During the first night of Blaze Lutwinxi at the ranch in 2011, he said, due to a medical condition, he vomited a Bologna sandwich boy and Stephanie ordered him to eat it.
“I ate bologna, I threw it away, and immediately I was stuck in my vault,” said Lutwinsky, who was 16 at the time. “He told me I would get in the habit of following the rules better or this would become my life.”
Residents allowed residents to call on Speakphone once every other week for 15 minutes. If the girls say they want to come home or complain about their treatment at the ranch, 17 former residents and staff members said the householder will end the call immediately. Letters Home were also censored by Byrd, they said.
For an in-depth report on NBC News, download the NBC News app
Daja Potter, 20, said Social Services employees visited the neighborhood four times between 2016 and 2018 when they were there. If the girls come when they are outside, she said, the people of the house will instruct everyone to come inside and in a secluded room. Keep them out of the sight of social workers.
“They were afraid we would tell the truth, which is being abused by me,” Potter said. He said Byrd once sprayed him with an outside hose in the winter because he thought it was fake because he was sick.
Stephanie said there are witnesses who can deny the allegations of abuse, but declined to share their names.
“There are hundreds of girls who have been helped and chosen to make better decisions and be better people in society,” Stephanie said in an email. “Unfortunately, there are some girls who prefer to continue their past acts and some are now making false allegations.”
Complaints began last year when the ranch opened
As she grew up, Amanda’s family’s relationship with her parents deteriorated. As a teenager, she was always recruited as a staff member, but she said her parents also put her in the program as punishment. He said that to the extent of his bad behavior, “the boys were thinking and listening to Green Day.” She moved with other family members in 2009, at the age of 17, and moved to California the following year.
For the first few years on her own, Amanda pushed on many stories of former residents. When they spoke negatively about Circle Hope F Hope she gave her reaction on the internet forum. But after having a baby, and once she started talking directly to former residents, she began to re-evaluate. He said he noticed that lines were drawn in their stories. Amanda had previously apologized for not trusting him, and for not intervening while she was still herding.
“I knew restraint was bad,” said Amanda, who now lives with her mom. “But I just kicked myself in the ass for not standing up to her at the time.” I felt guilty, I felt it was my fault, but in therapy I did it. I had to go through it. “
In 2018, Amanda connected with Michelle Nickerson, who was trying to report concerns about Circle Hope to the Missouri Department of Social Services because her 16-year-old sister was on animal husbandry. Nickerson was in contact with the Missouri Highway Patrol, and together they began referring former residents to talking to officers.
The State Highway Patrol reported its Circle Hope F Hope investigation to a subsidiary U.S. Gave to the attorney, who refused to prosecute last year, according to an email from the sergeant handling the investigation. Highway Patrol declined to release a copy of the report as it is being used in the current investigation, and the sergeant declined to comment for not interfering. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office also declined to comment.
Complaints about Circle Hope are older than the year they started.
Genevieve Dean said she called the sheriff’s department and social services in 2006 and asked them to investigate welfare in Ranch because she was concerned that her 15-year-old daughter, Amanda, had been abused. In a letter written at home, Amanda included a secret safe word with her mother as an indication that someone was hurting her. Amanda said in an interview that she was only given a quarter portion of the meal, had stopped her medication and had seen Byd Smack Girls. Dean said both the sheriff’s department and social services refused to investigate the welfare, and she pulled her daughter out of Circle Hope.
The following year, in 2007, Donna Maddox said she pulled her daughter Kelsey after her first visit in 14 years, while Kelsey said she had been spotted. Maddox said he reported the school to several state agencies, including a customer complaint filed in the Missouri Attorney General’s Fees because Circle Hope had falsely claimed to be registered with the state Department of Education.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office said it had received complaints from three consumers regarding Circle Hope F Hope and each was “referred to a local lawyer or appropriate authority.” The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said it has received three complaints about Circle Hope for Hope since 2008, but does not oversee private schools. The Missouri Department of Social Services said there had been four reports of abuse at Circle Hope F Hope since 2006 that the agency submitted: one about neglect, one about physical abuse and neglect, and two about sexual abuse.
