. And the tenant of the house where the father was doing remodeling work contacted the landlord. The landlord called CPS and CPS was involved. When they saw the child, allegedly what I heard was the child was completely red all over. It was sweating just profusely and in great distress. And CPS did not take the child away. Five weeks ago here in Houston, CPS was called again, allegedly by the babysitter. And the child was starving. I don't know how long the child has been starved, but probably the abuse happened either around that time or after

that time where the taser the starvation pushing the child and locking the child in the closet and leaving you know it is what's been going on what's what we're just learning about would the phrase rot in hell be too harsh because i don't think so this little boy just five years old was starved forced to wear a diaper locked in a quote harry potter room under the stairs this little boy now nine only weighed 29 pounds when he was found. 29 pounds. You know, at that age, I always refer to my son, John David, as my little horse. He already weighed, oh my goodness, up in the 70s and Lucy in the 50s at least. And she's very slight.

This little boy only weighed 29 pounds. In fact, doctors compared him and his state of malnourishment to a Holocaust survivor. How many times does it take to call CPS, Child Protective Services, or DFACS, Department of Family Children's Services, before they actually do something, they are absolutely worthless. And if you're listening, CPS, there, I said it. This little boy locked in a closet, the Harry Potter room, forced to wear a diaper. If you could see the photos that I am looking at, his ribs are literally sticking out. He looks like a skeleton with skin on it.

They forced him to live in a crawl space with exposed nails and wiring surrounding a lone mattress on the floor. You know, there is no punishment that suits these two. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with me. With us, an all-star panel. Dr. Bethany Marshall, renowned L.A. psychoanalyst.

High-profile lawyer out of Seattle. Ann Bremner, former federal prosecutor and the federal czar for child protection, Francie Hakes. Joseph Scott Morgan, special guest, forensics professor at Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and joining me right now, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Nicole Parton. Nicole, I don't know how this little boy even lived. Can you imagine? And congratulations, Nicole Parton, for the adoption, your most recent adoption being final. A more loving heart, I do not know.

And I know, like me, this must tear you up. How'd this little boy even live? Thank you, Nancy. And it is heartbreaking to even consider my son, also five years old. I can't imagine. It's miraculous that the little boy survived. Living in a crawl space, the only food he he was given a piece of bread that his siblings would sneak into him how he survived i do not know his body completely emaciated unbelievable

that he survived as you said no punishment too good and now we are learning his siblings alice and cody recall the moment they opened the cupboard, this crawl space, and called police, ultimately saving his life. Cody said he, quote, freaked out when one day he opened the closet and he saw the state that Jordan was in. His face was actually caved in, bruises all over his body, marks, bruises. His mouth was foaming. What does that mean to Justice Scott Morgan, death investigator? Justice Scott, what does it mean when your mouth is starting to foam? In this particular case, this child is literally digesting his own body.

So when you see this foaming from the mouth, what is happening is this child is going into acute respiratory failure. Many times you'll get this cone that will appear. Lungs begin to break down. Tissue begins to break down all throughout the body. A horrible, horrible way to die, Nancy. Take a listen to this. She was convicted of leaving her stepson, who was then five years old, inside a closet and basically starved him to death. Women's biological children took the stand and told the court that their stepbrother was denied food as punishment. Now, four years ago, the siblings found their then five-year-old stepson

inside a locked closet under the boy was arrested for the act of misdemeanor and denied food as punishment. Now, four years ago, the siblings found their then five year old stepson inside a locked closet under the stairs inside a spring home and pictures showed how malnourished

the little boy was. The siblings also say that the boy was foaming at the mouth inside the closet, which had exposed nails and wires. They also said they could hear the sounds of the child's father, shocking him with a taser. The arresting

agency at the time was the Harris County Precinct for Constable's Office. And the father, Bradley Blymeier, he was convicted back in 2016 and sentenced to 15 years behind bars. Wait a minute. These two already had records, Nicole Parton? They did, Nancy. They both had records. They had both been previously investigated by CPS. Unbelievable that they still had children. Now stepmom was pregnant with yet another child. I can't get it. I don't understand it. You're right. Blumeyer was six months pregnant at the time. Joining me right now, Francie Hakes, former federal prosecutor, federal czar in charge of child protection. Francie, could somebody explain to me why these two had a record for mistreating children and they still had the baby, they still had Jordan, just five years old, beaten, bruised, forced to live in a crawl space, forced to wear nothing but a diaper.

