Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Grandmom’s story: ‘Boy who was fed to pigs’ Adrian Jones

Episode Date: June 2, 2017

Judy Conway never again saw Adrian Jones after social workers handed the 3-year-old over to his biological father. The father and his wife denied the grandmother visits with the boy and his siblings over the next four years. We now know Adrian’s life was a living hell filled with torture and starvation the ended with his death at age 7. The couple tossed the child’s body into a pen of hungry pigs. Conway shares the nightmare story with Nancy Grace in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. 41 Action News digs deeper and gets answers about what happened to Adrian Jones. Investigator Jessica McMaster now uncovered exclusive evidence. He was just a typical little boy, just full of life. Adrian's dad and stepmom abused him for months. He just had the most amazing smile. Never before seen video takes us inside Adrian's last moment. You can see the look of nothing in his eyes.

This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. So you eat out of the trash because you keep on getting cold because you're outside? In this video, you can hear Heather's harsh words towards Adrian and a lack of compassion for a desperate little boy. The last days and hours of Adrian's life spent stripped and confined to a shower stall, left outside overnight to stand in a filthy pool. New records show what the state of Kansas knew before the death of little seven-year-old Adrian Jones. We learn as early as 2011, DCF had allegations of Adrian's abuse. Hundreds of red flags. Black eyes, beatings, stealing food from trash cans to survive. Being forced to stay outside and eat from bowls on the ground. Being forced to stand in water up to your neck overnight.

And he's just seven years old. Finally, and I never thought I would put these words together in one sentence, murdered and pigs by his own father and stepmother. Of course, I am talking about a beautiful little boy we have now all come to know. His name is Adrian Jones and he was murdered by his father

and stepmother. And the whole time, the Department of Children's Services and police in two states knew he had been abused for years. What really happened? Joining us today is a woman who probably wishes she didn't know. Adrienne's grandmother, Judy Conway. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Judy, I very often have to just close down my computer, turn off my iPad, and quit reading all the horrible things that happened to Adrian Jones.

Tell me when you first realized that Adrian was being abused. I found out on November 25, 2017. I received a phone call, and I just couldn't believe it. I was in total shock. I didn't even know what my first move was going to be in regards to that. I left work at that time, called my oldest granddaughter, spoke to her, and she had already heard also. It's like all of a sudden, and I've said this before, it's like the grief takes a hold of you, Nancy, and just strips you to the bare bones. And you just can't fathom that when you're given the news that the remains of a child have been

found in a pig pen and that your grandson is missing. Judy, I can hardly process, really, what you're saying because it's so beyond. And I have handled, literally, estimated about 10,000 felonies over the course of 10 years, including pleas, investigations, trials, just the works. Just the brutality of this, not only to murder the child, but then feed his body, his remains, to pigs. But let me ask you this. You are Adrian's grandmother. How are you maternal?

Are you paternal? How are you related to Adrian? His mother is my daughter. So Adrian's mother is your daughter. Okay. Got it. I'm just stunned by the whole thing. So you find out in November, you get this phone call.

Who called you? Actually, it was my granddaughter who called me like I said when she first mentioned it to me I was just I couldn't believe it and my first reaction was is I have to find out if this is even true you know and I just knew at that moment that nothing else that could ever happen to me in my whole lifetime would ever compare you know to losing him I just I was I was shocked I mean I just at that moment I had no words to describe how I was feeling I felt totally lost and all I was, is my heart was saying, please do not let this be true. Did you have any idea he was being abused? Because people in the neighborhood knew that

he had been taken to the hospital, that he had been spotted. They saw him eating out of trash cans for years, years. This seven-year-old boy, which means he was doing this at age five, eating out of trash cans just to live, would be taken to the hospital covered in black and blues, black eyes, the works. What I don't understand is how this child could sit on a hospital seat in the doctor's office and they could look at him and not insist he be taken away from his parents that minute I don't understand it now what did they hide did the his parents hide it from you that they were beating him and abusing him? Yes, they did. I had tried for the longest time through phone calls and texts to be able to see my grandchildren because they mean the world to me. Mike and Heather would never even pick up the phone.

