Dr. Insanity - Teen Killer Livestreams After Taking His Final Victim

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

A teen would livestream to his Facebook page, announcing the sad news of his brothers death. However, his viewers would have no clue of the dark secrets that led to his passing.. Subscribe for more crime content like this.. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it going? Hey, everybody. I just figured I'd send a quick check. This is Paul Ferguson. Tragically, his brother Timothy passed away just prior to this live stream. For those of you who aren't aware, my little brother has passed away and it's a lot to deal with, but we're fine.

With such devastating news, viewers quickly showed him support during this terrible time. But unbeknownst to Paul's fans, this would be his last live stream ever, because as it turns out, Paul himself was behind the death of his younger brother. On the 6th of July, 2nd,000, at 6th of July, 22 at 6.37 p.m., police were called to assist with a medical emergency just outside of Grand Rapids in Michigan. The caller, Shonda Vander Ark, mother of Paul and Timothy, had told paramedics that Timothy wasn't breathing. Just seven minutes after arriving on the scene, Timothy was pronounced dead. Officers had never seen anything like it. Timothy was malnourished, bruised, and hypothermic.

There were bones protruding from his skin, and despite being 5'8 foot 8, he weighed just 69 pounds. Most concerning was where they actually found Timothy. He was lying in a small closet that reeked of urine and feces. Inside was a blue tarp and an Amazon box, and just outside were a pair of ankle shackles. There were also multiple cameras around the room and an alarm on the door he was found in. Undoubtedly, something was incredibly wrong.

But police hadn't even scratched the surface of just how horrible this case would turn out to be. So to maybe shed a little light on what just happened here, Officer Sean Steffinich decides to talk to his seemingly grieving mother, Shonda. Hello, ma'am. I'm Officer Steffinich. Right now we got some people coming over to talk to you, okay? He's been wearing really loose clothes the last couple of weeks. He's really skinny.

He's really skinny, and I didn't notice until this morning, because he wouldn't, like, I asked him if he's okay, and he would not answer me. Like, he's 15, he's been... He has autism? Yeah. Like a high-functioning? Yeah. I had no to know how bad he was. Oh, my God.

He did this back in, my husband's stroke with junior or third. Mm-hmm. I saw he did this back in, I don't know, second. I could wait in January for almost three weeks, and then he finally ate, um, he ate something last night. I can't remember what it was now. I'm sorry. It's okay. This is where police realize that Shanda's emotions might all be an act. And as they would uncover more evidence in the house and talk to her son, Paul, these claims would slowly fall apart.

So as the officer listens to her side of the story, he'll be looking for anything to latch onto that they can use again. against them later to determine the truth. Oh, damn it. I had no idea. I would have taken him in or something. Like you said the last time you saw him was 5.30 this morning? Did he say anything? He had fallen out of bed.

At 5.30? Yeah. You sure it wasn't earlier? I mean, it's possible. I thought it was 5.30, but I wasn't super awake. I heard a thunk. And I came down and he's kind of laying on his side kind of like, what the heck? And I picked, yeah, I reached out.

I'm sorry. That's all right. Oh my God. Timothy was pronounced dead at 6.44 a.m. that morning, just an hour after Shonda claims she last talked to him. The reason the officer seems suspicious is because the first responders noticed that rigor mortis had already started setting in, tightening his facial muscles. This usually starts anywhere from two to four hours after death, not the barely one hour that Shonda is claiming here. But the real question is how Shanda never. noticed just how skinny and emaciated Timothy really was. This sort of malnourishment

doesn't just happen overnight, so the officer asks her to explain herself. I asked him to eat last night because his face started looking a little, I'm like, okay, enough. And he wouldn't show, I'm like, let me see, hold your shirt up, and he wouldn't hold his shirt up. He wouldn't do anything. Did he get real skinny last time too? Yes. The only reason I know is because my seven-year-old walked in on him accidentally when I was in the shower downstairs. And then my seven-year-old comes up and he's like, Mama, Timothy's really skinny. I was like, Was that this time or last time? That was last time. And I told him he was either going to start eating multiple times a day

or I was taking him to the hospital and he didn't want to go to the hospital. So he ended up eating on his own? Yes. And then so this last time was it because your husband wasn't home? He hasn't been home since January 3rd. He actually mentioned he was hungry the day, his stepdad, or his dad and stepmom called to tell us they were divorced and moving to Florida last week. Shonda is essentially saying that Timothy wasn't eating because of a, quote,

hunger strike. campaigning against family problems. Back in January, Adam Vanderarck, Shanda's husband, had a stroke and had to move out due to issues accessing their home. Apparently, this caused Timothy to stop eating for three weeks, and he only started again after threats of being taken to the hospital. But for the last two weeks, he'd stopped eating again, allegedly this time, due to his biological father divorcing his wife and moving away to Florida. Each of these events did indeed happen. But as it would turn out, they had nothing to do with Timothy's hunger at all. I tried to check in the last few days and he just wouldn't let me anywhere near him.

