Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Social workers sued: Allegedly ignored warnings about Adrian Jones, 'the boy who was fed to pigs'

Episode Date: September 8, 2017

Child protective agencies that allegedly ignored horrific abuse that led to the death of young Adrian Jones and the feeding of his corpse to pigs are being sued by the boy's maternal grandmother. Kansas City reporter Jessica McMaster and child protection advocate Ashley Willcott join Nancy Grace in this episode to look at the latest in this shocking story. Adrian was 7 when he died while confined to a shower stall in his Kansas City in 2015, before his father, Michael Jones, fed his remains to pigs in order to conceal the death. His father and stepmother Stephanie Jones were both convicted of Adrian’s murder this year. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. So you eat out of the trash. Could 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. A new record show what the state of Kansas knew before the death of little seven-year-old boy tortured to death and fed to pigs. You know, in all my years of investigating homicides, of prosecuting the bad guys, slamming the door, throwing away the key, I never thought I would put those words together in one sentence.

A seven-year-old boy tortured dead and fed two pigs. You know, when I first started reporting the story of little Adrian Jones, I could hardly even say it. You know how you whisper bad words like cancer or divorce? That's how we did it, you know, growing up in a small town. I couldn't say fed to pigs. I would lower my voice instinctively. But I am saying it now because these people need to go to jail and never, never see the light of day. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories, and it's hard to believe these facts are true. I am talking about little Adrian Jones, who authorities knew. This is what makes it worse. Authorities and neighbors knew.

I'm talking about sheriffs, police, defects, department, family, children's services. They all knew the boy was being tortured. What more does it take? They knew and they knew for a long time and they let it happen until the boy is dead. And when I say torture, I mean beating, starving, forced to stand out in water up to his chin overnight. A seven-year-old. I still wake my children up singing, oh, what a beautiful morning, okay?

And barely open the curtains for the sun to come in. They had this kid standing, seven years old, out in cold water, up to his chin overnight. That is just the tip of the iceberg of what little Adrian lived through in his short seven years. I want them to stay behind bars for life as just a little pit stop on their way to hell. Joining me right now, an all-star lineup with me, Jessica McMaster, reporter with 41 Action News Kansas City, who's been on the case from the get-go, and Ashley Wilcott, child protection advocate and lawyer. Thank you, ladies, for being with us.

Straight out to Jessica McMaster. Jessica, let's try to start this thing at the beginning because our listeners, A, it's hard to listen to, but B, we need to know the truth. If we turn away from it, as it is so easy to do, I don't want to hear this, I don't want to know this, because the first time I read this article, a long, long time ago, Jessica, I saw the title and I went to the next story

because I absolutely just could not take it. Absolutely. Let's start at the beginning because the only way we can fight it is to confront it, is to know about it. Jessica, start at the beginning. In November 2015, it was right around Thanksgiving, we got wind that authorities had found a child's remains

out in the livestock pen. And that was really all we knew for a little while. And as time went on, we found out that those were the remains of little Adrian Jones, who was seven years old, living with his father, Michael Jones, and stepmother, Heather Jones. And initially, his father was taken to jail. The words evil stepmother completely apply 100% here. Evil, evil. Because I got to tell you something. Ashley, before I go back to Jessica, Ashley Wilcott is a very well known child protection advocate. You know, people don't like to talk about good and evil. They want to pretend that those forces don't really exist in the world, but I don't know of any other word to describe this couple that Jessica's telling us about. The bio dad of Adrian Jones and the evil

stepmother. I mean. You know, Nancy, sometimes when we hear these stories, it's a matter of a parent has had a psychotic break or a one-time incident. What's most disturbing about this case is four years, four years, and Jessica can correct me if I have the time frame wrong, but four years of documented abuse, neglect, physical torture, ending in his murder starvation and so yes this is a case with parents who truly truly evil is the only word you can think of because it was a pattern over a long period of time that was horrific to this young child back to you jessica mcmaster i'm sorry it's just a force of habit having been a trial lawyer for so long. Whenever I hear something, objection, and I just jump in. It's so incredibly rude. I'm trying to teach my children to don't talk all at the same time, which we do constantly. I'm sorry. I just can't help it. I'm just, I got to tell you, I'm just sick about it. I'm sick about what this seven-year-old boy endured.

