Speaker 1: Before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to let
Speaker 1: you know about Morbidology Plus, our premium subscription available through
Speaker 1: Apple Subscriptions. When you join Morbidology Plus, you'll get completely
Speaker 1: ad free episodes, so you can immerse yourself in these
Speaker 1: stories without interruption. Plus subscribers also get early access to
Speaker 1: new episodes before anybody else, and exclusive bonus episodes of
Speaker 1: Morbidology Plus that aren't on the regular podcast platforms. If
Speaker 1: you love diving deep into true crime and want to
Speaker 1: support the show while getting that extra content, please check
Speaker 1: out Morbidology Plus in your Apple Podcasts app Well, let's
Speaker 1: get into today's case.
Speaker 2: He was attention deficit, hyperactive disordered, as well as artistic.
Speaker 2: He had speech and motor impairments.
Speaker 1: Norton Shores is the kind of place that slips easily
Speaker 1: into the background of a map. It's quiet, picturesque, and unassuming.
Speaker 1: Tucked along the western edge of Michigan in Muskegon County,
Speaker 1: this lakeside community sits cradled between the tranquil waters of
Speaker 1: Mona Lake and the vast, endless stretch of Lake Michigan.
Speaker 1: Its routes reached back to eighteen forty five, when it
Speaker 1: was first carved from Ottawa County and named Norton Township.
Speaker 1: Two years later, Robinson's Mill rose near Mona Lake, and
Speaker 1: in the decades that followed, the dense forest gave way
Speaker 1: to fruit farms. By the eighteen fifties, berries and apples
Speaker 1: were the backbone of the local economy, carded by hand
Speaker 1: to wading boats that connected the inland lake to the
Speaker 1: open waters of Lake Michigan. By the late nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: change loomed. Facing the threat of annexation, the township made
Speaker 1: a decision. In nineteen sixty eight. It formerly incorporated as
Speaker 1: the city of Norton Shores. Since then, the city has
Speaker 1: settled into its identity part suburb port rural haven, a
Speaker 1: place where people go to live quietly, raise families, and
Speaker 1: grow old in peace. Just a short drive from the
Speaker 1: local airport lies Marshall Road, a neatly kept neighborhood of
Speaker 1: single family homes, the kind of street where kids ride
Speaker 1: bikes on the pavement and neighbors greet one another by name.
Speaker 1: The lawns are clipped and the mail boxes are upright.
Speaker 1: From the outside, everything appears ordinary. But in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: something happened on Marshall Road that would shatter that illusion,
Speaker 1: and I'm one. One call came in from a woman
Speaker 1: who reported that her teenage son was unresponsive. At first glance,
Speaker 1: it seemed like a tragic accident, but that wasn't the
Speaker 1: truth behind those walls. Something sinister had been happening for
Speaker 1: some time. Norton Shores was home to a fifteen year
Speaker 1: old boy named Timothy Ferguson. Timothy's parents, Shanda vander Ark
Speaker 1: and Eric Ferguson, had separated when he was still a
Speaker 1: little boy. The couple had four children together, Nolan, Paul, Millie,
Speaker 1: and Timothy. After the breakup, their lives took different paths.
Speaker 1: Shanda eventually moved to Michigan with Timothy, while Eric headed
Speaker 1: south to Florida. In Norton Shore, as Timothy didn't just
Speaker 1: live with his mother, his older brother, Paul, who was
Speaker 1: twenty at the time, also lived in the home. Shanda
Speaker 1: had a younger son as well, just seven years old.
Speaker 1: The family had once lived in Oklahoma, but by now
Speaker 1: they were trying to rebuild in a new place in
Speaker 1: a new chapter. After the divorce, Shanda had remarried a
Speaker 1: man named Adam. She studied law at Western Michigan University's
Speaker 1: Cooley Law School and passed the bor exam on her
Speaker 1: very first try. It was a remarkable accomplishment, and it
Speaker 1: led her to work as a law clerk for two
Speaker 1: different circuit court judges. Her job involved conducting legal research
Speaker 1: in preparing case memoranda, intellectual work that demanded focus and precision.
Speaker 1: She worked full time, forty hours a week, earning just
Speaker 1: over nineteen dollars per R. The tragedy struck again when Adam,
Speaker 1: her husband, suffered a debilitating stroke. The family dynamics shifted drastically.
Speaker 1: With Adam unable to work, Shanna became the sole provider,
Speaker 1: juggling a demanding legal career with the needs of her household.
Speaker 1: At home, her adult son Paul, took on a caretaker role,
Speaker 1: particularly when it came to Timothy, who needed more support
Speaker 1: than most. Timothy had been diagnosed with multiple developmental and
Speaker 1: mental health conditions. He was on the autism spectrum, had
Speaker 1: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and also lived with bipolar disorder.
Speaker 1: Each of these things on their own could be difficult
Speaker 1: to manage, but together they formed a complex web that
Speaker 1: made every day life more challenging. Autism spectrum disorder often
Speaker 1: meant that Timothy experienced the world differently. His sensory input
Speaker 1: could be overwhelming at times, and social interaction didn't come easy.
Speaker 1: He had and motor delays that made communication and movement
Speaker 1: more difficult. ADHD then added another layer, with bursts of
Speaker 1: energy and difficulty focusing or sitting still. My polar disorder
Speaker 1: introduced emotional volatility, sharp eyes, and painful lows that could
Speaker 1: come without warning. But not of that to find Timothy.
Speaker 1: He was a Sweden imaginative boy, one who found comfort
Speaker 1: and joy in small, focused activities. He loved building legos,
Speaker 1: following the instructions meticulously, piece by pace, creating models with
Speaker 1: the kind of patience and determination that often escaped him elsewhere.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he didn't even need a guide. He would build
Speaker 1: whole new world from his imagination, placing one colored brick
Speaker 1: on top of the other, like he was creating order
Speaker 1: in a world that so often felt chaotic. His older
Speaker 1: sister lovingly called him timmed him. She remembered how a
Speaker 1: smile could light up a room, how despite everything he
Speaker 1: still remained to hand. There was a gentle spirit in Timothy,
Speaker 1: a softness that made him easy to love. His siblings
Speaker 1: said he was vulnerable, yes, but not broken, and he
Speaker 1: certainly was in a burden. But inside that home on
Speaker 1: Marshall Road, behind closed doors and beneath the surface of
Speaker 1: suburban normalcy, something was unraveling. It was just after six
Speaker 1: point thirty am on Wednesday, the sixth of July twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two when a nine one one call came in.
Speaker 1: On the other end of the line was Shanda vander Arc.
Speaker 1: Her voice was strained and flat. She told the dispatcher
Speaker 1: that she had just woken up to find her son,
Speaker 1: fifteen year old Timothy, unresponsive in his bedroom. Emergency responders
Speaker 1: were dispatched to the family's home on the four seven
Speaker 1: hundred block of Marshall Road. As officers stepped through the
Speaker 1: front door, they were immediately struck by the stench. The
Speaker 1: air was thick and suffocating. The family's home was in
Speaker 1: a state of complete disarray. Filthy divers littered the floors,
Speaker 1: plates crusted with old food sat on top of the counters,
Speaker 1: and wrappers were piled in the corner. Even more disturbing,
Speaker 1: faces had been smeared on the door handles and mashed
Speaker 1: deep into the carpet. Lieutenant Joel Houksma later said it
Speaker 1: wasn't just dirty. Some people lived clean, some people live dirty.