He didn't want a kiss, a hug, nothing. What was the last time you think? Last night, um, he ate. Oh my God. It's just a big of eat. I feel like such a failure. You see there's food in the house. I should have done something.

And they really hide that when you like this? It would turn out, Timothy wasn't hiding anything from her. But police had to get to the bottom of what exactly she knew. So after this initial questioning phase ended, police handed over the case to detectives, who obtained a search warrant and began to collect evidence throughout the house. That's when they found leg shackles in a drawer. Four webcam scattered strategically placed around a basement,

zip ties in the bathroom, a half-empty bottle of extreme regret Carolina Reaper hot sauce and locks on every single fridge, freezer, and pantry in the house. This painted a picture of a helpless boy, forced to live inhumanely among his own dirt and filth, watched every second of the day, and brutally twirred until the very end. The next day, an autopsy was conducted on Timothy's body,

finding even more strange and worrying things. He had extremely sunken eyes, slightly blue-tinted skin, and there were many signs of dehydration as well. His cause of death was determined to be dehydration and extreme amaciation due to starvation, with hypothermia playing a role too. With all of this information and evidence gathered, the police knew something foul had to be a play. They just weren't sure what. Starvation in a house filled with food, hypothermia in the middle of an American summer,

alongside hot sauce and handcuffs. It had to all come together somehow. So the day after Timothy's death at 3.57 p.m., they bring in Paul, Shonda's 20-year-old son, for interrogation, to try and uncover what all this could possibly mean, and how exactly he was involved. What Paul doesn't know is that they've already collected a mountain of evidence. Detective Ryan Pisk is going to use a five-step program to slowly extract the truth from Paul, starting by getting on his good side and ending by tearing into him,

and making him feel so guilty, he'll have no choice but to confess to everything. I don't want to talk to anything specifically about the case just yet. I was thinking to the police store at your house and they brought you down here. I want to invite me some less before we talk about that sort of thing. Whatever you want you to know, though, is that you went to your phones, okay? There's a lot of evidence from the phones, and I know that you're kind of aware of the communication between yourself and your mother. Yeah, those sort of things, and that's kind of what I want to talk to you about.

As mentioned, police have spent the last 24 hours combing over text messages, camera recordings, crime scene images, and much more, to try and get a good picture of what had happened. So, as the cases with many younger suspects, Detective Peace will start calmly, trying to put Paul at ease and get on his good side, before slowly breaking him down and exposing the truth. I know that we talked yesterday. I know that not everything that we talked about was the truth yesterday. That's okay. You don't have to feel bad. You don't have to feel guilty about not telling the truth to me. I'm like trying to get to the truth.

The one really happened. Brother, because he deserves that. I mean, there's clearly a lot of messages about stuff that you guys are doing a thing about what he's eating, about restricting his food. How would that all work? We've got different restrictions recently because we had noticed this then. We wanted to get that back on. We didn't want any of the food.

We never wanted him to be injured or hugged. I loved him so much. Yeah, I can tell that. I just couldn't tell that. And we wanted what to best. The thing is, he was stuck in the past. So we used back to the restriction. When did that happen?

Two weeks of our feeling that we were hoping we could get enough where it would be safe and that we could continue to get added back to where we wouldn't have to worry. What were the restrictions? We made sure that it was still something that gave him enough. calories and everything it was rice or bread and like I said last week he got pizza throughout the thousands of texts detectives have between paul and shonda there's a huge amount of talk about food restrictions it doesn't take much to realize that this was why timothy was thin as he was Peace will focus more on this later. What's more interesting, though, is how Paul justified this. We've got him. We made sure that it was still something that gave him enough.

How are we using everything? These aren't Paul's own thoughts. This is just what he's been told by his mother since the ab-started. Over the course of several months, he's internalized it, and now seems to fully believe that what he's been doing to Timothy is for his own good. What would be it looks for like in a hurt? came through over and over and over. We've tried everything.