And if he was lucky, the brother or sister could sneak him one piece of bread a day. If he was lucky, usually the brother and sister were too afraid of their mom, of the mom, to give him anything. So this child was so malnourished, he was actually foaming at the mouth near death. That's what you see when a person dies of starvation. They foam at the mouth. I learned that the hard way. Well, Nancy, I think I can explain it to you, actually. It's all about incompetence. It is what we have going on in this country, throughout the country, for CPS services in every state in this country, their emphasis is on family reunification. And I think that means they just ignore the signs and children pay the price. Children don't have

lobbyists. Children don't have lawyers. And so children pay the price of evil people who are free to abuse them and a system who just doesn't care. Custody hearing regarding a six-week-old baby boy ended today without a decision from the judge that boy's mother is facing criminal charges related to a horrible child abuse case in spring. Iowa News News reporter Tracy Clemons is live with the latest on the fate of the child. Tracy? Yeah, Tammy Blymeyer's parents are asking the court for custody of their newest grandchild and his six siblings, but a decision on that is on hold, at least until the end of the month.

And obviously emotional Tammy Blymeyer said four words to us today. I miss my kids. Six of her children were taken after she and her estranged husband, Bradley Blymeier, were charged with child endangerment in March. They allegedly kept her five-year-old stepson, Jordan, in a diaper in a closet inside their spring home. Tammy's attorney, Manny Cayada, says she was a victim, possibly of domestic abuse. Apparently from the testimony we heard, Bradley was very controlling, very prone to violence, and very intimidating. He may have had weapons. And I've heard tell that he told people not to speak about what was going on or he might threaten them. Tammy gave birth to a little boy six weeks ago and in lieu of her child endangerment charge,

a judge issued a writ last week ordering her to surrender baby William to CPS. When they couldn't find her, an Amber Alert was issued. She was not served with the red. The first time that she got served was when the SWAT team surrounded her yesterday and took the baby. Tammy wants her kids back. We'd like to see that baby return. She's still breastfeeding. But today's hearing focused on her parents, who are seeking custody of all seven children. Her mother, Karen Dunn, took the stand. She's the one who called CPS in March to report that Jordan Blymeyer was being abused. She told the court that she made the call,

even though she didn't think Tammy would let her see any of her grandchildren anymore. Okay, yeah, nobody in that family should have any of these children. We are talking about the Tammy Blymeyer case. A little boy, just five years old, forced to live in a crawl space, starved to the point he was foaming at the mouth. That's what happens in the hours just before you die. You lose control of your faculties. You might have bowel movements. You might urinate. You foam at the mouth. Your body is dying. This child covered in bruises and cuts, living in a crawl space. The only thing in there, a lone mattress. And every day, the parents would walk by that locked door,

time after time after time, knowing little Jordan was inside. And she wants her children back over my cold, dead body. Rigor set in my fingers clutching her throat. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, renowned LA psychoanalyst. I don't get it, Bethany. And I learned this anecdotally, which means, you know, like by stories or real life incidents, not statistics I read in a book. I would notice when children were abused very often, not every time, but very often one child would be the target. One child would be molested. Of course, there are plenty of cases where all the children would be

molested or abused. But in a lot of cases, the parents would target one child and the other children would be treated all right. And here is this mother. She's already got six children, has just had another baby. And she's like, oh, why are you taking my baby? Because you starved Jordan half dead. That's why. Why, Bethany? Nancy, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on a young woman I saw who grew up in a family where her mother hated, starved, deprived, and tortured her,

but loved her younger sibling. And in a review of the literature, one of the things I noticed is that there's so many families that choose one child to love and one child to hate. But boy, the child that gets the hatred really gets it. Starvation, torture, beating. You covered a story on your show years ago of a little boy that was chained to a coffee table, and he would have to sit at the foot of the coffee table watching his older siblings eat these wonderful meals. That was one of the forms of torture that the family inflicted upon him. I think with this family, first of all, they're

