How Could You? Hall of Shame-Echo Terry UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Anchorage, Alaska, adoptive mother Echo Terry, 28, “has been arrested for starving and abusing three adopted children for over a year, the District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.”

“Prosecutors say 28-year-old Echo Terry formally adopted three biological sisters in 2013 after they were first placed in her foster care in 2011. The three girls were under the age of 10 when Terry adopted them, according to court documents.

After adopting the three sisters, Terry withdrew them from public school and started homeschooling them at her three bedroom house in Anchorage. According to court documents, Terry would regularly withhold meals from the girls as punishment and would keep them in their rooms for long periods of time without food.

Terry also imposed rigid dietary restrictions for the girls, and would not allow them to eat products containing dairy, corn, soy or gluten, court documents say.

“According to the charges, over the course of Terry’s legal guardianship, the health of all three children significantly deteriorated,” District Attorney Clint Campion wrote in a press release.

The abuse began in Aug. 2013, and continued until Sept. 2014 when the eldest of the three girls ran away from the home and reported Terry to the authorities. The three children were then immediately removed from Terry’s home and taken to hospital for severe malnourishment, dehydration, neglect, and risk of refeeding syndrome, a potentially life-threatening condition.

A medical exam revealed that all three girls were dangerously underweight and were suffering from minor lacerations, bruises and poor skin turgor indicating serious dehydration, court documents say. One of the girls had a distended stomach.

Terry was arrested Tuesday morning after a grand jury last week indicted her on 15 charges including first degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree. At an arraignment hearing on Tuesday afternoon, an Anchorage Superior Court judge set her bail at $100,000 plus a court approved third party custodian.

If convicted, Terry faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for first degree assault as well as a $250,000 fine, prosecutors said. ”

Anchorage woman arrested for abusing, starving three adopted children [KTUU 4/12/16]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“Supporters of a woman charged with starving and abusing her adopted children packed an Anchorage courtroom on Tuesday as her public defender asked that she be released on an unsecured bond.

Echo Terry, 29, a former behavioral-support specialist at an Anchorage non-profit, faces 15 felony counts of assault and endangering the welfare of a child. The charges say Terry starved three children she adopted from state foster care in August 2013.

The purpose of Tuesday’s court hearing was to review the conditions of Terry’s bail. It offered a time for both sides in the emotional case to come together in court. What emerged were two drastically different portraits of the young inmate and what might have happened in her Anchorage home.

Those supporting her included members of a church that meets in rented space at Spring Hill Elementary School every Sunday, a group of Christians who described her as a God-loving, home schooling and loving mother. On the other side were prosecutors, a state-appointed attorney for the young alleged victims, and the new foster parents of the children who describe Terry as a flight risk and a danger to society.

Terry’s legal saga began with her arrest last April after a grand jury found sufficient evidence to warrant assault and child endangerment charges against her.

The Office of Children’s Services (OCS) had placed three biological sisters – ages 1, 6 and 8 — in Terry’s care in 2011 two months after Terry became a licensed foster parent. A fourth sister was placed in Terry’s care shortly after her birth on Nov. 14, 2012.

At the time, Terry was a single woman with no family in Alaska, working with behaviorally challenged children at Denali Family Services.

During their time with Terry, the older children were removed from public school and home schooled. Prosecutors say the kids became socially isolated under her care.

The health of the three older girls deteriorated, with their weight dropping dramatically, according to the state’s bail memorandum. In addition to withholding meals and taping their bedroom doors shut at night to prevent them from “stealing food,” Terry imposed a rigid diet of no dairy, no gluten, no soy, and no corn even though the children had no known allergies, prosecutors say.

Between January 2012 and September 2014, the weight of the oldest girl, identified as V.T., dropped from the 10th percentile to around the 1st growth percentile; J.T’s weight dropped from the 90th percentile to the 2nd percentile; and M.T.’s weight dropped from the 50th percentile to below the 5th percentile, according to the bail memo. The memo is based on information from police, the victims, witnesses, and medical professionals.

