How Could You? Hall of Shame-Russell and Mona Hauer 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 North Manako, Minnesota, adoptive parents Russell and Mona Hauer, 44, were arrested and charged “Friday [November 2, 2012] with six felonies alleging neglect and abuse ” on their 8-year-old adoptive child.
“The 8-year-old boy was so hungry, he said, he ate from the compost bin. His parents put an alarm on his door so he couldn’t sneak out at night to eat food. His siblings said he was driven to eat a sandwich made from bird feed.
Nicollet County’s child abuse case against the boy’s adoptive parents, Russell and Mona Hauer of rural North Mankato, has some corroborating evidence to back up the stories.
A year ago, he was picked up by a sheriff’s deputy after the boy was seen walking along Highway 169.
The boy told the deputy he was hungry and walking to Kwik Trip to get a hamburger. The nearest Kwik Trip is nearly three miles away.
At one point, the boy weighed just 35 pounds. ”
They have “two other adopted children, 7- and 5-year-old siblings of the 8-year-old boy, and one biological child. All four children have been removed from the home.
According to the criminal complaint, Mona Hauer brought the boy to the hospital Oct. 9 because he had a red stain on his shirt. The boy sometimes threw up his food, she said, and she thought he may have regurgitated blood.
It turned out not to be blood — it was a stain from a popsicle he had found in the garage — but the boy was examined and transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester. His bones were protruding, his belly was swollen and he was later found to have brain atrophy.
He weighed 34.8 pounds and was 3-foot-5. He was in the bottom 3 percent of those measures for children his age, though the chart doesn’t go below 3 percent, said Marc Chadderdon, an investigator with the Nicollet County Sheriff’s Department.
The boy wasn’t always so thin; measurements around the time of his adoption five years ago showed him as about average.
A human services employee first saw the boy on Oct. 11 at the Rochester hospital. When the employee asked the boy if he was “ready to get out of this place,” according to the complaint, the boy looked at him and quickly shook his head.
Chadderdon said the boy has been gaining weight since he’s been in the hospital, where he remained as of Friday.
Despite the brain injury, he said the boy is “a bright, bright kid to talk to.”
Chadderdon called this case the most disturbing in 20 years of law enforcement.
Parents cite disorder
The Hauers live about two miles north of North Mankato in a home with two trampolines and a playground in a spacious backyard. Russell Hauer answered the door Monday afternoon but declined comment.
In an Oct. 23 interview with Chadderdon at their home, Mona Hauer said the boy was on an all-liquid diet to help treat his eating disorder. The boy would occasionally “ruminate” by throwing up partly digested food and swallowing it again.
Though the boy was physically healthy at the time of the adoption, he apparently had other problems. A doctor who reviewed him about five years ago said he had “very serious trauma-based symptoms that will require intensive and extended psychotherapy.”
The parents didn’t follow through with her recommendations.
The boy told doctors he ruminated because he wanted the taste of food and did not know when he would eat again.
The parents’ explanation does not hold water with Chadderdon.
He said people only ruminate when they don’t have enough to eat, or their body can’t process the food they do eat. But a medical explanation for the boy’s malnourishment has been ruled out.
The parents were simply not giving him enough food, Chadderdon said.
A sheltered family
The family practices what they call “holistic medicine,” according to the criminal complaint. They only see a medical doctor for the most serious conditions.
Their only physician is Mankato chiropractor David Otto. He said he talked with Mona Hauer about putting the boy on the liquid dietary supplement, called an “ultrameal,” according to the criminal complaint. The liquid, he hoped, would be digested before the boy had a chance to ruminate it.
The chiropractor later told Chadderdon that he did not intend for the supplement to be the boy’s only food.
He last saw the boy in December 2011.
Chadderdon said it should have been clear to both parents and Otto that their solution was not working, that the boy was malnourished. Neither had a good explanation for why the boy wasn’t taken to a physician in recent months, he said.
Chadderdon said Otto is facing no legal sanctions. When Otto asked him what he ought to do, though, Chadderdon said he suggested legal representation.
The family also home schools all of the children.
The Hauers are also licensed as a foster family in Nicollet County. Their license was active as of Nov. 1.
The Free Press was not able to determine how many other foster children the family had.
More abuse alleged
According to the criminal complaint, the parents enlisted the boy’s siblings to keep him from getting food.
His siblings blamed the boy for the family’s trouble, according to the complaint. They said he is “naughty and steals items.”
