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
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
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. ...