I did get one call from Mike during this whole situation. At one point, he did allow me to speak to the kids, and they all sounded fine. So after that, I kept on hoping that he was going to continue to let me speak to the kids and see them. And I continued calling and calling and, you know, leaving text messages and so forth. Then one day I called and out of the blue, Heather answered the phone. She told me that they were just trying to basically, you know, get their lives together and so forth and that I would eventually be able to see the kids, but at this time I wasn't going to be able to see them,

that they weren't allowing anybody to see the kids. But I never thought in a million years, Nancy, and had absolutely no idea that Mike would ever allow anyone to hurt his children or that he would hurt his children. Well, I don't understand. Let me go back. Let me backtrack. Why wouldn't they let

you see them to start with? And remember, this is not about you. Right. Whatever they were doing, they are clearly in the wrong. So whatever pretense they made up, we're trying to get our lives together. We're this, we're that, we're cleaning the house, we're on vacation, blah, blah, blah. They were just lying so you couldn't see the children. That's it. They kept you away because you would know something was wrong. And another thing, Judy, another thing that I learned, and I still don't understand it, I think it'd have to be a shrink. Hey, you know, it would take more than one shrink. It would take

a whole team from Vienna to figure this one out. But I noticed this many, many times, and it's anecdotal. I noticed it when I was a prosecutor. It's not from a statistical study. But parents, evil parents that abuse their children very often, not always, but very often will pick one kid. I remember I was prosecuting a murder of a former police officer. It was a young guy. No, no, no, no. His brother was a former police officer, and he was murdered, and they were from a big family. They had about seven

siblings, and I noticed that one adult sibling would sit apart from everybody else at the trial. You know, they were coming to see the trial of the guy that murdered their brother. And the father would be there. So I became friends with the one sister that always sat apart from the others. Turns out he, the father, had singled her out and abused her, sexually abused her, her whole life until she moved out. And I think the mother knew about it. So that's just one example. And this woman, very believable, very successful, and we became friends.

And that's the first time I noticed the phenomena of picking out one of all the siblings and that's the one you pick on and it seems to be that the case here that they picked out Adrian and I don't know why that is but I believe it to be true in many cases so they were intentionally keeping you away it had had nothing to do with you. They may have made up some argument that happened five years ago or something, but that's BS. They did not want you to know, just like they didn't want the doctors to know. So did you ever have any clue, Judy, that anything was wrong? No, I had absolutely no clue that anything was going on. All I knew was I wanted to see my grandchildren. And one of the things that Heather did tell one of the detectives

is he asked her why she hated, you know, Adrian so much. And at that time, Heather started crying and she pointed at Adrian's picture that she had in the home and stated, that boy is the reason I lost my son. And Heather went on to explain, Nancy, that Adrian had lied to DCF during a, I think it was 2011 investigation. And as a result, her own biological son was taken away from her. And that was the excuse that she used and is still using. Well, he probably, Adrian probably told the truth, that she was beating and starving him, and so they take away her bio kit and leave him there to die.

Exactly, exactly. Oh, oh, my heart, my heart is breaking hearing this, because God help me, Alan. Exactly. Exactly. sheet of paper thing and you sit on it i'm imagining adrian sitting there covered in bruises and now i think what if it was john david or lucy sitting there covered in bruises yep and nobody did anything it's just breaking my heart and then all the things they did to that child. Exactly. I had always taught my grandchildren at an early age to always use their voice. And I had conversations with them that if anybody ever did anything to them that was inappropriate or anything like that, to make sure that they let Nana know. And I really do believe that Adrian used his voice.

And it just absolutely broke my heart because I know that he did. And I know that people heard him. And all I can think now is, is I taught him to use his voice. And not one adult would listen to him. And I just don't get it. Because if I would have been one of those adults, I would have snatched that kid up and I would have taken him to authorities. I would have done anything in my power to make sure that he was safe. You know, Judy, you said that when they were younger, you taught them to speak out.

When was the last time that you had contact or saw Adrian? How old was he? Well, he would have been three years old. And I remember kneeling down in front of him because I originally wanted to bring the kids home with me. And unfortunately, they asked me at the time who the three younger kids belonged to. And I stated to them, Michael Jones. And they mentioned to me that they had to contact him. Now, my oldest granddaughter, Kiki, unfortunately, we do not know who her father is. And she was able to come home with me at that time.

