Brenda Sullivan and Wilson Sullivan
This was 55-year-old Wilson Sullivan.
While dying in the middle of your trial will undoubtedly save you from spending much time in prison, it won’t save you from the hordes of People You’ll See In Hell readers who are clamoring for your blood.
Wilson Sullivan and his 50-year-old wife, Brenda Sullivan, adopted a 7-year-old boy back in 1995, when the Sullivans were living in Ohio. In 1995, when the boy was turned over to Wilson and Brenda Sullivan, he weighed 49 pounds. This is small for a 7-year-old, but not unheard of.
Over the years, Wilson and Brenda Sullivan adopted several children, 6 total. They had one biological child, but he (or she) doesn’t really come into the story at all.
In 2004, Brenda Sullivan and Wilson Sullivan moved their brood to Florida, a fantastic land where the tax dollars flow free and their son was stationed in the Navy.
On the 10th of January, 2005, an anonymous call was made to the Department of Children and Families child abuse hot line. The caller urged authorities to check in on the household of Wilson and Brenda Sullivan – and check in on them the state did.
Perhaps the first clue that abuse was going on in the household of Brenda Sullivan and Wilson Sullivan was the fact that their now 17-year-old boy weighed 49 pounds. Yes, folks, 49 pounds! After 10 years in the care of the Sullivan family, this boy weighed exactly what he did when he was adopted 10 years prior.
Oh yeah, and the teenager was less than 4 feet, 6 inches tall – don’t forget that.
Serious problems with his body mass wasn’t the kid’s only problem, either, because Brenda and Wilson Sullivan apparently thought it was ok for the 17-year-old to be still wearing a diaper.
As you can guess, a 4’6″, 49 pound teenager wearing diapers didn’t go to school, either. In fact, this child had what is called psychogenic dwarfism. In a nutshell, psychogenic dwarfism results in (among other things) physical and mental growth problems due to the lack of human growth hormone produced by the body when the person is subjected to extreme stress over long periods of time.
What stress could the boy have been encountering that caused this condition? After all, according to Wilson Sullivan’s sister, Ordrianne Sullivan, Brenda and Wilson are great parents who would never abuse their children:
They’re painting a picture of my family as monsters, and they’re not, they truly are not. I adamantly disagree with these charges. They are not that type of people. There has been a great injustice here. I’m hurting for my family.
Well, it would seem, Ms. Ordrianne Sullivan, from the evidence…that you were not the only one hurting in your family.
This young man trapped in a little boy’s body was probably also suffering. Suffering a great deal, in fact.
After all, you or I would suffer if we were made to sleep in a cage with a wooden lid.
You or I would suffer if we were starved so badly that whenever food was provided, we’d gorge ourselves with it until we vomited the food up.
Once authorities discovered the extent of the abuse that the Sullivans had inflicted upon their charges, all six children who were in the care of the Brenda and Wilson Sullivan were taken out of the home. Three of the six children, including the 17-year-old, appeared to have been abused.
Both Brenda Sullivan and Wilson Sullivan were arrested and charged with a myriad of crimes relating to child abuse.
The Sullivan’s lawyer, Lee Lockett, went to bat for them, explaining to the press that despite the condition of the children, that wasn’t really the parent’s fault:
Just because a child is alleged to have a certain condition doesn’t mean his parents are responsible for it. We don’t have all the facts yet. My clients are adamantly denying all the allegations at this point.
Lee Lockett also insisted that the parents had a prescription for the cage that the 17-year-old was kept in, and that the prescription wasn’t written by Josef Mengele.
In January of 2007, Wilson Sullivan died while waiting for his trial. The wheels of justice turn slowly, especially when the courts are crowded with simple drug offenders.
On the 7th of February, 2008, Brenda Sullivan pled guilty to three counts of aggravated child abuse in exchange for prosecutors dropping the rest of the child neglect charges.
At a sentencing hearing on the 14th of March, 2008, the doctor who had prescribed the cage took the stand and explained that while the special crib had been recommended a long time ago, it was only to be used for short periods of time, only at night, and only when the boy was a child. The crib was never intended to be turned into a cage with a homemade lid, and it was really not a good idea to keep a teenager in it for extended periods of time, no matter how annoying they are.
Brenda Sullivan faces a possible 20 year prison sentence.
According to authorities, the 17-year-old boy, once he began to be fed properly, gained 30 pounds and an inch in height. He’s 19 now, and you can be sure he will be dealing with all sorts of problems for the rest of his life, thanks to his loving foster parents.
