I want to warn you, this is a disturbing story coming up here. Two children were found dead in a storage locker and a third child barely survived. The victims were found in a storage facility in Reading, California. Their ages were three and five. A girl was found severely abused and needed surgery.
All three victims are siblings. Shawn and Delilah passed away on Thanksgiving 2015 in the wealthiest state in the wealthiest country in human history. For several months, they were kept locked in a bathroom measuring 2 ‘9 in x 5’ 8 in smaller than a prison cell. Naked on a cold cement floor, often for days at a time.
They were forbidden to move from the corner, forbidden to cry, forbidden to hug each other even for warmth. for breaking the rules. Ice cold water from the shower or beatings with belts, golf clubs, fists. They were fatally beaten over one stolen bagel taken by children so hungry they couldn’t bear it anymore. While the rest of the family ate turkey.
This didn’t happen in a poor country or in the last century. This happened in California in a state with a $50 million social services budget. If we could see the future, clearly we would have intervened. You can’t predict crime. The system had all the information. At least five times in 2015, social workers came to the address where the children lived. Five times they saw them.
Five times they wrote down, “No immediate threat detected.” Their older 9-year-old sister survived, but only because a caring neighbor saw her locked in a car in freezing weather and called 911. Her jaw was broken from a punch, her shoulder broken, her fingers broken, her teeth knocked out. She weighed 40 lb instead of 60.
The children’s grandmother searched for them for 21 months. On May 19th, 2015, Child Protective Services learned about her search. The service knew where the children were but did nothing. Instead of getting custody, the grandmother went to the morg to identify her younger grandchildren. Shawn was 6 years old. He weighed 29 12 lb, the weight of a toddler. Delilah was three.
She weighed 18 lb off every chart. Ahead there would be a trial and autopsy details would shock even seasoned professionals. Ahead, there would be disgusting details of a romance between a 39year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy whose main hobby was torturing three helpless children. My dear viewers, before we dive into this painful but vital story, I need to ask for your help.
Every like, every subscription, every share of this video is a chance for another child to have a happy life. Share this story everywhere you can and leave your city and viewing time in the comments. It’s important for me to know where people are ready to protect children. This is about more than one tragedy.
This is about how we can do better. Vivien Soce and Sha Tara were raising three children in the state of California. The oldest girl was born in 2006. Shawn wasn’t her biological father, but raised her as his own from infancy. Sha Jr. appeared in 2009, Delilah in 2012. Vivien Cece loved her children very much, but life in Riverside and San Bernardino counties was hard.
The father struggled with illegal substances, periodically got arrested. Money was always tight. Life balanced on the edge, but the family held together. On weekends, the children went to Grandma Deborah’s. It was loud, warm, safe there. Shawn would stride importantly through the house trying to walk like a grown-up the man walk as his sister would later remember in a letter to the judge.
He dreamed of becoming a police officer protecting people. Delilah laughed with infectious laughter and drew the sun in the corner of every drawing big yellow with rays going in all directions. The older sister, we’ll call her Jane, took care of the younger ones, protected them from bullies on the playground. The children knew hardship, but they knew love.
They had happy moments like the family trip to the coast where the endless ocean simply mesmerized the children. They spent the whole day at the beach, built sand castles, chased seagulls, and little Delilah just plopped down in the wet sand giggling with delight. Or the fun Halloween when the whole family dressed up as favorite characters.
The kids were so excited, running from door to door collecting candy. Little Delilah as Snow White became the hit of the evening among the neighbors. December 2013 destroyed everything. The oldest girl would tell a psychologist years later simply, “Mom went out for milk and never came back.” Vivian was 33 years old. She was hit by a car on the roadside in Ukapa.
Shaun Senior was left alone with three children who desperately needed their mother. He tried to cope but made one wrong decision after another. By spring 2014, he was facing prison for controlled substances and illegal weapons possession. He needed to decide what to do with the children. And then Sha Senior made a fatal mistake. Instead of asking his mother Deborah for help, he called his cousin Tommy Huntsman from Selenus.
