Relatives: Ebony Berry Hated Her 16yo Daughter

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The 16-year-old Cobb County girl allegedly starved to death by her mother had been described by police as mentally challenged, and at one time had wandered away from her home.

Markea Berry, of Mableton, was found dead in her home Friday afternoon by Cobb County police. Investigators said they believe she starved to death.

Markea's mother, Ebony Espree Berry, was arrested and charged with murder and child cruelty, according to her arrest warrant obtained by the AJC. Berry, 35, remained Monday evening in the Cobb County jail, where she was being held without bond.

Ebony Berry is accused of refusing to seek medical treatment for her teen daughter, who was suffering from extreme malnourishment, the warrant states. Investigators believe the girl's malnourishment had gone on longer than a year.
[...]

Following Markea's death Friday, other children were removed from the home and placed in state custody, according to police.

http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/starved...y-1460245.html

Neighbors said police have been involved with the family that lived at the home at least twice before.

"That's amazing that parents can [allegedly starve] their kids," Vega said.

Neighbors said the girl who died had run away at least once and was later found at a department store.

They said her younger brother did the same and was found hiding in a tree.

Several neighbors also told Willis they never saw any of the kids going to school.

"I do know that they did not catch the bus and occasionally they would be out in the yard when school was going on," said one neighbor who asked to remain anonymous.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/mom-j...r-death/nPX5d/

They moved from Michigan 7 years ago.

Family members of a teen girl who was allegedly starved to death by her mother in Georgia said there was a history of abuse that started when the girl and her mother lived in Grand Rapids (MI).

Every family member 24 Hour News 8 spoke with on both sides of the girl's family -- even the suspected mother's father -- agreed on one point: They all said Ebony Berry hated her oldest daughter Markea Blakley-Berry.

"She hated her. She punished her daughter," said Markea's paternal grandmother Cheryl Goree. "She didn't have to kill my grandbaby like that."

Larry Stewart got the news of his granddaughter's death over the weekend from his daughter Berry, who now faces murder and first-degree child cruelty by deprivation charges.

Berry, 38, called Saturday to tell Stewart that her 16-year-old daughter Markea was unresponsive.

"I got her off the phone," Stewart said. "I said, 'You dial 911. Don't call me. Call me back and let me know what's going on with the child.'"
[...]

Her family said that was the end of 16 years of abuse.

"It's horrible," said Goree "It's sad. It's horrible [to] even think a child can go through that."

They said she weighed only 40 pounds.
[...]

MIchigan CPS launched more than a half-dozen investigations when the family lived in Grand Rapids, but only once did they substantiate abuse. The family has a lot of questions about why their cries for help couldn't save Markea.

"I think the state should have stepped in long before now," said Stewart.

Still, Berry ended up in the Atlanta area.

"She ran to do wrong," said Blakely. "Nobody helped, nobody tried to stop her. The system knew that she wasn't wrapped all the way tight."

They also told a story about a time when Markea ran away from the Georgia home. They said she was found in a Walmart in the area, where they said she was caught stealing food.

Larry Stewart told 24 Hour News 8 family members were told by Cobb County area detectives "that possibly for two years that my grandchild had been starved systematically."

Markea was born prematurely with mental disabilities, and she seemed to get special attention from her mother in the worst way.

"Her mother hated her for some reason. We don't know," said Goree.

Even Ebony's father Larry could see something wasn't right.

Her family last saw Markea in 2008 during her last visit to Grand Rapids. Family members said they spoke to Markea after that visit, but always while her mother was present so they could not talk openly.
[...]

When the family spoke on the phone, Markea couldn't speak, and her mother said the girl was asleep.

"I wish I had the willpower, I wish I had the strength, I wish I had the transportation to just go get them kids," said Goree.

Since Markea's death, family members found bizarre connections on her Facebook page where they say Ebony Berry became involved in a group that encouraged hunger. They've turned that information over to police in Atlanta as the active investigation continues.

Video shows Markea: http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local...er-she-starved


Markea at 5 or 6 and 4 years ago

[MommysLosingIt]

Uhhhh... Clearly, the grandparents and extended family had some inkling of what was going on. If you're going to stand by, knowing your grandchild, or ANY child for that matter, is being abused, you're just as guilty as the abuser. This poor girl was dealt a crappy hand from the start, then got failed nine ways from Sunday. Hopefully she'll be able to find the peace in death that she obviously never knew in life.

[LoKi4778]

The ability to actively starve a child, your OWN child, to the point of death qualifies you, I think, for a special place in Hell. This woman is EVIL and should be dealt with as such. JMO.

