SERIALously - 255: Evil Couple Adopts 5 Black Siblings To Be Personal Slaves, BFF Murder Plot, Teenage Murder on the Playground and Sherri Papini is Back

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

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Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. And you know what time it is, you know what day it is. It's Thursday, so that means headline highlights. We have got so much to talk about this week and what's going on right now in the true crime world. I'm talking new cases, updates in cases, Sherry Papini, which is a name I never thought I was gonna say again. I mean we just have a lot to discuss and there is one case that has been at like the forefront of my mind that I

not only can't escape but I can't stop thinking about because it just makes me enraged. Like if you could see my face right now for the audio listeners, I know you can on YouTube, it just makes me enraged. Like if you could see my face right now for the audio listeners, I know you can on YouTube, it just makes me so mad. And it's the case of this couple who adopted five black siblings and then literally turned these siblings into their own personal slaves. It is so despicable and so vile. They had cameras in the shed. They deprived them of like any basic human needs. And so I don't know why I've seen a little bit out there about this couple and exposing them, but I felt the need to come on here and like really

call attention to what they did because it is some of the more gruesome House of Horror type situations that I've personally have ever heard of. So we're gonna talk about that case because there is a lot to go over, but I wanna warn you, it's definitely not an easy one to hear. We also were going to talk about a nurse in Utah

who plotted her best friend of five years death, but it didn't really end up how she thought it was going to. It didn't quite land where she thought it would. We're also going to talk about that manhunt that was ongoing in California for who law enforcement declared and deemed as the California Black Widow. She's the one who had already served prison time for killing her previous husband. Then she got married to a woman, a fire captain, and then she ended up dead. She was on the run for several weeks. She's now been found, and so we're going to talk about all

of that. We also are going to talk about a teenage girl who died at the hands of her own classmate, which like unfortunately all these other cases, that case is also gruesome. We're going to talk about Sherry Papini because that lunatic is back in the news and I didn't think I'd ever be talking about her again, but here I am. And there's a couple other cases I want to talk to you about. I also did drop a one hour long deep dive into all of the news of what's been going on in the Idaho Four case. You know, the brutal quadruple murder that took place in Moscow, Idaho, because over the past few weeks there's been a lot of information that has come out. It started with the 911 call, the transcripts, and the text messages from that morning, but now

as more time has gone on we also are finding out more about his Amazon history, his Amazon perch history, him being Brian Coburger. We also are learning about the text message and social media activity of the roommates the morning of the murder, before they called 911, their Snapchat activity, Instagram activity, things like that, some messages back and forth between the two of them, not only from the early morning hours when the murder was taking place

or shortly after it took place, but then more around eight in the morning before the 911 call was made. We of course are gonna talk about the now infamous selfie that I'm sure so many of you have seen on your feeds at some point or another over the last week, but it's a selfie that Brian Koberger took of himself in front of a bathroom,

which seems to not have a shower curtain. Many find that interesting because when they searched his apartment, a shower curtain was missing. And in this selfie, he is giving a thumbs up, smiling for the camera, and it was taken at 10.31 a.m. So about what? Six hours after the murders.

Now the reason that this selfie is now being brought into question, of course a selfie doesn't prove somebody's guilt, but the reason they're bringing that in as evidence and they want to bring it into trial is because one of the surviving roommates, Dylan, she, remember, came face to face with the intruder and all she could use to describe what this person looked like was their bushy eyebrows. Since then, it appears in some new hearings and court footage and photos that Brian looks more well-groomed, well-kept. However, in this selfie picture that he took

six hours after the murders, he does, in my opinion, have very bushy eyebrows. So the reason they wanna bring that in as evidence is to say, look, this was right after the murders happened. This was the state of his eyebrows. This is what she can use as like the identifying marker. Not that that's ever, you know, 100% rock solid or conclusive, but that's the whole reason that the picture is being talked about and entered in. So anyway, my point in saying that is I did a one hour deep dive like dissecting all of the new details, the Snapchats, the social media activity, the purchases, all of that, and also included a lot of the interview from Kaylee Gonzalves' own father, Steve. He has been very outspoken about this.

He's also been very outspoken about the public and how they have been dragging these roommates through hell the past few years. So we break it all down, talk about all of it. So it's in the feed. It's not only on YouTube, but it's also in the feed here on the podcast. It's like one episode or two episodes back. You can go listen. And gosh, sorry, I know this intro, guys, is so, so long. You're like, get to it, Annie. Like, shut up. We don't care. But I just want to also mention that Monday we dropped probably the most unhinged episode that I have done to date.