Do Brenda Sullivan and Wilson Sullivan deserve Hell?
- Yes - both of them (96%, 545 Votes)
- No - neither of them (3%, 15 Votes)
- Yes - but only Brenda Sullivan (1%, 7 Votes)
- Yes - but only Wilson Sullivan (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 567
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40 Comments »
I think if you ever met Brenda and Wilson, you would know that this you have only presented one side of this story. They were good people who asked repeatedly for help taking care of this troubled child. He would get up at night and urinate and defecate on his siblings if they didn’t stop him. How many nights would you put up with that in your home? They begged their social workers for help, for a new placement for this boy, but they were repeatedly denied, and in fact were threatened with the loss of all of their children if they complained any more. They were poor and uneducated and as such did not have access to quality medical and legal care. This situation killed Wilson and now Brenda gets to look forward to many many years in prison, all thanks to her willingness to take in children that NO ONE ELSE wanted. These people are my friends – I helped post Brenda’s bail — and I think you have sorely misread this situation. Brenda’s biological son Ryan is a fine young man, in the Navy, and he will tell you that these charges are ridiculously overblown.
Why then did they continue to take in children if they hadnt got a handle on the first one? Maybe you like the social workers who were suppose to be checking on this child failed him. You deserve punishment for allowing this child to be abused. There is no reason for not feeding this child.
Not to mention that I’m sure the state was footing any and all medical bills. So trying to say they were too poor to properly care for him is pure BS.
Saying they were “poor and uneducated” is like saying they just didn’t know any better. Try again, maybe some excuse a bit more on the believable side.
Wait a second. I thought that the adoption process was a hard one to go through. Even foster care. If these two were as “poor and uneducated” as you say they were, why were the allowed to adopt the children in the first place?
In Florida, the state pays $600.00 a month for a foster child’s care. They also claim that they have a shortage of foster families. Kinda says it all, don’t it?
It depends on the childs age and if the child is special needs. I was a foster parent in Florida and I never revieved $600.00 a month. I also did not care for special needs children either. I know that Brenda had at least 3 special needs children in her care all of which she adopted before she came to Florida. She was origianlly from Ohio so I am not sure what the reimbursment is for that state.
I am very close to the family that adopted the child of Brenda and Wilson that was not physically abused, however she is dealing with some very deep scars and is still in therapy. I pray for her and her new mother everyday and have high hopes that she will blossom in this loving and caring family. This is a REAL FAMILY BETH!!! Your “friend” is not a mother she is a monster and Im glad she got the max!!! She deserved life in prison…….She now knows what its like to be locked in a cage!!!
I am not going to dispute the notion that this child may have been the Son of Satan as you seem to suggest.
Still the fact remains after 10 years from age 7 to age 17 the child did not gain any weight!
With little room for physical activity the child should have been an out of shape lard ass.
Poor and uneducated – that describes most of my decendants for thousands of years and yet each generation managed to produce another generation. Not to say that all offspring produced offspring.
So, if they were such good friends and they were so poor and uneducated, why didn’t you help them??? You ask our pity and understanding, why did you fail to act yourself until the situation became so out of control?
I hope that when I am down, my friends, few they maybe, will be a better friend than you are.
Sounds like the stupid jerks shouldnt have been foster parents at all then doesnt it? No one who treats a child like that is a good person. I think they are fucking scum, I’m glad that he died “over this” and that she will spending plenty of time behind bars, they deserve nothing more than what they have gotten. They ruined that boys life, obviously abused him, starved him, kept him in a cage….I can’t believe there are people like them… It scares the shit of me
well If you all say that they deserve hell that means you probably believe in hell right? well do you believe in a heaven? Do you think all the stuff you are saying on this website is going to get you to go up instead of down. All of you who are making nasty comments are just as bad as they are. a sin is a sin no matter what it is. No sin is bigger than another. To all people who cant wait for her to die you should see a doctor because no one deserves to die. God loves everyone. And for the record they commited thier lives to Christ so I highly doubt they are going to hell. God forgives all sin. God bless R.I.P Wilson I love u dad?