Speaker 1: This was just gross. The responders made their way into
Speaker 1: the basement, where Shanda was found kneeling beside Timothy, her
Speaker 1: hands moving through the motions of CPR, but it was
Speaker 1: clear that it was too late. His body was limp, cold,
Speaker 1: and his limbs were beginning to stiffen with rigor mortis.
Speaker 1: Shanda stepped aside as the paramedics took over, but the
Speaker 1: heart monitor told them what they already knew. There was
Speaker 1: no activity fifteen year old Timothy. He was gone. As
Speaker 1: the team worked, they couldn't help but taking the environment
Speaker 1: around them. In one section of the basement was a
Speaker 1: small windowless room, bare but for a plastic tarp on
Speaker 1: the floor that smelled of urine. A webcam had been
Speaker 1: positioned nearby, its lends aimed directly at the top. Then
Speaker 1: there were handcuffs, and then there was Timothy himself. He
Speaker 1: was emaciated. His clothes hung off him like empty seals,
Speaker 1: his bones pressed sharply through his skin. His face was
Speaker 1: gaunt and hollow. Officer Ryan Peaskey recollected thought.
Speaker 3: That he was extremely unnursed. At least it appeared that way,
Speaker 3: very skinny. You could see bones protruding from his body,
Speaker 3: how he could see his ribs through his skin.
Speaker 1: Bruises marred Timothy's chest, and he was wearing a heavily
Speaker 1: soiled at diaper. There was no mistaking what they were saying.
Speaker 1: Detective Stephanie almardle atter say it was very hard to
Speaker 1: believe a child of his ai would look like something
Speaker 1: out of a concentration camp. Timothy's body was transported to
Speaker 1: the medical Exometer's office, where the phil extent of his
Speaker 1: suffering was laid bare. He weighed just sixty nine pounds.
Speaker 1: The cause of death was malnourishment and hypothermia, the pathologist recalled.
Speaker 4: So it was it was readily apparent upon viewing the
Speaker 4: body of Timothy Ferguson that he had a very low
Speaker 4: body weight. He appeared extremely emaciated. He was sixty eight
Speaker 4: inches tall of inches long inches tall, and he weighed
Speaker 4: sixty nine pounds at that point he had it was
Speaker 4: clear he had really a loss of all of his
Speaker 4: body fat. His cheeks were very narrow. He had you
Speaker 4: could you could see and count all of his ribs
Speaker 4: and even entrarely when we're looking at him, he in
Speaker 4: areas where you typically have some body fat within your
Speaker 4: abdomen and the different areas there was none. There was
Speaker 4: only a little bit of connective tissue that would normally
Speaker 4: hold the fat, but you could see all of his
Speaker 4: bony prominences, and on his back he had started getting
Speaker 4: some pressure soores because there wasn't a lot of padding
Speaker 4: in between his bones and his skin as well, so
Speaker 4: where those areas had pressure, the skin.
Speaker 5: Was starting to break down.
Speaker 1: This was not an accident. This was systematic, prolonged torture,
Speaker 1: and this was only the beginning. Back at the home
Speaker 1: on Marshall Road, detectives began to paste together a far
Speaker 1: more disturbing portrait of what life had looked like hand
Speaker 1: those walls. Room by room evidence painted a picture of
Speaker 1: control and cruelty. In the bathroom, investigators found bottles of
Speaker 1: hot sauce, strange on its own, but more disturbing when
Speaker 1: they paired with the shackles that lay nearby. There were
Speaker 1: locks on both the refrigerator and the freezer, restricting even
Speaker 1: the most basic human need. Food Cameras were minded throughout
Speaker 1: the home, along with motion sensors. They were watching, recording
Speaker 1: tracking every movement. One camera was aimed directly into the
Speaker 1: small closet in the basement. On the door to that
Speaker 1: closet was an alarm. There was also a bathroom in
Speaker 1: the basement. Officer Sean Steiphanic recalled.
Speaker 5: And then who did it track your motion then?
Speaker 6: Or followed me as I walked through the bathroom?
Speaker 5: What did you observe about the bathroom itself?
Speaker 6: Bathroom was very dirty.
Speaker 7: There was adult dirty, adult diapers on the floor, and
Speaker 7: there's no shower curtain by no.
Speaker 1: Shanda was sitting outside on the steps in a state
Speaker 1: of panic.
Speaker 7: He's been he's been wearing really loose close to lest
Speaker 7: of police. He's really skinny.
Speaker 8: He's really skinny, and I didn't notice till this morning
Speaker 8: because he wouldn't.
Speaker 9: Like I asked him if he's okay, and he would
Speaker 9: not answer it, Like he's fifteen, he's been.
Speaker 10: He has autism.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I got high functioning.
Speaker 10: I just had notes about bad.
Speaker 11: Oh my god, Like I said, he did this.
Speaker 9: Seconds A strong questisper m. I thought he did this, Bacan,
Speaker 9: I don't know it second, like in January for almost
Speaker 9: three weeks and then he finally he ate some.
Speaker 10: He ate something last night. I can't remember what it was.
Speaker 12: I'm sorry, I'm.
Speaker 1: Sure, she told the first response about Timothy's issues, his diagnosises,
Speaker 1: his behavior, She said that lately stop taking his ADHD medication.
Speaker 1: According to her, he had gone on a hunger strike
Speaker 1: for nearly three weeks. She said she had threatened to
Speaker 1: take him to the hospital if he didn't eat. That
Speaker 1: seemed to get through to him, she said, and for
Speaker 1: a brief time he started eating again, But she said
Speaker 1: that in the past two weeks Timothy had stopped once more.
Speaker 1: Even when she offered protein shakes he refused. The night
Speaker 1: before his death, she told detectives, she warned Timothy again,
Speaker 1: ate or I'll take you to the hospital. Timothy agreed,
Speaker 1: she said, and she made him two slices of toast
Speaker 1: with butter. She claimed he ate about three quarters of
Speaker 1: one slice, but then refused the rest. That, according to Shanda,
Speaker 1: was the last real interaction they had at her On
Speaker 1: five thirty a m. She said she heard a noise
Speaker 1: Timothy had fallen out of bed. Done in the basement.
Speaker 1: Next time so that urine soaked closet sad a mattle
Speaker 1: bunk pand oh I.
Speaker 7: Said the last time he saw him was five thirty
Speaker 7: this morning. Did he see anything he had fallen out
Speaker 7: of bed yet?
Speaker 6: Five thirty?
Speaker 7: Yeah, you sure it wasn't earlier.
Speaker 4: I mean it's possible. I thought it was five thirty, but.
Speaker 10: I wasn't super awake. I heard a thunk, and I
Speaker 10: came down and.
Speaker 9: He's kind of laying on the side, kind of like
Speaker 9: what the heck? And I picked I agree, Southy, I'm.
Speaker 10: That's all right.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 10: Yeah, And every sound he pulled himself off and I
Speaker 10: asked him he's.
Speaker 5: Okay, and I just asked me his head.
Speaker 9: He said, no, I think I get my my, my
Speaker 9: knees on my chest.
Speaker 13: I think he couldn't.
Speaker 10: Obviously, he couldn't tell me how he fell.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Shonda said, an r lead her. She
Speaker 1: checked again, this time Timothee Wallson breathing.