She agreed to take the children temporarily while he sorted things out. In March 2014, Shaun Senior put the three children in the car and drove them several hundred miles north to central California. He hid this fact from his mother. He told the children, “This is just for a little while. I’ll come back for you soon.
” A few days later, he was arrested and sent to prison. Three children who had just lost their loving mother were now without their father. In a stranger’s house, where they were essentially unwanted guests. When Grandma Deborah learned her son was in jail, she immediately worried about the children. Incredibly, Shawn refused to tell her where they were.
He only mentioned they were safe with relatives. Deborah started searching, called every agency, cried, begged for help. Once she was very close to finding the children, but nobody helped her. Even though it would have cost the CPS worker nothing to tell her where the children were. He chose not the biological grandmother, but a stranger with no legal custody rights.
Meanwhile, the three children arrived at 501 Fremont Street in Selenas. They missed their mom. They missed their grandma. And they waited to be taken home. Huntsman had four children of her own, 11-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, 15-year-old son Daniel, and an older daughter Angelica, who lived separately. Her husband Chrisell worked constantly trying to provide for the family.
When three more Tara children were added, it got crowded, but the first months were almost normal. Huntsman’s twins were friendly and treated the Tara children well. They rode bikes around the neighborhood, played basketball in the yard, watched cartoons piled together on the couch. Shawn tried to keep up with the older boys.
The girls formed their own circle for playing with dolls and dress up. Delilah was everyone’s favorite. The twins carried her around and she laughed with her infectious laugh. The children went to school. Jane made friends. Shawn learned to read new words. Life went on, but there was one more person in the house. Gonzalo Curiel, Daniel’s 16-year-old friend.
A sullen, silent teenager who didn’t get along with his father. He started sleeping on the living room couch. First once a week, then more often, then almost every night. By fall 2014, something changed between Tommy and Gonzalo. They spent time alone together, went out to smoke, had long conversations in the kitchen at night.
At the end of the year, Chrisell discovered that his 39-year-old wife was sleeping with their son’s 16-year-old friend. The scandal was brutal. The family lived in a cheap motel for several days while the father packed his things. He walked out of their lives. Nobody called the police. Nobody filed a report about sexual abuse of a minor.
In January 2015, Gonzalo Curiel, 17 years old, officially moved into the apartment on Fremont Street. A strange coincidence, but soon the older son, Daniel, ended up in juvenile detention. Now in the house remained Tommy, Gonzalo Curiel, the twins, and the three Tara children. Yesterday’s school boy moved into the master bedroom and immediately felt like he was in charge.
The happy life of the Tara children was over. Gonzalo immediately started commanding the Tara children. Tommy didn’t stop him. She supported him. The Tara children stopped being called to the family table. They were given a small portion and sent to their room. Then the bathroom appeared as a place of punishment.
First for an hour, then for a day, then for the whole night, and then for many days in a row. 2’9 in x 5’8 in. Smaller than a prison cell, cold cement floor. Gonzalo moved the lock so the bathroom locked from the outside. Huntsman’s twins used the same bathroom, and when they needed to use the toilet, the Tara children were let out.
The twins started going to the bathroom more often. It was their silent support for the orphans. They were afraid to openly oppose their mother and her aggressive boyfriend. Soon it got worse. The children were left locked inside without clothes. Forbidden to move, cry or hug each other for breaking the rules.
Ice cold water from the shower or beatings with belts, golf clubs, shower heads, fists. Instead of breakfast or lunch, the children could be tied with zip ties to a bed or chair. A separate entertainment for Curial was filming the crying naked Jane on his phone under cold water. The hunger intensified. Teacher Kimberly Capuan noticed something strange.
When she took the children to the cafeteria, Jane and Shawn piled everything from the salad bar onto their plates, ate quickly and greedily, as if afraid someone would take it away. Capuan called Child Protective Services and reported her observations. The response didn’t come immediately. April 9th, 2015, a social worker came to Fremont Street for the first time after a neighbor’s call about unsupervised children.
