Dire warnings didn’t stop a Spalding County couple from adopting the boy they almost starved to death

GRIFFIN, Ga. - The child abuse case against Krista and Tyler Schindley could have easily been a death case, Spalding County’s district attorney told the FOX 5 I-Team.

But serious questions have come up about why the couple ever had an adoption case through the state.

Not even the prosecutors who put the Schindleys away last week have the answers, as both adoption records and records of abuse complaints remain sealed.

 A victim’s escape

The backstory:

In May 2023, a neighbor found an emaciated 10-year-old boy wandering on Westminster Circle in Spalding County, barefoot and searching for food. At the time, he weighed just 37 pounds and suffered from severe malnourishment.

According to an account provided by Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Marie Broder, the boy had just made a daring escape from a house of horrors. Left home alone, he made his way to a privacy fence gate which another child in the home apparently hadn’t properly locked. He managed to climb up and open the lock on the other side of the gate.

"It's a tale of human resiliency and just that sheer will to live," Broder said.

Thus began a series of horrific discoveries by police and prosecutors.

Authorities say the family kept the child locked in his room, the windows screwed shut and covered with film. In his bathroom, the handles on the hot water faucets were removed so he could only use cold water.

The parents withheld food, sometimes giving him rotten onions and avocadoes. They forced him to eat outside while the family ate inside. He was struck with the end of a belt.

The parents even encouraged the boy’s own biological siblings, who were three and four years younger, to take part in abuse with them, the DA said.

"There was one incident that the children recounted," Broder said, "that they threw a hot dog in the pool, and (the boy) couldn’t swim very well, and so he was fighting, drowning to try to get to that hot dog.

"And they all stood by the pool laughing at him."

Broder said the Schindleys’ ultimate goal was to kill the boy, then move on as if he never existed.

"They had cultivated these kids to just think that he didn't matter," she said. "We had evidence that they were planning to move back to Ohio at some point."

"The neighbors didn't even know he existed," Administrative Chief Assistant DA Kathryn Lenhard, the lead prosecutor on the case, said. "The people that lived next door to them didn't know that they had another son."

 An adoption proceeds, despite protests

What we know:

Three years before his escape, the Schindleys had been allowed to adopt the boy and his four younger siblings, who are two sets of twins.

Before a judge sentenced Krista and Tyler Schindley to 40 years in prison last week, court testimony raised questions about why that adoption ever went forward.

A Henry County school counselor told the trial judge, she didn't think the Schindleys should be allowed adopt the boy. And she said she told that to DFCS, the state’s child welfare agency which oversaw the adoption.

"She only wanted the kids – the sisters, the twins – and he was being forced on her," Rock Spring Elementary School counselor Sophia Gutierrez said. "I emailed the caseworker and I said, ‘Please do not allow them to adopt him. I don’t think they love him.’"

A major concern: The boy coming to school with only scraps for lunch, forbidden to eat school lunch. But Gutierrez said there was "a lot of pushback from DFCS" over her and other teachers’ concerns about him.

But even more extraordinary, the faith-based foster care agency that recruited the Schindleys to be foster parents, then paired them up with the children, says it also told DFCS the Schindleys weren't fit to adopt the boy, or any children.

Families 4 Families contracts with the state to recruit and support foster families.

"The Schindleys actually came to our attention from their church," founder and CEO Wayne Naugle told the I-Team. "They passed all of the background checks. We got references on the family, talked to as many people as we could. They went through everything, and everything looked good on paper."

But Naugle said the agency eventually walked away from the adoption, pulling the family’s foster home license.

"There were some concerns from the child that maybe he didn’t feel safe," Naugle said. "There were just some concerns that he brought up, that we thought were significant enough that could not be overlooked."

Naugle said after Families 4 Families exited the case, "the state basically just reopened the home underneath their name."

Unanswered questions

What they're saying:

Naugle suspects one reason the state forged ahead is because of the dearth of families willing to foster and adopt children, especially sibling groups. That, and a desire to keep the siblings together.

"When we had to make that call to the state, I wish I would have had another family that wanted all five of those kids," he said. "Because I would have pushed a lot harder if I did. And the bottom line is, we didn’t."

His account, and what came out in court last week, begs the question of how the Schindleys were allowed to adopt the boy, or any of the children for that matter.

It's hard to determine, because adoption records are sealed. The I-Team tried to talking to DFCS about the case, but the agency wouldn't comment, citing state and federal privacy laws.

DFCS did confirm that no employee faces disciplinary action over the Schindley case.

The I-Team also reached out to the now-retired Superior Court judge who signed off on the adoption, but didn’t hear back.

District Attorney Broder and ADA Lenhard said they haven’t seen the adoption records, either, nor DFCS’s investigation records into complaints from the school.

They said they’re aware of three DFCS investigations, all ruled unfounded.

Asked if the judge in the adoption was aware of the past complaints or that Families 4 Families had backed away from the Schindleys, the district attorney said, "It’s sealed. So we don’t know. That’s something we tried to look into."

A call for help

Big picture view:

Naugle, of Families 4 Families, said while he has the ability to turn down cases, DFCS doesn’t.

"I never want to throw mud at DFCS," he said. "I think they have one of the most difficult jobs in the world."

Naugle said the Schindley case should be a wake-up call for churches and communities.

"If any good can come out of this, I would hope that families will look around and see all the children in Georgia that need help," he said. "How good would it be that if one family came up, and there was a concern about the family adopting, and the state had five other people that wanted to adopt five kids?"

Naugle said anyone interested in becoming foster parents, or lending support to foster parents, can contact him through the Families 4 Families website.

SEE ALSO:

• Griffin starvation case: Arrest warrant outlines horrifying conditions of child's home life
• Atlanta police changes procedures following I-Team investigation into girl’s starving death
• State fires another DFCS worker over Barros child death case
• Bodycams show Atlanta police doing bare minimum to find 3 kids in peril
• Spalding County parents sentenced in adopted son's child neglect case

The Source: 

I-TeamGriffinNews