And the reason I say that is because I don't even know how to explain it without you guys seeing it or hearing it, but it's like this man, I couldn't help but like laugh out of secondhand embarrassment at this criminal and what he was trying to get away with. And if you haven't listened to it yet, do yourself a favor and not only listen to the full episode, but go on my social media right now. You can go on Instagram, TikTok, wherever it's at underscore Annie Elise and look at the clip that I posted because that is a clip of one of his interviews and it gives you just like a little snacky preview of what this loser

creep was up to. And so I basically drag him to hell in the episode and expose all of his stuff, but it's like Unbelievable and I was seeing some of your guys's comments over on Spotify And I was like rolling laughing because I was like I'm so glad that It's not just me who thinks that this guy is just like so deranged and like, you know lunatic behavior But anyway, let's jump in now into These new cases the reason you're here, what we talk about on headline highlights and look, I'm going to look at my monitor right now and it says we're already seven minutes in. Big yikes. Sorry guys, I promise I didn't

think that it was going to take me that long, but you know, whatever. Maybe it's just more time of us together, you know, just the two of us, we can make, okay, okay. I was gonna say that we deserve each other from Wicked, but somehow I ended with Will Smith, just the two of us. So I was gonna say, we deserve each other, you and my true crime besties, but then it turned into just the two of us, Will Smith. I don't know. Okay, I'm gonna stop talking. All right, let's start talking with, let's start talking.

Guys, words are hard. Why is today so hard for me? We are gonna start with the case about this nurse in Utah who plotted her best friend's murder. Let's start there. So this is the first case that I wanna dive into and it involves a lot of really shady behavior because it centers around a woman who spent years just secretly plotting to try to cash in on her best friend's $1.5 million life insurance

policy. And in August of 2024, after secretly plotting for years, she finally made her move. But here's the wild part in all of it, because after months of digging, the authorities just recently made an arrest. So let me get into this case and all of the recent updates. Let's go back to August 12, 2024, because that's when a call came in to 911 from a man who was claiming that his niece was unconscious and that she was struggling to breathe. Now his niece was 38 years old and her name is Casey Terry. So he explained to the operator that Casey was suffering from some major health issues. But more than that and more concerning

than that, her nurse and also coincidentally her best friend, 47-year-old Megan Sudwell, had refused to call 911 because of an alleged DNR that Casey had apparently signed. And for those of you who might not be familiar with what a DNR is or you don't watch Grey's Anatomy, it stands for Do Not Resuscitate. And it's a document that a person who is terminally ill can sign, or even not terminally ill, but something that you can put in your health care directive, in your will, or in your estate planning, where it basically says that whenever their time comes, they don't want any medical professionals to do life-saving measures, to intervene with artificial life, with life-saving measures, with anything like that, that it's their time and just to let it happen. However, in this situation, the first responders still rushed to the scene.

And when they got there, nurse best friend Megan would not let them get near Casey to help her. She explained to them that Casey had terminal cancer, and again, she had signed that DNR. However, while they were at the scene, one of the paramedics saw a diabetic needle, which to them was a huge red flag almost immediately. So then when they saw that, they pretty much kind of just said like, screw this, we're taking her to the hospital regardless of what you're saying, like something is weird, something weird is going on here, right? And sure enough, once

Casey arrived, they noted that she had dangerously low blood sugar levels. According to NBC News, her blood sugar was at a 14 when even just 40 is considered dangerously low. The weird thing, though, is that Casey was not diabetic. So the hospital tried doing everything that they possibly could do to save Casey, but sadly she ended up dying three days later at just 38 years old. There were a lot of questions surrounding Casey's death, but the autopsy report would later emphasize just how suspicious all of it was. It showed that Casey's cause of death was an overdose of promethazine, and it was also

noted that the specifics were, quote, probable insulin or other drugs. So that in and of itself was huge, right? But it also showed that Casey had never even had cancer. In fact, she didn't have any medical conditions. She was completely healthy. And on top of this autopsy report coming back with these, you know, bombshell findings

that she had a clear medical history, no cancer, all of these things. It also came back saying there was absolutely no DNR on file anywhere. She never signed a DNR. It was all made up. So what the heck really happened here, right? Something was wrong. Something wasn't right here because it's like here you have this healthy woman who died at 38 years old. Her best friend and Nurse said she signed a DNR and also was a cancer patient. But come to find out, none of that is true. So they started investigating. And the investigators eventually recovered over 28,000 text messages between Megan and

