Busted Up Wife Hides In Woods With Toddlers, Josh Holden Out On Bail

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Investigators said a woman was tortured and beaten. She was in the intensive care unit for more than a week. But the man allegedly responsible is free on bond.

According to the Van Zandt Sheriff’s Office, Lisa Holden escaped from her south Canton home with her 2 and 3-year-old children after her husband allegedly broke her legs and hit her in the head with a bat.

She hid in the woods for two days, periodically coming out to try to flag down help. An elementary school teacher finally drove her and her children to the sheriff’s department.

“It was probably one of the most severe cases of abuse, particularly long term abuse that I’ve seen,” said Investigator Kristi Holt with the Van Zandt Sheriff’s Office.

From the hospital, Lisa Holden told investigators that on March 20 her husband Josh Holden had gotten mad at her. He hit her with a cable cord and then left the room. When he returned he hit her with a bat in her head, legs and other parts of her body. Then he hit her with jumper cables because his truck wouldn’t start. And after he dropped their 7-year-old daughter off at school, he told her he was going to kill her, according to the sheriff’s office.

“She said six months ago he had stabbed her. He had cameras inside the residence where he could monitor. We suspect he could monitor her movement when he wasn’t there,” Holt said.

Josh Holden was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury. He was later released on $100,000 bond but must wear a GPS tracking device.

Child Protective Services also since placed the couple’s three children in foster care. The two youngest children initially tested positive for methamphetamines, but are now reportedly doing well.

Lisa Holden is also doing better. But she and her family said they will fear for their safety while Josh Holden is free.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/man...on-bond-041012

Holt said 29-year-old Josh Holden abused and tortured his wife for seven years and kept her locked in this house, until she finally escaped.
[...]

"She had lacerations to her head and her scalp and she had several sores all over her body and her legs were swollen," said Holt.

Authorities said Lisa is currently in the hospital. She is recovering from two broken legs, head injuries and years of abuse.

"You know physically she's getting better. All in all she's a courageous woman who got out when she could," said Holt.

Holden was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and bodily injury.

http://www.kltv.com/story/17388924/e...busive-husband

Authorities say Lisa Holden spent 10 days in critical condition with two broken legs and head injuries, which caused her to lapse in and out of consciousness during her time in the woods with her girls.

"This is a textbook case of abuse," Holt said. "She's been isolated from her family, not allowed to have a phone, and there were some family members that she hadn't had contact with in nine years."

Before fleeing home, Lisa Holden told investigators that her husband was mad because "he didn't have a job and there were money issues." She said he beat her with a bat and, after his truck wouldn't start, with jumper cables.

While hiding in the woods, she feared her husband was driving around looking for her so she was scared to stop passing cars. When she did come out on the road, some passers-by ignored her, according to investigators.

Holt said a judge lowered Josh Holden's bond from $750,000 to $100,000 and ordered him to wear a GPS tracking device. The charge he faces, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

There were no previous reports of abuse at the Holdens' home, Holt said, but Lisa Holden told police it started seven years ago. She said the past month she was increasingly isolated and had little contact with her daughters, ages 2, 3 and 7.

The three girls are together in foster care, according to a Child Protective Services spokeswoman. CPS had no previous dealings with family and there were no signs of physical abuse.

"The children are happy, healthy, and we just need to get mom healthy and out of the hospital," CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said. "Then we can go from there."

Pulliam said the toddlers tested positive for trace amounts of methamphetamine, which is probably from exposure. She said there were signs of a drug problem in the home.

"They are not showing any effects from it, which is a good thing," Pulliam said, adding that the children will remain in state custody, "where we know they are safe from abuse and neglect."

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/arch...n-woman-f.html

[AngelFire]

According to the Van Zandt Sheriff’s Office, Lisa Holden escaped from her south Canton home with her 2 and 3-year-old children after her husband allegedly broke her legs and hit her in the head with a bat.

OMG This poor girl. Broken legs and still had her children in mind when she escaped. Not like most cases we read about that the kids are left behind.

This is an awesome example of a mother doing what she needed to do for her kids. How many times have we read about kids that end up beaten and tortured by an abusive parent left with the kids when mom escapes. Some of these women are no where near the condition this girl was in but she still managed to flee with her TWO SMALL KIDS. She fled, and took the kids with her.

