Fifteen-Year-Old Girl Weighing 70lbs. Rescued From Years Of Torture And Sexual Abuse

**MotherManderkin** · February 18th, 2012, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Valasca

Nah, I'm not really saying anything, just that I HATE it when people assume fatties got fat from eating. Is it possible? Sure, but don't assume it of all fatties.
I had a friend who had FMF (Familial Mediterranean Fever) which is a genetic disease. She was nearly 500 lbs when I met her. And she was a vegan. No way in hell she ate herself fat.
The step-monster in this story could also have a genetic disease. Maybe. We just don't know.
One thing is for sure; she's so large her knees will not support her and therefore she needed the wheelchair.
But she also needs to be thrown down some steps. Like maybe in the Empire State Building.

I agree, usually when there is a large amount of fat in like the kangaroo pouch area (lol no idea the medical term for that area, the lower lower lower stomach) I assume it has to be something medically related contributing to that...because that's just a really weird random area for all that flubber.

**malq** · February 18th, 2012, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by Gidget

Regardless of how she got to be that size, I have noticed that a lot of these people who starve their kids are overweight. My inner psychologist is dying to know how that works.

My inner child is a punk and thinks it is pretty simple. They are self centered, selfish, narcissistic,cruel, fat cunt(or pricks) with deep seated emotional issues.
They were denied something when they were little. Now they have to power to deliver the same treatment and at the same time over-pleasure themselves to make up for what they missed out on so many decades ago..

**malq** · February 18th, 2012, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by MotherManderkin

I agree, usually when there is a large amount of fat in like the kangaroo pouch area (lol no idea the medical term for that area, the lower lower lower stomach) I assume it has to be something medically related contributing to that...because that's just a really weird random area for all that flubber.

Its just a baby bump.

**Tundratot** · February 18th, 2012, 03:54 PM

I think you are very right there, @malq. @Valasca, I don't want to say there are no other reasons people might be fat, but I think those are statistically very miniscule. I certainly can't blame my fatitude on anything by my mouth.

Here's the latest reactions from the neighbors:

Tamara Solis stands shell shocked, wondering why no one was able to save the troubled teen before she made her escape.

"You just don't know who your neighbors are," said Tamara Solis. "If anybody would have saw anything, i think this would have been caught a long time ago."

Some neighbors did see something and reported it. Melissa Clark lives across the street from Chad Chritton and his wife Melinda.

"I think the system failed her. I think the community failed this child," said Clark.

The woman, along with other neighbors, called Child Protective Services when things didn't seem right.

"If I suspected it was that bad, I would have rescued her myself," said Clark.

Police also won't discuss their visits. The police chief did release a statement about the suspects, writing in part, "..accusations leveled against them have created great anguish, particularly in the neighborhood where the victim lived."

As the investigation continues, neighbors are pooling their resources, trying to show support for the young teen -- even planning a candlelight vigil in her honor.

"I think she needs all the love she can get and all the prayers she can get," said Tamara Solis.

Even people like Mike Vega, who found the girl by the roadside, are working to help the teen through troubled times.

"I saw the pain in that girl's eyes, and i saw the way she looked, and i believe every word of it," said Vega.

Lynn Green, the director of the Dane County Department of Human Services, said in essence the reports generated from the previous visits to the Chritton home, "did not rise to the level of giving the department the authority to conduct the investigation."

They add some of the other cases may not have involved the same child. All children are now in protective custody.

http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/139552983.html

The article then says cards and letters can be sent to a particular address, but don't send money. I wonder if that "pooling resources" comment means the neighbors are actually trying to finance her recovery?

**Valasca** · February 18th, 2012, 04:06 PM

You know. Whatever. I certainly can't change a persons mind, but I just wish people wouldn't assume this of fatties.

Sounded harsher than I mean it, so add lol to make it less harsh.

**Tundratot** · February 18th, 2012, 04:16 PM

I'm not mad at you, @Valasca. I think it's great someone is sticking up for fatties for a change. You may notice I'm usually not in on the bashing.

And my comment to Malq was regarding his earlier posting : "They were denied something when they were little. Now they have to power to deliver the same treatment and at the same time over-pleasure themselves to make up for what they missed out on so many decades ago." I agree that the large people who inflict starvation on kids are probably exercising power they have never had, and still don't in any other aspect of their lives, compensating for their inferiority. As to the rest, the over-eating, "pleasuring", other psychologists call it "filling the hole". Very possibly true.