All three children displayed lanugo, a dark hair that grows when someone is severely malnourished, according to prosecutors.

State foster care officials didn’t see anything wrong. OCS licensing specialist Kelli Carpenter signed off on renewing Terry’s foster care license on July 17, 2013. An OCS inspection less than a month earlier turned up no violations of laws or regulations, according to paperwork obtained through a KTUU public records request.

Terry was arrested on April 12, 2016 after the grand jury indictment. Her arrest came after the oldest girl, V.T, ran away.

An Anchorage doctor from Southcentral Foundation, out jogging, came across the girl near her office. The doctor noticed that the girl looked malnourished and struck up a conversation with her.

V.T. disclosed what was going on in her adopted home and the doctor called police. OCS removed the children immediately and placed them in new foster homes. Eventually, the four kids were placed together with the doctor and her husband who became licensed foster parents.

At Tuesday’s bail hearing, the doctor and her husband, who hope to adopt the girls, testified that Terry poses a threat to society and that the children continue to suffer nightmares about her.

“They have fear of her harming our entire family,” she said. (KTUU is withholding the name of the doctor and her husband in the interest of protecting the children’s identities.)

Terry “has a deep-rooted need to inflict suffering on others,” the foster mother said. She noted that the girls are doing better but participate “in ongoing trauma therapy.”

The foster mother characterized Terry as a flight risk, quoting from a blog the young mother kept detailing the struggles she was having as the caregiver of four children. In an entry from September 2014 — the month V.T. ran away — the blog’s author says “adopting and raising these girls has been way harder than I ever imagined it would be. I never imagined I would feel anything besides hope, never thought I would feel so alone, so clueless, so out of control.”

The blog post continues to describe a desperate home situation and a woman wanting out of being a mother.

“Things are so bad right now that I am thinking about moving out of town to a remote cabin from people and just cutting all contact with people … And honestly, that’s what I want to do, run away. Just run away from all this.”

Public defender Gary Soberary asked the judge to drop a third-party custodianship requirement and to release Terry on an unsecured bond pending her trial. He called several members of Terry’s church, Calvary Chapel South Anchorage, who testified that Terry is stable and reliable and, if released on bail, would return to court for her trial proceedings.

“I believe even if with the allegations, Echo would come back,” said Joli Johnson, a former co-worker of Terry’s at Denali Family Services, a non-profit that provides mental health and behavioral-support services to children and adolescents.

Several churchgoers and former co-workers of Terry testified that they spent time with the children and never saw any signs of abuse.

“My children loved her,” said RaShawn Mayberry, who worked with Terry at Choices, a social services agency that offers support to the mentally ill. “Even now my kids ask, ‘Where is Echo?’”

“She loyal. She’s a woman I aspire more to be like,” Mayberry said.
Mical James, a stay-at-home mother and muralist, said she and Terry used to conduct a girls bible study together.

“I absolutely know Echo to be reliable,” James said.

Jeff Steiner, pastor of Calvary Chapel South Anchorage, said Terry was very involved with the church’s children’s ministry. If released from jail, Terry “would be welcomed back,” he said.

The girls’ current foster father who hopes to adopt the children with his wife said under no circumstances should Terry be released into the community.

“This is a very dangerous situation. She did heinous things to my children,” he said.

The man said he was appalled that so many people were expressing support for Terry.

“It shows what a sick circle this is,” he said. “The bail should remain the same.”

Terry is being held on $100,000 bail with the requirement of a third-party custodian.

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s hearing, Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton said he needed more information before deciding whether to alter Terry’s bail conditions. He noted the very different versions of who Terry is and the conditions of the children under her care.

As far as whether he views Terry as a flight risk, Wolverton wasn’t prepared to make a judgment.

“I’m not unconcerned for obvious reasons regarding what her blog said,” he said.

“This may be a case where electronic monitoring makes sense,” Wolverton said.

The attorneys involved said they would make available the transcript of the grand jury proceedings, medical records and photos of the children taken after they were removed from Terry’s home. Wolverton set another bail review hearing for July 12.