The worker had a file, the Tara family’s history going back to 1998. 21 reports marked high risk. She wrote, “Appartment is dirty but not dangerous. Huntsman is cooperative. No immediate threats detected. The case was closed. The children remained with someone without legal custody and the system knew this. May 19th became the day when a real chance to reunite the family was missed.
Someone from the relatives called CPS. Grandmother has been searching for the Tara children for over a year. A social worker came to Huntsman’s house again. She explained that the grandmother was not suitable for custody as decided by the children’s father. The worker told Huntsman to get legal custody of the children. Huntsman nodded.
Nobody checked if she did it. And most cruel of all, nobody contacted the desperate grandmother to tell her where her grandchildren were. The children continued to exist in a legal vacuum, invisible to the system. In June, a neighbor heard 3-year-old Delila’s screams through the wall and the sounds of blows. She called the police.
A young officer came, looked at the children from a distance. No signs of violence detected. Huntsman’s former sister-in-law came to visit when Huntsman was away and found Delilah tied with plastic zip ties to the bed by her wrists. She freed the girl and had a fight with Huntsman. She called CPS anonymously.
Nobody came to check what was happening. In July, Huntsman’s own 12-year-old daughter, realizing something terrible was happening in their home, gathered courage and called CPS. My mom is starving my uncle’s children. Please come. The report was registered. Incredibly, nobody reacted to such a serious accusation. The report got lost in the system.
August 27th, 2015. Social worker Lauren McFarland came to the apartment after persistent calls from the teacher. She walked into the apartment. Cockroaches on the walls. Filth everywhere. She looked at 6-year-old Shawn. Clear bruises on his face. I slept on a toy. The boy answered quietly when McFarland asked about them.
McFarland looked at Jane. Her head was shaved completely bald. The scalp inflamed, hair burned off by cheap lice chemicals. All three children had legs covered in scratches from flea bites. Thin, starving children. McFarland photographed the bruises, wrote down, “No immediate threat detected.” Shockingly, McFarland simply left.
She left despite the terrible condition of the children, despite the regular signals from concerned people, despite Huntsman having no legal custody. This was the last time authorities saw Sha and Delilah alive. After this, Huntsman enrolled the children in homeschooling and they disappeared from the education system. Things got worse.
By November, Jane weighed 45 lb instead of 60. Shawn weighed 29 instead of 45. Delilah weighed 18 instead of 30. The children suffered from regular beatings and starvation. Their bodies were consuming themselves. Organs shrinking to critical size. One day, Curiel caught Jane when she, driven to desperation, tried to climb out through the bathroom window.
He dragged her into the bedroom. Huntsman held the girl down while he beat her with a belt. He broke her forearm and shoulder. The bone started healing wrong, but nobody took her to a doctor. Another time, Curiel punched Jane in the face and broke her jaw. Jane kept trying to protect the younger ones. She hugged them when they cried from hunger, whispered that everything would be okay soon.
She didn’t believe it herself. November 26th, 2015. All across America, families gathered around tables, gave thanks for the harvest and abundance. The Mterrey County Probation Department brought a big box of food for lowincome families to Fremont Street. That evening, Huntsman, Curial, and the twins sat down at the kitchen table.
10 ft away from them in the bathroom, three children sat on the cold cement floor. They could smell the turkey cooking, heard laughter, heard forks clinking on plates. They got nothing. Even on Thanksgiving, even when there was so much food in the house, the three children didn’t get a single bite. The younger children cried quietly, pressing against Jane.
Hunger had become a constant companion. But today, today it was especially cruel. The smell of food seeped under the door, torturing them. When everyone went to bed, Jane couldn’t stand the crying of the younger ones anymore. The bathroom door wasn’t locked that night. They forgot to lock it. The girl snuck into the kitchen.
She took one bagel, just one. She came back to the bathroom, broke the bagel into three pieces. The children ate their pieces in seconds, barely chewing. These crumbs didn’t make them any fuller. But the consequences were horrific. In the morning, Huntsman discovered something was missing. She ordered all three to come out into the hallway and called Curial.
