Blake Ward and Sharon Ward
At the beginning of the year 2007, Shellay Ward was, according to a social worker, looking quite chubby and happy, even if the girl tended to be locked in her room most of the time, standing at her bedroom window while naked and staring out at a world she would never fully experience.
As you can see from her picture here, Shellay Ward looked like she was in pretty good condition at one point.
As the year progressed, however, Blake Ward and Sharon Ward, Shellay Ward’s parents, for whatever reason, decided to stop feeding their 7-year-old autistic daughter.
Deprived of food, Shellay began to shrink.
Now, normally, a shrinking child would be noticed by someone. Anyone with day-to-day contact with the girl would realize that something was wrong with her. A teacher, a doctor, a friend, a neighbor.
Anyone.
Unfortunately, Shellay lived her life without any of those.
Shellay never went to school, despite the fact that the local government knew she hadn’t been enrolled, and despite the fact that even autistic children are required by law to attend school. Shellay’s older sisters, who are 13 and 15, hadn’t been to school since 2005.
Shellay never went to a doctor.
Shellay never made friends because she never came outside. Really, the family didn’t ever come outside. In fact, the only time a neighbor remembers even seeing Sharon Ward in the five or so years that they lived there was one time that she saw her at the mailbox.
Nobody was ever invited into the Ward home, probably because the conditions were unsuitable for anything cleaner than a cockroach. The smell of urine wafted throughout the house from Shellay’s bedroom, which was kept locked. Charming piles of feces could also be seen lying on her bedroom floor.
The rest of the house wasn’t much better, with enough trash and garbage strewn about that in places it was knee-deep.
It was in that environment that Shellay Ward was starved to death over a period of several months, slowly wasting away, her body disappearing.
The neighbors have stated that they remember a few times when Shellay could be heard crying for her parents. They didn’t realize that she was crying for food.
It’s hard to imagine the pain that Shellay Ward must have been feeling in her last few days.
Oh, I suppose if you’ve grown up starving in a third-world country, you might have some kind of notion of what she went through – but for the average person living in one of the more developed countries, like Australia, you’d probably never go as hungry as Shellay Ward did.
On the third of November, 2007, Sharon Ward went to her daughter’s room and found Shellay unconscious and unresponsive. Sharon immediately began to try to resuscitate her daughter.
She did this for several hours. Somehow, she forgot to call emergency services, the police, an ambulance, Lassie, or her husband.
Blake Ward woke up that Saturday morning and asked his other daughters where Sharon was. After being told Sharon was in Shellay’s bedroom, he wandered on in there and saw his wife desperately trying to resuscitate the girl.
Upon seeing that, Blake walked back into the living room and sat down. His wife followed him.
This is the conversation that they had, according to Blake:
I said: ‘What’s wrong, it’s not Shellay is it?’.
I knew by the look and I said: ‘She’s not dead is she?’
I said: ‘What’s wrong with you, you’re kidding’?
Sharon just said: ‘My princess is dead so what is the use of me living’.
Wow. Just…wow.
Emergency services were finally called, but they were too late to do anything but weigh Shellay.
She weighed just 20 pounds. In case you’ve been living under a rock, or possibly had a sizable portion of your brain removed, seven-year-old girls should not weigh 20 pounds.
Blake Ward has vehemently denied that he or his wife Sharon denied Shellay food, and has asked for his children to be given back to him.
He has stated to reporters that he didn’t know what could have killed his daughter.
Starvation, we didn’t starve her, she was born small, she was a tiny kid.
When he was told that Shelley weighed just 20 pounds, Blake Ward said:
I don’t know how this can be, she’d eat like anything.
Hell for you sir.
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30 Comments »
Neglect is one of the worst things you can do as a parent. I mean sh*t. You have a child, do your damned responsibility!
death by starvation, i can’t think of a worse way to go. can these people get the death sentence?
These kid stories are starting to get to me.
I know what you mean. I read these stories for hours….. and then each night I tell myself I’ve got to delete the bookmark and stop reading this stuff….yet I never do. For some reason………we love to hate these criminals.
I know exactly what you mean. I keep reading this stuff, thinking I want to move my kids somewhere to shield them from all the sick stuff in the world. Almost makes me think I want to shield myself from the world. But I still keep reading. Every day I am searching for more sick freaks on this site. What is becoming of me?
