"John" RADER - 7 yo (6/14) - / Charged: Mother and grandparents, Mary Rader; Dennis and Deana Beighley - Greenville, PA

Boy living with mom and grandparents was starved and looked like ‘Holocaust victim’: detective  

The 7-year-old ate bugs to stay alive as he wasted away to 20 pounds at his home in Pennsylvania, authorities say. A woman walking a dog tipped off police after spotting a living 'human skeleton' at the Greenville house.

BY Doyle Murphy
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, July 20, 2014, 5:33 PM

Police say boy, 7, nearly starved to death

WTAE - Pittsburgh, PA


Charges were filed against the child's mother, Mary Rader, and his grandparents, Dennis and Deana Beighley, over allegations of abuse at a home in Greenville,...











Police say boy, 7, nearly starved to death

Charges were filed against the child's mother, Mary Rader, and his grandparents, Dennis and Deana Beighley, over allegations of abuse at a home in Greenville, Mercer County.



The boy ate bugs to survive.

Beaten and starved, the 7-year-old from Greenville, Pa., was tortured nearly to death by his mother and grandparents until a woman walking her dog by their house saw what looked like a living “human skeleton” and told authorities, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

“He looked like a Holocaust victim,” Mercer County Detective John J. Piatek told the Tribune-Review. “He had been beaten with a belt every time he tried to get food. He had three abscessed teeth and weighed 20 pounds when he was taken to Children's Hospital. The starvation could have killed him. The abscessed teeth could have killed him.”

Authorities discovered the boy on June 6 and rushed him to the hospital.

Police arrested the boy’s 28-year-mother, Mary Rader, and grandparents Dennis Beighley, 58, and Deana Beighley, 47, on charges of aggravated assault, unlawful restraint of a minor, false imprisonment, child endangerment and conspiracy.

The monstrous trio reportedly kept the boy inside after his mom pulled him out of school. They occasionally gave him scraps of tuna as they continued to feed his two sisters and older brother.

If he was caught sneaking peanut butter and bread, one of the adults would beat him, authorities said.
WTAE A 7-year-old was starved and beaten nearly to death by his mother and maternal grandparents in their Greenville, Pa.
home, authorities say. WTAE Neighbors saw a 7-year-old boy’s siblings playing outside but said they never realized he was inside, starving the whole time. WTAE One disgusted neighbor said she was shocked to learn a 7-year-old boy was being starved in a nearby house.

The boy grew so hungry, he caught insects on the back porch and ate them.

Child advocates at the UPMC Children’s Hospital told investigators it was the worst case of child abuse they’d ever seen.

“The most important medicine used to treat him at the hospital was food,” Dr. Jennifer Wolford told investigators, The Sharon Herald Reported. “He was within a month of having a major cardiac event that he probably would not have recovered from.”

He has gained 20 pounds and is now out of the hospital, WTAE reported.

Debra Rader, the boy’s paternal grandmother, claims she twice warned Pennsylvania authorities about her former daughter-in-law.

Mary Rader wouldn’t allow her ex-husband’s family to see the child and acted “strange all the time,” Debra Rader told the Tribune-Review.
WTAE A Pennsylvania mom and her parents starved and beat a 7-year-old boy until he weighed less than 30 pounds, authorities say.

When she finally saw the boy after his rescue, she was stunned.

“It was horrible,” Debra Rader told the Tribune-Review. “I'm sorry, but you wouldn't do to a dog what they did to that beautiful boy. They should starve them, and see if they like it.”

The boy’s sisters, ages 11 and 4, all seemed healthy when investigators arrived, authorities said. His 9-year-old brother was underweight but not nearly as bad as the boy.

Upset neighbors said they’d seen the other three kids playing outside but never knew the boy existed.
All the children have now been taken from the home.

Mary Rader and the grandparents posted $75,000 bail on Friday. They couldn’t be reached for comment.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/starved-boy-holocaust-victim-detective-article-1.1873906

Trial of Pennsylvania family accused of starving boy set for March
 By Elizabeth Daley 10 hours ago

By Elizabeth Daley

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The trial of three members of a western Pennsylvania family accused of beating and starving a seven-year-old boy nearly to death will begin on March 10, court officials said on Thursday.

The boy's mother, Mary Rader, 28, his grandmother Deana Beighley, 48, and her husband, Dennis Beighley, 59, appeared at the Mercer County courthouse on Wednesday before Judge Christopher St. John for a hearing to set the trial date.

The three have been charged with torturing and nearly killing Rader's son in Greenville, about 80 miles north of Pittsburgh.

The boy was starved, beaten and only permitted to bathe in ice water, according to the criminal complaint, which said he was not allowed out of the house except for the back porch, where he would catch bugs and eat them.

The child was pulled out of school in August 2013 and weighed less than 25 pounds when he was rescued in June after neighbors called authorities.

School officials said that before the boy was removed from Hempfield Elementary School, his mother sent a note to school asking that officers to serve no breakfast to her son.

Connie Timashenka, who was principal at the school at the time, said when she found out about what he endured she felt "sickness and a feeling of disbelief."

After the boy was rescued, investigators interviewed the boy's two normal-weight sisters, who were ages 11 and 4 at the time, and determined that the boy had been singled out for abuse, according to the complaint. A 9-year-old brother also was underweight but not as severely, it said.

The three adults face at least 14 charges each, including aggravated assault, false imprisonment and attempted first-degree murder.

They have all been held at the Mercer County Jail since their arrest in August. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment.


http://news.yahoo.com/trial-pennsylvania-family-accused-starving-boy-set-march-212724658.html