Speaker 7: But we have to investigate every every death, so I
Speaker 7: can't let anybody go in the basement for now. Medical
Speaker 7: examiner is going to be coming here in a little bit.
Speaker 10: It's a little cluttered down there, but you're fine.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you'll see a lot worse.
Speaker 7: Okay, You're probably gonna get asked the same questions multiple times,
Speaker 7: so I'm sorry.
Speaker 9: For that, just like I said, I'm feeling, just miss something.
Speaker 10: If you want to.
Speaker 13: Do that.
Speaker 1: It was a thin story and detectives weren't buying it,
Speaker 1: and they had every reason not to. By the time
Speaker 1: Timothy Ferguson died, his name was already known to child
Speaker 1: protective services, just not in Michigan. It was in Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: years earlier that warning signs first began to surface. The
Speaker 1: family had been investigated on nine separate occasions. People at
Speaker 1: church had noticed that Timothy and his three siblings often
Speaker 1: wore the same filthy clothing. Some were still in soiled diapers,
Speaker 1: well past the age they should have been. Something felt wrong,
Speaker 1: and in February of two thousand and eight, authorities opened
Speaker 1: their first case. At the time, Timothy was just eighteen
Speaker 1: months old. The allegations were serious medical neglect, inadequate nutrition.
Speaker 1: One case worker observed that Timothy was underweight and appeared unhealthy.
Speaker 1: The family was referred to early intervention programs aimed at
Speaker 1: helping parents of children with developmental delays or disabilities, but
Speaker 1: the case was eventually closed. No children were removed, and
Speaker 1: the family stayed together, but the reports didn't stop there.
Speaker 1: One complaint detailed how Shanda and Eric had refused to
Speaker 1: allow social workers into their home. Another raised concerns about
Speaker 1: potential sexual abuse taking place in the household. That triggered
Speaker 1: a deeper investigation. On the twenty fifth of October two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, police and social workers arrived at the home.
Speaker 1: What they found horrified them. There was faces, animal and
Speaker 1: human smeared into the carpets. Trash was strewn throughout the rooms.
Speaker 1: The air stank of decay. But without a court order,
Speaker 1: they couldn't legally remove the children that day. They came
Speaker 1: back the next day with the proper paperwork. This time,
Speaker 1: the house looked different. The floors had been scrubbed, the
Speaker 1: garbage was gone, but the stench still lingered. Despite the
Speaker 1: sudden transformation, authority weren't filled. The children were removed and
Speaker 1: placed into foster care. Timothy and his siblings spent the
Speaker 1: next two years apart, living in separate homes. Meanwhile, their
Speaker 1: parents were given an opportunity to work on their problems.
Speaker 1: Eric took that chance seriously. He completed parenting classes, He
Speaker 1: went through counseling. He cooperated. Shanda didn't. She skipped her classes.
Speaker 1: She told the social worker she had worked through everything
Speaker 1: she was willing to. When it came time for the
Speaker 1: judge to decide custody, the choice was clear. Eric was
Speaker 1: granted full custody of all four children. Shanda was given
Speaker 1: supervised visitation three hours a month. In January twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma's Department of Human Services recommended that her parental rights
Speaker 1: be terminated, but instead of going through with it, Shanda
Speaker 1: agreed to give Eric full custody voluntarily. On paper, her
Speaker 1: rights remained intact in practic this she was gone by then.
Speaker 1: Shanda had already started over. She'd moved to Michigan. She'd
Speaker 1: remarried Adam, She'd had a new baby, she had a
Speaker 1: new life. But she left something behind, four children who
Speaker 1: no longer recognized her as their mother. Her daughter, Millie,
Speaker 1: would later reflect on that severed bond and stated, I
Speaker 1: haven't referred to her as my mother since I was
Speaker 1: fourteen or fifteen years old. She hasn't really been a
Speaker 1: big part of my life, and I prefer to call
Speaker 1: somebody lovingly by the name of mother when they've earned
Speaker 1: that title. To million her siblings, Shanda wasn't a mother,
Speaker 1: She was just a name. She said. She barely had
Speaker 1: any part of our lives. I don't think she was
Speaker 1: a mother for the children. I think she was a
Speaker 1: mother to call herself a mother. This episode of Morbidology
Speaker 1: is sponsored by cbd X, and I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about something that affects millions of us sleep.
Speaker 1: If you're like me, you've probably experienced those frustrating nights
Speaker 1: where your mind just won't switch off. You lie there
Speaker 1: staring at the ceiling, knowing you need rest, but are
Speaker 1: unable to find this. I used to struggle with falling
Speaker 1: asleep regularly, and it was affecting everything from my mood
Speaker 1: to my work. That's when I discovered cbd X is
Speaker 1: Lights Out Sleep Gummies, and honestly, they've been a game
Speaker 1: changer for me. These aren't your typical sleep aids loaded
Speaker 1: with harsh chemicals or high doses of melatonin that leave
Speaker 1: you groggy. Instead, they combine carefully measured t each C
Speaker 1: and CBN with natural sleep supporters such as cammameale, glycin
Speaker 1: and L the nine. What I love about these gummies
Speaker 1: is how gentle yet effective they are. They help me
Speaker 1: drift off naturally without that knocked out feeling, and I
Speaker 1: actually stay asleep through the night no more. Three am
Speaker 1: wake ups are tossing and turning. Plus they're sugar free
Speaker 1: and sweetened with monk fruit, so there's no weird aftertaste.
Speaker 1: The team at cbda X have crafted these specifically for
Speaker 1: a storative sleep, not recreation. Each gummy delivers just the
Speaker 1: right balance to help your body and mind unwined after
Speaker 1: those long, stressful days that we all have. If you're
Speaker 1: ready to reclaim your nights and wake up refreshed, visit
Speaker 1: CBDX dot com and use the code Morbidology for twenty
Speaker 1: percent off your first order. Trust me, your future well
Speaker 1: rested self will thank you. That should have been the
Speaker 1: end of it, but in twenty twenty, one of Schandra's
Speaker 1: children made a decision. Paul, who was now an adult,
Speaker 1: chose to move back in with his mother. Timothy, meanwhile
Speaker 1: was living with his father, Eric and Eric's new wife, Patricia.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a perfect situation. Timothy had special needs. Patricia tried,
Speaker 1: but she wasn't trained to care for a child with
Speaker 1: complex developmental disabilities. It wasn't easy, so she asked Eric
Speaker 1: to be more present to help shoulder the responsibility. Instead,
Speaker 1: Eric made a decision that would ultimately cost Timothy his life.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty one, he sent his son to live
Speaker 1: with Shanda and Paul in Michigan. Almost as soon as
Speaker 1: Timothy arrived in Michigan, things began to change, not in
Speaker 1: the way he may have hoped, not with fresh starts
Speaker 1: or warm welcomes, but with isolation. Jandon never enrolled Timothy
Speaker 1: in school. When asked, she said that he was being homeschooled.
Speaker 1: But there was no curriculum and there was no education.