The investigator asked what other things he stole, but the siblings said it was only food.
The other children also said they knew their brother was hungry, but they were not going to feed him. One child said she would be in trouble if she gave the boy food.
“All of the kids described being responsible for ensuring (the boy) did not take food.”
The parents themselves had been sleeping outside his door for at least six months. They ultimately moved his room to the basement and put an alarm on the door.
There was physical abuse alleged, as well.
Because he wet the bed, the boy was made to sleep in a plastic container, which leaked and was replaced by a sled with a board under it.
The parents, who have been charged but not arrested, also hit the children with a long board and a broom handle, according to the complaint.
Chadderdon said the investigation isn’t over.”
Update: Parents charged with six felonies in abuse and neglect of 8 year old
[The Free Press 11/5/12 by Dan Linehan]
The adoptive son ‘”had suffered extreme malnourishment effects including the enamel had been worn off his teeth.”
[Examiner 11/5/12 by Marina Lumsden]
“Mona Hauer told doctors the boy was on a liquid diet because he regurgitated. She said he had issues with food, and that she and her husband would sleep outside his door at night to keep him from stealing from the refrigerator.
Detectives talked to the boy, who told them that he hadn’t been given solid food for two months. He said that he sometimes snuck out and ate rotted food from the family’s compost pile, and occasionally digested suet from the bird feeder. He said when he was caught sneaking food he would be struck with a board or a broom handle.
The boy’s three siblings gave similar accounts, saying he would be forced to sit at the table and drink liquid while they dined on solid food. A sister said the boy had a bed wetting problem, and that she would have to take him out in the back yard and hose him and his urine-soaked clothes down two or three times a week.”
“The siblings also told detectives the boy was the source of all the “problems” in the family, and that he was naughty and frequently would steal food. They also described being disciplined with the board and the broom handle. ”
” If convicted the couple faces the potential of five years in prison on each criminal count.”
N. Mankato parents charged with starving child
[KARE 11 11/5/12]
He was ” found to have a slow heartbeat, anemia, brain atrophy and delayed bone growth due to malnutrition, the complaint said. He remained hospitalized Friday and was on a diet to increase his weight. The hospital would not release his status Monday.
The Hauers also have a biological child and adopted two of the boy’s siblings. Nicollet County Social Services officials would not comment on the case, or say whether the other children remained in the home.
The boy told officials the couple made him sit at the table and drink a liquid diet while the rest of the family ate. He said at times he was so hungry he ate dirty food from a compost site. He also told doctors he didn’t brush his teeth and regurgitated his food “because he wanted the taste of food and he did not know when he would eat again,” the complaint said.
In addition to starving the boy, the Hauers are also accused of putting an alarm on his door so that he would not steal food, giving him a bucket to go to the bathroom at night and having one of the other children hose him off two to three times a week with a garden hose, the complaint said.”
“The complaint said Mona Hauer told authorities the boy’s eating habits were his “attempt to be in control of the home and that (he) had in fact controlled the home for some time.” She also said she didn’t think he was too thin.
Russell Hauer told medical staff that he and his wife withheld food from the boy at least once as a form of punishment, the complaint said. He also told officials the boy “had won or gotten his way” when he was taken to the hospital.”
Mona and Russell Hauer, Minn. parents, accused of starving 8-year-old adopted son
[CBS News 11/6/12 ]
“Investigators were told that to keep him from leaving his room and stealing food, his parents put an alarm on his door — he slept by himself in the basement.”
“The Hauers could not be reached for comment Monday. They are scheduled to make their next court appearance Dec. 11.”
Couple charged with neglect of adopted boy
[Star Tribune 11/6/12 by Richard Meryhew]
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
Update: “Officials are asking a judge to terminate the parental rights of a Minnesota couple accused of starving one of their four children, saying the 8-year-old boy suffered egregious harm and it’s not in the best interest of any child to be in their care. The boy, who weighed less than 35 pounds last month, was released from the hospital Wednesday, Mayo Clinic officials said Thursday. He’s now in foster care, and his siblings remain with their parents, Russell and Mona Hauer.” [Unbelievable!]
“The Hauers, of North Mankato, are charged with six felonies, including neglect and malicious punishment of a child. Authorities said they spanked the boy with a 2-by-4, made him sleep in a sled because he wet the bed and put an alarm on his door so he would not steal food. He was given a bucket to urinate in, and was taken outside to be hosed off on some mornings, the complaint said.