[Mommyof2]

Uhhhh... Clearly, the grandparents and extended family had some inkling of what was going on. If you're going to stand by, knowing your grandchild, or ANY child for that matter, is being abused, you're just as guilty as the abuser. This poor girl was dealt a crappy hand from the start, then got failed nine ways from Sunday. Hopefully she'll be able to find the peace in death that she obviously never knew in life.

Not to start an argument but I have to disagree. It doesn't say the family did nothing. It says cps was contacted several times and they only found abuse once. (why she was allowed to keep the kids after is beyond me) Maybe this family didn't do enough but it sounds like they cared.

Only reason I say that is I have a cousin who is abusing her kids RIGHT now. He youngest has a bruise across his face where she slapped him so hard. Her solution to the problem is to just not let him leave the house until it is healed. I know she beats her kids, I know she drugs her kids and I know she neglects her kids. I have called cps and the police several times but beyond that my hands are tied. I cannot go all vigilante and kidnap her kids. (believe I would do it in a heart beat if I wouldn't go to jail) All I can honestly do is continue to report her and hope the kids get saved. So far she has had 3 active cps cases and managed to fake it long enough to get the cases closes.

It breaks my heart that I can't stop the abuse. I want to help those boys in anyway I can. Yet, I also have to follow what the law says I can and cannot do. It's up to cps and/or the police to save these kids.

[Krystal]

The depravity it takes to starve a child to death is something I can't wrap my head around. I mean a child doesn't die from starvation after missing a meal or two it takes a long time and to be there day after day, month after month watching it happen, causing it to happen I can't get to a place where it makes any sense to me. And I don't want to understand it either, I enjoy being ignorant of how your head can get there, it works for me.

It should always be a 1st degree murder charge when a child is starved to death, everyone knows that without food you die therefore depriving one of food is plain and simple premeditated murder.

[MommysLosingIt]

I can understand your situation, and I'm sorry you're going through that. I couldn't imagine being in your position, maybe that's why I'm so quick to judge. I would think if I were in that kind of situation I'd take drastic measures to help the kid(s), but I've never been there before. I just feel like 95% of the articles I come across have that neighbor or relative saying, "I wish I coulda done more, I wish I woulda called somebody..." and yeah, that's great, but you're a day late and a dollar short. Kid's dead now. It's just sad and frustrating all the bureaucracy involved with getting kids out of bad situations. I don't know what the answer is, but too many kids fall through the cracks, and it's maddening.

[Krystal]

I know when I read these I think of what my mother and mil would do and it wouldn't be legal, the families in these stories have gone through the proper channels and that I understand and I also understand them not wanting to break the law themselves, I just know that my mother and/or mil would react different. The headline would be something like "PA grandmother accused of justifiable torture death of child abusing daughter". But my family has always been a little "off" shall we say.

[MommysLosingIt]

Yeah, Krystal, I think our families come from the same school of thought. If I had to answer to my mom or mil for abusing their grand babies, I might not make it out alive lol.

[spifftastic]

If you hate your kid, why wouldn't you send them to school? Free care for most of the day, free food if the mother can't afford it, some places even have free after school care to let you can live your life child free for up to 10 hours a day! I realize people withhold their kids to hide abuse, but it's much easier to not flip out on them when you don't have to deal with them all day every day for 18 years. Then they'll also have the means to get the hell out of your house at 18, or in the case of most of these lazy, selfish bitches, be supported by your kids for life. How is school not the best solution for beastly mothers?

[AngelFire]

Knowing the pains that starvation does to a child, I want to wrap my hands around this cunt's neck and just squeeze. Fucking squeeze her neck until her eyes bug out of her head.

Your cruel fucking whore. I have no coherent thoughts other then the desire to kill with my bare hands.

[Starbuck]

Not to start an argument but I have to disagree. It doesn't say the family did nothing. It says cps was contacted several times and they only found abuse once. (why she was allowed to keep the kids after is beyond me) Maybe this family didn't do enough but it sounds like they cared.

Only reason I say that is I have a cousin who is abusing her kids RIGHT now. He youngest has a bruise across his face where she slapped him so hard. Her solution to the problem is to just not let him leave the house until it is healed. I know she beats her kids, I know she drugs her kids and I know she neglects her kids. I have called cps and the police several times but beyond that my hands are tied. I cannot go all vigilante and kidnap her kids. (believe I would do it in a heart beat if I wouldn't go to jail) All I can honestly do is continue to report her and hope the kids get saved. So far she has had 3 active cps cases and managed to fake it long enough to get the cases closes.

