The Misery Machine - The Case of Jeanette Maples

Starting point is 00:00:00 Angela Darlene Fusey was born on October 2nd, 1968, and grew up in Sacramento, California to parents Nancy and Jerry Fusey. Nancy was 18 years old when Angela was born, and she already had two children born to two separate men. Jerry was described as a violent and jealous man who was associated with area biker gangs. Although many people feared him, Jerry was somewhat popular with the ladies and carried on multiple affairs throughout Nancy's pregnancy, including one with a woman named Rebecca, which resulted in another child being born.

Starting point is 00:00:33 As I'm sure you've already assumed, Jerry mistreated Nancy and was regularly violent with her, even while she was pregnant with Angela. Although many people witnessed just how badly Jerry treated Angela, no one stepped up due to the fear of what he would do to them. When Angela was about five years old, Nancy finally worked up the courage to leave Jerry. She filed for divorce, finally reclaiming her life for her and her now five children,

Starting point is 00:00:57 three of which were Jerry's. Unable to cope with the fact that Nancy had moved on with her life, Jerry began to stalk her. After a night of dancing at an area nightclub, Nancy went missing. On July 22nd, 1973, she was found dead on the side of a river road in Reading. Young mother had been violently stabbed 29 times. Allegedly, Jerry confessed to killing his ex-wife to one of his friends, and his own mother turned him into the authorities. However, the police didn't want to hear any of this, rather than look at the most likely suspect in the case, the authorities claimed that Nancy had just simply fallen victim to an unknown serial

Starting point is 00:01:34 killer and lumped her in with other victims of what is now known as the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. In addition, police suspected that she could have been the victim of Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgeway, and even the Zodiac killer. In 2012, Angela's younger brother, George, penned the book inside those walls, and this book outlined the horrors that the children suffered in the wake of their mother's murder and the violence inflicted upon them by her likely killer. As of the date of this recording in October of 2024,

Starting point is 00:02:04 Nancy Fusey's murder remains unsolved. This left Angela and her siblings in the care of Jerry. Soon Jerry was shacking up with Rebecca, his mistress that he got pregnant during Nancy's pregnancy. In all, there were eight children living in this house, which included two of Nancy's children from a previous relationship, and Nancy and Jerry's three children, Rebecca and Jerry's one child,

Starting point is 00:02:25 and two children Rebecca brought in from a previous relationship. This is a little confusing to you. We don't blame you. It should also be noted that these eight children and two adults were living in a small two-bedroom house. That's ten people in a small two-bedroom home. But as I'm sure you can imagine, this wasn't one big, happy, blended family. Nancy's children became the family's scapegoats. Jerry would often beat and starve his children as punishment for things that

Starting point is 00:02:55 he felt they did wrong. Unlike Rebecca's children, Angela and her siblings wouldn't receive presents for Christmas or their birthdays. They were also forbidden from talking about their dead mother and they had to pretend that Nancy didn't exist. This was reportedly difficult for Angela, who was close to her late mother. Even more disturbing was the fact that due to their tender ages, many of Nancy's children didn't even know that Rebecca wasn't their biological mother. But soon, Jerry started beating Rebecca in front of the children, following the same cycle of violence that he once inflicted upon Nancy. Some of his tactics included dragging her into the bathroom and beating her with his fist so badly that blood would spatter about. He'd close her

Starting point is 00:03:41 head in the door, but that wasn't even the worst of it. According to sources, Jerry once dragged Rebecca into the garage, tied her torture style to a table, doused her with gasoline, and then taunted her with a lit match. Had he gone through with it and actually lit her on fire, I'm sure the area police would just blame a serial killer again. This, like many of Jerry's violent outbursts, was actually witnessed by the children. As sad as that is, it was actually one of the children

Starting point is 00:04:12 that managed to get Jerry to stop. Angela too bore the brunt of many of Jerry's violent outbursts and knew it was time to make her escape. After she graduated from high school, Angela met a man who worked for the traveling carnival. She traveled with him to different towns while he worked, escaping her life back in Eugene, and Jerry. Unfortunately, Angela began to use drugs with the carnival workers. This was just the start of a string of horrible choices, and Angela began the vicious cycle of violence

Starting point is 00:04:44 all over again with her own family. Flash forward now to the 1990s. People who knew Angela described her as being a high-strung and controlling woman who worked as a cashier at a discount store. She once lived in her car and tried to isolate her children from others, including her own family. In August 9, 1993, Angela gave birth to a daughter named Jeanette Marie Maples with a man named Anthony. A couple lived in Sacramento and had three children together in the 1990s, but they were never married. Jeanette was the youngest of the three with two older brothers. Anthony Maples spent most of the 90s in and out of prison because of his drug.