Casey. And when they went through these text messages, what happened became very, very clear. Crystal clear, you could argue. Beginning in December of 2019, Megan, the best friend and the nurse, began convincing Casey that she was very, very sick. Now, I have no idea how Casey was convinced of this, but either way, she was. And then the texts begin to show that Megan started telling Casey that she would help her die, help her along, help her transition due to this illness. Now I will say I saw a post

on Casey's Facebook from back in 2020 where she was saying that she was going through chemo. So I think there is a lot of backstory that maybe we don't quite know at this given moment, but I think that that's pretty severe and kind of crazy to convince not only a single person that they are affected with cancer, but maybe an entire medical team if she was in fact undergoing chemotherapy, unless she was doing some sort of, you know, private chemo with her best friend, she thought it was chemo and it really wasn't. Again, we're still learning a lot of details.

Now in these text messages, Megan was also apparently very transparent with Casey about the financial troubles that she was finding herself in. She was struggling financially, she was having a lot of issues with that and she made that very clear in her text messages to her sick best friend and you know, sick with air quotes.

So the investigators, when they saw all of these messages, were able to determine a very clear-cut motive. Like, okay, obviously this was financially driven. Now, it's not clear if Megan knew that Casey had put her as the life insurance beneficiary on her policy, or if maybe she just assumed that Casey put her as the beneficiary, which would be a really insane thing to do. But regardless, she decided to move forward with her plan. She was going to kill her best friend so that she no longer would be in personal financial ruin.

And that's when she decided she was going to inject her with insulin, which would kill her, and she would then think in theory she was gonna receive all the money. All the while, her best friend Casey, who was suffering, who thought she was sick, who thought she was dying, thought that her best friend was injecting her, helping her die in a peaceful and dignified way.

I mean, can you imagine? Now, the reason that this story is back in the headlines now is because just recently on March 20th, 2025, Megan was arrested and charged with first-degree felony aggravated murder. She was also charged with third degree felony obstruction of justice. And it's also worth mentioning that there was, in fact, no $1.5 million life insurance policy payout for Megan. She, for whatever reason, thought she'd get the payout, but she didn't. So the entire five-year plot of hers, the scheming, the manipulating, the convincing of the illnesses, all that was for nothing. For nothing. And now she is being charged with murder. So adios, good riddance, you are a scum. Now let's move into this other case and we had talked about it over here on Headline Highlights

a few weeks ago and it's who they're dubbing as the Black Widow of California who has now been caught and arrested. So as a reminder, the California fire captain, Becky, was found fatally stabbed in her own home just weeks after fighting the huge wildfires here in California. And the suspicions right away were toward her wife, Yolanda, because she wasn't at the crime scene, and the investigators quickly assumed

she had fled the country, which seems like a pretty basic story, right? I mean, the wife gets mad for who knows what, kills her partner, then flees. But the crazy thing about this case, especially this one in particular, is that this was now Yolanda's second spouse to have been brutally murdered in their own home. In fact, as I mentioned at the top of this episode, she had already served time in prison from 2004 to 2013 for her husband's year 2000 murder. There were no questions about whether or not she was guilty. She literally had been found guilty and served time. Now, allegedly, and I say this allegedly because she hasn't been convicted, but allegedly this next

time around she wanted to kill her spouse again. She decided to grab a knife and her spouse's life so savagely, but she didn't want to go to jail this time. She didn't want to serve time. So instead, she packed her bags and she fled 45 miles south and went to Mexico. And while the investigators were working with law enforcement officials in Mexico to find Yolanda, they discovered that the home security footage had actually caught Becky's entire murder. On this footage, you can see Yolanda chasing Becky outside on their porch at 8pm the night of the murder, on February 17th. Becky was seen heard and screaming, Yolanda, please don't, I don't want to die.

Then Becky was seen with blood all down her back, no doubt already suffering from at least one stab wound. And Yolanda was seen with blood on her arms. Though we can assume it was seen with blood on her arms though we can assume it was more than likely not her blood and Yolanda's only response which was caught on camera was you should have thought of that before. Can you imagine like how evil and callous you have to be for that to be your response? Your spouse is saying please don't do this please don't do this I don't want to die and

you just look at them and say you should have thought of that before. I mean, it like, sends a chill down my spine. So again, there were absolutely no doubts about who had killed Becky. I mean, if the security camera footage wasn't enough, an anonymous witness even came forward with text messages that are apparently from Yolanda, where she confesses to the entire thing. And according to the affidavit released, these text messages say, quote, Becky came home and told me she was leaving. She met someone else. All the messages were lies.