I hope he doesn't find her again and finish what he started. Fucking pencil dick

[princessgrandma]

This is such a horrible story, I can't think of anything to say except to ask one obvious question. HOW IN HELL did this asshole get out on bond? Why wasn't he held on no bond? He's a menace to society in general but if someone didn't see that he is a threat to the safety of his wife and kids, they're deaf, dumb and freaking blind. I will never understand how these things work.

[Tundratot]

How did she live in the woods and keep her toddlers warm? I'd like to hear about it.

Also, I have severe doubts about GPS devices. Not that they don't work, but that "prisoners" who wear them can slip out of them too easily.

[CbabyRKO]

I remember an episode of the First 48 where a dude manger to slip out of a GPS ankle monitor after his PO assured the cops he couldn't.
Dudes like this have that neurotic little big man complex and it's just a wonder he didn't kill her before she got a chance to escape. I want nothing but bad things to come to this scrawny little spit fuck. He deserves the max allowed under law for what he did to her physically and what he did to those babies mentally!
Hand him a rope once he enters prison and pray he does the world a favor and DIE!

[DamagedGoods]

Some of these women are no where near the condition this girl was in but she still managed to flee with her TWO SMALL KIDS. She fled, and took the kids with her.

And with two broken legs in addition to the rest of the brutal beating she took.

I am in awe of her.

Lisa Holden, if you ever read this, you have become one of my heroes. I hope your life is filled with nothing but happiness.

And wtf is up with that idiot judge lowering his bond?? What possible reason for that could s/he have had? The legal system barely protects DV victims as it is. "OH, your husband is trying to kill you? Beat you? Abuse you? Here, have this piece of paper, that ought to stop him! We'll stick a gps device on him! That way we'll know where he was before he murdered you!"

Do you ever get the feeling that this shit is done to simply pass off the responsibility of the legal system for the safety of its citizens, so they can claim they did everything they could to prevent this?

I may be irrationally ranting... but the topic really angers me.

The whole sentiment that the victim should have just up and left. Sometimes no matter how brutal the treatment, staying isn't quite as much of a death sentence as leaving. If your abuser really wants you dead, with the exception of prison, I see nothing the system as it functions today can do to stop it. And even prison is no guarantee if he's got friends/family willing to kill for him, and chances are, he's going to be released long before your natural death, so you've really just been given a reprieve.

[startheory]

I don't really cry much while reading stories on this website.. maybe its the years of being used to reading them. But as a former victim of an abuse, this one really hit me. I have to say this woman is brave and strong and I'm SO happy she took her kids and got out of there. Wishing a speedy recovery for her and that she gets reunited with her girls again soon!

[Nell]

The two youngest children initially tested positive for methamphetamines, but are now reportedly doing well.

Pulliam said the toddlers tested positive for trace amounts of methamphetamine, which is probably from exposure. She said there were signs of a drug problem in the home.

So someone was smoking meth in the same room as the kids. I hope it wasn't the mom partaking, just the dad.

[Obsolete]

I applaud her for taking her babies with her when she ran but I hardly think she's a wonderful mother. She raised her kids around that shit for 7 years... if she really had their best interest at heart she would have left a long ass time ago.

[spinst]

People just drove by her and ignored her? Eugh.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

He's back in jail! Hopefully he will be unable to post bond. Ever.

The Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office withheld information on the brutal beating of a Ben Wheeler woman for almost three weeks.
[...]

After withholding the information from the public for several weeks, the sheriff’s office finally released specifics on the case after, according to Van Zandt County Sheriff R.P. "Pat" Burnett, the family went to a Dallas television station with the story.

The sheriff’s office then shared details about the case with news media when the story broke Tuesday night.

Mr. Holden was arrested March 23 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and his bond was set at $750,000, but following a bond reduction hearing it was reduced by the district judge to $100,000. He was released on that bond Monday.

Late Wednesday, a Van Zandt County Grand Jury, made up of three women and seven men, indicted Mr. Holden on the original charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, family violence which is a first degree felony.

Mr. Holden was then arrested again Thursday afternoon by the sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office on two after indictment warrants for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Those warrants carried a $100,000 bond each.
[...]

Mr. Holden was arrested early on the morning of March 23 on the aggravated assault charge, following the investigation, and while out on bond, he was required to wear a GPS tracking device.

Sheriff R.P. "Pat" Burnett said Wednesday his office didn’t want to minimize the impact of the case; therefore the information was not released to the public.