What followed was several hours of methodical violence. Belts, fists, feet. Jane lost consciousness from the pain. When she came to, she was lying on the bathroom floor. Next to her lay Shawn and Delilah, motionless, silent, eyes closed. Frightened, Jane started screaming. Huntsman pulled Jane out of the bathroom and locked her in the bedroom.
She heard things being moved around the apartment, shuffling, banging. She heard Huntsman and Curiel arguing. Curiel was blaming himself for something. Wanted to leave. Huntsman begged him to stay, promised they’d handle it. In the morning, Shawn and Delilah were gone. Huntsman announced loudly that another family had taken them. They’d be better off there.
The next day, the move began. Huntsman and Curial packed things, loaded them into the car. On the back seat sat a large blue plastic Sterilite container. The lid was tightly closed, wrapped with tape. Huntsman and her lover, accompanied by three children, began their journey to Quincy. On the way, a heavy smell started appearing in the car.
Curiel explained it as forgotten fish from a fishing trip. They drove with the windows open in the cold November wind. They spent the night at a Motel 6 in Dunigan. Huntsman told Curiel the happy news that he was going to be a father. December 4th, Huntsman rented a storage unit in Reading. They left the container and several boxes there.
The smell immediately disappeared. The family arrived in Quincy, a quiet mountain town where a distant relative of Huntsman lived. The twins enrolled in the local school. Jane was kept locked up, beaten, and starved all over again. December 10th, 2015. One phone call changed everything. On a freezing winter day in the mountains, a neighbor spotted a child on the floor of a car.
Engine off, windows rolled up. The child wasn’t moving. She didn’t go looking for the owners. Didn’t second guessess whether it was her business. She called CPS. They contacted the police. That call saved Jane’s life. A deputy sheriff pulled up. Huntsman came out calm, ready, smile and story in place. niece with developmental delays like sitting in the car. It calms her down.
But the officer insisted on checking on the child. What he found would have shaken anybody. The child looked like a skeleton. Missing teeth, bruises, scratches, open soores, dirt caked on her face, hair matted with lice crawling through it, fingers bent at wrong angles. She couldn’t stand up. Her legs wouldn’t hold her.
Paramedics rushed Jane to a hospital in Sacramento. Doctors discovered the full extent of the damage. Multiple fractures, critical starvation, dehydration, infections, shattered jaw, broken shoulder, the bone had nearly punctured through the skin, broken fingers. One doctor, 20 years in trauma medicine, would call this the worst case of child abuse he’d ever seen in his entire career.
Huntsman and Curial were arrested December 11th, 2015. Initial charges: child abuse, torture, and inflicting great bodily harm. Bail set at $1 million each. Curiel, 17 years old, was sent to a juvenile detention center in Butt County. At that point, police only knew about one victim, a mutilated 9-year-old girl.
But soon word got out that Huntsman had taken in three children from her cousin. Detectives went back to interrogate Curiel and Huntsman. Curiel broke first, told them about the storage unit in Reading. Late that night, detectives drove to Tarmac Road, opened the unit Huntsman had rented, hit with an awful smell right away, saw the blue container.
Detective Jeff Schmidt, 20 years on the force, opened the lid. Later in court, he could barely hold back tears. The worst thing he’d seen in his whole career. The absolute worst. Inside were the children, Shawn and Delilah. The boy who dreamed of protecting people. The girl who drew sunshine. Shawn was six. Delilah was three.
The media exploded with horrifying details. National news showed photos of the blue container. The apartment on Fremont Street, school pictures of the kids smiling alive. We have new details tonight in a horrific crime in Reading. Two children found dead in a storage unit. These two, Tammy Joy Huntsman and Gonzalo Curiel, arrested for child abuse and torture.