It breaks my heart that I can't stop the abuse. I want to help those boys in anyway I can. Yet, I also have to follow what the law says I can and cannot do. It's up to cps and/or the police to save these kids.

Call CPS and the police again and tell them you're taking the story to the media about how they are failing these kids. Bad publicity will usually light a frakking fire under them. They don't want to have to explain how they are doing nothing. Call the local news stations, the newspapers. Call Chris Cuomo from Good Morning America, he does stories just like this. They'll do something if they think their going to be outted for doing nothing.

As for the cunt who starved her child, lets throw her in a hole and see how long it takes for her to starve.

[LoKi4778]

As for the cunt who starved her child, lets throw her in a hole and see how long it takes for her to starve.

Now that's something that I would watch on TV... you know, Must See Tuesday or some shit like that. Every Tuesday at like 9:30 PM just show "How Long Will the Bitch in the Hole Last!" You could play along at home, like American Idol... call in to vote on if she'll eat her own fingernails or feces or if she'll just keel the fuck on over... it could be a ratings smash... the grand prize could be an all expenses paid trip to the hole she's in to drop the bodily waste of your choice on her rotting corpse. Just a rough idea... we'd have to hash out the details, but it could work...

[cubby]

the reasons for not sending abused kids to school (or not feeding them) are many, but he biggest reason, other than hiding the marks of abuse, is CONTROL, having complete and absolute control over someone who cannot get away from you, is probably the biggest reason. It is the ultimate joy for people like this to be able to micromanage every breathe a kid takes (or doesn't take) every moment of every day. So then you have almost an unlimited number of reasons to abuse them.

I have been around alot of control freaks, most of them didn't rise up to this woman's level of evil, but it still has the ablity to get there. Every control freak I have known. it doesn't really matter what they are controlling, they have to be in control of it or they have tantrums, fits, throw things around and terrify everybody around til you just let them have their way, and then they are happy until the next time.

[TKaz]

Call CPS and the police again and tell them you're taking the story to the media about how they are failing these kids. Bad publicity will usually light a frakking fire under them. They don't want to have to explain how they are doing nothing. Call the local news stations, the newspapers. Call Chris Cuomo from Good Morning America, he does stories just like this. They'll do something if they think their going to be outted for doing nothing.
.

Yup. I've heard hundreds of times to call the police instead of CPS. I say try it!!

I understand how you feel though. My cousin's baby mama was doing meth (she was 17) with HER mother while her baby slept down the hall drinking water mixed with Hershey's syrup. I called so many times & because I didn't have an address (but I'm sure ONE of them was in the system!) & the child wasn't being "hurt" they wouldn't look further.
They said a child should have formula....but that's up to the parent. WTF!??

There was a happy ending though. Once the baby was 5 my aunt took her & raised her. Better than nothing I suppose.

[Starbuck]

Now that's something that I would watch on TV... you know, Must See Tuesday or some shit like that. Every Tuesday at like 9:30 PM just show "How Long Will the Bitch in the Hole Last!" You could play along at home, like American Idol... call in to vote on if she'll eat her own fingernails or feces or if she'll just keel the fuck on over... it could be a ratings smash... the grand prize could be an all expenses paid trip to the hole she's in to drop the bodily waste of your choice on her rotting corpse. Just a rough idea... we'd have to hash out the details, but it could work...

Ok, I think I love you, lol. It would be a ratings smash though.

[biteme]

Not to start an argument but I have to disagree. It doesn't say the family did nothing. It says cps was contacted several times and they only found abuse once. (why she was allowed to keep the kids after is beyond me) Maybe this family didn't do enough but it sounds like they cared.

Only reason I say that is I have a cousin who is abusing her kids RIGHT now. He youngest has a bruise across his face where she slapped him so hard. Her solution to the problem is to just not let him leave the house until it is healed. I know she beats her kids, I know she drugs her kids and I know she neglects her kids. I have called cps and the police several times but beyond that my hands are tied. I cannot go all vigilante and kidnap her kids. (believe I would do it in a heart beat if I wouldn't go to jail) All I can honestly do is continue to report her and hope the kids get saved. So far she has had 3 active cps cases and managed to fake it long enough to get the cases closes.

It breaks my heart that I can't stop the abuse. I want to help those boys in anyway I can. Yet, I also have to follow what the law says I can and cannot do. It's up to cps and/or the police to save these kids.