"Because of the gravity of the injuries and we didn’t know if he was going to get out of jail or not," Burnett said. "There was also concern for the children’s safety and her (Mrs. Holden’s) safety."

"We just thought it was best to hold the information back," Burnett said.
[...]

"The severity of it is part of the reason we didn’t release it to the public," Holt explained about the Holden case. "It was a typical assault family violence case at first."

However, Holt said, the more she began to investigate the case, the more serious they realized it was.

"Her (Mrs. Holden’s) safety has been priority," Holt said.

"We were afraid if he was going to bond out, we didn’t want her in danger," Holt said.

Burnett said Mrs. Holden has been isolated at the hospital and there has been tight security around her since she was taken in almost four weeks ago.

Mrs. Holden was in the Intensive Care Unit for a length of time, and Burnett said hospital staff says due to the infection they will have to "scrap her skull and she will require skin grafts."

Her injuries include bruises, deep cuts and two broken legs.
[...]

When asked what made the case unique, Burnett said it was the "severity of the beating."
[...]

Holt said Mr. and Mrs. Holden have been together for 13 years and the abuse started seven years ago. About a month ago, Holt said, Mrs. Holden said her husband started starving her and keeping her locked up in a room, monitoring her every move with a surveillance system.

Holt said the sheriff’s office has not dealt with Mr. Holden in the past. She also noted that he is unemployed and was unsure how he was able to post bond the first time. The investigation is ongoing.

http://www.vanzandtnewspapers.com/ne...012-04-12.html

“Her head had been shaved and it looked like she had been scalped,” Investigator Holt said. “She had wounds all over her body, from bruises to open wounds pretty much on her arms and legs.”
[...]

The wife related at least two other accounts of violence done to her by her husband, including being stabbed in the leg and shot with a pellet gun, Investigator Holt said.

“She had metal (pellets) in her legs where she said he'd shot her with a pellet gun, and they were still in her legs and those became open sores,” the investigator said. “That was at a different time, but those (pellets) were still in her legs.”

Authorities secured a search warrant for Holden's arrest and to search the home, signed by Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Scott Shinn.

“When we went to execute the warrant, we noticed video cameras in the residence and we're suspecting that's how he monitored the movement,” Investigator Holt said. “He had an application on his iPhone that he could see inside the house.”

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20...WS01/120419929

[Momzilla]

Wow, after so many years of being abused & isolated many women would have lost the will to even try to escape!

I wonder what was the final straw, what finally gave her the strength to get away from that monster- maybe it was her mothers instinct.

I hope her story will give other women the strength to get away from their abusers.
She's a true Super Mom!

[Nell]

So although they had been together for years he didn't start beating her until the first kid was born, and then continued to have two more children with him while the abuse escalated. Add the meth in the kids systems and i am pretty sure that we have a case of meth parents, with poor kids caught in the middle. If he hadn't tried to beat her almost to death, probably over a bump, she may have stayed and continued to raise those girls in that environment. Hardly a True Super Mom.

Glad she finally left. Hope she stays clean, but meth is a bastard. I think it would be in the best interests of the kids to be supervised closely for awhile.

[Tundratot]

He scalped her?!! And the hospital is "scrap[ping]" her skull?!!! WTF? Is that a typo or is she going to need a skull implant?

Hell, yeah, she needed to leave him. He was getting set to use her for a Frankenstein experiment. She should have left him long ago, of course.

[DamagedGoods]

You guys are not good for my strangely forgiving alter personality...

[HeatherHabilatory]

This is what he did to her when he didn't know she was leaving. I can only imagine how terrified she was of leaving, knowing what he was capable of.

The most dangerous time in an abusive relationship is six months AFTER the abused person leaves.

[JGo555]

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2012/04/...ment-509946889

A 'TARD DEFENDER OF HIM.

[Angelinfl]

I hardly think she is a good parent raising those kids in that environment. The kids had to witness and were i'm sure part of the abuse/threats etc. I would have commended her had she left after she first got beaten because if a man will beat you once he will beat you time and time again. There just isn't any R-E-S-P-E-C-T ...... and I've learned once is once too many on abuse. No way in hell... can no longer say No way Jose because of that asshole.