And to know that authorities knew about it and let it happen. Okay, I'm sorry. Pick it up, Jessica. So speaking of know about it, we didn't know who knew what, because as we've talked about before, we couldn't get Adrian filed for the longest time. And remember, they lived on the Kansas side, but also

would move back and forth over that state line into Missouri. So Adrian had a... Whoa, whoa, explain that. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Explain that because that is very critical here. So the Joneses lived on the Kansas side. And during that time, the Department for Children and Families would visit the home. And at that point, they stated that Heather, the stepmother, was almost an immediate threat to these kids after some abuse allegations came forward. She lost custody of her own child. So the DCF put in a safety plan that Heather Jones was not to be at the house. However, they didn't do anything to keep Adrian away from his father, who Adrian would also say abused him and so forth.

So somewhere, you know, during this time when that safety plan was put into place, the family crossed the state line and moved to Missouri around 2012. And Heather... And that happens a lot, right, Ashley Wilcott? Yes. Because, you know, the schools can report if somebody's been abused, which, by the way, I don't know that they did in this case. They didn't go to school.

You can find out that somebody moves and they're out of your jurisdiction. When somebody moves back and forth over county or state lines, the system loses them they lose and don't god nancy god it's your show and i just interrupted i'm so sorry but i don't care i wanted to scream pick me pick me because this is what families do they know the system they know and so by moving back and forth and back and forth and back and forth they're avoiding getting caught they're avoiding somebody really being able to identify and know exactly what's happening to

this child. Service is being put in place. And for Missouri to actually say, okay, this child is definitely one whose safety is at risk. We need to remove the child because then if they go to do that, oh, guess what? The child's no longer in Missouri. They don't have jurisdiction. These families know, and I have no doubt in my mind, this Michael Jones and Heather Jones did this on purpose to avoid detection. Back to what we know. I'm sorry, Jessica, again. Okay, pick it up, Jessica. It's no problem. So that makes sense. And that's been what DCF has been claiming all along. It was hard to track the family because they moved back and forth. But that makes sense. You know, if there are, you know, and that's been what DCF has been claiming all along. It was hard to track the family because they moved back and forth. But there's a couple of things to note. Michael Jones ran a business out of Kansas, a bail bonds business. That was

always there. You could go there at any time. Missouri Social Services had stopped by the home in Missouri on numerous occasions. And the records show that there was contact between DCF and Missouri about things that were going on. And at some point, Missouri did try to remove Adrian from custody. They had contacted a juvenile officer to remove him from the home. However, that juvenile officer bounced it back. No, keep him in the home. Let's put a safety plan into place.

At some point, Adrian started attending a mental health facility on the Missouri side. And doctors and staff there also had concerns because his parents dropped him off and left him. They wouldn't call. They wouldn't participate in his care plan or do any of these things that they were supposed to do. So there was a lot of information by a lot of people that knew that Adrian wasn't in the best of care. I think after we got the lawsuit, which just came down, we found out that his parents had left him at this facility for months. This wasn't just days, this was months without any contact with him. And some emails apparently were obtained by the attorney for Adrian's mother and grandmother between some workers. Okay, hold on.

It's all blurring together for me right now. How do we get to the point of a seven-year-old boy being fed two pigs? Okay. being fed two pigs. Okay, what happened inside that home with me is 41 Action News reporter, investigative reporter, Jessica McMasters. What did we learn about what happened inside that home and how do we know all this? Because we know it beyond not just a reasonable doubt.

We know it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Right. If we were to believe our own eyes, Jessica. What happened in the home and how do we know? We were able to get photos and videos. Heather Jones, his stepmother, recorded everything, all of his abuse. And it showed that the last several months of Adrian's life were spent confined to a shower stall. He was stripped. He was starved. He was often standing in the shower stall with his hands

over his head for hours. And he was isolated from everybody. And as you've mentioned, he also spent a lot of time outdoors. He would have to sleep outside. He'd be handcuffed outside. He'd have to hold tiki torches all night. That was a form of, I guess, his abuse where he would have to have his hands up. And he would also have to spend the night out in the filthy family swimming pool that was up to his chin overnight. So that's how he spent the last few months of his life. You know, police believe he eventually starved to death. We don't have the actual video of how his death occurred. And then that's when he was left in that shower stall, according to police, for two weeks.

