KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Missouri state records show an emaciated boy whose father later killed him and fed his remains to the family’s pigs told authorities he was being abused.
Adrian Jones was 5 years old in July 2013 when he told a Missouri Children’s Division worker and police officer that a “little bone come out” when his father kicked him in the head. Two years later, Adrian was dead.
The records released this week show Missouri welfare officials said in 2013 that they didn’t think they could ensure Adrian’s safety at home, but that a county juvenile officer suggested the family be provided more services. The family then moved to Kansas.
Similar records remain under seal in Kansas, where welfare officials have said allegations against the family were “thoroughly investigated.”
Adrian’s father and stepmother, Michael and Heather Jones, are serving life sentences in his death.
The little boy spent the last months of his life confined to their master bedroom shower and was only let out once a day. Police said Adrian was “essentially starved to death” before his remains were found in a pig sty back in 2015.
“He was horribly abused, neglected and ultimately killed,” Sheryl Lidtke, a former prosecutor in the case, said. “I’m sure his suffering was unbearable.”
Thirty security cameras were set up in the family’s home, and some of them captured videos of the abuse he suffered in his short life.
Judy Conway, the victim’s grandmother — who viewed some of the disturbing images — told the Associated Press that the couple kept Adrian naked in a shower stall that they had modified so he was essentially trapped inside and couldn’t escape.
Sometimes, Conway said, they strapped the little boy to an inversion table; another time, he was made to stand overnight in a swimming pool, with water up to his neck.
Conway added that the videos showed Jones occasionally using a broom handle to beat Adrian, and that alarms had been placed on the family’s food so that the hungry child couldn’t eat.
The grandmother said the images were so horrific when she first saw them that she “physically threw up.”
“What they did to my grandson was beyond horrific,” Conway said.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.