Nine times during Timothy’s life child protective services staff in Oklahoma investigated the Ferguson family home. Most investigations led to unsubstantiated findings. However, on one occasion, social workers removed the children from the parents’ care because of safety concerns. A court order even tried to limit the contact
Shanda Vander Ark, Timothy’s mother, had with the boy.
Authorities took their most extreme action – removing the children from the home – in 2009. Timothy, who had special needs, was 3 at the time.
The four Ferguson children spent two years in foster care in separate homes while their parents worked on their parental problems. When a child is removed from their parents’ custody, it’s almost always the initial goal to reunify them, a social services spokesperson said.
Eric and Shanda filed for divorce shortly after losing custody of their children and took different routes in the reunification process.
To get his kids back, Eric Ferguson completed counseling and parenting courses required by the state. Shanda, on the other hand, stopped participating in courses, telling a social worker, “She worked through everything she was willing to.”
An Oklahoma judge granted the father full custody of all children while the mother was given supervised visitation rights. Shanda remarried and moved to Michigan, leaving behind her four children – Nolan, Paul, Millie and Timothy – in Oklahoma.
Eric sent Timothy to live with Shanda in Norton Shores a decade later. Within about a year’s time under Shanda’s care, Timothy was dead.
MLive spent months sifting through thousands of documents, police reports and social services records to try to find out how the teen, who was being abused, was living with his mother. Based on an Oklahoma custody order, Shanda Vander Ark was limited legally to only three supervised visits per...
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