Speaker 1: Timothy was being erased from the outside world, one connection
Speaker 1: at a time. He became a source of conflict between
Speaker 1: Shanda and her husband, Adam, but that tension was interrupted
Speaker 1: when tragedy struck. Adam suffered a stroke. He could no
Speaker 1: longer care for himself, let alone the boys, so he
Speaker 1: moved out, returning to his parents home to recover. That
Speaker 1: left Shanda alone in the home, responsible for three children,
Speaker 1: all while working full time as a law clerk. The
Speaker 1: pressure inside that home began to boil over. But the anger,
Speaker 1: the stress, the cruelty, it didn't fall equally on every one.
Speaker 1: Timothy became the target. He was punished for existing, for
Speaker 1: needing too much, for being different, and the abuse wasn't
Speaker 1: just coming from Shanda, Timothy's older brother Paul, became her enforcer.
Speaker 1: While Shanda was at work, Paul was left to watch Timothy.
Speaker 1: What followed was nothing short of torture. Thousands of text
Speaker 1: messages between Shanda and Paul would later reveal the daily
Speaker 1: horrors that Timothy endured. They traded him like a prisoner
Speaker 1: in his own home. He was stomatically starved. One day,
Speaker 1: Timothy was caught trying to steal a slice of cheese
Speaker 1: from the refrigerator. His punishment was to sit in a
Speaker 1: bath tub filled with ice water. On another day, he
Speaker 1: was seen eating the crust from a leftover burger. Shanda
Speaker 1: made him vomit it up. Water was even forbidden, and
Speaker 1: if he was given food, it was cruelly twisted into punishment.
Speaker 1: He was only allowed to eat bread that had been
Speaker 1: soaked in hot sauce. Sometimes they'd force his mouth open
Speaker 1: and pour the hot sauce down his throat. Shanda and
Speaker 1: Paul restrained him with zip ties and shackles. He wasn't
Speaker 1: even allowed to sleep in a bed. He wasn't even
Speaker 1: allowed to sleep in a real room. Instead, Timothy was
Speaker 1: forced to sleep on a urine soaked torp inside a dark,
Speaker 1: windowless closet in the basement. That's where he spent his nights.
Speaker 1: In most of his days, he was hidden from visitors,
Speaker 1: even his great parents. When he wasn't locked in the closet,
Speaker 1: he was forced to clean the house without pants on.
Speaker 1: Paul was the muscl Shanda was the mind behind the madness.
Speaker 1: She texted Paul from work, instructing him on how to
Speaker 1: hurt her son. I'm ready to kill Timothy, Paul wrote
Speaker 1: in one message. In another, Shanda wrote, please make sure
Speaker 1: you go downstairs regularly to make sure Timothy isn't asleep
Speaker 1: before you leave for work. In another, she wrote, maybe
Speaker 1: we should leave the light on that way, it'll be
Speaker 1: harder for him to fall asleep. Then she added, I
Speaker 1: honestly don't care if you get a little rough with him.
Speaker 1: Paul responded like a willing accomplice. In one message, she wrote,
Speaker 1: I ended up dragging him back to a small room
Speaker 1: because I wasn't going to risk him having access to
Speaker 1: the towb or other things overnight. He's still trying to
Speaker 1: be stupid, but I'll tell you more tomorrow when I
Speaker 1: take you to work, describing how many different ways I
Speaker 1: can prove he is fake. They convinced themselves, or at
Speaker 1: least try to, that Timothy was faking his disabilities, that
Speaker 1: the autism, the eighth Day, and the bipolar disorder weren't real,
Speaker 1: that he was just being bad. But Timothy wasn't bad.
Speaker 1: He was vulnerable, and he was being tortured. Millie, Timothy's
Speaker 1: older sister, wasn't there to protect him, but she had
Speaker 1: always thought that Paul was hard on his brother. She
Speaker 1: later said. Paul loved having a par trip over Timothy.
Speaker 1: He loved having any sort of control over Timothy as
Speaker 1: domineering as it could possibly get. And now Paul had
Speaker 1: all the control he wanted. When the truth finally came out,
Speaker 1: when detectives uncovered the twisted text messages that documented Timothy's torture,
Speaker 1: just just began to stir. By this point, Paul hadn't
Speaker 1: been arrested. He turned to social media.
Speaker 14: Hey, everybody, I just figured i'd send a quick check
Speaker 14: for y'all.
Speaker 10: But we're doing good right now.
Speaker 14: I just dozed off on the couch unintentionally, and I forgot.
Speaker 10: To give a quick check for today.
Speaker 2: But yeah, oh, when I can actually get in contact
Speaker 2: with you guys, I'll probably.
Speaker 10: Post quick check like this for those.
Speaker 14: Of you who aren't aware, my little brother has passed
Speaker 14: away and my mother is currently in the custody of well.
Speaker 10: I don't I'm not sure.
Speaker 14: If it's it's a lot to deal with, but right
Speaker 14: now we're doing good.
Speaker 10: We're going But if I can't actually.
Speaker 14: Like Facebook, you guys like the live because I don't
Speaker 14: have my phone and I don't know how to access my.
Speaker 10: Step dollars, I'll post a quick check.
Speaker 14: If you guys know everything's going on it you have
Speaker 14: any questions or anything, you just calming them down below
Speaker 14: and I'll see if I can answer them in the
Speaker 14: next cricket check.
Speaker 10: Just keep supporting and praise it for two of us
Speaker 10: get do this.
Speaker 1: Both Shanda vander Ark and her son Paul Ferguson were
Speaker 1: arrested inside the home. There had been another child, Timothy,
Speaker 1: seven year old brother. Although he was physically unharmed, he
Speaker 1: had been forced to witness everything. He told investigators that
Speaker 1: just days before Timothy was found dead, Paul had dangled
Speaker 1: a frozen pizzas roll in front of him, taunting him,
Speaker 1: mocking him. As Shanda watched off. She wanted to say
Speaker 1: I Timothy was still mentally coherent. If he tried to
Speaker 1: eat the pizza roll, Paul was told to rip it away,
Speaker 1: and that wasn't all, according to the child. The day
Speaker 1: before Timothy died, Paul gave him an ice bath. He
Speaker 1: said that his brother had been left in the freezing
Speaker 1: water for at least nine hours. As the charges against
Speaker 1: Shanda and Paul were filed, custody arrangements were made for
Speaker 1: the seven year old boy. He was sent to live
Speaker 1: with his father, Adam, the man who had suffered a
Speaker 1: debilitating stroke. Adam had already filed for divorce from Shanda
Speaker 1: and he was actively seeking custody. The tragedy would strike
Speaker 1: the family once more. While the case was still unfolding,
Speaker 1: Adam passed away from leukemia. Timothy's younger brother was then
Speaker 1: placed into the care of his paternal grandparents. As the
Speaker 1: legal system prepared for what would be a long and
Speaker 1: painful process, Timothy was led to rest. His body was cremated,
Speaker 1: his ashes placed inside a customed made ern adorned with
Speaker 1: the train, a tribute to his love for Thomas the
Speaker 1: tank engine. He was buried beside his grandmother, a small
Speaker 1: piece of comfort far too late. On the eighth of
Speaker 1: July twenty twenty two, Shanda vander Ark was arraigned on
Speaker 1: charges of open murder and first degree child abuse. She
Speaker 1: sat in the courtroom, rocking back and forth in her chair, crying,
Speaker 1: but for many who heard the details of what she
Speaker 1: had done, those tears remainingless. The judge denied her bond.