Starting point is 00:05:19 addiction. You mentioned earlier, Angela also had a drug habit and was violent with the children while Anthony was in jail. The state of California took the three children and put them in foster care in 1995 when Jeanette was about a year old. When Angela got out of jail, she ended up pregnant with another daughter. Unfortunately, she was able to regain custody of Jeanette in 2001 after she had spent the past five and a half years in foster care. However, Jeanette's two older brothers remained in foster care after the boys wrote a letter to the family court judge and asked not to be returned to their mother. This should have been a massive red flag for the family court system, but apparently it wasn't. Angela and her two daughters moved to Oregon from the Sacramento Valley

Starting point is 00:05:58 area in 2005. Once they had moved, Anthony lost touch with his only daughter as Angel would not return his calls and tried to keep him from seeing Jeanette. Jeanette grew into a quiet and shy girl with dark hair. She liked school and won two awards for perfect attendance in middle school. She liked to read books in the school library and write her own poetry. She kept a notebook and a journal filled with poems she had written. Jeanette one day dreamt of being a chef, a librarian, or a poet. Angela would send Jeanette to school wearing ratty sweatpants and stained shirts. Several kids in her class would make fun of her appearance,

Starting point is 00:06:33 but Jeanette was so focused on her teachers and being at school that it did not bother her as it would for most kids her age. The school day ended and it was time to go home, Jeanette's friends noticed that her demeanor would sharply change and she would get sad, withdrawn, and anxious. In 2005, Angela married Richard Anthony McNulty, six-foot-two-inch, bulky, long-haul trucker, who was about a year younger than she was.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Soon she moved Jeanette and her younger sister to Oregon to live with their new stepfather. After the couple married, Angela gave birth to Richard's son. The family moved to a house on Robin Avenue and Eugene, Oregon, in early 2006. Jeanette was enrolled at Cascade Middle School, where she liked learning and spending time with her few friends. Jeanette graduated from the eighth grade in June of 2008.

Starting point is 00:07:21 The counselor at the school said that the staff there truly cared about Jeanette. We took her under our wings when we could. Teachers, classmates, and other school employees began to notice certain things about Jeanette. She looked skinny for her age and height, and she was always hungry. While at school, Jeanette's friends shared their lunches with her, and she also got extra food from the lunch ladies who took a liking and obviously had some pity for her. about this time, Jeanette wrote a letter to her teacher and said that she was not allowed to have food at home. She said that she was forced to eat hot chili peppers and sit on her knees for long periods of time as a punishment.

Starting point is 00:07:58 Some of those times, Jeanette was forced to hold heavy objects that hurt her more. The teacher gave the note to the school officials, and they alerted the Department of Human Services, which opened an investigation in Jeanette's claims. A DHS caseworker made a home visit and interviewed Angela, Richard, and the two younger children. Each person gave a different story that did not match up with what Jeanette claimed. Caseworker noticed that the home was fully stocked with food, and there should have been no reason to believe that Jeanette was skinny because the family did not have the means to feed her. Angela pulled the caseworker aside and told her that Jeanette was a compulsive liar.

Starting point is 00:08:31 H.S. closed the file as unable to determine. Jeanette and a friend were in gym class one day in changing out of their gym clothes when her friend noticed bruises and marks on her stomach and back. After trying to convince her friend that she had fallen and gotten hurt, Jeanette opened up to her and told her she had gotten the injuries from being punished at home. Her friend went home and told her mother about Jeanette's injuries and told her how worried she was about her. Friend's mom called DHS to report the violence, which added to the report that was already filed by the school. Once Angela found out, Jeanette had told her a friend what had happened to her. She removed her from school and began to homeschool her.

Starting point is 00:09:06 We see this often in cases that we cover on this channel when a parent is starting to become, suspected that they are hurting their children. Jeanette's two younger siblings did stay at school, however. So, Jeanette was the only one getting homeschooled, another red flag. This left Angela and Jeanette alone with each other during the entire day. Angela treated Jeanette differently from all of her other children, and she too became the family scapegoat. Now, a scapegoat is a person or a thing that is blamed for something bad that someone else has

Starting point is 00:09:40 done. The word actually comes from the Bible where it refers to a pair of goats that were released into the wilderness to carry away the sins of the community. A child might be scapegoated by being singled out as the bad one in the household.