We had a big fight and I hurt her. I'm sorry. So on March 22nd, the Mexico officials announced that they had found Yolanda and they had her in their custody. So she is now in the custody of the US Marshals and she is facing murder charges once again. It was scary thinking about she's just gonna move on with her life. I don't know that closure will ever happen and obviously it's like sad it's not gonna bring her back you know but it was definitely like yes you know like like they did it. Now let's hope that unlike the first time she was charged with murder, these charges actually lead to a

life sentence so that she can never hurt anybody ever again. Now this next case is one that is very, very sad and very upsetting and honestly it's heartbreaking to even say it out loud, but last Friday on March 21st, 14-year-old Anaya Zachary of Baytown, Texas, was fatally shot four times on the playground outside of her apartment complex. And the fact that, quote, fatally shot and playground are even in the same sentence is just a complete nightmare. And as it turns out, it wasn't like Anaya was shot and killed by some random stranger, or even a full-blown adult for that matter, not that it would make it any better, but

her murderer was another classmate. Now, due to the perpetrator being a minor himself, we don't know his name, but we do know that he was 13 years old. And like I said, he was in the same class as Anaya, who was only 14 years old. Now, what led to this shooting was that apparently Anaya and this boy, quote, got into it on the bus ride home from school that day. And according to Anaya's godmother, Sonia, who I also believe is her legal guardian, we don't really know what they got into it about. But apparently it was something that the boy

just was not willing to get over. So this boy then went home knowing exactly what his plans were for Anaya. He dressed in all black, put on a ski mask over his face, and then he grabbed a gun that was apparently pretty easily accessible at home. Then he walked over to Anaya's apartment complex and he shot her four times. Now her family knew that Anaya had recently been pretty uncomfortable with another kid at school who had been picking on

her, but they didn't know the exact details or if this was even the same kid. But they most definitely never thought that being bullied at school would end in her murder. Understandably, Anaya's family is not only heartbroken, but very frustrated, mainly with this young boy's parents. Sonja has even made it clear that she forgives the young boy himself, but that she does feel like his parents should be held accountable for what happened that day, because although they didn't pull the trigger, they still failed to keep a destructive lethal weapon away from a 13 year old kid even if he hadn't ended up doing what he did. It still is just such a huge risk and safety hazard for him

and any other potential kids who are in the home. She give you no problems, yes ma'am, no ma'am. All now you wanted to do was get in her books, learn and graduate and go on about her life. She asked me if she could go outside to go see her little sister and I said yes. She never told me nothing about an altercation or anything. Forgive the little boy. I am very disappointed in his parents because your parents' skills is not right at all. But as for the little boy, I forgive him.

Right now the boy is confirmed to be in police custody, but we don't really have a lot of other information other than that. We don't know what charges he's potentially facing. We don't know if his parents are possibly in any sort of legal situation or legal trouble. It's all still pretty new. The whole thing is just so insanely tragic and sad and scary, especially as a parent. And my heart just breaks for Anaya, who had her whole life ahead of her. And for her family that now has to just somehow reconcile this and grieve and deal with this tragedy. And this 13-year-old boy, I would imagine his life is over too. And is it because he didn't know how to regulate his emotions? Is it because he thought that this was the way out? I mean, I don't know. It's really difficult trying to wrap your head around and explain kid on kid violence.

Very similar to the Tristan Bailey and Aidan Fucci case. She was 13, he was 14, and he stabbed her to death. And when I say stabbed her to death, I'm talking over a hundred times. And with such force that the tip of the blade was stuck in her skull and broke off from the knife. And that murder was so difficult to make sense of too because they were classmates, they were friends, and it's kid on kid violence. And for what purpose? He, Aiden didn't even have a problem with Tristan. They were friendly with each other.