**Nell** · February 18th, 2012, 04:21 PM

I used to be skinny as fuck, and now i am fat as hell. I know how i got here. Bending my arm with a fork in my hand. Disorders that make you fat without eating are rare, and I will make fun of this fat heifer all i want.

Fattie fatkins starved her kid. If the worst thing anyone says about her is that she is so fat she hides the sun like a Batman villian then she is lucky.

I bet her vagina stinks with that fat flab hanging over it.

**Valasca** · February 18th, 2012, 04:42 PM

Ew, @Nell! That's something we did NOT need to think about.

**Valasca** · February 18th, 2012, 04:58 PM

And wait a second. I'm not defending this particular fatty.
I'd say stab her, but the blade wouldn't hit any vital organs.

**MotherManderkin** · February 18th, 2012, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by malq

Its just a baby bump.

LOL no I have a baby bump... THAT is not a baby bump.

**EdwardRichtofen** · February 19th, 2012, 01:08 AM

she looked good during the sex abuse investigation and than the next time she is seen she looks like ann frank. Do you think she was being punished for reporting the sex abuse? Was the parents getting vengeful.?

**malq** · February 19th, 2012, 01:24 AM

I can't get past this.

A doctor, who specializes in child abuse, examined the teen on Friday, February 10th, and diagnosed her condition as, “serial child torture with prolonged exposure to definite starvation.”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1mno990Th

**shiroyama mama** · February 19th, 2012, 02:17 AM

I have to agree with Nell and malq on this one; medical disorders leading to obesity are fairly rare. That said, we do live in a "toxic food" environment, where cheap, high sugar, high fat, nutritionally void foods are easily available, and our lifestyles are becoming increasingly sedentary what with the internet, neighborhoods designed for driving and not walking, and so on.
Combine that with our evolutionary drive to get food whenever we can, preferably high energy (fat & sugar) food. This served us well for most of our history when food was scarce, but suddenly it's in abundance and evolution can't keep up. So even though I don't believe medical conditions are to blame for most overweight and obesity, I don't find it surprising, nor do I think it's a moral failure or personal weakness, that people are becoming fatter. I think some people just come programmed with a stronger drive to acquire calories, and for them it takes tremendous determination to overcome that, whereas people able to maintain a normal weight may have less of a drive, a higher metabolic rate, better impulse control, etc. So I refrain from commenting on people's weight (especially since I could stand to lose 20lb myself!)

But... when someone is this despicable and foul, I don't care what unkind thing anyone says about them. Open season. Fuck her and
her sweaty stinking fat ass. And double fuck her imbecile husband. He stands by and lets his "queen" do this to his daughter? He stands by while her son rapes his daughter? He joins in and puts alarms and surveillance around the kitchen to stop her from eating? He is all the more responsible, this was his kid. They both deserve some creative, cruel-and-unusual punishment (I like the shit-cake scenario someone suggested up the thread).

**sheevaa** · February 19th, 2012, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by EdwardRichtofen

she looked good during the sex abuse investigation and than the next time she is seen she looks like ann frank. Do you think she was being punished for reporting the sex abuse? Was the parents getting vengeful.?

Sorry, what? I was mesmerized by your avatar :P

**Tundratot** · February 19th, 2012, 03:52 PM

State probation agents made three visits since mid-December to the Madison, Wis., house where prosecutors say a 15-year-old girl was tortured, starved and abused by her parents and stepbrother, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. . . .

In a separate matter, Drabek, 18, had been sentenced Nov. 15 by Dane County Circuit Judge Julie Genovese to three years' probation for having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl in Deerfield.

Drabek was required to wear a state-issued electronic monitoring bracelet as a condition of his probation. Two probation agents conducted a residence assessment Dec. 13, Corrections Department spokeswoman Linda Eggert said. An agent visited the house Jan. 10 and 19.

Assessments typically include a thorough on-site inspection of the residence and neighborhood, including a visual inspection of the offender's sleeping quarters, Eggert said.

It's unclear why evidence of abuse wasn't detected by the agents. . . .