Starting point is 00:09:54 This can lead to emotional and psychological distress and it can make it difficult for the child to believe they are worthy, competent, or likable. In even more severe cases, the child might suffer mistreatment from their caregivers or other siblings.

Starting point is 00:10:09 Jeanette was not allowed to talk to her younger sister and brother and would be punished if she did so. Angela put locks on the cabinet to keep Jeanette from getting to food and controlled what she ate or drank during the day. When it was time for the family to sit down for their evening meal, Angela would give Jeanette less food than the other children or make her miss the meal altogether. Angela removed hose spigots, turned off the water supply under sinks,

Starting point is 00:10:34 and installed locks in the bathroom door. She forced Jeanette to ask for permission before she could have something to drink or go to the bathroom. Sometimes she would not let Jeanette have water or use the bathroom because she figured out that Jeanette had been drinking water from the toilet and from the dog's water dish. Jeanette was always in trouble with her mother for minor things and was punished more than her sister and brother.

Starting point is 00:10:57 She was forced to eat hot peppers or stand or kneel in a corner for a long time, sometimes while holding something heavy to make the situation more painful. Angela would punch, slap, scratch, and kick Jeanette all over her body. She had bruises and cuts all over her and even some broken teeth from the attacks. Angela used belts and sticks to hit Jeanette on the back, bottom, and legs, causing cuts that would bleed heavily. The two younger siblings saw their mother hit Jeanette with a wooden spoon that had been heated and boiling water. Her younger brother said his mom used a pair of pliers on Jeanette's head, pinky toe, and cheek. When Angela would discipline, Jeanette, as she called it, she always did so behind closed door so others could not see what was going.

Starting point is 00:11:39 on. She would make Jeanette go into a bedroom and turn on the vacuum or turn up the volume on the TV so the younger children would not hear what was happening. Richard said, you could hear the whips. It was horrifying. I didn't know what was going on. Her mom would have her strip naked and whip her. After some more of these violent attacks, Angela would put iodine on the wounds and try to bandage the injuries herself. Richard never tried to step in or demand that Jeanette be taken to a doctor or a dentist for the injuries and Angela continued to try to treat them in private. During the summer of 2009, Richard had a heart attack while driving cross-country and ended up into California hospital for open heart surgery. Angela and the children showed up at the hospital.

Starting point is 00:12:23 After seeing Jeanette, Richard's mother Lynn said, she looked bad, really thin, her hair had been chopped off and she had a busted lip. When Richard came home from the hospital, the family moved from their home on Robin Avenue to a house on Howard Avenue. As Richard recovered from surgery and was not able to be outworking, Angela's treatment of Jeanette got worse. Jeanette lost more weight and had more serious injuries that got infected. Angel would make her collect dog feces in the yard, after Jeanette was tied up and unable to move,

Starting point is 00:12:55 would rub it on her face and mouth. Towards the end of November 2009, Richard's mother Lynn anonymously called the state child welfare officials after seeing Jeanette when Richard was in the hospital. Lynn had become suspicious of how Angela was treating Jeanette at home, especially since she had been kept from seeing any of her grandchildren. In early December 2009, Jeanette had a significant blow to her head during one of her punishment.

Starting point is 00:13:21 She was confused and had trouble walking and standing after the injury. December 9, 2009, Jeanette fell asleep on the floor and became unresponsive. So Angela and Richard picked her up and put her in the bathtub. She would not wake up. Richard called his mother and asked for help with what to do next. Lynn, of course, told them to call 911 as soon as possible. Richard's call 911 came in at 8.04 p.m. and first responders arrived at the house to find Jeanette lying on her back in the dark living room. Angela met with the first responders in the driveway and told them, help my baby.

Starting point is 00:13:54 She blurted out that she had been out shopping and that Jeanette fell down after an argument with her younger brother. Angela insisted that Jeanette was fine when she left. about an hour before the 911 call was made. During the exchange, Richard kept quiet and did not speak to them the entire time the first responders were in the house. Jeanette's hair was wet and she did not have a shirt on when paramedics got to her. She bruises on her face and cuts above her eye. Jeanette was so frail and skinny that you could see her bones through her skin. It was so small for her age that the fire captain asked Angela several times how old she was. He simply could

Starting point is 00:14:30 could not believe that she was 15. Jeanette did not have a pulse when help arrived. CPR was started on her and a tube was put in her throat to help her breathe. The fire captain also noticed how strange Angela was acting about the situation. She was agitated, then became quiet, and then was hysterical. She even laughed a couple of times, he said, she was very odd. I felt the hair on the back of my neck. I have never had that feeling in 18 years.

