How Could You? Hall of Shame-Shanda Lou Yenglin

“A Waterford mom with a history of child abuse gave her four kids milkshakes laced with sleeping pills, turned the thermostat to 53 and as the house got chilled told them to join her in the family van where she’d run the heater and they’d spend the night — with the garage door shut and her suicide note on the dashboard.

But the oldest, a 14-year-old daughter, fell asleep in a bedroom while her mother was in the garage, inhaling enough carbon monoxide to end her own life and leaving the garage and house so filled with poisonous exhaust fumes that two children almost died and all four required emergency hospital treatment.”

Police were notified when one of the children called police on Monday morning. “The four children, aged 10,11,13 and 14, suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, two of them seriously, and were rushed by police to two hospitals Monday.”

Suicidal Waterford Mom Tried to Kill Her 4 Kids With Drugged Milkshakes and Carbon Monoxide

[The Detroit Free Press 3/1/11 by Bill Laitner]

This story is even stranger in that she was not supposed to have overnight stays with the children because ” according to Oakland Circuit Court records that show she assaulted one with a wrench, beat others with clothes hangers and shoved one boy onto the floor so hard it cracked his front teeth. ”

“Oakland Circuit Court records show Yenglin — a single mother with a history of substantiated abuse and neglect of her children dating to 2002 — lost temporary custody of all the children in May amid an investigation by the state Department of Human Services.

She did not contest the allegations of abuse and neglect and met with counselors arranged by DHS workers.

In the past year, she had been granted supervised visits and in January, unsupervised visits.

The children were with Yenglin for a visit — their third — which was supposed to be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, McCaw said. But she called the foster home where the girls lived and the state facility where the boys stayed and used the bad weather as an excuse for not returning them.

A court order examined by The News permits unsupervised visits at the discretion of the DHS but states, in bold print, “No overnight visits.”

DHS has some explaining to do!

Her history shows that she was briefly married but had the marriage annuled in December 2005. This man was the adoptive father of one of the boys. In 2009 “she hit one boy, then 8, in the head with a wrench, according to Children’s Protective Services investigators, who found “additional instances of children having their hair pulled, being hit with hangers, and being pushed against the walls by mother were substantiated at that time.”

In February 2009, Yenglin assured Children’s Protective Services workers she “would no longer use physical discipline as a form of punishment.” She was offered “intensive in-home services,” but workers reported she “has not benefitted from these services and continues to place her children at the continued risk of harm.”

In May 2010, Yenglin pushed the head of one boy, then 9 years old, onto the bathroom floor with enough force to crack his three front teeth, according to records. She did not seek dental repair until the following day, when she instructed the boy to tell the dentist he slipped and fell.

The boy’s 11-year-old brother was reportedly slammed onto the floor by Yenglin with enough force to knock the wind out of him.

A report filed in May 2010 said that boy “remains afraid of mother hurting him.”

She was to have a hearing on March 23.

Thankfully “both girls have been released from the hospital, and the boys “were doing well and are expected to be released” Tuesday night or today.”

Mom Tried to Kill Kids with Carbon Monoxide

[The Detroit News 3/2/11 by Mike Martindale]

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