“He was treated like an animal,” said Nicollet County Sheriff’s Investigator Marc Chadderdon.
The Hauers’ attorney, Jason Kohlmeyer, said Thursday that the couple will fight the charges and to keep all four children, including the 8-year-old.
“They absolutely want him back,” Kohlmeyer said.
The Hauers have been licensed foster parents in Minnesota since 2005, and the state has no record of sanctions against them. Kohlmeyer said that up until a month ago, county officials continually recommended the Hauers as foster parents.
It was unclear how many foster children they’ve cared for over the years; they currently have none. The 8-year-old and his two siblings were past foster children whom the Hauers adopted. They also have one biological child.”
Starved Minn. Boy in Foster Care, Parents Face 6 Felonies
[KTSP 11/8/12 by Matt Thiesen]
Update 2: They both pled not guilty to felony charges on January 2, 2013 during a hearing in Nicollet County District Court.
“Russell and Mona Hauer, both 44, also filed a motion to dismiss charges of child neglect, endangerment and abuse due to a lack of probable cause, said Christopher Rosengren, the Mankato attorney representing them.
The Hauers’ 8-year-old adopted son weighed fewer than 35 pounds when Mona Hauer brought him to a doctor Oct. 9. She told a doctor she was concerned because the boy was not keeping food down.
An investigation was started by the Nicollet County Sheriff’s Department after the boy was sent to St. Marys Hospital in Rochester to be treated for starvation, a slow heart beat and anemia.
Investigators learned the boy had been fed a liquid diet and had been kept from eating other food, according to the criminal complaints. The Hauers allegedly slept outside of his bedroom to make sure he didn’t get up at night to eat. The complaints also accuse the Hauers of making the boy sleep in a plastic sled in the basement, cleaning him with a garden hose.
Rosengren and the Hauers’ other attorney, Jason Kohlmeyer, said the couple have not abused the child and the malnourishment was the reset of mental illness and trauma related, in part, to fetal alcohol syndrome.
County officials also have filed a civil lawsuit attempting to end the Hauers’ parental rights for the
8-year-old boy, two of his siblings who also were adopted by the Hauers and the couple’s biological child. Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer attempted to have the remaining three children removed from the Hauers’ home, but that request was denied by District Judge Todd Westphal.
A trial to decide whether the Hauers’ parental rights will be terminated is scheduled to start Monday.
The criminal trial is scheduled to start in May, Rosengren said. During Wednesday’s hearing for the criminal charges, Fischer requested to have recorded statements from the children used instead of their testimony for the criminal trial. Rosengren said the Hauers will ask District Judge Allison Krehbiel to deny the request.”
North Mankato: Couple plead not guilty to child abuse, neglect charges
[Pioneer Press 1/2/12 by Dan Nienaber]
FAS is the defense! Unbelievable!
Update 3: A psychologist has given commentary on this case including accusations that the other children called the 8-year-old the AntiChrist. The diet recommended by the chiropractor was not meant to be the only food according to the chiropractor. The commentary does not mention that important point.
[Dr Vitelli 1/15/13]
Update 4: “A Nicollet County judge rules on the parental rights yesterday for the rural North Mankato couple accused of starving their adopted eight-year-old son.
Judge Orders Child Protective Services For Hauers’ 3 Children
[Keyctv 5/8/13 by Brittany Larson]
Update 5/August 8,2013
“The child neglect trials of a Nicollet County couple scheduled to begin this week were rescheduled. Russell and Mona Hauer’s 8-year-old adopted son was taken from their rural North Mankato home last year. He reportedly weighed 35-pounds at the time, and the Hauers had allegedly put an alarm on the boy’s bedroom door to keep him from taking food because he had what they claimed was a “Food Hoarding” problem. He had also supposedly been punished with a broom handle and forced to sleep in a plastic sled in the basement due to bed-wetting problems. The Hauers pleaded not guilty to felony charges of child neglect, child endangerment and malicious punishment of a child. A judge has since ordered child protective services for their other children as well.
The pretrial hearing for Mona Hauer will now be held August 19th, with her jury trial starting October 21st [2013]. Russell Hauer’s pretrial hearing is set for August 18th, with his trial beginning November 14th [2013].”
