There is a phenomenon when mothers are narcissists/have narcissistic tendencies (or borderline personality disorder, or several other issues) where the parent has a "scapegoat" child who takes the brunt of the abuse/neglect, and then other children that are treated neutrally or even better. Reading these reports and all this info, that's immediately what I thought of happening here. She clearly did not like Jesse, possibly targeting him, if he was the one always leaving and begging for food.

This poor child, this is so awful.
It also means that, depending on how his siblings were treated, they may not have had the bad life Jesse had and may not have wanted to out "mom" for whatever, especially if they were favored and would lose that favored position upon telling how things really worked in that house.