Starting point is 00:14:57 All I wanted to do was run. Jeanette was rushed to Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend Hospital and, sadly, was pronounced dead at 8.42 p.m. Emergency room doctor Elizabeth Hilton noted that her front teeth were broken and she had severe wounds on her legs and back. One wound on her hip was so nasty that the flesh was torn away and you could see the bone. Dr. Hilton met with the family and Angela told her that Jeanette had been eating but got very skinny lately. Angela later told investigators, the reason why she's so skinny, honest to God, is when she split her lip a while back.

Starting point is 00:15:36 I did not know how to feed her. Prosecutors later described Jeanette as having the appearance of a concentration camp victim. Authorities were not able to pinpoint a single cause of death because of the severity of Jeanette's starvation, dehydration, physical injuries, and infections. Her cause of death was listed as multifactorial. and neglect. Angela and Richard left the hospital and went with detectives to the sheriff's office for questioning. However, before they left the hospital, Angela and Richard talked about

Starting point is 00:16:07 blaming Richard for Jeanette's death. Angela assumed that there was a possibility that authorities might go easier on him because of his heart condition. At the sheriff's office, detectives separated the couple, read them their Miranda rights, and interviewed them. Richard first told detectives that he spanked Jeanette, but he later said that this was not true. He agreed to take the blame for her injuries. Angela also started to blame Richard, but slipped up and started to make self-incriminating statements. Angela and Richard were both arrested on the night of Jeanette's death and were charged with aggravated murder as a result of intentional maiming and torture. A social worker from the Oregon Department of Human Services called Jeanette's father, Anthony Maples, at his home in Sacramento,

Starting point is 00:16:49 California, to tell him about his daughter's death and charges against Angela and Richard. Anthony said, I am so crushed by this. I know that I have to accept this as God's will, but it is disgusting that this happened to my little angel. Search warrants were executed for both the Howard Avenue and Roburn Avenue homes. Police found blood and other DNA evidence and noticed that someone had attempted to clean up some of the evidence. A garbage bin at the Howard Avenue house had several bloodstained items inside,

Starting point is 00:17:19 including sticks, belts, clothing, bedding, a piece of cardboard that Angela forced Jeanette to sleep on at night. Blood was splattered on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the house. Leather belts and other torture devices were recovered, along with chunks of Jeanette's flesh. Lynn McNulty had the hard job of cleaning out the family's home after her son and daughter-in-law were arrested and the two younger children were taken into state custody. Thankfully, a non-profit organization offered to take over the cleanup and all furniture and useful items were donated to the organization's homes for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.

Starting point is 00:17:57 While waiting for the trial, Angela was held at Lane County Jail in Eugene, Oregon. She first entered a not guilty plea, but later changed it to guilty on the first day of her trial. During sentencing hearing, Angela's other daughter, as well as her mother-in-law, Lynn, took the stand to testify against her. Today was probably the most graphic so far, a witness to everything that happened in the McAnaldi home. Because she's under 18, no cameras. were allowed in the courtroom again today. It was Jeanette Maple's half-sister,

Starting point is 00:18:26 but the 13-year-old girl said her mother treated them all very differently. We're allowed to play video games and watch TV. Jeanette was not even allowed to talk to anybody. Patience's testimony was much different than her stepfather's Richard McAnulty, who finished his testimony this morning. She says she knew what was going on, but her mother reminded them all daily. What goes on in the house stays in the house.

Starting point is 00:18:50 She wasn't allowed to speak. to anybody without her mom's permission. That she was so skinny that she didn't, she would just, she didn't have anything on her. She would just, just be a penny. And she just like warm out for a 15 year old. Lynn says she told her son, Jeanette needed to see a doctor. And later she says Angela used the excuse that her daughter had the H1N1 flu. Her husband, Richard McNulty, later pled guilty to murder in April of 2011.