So far, not murder charges, at least until more evidence is collected. And tonight, we’re learning the female victim is the sister of Kingfire arson suspect Wayne Huntsman. That fire tore through almost a 100,000 acres last year in Elorado County. The case began with a call from a concerned citizen Friday afternoon. Reading police identified two children who were reported missing and in the care of 39year-old Tammy Huntsman and 17-year-old Gonzalo Curiel, but stopped short of identifying them as the victims found dead in a reading storage unit
Monday. The missing children are siblings three-year-old Delila Tara and six-year-old Sha Tara. So far, investigators are waiting for autopsy results to make positive identification. Published media reports revealed that Huntsman is the sister of Wayne Allen Huntsman of El Dorado County, who set fire that exploded to be known as the King’s Fire of 2014.
Reports include that Tammy Huntsman is related to the deceased children. The bodies were discovered in a storage unit following information received by a tip. Investigators are now focusing on the couple’s Selena’s home. We’ve been there for for some time and how long more will be there, I’m not quite sure, but um you know, we’re trying to be as thorough as we can to help them out.
This is obviously a very serious case, so we are trying to make sure that we’re doing as much as we can. Selena’s police said Tuesday that they received two anonymous calls in the past six months about suspected child abuse at the couple’s East Selena’s house. Officers responded, but the police chief declined further comments.
Four complaints of neglect were filed with the Monterey County Department of Social Services over the past year about the couple. Social workers spoke to the children back in August. The couple was arrested for felony child abuse and torture. As of yet, no murder charges. Medical examiner Mark Super performed the autopsies at the Shasta County Morg.
What he found shocked even him, a man with years of experience handling the worst cases. Sha Tara, 6 years old, weighed 29 12 lb at 45 in tall. That’s the weight of a healthy 2-year-old. Cause of death, blunt force trauma to the head, complicated by severe starvation. They found a blood clot in his brain between the scalp and skull.
Sign of a brutal blow. One rib was broken and had healed wrong, meaning the fracture happened weeks before he died. Bruises all over his body, different ages, old injuries and new. Bruises on his arms, legs, torso, head, and on his genitals, places where a kid can’t accidentally hurt himself. Bruises on the inside of his thighs, on his stomach.
Internal organs, liver, kidneys, heart were all significantly smaller than normal for his age. Delila Tara, 3 years old, weighed 18 and 12 lb at 37 in tall. She didn’t even register on pediatric growth charts. Cause of death: blunt force head trauma with critical starvation. a blood clot in her brain, pointing to a severe blow to the head.
Upper armbbone was broken and nearly healed. The fracture happened weeks before she died. Her lungs were inflamed, pneumonia setting in. The little girl’s body was trying to fight off infection, but it didn’t have the strength. Just like her brother, her internal organs were undersized. Jane spent several weeks in a Sacramento hospital.
Doctors stabilized her, treated the infections. Her jaw had to be operated on. It had healed all wrong. Her shoulder had to be rebroken and set properly because the bone had fused at an angle and nearly punctured through her skin from the inside. The child’s psychologist who worked with her noted severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
December 17th, 2015, the prosecutor announced that Huntsman and Curial would be charged with firstderee murder with special circumstances. For Huntsman, that meant the possibility of the death penalty. February 2016 brought another shocking detail. Huntsman was pregnant when she was arrested. Curiel’s baby.
July 22nd, 2016. She gave birth to a girl at Nividad Medical Center while in custody. The baby was immediately taken into protective services and placed with a foster family. Huntsman’s twins, 12 years old, were placed in foster care. Their father, Chrisell, fought for custody, claiming he left the home when he found out about his wife’s relationship with a teenager and didn’t know the extent of the abuse.
He was accused of abandoning his children in a dangerous situation. February 2018, after two years of waiting for trial, Huntsman took a deal. She pleaded guilty to all charges. Two counts of firstdegree murder, three counts of torture, child abuse, conspiracy in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table.
Sentence, two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole, plus three more life terms, plus 9 years. She waved all appeals. She’ll die in prison. Gonzalo Curiel refused the deal and went to trial. April 2018. In the courtroom, they built a replica of the bathroom from the Fremont Street apartment, 2T9 in x 5’8 in with a toilet and cement floor.
