Home-schooled Girl Kept in a Dog Cage From 11 Years Old Among Other Types of Egregious Abuse by Mother and Stepfather, the Brenda Spencer - Branndon Mosely Case

 
Here's yet another story of homeschooling, false imprisonment and unlawful confinement, this time about a girl living in a filthy house, and allegedly being sexually abused by a stepfather, held against her will, living in a dog crate for an entire year, and chained up in a bathroom . 

It has so many similarities to the Turpin case, the Kimberly Sullivan case and somewhat to the Kornegay case. 

The story also includes, as so many of these child abuse cases do, other children living in or visiting these families. These "other" children are not abused, proving that scapegoating at least one child goes on in most child abuse cases and for now, it seems only this child was treated this way according to the story in The New York Times written by Sarah Maslin Nir (with photography by Rachel Wisniewski). 

Homeschooling is another commonality among these more egregious cases. The message seems to be that if you want to commit this level of crime against a child, you need to homeschool the kid to get there, have constraints such as a securely locked room, chains, an alarm system, or a dog crate to keep the child from running away from this kind of torture (and what kind of message does that send to other parents who feel the incredible need to take child abuse route to this level? Just homeschool them and the persecution will go according to plan?). 

What I found interesting about the Kimberly Sullivan case and the Gloria Williams - Brian Coulter case is that the defense for letting abuse get to this level was about normalizing, enabling, sycophancy, and the brainwashed mind. Egregious abuse got so normalized even when both adults worked, and were absent from each other to think of other alternatives to abuse?

Apparently the mother served as a dog handler who attended dog competitions - that's scary. Who wouldn't have extreme anxiety thinking about this kind of person handling their dog?

And the stepfather is a rail conductor for the greater Philadelphia area. Who would want to ride that kind of train, especially with a child?

Apparently neither the mother or stepfather thought to stop the abuse. And if one of them did, was it so inconvenient to go to the police? Is it hard to find a way to get a child out of the home and into safety?

Or did they think there was nothing wrong in treating a child this way?

Or did they feel during the escalation process of abuse that they didn't want to partake in it any longer, but let their partner do it without interference or protest?

How much enabling, brainwashing, sycophancy, and fear can really be taken seriously as a defense of criminality in cases like this? But time after time, lawyers keep trying for this kind of defense (possibly because lawyers can't find other defenses and just have to think, even with this kind long-shot, that it is the only way to go, the possibility that the defense may be reviewed?). 

Like: "My husband (or wife) told me to do it!" or "taught me to do it!" with "Am I in trouble now? Wasn't I brainwashed? How about that? Can't we use that as a defense? What about the other children and the animals in my house that I loved? That makes me a good person, doesn't it? I just made this one mistake with this child, a child that I was taught to see as a demon! At the time I thought it was an act of kindness to let her use a bathroom instead of a bucket and that I should have been praised for it. Was I wrong to think she was ungrateful?" - is this how this kind of defense is verbalized?

Another thing we find in common is that so many of these kinds of parents live in squalor. Not all of them, obviously. Either their houses are obsessively cleaned, or it's filthy - it is what I've seen. And how do they defend the squalor?

Another thing: so many of these children aren't allowed to use the bathroom. Either a bucket is provided for them, or they find a way to eliminate it out of a window, or they mess themselves because they are chained up. 

And why is any of this happening in the first place? Is all child abuse rooted in how much a child gives a parent narcissistic supply? 

Do parents like this expect a child to flatter them and then the child can't or isn't believed because the child is being tortured? Is it that kind of double bind?

Does the shame-rage spiral of a dark triad parent get to a point that the more shame they feel, they feel the inclination to abuse in a blame-shifting manner, the more they have to hide the abuse, the more shame they feel, and the more they spiral in their shame-rage spiral, the more they hide the abuse, which produces more shame, the more they have to make it the child's fault, the more they feel they have to abuse the child, which produces more shame, and the more child abuse happens? 

Do people like this think they need to torture someone? And does it go to a child because they are easy to hurt, or easy to imprison? And is the overwhelming desire to torture so great, so overwhelming as to require holding someone hostage, against their will? Is having a child with a will so threatening to them? 