We were nice. We tried different consequences, but he just, I couldn't never listen. What was some of the other types of tapping on? We did take away his devices. That was also because he wouldn't stay on a school sites and just go and try and play games or watch YouTube. He should have

been held back so much, but he passed all of his final exams. And so I don't think it was my step, my son mother. My step, my mother was amazing. Yeah, but I believe it was my father's doing. Okay, but my dad's control is freaking he didn't want her having any contact and screwing all of his control of it. Okay. Note how the only consequence that Paul mentions here is the fact that they take away his phone occasionally, something fairly innocuous.

It's also worth mentioning just how quickly he tries to put Timothy and his father down in exactly the same way his mother was known to do. But as Paul continues talking, it becomes clear exactly how. how much of a problem this has actually become, and that he might have actually been strongly manipulated by her to do all of this. I was a thing back in Oklahoma where I had to, I had probably emotional release. I was so terrified of him that I didn't ever want to have released any of everything negative emotions I ever had around him. It was, there were times where I wanted to say no, but I was so terrified that I just couldn't hear.

I can't release my anger. And I do it in the right way. I never do it any in any way that I'm not supposed to. She had her tubes. I'm dying for Pedro. He is a blessing to this world. Yeah. He's an optimal.

Certainly. But he's a blessing. Of course. She loves him so much. Before having her third son, Gabriel, Shanda had a procedure to restore her fertility. To her, having Gabriel was a miracle because she didn't know if this would work. That's likely why no evidence was ever found of her,

harming Gabriel, because he was by far and away her favorite child. That does, however, provide a harrowing reason for why she might have abused Timothy so much. He was her problem child, and she didn't like the fact he had so many mental health conditions, so she wanted to take her anger out on and deal with the problem directly. You know, you think there would be a test close to your mom if you slipped up with their attitude like their health effort. There were times when I would call an attitude that was a necessary and she would have me get out of devices for maybe 15 minutes because usually that was what it was evolved around

because I'll be honest, I have it. I have an addiction to my devices. Okay. I never had not during much of that back in the home. Yeah. My dad was strict. She didn't even give me a phone. My sister and my step-sister had phones before I did.

And so now you're in work. I'm looking yesterday about underpaid bills. Yeah, and I'm like my father, she doesn't take force me to give him. her ass with my paycheck. You don't force that on me. And I was working basically minimum wage. I'd vote.

That's tough. The thing is that my mother can't even face my father right now. She doesn't want to call him because the one thing that she and I both know is that he's going to hurl every ounce of blame. He can't hurt. Listen to how he's talking about his father. He's only able to say negative things about him and brings these points up even while unprompted. He clearly has a strong dislike of his father and talks about him like a divorced

partner. Take a guess where that's stemmed from. It's clear his mother has been feeding him lies and negativity about his father and there's no clearer example of this than what he says next. I moved here into Michigan, I think, serious. Okay. Because for the time after I moved out of my parents' house, I speak with my uncle David now. And, uh, who both had actually been tricked by my father, Charles, the belief that my mother was bad. Nobody was tricked. Shanda simply was a bad person. The police report contains countless witness testimonies from family friends and teachers

who knew something was wrong and believed Shonda to be a bad parent. This wasn't an uncommon opinion. One of Timothy's teachers even told the cops that all the teachers knew he wasn't cared for at home and that he lived through hell most of his life. But to save face, Shonda would make up lies to tell Paul that made her seem perfect and kept his respect, at the cost of making his father seem downright evil. That's what makes this case so controversial.

Paul was almost certainly not in control for the majority of this, and he was definitely manipulated by his mother to some extent. But he still went through with everything, and that's what a jury would end up focusing on. I saw him your phone that you had sent a couple of pictures to your mom. Yeah, it's pretty skinny, and he said, you know, I didn't use nothing but skin, but yeah, I was, I was very, concerned it just you know what do you think that

maybe would have been it after or yeah honestly that probably would have been one too I don't know I don't know

I don't make sure of like his legs but it was just basically down right yeah it was insane

or something a long line yeah but the thing is yesterday and I think the day before he could walk

yeah he might need a little support every so often like he put his hand against the wall or grab the rail of the stairs

but for a couple of seconds he let go, it would be fine. Okay. It was never anything major. When was the last time it was really like talking to you, like, able to have a conversation or who's trying to have a conversation? Last time he actually talked was three days ago, but the day before or the day after that, the day before yesterday,

he could talk a small amount in a morning, but then he just sort of making problems and moments. It must take an astonishing amount of delusion to believe that not, Not being able to walk or speak isn't anything major. But in reality, that's not what they thought. They thought he was faking it entirely. In fact, on the day before Timothy died, Shonda told Paul to wave warm pizza rolls just in front of him and take them back if he tries to eat them.