having child after child. It's like they're growing a cult. They leave little Jordan in a hot car. It's like they wanted to kill him. In milder cases of child abuse, the adults feel that the needs of the child, that the child is bad for having needs. They think the child's greedy, trying to take things or extort things from the family. Often they'll put padlocks on the refrigerator because they are afraid that the child will get up in the middle of the night and eat food. But in this case, this family, I think they took it one step further where they actually took delight in torturing the child. They were sadists, Nancy.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Dr. Bethany Marshall, I know you are a very well-known and famous LA psychoanalyst. But when you throw around psycho terms like sadist, not everybody lives in your world of sadomasochism and when you say something like sadist please explain that i mean hold on i just got to ask amber i'm a question amber i'm with me high profile seattle lawyer don't you just love it or at least i always do when i'd be trying a case and i get on the elevator and there'd be other lawyers on there and they'd be spouting off like Latin terms and kind of like showing off their legal knowledge you know juries and regular people like us don't like that okay because hey we don't know Latin and it's kind of a I'm smarter than you thing not Not you, Dr. Bethany.

We'd never say that about you. Of course not. Don't you just love that when the other side is doing it? I would just always smile on the inside. I wouldn't dare smile in court. Big time. Falsest in unum, falsest in pluriam. Okay, there you go.

I was just saying don't do that and you did it. I don't even know what that means. What does that mean? False in one, false in all. Okay. Why did I go to her, Bethany? I lost my head. I never use Latin. So Bethany, explain to me what you mean by they're sadist. Sadism is when an individual takes pleasure in inflicting pain upon another person. We see this with serial killers. They don't just shoot the victim or hit them on the back of the head. They face them while they're strangling them so they

can see the pain in their eyes. They love inflicting pain. It's arousing. It's satisfying. It makes them feel good. So I would imagine... Do you connect everything to sex, Bethany? Because I remember starting our HLN show every night when you would be on and Dean my then uh executive producer would have a bet how long it would take you to connect whatever happened to what a sexual sadomasochism I don't care what it was there would be a way and, when you'd say it would make perfect sense. Okay, not not saying you're wrong, because I'm just a trial lawyer. Okay, you're the famous shrink, not me. But how can you get joy?

Or, as you say, arousal out of beating a child? And I don't know, all of a sudden it just hit me. I thought of somebody pushing John David or Lucy in a crawl space, a dark crawl space, and making them stay there for years with nothing but a mattress and getting one piece of bread a day. How can you get joy from that? Nancy tasing the little boy, exposed. I've got to take this mic off and go straight and check on the children because this has me so upset.

How do you get joy from that? You know, it's complicated, but I would say I think of sociopathy where the sociopath, not even a sociopath, a psychopath. One of the things that delineates the psychopath from the sociopath is the infliction of pain, that they get pleasure out of inflicting pain. And the reason for this is that they have very empty inner lives. I know this sounds bizarre the way I'm saying it, but it's true. And there's something about inflicting pain that makes them feel alive, better than the other. They're glad they're not in that other person's position. In this case, this father in this family may have felt almost like a cult leader, like he's churning out child after child, and he's the king of them all. And they're all frightened, and it makes him feel better then.

It makes him feel good. And sadism is one of the five perversions. Here I'm taking it back to sex again, but it is one of the five perversions. So it's very linked with deviant sexuality. So I think of it. What are the other perversions? Just curious. Okay. Sadism. It's actually Jackie.

She wants to know. Go ahead. Voyeurism, looking at an unsuspecting person. Exhibitionism, exposing oneself in public, frauderism, which is rubbing oneself up against an unsuspecting person in public, sadism, and pedophilia, which is having sex with children. Well, you certainly know how to start off a morning or an evening. Dr. Bethany Marshall, hold on just for a moment. Listen to this, guys. How do you have a child in that condition in your home and not notice it? Well, whatever happened to Jordan happened within a small time frame. My life was just so

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How do you have a child in that condition in your home and not notice it? Well, whatever happened to Jordan happened within a small time frame. My wife was just so busy with the other kids. I mean, I had one baby. I was still breastfeeding. I was pregnant at the time, and I had five of my own children that I was taking to doctor's appointments, you know, band, soccer. Brad was responsible for taking care of Jordan, and everywhere that he went, Jordan went too. But you were this child's stepmother. He was living in your home. Do you not look back and say, how did I miss this?