Most of these headlines don't cover these kinds of questions. Perhaps psychologist, Dr. Todd Grande, takes a stab at them (double entrende done on purpose), but he also admits his analysis is conjecture as to what "could be happening" from a psychological perspective. However, the narcissistic supply analysis makes the most sense to me in these most egregious of cases, however this too is conjecture, and only based on what I know about narcissistic supply and how it manifests if a narcissist can't get flattery or doesn't believe in what a child says to them. 

Most of us don't have a shame-rage spiral and perhaps that is what sets these cases apart from how most of us treat children. Most of us don't rage or start a campaign of abuse and engage in defamation of character over narcissistic supply deficiencies, but narcissists often do.

Perhaps some day I will have some clearer answers on this phenomenon. 

As usual, I will keep you updated on this case as it progresses. 

New Jersey couple accused of abusing, confining child in dog crate and bathroom for years - by Tom Dougherty,  Scott Jacobson, Raymond Strickland, Will Kenworthy, Madeleine Wright for CBS News

18-year-old girl escapes from New Jersey home where she was allegedly forced to live in dog crate and abused Brenda Spencer, 38, and Branndon Mosley, 41, of Gloucester Township, were charged with kidnapping and Mosley with additional counts of sexual assault, prosecutors said. - by Marlene Lenthang for NBC News

Mother, Stepfather Arrested After Girl Escapes from Home Where She Was Allegedly Held Captive, Kept in Dog Crate and Abused: Police
The teenager, 18, also claimed she'd been "forced to live in a padlocked bathroom while being chained up," before escaping on Thursday, May 8, police say - by Becca Longmire for People Magazine

Prosecutor: Gloucester Township couple charged with abusing, confining child for years
During the investigation, the victim told detectives that Brenda Spencer, 38, and Branndon Mosley, 41, had been abusing her since approximately 2018. - by the staff at News 12, New Jersey

SINCE PUBLISHING

Two news stories of the mother and her boyfriend (hitherto referred to as her husband) - kept in jail before trial:

New Jersey couple accused of abusing child for years to stay in jail until trial: "domestic torture" - by Madeleine Wright and Alan Wheeler for CBS Philadelphia 5/22/25

NJ couple accused of abusing teen in dog crate to remain in jail
Brenda Spencer and Branndon Mosley will remain in jail after they allegedly held a teen girl captive in a dog crate and abused her for years inside their New Jersey home. - by Hayden Mitman and David Chang for NBC Philadelphia

updated June 16:
They Said She Was Home-Schooled. She Said She Was Locked in a Dog Crate.

A teenage girl fled her home last month after what she said was years of abuse. Prosecutors called what had happened to her “beyond heinous.” - by  Sarah Maslin Nir for The New York Times
Some excerpts from the article:
     ... That a girl could vanish, and her abuse go unnoticed for so long, could have implications beyond this case. Prosecutors, in part, blame the lax rules around home-schooling — New Jersey is one of many states with little oversight once a child leaves traditional schooling ... 
     ... Around that time, seven years ago, Ms. Lacey said she noticed the girl’s younger sister waiting for the school bus one morning, with a black eye. A few days later, she had another. She told Ms. Lacey that she had run into the TV.
     When Ms. Lacey confronted the mother, she had a different explanation — that her child had run into a door. ...
     ... Shortly after that, the younger sister, then in second grade, was also removed from public school; according to prosecutors it was because the parents were afraid she would tell someone that her older sister was “living in a dog crate.” ... 
     ... Ms. Spencer told the police that she had given up on educating her older daughter after a week. In a police interview, the girl’s younger sister could not recall any lessons being taught.
     “I fear cases like this will become more prevalent,” Ms. MacAulay said, because abusive people “will see how easy it is to hide these crimes.” ... 
     ... Sometimes, she was locked in a bathroom for days, with her ankles affixed to a chain looped around the back of the toilet, and fed spaghetti from a Johnson’s Popcorn bucket. She told her neighbor that the younger sister was treated “like a princess,” and allowed to eat meals at the table with the family. ... 

