A White couple from Washington state, Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and his partner Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, are being accused of keeping their five adopted children in slave-like conditions and forcing them to perform manual labor on their Sissonville, West Virginia property.
The children, who are all Black and range in age from 6 to 16, were specifically targeted and forced to work by the couple because of their race, the indictment alleges.
The couple were originally arrested last October when Kanawha County police officers—in West Virginia—performed a wellness check based on a call from a neighbor who suspected child abuse.
Police found two of the children, aged 14, and 16, locked in a dilapidated shed wearing ragged clothing.
One of the children did not have shoes and had “open sores” on his feet, court documents state. The children also had not bathed and smelled of body odor.
A nine-year-old girl was found in the main residence and soon after Deputies arrived, Lantz returned home with the 11-year-old boy. A six-year-old girl was found staying with acquaintances from the couple’s church nearby.