And when his family could no longer stand the stench, that's when they set his body to pigs. I'm just trying to absorb everything you just said. It's like being rolled over by a steamroller. Just not a hit, but just crushing me to hear it. The living in a shower stall, making a seven-year-old child live in a shower stall, making a seven-year-old child live in a shower stall, beating him, starving him, making him spend the night in a pool of water up to his chin, standing in a shower stall for hours on end with his arms up. And they would make the other children tell on him.

If he lowered his arms. Or if he was caught trying to get food. The other children were so afraid of the same treatment of getting beaten themselves. They would rat out the little brother. And now they're going to live with that the rest of their life. That they ratted out their brother and he was beaten and tortured until he died.

Ashley, it's really almost more than I can take in. But have you noticed, Ashley, and I first noticed this anecdotally when I was prosecuting child abuse and child molestations in inner city Atlanta for 10 years. And we would go on trial every other week. Noticing that with rare exception, parents would pick out one child. And that would be the child that they molested. That would be the child that they beat or starved.

And it would be excruciating, like even locking the refrigerator or locking the cabinet so the child couldn't get in in the night. And the child rummaging through trash trying to find food. It would be one child. And that child would be deprived of food while the rest of the family ate a full meal at the dinner table, at the supper table. I started noticing it. And I mean, I'm certainly no shrink. But I could see in case after case after case, it would be one child picked out of many to be abused.

Have you ever noticed that? Yes, it is very true statistically also that there is a target child and the sadistic behavior against Adrian. He obviously was the targeted child, but as you already pointed out, it is no, the abuse that occurred to the other children as a result of witnessing this, watching this, having to tattle the fear of it happening to them, obviously much less abusive, but abuse nonetheless. And so there are also case studies, it's fascinating that when the target child is removed, that frequently the other children are not abused in the same manner, are not, they don't become the target child. So sometimes you have to look at the family dynamic. Sometimes it's because the target child has a different parent or is treated by a

favorite, by a school or by a relative. So it doesn't make sense to a rational person. None of us can understand how you can engage in this sadistic behavior against a child. It doesn't make... How can you go to bed and sleep and put your head on the pillow at night knowing your baby is standing, living in your shower stall, beaten and starved? I mean, how can you put your head on the pillow? I want these people to rot in H-E-double-L. And the only way to stop abuse

like this is to put it out in the open, to discuss it, to analyze, to figure out how to stop it from happening again. Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the very best candidates? With ZipRecruiter, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with just one click. Their powerful technology matches the right people to your job better than anybody else. And that's why ZipRecruiter is different. Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter does not depend on the candidates finding you. It finds them. 80% of employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate through the site within one day.

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Try it for free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. I want you to take a listen to what the bio grandmother says in this case. This is what she tells me. Judy Conway, listen. 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 knew was 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 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, that, 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. Oh, absolutely. 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 they were just lying so you couldn't see the children that that's it they kept you away because you would know something was wrong

they were intentionally keeping you away it 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 he 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 what is so bizarre about this horrible abuse case of little Adrian, which has now become a national movement, the movement truly idiots because Jessica McMaster, for some bizarre reason,

they took photos and videos of Adrian being abused. I mean, there are pictures of him healthy. And then the picture of him near the end of his little life at age seven. And he is so emaciated and bruised and pitiful. They took pictures and video, Jessica. What did we learn and how? Like you just said, they abused him right up until he took his last breath. And they would, like you said, use the siblings to help torture him. They would have them eat in front of him because he wasn't allowed to eat. Heather, actually, there was one,

there was some footage of Heather recording herself watching Adrian on surveillance, watching his abuse, and you could hear the children there with her. So she would not only record this, she would sit there and watch it. Hold on, hold on. We actually have, we have obtained some of that surveillance video where they would watch on surveillance cameras, watch Adrian. It's almost like watching TV, watching Adrian outside in chin-deep water, watching him begging to come in out of that water, begging for food, begging for them to stop

beating him. And listen to me. They had 31 cameras hooked up, 31 cameras. And he would go to doctors. He reported his own beatings. He reported it to authorities and nobody did anything. God help me if I only knew, if I could only reverse time

and try to save this boy. Explain to me, Ashley Wilcott, you're the child protection advocate. You've gone in courts all over protecting children. What was the point of this? The recordings. I've never seen anything like that.