In the meantime, I mentioned to the worker that was there at the time that I didn't feel comfortable with the three younger grandkids going to be with Mike. Not that I had any reason why. I just knew that I wanted my grandkids. Wait a minute. So even at age, when he was three, there were already social workers involved? Well, it wasn't due to any kind of abuse or anything like that. It was just due to some neglect on my daughter's part. My daughter loves her children and I've never seen her abuse the children in any way, shape or form. But but just at the time she was not being a

very good mother you know what i mean the bottom line is if you neglect a child you gotta they need to be taken away for the child's sake but on the other hand some people are just not fit or ready to be parents exactly i mean um the day, you're never going to believe this, Alan, and I'm going to let the person remain nameless. One of my very dear friends, very dear friends, in fact, she is a lawyer that I know very well. Sister has a child. The child is now 30 maybe 29 they have a baby alan the child goes in the grocery store and she said i just left him in the car for you know while i was shopping for groceries and when we said you know you can get arrested for that she says well i left it i left the air conditioner on i just i'm like and this guys is a girl that has got a double major has a wonderful job they live in a lovely condo it's their first baby they dote on the baby and they just didn't get it you don't leave the baby in the car while

you do the grocery shopping okay you just don't period we talked about this the other day what we talked about this the other day with these hot car deaths and everything else why do people not realize how fragile these children are and how how many dangers there are for them yes and what i'm saying is that people that you think are perfectly fine people they just mentally are not ready to have children that doesn't mean they don't have them of course they do of course then there are people that maybe they have an alcohol or a drug problem or this or that, you know, and it just all snowballs and they neglect the children. For whatever reason, the children need to be taken away for their safety.

So in this case, your daughter at that time was just neglecting and couldn't keep it together. So that is what I'm understanding. Okay, so you actually do take at least one of the children in. Yes, I did. And then the others. Yes, I did. And I did mention to the worker at that time that I knew that Heather, and I didn't know a lot about her, but I did know that she had mentioned at one point that she didn't like my grandchildren.

And that I thought before the children were placed with them, that there needed to be some kind of background check and so forth. Because as a grandmother, I didn't have any rights at that time at all in regards to where the children were going to go. Judy, I'm very curious about Heather. Okay, so. Me too. Let me understand this. Okay, let me get this straight again. You're related to the bio mom. Right. Notael and not heather the ones that killed him i'm not you're related to the bio mom who was out of the picture okay let me get back to heather why is this woman so evil i mean i know people lose their temper and they may hit or something like that and i disagree with that they gotta go to jail for, for hitting a child in the face. I really do.

But this was a methodical torture regimen she had. What was wrong with her? I really do believe that she tried to convince not only DCF, but the different psych places that they had tried to put Adrian in, that they were doing all of this because Adrian was evil, that he was a pedophile, and that he was a sexual predator. Adrian is just seven. Well, and she started saying this right out of the gate about him. him I believe that she was telling like even the investigators that before they

Adrian came to live with him that Adrian had been severely sexually abused and my daughter's care well first and foremost that never happened Adrian did not have any problems prior to going to live with Heather and Mike. I basically saw him almost every weekend. I would make the drive to Lawrence to see my grandkids. And he was always a happy, just super little guy. I mean, there was not anything that was out of sync with him or anything like that. But I believe when she got him and he did what he did about speaking up, and I don't know if he

actually told authorities that she was abusing her own son or what had happened exactly, but I do know that she blamed Adrian for losing her her own bio son and I believe that something well he may he may have told them that he was abusing her so they took her bio son exactly I'm not really sure what he may have told right and it could have been that he and of course they leave him there exactly and they do And I just don't understand that. And I believe that Heather... At one point, Mike even did not want to be with Heather any longer and had filed for divorce from her. And I believe at that time, Mike knew that she had a really, really severe problem.

But he ended up staying with her and of course I feel that they're both equally responsible for Adrienne's abuse I don't really care who did 80 percent of it and who did oh they're totally they're totally both responsible and she just zeroed in like you said and I And I've heard exactly the same thing that you've heard, you know, that you stated earlier, that for some reason these evil people, they zeroed in on one of the children. And in this instance, it happened to be Adrian. Well, it wasn't just you. Officials in Kansas say they last had contact with the family in 2012

and that Michael and Heather worked, quote, constantly after that to evade our intervention. But their job is to track them down. And there were two jurisdictions that let this baby die. It would be Kansas and Missouri where he died in Kansas City. But Missouri had him for many, many years and ignored it. The cops knew about it. Child welfare knew about it. Everybody knew about it. Neighbors knew about the kid was eating out of a trash can to live and when i look at those pictures of him outside and they videoed it alan they videoed their mistreatment of the boy that's

sick that is sick alan this is the most bizarre case after working on this how many episodes have we done on this podcast and every time time I'm looking for my grandkids, I have to go and hug little lock and little Lena, because that is the only way you can balance this out. And thank God you've got the twins, Nancy. Exactly. Well,

another thing about Judy, Judy probably saved Kiki's life by taking her because she was not a bio child of Michael's, which would probably make him hate her even more than Adrian. Right. And this business about saying Adrian was a pedophile, they started mistreating him when he was about three years old. So that is just a big lie like everything else.