Jurors could walk inside and understand what it was like to be locked in there. Jane also testified through a special screen so she wouldn’t have to see the accused. She told them about the bathroom, the hunger, the beatings, the bagel. The last time she saw Shawn and Delilah alive. Nearly 3 years later, her voice still shook with the memories of those days.
People in the courtroom cried listening to the child’s account. April 23rd, 2018. It took the jury 1 hour and 20 minutes to find Curial guilty on all counts. three consecutive life sentences since he was 16 at the time of the crimes. He’s eligible for a parole hearing after 25 years. Monterey County Social Services Director Elliot Robinson publicly acknowledged the system failures. Nobody was punished.
The reforms targeted the system itself. They implemented new protocols, additional staff training, stricter oversight of open cases. But for Shawn and Delilah, it was too late. They were buried under a single headstone. The boy who dreamed of protecting people, the girl who drew sunshine, Shawn was six, Delilah was three.
They lived short lives in the richest country in the world where there was plenty of food, help, protection. Yes, two monsters killed them. But let’s face the truth. to save them. All it would have taken was for someone to do their job right. Rest in peace, Sha and Delilah. Dear Scotty, I am so sorry that you got killed by Gary.
I was trying to protect you. I have good news and bad news. The good news is Gary is in jail. The bad news is you are in heaven and not with me. Your brother Ryan. Ryan is now about 17 years old and his beloved brother Scotty will always be three years old. They became another victim of inhuman animal cruelty and child abuse.
Three weeks of the brother’s lives were filled with pain and endless terror in the face of monsters in human form. For little Scotty, it was the last thing he ever saw in his life. For his brother Ryan, it was a wound that would never heal. My dear friends, it is truly touching to see our community of caring people grow every day.
Please leave your city in the comments. I’d love to know where you’re watching from. Thank you for the incredible support of my channel. Don’t forget to subscribe and consider becoming a channel sponsor to help continue raising awareness about these important issues. Let’s get back to the Scotty McMillan case. Scott Jacob McMillan was born in Pennsylvania on January 26, 2011 to Jillian Tate and Lauren McMillan.
Although his parents had been in a relationship for several years and had an older son, Ryan, they didn’t get along well before Scotty was born. But Jillian was still lovingly awaiting the birth of her son, posting ultrasound pictures on social media and captioning them, “Looking forward to meeting you, dear baby.” Ryan also dreamed of a baby brother.
When Scotty was born, his father was out of town and Julian’s sister. Kim picked her up from the hospital with her newborn son. Scotty was an incredible baby, very calm and affectionate. He immediately won the love of Aunt Kim and Aunt Tara, his father’s sister. They were the ones who supported the young mother in the absence of the children’s father.
Scotty had bright red hair, blue eyes, and a sweet smile. His paternal aunt Tara said he and Rayan looked a lot like their father. Scotty loved Thomas the Tank Engine, and his favorite color was green. Like many kids, he loved to play with cars and transformers, draw and sculpt, play hide and seek, and have tickle fights.
He also loved to sing in the backseat of his aunt Kim’s car as she drove. But most of all, he loved his older brother and tried to imitate him in everything he did. At 2012, Jillian and Lauren began their relationship again and were photographed at a rave dancing together. But by the end of 2013, the couple had officially broken up.
Lauren moved out of state to Overland Park, Kansas. After the breakup, Lauren’s family did not see the boys often, mostly getting information about the boys through Jillian’s social media posts. Friends described Jillian as a normal, easygoing, fun-loving girl. Her whole life was centered in Chester County.
She worked at the local Walmart and managed to combine motherhood and a social life, occasionally finding time to hang out. 6-year-old Ryan went to the Coatsville area school district and three-year-old Scotty went to a kindergarten. Jillian seemed to be doing well. At the same time, Kim and Tara began to notice troubling signs that the financial situation of their nephew’s mother was getting worse.
It was reported that Jillian was looking for a man, an older man who will help her financially in exchange for her time and affection. It is not at all clear how with such high demands Jillian began dating Gary Felenbound. Gary like Jillian worked at Walmart in a lowpaying job. Gary was 6 years younger than Jillian married and had an 11-month-old daughter.