Sometimes seems no matter what you do you're wrong, you end up in jail and they walk free, hard to understand how flawed the system is unless you're walking the walk

[HeatherHabilatory]

Not to start an argument but I have to disagree. It doesn't say the family did nothing. It says cps was contacted several times and they only found abuse once. (why she was allowed to keep the kids after is beyond me) Maybe this family didn't do enough but it sounds like they cared.

Only reason I say that is I have a cousin who is abusing her kids RIGHT now. He youngest has a bruise across his face where she slapped him so hard. Her solution to the problem is to just not let him leave the house until it is healed. I know she beats her kids, I know she drugs her kids and I know she neglects her kids. I have called cps and the police several times but beyond that my hands are tied. I cannot go all vigilante and kidnap her kids. (believe I would do it in a heart beat if I wouldn't go to jail) All I can honestly do is continue to report her and hope the kids get saved. So far she has had 3 active cps cases and managed to fake it long enough to get the cases closes.

It breaks my heart that I can't stop the abuse. I want to help those boys in anyway I can. Yet, I also have to follow what the law says I can and cannot do. It's up to cps and/or the police to save these kids.

I agree with other posters. Call the police and the media. Hell, tell the media to be at your house while you call the police. Set up a FB page saying "SuchandSuch CPS is doing nothing to help these kids(keep the kids names out of it)" and invite everyone you know to like the page. Social media is HUGE, and will force people to do the right thing.

[Boudicca]

Shouldn't the thread be titled: Ebony Berry Hated Her 16yo Daughter?

Also: I hate her face. Can I stab it with a spork?

And to play devil's advocate: Starvation (at least in the endgame) is possibly the easiest way to go as far as I can tell. When people die naturally, they essentially starve themselves to death (though if hospice is involved they at least get Morphine and possibly Ativan). I'll just say that the body's chemical reactions supposedly dull pain and create a euphoric sensation.

Yes it's bad she was starved to death, but of all the fucked up shit people do to each other to inflict violent, painful deaths, this ranks on the lower end of the spectrum of shitty painful ways to be killed.

Here's a link with decent information (forgive the fact that it's a response to the Schiavo case). http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/0...Death-Don-t-Be

[VXIII]

In her pictures she looks pretty normal, she could walk to Walmart and that part makes me sad, she went to Walmart to get something to eat because she was starving, her grandmother or father referred to it as stealing but she was probably just so hungry she knew her mom wasnt going to give her anything so she went to get something herself. Wonder if the bitch kept her locked up after that.

And @Mommyof2, I understand what you are saying, I know what you are saying is true, they ignore you, you can call and call and no one listens, if you can get a few other people to call as well, it will help. Those hotlines are bullshit too.

@Boudicca thats a great link you put in your post.

[Boudicca]

Thanks @VXIII. I just want to reiterate that the "mother" is a twat and should not have killed her child. I would like to see CPS and LE held accountable for their shortcomings as well.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A mother who is accused of starving her daughter to death after the 16-year-old died weighing just 40 pounds was obsessed with the teachings of a doctor who advocates being 'wonderfully hungry.'

Dr Andrew Chung, a cardiologist who graduated from one of the most prestigious medical schools in the nation, mixes scripture with his medical advice and encourages his followers to eat just two pounds a day -- less than half what the average American consumes.

Ebony Berry, 38,is friends with Dr Chung, he said. After her daughter, Markea Blakely-Berry, died on Saturday and she was arrested for murder, Dr Chung also visited her in jail.

Now, it is revealed police have questioned the controversial doctor about the teen's horrific death.

Dr Chung, who is a licensed physician in the state of Georgia, is active online in pushing his message that 'hunger is wonderful.'

He has more than 5,300 friends on Facebook and has made hundreds of posts on internet message boards.

His book self-published book, 'Be Hungry,' is available for download at Amazon.com.

In an online video posted to YouTube, Dr Chung is 'interviewed' by a nurse, who is filming the encounter.

He says, 'I'm wonderfully hungry. How about you?'

When she replies that she's not hungry, he says, 'That's terrible.'

'Because being hungry is wonderful. The opposite of hungry, which is not hungry, is the opposite of wonderful, which is terrible,' he explains.

Later, he claims to mathematically 'prove' that being hungry is wonderful.

'When we're 10 times hungrier, doesn't food tastes 10 times better? And when food tastes 10 tastes 10 times better, that's wonderful, isn't it?... It's a mathematical principle,' he exclaims.

Dr Chung told WOOD-TV that he doesn't advocate starvation and that if Berry was a follower of his, she wasn't properly administering his medical advice.

However, he defended her and said she had nothing to do with her daughter's death.