I mean, this is a little unusual, but thank God for you and raising public awareness because that's what needs to happen for people to realize children are actually abused and neglected in the United States. This is the perfect case because they've chosen to take photos and videos, And that can be some of the most compelling information for people to get and understand what really happens. Nancy, in all of my very lengthy career, I've never seen a parent not only record and take pictures of every part of it, but also to get off, quite frankly, and the sadistic nature of actually watching the child on the videos.

It's really unbelievable. I've never seen anything quite like it. On several occasions, seven-year-old Adrian was actually shown in video and pictures strapped to a table and blindfolded. He's caught on the surveillance video standing neck deep in water in the family's dirty swimming pool overnight. In other photos, it just hurts me to even say it. In other photos, Adrian's mouth is bloody and bruised. His teeth are rotting. The little boy's hands are swollen from being tied up. And another picture, this child is tied up. With a plate of food in front of him.

And a bar of soap. In his mouth. You know Jessica when I report on this story. I go through the facts. And I don't let myself think about it. Because I can't keep reporting on it. When I stop to think about it because I can't keep reporting on it when I stop to think about it but it just came over me like it would in closing statements you know I would be work work work all hours of the day all hours of the night on a case trying to present the

evidence trying to find the witnesses and bill my case and do it correctly. But it would always be in closing statements when I finished putting the case up. And I would be going back through the facts to the jury. And I would hear them as I said them. And it would take. Everything I had. Not to cry. Or just break down. Because I knew I had to finish the closing.

And be strong. What jury can respect. A lawyer crying in front of them. Or blubbering. When I think about this. Photos. Photos. That show. This child. When I think about this, photos, photos that show this child tied up, starving, with a plate of food in front of him and a bar of soap stuck in his mouth. Who are these people, Jessica?

Who are they? How did they get to keep the children? It doesn't make sense to anybody, Nancy. I mean, that's the question the whole community is asking. Everybody is still outraged. You mentioned his name once, and everybody tunes in. They want to know more. They want those answers.

But neither agency in Missouri or Kansas will talk about it they're not willing to answer the questions I guess they won't because they're human they're embarrassed how do we know that people within law enforcement knew because we do know we know that they knew it was all in the records there was one occasion where you know I think it was when Adrian was three years old. It was still on the Kansas side. They had gone over there and taken a photograph of his black eye. And he had mentioned that mommy, being Heather, his stepmother, hit him. And he had also mentioned that daddy also hit him.

He had mentioned that daddy would hit him on the back of the head and a little bone would pop out. So Adrian, as you mentioned, reported to everybody, everybody. He was not shy about it. He told social workers, he told police when they came over, he told his doctors and therapists at the mental health hospitals he was taken to that these things were happening to him. And so how he stayed with these people makes absolutely no sense. And keep in mind, too, when you think about it, he was removed from his biological mother's care for neglect.

It was not, obviously, anywhere near this degree. But if you can be removed because mom's going out late at night, she's not really attentive to the kids, then how can you stay in a home where something like this happened? Doesn't make any sense. His father, Michael Jones, told authorities he purchased the pigs I'm going to die through a vent and his stepmother Heather Jones would tell him suck it up to a seven year old child he was yelling through the vent to his stepmother, I'm going to die.

During the final days of this child's life, he was trapped in a white-tiled shower stall and left to starve. He starved to death and his body fed to pigs. Jessica McMaster joining us from 41 Action News in Kansas City. Which law enforcement agencies knew about the abuse? I mean, Adrian told them, they're beating me. They're starving me. He told them. What police, what law enforcement agencies knew?

I believe on the Kansas side, the photograph that was taken, and I'll have to double check this, but the photograph that was taken of his black eye, I believe was by Topeka, police officers in Topeka. On the Missouri side, I'm not sure that he specifically told law enforcement. And I'd have to, as you've mentioned, there's thousands and thousands of records and it's all kind of running together. I don't think that there was specific law enforcement. I know that they had gone out to the house on the Missouri side because they had to go along with a social worker because it was too dangerous for that social worker to go alone. This little boy actually tried to chew through the plywood over the shower to get out and eat to live. He tried to chew through the plywood. You know, I think, Ashley Walcott, I think about my twins and John David just told me that a piece of his braces had come unhooked,

and it was bothering him. He couldn't eat. That's all I've been able to think about, is to get him to the orthodontist so his mouth won't hurt. This little boy tried to chew through the plywood, Ashley. And the reports, the reports, the evidence of this is endless. Records in both Missouri and Kansas show an endless series of reports and hotline calls to inform social services and child welfare of what was happening to Adrian. I just don't understand it. The boy's trying to chew through plywood to get out. I don't understand it.