It all just seems as though they were messing with him to satisfy their own sadistic desires. What's the picture in the bat? Of the States, like so we did it out of the States. He'd been taking the bath. And I went in there, the check on at one point, and he was just kind of laying in there. I'm like, buddy, do okay? He didn't respond, but he was looking around, and he was breathing. I know that much.

Yeah. But he wasn't talking at that time. No, and it didn't, it started to concern me. I'm not sure if a test in a moment about it came on. Why, you said the picture to her? Yeah, I probably said something about the ER attack one tell. Well, I'm certainly this is not. stupid. You have to think about it like this, right? She can see she's grown at all. And if she sees that,

that's not all on you, right? You made it, from what I say, you may be sometimes to say, we need to do something less than about this. Yeah. We can't keep doing this. I know she's a big person. Yes. Paul is speeding himself up because he knows that he assisted in all of this. But notice how Pisk is still trying to reassure Paul and shift the blame away from him. Fortunately, is about to pay off massively as he starts to talk more about the punishments that Timothy was put through i think about this right now is not a time about blaming people but it's the time to try to figure out what could we have changed things what could we have done differently how did we get to the point where you're at because you know clearly where you got to talk to when you say you

didn't that wasn't a nice enjoyable back though right that was a punishment back right that's a cool ice cool that i didn't watch that you did you how many times would you have you had you had you I think that you guys gave cold baths as a punt. Yeah, every day, you know, whatever, for whatever reason. I think for punishment, I don't exactly know the number, but it wasn't a lot. I would talk to them like five, ten, ten, one every day, every other day. I mean, any ideas? Five.

Whose idea was getting a cold bath as a punt? Me was my mother's. I wasn't sure if it would do. If there would be a punishment of perfectly non. Pisk actually knows exactly how often these baths occurred. Because Paul and Shonda documented every single instance of this over text. And Timothy was subjected to them constantly. Even worse, they would last up to nine hours at a time.

And remember, Timothy weighed only 69 pounds. He barely had a drop of body fat on him, meaning that he would have felt the effects of the cold considerably more than the average person. This is why the autopsy turned up the evidence of hypothermia and ruled it as one of his main causes of death. You remember the first time you guys did it? Why? No, not exactly.

What did he do on that day of this photo that made you have to do a cold bat? I think it was that you not only peed but also poop. And my mother wasn't too happy with this is absolutely briefed. I mean, we talk about that. I understand you into the house and get it's all right. messages. Yeah. Where do you sleep most in that closet? As Pisk mentions, Timothy didn't sleep in a bed. He slept in a small, cramped closet that he couldn't even stand up in. And the punishment that Paul mentioned, well, that would have

actually happened either way. Inside the basement where Timothy slept were multiple cameras and an alarm on the door. If he'd have gone to the bathroom instead, then he would have been punished for leaving his room. Timothy was completely trapped. We always wanted what's best thing. So you guys just had to move with the father. There's a viral door that's absolutely what's that for? When you would try and sleep because if you noticed there was also one in the garage door, that was also because, yeah, there's some food in there that you would try and sleep.

And it wasn't just that he was hungry to hurt at some point for those. It was that she wanted something to sleep. Again, Pisk is being extremely nice. and agreeing directly with what is said, trying to make him feel like what he's saying is still fine, so he incriminates himself even further. What's Christian of food? He talks about bread.

For how long was he to eat just bread? A week or two? What was he having before that? We do ramen, sandwiches, and I think at some points we actually give him, like, a meal. What's, uh, why was he been having to have meals? Paul has no idea what to say. He's starting to realize just how cruel everything he did was,

and the gravity of the situation has just hit him. He starved his little brother to death, and he can't even think of a reason why. Regardless of the circumstances, or how much influence his mother had over him, he still did all of these horrifying things, and there's still even more to come. Coming up the hot spots, I know the time that was you who says both the parchment and it was put up bread. Was it always on the bread? Not always, no. But the thing is, it still hardly did me seem for him.