'The only thing that can straighten this out... that (police) hear from Ms Berry herself,' he told the TV station.

'She's an ordinary, single mom who's stressed out.'
[...]

Despite a medical degree from the prestigious Emory University Medical School, which ranks in the top 25 in the country, Dr Chung has found enormous numbers of critics to his philosophy.

In response to his online postings -- which are one part medical advice, one part references to Bible verses -- he has been called a 'quack' who advocates a 'cult religion.'

He denies that his teachings are a cult, but even after the death of Markea, told WOOD-TV: 'We wish everyone could truthfully say they're wonderfully hungry.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-daughter.html

[Obsolete]

Shouldn't the thread be titled: Ebony Berry Hated Her 16yo Daughter?

Also: I hate her face. Can I stab it with a spork?

And to play devil's advocate: Starvation (at least in the endgame) is possibly the easiest way to go as far as I can tell. When people die naturally, they essentially starve themselves to death (though if hospice is involved they at least get Morphine and possibly Ativan). I'll just say that the body's chemical reactions supposedly dull pain and create a euphoric sensation.

Yes it's bad she was starved to death, but of all the fucked up shit people do to each other to inflict violent, painful deaths, this ranks on the lower end of the spectrum of shitty painful ways to be killed.

Here's a link with decent information (forgive the fact that it's a response to the Schiavo case). http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/0...Death-Don-t-Be

You've obviously never gone hungry for a long period of time. The actual death may not be "that bad" but the weeks and months eaving up to it are pretty terrible. I went without food for a week once and it was so terrible that I would have rather given birth to a toddler.

[CbabyRKO]

Markea Berry of Smyrna was home schooled by her mother, Ebony Berry. Berry says Markea was born with mental issues and was anorexic.

But documents show Berry failed to seek medical attention for two years for Markea after she was found living in a Cobb County Walmart.

Markea said she was staying there because she didn't want to be a burden to her mother anymore.

The Division of Family and Children Services began investigating and noticed then that the Markea was extremely thin.

In documents, case workers said Ebony on many occasions would not let them inside her home, and when Berry's children were asked, they said they were eating properly.

Case workers said they suspected Berry had instructed her children to lie and not trust outsiders. Her four children range in age from 2 months to 16 years.

The three children other than Markea appeared to be of normal weight.
Documents show Berry had a case file going back 10 years to the state of Michigan, were relatives told Channel 2 Acton News, "Ebony always hated that child. She only left here (Michigan) because we were trying to get the girl some help."

Berry is charged with murder and is being held in the Cobb County Jail without bail.

The other three children are being cared for by DFACS.

jsndcsjdcfnhsjdfhsj

[VXIII]

Not to start an argument but I have to disagree. It doesn't say the family did nothing. It says cps was contacted several times and they only found abuse once. (why she was allowed to keep the kids after is beyond me) Maybe this family didn't do enough but it sounds like they cared.

Only reason I say that is I have a cousin who is abusing her kids RIGHT now. He youngest has a bruise across his face where she slapped him so hard. Her solution to the problem is to just not let him leave the house until it is healed. I know she beats her kids, I know she drugs her kids and I know she neglects her kids. I have called cps and the police several times but beyond that my hands are tied. I cannot go all vigilante and kidnap her kids. (believe I would do it in a heart beat if I wouldn't go to jail) All I can honestly do is continue to report her and hope the kids get saved. So far she has had 3 active cps cases and managed to fake it long enough to get the cases closes.

It breaks my heart that I can't stop the abuse. I want to help those boys in anyway I can. Yet, I also have to follow what the law says I can and cannot do. It's up to cps and/or the police to save these kids.

I have heard here @Mommyof2 that if CPS does nothing to call 911 when you notice bruises, marks or the abuse, they will look into it straight away and question the child and someone will be going to jail if the house is dirty, has no food and the child looks abused.

[VXIII]

Now that's something that I would watch on TV... you know, Must See Tuesday or some shit like that. Every Tuesday at like 9:30 PM just show "How Long Will the Bitch in the Hole Last!" You could play along at home, like American Idol... call in to vote on if she'll eat her own fingernails or feces or if she'll just keel the fuck on over... it could be a ratings smash... the grand prize could be an all expenses paid trip to the hole she's in to drop the bodily waste of your choice on her rotting corpse. Just a rough idea... we'd have to hash out the details, but it could work...

OR... Have the police or swat bust down the dorr on suspected child abusers and save the child, Id watch it, can you imagine the looks on the abusers faces and the relief on the kids faces, now we are going to eat and get out of here... I like these ideas.