In orange prison garb with part of her black hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, Terry remained silent during the hearing except to confer with Soberary. But in the days leading up to the hearing, she asked the judge, through her attorney, to close the proceeding to the public.

Prosecutors opposed the motion, noting that bail hearings are typically open to the public and are a time when defendants have the right to confront witnesses and present evidence. The judge agreed and denied Terry’s request.

Terry also asked for a court order to seal OCS records about the adoption of the children and the termination of her parental rights. The judge also denied the motion.

If convicted she faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.”

Contrasting portraits emerge of mother charged with starving children[KTUU 6/14/16 by Paula Dobbyn]

Update 2:“A judge has reduced the $100,000 bail of a Wasilla woman accused of starving and abusing three of her adopted daughters.

After a hearing that was partially sealed to the public, Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton lowered Echo Terry’s bail to $25,000 along with a court-approved third party custodian and electronic monitoring. Wolverton also ordered that Terry have no contact with the children’s foster-to-adopt parents.

Terry, who turned 29 on Tuesday, was arrested in May and charged with 15 counts including first-degree assault and child endangerment.

Prosecutors say Terry starved and socially isolated three biological sisters she adopted from state foster care in August 2013. After her arrest, the girls were hospitalized for malnutrition, dehydration, neglect, and risk of refeeding syndrome, a potentially deadly condition, according to court documents.

The Office of Children’s Services (OCS) had placed three biological sisters – then ages 1, 6, and 8 — in Terry’s care in 2011 two months after Terry became a licensed foster parent. A fourth sister was placed in Terry’s care shortly after her birth on Nov. 14, 2012. All four children are now with an Anchorage family who expects to adopt them later this month.

At a June bail hearing, Wolverton said he was unwilling to release Terry on an unsecured bond, as requested by her public defender, because he needed more time to review the grand jury evidence in the case.

On Tuesday, Wolverton called it a difficult case and described the charges against Terry as serious.

Public defender Gary Soberay asked Wolverton to close the hearing to the public to help protect confidential information about the children while they were in Terry’s care.

“Under my interpretation of the law, it has to be sealed,” said Soberary.

Wolverton granted the request. After about an hour, the public was allowed to re-enter the courtroom.

After the hearing ended, the children’s foster father said he wished the hearing had remained open to the public and he wanted Terry’s bail to remain at $100,000.

“We’re definitely nervous about this person. We’ve seen the pictures of what she has done to the children. Our thought in our minds is that a person who can do this to children is capable of anything so it does not help me sleep at night,” Dimitri Shein said. “She nearly killed the children. It was pretty bad.”

The courtroom was filled with supporters of Terry, many of them members of Calvary Chapel South Anchorage who spoke at a previous bail hearing on her behalf. Church members and former employees have described Terry as a hard worker and a loyal and faithful person that would never harm a child.

Shein, the children’s foster father, said he finds it’s “very disturbing” the amount of people who attend court hearings to support Terry.

“You can see the courtroom was packed with people. And out of 20 or 30 people who are supporting the abuser, none of them are here to support the children,” he said.

KTUU has reached out several times to Calvary Chapel South Anchorage’s pastor Jeff Steiner but he has declined all interview requests. A phone message left on the church’s answering machine was not returned on Tuesday.

The oldest girl adopted by Terry was found by Shein’s wife who was out jogging and thought the child looked malnourished. The girl told her about the abuse and starvation she and her sister were suffering while in Terry’s care.

Police were called and the children were examined by Alaska C.A.R.E.S., an outpatient clinic at Providence Alaska Medical Center that screens for sexual and physical abuse of children. According to a bail memorandum by prosecutors, the children’s weight had dropped dramatically during the two years Terry had them.

The girls are now 12, 11, 6, and 3. They’re enrolled in public school and summer camp, Dimitri Shein said.

Four of the girls’ biological relatives, including a great-grandmother, attended Tuesday’s hearing.

“I just want the girls to be safe, to not have to fear, to not have to worry. They’ve already been through enough,” said Annamiek Analook, who said she is a second cousin.