The Kimberly Sullivan Case. A Stepmother and Father Allegedly Lock Away a Boy When He Is 12, Underfeeding Him, and Home Schooling Him, and at 32 He Takes a Chance of Being Rescued by Lighting the House on Fire

I still plan on posting the "Hoovering" article, but in the meantime the Kimberly Sullivan case caught my attention. 

Occasionally I make note of articles having to do with child abuse. Many of these cases are egregious, but even in milder child abuse cases, there seem to be some similarities such as not hearing a child out or not caring what they have to say (i.e. what they are going through), not caring about the child's feelings or their physical, mental and emotional health (neglect), "home-schooling" (also common, especially for controlling caretakers or caretakers who are trying to present a different image to the world than who they are at home), rageful caretaking where continual and escalating "punishments" put a child's welfare at risk, not feeding the child an adequate amount of food, or the wrong kind of food, or force feeding, or in general food and weight are a constant issue (super common), absurdly long "time outs", separating a child from the rest of the family or false imprisonment (common), reckless endangerment and other kinds of offenses which are talked about in forums for many, many adults of child abuse. Most just don't go as far as this story portrays.

But I think it is important to report on how far child abuse can go especially since abuse, in general, always escalates. It is obvious it did in this case. It is also why children cannot make up with parents who are abusive (it is ineffective) and why it is wrong to expect them to do so. 

So far, at the time of this writing, some other stories that I decided to write briefly about include The Kornegay case (mentioned in this post), the Turpin case, the Jeffrey Epstein case, and the Brian Coulter - Gloria Williams case. 

As for this news-worthy report, here are the headlines from The New York Times:

He Was Held Captive in His Room for Decades. Then He Set It on Fire.
Firefighters found a 32-year-old man who weighed 68 pounds. The police say his stepmother locked him away when he was 12. - written by Sarah Maslin Nir

In this case, the 12 year old child is locked in a room in a house belonging to his father and stepmother, and at 36 years old, decides he will take a chance with a lighter he found in a jacket leant to him by his stepmother and start a house fire in hopes that he will be rescued by authorities. 

However, before then, a principal had found the boy coming to school with a dirty lunch pail, devouring his lunch in a restroom, and drinking the water in a urinal. He came to school looking hungry and disheveled. 

The principal made calls to the Department of Children and Families to no avail. The authorities kept reporting back that the child was fine. 

So one has to wonder what happened. Did the family quickly clean up their act or put on an act before the authorities arrived (common), or vacuum the house and get rid of things that were filthy or might make them "look bad" before they arrived, or were the authorities themselves blind as to what was going on, or lazy about investigating, or overlooking things they shouldn't have overlooked, or took the parents word for what was happening (can be too common, and of detriment to the child), or forgot to look in on the case after the boy went into home schooling?

What are the excuses here, and is there going to be an investigation into them? 

Right now this is just the bare bones of the story (it just came out). I hope I can find out more information as reporters delve into this horrific case. 

The story somewhat concludes with these paragraphs:

     ... Since the fire, the man has been ensconced in a hospital rehabilitation center, according to Amanda Nardozzi, the executive director of Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury, a nonprofit organization that has been helping coordinate his care.
     According to Ms. Nardozzi, he will need extensive physical rehabilitation — court documents state he has deformed knees and muscle wasting — and a carefully managed diet to avoid re-feeding syndrome, where a sudden flood of nutrients can kill a person near starvation. He is also receiving mental health counseling, Ms. Nardozzi said, funded in part by an official GoFundMe that has already raised over $200,000. ...

I hope he can find healthy relationships, physical health, mental health that begins to erase so many years of trauma, and emotional health (being with people with empathy so that it becomes his new reality and world view). Right now there is a "Go Fund Me" for the victim's care which has already raised $20,000. The article did not provide a link to that fund-raising campaign, but eventually maybe it will be publicly posted so that others may contribute.

UPDATES TO THE STORY:

* This USA Today article shows what the inside of the house looked like around the time of Ms. Sullivan's arrest. The squalor and filth reminds me of pictures of the Turpin family's home who I mentioned above. Ms. Sullivan's attorney objected to the photos being publicized by the police. 