Okay, I am going on another religious rant here:
Well, actually there is one sin greater than all sins, if you care to read the Bible in it’s entirety. The sin of unbelief is the only unforgivable sin. Granted if you accept Christ as your saviour then yes, you will go to heaven when the time comes, but you have to mean it. You can’t just say it to make people think you have changed. You have to live it. I used to be hooked on painkillers, shag guys from bars, drink underaged, corrupt other young people, and other shit you can’t even imagine. If I hadn’t accepted Christ, I would probably be featured as an article written by Max, not writing articles for Max.
Time is the test for Brenda and Wilson. If they are serious, then maybe human forgiveness can be in the very distant future.
Whoa! Dunno where that came from. My religious rants are few and far between, don’t know when they’ll strike again. :)
of course there biological son is fine they werent using him for money they are animals and deserve to be stored in cages also these children that nobody else wants dont deserve 10 yrs of mistreatment
“They were poor and uneducated and as such did not have access to quality medical and legal care. ”
Foster children in most staes are eleigible for mediacl and dental care and foster parents are compensated for caring for the children. If they were so uneducated perhaps it wasn’t a good idea for them to be foster parents.
Beth,
I’m guessing you are the one that followed me from the courthouse and gave Ryan my tag number to track down Brenda’s “favorite” child. I can’t wait until sentencing, I hope they put her away for the maximum time. Even the one she didn’t “abuse” is in therapy for the screwed up life that Brenda showed her. Not only was the 17 year old locked in cages, by so were the other two. What, did they have problems urinating on each other too? If the first was such a problem child, why would she go back for more that she couldn’t care for? Brenda and Wilson ruined the lives of these beautiful children. I am just happy that I was given the opportunity to adopt this one and show her what a “NORMAL” life is like. I pray for Brenda. I don’t think she deserves Hell, but she definitely doesn’t deserve ANY contact through herself or Ryan with MY child.
Love you……….you are doing a great job with her and we pray for you always!!!
No child deserves to be punished for a parent or guardian’s ignorance. I can’t believe you saw this child and did nothing for him. It’s disgusting that you and everyone else around him allowed this. Were they the ones who told you that they begged for help? If they truly couldn’t care for the child they could have washed their hands of him and let him back into the system. You know, the same system that managed to get food to the child even if nothing else.
Yeah, I love when people pretend they know the people on this website post. It’s all BS, and they are just weird weird people who get off on the pseudo fame of it all. The internet is such a wonderfully faceless place.
fat bitch. what trash.
Well, looks like Wilson is already in Hell, soon to be joined with his fat bitch of a “wife”. I have said it before and I will say it again, why everytime a child is starved the mother looks like a whale? I hope this ugly bitch gets whats coming to her in prison and I hope those children will eventually be able to lead a remotely normal life…. I vote we strave this bitch until she crokes.. HERE HERE!!
Great observation! I never really put that one to words – how the kids are starved and it’s usually a fat bitch that’s in the picture.
I had neighbors that lived below me and the wife was huge, the kids were big and the husband was a toothpick!
They seemed to have troubles with their children, esp one of them. I think it was becasue they were wishy-washy on the dicipline consistancy is the best way. By being consistant the child learn their limits and the odds of the parent reaching a exploding point are reduced as the “boiling point” – the point where a parent takes some type of action, is in a fixed location.
Sorry Beth- if you knew this was happening and let it continue, then I think we know where we’ll be seeing each other.
Beth, “good people” don’t put kids in cages and starve them! If you knew about the condition of this child, and did not report your “friends”, then you are just as guilty as the Sullivan’s.
Put yourself in the child’s place; would you like to be treated that way? Three children were found to have been abused, not just this one, so you can’t blame him.
Child abuse makes me sick.
Perhaps poor, uneducated people aren’t the best people to become foster parents. Hard to imagine they’d pass any test other than- see? We popped out a kid, and he ain’t dead yet. Yet being the operative word here.
Anybody know the type or consistency of any employment these POS had? Cuz I’ve got my guesses. Getting govt money for fostering kids is not supposed to be your sole source of income- it’s is supposed to offset their expenses. It’s not a job. And, unless I’m wrong, those kids come with a whole plethora of free medical, phsychological and other services for free.
My guess is that if social services got tired of these POSs contacting them, they were probably doing like many other foster un-parents have done, which is to eggagerate or manufacture medical conditions in order to collect MORE money that isn’t going to get spent on the children.
I can’t imagine a thrift-store crib and a piece of wood lid costs very much money. So what were they spending all the money from the 6 children in their ‘zoo’ on? Crack, perhaps? And, where were they living? What was the abuse the other children suffered?