He was also a large man weighing about 275 lbs and had a short temper. The man told Jillian that his relationship with his wife had long since ended and that they would soon be divorced. But for now, they had to share a house together because the woman and her child had nowhere to move out. Then Gary invited Jillian to move in with her sons.
In early October 2014, Jillian did move in with Gary. She was not deterred by the old run-down mobile home in West K Township and a poor rural neighborhood. nor the intimidating, quiet Amber, who actually lived in the house with her baby daughter. Shortly after they moved there, one of Jillian’s friends saw her at work at Walmart and said that Jillian didn’t seem to care about herself.
At the same time, the school noticed the absence of Ryan and Scotty for the last full 2 weeks. A school representative called and wrote to the children’s mother, but received no response. Then according to procedure, the school representative made a home visit. No one answered the door and the school representative left a letter for Jillian Tate.
They did not know that Jillian had removed the children from the home 3 weeks earlier and had not provided the school with the children’s new home address. No one could have known that tragedy was just around the corner. On the night of November 4th, 2014, Gary’s wife, Amber Felenbomb, called 911 to report that little Scotty was unconscious in their home.
His lifeless body was found by paramedics and he was later rushed to the hospital. Scotty was in such terrible condition that when he was brought to the emergency room, the nurses, who usually see a lot of horrible things, cried. Unfortunately, the three-year-old Scotty did not survive and passed away shortly after. He had significant bruising all over his body and his nose was bleeding.
When authorities searched the trailer home where Scotty lived with his mother and brother, they could only find one photo of the boy. They also found a makeshift whip, a bent metal ledge, and an aluminum strip, all of which had been used to mercilessly torture the child. In addition, holes were found in the walls of the trailer home, where it was believed that the little boy’s head had been slammed into.
Scotty’s mother, Jillian, eventually admitted to authorities that both her boyfriend, Gary, and herself had abused little Scotty. She told how they laughed when a three-year-old child was hung by his feet in a doorway and beaten with a whip. They also beat him with a frying pan and metal sticks and finally beat him to death.
For 3 days, Scotty lived an endless nightmare. He was punched in the face and stomach, beaten with a makeshift whip, tied to a chair and beaten, hit with a metal bar, hung upside down and beaten, and his head had been smashed through a wall. The day before his death, Scotty woke up and couldn’t eat his breakfast cinnamon toast and kept spitting it out.
This upset Gary and he and Jillian tried to get the boy to eat it, but he still didn’t want to, or more likely, his condition was already so bad that he couldn’t eat. Then Gary got even more angry and started punching Scotty in the face and stomach. Gary and Jillian then took him to his room where they continued to beat him.
At one point, Gary lifted Scotty behind his back and slammed him against the wall. When the three-year-old woke up the next day, his face was very red and swollen. He failed to eat breakfast again, so Gary thought it was disrespectful and punched him in the face with such force that he fell off his chair.
Gary then sat Scotty back in the chair and tied him up with electrical tape while he squirmed. He then began hitting the three-year-old again, causing him to vomit and pass out. Jillian and Gary then picked Scotty up and put him in the shower trying to revive him. The couple left him in this position for about 30 minutes, after which they realized it wasn’t working.
Then they decided to get Scotty out of the shower and put him on a partially inflated air mattress. There was no blanket or pillow. It was just an empty rubber mattress on which they placed the senseless Scotty. After that, the evil couple left the trailer home to go shopping and then to get pizza for dinner.
When they returned, Jillian and Gary realized that Scotty was still unresponsive. The couple then decided it was a good idea to just have sex. And then Jillian decided to take a nap. Waking up around 7:30 p.m., Jillian found her son still not regaining consciousness and yelled for someone to call 911. According to Jillian, her boyfriend Gary had picked on Scotty more than his older brother who was six because unlike his brother, Scotty still tried to resist.
And apparently, like a complete sicko, Gary enjoyed that. Scotty’s older brother Ryan also showed signs of abuse and was placed in the care of relatives after his brother’s death. On November 6th, 2014, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced the arrests of Gary Felenbal and Jillian Tate. He held an emotional press conference and the details of the little Scotty’s death shook all of America.