There would be times where I would do something to read because I'd accidentally put my eye after I'd be on there. It was out. What do you think of whether or not there's hot? What besides that? Aye. Whenever my mother told me to put a hotspots on it, I did. And what I know, will the ghost or the California Reaper is, like, 2,000 Scoville or 2,000 Scoble? What does that mean?

It's the hot sauce or the heat index is of that's pretty hot? Very tough. Elijah's extreme regret hot sauce is reviewed as not being something you mess around with. It measures out to 800,000 Scoville heat units, just shy of what a fresh ghost. Ghost pepper would be. Paul and Shonda would routinely feed this to Timothy as a punishment, as well as putting it on the only real food he would get in a day. Pisk also made sure to ask Paul what Scoville units were to make sure he knew exactly how bad what he was doing was. He confirmed that this was very, very hot, to the point of being painful.

Yet, he still went through with what he did for weeks. in almost a month movie Okay Was that really up bread Or was that on other stuff too? I think One time

We put it in some rice But after that I don't think we did that again What was it in school Right Because you have no bread Because you know It was a little

Securities I know it was punishment But honestly I don't think It was that useful because Like I said He had no feeling

In his tongue He'd suddenly bit a hole And at one point Didn't even feel it Was he eating his bread? I was not. Yeah. Is that really the only thing

have the people's space or were any other things to you? I'm from the bread and grace, but there's a man not that I know of. Okay. Did you see a defying you

during that school because losing even more wage or being a less responsive or what change when you moved into doing that? There would be times where it would take him a moment to respond.

At first I thought it was just him acting, but then I was getting concerned. I think a way for a cell, maybe, you know, that these distances often are delayed. Yeah. It's for a hot sauce on bread.

If you ever put a hot sauce or whatever you're on the same. Throughout this interrogation, Paul has been consistently using his mother as a scapegoat for everything he's done, that he was just following her orders. But at the same time, it's obvious that he knows his brother was suffering through all of this. Many people are familiar with the Stanford prison experiment. 24 male college students were split into either guards and prisoners, and for two weeks, they were supposed to simulate a prison. However, after just six days, the experiment had to be

terminated due to extreme behavior. The guards quickly adapted to their position of power, and due to their role being enforced and validated by the event conductors, they began to abuse the prisoners to the point of emotional distress. That is to say, Paul was given the opportunity to be in control, and he took full advantage of it, abusing his position. At the same time, though, Paul is an adult, and at any point, he could have decided to stop or alert somebody about all of this, but he never did. Pisk is also starting to realize this, so from here on out, he's going to slowly put on the pressure that will eventually break Paul and make him fully realize the gravity of what he's done. So, I know that when he talked yesterday, you're trying to run on. She was lying about some stuff, right?

I know that she's a good person. I'm not telling that at all. I mean, she never learned any of this. But you also are, you also know this, like, I don't know, that some of the things that she was talking about the truth, right, about. She said she didn't know that it was a camera in the back phone. But the fact of the matter, she asked you, and she sent you a text message and make sure that the camera's in there

and take the shower curtain down so I can see him. Didn't she ask you that, the day that, the day before he passed away? Yeah. I know this pepper's for punishment. And what did she say? she said I didn't know anything about that she doesn't want to appear

like a bad person she doesn't want to be the bad guy in this we never wanted any of this we wanted to be healthy I know that for a fact I should have at least put my foot down on something but it's not that I'm afraid of her I can't fear her because she doesn't

she's not the type to instill it here I don't know if that's also what caused him to sometimes lie about things as well was that he still has this fear of dad And then he thought she would be just saying. She's nothing like him. That much I know. She's like it.

What does she know is that you shouldn't be using hot sauce as a bunch, right? She must better than that. The pressure is already starting to cause Paul to resort to cathartic statements for him. Notice how as soon as Pisk says she was lying, he praises her and makes excuses for her. And then immediately puts his dad down saying that she's nothing like him. He's scared and he's trying to throw himself back into a world where he feels safe and comfortable. But that's not the world he lives in, and Pisk is about to expose that once and for all. So when you first talked to us in any talk to the police, you know, you said he was on his bunk bed, right?

Yeah. But that's not the truth. No. Okay. He was in that closet that's right there by the bump bed? Yeah. You told us that you already were still right, was that a lie? Yeah.