Starting point is 00:19:26 It was right here, the Lane County Courthouse in 2011 when Angela McAnulty was sentenced to death. And while a judge has rules, she should get a new trial. The case is now in the hands of the Oregon Attorney General's office where they could fight that ruling. Child welfare advocates I spoke to today say the case is a reminder for them that there is still work to be done. In Jeff Todal's office at the University of Oregon, you'll find this article. on Jeanette Maples' murder posted to a file cabinet. He says it's a reminder of what he's fighting for. Jeanette Maples was found dead in the McAnulty family home off a River Road in 2009. Police say McAnulty and her husband beat and starved the girl. It's a painful, tragic

Starting point is 00:20:07 memory, and child abuse and neglect in all of its forms continues to happen. Todal is the co-director of the Center for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect at the University. They started 90 by 30, an initiative that aims to reduce child abuse in Lane County by 90% by the year 2030. On their website, no more lane county.org, anyone can learn how to be part of the solution. This is a solvable problem. We can get to a place in Lane County where we're neglect is the exception. And it's right now very close to the rule, actually. Todal says after Jeanette's murder, there was an explosion of services to fight child abuse. He says more organizations have stepped up and come up with more ways to help keep kids.

Starting point is 00:20:50 safe. We all felt something when that happened. And some of us, I think, felt so discouraged that we get immobilized. And then some of us felt really invested in doing something about it. Right now, Todal says he's focused on making sure another child doesn't go through what Jeanette Maples did. We're working on that. Lots of people working on that. But there's a lot of work to do. Angela was sentenced to death in her 2010 trial, but her sentence was later changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole after an appeal in July of 2019. Angela McNulty, who starved and tortured her 15-year-old daughter to death, was convicted in 2011 and has sat in a Wilsonville prison ever since. Short time ago, a Lane County judge signed an order that throughout her conviction and her death sentence.

Starting point is 00:21:35 Senior Circuit Court Judge J. Burdett Pratt ruled today to vacate the conviction and death penalty. Judge Pratt says her attorneys failed to adequately represent her during the trial. In today's ruling, Judge Pratt says her defense team was rushed and unprepared. They had just finished a massive 114-day trial for two cop killers when they took up McNulty's case. Judge Pratt's draft ruling says the jury was never provided neuropsychological evidence to better understand the why that her mental health and own personal trauma was not presented in the case. As for the stepfather, Richard McNulty, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder by and was sentenced to life in prison. She is serving her time at the Oregon State Penitentiary's Coffee Creek Correctional,

Starting point is 00:22:19 facility in Wilsonville, Oregon. Richard was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years. He was sent to Oregon State Penitentiary Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, Oregon, the largest multi-security prison in Oregon State. Anthony Maples filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon on Jeanette's behalf. It was outrage that DHS had been contacted multiple times about suspected violence, and they did not do a complete investigation. Portland attorney David Paul filed a suit Monday with laying

Starting point is 00:22:49 County Circuit Court targeting DHS for failing to responsibly respond to multiple reports over four years of abuse. Well, the goal of the lawsuit and others like it are to hold DHS accountable. The file state in action was a substantial factor in Maple's death. This case follows a successful $2 million settlement that Paul represented, twin children injured as a result of poor state foster care. I want the state to take better care of people. that are at risk. Despite her confidence in Paul, Lynn McAnulty has hesitation because of who the money could go to. Speaking hypothetically, a father would be in the first tier of eligible beneficiaries. Meaning a majority of the money could go to Maple's biological father, a man who wasn't in Jeanette's life for years, if the jury says he is eligible. You would look first tier to the parents and second tier to surviving siblings.

Starting point is 00:23:49 The siblings who witnessed her abuse, Lynn hates to think they'd have potential to get nothing. The Attorney General's office will represent DHS, but they refused to comment and now have 45 days to submit a response. You're either part of the problem or you're part of the solution, and I'm trying to be part of the solution. Sometimes the only place for the biggest agency in the state to be held accountable is when the little people bring them in front of a court and jury. Now, Maple's biological father lives in California. In February, he filed a court petition to represent Jeanette's estate. But because of criminal history, that petition was denied. The state of Oregon later settled the suit for $1.5 million. Roughly 100 people attended Jeanette's funeral at major family funeral home in Eugene. However, her father Anthony and her two older brothers were not in attendance. Jeanette's younger sister and brother were also not able to attend as they had been placed in state custody after her death.

Starting point is 00:24:51 Jeanette's step-grandparents, Dennis and Lynn, were the closest family members to go to the funeral. One of Jeanette's former classmates read one of Jeanette's poems out loud at the service. She wrote that if she could fly, she'd go to Portugal and France because of her mother's heritage. And after visiting those two countries, she would fly to heaven and back home. Thank you.

The Misery Machine - The Case of Jeanette Maples

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