[rahrahrumble]

Man, everyone giving the Mom a hard time. I have been a lurker for pretty much forever, I figured you guys had a better sense about battered woman syndrome :/

I even know a bunch of the gals on this site have personal experience with it, as do I. When I recount those days of constant guilt, anxiety, self-blame, and insane amounts of fear, I don't even refer to that person as myself. It was a different person in that relationship. I was always a smart, articulate, lovely person before I met him, and I could see an abusive relationship from a mile away. But what he did to be was nothing short of abuse and intimidation to the point of complete brainwashing, telling me to make long drawn out emails to everyone of my family members telling them they have never done anything for me and they don't love me and that I likely won't talk to them ever again, beating me for pretty much any reason. Maybe I'm not representative of all DV women, but I have been fundamentally changed for the rest of my life. I still have panic attacks, and cower like a dog when I'm in situations reminiscent of my past ordeal.

It was really hard to overcome that level of control, and I completely understand her struggle and how long it took her to make it through. I am so happy for her, and I think she is an amazing mother, and she has a very very long road ahead of her. I hope she gets the help she needs and I hope he dies a miserable agonizing death in jail.

[TheMeaningOfItAll]

Man, everyone giving the Mom a hard time. I have been a lurker for pretty much forever, I figured you guys had a better sense about battered woman syndrome :/

I even know a bunch of the gals on this site have personal experience with it, as do I. When I recount those days of constant guilt, anxiety, self-blame, and insane amounts of fear, I don't even refer to that person as myself. It was a different person in that relationship. I was always a smart, articulate, lovely person before I met him, and I could see an abusive relationship from a mile away. But what he did to be was nothing short of abuse and intimidation to the point of complete brainwashing, telling me to make long drawn out emails to everyone of my family members telling them they have never done anything for me and they don't love me and that I likely won't talk to them ever again, beating me for pretty much any reason. Maybe I'm not representative of all DV women, but I have been fundamentally changed for the rest of my life. I still have panic attacks, and cower like a dog when I'm in situations reminiscent of my past ordeal.

It was really hard to overcome that level of control, and I completely understand her struggle and how long it took her to make it through. I am so happy for her, and I think she is an amazing mother, and she has a very very long road ahead of her. I hope she gets the help she needs and I hope he dies a miserable agonizing death in jail.

I'm sorry for everything you endured and are still enduring. It really is insidious the way some people mentally abuse the people they proclaim to love. Having said that, I hope you realize that YOU gave your power away. You are the only one who allowed him to control you and mind-fuck you all the time. I know how that sounds. It sounds like a very harsh, cruel statement. I grew up in an abusive household and have the scars to show for it. I am sure my personal experience plays a major role in my feelings about situations like this. Your experience obviously does the same for you. Forgive me if I just can't be too sympathetic to a woman who allowed herself to be abused time and time again in front of her children. Forgive me if I can't be too understanding about the mind-controlling that women of domestic violence go through in order for them to allow someone to beat the daylight out of their children. I am sympathetic and understanding to a point. When kids come into the picture, though, all bets are off. If a woman accepts getting beat on all day every day, that's her choice. But kids shouldn't ever be subjected to that. EVER.

[rahrahrumble]

I'm sorry for everything you endured and are still enduring. It really is insidious the way some people mentally abuse the people they proclaim to love. Having said that, I hope you realize that YOU gave your power away. You are the only one who allowed him to control you and mind-fuck you all the time. I know how that sounds. It sounds like a very harsh, cruel statement. I grew up in an abusive household and have the scars to show for it. I am sure my personal experience plays a major role in my feelings about situations like this. Your experience obviously does the same for you. Forgive me if I just can't be too sympathetic to a woman who allowed herself to be abused time and time again in front of her children. Forgive me if I can't be too understanding about the mind-controlling that women of domestic violence go through in order for them to allow someone to beat the daylight out of their children. I am sympathetic and understanding to a point. When kids come into the picture, though, all bets are off. If a woman accepts getting beat on all day every day, that's her choice. But kids shouldn't ever be subjected to that. EVER.

Well, you are entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. I respect that it your concern is for the children, and perhaps with some people they are strong enough and not so deeply entrenched in the abuse that they can find solid enough ground to stand up and run at the first sign that the children are being harmed. Those children were her responsibility. It was her job to keep them safe.

But I do not respect your victim blaming. Women in DV situations to not go up to men and say "Please abuse me. I am weak, and I at this moment am giving you my self respect, dignity, future emotional health, and physical well-being to do with what you wish. I am not strong, so I deserve it."

