From left: Rendell Hoagland, Malinda Hoagland, and Cindy Warren (Chester County District Attorney)
Authorities in Pennsylvania will be pursuing the death penalty against a 52-year-old father and a 45-year-old stepmother accused of torturing and abusing a 12-year-old girl to death earlier this year.
Rendell Hoagland and his wife, Cindy Warren, were formally charged this week with counts of first, second, and third-degree murder, involuntary servitude and other charges in the horrific slaying of young Malinda Hoagland, authorities announced.
The couple was initially arrested in May and charged with attempted murder before Malinda succumbed to her injuries and died, leading prosecutors to file upgraded murder charges.
Prosecutors said there was a plethora of evidence implicating Hoagland and Warren in Malinda’s death.
“Information from the Coroner’s Office and medical experts demonstrates a yearslong pattern of extensive torture and abuse,” Chester County District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe said in a statement on Thursday. “Moreover, text messages and hundreds of videos show that the defendants engaged in a calculated and systematic method of terrorizing, manipulating, and dehumanizing Malinda. We will get justice for Malinda.”
According to a news release from the district attorney’s office, emergency medical personnel responded to a 911 call at 12:30 a.m. on May 4, 2024, at the family’s home in West Caln Township. The caller, Roagland, told the emergency dispatcher that his daughter Malinda “struck a tree while riding her bicycle.”
The child was transported via ambulance and admitted into Paoli Hospital’s Trauma Unit.
“Initial observations by both EMS personnel at the scene and medical staff at the hospital noted that the child was severely emaciated and had numerous injuries all over her body,” the release states. “Ultimately, Malinda died while in surgery at approximately 9:58 p.m. The Chester County Detectives investigation that followed, uncovered years of systematic abuse and torture of Malinda.”
An autopsy conducted by a forensic pathologist determined that Malinda’s manner of death was a homicide and her cause of death was “starvation and multiple blunt force injuries.” The 12-year-old weighed only 50 pounds when she died and had suffered more than 75 individually identifiable “bruises, contusions, ulcers, and pressure sores” covering her body.
“She did not have any disease,” de Barrena-Sarobe said. “She was starved and forced to exercise, did not have an ounce of fat on her.”
Authorities executed search warrants on the home and defendants’ electronic devices, which they say revealed “hundreds of videos and still images on the defendants’ cellphones and Blink Security Cameras.”
The surveillance videos allegedly showed Hoagland and Warren cuffing Malinda’s ankles to furniture and verbally berating her — using an in-camera speaker when they were not physically present — for “perceived slights” and minor infractions.
Text messages and conversations between the Defendants allegedly established that Malinda was harshly punished for things such as forgetting chores or schoolwork, “stealing” food, not smiling during school sessions over Zoom, and urinating herself while cuffed to furniture.
As punishment, they allegedly denied Malinda food for days at a time and forced her to do “endless amounts” of strenuous exercises such as squats or running in place while still shackled.
Meanwhile, Warren’s 9-year-old biological child lived in the house and was unharmed and treated well.
When the Coatesville Area School District alerted Children and Youth Services regarding concerns about Malinda’s well-being, Roagland and Warren pulled this child from in-person schooling, switching to an online-only curriculum in November 2023.
During a press conference, de Barrena-Sarobe confirmed that his office would seek capital punishment for both defendants.
“I can stand here before you and say that we intend to pursue the death penalty in this case,” he said.
David Harris contributed to this report.
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