‘A teenage clubhouse’: Bail revoked for couple accused of locking adopted children in filthy shed, forcing manual labor

Background: The Sissonville, West Virginia shed locked up their adoptive children in 2023 (WCHS). Left inset: Donald Lantz (West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority). Right inset: Jeanne Whitefeather (West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority). Bottom inset: An interior photo of the shed taken by Whitefeather

Background: The Sissonville, West Virginia, shed where Donald Lantz and Jeanne Whitefeather locked up their adoptive children in 2023 (WCHS). Insets, clockwise from top left: Donald Lantz (West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority); Jeanne Whitefeather (West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority); interior photo of the shed taken by Whitefeather’s brother after arrest (WCHS).

A white West Virginia couple has been convicted of using their adopted Black children as “slaves,” forcing them to work heavy labor and live in a filthy shed with buckets as toilets.

Donald Lantz, 61, and Jeanne Whitefeather, 62, were convicted Wednesday of multiple counts of child neglect and forced labor. Whitefeather was found guilty on all 19 counts. Lantz was convicted on 12 of 16 counts.

“You want to know what racists look like?” Assistant Prosecutor Madison Tuck, with the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, asked the jury, The Associated Press reported. “Look at them,” Tuck added, pointing to the defendants.

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