If you feel like blaming anyone, please blame the man that was twice my size, punched/slapped/verbally abused me every day, called me a worthless cunt/whore/ugly/no one loves me, who could give me a look from across the room that would cause me to immediately fear for my life, who trained his dog (who he also beat the shit out of) to attack me. He started out sweet, brought me to fancy dinners, gave me back rubs, liked chatting about my interests. The first couple weeks I bragged about him to my girlfriends. I was just one little thing at a time, and he always managed to make me feel like his snapping at me was my fault, but he forgave me. After months it became daily psychological torture. The few times I managed to leave that house, my thoughts were NEVER consumed with "I need to find someone to help me." All I ever thought about was how I deserved it, and I would stand by the highway and wait for a truck to drive by that looked big enough to kill me quickly if I jumped in front of it. When his car pulled up in the drive way and no big trucks had come, the horror and sense of failure I would feel for not having successfully killed myself was crippling.

I still think about that dog, I left without him. I still feel immense guilt about the dog, because I know if he is still somehow alive, he is still getting the shit beat out of him.

I don't like getting graphic with this whole thing, and I have really spared you some much more stomach churning details, but seriously, spare me your blame. I still make excuses for that abusive fuck when I think about it. I still blame myself, and I find that a common trait among battered women.

If you are stronger than me, good for you. I hope you never sleep with the devil like me. If you could have found your way out of my situation with your dignity and sanity intact, I am impressed. But if you can't blame the person who deserves it, please don't blame anyone at all.

[TheMeaningOfItAll]

Well, you are entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. I respect that it your concern is for the children, and perhaps with some people they are strong enough and not so deeply entrenched in the abuse that they can find solid enough ground to stand up and run at the first sign that the children are being harmed. Those children were her responsibility. It was her job to keep them safe.

But I do not respect your victim blaming. Women in DV situations to not go up to men and say "Please abuse me. I am weak, and I at this moment am giving you my self respect, dignity, future emotional health, and physical well-being to do with what you wish. I am not strong, so I deserve it."

If you feel like blaming anyone, please blame the man that was twice my size, punched/slapped/verbally abused me every day, called me a worthless cunt/whore/ugly/no one loves me, who could give me a look from across the room that would cause me to immediately fear for my life, who trained his dog (who he also beat the shit out of) to attack me. He started out sweet, brought me to fancy dinners, gave me back rubs, liked chatting about my interests. The first couple weeks I bragged about him to my girlfriends. I was just one little thing at a time, and he always managed to make me feel like his snapping at me was my fault, but he forgave me. After months it became daily psychological torture. The few times I managed to leave that house, my thoughts were NEVER consumed with "I need to find someone to help me." All I ever thought about was how I deserved it, and I would stand by the highway and wait for a truck to drive by that looked big enough to kill me quickly if I jumped in front of it. When his car pulled up in the drive way and no big trucks had come, the horror and sense of failure I would feel for not having successfully killed myself was crippling.

I still think about that dog, I left without him. I still feel immense guilt about the dog, because I know if he is still somehow alive, he is still getting the shit beat out of him.

I don't like getting graphic with this whole thing, and I have really spared you some much more stomach churning details, but seriously, spare me your blame. I still make excuses for that abusive fuck when I think about it. I still blame myself, and I find that a common trait among battered women.

If you are stronger than me, good for you. I hope you never sleep with the devil like me. If you could have found your way out of my situation with your dignity and sanity intact, I am impressed. But if you can't blame the person who deserves it, please don't blame anyone at all.

Don't misunderstand. Obviously, no one deserves abuse--man, woman or child. My wording may not have properly conveyed my feelings. I hold the abuser responsible for the abuse--always. I just don't subscribe to the theory of thought that says people are permanent victims and powerless when in abusive relationships. We all play a part in the script that unfolds in our lives. Certainly, there are things that happen and are outside of our control. Like I said, I grew up in an abusive household. I experienced unimaginable things. You have no idea the journey my life has taken. It's certainly not something I am going to share on a public site other than to say that I am a survivor the same as you. We can have different opinions and it doesn't necessarily mean either one of us is right. You shouldn't blame yourself--you should be proud of yourself for finding a way out. Good luck to you on your journey. May you never cross paths with someone who fools you like that again.