Why would I believe anything they say anyway? A three-year-old child cannot be a pedophile exactly all right period they were telling uh it's ridiculous to even say that and they were telling the different psych places that they were trying to have him put into that he had all these problems and I really do believe that they were trying to cover up everything that they were doing by trying to blame it on Adrienne have you spoken to either one of them no I have since this whole thing was discovered I have not how about the mother what does the mother have to say the bio mother of Adrienne I mean she just what just your daughter. And no offense to you, you've already got Kiki, the one child. You're trying to see the others. And where is she in this picture?

She's pretty devastated, of course. I mean, one thing about her, she does love her kids. She was just going through a time where she was not being a very good mother. Well, what from age three to age seven, four years? Well, and she did, what happened was, is that when I had the kids taken away, Mike was given custody of the children with, from what I have heard, a visitation rights at his discretion only. And that she did try to see the kids but it was exactly the same thing with me i don't know the extent that she tried to see the kids but i do know now that she

did try to and that mike and heather you know would not allow her to see the kids either i'm just trying to process that did she try to go back to court to get control of the children ever? Not that I'm aware of. Since this has been revealed, since this has been revealed, what, if anything, have you learned about the whole thing? How did they get away with it? How did the authorities in both Kansas and Missouri let him die? I think they were just really methodical. I think that they knew what they

were doing. Like I said, they knew that trying to blame everything on Adrian, that he had major problems and that they were trying to get him help, which is one way to cover up exactly what they were doing. I am still in shock that, like I said, Adrian used his voice. He said he was being abused. And the fact that people who are in power to protect these children did nothing. I just want some accountability. You know, I just want to know. Well, that's what I keep saying.

Nobody's even been fired for Pete's sake. You know, I was looking at the photos, and I can hardly look at them, but one there is blood streaming down his face. And one of them, he's got on dirty boys underwear that are about to fall off of him because he's starved. And the parents, Michael and Heather, had strapped cutting boards to his starving body and strapped them to him where he's struggling to stand up while wearing them. I don't understand what that was about. I can tell you.

They have pictures of all. What was that about? That was because, Adrienne, they were tasering him. He had big open wounds on his body that were just completely raw. Of course, he was picking at himself. So she would use those forms of torture basically to keep him from being able to pick on himself. And that gash-like injury that he had on the side of his face. Heather even stated that she sewed that gash up herself using a medical kit because she had told police that she had military medical training.

And I'm pretty sure that that gash that he had on his face that you saw with the blood was one that she actually sewed up herself. I have two DVDs in my home here that was given to me because the first time that I ever spoke to the media prior to that was because of the ongoing and upcoming trial that was going to be happening for Mike and Heather at that time. Because neither one of them had been sentenced at that point. But I did speak to the media for the first time after Heather's sentencing. And then that's when the landlord that Mike and Heather rented from contacted me via Facebook. And when she did, I wanted to speak with her because I realized that she knew Heather and Mike fairly well. And during that conversation, I found out that she was the one that had discovered in the home, in the iCloud, the pictures of Adrian's abuse. And that she had copies of his abuse.

So we were able to meet her in Kansas City, and she gave me two DVDs of Adrian's abuse. And it took me a while to even put the DVDs into my DVD player. You know what? If they are anything like the pictures and the video that I've seen, I could hardly stand it. And this is what I have to say. You probably saved the life of the one little girl you took in, Kiki. Yeah.

So God bless you for that. The phone number for the Kansas Attorney General's Office, Derek Schmidt, is 785-296-2215. Repeat, 785-296-2215. Because the only thing left now is to seek justice for Adrian. And the only way I believe that can be done is to fire or prosecute and put in jail the child

social workers that let him die. The police that knew the defects workers that knew he was being abused. And for Missouri, the number of the Missouri Attorney General toll free 800-392-8222, 800-392-8222.

Outside Missouri, 573-751-33, 1, 3, 3, 2, 1. These are the numbers of the Kansas and the Missouri attorney general. In Missouri, it's Josh Hawley. And as I'm listening to Adrian's grandmother talk about this case, I can only say one thing. Thank you, Lord, for taking Adrian away from these people since the authorities left him there to be abused and die. Judy Conway, thank you for being with us. Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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