The family also has had several contacts with county social workers since May 1997. The first case was substantiated, but six other reports of abuse or neglect were deemed unsubstantiated or did not go through a formal assessment.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_19995954

**Shadow** · February 19th, 2012, 04:28 PM

There are certain concoctions of medications for depression and anxiety that will cause a person to gain weight like crazy as well. I'm obese. I know this. During my 20s, I had a grocery list of medications, for various symptoms, mostly for depression and suicidal ideation and for anxiety. Each of these medications gave the same warning, "May cause weight gain". I thought, how silly...? I'm young, I'm not going to gain weight from the medications. But I did. I did gain weight because the medications made me zombified. In my 30s, I weaned off the medications and began trying to lose the weight. I tipped the scales at 250lbs about 18months ago. I'm at 215lbs now. The only time I've been able to lose any weight is when I haven't been able to eat and keep it down. The first time I lost it, was after my surgery. They had me on fentanyl and morphine for pain and nothing for the nausea, so everything I ate, came back up. After a couple weeks of this, I stopped eating all together. 6wks after the first surgery I weight 180lbs. Prior to the surgery, I weighed 220lbs. After coming off the pain medications, It took time for me to build back up my strength. This meant short trips around the swimming pool walkway, or if I was having a good day, a walk to the mailbox and back. And I ate a lot of protein and sugar to give me strength. When I was well enough not to need a care-taker, I began eating like had been before the surgery. I ate whatever I craved. Most of the time it was junk food. McDonald's, Taco Bell.. so the weight came back. Then I got injured. Spent 8wks in a wheel chair. This exacerbated the problem. Now, the only reason I'm down to 215lbs is last summer, I was sick with pneumonia. Between the coughing and the rasping for breath, I was rarely able to eat anything and keep it down. Again, my body was starving. Even now, when we sit down to dinner, I'm only able to eat a small portion of my food. The rest ends up being put into the fridge for another meal. Will I continue to keep losing? I don't honestly know.

My point? While junk food did play a part in the weight gain, it wasn't only the junk food, and what jump-started it was medication. Something else I might point out, The information that is easily available to us today, wasn't as readily available 20yrs ago. Even less so, 25-30yrs ago. Some of you might remember how difficult it was to get information on medications. You either had to get it from the pharmacist, and then only sometimes if you're lucky, they'll explain it so you can understand it, OR you had to have a copy of the Physicians Desk Reference or similar book. If you're poor, on welfare, or just out of a job, you know yourself you don't have money for a book like that.

So it's not just someone's dietary habits that contribute to weight gain and it'd not always glandular. Sometimes it's medication related and thyroid issues can play a part too.

Just my $.02

~shadow

**sintax** · February 19th, 2012, 05:31 PM

No matter what disease or medication is involved, you cannot gain weight unless you have calories. I am willing to bet that hambeast bitch hasn't walked around the block in many, many years. Without exercise, you will gain weight. Now, as mentioned above, medication or disease may make you tired and less energetic.

This one really bugs me because it is very close to home for me. I am in Madison, Wisconsin often. I am disgusted (once again) by the lack of action by the officials being paid to protect our children. What the fuck is up with giving that 18 year old scumbag 3 years probation and then letting him live in a home with other children. Seriously?!!!??? And CPS was in the house numerous times. Reminds me of Jaycee Dugard. Are we as a society incapable of learning? Over and over again we see social agencies and judicial systems letting us all down. I am afraid that (as was mentioned up thread) people will start trying to save these abused kids themselves. Vigilante-style. We need our officials to step up and start doing their jobs.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · February 19th, 2012, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by Valasca

I had a friend who had FMF (Familial Mediterranean Fever) which is a genetic disease. She was nearly 500 lbs when I met her. And she was a vegan. No way in hell she ate herself fat.

I wonder if FMF was the cause of your friends weight gain. It's not listed in anything as a symptom or complication of FMF (although weight loss is for severe complications). Perhaps she wasn't fat at all and actually had inflammation due to the disease? While the look would be "fat", it wouldn't be the jiggly belly roll of real fat. Or, more probable, had a weight gain side-effect of a drug she was treated with?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001402/

Being vegan is no guard against obesity. If you eat more calories than you expend, you are going to gain weight. It doesn't matter if the calories come as a Big Mac(540) or a cup of corn(708). If you don't use it up, it has to go somewhere. Obviously, certain foods make you more prone to large-calorie meals, but with the vegan lifestyle is usually a bunch of other healthy habits... including exercise.