Speaker 1: After the hearing, Muskegon County Prosecutor Matt Roberts addressed the
Speaker 1: press and said the investigation subsequently revealed that Shanda vander
Speaker 1: Ark had a number of punishments that frankly, were just
Speaker 1: beyond the pale in terms of what should be administered
Speaker 1: to a child, most notably the denial of food to
Speaker 1: the child, feeding the child nothing but bread and bread
Speaker 1: soaked in hot sauce and hot sauce poured down the
Speaker 1: child's throat, and placing the child in an ice spath.
Speaker 1: Just a week after Shanda vander Ark was charged, her son, Paul,
Speaker 1: was also charged with first degree child abuse. When detectives
Speaker 1: brought him in for questioning, Paul's composure crumbled. He held
Speaker 1: his head in his hands and buried his face into
Speaker 1: the desk as he admitted to what they had done.
Speaker 1: He spoke about them withholding food.
Speaker 5: One was like the last time.
Speaker 3: It was really like talking to you, like able to
Speaker 3: have a conversation or at least try to add a conversation.
Speaker 11: Last time he actually talked was three days ago, about
Speaker 11: the day of four or the day after that.
Speaker 6: The day before yesterday he could talk.
Speaker 11: He talked to a small amount in the morning, but
Speaker 11: then he he just sort of sneaking, crowned and m
Speaker 11: he concerned me. I was as my mother was driving
Speaker 11: me to work, as I recommended that maybe we should
Speaker 11: take him to the hospital.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure that ever happened or not. What did
Speaker 6: she say about that? And you made that recommendation, I
Speaker 6: see after that.
Speaker 5: I think that was like as I was getting out.
Speaker 6: Of the car and shutting the door.
Speaker 1: He said that in the days before Timothy died, he
Speaker 1: couldn't even stand. He confessed that he had placed Timothy
Speaker 1: into the ice bath on the day of his death.
Speaker 1: He also admitted to hitting him repeatedly in the head
Speaker 1: with an open hand. He then told detectives that when
Speaker 1: he was removing Timothy from the bath, he dropped him
Speaker 1: on his head. Later that night, Shanda had shoved her
Speaker 1: son into the dark closet mine with a urine soap torp.
Speaker 1: Timothy curled into a fatal position. Chanda threatened him don't move,
Speaker 1: but Timothy never moved again. By morning, he was gone,
Speaker 1: Paul said. When his mother found him dead, she didn't panic,
Speaker 1: she didn't cry, She didn't even call nine one one immediately. Instead,
Speaker 1: she told Paul to get him dressed. At that point,
Speaker 1: Timothy was wearing nothing but a heavily soiled diaper. And
Speaker 1: then she told Paul to lie. She made up a
Speaker 1: story that Timothy had been on a hunger strike. It
Speaker 1: was a narrative that both of them repeated until they
Speaker 1: couldn't any longer. There was no mistaking what had happened.
Speaker 5: I must that's your brother.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's June thirteenth, less than a month ago. You
Speaker 8: sent this picture to her and you said he's looking
Speaker 8: like a skeleton. Mood to give him more food. But
Speaker 8: she didn't give him more food.
Speaker 13: Over the next couple of weeks, you guys gave him lesson,
Speaker 13: more questioning, and less bread and more bread with hot sauce.
Speaker 5: That's what really happened.
Speaker 13: You reached out to her and say this is scary
Speaker 13: looking right.
Speaker 6: You probably thought he can barely walk.
Speaker 13: You send a picture of his legs, right you send
Speaker 13: this picture of his legs to your mother right here,
Speaker 13: You said this to her, And what you say something
Speaker 13: along the lines of, no wonder he can barely stand
Speaker 13: up or walk, look at that.
Speaker 5: And your mother being smart and intelligent and the smart.
Speaker 15: Woman in the room, she didn't do anything about that,
Speaker 15: didn't think about taking to the doctor, didn't think about
Speaker 15: we have to give him some more proofs, like seriously, now,
Speaker 15: they said, what do you think she did?
Speaker 6: She gave him less and more punishment until what he
Speaker 6: ends up debt? And what does she tell the police?
Speaker 8: He was always wearing baggy close so I didn't notice
Speaker 8: anything until last night.
Speaker 6: Another just blatant lie.
Speaker 1: As both Shonda and Paul were ordered to stand trial,
Speaker 1: questions are on their mental capacity were raised. Shonda is
Speaker 1: to fan Zinn's team requested a competency evaluation. She was
Speaker 1: found competent and the report read in part in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Shandavanda Arke was aware of the charges against her, how
Speaker 1: they came about, and provided a consistent version of how
Speaker 1: events unfolded from her perspective. Paul was also evaluated. Concerns
Speaker 1: had been raised about his intellectual capacity. The doctors found
Speaker 1: no sign of intellectual disability or mental illness. He was
Speaker 1: functioning within the normal range of intellectual ability. Both were
Speaker 1: deemed fit to face justice. Meanwhile, the community tried to
Speaker 1: make sense of what had happened in their quiet neighborhood.
Speaker 1: One neighbor, Timothy Minerk, said, it's very disturbing. You see
Speaker 1: in the news all the bad things, and you wonder
Speaker 1: when it's going to come to your neighborhood or your
Speaker 1: street even and you just never knew. Most of the
Speaker 1: people on Marshall Road didn't even know that Timothy had
Speaker 1: been living there. That's how isolated he was. Another neighbor,
Speaker 1: Neil Husker, said, we didn't even know he was living there.
Speaker 1: All of us had no idea he was there. But
Speaker 1: what the most bitter reality of all was that Shanda
Speaker 1: should never have had costody of Timothy in the first place.
Speaker 1: His father, Eric had full Costaday legally, but he had
Speaker 1: grown overwhelmed. Timothy's needs were many, and Eric had considered
Speaker 1: calling child protective Services. Instead, he sent his son to
Speaker 1: live with Shanda and Paul. Within less than a year,
Speaker 1: Timothy was dead. Shandavan Arc was the first to strand trial,
Speaker 1: and it began on the thirteenth of December two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty three. She walked into court wearing a blue
Speaker 1: blazer and a dark green turtleneck. Her hair was styled
Speaker 1: in French braids. In opening statements, prosecutor Matt rawb Birds
Speaker 1: warned the jury the evidence they were going to hear
Speaker 1: was horrifying. He said, as.
Speaker 16: We referenced many times yesterday, Unfortunately, as part of this process,
Speaker 16: you will see some very graphic photographs, images that will
Speaker 16: not easily leave your mind. But I don't want you
Speaker 16: to focus on just those photographs. As I repeatedly told
Speaker 16: you yesterday, I want you to look at the entire picture.
Speaker 6: Here.
Speaker 5: I will tell you this, the entire picture is just
Speaker 5: as horrific.
Speaker 16: The average fifteen year old male weighs one hundred and
Speaker 16: thirty two pounds and is sixty eight inches tall at
Speaker 16: the time of his death. Timothy Ferguson was right on
Speaker 16: that average height sixty eight inches tall. At the time
Speaker 16: of his death, Timothy fergus weighed sixty nine.