Did you come up with that on your own, or did somebody ask you and say they didn't live in bed? Uh, I think some people would be like, I could have done it. in any point of us. You think that your mother said they do what's best for him, right? That's what you can talk. Yeah. And I know she wants what's best for all of us. So that's my question.

Does somebody ask you to say that he was in a month? I came up with that on my own. Pisk notices him start to shut down under the pressure, so eases off just a little, trying to reassure him again that he's not in any trouble and that this isn't his fault. Pisk is almost there. He just needs to get a little more information out of him for the confession and can't risk Paul shutting down now.

So tell me what really happened in the morning, then, because obviously what spoke to us wasn't the truth? What really, what really happened? I woke up and I had been grabbing my shoes. It basically all played out, like we said. The whole morning thing was exact. He wasn't breathing in the closet. It was the closet, though. We had to get him out of the closet to try and resuscitate.

When you guys were going out of the closet, clothes out that point or is he in a diaper or was that same? He had a shirt. I think we had put him in pants or sweat pants. I don't know. Maybe some point in the night he chucked them off. No about it. You didn't say we weren't there though. We don't do that right? No. So how would you know if we'd put him in squat pants? Do you see what in mine? Yeah. So do you know all he had pants on or not? No, honestly. But he didn't have them when they got him out. He had the diaper on at least. So he had Isn't that type of brown? Here's somebody

has a shirt up. What should do you get a lot? It's the very same sweatshirt that we found in it. Because obviously they didn't want him to get cold. Or I don't think Mama wanted him to get cold. Does he have pants on or no pants on? None, no. And will we get there in his pants on?

Yeah, she hadn't put them on. She asked me put pants on. He doesn't have four. I don't know. Pisk is asking some very specific questions about when Timothy was found. What Paul doesn't know is that the cops have an audio recording from one of their cameras from the exact moment they found Timothy dead. Pisk knows for certain that both Paul and Shonda have been lying this whole time and tried to cover the death up.

This is Pisk's chance to strike. He's now multiple steps ahead and has Paul on the back foot. He's now going to start tearing into Paul and his mother, ripping his worldview to shreds and exposing them for what they really are. At that time, she decides that she's going to like him to say that baby in the run of bed. I don't understand. I don't know. She doesn't want to seem like she's bad. We never, we were neglecting him.

What are you saying? I mean, if we talk, right, there's all these things that are like, she didn't want to seem like this, she didn't want to seem like this, she didn't want to seem like this, she didn't want to sing at this. Did you know that it all seems like that, right? Yes. How did you feel about life during this? How does that make you feel?

I just hate it. I know she doesn't want to be the bad guy. She never wanted this. We loved him so much. I don't think it's about longer because I think it's about not knowing what to do, not knowing how to handle the situation. Just look at how uncomfortable Paul is now. He can't sit still. He's covering his face and body as often as he can, and he's almost always hunched over.

He's really starting to panic now, and Pisk has barely even started ripping into him. Do you need your mom agree to tell it to the same story? I didn't do it a bump better, how does that happen? You couldn't have both just possibly made up this story. No. So what happened? She told you, right? She told you what to say?

Does it look bad for you guys? It's not just that. We loved him. Can I ask you this? Like straight up, you keep saying love, love. Do you feel like this was love? That he's dead because he couldn't eat food? Does that feel like love to you?

No. He's saying because he couldn't eat. And I don't know anybody who thinks that's love. What I think's happening is your mom convinced you that she's this perfect person. and she's asking me to do all these things that are literally killing your brother. I know she's not perfect.

How would she's all the ice fats? How is love handcuffing and how is love for stripping movement and how is love hot sauce in the mouth and only eating bread? What if you only got to eat bread? How would you feel? What if you only got to eat bread with hot sauce? Would you eat? No, she's not perfect, but she's not a bad person.

You know how many good people with a child to death. Tell me if one of them. That's a child who has a lot of problems, right? That's not a child that's taking care of themselves. How is that a loving person? How is that a loving mother? You know what that sounds like to me? And honestly, the worst mother I've ever met in my entire life is what it sounds like to me.

Well, maybe he's taking food because he wants to live. Have you ever thought about that? Yes. Maybe he's sleeping food so that he can survive. Paul has fully collapsed in on himself at this point. His worldview is starting to break into pieces. The person he looked up to, respected and loved is now being painted as a monster that's going to prison for the rest of her life.