What in the hay is happening at DFACS? What is wrong with them? In this case, the ball was dropped, and you even heard that. Oh, man, man, how can you say that, Ashley? I always agree with everything you say. the ball was dropped. And you even heard that. Oh, man, man, how can you say that, Ashley? I always agree with everything you say. The ball was dropped. They ought to have their rear ends indicted for this, Ashley. How can they go to work every day and sip their coffee with this boy trying to chew through plywood to live?

No, I agree with you, Nancy. And here's the eerie thing. This is very similar to a Georgia case. I don't know if you remember, it was in 1998. The child's name, and it's all public information, was Terrell Peterson. And at five, it was so similar. He was tortured, beaten, starved to death with an open defects case. And the result of that was a lawsuit against Georgia defects. And what I'm suggesting is they did drop the ball, but in such a way that they need to be held responsible. Because they both say, oh, well, the child was in the other state, moved back and forth.

Bottom line, this is a perfect storm of a case where DFACs should have protected this child. This child should have been removed from the home. This might cause the system to change in a positive way. That's the only positive outcome. There's no positive outcome. This child was tortured to death deliberately with well-thought-out plans by a father and a stepmother. And the only, only, only consolation to me is that perhaps it will cause system reform for those two states to ensure no other child goes through it. You know, DFACS, Department of Family and Children's Services, CPS, Child Protective

Services, they stood by sipping their coffee out of their Yeti and writing it all down. You know what? They're going to burn in hell for this, for standing by and letting it happen. In my mind, these caseworkers and these police need to be, first of all, fired, and second of all, indicted. Indicted, charged with aiding and abetting and letting this happen. I mean, they go over there and they make the father and stepmother sign a piece of paper agreeing to stop beating the boy. That's like having them pinky swear. I won't do it again.

Really? It's just, I can hardly even report on it. It's so upsetting to know that Child Protective Services and police, law enforcement, let it happen. In fact, cops would go with social workers to the house because they thought it was too dangerous to let the social worker go by themselves. But they left the children there. And Nancy, that's the part that doesn't make sense. Because a child should be removed from a home by a court if the child's not safe. And so in any instance where there's any physical abuse of a child that's been documented or confirmed, which in this case was multiple times, the child should be removed. So that right there to me is the crux of the matter. Why was that child not removed? There were missed

times when the child clearly should have been removed from the home. So it's not one person. It's as if you could indict 10, 20 different people. It doesn't make sense, which needs to happen. But I don't understand how that many individuals failed this child. I am looking right now at the photos of the father, Michael Jones, and the stepmother, Heather Jones. I can truly say, and this is the H word we don't use in our home, I hate them. I hate them so much for what they did. And you know what else I hate?

That law enforcement and child protective services let it happen. As a matter of fact, within three months of little Adrian moving in, Kansas child welfare workers found out about the problems. Hotline calls began pouring in. The father had guns. The stepmother was high on drugs. They were being beaten. Weight loss, physical injuries, call after call.

Adrian's being beaten. Adrian's being choked. Adrian had been spanked to the point where his little rear end was bleeding. They did nothing. With me is investigative reporter Jessica McMaster. She is an investigative reporter with 41 Action News in Kansas City, and she has exposed the pain this child lived through before his horrible death and the fact that law enforcement, and that pains me to say it

because I consider myself part of law enforcement, how they dropped the ball and let this boy die, and Child Protective protective services may they all go to jail and give them plenty of time to think about it now a new lawsuit has been filed jessica mcmaster with me ashley wilcott a very well-known child protection advocate jessica what did you learn from the filings, the most recent court filings? Yeah, so reading through those, we actually got some surprises that, you know, we were not expecting. When you get almost to the end of that lawsuit, we found that the attorneys

for the family collected call logs from Kansas DCF that show somebody hotlined the agency at the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015 stating that Heather Jones, Adrian's stepmother, uploaded some of those photos of his abuse to her Facebook page and that the department did not follow up on those calls. And this was just months before he died. And it really makes you wonder. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Can you slow it down for me, Jessica McMaster? What did you, what now? We were just learning this, what? Just learning that the attorneys got call logs

from Kansas Department for Children and Families that show at the end of 2014, beginning 2015, there were hotline calls placed to the agency that Heather Jones, the stepmother, had uploaded photos of Adrian's abuse to her Facebook page. And that those calls, they said that the agency didn't even follow up on those calls. Ashley Wilcott, what more do you have to do to get caught?