Fuck, I can’t breathe. Where have I been living all my life? These sick bastards are right here among us? How do we tell? What are the signs? The sperm donor and his receptacle deserve public execution. Pulled apart by four sets of Mules pulling in four directions should cause the right amount of bone cracking pain.
i think the parents should be starved and confined to a locked room with no bathroom, if you dont want your children, give them to someone who does, damn it, there is no sense in all this neglect/abuse, it takes more energy to abuse than to give your child to someone who cares
I just don’t understand. I mean, maybe I’m a bad person or whatever, but I want to beat these people up!!! I wasn’t the best mother in the world, but by God, my kids were fed and had clean clothes and went to school!!! I sure didn’t want them home bugging me all day. J/K but seriously. To starve a helpless little girl to death when there are food programs out there to help with groceries and stuff. It boggles the mind. Like I have said a million times, you can’t cure stupid. All you can do is put them away somewhere to rot. Lot of good THAT does.
Most of the stories on here are about kids. It just makes me sad to think about what these children/babies are going through. I couldn’t imagine doing something like this to a baby or a child. I love kids and I can’t even have them!! If you are going to have kids and don’t want them, give them up for adoption. I would love to be the lucky mother that gets to love the child to death and spoil the hell out of it!
kim-”I just don’t understand. I mean, maybe I’m a bad person or whatever, but I want to beat these people up!!! ”
hell no you aren’t a bad person. I myself believe that when the justice system fails to properly punish these fucktards…what’s left? THE PEOPLE! My if people, in mass, started lynching these fucks, it might actually deter crime. If not, it would sure provide myself with endless entertainment….when no one else will stand up and defend children….wtf?
I wonder if there are people who live in urine and feces soaked homes, with vermin and garbage around, who DON’T abuse their kids?
I’m serious. Is it possible that the two are connected? Is it possible that targeting some kind of intervention for people who live like that could save childrens lives?
I mean.. I am no anal retentive housekeeper. I have even left dishes in my sink overnight. There is sometimes dust on my furniture. But I don’t have rodents or insects, the trash goes out twice a week and there is NO SHIT in the middle of my floor!
I wonder if anyone has ever studied the correlation between child abuse and squalid living conditions?
While i agree that there seems to be a connection Mazzi, i dont think that the people who are SUPPOSED to care about and protect these kids ACTUALLY care enough to do something about it. Of course im talking about CPS(child protective services.)
There is a woman who lives in my town and she has a severely disabled son. I initially befriended her because she didnt seem to have many friends and looked like her work load was huge caring for her son. SO one day i invited her out for a cuppa.
As a got to know her i realized that she didnt really have a huge workload, because she didnt really DO ANYTHING! Her son also spent most days in his room and she rarely fed him anything decent. It was mostly bread, no topping, just bread. And she usually threw it at him because he was screaming. If she screamed load enough she belted him.Her house was a filthy shit hole. Dirty nappies piled up, Not just dishes left over night, but left so long that they grew mold. Washing piled up in the bath tub and shower so high that it almost touched the roof. She couldnt do any washing because her 8 dogs had made a home in the laundry and she didnt want to walk through the dog shit.
I tried to help her by cleaning her house and giving her tips on nutrition for her son. But she wasnt interested in changing.
She had another child in that time and she took to locking the two kids in the house while she went out to visit her junkie boyfriend.
Over the months i knew her i contacted everyone from disability services to the R.S.P.C.A to get someone to do something about the situation.
I no longer have anything to do with her. One day i realized that i COULDNT DO ANYTHING to change the way she was and we had BIG WORDS over it. I often see her son at school and say hello to him. He is a GREAT kid. I continue to harass our local child protection services and i wonder if anything ever gets done.
See? That’s what I am saying!
You know someone who lives in such disgusting conditions and is abusive/neglectful to the kids.
I don’t like to make backward assumoptions – I am just wondering if anyone knows people who live like pigs, but are great parents otherwise?
the trial is in progress now. it seems the rest of the house was quite tidy, it was only poor Shellay’s room that was putrid with urine and faeces. Blake Ward can afford to drive and maintain a V8 car, go gambling everyday and buy bucketloads of pills, but wouldn’t feed his daughter. Unfortunately the judiciary in Australia is a total joke. There murderous scumbags will probably walk free…..
The woman agreed that while on a “cocktail” of prescription drugs she managed to cook, clean and shop for groceries and manage a household budget, but she did not recognise signs her daughter was gravely ill.
Thanks for the updates on the trial DTM. Please keep us informed on the progress of this case. I’d like to post an Update on the front page as soon as there’s a verdict. These people need to do a long stretch in prison…..
