Lorrie Thomas Starved Her Quadriplegic Daughter to Death, Then Hid Her in Storage Container

• I have too many posts on this already but, I know there are a lot of posts screaming for retribution but the more I look at this woman's situation and her, I think this was far from intentional. We all agree that there are intellectually disabled people, right. Well, can't there be (there are) people in between us and them? I just think that's this woman's situation and life tell obviously that she has a certain level mentality and common sense that would have precluded her from avoiding this outcome.

• Dave Morris - you are so very ignorant. You must be a family member to say "Bless this poor woman". WTF is wrong with you? God bless the poor baby! Not the old bitch of a woman. And the child svcs place should suffer, too. They need to all be punished. I hope that for the next 15 years, that 'poor woman' goes through something that will wake her ass up and she will know what she did was wrong! She helped kill the baby by ignoring it because she didn't have the money....so she is the real killer. The govt is so messed up that they want us, the weakest and poorest of us, to go over and beyond in order to get help, and then after that, we are dropped from the system and once again, you have to do the process all over again. (I am a poor student). I understand how frustrating but that does not constitute the death of a special needs child, or any child.

• jadensmokes, mcr, Ok so now that this no good mother is locked up, what about the rest? What kind of punishment do you think the other accomplices deserve? Flint DHS..working for a year for no pay or go to jail? The relatives who didn't have enough sense to step in or make their next phone call to the police when they realized they were being ignored by child services?

• Ms. Thomas and the Flint DHS were both charged with the safety and well-being of Shaylae. Ms. Thomas had adopted her and was performing the functions of a mother (or not in this case) which are services always done free of charge. The Flint DHS was receiving a salary from taxpayers for the same functions of ensuring Shylae's well-being (which they did not do either) The person(s) receiving payment for a service are always held to a higher standard than those performing the same service for free.

• mcr, I'm not excusing her. I agree with you. She is to blame. She got what she deserves. Involuntary manslaughter. She failed to render aid or call 911 to a dying person in her care. When you or I assessed the situation, we would correctly think, my God, I can't handle this, she'll be taken away from me, I failed, but at least we wouldn't end up in jail and have a death on our conscience. (but get realistic, does she seem as smart and sensible as you-she's an idiot, it's pretty obvious.) As far as your comment "I mean, come on, how much blame can you rest on a government funded program that's currently failing?" I think that diverting $4 million a year of government funding slotted for day care services consitutes a way bigger crime than neglect and/or being stupid. I doubt diverting those funds was much of an accident and that would shed some light on the mystery of why they are so badly failing.

• Rocki -- While I agree that dept. of human services shares some blame, she could have physically taken the girl there or somewhere else at any given time where she would have been supervised and cared for. It's that simple. The woman didn't even turn the girl over to prevent her from getting bed sores. I mean, come on, how much blame can you rest on a government funded program that's currently failing? The child was in her CARE. She wasn't able to feed her, turn her over, or show her any kind of care whatsoever. This woman deserves to rot in prison. She could have taken the girl to a hospital and left her in their care, she could have taken the girl to a police station or fire department and they gladly would have taken this girl somewhere she would be cared for properly. There's NO excuse. NO EXCUSE!!!

• jadensmokes, I agree. But this woman is convicted and sentenced. Lets work on the other perpetrators too, after all, it's justice for all, not justice for some. Anyhow, it looks like I might get my wish. The Flint DHS is probably about to be brought up on some kind of charges because if you search "Flint Michigan Department of Human Services lawsuit" there are numerous stories as recent as Jan 5 where DHS has diverted $4 million of funds that were meant for day care providers to some type of bogus union entity but they never say what happened to the funds. I thought it was really fishy that their welfare to work program included paying back previously received welfare, if you look up Buell Elementary, you will see this story. And fishy that a woman with an adopted parapalegic daughter (medicaid recipient for sure-they all have case managers) and 7 other children she was caring for, a welfare recipient would be so unknown to social services they they don't know the girl was missing for 3 months. The amount of children she has is over the legal limit (it's 5) and probably against the county regulations for that many people to be living in one residence. My God, if I walked down the street in my neighborhood with a beer bottle and my daughter, I'd be in so much custody it wouldn't be funny. This Flint DHS is a criminal entity. As far as the fact support, Flint DHS is a habitual offender, looks like 3 felonies. Should apply the 3 strikes you're out rule and dismantle them.

• You're right about the welfare, Jadensmokes. She was also charged with collecting welfare for the little girl after her death, but those charges were apparently dropped in the plea.