Some folks are blessed to be able to put anything in their mouth without it going to their waistlines. I was 5'8 and 120lbs from high school until my 40's and could eat whatever and whenever without a weight change. Not so now. If I look at a brownie, I go up a jean size. I only wish that looking at the treadmill would also work to reduce it. Since it won't, I am just happy with my 155lbs, watch how much I eat, and treadmill when I feel like it.

**Valasca** · February 19th, 2012, 06:57 PM

I don't know, Dakota.
I have seen skinny FMF patients and I have seen "normal" ones.
Liz was too large to actually do any exercises. I think she tried, too. Not sure.
I know she had inflammation flare ups from time to time. Her skin would get red like a first degree burn.
She died at age 24 from her illness, but I don't know what actual cause of death was.
I just know the world is missing out on her.

**CbabyRKO** · February 19th, 2012, 07:47 PM

The more I read about these nasty troglodytes the more I wanna cause them serious bodily harm. Especially thats fucking cuckold of a Dad. I can't believe so many people failed her. Her mom her step dad her dad her nasty beast of a step mom. It just seems every step of this girls life someone was there to FAIL her. Thank God for Mr. Vega if it wasn't for him I'm sure this poor girl would be dead. And as someone stated up above thank God her puberty was stunted and she didn't end up pregnant by that freak of a step brother. They should all be starved to death. Or made to eat shit and wash it down with urine.

**VXIII** · February 20th, 2012, 12:15 AM

The complaint said the girl, identified as SLC, told investigators she was mostly confined to the basement because her family members had "trust issues" with her and believed she posed a threat to them.

Someone quoted this in the first sentence of a news article, when the girl was interviwed by CPS she looked healthy, I think this one sentence quoted is our answer, she reported the stepbrother for molesting her and then stepwhore viewed her as a threat, i just cant get over Dad allowing it to happen, I was happy to see his tears in court, hopefully he was crying of shame... but I doubt it.

**Valasca** · February 20th, 2012, 12:36 AM

That's weird. Notification say I was mentioned in Vxiii's post.

**Morbid** · February 20th, 2012, 04:11 AM

Madison, WI – Wisconsin authorities are working to unravel the case of an unidentified 15-year-old girl who was seen ‘stumbling down the street’*barefoot and wearing only thin pajamas in the winter cold. She was also scraped and bleeding. A passerby, Mike Vega, noticing her purple feet in his rear view mirror, stopped to help. “The girl started talking about how her stepmother had just thrown her down the stairs, she had escaped out a window and was looking for help,” said Vega. “You could see fear in her eyes. It was very disturbing.” Vega added. Vega said that the 15-year old girl – who weighed just 70 pounds – was scared at first to be inside Vega’s car, but that she became more comfortable after he showed her photos of his three young sons and a Mary Poppins video on his cellphone. “It was the most shocking thing I have ever seen,” Vega said, recalling the sight of her when he found her. “A little girl looking like that. I’ve never seen anybody look like that, to be honest.” It would turn out that the girl getting into Vega’s car would be the end of what authorities believe to be more than 4 years of isolation, torture, and sexual abuse at the hands of her family. Through interviews with the girl, family, and neighbors – and with additional analysis of CPS reports – authorities have established that the girl had been forced to stay in a locked, unfinished basement of her father and stepmother’s home since around 2007. In addition to bars on the basement windows, her father and stepmother had reportedly set up an alarm on the door and placed cameras on the kitchen pantry in case she tried to steal food. The teen said if she was caught eating without permission, the couple would make her throw out the food or vomit it back up. According to a police affidavit, because of the punishment and to avoid setting off the alarms upstairs, the girl often resorted to sneaking out a window that she could open to look for edible garbage or simply eating her own feces and drinking her urine. In other reported instances, her stepmother or father would make her eat her feces or drink her urine or rub them on her face as punishment. The girl told detectives that her stepmother was responsible for most ofKeep Reading...
This article is from The Dreamin' Demon, the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.

More...

