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Parents accused of brutal abuse
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Posted by: cgirl
Dear Lord, I ask that you would heal these kids completely. Place them in a godly home and keep them safe. Restore innocence and their youth I ask that they have sound minds and body in Jesus name, amen and amen.
http://www.adn.com/front/story/5555481p-5490537c.html
Parents accused of brutal abuse
JAILED: Troopers say children's grotesque discipline included being hit with a shovel and other tools.
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: September 16, 2004)
Five Mat-Su children suffered abuse, neglect and violent, often bizarre punishments at the hands of their adoptive parents, according to a trooper affidavit filed this week in Palmer District Court.
Sherry Kelley, 35, and her husband, Patrick Kelley, 43, are in jail facing multiple charges of assault and kidnapping, the latter based on confining one of the boys against his will. Each parent is being held on $100,000 bail.
The Kelleys aimed the abuse and discipline techniques at their two sons in particular, according to the charging documents.
At times one boy was sealed naked in a coffin like box, according to the affidavit. The other boy suffered burns in February that became infected; maggots hatched from the wounds this summer.
Both told troopers of being struck with a shovel and other tools. The boys' sisters backed up their stories.
The Kelleys were state-licensed foster parents when the children were placed with them starting in 1998 by what's now called the Office of Children's Services, Alaska State Troopers determined.
The lead trooper investigator said he's never seen a case like this in his 13 years of law enforcement.
"It just kept snowballing," said investigator Leonard Wallner.
The couple subsequently adopted the children through the state, according to Wallner's affidavit. There are three girls, now 6, 14 and 15, and two boys, 10 and 13. The oldest three are biological siblings.
At the time troopers intervened in July, the couple was receiving $3,400 a month in adoption subsidies from the state to care for the children, troopers deduced from check stubs found in the family's trailer home during a search.
None of the children had been to school in years, the affidavit said. The kids said Sherry Kelley didn't cook and they mainly fended for themselves, making rice and beans. Patrick Kelley worked in Anchorage as a landscaper.
The youngsters told troopers they did extensive manual labor at the family compound off Misty Lake Road between Big Lake and Wasilla, Wallner said. They worked in the vegetable gardens and greenhouses and cleared land for a home. The family lived in a trailer home, with a generator for electricity and an outhouse but no refrigerator and no place to bathe other than a pond, which was essentially a collection of water at the bottom of a hole.
George Long -- Sherry Kelley's father and the children's adoptive grandfather -- asked troopers for help on July 8, the affidavit said. Sherry Kelley and her 15-year-old daughter were arguing over whether the teen could get a part-time job when what seemed to be a minor family disturbance soon exploded into a tale of torment.
Troopers were told children slept in "junk vans" that the grandfather had brought in for them. Long and his wife, Shirley, live next to the Kelleys.
The parents had excluded the kids from the trailer and they had been "sleeping outside hither and yonder," Wallner said.
Troopers were told the kids were confined to the property and hadn't been to school since 2001. They soon found out about the severe, untreated burns suffered by one of the boys.
It took time to draw the children out.
"The fear exists that they will end up back in the same environment," Wallner said. "The safer they feel, the more information comes out."
The older boy eventually told troopers he had been hit on the back and head with a shovel and willow switch by both parents, though Sherry Kelley was the primary aggressor, the affidavit said. He had scars on the tops of his toes from being struck with a shovel last summer. He and his brother were periodically confined in a bedroom with a gate and alarm. He was often hungry and said his mother "did not prepare meals or like to waste money on food," according to the affidavit.
The boy said "he got caught stealing food from grandma and grandpa's house" and was thrown into the family's pond as punishment. He tried to run away, was caught and "was chained to a tree and not given any food for five days," according to what he told troopers. After that, he had a brick chained to his leg, apparently in spring 2003, according to the affidavit and charging document.
He was the one who was put into a long, rectangular wooden box, according to what the younger boy told troopers. An aunt said that her son, a cousin, also saw it, the affidavit said.
Both boys were forced at times to wear onion-sack "thongs" as punishment.
The younger boy told troopers his adoptive mother hit him in the face with a shovel, breaking a tooth, the affidavit said.
He was burned this year on Valentine's Day as he helped with torches the family used to light outdoor paths, he told troopers. Sherry Kelley didn't want him to go to the doctor because she feared losing custody of all the children, the grandfather told troopers, according to the affidavit. She used a stick to remove his scabs, the boy said.
When maggots hatched in the child's open sores, Patrick Kelley told him to wash them off, according to the affidavit. He also suffered frostbite in a finger while carrying firewood. When he asked Sherry Kelley to take him to the doctor, she told him to go away. His sisters scrubbed the dead flesh to the bone.
Just as troopers headed to the home for the first time, on July 8, Sherry Kelley herded the 10-year-old into her van because, as a relative later told troopers, she didn't want them to see the injured boy. She struck him with a steel pipe to get him into the van, the affidavit said. It was later determined that the blow broke his arm.
The situation was worsening and if the troopers hadn't come, the boy might have died, the grandfather later told troopers, according to the affidavit.
Before troopers got there, Patrick Kelley hit the 13-year-old across the back of the knees with a metal pole, bruising him badly, the boy eventually told troopers. The three children at home were turned over to an aunt.
Troopers returned the next day with an order sought by Kelley's family to have her evaluated at Alaska Psychiatric Institute. They found the 10-year-old hiding behind a building and called an ambulance. He underwent skin grafts and partial amputation of his finger during weeks of hospitalization.
Sherry Kelley now is charged with two counts of kidnapping, five counts of second-degree assault and two counts of third-degree assault; Patrick Kelley faces one less assault charge.
The investigation is continuing, Wallner said. The older girls told of being slapped so hard by Sherry Kelley that they thought their noses were broken.
The head of the Office of Children's Services said she could not discuss any specific case. Once an adoption is finalized, the state doesn't check on families unless they ask for help, said Marci Kennai, state deputy commissioner.
"Unless someone brings something to our attention, we don't know about these things, and that's why we need community to be involved," she said.
The children now are safe and in school, living together with a relative, Wallner said.
During the investigation, one of the boys told him, "I just want to be a normal, regular kid."
Posted by: cgirl
Lord God, I ask in Jesus name that you would bring healing and help to all abused children in this state and through out the world. Save and rescue each and every one of them Lord God in Jesus name.
Posted by: blessedbygod
God free these children of the hurt and pain they have suffered, remove any lasting effects. Help them to know that you have loved them and been with them in spite of the abuse that was happening to them. Draw them to you and your love. Bring them to salvation. Heal them emotionally, physically and spiritually and free them to be the men and women of God you desire them to be. I ask in Jesus name, Amen.