What kind of friend thinks it’s ok for their friends to keep a 17 year-old boy locked in a baby crib for 10 years, stunting his growth and starving him? Another POS, that’s what kind of ‘friend’. Someone not any better than these losers, and if they knew about it, they ahould be sitting in jail or dead, also.
But I’m sure it is just a fluke that when removed from the POSs home, the boy just magically gained a lot of weight and grew an inch? It’s a conspiracy against these poor loving parents!
The only kind of homes I’ve seen where I was ok with there being multiple foster care children (especially any with disabilities) are the ones where the foster parents are trying to adopt them. They have jobs. They aren’t using the gov’t money as their ‘income’, and they know that children who are never adopted (but live with the same foster parents until adulthood) have more emotional and psychological issues than children whose foster parents love them enough to make it legal and forgo the ‘free’ money. There’s a reason fostering kids doesn’t pay thousands of dollars a month. Because it isn’t supposed to be a gravy-train free ride. Having your hand in Uncle Sam’s pocket isn’t something to admire, y’know?
If they were such saints, why didn’t they just adopt the kids themselves? Oh, yeah. Money. It’s always about money. Crazy-ass batshit POS’s sure loves them some money, eh?
c
They did adopt all of the children. What I don’t get is how they passed the home inspections if the oldest child was in such bad shape.
I dont get it either….I was a foster parent that adopted, it really was not that hard but in their case I dont know what the hell the case worker was doing so that she missed the red flags. Maybe Ohio has some really low standards…..I think they should be looked into as she adopted and fostered these kids before she moved to Florida.
Poor Brenda. Not only does your fat bitch friend get to look forward to prison but hey she gets to look forward to being well fed in prison, something she couldn’t even provide to her foster son. What does it say about your parenting methods if in the end this boy would treated better in the system or hell EVEN in prison then raised in your own household? I seriously hate these people who come on here and whine and moan about how unfair everybody is being to the accused. These people could have returned thier foster son to the system, like many commentators on here have already said, and he would have had a chance at a better life, one where he was being fed and not locked up in a cage at night. The fact that trash like you come on here and try to justify the abuse that this boy suffered disgusts me. To show no concern for the victim and make it seem like he deserved this kind of treatment only signifes to everybody here where you’ll end up-why not add you to the poll. Being indifferent may not be the exact same thing as actually comtting the abuse but it’s still up there in terms of how horrendous a person you have to be to act like a 17 year old boy weighing 46 pounds is normal and to know what is going on and do nothing about it. If you knew what was going on and how he was being starved then you should have been charged too.
Lisa- How right you are. How different is allowing abuse to continue, than to be the one committing abuse? And, honestly, isnt it abuse to ALLOW someone else to continue abusing?
I have no problem with people being fat and happy, as long as they really are ok with it. I do find it amusing that I am not the only person to notice that in every instance of parental starvation of children, the perpetrators are (to put it nicely) wallowing hippos.
Priorities, eh? Pretty sad when you’re on the governmental feedbag, and you’re too selfish to spend any of that money on the children you are supposedly getting paid to take care of. I think it was Fred? who said that being physically restricted should result in any child who is being fed reasonably to be overweight.
These so-called ‘friends’ should be charged with not reporting this abuse, and allowing it to continue. Put the double-bacon-cheeseburger down and pick up the phone, you losers.
c
Exactly Glory. Allowing the abuse to continue without doing anything about it is right up there with committing it. The foster care system needs to be improved to prevent these types of situations from happening. I’m not much of an expert on the foster system and am not sure what to suggest-better screening of parents, limitations on the number of foster kids you can take in, reducing the financial incentive (of course that punishes parents who do really spend the money on thier foster kids rather than on Big Macs for themselves like this couple did). I don’t normally comment when people who know the featured POS(s) come here to defend the criminal, even though they annoy me when they say “I know him/her and he/she could never do this” when law enforcement and investigators have enough evidence to charge their friend or loved one with the crime and/or said friend or loved one has already confessed. However to hear somebody blaming the victim and whining about how poor off the Sullivans and their natural child are (with no mention of the boy who will spend the rest of his life with physical and emotional problems, nor the other foster children that were probably abused) just really got to me.
As they were not foster children, they would not qualify for money from the state.
They would still have been eligible for food stamps. They also would have state health care provided for them.