They killed a child under the age of 12 and torture. We will seek the death penalty in this case. Gary Felenbomb was arrested and received 16 charges in connection with Scotty’s death, including first and thirdderee murder, endangering the welfare of a child, assault, and reckless endangerment. The boy’s mother, Jillian Tate, was charged with 15 counts, including murder.
Both she and Gary were denied bail, and soon the prosecutor announced they would seek the death penalty. Gary’s aranged wife, Amber, who also lived in the home, was charged with child endangerment and placed on half a million dollars bail. Amber told investigators that she first became aware of what was going on in the home about 2 weeks earlier when she saw Gary spanking Scotty.
This was after the boy did not respond to his words and he felt disrespected and became angry. She also said she saw Gary and Jillian beat the boy with a green frying pan a few days before his death and witnessed Gary tie Scotty to a chair and then beat him. And Amber did nothing to stop it, but she immediately dialed 911 as soon as Jillian asked for it.
She did it quickly before Gary could think of the situation and forbid it. The thing is, the authorities didn’t even believe that Scotty’s abuse was caused by drugs or alcohol. Instead, they simply assumed it was because Gary felt so disrespected by a 3-year-old boy. The school the boys went to confirmed that although they had been absent for the past 2 weeks, no signs of domestic violence had previously been exposed.
In April of 2017, Jillian Tate would plead guilty to thirddegree murder and conspiracy to commit firstdegree murder. In exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table, she agreed to testify against her ex-boyfriend Gary during his trial. While she was in court, Jillian would claim that she had no excuse for her crimes and she accepted responsibility for Scotty’s death.
However, she also stated that her boyfriend Gary had manipulated her mental issues, kept her sleepdeprived, and kept her a virtual prisoner in his home. Jillian said, “I wish to God I had my whole life back. If I had never met Gary, then my son Scott would be alive.” After his brother’s death while undergoing psychotherapy, Ryan wrote a letter to his dead brother.
Another letter he wrote to his mother later in 2017 which was read aloud in court. It said, “Dear mom, in November of 2014, you, Gary, and Amber were trapped in a house of torture. The torture was you guys. The victims were me and Scotty. Scotty got killed. I got beaten. You were the worst mother I’ve ever known.
You just watched us get hurt. I wish you never met Gary. He is really evil. He nearly killed me. You are the reason Scotty got killed. I thought parents were supposed to protect us. Now you are in jail for your time out. Jillian Tate, 33, at that moment, was sentenced to 42 to 94 years in prison. Jillian never had to testify against Gary because just a few months later, he pleaded guilty to Scotty’s murder to avoid the death penalty.
Gary Felenbalm was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Amber Felenbalm also pleaded guilty and she was sentenced to 6 and a half to 16 years in prison. Amber did not attempt to minimize her fault in what had happened to Scotty. She also consented to testify against her husband.
Amber served part of her sentence and was parrolled at the beginning of 2023. Shortly after Scotty McMillan’s death, a candlelight vigil was held and people gathered in front of Gateway Church in Parksburg to remember the little sunshine boy. Later on November 12th, 2014, Scotty was buried in a private and beautiful ceremony.
Thomas the Tank Engine toys are always there near his grave in Northwood Cemetery in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Ryan was adopted by his paternal aunt and her husband. After Scotty died, people mailed in thousands of dollars to help Ryan reestablish his life and a trust was opened up for him. Unfortunately, these funds do not help Ryan in his development, hobbies, treatment, and psychological support.
The founders of the fund refuse to allocate money for any of the child’s needs except for his future college education. This is very strange and it is unlikely that the people who filled the fund had this in mind. It means that for the past 10 years, the child has not seen a penny of this money. Our sincere condolences to the family of little Scotty McMillan.
Rest in peace, little Angel Scotty. I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who watched this video all the way through. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this case in the comments. And please don’t forget to subscribe to my channel. I’d also like to send a special thank you to everyone who has donated to support my channel.
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