I think there was something about he tried to make a move on her and she declined, but he, it was more so the murder happened, it could have been anybody. He had given himself 30 days to commit a murder. That's what he told himself. He confided in friends too, saying, I'm giving myself a 30-day deadline and then I'm gonna murder somebody. Yet nobody took him seriously even when he role-played with his girlfriend at the time and like would come up behind her and choke her and hold a knife to her She didn't believe that he was serious and it turns out he was and he killed Tristan And we did a big deep dive on that case and like went into it

Which you can find it in the history if you just search my name and Tristan Bailey Tristan with a Y But my point in all of that is that when you look at kid on kid violence it in the history if you just search my name and Tristan Bailey, Tristan with a Y. But my point in all of that is that when you look at kid on kid violence, there's just something so dark about it because it's innocence on both ends, or it should be innocence on both ends, and I don't mean innocence in the sense of not guilty. I mean like true, pure innocence, childlike, and trying to wrap your mind around what would drive someone to do this to another human being but no less another child and a classmate of theirs. It's just it's unfathomable. It's really difficult to to wrap your mind around. Now let's move over take a little break from violence for a moment and let's talk about this

batshit lunatic crazy woman Sherry Papini because if you're anything like me, and let's talk about this batshit lunatic crazy woman, Sherry Papini. Because if you're anything like me, and let's just be honest, you probably are if you're listening to this podcast, the name Sherry Papini is just all too familiar. And recently she's been back in both the headlines and in court, because she is in an ongoing custody battle over her two children. And honestly, some of her requests are pretty laughable and just like obscene. Now, if for some reason you have no idea who Sherry Papini is, I will give you a super, super quick rundown. But in 2016, she left her home to go outside on a run and she disappeared.

Her case immediately blew up in the media. I mean, think Gabby Petito, but even bigger. It was this mother, this blonde haired, beautiful woman, mother of a few kids. Everybody wanted to find out what happened to her. Everybody wanted her to be reunited back with her family and everybody was, you know, fearful of like who took her? Where is she? Is she okay? Then a month later Sherry reappeared and not only was she covered in bruises but she had this entire elaborate story of being kidnapped and being continuously beaten during her month-long kidnapping nightmare.

Except the entire thing ended up being a big fat zero. A big fake. Like balloon boy. I mean, nobody kidnapped her. Nobody beat her. She just willingly disappeared for a month and a half, I think it was, in total and inflicted every single injury on herself. It was nuts

I'm talking so much so and I'm gonna use some expressive language here for a moment be warned But she wanted to go down. She was from the northern area of California she went down to Southern California literally like right in my neck of the woods and She like reunited with her ex and they had this like month-long fuckfest Where they were like re in love and like hanging out and then when it was time to go back home she's like oh well I need to have injuries I need to make my story believable so she even went to a freaking hobby lobby and got what like what is it called like a soldering iron like one of those little like things like a branding type thing and she branded herself and like gave herself bruises

like took it to the extremes. Luckily, it was proven to all be fake, and she just went off and wanted to gallivant with her ex-boyfriend for a while. So she was ultimately sentenced to 18 months in prison, and on top of that, her husband Keith Papini filed for divorce, which at first he was defending her, and I think a lot of us saw those interviews and were kind of like, uh, you can't defend this lady, she's nuts. But then he finally, I think, like, saw the light and filed for divorce. And that was back in 2022 when she was sentenced. So now she's a free woman, but her story, of course, it still grips people, mainly for its shock value, right?

There was even a more recent documentary that came out just last year about Sheri's story. It came out on Hulu and I believe it was called The Perfect Wife. And the documentary ended up being a huge topic of conversation at the custody hearing last Friday, because Kevin, the ex-husband, was also a big part of this documentary. And he claimed that his involvement in this documentary was mainly something like,

it was something he went back and forth on for a while, but it was mainly for the sake of his children. That's why he participated. He wanted to show the world that despite having this like psychotic mother, the children were doing okay. They were thriving without her. That was why he wanted to participate in this. And to be clear,

Keith has now had full custody of the now 10 and 12 year old this entire time. But for whatever reason, Sherry is now wanting to be more involved and basically just wants to pretend like none of this ever even happened. And her exact request was to seek reunification with one child and increased visitation rights

with the other. Now, Keith, the dad, understandably, has been fighting against this because even though what Sherry did was back in 2016, it is very concerning. And there's also even more allegations than just this. During the docu-series, Keith shared that over the years, his kids have confided in him and opened up more about their mother, more things that she did or they claimed that she did.