Terry’s next court appearance is scheduled for July 27.”

Bail lowered in case of Wasilla mother charged with starving adopted kids [KTUU  7/12/16 by Paula Dobbyn]

Update 3:

“Testimony started Monday in the trial of a 31-year-old Anchorage woman Echo Terry, accused of starving and abusing her adopted children.

The girls were placed in foster care with Terry care in 2011; all four were adopted by her in 2013.

On September 18 of 2014, the eldest of the four girls was found on a trail near the Alaska Native Medical Center.

The woman who found the girl, Dr. Melissa Shein, eventually adopted the girl and her three younger sisters.

Monday, Dr. Melissa Shein testified about seeing the girl on the trail. She said she was out running with a couple of nurses when they saw a girl who looked to be 6 on the trail with a backpack. Dr. Shein said she eventually learned the girl was 10-years-old.

In her testimony, Dr. Shein says she saw some signs that raised a red flag, like a bruise on the girl’s temple and an abrasion behind her ear. She and the nurses brought the girl to the hospital.

Dr. Shein said the girl told her she ran away because “her mom had told them that she was going to take them into the woods and leave them there to die and she decided to run away because it would be better to run away than to die”.

According to Dr. Shein’s testimony, the girl also said, “‘My mom says she hates us’ and ‘I don’t understand why she hates us’ and she stopped coloring and she looked up and she said, ‘because I don’t hate her.’ So I could see how torn she felt and betrayed because she and her sisters were being treated this way by someone taking care of them.”

Dr. Shein said she wanted to be a positive person in the girls’ lives. She described the Office of Children’s Services as not returning her calls or being helpful when she tried to reach out a few months later with Christmas gifts.

That’s when Dr. Shein said she discovered that the girls had been separated and the two younger girls were about to be moved from their foster home. She told the court that’s when her family started the process of adopting the siblings. By January of 2015, the girls moved in and were adopted the following year.

The trial continues Tuesday in the case.”

Doctor describes finding child in abuse trial
[KVTA 8/13/18 by Jennifer Summers]

“An Anchorage woman accused of starving and mistreating her three adopted daughters took to the witness stand Tuesday during her ongoing jury trial.

Prosecutors say 31-year old Echo Terry socially isolated the children, withheld food from them and implemented rigid dietary restrictions, causing their health to deteriorate to dangerous levels.

Questioned by her defense attorney, Terry said she became concerned that the children were overeating, behavior she attributed to their traumatic past before she adopted them.

Terry told the jury she attempted to address the issue by changing the girls’ diets and the way food was served in the house, as well as taking the girls to see a doctor. But she asserted that she never starved them.

“It was kind of a feast or famine thing. It’s here so I have to have it because it may be gone tomorrow, even though there was plenty of food in the pantry and food had always been provided in the past,” Terry said.

However, Terry claims she never noticed the girls’ severe weight loss, saying it came as a complete shock when she was shown photographs of their poor condition.

“I’m ashamed that I missed it for their sake,” she told the courtroom. “To miss something and to be their mom, you’re supposed to know everything as their mom, and I didn’t, I missed it.””

Echo Terry testifies against child abuse allegations in ongoing jury trial
[KTUU 8/21/18 by Cameron Mackintosh]

Update 4:“The woman convicted of starving and abusing three of her four former adopted daughters has been sentenced to serve 17 months of active time with 24 years suspended, although it is unclear whether she will spend additional time in jail.

A jury convicted 31-year-old Echo Terry on 12 felony counts in August, including three counts of second-degree assault for withholding food from the girls. The jury also found that aggravating factors applied to the case, meaning the maximum sentence she faced increased from six years to 30.

During sentencing hearings last week, prosecutors asked Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton to sentence Terry to 27 years of active prison time, while the defense requested a sentence that would essentially amount to time already served, primarily on an ankle monitor.

The judge will rule on whether she gets credit for time spent on the ankle monitor on July 29.

In March of this year, Terry was back in court after officials learned she had concealed a pregnancy and the birth of a child of her own while out on bail.