Speaker 1: Then he asked a chilling question, how does a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old child in Michigan in July die of hypothermia
Speaker 1: for at least nine months. He said Timothy had endured cruel,
Speaker 1: calculated punishments inflicted by his own mother and brother. He
Speaker 1: described Paul Ferguson, Shanda's son as the strong arm of
Speaker 1: the defendant, the one who did what she didn't want
Speaker 1: to do herself. He was on death's door. Jude malnutrition,
Speaker 1: Robert said. Surprisingly, the defense didn't dispute much of what
Speaker 1: was said. Defense attorney Frederick Johnson admitted their actions were extreme,
Speaker 1: but insisted they were never meant to kill.
Speaker 17: And what you're going to hear over and over again,
Speaker 17: over and over.
Speaker 6: As you listen to these messages, is my client Frother
Speaker 6: van Haar and her old son, Paul Ferguson.
Speaker 17: Idea that they were hurting this boy. They if you
Speaker 17: listen to those messages, they don't have a clue. And
Speaker 17: it's two of those, not just the one, not her
Speaker 17: and justin. At one point he sends it a picture.
Speaker 17: At another point she asked him, is he okay?
Speaker 6: You think the chapeedi? And each time the other person
Speaker 6: reflects and they continue to go on.
Speaker 17: They don't figure out that they're hurting him until he's dead.
Speaker 1: But the text messages between John and Paul painted a
Speaker 1: different picture. Then Paul himself took to the stund testifying
Speaker 1: against his own mother. He said that food was restricted
Speaker 1: from Timothy within a month of him moving in.
Speaker 6: He was.
Speaker 2: Sneaking food that was not necessary at that time, and
Speaker 2: it was solved by placing locks on the fridge, freezer
Speaker 2: and pantry.
Speaker 5: Who was saying he was sneaking food that wasn't necessary?
Speaker 5: Who would make that determination that it wasn't necessary, Shanda.
Speaker 16: The and what type of food are we talking about
Speaker 16: that he would speak that wasn't necessary.
Speaker 2: Sweets or anything he could really get his hands on.
Speaker 16: So as early as February there was restriction that the
Speaker 16: locks were going on the freezer and the refrigerator. And
Speaker 16: you said there was also some type of lock on
Speaker 16: the pantry.
Speaker 5: Is that right, yes, Sir.
Speaker 8: Paul.
Speaker 1: Then spoke boy Timothy's problems.
Speaker 2: He was attention deficit hyperactive disorder as well as autistic.
Speaker 2: He had speech and motor impairments, speech and motor impairments,
Speaker 2: movement impairments.
Speaker 5: Movement impairments.
Speaker 10: Yes.
Speaker 16: And at the time that he came to live with you,
Speaker 16: was he supposed to be taking some medication?
Speaker 5: Yes? And did that did he stop taking his medication? Yes?
Speaker 5: Why did he stop taking his medication?
Speaker 6: And could you please reiterate cool?
Speaker 16: I guess the better way of saying it is who
Speaker 16: made the decision for in the set taking his meditation, Shanda.
Speaker 1: Paul said that the only time Timothy was allowed to
Speaker 1: leave the house was to walk the dogs in the backyard.
Speaker 1: He couldn't be seen by any of the neighbors there.
Speaker 1: He testified that Shanda had made him chase Timothy up
Speaker 1: and down the stairs as punishment. He said Shanda ordered
Speaker 1: nearly all of the punishments, he just carried them out.
Speaker 1: There was only one order, he said that he refused.
Speaker 1: It was a message from Shanda that read, I wonder
Speaker 1: how it would feel to have that hot sauce on
Speaker 1: your private parts. I'm not saying touch him there, not
Speaker 1: at all, but dripping a little bit there is that horrible?
Speaker 1: Paul said that was beyond cruel, as everything else was.
Speaker 1: He read a lot of message his mother sent shortly
Speaker 1: before Timothy died.
Speaker 5: Crazy idea.
Speaker 2: Ask Gabriel if he wants some pizza roles, and heat
Speaker 2: up a set of pizza roles and take one and
Speaker 2: offer it to Timothy.
Speaker 5: And see what he does.
Speaker 2: Put it right in front of his mouth, but be
Speaker 2: ready to yank it back if he tries to eat it.
Speaker 16: That's her text to you bright, Yes, sir, And did
Speaker 16: you actually do that?
Speaker 5: Yes, sir.
Speaker 1: Paul likened his reluctance to save Timothy a Stockholm syndrome.
Speaker 1: He said, I desire to find a role model due
Speaker 1: to my low self esteem. I would do anything to
Speaker 1: make them proud of me. He suggested he might have autism,
Speaker 1: but admitted he was never diagnosed. Paul then told the
Speaker 1: court he never would have hurt Timothy if not for
Speaker 1: Shonda's instructions, and on the day that Timothy died, she
Speaker 1: had told him to put him in a bath of ice.
Speaker 6: Okay, is there as you said there right now?
Speaker 18: Do you love Do you love Timothy?
Speaker 2: I suppose I didn't love him enough. That's why I'm
Speaker 2: trying to bring justice for him. Just a But can
Speaker 2: I say that I loved him during the time before
Speaker 2: his death?
Speaker 6: Yes? Did you love him before his death?
Speaker 10: With all the ways I act?
Speaker 5: And I cannot?
Speaker 18: Okay, let me ask you this. When did you start
Speaker 18: feeling this way while he was alive or after you
Speaker 18: found out that the way.
Speaker 6: He was being treated killed him.
Speaker 18: After so while the time he was alive, did you
Speaker 18: think you were killing him?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 1: Then Shanda took the stunt, but when Prosecutor Roberts began
Speaker 1: questioning her about the hundreds of incriminating text messages, she
Speaker 1: suddenly didn't seem to remember much. She constantly replied, I
Speaker 1: don't recall, or I don't know, again and again. She
Speaker 1: then spoke about all she got custody of Timothy.
Speaker 9: My ex reached out to me, stating that Timothy was
Speaker 9: he could no longer handle him, that he was pushing
Speaker 9: his buttons, and that he needed to send him to
Speaker 9: live with me.
Speaker 6: Okay, and you agreed to.
Speaker 5: That, yes, sir?
Speaker 6: Okay? Had you ever lived with Timothy for during his
Speaker 6: business when he was younger?
Speaker 10: Yes? Okay?
Speaker 6: All right, so you agreed to accept him into your home? Yes, sir?
Speaker 1: She said she had ordered speciality Holt sauces online.
Speaker 6: And what was it?
Speaker 5: What was the point of the hot sauce?
Speaker 9: Because we had tried multiple other discipline methods and he
Speaker 9: thought maybe that would get him to stop misbehaving.
Speaker 5: Okay, he suggested it.
Speaker 9: To me and I at that point I was so
Speaker 9: wrung out. I was willing to try just about anything.
Speaker 13: All right.
Speaker 6: Were you aware of how that this? Were you aware
Speaker 6: that this hot sauce was purchased online?
Speaker 18: Yes, you know why it was purchase on lines that
Speaker 18: are going to Myer and picking up about hot sauce.
Speaker 6: Well, I didn't go.
Speaker 9: I didn't have time to go to the store. I
Speaker 9: mean our groceries were I did the grocery delivery through
Speaker 9: the Walmart app or through the Myer app. So and
Speaker 9: I didn't see anything.
Speaker 6: They just had basic stuff.
Speaker 9: And from our discussion we had talked about something and
Speaker 9: Timothy could handle this child when.
Speaker 5: I got pregnant.
Speaker 18: I know you're going hold on a second, okay, So
Speaker 18: I want to make sure we understand this. This this
Speaker 18: hot sauce has a particular label.