Which, these things are truly disgusting. Because apparently, the kids told Keith they remembered Sherry allegedly soaking rags full of rubbing alcohol that she would then put inside of a Ziploc bag. And from there, she would allegedly tie a string around their neck and the bag, sort of like a makeshift necklace almost, so that the alcohol soaked bag with that rag

was just right under their noses, where they would just constantly be inhaling it and these fumes Understandably would give them these like massive headaches and make them just overall not feel very well Which would then in turn prompt Sherry to take them to the doctor think Munchausen's by proxy and again This is all alleged but if it's true It makes complete sense why Keith is fighting so hard to make sure that Sherry doesn't worm her way back into these kids' lives. I mean, she's a danger. She's already proven to be unbalanced. She's proven to be, you know, not take regard for her own safety or her, like, or her the mental well-being of her own kids by leaving them for a month, all for her own personal disgusting reasons, but then if these allegations are true, it's like not to get dramatic,

but could you have another Powell situation on your hands here where it's one of those things where I'm going to take the kids with me and I'm going to take all of us out? I mean, and I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it's like you can't be too careful with situations like this, especially when there's already a proven track record of like instability, right, and her hat kind of being mentally unwell and unstable. And there's also the fact that Sherry still isn't being honest about what really happened, which I gotta say has to be really concerning as the kid's sole guardian. She should not be alone with the children. She She harmed her own body to fake a kidnap. My daughter informed me that Sherry was having her smell rubbing alcohol on a daily basis.

I found out more things that Sherry had been doing to either create some sort of sickness so that she could take them to the doctor. Now she's saying she was kidnapped again, but by James. But that is also a lie. This is literally the same thing she did in 2016. So in the custody hearing, Sherry apparently really laid into Keith

for being part of this documentary. And the court filings claimed that Sherry argued that Keith was quote, revisiting the past and reopening old wounds rather than focusing on moving forward, all at the expense of our children. On top of that, she asked for the court to block her kids from watching this documentary,

which I gotta say, that is pretty rich. You think he's living in the past that he's the one who's putting your kids in emotional turmoil or danger by allowing them or optioning them to watch the documentary? the one who's putting your kids in emotional turmoil or danger by allowing them or optioning them to watch the documentary? Uh, no. You bitch, you bitch left them when they were toddlers so that you could go away for a month to decompress and have sex with your ex-boyfriend. Like, what are you talking about? But now because you have been caught and you live in so much shame you don't want them to see that documentary.

It's not even like she came home and was like, oh my god, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I did this. I've had some sort of mental break. I just, you know, being a mom is so hard. I felt like I just needed me time. I didn't know what else to do. I can't believe I even did that. I'm so sorry. No. She came back with this whole elaborate hoax story about even describing the people who kidnapped her, the van that she was in, what happened to her. The only reason she got caught was because she got caught. It wasn't her own volition of coming forward or feeling remorse. So the fact that now she wants to protect that secret so that her kids aren't exposed to all of the details? No. Sorry, lady. Like, no. No, no, no, no, no. Now, we

still don't have any information on how this hearing went as far as what was approved or denied, but I imagine by the time this episode goes up there probably will be more information out there, but I for one am very curious to see how it all plays out. Now, there are a few more cases I want to talk to you about, especially the one about this couple who adopted the five siblings and like forced them to be their own personal slaves. So we're going to talk about all of that, but first we are going to take a quick break. So this next case that I want to go over, it is so disgusting and so disturbing and just so horrifying on so many levels.

However, there is a positive in the situation because there has now been an arrest finally made. So let's dive into it. A little over a month ago, on February 3rd, 2025, the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office was contacted about an unconscious elderly woman. At the home was 76-year-old LaVon Hoff, who was unresponsive and looked like she had also been attacked. The woman was sadly pronounced dead at the scene, and at first, they weren't really

sure what had happened to her. I mean, yes, there was a lot of blood. I mean, a ton of blood, and she definitely hadn't just died peacefully in her sleep or of natural causes, I mean that was for sure. But she seemingly was all alone in the house. Or, at least, she was the only human in the house, because this place was a literal zoo. All around her deceased body, there were several dogs just running loose on the prowl and seemed to be kind of in disarray. But a quick search of the entire home showed that those few dogs were just barely scratching

the surface of what was going on inside this house. Because inside the rest of the home, there were two dozen dogs of different breeds, different sizes, as well as seven birds that were caged. Let me just do that math for you really quick. Two dozen, 24 dogs running around. 24 dogs running around and seven birds, which I am like really scared of birds actually. That would freak me the fuck out.