Not necessarily. A lot of states provide “adoption subsidies” for adopted foster children. I believe this basically means that after the family legally adopts their foster child, they continue to get money for his care until he turns 18, just as they would if he had remained a foster child.
They can also keep their Medicaid and receive 4 years of college paid for by the state.
yea i bet wilson and brenda had great careers we were payng the bills believe that
Florida still pays when you adopt through the foster care system. Ohio I am not sure about but Im sure she would not have adopted them if she new she would loose those checks.
I love, love, love living in America. And especially the area I live in, in CA. No earthquakes, floods, tornados, tidal waves, etc. A bit boring, maybe. But no weather drama.
That said- nowhere other than the US would fat-assed overweight adults claim to be ‘poor’. Or use that as an excuse for starving their child- foster or biological.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that you cannot GET a fat ass if you don’t EAT like a cow. Which is pretty hard to do if you’re poor. I have seen the ‘fat wife-skinny husband’ thing quite a few times, but it was usually due to the hubby being a coke/crack head, and the wife being a dope/alcohol fiend. Different drugs do different things. The good thing about meth is that it’s an ‘equal opportunity’ drug. No matter who uses it- they end up looking like what the cat dragged OUT,
That shouldn’t make me laugh, but it does. It is VERY hard to be fat if you’re ‘really’ poor (just look at all those pictures from Bangladesh), and it’s very hard to have teeth if you’re meth-ing out.
Only in America could someone go to court claiming that they were ‘poor’ and that’s why they committed ‘X’ crime. When they’re fat as a house. Unless America is rampant with thyroid malfunctions.
Honestly. Look at it. Look at what people who live in 3rd world countries look like when they are described as being ‘poor’, and then look at the fat assed people in the US who claim to be ‘poor’ even though they’re on the govt ‘reach-around’.
I shouldn’t laugh, but I can’t help it. Only in America can we have poor, yet FAT people. It’s a biological impossibility unless everyone in America has thyroid problems. Every other country’s poor people are skinny. Not ours! Just one more reason to be proud to be American.
c
This reminds me of a case in New Jersey, I think, I forget all the details, where a family had like 10 adopted kids and ALL of them had been starved to the point that they never grew. The parents were caught after the oldest kid (19) was seen by a neighbor rummaging for food in a dumpster. I saw photos of the kids, and all of them, including the 19-year-old, looked between six and ten years old.
Hmm… Beth claims, “They begged their social workers for help, for a new placement for this boy, but they were repeatedly denied, and in fact were threatened with the loss of all of their children if they complained any more.”
However, Laineyb says that, “They did adopt all of the children. What I don’t get is how they passed the home inspections if the oldest child was in such bad shape.”
How could the POS’s be begging for help from social workers, if all of the children were, in fact, adopted? I’m adopted. My a-parents never had social workers involved in our lives, but before I was adopted, and was in foster cares for a few years, social workers were involved.
So, which is it? Were all the children adopted, as claimed? And, if so, how could they then have been begging for social worker help….. to the point of asking for a new ‘placement’ for the boy? How can you ask for alternative placement for a child you’ve adopted?
Obviously, once again, it doesn’t appear that the whole story is being told- and none of supporters of the POS’s can seem to get their stories straight.
The only sure thing is that it is abusive and cruel to confine and starve your children. Or adoptive or foster children- whatever this poor boy was.
c
this is a response to the first post by brenda, a family friend of the sullivan’s
go fuck yourself
Brenda deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law – unfortunately that will not be enough! I can’t wait for her to meet her maker and explain to him…wait first she will need to confess, repent and ask for forgiveness…oh well.. I guess it might be HELL then!
I know that I am a little late for this discussion but I just want to throw in that yes Glorybug after you are adopted, a parent can still choose to hand you back over whether it be because of disciplinary problems or because they can no longer support you. It rarely happens but it is possible. I am not defending these people because I don’t believe that they ever called social services for anything except for more kids to be shipped to them. I am so disgusted by anyone that would defend soemone who starved there children.
I am a very scrawny person, 5’6 93 pounds but you know what I eat all of the time and love food. Most people think that I am too skinny even though there is nothing that I can do about it. I can’t imagine being 17 and only weighing 49 pounds. My six year old weighs more than that. I hope that baby gets the help that he needs and is able to piece his life together. Yes, I called him a baby because I believe that he will always somewhat look and act like a baby. How could a child ever act like an adult when he has been raised in a crib?
Interesting how Beth hasnt responded to any of the replies. I think she knows….