Speaker 6: I've never seen it at Meyer. Did you did you
Speaker 6: see the label? Did you see the hot cloth itself?
Speaker 6: Did you what? Did you?
Speaker 5: Did you order it?
Speaker 4: I believe I ordered at least one of the models.
Speaker 1: Yet, she told the jury she hadn't tried the sauces herself, explaining,
Speaker 1: I have a very weak stomach. I don't want to
Speaker 1: throw up. John then spoke a boy why it took
Speaker 1: her so long to call nine one one.
Speaker 18: The call testimony. Why did it take you so long?
Speaker 18: He's at eighteen minutes out? Why did it take you
Speaker 18: so long?
Speaker 5: And I have no idea how it was.
Speaker 6: I was.
Speaker 9: I'm trying to figure out how to describe it. It
Speaker 9: was surreal, like you're not even you don't even know
Speaker 9: what's going on. It was do you just time slowed down?
Speaker 9: And I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 6: When was the first time you fouled out? It took
Speaker 6: eighteen minutes to call the place?
Speaker 16: Was it yesterday or the day before?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was within the last few days.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's the first.
Speaker 6: Time you remember?
Speaker 18: Who was justifying when you found out?
Speaker 6: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 9: I think we discussed it at a meeting on Monday.
Speaker 9: Was it Monday?
Speaker 5: I think so.
Speaker 9: But and I heard fourteen minutes initially, and then the
Speaker 9: first time I heard eighteen minutes was when Paul said
Speaker 9: it yesterday.
Speaker 1: She claimed that the fridge, freezer, and pondry were locked
Speaker 1: because Timothy had tried to eat frozen food and raw meat.
Speaker 1: Then the prosecutor showed photographs of Timothy taken just ours
Speaker 1: before he died. His body was skeletal, his ribs are
Speaker 1: visible beneath his sunken skin. Did he look like that
Speaker 1: when you put him in the bathtub? He asked. Shonda
Speaker 1: then began wretching and vomited in the courtroom, but Timothy's sister,
Speaker 1: Millie wasn't convinced. She later said she didn't vomit the
Speaker 1: time she saw him before, but as soon as the
Speaker 1: cameras pointed at her, she'll do anything to make herself
Speaker 1: look like a decent person. The trial lasted just three days.
Speaker 1: In closing arguments to fans, attorney Johnson pleaded for understanding.
Speaker 6: And it is. It is my.
Speaker 18: Argument, The argument we'd make from the very beginning is
Speaker 18: that while she part of her new.
Speaker 6: She was punishing this boy, none of her new that
Speaker 6: she was hurting. Yes, I understand, there's two possibilities.
Speaker 18: Once she's she's exactly what mister Roberts saying.
Speaker 6: That's evil, that's evil.
Speaker 18: Or the other possibility is there's something going on and
Speaker 18: she doesn't understand.
Speaker 17: She didn't understan despite all the intelligence.
Speaker 18: She didn't understand the ultimate consequence of those individual acts
Speaker 18: of punishment.
Speaker 12: The accumulated force and power and weight of those individual
Speaker 12: acts of punishment. She didn't understand it. She didn't see it.
Speaker 12: I don't know how that could be. But be honest
Speaker 12: with you, that's what makes sense.
Speaker 6: It makes sense because this is her son.
Speaker 1: But the prosecutor, pushed by hard Shonda wasn't some uninformed parent.
Speaker 1: She was a law clerk, she had passed the bar,
Speaker 1: she worked for a judge.
Speaker 16: Nobody with the logic and reasoning skills that she has
Speaker 16: could not understand the consequences of what she was doing.
Speaker 16: I didn't intend for any of this to happen. We
Speaker 16: don't even we know if that's true. It's not, but
Speaker 16: we couldn't even say that that was true anyway. She
Speaker 16: can barely even say that because by her account she
Speaker 16: doesn't remember.
Speaker 5: Doing any of these things. For all we know, she.
Speaker 16: Did intend for all of these things to happen, which
Speaker 16: of course she did. I remember we talked about the cookbook.
Speaker 16: I voardir went over it a couple of times. Unless
Speaker 16: you hear a defense from the judge in these instructions
Speaker 16: that says, if you find that the defendant just doesn't
Speaker 16: remember these things, that she can be found not guilty.
Speaker 16: She doesn't get the benefit of that. Don't add to
Speaker 16: the cookbook, don't give her a defense that I just
Speaker 16: don't remember doing these things. I hope on some level
Speaker 16: maybe she doesn't remember these things because they are so cold,
Speaker 16: they are so lowly, they are so dangerous that they
Speaker 16: took Timothy's life.
Speaker 1: Strangely, Shonda was obsent for the closing arguments. Her defense
Speaker 1: attorney claimed that she was feeling unwell. The jury deliberated
Speaker 1: for less than an hour. They then returned with a
Speaker 1: unanimous verdict guilty of first degree fel any murderer and
Speaker 1: guilty of first degree child abuse. Chandvander Ark was immediately
Speaker 1: transferred to the Huron Valley Women's Correctional Facility. Sentencing would
Speaker 1: come later, but her conviction carried a mandatory sentence of
Speaker 1: life in prison without the possibility of parole. Before schandevander
Speaker 1: Ark faced her sentencing, her son, Paul Ferguson, appeared in
Speaker 1: Chord and entered a guilty play the first degree child abuse.
Speaker 1: He sat silently as his attorney recounted the horrific acts
Speaker 1: he and his mother had inflicted on Timothy. When asked
Speaker 1: if it was true, Paul answered simply yes. Then on
Speaker 1: the twenty third of January two thousand and twenty four,
Speaker 1: Chander returned to Chord to be sentenced for the murder
Speaker 1: of her son. The court room was filled with Timothy's siblings,
Speaker 1: there to share victim impact statements and confront the woman
Speaker 1: who had taken their little brother's life. His older brother,
Speaker 1: Nolan addressed the court and said, if I can't have
Speaker 1: my brother back, she shouldn't have her freedom back. He
Speaker 1: described the lasting guilt, the unbearable grief of not knowing
Speaker 1: what was happening behind closed doors.
Speaker 6: I've had to leave my career behind.
Speaker 19: My wife has to watch helplessly as I struggled day
Speaker 19: in and day out, wondering how none of us knew
Speaker 19: what was going on, Wondering if I told tim tim
Speaker 19: I loved him enough times for him to remember up
Speaker 19: until the very end. I have to wake up every
Speaker 19: day pretend that I am who I was before Timothy died.
Speaker 19: I have to pretend to be Nolan so that my
Speaker 19: friends and coworkers and family won't worry about me more
Speaker 19: than they already do. I'm surrounded by people who love
Speaker 19: me and care about me, but not a single person
Speaker 19: besides my sisters, who understand how hard it is.
Speaker 6: Timothy wasn't surrounded by people loved him when he died,
Speaker 6: and if I.
Speaker 20: Had known that, nothing could have stopped me from rescuing
Speaker 20: him and holding him in my arms and telling him
Speaker 20: I love him, that his big brother's got just like
Speaker 20: I did the day.
Speaker 3: He was born.
Speaker 1: Then Timothy's sister, Millie stepped forward. Her voice shook because
Speaker 1: she spoke about regret.