I do all the time. What do you say to yourself about that? I ask myself the same questions. How do you miss something like that? I mean, you can't go back. You can't change it. But you think about everything that you do every day, and you think about all the chaos and everything going on

and everybody in and out. Who was responsible for feeding this child? Brad. Did you know he wasn't feeding him? I mean, he's obviously malnourished. He's obviously dehydrated. We know now from the medical records that they had to start a refeeding process with him on a tube. He could only process 300 calories at a time.

He was so malnourished. And I didn't understand any of that because I did see him eat. And he was eating when the police showed up. I gave him food myself. Oh, my stars. You are hearing our friend, Dr. Phil, who actually goes on a tour of the home. This little boy, just five years old, was starved, forced to wear a diaper, locked in a, quote, Harry Potter room under the stairs, weighing just 29 pounds. Listen.

This is the closet. Okay. Now, what's interesting about it is if you open it, and I'm probably gonna, it's actually off the hinge. Uh-huh. And you may have to do it. All right, let me see. But it's off this hinge, and it's been that way for quite a while. It comes open. Okay, got it. I got it. And then if you go back here. Let me help you with it. How long have these clothes been in here? They stay here. But back here, if you move all of the stuff, which is why it's just ridiculous that the 16-year-old says that this is where he stayed.

There's baby clothes and baby items. All right, so this is the stairway because it's slanted there. Yes. Okay, so this is what, maybe four by three? What the 16-year-old was saying is that Jordan actually had to stay in that room. Back in here. Right.

And as you can see, not possible. And these are all the one-year-olds, because this is where it's basically her closet. And I think you can see the plastic drawers where all of her stuff is. So for her to get to her one-year-old's stuff, she went under a solid row of clothes, got down on her knees, opened this, and got stuff up for her one-year-old? When you have six kids, you do what you can.

I can show you also, I mean, this is where some of her kids' shoes are. She keeps her shoes in the living room over there and her clothes in a closet upstairs. So Tammy's position that this child was never kept in this closet? Never kept in the closet. Never punished by being put in this closet? Never punished by being put in the closet upstairs. So Tammy's position that this child was never kept in this closet? Never kept in the closet. Never punished by being put in this closet? Never punished by being put in the closet. Was never in here, never in this cubbyhole crawl space? It didn't happen.

What? You hear a woman defending how the boy was kept and saying how big the closet was and it wasn't as it was described. Nicole Parton, the cops got there and they found where as it was described. Nicole Parton, the cops got there and they found where the boy was living. And it was exactly as we are saying. A lone mattress in there. The boy starved within hours of death, foaming at the mouth, forced to wear nothing but a diaper at age five,

covered in cuts and bruises. Describe the scene, Nicole Parton. Nicole Parton, joining me, reporter with CrimeOnline.com. Go ahead, Nicole. It was exactly as we have been describing. They found this tiny crawl space underneath the stairwell. You can imagine the tiny size of this little hole where he was being forced to stay. Nothing in the room except a lone mattress, nails protruding out of the walls and out of the roof because he's living in a stairwell, an unfinished room. So there's no sheetrock. There's nothing like that to protect him. Wires hanging down, his body fully emaciated, bruises, sores. It was exactly as we are describing. Unbelievable. Some authorities say

it was the worst condition they had ever seen a little boy who was still alive. Listen, where was this closet in the house, to your understanding? Underneath the stairs. This is how they were able to hide him. When CPS and the police came out, they had an extra little room inside of the room in the closet.

And it was just a small little cubby hole. But if you put stuff in front of it, you can't even tell that there's a door there. The children called it the Harry Potter room. Yeah. Because it was hidden. What did he tell you about the closet? I asked him if he had a bed, and he, that's when he told me he had one upstairs, but not downstairs.