• I understand your concern for the government not stepping in and doing the job we pay them to do. There are many instances of our government not doing what they should be doing in all facets of their control. BUT, you seem to be excusing the adoptive mother for her obvious neglect of this child (and maybe her 6 siblings). I am almost certain that if this woman had 7 children in her care, that she had some form of welfare coming in which would include food stamps. Yet, Shylae starved to death. That is a totally inhuman, shitty way to die. Bed sores happen when the body is not repositioned frequently. This is something this baby girl couldn't do for herself. That is a huge part of taking care of a quad. Death by starvation is slow and painful. If it were a dog that was starved to death, would you be more concerned? I'm curious too, what kind of assistance did she need that she wasn't getting from our government besides them stepping in and taking the child away. And, why didn't the state heed the warnings of the relatives complaints? And, why didn't the relatives step in and do something on their own? The relatives are complicit in this as well. So, here we have a child that became a quad as an infant, probably due to neglect somewhere. A mother that is MIA, an adoptive mother that doesn't care properly for her so that she starves to death. A family that didn't step in. A government that didn't step in. It isn't just the state of MI that is at fault here, there is a whole line of folks that need to be reprimanded.

• Thanks Pete, But don't sell yourself short. I don't think it's a matter of smartness. I just think that if she had bedsores and then died, and was stuffed into a storage container, the skin could easily have broken, exposing the bones at that time. I find it hard to believe that a person could survive very long in that kind of condition, where bone is exposed. They are not going to make a coroner's report on this public. I posted too many posts but I just hate to see everyone string this woman up and let the accessories go, allowing for another person who can't walk and get to a phone have this happen to them too.

• I'm not sure, Rocki, but it sounds to me like the bedsores were from neglect, as if she was left in bed while she starved to death. I don't know much about medicine, but I don't think the body can create bedsores after death, since it's stopped working. But there must be someone smarter out there who can answer your question.

• I am not usually in agreement with the death penalty as a deterrent but in this case I am and it would be a good idea to bring back public executions (as people stated in the Gribble story) I think a mass public execution of the entire Flint Michigan Human Services Department would be in order. Put them in cages and starve them in public view. That would probably only have to be done one time and would send the appropriate message. I bet there would be very few more stories like this sad one.

• Keep in mind people, we pay for these services. The government takes at least 25% in taxes out of OUR paychecks. That means we all trudge off to work 3 months out of the year to work for free to pay their salaries. If you didn't show up to work for 1 1/2 years, would they still pay you? Ignoring this little girl's situation is a criminal mis-appropriation of government funding and needs to be charged as such. I really have to wonder what they are doing with their time (taxpayers' time) instead of checking on this girl even 1 time in when they had 500 days to do it. That's a lot of days.

• Pete, Does it say anywhere that they could specifically pinpoint how much of the damage to her body was there BEFORE she died (like the bedsores causing the bones to be exposed?) That sounds like something that happened after she died while she was being shoved into the container. Do they have a report on this?

• The only thing this woman is guilty of is not calling 911 at the appropriate time before Shylae died. The Human Services Dept. of Flint Michigan is actually the party guilty of the abuse and neglect.

• I agree with the last statement on the above post, "the law needs to be revised" The law needs to bring all responsible parties up on charges, not just those in the very immediate proximity to the victim. They need to fry most of the people in the Human Services Dept. of Flint Michigan and start at the top with Obudsman.

• From the same article: "Police were planning on working "around the clock" Thursday and today to gather needed information for a planned meeting on charges this morning." Sad, if they had worked that hard for Shylae, she would still be here.

• I am surprised at the complete lack of simple logic of people. This woman is probably guilty of nothing more than being extremely stupid. Another report said that Shylae died of "consistent malnourishment & neglect." This was not an intentional act. She is not even the girl's real mother, she is adoptive. The girl was taken out of school in January and social services did not bother to find out where she was or even no she was missing until March or April. The normal weight for the girl would be 63 pounds. Over 1 1/2 years, if it was intentional starvation, she would lose 10 pounds per month, you do the math. Obviously, she gave the child water and drinks, a person can't live much longer than 3 days without water. The relatives called social services numerous time during the year. Ms. Thomas had 7 children total she was caring for, this was her sister's child, 4 of them were her own. Interestingly enough, this girl was also from FLINT MICHIGAN The article states: "The state Office of Children's Ombudsman said it also will open an investigation into Shylae's death. The agency oversees public and private agancies involved in the child welfare system and investigates allegations of abuse or neglect." APPARENTLY, THEY DON'T! If the state would have done their job, as in TX with the TMAP program, the mother and children would have been prescribed anti-depressants to deal with their poverty and Ms. Thomas would have killed Shylae in a much more humane and less painful way, with a firearm. She would have also offed herself afterward so the state wouldn't have to pay to prosecute and jail her. See, TX knows what it's doing, unlike Michigan.