The worst part, he hasn't even realized that he might be facing the exact same consequences. She puts you right in the middle of the square it looks like some of the stuff is your idea. And it actually looks like in some of these things that you kind of enjoy it. That you kind of enjoy punching him for doing wrong things? Do you feel like you kind of enjoy the punishment for us? Maybe not that he was in pain, but that you were in charge and you got to tell him, You can't do that. Go do this.

This is your punishment. Did you like something? No. How come you guys are laughing and joking about it sometime? The smiley faces. There's no way that you can look at yourself and think, that's okay. Why couldn't it be a piece of chicken that's cooked? Why couldn't eat that?

Why does it have to be bread with hot sauce? I think that way more that has to do with your mind than you. This is actually the defense that Paul would use in court, and the trial would turn out to be even more interesting than the interrogation. He would try to claim that he wasn't the one in control at all. He was just following his mother's orders, doing what he was telling him. But unfortunately for him, there were messages like these, along with much more evidence yet to be discovered, that made it hard to believe that this was the truth.

I don't want to live a life where I regret the fact that I hid somehow, something. I've told you everything I know. How do you feel about living in life where you hid that your brother wasn't needing from society that you hid? that your brother was dying. How do you feel about that? I hate myself, okay? Ice baths, she gave my step on the daily day, right,

leading up to it? And she wanted him to sleep in the tub, that's what I read. Did that happen? Did he sleep in the tub? No. He didn't. No. He didn't get that bathtub and you guys dragged him into that closet

and waited for the morning to call the police? That's not what happened. No. You think that message is just a little bit suspicious that she sent you at just about midnight and says, he's in the closet. I had to drag him in there. You don't think he doesn't.

was already dying or dead at that point. Doesn't it seem like maybe he was already dead? That she put him in there so that he could wake up and have died and he can't call the police when he's in the ice back and he freezes and he dies. Whether this was true or not will remain a mystery for a while. But whatever the case, there was certainly a large attempted cover-up by both Shanda and Paul to try and make it seem like this was somehow, some way, natural causes. Timothy was treated like dirt until the very end.

and Detective Peasek has had enough. I can't be able to live with myself. But how do you feel like over and open when defending your mother about how good she is? Do you feel like that's the truth anymore? Because I'm quite disgusted by her. I'm disgusted by her. She never wanted this.

How smart is your mother? She's incredibly intelligent. You have couldn't allow you, right? I've ever thought, how can a woman is this smart, this intelligent, graduate from law school, how could she not know what what's happening. How could she think this is fake? How does she not know she's

how does she not see that he's wasting away? And you here, you're telling me that you've got some, some mental health issues, but you graduated in my school and it's very obvious to you that he's not, he's got malnutrition, right? It's very obvious to you. But your mom here's not seeing that, and she's a law school graduate, and she's very smarter. Do you see what I'm looking at here? She's a liar. What did she think what's going to happen? I don't know. I don't know. exactly what happens, what she thought was going to happen. She never wanted him dead.

She loved him. That's love to you? Everything that we talked about is love? You're joking, right? Even through the shouts of an enraged detective Pisk, Paul still defends his mother to the very end, trying to come up with excuses for her and even take the blame. But that would all come to an end on trial.

In the meantime, though, just five days after his interrogation, Paul decided to go live on Facebook to update his friends and family on everything that had happened. Given what we know now, the surviving video is probably one of the most eerie pieces of footage we've ever shown on this channel. Is it going? Hey, everybody. I just figured I'd send a quick check. We're doing good right now. I just dozed off on the couch.

For those of you who aren't aware, my little brother has passed away. and it's a lot to deal with but we're fine but just keep supporting and I guess I don't have much ready to say that now It would of course be his mother that faced the majority of the heat for Timothy's murder, so Paul decided that he would testify against his mother in an attempt to get a lighter sentence for himself. And during the course of this trial, we'd get even more information about other punishments and torture that Timothy was put through. Were there any restrictions on his movement inside the closet, or was it he could move around however he wanted inside the closet?

There were restrictions? What were the restrictions on his movement? Hands on his head, normally. Hands on his head, is that what you do you get it? Yes. Is that some form of discipline for him? Yes, on his knees against a corner of a wall. When you say hands on head, I'm going to demonstrate,

just put my hands just over my head like this. Is that what he was required to do? Yes. He was required to be on his knees as well? Yes, sir. Was he monitored to make sure that he was doing those things? Yes, sir. For how long would he have to do these things?