She uploaded on her Facebook them torturing the little boy and ashley listen to this listen to this adrian according to jessica mcmaster actually said records show adrian himself opened up about his torture to welfare workers as far back as July 2013 in an interview with Missouri Children Division workers and a police officer. He was just five years old and he says his father would kick him so violently in the back of his head, quote, a little bone come out. The little boy, age five, said a little bone come out. When he was beaten, he says, my daddy, quote, my daddy keeps hitting me in the head and punches me in the stomach, and my mom keeps pulling on my ears, and it hurts. Mommy and daddy lock me in my room by myself, and mommy and daddy can't feed me. On another occasion, he tells a social

services worker he's forced to stand in the corner and do jumping jacks and push-ups all day. What else, what else do you have to do? What, take out a billboard on Madison Avenue? I'm starving my children. She uploaded it on Facebook, according to Jessica McMaster, and nobody did a darn thing. That's the same thing. They've got to be punished. They've got to be brought to justice for ignoring Adrienne. Yeah, there's no excuse.

There's no excuse. Accountability and system change are the two things that have to happen in this case. And the good news is the lawsuit's been filed because that's step one to drive those two things. But those two things are the only justice. And it's not justice for the child, but are the only two positive things to come out of what can never be deemed a positive thing. It's horrific. There's no excuse. It's unfathomable that you have those kinds of reports. The second a child discloses, and I can tell you this is true nationwide from all of my work and experience, when a child discloses physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse. When the child discloses, it is believed you have a forensic and the child's removed from the home. No exceptions.

That didn't happen here. In fact, on Christmas Day 2014, this evil stepmother makes a reference to wanting to simulate an episode of The Walking Dead, where a character shoots a child in the back of the head. Just three days later, stepmother Heather Jones posts, she, quote, might be the next and have to feed some pigs a body. I don't understand why they don't get the death penalty. That's the thing I don't understand why they don't get the death penalty. That's the thing I don't understand. And Adrian, one detective, breaks down in tears saying the torture Adrian went through

was unlike anything he had ever seen in over 20 years in law enforcement. It was Detective Stuart Littlefield, and he recalled how Adrian was shocked with a stun gun by the stepmother. Shocked by a stun gun. So, Jessica McMaster has been on this case from the beginning and has brought so much of it to light. She's an investigative reporter with 41 Action News in Kansas City. Jessica McMaster, what can be done now? What can be done about child welfare and the police that let this happen? I think it's obvious that something has to change. And, you know, they mentioned the lawsuit, that that's the first step in this.

But the accountability, there really needs to be a discussion about how this happened, because without that, how do we move forward? You know, when the agencies won't even talk about it, how do we even get to improving if you're not even going to acknowledge the failures that were made in this case? I don't know. You know, this has happened to other children in the past in these areas. Lawsuits have been filed. Millions of dollars has been doed out and still little Adrian happened. So what we do to get over that, we got to have some accountability. These calls need to be followed up on. And when they are, as in his case, they were several times, people were at the home. This isn't a matter of, oh, we didn't have the resources to even go to the home.

No, they were there. There were several people there. They need to be taken out of the home. Well, first of all, the Kansas Attorney General, because there is no way that the police or child services are going to investigate and prosecute themselves. If you care about this case, the Attorney General in Kansas is Kansas AG Derek Schmidt. Phone number 785-296-2215. He's not the only one. There's Missouri as well. Now,

aren't those the state lines that they would cross, Jessica? Yes, they were in Kansas and Missouri. The Missouri Attorney General, Josh Hawley, H-A-W-L-E-Y, H-A-W-L-E-Y. To contact them, 573-751-3321, 573-751-3321. Let your voice be heard. Don't let Adrian Jones have died in vain. Jessica McMaster is trying. Ashley Wilcott is trying. I'm trying. Please join us. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.