[rahrahrumble]

I'm sorry for everything you endured and are still enduring. It really is insidious the way some people mentally abuse the people they proclaim to love. Having said that, I hope you realize that YOU gave your power away. You are the only one who allowed him to control you and mind-fuck you all the time. I know how that sounds. It sounds like a very harsh, cruel statement. I grew up in an abusive household and have the scars to show for it. I am sure my personal experience plays a major role in my feelings about situations like this. Your experience obviously does the same for you. Forgive me if I just can't be too sympathetic to a woman who allowed herself to be abused time and time again in front of her children. Forgive me if I can't be too understanding about the mind-controlling that women of domestic violence go through in order for them to allow someone to beat the daylight out of their children. I am sympathetic and understanding to a point. When kids come into the picture, though, all bets are off. If a woman accepts getting beat on all day every day, that's her choice. But kids shouldn't ever be subjected to that. EVER.

Well, you are entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. I respect that it your concern is for the children, and perhaps with some people they are strong enough and not so deeply entrenched in the abuse that they can find solid enough ground to stand up and run at the first sign that the children are being harmed. Those children were her responsibility. It was her job to keep them safe.

But I do not respect your victim blaming. Women in DV situations to not go up to men and say "Please abuse me. I am weak, and I at this moment am giving you my self respect, dignity, future emotional health, and physical well-being to do with what you wish. I am not strong, so I deserve it."

If you feel like blaming anyone, please blame the man that was twice my size, punched/slapped/verbally abused me every day, called me a worthless cunt/whore/ugly/no one loves me, who could give me a look from across the room that would cause me to immediately fear for my life, who trained his dog (who he also beat the shit out of) to attack me. He started out sweet, brought me to fancy dinners, gave me back rubs, liked chatting about my interests. The first couple weeks I bragged about him to my girlfriends. I was just one little thing at a time, and he always managed to make me feel like his snapping at me was my fault, but he forgave me. After months it became daily psychological torture. The few times I managed to leave that house, my thoughts were NEVER consumed with "I need to find someone to help me." All I ever thought about was how I deserved it, and I would stand by the highway and wait for a truck to drive by that looked big enough to kill me quickly if I jumped in front of it. When his car pulled up in the drive way and no big trucks had come, the horror and sense of failure I would feel for not having successfully killed myself was crippling.

I still think about that dog, I left without him. I still feel immense guilt about the dog, because I know if he is still somehow alive, he is still getting the shit beat out of him.

I don't like getting graphic with this whole thing, and I have really spared you some much more stomach churning details, but seriously, spare me your blame. I still make excuses for that abusive fuck when I think about it. I still blame myself, and I find that a common trait among battered women.

If you are stronger than me, good for you. I hope you never sleep with the devil like me. If you could have found your way out of my situation with your dignity and sanity intact, I am impressed. But if you can't blame the person who deserves it, please don't blame anyone at all.

[Silvahalo]

It's easy to say she should have done this or that. I mean I would leave or kill any motherfucker who beat me and put my kids in danger. But I've seen it enough to say that it isn't as easy as it seems. A battered woman needs to have a some kind of forethought, a plan and more so the will to overcome her fear and put that fear second to her children. A woman like this is beat physically and psychologically. It takes a strong person to make real change.

It probably is the case those children were living in a meth home, both likely using. Could also be the fucker was giving meth to the children to control them and quiet them. The last month she indicated she was more and more isolated from her children. IF she had a drug issue at all her ability to think clear and make sound decisions was already fucked up. She has a good share of blame on her for keeping within such a dysfunctional, violent situation but at the end I give her credit for taking off WITH her children besides her fear and severe injuries.

I hope she gets all the help she needs and perhaps her and her children can start a new life together.

This fucker needs to be dead. Don't care how it comes about.

[Obsolete]

I've never been abused by a spouse but I was raised in a home where my step father beat my mother, all in the name of Christ of course. I have the most wonderful mother I could ask for. She's strong, loving, selfless and nurturing but during the years that she was being abused she was weak, and naive. She didn't ask for the abuse but she certainly allowed it to happen. She allowed my sibilngs and I to witness the abuse as it was happening to her. By allowing that, she was abusing us. As a parent it's our duty to protect our children, no matter what.

The woman in the story allowed her children to be abused because she was weak. She chose to stay, she chose to allow him to beat her, and she chose to expose her children to that abuse. If she's like my mother she will never forgive herself for being too weak to make the best decisions for her childern and hopefully, like my mother, she will use this opportunity to make a better life for her kids. Running away was her first step to be coming a stronger woman and better mother, lets hope she continues on that path.