But it's interesting because LaVon suffered from dementia and in the pretty late stages of it, because of this, she was completely dependent on her daughter, 47 year old Jessica. She needed constant care, 24-7. She literally could not do a single thing for herself. Now, it turns out that Jessica was living with her mom and had also become her full-time caretaker, which not allowing her mom to wither away in some nursing home sounds somewhat noble.

It's not an easy job to be a full-time caretaker. That is until you learn that she was completely neglectful, not only to her mother, but all of those animals that were in her care. So a total of 31 animals were inside that home. Because in addition to those two dozen dogs, it turns out that Jessica had a grand total of 54 dogs and seven birds on this property. That's 61 different animals.

61 animals that she neglected and didn't take care of in addition to her ill mother. So on that particular day, Jessica left her dementia-ridden mother home alone all so she could go out and run some errands. But while she was gone, her mom was attacked and brutally mauled by all of the dogs inside of her home. That's what ultimately killed her. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine being mauled to death by multiple dogs? I don't know guys. That is really freaking scary to think about and painful, painful. Like being ripped apart. So on March 21, 2025, Jessica was arrested and she was charged with criminal negligence

resulting in the death of an at-risk adult, and she was also charged with 54 separate counts of aggravated cruelty to animals. The entire thing is just so insane, and it's heartbreaking that her mom died, probably not even understanding what was going on or why she was all alone. Now let's talk about this evil couple, this evil, evil couple.

And like I said, this is a difficult one to hear, guys. That's why I wanted to put it last. If you gotta pause it or you gotta take a beat, I completely understand. So it all started in a town called Sissonville, West Virginia, and this was back in October of 2023. Some concerned neighbors called the authorities with some information that was very, very unsettling.

They reported that two teenagers, just 14 and 16 years old, were being locked inside a shed. And when the sheriff's deputies showed up to check it out, what they found inside was just horrifying. The shed had no running water, no bathroom, no beds. It had just a dirty sleeping bag, a broken AC unit, a camping toilet, and a cooler with rotting food inside of it.

That's all. It was filthy, it was hot, and it smelled awful. But what's even more heartbreaking is that these weren't just two kids. They were part of a group of five siblings, all five of them who had been adopted by Jeannie Whitefeather and Donald Lance. And all of them were living in truly inhumane conditions.

Then, inside the house as they were searching, deputies also found a nine-year-old girl who was crying inside this loft area. And this loft area didn't even have proper guardrails. The place reeked of urine, the kids were filthy, and one of them, the 14-year-old, even had open sores on his feet from walking around barefoot.

So how did we get here? How do you get here in just a short amount of time? Seven years is the time span in which this all went down, which I get it, that is a long time in theory, but like to get into such bad conditions, it's pretty severe, right? So Jeannie and Donald had adopted these five black siblings back in 2018 when they were living in Minnesota. Then over the years, they moved around, first to a farm in Washington state,

and then eventually to West Virginia in May of 2023. And not long after they arrived, the abuse started to become more visible. They weren't so careful or protective of all of this. And thankfully, somebody finally spoke up, that neighbor who called and was very concerned. Now as the investigation unfolded, the stories that came out were truly gut-wrenching. The kids testified that they were often locked in this shed as punishment. They were forced to do manual labor like cleaning and farm work,

and they were rarely ever allowed inside of the house. Food was also limited, sometimes just to peanut butter sandwiches or reheated leftovers. There was also no bathroom access unless it was the middle of the night, and even then, they had to use a bucket with one of the siblings then holding up some sort of makeshift blanket for privacy. It was like they were all on their own, they weren't able to use any of the facilities or do anything they just had to look out for each other, which is heartbreaking. And the verbal abuse on top of all this physical torment and abuse, I mean, it was constant. One of the older girls shared that Jeannie frequently called them racial slurs and that

she would just degrade them all the time, both in private and in front of other people. Neighbors testified that they barely saw the children, and whenever they did, it was mostly when they were outside doing chores while Donald was close by watching them, making sure that these chores were getting done. The kids weren't enrolled in school, they didn't have any friends, they only had each other, and there were security cameras all over the property, which the prosecutors later argued was used to monitor and to control these kids rather than, you know, having security cameras to protect them. It was more so to monitor their movements and make sure they knew what they were doing.

So fast forward to now, January 2025, after the investigation took place, after they gathered all of this evidence and after they charged these two evil, disgusting creatures. That's what I can't even call them people, actually. They're just like creatures. So in January of 2025, both Jeannie and Donald were found guilty on a very long list of charges, including human trafficking, child abuse and neglect, even forced labor.