The social services department said it could not disclose when those reports were filed, who was charged or what action was taken, if any.
“Don’t think of asking me, ‘Do you give water to girls?'”
Michelle Stoddard, mother of a former resident
The parents said it was unacceptable that those complaints were not made public by the state.
“Why is it not a public record or known?” Washington asked Pastor Brian Stoddard of Washington State, who placed his daughter Emily on Circle 2017 in late 2017, when she was 15 and struggling with anger issues. “If I had seen it, I would definitely have changed my mind.”
Brian and his wife Michelle removed Emily in July this year after learning more about animal husbandry from former Naline ex-residents. On the way out, Emily said, several girls gave her phone number to her family on a piece of paper that she had stuck to the sole of her shoe. “They told me to close the place or get to a safe place.”
They say the Stoddard family went to the sheriff’s department when he was giving a statement before leaving town. Emily said Boyd often handcuffed girls as punishment, and he did what he called “sweats,” which were glittering with leather straps or paddles. The girls always labor without sunscreen in the 90 degree heat and only one in 24 girls has a bottle of water, Emily said.
“I wouldn’t think of asking, ‘Do you supply water to the girls?'” Michelle Stoddard said. “It’s just cruelty. Emily had a very bad sunburn and they sent her back to work the next day, and now she is scarred by sunburn. That’s ridiculous. It is evil. ”
Bryan said Boyd requested before he left the ranch that Emily signed a letter stating that she had not been abused in any way. Brian refused, but two other parents and two former residents said they had signed the same forms, fearing Byd would not leave them otherwise.
Getting action on ticket ok
The video obtained from Askins does not show Amanda Householder Byrd on screen, but she and some former residents said they immediately recognized her voice. The man is heard advising residents to attack a girl: “Knock her down.” Emily Stoddard, who was still at the ranch, said Byrd was talking to her in his camp through an intercom system, and he was chasing a girl to drink water without permission. Askins said he called child protection services when he left the ranch.
Amanda posted the video on Facebook and Twitter in March. Miranda Sullivan, co-host of the “Troubled” podcast about the troubled teenage industry, saw it and invited her to the show. Later, Sullivan suggested that Amanda start posting on Ticket OK, where she shared her experiences with other troubled youth programs.
“The advantage of ticket ok is the kids who are active and surprisingly useful,” Sullivan said. “With Circle Hope f Hope, it found enough random people who were very encouraged to take local office fees fast in Missouri, who aren’t used to this much attention.”
When Amanda and former Circle of Hope residents began posting their own ticket ok video, a Cedar County sheriff’s deputy posted a message on Facebook on May 17 saying his office fee wanted to talk. The Sheriff’s Department told NBC News the investigation is ongoing, and is being led by the state’s social services department. Gaurat said his office fee was still waiting for him to complete his investigation and submit a report to him.
“If they’re not careful, they can kill you.”
Carrie Reeves, former resident
Several former residents said they felt the urge to try to close Circle of Hope after watching a video of 16-year-old Cornelius Frederick, who was engaged in a youth facility in Michigan in April. Cornelius died two days later.
“It was always going to be what I expected it to be,” said Carrie Reeves, who lives at Circle Hope F Hope in 2014, when she was 14 and helped Boyd and Stephanie with six other girls. “They are sitting on you, they are hurting you so much. If they are not careful, they can kill you. ”
After the state removed all the girls from Circle Hope F Hope in August, the homeowners told the Kansas City Star they would not reopen because they did not want to deal with the “corrupt” sheriff’s department. This week, the livestock property was listed for sale on several real estate websites. The people of the house have also taken down the Circle Hope F Hope website.
Amanda said she has not spoken to her parents since 2016. She said she thinks the closure of the ranch is a relief, but she worries that her parents will try to open another school, so she wants to keep up the pressure for criminal charges.
Amanda said, “I know what I’m doing is right, and it makes it easier because I know my parents hate me for it.”