**VXIII** · February 20th, 2012, 03:19 PM

@Valasca, I was going to say I wasnt picking on you either about defending overweight people but when I re-edited my last post I messed it up so badly I had to mostly rewrite it and forgot to put it back in, just was letting you know my intentions were not to pick at you...

I also cannot believe these bastards bails are so low, my loved ones bail is almost 150k for a non violent shoplifting incident, I know Im making too many comments here, but I am just so pissed off, sad and disgusted over this poor girls treatment and lack of help for so long, and it worries me even more because I know somewhere there are others stuck in same situation...

**Valasca** · February 20th, 2012, 04:07 PM

Oh. Lol. I thought it was a forum mess-up.
But trust me. I'm so opinionated I wouldn't have cared if you were "picking" on me. And I say that in a good tone. I ain't mad.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · February 21st, 2012, 08:15 AM

When the malnourished 15-year-old awoke each morning, she could hear her family eating and getting ready for the day. If she felt especially brave or desperate she would call to her stepmother and beg for food, but usually she just went back to bed and hoped her hunger pangs went away.

The girl was 70 pounds when she was rescued. She told investigators during lengthy interviews at the hospital that most of the food she ate was scraps she found on the floor or in the garbage. She had spent most of five years in the basement of her family's Madison home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted.

The girl's statements, contained in court documents, paint a troubling picture of physical, mental and sexual abuse. The girl describes running away, only to be found, brought home and threatened. Confined to the basement, she had no one to ask for help. She wasn't allowed to go to school or church, have visitors or talk on the phone.

Dane County officials say the girl is getting help now. She gained 17 pounds after about a week under doctors' care, a criminal complaint said. She has been placed in foster care, and child welfare officials say there's been an outpouring of support from people across the nation, who sent cards and letters.
[...]

The girl told investigators the abuse started the month she turned 10. Her stepmother beat her, and her stepbrother repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex on him. That's also when the family began keeping her in the basement.

Because it had no bathroom, she said she often bathed in a basement sink that had no hot water and relieved herself in boxes or containers. If she made a mess while doing so, "they will make me eat it. Or drink it or rub it on my face," she said.

She said she was forced to do chores naked and had to call upstairs for permission to eat. She was often told her stepmother was too busy to feed her.

"I know it's a lie," the teen told police. "She's playing with my brother upstairs. I can hear her upstairs watching TV."

She wasted away to 70 pounds. In contrast, police records say her father weighs 240 pounds and her stepmother 370 pounds.

The girl implied she could unlock the basement door but said there were motion sensors and an alarm that would draw her stepmother's wrath. Still, she said she fled a couple times, but her parents always found her and threatened to report her to police as a runaway.

Neighbors expressed concern. One called authorities after watching the parents scream at the girl as she was forced to push cement blocks from one side of the yard to the other for no apparent reason. However, the parents blocked county workers from speaking with the girl.
[...]

http://www.journaltimes.com/news/sta...63230f2c9.html

**Shadow** · February 21st, 2012, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by VXIII

Someone quoted this in the first sentence of a news article, when the girl was interviwed by CPS she looked healthy, I think this one sentence quoted is our answer, she reported the stepbrother for molesting her and then stepwhore viewed her as a threat, i just cant get over Dad allowing it to happen, I was happy to see his tears in court, hopefully he was crying of shame... but I doubt it.

Unfortunately this happens a lot.. More than we know. I know of two specific cases where the teen girls were abused by step-mother and 'dear old dad' let it happen. In one, the 'dad' even participated and came up with some of the ideas for 'punishment' himself.

First one, was my daughter. She lived with her father until he sent her out here. When he and I separated, I had no job, no income and was ignorant of how things worked. Courts awarded him custody. When she became a pre-teen he remarried and that's when the trouble started. Soon she wound up in foster care for awhile and then eventually came out here to live with me. Her father thought he had parental rights but I filed a petition with the courts here, in my state for custody. Lets suffice to say he lost. Not long after she came here to live, she made a friend at school. This young lady had a similar situation. Her parents divorced and father remarried a shrew. I met the woman and swore if she *ever* showed up at my doorstep they wouldn't find a body. There wouldn't be anything left of her to find when I got done with her, for what she did to her step-daughter. My husband and I took the girl in and looked after her, after several attempts to get authorities involved failed. The abuse and neglect was obvious. The girl was skin and bones, often showed up with cuts and scratches where stepmother attacked her. When she came to live with us, she started to gain a lil' bit of weight.