• It doesn't matter what is said about this woman. She was obviously unfit to care for this child. The fault that the girl is dead lies with the state Human Services dept. b/c this situation was known to them. If a stalker was trying to kill you and you called 911 each time an attempt was made on your life, maybe 20 times over a 2 month period, and they hung up on you and told you to stop calling, when the stalker finally killed you, who's fault would it be? Do you think the news would be playing the 911 tapes or saying how the stalker needs to fry?

• Sick minded waste of flesh !!

• mcr I totally agree with you, david morris if you love god so much you should also know one of the 10 commandments which says do not kill, she killed and made her child suffer.

• This had me outraged. I had to walk away from the computer for awhile just to keep from typing a string of obscenities. There is NO excuse. This poor baby's bed sores were so bad you could see the BONE! This woman is trying to blame a lack of funding and lack of supervision on not being able to, at the very least, go reposition her every now and then? This is the kind of scum that deserves the harshest execution possible. And david morris, if you're such a God-fearing person, what brings you to a site to read about all the horrible things people do? Let me guess...are you going to write them letters and save/convert them or something? A woman like this deserves no kindness or good will. She deserves to have done to her what she did to that poor little girl. It's called "eye for eye."

• I bet god (s/he or it) has a lesson for you. Bless this poor woman who starved her daughter to death. Have you ever heard of forgiveness? Have you ever known abuse? Do you dig on rehabilitation? All questions you'll answer if there is any god. In such circumstance I hope s/he/ it has more patience than so many of you. Judging this woman is a horrific sin. Once again I can say, hand on my heart, every second comment here disgusts me more than the case. Good luck. I really mean it. Every last one of you remember that before you go

• this poor child has been suffering from abuse her whole life, thank God she is now walking with him.

• DenMother, It's actually the very first sentence of the story. "Relatives say they called Michigan's department of human services many times to express their worry over 9-year-old Shylae Thomas, who'd been left a quadriplegic due to a crib accident as a baby. But no one paid attention" That IS the state's job. Why do you think you can walk down the street without being murdered? Do you think you could do that safely if the state stopped keeping people in jail? Apparently, this state is too wrapped up schemes to fill it's own pocketbook to care about doing it's job.

• No, I don't know what kind of crib accident she had. The records are pretty spare on that.

• Some dude, I know what you are saying but 30 lb.s that is the size of a 3 yr.old. God bless this little girl. Concerned Citizen I would like to know what caused her to be paralyzed from crib accident". Do you know Pete?

• Not that it matters so much in this case, but the victim wasn't a baby. She was 9 years old. Still pretty sick to do that to her child. I wish someone would have helped the poor child in time :(

• Shylae looks like a little angel in that picture. I know it must be hard to care for a quad child, but good god, she would have received better care in the worst state run hospital. At least they don't starve their patients to death. When she did die, why didn't the auntie let someone know, to bury her properly? She didn't because she knew she killed her, and it was an intentionally daily effort I'm sure. How could she hear that baby cry for food and not feed her? Certainly the child cried from hunger. And bed sores that showed her bones? Dear God, please take this child into your arms and show her what love really is.

• a really bad one!

• Can someone answer this for me? What kind of "crib accident" can leave a child paralyzed?

• Oh this is so horrible. The caretaker sure doesn't look like she was starving so I don't understand how she can blame the state for not offering enough assistance. It looks like she put food into her own mouth on a consistent basis. If I mistreated my children, my relatives would come to my house and take them away from me by force if need-be. AFTER that, they might call social services, but the kids would be safe first and Damn the protocol of some state-run program.

• .....after she was wrapped in a bag and put in a storage container for 6 weeks!

• As with so many of these stories.....EYE FOR AN EYE!! How about she gets put in a jail cell for a year and a half, no bathroom, no food or drink. If she lives then shes free....

• The state of Michigan has a highly corrupt social services dept. It's not surprising that this could go on for 1 1/2 years. There is a you-tube entry regarding Flint Michigan where a 6 yr old was shot by another 6 yr old who brought a gun to school (I think on Bowling for Columbine.) The child was left with unsavory relatives because the mother was enrolled in Michigan's "Welfare to Work" program. On the surface, this program appears good, that it's getting people off of welfare and jobs. The actual program was for welfare recipients to PAY BACK welfare to the state that they had received by being bused to jobs for min. wage 3 hours away. In other words, a program to make money for the state by exploiting the poorest of their residents.

• She deserves to be treated the way poor Shylae was...if not used in science labs to test medications and products on instead on poor animals!

• OMG I have no words, no words... You know what this better at least she's protected with god now and won't have to suffer like this again. I just wish the mother if we can call her that, would have had a much bigger sentence, she deserves prison to life.

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