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A Florida children’s book author and her husband have been sent to prison after both pleaded guilty to charges of child abuse and neglect involving their three adopted children. Jennifer Wolfthal, 45, author of A Real Friend, and her husband, Joseph Wolfthal, 43, an engineer at Lockheed Martin, had been arrested in 2021 after their 8-year-old daughter was found in critical condition in the hospital.
The young girl weighed just 40 pounds when she was diagnosed with multiple organ failure, pneumonia, liver failure, sepsis, and malnutrition. She also had numerous bruises, open wounds, black eyes, and a broken tooth, showing signs of severe abuse. Upon her hospitalization, the authorities went ahead to conduct a welfare check on the family’s home located in Casselberry, Florida, where they discovered disturbing evidence of the mistreatment of the children.
The two other children, aged 9 and 11, also suffered from the same malnourishment issue, besides having bruises covering their bodies. They confessed before the investigators about being punished at regular intervals to be locked into their rooms, where they were subjected to food withholding and harsh punishment meted out, including pouring ice-cold water over them. Additionally, they were made to write sentences repeatedly, such as “I’m a fool” and “My body stays flat on the bed at all times,” as part of their punishment.
The investigators further found that the children were kept isolated from each other. One of the children spent most of her time locked in her room and was not allowed to speak to her siblings. Backward doorknobs with locks on the outside of the children’s bedrooms had also been installed by the Wolfthals to limit their freedom even more.
The couple pleaded guilty to three counts each of child abuse and neglect. Both were sentenced to more than a decade in prison. The reactions against the Wolfthals’ crime are very vocal, with the publisher for Jennifer Wolfthal’s A Real Friend announcing the withholding of further sales from the book, dealing critically with the revolting aspects of abuse, and giving stern disapproval to child neglect and abuse.
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