Several hours. Timothy serving with essentially zero muscle on his frame was forced to sit in a dark closet with his hands on his head for hours at a time. Most people's arms would start to ache after just five minutes. But on top of watching him as he was like this, listen to how they made sure that he never slipped up. Did you utilize some type of alarm or alarms on his body to alert you if he was moving? A vibration detector, yes. Was there more than one that he was required to wear at times? At times, yes.

Where were those devices located in his body? They were normally tied to the back loop of his belt. Was there something placed on his wrist as well at any point? Hand cups. And before that, zip ties. Zip cups. And those were designed to restrict what? Movement.

Of course, if he was to move or set those alarms off, he'd be punished again. Likely with hot sauce or another ice bath. Trials like this always give a horrifying amount of insight into cases like this. As Paul was made to testify against his mother, consistently spilled more and more details about exactly how he and his mother ended up killing Timothy, such as some of the ways they made sure he was never able to eat. There are some text messages. Do you recall a text message you changed with your mother in it's around April or so where you've alerted her to the fact that he's eaten some part of a burger?

Yes. What was it? What part of the burger is it that he ate? It's the crust. What was your mother's response when you told her that he had eaten the crust of that burger? Make him throw it up. Did you try to do that? I tried at first, yes. How did you try to do that?

Putting a finger into his mouth as instructed the back of his throat to induce vomiting. So who gave you the instruction to put your finger in the back of his throat? Shonda. Was there ever any other time where she instructed you to make Timothy throw up? Yes. At one point she had me heat up a pizza roll to see if he would be responsive to enticement. Did you actually do that? Yes.

I held it close, and when he responded, as per instruction, I was to pull it away from him. So we didn't get to eat the pizza roll? No. Paul is making an extreme effort to consistently say he was instructed to do everything. He's trying to throw as much blame off himself as possible, almost to the point where he's painting himself as a robot that simply followed what Shanda told him to do. The thing is, in a second interview conducted a week after the first, Paul was a lot more transparent. He admitted that he liked the praise from Shonda, that he liked having power and control over Timothy,

that he felt good while doing it, and that he did everything willingly. Lastly, he said he felt that he was as much murderer as his mother. All of that made it incredibly difficult to believe Paul when he stated that everything was just done as per his mother's orders. At the end of the day, Paul's motives and precise involvement in Timothy's death will never be known. He did contribute to his death. In fact, he carried out and enforced. the majority of punishments that caused his death. But whether he actually wanted to do any of this is a different story.

The general consensus is that he was manipulated by his mother. She made him feel that what he was doing was the right thing and it was all just to help him. That explains why Paul was parroting so many strange statements, held such hatred for his father, and started all of this. A jury would conclude that over time, it seems as though he grew to enjoy what he did and abuse his power. just as the guards did in the Stanford Prison Experiment. And that's the perspective a jury ended up taking.

Before his sentencing, Paul was evaluated by multiple doctors and experts in different fields and was found not to have any intellectual issues nor mental disorders. Paul was of sound mind, and it was determined he had mental and physical control over everything he did. So with that in mind, it was time for his sentencing. But not before the judge was given the opportunity to finally speak his mind and tell Paul exactly how he feels. about him. Mr. Ferguson is trying to shift blame from him to his mother to say that somehow she's the

one that did this. This has been a careful, manipulated story by Mr. Ferguson from the very beginning of this thing that he's going to put the blame on his mom. In my opinion, Paul Ferguson was predisposed to abuse his brother, independent of his mother's present and active influence in his life. I think he's one step away for becoming a psychopath like his life. his mother and the court is concerned that he represents a danger to the public. Mr. Ferguson, I think you are a product of your environment, but I don't believe you that you're sorry.

I don't think you have empathy. I don't think you have any emotion whatsoever, and that's what scares the court. Believe me, I have tried to sit here and try to think, well, maybe Mr. Ferguson's not as bad as mom. I think you're just as bad, if not worse. Shonda Vanderark was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years for the child abuse charge. Her son, Paul Ferguson, was charged with first-degree child abuse, resulting in the death of his younger brother, Timothy Ferguson.

This was his sentence and his reaction. You intentionally and systematically took your child. Based on all that, it's a sentence of the court, you served 30 years to 100, years Department of Corrections.