What haunts me is how many other "families" like this are out there as we type. I mentioned having connections to Woodland, and there's a reason this case is really bothering me.
At 30, my brother became disabled from a traumatic brain injury and fell in love with a "savior" who found him at the side of the road after he was hit by a car. After one date, she asked him to move in. The house was full of Buddha imagery and "healthy" crap but it was also cramped, cluttered, and filthy. She spent most of her time feuding online about her anti-vaxx, anti-science conspiracy theory. I'm a teacher and, as a high school dropout herself, she never shut up about how foolish education is. I was also the only person in the family who could stare her down. She only picked on easy victims and the few times we locked eyes, I let her know I was perfectly healthy, knew what she was, and could probably trick her into revealing it to everyone. Having gone through serious abuse as a kid, I know these people and I stare them down. When I said never again with abuse and food withholding at 17, I meant it.
They hoarded animals and their carpet was covered in free-roaming pet bunny shit and free-roaming parrot shit. My brother didn't work, they moved out to north Clark County, and this monster was huge on telling people how to eat healthy, how to care for depression and illness, how to raise kids, etc. because she was "in medicine." Very big on "good energy" and "living clean" and she had a highly curated social media life. In secret, a bigoted barely literate alcoholic rage queen.
In medicine? She went to fucking massage school. She took over my brother's medical decisions and started "prescribing" things. There was never food in the house, so I'd bring food there. Otherwise, it was my disabled brother out in the middle of nowhere with no car, no food, and an emotionally volatile caregiver who would rage and get drunk every night once and if she got home.
I drove out there as much as I could. Maybe I wanted her to know that someone with a strong will (you have no idea) was watching and present. I tried to be what I wished we'd had as kids around similar abuse and neglect.
Eventually, she moved him three hours away, completely off-the-grid. She'd leave him out there for days: no power, no phone, no food, no car. My parents were intimidated by her and deferred to her. Not me. Once, she came home primed to scream at him and she didn't know I was staying the night (my brother begged me to stay and protect him). He was asleep and she came in ready to rage... until I came around a corner and firmly told her: stay out of the bedroom and let him sleep. If she bothered him in my earshot, I told her, she'd have me to deal with and I wasn't disabled in the least. She left and stayed at a friend's house. Fuck you, honey.
Eerily, I once told him that "she's going to drive the two of you off a cliff. You have to decide if you want to jump and roll before she drives over the cliff and she's headed for the cliff with or without you. You have time to jump free."
Fortunately, she turned out to have been cheating (I'd known for years) and kicked my brother out and she moved back to California.
I don't know, Jen and Sarah remind me of the woman who terrorized my brother. I can't imagine children experiencing that and not having one person who cares enough to get tough with these kinds of degenerates. If there's a case like the Harts or my brother's ex, then how many more don't we see or know about?