The sad thing in all of this is they SYSTEM failed each of these kids in a big way.

~shadow

**Whisper** · February 22nd, 2012, 03:37 PM

Child Abuse Suspects Blocked Earlier Investigation

MADISON, Wis. --
[....]
Among the allegations the parents face is an attempt to inhibit the recent state Department of Human Services investigation and even cover up their alleged crimes.
But records show that, years earlier, the girl's father, Chad G. Chritton, and stepmother, Melinda J. Drabek-Chritton, stood in the way of another investigation -- and did so legally.
The criminal complaint said that in 2007, Chad Chritton refused to sign releases to help out a Dane County Human Services investigation, barring officials from interviewing his now 15-year-old daughter.
"People have a right to privacy in regards to parenting. That's a protected right under the law," said Julie Ahnen, who manages Child Protective Service for Dane County. "The parent or the owner of the private property has the right to say we cannot, to bar us access to the child."
Ahnen said usually there is a way around the parents for investigators.
"If a child is attending a public school, we can go to the school and interview the child without the parent's permission," Ahnen said.
But if a child isn't school-age yet, class is out for the summer, or, like in the Drabek-Chritton case, the child is homeschooled, a knock on the door from Child Protective Services officials may legally go unanswered, making an investigation harder.
"Those cases can be more complicated as far as gaining access," Ahnen said.
Lynn Green, director of Dane County Human Services, said she doesn't feel current laws restrict investigators from uncovering child abuse.
"I'm not sure that the law prevents us from unearthing some abuse and neglect that occurs, so much as human dynamics," Green said.
Green said that children frequently won't reveal they've been abused. Green said she's confident that in this case, her staff did all they could. "I believe that we appropriately screened out and did not have the grounds to intervene any more fully," Green said.
"Screened out" refers to cases where a report has been made but the information it contains does not rise to a legal level that allows an investigation.
And when parent's don't cooperate, Child Protective Services can involve the police and does have other means, when necessary, to compel people to speak.
The agency has latitude to talk to others but without releases from parents, no information is required to be given to officials, with the exception of some medical information. A school or day care provider could decide to give up that information if they felt there was good reason to do so.
Dating to 1997, Child Protective Services had received seven reports of possible abuse or neglect in the Drabek-Chritton home, and only two of those were substantiated -- the most recent and another in 1997, before the girl came to live in Wisconsin, according to records.
[...]

http://www.channel3000.com/news/30512719/detail.html

**Tundratot** · February 22nd, 2012, 08:14 PM

Lynn Green, director of Dane County Human Services, said she doesn't feel current laws restrict investigators from uncovering child abuse.

I'd say it does. If you can't get access through school or daycare, and you can't require the parent to produce the child for your inspection, how do you know if the child is even alive?

**Tundratot** · February 23rd, 2012, 06:39 PM

A judge in Madison has ordered a mother and father accused of severely abusing the man's daughter to get attorneys. The couple showed up to a preliminary hearing today without an attorney.

The Chad Chritton, and his wife Melinda Drabek-Chritton do not qualify for a public defender. They now plan to apply through Dane County for free legal representation.

The victim's step brother was ordered to move toward a trial after waiving his preliminary hearing today on charges that he sexually assualted the girl. He did quality for a public defender. . . .

Family members listened to the disturbing allegations of abuse. Prosecutors say even the girls own step-brother was involved.

"This has been going on for years," says prosecutor Adam Welch. "There also appears to have been ongoing sexual abuse on the hand of Joshua Drabek occurring in the home."

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/140123923.html

In court Thursday, Chritton said he’d like to help investigators. “I’ve been wanting to sit with police to help their investigation, but because of my learning disability and comprehension disabilities, I wanted to have an attorney present,” Chritton said.

The judge granted Chritton and Drabek-Chritton another week to find attorneys. Drabek-Chritton wiped away tears as she was wheeled into the courtroom. . . .
A fund has been created for the victim in this case — set up by her biological family.

http://fox6now.com/2012/02/23/father...-due-in-court/

I hope by that they mean her maternal unit's family, but who the hell knows?