Child Neglect trials rescheduled
[KNUJ 6/17/13]
Update 6/September 2, 2013
“An attorney for a North Mankato couple facing criminal charges for allegedly starving their adopted son said he plans to argue against a prosecutor’s motion to have the child testify by video during the couple’s trials later this year. A judge issued an order in April that permanently removed the 9-year-old boy from the home of Russell and Mona Hauer, both 45, after a civil trial. Three other children, two of the boy’s younger adopted siblings and the Hauers’ biological child, were allowed to stay with the couple under county supervision. Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer has appealed that portion of District Court Judge Todd Westphal’s order. She wants all of the children removed from the home.”
“The Hauers are each facing six felony charges accusing them of child neglect, child endangerment and malicious punishment of a child. Both trials are scheduled to last two weeks. Mona Hauer’s trial is scheduled to start Oct. 21 and Russell Hauer’s trial is scheduled to start Nov. 14.
They are accused of nearly starving the boy to death and other abuse, including making him sleep in a plastic snow sled in their basement and having their other children wash the boy outside with a garden hose. The charges were filed, and the civil process for taking away their parental rights, was started last year after Mona Hauer took the boy to the hospital because she thought he was vomiting blood. It turned out he was regurgitating a frozen treat, but tests showed the boy was so malnourished he was no longer able to properly digest food.
About a year prior to that, during the fall of 2011, a Nicollet County deputy found the boy walking along Highway 169 at night, according to the criminal complaints. He told the deputy he was walking to a convenience store because he was hungry and wanted a hamburger. The nearest store was more than three miles away.
Both Hauers are scheduled to be in court Tuesday during a hearing before District Court Judge Allison Krehbiel. Their attorney, Chris Rosengren, will be arguing against Fischer’s motion to have the boy testify by video and another motion to have one of her witnesses, Dr. Lloyd Wells of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, testify out of order.
The Hauers denied abusing the child during testimony at the parental rights trial. They said he had mental and physical problems because his real mother was using drugs while she was pregnant with him. That is what caused the problems with feeding him and that also made him difficult to discipline, they said. Several people who knew the family from their Mankato church testified on their behalf.
Rosengren said he understands that sitting on witness stand and answering probing questions from lawyers can be a difficult situation for a child. It won’t be easy for the Hauers either, but his clients have a right to ask those tough questions to test the accuracy of Fischer’s allegations, he said. Most of the evidence from the parental termination case came from social workers and medical staff. Nothing came directly from the child, Rosengren added.
“Up until now all of those statements have been made someone with the county with an agenda,” Rosengren said. “He’s got to testify and he has to be subject to cross examination.
“I don’t know how we are going to avoid it. (The Hauers) are still adamant that they did the best they could under the circumstances with a boy who was basically a crack baby. [Nice defense!] That doesn’t amount to criminal neglect.”
Rosengren also said he is going to ask Krehbiel to require Wells, who has a conflicting event to attend during the first part of Mona Hauer’s trial, to testify in the correct order. He said he doesn’t want the jury to be interrupted by Wells’ testimony while Mona Hauer’s case is being presented.
Fischer doesn’t comment about ongoing criminal cases.”
Trials set for parents accused of starving child
[Mankato Free Press 9/1/13 by
“A couple that lost one adopted child after allegedly nearly starving him to death should also have their remaining three children removed from their home, according to an appeal filed by Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer.
A 9-year-old boy was permanently removed from Mona and Russell Hauer’s home in April after Nicollet County District Court Judge Todd Westphal found he had been abused by them. The boy was taken from the Hausers’ home after they were charged with felony neglect, endangerment and malicious punishment of a child.
The Hauers are scheduled to go to trial for those charges later this year.
They are accused of starving the boy to the point where his body was no longer able to digest food properly. They also are accused of several other incidents involving physical and emotional abuse.
Westphal’s ruling said all four of the Hauers’ children — including the boy, two of his younger siblings and a biological child — were victims of abuse and emotional maltreatment.
He allowed the other three children to stay in the Hauers’ home under county supervision.
Fischer has appealed that ruling, arguing that all of the children should be removed because Westphal found that they were unfit parents. Her appeal says Westphal was wrong to analyze the Hauers’ ability to parent from the perspective of each child.
She’s also arguing that the harm done to the one child was so serious that Westphal was not obligated to find a way to reunite the other three children with their parents.
“A parent who subjects his or her child to egregious harm should, by definition, be palpably unfit to be a party to a parent child relationship,” Fischer said in her appeal. “(The Hauers’) falure to recognize (the boy’s) severely malnourished state demonstrates either that the did not care enough to see it or they recognized it and chose to assign responsibilty for that condition to (the boy).
“Under either scenario, their parenting conduct renders them palapably unfit to be a party to the parent child relationship with any child.”