During his closing address, Mr Barnett said the girl had gone from being “chubby to being a bag of bones”, but the mother had told the jury she noticed no change.
“It must just be the most insulting thing said to your intelligence,” Mr Barnett told the jury.
“This death is down to her,” he said while pointing to the mother.
Mr Barnett said both parents were responsible for the child’s death but possibly to differing degrees.
“In 64 AD Nero sat and fiddled while Rome burned. In 2006 and 2007, these two people sat and fiddled while (the child) wasted,” he said.
“They both knew it was a dead-set cert (she) would die. Yet they did nothing to help her. And that makes them guilty of murder, ladies and gentlemen.”
will do Max, the trial is continuing…..I don’t hold out much hope that justice will be done though :(
Blake Ward supposedly suffered from agoraphobia, anxiety and panic attacks, but nothing stopped him from going and placing bets and ensuring maintenance of his drug supply. he certainly never went short of a feed either, by the look of him.
Will post again once verdict is out..
Great buddy, thanks alot. And once again, nice job keeping us informed about the trial. It’s always appreciated when our readers go that extra mile for the site.
another one for “let the punishment fit the crime”!
Jurors at the trial of a NSW couple accused of the starvation murder of their seven-year-old daughter will enter their fourth day of deliberations on Friday (June 19, 2009).
The NSW Supreme Court jury retired on Tuesday after a five-week trial and has spent almost 16 hours deliberating.
They are expected to resume their duties after 10am (AEST) on Friday.
Jees, three days already and no verdict. I hope the jury doesn’t hang on this one. What happens in Australia when there’s a hung jury DTM?
Hey Max, a hung jury usually means a re-trial, but I don’t know a lot about it. All I know is the law here is slack in making punishments fit the crime. One guy bashed a toddler to death and got 7 years. The harshest punishments seem to come to those who steal money and such…it’s a disgrace.
A mother has been convicted of murdering her seven-year-old autistic daughter who starved to death.
The girl’s father has been found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter in the NSW Supreme Court this afternoon.
The 47-year-old man and his 35-year-old wife, who can not be named for legal reasons, were arrested at Albion Park Railway Station in November 2007, shortly after the girl’s body was discovered in the bedroom of the family’s Hawks Nest home.
An autopsy found the girl died of malnutrition and dehydration caused by starvation.
The child weighed just 9kg at the time of her death, and doctors testified during the trial that she had suffered the most severe case of malnutrition they had ever seen.
Her condition was likened to that of Holocaust victims, while one medical expert said the child’s head resembled a skull wrapped in skin.
A jury of six men and six women returned their verdicts in East Maitland Supreme Court shortly after 2.15pm this afternoon, on their sixth day of deliberations.
The father’s legal counsel, Mark Austin, asked for a six week adjournment to allow time for psychiatric reports to be prepared before the sentencing hearing.
The mother’s lawyer, Dennis Stewart, said he had two such reports ready, and her sentencing hearing was set down for 10am on Wednesday.
Justice Robert Allan Hulme told the jurors counselling was available to them, and advised them to take advantage of the service if they felt it would be of benefit.
He also thanked them for their diligence.
The couple’s three other daughters remain in the custody of the Department of Community Services.
Both matters were adjourned to the Supreme Court in Newcastle for August 6 and 7.
where is shelly buried? Or not till after the sentences? how can one find out?
Did they just not want to take care of her because she’s autistic? Why would they leave her locked in her room, going to the bathroom in her own room, and starving to death? It’s just awful.
They are idiots. That’s a fact. A friend of mine has three autistic boys. He hasn’t killed any of them. He’s a damn saint compared to most parents with normal kids.
Autism is difficult to deal with, true, however not so difficult that it drives normal people to murder their child. If it gets beyond your level of parenting, then put the child up for adoption! Let him/her go to a place where he/she will be loved and cared for!
Finally!!!! The verdict –
“Yesterday, almost two years after Ebony’s lifeless body was found on her squalid, urine-soaked mattress, her killers — her own mother and father — were brought to account.
Her mother, 36, who earlier this year was found guilty of Ebony’s murder at Hawks Nest on NSW’s north coast, was sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of release on parole.
Ebony’s father, 48, who was convicted of his daughter’s manslaughter, was sentenced to 16 years behind bars. He will be eligible for parole after serving 12 years.
Before the couple’s sentences were handed down in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Robert Hulme recounted the gruesome details of the crime. ”
for the full story…
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26158489-2702,00.html