13 victims, ages 2 to 29, kept shackled by parents

[William Parcher]

What's your thesis here, WP? What's the big deal with whether or not they looked emaciated?

My thesis? I think the parents are weirdos who kept their big family mostly sequestered in the house. Sometimes they would all go on trips to Disneyland and Law Vegas and other places and have family group photos taken. Somewhat recently some of the kids got shackled for unknown reasons and some may not have been fed properly or wouldn't eat properly.

A cop said a girl that called them looked slightly emaciated. We don't have doctors reports or new photos. They all look healthy in older photos including last year.

It seems like crazy religion is part of the mix. They've probably got too many children for their mental and financial capacities. It's a bad way to be and to treat your kids. The shackling of some is beyond understanding. Maybe we'll get more details as time goes on.

 

[MikeG]

OK, so you are pretty much in agreement with the police and press line on this. Why the constant questioning of the appearance-of-being-emaciated thing?

 

[Checkmite]

A cop said a girl that called them looked slightly emaciated. We don't have doctors reports or new photos. They all look healthy in older photos including last year.

Two years ago - although it seems clear they look abnormal when you consider that seven of them are supposed to be fully grown adults.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Two years ago - although it seems clear they look abnormal when you consider that seven of them are supposed to be fully grown adults.

Yes, you have to look and say, who looks like a college graduate instead of high school freshman, and it becomes pretty damn obvious that something is wrong.

 

[Checkmite]

I don't think I would think any of the people other than the married couple were over the age of 15.

That's actually somewhat disturbing knowing what we know now. According to the police, the 17-year-old girl who called them looked to be around 10 when they saw her.

This photograph was, I believe, taken two years ago? Meaning that one of the three shortest girls on the left in that photograph is 15 years old. That is not normal.

 

[William Parcher]

Why the constant questioning of the appearance-of-being-emaciated thing?

They don't look emaciated in any of the photos. I think it happened recently but I don't know. Maybe in the past year they got a lot less food to eat.

 

[MikeG]

They don't look emaciated in any of the photos. I think it happened recently but I don't know. Maybe in the past year they got a lot less food to eat.

And? Even if you're right (and the police assessment that the adults had the physique of children is wrong), does this make it any better? I still don't understand your focus on this small aspect of the case.

 

[William Parcher]

And? Even if you're right (and the police assessment that the adults had the physique of children is wrong), does this make it any better? I still don't understand your focus on this small aspect of the case.

What would make you feel better right now? What should I say or do to make your day a better one?

 

[MikeG]

My day is fine, and my confusion as to your focus in this thread doesn't affect that at all.

I don't understand why you posted a number of times questioning the appearance of the family members, that's all. I see a police report that most of the humans in the photo are adults, and I see a photo which looks like it is all children. My first instinct isn't to question the report, but to question why parents would inflict this on their children. That this isn't your instinct doesn't spoil my day at all. I'm merely curious.

 

[ponderingturtle]

They don't look emaciated in any of the photos. I think it happened recently but I don't know. Maybe in the past year they got a lot less food to eat.

So what? You do not have to be emaciated to be malnourished, and it certainly seems to have effected their development. You can be obese and malnourished, if you are not getting the right balance of nutrients. So why focus entirely on if they look emaciated in staged photos?

 

[William Parcher]

Maybe it's partly genetics. Maybe this couple cranks out kids that look younger than their actual age. My parents did it with me. Nearly everyone guesses me to be 8-10 years younger than my age. When I tell them my age they say wait what?

I wasn't malnourished but I was always slim. Maybe these kids were malnourished through life but maybe not. Their hair looks fantastic and most seem happy and smiling.

Some articles say that all of them were shackled and some say some of them were. Maybe the real facts require a police and doctors report.

 

[pgwenthold]

I don't understand why you posted a number of times questioning the appearance of the family members, that's all. I see a police report that most of the humans in the photo are adults, and I see a photo which looks like it is all children. .

I would also say that I see a picture that was not taken at the time when the family was discovered, so what they looked like last year is completely irrelevant to the story. How long do they have to be without food to become emaciated?

They all claimed they were hungry when they were found. Are we going to quibble over whether you can tell that in the picture, too?

 

[William Parcher]

I would also say that I see a picture that was not taken at the time when the family was discovered, so what they looked like last year is completely irrelevant to the story. How long do they have to be without food to become emaciated?

They all claimed they were hungry when they were found. Are we going to quibble over whether you can tell that in the picture, too?

My theory is that they ran into serious food problems in the past year or so.

My theory is not that these are good parents or that these kids are in good shape. It's an abusive lifestyle that these nutso parents chose. Maybe they were raised by wackos as well.

 

[Puppycow]

Two years ago - although it seems clear they look abnormal when you consider that seven of them are supposed to be fully grown adults.

It's not totally clear when the photos were taken. The story says they visited the Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas last in 2015. A photo taken in 2015 might have been posted to Facebook in 2016.

I'm sure that more information will come out within the next few days.

I doubt they had been keeping their kids shackled for decades. Maybe something changed fairly recently.

 

[cullennz]

Heard on the news that the cops are saying the abuse/torture started four years ago

 

[mgidm86]

I'm not sure what else there is to talk about. These people are nuts, it happens. Sure is a shocker.

I think it could be the clothes and hair styles in the photos that make them look younger. Especially the girls, they're dressed like dorks. Poor kids.

People who have that many kids gross me out, it makes me ill thinking about it. Like eww don't touch me you demented freaks! Lock these idiots up or shoot them, get the kids some help. Next!

 

[Andy_Ross]

My Grandmother was the youngest of fourteen children.
I have cousins and relations all over Teesside. I don't know and have never met most of them.

 

[fagin]

I have the same on Wearside. I probably couldn't understand them anyway, they all talk Mackem.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

My Grandmother was the youngest of fourteen children.
I have cousins and relations all over Teesside. I don't know and have never met most of them.

My mother was one of thirteen children (South Coast, Hampshire/West Sussex), she had three (and adopted a forth), there were big changes in society and women's ability to control their own biology during the last century that can't be ignored.

 

[Cl1mh4224rd]

What's your thesis here, WP? What's the big deal with whether or not they looked emaciated?

OK, so you are pretty much in agreement with the police and press line on this. Why the constant questioning of the appearance-of-being-emaciated thing?

William Parcher tends to "obsess" about certain details of a story in a way that makes it look like he's trying to crack open some conspiracy.