She also said the Hauers showed they were unfit to be parents because they involved the other children in the abuse of their brother and haven’t admitted to doing anything wrong.
A date for oral arguments before the Minnesota Court of Appeals has not been set.”
[Mankato Free Press 9/1/13 by
Update 7/January 20, 2014
“A southern Minnesota couple accused of starving their adopted son to the point that authorities said his bones were protruding reached a plea agreement with prosecutors Monday.
Mona and Russell Hauer entered Alford pleas to one count each of child neglect. Mona Hauer pleaded to a felony, while Russell Hauer pleaded to a gross misdemeanor. An Alford plea is a form of guilty plea in which the defendant maintains his innocence, but agrees a jury could find him guilty based on the state’s evidence.
According to the plea agreement, the Hauers could each face a maximum of 60 days in jail when they are sentenced next month, attorneys for the state and defense said. Prosecutor Michelle Zehnder Fischer said she has agreed to remain silent at sentencing, while the defense plans to ask for no jail time.
Both sides said the deal spares the boy from having to testify at trial.
The Hauers, of North Mankato, were charged last year with six felonies each, including neglect and malicious punishment of a child. In addition to feeding the boy only liquid and putting an alarm on his door so he would not steal food, authorities said the couple also made him sleep in a sled because he wet the bed.
The boy was 8 years old and weighed less than 35 pounds last October when his mother took him to a hospital. Authorities said at that time that he was 3 feet, 5 inches tall, and about the weight of an average 4-year-old. The criminal complaint said he was “very thin, his bones were protruding, and his abdomen was distended.”
He was also found to have a slow heartbeat, anemia and brain atrophy, the complaint said. Court records show he gained 15 pounds in just a month of hospitalization.
The Hauers adopted the boy and his two siblings from an abusive household in 2008. Court documents show the boy had PTSD as well as eating issues and had been regurgitating food.
The Hauers’ attorney, Christopher Rosengren, said Mona Hauer put the boy on a liquid diet after talking with a chiropractor.
“These were the go-to foster parents for Nicollet County for eight years,” Rosengren said. “Nicollet County was placing children with them because they could handle difficult children — but that’s what they got here. …
“They did what they thought was best for this kid,” Rosengren said. “I still believe they did everything they could.”
Earlier this year, a judge terminated the Hauers’ parental rights to the boy and he was placed in foster care. The judge did not terminate the Hauers’ rights to their other three children — including the boy’s two biological siblings and the Hauers’ biological son. An appeal is pending.
Nicollet County Sheriff’s Investigator Marc Chadderdon said he would like to see more jail time but understands the plea deal is in the boy’s best interest.
“I’m happy the parental rights have been terminated and he’s in a new, better, safe environment,” Chadderdon said. “In his therapy, it can be explained to him that ‘You don’t need to feel any guilt here,'” he said.
Chadderdon said the boy is “growing and gaining weight and thriving.””
Minn. Couple Accused of Starving Son Enter Plea [ABC NEWS 10/21/13 by Amy Forliti/ Associated Press]
A search of the county records shows Russell sentenced to 45 days-“Time To Serve: 45 Days
Duration: 01/04/2014 6:00 PM
Stay 320 Days For 2 Yr
Comment: def is to serve 30 days in custody and 15 days on electronic home monitoring in lieu of 15 days jail huber and good time apply, can do STS while in custody”
While Mona was Sentenced to”Agency: Nicollet County Jail
Term: 60 Days
Duration: 11/26/2013
Comment: good time applies
Status: Active 11/26/2013
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| Level of Sentence: | |
| Convicted of a Felony’ | |
“A sentencing hearing for a rural North Mankato couple who pleaded guilty to abusing and neglecting their malnourished child ended with Mona Hauer being led away to jail and her husband, Russell, sobbing outside a St. Peter courtroom.
Mona Hauer, 45, received 60 days in jail on Tuesday with the term to begin immediately. Russell Hauer, 45, received 30 days in jail, a sentence that will start after his wife is released.
Both are also required to serve 30 days of Sentence to Service and Russell Hauer will be required to serve another 15 days on electronic home monitoring. With good behavior in jail, both of their sentences could each be reduced to two-thirds of the total time.
Nicollet County District Court Judge Allison Krehbiel set aside arguments by the Hauers’ attorney, Christopher Rosengren, that the three children still living with the couple would be harmed if their parents were sent to jail. He asked that they be placed on home monitoring. A request to allow Mona Hauer to have work release from jail so she could homeschool the children also was denied.