Official court log notes from the evidentiary hearing detail witness testimony from medical professionals who say Terry gave birth to a baby boy while awaiting trial. The notes indicate the child was born in the 50th percentile when it comes to weight, but diagnosed with failure to thrive after he continuously lost weight and dropped into the second percentile by about 6 months old. There were concerns the child was not getting appropriate nutrition at home, and he was hospitalized.

Terry’s son was removed by the Office of Children’s Services and placed into foster care with Nathanial Buck, the pastor of Agape Fellowship, a church in Palmer. The log notes indicate Buck testified that the boy came to live with him and his family in September 2018 and gained about a pound per month.

Buck, along with other members of the church, were present in the courtroom to support Terry during her sentencing. Buck spoke as a character witness for Terry, saying the boy was in his care for five and a half months before OCS returned the infant to his mother’s care.

“I believe that they plan to wrap up their other portion of their OCS investigation here soon, completely showing that, once again, she was a good mother to her son,” said Buck.

When asked after the hearing whether seeing images of the girls’ bruised, scarred and emaciated bodies changed his mind, Buck said no.

During the trial, the court heard testimony about how Terry had occasionally struck three of the four girls she first fostered and then adopted in 2014. Jurors also heard evidence about how she withheld food.

Assistant District Attorney Reid Schweitzer said the three older girls, who were 4, 9 and 10 when they were taken from Terry’s home showed signs of a serious medical condition.

“They had evidence of severe malnutrition and a condition that’s called re-feeding syndrome,” said Schweitzer. “Essentially, their bodies were so malnourished to the point that, had they been given a large influx of food, they could have actually died from that large influx of food.”
All four girls were adopted by Dr. Melissa Shein and her husband Dimitri. In September 2014, Melissa found the oldest girl on a trail near the Alaska Native Medical Center. She thought the child was about 6 at the time, but later learned she was 10.

Both Dimitri and Melissa delivered victim impact statements during the sentencing process, pushing for the judge to give Terry a strict sentence and taking aim at the group of adults supporting her.

“Even after Echo Terry has been convicted of abusing three children, the pastor sat here — he saw the naked, tortured, beaten, bitten bodies of my daughters. He is here today testifying about how wonderful of a person this criminal, this monster is. It is absolutely unbelievable to me, and in fact, it’s despicable. I find it repulsive. It shakes my belief in people, to see this,” Dimitri said.

Melissa said she was happy the children were not present to see the public display of support for Terry. She also noted that in the four years Terry has been considered to be serving time in custody, while on an ankle monitor, she’s experienced several of life’s milestones, including finding a spouse and having her first child.

“Allowing her to be immersed in her church community, who hails her as a wonderful person, a great mom, only reinforces her disease and invites more victims,” she said. “It’s not appropriate to regard this time in custody as time served. She couldn’t even wait until this process was over to resume abuse of children. What will happen when there’s no one looking after her? Judge, I cannot sleep just knowing that she will be allowed to prey on more victims.”

Terry’s defense attorney, Mary Burnell, argued the sentence the state proposed was on par with punishment for an aggravated murder conviction, and far too severe for Terry’s case.

“In a civilized society, emotion cannot be the only guiding light when determining punishment,” she said. “And that is why the Court of Appeals and the legislature provide so much guidance, and the sentencing criteria doesn’t support further confinement for Ms. Terry.”

Thursday’s hearing was the third in a series of sentencing hearings in which Wolverton heard arguments from the state and the defense, a statement in support of Terry and victim impact statements from the new parents of the girls she abused.

The judge said the state should not have allowed Terry, a single person with no parenting experience, to take on the responsibility of four adopted daughters with little supervision, but he was still “taken aback” by its sentencing recommendation.

“Echo Terry is not a monster,” Wolverton said. “She’s committed serious crimes. She’s convicted of serious crimes. But the job of a sentencing judge would be much easier if we were only called upon to sentence monsters.”

Terry was also sentenced to serve five years probation.”

Echo Terry sentenced in child starvation, abuse case

[KTVA 5/23/19 by Daniella Rivera]