And I asked him, did you have a blanket? And he said, no. I said, what about a pillow? No. I asked him if he had gone to a doctor or a dentist, and he told me no. I understand that he said that he was locked up with a padlock under the stairs, given drugs to sleep when people came over to the house. I was told by some of Brad and Tammy's family friends

that they were giving Jordan ADHD medication. I was also told that they were giving him antidepressants to keep him groggy so that when police or anything came over, so they just didn't have to deal with him but not let him out just they told the other children in the house that if they went down there and tried to help him that they would get hurt to ann bremner joining me high profile seattle lawyer the this type of case is one of her many specialties and bremner what's crazy is when you look at their home, the yard is well kept, there's shrubs and bushes, the home looks fine. Neighbors had no idea what was going on. And if

you look at the stepmother, Blimeyer, Tammy Blimeyer, she looks like a soccer mom that would pull up at some fancy private school and pick up her kids. You would never know. She's starving and beating a child to death and letting this new stepfather do the same thing. Well, absolutely. But CPS knew. I mean, that's the thing is, I think we need in every... They're worthless. CPS is worthless. I really think they should be criminally charged as well because they had been to the home and they left the boy there. Exactly. And you know, when we see often in many states, including mine, where their emphasis is on reunifying families at any cost and not the best interest of the child.

And, you know, I have the Susan Cox Powell case where that exactly that happened. Remember where Josh, you know, it was found with those kids. He was responsible for Susan's disappearance, for her homicide. A judge had found that. And he was living in a home with a noose hanging from the ceiling, with his dad, with all the porn. Remember, Stephen Pellett, all this porn and pictures of Susan, et cetera. And he was the suspect in his wife's disappearance. Nevertheless, CPS let him visit with those boys and he killed him with a hatchet and blew up the house you know and you look at things like that and you think what you know reason dictates that if there's danger you take those kids you don't let them be with that parent and so shame on cps and like you said they should be criminally responsible as well and what really drives me crazy to francy hakes guys francy

hakes former federal prosecutor uh typically on the other side of the fence from Ann Bremner. But Francie Hakes was appointed as the federal, for the entire United States, czar for child protection. Francie Hakes, it's amazing to me that nobody on the outside knew what was going on and how these people could walk by that closet every single day knowing that Jordan was in there starving. You know, Nancy, your prosecutor's instincts are still dead on because that's exactly what I would have argued to the jury in this case. Talking about how many times every single day that those parents walked by that closet and neglected their child. How every single act, every single minute of that neglect should have been a new charge of abuse. It doesn't surprise me that the neighbors didn't know because you can keep a child in the closet. How are the

neighbors supposed to know? But who is charged with knowing, Nancy? Who is supposed to be protecting that child besides his parents? The government. The government agency in charge of making sure we don't abuse our children. Child protective services. The facts. And they utterly and absolutely failed. I can't help but agree with you.

I don't think they'll be criminally charged. But boy, wouldn't I like to look at the statutes in that state. This little boy, just five years old, was starved, forced to wear a diaper, locked in a, quote, Harry Potter room under the stairs. The boy, little Jordan, weighing just 29 pounds. Listen to what happened in court. Are we the jury having found the defendant Tammy Blymeyer guilty of injury to a child? Her face buried in her hands as the judge read Tammy Blymeyer's fate. Assess her punishment and confinement in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for 28 years. Blymeyer nearly starved to death. Her then

five-year-old steps on and kept him in a small closet under the stairs. Once the judge read the sentence, Blymeier's children were overcome with mixed emotions inside the courtroom. Her 18 year old son Cody speaking on behalf of his siblings during the victim impact statement. It's no mystery why we're all here. You made a big mistake and ultimately have to face the consequences. I'm up here to ask a rhetorical question of how could you put your children through all that. Her 21-year-old son Dylan, notified authorities of torture, also spoke. I love you and I'll never forget all the good things that happened and the good things that you did for us. I hope that you take care of yourself and fix whatever led you to this point.

Harris County District Attorney's Office is calling this sentence justice. This was a very bittersweet moment. Jordan suffered a very terrible injury at the hands of his biological father and Tammy Blymeier. And as you heard, Jordan's biological father played a part in his abuse. He pled guilty in 2016 and was sentenced to 15 years behind bars. Jordan is now staying with his biological mother. When I walked into that room, the child laying in that bed had the same eyes and the same smile and the same voice, but he did not look like the baby that I had seen two years before that.

