Okay, it's been over ten hours since I posted the article from Oxygen, so I'm going to hit the high notes, as I see them. Scroll and roll if you don't want a breakdown of basic facts from it. I have used the first names of both adoptive parents in full rather than initials as is custom on WS because both parents have the initials 'JW'.
* Skyler and his brother were only placed with the Wilsons in September of 2021.
* By December 2022, their former foster parent had reported their abuse at the hands of the new family to CPS.
* Abuse and signs of abuse detailed by the former foster parent included "‘pouching,’ swaddling, food restriction, refusal of [Skyler’s brother] to walk by himself, the gating of Skyler in a room for excessive 'alone’ time, and the exorcisms of both children". This information came to the foster parent from Jodi herself.
* The initial injury occurred earlier than 5:30pm when Jodi texted Joseph that 'something happened' during a "swaddling" session.
* Further evidence police have is a photo Jodi sent Joseph of Skyler wrapped in a blanket, facedown, duct taped to the living room floor. Unsure if this was from the fatal session or from an earlier instance of abuse.
* They don't mention the time EMS was called in the Oxygen article, but from other articles in the thread, I can see it was 8:19pm, almost three hours later. During the intervening time, he was put to bed, then brought back out to the couch, where he lay, rigid and semi responsive, and they tried to pour water down his throat. By the time EMS arrived, he was unable to breathe on his own.
* Joseph and Jodi had taken Zoom sessions with Nancy Thomas, an unlicensed, untrained person who promotes 'attachment therapy'. Quote from ACT (Advocates for Children in Therapy) from the article: “Using scare tactics, these therapists offer parents their unvalidated, abusive, and potentially dangerous therapy for [attachment disorders] — practices distinguished by the use of coercive restraint, boundary violations and hard parenting techniques. A number of deaths, cases of near-starvation, and breakups of families have been linked to [attachment therapy/parenting].”
* Ankle and wrists restraints were found in the home, which Joseph told investigators were used for "swaddling".
* It took Skyler four days to die. He was injured on Jan 5th, and died on the 9th. His COD was hypoxic brain injury, consistent with being caused by too much restriction during the "swaddling".
* County CID and North Carolina's Bureau of Investigation ruled his death a homicide, finding that his injuries were “related to the abuse sustained by his parents”.
* Jodi and Joseph were arrested on the 13th Jan, and will face a judge on Feb 2nd.
* All four surviving children are in the care of the state.
I think that's it. I just think it's important to have those facts here, as hard as they are to read, in case the article goes poof.
Link to article below, to keep the mods happy:
Adoptive Parents Charged With Murder After North Carolina Boy Dies During Supposed Exorcism | Oxygen Official Site
I live, breathe, eat, sleep and dream with my autism and my other neurodivergent conditions every day. And the confusion comes because for most of the twentieth century, it was considered a mental illness. Even more so, many considered it a mental illness caused by bad parenting, mostly blaming the mother. I won't overload you with facts, (though I could!) because as far as we know, autism wasn't a factor in Skyler's death, and I don't want the mods to have to sigh and bring in their snippy scissors to put this thread back on track. But it's all out there, and it's a much sadder and darker history than you probably know.