Krehbiel said she reviewed dozens of letters written both on behalf of the Hauers and the now 9-year-old boy who has been permanently removed from their home. She said arriving at a fair sentence wasn’t easy because the case was emotionally charged and guidelines had been set through a plea agreement.
Mona Hauer pleaded guilty in October to a felony-level charge accusing her of causing substantial harm to her child, who was 8 years old when she brought him to a hospital, as a result of her neglect. Russell Hauer pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge accusing him of neglect that could have resulted in substantial harm.
The Alford plea allowed the Hauers to maintain their innocence but admit enough evidence existed for a jury to find them guilty of that charge and several others filed against them nearly a year ago. Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer said she accepted the Alford plea and a 60-day cap on jail time to avoid putting the boy through the trauma of testifying at two trials, one for each of his former adoptive parents.
The charges were filed last November after investigators learned the boy, one of the Hauers’ four children, had been denied food and possibly physically abused. The Hauers have said the boy had problems that led to an eating disorder when he was originally placed in their home as a foster child. The boy told investigators he wasn’t allowed to eat, was spanked frequently with a broom and a board, and was left outside for long periods of time.
The boy was taken to a hospital by Mona Hauer a year ago after he ate a frozen treat he had taken from a freezer without permission. She thought it was blood, so she brought the boy to the hospital in Mankato. He was transferred to Rochester after doctors realized he was so malnourished his body could not properly digest food.
Victim impact statements read by the boy’s current foster mother, Robin Burow, described how he has changed since he was taken out of the Hauers’ home just north of North Mankato on Highway 169. A statement the boy prepared himself, with the help of a computer program that asked specific questions, also was read by Burow.
Burow’s husband, Loren, is Mona Hauer’s brother. Robin Burow said the boy and his two siblings, who are still living with the Hauers, were originally brought to them for foster care when they were taken from their birth mother’s home. The Burows were happy when they found out the Hauers would be adopting the children and keeping them in the family. That changed about five years ago when Mona Hauer cut off ties with the Burows. They were shocked to see the boy’s condition when he was returned to their care during the investigation of the Hauers.
“Those first transitional weeks were pretty rough for everyone,” Robin Burow said. “As (the boy) got more comfortable, he shared more and more what life was like with the Hauers. The isolation, corporal punishment and their ‘fix-it’ plan solutions were just the opposite of what a child of trauma responds positively to.
“Their rigid parenting was like rubbing salt in an open wound, causing pain and adding to his trauma history.”
The boy put his statement into story form. The first half of his story talked about a child who was starved, spanked and endured a month of treatment in the hospital. After making it clear the story was really about him, the second half talked about a boy who is “awesome,” loves to ride his bike and looks forward to going to school.
It was the comparison of two photographs that “tipped the scales” and made it clear the Hauers deserved jail time, Krehbiel said. One photo was of the boy after he had been taken to the hospital. The other was a recent photo from the Burows, who said his weight has doubled and he has grown nearly 8 inches during the past year. The boy had only gained 5 pounds during the five years he was under the care of the Hauers.
“It’s very difficult for the court to grasp how anyone couldn’t realize something was amiss when a child only gains 5 pounds in five years,” Krehbiel said. “There is no excuse for that and the punishment fits.“[Really? It Does?]
After a civil trial earlier this year, the Hauers lost their parental rights over the boy, but they have been allowed to keep the other three children.”
Mona Hauer gets 60 days in jail in starving child case [The Mankato Free Press 11/26/13]
Appalling and unacceptable… and sadly, scarily common.
This family adopted several kids with SN from foster care and happily blogs about locking up the fridge too, writing that:
“H**** [adopted daughter] has lots of food issues so we already lock up refrigerators and freezers and keep guard on the kitchen. I am getting the feeling that we are living is a jail here”
http://tomorrownevercomeslivetoday.blogspot.ca/2009/10/we-figured-it-out.html?m=0
This self-proclaimed trauma mama refuses to seek appropriate therapy for her adopted sons, telling CPS that “no therapy is better than bad therapy” and no good therapy is available in her small Utah town.
Interestingly, this mom has managed to obtain high-quality therapy for herself, her husband and biodaughter, i.e. everyone in her family EXCEPT the 2 adopted boys:
http://www.fromsurvivaltoserenity.com/2012/10/will-any-of-this-ever-make-sense.html?m=0