And it tore my heart up. What did you say to him when you first saw him? I told him that I missed him so much, and that I promised that I would never, never be away from him again. You know, the sister and brother, Cody and Allison, actually testified against the evil mother, Tammy Blymeyer, in a horrific child abuse case. And they described how their five-year old stepbrother, Jordan, would go days and days and days without food unless they managed to sneak a tiny piece of bread to him and risk the wrath of their mom and stepdad. They say how they wish someone would have acted sooner. They were too afraid to. They had reached out to teachers and friends to tell them about the little brother, but nobody seemed to do anything.

The dad, Brad Blymeyer, would beat and starve and even taser baby Jordan for no reason at all, keeping him locked in a cold, dark hole within a cupboard under the stairs. It wasn't even big enough for Jordan to stand up in. Slowly, Jordan had everything stripped away from him, food, clothes, even his pillow and blanket. He would be left wearing nothing but a diaper in that tiny crawl space surrounded by nails and exposed wires. His brothers and sister would say he would, quote, disappear for days to the extent they would think he was out of the house. But actually, he was locked in his tiny room, his jail cell, that's called the Harry Potter cupboard, because it's in under a crawl space. I just don't understand it. The brother says, the day I opened the closet and saw him in the worst shape I had ever seen him in. I'm just overwhelmed. In a diaper, covered in bruises and scrapes.

And on the back of his head, Jackie and I are looking at a picture right now, you see a huge bruise on the back of his head that looks like it's been bleeding. She said the 16-year-old doesn't respect the father, so he's lying about the abuse. Yeah, that's what they told everybody. But that year old he's a hero if he wouldn't have done for my son what he did and allowed himself to be beaten up by Bradley because he was trying to help Jordan my son

we would probably be having a funeral for him right now. And he picked him up. He picked Jordan up and gave him to Sister Allison. And it's just amazing to me. I'm looking at a photo of the little boy they took for trial purposes. And his legs looked like bones with skin on them. You know, the other children were also mistreated to a tiny degree. Dr. Bethany, for instance, the mom would take away the brother and sister's cell phones and not let them communicate with the outside world. So is there any way, Bethany, that this woman could be rehabilitated?

Not that I care. I want her to rot in hell. No, she cannot be rehabilitated, Nancy. This pattern of abuse reminds me of an adult female mother who came to my practice who was very preoccupied with talking about her 13-year-old daughter. And she was obsessed with the perimeter of the daughter's room. The idea that the daughter sometimes crossed the threshold to come out into the hallway or would look out the screen window because boys would come to the screen window. And there was all these thoughts about the daughter escaping. And I eventually realized about two sessions in that the mother had actually jailed

the daughter in her bedroom with all this obsessional content about the daughter escaping or getting away. Well, needless to say, I had to call CPSS, and it was a big deal. But I think this idea that you're going to escape, you're my property, I own you. If you get out into the world, something bad is going to happen. These types of thoughts predominate for abusive parents. So I am not surprised that they took away the other children's cell phones. And probably, Nancy, I mean, Cody and Allison were probably so brainwashed by their parents. The fact that they actually told teachers and helped to save their little brother is,

it's just so admirable to me because many siblings don't. They're just simply too afraid. Listen to this. This is a quote from the brother when he picked up Jordan. Quote, it was like I wasn't holding anything. He was so light. It wasn't like holding a kid at all. He was so, so white and his cheeks were sunken and he smelled terrible. I hadn't seen him at all for a week before this and he was scared and he didn't know what was happening. And I told him everything would be okay. He describes that the stepdad was aggressive with baby Jordan. And it was quote like he was trying to make Jordan suffer. And I thought it was weird, but it started getting worse. He would hit him around the back of the head, take off his belt and hit him with the belt, throw him around, throw him on the ground. With the food, it started being taking one dinner

away from him. Then it turned into dinner and lunch. Then it turned into nothing at all. May they both, can I just say it one more time, rot in hell. The boy now recovering, I don't know if he will ever recover emotionally and mentally, but this is going on in homes all around the country. God help us. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.