* Bodycam video shows rescue of Connecticut man allegedly held captive by parents for over 20 years - from Channel 6 ABC News. 
Videos record the 911 call, the house on fire and other incidentals having to do with the case. 

* The CBS version of the story. The story talks to one of Sullivans lawyers on the case, and tells reporters that his client, Ms. Sullivan, is shocked by the allegations against her. 
My thoughts? How can that be unless abuse has been totally normalized and not seen as egregious since she was a child? And how could she not know the law on this when similar cases are on T.V. and social media? 

* 'He Was in Control': Father of Man Claiming Stepmom Held Him Captive Made Decisions About His Son's Care, Claims Her Lawyer
The lawyer for Kimberly Sullivan tells PEOPLE that Kregg Sullivan determined how his son was raised, not his client. - by Chris Spargo for People Magazine
At the end of the article is a reminder to call authorities if you suspect a child is being abused:
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
The comments are interesting. 
The father was the one to give the orders. But did she have to follow them? Is this sycophancy that has gone terribly wrong? And especially after her husband's death? 
One has to wonder where she went in her mind to think that this was right. And this is the question of all sycophants who are with people who break the law, abuse, bully, starve, and show very few ethics or empathy. It's not like he would come back from the dead to put fear in her. 
I wonder how this case will play out. 
Are "orders" from neglectful, abusive people a good-enough defense in a court of law? 
I'm waiting for the answers obviously. 

Forensic Psychologists Weigh in on Kimberly Sullivan Case - by Jenna Sundel, reporter for Newsweek (3/14/25)
excerpts from the article:
   ... Dr. John Fabian, a forensic and clinical neuropsychologist, spoke to Newsweek about the factors that could lead an individual to abuse others.
     "I've had cases where the father figure was abusive to the mother, and this led to neglect and abuse by [the] mother," Fabian said.
     Sullivan could also have been a victim of abuse during her childhood, according to Fabian. "Often, we want to look certainly at the woman's own upbringing and childhood and whether she had been abused," he said.
     In "very rare" cases, there can be a shared psychotic disorder between the parents, known as folie à deux, said Fabian. The parents could have shared a delusion that their child is "evil and they must keep him captive."
     Dr. David Hayes, a criminologist specializing in criminal behavior with a Ph.D. and master's in forensic psychology, told Newsweek that the prevalence of abuse by a stepparent on a stepchild is "much higher" than abuse by a genetic parent on a genetic child.
     "Alienating and treating the stepchild as the 'other' and not part of the family is, sadly, relatively commonplace. This is a very extreme version of that," Hayes said.
     "It hasn't been widely explored, but a concept called Cinderella Stepmother's Syndrome is something that can apply here," Hayes said. "According to research, it manifests when a stepparent has fears about placement within the family, their own ineffectiveness, anxiety, and hostility toward the living and breathing proof that there was a family before they arrived."
     Hayes said if the allegations are true, this would be a "very extreme" version of Cinderella Stepmother's Syndrome.
     "If true, I would assume that the Cinderella's Stepmother Syndrome is comorbid with a personality disorder (maybe something akin to borderline personality disorder) or even a pathological issue," Hayes said.
     Fabian spoke about what could have compelled Sullivan to continue the alleged abuse despite the possibility of being caught.
     "There may just be some inherent gratification of making this child suffer," Fabian said. "I'm not sure about what type of obsessive thinking she may have and what kind of goal or objective she would have in doing this."

Attorney for Kimberly Sullivan says her stepson was not held captive - by Amanda Pitts for NBC Connecticut (4/22/25)

Kimberly Sullivan - continual updates for COURT TV
Kimberly Sullivan is accused of holding her stepson captive in their Connecticut home for 20 years. The man, now 32, set fire to the house in a deliberate effort to save himself. (continual updates)

Pretrial hearing for Waterbury stepmother focuses on stepson’s medical records - by Kimberlyn Bouley, Dylan Fearon and Abigail Murillo Villacorta for Eye Witness News 3, Hartford Connecticut (7/8/25)