Jeanne was also convicted of violating the children's civil rights based on race. Now, during the trial, the defense argued that the couple was just overwhelmed with the children's mental health issues, saying they tried to seek support but they were also overwhelmed with all of the trauma that was associated with the abuse from the children's biological home and that they were really doing their best, which give me a freaking break. Doing your best, I mean give me a break. So at sentencing in March, the judge did not hold back and she gave Jean 215 years. She gave Donald 160 years, which was the maximum allowed. And the judge told them directly,

You brought these children to West Virginia, a place that I know as almost heaven, and you put them in hell. The judge also said that in their 25 years, they have never seen something so horrific, saying, and I quote, I've seen weak old babies starved to death by their parents on drug vendors, others burned with hairdryers placed on their bare skin, a child drowned and stuffed into a freezer, and unspeakable acts of sexual abuse placed on children.

And I say all of that because I want the defendants to understand that what they did is just as horrific. So, each of them was also ordered to pay $280,000 in restitution to the children. And during the sentencing, the kids gave incredibly powerful victim impact statements. One child told the courtroom, I will be something amazing. I will be strong and beautiful. You will always be exactly what you are. Horrible. Another directly confronted Jean and said, I'll never understand how someone who said they loved us could do the things that you did. This case shook the local community and really anyone who has followed it. It has sparked conversations about, you know, how something this extreme could happen under the radar,

how there's flaws in the adoption and foster care system, which continue to let vulnerable children fall through the cracks. And I mean, it's just calling another attention, like, who are these monsters? People adopting children. We've seen it before. I mean, right? People adopt children for their own perverse, disgusting needs and wants or for the paycheck that they get. But now it's like, and I'm sure this is happening elsewhere, we just don't know about it, but they adopt these five black siblings and force them to do manual labor, chores. They don't feed them right. They don't treat them right. They don't even let them use the bathroom. It is disgusting. And you have to ask yourself what flaws in the system can be fixed to make sure that

this does not continue to happen, right? It's horrible. So it also raises even more important questions about race, control, power, and why it took so long for somebody to step in and call the authorities. What's clear now, of course, is that these kids deserved so much better. And finally, justice is catching up, which is great, but the trauma that they endured? I mean, that'll probably take a lifetime to heal, if it even does ever heal. It's disgusting.

It's just, I don't even have a word, guys. I'm running out of words. Get me a thesaurus. I don't even know how to describe people who do this to children. It is so sick. So I'm gonna wrap up the headline highlights portion of this episode on that one because I feel like that's heavy enough to just like we gotta call it now and all decompress. But if you feel like you still need more to binge and more content as a reminder and we have it on a massive discount right now I believe on Apple,

you can gain access to all of our extra mini deep dive episodes. We put a new one out every single Friday. And I think right now there's probably about 80 of them that you can go back and binge. But an example of one is the Idaho one I talked about at the top of this episode, which is available right now. And then the one that we're putting out this Friday

is one where we're covering the case of Amanda Overstreet. And if you aren't familiar with that case, it is pretty wild because she's a 16 year old girl who went missing after her mom said she ran away from a gas station. But then there were a lot of weird conflicting things in her mom's story where she said she was the one who drove her to the gas station,

but then it was her boyfriend or her husband who drove her to the gas station. So a missing persons report was opened, but then nothing ever came to fruition. Fast forward 10 years after other people, not not Amanda's mom kept this case in the news And kept it alive and Amanda's mom finally sold their house and when she did Somebody came in to clean everything out because it was a pigsty it was absolutely filthy and what they found inside the freezer was

Horrifying and I'm sure you know what's going on and where that's going. But there were a lot of details along the way and you'll understand like this case is just super wild. So we're talking about all of that this week. And then you can also listen to that Idaho episode right now if you want. All right guys, so that is a wrap for today. Thank you guys so much for tuning in.

I'll be back on with you Monday morning where we are deep diving into an all new case. And if you haven't listened to the one I put out this last Monday, it's that one I was telling you about that's like probably the most unhinged and comical one we've done to date. You got to go listen to it because I really want to know your thoughts on it. It's the case of Nicholas Rossi and it is a wild one. All right, guys, that's a wrap. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode.

I will be back with you very soon until the next one. Be nice. Don't kill people, don't join any cults, be a good human, and above all else, stay safe. All right, bye. Bye. Bye.