Both Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 61, are residents of Sissonville, Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. They were the adoptive parents of three children who were recently rescued from a property in Charleston, Kanawha County.
Just after 5:46 p.m. on October 2, 2023, someone called 911 about the welfare of the children. Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office deputies went to the Charleston residence and discovered a girl, 16, and a boy, 14, locked inside a shed, which is a 20×14 foot room.
There was a table, a chair and a recreational vehicle (RV) toilet in the shed, which had no windows, beds or functioning toilet. There was a camera in the top left corner of the room.
The walls of the shed were plywood and the floors were made of concrete. There were no food, access to running water or bathroom facilities and the two children would not be able to exit the locked room to safety if there was a medical emergency or fire.
According to the girl, she and her brother were given food at around 6:00 a.m. that day and had been locked inside the room since. They were not allowed inside the house, she told the deputies.
The two children’s sibling, aged 5 or 6, was also found locked inside the main residence on the property and sitting alone on the floor of an unprotected loft, which is approximately 15 feet high. The deputies could not find guardians at the scene.
Between 8:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m., Lantz and Whitefeather arrived at the scene. She told the deputies that the children were left in the shed and “they like it”.
Child Protective Services took custody of the three children. Lantz and Whitefeather are prohibited from having contact with any of the children.
Lantz and Whitefeather were arrested and booked into the South Central Regional Jail in Charleston. They were each charged with gross child neglect creating a substantial risk of injury.
Bonds for Lantz and Whitefeather were set at $200,000 cash each. On October 12, 2023, they will attend a preliminary hearing.
CONAN Daily 