[Nell]

The meth is what pisses me off. They are meth heads raising kids and breeding in a methed out, violent environment. They were smoking it in close enough proximity to make the kids test positive. Mother included. She stayed for the drugs, she took the beatings for the drugs. Believe that.

[JGo555]

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/204985...torturing-wife

VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas -

Van Zandt County investigators called it one of the worst cases of spousal abuse they'd seen and on Thursday the defendant took a plea deal that could keep him in prison until 2053.

Josh Holden walked into the Van Zandt County courthouse Thursday morning. He entered a guilty plea and accepted a 40-year prison sentence for beating and torturing his 27-year-old wife and the mother of his three daughters.

Lisa Holden, who had escaped their home and hid in the woods with her two youngest children for two days, spoke publicly about the incident in June. She showed FOX 4 her injuries and scars. She said Josh cracked her skull with a baseball bat, whipped her with jumper cables, stabbed her in the thigh and shot her in the legs with a pellet gun.

She had powerful words in court on Thursday for the man she called a monster.

"How does it feel to be powerless? To be at the mercy of someone else? Just think in prison, you're at the mercy of all the other inmates. You will just be a fish in a tank full of hungry sharks. I wonder how a pathetic coward like you will survive," she said.

Josh mostly rolled his eyes at her words until she started talking about their daughters and that seemed to bother him a little bit.

"I hope you realize what today is, and I hope it burns you inside to know that I will celebrate with her, but you don't … never again. And she can finally have a happy birthday because the evil is out of her life," Lisa said.

She appeared empowered as she spoke in the silent courtroom.

"Just knowing you're finally gone makes me the happiest woman in the world. The scars that I bear remind me that no matter how hard you tried to knock me down I got back up. I see them as a reminder that I am stronger than you, and as a reminder that I am not a prisoner. You are," she said.

Josh will be eligible for parole after 20 years.

Read more: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/204985...#ixzz2O7WrTGZk

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/204985...clipId=8129710

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013...aughters.html/

A Canton man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday for repeatedly beating his wife, who fled into the woods with her toddler daughters last spring to escape the abuse.
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Josh Holden, 29, pleaded guilty to the charges against him and won’t be eligible for parole for 20 years under the plea agreement, Fox 4 News reports.

Lisa Holden was rescued in March after spending 10 days in the woods near the family’s mobile home with two broken legs and head injuries. The pain caused her to lapse in and out of consciousness during her time with her girls, and she was later hospitalized in critical condition.

“This is a textbook case of abuse,” Van Zandt County sheriff’s investigator Kristi Holt said at the time. “She’s been isolated from her family, not allowed to have a phone, and there were some family members that she hadn’t had contact with in nine years.”

Before fleeing home, Lisa Holden told investigators that her husband was mad because “he didn’t have a job and there were money issues.” She said he beat her with a bat and, after his truck wouldn’t start, with jumper cables. On previous occasions, she said, he shot her with a pellet gun and stabbed her. She said she was denied medical attention and had to treat the stab wound herself. The metal pellets were also found still embedded in her leg.

Addressing her husband in court, Holden told him she was glad to have him out of her life.

“Just knowing you’re finally gone makes me the happiest woman in the world,” she told Fox4, rereading the statement she gave in court Thursday. “The scars that I bear remind me that no matter how hard you tried to knock me down I got back up.”

This story haunts me... no matter what was said about the mother, no one should have to go through that unless you're a fucking paedophile. The worst part going by the video and what she said of how he reacted when she read her statement, the motherfucker hasn't changed one bit. And I hope to God she becomes reach and out of his fucking reach forever.... unless he dies of course. That would make me most happy.

[TKaz]

Damn, you go girl.

She told him. SHe went in there, head held high and spoke her mind. Good. I hope everyone can heal and move on.

[moonlilly1981]

I hardly think she is a good parent raising those kids in that environment. The kids had to witness and were i'm sure part of the abuse/threats etc. I would have commended her had she left after she first got beaten because if a man will beat you once he will beat you time and time again. There just isn't any R-E-S-P-E-C-T ...... and I've learned once is once too many on abuse. No way in hell... can no longer say No way Jose because of that asshole.

Sorry hun, but I am thinking you have never been abused or known a spouse that has been abused. It is much harder to leave then one imagines. Even after you leave a situation like that the fear will always remain with you.

I want to know why the kids had meth in their systems. Sounds like maybe dear old dad started using seven years ago when he started beating his wife. As time has gone on it has gotten worse and worse. Hence the security cameras inside the home.