Speaker 21: I like to say I don't regret things in my life,
Speaker 21: that every mistake I've made has made me who I
Speaker 21: am today. But when Timothy died, I couldn't stop regretting.
Speaker 21: I regret not hugging him more and teasing him so
Speaker 21: much instead of telling him that I loved him every
Speaker 21: once in a while. I regret not putting aside my
Speaker 21: differences with Shanda and Paul just to check in on him.
Speaker 21: I regret not dancing with him the last time I
Speaker 21: saw him at our brother's wedding. These are the things
Speaker 21: that I can't remady now. There's no fixing what's been done,
Speaker 21: no way to redo it all over again, and that's
Speaker 21: my regret.
Speaker 1: Milly said. She wanted the world to know something important.
Speaker 1: Timothy was wanted, if not by her, then by me.
Speaker 1: He was loved by me, she said, Shanda should never
Speaker 1: again be afraid hurt another person. Throughout it all, Shanda
Speaker 1: refused to look at her children. Prosecutor Matt Roberts noted
Speaker 1: this lack of acknowledgment. All of the things that she
Speaker 1: did are so callous, so cold, they defy explanation. She
Speaker 1: had stopped thinking of her children as human beings. Timothy's father,
Speaker 1: Eric wasn't in court. Shanda's attorney, Fred Johnson, gave one
Speaker 1: last offense. He described her as a single mother, overwhelmed
Speaker 1: trying to balance work in school. He stated, this is
Speaker 1: a survivor. We're not looking at evil, We're looking at sick.
Speaker 1: Then Shanda was given the opportunity to speak. Judge Matthew
Speaker 1: Castle addressed her directly. I've been trying now for this
Speaker 1: entire case to wrap my mind around how somebody could
Speaker 1: do something so horrific, not only to another human being,
Speaker 1: but to their own child. He was blunt as he said,
Speaker 1: you intentionally and systematically tortured this child. Let's call it
Speaker 1: what it is, it's torture. He said he didn't believe
Speaker 1: Shanda set out to kill Timothy, but she had set
Speaker 1: out to hurt him over and over again. He said,
Speaker 1: This wasn't negligence, this wasn't ignorance. You knew exactly what
Speaker 1: you were doing. Then the judge said something that struck
Speaker 1: every one in the court room. He explained why he
Speaker 1: had chosen not to show the photos of Timothy's dead
Speaker 1: body during the hearing. He didn't want Timothy to be
Speaker 1: remembered that way. Instead, he showed the court a photograph
Speaker 1: of Timothy's smiling He said, I'm choosing not to remember
Speaker 1: your son dead looking like a Holocaust victim. I'm choosing
Speaker 1: to remember him like this, a beautiful child with a
Speaker 1: lot of life in his eyes. That's who your son was,
Speaker 1: and you took that from him. Chandavander Ark was then
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Speaker 1: After her sentencing, the state moved to terminate her parental
Speaker 1: rights for her remaining child. She opposed the motion. She
Speaker 1: said she wanted the work on her mental health in
Speaker 1: prison and hoped to some day be a positive presence
Speaker 1: in her son's life. The judge didn't agree. He terminated
Speaker 1: her rights. Shandavander Ark would never again be allowed to
Speaker 1: contact her surviving son, not until he was legally an adult.
Speaker 1: He is now in the care of his paternal grandparents.
Speaker 1: After his mother was sentenced to life in prison, Paul
Speaker 1: Ferguson was the next to learn his fate. He returned
Speaker 1: to court on the twenty sixth of February two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty four to face sentencing for his role in
Speaker 1: the abuse and death of his little brother Timothy. This time,
Speaker 1: there were no victim impact statements read aloud in court.
Speaker 1: The room was quieter em there, but Paul's older brother
Speaker 1: Nolan had submitted a written statement to the judge, one
Speaker 1: final play on behalf of a family torn apart. He wrote,
Speaker 1: I will not sugarcoat it and say that I am
Speaker 1: not deeply unhappy with Paul for not finding the courage
Speaker 1: to say something to anyone about what was happening in
Speaker 1: that home, but I have to take one mass stand
Speaker 1: for him. Nolan told the court that their mother, Shanda,
Speaker 1: had manipulated Paul, praying on his inability to stand up
Speaker 1: for himself and turning him into a tool to carry
Speaker 1: out her twisted punishments. He described Paul as somebody who
Speaker 1: always struggled since childhood, someone who had always felt like
Speaker 1: an outsider, someone their parents never bothered to truly help.
Speaker 1: He wrote, I understand that the law says him, as
Speaker 1: a twenty year old young man culpable in my baby
Speaker 1: brother's abuse, but as his closest relative, I urge you
Speaker 1: to say that this is not the case. He asked
Speaker 1: the court to consider alternatives to prison. He said there
Speaker 1: were people in the world who still cared about Paul,
Speaker 1: who wanted to help him rebuild a life, and when
Speaker 1: Paul was given the opportunity to speak, he broke down
Speaker 1: in tears and said, I asked the judge for nothing
Speaker 1: more than mercy and fairness, to offer me compassion so
Speaker 1: I might learn from him what reasons can justify my actions.
Speaker 1: I can make up a thousand and never believe one.
Speaker 1: What words can voice my regrets. I can think of
Speaker 1: millions and yet never feel it's enough. If I could
Speaker 1: do it all again and do it right, I would.
Speaker 1: I feel I will pay for my choices, and yet
Speaker 1: never feel better because he's still gone. But Judge Matthew
Speaker 1: Castle wasn't moved. He said he didn't believe that Paul
Speaker 1: was truly sorry for what he had done. He said
Speaker 1: the court believes mister Ferguson is one step away from
Speaker 1: becoming a psychopath like his mother. In fact, the court
Speaker 1: believes he is just as bad, if not worse, than
Speaker 1: his mother. He then sentenced twelve Ferguson to thirty two
Speaker 1: one one hundred years in prison. It went far beyond
Speaker 1: what the sentencing guidelines had suggested. Those had called for
Speaker 1: nine to fifteen years. As the court handed down the sentence,
Speaker 1: Paul began to watch in court, but it was final.
Speaker 1: The boy who had won Spain, his little brother Timothy
Speaker 1: was gone, and now so too was Paul's future. Well
Speaker 1: that is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to
Speaker 1: say a massive thank you to my new supporters up
Speaker 1: on Pedron, mister jennif for Lauren, Ammy, Brittany, Dawn and Carla.
Speaker 1: You can join us up on Patre for as little
Speaker 1: as one dollar a month and you're free to cancel
Speaker 1: your subscription at any point. I upload ad free and
Speaker 1: early release episodes of Morbidology, as well as bonus episodes
Speaker 1: of Morbidology plus that aren't on the regular podcast platforms.
Speaker 1: The most recent bonus episode is on the Crazy Story
Speaker 1: of Wendy and Randall Buerk. So feel free to join
Speaker 1: us up on there if you're so inclined. Morbidology is
Speaker 1: also up on YouTube, and the episodes there are presented
Speaker 1: in a documentary style with photographs and videos of each case.
Speaker 1: So if you could head on over there and hit
Speaker 1: that subscribe button, I would be eternally grateful. Remember to
Speaker 1: check us out at morbidology dot com for more information
Speaker 1: about this episode and to read some Trick Grime articles.
Speaker 1: Until next time, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and
Speaker 1: have an amazing week.